1st year anniversary

It's a full whole year I had, since started on my blog. Basically, it started off innocently as a try-out. Gradually, it evolved to be something sort of a link to pull the distance relationships and friendships closer by updating the progress of our lives.

I would also like to think that it might be fun and interesting for the children to read when they are older or when I am gone from their lives. I liked writing journals when I was young, looking back at what I wrote, I can't imagine I was so silly at that time.

There are also times when I feel down, I would look back at the pictures of the happier times, especially the great holidays we had, being mesmerised with the sweet old memories, and I would be happy once again.

This blog hadn't been attracting many readers, which I am fine with, since our faces are plastered all over the internet. I do worry about the safety level of the "exposure", but it should be ok, since monitoring the statistics of the visitors, it's only abt less than 10 everyday and where they come from, I should be able to gauge who they are, roughly.

All of the sudden, the visitors shoot up to the peak of 150 in just a day alone last week! WHOA!!! I was real shocked and surprised.


Checking on where they were from, it's from this site : www. stickmanbangkok.com. Apparently my brother, CY, had put up an article on this stickman's website and put a link to mine. This was sudden publicity for no reason!



I had visitors from all over the world! WOW!! Then again, I think the site wasn't very appealing as there's no lenglui pictures here, or I'm not as funny as this joker blogger, so the stats are back to the normal state at the moment. I would assume there's no cause for concern.


So, should I be continuing blogging?

Eye On Malaysia

We checked out Lake Titiwangsa one normal uneventful weekend.

"Eye on Malaysia", the giant ferris wheel allows visitors to experience a 360-degree panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur during a 12-minute ride that goes 60 metres high.

I had taken a few snapshots and made a panorama view of the whole lake with the ferris wheel in the background, but this size below isn't doing justice to my effort.



We took a walk around the whole lake, which takes up about one whole hour. It's quite a good crowd at the lake, with people from all walks of life and all ages enjoying the cool crispy morning air. Some display their skills in tai chi, some line dancing, some organization having a family function, some students playing basketballs, others just walking or jogging or just strolling around in their leisurely pace. It's a kind of "peaceful" environment, in that sense.



The Eye, built at a cost of RM30 million, was launched in January this year to welcome in Visit Malaysia Year 2007, targetting some 20 over million tourists for the year. Wonder that figure target is on track?



It offers a magnificent view of Kuala Lumpur and over 20 kilometres of its surroundings including KL Tower, Istana Budaya and Petronas Twin Towers.



However, I do find the lake not totally well maintained. It would be nice if there are places for picnickers or some eye-sores sights cleaned up.



There are a total of 42 air-conditioned gondolas comprising 39 units for the public, one for VIPs and two for disabled passengers. Each of the gondola can carry eight persons.

Tickets are available at the sales counter in the Titiwangsa Lake Gardens. It costs RM15 for adults and RM8 for children aged 3 to 12 and senior citizens. Operating hours for the ferris wheel are from 10am to 10pm daily.

We are planning a ride up on the ferris wheel when some family guests come visiting.

Online signs of getting old

You know you are really old when you put messages like these next to your displayed contact name in your instant messengers...

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever"

"Errors are portals of discovery"

"We are our children's role models - if we are succesful and happy doing whatever we do, the way we live will be imitated by them"

"Don't Spend Time; Invest It"

The young ones? They say these...

"I Fe3l t@t i reaLly love him... but i h@d maKe him anGry o >.<>.<>> I LuBB @@u@@ So000oo Muchee....$%^&" (WHOA!!)

Floating market

It was the 3rd day in a row I dragged myself up from the bed covers at 6am in the early morning. We need to depart early from Bangkok as it takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to reach the floating market before they close shop or the sun is too unbearably hot.

The journey was longer than what we expected though. Partly because we do not know the way and the road signs were lousy. However, when we know we reach the place, the excitement started building up again. It was a differently refreshing experience. We parked the car, got on the boat which looked like this.



The sun was, yes, hot, but not TOO hot yet. The boat was slowly gliding in the canal as the guide swiftly manuevered the boat around when the blardy boats equipped with engines go swooshing by, sending waves in the canal which made us hold on tightly for dear lives sake. "@#$%^&!!" Lucky there were no untoward accidents in this outing trip.



I thought that was all to the famous "floating market" there is... watching the scenic views of locals living near the sea while enjoying the soft salty air blowing on our cheeks.

That is, until we turned into this "main road", oops, should be "main canal", where all the action and happenings were.

Boats of tourists, sellers of all kinds of stuffs, bargains and negotiations, all these atop the water surface. We have to be very careful not to hold the sides of our boats though, as we could easily be injured with the passerby boats which come knocking much too closely.

The sellers' eyes are very sharp. They see you eyeing their products, they would come right after you. We find that the souvenirs were quoted much too highly, obviously trying to impress the tourists, but the food price was ok. We had coconuts for THB10 each and drank to our hearts' delight, quenching our thirst and cooling the heat almost instantly.

The mangoes looked darn juicy. We bought some finally even though it wasn't very cheap.

There was this lady frying some "fried egg with oysters" on her boat. We made the order shouting from across the "road", "Oi, tau rai, tau rai? (meaning, how much?) and use the index finger suggesting we want 1 plate, paid her and enjoyed the deliciously succulent fried egg oysters while continuing on our way.

The sideway canals were not as busy as the main one. There were mostly souvenir stalls lining up the side of the canal, sitting on solid land. Some of them were rather rude, they would just use a long rod to pull your boat over to them and "forced" you to look at their items. Anyway, they can't force us to part with our money to buy things from them though.

It was a good 1 hour experience on the floating market. Something different from the usual shopping experience worth going for.

My brother had written his views on the same trip on his blog

Ayuthaya

The day tour costs THB1400, the cheapest among the 4 quotations we got (1500, 1700, 1900). Later we found out the same tour, some others paid only THB1200 each. He said it's better to find quotations in the outerskirts of Bangkok downtown, cheaper. So, take note, those who want to take day tour in that city.

We were whisked to a big cosy and new bus in a taxi from our hotel. It took only about an hour plus to reach the destination. On the way, teh sight of Thailand is all about paddy fields, flat and plain until the horizon.

The first stop is a temple called Wat Yai Chaimongkhon. It was said that there was a famous fight between the kings once upon a long long time ago on elephant backs. This king won the war but furious that his knights weren't following him closely on the frontline. The king came back and wanted to sent the knights to death as punishment, but some monk asked for leniency and thus, how this wat came into place...go figure yourself.



The ordination hall where men became monks officially.


INside the temple, there sits this so real-looking monk in a chamber. I really thought he was real. He's much real compared to those wax people in Madam Tussaud. The tour guide said he was made of microfiber, and it was made to commemorate him for rebuilding the temple, apparently, I think. Not quite sure of the facts though.

This is called something which starts with an "s". Can't remember, but I know what it's for. It houses the ashes of the royal family. You can see it everywhere in Ayuthaya. There's Vietnam style, Cambodia style, Sri Lanka style, and what other style you just name.

A bodhi tree, now this tree should be a familiar household name for Buddhists. Obviously, I know nothing much about bodhi tree except it has something to do with Buddha sitting under it.

Then, we went to this elephant stop. A picture with the little jumbo costs THB20, please have your own camera ready before moving over to pose with it. The jumbo take the money from your hand right after the picture is taken.

Now isn't this jumbo baby cute? She moves over to the little baby tenderly as if to "sayang" her.

A buddhist view on a tree outside the historical site. I feel it's rather an unusual sight.

Being in the ruins is pretty eerie. History is that some time long long ago again, the rulers had lost to a war, and the intruders then set fire on the whole city of Ayuthaya, especially in this temple. What is left are the headless or armless buddha statues all around the place. It was said that the buddha heads were made of gold, and they had taken down its head for that gold.

Walking around here, I could almost imagine the kind of hell it was when the whole place was on fire.

It was the kind of sightseeing I like compared to the city lights and concrete. As the town of Ayuthaya is designated as UNESCO World heritage site, it was prohibited from building any highrise or made any improvements to the town or these sites for fear of ruining the authenticity of the ruins. It made me think about A Famosa of Melaka, what peanuts compared to this.

The last stop was teh Bang Pa-In Palace, a real palace. In there houses some magnificient buildings, one of this is the Grand Hall, what we say in laymen terms as dining hall. NO cameras were allowed in there. I was amazed at every single detail adorning the whole hall, even the drapes had the same number of folds. Tried to visualize how the royals ate their meals there.

The little temple in the lake is painted with gold. From the view here on the bridge, there were italians statues standing along it. It was said that the king (Rama something) who built this palace loved italian designs and had italians to build part of the palace for him.

This part of the palace is the "bedroom". Alas, unfortunately, we were not allowed inside. I just wondered how the beds looked like.

This tower was where the king liked to go up himself to see the place's surroundings and if there's any enemy coming, I suppose. KT said what there is to see when all the view is just his palace surroundings. My guess is that it's just a playtoy for the king only la.

After being burnt in the hot sun for some hours and soaked wet from the sweat, we were finally on the way back on Chao Phraya river cruise with lunch served onboard. This is one of the view from the boat.

We went back to the hotel, checked in to another hotel and went for sweet, spicy and sour Thai dishes like the one below. Isn't this mouth watering?

Chinese New Year 2007

Longest time stopped blogging so far.

Chinese New Year, year of the pig is almost coming near to its end, but to most of us, it's considered over. I used to love this time of the year darn a lot. I think most of us feel the same way. The tradition and "feel" of the festival evolves with the changing times though. Now, it's more about responsibilites and filial piety, instead of having an "all hell broke loose"kinda time.

I'm not complaining though. Seeing how happy my parents in law were to have all the family members gathered round the dining table and creating chaos in the whole household, I could feel it's worthy of our time and effort to make sure we were home for the occasion. It's part of the job function, roles and responsibilities right now, as an adult, as a married person.

I just feel a bit sad this year, ok, more than a bit, maybe, that I didn't have the same family gathering with my own parents, brothers and their families just like them. It seemed like a few years in fact that we didn't had that gathering. Well, what can we do? With the school going children, they had no choice other than flying my parents some place else to spend the occasion together.

This year, with the children bigger now, we (just 2 of us) stole time to go for a short stint of holiday in Bangkok. Apart of missing them consistently while we were there, I must say I had a pretty good time having a "honeymoon" with him alone, after all these years.

On its first day, we only had an afternoon to spend, so we walked around, had a massage, and met up with my brother and his family for a goody yummy delicious Thai dinner soon after.

We then joined a day tour to visit Ayuthaya, an ancient city, designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO for its historical value. We were taken back by a cruise on the Chao Phraya river with a lunch onboard then. Our tour guide with an excellent command in English kept guiding and informing us about the various tourist spots with this "On my left hand side, you can see ******, very famous for its tourist attack...". (Oh, my! For awhile, I thought, which one had just been bombed by terrorists, then later, I only realised he meant "tourist attraction".... Sigh... say propery la, can heart attack one la..)

The next day was spent in the car most of the time, to and fro from floating market. It was a good experience on the boat though, but not a very good experience after where we were stuck in an awful traffic jam and I was, (sob! sob!), having an aching tummy pain waiting to get relief in a loo.

Much later, we went to Chatuchak. I thought this time I would be able to get more stuffs home from the last time, as we were free from "distractions" (read: children), but ala, how wrong I was! Pretty pissed that we looked like "waterfish" and quoted "bukit bintang" prices for "petaling street" stuffs. I went home swearing never to go there again. KT said next time we go shopping at high class malls, got air conditioned one... (Listen first la). We signed off our short holiday with another massage session, and woke up early to fly back home to the arms of our children, safe and sound.

Pictures... will be after this. Hope it won't be another month long apart again..

Little guy's birthday

I just love birthdays.. as it's a good excuse to indulge in now-my-favorite cake, tiramisu.
Especially celebrating the children's birthdays. It's like celebrating another milestone achieved and his existence here on Earth as part of my very own flesh and blood.

I love the celebration to be simple. Just a family dinner with a nice cake. Later on when the children are more demanding, probably we'll treat them with a gift too, but for now, this would do.



He steals my heart most when he comes back to "manja" me 5 mins after I reprimanded him for something he had done wrongly. Like I'm still his lovey-dovey most special person in his life. hehe..



The other day I took him to a shopping mall while waiting for his dad. He wanted to poo-poo and so, I took him to the loo. It was a hard one to start his poo, and when he managed to "pushed" it out with all his strength, he said "YES! Tuck Joh!" (Meaning, "YES, I did it"). I could still smile about it when I recall that incident.



Why am I mixing poo and cake in this entry, huh? Anyway, happy birthday, little boy.