Teluk Intan Road Trip, the Movie!

R.O.A.D.T.R.I.P.!

Yeah, you read it right! Road trip! Dad, Mum and me (from here on, this will be shortened to DMM) went on a road trip yesterday to Teluk Intan to see the Leaning Tower.

Not-so-bright and very early Sunday morning, DMM woke up at 5.30am and got ready for our trip. Armed with bottled water, sweets and Red Bull, we piled into the car. 2 hours later found us at Ipoh, having dim sum at Jalan Leong Sin Nam. The most famous dim sum place in Ipoh is arguably Foh San, but I preferred the place we went to. The name escapes me now, but it sound somewhere along the lines of Yoke Fook Mun. Though, we made a mistake and actually wanted to eat at Ming Court, which was on the opposite side of the same road. For those of you who are interested, this road is behind Excelsior Hotel.

After piling food into our stomachs, we continued on our journey using the old trunk road. We made a short stopover at Kellie’s Castle. The general reaction was “….That’s it?” But it did look pretty, from the outside. We didn’t go in because it would cost us money…hahahaha… KIAM SIAP!

Moving along, we made a discovery by the side of the road. There was a mining dredge that was kept as a historical monument. That thing was HUGE!! And I mean HUGE!! Humongous! Gigantic! Well, you get the idea.

Further along the road, we saw cows…and plants…and trees…and more plants….and less cars. By this time, I had nodded off to sleep. WHAT!? The greenery was very soothing on my eyes.

Opening my eyes, we arrived at civilization. It’s a wonder how by taking a very looooong blink; you can arrive immediately at your destination. Parking the car at the side, we headed off on foot towards the Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan. It took a few minutes of eye-squinting, head-tilting and walking around the structure before DMM decided that yes, the tower was, in fact, leaning. We couldn’t help it! The tilt was MINIMAL! Taking a stroll inside, we found out that we could only go up 2 storeys. From the 3rd storey onwards, it was a water tank. It was heartening to see that most of the ‘tourists’ were Malaysians.

Moving along, we headed over to the Leaning Tower Complex, where there were shops. Due to the fact that it was the second day of Hari Raya, most of the shops were closed. We didn’t leave empty-handed though. Stumbling upon and spectacle shop offering 50% discounts off their sunglasses, Dad and I got a pair of sunnies each. Dad got himself a pair of polarized Ray Ban while I got a pair of polarized Polaroid sunnies.

Ironically, we ate KFC for lunch. Then we went along our merry way back home using the scenic route. I got to be the navigator! Whee! Based on the Perak map, I told Dad, “Follow Route 5 until you get to Sitiawan. Then continue on Route 5 until you see signboards that show Route 71. After Route 71, get on Route 73 and finally Route 60 will get us out at Changkat Jering and back onto the North-South Highway.”

Unfortunately, due to some errors on the map (yes, it’s the map’s fault. NOT MINE!), we ended up immediately on Route 60. But I guess it was all right, since we were on the right (final) route. And now, we cut to the end of the trip because yours truly nodded off again.

Dinner was at Chok Dee, AutoCity! WHEE!! I love that place! Best deep fried kangkong EVER! And of course, great Thai food. But the deep fried kangkong, YUM! Finally, we got home at 9.30pm. Dad and Mum pottered off to bed while I (fully rested and hyper) went off for supper with my friends.

And that wraps up today’s report on DMM’s Road Trip to Teluk Intan. Stay tuned for the next news report!

よろしくおねがいします！

CAMBODIA *whee!*

Hey y'all!

I got back from Cambodia ages ago, but I couldn't upload my pictures, thanks to Photobucket being an absolute @$$!! So I FINALLY got the pictures up. It's only 74 pictures out of the 575 that I took. And this is not inclusive of the pictures in my friend's camera, which I will add more later, hopefully.

Pictures? CLICK HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW!!!

I'm kinda bummed out right now, so I'll post up the stories some time later, yeah?

*luvs everyone*

Delayed Holiday Report

So...Let's see. I went to Cameron Highlands last weekend with my family. わい～！休みだ！
My "report" on the holidays was delayed because yours truly was such a genius to eat lok-lok before the trip, causing a terrible bout of food poisoning. Genius, right?　僕は　ばかだよね

Anyway, back to the holiday. We went to Cameron Highlands for a short break. You KNOW you need holidays when you start working. It keeps you sane, I swear!

So, Cameron was all nice and cooling...There isn't much to tell about the drive up....Lots of green stuff at the roadside called trees and plants. Maybe we saw a few orang asli (indigenous people) running around, but none of them were naked, so yeah...rather uneventful.

After checking in and eating a nice lunch, we went about exploring the place and visiting all the flower gardens, flower shops etc.

For those in the dark, Cameron Highlands in Malaysia is famous for its laidback lifestyle, where the main attractions are the flowers, strawberries and vegetables. The cool highland air seems to make the agricultural products grow better. And because of the cool air, you get nice strawberries and flowers/plants that you wouldn't be able to grow elsewhere in our tropical country.　花はきれい、いちごはおいし。

After all the nice scenery, we had dinner at Ye Olde Smoke House (only 2 restaurants in Malaysia) and then went to the night market. There, we bought 3 money plants. 2 with big leaves for Mom and Dad and one pot with smaller leaves for me. You see, we have this idea that the big leaves are the RM100 notes while the smaller leaves are the RM50 notes. I'm greedy, yes...but I'm smart enough to start small *wink* But I've got a trick up my sleeve. The money plant with the smaller leaves has very many more leaves than its bigger-leaved cousins, so I get loads of money as well *evil cackle* MWAHAHAHAHAHA　僕の頭がいいよね！

The next day, we went to a temple nearby. There, we saw around 15 people crowding around a koi/carp pond within the temple compound. Curious, Dad and I sneaked up on them. There, we figured out that if you can touch a koi or carp in the pond, it was supposed to be an auspicious sign. So, there was this group of people, with their hands in the pond, chasing fish. Those fishes were a wily bunch...They'd swim near, and when you reached out, they'd swim just out of your reach...

Dad and I decided to try our luck as well. After the group cleared off, we stuck our hands into the pond, letting the fishes get used to our hands before trying to swat them. Dad managed to touch 12. Pretty impressive, considering the earlier group of people couldn't touch any. Not wanting to get left in the dust, I relaxed my hand and waited for fish. Suddenly, this golden koi came up... I waited for it to get closer, so that it wouldn't be able to swim out of my reach. As it got closer, I got ready to swat it. Just before I moved my hand, it swam up and BIT MY FINGER!! Wha..wha...what?!?!?! Frankly, I was just dumbstruck. I just got bitten by an auspicious fish. A gold one, at that!! So, what does this mean? Am I more auspicious than the fish? Or is Lady Luck letting me know that luck will come to me? I'm confused.　どちがいい？

What do you think?

After that, we took lunch and went home. On the way back, all I did was sleep, because the food poisoning had began to show symptoms. After that, well...it wasn't very pretty so I'll just leave that unsaid.