Gift from Indonesia

What a nice surprise I got today. How sweet of my colleague to get me a silk scarf all the way from Indonesia! She has got this nice scarf for me and had asked her colleague, who was travelling to Malaysia, to pass it to me. She even got a nice bag for my manager too. Not bad eh to get a colleague like that ;)

I've won!

I was just reading through my usual haunt of blogsites, and wow...I was surprised to find my name chosen as the 2nd prize winner in Lydia's blog. Remember earlier on I had posted on her new book "Honk! If You're Malaysian" ? Yup, I guess I just got lucky and now I'm waiting to get my hands on the book prizes :D

Wanna know what books I'm going to get? Check it out here.

Misery of being "ditched"

Ah...how true what is written in today's horoscope.. I just got "ditched" by my colleagues today. None of them offered to wait up for me for lunch..what a big disappointment. :( I had a scheduled telecon which overlapped the lunch hour a little.

The misery of being "ditched"... so sad.. i shall not let them ruin my lunch. So i strolled down to the cafetaria and picked my favourite spicy food, and enjoy a nice cold drink, while reading today's newpapers, and enjoying the afternoon breeze. hm..not so bad after all to be eating alone. It's good to have a "Me Time" after a busy morning.

But to give a little credit to my fellow female colleagues, they were kind enough to ask abt me when they returned from lunch. Well, I supposed they do missed me at lunch after all haha :P hmm...that makes me feel better hahaha.

HY's housewarming party

HY organised a housewarming party last Friday. We had replacement holiday in lieu of Awal Muharram which fell on a Saturday. Hmm..it's always good to have replacement holiday..hehehe

Thought it was supposed to be a steamboat party lah..but when I reached there, I saw marinated chicken wings and sausages already prepared. yum yum~ so we're having BBQ as well! I especially loved the tomyam paste fish that HY prepared. Thought abit salty, but it was tasty!

We even had cut fruits dipped in choc fondue for desserts...hehehe.. HY said this choc fondue set was a gift from I forgot whom..anyway, we had lots of fun eating and... eating.. :P

Sorry, no pics of food here...just managed to grab this photo from HY collection. Oh, must mentioned this...i like the little christmassy deco, the nice sofa and the the 2 cute piggie and monkey cushion chairs. and the house looks great!

Eye on Malaysia

Dearest suggested to go for a walk in a park, Titiwangsa Lake Garden that is. To look look and see see what's the fuss about this Eye on Malaysia (EoM). This is the latest happening place in Kuala Lumpur since Visit Malaysia Year (VMY) was launched early this month.

EoM is a big ferris wheel lighted up with bright lights that offer 15 minutes of panoramic view of KL from the top. There were far too many ppl that night, and the queue for it was snaking all the way probably half km long! We abandoned the plan to ride it. But we took pictures of it, found a nice spot to catch the jets ki show and fireworks display.

The jet ski show was disappointing, maybe I had expected more extravanganza performance. The performers just went round and round the lake, waving to the crowds, and sometimes had fireworks spewing out from the tail of the jet skis.

But the fireworks display were fantastic. It was awesome to watch the fireworks spewing up to the sky right in front or you. We could even feel some of the ashes falling on top of us. It was that near. I heard the fireworks display would only last till end of the month. So catch it while it's still on. It starts around 9:30pm after the jet ski show. Unfortunately, I only had my phone camera with me, and the shots were not that pretty. I've picked 2 decent photos to share here.

Eye on Malaysia

Fireworks display

Pictures of Pattaya

Views in Pattaya...

image of the Buddha which was carved using laser	Noongnoch Village elephant show
Coral Island beach	stalls along Coral Island beach
me getting ready to fly off!	our fancy fake tattoos!

Pictures of Bangkok Part 2

Views of the DamnoenSaduak floating market, outskirts of Bangkok. About 2 hours drive from Bangkok city. This is the original floating market, selling mostly souveniers and food. You will see many tourists here. Boat rides are available at many places along the river, with a small fee. You can tell the boatman to stop if you want to buy something from the sellers. The river traffice is quite congested at times, with up to five boats side-by-side (compared to our dual/three lanes!).

woman seller at the floating market	top view of the floating market
boats and sellers along the floating market river	the entrance to the floating market

Pictures of Bangkok Part I

birds at Safari park	dolphins show at Safari park
Buffaloes at Safari park	Cowboy show at Safari park
Four face buddha in Bangkok	Chao Phraya river view
Royal Palace along the river	Wat Arun along the river

London flights from RM9.99 via FAX!

Good news for budget travellers! Fly Asian Express (FAX) will begin long-haul operations using brand Air Asia X starting from this July. Yay~ :D

Fares are starting as low as RM9.99 to London, excluding tax and surcharges. Wow! This is surely good if we do get to book through the tickets through the overloaded web servers of AA. Maybe I should start planning for trips to London.

My dearest has just left London last night, and I'm missing him terribly. Hmm... why didn't FAX offer this earlier? haiyaya...I would have been among the first to grab a seat :P

Source : AirAsia X London flights from RM9.99

Honk! If You're Malaysian

I found out about Lydia Teh in PL's blog. She's our very own Malaysian author from Klang, and has recently released her book "Honk! If You're Malaysian".

I haven't got a copy of the book yet, but the book cover looks kinda cute and the book title sounds interesting enough to catch my eye. I've always like to read books about local culture written in a lighthearted manner. It makes me feel "connected" to the locals..haha.

This book is Lydia's humourous look on the Malaysian way of life. And I bet it would tickle the many hearts of us locals to read through the things that are so familiar to us. So far most of the fans' reviews have said this is an enjoyable book to read. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed to win a copy of this book through the Honk! If You're Malaysian contest on her blog.

Let's show your support to our homegrown author. Grab her books, drop by her blog, and don't forget to enter the contest too!

Guess I shall be checking out this book one of these weekends in the bookshops ;)

Noodle soup in Floating Market, Bangkok

And here's another dish I had at Floating Market, Bangkok...noodle soup. This dish is quite common there, and it comes with small slices of meat, vege, fried taufu skin, and few dashes of pepper. The locals like to add dashes of hot chilli powder to it and some fish sauce.

I thought that this was a bit costly. They charges 35 baht for this small meal. Probably could get it cheaper elsewhere in Bangkok city.

Popiahs from Floating Market, Bangkok

I love popiahs, especially hot steaming ones, with crispy skins wrapping vege strips and meat in it, and dipping it into chilli sauce...yumyum~

Here's a shot of the popiahs I had at the Floating Market in Bangkok. It costs 20 baht a plate. Note that it is garnished with mint leaves which can be eaten.

My travel wishlist

Year end holidays have flown by, and I already had my year end holiday trip. It's the new year and I'm already looking forward to my next trip...hehehe.

So it's time to make my new travel resolutions. I shall list it out here and probably you guys can suggest me some nice local attractions to visit, or share your travel trips and experience with me...Here goes the list in no particular order of preference:

1) Chiangmai

2) Angkor Wat (Cambodia)

3) Halong Bay (Vietnam)

4) Phuket Island

5) Koh Samui

6) Mauritius

7) Maldives

8) Hong Kong/Macau

9) Tokyo (Japan)

10) Korea

11) Shanghai (China)

Hmm...I suppose this is going to take me few years to strike off each destination, not to mention burning a big hole in my pocket. hahaha...but it's a new year, and it's good to make resolutions. Does any of you already have holiday plans for the early 2007? If you need a travel partner, you know who to look for :P