From Sungkai, We Eat All the Way to Ipoh

It all began with us having our 2011 annual plan. One of the activity to be planned was to be on the labour day, 1st May where it falls on a Sunday, thus we have another additional day off on Monday.

Two week before the happening ...

"So, where are we planning to go next week?"
"Let's go Genting"
"OK"

One week later,

"Don't want Genting la"
"Oh, so where?"
"What about Sungkai, i've never been to the Hot Spring"
"No problemo.. What about we go to Ipoh to stay for a night as well??"
"On!"

One night before the day,

"Cannot book all hotels in Ipoh leh !"
"Anywhere out of Ipoh"
"Seems like full too"
"omg omg .. so how ?!"

So, initially our Plansss are ...
Plan A: Go to Sungkai, drive to Ipoh and try our luck if there's any hotel room available
Plan B: As Plan A BUT if no room, drive back to KL and go clubbing and stay in KL's hotel ...

OK OK ... I just want to illustrate how LAST MINUTE are we always .. LOL ..

So our journey begin ...

Yay! The Happy Faces =D

Our dedicated job position ...

Driver Han

Assistant Driver

Us, the passenger cum photographer cum financial controller

Our first stop obviously is ...

Rendam kaki yang kewangian kita ~~~

The best part of Hot Spring that I loved most is ..

A memory shot to some long story behind ... Not to be told .. XD

If you are wondering why my head so senget .. Simply because I was on phone .. LOL

After showering, we headed to Sungkai town for a quick lunch ...

This is the only crowded restaurant there but honestly it is not that fantastic and kind of expensive too

Our first chicken dish .. "yim kok gai"

Then then ... we took the trunk road which we passed by the few famous towns before reaching to Ipoh .. However, we then decided to leave the few town like Bidor, Gopeng etc for the next day PROVIDED we found a hotel in Ipoh

KAMPAR

Sorry for the messy hair .. Just woke up from nap =P

2nd chicken of the day - Curry chicken wrapped bread

Kampar street

After reaching Ipoh, we stop by few hotels and check with hotel receptionist for availability of the rooms .. We were quite disappointed at first because we have negative response .. Luckily, we found this hotel

It's a budget hotel and it's not that bad and the price is reasonable

View from our room

After refreshing ourselves, which is just 2 hours after our previous chicken, we head out for our 3rd chicken meal for the day ..

Ipoh Chicken Hor Fun

Look at the crowd of this restaurant ...

All the people standing out there is actually waiting for a table and it was a rainy night .. During the trip in Ipoh, I've learnt something when you go to these famous restaurant ..

In order for you to get a table, you have to do this ... I am serious ...

The night doesn't end here .. we actually went to ..

XD

Then, a friend suggested us to go here ..

Tong Sui Street

for 

We also "da bao" char kuey teow and rojak back to hotel for our so called supper .. 

We ended the night with .. But all of us are really bloated and sleepy to finish this game .. Kekekeke ..

Ok Ok ...

I know those who manage to read until here must be mouth full with saliva already ... And since the post is getting longer, I shall the Day 2 FOODS for the next post .. Ngek ... XD

KL Marathon 2011

Yours truly made her first 10km of walk run for her first time in her life !!! Please be proud of me !!!! LOL ...

I was expecting myself to finish in 2 hours but surprisingly i finish before 2 hours taken into account that I walk more than run, I stop for some photos .. Yes, i did took my sweet time to take some memorable photos .. XD

Evidence of me ran for 10.9km in 1 hour 44 mins with average pace of 9'30"km ..

I wasn't prepare for the run. I was so nervous and scare yet excited at the same time. I don't know what will happen to myself, will I faint? I really don't know before the run begins.

But I really thank god. It was drizzling at the beginning of the run and I suppose the weather was great with the cloudy day until almost towards the end of the run, only the sun came out. Happily, we manage to see rainbow on our way at Brickfields.

Every sign of KMs, it made me happy and excited. 

That shows not only stop for taking picture with the famous 5km sign, ok ... XD

I couldn't have done all this without the encouragement and support from my dearest. Along the journey, we ran together, we walk together, we encourage each other that we can finish this journey together. Thank you my dear for going this run with me although you did wanted to give up the night before. I thank you for trusting me that we can finish this together.

We finished this together @ 10km . =D

And we have our medal !! Woot !!!!

Beside the medal, I also have blisters at toes as memory .. Ouchie !!! *notes to self to get a better and branded running shoes*

The only sad part that my dai ka jie who beria-ia want to join couldn't make it the run as she was sick at the wrong time. Hopefully next year we can join together again and don't simply eat pasar malam food before the run, ok!!! I know you are reading this . Kekekekekekeke ....

For now, I am considering to make this run as my annual event... Hmmmm ... 

P.S: Main reason I don't like to tie up my hair like this !! Make my face damn fat and fugly... rawr !

Songpan, China

Before leaving Jiu Zhai Gou, the heaven of mother nature, while on the way to the Airport, we manage to drop by at this ancient town where one of the main ethnic groups are Muslims, besides Aba Tibetan, Qiang and Han Chinese, Songpan.

the entrance to the town

According to China Discover [CLICK HERE for more details],

Although Aba is a Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, elderly bearded men sporting distinctive white caps are a common sight on its streets. Muslim culture is widespread in Aba, where there is a large community of Hui people. Its street-life scenario is made complete by the large numbers of Muslim pancake sellers hawking their wares. Songpan is site of a number of Hui ethnic villages. The other three ethnic groups resident in the county are Tibetan, Qiang and Han Chinese. Songpan was once a regular stop for traveling merchants, but its commercial importance is now ancient history. 

 If you are a history person, I think this is a place that you would have to visit because this is the place where a small town marked a significant history between China and Tibet.


Like below,

Statue of Tang Princess Wencheng and Tubo king Songtsan Gambo outside north gate of Songpan

Forgive me, if I got my history of the above wrong.


According to my mummy + the tour guide explanation while I busy capturing the moment, the above statue was made in remembrance of this Tang Princess and the King. Princess Wencheng is not only remembered as princess, but she's the one who make a significant contribution in spreading the teaching of Buddha.


OK. That's all I remembered from the tour guide and mummy. XD


Inside the town, which is basically just a one street with shophouses at both side.

Some of the locals,

Making shoes out of leather 

Parents waiting for their kids to end their class. It's a kindergarden school 

Not much of photos I took here simply because when we step into the town, we went to this shop selling fruits. Buying bags of fruits to eat.

Beside the shops, there's this old lady selling water chesnut, Mummy bought it. And yeah, you know what's next.


All of us busy eating the water chesnut (which you can find at Petaling Street and you always get cheated for it's price and quantity), it is like so nice and warm to eat at such cold weather. It is so fresh lorh !!


And and ...


I ended my Songpan memory with a gift from our pretty tour guide,

I don't really know what is called in English, but it's fruits that is dip into red sugar coating. The one I had is small peach.. Yum ~

That's all my journey in Jiu Zhai Gou ..

Bye bye Jiu Zhai Gou ~ I will miss you lots and promise to visit you again one day

But wait .. That's not all for my China trip ..

Up Next: Big Buddha and Er Mei Shan ...

Looking Back

Sometimes looking back to the path that you took is not a bad thing. It reminds oneself the ups and downs that you went thru that makes who you are today.

People always tell their friends to let go, to forget the sad and move on. I disagree.

Because the fact is, no one can forget things that they experienced it especially the BAD and SAD ones. You'll remember it even clearer than the happy moments. So, I always has this thinking and I do tell my beloved ones, "It's OK to be sad. You are always allowed to be sad for a day in a week. But don't be sad too long. One has to move on. The happy moments carve in our heart and remember it, as this will be the reason for you to look back and smile. The sad moments, keep at a corner but don't ever throw it away, as this will be the reason for you to be stronger as you walk further."


I have friends that say how can I be so positive-minded about almost everything. Simple, because to me, whatever things happen, it happened for a reason which the reason you may not know. Just accept it by maintaining the good one and improve/change on the bad one. Anyway, the truth is I am not that positive-minded at all time. Sometimes I do think very, i mean VERY negatively. Just that I never showed out to anyone. That is very not good. (Notes to self: To improve on this) 

Sometimes, I do too asked myself about how I did. I always compare within myself. A simple example, in my working environment. I always asked myself, have I improve on the areas that I need and should improve? Areas like I have to be more outstanding in front of my bosses, to be more seen that I can work good. I do admit I wished to be more seen and assigned on more jobs and assignments. Just like how my big boss said to us, by having more jobs, it mean that you are capable in doing your work, it mean you are good. Everyone wished to be in that category, seen by boss. We are just denying the fact because we are just introverts.

So, what about you? Do you reminisce your good and bad of your past experience? Or you are a very easy going person that doesn't care the heck?

Remember, looking back to your past helps to remind yourself the path you taken and why you are here but don't ponder on your past too long as well, as it won't help you to grow.

The Power of Social Network

Just recently or rather over the recent weekend, another hot topic was discussed in Facebook. This time round it was a video shared on about school girl, whom was violently abused by her school mates. With the power of FB, this matter was easily brought to the media attention as well as the Govt's attention.

One video, it has brought everyone's attention.

On the side note, I still cannot accept that the bullies are just being suspended for 14 days lorh !!! *geram*

Without the video, the victim would have to continue bearing with all these nonsense that is happening in the school. Poor girl.

Earlier to this case, there were some hot topics in FB (focusing only in Msia as my network mostly are in Msia only) such as the animal abuse which the tomboy in the end came out to apologise to public, the incompetent organizer to Energizer Night Race, the suicidal note left by Alvis Kong.

FB definitely is a very powerful tool and connectors to all around the world. I think with the existence of FB, many ugly truth out there was revealed.

I wouldn't deny that people may go very extreme in creating haters or fans page for any single issue that arise. But, for example the recent video of the violent bully by the teenagers, if people hasn't see the video, if people doesn't share the video, how would the society know that there's something wrong with the education system. How would the family of that victim know how suffering she has been.

Also, with this, I think it will be a very good reminder to all those people who want to do anything in public because anytime you might just got caught on video and became the popular topic in FB.

Another example would be the suicidal note by Alvis Kong, I really hope that it would be a very good lesson to all of us including me that suiciding is not a solution to all. People who followed the news would know how his death has actually caused how many heartbrokens among his family and friends.

In the end, although I am giving all the good points of Social Network, there's also the bad points of it. So, it is still up to individual how you make use of it. Just becareful and think carefully everytime you want to post something or upload your photos. Just make sure that you have a very tight privacy settings. The best is DON'T put any of you personal details there.

I mean, if your friends really want your details, you can just give them by private e-mail or call. Don't need to PUBLISH your details.

In short, THINK WISE IN WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING. =)