Assault on Kampung Cina

Where: Kampung China, Setiawan, Perak
When: July 2007

Wooaaa...can't help but blog about this mouth watering experience when we stopped over at Setiawan on the way to Penang. Located at Kampung Cina (Chinese Village) hehehe,...this seafood restaurant threw up some local delicacies thats reallllllllly pleasing to both the eye and stomach. Let me introduce you to some of them:


From left: Claypot curry prawns in coconut milk, Stir fried calamari in kung-pao spicy sauce.

From left, clockwise: A bit out of the pic is delicious fried meehoon, Fried Fu-yong Egg, Boiled water snail thingy and Steamed fish with Assam sauce

Being near to the sea and a fisherman area, the price is cheap and it's big on taste. If you're in the vicinity of Lumut or Setiawan, you know where to get cheap and great chinese food ;)

Boring show? Its time for a nap

Where: THX cinema, GSC Summit USJ

When: June 2006

Ok, now this is down right disturbing. Before the show even starts, this movie patron curls up on the seat (feet on the seat) and pulls an sweater over her self. Guess what? Goes to sleep!!! What in the world???? Should I even bother asking why? Nahhhh....Blog It!

Kancil MPV - 7 seater car

Where: Somewhere in KL
When: July 2007

Check this out. I captured a pic of this car while driving in KL. This kancil appeared infront of me, and I initially thought it was some stuff toy at the back. If you look carefully, you can see a kid lying on top of the speaker board of the kancil!

Worse still, when I pull up alongside the kancil, I saw 2 adults in the front, one holding a child on the lap with no restraints. 3 kids at the back seat (no seat belts of course!) and 1 more kid lying on the speaker board!!

There you have it folks, only in Malaysia : The Kancil 7 seater MPV !!! Malaysia Boleh!!!

Need a ride?

Where: Elizabeth Street, Melbourne CBD

Woaa! After walking around in the CBD, you can't help but notice superbikers riding around and revving their powerful steeds especially when accelerating from the red light. I sort of followed their thundering exhaust sounds to Elizabeth St, and eventually found out where they are heading to. Up Elizabeth St, close to the La Trobe St intersection, you will find a number of bike shops in a row. The machines, both used and new, spill out from the shops unto the sidewalk.

Curious, I poped in to look at some Japanese makes thats really "untouchable" back in Malaysia (priced RM60K above). Not before long I stumbled into the legendary Japanese Bird of Prey, yeppp the Hayabusa GSXR 1300. I caught the 2007 model sitting unchallenged in the shop's sales floor and can't help myself getting a few pics of it and it's price tag!

Not far from this vicious bird, stood it's smaller but no lesser potent bethren the CBR 1000RR . Also a 2007 model, I can't help but click my camera's trigger. Both colors shemes bound to come to alive above 200kmh and just burn it's competition away in a blast of hot exhaust! Banzai!

Now....if the weather wasn't that unpredictable and motor license in hand, I may have traded my wallet and all the cards contained within for either one of these speed demons!

Workplace @ Glenferrie Road

Where: Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn

The place where I work (about 10mins walk from Glenferrie train stop), happens to be on the famous Glenferrie Rd. Hawthorn. Its home to many cafes, boutiques, restaurants and other essentials like banks, Coles and Safeway supermarkets. One thing I noticed is the number of Coffee places on this street. Geez, gourmet coffee lovers will never fall asleep again for months as there is so many joints to get their caffein fixes from! What ever you do, don't take them for lattes at Mackers alright! Pretend you know something about coffee and take them to a place that charges at least A$3.00 for a cuppa!! heheh...

Below are some pics when I step out of my office...

View on the left of the entrance. Up ahead is Barkers Road intersection.

View on the right of the entrance.

The entrance.

My desk.

Theres even a neat website where you can see exactly what's on both sides of Glenferrie Rd. It seems to be quite a happening place.

Goto : http://www.glenferrie.com.au/

A few tips of my own:

- If you want a reasonal lunch deal, head on to the Samurai restaurant where the lunchbox specials are only $A6.00 !! Thats cheap, considering you get miso soup, main course and house pouring tea!

- If you want some spicy lunch, head on down to Nelayan Restaurant where you can find some spicy Beef Rendang to go with steam rice. Much like Nasi Campur in Msia, you can get 3 dishes with rice for about $A7.00 to $A8.00. Oh yea, don't forget to pick up the free water in cups near the counter! hehe..

- This is a bit far, but if you want Malaysian chinese dishes, there is a good place up Burwood Rd which cuts accross Glenferrie Rd just after the train station. If you walk up Burwoord Rd towards Swinburne University, you will find a place called "Penang thats serve tasty malysian cuisine. I hear Asam Laksa is the choice of the day!

Toyota Corolla Accent Seca 1.8 vvti

When : 14th Aug 2007
Where : Around Melbourne, Australia


What a pleasant suprise this was as we walked into Budget Rent A Car to rent the cheapest automatic car listed on their brochure. It was suppose to be a Hyundai Getz Auto, but we were pleasantly suprise by the friendly staff that we were gonna get a brand new Toyota Corolla which is not only BRAND NEW but much bigger than the Getz.


Wow, this baby only clocked 97kms when we took it and was jumping with joy as we drove it out of the car park! Immediately when we got in, the brand new car smell greeted us and the view from outside and inside looks very promissing. Here is an exterior pic:

From the front.

From the rear.

From the outside, it looks quite similar to the previous Seca model. The most obvious difference is the the shapier front with bigger headlights and new rear styling. Its still pretty much "hatchy" as the previous model. This 1.8 model came with steel rims and all round discs (something usually missing from Malaysian cars). We stopped at the Royal Botanical Gardens to take some pics and say to ourselfs "Now what do we have here?". It wasnt long before an Ang Mo stopped and ask us "Is this the brand new toyota model? Wow..great! Cheers mate".

Inspired, we continue to take more pics:

The 1.8 VVTi heart. While economical, lacks punch to pull this car. Engine bay is neat and clean.

Interiors:Meter cluster is nice and tidy. Its easy to read in the day or night and the LCD has multi functions. Pressing the trip knob, switches from outside temp, to trip meter to consumption readings. Speaking of outside temp, check out the reading on the dash, 8 degrees!!! Beats Genting anytime! Whoops, we clocked 1100kms since we took it, gave it a good runin travelling around town and up the Great Ocean Road. Thankfully Budget rentals are unlimited KMs ;)

Dashboard is very functional and you will notice that there is a great distance from the steering to the glass. Lots of space, not really sure whats its used for (probably extra crumple zone and sound proofing the engine bay?). There is a rather imposing centre console where the gear lever and handbrake sits. I dislike the feel of the handbrake, wish it sits abit lower. But for those rally drivers out there maybe this goes well. Changing gears is easy and pretty standard stuff. 4 Speed auto seem to give all the right revs for the car. However, still feel the engine is struggling to pull the car at times. Steering is pretty standard toyota stuff with airbags and all...feels good even after long drives. Legroom for driver and co pilot is ample and very comfortable. Seating position is also good but the small rear view mirror just gives too many blindspots. You will need to get a bigger clip on mirror to boost your view angle.

In the rear, we didn't get any complaints from rear passengers. There is enough room and seat belts for 3 persons. The door handles gives a slightly classy look in silver and is a nice touch.

The rear boot is quite decent for a hatch. It fits one 28" bag with no worries. After putting that bag, nothing much is left though.

Something I found in larger luxury cars...vanity mirror lights! I last saw one duing the BMW 325I test drive..hehe not bad eh? Oh yea, the stereo comes with an AUX port. So plug in those iPod baby and let the good times roll. I tried with a Creative Zen player and sound is pretty decent. Max volume on your MP3 player though...hehe

Overall a nice package, but i doubt will appeal to msians who come here seeking those reaaaallly hard to get models like Accord Euro, WRX, Mazdas or Mitsus for the $20-30K range. But worth considering as a 1st time car for ur teenage kid eh? :p

PaintBall aka "PainBall!!"

Date: 9th June 2007
Time: 9:00 AM
Place: TT Sports Park, Subang Jaya
Why?: Company team building event


I guess it was sooner or later that PaintBall would be in our list of team events to do. It finally happened last saturday and I guess it will be a first and last for our team as the company has decided to discourage PaintBall due to health and safety reasons...hehe Nevertheless PaintBall is actually a very good event for team building, you really have to work together if you wanna win. Working in an island will just get you killed in a spatter of paint in no time...hehe

There are several ways to play paintball and should not be too alien for you guys and girls that play multiplayer games...hehe. Capture the flag and last man standing are the 2 common games paint ballers play. In our case, we played Last man standing which basically means, "killed everyone" hehe that is get all the opposing team off the playing field to win.

I'm a complete noob when it comes to paintball. We get to use a gas-powered rifle which can fire the paint ball at 280ft per sec. That can really hurt if you shoot someone at close range. But for most of the time it just feels like getting hit by tiny stones from far range. They use CO2 gas to power the rifle. The rifle or "marker" has a hopper (bullet catridge) with a small fan to suck in the paint ball to the gun barrel. Body armour is basically a jump suit or just a plastic body vest with compulsory head mask. Here is a pic:

Once you know how to operate the Marker, next is just how you position yourself on the terrain. On the field I played, it was a mix of old tyres and plank obstacles called "bunkers" that you can hide behind and snipe your opponents. The bunkers mostly have gaps in between so you can slot in your marker and take pot shots. But beware, you could get hit from there as well. All it takes is 1 lucky shot and your're out.

However, what really happens most of the time is that you most likely run out of pellets and have to leave the field. No in-game reloads were allowed...sigh. Also, the markers do not have exactly the number of pellets you'ed expect. This is because they are loaded using rough estimation (poured from a jar/canister filled with pellets to a certain level) instead of counting pellets. The game generally lasts 5mins per round and are watched closely by marshalls. They will ensure the rules are adhered to, ordering you out when you ran out of pellets or even when some pain spatter "killed" you without you knowing. No use arguing with the marshall as their decision is final.

Here are some more pics of the action. Bottomline, paint ball (or pain ball depends how you look at it) is a must try for all you sniper wannabes! I've tried Laser Tag game before, paintballing beats that hands down in terms of thrill factor. Although running out of bullets is a real drag! Oh well can't have it all!