I needed a change of scenery. So it's goodbye to the island during the weekend. The weather was pretty kind, so the trip was rather smooth. If you happen to drop by Serdang, do pay this place called Aik Kee Seafood a visit.

They serve really good 'Fried Porridge' or Char Moi.

Pls try not to be turned off by this dish which looks vaguely like monkey poo. It's a rather starchy dish, which comes loaded with plenty of meaty bits and a truckload of chives. It's rather filling too, so go there with an empty stomach.

Not to be missed either is the super kickass Tom Yam Soup. It came pipping hot with prawns the size of Jupiter. In terms of spiciness/sourness on a scale from 1 to 10, I would give this an 11. Damn syiok. The fat plump prawns were sipek juicy and you would find yourself sucking on every tiny morsel of it.

Unfortunately, when you go next to Taiping, you'll find that the opposite is true.

You'll find prawns the size of fleas on your oily plate of char kuey teow. I'm pretty sure the Hare Bee (dried shrimps) in Penang are bigger than this.

Yeah... times are bad... I even have to open a Rojak stall in Taiping to supplement my measly income... sigh...

I could have sworn John Rambo was behind the counter slicing up pieces of taukua using his Bowie knife while grunting... "HrrrgHHHgHhhhhhh... urrrGGGHhhhhh... Murdoch... I'm gonna kheeeeeeel you...!!!"

Food aside, it's nice to just chill out and wander around. Life here is much less hectic than it is back in Penang.

Lonely lookin belanga.

The lake.

Some cacti.

Doggie scratching back.

Monkey checking whether he struck last nite's 4D or not...

Nuts...

Top 10 reasons why I won't be re-visiting Langkawi anytime in near future :

1. Babies screamin their little lungs out throughout the ferry ride; both ways.
2. It rained cats and dogs. And mabbe a lembu or two.
3. The place was jammed packed with tourists. I could have sworn I was in Saudi...
4. The tourist attractions were overpriced and under-maintained.
5. The morons next door belted out lagu-lagu Balada till 2 in the morning; both nights. Try picturing Ramli Sarip crossed with the helium-voiced Mika. And add a dash of that bastard called Aznil Nawawi. Finally manage to shut their piehole after I lodged a complaint with the management.
6. Food mostly sucked. Except for a few acceptable ones near Kuah.
7. The car I rented came with eksos senget 45 darjah. Shouting was compulsory to avoid getting drowned out by the booming din.
8. Kerbaus everywhere. I kid you not.
9. The price of duty free goods varied greatly from place to place. You have to comb the entire town to get the best price.
10. Couldn't get any decent shots throughout the entire trip due to overcast skies. And when it did clear up... it was time to go home.

But there were a few gems which popped up once in a while, but they were rare and way too far in between.

This car should have came with accompanying earplugs. But to it's credit, it didn't breakdown once over the 3 days I was there. Most important... it was clean. But I almost suffocated to death from the lethal cocktail of air fresherners.

The parents and myself headed down to meet up with the little sis down south over the weekend. Let's just say, I'm more than happy to spend some time with the family, and doing it somewhere else other than Penang. All the road closures and jams in the world couldn't dampen this special little new year we had ^_^

The weather was wonderful.

Food aplenty.

The X'mas spirit was still lingering around.

Finally paid a visit to the swedish meatball place ^_^

There was a nice flea market.

More food ;)

Road closures and every 2 metres, there was a RELA member walking around.

Bands belted out mostly covers...

And this is the dudette who made the whole trip possible ^_^

And finally, little booze to kick off the new year.

I've been spending an obscene amount of time at the ofis of late. And I know I'll go crazy if it drags on. So, I decided it's time for a little time off and go wander around... somewhere... anywhere. I haven't been to Ipoh before so I thought I should have a looksy at what this town has to offer. Searching for roadmaps on the net turned out futile; so I decided to just hantam and see if I can find the place by luck.

I drove off with n.g. on Sunday morning and Jusco Ipoh was to be our first stop. Unfortunately, I made a mistake by heading into Ipoh Utara. After driving aimlessly, I stopped by a mamak stall to ask for directions. The bangla there looked at me like a deer who just ran into a pair of headlights; and gave me the typical mamak headshake... I dun exactly know if I had to return the same gesture. Thankfully, I stumbled into a really helpful Malay dude at a sundry shop nearby, who gave me much better directions than the earlier bangla.

15 minutes later, we found Ipoh Selatan and spotted Jusco. Woot! The place was packed like a can of sardines, but it was understandable since it was a weekend. After doing some light shopping, headed down to the groceries section. I was pleasantly suprised to see that Jusco has a really comprehensive sushi section.

The staff were diligently churning out box after box of fresh sushi, which were displayed neatly for the customers to choose from. The minimalist display area was a good concept and made the colorful rows of sushi really stand out.

Plenty of choices at hand; tamago, smoked salmon, unagi, fish roe, bean curd, handrolls, baby octopus, etc. The selection here could easily put more reputable sushi outlets to shame.

A little later during the evening, we decided to go sample the famed Ipoh Bean Sprouts Chicken rice which everyone was raving about. Turns out there were only two must go outlets in this town. Story goes that the original shop was opened by a sifu, who had a protege working under him. Unfortunately, this protege of his turned renegade and decided to open his own establishment. And the bugger had the cheek to open the shop just opposite his sifu's shop.

The sifu's shop is called Ong Kee (pls correct if I'm wrong... my information on Ipoh is sketchy at best). Suprisingly, the place doesn't seem to be doing brisk business.

We looked across the road and saw the Lou Wong shop. It was packed to the brim. Common sense will tell you which shop to patron. And so Lou Wong it is.

First thing we ordered were some meatball soup. It came in a clear sweet broth. The pork balls were really springy and packed much bite when you chow down on one.

Next, was the famed Ipoh Bean Sprouts. You'll immediately notice that the taugeh seem much 'fatter' and stubbier than the standard variety. The locals say it's the underground water which makes all the difference. No crappy tap water for these sprouts. They were wonderfully crisp and crunchy, and the sesame seed oil + light soy sauce gave it a nice sharp tang.

Ah... the dish which everyone were going gaga over. The pek cham kai. It came in huge chunks, the skin was slightly smoother than the normal garden variety and there were minimal fat. I guess that made all the difference.

Another highly recommended dish was the Ipoh Koey Teow. This was an awesome dish. It's kinda ironic that the simplicity of this soup based rice noodle create such complex textures. The clear sweet broth and the smooth silky noodle strips made a really satisfying dish. The koey teow was finer than the penang variety and much tastier. Goes really well with the bean sprouts.

All in all, it was well worth the long drive down Ipoh. Fantastic food, pretty good bargains and a much lighter head on the way home. Decided to pick up a box of 'Hip Eam Kai' on the way home too. This is Ipoh Salted Chicken and is quite similar to the Herbal Wrapped Chicken you usually get during wedding dinners; albeit a little drier.

I don't mind paying Ipoh another visit in near future ^_^

As promised, here're some pics from the office Genting trip. The reviews will follow after this post.

Arrival at the First World Hotel... way before sunrise.

The view from my hotel room. Clear skies. You can even see KL city under these conditions.

The lobby area of the hotel. Jungle theme.

Kids on a merry go round at the indoor theme park.

The impressive looking clock tower. Looks like Big Ben.

Cool retro looking decor.

Ennis... I want you to meet Jack... which is behind me... ^_^

Dan... I spotted Amos here as well. There's no escaping him!

Spooky but cute looking cakes at the Ripley's exhibition area.

The lobby at Resort Hotel.

Second day was nothing but thick heavy mist. Nice cool weather to sleep though...

Another view of the indoor theme park.

Sunflower in the garden.

Yo mamma!

Plenty of bronze looking statues adorn the hotel.

The ingredients display of a Chinese Restaurant.

A photo I took while I went strolling alone at an unearthly hour, heavy mist everywhere.

Mother Nature must be having a flu or something. Not a day goes by without some rain falling. It starts getting on your nerves when you can hardly do anything outside with the wet weather day in day out.

But on Monday noon, the sun shone brightly and everything seems to be swell. So Bukit Merah, here I come.

I spoke too soon.

By the time I got to Butterworth at around 2.15pm to pick up CL, dark clouds started gathering at the horizon. Fark. Hell no... I ain't gonna let no crappy weather ruin our day again. I decided to try and outrun the weather. So I sent my rustbucket of a car screaming down the highway while rain started to pelt down on it's metal skin like stones, creating a cacophony of sound in the cabin. At one point, the rain got so bad, we could hardly see the car in front of me if it wasn't for his rear brakelights.

But eventually, we could start seeing that the clouds were being left behind. WOOOHOOOO! By the time we got to Sungai Bakap, the weather was pretty much nice and dry. Anyways, another fifteen minutes later, we were there.

This was the first time I visited Bukit Merah, so I didn't know what to expect. The first thing we had a look at was the perkampungan air. It was basically a village built on top of stilts above the lake. Nice wooden architecture and pretty much well maintained.

Then we had a looksy at the area where the bird park and skycycle was housed. Nothing much, but I wandered around the area just to have an eyeball of everything.

One of life's toughest questions was found here...

Later on, we proceeded to the fishing area and also to a place where it looks like a jetty. 

Ibiza kot?

I realize one thing... why are there umbrellas half submerged in the lake? From afar, it looks like a dozen blur case tourists or so drowned in the lake. Hillarious scene.

Mak oi!!! Ade pelawat Jepon lemas masa tangkap gambor!!!

I wanted to visit the waterpark as well. But by now, the damn weather caught up with us. The farkin storm clouds followed us all the way here. Tiu.

So what could we do? Seek refuge under one of the shelters at the stalls before the weeping sky broke again. Darn. Kaboom. Oh hujan. So we sat there, watching duckies swimming around in the rain instead. Cute little buggers revel in the wet weather...

Muaaahahaa... water good...

We were trying to wait the rain out, but soon realized that was not going to happen. The rain just got heavier and heavier.

Rain... Bleh...

Eventually, it got so heavy we couldn't wait at the flimsy shelter anymore as the rain was blowing in and drenching everything in sight. So we made a mad dash for the restaurant at the opposite area. Which was fun... I actually used to love playing in the rain ^_^

It was here that we decided to have something warm to drink as it was rather chilly. The decor was pretty but a little outdated; Christmas was a week ago already.

Nothing feels better than a warm mug of coffee on a rainy day.

By the  time we took the last sip, it was starting to get dark already. So we decided to wander around the bazaar area. One particular stall caught my attention; the walkway artist.

**kowtow... kowtow...**

It's amazing how quickly he could whip up caricatures for paying customers. And boy, he did a really good job, capturing heaploads of details even though he did things fast. I wish I could draw as well as this talented Malay lad... sigh.

Anyways, eventually it was time to go home. The weather kinda threw a spanner into this outing, but it was also pretty fun in some ways. Overall, hahaha... made me feel like a kid again... ^_^

I'm bek ^_^ A pretty short break... but it was a welcomed one...

My bus to KL on Friday was delayed by 2 freakin hours, no thanks to the darn stooopid JPJ having "catch the busses which doesn't pick up passengers at the new Sungai Nibong bus station" field-day. Idiots. The bus operator kecut when he saw the officers moving in at Jelutong, so he unloaded all the passengers and cabut. Then he asked his boss to ferry all 20 pessengers to Sungai Nibong where he was waiting. **Waves fist of death at their incompetence... blek**

Other than that, the trip was ok. I'm glad to have visited my baby sis; L, who's working there, went on a shopping binge, stuffed myself silly wiv glorious food, managed to memorize all 3 LRT and monorail routes by heart now and caught a movie. To those who're planning to catch War of the Worlds, my advice; save your hard earned moolah. It's juz another Tom Kurus "THIS IS MAH MOVIE... AND SO I HAV TO BE IN EVERY SCENE" vehicle. I could have sworn this has got to be the biggest turkey of 2005. Lousy script, so-so effects, irritating lead actor and crappy pacing. Blek x50000. Mabbe I'm juz biased; but my opinions could be based on me watching the traumatizing episode of Oprah, whereby he was behaving like a 13 year old kid juz fresh on reaching puberty. Moron.

Big Fish called me on Saturday to tell me bout the Auto Show which was being held at KLCC. I already visited the place earlier during the afternoon, so I decided to give it a miss. Wanted to maximize the time I had there. BIG MISTAKE. When I flipped open the newspaper this morning, I saw a section dedicated to the event. My eyes bulged. RACE QUEENS!!! MUTHALOAD OF DELECTABLE SKIMPY SEXY HOCHIE MOMMA RACE QUEENS!!! CMOS... YOU IDIOT!!! ARGGGGGHHHHHH... KILL ME NOW!!! Oh yeah... btw... the cars were pretty too... :-P

Here's a quick photo montage of my very short trip...

LRTs... LRTs everywhere... if only Penang had these...

The mutha of all shopping malls... Times Square. But suprisingly dead there...

I've always been smitten by the design of Sony outlets... but I still prefer the one at KLCC better...

KL Tower from Sungai Wang... damn hazy... hack.. cough... blek...

Rain... at Imbi... why now? I still have a gazillion places to visit ya know???

Paid de annual pilgrimage to my favorite tech-shrine... **kowtow... kowtow...**

Midvalley... mah favorite shoppin haven...

Meeting up wiv L; me baby sis... ^_^

Some male cancer awareness campaign... wiv loads of local celeb endorsements...

Yeah... FCUK YOU TOO... :-P

The bare essentials before crashing for the night...

On the way to the bus station...

Getting ready to go home... sigh... very hyperactive little kid in front of me...

Going home... rain again... double sigh...