Hazy? Misty?... Are disaster and raining days coming?

How do you feel if you sit travel on the boat and you hardly can see where are you heading, no visibility like the picture...

Worry?

Confuse? 

Insecure due to cannot see things clearly in front?

Hopefully nothing bad will happen? 

Keep praying?

A lot of unknown... 

So this could describe what happen and how i felt after hearing the Budget 2016. What will be Malaysia future? How are we going to survive with the hazy government, spending like water yet telling everyone we have money constraint.... hardly can see plan to fix the Ringgit dropping... So what do you think? 

After the hazy day... once you can see, it might have been the raining and disaster days... So let's prepare ourselves and get ready for the disaster and raining day in ahead of us eh~ 

On preparing for Penang Bridge International Marathon (PBIM) 2014

Another 5 days to one of the longest bridge run in the world... The 2014 Penang Bridge International Marathon (PBIM). This year run is on the 2nd bridge and I'm going to run 10km with three others friends of mine. We are leaving for Penang on Friday evening...

Penang Penang Here I come...

To PBIM runner, are you ready?

Cats and dogs are unable to cure Hazy Kuala Lumpur...

Hazy Kuala Lumpur

You must be thinking why Cats and Dogs are able to cure Hazy Kuala Lumpur... Long long ago, there was a saying Raining Cats and Dogs means raining very heavy. Usually when Kuala Lumpur has a heavy rain, it usually clean up the city with haze. 

I was driving in the evening of Monday, the rain was so heavy that i hardly can see and followed by a traffic jam due to the rain... 

Raining Cats n dogs

Anyway, the Monday Cats and Dogs were not able to chase away the haze. Hopefully the coming Thursday, Friday and weekend Cats and Dogs may chase away the haze eh~

Just stay healthy during hazy day eh~

On planning how to spend the long weekend

Oct 3rd - Oct 6th 2014 is a long weekend in Malaysia and Singapore. So, my travel buddy from Singapore will be coming to Malaysia for spending a long weekend with my friends and I.

So as a host, what should i plan for this long weekend? I have a few options and got a quick discussion with my friends

Option #1:
2 day 1 night in Ipoh + remaining day in Kuala Lumpur

• We will drive up to Ipoh and visit the surrounding area (e.g. Gua Tempurung etc), then spent a night in Ipoh happening downtown booze area. Next day come back to Kuala Lumpur. 
• Day 3 will chill out in Kuala Lumpur 

Option #2: 
3 days 2 night Pulau Ketam, Klang area, Kuala Lumpur downtown

• Day trip to Pulau Ketam to visit the fishing village and have seafood lunch, evening chill in cafe @ Klang
• Be a tourist in Kuala Lumpur for 2 day 1 night including visit attraction in Kuala Lumpur and booze booze at Changkat Bukit Bintang at night.

Option #3: 
Staycation in downtown Kuala Lumpur for 3day 2night.

• Find a nice hotel and staycate in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Enjoying food around Kuala Lumpur and booze booze at night

This are the 3 options that we have in mind... We tried not to go too far from Kuala Lumpur due to foresee the highway will be jammed up with people traveling on the long weekend.

So, any suggestion?

Crabby dinner @ Bagan Hailam, North Port

Friday evening - Almost everywhere is like a huge carpark in Klang Valley...

It is a challenge to travel with car from point A to point B especially from one end to another. How about from One Mont Kiara to North Port?

No exception. I was stuck for at least 1 hr after Penchala Link to Damansara Toll and from Damansara Toll to the exit of Bukit Kemunning. It was so so sooooo damn terrible. Only 10m per move.

So why TZ so determine to go for the dinner @ Bagan Hailam? He can beat the 1hr massive traffic jam to drive all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Port Klang for dinner...

Big Fresh oysters

Fried Squid

Bake Crab

Hahaha... now you know what drives TZ to drives for 2.5 hours from One Mont Kiara to Bagan Hailam, North Port (Port Klang) for this yummy seafood... So, will you drive for hours just to have food?

Touring Kuala Lumpur - Day #3

Malaysia Day was a public holiday, since my boss was around and i have volunteered to bring her around Kuala Lumpur. We have planned to cover the National Mosque, Central Market, Skybar @ 33 Traders KLCC and Din Tai Fung.

Picked up my boss at 2:30pm from the hotel and headed to the national mosque, we arrived at around 3pm and realized we have 1 hr to walked around as the visitor hour is 3pm-4pm. Nothing much to see in the National Mosque. Anyway, it was my first visit to National Mosque.

National Mosque Kuala Lumpur

Inside Main Prayer Hall @  National Mosque

After visiting the National Mosque, our next stop was Central Market for more shopping, it was the 2nd time my boss visited Central Market. She likes the market with lots of stuff that she can negotiate and purchase. Guess what? She got what she wanted in Central Market :)

Sunset @ Skybar 33 Traders KLCC is stunning but unfortunately that day the weather reported HAZY. No stunning sunset just the nice lighting of KLCC... Sigh~ Boss has no luck to see the stunning sunset. Anyway, she will be back early next year.

Skybar 33 Traders Hotel KLCC

view from Skybar Traders KLCC

We chilled at Skybar until around 8pm and left for our dinner at Din Tai Fung, Pavillion. We walked over to Pavillion via the skybridge. Reached the restaurant and waited for around 10 mins then we were being seated at a nice and cosy corners. My colleague and I have ordered the food and boss was very enjoying with the food. 

Anyway, we ended the day with a good night greeting at the hotel lobby before headed home. 

Happy Malaysia Day

Roll back ONE YEAR ago in Sept 16th... Where was TZ be in?

Ta-da...

yup, i was in Kuching... by now you must be asking, where will TZ be this year?
hehe... TZ will be working this year. Not going to anywhere. Boss is in Kuala Lumpur...

HAPPY MALAYSIA DAY eh~

Picture from http://flags.redpixart.com/malaysia/people_icon/

Worst Boss

Have you encountered Worst Boss in your career?

Picture Adapted from bitesizewellness.com

 In the beginning, maybe you are thinking the boss is just a problem boss. But as time goes by... you will reconsider whether him or her is a Worst Boss... I think a worst boss is a boss that do not know how to manage and tap into his or her subordinate strength to get the best out of the employees. The boss just shut off his or her mind after some incident happen or some incorrect verdict from other employees. This kind of boss is a very tough boss to manage i.e. tough boss to work with and DO NOT EXPECT HIGH RETURN!!!

How about this scenario?

Picture Adapted from kunalashar.com

When you encountered these bosses, try to stay calm and move forward. Either trying a way to manage the boss or runaway from the Worst Boss.

I'm curious what is your definition of Worst Boss?


 

Will Metropolitan Kuala Lumpur become city of NO WATER?

In this hot and dry season, what is the scarcity resources... Yes! it's water...

Picture adapted from signoftherose

Rain in a tropical country is a normal event but recently mother nature stop dropping the water and we have not getting any rain for the past few weeks. The water level in the reservoirs are dropping tremendously. I was worry about no water in City of Kuala Lumpur a.k.a city of potholes but today my worry came true... That's was NO WATER in my condo unit as i tried to wash my hand. Not a single drop of water...

Our lovely government has done a very BAD job in this disaster. They did not announce their plan earlier or should i say they don't have the plan upfront until the water level in the reservoirs drop to the danger level... Now, to conserve as much water as possible for future, they have no choice but stopped the supply of water immediately. Not sure who is the adviser, consulted our lovely government to stop when they think it's critical to stop. I bet many of us would have been shouted at the lovely government for not giving early notice for us to keep some water.

As my FB friend said, " This is another project of Barison National (BN)"  If you hope our lovely government will help us... "slow slow wait"
So, now what should we do?

1. Pray for the mother nature to drop the rain again. 
2. Learn the rain dance from the native to entertain the god and make them delight to give us some rain
3. Shower in the gym... now need to know which outlet has water and which outlet got impacted. (Anyone can help?)
4. Contact friend to look at whether can pop over to their house to do whatever needed.

Any of you have any better idea?

I got another name for our lovely city, Kuala Lumpur... City of NO WATER... muhahaha...    

Yummy Sarawakian Food

When you go for a tour, what you will definitely not missing is to try out as many local food as possible. My trip to Kuching was also a food tasting trip besides the point of interest (Sarawakian Cultural Village, Kuching City tour and Sarawak River Cruise etc). Managed to try various famous Sarawakian food from Siew Bee, Kolo Mee to the three layer tea...

Three Layer Tea

Sarawakian Layer Cake

Not sure whether the Sarawakian really like layering.... They have famous layer tea, layer cake and what else?... LoL

My friend bought me to this 80 years old Siew Bee Stall. This stall located in a food court near the river. Siew Bee in Kuching means Siew Mai in Kuala Lumpur. But Siew Bee tastes different from Siew Mai.. I don't know how to describe the difference but i recommend you to try out yourself. The Siew Bee in this  small stall which has survived with only selling one product for 80 years. It's no doubt very tasty... Yum yum~

80 years old business - Siew Bee

Guess what? My friend can wallop around 20s at one time... And his parents hand carried the frozen Siew Bee to Kuala Lumpur for my friend. :p

Sarawak have few famous noodles  i.e. Kolo Mee; Kampua mee and Laksa Sarawak... I managed to try two out of three noodles. Kampua mee is Sibu famous noodle. So I need to pay a visit to Sibu to taste this noodles and not forgetting the famous Empurau Fish too.

Kolo Mee

Laksa Sarawak

Every state in Malaysia has its own Laksa, but Laksa Sarawak has its own unique taste. First of all, it's not LEMAK (no coconut milk), and it also not so spicy. This is because its soup base is only full of quality black pepper planted in Sarawak.

Sarawakian also have its own famous wine called Tuak (Made of Rice). The % of  alcohol contain is quite high, i'm not sure how much but once you have a few sips. You will feel tipsy... 

Home-made Tuak

Are you drooling over all these yummy food? Will you fly over to Kuching to taste all these Yummy food?

Mom, What is #Kangkung?

I was holding the lift for this family of 5 people with 2 little kids and a baby. There was a very young girl asking a lot of questions before coming into the lift... blah blah blah. 

While we were going up to each of our selected floor... 

Girl : Mom, what is Kangkung? 

Mom: The vegetable that Najib eat.  *I wanted to laugh out loud but....

I was laughing inside... I was like what? Did Najib really eat Kangkung in front of the media? Or this is what the mother meant when she answer her daughter. 

Picture Adapted from Malaysia Kini

I googled on "Najib Makan Kangkung" @ the image tab.... there were no Najib ate Kangkung photo except this. So,  I bet 99% the mother meant this... cute mom eh~

Hey folks the Kangkung price has shoot up... now should we asked our lovely PM what would be the next vegetable that government will lower the price? 

Happy Thaipusam on 11714

Happy Thaipusam and Happy Day off to The Valley People

Kangkung a.k.a Water Spinach

you may call this joke of the week, Joke for easing Monday Blues, or Joke of the day... When every single creative way of expression on KANGKUNG made me ROTFL. 

This is what happen?

Our lovely Malaysian Prime Minister use Kangkung to express his view and comment on the price hike    on all the price like Petrol, Toll and staple food in Malaysia. This has cause the nation not happy with what his decision. 

In one of the event, he told the public as Malaysian we only complain the price of goods raise and no one actually say thanks to the government when a price of Kangkung dropped recently. It's not fair... Something like that. 

So few hours after his statement... The Facebook flooded with all kind of jokes about Kangkung...  here is one of the example regarding the joke about McKangkung... 

Adapted from Malaysia insider

and many more creative Kangkung related material. Visit all the Facebook Page~

Anyway, we know the year 2014 might be a tough year for Malaysia but one word i would like to share with every Malaysian Reader... Enjoy~ 

Adapted from googleusercontent

Celebrating Malaysia Day @ Hornbill State

huhuhu... I'm leaving city of pothole again for celebrating Malaysia Day. Another 24 hours i will be on my way to the city of Meow Meow... Guess?

This is 1960s Meow Meow City (TZ made it looks like 1960s. Nice?)... Let's roll the clock forward...

I was there on March 2009 and it was an enjoyable trip as i went with a friend of mine who likes photographing. And we met a couples of new friends at the backpacker inns. We spent 6 days in total at Kuching. Okay don't ask me why i spent 6 days in total. >.<

Anyway, this trip was a short one as i will be following a friend of mine back to his hometown and stayed in his house together with a Singaporean friend of us for a weekend. So, I'm not sure whether what my friend has arranged for us but i got to know there is one Sarawak Cruise in the itinerary... i'm bringing my Nikon D7000 for more shots. huhuhu...

Anyway, stayed tune for the report out of my weekend escape out of City of Potholes. Hello City of Meow Meow...  

Here some photos that i took when i was there in 2009

Water Front

Bidayuh house @ Cultural Village

Umai Umai - Sarawakian Sashimi

 

Say hello to Ritchie

Food overloaded... #Malacca - Part #1

I made a trip down to Malacca with a bunch of friends... We were targeting the food in Malacca. Reached Malacca at about 1:30pm and straightaway check-into Aldy Malacca. Dumped the bag and headed out to search for food. (everyone was so soooo hungry)

@Jonker 88 - we had Cendol, Nyonya Laksa and Lok bak. I forgot to take a shot on Nyonya Laksa + Lok Bak as i was so hungry and attacked like a hungry man.

Can you differentiate which one have durian which one not?

Dim Sim @ Jonker Street - This aunty has been selling Siu Mai over the years in Jonker street. Her Siu Mai is very popular as she sells RM3 for 5 Siu Mai...

which type of Siu Mai you like?

@Xiang Ji Pork Satay - Next stop after Jonker 88, pork satay @ Jalan Portugis. On the way to the satay place, there were one local uncle whom sat under the tree and asked my friend " The satay nice to eat meh? First time r?" My friend answer "don't know ler...first time"... Lesson learned, if next time a local ask you this question. You should reconsider to go ahead. Why i say so? Cause the satay is just so so only... 

Satay is a bit dry

Walking under the sun from one place to another place was not really fun... so we decided to stop over some cool place i.e. Alfresco by the rivers to chill... We went into @Lao San Cafe. 


Lao San Cafe is famous for its Cendol - We only knew that after our visit. Those people whom visited Lao San Cafe and tasted its Cendol has given *two thumbs and two legs up* including me... It's very delicious. Not sure their chicken wings but the spring rolls was NOT really nice.

Cendol by the river... Luckily no additional fragrance

@Aunty Lee, Ujong Pasir - rate 2/5 (Lousy Service, Normal food, pricy)
Recommended by a friend friend of mine whose hometown is in Malacca and now staying in Singapore. We are only allow to make reservation after 8pm. Moreover, when making reservation, we need to order the dishes too... Sigh~ The dishes were cold when we arrived. My friend whom owns a kitchen even said, he could cook better than this restaurant. Looking forward to taste my friend's nyonya dishes ;-)

Four dishes (size small) and rice + drink = RM94 (5pax)

After the dinner @ Aunty Lee, we headed to Jonker Street Night Market for a walk. Luckily the hu-haa has temporary placed aside and the Jonker Street Night Market opened their business as usual...

We were not managed to get into Hard Rock Cafe, we decided to buy some beer and have them in our room as we have a family mini suites which has table and chair for 5 pax. We bought chips and Carlsburg Special Brew as our booze. So we boozing away...  and called it a day when all of us got HIGH...

Stay tune for Food overloaded... #Malacca - Part #2 eh~

Unwanted visitor - HAZE in Singapore and Malaysia

Have you gotten any unwanted visitor who knock at your door and you tried to avoid?

There are some visitor that you could not avoid even how solid is your front door. When they start knocking on your door.... you have no way to hide from them. HAZE is the name of the unwanted visitor that we wanna talk about today...

It is a HAZY time again. Almost every year of this period. Singapore and Malaysia will encounter the haze issue. This is due to Sumatra's open burning. Few days back, Haze situation in KL is quite serious but since Wednesday afternoon the unwanted visitor just walked away from KL, maybe it got to know KL has listed as world no. 6th unsafe city to live in... 

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Sunset @ Kuala Lumpur

So where is the unwanted visitor?

Picture adapted from http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Hmmm... the unwanted visitor has gone to Singapore now.
Singapore is having the worst hazy day in history. Record high on Psi. Guess what? My friend in Singapore told me as of June 20th 2013 afternoon, the PSI indicator has shot up to 371Psi. So, it was way way over the unhealthy level.

oh no... the unwanted visitor came back to Kuala Lumpur this morning...

Hazy day - captured at 11am June 21st 2013

Dear friends in Singapore and Malaysia, please wear mask, drink more water and take a good rest. Don't fall SICK eh~