Keong Hee Huat Chai!

It’s Chinese New Year again! Woohoo.. New clothes shoes, lotsa snacking, visiting, meeting old/long-lost/never-knew-existed relatives and not to forget ANGPAO!!

As some of you may be wondering.. Why “Keong Hee Huat Chai” and not “Gong Xi Fatt Chai”.. Well, Gong Xi Fatt Chai is in mandarin.. And I don’t know mandarin (well at least I’m learning bit by bit..) “Keong Hee Huat Chai” is in Hokkien, one of the many dialects in Chinese language… My family is Hokkien, so yea that’s why I’m wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year in Hokkien.. Okay I shall cut the crap..

I shall start with the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year’s eve..

This time around, I do not have as much photos of food compared to last year’s reunion dinner.. As some of my friends said, “Photography is not a very healthy ‘SPORT‘..” (note ‘SPORT’ NOT hobby…) So yea.. That was a phrase from a not so influential joker.. He said that because, when we were on our holiday trip to Malacca & Port Dickson (last month), I stalled a bunch of hungry ghost from eating, just to snap some photos of the food.. So this time, in order not to stall anyone during a very special dinner, I decided not to take much photos..

Here are some of my mummy’s delicious-troublesome-spentmuchtimepreparing dinner.. Home cooked 9 dishes..

The fish..

The abalone and clams..

And the best soup ever!

Soup with clams and scallops..

There were more dishes.. But as I said, I didn’t take much photos…

Day 1 of Chinese New Year was a lot of sleeping! Hahaha. I woke up at 2pm, some visitors came and go, and at 4pm I crashed on the bed.. Woke up at 6pm and headed out for another dinner with some relatives.. That’s all for updates on Day 1..

Day 2 will be great! Looking forward for it.. I just started Day 2 of Chinese New Year by watchin TV from 12am till now 6am.. Hahahah.. Good shot aye! Will be heading to my “hometown”  (actually, it’s my mum’s hometown) Cheras the next morning.. I shall go get my rest.. Long day ahead!

See ya! and Happy Chinese New Year!

Day 5 - Hong Kong/Shenzhen

So yea.. I forgot to mention about the 4th night in Hong Kong.. We stayed in this Hotel near Temple Street.. This is an extremely small hotel, but it was really convenient for us to shop at the night market.. It only takes 5 steps from the hotel lobby’s entrance to the night market.. Really cool.. There’s where I bought a monopod, a mini tripod, some tee shirt and alot of rubbish.. This is where, the female side of the family went crazy shopping around.. Things were cheap.. And ofcourse they are all Grade A’s.. Don’t expect anything legit.. Hahahha… Still it’s fun to walk around the night market.. This was where everyone was wearing jackets and coats, where I was only wearing a tee shirt, matchin board shorts and slippers.. People on the street stared at me as though I was from Mars..

Dorsett Seaview is the name of the hotel.. Sounds damn bloody glamour huh? Hahha… Seaview? Wanna know what I saw?

This is the view from my room.. Seaview huh? Awesome isn’t it?

Okay.. In the morning of the last day at Hong Kong.. We walked around at the streets.. We started off at the market place… The weather was kinda cool, walking in the market never felt as clean.. Probably because we walked at the dry market.. Hahhaa..

Oranges looked more orange.. Hahhaha..

The street..

Then we headed over to coffee shop near the market place to have our brunch..

A bottle of coke and “ying yong”, I suppose it means “ying yang”.. It is the combination of milk tea and coffee.. It’s known as “cham ping” here..

Wan Tan Noodle.. Alright.. This time no pork.. Each Wan Tan is filled up with nothing but 4 tangey-bouncey-freshy-wowesomey prawns.. Fuhhh.. Damn steam I tell you.. I think this bowl of noodle is halal.. Hahhaa.

We walked till Nathan Road if I’m not wrong.. One of the main road.. A very long stretch..

While waiting for some others buying stuff.. I got this..

Poser sikit..

The busy streets of Hong Kong..

Before leaving Hong Kong..

Streething on the Streets of Hong Kong!  Woohoo!! Hong Kong got tagged!

Then it was off to the airport..

Got my sister to take this photo for me.. Hahaha.. Similar to those you see on the newspaper articles.. Wannabe..

Before getting on board.. I manage to get myself a book.. Yup a book not a magazine.. What book can it be? Hahhahaa..

p/s: internet at home is still down.. Gowshh.. I’m at work now blogging.. Thank God I have a place to go when internet at home is down…

Cheers & Merry Christmas!

Day 4 - Disneyland..

Whole of Day 4 was spent at Disneyland..

After breakfast at Hotel i Shenzhen, headed over to the train station and got a commuter back to Hong Kong.. Then switched to a bus to Disneyland.. And the whole freaking day was spent in there… So is a few hundred bucks from my wallet spent on kiddy merchandises..

My ticket..

Their tickets..

We started off by taking a train ride to the other point of Disneyland..

At the station..

First we caught a marching band in action…

Here’s one of them smiling for a portrait..

After that, we went for some rides and then we saw a parade..

Some toy soldiers from Toy Story.. I use to have lotsa toy soldiers like this.. Hahahha… These were blown up to full human scale!!

It wouldn’t be complete without them..

And then off we went for the tea cup ride thingy.. Where you spin and spin and spin and laugh and laugh and laugh.. And when you get off the ride.. You tend to walk sideways..

This time it was slightly different.. I figured, taking portraits on this ride would be fun! And yup I did enjoy myself taking photos during the ride..

Hahaha.. Camwhore yo!

While they were having fun spinning around.. I was having fun snapping photos..

And then off we went for lunch.. There’s a fast food restaurant in there.. It’s owned by Disneyland.. So yea.. Food was kinda crap, but who cares? I got my Pork Burger..

Something which you will never find in fast food restaurants back here in Malaysia.. And yup! It’s pork again! Hahahaha..

After lunch, we did some shopping money wasting activities.. Buying craps at high price… And also took some ride.. Some safari boat ride, some live act, the 4D screening and some others which I don’t really remember..

We had to stay till night to witness the fireworks at the end of the show..

While waiting..

Background is kinda blur though..

And finally…

The fireworks behind/above the castle is so dreamy/fairy-tale-ish.. It looked exactly like in the cartoons..

This was my best fireworks attempt of the night.. Out of 200 over fireworks shot, I only made 10 or less.. The best thing is.. This shot was freaking handheld!! Damn proud!

In Disneyland, everyone is a child.. At the end of each ride, everyone, whether he/she is young or old would come out smiling by him/herself.. That is a very awkward/weird/nice sight.. This is a dreamy land.. Where dreams come true.. I mean Fairy Tale kinda dream..

Day 3 - Hong Kong/Shenzhen..

I shall continue with day 3 as my internet is back up now…

It all started with another hot bubbly shower again.. Then breakfast at the hotel, and then out we went.. This time we headed over to some wholesaler.. I guess they were trying to get the money out from our pocket to buy their goods.. Anyway… Lets skip the boring part.. and then off we went for lunch..

China Beer… Only 2.5% alcohol.. Even their Carlsberg is half the content of ours… Really mild..

This was really good.. Damn bloody oily too.. Well, it’s pork again..

Sweet & Sour fried fish and many other dishes, which I already started eating and I did not bother taking photos..

On the way to the next destination.. I spotted a cool street/park..

It’s called the Graffiti Square or something.. A small square or I would say park, filled with lotsa graffiti.. I suppose it is a legal place to bomb and do throw ups.. Chinese graffiti artists got skills yo! It looks really neat..

After that, off we went to some place in Shenzhen where they have mock ups of the wonders of the world.. Day before that, we have mock up of the wonders of China… China memang serba boleh.. They can copy anything… I mean anything.. From the Pyramids at Egypt to the Niagara Falls.. (which I didn’t include the pictures here.. but they do have it there..)

So yea a scaled Taj Mahal..

And while I was snapping the “Taj Mahal..”

I got snapped.. Damn.. It is so fkin awkward!

Picture of the day.. Again it’s Girl Power..
Woohoo.. I’m loving portraits!

Eiffel Tower kononnya.. That’s why I said China memang serba boleh.. They can even copy the Eiffel Tower.. Copying CD’s, DVD’s and all the cap ayam grade triple A or quad A jersey is just a simple task for them.. China sememangnya boleh!

And we basically spend half of the day there…

Then it was some stage performance again.. More like chinese acrobatics.. I almost fell asleep although some of the acts were kinda amazing.. I guess it’s because we often get to see them on TV…

And then comes dinner..

2.5% alcohol again..

Thank God their coke still tastes the same..

After that was some free time for us to shop around Shenzhen.. I bought nothing.. Absolutely nothing.. Everything there was fake.. I almost lay my hands onto a “Kingston” 8GB Compact Flash.. Kononnya Kingston with the Flash hologram sticker.. It’s really obvious that it is fake, I almost got one as my camera was running low on memory.. On second thought, better not.. If it crashes with some good photos in it.. I’m gonna bang the wall!

After that it was back to hotel..

Day 4 is next…

Day 2 - Hong Kong/Shenzhen..

Woke up at 6am.. Had a really good hot shower.. Hot high pressured shower! Woohoo! Awesome! It was really nice on a cold morning… Had the typical Hong Kong breakfast.. Yup it’s Dim Sum.. Had at a normal restaurant, exactly like those you see in chinese drama.. Those where the whole family got up early in the morning and head out to a restaurant for breakfast.. It was good.. Much better than our local one I’d say (comparing those within it’s class..).. The prawns were so damn ons and fresh!

That’s something you usually have for dim sum.. The prawns inside was like ooooohhhh-lala….

Char Siew PaO!

Then it was to a local fishing village where we had a sampan ride to have a glimpse of the lifestyle of both the rich and poor.. You must be thinking, why rich lifestyle at the fishing village? Well we got to the yachts belonging to celebrities and rich tycoons.. The yacths were all parked at the bay..

He is the uncle who steers the boat.. Apparantly he’s a retired fisherman.. He’s one friendly old man..

That’s similar to the boat I was on.. In the background.. That’s Jumbo Palace, a floating restaurant..

Girl Power… That my aunt, cousins and my sister… On the boat..

After that was to a temple by the beach.. Had some talk with a photographer dude for the tour.. Thought me some stuff and most importantly he did let me fiddle with 1 or 2 of his gears.. Took quite alot of portraits of my family here.. Kinda fun..

Some dragon head spotted at the temple..

I really like this picture.. Ooouhh!!

The two lil cousins of mine..

Mummy & Daddy..

And this is me taken by my sis.. Not bad huh..

Policeman… I first spotted him taking photos with the two girls on the same tour as me.. Then I started to approach him, and he was really shy.. A very shy policeman.. Hahaha..

Before going back.. We went for some sightseeing at around mid-hill..

The view..

After that, we headed to a restaurant for lunch.. Restaurants in Hong Kong may look exclusive but waiter plays music instruments with porcelain plates and bowls.. Hahaha.. Noisy as hell.. No wonder there’s crack all over their plates.. Probably there’s where 5% service charge goes..

Then we took a 30minutes commuter ride to Lo Wu, Shenzhen.. First impression on China was badddd.. It’s really hazy in there… People there are so ignorant.. Worse than in Hong Kong.. Accident rates in China is so damn high.. I was there for two days and I witnessed two accidents.. They can just ignore traffic lights and disobey the traffic rules.. Its like the nobody cares.. Dangg… I even saw some fags who made an illegal u-turn at a highway… People even get down from the car to argue.. It’s best not to drive in China.. The traffic is really monstarious.. Just imagine martians driving on the right side of the road..

Visited a place called mini China or something like that, where all the famous spots of China are being scaled down.. They really build a mock of many things.. They even build the Forbidden City which was sextremely HUMONGOUS!

And that was when I spotted this..

It looked really awkward! Looked like 3 different animals doing some threesome or something.. I was just told that it was used for justice.. To take lives of those commited certain crimes or what so ever.. Not sure about it… It still looked pretty funny to me..

Statues by the park..

Walked around the park until it’s time for dinner..

This is a plate of Gou Lou Yoke (Sweet & Sour Pork Cubes..) They are terrible.. Hahaha.. I still prefer those served at Paris Restaurant.. Arrrghh.. I’m feeling for it now..

After dinner.. Watched some really cool cultural show.. It’s more like circus but there’s a meaning behind it.. Afterall, what more do you expect from Cultural Show? It ended kinda late.. Then we headed back to Hotel in Shenzhen..

To be continued on Day 3 soon..

p/s.. Internet at home is down.. I’m blogging this at my work place.. Hopefully my internet at home will be up again soon.. It is really suffering..

Day 1 - Hong Kong/Shenzhen..

Went on a tour with my family to Hong Kong and Shenzhen.. Just got back like 3hours ago..

To make sure you guys still click on this blog.. I shall post the best picture I had for Day 1 (probably the best in the whole trip because a lot of other shots were almost crap!)..

View from The Peak (a.k.a Victoria Peak.)

Okay.. I’m going to bed now.. I really do miss my bed.. After 5nights.. The bed feels like a stranger to me.. I will update this spot as soon as possible.. I snapped over a 1000 photographs.. 4GB was maxed out.. So stay tune!

Alright.. So here’s the update..

Well we left home for the airport at about 5am in the morning.. Yup, you got it right, I didn’t sleep before leaving home.. Flight was at 8am.. Had to check in by 6am.. How can I leave home without my gears? So I had lotsa stuffs with me.. As in hand carry.. I had about 4 chargers with me.. Some which consists of two parts.. So yea.. The customs and some other airport officials gave me a weird stare when I was asked to unload my stuffs.. According to some forums, someone was being put on hold for bout 30 minutes because the chargers and hard disk and cables were mistaken as explosives and yada yada.. So whatever, I went through. And I guess I left the stylus of my PDA in the basket thingy.. Damn!

So this is part of the chargers..

On board in China Airlines, air hostesses were quite wow-some.. They sound really sweet when they converse in mandarin.. Dang.. They make me wanna learn mandarin (especially if they are gonna be my tutor).. The girl on the speaker, geeesh.. She would sing me to sleep!! Okay I’ll cut that off..

From the top..

Hong Kong airport is really small, even the runway seems shorter.. At the end of the runway, its the sea.. So whether you manage to take off or not, you have to leave Hong Kong.. Either on air, or you’ll be at the sea bed.. It was about 11am, when we settled everything.. Went for a lil sightseeing and then check in at Harbour Plaza Hotel at Kowloon.. Apparently it is rated as a 5-star hotel.. Whatever.. They only look like a 5-star hotel, amenities are all base on extra charges.. So basically, you’re only paying for the bed and the room, other than that there will be extra surcharge.. They don’t even provide breakfasts..

Harbour Plaza Hotel..

Some pictures taken on the street..

Silhouette of my cousin..

After we checked in, our family headed to the streets of Tsim Tsa Tsui on our own.. Had McD’s for tea/late lunch.. Walked around, the streets were crowded! Then at 4pm, we have to head back to the hotel to meet up with the rest… And then moved on to dinner at a restaurant somewhere.. After dinner, it was sightseeing again.. This time was along the roads all the way up to the hill.. It was really dangerous.. Roads were narrow as hell.. It took quite awhile for us to reach the peak.. Well, it was really worth the dangerous bus ride up.. The view up there is OHMYGODSUPERBORGASMICLYWOWSOME!!! I only had about 10-15minutes to take some photos.. There are photographers setting up booth earning some bucks up there.. Thanks eman for the tripod! It was really handy!

One of the few pictures taken during the 15minutes.. Aside from the one on top.. That’s my family.. Daddy, Mummy, sister, aunt and two of my lil cousins.. (Should have adjust the brightness… It looked kinda dark when resized as above..hmmm…)

Then to a mall at Victoria Peak.. Where we get to visit Madame Tussauds.. Where we get to meet the waxy celebrities.. That’s a heaven for posers.. Everyone went wild in there.. You could hear people saying “Heyy that’s Andy Lau!” “Ahhh I want to take picture with Jay Chou!”.. Everyone went crazy!

This is a really cool poster! Andy Lau was seen taking a picture of himself..

That’s me with the China Astronaut! Lots more poser pictures at Madame Tussauds which will not be posted!

After an hour of posing with waxy celebrities, we went off to the Avenue of stars.. It was crowded as hell again.. Just when I thought I was the only dude with the tripod, I saw brazillion photographers with their robust cameras and tripods.. And there were live performance along the street.. Really cool.. And the breeze from the sea.. Wow!!

The cityline was awesome!

My cousins, my sister and I..

After a cool walk along the Avenue of stars, an open top bus awaits to pick us up for a ride around the streets of Hong Kong.. We were like inches away from the floating billboards on the streets of Hong Kong.. The air was polluted as hell, but I wouldn’t complain much as the view from the top of the bus is really unique.. It is worth to breath a lil carbon monoxide for the view..

Neon billboards were everywhere..

Everyone were snapping pictures..

The bus stopped us at Ladies Market @ Mongkok, Kowloon.. It is similar to our Petaling Street in KL, just that it was crazily happening and crowded even at 1-2am.. Damn! The night life in Hong Kong is crazy! It feels like every night is a celebration night! It is pretty safe to lepak at night.. Lotsa police do night patrolling unlike ours… Hehehe.. And the curry fishballs by the roadside! FUhhhhhhhhh!!! Makes the 7-eleven’s Fat One Steamboat awful! Hahahah.. And then back to the Hotel..

This post may require lotsa readings.. I don’t expect you to read all of it.. As long go thru them pictures! It’s good enough! Stay tune for Day 2 of Hong Kong/Shenzhen..

Raya, Beef Rendang and Lemang…

First day of Raya was nothing but visiting a few of my parents’ friends.. It’s weird, but every house we stopped, we had to eat something.. And that something isn’t just anything, but something which is DAMN HEAVY!!!!! Damn.. I didn’t know that, by the time we left the first house, I was already bloated with Beef Rendang.. Slrrrps!! Awesome beef rendang prepared by one of my mum’s close friend.. We visit their family every year for Hari Raya.. Since, hmmm I was young.. The family stayed in Sg. Penchala, behind Mofaz along the LDP.. When I was young, I remember there was cows in front of their house… It was a wooden house, then they went to rebuild it, and it’s now a fully tiled brick house.. Last week, I spotted a freaking 52′ Plasma in the house.. Damn!!!  Anyway, her beef rendang never changed.. It was DAMNNNNNNNN GOOOOD!!! Didn’t have any picture of the food though..

Then later that day, headed over to my aunt’s place in Cheras.. It’s been awhile since I’ve been there as I’m busy working almost every weekend.. So yup.. Headed over to Cheras.. And then I spotted these..

See those lil bits? Don’t you think they look sweet? They are actually bitter!!

Bitter Gourd at my aunt’s backyard!!

Pictures above are still captured by the Old Olympus.. I hope it’s decent enough to fetch some comments..

And I may (or may not) be a bit busy for the moment.. So I may (or may not) be able to update this blog.. Due to college workloads and I’m working hard, earning for my dSLR.. Trust me I’m on an extreme saving mode!!

Puppy by the name Teddy..

Since eman has cats on his blog.. I decided I should have dogs on mine.. Hahahha.. Finally, my aunt allowed my cousins to own a puppy.. My sister is another one craving to own one too.. Looks like she won’t get hers as my mum do not like fury pets any pets…. Hahahaha.. Anyway.. They got a beagle, from a friend.. It was a young pup.. A real young one..

So yea.. Everyone in the family was sort of “excited” about the dog.. Okay.. Maybe it’s just both my cousins and my sister.. My mum, sis and I headed over to their home at Subang, hours ago to have a look at their new pup..

So.. Let the pictures do the talking..

That dude is quite cute, because he’s still young and the legs are kinda weak it seems.. He walks like Jackie Chan in the Drunken Master movie..

Looks like my sister is really eager to own one.. Hahahaha.. Will wish her all the best…

Mummy’s birthday..

So yesterday was my mum’s birthday.. So I slept till 12pm.. Still darn tired.. Online, had lunch, edited some more photos and then I felt really tired and I went back to sleep… Woke up around 3pm.. Send my sis to collect her car from the service centre.. Came home chat, or should I say crapped with some funny fellas.. Hahaha.. Really funny… and then I went for a jog at 6pm.. Went for approximately 3km.. Came home.. Showered.. And out to Midvalley to lepak and dinner..
Went to Manhattan’s Fishmarket.

Had two seafood platter for two.. One ordinary and the other grilled..

Prawneys…

So I guess that’s all for now.. And I hope I can have a good rest next day, (Sunday) before my college starts on Monday.. Ugggh…

Wesak & Labours’ Day [Pictures Added]

Happy wesak & Labour Day.. and this it the beginning of May!!

Anyways.. Yesterday.. Went over to Nike Midvalley after college and dinner.. There was a Nike+ Streething Challenge.. I got second.. I was 30 metres away from the first guy.. I shouldn’t have slowed down at the end.. Damn it!! This is how it works.. 10 minutes, on a threadmill.. Who ever who run the furthest wins.. I had a disadvantage.. I started first.. So he knew the distance to beat.. Damnit!! He got a shoe.. I got a tee shirt though.. Hahahha.. Went williams after that.. [Pictures will be uploaded soon uploaded via Streething.com]

(Directly copy and paste from Streething..)

Here’s top 5 (10 minutes run league): -

1. Chinaman - 2.24km
2. Kinz - 2.21km
3. Niwoee - 2.01km
4. Eman - 2.01km
5. Gingerfish - 1.55km 

Sundae Temptation..

My biggest competitor.. All the way from China..

Prize giving ceremony..

Damn close..

The gang..

Again..

The “What You Rocking Today”.. I’m in the Hollands Air Force 1.. 10′o clock..

Pix via Streething.com

Today is a day I have an almost perfect sleep.. I slept at 2.30am last night, woke up at 1pm.. Almost perfect.. 2 more hours it will be complete.. Anyways.. Thats like my 3 days of sleep for the pass few days.. I only had 4 hours of sleep each day.. Dang.. Went to Brickfields Buddha Temple.. Met some friends.. Well if some of you remember Calvin.. Physics tuition @ Edusmart.. The guy who always eat McD’s in the class with his girlfriend.. Hahahah.. He’s in my college and I always see him, but this is something different.. He was selling ice blended for charity..

Here are some photos from the temple..

Along the street.. Many people were selling flowers and stuff..

Jossticks..

Getting their jossticks lighted..

On the way out.. We saw some vehicles for parading tonight.. Ran to get a clear spot for this picture.. It is the sleeping Buddha..

On our way out of temple.. Maxis was giving some goodie bag.. So I took one.. Then we saw a couple of Indian families were holding lots of them.. Then there’s this two old ladies which are beggars were trying to get more from the maxis lady.. So I thought there were some goodies.. It was just a can of drink and a pack of biscuits.. So me and my sis gave to some beggars.. My mum gave to the wrong one.. She gave to the two old ladies.. And they were quarreling and snatching from my mum.. Hahaha.. My mum then give one each… Kinda funny though..

Tonight.. Dinner at Damansara Perdana… It was at Mum’s Place.. Some kind of Peranakan type of food… The baba and nyonya kinda style.. My family seems to like this kinda food.. Probably cause my late grandma is kinda baba influenced…

They not only serve food.. The furnitures used to decorate the shop is for sale.. Even the table we are eating on.. It was priced at RM9900.. Hahahah..

Red rubies..

Trust me.. They are damnnnnnnnnn good..

I guess that is for now.. I’m still waiting for the Nike+ Challenge pics.. Till then..