you gain, you lose too.....

I was with my usual hangout gang today. But before that I had a gathering dinner at PJ State with my German class friends. Then after that we hang out at Jaya one Old Town White Coffee, we were planning on a birthday dinner this Sunday. Then here comes the sad thing...

Nah, actually wasn't something really that bad. Just that when I reach home and after my bath, I sat down on my lazy chair and start having some thoughts again. Like I've mentioned in my previous post, the most dangerous situation is that you're alone at home coz ur mind will start playing tricks on you. Well, 4 years in Germany, i've really sacrifice alot. My sacrifice are in terms of my friends network. Well, don't even need to talk about the possible new friends i would have made if i stayed back, but even those from high skul now, its getting distanced apart.

I had this idea of meeting up all my ex skul mates, especially those where i was once close to them. I mean I've been distanced with my friends since form 4, and i know i have to blame myself for that. Now that i want to meet up with them, i just felt shy and awkward. For so long we've not been in contact, suddenly ask them to meet up...i mean it sounds weird right??

Well luckily we are in facebook era. I've been actively adding friends and sending them message. I guess that's the best way to start catching up with them, before we meet up face to face. Otherwise it would be quite a cold situation if we just meet up like that...

Anyway, today is April fools day. I dont expect any of my friends to fool me since we're all grown up now. But I guess I wouldn't mind being pranked once in a while..

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY

Emo Emo Emo...

It's been a while since I talk about my Emotional part of my life. It's been all about outings, traveling in the last few post. I actually have lots of things to share.

Anyway a lil update first. It could be the weather in HK that affects me, but on Monday I felt super hot in KL, I mean BURNING HOT! And then on Tuesday and Wednesday I was feeling headache and dizzy. All I did was sleep and eat thats all. Can't even stay in front of the PC for more than 5 mins. Paracetemol only help to ease the pain for short period. Good things I recovered on Thursday. But on Thursday I had quarrel with my mom which is one of the emo problem. On Friday my friend Jia Uei and Sally came back from Germany and I spent the whole day with them in Midvalley. They brought back my Bachelor Certificates and a set of "siedler von Catan" for me. At night we had dinner with Quan Wei's family. Later I joined the usual board game gang at Little Tree Cafe in Kuchai Lama. I think Little Tree Cafe should give us a VIP card since we're like regular customer.

Well thats bout the updates. I actually felt emo because of family and "friends" issue. In general I would say that when you're most of the time at home doing nothing, you'll start to think alot. My mom, she treats me like a kid. I mean, I'm happy that she's being protective and caring, but a bit too much I felt. I'm a couple of days to 24 and I'm already an adult. I don't ask for anything, I just want my mom to treat me like an adult. Every night I hang out with friends till late, she'll try her best to stay up and wait for me, eventhough she's extremely tired. I noe she just want me to be safe, but as I said, I'm already 24!!! I've struggled but survived throughout my 4 years in Germany, and I'm more than capable of handling my ownself. Hey, I'm not asking her to totally back off from my life, just hoping that she'll understand that there're lots of things in life she couldn't control anymore. She have to let go and let me explore my own life. Many other things that she've done that made me felt like I'm a kid, which is hard for me to explain.

Right, that's the family issue. Well nothing much about the friends issue actually, just one or two of my friends. This issue is even harder to express out, but in summary I can say is that history repeats very easily if we don't control the situation well.

This week Kelsen came back but didn't get to hang out with him much. Each time I meet this 'old dead'(老死) of mine, I'll sure tell him lots of story about my life, the hidden part of it. Sigh! I'm just lack of confidence in my own life and I'm poor in emotion management! Man, good thing I'm still single, otherwise my partner would be suffering being with a person like me!!!

Fark myself!!

Kuching-HongKong-Shenzhen-Guangzhou

I generally clasify holiday trips into 2 categories : Relaxation trip and Exploration trip. Well the difference are obvious, one to escape from the busy hasty hectic life and have a nice relax holiday, the other is to explore as many things as possible. Normally the first category happens when I go on trip with my family while the other we do a small backpack trip with friends.

Anyway, the last 3 weeks I’ve been to Kuching, Hongkong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. I’ll start off with Kuching trip first.

Kuching trip was more like visiting my brother there and celebrate his belated birthday. I didn’t explore much in Kuching, but it was quite a dramatic trip. We booked AirAsia zero fair ticket, which ended up around RM300 ringgit for all the three of us roundtrip. Well though AirAsia flight sux, but I’m used to it since I’ve been taking budget flights around Europe so often. Our flight was at 18:00 and we must check in minimum 1 hour before flight since its local flight. Our plan was to take a taxi to KL Central and from there take a LCCT shuttle bus to save money. Our plan was good, as we plan to leave the house before 14:30, and have our lunch at LCCT. At max we would reach around 16:30 even with traffic jam I suppose.

We depart from our house at 14:00 and reach KL central at 14:20. We board the bus at 14:30 which is great. Everything goes as planned. Suddenly we saw lots of idiots running around the streets, some even walk in the middle of the road causing some traffic jam. Then we saw a whole gang of police with smokes around the vicinity. Then only we realized that there’s a demonstration going on, and they were demonstrating about the English education thingy. They want it to be removed ASAP. I manage to snap some shots from the bus.

We were stuck in the jam for 45 mins before we were diverted into another route which is smooth flowing. Finally we thought, “hey finally we are out of trouble and we are on time for the flight”. Then the bus driver turn round and round, and I was wondering what was he doing. The route to LCCT was straight forward, just follow the KLIA signboard, and after reaching around KLIA there’s a turning to LCCT. I felt something was wrong, so did my dad, but he tell me that these bus drivers will do everything to avoid tollgates, so maybe he’s just avoiding it. I told my dad 99% he’s lost, but I can’t stand up and guide since I was 100% sure bout the route to LCCT. After around 15 mins, my dad finally stood up and asked if the bus driver is lost, but the driver still refuse to admit he’s lost. Finally a guy behind raises his voice and told the bus driver what to do. Later on we found out that the bus driver is BUTA HURUF!!!! WTF?? I mean he could have told us earlier he’s lost or he could have called up the the office centre to ask for direction. Blardy shit!!!

In the end we reached at 17:40 which is like 20mins b4 flight. We were pretty lucky to have made it for the flight as the flight was delayed like 30 mins. Otherwise we could have missed the flight, thanks to the blardy shuttle bus. There was a guai lou on the same bus but he was unfortunate that he missed his flight. I heard he was shouting and the counter. Poor innocent fella.

Anyway, as I said, I didn’t explore much in Kuching as it was mainly a visiting trip, but here’re some pics. Btw, Kuching’s Kolou mee is really freaking damn tasty!!!!

Now, let me reveal the trip of the month – Hongkong – Shenzhen – Guangzhou trip.

I still call this a relaxation trip since its with family and we had a easy going trip. Nothing to talk about our flight as it was a smooth comfortable one with MAS airlines. Oh the air tix was cheap too, RM2500 for 3 of us 2 ways.

Since I have two aunties staying in Hong Kong, we save quite a lot of money not staying in the Hotels. In general, HongKong has few things expensive, Accomodation, Food and Transportation. But other than that everything else is cheap cheap cheap!!!

I’ll start off with a chornographical log on what I did and later tell u more bout hong kong in my point of view. We arrived quite late on the 13^th. My 3^rd Aunt and Uncle were in the airport to pick me up. Hong Kong airport is really HUGE!!! Maybe its because there’s no sky train and we walked quite a distance to the baggage claim belt. I was down with flu actually right after I came back from Sarawak, therefore I wasn’t feeling well during that day. Immediately after we exit the airport, I felt the nice and cool weather of Hongkong. 15 degrees, perfect weather. I love 15 degrees sunny with abit of cool air blowing. I love wearing a T-shirt with a jacket, but my parents didn’t enjoy it that much though. We had supper and only return to my 1^st Aunt’s home at 1.30am the next day.

Sunday we visited the flower exhibition 2009 in Victoria Park Hong Kong. In the exhibition, you see lots of “pros” with their DSLR taking close-ups on those beautiful flowers. I can say in 10 people, at least 8 of them possess a DSLR. I felt so shy to take out my Panasonic TZ2 slightly better than a point2shoot camera. Oh before that I have to mention, the well-known Hongkong style yum cha cum dim sum. After the flower fest, we went around the Causeway Bay, Avenue of Stars, Tsim Sha Tsui, Wan Chai before we had dinner around Lai Chee Kok, where my aunt stays. Good thing about going with parents and having aunts there is that, I get to taste good food in good restaurants, and u get to see how the upper generations fighting to pay for the bills. Of course my mom lose out since they’re the host, and they are 10x faster. You gotta be fast if u want to survive in hongkong.

Dim Sum

Flower Fest 2009 with my mom and my Dai Yee Ma(大姨妈）

Action!

WATARRRR!!!

On the 15^th we head to Shenzhen, but by the time we reach there it was already afternoon. We only spent 2 hours in Window of the World and skip the famous chinese cultural village. Basically Shenzhen was just a touch-and-go city as we didn’t explore much. Fortunately we stayed right across the busy Dongmen street, where it’s a so called shopping paradise. Sadly, I didn’t get anything from there as most of their “branded” items are quite local, example Qiaodan, 361 degrees…lolx..its like SEED and PADINI here. Well at least SEED is a better brand.

Window of the world

On the 16^th we spent half a day in Shenzhen, meeting up with my mom’s friends’ father, he brought us for “shopping” lolx. I quote the shopping word because there’re some hidden truth which I’m not telling in this blog. About 4pm we depart to Guangzhou with the fast train. It was a direct train and only takes 50mins to Guangzhou.

We reach guangzhou around 5pm and we reached the hotel around 5.30pm. All of us were tired travelling and my dad was feeling kinda sick. So all of us decided to get some rest. Later that night we had our dinner at a local fastfood restaurant called “real kungfu” lolx. Since our hotel is just right behind the pearl river, we had a short walk along the river. Very beautiful place.

Real kungfu restaurant

On the 17^th and 18^th we booked a private tour around Guangzhou. We visited the Yuexiu park, Sun Yat Sen’s memorial hall, Chen Clan Temple, night river cruise at the pearl river, yuntai garden, shanghai concert hall, business center, and baiyun mountain. The highlights of Guangzhou :

baiyun mountain

Sun Yat Sen's Will

Chin Dynasty

Handsome Prince

Chen Clan Temple

The symbolic 5 goats of Guangzhou

Sun Yat Sen's Memorial Hall

1.) LOTS OF CARS! And they drive 10x more reckless than KL drivers or Penang drivers. Trust me, u think u’re reckless? Go to guangzhou and I bet u’ll get banged or bang a car very soon.

2.) Very well developed. But I don’t like the mentality of the people there. I bet u will agree with me if u’ve ever experienced them.

3.) I LOVE the ancient costume pic I’ve taken there. I would enlarge it and frame it up lolxx.

4.) Food. The old sayings “食在广州” is true. Lots of good food there.

On the 19^th we travel back to Hong Kong. My 3^rd aunt was already waiting for us. We headed home and had a rest before dinner time. After dinner, my aunt promise me to get me a pair of shoes for my upcoming birthday, and I love the way she do her shopping. Visited one shop, asked me if I like adidas sneakers, after I said yes she asked the salesgirl to bring the LATEST NEW ARRIVAL MODEL of the adicolor series, tried on, pay! Its like I bought the shoes within 5 mins. Initially I’ve prepared some money to get shoes in Hongkong and definitely not adicolor, but now I can use those money for other things.

Adicolor

Can change the color of the adidas stipes wan..

Hong Kong (taken from the peak)

Ding Ding

Exhibition Center

Steamboat Dinner with family

On the 20^th we spent half a day in Lantau Island climbing up the stairs to see the Giant Buddha. Then it was a shopping spree in the evening and the next day.

Lantau Island

I tell u what is cheap and good in Hongkong.

1.) SHOES. They have a street called sport shoes street, only selling branded sport shoes. The best thing is that every original priced Adidas shoes has a 20% discount while Nike has 10%. If u ever find one shop selling cheaper than the other, u can even report them to the consumer rights association. Cool eh? Next time I go hongkong, I’ll just go with a pasar malam slippers, and buy shoes there.

2.) Clothings. Ok don’t talk about Tsim Sha Tsui, as they sell designers there. Actually even designer goods cost cheaper than those here, furthermore u get tax free if u’re a tourist. Other than designer, those average brand cost cheaper than here too. I bought 3 G2000 shirts, 2 khaki shorts, 1 T-shirt and that’s about it. I could have gotten more but there’s no room in the luggage bag coz my mom bought extra 2 adidas shoes one for my bro one for herself.

3.) Electronics. I didn’t get any coz I’m afraid if anything goes wrong I will have difficulties with the warranty and stuff. Besides I don’t need any electronics at the moment. But I’ve walked the computer center in Sham Shui Po and compared the prices. I can say at least 20% cheaper.

Aiks super long post di. I’ll do the other parts in the next post la. Have some rest first, out of ideas di.

FREAKING SLACKER

I'm FREAKING LAZY to blog now

though I have lots to tell...

STAY TUNE for KUCHING and HONG KONG trip post!

That thingy again

Its been awhile since the Emo thingy strikes, but it strikes again last week. I find it quite "dangerous" being alone at home doing nothing, because the mind will get bizarre. Honestly I think i fear the loneliness more than any other things, and i hate being Emo especially when I'm getting older. I'm freaking 24 this year and still can't control my Emo.

Ahh fuck it! I have more serious things to talk about in this post.

In my previous post, I talked about the German board game i brought back. Initially I bought it because its the perfect souvenir from Germany because :

1.) While in Germany this board game is one of my hobby
2.) This version is the German Edition which features the map of germany and its significant landmark
3.) Nothing else represent Germany than this board game

I never thought that my hommies around here love that game so much. We played almost 3-4 times a week for the past 2 weeks. At first it was only the 3 of us - Gabe, Dave and me but now even Sheng Wa and Khian Foo joined in. If i knew that it is such a hot cake, I would have brought back the original set which is more challenging and interesting. Its hard to explain the difference but I'm trying hard to get the original set all the way from Germany. Jia-Uei is coming back on the 28th this month so I hope he can get me one set.






But I truly hope we don't do it too often it'll get board easily. There're few expansion set actually and I see if they can bring it back for me or not la.


EXAMPLES OF EXPANSION SET : -





Well speaking about this addictive board game, it all started like this :





The pic above shows 2 sets of the game with 3 players each. These are my kaki Siedler in Germany. The picture below is when we played one of the expansion set (Cities and Knights). This expansion set basically allows every kingdom to build soldiers and enhancement to the city such as knowledge development or economic growth etc. I've only played once with them and it took us 3 hours to play and still no winners yet. We have to leave it because we were catching the last train home.



Well, enough of the board game. Lets just hope my friend can bring one set back for me.

Another update,

GUITAR!!!

finally!

Well, its the low end cheap semi-acoustic guitar, but for this price this sounds pretty good, even better than the black one i had in Germany.



So frenz, I've told you I enjoy just sitting around playing the guitar and sing eventhough I'm still amateur and I don't have a good voice. Please please call me if you're also interested in doing the same thing.