X'Mas at Bangkok 2009

Ok, I advise you scroll down and start to read from the bottom of this post...

LH Bank near our hotel and we are walking back to our hotel.

Suan Lam night market.

Two Ling Zhen Xiang next to each other, heard the brother had a fight, so they split their business.

荣幸有机会和蒋总夫妇合影，哈哈！ (Run first before he whack me.. hahahah)

Told my friend Sian Lee that I am going to post this picture on my blog, with the description of: "典型Expat小两口的露齿笑容,反映了他们幸福，富足而又无忧无虑的驻泰生活" Hehehe。

My friends are trying out the Pat-tai

Stop by for another round of food, unfortunately I am quite full already, noticed a cockroach and two rats around the drain area, really worsened my appetite.

Buying some local dry pork meat

Pig feet rice, my friend just love it, but not for me..

We had dinner in China town, trying the local food stall delicacy

My travel mate, Kong Tak is checking out on his drink.

Freshly squeezed orange juice, a must try in Bangkok! The lady is squeezing the orange juice with a traditional mechanism.

BKK china town

Street view

It was getting dark when we came out from the mall.

Street art?

Beautiful girls singing Christmas carol.

Out side of Centerworld

Zen shopping mall
Centerworld mall.Food court break at Platinum.
The hotel is just next to Malaysia embassy. Good place for us to hide during riot time.

Entrance
With the bright sunlight, I manage to take a very clear photo on this one.

Reception Area

Our hotel in Bangkok - The All Seasons Hotel, room rate is 1200 THB Nett, corp rate. The room is not big but it was okay even with twin bed. The building is pretty new, too bad I didn't get to take a picture of the inside because by the time I set up my camera, we have made the room look messy already, so I don't bother to take any photos of it. At first I thought I am staying at the Four Seasons hotel, didn't expect the hotel is that 'small'.. hehehe, but for what I am paying, really no complain la! It is quite convenient too, 12 minutes walk to BTS station.

Cockroach massacre 2009

One night, while I was trying to shut the window, I notice there were four cockroaches crawling on my neighbor's wall. Well, no wonder there is a rise of cockroach appearance in my house. I feel that I have to do something, so at night, I 'armed' myself:
VK's:
'Equipment': Torch Light
'Weapon': Deadly 'Giant step'
Deadly Shelltox Insecticide, specially designed for cockroach
King Kong cockroach house trap

Cockroach:
'Weaponry': Cockroach bite; (damage 0.0001-0.0002, insignificant)
Special abilities: Causes fear to someone like me.
Potential disease
Speed +1
Anti Radiation

Casualties for the first day: Human: Nil ;Cockroach: 27 (One killed by my giant step, the rest killed by insecticide)
Casualties for the second day: Human: Nil; Cockroach: 10 (My cockroach house trap is full house in one night!)
Took out 37 cockroaches in two nights. One thing I feel good about trapping the cockroaches with the cockroach house trap, cuz it is fully utilized. That means I spent only 0.138 cents on killing one cockroach, money well spent! I guess I will get some negative karma on killing them... damn... really have no choice, but I need to control their population.

Broga Hill Revisited

Woke up at 3:30am, just because I want to join my friends to catch the sunrise scene at Broga Hill. To be honest, I can't recall I ever seen a sun rises from the East in my lifetime. Arghh.. how 'unromantic' I am.. hahaha. I think it is really crazy to wake up so early to see sun rise, what is so great about it? Might as well continue to sleep! Well, I just want to see it once in a life time, before I am too old to climb the hill and watch the sun rise.

Arrived at the first hill, took a photos of the city... the surroundings are still dark. There are so many lights coming from the town, I wonder why people wake up so early? It is only 5:45am if I am not mistaken. The sky slowly turns blue...

Look at how many people on the hill, I can't even find a comfortable rock to seat for myself.

I think the sun rises from somewhere far away, I guess it is not so good to see sun rise on the hill.. The mist slowly retreated from the scene.

The sun ray breaks through the sky...

The time is around 8:22am, a friend of mine initiated it is time to leave and I think it is a good idea too... Reason? Zero rating on 'SPF' level.

We took a group photo before we leave. From left: Leong, Sally, Jonathan, Me, Joo Peng, Eng Eng.

Tibetan Mastiff - "藏獒"

Today I learned a new dog species called the Tibetan Mastiff.

A colleague of mine was complaining his newly bought Nikon D90 18-55mm kit can't zoom far enough when he was in 九寨沟, he said he try to take some shot of a dog fight. I joked with him, why not you just step closer and take the photos, he said he dare not to, because it is a "藏獒".

I repeat the word "藏-獒"? I ask him what kind of dog is that and how to write the second word 'Ao' in Chinese character? He replied, you don't know the word? Are you chinese ed? Then he gave me some example on the character and the word can be use as dog as well. It really trigger my interest on finding the answer, what kind of dog is a 藏獒? At the same time, I salute him for recognizing such a dog breed from Tibet. I would say I have limited knowledge on dog breed, only know a few.

Well, later on I found out from Wikipedia it is a 'Tibetan Mastiff'. I came to know that this dog is not cheap. The price can hit up to 600k USD for a pure breed. A pet that was paid by some rich Chinese to show their status. And here is the most interesting part on the dog description based on what I read from wikipedia. Let me share with you what Marco Polo has written on his discovery on such a dog during his travel: "tall as a donkey with a voice as powerful as that of a lion." They were used as guard dogs outside the sacred city of Lhasa...

photo source: http://zh.wikipedia.org/

photo source: zangaounion.com

1 Utama X'Mas decoration

Took some photos at 1U...

Ericsson Party 2009 - "Off the Wall"

My company had a party at the Ministry of Sound Sunway two weeks ago... I 'die die' also want to go, cuz there are lucky draws, first prize is a 32inch LCD TV, I want to try my luck, if I win it for sure I will sell it... but of course, I didn't win anything that night, my colleague got a Swatch watch though. By the way, all photos that you see here are taken by my colleague - Choy.Free flow of Carlsberg beer... I wonder how we were billed?

During the party, I think Ericsson hired some hot chicks dancing along with Lady Gaga's Poker Face song, it was really cool and sexy seeing them twist their body so lively... I started to like this song even more since that night, it reminds me that Chinese New Year is getting close... Hahahahah.. I need to practice my 'Poker Face' again. Stop staring at the photo! Listen, there were some great talent show on that night too, I was very surprised to see a fellow colleague which I don't know that was able to dance like Michael Jackson! I thought the dancer was hired somewhere else!

My Indian colleague, Rohan, was surrounded by all the department hot chicks... hehehehe, like he is selling advertisement for 'C' beer, "Yum Seng! Just drink C beer and you will have all the chicks you want.. arghh...". Cool posture!

Ok.. my turn with all the lengluis... I don't want to spoil the picture, so I think I just stay low profile at the back... ^^

Phuket + Krabi III

Ok, below are photos that I took from Eng Eng's photo album, all photos are not edited I presume. :) There a lot of photos and these are the scenery photos which I think is the best. (except the group photo)

Oh, and this is my favourite. I think the best one.
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Group photo: from left: Sean Wong, Joo Peng, Wai Tatt, Wei Ching, Eng Eng, Ann Chong, Kwong Kit.

Forte and Mondeo Test Drive

Took a day off on Friday to clear my leave, my car lover friend ask me out for test drive, which we usually did whenever there are some new interesting car released to the market. Ok. The first one that we tested is the Kia Forte. From the looks itself, it attracts me at the first sight. Seriously, the car look good for a C segment car. The sales person told me that the car was designed by the former Audi chief designer, Peter Schreyer. I guess why the car looks more appealing now, as some people said this is the best designed Kia which I somehow agree with it.

Well, so I open the car door and try to sit inside and check out the details. I have to be frank with you that my impression on the interior doesn't turn me on at all. Don't get me wrong, I am not bias with Korean cars like most of the Malaysians. The plastic quality, which the sales person told me it is 'fibre' material, doesn't give me the classy feel in it, that is a turn off point to me. The center console looks so so, I wonder Peter Schreyer also participate in this part of the design or he was given limited budget to work on the interior and material selection for cost control?

My friend submitted his IC and we are out for a test drive. He sold off his 08 Mitsubishi Lancer few months back and now he is driving his 94' Proton Wira 1.5L. Based on his comment, he said that the 1.6L seems very 'responsive'. According to the sales, the engine is using aluminum block and multi point injection which allows you to achieve lower fuel consumption. I try to sit at the back for the first test run and then I take over the steering wheel later. One thing I don't like about this car is, the suspension seems doesn't soak up the minor bumps very well, I can clearly feel the bumps and the road condition like my ex Waja. I believe cars like Civic and Altis will have better ride, but then, I will have to drive them again on the same road to give this Forte a fair comment.

For the starting price of RM75k+, I would say it is still a Ok deal because this car offer very good and important features such as extra airbags and traction control which you don't get it from Japanese cars at similar price. For the budget of less than Rm100k, if you ask me, I think I would prefer the Peugeot 308 1.6L. This is because the car not only comes with a very cool design and very nice quality interior, it also gives the driver a solid ride feeling.

Ok. The next car that I tested is the long waited Ford Mondeo! The car is imported from Belgium, the car was driven by (as a rental car?) Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, besides the Aston Martin.

If you got a chance to look at this car, do check out the door hinges, by looking at it, you can feel the car is pretty solid. Highest achievement of 5 stars crash test result from EuroNCAP. The interior quality material is above average, you get some soft touchy feel everywhere. If you ask me, I think the speedometer of this car can revise a bit so it makes people feel more upscale. The car is loaded with features and so does the price. You know it won't be cheap if it comes from Europe. RM178k+ on the price tag can't give them any advantage when it comes to deal its' competitors like locally assembled Accord and Thai assembled Camrys even though the car is very well received in Europe.

The leather seats of the Ford Mondeo is a bit 'special' I would said, it is a bit different than the leather seats from other cars till I have to ask the sales if this is a genuine leather?

I went and test drive this 2.3L baby after signing some documents. The test drive route is full of cars so I can't fully test drive the potential out of this car. The gear shifting is smooth and you can hear the loud grunt from the 2.3L Zetec engine when you step the acceleration pedal hard enough. Bumps soaking ability is alright and the car feels agile even though with its' size. But if you ask me if I would buy this car, my answer is NO. This is because for RM178k, that is hell lot of money!! Thanks to our government, we get a crappy car with a very steep price.

Finally, my all time favourite for a D Segment car. The new E Class! The new E300 was selling at the price of RM470k+, I think if you add up all the stuff like road tax, insurance, V Kool Elite, the price is closing to half a million Ringgit. Crazy huh?! You can buy a S600 in US for that kind of money.

The grayish color upholstery is nice and luxury. You can tell the car interior pay attention to every single detail, from the paint work till the dashboard. The car door comes with thick and solid door hinges and when you shut the door, you won't feel the car is very heavy due to the way the Mercedes engineers have designed the door mechanism. Continental Sport Contact 3 from Germany were fitted to the cars, I guess these tyres are not cheap either. The car is really a beauty!! Of course, I don't get a chance to drive this baby... wish I can own one! :) Even I get one for free, I think the road tax, petrol, insurance, service and maintenance will also cost me a fortune...

What a key chain!

My colleague got this very interesting keychain, it is a piece of deep fried pork!! It looks so real if you mix it with your dishes.. heheheh... He told me he is a pork lover.

Spot the mistake

Find any wrong with this photo? :)

Do check out the 'H' sign, it makes me wonder if this so called 'specialist' can't even spell the word 'Honda' correctly, will they know how to fix a Honda car? If that was a careless mistake or typo, whatever you call it; then I feel doubtful as well because the mechanic is not paying attention to the details. Well, you judge it yourself, at least I don't owned a Honda now.