Be prepared for a series of long posts full of pictures. This is my third attempt to write this post coz my connection sucks and I got no autosave! boo hoo

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Everyone was excited and psyched up for this trip. It was going to be our first trip together as friends (+ one couple). We planned to go on Friday, most of us who had classes had to skip them because our bus was at 1.30pm and we didn’t want to take the ferry at night.

So Aree slept over the night before actually she only came at 4am after goin out drinking with friends coz Taufan was going to pick up at at 11am which he was late by 15-20 mins to go to Kelana Jaya. We met up with Pam who was pissed coz we were late and Jef at KJ then proceeded to go to Pasar Seni. Met up with Ariff & Azrai Lychee Arai who were actually just one train behind us. Then we walked to Puduraya. Yes walked thru Central Market and Petaling Street (I still think Masjid Jamek would hv been a nearer stop) and met up with Nik there.

At puduraya waiting for our bus

Proceeded to look for our bus platform, loaded up on snacks, drinks and reading material then we were off.The trip there was rather uneventful. Everyone was sleeping in the bus at one point or another. It was cold, luckily I brought my sweater. It was my first time riding an outstation bus - we took the Transnational and tickets were about RM40 to-and-fro and it was very comfortable.

Bus camwhoring sessions

We reached Lumut in the evening - I forgot the exact name of the station, oh well. Its right next to the jetty so we walked to the jetty and got on the ferry. We decided to sit at the back in the open air area to enjoy the breeze and of course take photos Upon arriving at Pangkor Island, we took a taxi - which was actually a van painted pink to our resort - Purnama Beach Resort.


On the ferry
We were then brought to our rooms. We had 2 huge rooms, one for all the boys and their snoring orchestra and one for us four girls which didnt really work out that way in the end. We then took a shower and freshen up, lepak for a bit then proceeded to the room for a round of drinks - I brought tequila, tuak & JD, playing board/card games - Catan & Bang, buat maksiat and other forms of substance abusing.


At puduraya waiting for our bus
We couldn’t stay up all night coz we had to go snorkeling at 9am and breakfast was at 8am so I think we slept around 2-ish. I was assigned to wake everyone up the next morning. Its going to be a hard task…

Pics available HERE. To be continued…

4 girls + 6 guys + 1 island = 3 days of fun in the sun!!

Im back in KL after a crazy crazy weekend in Pangkor Island. We took a bus there and stayed there for 3 days and 2 nights since Friday. After months of planning (since September) our trip was a blast! Stay tuned for more updates….

I love traveling! Its fun to experience a new culture, and take in the people, the sights, the sounds and the smells. I especially love the planning part of the trip and the anticipation of it all - what will we do, what to bring, where to visit and of course most importantly where to stay.

Im planning to go to Langkawi during the first week of November for a weekend of fun times with friends, booze and the beach then I’m planning to go back to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to attend Mag’s wedding in July.

But what I’m really excited about is my upcoming trip to Phuket on 31st Jan 2008. I just got my tickets (which was around rm320) and so far even though only Pam and I have got our tickets (we wanted to buy them early to get them cheaper), I’m sure many more people will decide to join us.

What we haven’t decided was where to stay. Thank goodness there is a place online to make Hotel Reservations. I just keyed in the destination and the dates I wanted to go and walah! I got a list of more than 10 hotels/resorts to stay in. And, the great thing about using that website is that there are special promotions and discounts available. One resort in Patong beach was only $48/night. Isn’t that cheap?

So, when’s your next vacation?

The main reason I went to Kuching for the weekend was to attend my grandfather’s 101 birthday. Yep you read it right, he’s one hundred and one years old in June 07.

Arrival of the guests

So all the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, cousins, in laws, neices and nephews all gathered in Kuching on the 9th of June to celebrate at this Chinese Restaurant in BDC area (i forgot the name of the restaurant).

Greeting long lost relatives

The relatives started arriving at around 6.30pm. One of my cousins, Datin Evelyn, emceed the event, starting around 7.30pm with a prayer and blessing from the Reverand on our family, on the food and most of all for my grandfather. Then the 9-course dinner feast began. LOL!

Long life noodles

First was the Long Life Noodles, fried with sotong, crab meat, veggies and prawns. Next was the cold dish (which i forgot to take a picture of) which has Chicken boxing, jellyfish, prawn mayo salad, beancurd and some yam/tapioca fried thingy which was absolutely sedap. Then came the Sea Cucumber soup - a typical chinese dish - which we had to add vinegar to give it an extra sedap punch.

Birthday boy and children

After the Soup we had a cake cutting session where all of my grandfather’s children (who were present) went up to the front with him to cut the cake. Five of my uncles and one of my aunties assisted him in cutting the cake and fed a bit to him.

Then the eating continued. Next dish was my dad’s favourite, stewed pork leg with mantau (bun). I personally dont really like it. Then we had Steamed garupa fish - my sister loved this one, she probably ate half of it by herself.

Butter prawns (and cans of Heineken)

Then we had one of the best butter prawns I had in my life. Not too salty or too sweet, each prawn was crispily fried with a thin batter then coated with delicious buttery sauce. It was soo good, we even took the one from the next table (because they hardly touched it) and finished that one too! LOL! After that I was satisfied and didnt eat anything else.

Yam Basket, Herbal Chicken and 2nd plate of butter prawns

Then we had herbal chicken which was wrapped in foil and cooked with chinese herbs and of course the popular yam basket with vegetables. For dessert we had watermelon (which was not sweet) and honeydew (which according to my cuzzie was very nice) which i didnt eat.

Happy 101 birthday Babai*!

Some random facts about my grandfather:

• He is the eldest son in the family
• He had 9 children (3 who are now deceased)
• He was offered a job twice with the British Company but declined because his mother was devastated with the idea
• He has 48 grandchildren, 58 great grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.
• He can speak english, malay and of course Bidayuh

All in all, it was great going back to Kuching and meeting all my relatives. Perhaps Kuching isnt as ‘happening’ as KK or KL, but its the people there that counts.

*Babai = Grandfather

We left the house around 4.30pm to catch our flight at 6.30pm. My dad drove down to KL and parked our car there and checked in. My dad already book the seats but apparently more than 90% of the ppl checked in oredi so we all had seperate seats

The flight was okay. Food sucked tho. And i noticed that M*S was really cutting cost. The cutlery was mere plastic (it was metal before) and the cups for tea/coffee used to be of hard plastic but now its like really thin plastic and slighty smaller.

We arrived at around 9pm. Kuching’s new airport is quite nice, all brightly lighted up and quite organized. We snapped a few pics at the airport

My aunt and cousin picked us up and we proceeded to their house and changed into something more comfortable and went to eat kuay chap for supper. Its a flat/squarish rice flour noodle, cooked in brownish broth with meat - stomach, chicken feet - and usually with half a boiled egg. Apparently quite popular in Penang also.

From left : My sis, cousin, nephew, uncle, sis, mom, aunt, cousin & I. Dad behind the camera

Look out for more updates on my trip in Kuching!

Iced Nyior is going to Kuching for the weekend. Its my Grandfather’s birthday.

Enjoy yourselves people! Muahhhh