Company trip - Bangkok ( 8th - 10th June 06)

I left ACN on 1st June and joined DC on 5th June . I just felt like I am rolling off from one project and going to another but I know I will miss the nice people from ACN. DC company trip was on 8th-10th June. So, since the company was shut down for 2 days, they allowed me to join the trip. On my 4th day in DC( 8th June ), I worked for half day and fly to bangkok on 3.30pm flight. When I checked in the room at Shangri-la hotel, there was a girl already inside the room. She was my roommate - Foong Ping, a sweet girl from Finance department. I met other Finance colleage like Jenny, Wei Boon, Chee Wah and Vanni through Foong Ping and joined the group during my stay at Bangkok.

1st day at Bangkok, we took a ferry from Shangri-la hotel to our dinner place, Supatra Riverhouse. The river cruise was not bad. The lights of the hotels and temples along the Chao Phraya river made up the nice night scene. The 2nd half day was the kick off meeting for FY07. In the afternoon, it's Friday frolic time where there are few activities that we can choose to attend. I went for Thai massage. 1st time trying out the Thai massage, well..... the massage was not as good as I thought but who cares, it’s sponsored by company. We went to MBK center for shopping after the massage session. We didn’t spent much time for shopping at MBK center as we need to go back to hotel for the dinner session.

I didn’t join the crowd to Q-bar after the dinner but chose to stay in the hotel room. This is my 2nd visit for Bangkok. I traveled by flight and stay in hotel that cost USD 110 per night. It's really different from the 1st time . The 1st visit was about 3.5 years ago. I was backpacking at Bangkok and Pattaya with a group of friends. We stayed in budget guesthouse at Khao San Road and traveled by bus and train. Huay Mein, Siew Lin, Quek, Tuck Seng and Su Yan, do you all remember our Bangkok trip? To save money, we walked a lot, until I can’t feel my legs; we shared only 1 tuk-tuk. I think many people wouldn’t be able to imagine how 6 of us can fit in 1 small tuk-tuk. :p To save time for visit more places, we skipped some breakfast and lunch. Siew Lin always complained that she was tired, hungry and only been provided with biscuits. Su Yan will suddenly disappear and when came back, there was food in her hand. The foods at Khao San Road are cheap and good - rice with omelets, banana pancake, BBQ squid etc. There are a lot of memories about the trip that will still make us laugh when we talked about it.

This short trip to Bangkok ended on Saturday. I took the 5.30pm flight back to KLIA.

Gunung Hantu Besar (3rd - 4th June 06)

I heard about Gunung Hantu Besar from the hiking friends long time ago. So, when Hai Poh came out with this hiking plan, I immediately registered myself to join the trip. I also invited Chiern Wern to come with me. We stayed overnight at Kok Yuen's house at Friday night (2nd June). On Saturday morning, we drove to Jelebu after having breakfast. There are altogether 24 ppl joining the trip. Well, it's definitely a big group. So, we hired two 4 wheel drive to take us to the start point.

After 1 hour journey on the rough and bumpy road, we reached the Lata Kijang waterfall. I was amazed by the beautitul waterfall. We rested and took our lunch at the waterfall. The destination for the day is the campsite which located about 900m above the sea level. The climb begins by scalling the 300++ steps at a slope that inclines about 80 degrees, from the Lata Kijang waterfall. It took us around 3.5 hours to reach the campsite. The wild orchird can be easily found at the campsite. It's a nice and wide camp site.

Next morning, we woke up early at 6.30am and started to climb to the top. We took more than 1 hours to reach the top as the slopes are quite steep. It was very cold and misty at the top. So, most of us were very disappointed. We wait until 9.30am, suddenly the clouds which covered up the view was disappeared and the scenic mountain was appeared in front of us. We are so excited, the paranomic view of the mountain is lovely. The peak of Gunung Hantu Kecil can be seen from near, Genting Highlands and KL town can be seen from far. I am not able to describe the scene, you got to be at there to feel it.

Hiking is the tiring activity. The hiking group always teased among ourselves why we still turn up for every hiking trip although it's so tiring and torturing. One of the reason is the scenery. Every mountain offers different view and scenery. It made us forgot about the tiring journey. After came back, we will slowly forget about how difficult is it to hike up, but keep on remember how nice is the waterfall, sunset and sunrise, mountain view etc.. If you like hiking, I think you will agree with me. ;)

Sekinchan / Kuala Selangor (12th-13th May 06)

It's Kok Yuen's idea to visit Sekinchan. When he found out Chiern Wern's hometown is Sekinchan, he is excited and asking me to arrange for the trip. So, that's how we ended up with Sekinchan / Kuala Selangor trip during last Wesak day. We checked in the Pantai Indah Seaview Resort around 1.30pm. It's a new resort located not far away from Kuala Selangor, around 20 minutes drive. It was near the beach ( if and only if that was consider a beach ) , the beach was dirty and unattractive. But for us, it doesn't matter since the beach is not our main purpose there. Pantai Indah Seaview Resort is not so bad for us because it's very windy, weather is nice.

It's lunch time. We drove to Pasir Penampang for the long awaited lunch. The restaurant that choose is "Tian Wai Tian". We ordered seafood such as prawn, fish, squid etc. The seafood is very fresh, tasty and cheap. There is a stall selling coconuts beside the main street, 1 coconut cost RM1.50. We bought 10 coconuts and the boss gave us 1 free. :D

After lunch, we visited Kota Melawati. Visitors are not allowed to drive up to Kota Melawati. We bought the tickets (RM2 per person) and took the feeder bus to go up the hill. Nothing much to see at the top of the hill except the monkeys. The monkeys are very aggressive. They will grab the food from your hand, so please don't try to fool them. Kota Melawati also offers the panoramic view of Kuala Selangor to tourists. We spent around 1 hour there before we drove to Sekinchan.

Sekinchan is a small town. It was fascinating when the car was moving along the road and surrounded by the wide area of paddy land. We stopped our cars and got down to take photos. Besides paddy fields, Sekinchan is a fishing village. We went to the seaside, leisure around and watched the sunset. Well, the beach is dirty, the sea is not cystal clear but the weather that day was good. It's very relaxing, all of us are in great holiday mood. At night, we went to Kampung Kuantan for watching the firefly.

The next morning, we had the brunch at "Jian Qi" restaurant at Sekinchan. It was just introducted by the Astro program "Ah Xian Ren Qing Wei". I personally like the spicy prawn. The fresh prawn mince and fried with chili powder. It's a simple dish but very delicious. In the afternoon, we visited Natural Park. Surprisingly there are a lot of birds there. I was regret that I didn't bring the binocular.

I am glad that we had Chiern Wern as the tour guide. I really missed the seafood there. Hopefully we can have another food trip in the future. :D

Mt. Kajang at Tioman Island (29th Apr -1 May 2006)

It's a long weekend due to the labour day holiday. I joined the Gunung Kajang hiking trip. Gunung Kajang is located at Tioman Island. I got a surprise when I found out that Siew Ling and Quek are joining the gangs to Tioman. So, altogether we have 14 persons took the 6.30pm ferry to Tioman Island. 10 persons including me hike up the Gunung Kajang on the next day and the others went for snorkelling and diving.

All accomodations fully booked. The owner of Tioman Paya Resort let us to camp at his resort. So, we set up the tents and camp overnight there. On Sunday, it took us about 6 hours to reach the peak. Along the way, we were busy with the leeches. The camp site is very small and there is no view to see at the camp site. But there is a special place at the top - a big and tall rock where we climbed up to have the view of the mountain and sea. Can't imagine ? Let's see the photos below.

-> This is the big rock that I mentioned.

-> Climbing up the rock.
-> View from the top of the big rock.









I had a good time with the hiking gangs and 3 of my best friends at Tioman Island.

Singapore (8th-9th Apr 06)

Last weekend, Foung Yee, Peng Meng, Karen and I went to Singapore. We took off from my house at Tampin around 8.30am. 8 April is Johor public holiday. The traffic was very bad. We stuck in traffic jam for 3 hours from JB custom until Woodland custom. It was already 4.30 pm in the afternoon when we met Hai Poh, Dee, Yik Eng, Dee and Sui Jing at Peninsular Plaza. Hai Poh brought us to visit Camper’s Corner, a shop that sells hiking / camping gear. Kelvin, the shop owner brief us on choosing the right socks, shoes, gloves, hat and apparel for hiking. However, we left without buying anything. We continue to shop for shoes at Beach Road and I bought a pair of trekking shoes, cost SGD 108.

We went to Dairy Farm the next morning. Besides rock climbing, there are people come to Dairy Farm for jogging and cycling. Dee, Sui Jing, SJ and Peng Meng started to climb at short wall. The warm up route for them is “Boring and Meaningless”. I am not the climber, that’s why I am just walking around to take pictures. J KY came around 11am; he just came back from his Yunnan trip, touch ground at 3am. He was so excited when he shared his experience during the trip. While others proceed to climb for more difficult route, I try to climb their warm up route – “Boring”. Sui Jing belayed me and Peng Meng is the demonstrator. However, it was very difficult for me. I do not have the skills yet. I think I was hanging there for very long before reached the top and SuiJing did help me a lot by pulling me up. :p Later, I climbed another route which is easier - Desperado. Hehe....I only climbed 2 times for the trip to Dairy Farm.

We left Dairy Farm around 3pm and drove back to KL.

p/s: Thanks SJ for let us to stay at your house.

Redang Island (25th-27th March 2006)

I went to Redang with Huay Mein, Chiern Wern, Kok Yuen and Leong at the last week of March. We took the promotion package from Redang Pelangi Resort, full board of 3D2N with RM 240.
Huay Mein, Chiern Wern and I took the bus to Kuala Terengganu whereas Kok Yuen and Leong drove there. We reached KT about 5am in the morning. Redang Pelangi Resort picked us up at Kuala Terengganu bus station about 6am. We took the 9.30am speed boat from Merang jetty to Redang island. It took about 40 min boat ride to reach this beautiful island.
This is my 2nd time to Redang. The water still clear like cystal and the sand still soft and white . Unfortunately, the corals are not as nice as 5 years ago. In fact, I felt it had been damaged badly. Anyway, still see alot of fishes during snorkelling. Oh ya, we saw the 5 metres moray eel at the Marine Park. We went for 3 snorkelling trips altogether. 1 trip on Saturday and 2 trips on Sunday. Kok Yuen and Leong went for a dive on Sun and Mon morning.

At night, the resort was very happening. Disco lights, hit songs are on. It served for those that like clubbing. For us, we played mahjong. The mahjong set was borrowed from the resort. Kok Yuen and Leong are our sifu. Well...we are not gambling as we didn't play with money :p
The trip was nice but I was sick after came back. After a week, still not yet fully recovered. :(

Formula 1 (18 March 2006)

I went for F1 last Saturday. I never follow the news of F1 and I never think of want to watch F1. I got the chance to go because Huay Mein got the VIP tickets. :) We drove to Kompleks Bunga Raya, registered at the counter, get the tag and having breakfast while waiting for them to arrange the car to send us to Sepang F1 circuit. We reached Sepang F1 circuit about 11am. We need to go to Corporate Suite 2. Huay Mein and I have no idea where is located. But we don’t have to worry at all as there is shutter car ( 2-seater SMART ) waiting to fetch us to the place.
There is lunch and high tea served. The food is very nice and free flow of drinks. The room is air-conditioned. According to the officer, our ticket cost RM2000. Even the ticket that with the shelter seats but without food served, it already cost RM 1100. wah........luckily we don't have to pay for it. hehehe.....Really need to thanks Huay Mein for this. :)
Altogether there are three F1 qualifying session on Saturday. After the second qualifying session, there is paddock club pit lane walk. The VVIP are allowed to walk through the pit lane to meet the FI team. We are only VIP, so no chance to meet the team. The qualifying session ended about 3pm.

I won't forget the sounds, the atmosphere and it’s really a good experience.

Pelapah Waterfall (26 Feb 2006)

After trek down from Mt. Panti, we continues to our next destination - Pelapah Waterfall. We walked through the palm oil plantation and came to the starting point of the trail. Overall, the trail is not very difficult but there are parts that quite steep and slippery. So, I hike up very cautiously using the fixed ropes.
There is an incident happened when we trek down. Foung Yee was stung by bee. She is allergy to bee sting and her condition became very serious within couple of hours. But luckily, she was ok after the treatment at hospital.

Mt. Panti (25 Feb 2006)

I joined the trip to Mt. Panti on 25 Feb. Mt. Panti is 518m high, located near Kota Tinggi, Johor. There are 4 of us that came from KL, tack, foung yee, li ying and I. Tack's car run out of petrol at highway near Spg Renggam. We asked the help from the PLUS and the 2 officers helped us to buy the petrol and filled the tank.

Altogether there are 18 of us camp at Mt. Panti that night. Some of them I didn't meet before. Good to met some new friends.
It took me one and the half hour to trek up, it's around 6pm when I reached the campsite. Just nice to see the sunset, although the sunset is not really remarkable.

At night, it's misty, the visibility is very low. Yi Eng showed us her yoga pose while waiting for the supper. The supper is "lou hon guo" soup. Then, we were playing cards until late at night.

Tonle Sap (8th Feb 2006)

After breakfast, we took the taxi of the guesthouse’s owner to Tonle Sap. The journey took about 30-40 minutes. The boat to cruise the Tonle Sap cost USD 10. It’s too expensive for us, so we didn’t buy the ticket. When we reached the jetty, there is a boy offered us the boat ride to the floating village with USD 8 per person. After bargain, we took his offer with USD 6 per person for 90 minutes boat ride. The lake is very big; it’s like the sea, except the water is murky. We saw the school, the basketball court, the house, the church, grocery shop etc at the floating village. The students there will row the boat to the school from their house.

We stopped at one of the floating restaurant. It’s a restaurant, and also a souvenir shop. But we left without buying anything.
There’s nothing much to see at Tonle Sap, except the lifestyle of the locals and the Cambodian floating village.

We back to the guesthouse around 12pm, rest at the guesthouse until 4pm. Then, we walked to the old market to buy the souvenir. Fion and Huay Mein bought the wood craft and I just bought a hammock. Then, we took the dinner at Morropor Café – our favorite shop in Siem Reap. After dinner, Fion, Huay Mein and Tuck Seng went for Khmer massage and I went back to guesthouse with Siew Lin.

Our Siem Reap trip is coming to the end. The next day morning, we transferred to airport by the taxi and took the 11.30am flight back to KLIA.

The whole trip cost us about RM 750. Here’s our expenses detail:

Flight by AirAsia RM223
Accomodation for 5 nights USD 15
Meals for 6 days USD 25
3 days pass to Angkor Temples USD 40
Transport:
1. Taxi from Airport to Siem Reap town USD 5 / 5 person = USD 1
2. Tuk-tuk to Phomn Bakheng USD 5 / 5 person = USD 1
3. Taxi ( 5th Feb ) USD 20 / 5 person = USD 4
4. Taxi ( 6th Feb ) USD 35 / 5 person = USD 7
5. Taxi ( 7th Feb ) USD 20 / 5 person = USD 4
6. Taxi to Tonle Sap USD 10 / 5 person = USD 2
7. Taxi to Airport USD 5 / 5 person = USD 1
8. Boat at Tonle Sap USD 6
Airport Tax USD 25
Miscellaneous USD 5

Rollous Group / Angkor Wat ( 7th Feb 2006 )

This is the 4th day at Siem Reap and the last day to visit Angkor temples. All of us slept until the sun rise, then took complimentary breakfast at guesthouse.
We will visit Rollous Group today - Bakong, Preah Ko and Lolei.
Picture above is Bakong temple. Schedule is not tight today. We spent a lot of time at Bakong for taking pictures, sit down and chit chat.
Preah Ko and Lolei are very small temples which under restoration.
We would like to re-visit elephant terrace and leper of king as the time is still early. The taxi driver refused to take us to the place. He mentioned that we only informed him we will tour angkor wat in the afternoon. He is giving excuse that the place is very far from Angkor Wat and he didn't have money to gain if he bring us there, which means he would like us to pay more if we want to go there. That really make me angry. Since the 1st day, he doesn't want to take us back to guesthouse for rest. 2nd day, he was disappeared when we came out from Angkor wat. We couldn't find him. But at last, he informed his brother to pick us up. 3rd day, refused to send us to the place that we want to go. I am not satisfied with his service. So, when he asked us whether want to go Tonle Sap the next day, we said no.

We spent the whole afternoon at Angkor Wat. We had plenty of time for Angkor Wat. We walked slowly, admired the galleries, sit down at corner for chit chat. When hungry,we stopped and eat the snacks. We climb up the steep staircase. We wait for 2 hours at the tower for sunset. Sunset at Angkor Wat marks the end of our visit at Angkor temples.

Banteay Srei (6th February 2006)

The day starts with the sunrise at Sras Srang. According to locals, this is the swimming pool for the king at the ancient time. Not many tourists at Sras Srang for the sunrise, made it a good place for photos. However, the children will follow and try to sell the things like postcard, hand-made bracelet, flute , hot coffee etc. Even though we refused them, they keep on bugging us. But they stopped when we give them the sweet candy and chocolate biscuits. :D
After sunrise, we went to visit Banteay Srei. On the way to Banteay Srei, we stopped at Pre Rup. This temple is used for cremations. Thus, it didn't have much decoration on wall. As usual, when tourists reached the temple, the children will approach to sell their things. When we are at Pre Rup, these 2 little girls followed us to climb up and down, showed us the carving on the wall but didn't bug us for buying. When I left, I bought the postcard from them.

Banteay Srei is located far from main angkor's temple area. However, it was famous for its beautiful carving which was still remain intact. It was build with red sandstone, which is covered with elaborate and deeply carved decoration.

Banteay Srei is a small but unusual temple. There are many groups of tourist that came in buses. We didn't hire any guides. So, we follow the group (especially those speaking mandarin) when their guide brief them on the story of the temple.
There are shops selling souvenier and handicraft in front of the temple. We walked around but didn't buy anything.

We spent about 1.5 hours at Banteay Srei before we moved to Banteay Samre, a temple that is dedicated for Visnu.

Picture above is the central part of Banteay Samre.

It's nearly noon after we came out from Banteay Samre. Next, we are eading to Eastern Mebon. We took the lunch in front of the shops at Eastern Mebon. Again....I am complaining the food. It's expensive and the taste is very bad.

After lunch, we crossed the road and visited Eastern Mebon. Fion was boring with the temple. So, she decided to rest under the tree while we touring Eastern Mebon.

Elephant statue can be found at 4 cardinal point at each tier of the building. Once upon a time, this is an island. The visitors need to take the boat to come to this temple.

Then, we visit Neak Pean. Neak Pean is different from what we seen these 2 days. Without the guidance from the book, we can clearly see that the place is built for storing water. Of course it's dried up now.

Next, we visited Ta Som. Ta Som is great place for visit in the afternoon. The trees and the structure of the temple provides shade to the tourists. I like this temple :P

We continues to Preah Khan. If Bayon gave me the impression of towers, then Preah Khan gave me the impression of doors. We need to pass through many doors to go to the central temple. The doors are getting smaller when near the central temple.

Our itinerary for today end with the sunset at Angkor Wat. After Preah Khan, we went back to Angkor Wat to wait for the sunset.

Angkor Thom ( 5th Feb 2006 )

This is my 2nd day at Siem Reap. Our itinerary starts with the sunrise at Angkor Wat. The taxi picked us up at guesthouse at 0500 and reached Angkor Wat at 0530. It was still very dark, we have to use the torchlight. However, we are not alone, there are already many tourists at Angkor when we reached. The sun rises, with Angkor Wat as the background, the sunrise become remarkable. There are 2 ponds in front of Angkor Wat. It's the popular place for photos shooting as the temple will reflected in the water.

After the sunrise, we headed out to the grand city, built by Jayavarman VII, called Angkor Thom. Today, our main focus will be the temples in Angkor Thom. We entered the ancient city from the South Gate of Angkor Thom. The taxi driver dropped us in front of Bayon temple and told us to find him at shop nearby once we finished visit all the temples around.

Bayon - according to the book, it's located at the central of Angkor Thom. My first impression of bayon is towers. There are a lot of towers with four faces in the four cardinal points. The faces are with closed eyes and smile. We took sometime to look at the galleries with their many bas-reliefs depicting scenes of everyday life as well as great battles and military processions.

We proceed to visit Baphoun, Royal Enclosure & Phimeanakas, Preah Palilay, Tep Pranam, Preah Pithu Group, Leper King Terrace and Elephant Terrace, Kleangs & 12 towers of Prasat. Those temples are located not far away from each other, within walking distance. However, it still made us tired because of the hot weather. We took the lunch at the shop nearby Preah Pithu Group. Normal fried rice cost USD 2 . It was not good and expensive.

We would like to go back to guesthouse for a couple of hours rest and come out again later. But the taxi driver refused. He told us that the USD 20 per day only includes the tour around Angkor Thom and fetching us back to guesthouse. Additional charges need to be paid if we would like to go back for rest and come out again. We don't want to spend extra money, so rest under the tree for an hour. Then proceed to our next destination.

In the afternoon, we visited Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon,Ta Keo, Ta Prohm. Chau Say Tevoda - Under restoration, sponsored by government of China.
Thommanon - Small temple opposite Chau Say Tevoda.
Ta Keo - Quite steep and high staircase. Climb up the staircase is quite torturing under the hot sun.
Ta Prohm - Ruins in the jungle. The huge tree and the temple are emerged.

We continues east to Banteay Kdei. Banteay Kdei is stone's throw away from Ta Prohm and opposite to Sras Srang. Took quite some pictures on the wall craving

We had seen many temples today. Tired and hungry. So, we didn't have mood to visit Banteay Kdei in detail.

After Banteay Kdei, we travelled back to the Siem Reap town, stopped at Moroppor Cafe to have the dinner. We had dinner at this cafe almost everyday. The food is good, cheap and the environment is good. I strongly recommended the honey lemon shake :)

Going to Siem Reap (4th Feb 2006)

Fly to Siem Reap by Airasia on 4 Feb, a week after Chinese New Year. I had Huay Mein, Siew Ling, Fion and Tuck Seng with me. We reached Siem Reap at 1135 local time , the time difference is 1 hour earlier than Malaysia. We didn't book any accomodation before coming, but had decided to stay around Old Market area. We boarded the taxi and hearded to the town area. Finally, we settled down at Ancient Angkor Guesthouse. It's a new guesthouse, run by Khmer. Fan room, attached bathroom and with TV, cost USD 10 . But as we are staying for 5 nights, we are getting the price of USD 8. It's a good deal, the room is clean, the owners are very friendly and helpful.

We bought the admission ticket for 3 days , starting from the next day and it cost USD 40. Althought the ticket starts counts from the next day, they allowed the tourist to enter the temples after 6pm. So, we took this opportunity to view the sunset at Phomn Bakheng. Phomn Bakheng is the hilltop temple. The tourists have to trek up the small hill before reach the temple. Bakheng is crowded with people, difficult to find good spot to take photos. The sunset is normal, not as beautiful as the postcard..hahaha.....

Visit Ah De's Orchid Farm (9th Jan 2006)

As we cancelled the plan to mt. yellow, we had a "spare" day to linger around at cameron highland. After checked out from Daniel's Lodge, we visited Ah De's orchird farm. I kept on shooting pictures of those beautiful orchirds.

Gunung Brinchang / Irau ( 8th Jan 2006 )

10th January is Hari Raya Haji, it's the public holiday for Malaysia. I took leave on 9th Jan and joined the trip to Mt Irau at Cameron Highland. Our initial plan is trek up to Mt. Irau, the proceed to Mt. Yellow and camp overnight at Mt. Yellow. But the weather is really bad, raining everyday and the wind is extremely strong. Eventually, the plan was changed, we decided to go for 1 day trekking for Mt. Brinchang and Mt. Irau.

The wind is strong and chilling. Ah De - Hai Poh's fren told us there is only 1 time in a year that Cameron Highland will rain continuously for 1 week, and we came up to Cameron Highland in this week. It's really very cold, didn't sweat although had trekked for whole day.