weihan89's Xanga

My IndoChina Trip Overview

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:04:14 GMT

My Indochina Trip Overview

I’ve just finished my 5 weeks (35 days) trip from 2^nd Dec till 6^th Jan. The countries included in this trip are Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The following is the places we visited and how much time we spent on that particular place:

2^nd Dec : Vientiane (Laos)

3^rd – 4^th Dec : Luang Prabang.

5^th Dec : Savanakhet.

6^th Dec : Pakseh and Donkhone..

7^th Dec : Donkhone, Donkhong and Don Det.

8^th Dec : Stung Streng, Krati and Phnom Penh. (Cambodia)

9^th Dec : Phnom Penh.

10^th – 13^th Dec: Siam Reap (& Angkor)

14^th – 15^th Dec: Saigon (HoChiMinh). (Vietnam)

16^th – 17^th Dec: Mui Ne.

18^th – 20^th Dec: Dalat.

21^st – 23^rd Dec: Nha Thrang

24^th Dec : Hoi An (Christmas Eve)

25^th – 27^th Dec: Hue

28^th Dec : Hanoi

29^th – 30^th Dec : Ha long Bay

31^st Dec : Hanoi (New Year Eve)

1^st – 3^rd Jan : Sapa

4^th – 5^th Jan : Hanoi

6^th Jan : Malaysia

Will post more on the details of the trip for each of the country later… Yet to get photos from my friend and I will only post them after I get the picture.

My diary on 6th Jan

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:57:00 GMT

5.45am
I woke up when I heard the conversation between Calvin and Wen Pin. I was supposed to wake up at 6.00 am instead. Swt… Unable to back to sleep, I did my last packing to make sure everything was well packed in my big luggage. Today, finally, I was going to leave Hanoi!

6.15am
After finish preparing, the taxi was already down there waiting to fetch us. It costs us 12USD for the taxi, not too expensive actually despite the distance from the hotel to the airport. Feeling a bit disappointed as I couldn’t eat the Doner Kebab in Hanoi before I left Vietnam. I was thinking how to spend the remaining 15000 Dong (Vietnam Dong) in Vietnam.

7.05am
Reached airport. We checked in our luggage. We were so worried that our luggage will exceed the weight limit (15kg). Of course, we didn’t want to pay more if it was over weight. Luckily, all our luggages passed the test. But, imagine, I brought around 5.3 kg from Malaysia to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and returned back with 13.8 kg. Bought too much things I guess.. haha. I spent my remaining Vietnam currency to buy sweets and bread as breakfast. Then we were ready to get on board.

9.00am (Vietnam time, one hour earlier than Malaysia time)
After going through all the customs and departure procedure, we went for a window shopping in all those duty free shops. All of them were expensive. I wonder was it really ‘duty free’. We took a picture with a gentle stewardess before we got in the plane. It was boring inside the plane. Trying to sleep but couldn’t. The seats were uncomfortable for us to sleep. But I shouldn’t complain for it, since we were using AirAsia, the low cost carrier.

1.30pm (Malaysia time)
After chit-chatting to get over with the boring moment, the plane finally was going to land. The sudden change on the pressure made my ears very painful. Perhaps I was suffering from flu and thus I was the only one who was in pain. Calvin, Wen Pin and Kylie seemed fine. It was torturing… At last, the plane landed on LCCT and the suffering was ended. However, the effects of the pressure made my ears 50% deaf. (even until now, I am still 75% deaf) I was happy returning back Malaysia. It had been quite sometime I never see any Malays and Indians. And people speaking Malay and Cantonese but not Vietnamese. Glad that I could understand what people were saying.

1.55pm
I had to get on my bus by 2.10pm. And I was still waiting for my luggage to come out. I plan was ruined. I planned to eat McD before I got on the bus but due to the delay of the flight and some procedures, I couldn’t follow my plan. I ran with my luggage after my luggage was out and said goodbye to my friends. By the time I rushed to the bus waiting spot, it was already 2.12pm. Luckily the bus is still there, it departed LCCT one minute later after I got into the bus. The only sad thing was I had to skip my lunch.

6.10pm
Oh… what a familiar place. Medan Gopeng, Syuen Hotel, Stadium Ipoh, Tesco, Tesco Extra and finally Bercham, the place I’m staying. After going on for the Indochina trip for 35 days, finally I back home! Happy to see my parents and glad to show them what I have bought from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Unpacked my luggage and ‘set up’ my laptop, my lovely laptop that I miss every single day.

8.10pm
Didn’t have much time to chat as I was going to have my dinner. Long time never ate so much already. So glad I was back home. However, I still couldn’t get used to the weather here. It’s so hot!

10,00pm
Chat a little bit, and started typing this post. Got quite some number of people welcomed me back. Haha but sorry I didn’t give much response to them as I am typing this.

10.40pm
I would end it here. Oh~ can’t imagine I had returned home.

I go travelling la~~

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:09:53 GMT

I will depart from LCCT around 2 days for my Indochina trip. Time limited.. Kinda miss ppl who miss me. haha.. Those who not miss me, please tell me, so i dun need to miss u. Ok, jz crapping, ignore that sentence. Not much chance to crap there, right?

For those who dunno my travel plan, this is a brief details of my 'short' vacation:

Date : 2nd Dec 2008 - 6th Jan 2009 (about 5 weeks)
Place : Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam
Persons involved : 4 UTPmates (including me)
Type : Self vacation, not joining tour
Depart : from LCCT, KL to Vientianne, Laos; from Hanoi, Vietnam to LCCT, KL
Estimated Money Spent: 1k USD (3650 MYR) round up to 4k MYR.
Outcome & expectation:
Valuable experience,
Better(or worse) friendship,
More grateful towards Malaysia and home,
BROKE and bankrupt!

Not finished packing yet, my mom was like yelling at me asking me to make full preparation for the trip. But i stuck here onlining, refusing do anything else.. swt..

This is the first time I'm travelling to overseas. And it will be quite an adventure. Coz.. first, we are not following a tour guide so we might not know many travel 'fundamental knowledge'; second, we dunno the local language and probably we will lost in half way of the journey or 'chopped' till bankrupt by the local sellers. Hmm, wondering if
4 of us can get well in the trip... I think surely there will be some conflicts happen among us. Imagine, staying, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping together with them for 5 weeks continuously... Either become best buddies or worst enemies, haha. Besides that, I'm very worried that 1k USD is not enough for the whole trip. (We can't withdraw money there coz there isnt any CIMB bank branches around those places). Once we finished our money, we are dead. haha.. However, my dear travelmates are kinda confident with the estimated budget.. Hopefully they are right. If not... cannot imagine, slp on the street? Beg for food? swt..

This trip really is a money dumping trip.. 5 weeks! so super long (almoz wanted to use 'damn' word instead of 'super', gotta blame my coursemates who always speak 'wonderful' languages that almoz corrupt the way i speak). As u can c, taking AirAsia adi signifies that we aren't rich. Go for 5 weeks somemore, actually i am quite against it. To me, 3 weeks, it will be already more than enough. Used up all my holidays. haha.. Just wish that the trip it's worth the time and money.

Actually, the first paragraph i wrote just now isnt a crap. I do mean it. I'm sure that I will miss you all when I'm there. Call? SMS? too expensive. Sigh... 5 weeks without me? what's the difference? seperti beras di tepi melukut (something like tat). Getting a bit sentimental.. haha.. Wish me have a safe journey! Anything, dun sms me, it will cost u much. Send me a mail or msg me once I come back. I wil be reaching KL around 2pm at 6th Jan. lol. Wondering who wil be the first person to sms me to welcome me back Malaysia... Haha.. I guess it would be my mom.. :P

Say goodbye to everyone.. Enjoy ur everyday with joy! ;)

ps: cut a very short hair for travelling purpose. When i come back, U all will be able to witness the 'evolution' of my hair over 5 weeks. lol

Short hair..

eGenting Programming Competition

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:49:33 GMT

I went to a programming competition in KL on a saturday during my exam week. And honestly I went there without any preparation as I was busy revising for my exam. It was a great experience and perhaps I should talk about it.

It was Saturday and I woke up at 5.00 am (waking up my roommate as well, sorry for that) and with the panda eyes, I prepared my stuffs (which are two reference books) and waited for my lecturer to come. It was a good competition for begineers like me to get the experience and know what the market really wants. However, there was only 3 of us participated this competition and I was the only Chinese, sigh... (not to be racial) Reason is, my dear coursemates they all are busying preparing for their exam. In fact, when I asked them to participate, their replies are :" Crazy ya, I'm not you ... blablabla". So disappointing. But i think it was their lost for not going, it was really meaningful.

I was sitting in the middle with two persons on my sides. I'm grateful that I was skinny as the two persons beside me are really big size and really made me very uncomfortable during the journey. That was torturing period and with the cold air-con, I was frozen to death (jz a little bit exaggerating ;) ).

We reached the place (Wisma Genting) around 9.50 and the competition started at 10am. I'm thinking whether I should include this in my post or not. Hmm.. nvm. I'll just write it down. I faced a severe stomachache at that time. Swt, it had been few days I had this kind of stomachache. Must be the unclean food in utp, training my stomach's resistant to dirty food. Oh well, the toilet was kinda clean. haha...

I ate a few kuih muih provided by the organizer as breakfast and immediately started to read the question. Oh ya, perhaps I should briefly mention bout the way this competition runs. This competition does't have teams or whatever, so it's an individual competition. It has 4 programming questions that require us to solve them and the competition time started from 10am until 6pm. Ya, 8 hours for 4 questions, I could imagine how hard the questions would be at that time. And my senses didn't disappoint me, it was really tough. (but not too hard if I have more time, energy and more reference books! haha, it was an open book competition) The one who managed to finish the most questions correctly will win. Obviously, the organizer needs some time to calculate and evaluate the solution, therefore the result of the winners will only be announced next year.

Actually the question isnt so hard, it just requires us to think. I'm sure if we were allowed to bring our laptop, I could finish all 4 questions correctly. Haha.. but that's only an 'if' which means I couldn't do the questions. I spent 3 hours thinking on the first question and 1 hour writing the solution for the first question and at the last five minutes cancel what I wrote. I spent few minutes trying to understand what question 4 wants and I didnt get it. I spent few minutes also to read question 2 and it was a very long and troublesome question. So, I go for question 3 which was supposingly the easiest among all (coz it's just GUI and some eventListeners) and spent 2 hours working on it. At the last hour of the competition ie: 5pm, my brain malfunctions and my eyes were begging me to give them a rest. I did, and I gave up doing the questions and try to sleep on the desk provided. haha. So, in total, I only did 1 question and I don't think I did it very 'correctly'.

After the competition, we were caught in the usual KL traffic jam and waited and waited and waited and waited and ... until we had our dinner around eight something. The good news is we were given food allowance by dear UTP, and we ate in KFC, a place that could not be found in UTP or near UTP. Forget to mention the lunch and tea time break provided by the organizer. It's not very delicious though, but still okay. We started our journey back to UTP at 9pm. On the way, I talked with my lecturer for about 3 hours (one of my hobbies). And I learned quite a lot about programming, and some tips for exam, haha and some other interesting stuffs we have discussed (like religion, life in foreign countries, dark magic, ghost vision and etc). We reached UTP around 1am. I was super tired and my eyes were requesting to 'retire from their job' because they had been working over time for about 18 hours nonstop. I slept immediately when I returned my room. Sigh, I gotta study 13 chapters in one day coz I had a paper next day. (but anyway, that paper probably will give me an A-, not because I study not enough, it's just that the answers of the questions cant be found in the book, SWT)

I could say that this competition or this trip makes me gain more than lose. Despite the discouragement of doing the questions very badly, it motivates me to learn more.(although it was just temporary as holiday spreads a disease called laziness) And I felt that I know more about programming and what kind of problems the market is facing. (programming is a problem-solving tool). Anyway, this was my first time experience. Will do better next time if got the chance when the exam paper doesn't clash with the competition.

Good luck to all exam takers

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:14:03 GMT

Oh great!

I will be having my first paper next Monday 9am and I've not yet touched that subject.

Oh great!

It's already weekend but I still went out with friends watched movie (quantum of solace) until late afternoon

Oh great!

My mom asked me how's my preparation for the first paper and I said not yet started. lol.. (she had a funny face at that time)

Oh great!

I started to get a bit worry now but I still don't want to start studying.

Hmmm... I think I still able to finish revising it. And let's just hope that I'm not over confident on it. Good luck to myself. And good luck to all SPM, STPM, UTP and all exam takers for their finals. All the best!

(added at 7.25 pm: Read through all my posts just now. I realized this post was quite similar to my first post in this blog, lol.)

What will happen next?

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:34:40 GMT

I have been thinking for around 5 minutes on the title of this post. This is the way i blog, usually my post doesn't always have a 'theme'. I just want to give updates to others as well as to make me think over what had happened (or going to happen).

Exam

Next week is final exam la~~ Half of the study week has already over and I haven't prepared for it yet. The coursework marks arent out yet, making me don't know which subject to 'put extra effort'. Fortunately, I already have confidence to get an A for three out of my six subjects taken this semester. The other three subjects (Data Communication Network, Operating System and System Analysis Design) still dunno how. Especially DCN, I guess it has the biggest possibility to 'punish' me an A- or B for me not listening in class. Tonight is Wednesday and I shall finish studying DCN by Friday hopefully. Let's just hope that I can revise everything that I suppose to revise before the exam.

Programming Competition

Dunno it's lucky or unlucky, there's a programming competition held by eGenting in 15 Nov and I participated it. The unlucky thing is the competition is held during my exam period (10Nov-22Nov) and the lucky thing is on that day itself (15th Nov) I don't have exam. Actually, I have the thought of giving up participating the competition. REasons I think i shouldn't join is: 1. It's on exam weeks which may significantly affect my final exam performance. 2. None of my (same batch) coursemates are joining.. (all wanting to study for exam. swt) 3. I don;t have time to prepare for the competition coz i priotize my exam first. 4. Even i have time to prepare for the competition, i also can't do well coz the Questions are SUPER HARD.

Nevertheless, I still decided to participate because: 1. It's a very rare opportunity as the competition doesnt clash with my exam paper (which might not be for next time) 2. It will give me experience that i couldnt get else where. 3. I will just take it as a trip and a break from exam and enjoy myself around KL if the questions are really 'unsolvable' questions. 4. The lecturer gave us encouragement to participate. Therefore, I decided to just go to the competition. It's okay to lose. (and i think i'll be definitely lost) And one thing i dun like is that everytime i told my friends that i'm going to this competition, they have the strange look that as if I'm going to win. So i must clarify first, it's a sure lose. But, who cares, like my lecturer said, they are not going to list down the bottom 10 participants. Therefore, just take it as a free trip ;).

My trip to Cambodia & Vietnam (and Laos)

Hmmm.. I dunno if you all know or not. I'm going to have vacation overseas! This is the finalized (hopefully) plan, it might be very different to what i said last time. I think everyone doesnt mind listen a short story, right? The original plan was 4 of us (UTP mates) planned to go Thai, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. However, Thai has some internal politic crisis and therefore we took out this country from our travel plan. SO, we bought the flight ticket to Laos (from KL) and from Vietnam (to KL). While we had settled the plan, suddenly, my relatives told me how bad Laos is. They mean the condition and the situation of Laos are not really 'good' and they suggested to drop out Laos. My parents(and I) were worried after listening what they said and decided not to go Laos but directly fly to Cambodia instead. The problem arised was the flight ticket was already paid. And when i tried to change the ticket, the settings and options on the web only allow me to change the booked tickets for 4 of us. I just wanted to change mine ( the other 3 will still go to Laos) and that made me a bit 'sien'. Anyway, i will try to call AirAsia tomoro as it NEVER REPLY my e-mail.

Added on 8th November: It seems my finalized plan changed again. I will be going to Laos on 2nd Dec because of 'I-dunno-why' reason. ;)

~~the finalized plan is as following: 16 Dec depart from KL to Phnom Penh. And I will return back to Malaysia in 6th Jan 09.~~ There are few worries actually, first of all, i afraid that I can't meet up with my 3 other friends in Cambodia due to any unexpected event. And ya, I am going to go there ALONE and this is just my first time. I'm not experienced in taking flights at all. Anyway, just be positive and wish things will be fine. The second thing I afraid is the life there. Imagine 4 of us travelling in foreign countries without knowing the language there? How bout cash? how much cash we have to bring? Is it safe? Can we use credit card there? Will we get sick there? Food poisoning? Stealers? Cheaters? Lost passport? Suddenly political crisis occurs? How bout toilets? What if we get stomachache? Where to wash our clothes? How to dry them? Can 4 of us get along well? oohh.. unlimited doubts and worries. Just wish us all the best. But it will definitely be fun.. I think...

Four of us (with the arrows) will be going for the 5 weeks trip! Picture is taken from Langkawi Trip last sem break. (there's a post about the trip)

phew...

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:50:53 GMT

Long time never update the blog..
Life has been busy though... swt...

***

Finally it's over.
Phew.......
i really happy that (almost) all troubles and irritating stuffs are finally settled.
Really can breath a sigh of relief (for today).

***

This semester (july 2008 till now) is really quite a messy.
I guess i have estimated wrongly on how joining events can affect my studies.
first part of the semester was fine, everything's according to plan.
On the other hand, for the second part, due to the events i've joined, everything was in chaos.
This semester is the first time I skipped so many classes because of the events themselves.
This semester is also the first time I 'sacrifice' my tests as I have insufficient time to finish my revision.
I wonder what kind of result i will produce this semester.. haha...
Besides these, I was kinda bad tempered and moody during the peak season (most busy period).
And these make people around me suffer due to my mood.
I feel kinda sorry to my coursemate Richard also. He has to carry my responsibility to check over the projects. (basically, it is me pushing all the responsibilities to him)
Furthermore, I think I had irritated several people on this period due to the unreasonable bad mood. (If you are one of them, I apologize here)

***

Despites all these negative things,
I've never regretted on any decision or actions that i made.
I did learn a lot...
One of the most obvious is
when dealing with all these events and tests & quizzes until half dead grants me a new skill. :)

-----------------------------------
|new skill gained! - Sleep late|
-----------------------------------

haha.. I learned to sleep late. Imagine sleeping 3 or 4 hours continuously for about 2 weeks. (previously, sleep at least 8-10 hours per day)
It is a big change. I wonder how i could do it. I think my roommate gotta regret taking me as roommate. haha. This is because one of the reasons we become roommates is we sleep early. I think I unintentionally woke him up everytime i return to my room at midnight. Feeling very sorry to him.
Hopefully tonight onwards I need not sleep late to study anymore, it was so 'not fun'.

***
Also, I need to thank to people who realize and concern of my 'depression'.
and also thank those who willing to chat with me at the midnight to help me distress.
You all are one of the reasons that made me still sane and concious now.
Thx :)

***

hmm... a lesson to my frens:

DO NOT EVER JOIN SO MUCH EVENTS AT A TIME.
If you do, then prepare to sacrifice ur studies.

***

Ehz... i realize this post is kinda boring. Is everyone thinking the same? Probably long time never write new post. Dunno how to make the post become more interesting. Or my posts are always like this, boring and dull. sigh...
Oh ya.. for new readers, I must tell you all... Please ignore the grammatical errors, spelling errors, ..., whatever errors found in the post. My english karat adi. lol..
Let's see whether i can add any pictures into this post to make it more interesting...

EDX (RnA dept) Talent Search (TechMedia dept)

Taking pic with a cat while studying at V4 cafe at midnight...

Our ICT,BIS Jan 07 batch dinner at Hillcity Ipoh.

A new semester

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:05:59 GMT

After rotting at home for about 7 weeks, finally a new semester begins.

This semester is special; this is because one of my old schoolmates, Joon Heng joined UTP. I'm not sure whether his decision was right or not. But I myself am not regret of coming UTP. I had been studying in this place for 3 semesters which is about 1 and a half year, and now I'm entering first year second sem. Getting good result last semester no doubt made me happy, but at the same time made me stressed up. Will this semester be as lucky as last semester? Sigh~~ worrying for something that shouldn’t be worried yet.

Another reason this semester is special: I finally have my roommate! Had been staying in a single room for 3 semesters... Now I gotta share a room with a roommate after moving from Village One C to Village Four C. And my new roommate is: Seek Guan. Many people asked me how are my new room and new roommate. To me, everything is so far so good. No conflicts occur yet. And hopefully, it will never occur. My new room gives me a fresh and colourful feeling compared to my old room (single room in V1C) which has that dull prison feeling. Of course, I would never forget my old room as I adi developed relationship with it after staying there for such a long period. Roommate? Wow. He is amazing. He is such a considerate roommate. I hope he not yet complain bout me in front of other people. :P I'm not a good roommate, I knew.

This semester is special, because I suddenly have my IT (ICT) juniors which I have hoped for few semesters. For your information, it was really unfortunate to not have 1 sem juniors taking ICT. Therefore, these semesters I always sell my books and give my notes to BIS juniors. But from this semester onwards, the situation will change. Sorry to the previous BIS juniors, because now is no longer foundation and so we started to take different course. From next semester onwards, I will sell my books and notes to the ICT juniors. Talked bout the juniors, I have 3 ICT juniors. However, one of them always disappears. So, basically I only know 2 of my juniors but that is already sufficient. Their existence gives me some new thoughts and thinking. I'm very happy to have them as juniors.

Sigh... it is really unfair for them to have so much chinese for the new July 2008 batch. I heard from some people said that the number of chinese students for their batch exceed 120 students. As compared to my batch which has exactly 20 chinese students, isn’t the difference too big? The UTP environment suddenly pop up so many chinese, it made me a bit blur too. It seems hard to recognize or know all of them but will try my best. It's always fun to meet new people.

New hope for this semester? I wish I could get the same result as last semester. Aiya... dun say i'm greedy or ambitious la. Just want to maintain last semester result ma, no one likes his or her result to drop right? ;)

ok la. upload one photo with my roommate which was just taken recently la.

my roommate..

One more photo with roommate

my one sem ICT junior my one sem BIS junior

Old Friends Gathering.

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:19:02 GMT

On a day during my holiday (forget exactly which day, it's the day before the increase of the price of the petrol), we had an old friends gathering. Who were ‘we’? ans: Tet Khiun, Ze Hao, Kean Zhi, Joon Heng, Talung, Kah Joon and me. All of us went to stadium to play badminton. Surprised? A person like me would go for sports? I also felt surprised… lol. Anyway, I continue the story. That day was Ze Hao fetched me to the stadium. (We were kind of far neighbours) Unfortunately, we were famous for coming late. If I was not mistaken, we had to gather in stadium at 10am. We came late 30 or 40 mins because we had to eat breakfast with Ze Hao’s mom. (We were not purposely came late, it was due to a good reason!). Of course, we received plenty of sms and calls from the others to ‘blow’ us to be faster.

When we reached stadium, it seemed that I had no fate with sports. The badminton court was packed and there was no more court for us. Not surprisingly, we were not sad. hehe.. It was evil plan time! (evil plan means go to cyber café).

I was informed that Tet Khiun will stay over in my house that night. This sudden news caused Kean Zhi to stay in my house as well. Under persuasion and influence, Talung and Joon Heng agreed to stay over in Ze Hao’s house. O.. I am a bit out of the story; back to story…

We didn’t go straight to cyber café. We planned to have a birthday party. A birthday party? for who? For all of us! Yes, don’t be surprised, your eye sight doesn’t have problem. I said a birthday party for all of us! Since this year, unlike last year, everyone was quite busy and none of us had celebrated birthday for each other. Coincidently, 7 of us had passed our birthdays and we planned to have a belated birthday party for everyone. How we celebrate OUR birthday party? Probably you could guess correctly. We went to Secret Recipe in Jaya Jusco. Each of us ordered a different PIECE of cake (we made sure we didn’t choose two same cakes). After that, we asked the ‘waiter’ to lit up the candles for each cake. And the interesting part begins: after having a long discussion on how the birthday song was going to be sung, we sang the birthday song:

Happy birthday to us,

Happy birthday to we all,

Happy birthday to us!

When we were singing the song, when we reached the ‘us’ part, it seemed that other people near us will look at us. We caught people’s attention for every sentence we sang. After singing the song, everyone felt so embarrassed. lol. But, anyway, birthday party is meant to be crazy and fun ma!

We followed the order of the date of birthday, we started from Kah Joon (although he is not the eldest, but the youngest (PTS), his birthday was the earliest among us: February), followed by Talung, Ze Hao, me, Tet Khiun, Kean Zhi and lastly Joon Heng. Each of us made a wish and blew the candle according to the order. We were forced to make a quick wish as the candles were going to ‘die soon’. When we were all done, it was time to EAT. We didn’t eat the cake that we each had chosen first. Instead, we passed the cakes clockwise to the person beside. Each of us eats one spoon of other people’s cake. And after passing the cakes to everyone, we ate our own remaining cake (which will be of course more than a spoon). It was a very simple party, but it was memorable. At least, it was kinda unique way of celebrating it. Each of us could try seven different cakes of Secret Recipe. We didn’t eat anything else, these cakes were our lunch. (1st pic: THE SEVEN CAKES) (2nd pic: Taking picture after finished eating)

Crazy Time! We went to Infinity (Cyber Café) immediately after our ‘lunch’ and ‘party’. As usual, we lost a few matches. I doubt that whether we won any game. Anyway, win or lose was not important. The important thing was the happiness when we were playing together.

We went back to my home after playing. (Kah Joon was not following) We watched a movie named ‘The Death of Ian Stone’ which we didn’t really understand what it was talking about. After that we went for our dinner in our favourite place ‘YOYO’. Yoyo is a restaurant which has kinda good atmosphere and food with reasonable price. We always go there for lunch/dinner. If you would come to my house, maybe I could bring you to eat in Yoyo. lol. You could straight away ask me too.

Next, we went back to my house. And we played a card game which was called Killer or Bear. There were plenty versions of this game, but it has the same fundamental rules and standards. For those who don’t know, I shall briefly introduce you the game which I felt was quite fun. The game was better if there are more players. Basically, each player was given a card which symbolizes a normal person, a doctor or a killer/bear (killer and bear were just a different name given to this role). The player should not let the others know what card he/she is carrying. The game must have a narrator or a host. The narrator first asks everyone to close their eyes. And then he will ask the killer to open the eyes (NOTICE: other people were still closing their eyes, they dunno who is the killer). The killer then opened his/her eyes and point to a person who ‘deserves to die’. lol. In other words, which person he/she wants to kill. Then the narrator will ask the killer to close his eyes and ask the doctor to open his eyes. The doctor points to a person he/she wants to heal and then close his eyes back. Then the narrator will ask everyone to open their eyes and reveal the person who is being killed. Sometimes, no one will die if the doctor heals the person who the killer kills. This is the basic rules of the game. After that, many versions have various ways of guessing the killer. You could simply ask the ‘dead’ to choose the killer. Or the remaining alive people to guess. If they could guess correctly, then the killer loses the game and start another round. Otherwise, the narrator will begin another round to ask people to close their eyes, and the killer will continue his/her killing. Sounds cruel right? The gist of the game is the pretending part. You could pretend you are the killer even if you are not. If you are the killer, how you make sure people don’t suspect you is also a skill in game. If the game has too much players, sometimes we could have 2 or more killers in a game. If you have only four players or less, you can’t play this game. Usually, a game which has 2 killers or more requires a great amount of players, probably 9 or more. Play this game with your friends next time. It was fun.

It was really fun; it was the first time I played this game. Unexpectedly, we played this game for about 4 hour until midnight.

At this time, we knew who was the most ‘piggy’. The first person who wants to sleep was Kean Zhi. SO he was the piggy number 1. Then Tet Khiun and Talung continue to sleep. Kean Zhi and Tet Khiun slept on my double bed and Talung slept on my brother’s bed. Ze Hao, Joon Heng and me continue play computer games. Actually it was only me playing, they were watching. About 3 am, Joon Heng couldn’t keep him awake, and he slept on the sofa in the living room. Poor him. Around 4 am, It was Ze hao’s turn. He slept on the sofa in the living room as well. After that, when everyone had slept, suddenly I got hypnotized as well. When I was going to sleep, Talung came to me. He said he couldn’t sleep. I asked him to sleep on my brother’s bed and me myself slept on the smallest sofa. Pity me. I couldn’t ask Talung to sleep on sofa right? I’m not that bad to my guests. I slept until 6 something. I woke up when my mom was going to school (she is a teacher). She asked me to sleep in her room. After she left, I stood up and I realized I had a backache after sleeping on that poor tiny sofa. Luckily I only slept 2 hours, I don’t think I could sleep more than that on that sofa. Anyway, I temporarily regain my consciousness. I brushed my teeth and played game with Joon Heng (he woke up after that). Slowly, all of them woke up and I let them played my laptop. Guess what I did next? I immediately went to my bedroom and slept. I think I slept until 12pm and they started to wake me up.

taking pic with joon heng at midnight

They were hungry and wanted to eat lunch. The gathering was officially ended after we finished our lunch in Golden Restaurant. This was the first time I had 5 persons staying over night in my house. And I was forced to sleep on sofa. REALLY rare experience. haha.

Trip to Alor Star, Langkawi and Penang

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:29:19 GMT

Trip to Alor Star, Langkawi and Penang

26 May 2008

This was the last day of exam, FINALLY. I‘ve waited for this day until my neck also becomes long. The last paper was Business Statistics. Honestly, I didn’t prepare much for this paper NOT because it’s easy. Just feeling lazy. For at least 3 subjects in exam this sem, I didn’t prepare nicely. Hopefully I won’t when I get a super lousy result. hehe. As I expected, I left early from the exam hall for this paper. It was nearly 5pm that time but I asked my father to fetch me at 6 pm yesterday. Therefore, I went to disturb some seniors while waiting for my father. When I returned home, it was about 7pm already. Before I had time to catch my breath, I rushed to pack my stuffs for the next day’s trip. Simply dumped everything inside the traveling bag and I had a early sleep for the next day.

27 May 2008

Bus

It was a good sleep. I woke up at 8 a.m. Skipping breakfast as usual and took my bus to Alor Star at 9am. I drank a little water because I was afraid if I had to go toilet half way on the bus (in case the bus never stops during the journey). It was super duper boring on the bus.. For the first hour, I slept unconsciously. Perhaps I DID have sufficient sleep, I couldn’t sleep anymore for the 2^nd and 3^rd hour. Although it only took 3.5 hours, I felt like 24 hours had passed. Time passed super slowly at that time!

Mall 1

Oh… I was so grateful when I finally reached Terminal Shahab (if I remember correctly) which is one of the bus stations in Alor Star. At last, I was able to meet my friends! Calvin with Karen fetched me to a mall. Oops, I forgot the name of the mall. Anyway, I was very happy when I met Wen Pin. I get to know a new friend, Han Cheng which is Calvin’s friend. We walked around the mall. Well, actually nothing made me interested. It is just an ordinary mall. Calvin was really a good host, he treated us a piece of cake in Secret Recipe. Oh… ya.. just a piece. :P

Lunch

I was actually very hungry (since I didn’t eat breakfast). Thus, I felt very happy when we were going for lunch! And before that, I finally met the rest which were Kylie, biao mei (Lee See) and Jenny. By playing ‘la la li li la da pom’, we divided into two groups following either Calvin’s or Han Cheng’s car. The result of the game was Jenny, me and Karen would follow Calvin’s car. It was another fun journey with Calvin explaining the Alor Star (AS) Town. I briefly described a bit (in my opinion) about AS. It is a town kinda similar to Ipoh. The differences are they are more malays than Chinese unlike Ipoh and more big and beautiful mosques. Furthermore, the roads and traffic are okay and neat. We ate our lunch in a place called xxxxxxxxxxxx steak. All the food was expensive there. (not very very expensive). I ordered a dish kinda look like Fish N Chips which costs me about RM17.00. Okay… in order to cut cost, I didn’t order any drinks. Fortunately, the food was nice and it was worth the price at least. A nice lunch although it was a bit painful for the wallet.

(reckless photo taking in the car)

AS Tower

After lunch, we went to AS Tower! AS Tower is like a shorter version of KL Tower. It has a nice park surrounding the tower. The funny thing was: when we were going to pay for the entrance. The entrance fee was RM6 but RM4 for University students. All of us were like regret of not bring UTP Matrix Card. Haha.. but who brings matrix card during the trip? When everyone was sad because we gotta pay higher price, suddenly we realized ICC (International Culture Club, one of the societies in UTP) membership card could prove we are U students. Then everyone starts to scratch and search every part of the wallet or handbags for the ICC membership card. Surprisingly, almost everyone got the card except Karen who had to pay for RM6. It seems we were kind of loyal to ICC. haha. There was actually nothing much in AS Tower. It has a great view on AS town and strong wind blowing. There were some sorts of telescopes thingy to let people view the ‘enlarged’ part. (1st pic is the AS Tower, 2nd picture is inside it)

Tesco

Another mall after leaving AS Tower; we went to Tesco after that. I walked with Karen and Jenny since we were in the same car before that. Wen Pin, Lee See and Kylie walked separately while the drivers: Calvin and Han Cheng went to buy us the tickets to Langkawi for the next day. The Tesco there was quite nice compared to Ipoh’s one. I think it is bigger and has more restaurants and stores. That was my first time eating Big Apple Doughnut which was treated by kind Jenny. There was always a long queue there. Unlike in Jusco Ipoh, it seems to be empty and unpopular. Wen Pin and Karen bought a box of 6 doughnuts for the drivers. So kind o them.

Dinner

The next destination was Calvin’s home. His home was warm and sweet. Same to his parents, they are friendly and warm. ‘Home sweet home’ makes me feel like my own home. After putting down my baggage, we went for dinner in a restaurant nearby. If I’m not mistaken, either the restaurant belongs to Calvin’s uncle or the chief was Calvin’s Uncle or both. It was a nice dinner probably due to I was quite hungry. Oh… Wen Pin and me become the ‘finished’ of the meal. So we did eat a lot that night.

Preparation for Langkawi Trip

When we returned to Calvin’s house, everyone ‘queues up’ for shower. Once everyone’s done, we discussed where to visit in Langkawi. The ‘we’ here actually means Calvin and Kylie only coz only two of them are discussing. The rests were just listening and nodding. With a small Langkawi map on the floor, Calvin and Kylie pointed here and there on the map. We also had the opportunity to listen debate from Kylie and Calvin. After Calvin made several calls to various hotels and agents, we finally confirmed with our first activity which was island hopping.

29 May 2008

Night Talk

Everyone was tired and plans to sleep. I decided to have a night talk to Wen Pin a little before I slept. However, Calvin came over to our room and we ended up chatting until 4am. We even had our early breakfast: BIG APPLE DOUGNUTS about 3am. It was still nice when it was cold. And yes, I regretted for sleeping so late. I slept at 4 something because I fear that I would become a living zombie in Langkawi.

Ferry to Langkawi

Woke up at 6am. OMG! Super sleepy… Calvin’s parents fetched us to the ferry station? or is it called a port or dock? Anyway, I was able to take some rest in the car as well as in the ferry. The ferry moved calmly. We didn’t feel sea sick at all. The movement of the ferry created some sort of rhythm which made us able to sleep more comfortable.

Island Hopping

Once we reached Langkawi, we straight went for our first activity, which was island hopping. This was the first time I was on a boat, feeling so nice with the fresh air and cool wind. However, the sky was a bit dark and according to the ‘driver’ of the boat, the wave was strong and absolutely we were going to be wet. What he said was right, we were all wet due to the strong waves. I was forced to swallow some sea water which was really salty. We would go to three destinations in this island hopping. First, we went to a beach with kinda clean sand and water. Nothing much there, we felt the soft sand with our feet and took a few pictures. Next, we witnessed the way the langkawi eagles eat their food. And lastly, we went to a ‘island’ which requires us to climb a bit to reach a pool for swimming. Those who close with me surely know that I cannot swim and thus will not join any water activities. That day was the same, I just waited for the time and leave. This activity took more than 3 hours. It was enjoyable and memorable. Especially the strong wave which made the journey on the boat fun and exciting. (1st pic on the boat, 2nd pic at the beach)

Transportation?

After we were back to the main island, we spent quite sometime to rent a transport. Since we had seven persons, we had to rent either a van or two cars. It was costly. After arguing with the renters, finally we decided to rent 2 cars with a price of RM80 or Rm90 (I couldn’t remember). The funny thing was we ended up not renting the car. Why? Coz we don’t have the ‘P’ sticker. (We were all P drivers except Lee See) Finally, we were all fed up and hungry. Making our stomach comfortable was the top priority. We ate in KFC and Kenny Roger’s Roaster separately. Without any transportation, we were stuck in the port, unable to go anywhere far. Suddenly, an agent contacted Calvin saying that there was some sort of tour that can bring us visit various places in Langkawi. According to him, it was not expensive; everyone just needed to pay about RM10. However, when we met the agent, the price was not really cheap. We needed to pay RM100 for it. Since we had seven persons, this means that we had to pay about RM14. We asked for a cheaper price, but the person rejected us. With his impolite tone of speaking, although RM14 is not really expensive, we rather walk than pay him. We rejected him and walked away from him quite impolitely as well. Dunno why, I felt quite happy doing that. haha… After that, all of us walked to the’ big eagle’ there and took photos. Suddenly, the agent called calvin back and he lowered the price to RM80. With 7 persons, each of us just needed to pay about RM11 which was actually quite reasonable. We accepted the offer and we were glad and happy for rejecting them before that.

Tour-banana boat

We chat among ourselves in the van. The tour guide brought us to a beach. Sigh… another beach… I felt kinda bored as I dislike water activities. However, Calvin and Kylie wanted to play the banana boat. I didn’t know why. I would definitely reject them usually. However this time, I dared to try with Wen Pin (both of us cant swim). It was expensive with RM20 per ride. Due to my timid nature towards falling into the sea, I asked the person in charged not to fall us down. I knew it would make this activity not fun, so I told Calvin, Kylie and Wen Pin. It seemed that they didn’t pay attention to what I’d said. Therefore, we were like wasting most of the time turning here and there only. I knew it was not fun especially to the others who were still expecting to fall into the sea. I changed my mind and we gave the person in charged signals signifying him to fall us down. The person in charged got what we meant and he increased the speed. And got one time, I almost fall down. And then the person in charged stopped the boat. I thought it was the end already. I couldn’t see the situation of the others since I sat at the first seat. When I turned my head, only then I realized Calvin was already down in the water. When Calvin was back in his seat, the person in charged speeded up the boat again. I was making preparation to fall into the sea while he was speeding up. I told myself not to swallow any water, and be calm when fall into water. Suddenly, the person in charged turned the boat rapidly, and I was going to ‘fly’ from the boat. I knew I was definitely going to ‘kiss’ the sea and just as I expected, I flew from the boat and ‘kiss’ the sea. All the preparations I made earlier was useless, lol, I swallowed a great amount of water and very nervous. Water is so scary, I think I had hydrophobia. After a while, only then I recovered my rationality when I realized everything was fine. The person in charged left us there and asked us to swim back ourselves. SWT.. I dunno how to swim la! Therefore, I had to rely on Kylie to pull and drag me back to the beach. How embarrassing it was. I tried to learn how to swim at that time but I failed. I couldn’t move at all. I gave up and let Kylie pulled me back. (Wen Pin was pulled by Calvin). After changing the shirts, I felt a bit guilty for wasting Calvin and Kylie’s money. This was because I asked the person not to fall us down and thus wasted most of the time playing non-exciting banana boat. After this try, I no longer dare to play banana boat again unless I know how to swim. I think I really have fear towards sea water.

(Before going for banana boat)

Tour- continue

We continued our tour. The driver took us to a hotel. I also forgot the name of the hotel. It should be either 4 stars or 5 stars. It just seemed normal; nothing special also. The only thing we did there was wash our legs (full of sand because of the beach). After that, we didn’t waste any time; we asked the driver to take us to another place. Under our requests, the driver took us to a shop which sells chocolate. Buying chocolates was the one major mission my mom assigned to me. I spent about an hour choosing and asking which one to buy. At the end, I spent RM170 just for chocolates and this suddenly made me broke (bankrap).

(taking photo inside the van)

Return to Kedah

After buying chocolates, we went back to the port and wait for the time when ferry would come. During that period, we met Kuo Chun, Seok yee, Shawn, Marvin… our UTP mates. After that, we took some pictures and videos before we left and then we entered the ferry. This time, the ferry was very unstable and cold. It nearly frozen me. When we were back in Kedah port, all of us were very uncomfortable due to the sea sick. Feeling like wanna vomit. Luckily, calvin’s parents brought us to the same restaurant to have steamboat. Eating steamboat made all of us feeling better. We didn’t do much when we went back to Calvin’s room. We slept after bathe until the next day.

30 May 2008

Before going to Penang

We slept like pig and woke up at 11 something. After that I also didn’t know what we do. Maybe wasting time. lol. We had a quick lunch and then we said goodbye to Lee See and Karen. Both of them were going back to UTP because of a camp. Before going to penang, calvin, kylie, wen pin and me took a few pictures in the paddy field near his house. Lol.. first time get so near with the paddy field. We took the bus to butterworth at 2pm then switched to ferry to Penang Island. This was the first time I took Penang passenger ferry. (Usually my father drives me to the ferry with cars or straight away cross the bridge)

paddy field...

Penang Island

When we reached the island, Wen Pin’s father fetched us to Wen Pin’s shop and home. Finally I had a chance to visit Wen Pin’s home. It’s kinda different but it was nice and warm. Next, Wen Pin drove us around penang island. We went to gurney to try out Wen Pin’s uncle’s western food. We also visited the G-Hotel near Gurney and also the Gurney Plaza. G-Hotel was incredible. It was such a nice hotel. Gurney plaza was a boring place. 80% sell shirts one. We walked Gurney Plaza one round and then left. None of us bought anything there. Under Kylie’s recommendation and Calvin’s determination, we had chance to witness the ‘power’ of Nasi Beratur. Nasi Beratur is some sort of Nasi Kandar. It only opens at 10pm. Why is it called Nasi Beratur? This is because many people need to queue up for that food. So unbelievable. Luckily we went there earlier (about 9.30). So we didn’t need to queue up for that food. Seeing those people need to wait for so long, I really pitied them. Quite delicious but not very very very delicious. Understand what I mean? lol. When we finished eating, we saw Kylie’s sister. We tried one plate of Nasi Minyak after that. It was not very delicious but okay to me only. We said goodbye to Kylie and her sister and we went to Calvin’s another home in Penang which is the place we were going to stay at that time. It was a good moment when Calvin, Wen Pin, Jenny and me chatting in a room until 2,3 am.. This was the final night with them in this trip. Therefore I very appreciate that moment. Anyway, when Jenny and Calvin back to their own rooms, Wen Pin and I had some heart talk until near 5am. Of course, the content of the heart talk is not going to be disclosed.

31 May 2008

Morning

After having a 3-hour sleep, I woke up at 9am. We left this home when I finished packing. Then it was time to say goodbye to Calvin, Jenny and Wen Pin. It was really fun trip with them. I continued my ‘trip’ with my siblings after separated with them. My brother fetched my sister and me to a restaurant nearby for breakfast. Emm… Yummy… lol. The cheese luncheon meat sandwiches were quite delicious. Immediately after breakfast, we went to my sister’s house to put my luggage. I would be staying at my sister’s room that night. After settling everything, we went to PC DEPOT in Penang to buy some computer stuffs. Well, the price wasn’t cheaper compared to Ipoh’s. Thus, I planned to just buy them in Ipoh. Later, my brother fetched my sister back to her bf’s home and took me to bus station to buy ticket back to Ipoh. Next, he took me to have a small tour in USM. This was not the first time I entered USM although I didn’t really know what the functions of many buildings were. My brother took me to the museum. Haha.. there was a scary skeleton inside. It created a frightening noise when we went near it. SO, BEWARE when you see the skeleton next time. My brother too took me to visit his faculty. No comment about it. We headed to Mc Donalds for lunch. We walked all the way to McD. It’s was a fortune for USM students to have discount for McD. Sigh~~ I think the nearest McD around UTP is more than 20 kilometres away. swt.

Afternoon

We went to Queensbay to watch movies according to plan. My sister, her bf, my bro and I together watched the Narnia: Prince Caspian. Emm.. I think it was quite okay for that movie. It seemed to be better than the first one. There was a small incident happened while watching in Queensbay Cineplex. STOMACHACHE!!! Hate it. Having stomachache during trip was the most troublesome thing. It made me rush to the toilet during the climax of the movies. swt. Luckily, queensbay toilet was still quite good in condition. I quickly finished the business and hurried to catch up with the movies. After the movie, my brother and I spent some time walking around.( Of course we wont be a light bulb disturbing my sister and her bf) This was the first time I went to Queensbay; of course I definitely had to explore a bit. Although it was not the very best mall, at least it was much better than any mall in Ipoh. After a while, we ate our dinner in Friday’s under sister recommendation. Hoo… It was so expensive. lol. I doubt that whether I would go again. Fortunately, I was not the one who paid, but my sister. :P Pity her wallet as well but since she didn’t say anything, I guess it’s alright. That was the first time I went there. The food was quite nice. But with the over high price, I doubt was it worth the price. But true la, it was nicer (dunno whether it was due to the price). Four of us had a wonderful dinner that evening.

Night

After the luxurious dinner, my brother and I separated with sister. I first went to sis house to have a bath then only we went to my bro’s house. We didn’t do much there. Only watched some movies and played some LAN games with my bro. Until 2am, My bro fetched me back to sis house. I didn’t waste much time; I immediately went to bed after brushing teeth. Past two days I didn’t have sufficient sleep. I guessed it was over my limit. I was going to sleep as much as possible to pay the ‘sleep debt’. lol.

1June 2008

1^st of June, signifying that I was going to go back Ipoh to have my HOLIDAY! Yay. Holidaying in elsewhere and holidaying at home were different. Obviously, it was more comfortable, relax and feeling more ‘muddy’ and ‘rubbish’ at home. But, it was undeniable that the trip was fun.

11.30 am, I woke up. I did have a good sleep and the main reason I woke up was due to bro’s message. My bus would come at 12.30pm, therefore we went for a quick brunch. After brunch it was time to say goodbye to Penang and the trip. My bro fetched me to the bus station and I went back to Ipoh. Well, I kinda rushed to go home as Wen Pin was going to stay over in my house that night and I had to do some preparation and fetched him. That’s all for this post. I realized this post might be longer than usual and I believe that the readers (you all) might have fallen asleep at this time or earlier. lol. Try not to write so long next time, dun wan to bore u all lo.. right? :P Happy holiday!