Somewhere across the rainbow

A heartily dinner at Rotterdam with collegue

2010-06-27T21:24:00.006+08:00

After the nice at Delft, I take the train to Rotterdam to meet my colleagues for dinner at a Morocco restaurant.
Get on the tram to reach somewhere near the restaurant. Tram is some sort like our bus , the difference is tram goes on the railway and connected with wire above on the normal road in city center.
The bridge that connect both side of Rotterdam.
This kind of scene is normal is Holland , just the matter of size of it, this is due to the many canals in Holland.

Some of my colleagues...There are consists of Morocco people, Dutch and Caribbean, but all lovely people

Appetite-brinjal, carrot with oranges , pepper chilly and squid rings. I love the brown color brinjal and carrot+orange, a very special way of cooking but it taste really good!

Second appetizer- something like chicken pie, a good one!

The following are the main dishes:Lamb with apricot, amond, plum - a very special combination but it's delicious!

Chicken with potataoes

Variety of fish

Desert

We took 4 and an half hour to finish all the meals...It's not that we are eating too slow, but the style Western countries serve food is almost 1 hour per dish...We have some bread and olive and drink before 20 minutes later they let us see the menu. After each dish, they will take order for the drink again...So total we drank 6 glasses of water each time ...some beer, wine, orange juice, tea etc....
Guess how much does the meal for 8 costs? RM2000!!!!! What a huge amount for us but normal for them (likely my boss treat me the meal =p)....but the Morocco food is really yummy, thumb up!

A day in Delft

2010-06-27T19:41:00.008+08:00

Delft is a modern city with a historical heart.The city is well-known for its ties with the Dutch Royal family and the famous painter Vermeer. Delft is also world renowned for its Delft Blue earthenware and its lovely canals.

It was a sunny day with 26-28 degree celcius weather, so I decided to visit Delft in this lovely Saturday. It took me some time to take the bus and change some train to reach there. Initially plan to follow an hour guided tour for E5.50, but change my mind to discover this city myself through the historic walk , so at last I bought a guided map and booklet at the Tourist Information Point for E3.50.

During Saturday, there will be few streets selling variety of antique stuff, some sort like flee market.

The Town Hall

The New Church

Side view of the new church

Neo-Gothic Maria van Jesse church

the Oostpoort (East Gate)

The East Gate is the only remaining city gate of the eight gates Delft used to have.

The market selling fruits, flowers, bread, cheese etc..

There are a few couples getting married at the city hall that day..

The old church is a leaning tower ...

Former residence of Lambert van Meerten and is now the musuem.

Overall it's a beautiful and nice town =)

Sightseeing in Gouda &Meeting my friend at Rotterdam

2010-06-20T22:03:00.005+08:00

Visiting the windmill in Gouda...

It was a lovely Thursday evening meeting my friend at Rotterdam for a glass of beer and some fried chips under warm sun!She is a China friend of mine whom I knew from the voluntary internship half year ago, and both of us were so happy that we could meet after half year at Netherlands! She's currently working at a lawyer firm in Amsterdam, feel so grateful we have the chance to meet again ^^

The port of Rotterdam is one of the largest in the world. During World War II the city centre was devasted by bomb but has since been virtually rebuilt and now features modern architecture boasting one of the country's leading universities, a number of interesting museums and a large zoo.
Train back to Gouda in evening...
A cute dog at a friend's house where I have my BBQ and spent a Friday night at Dronden.

SEP day at Utrecht

2010-06-20T20:47:00.009+08:00

Last Monday i have a day trip at Utrecht to meet the student in charged of the SEP program in Netherlands and also 2 other students having SEP at Netherlands. It was a great and lovely day! I met lots of friends, Thomas from Netherlands, Caroline from NewYoke, and Spela from Slovenia =)

First we have 2 hours tour around Utrecht campus , it's a big one!

one of the small lecturer hall

I love the library there so much, the building even won quite some architect award! It is damn comfortable and nice with an area where there are sofa like beds for you to sleep!

Exam hall of studentBig lecturer hall

In the afternoon after lunch, we watched the football match between Holland and Denmark at a pub in city center. Everyone is crazy about football here, there was 1.2 million people taking leave to watch the football match that day, and there are always traffic jam during match of Holland! Everyone wears orange shirt, or some weird shirts, caps, weird weird stuff that one can put on body....They even paint the car orange and products on sale would be a lot of orange colors just for the match! I forget to take down the picture of how crazy you would see people gathering at pub to watch football match, definitely can't see this in Malaysia's mamak stalls!

After that, we went to the dom of Utrecht , the highest tower !

We ended our tour having dinner at thomas's house with IIse and Thomas's parents. Nice lasagna, first time have melon together with smoked meat as combination and Morazella cheese!

Visit to den Haag during weekend

2010-06-19T22:53:00.009+08:00

Last weekend, I went for sailing on Saturday and Den Haag on Sunday.

The pharmacist has his own boat, so off we went sailing with his son, Ruel and his second daughter Ineke and boyfriend of Sandra, Yous. We start sailing from the house to a few of the lakes behind the house and nearby. It was a sunny day but windy day ...When the wind blew on us, it was just freezing cold although the sun was so big above..It was so relaxing for Dutch to sail whenever they like, drinking beer/wine...Almost everyone in Reeuwijks has own boat at house...But I come to know later on that the living expenses is damn expensive here, with tax for the boat, and even dog!

Lots of kids learning how to sail ...
Cute Barney who went sailing with us too..

The pharmacist's wife has some meeting during sunday at Den Haag, so I went with her and she dropped me at the city center to explore myself for 5 hours there. Den Haag is the 3rd largest city in Netherland in where all politic centers, embassy located , also the palace where the Queen live.Although Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands, the Hague is the seat of government and is well worth a visit. The Hague is home to the Houses of Parliament, the International Court of Justice and the Peace and three royal palaces.
Bus at Den Haag is some sort like train as they drive on railway like train ans also cables above
There are so many shops for shopping at the city center, the small China town is located at there too!

Outside view of the politic bureau

There is bands on Sunday in front of the street of the bureau

The main building of the politic center

These are some photos of unknown name which I took during my walk around there...

The palace and the palace garden are not so nice, so i did not take many snaps there.
I was lucky enough as on that day there was a musical fiesta around and inside the church from morning till the evening. There were 7 stages around the church and each bands will perform around 10 mins, so you could sit there for the whole day listening to countless orchestra team performing, all in different music style...But it was damn chill outside as it was windy!

I love the performance below so much, Saxophone!

The female vocal sings so well and everyone is deeply immersed in the song!

Initially plan to go to the International Court of Justice, but it is a little bit far from the center which I need to take a tram to reach, since time is a bit tight, so I canceled off the plan and spent the rest of time enjoying the orchestra performance.

My Thai food dinner

This is haring fish which is only available in June in Netherlands. It's eaten raw just like this, but I love it!

SEP at Netherlands

2010-06-19T21:20:00.011+08:00

It has been a week since I arrived Netherlands. It was a long way from Malaysia to here , around 12 and a half hour flight. The impression for me here is it is damn chill and cold although it's summer! The temperature falls between 10-20 degree Celsius here, with a slightly higher 22-23 when it is a sunny day, without the cold wind =p

Schipol airport at Amsterdam

The surrounding of the place I'm staying at Reeuwijks. The pharmacy shop is at Gouda( should pronounce as 'Houda'), 10 min drive from house which is very famous for Cheese!

I 'm here for my 1 month exchange , doing internship at a pharmacy shop. The pharmacist's house which I 'm staying with is so big and nice! I have my own room here with personal bathroom. I wish I could help a little in house chores but they have maid to clean up the house every week, dishwasher which make me feel like staying in a 5 star hotel haha...

This is my bedroom and personal bathroom.

Both of the pharmacist and his Taiwanese wife are good in cooking, and I'm lucky enough to come during the week where they have some many in house guests for few days, so I ended up having very nice food for those days-appetizer, main course, dessert, beer/wine.
Basically I drink beer/wine everyday here as they have it most of the time during dinner...I love the cheery beer (Kriek), it was great!

I love the beef so much, just nice and juicy! It was actually a whole big beef wrapped with crispy skin and ham, all own-made food at home =)

eTypical dutch meal, potatoes with vege

Below are some pictures of the pharmacy shop I'm working now. The pharmacist owned 2 pharmacy shops but I seldom work at the other one.

Laboratory for making capsules, cream etc

Medication in bucket waiting to be collected by patient

All medications are placed in drawer like this

The pharmacy shop is at a very strategic location where there are many cafes, open market and shopping streets just within walking distance

Guess what all those round round things above? It's variety of cheese famous in Gouda!
City Hall in Gouda
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Holland is famous for flower, all types of flower selling in cheap price!

I love this place so much, where people can bike everywhere, and there is water everywhere for sailing! The main problem I have is language problem, i can say almost 99% speak Dutch here though they learn English at school . The pronunciation of Dutch language is a bit difficult, I always understand nothing during the conversation among the pharmacist family during dinner time...Erm, need to try to learn some basic Dutch while I was here =p

China-JiuZai Valley

2010-06-19T21:02:00.000+08:00

It has always be one of the places I wish to visit so much and I was so surprise and happy that it could be realised so soon haha...

JiuZai Valley is simply the heaven on earth with picturesque and breathtaking scenery! It was off-peak season during my visit in Winter time , so the entrance fee was half of usual price during the peak season during autumn! I was on a tour there with flight and it just cost me around RM350 including 2 nights hotel stay, flights and the tour, damn cheap! JiuZai Valley has different unique scenery to be viewed in 4 season, personally I would prefer an off peak season as it won't be so crowded with tourists and it is far more cheaper hehe...

My special experience on this trip was the weather was damn unstable and windy, so my flight could not land when we reached there, so the plane U-turn back and I was stuck in the airport for 8 hours before we got to fly again! I was so worry that we need to cancel off our trip there as we have been waiting and waiting doing nothing at the airport waiting hall, though meals were served by the aircraft company...
And the time we were supposed to fly back from JiuZai to Chengdu, the flight was once delayed again , this time we were brought to a 5-star hotel and spent 7 hours there resting before we could finally on board. Actually I was thinking it was not bad to have the flight delay till next day morning as the hotel was damn comfortable and nice =p

A must to visit for those natural lover=)

China-Chengdu, LeShan Buddha & Mount Ermei

2010-06-18T14:55:00.008+08:00

Oops, I forget to mention another record I broke during my1 month stay in XiMiao school- I only get to bath once a week ! Yes, it's once a week! Since there was no water supply neither hot water in the school especially during winter time, so we need get to the town an hour away in order to search for hotel/ public bathroom to clean ourselves after a week dusty body haha....

After the program ended, some of us went to Chengdu for some travel =p
Celebrating birthday of one of my buddies in a restaurant.

Below are some pictures that we took in 'JingLi'. It was a beautiful place especially at night , i love this place as there are varieties of shop selling all kinds of culture stuff of China and the making as well ...and also not to forget whole bunches of Chengdu famous snacks! Chengdu is well known for it's hundreds over snacks !

Guess what's this?

I think many of you might think this is something for decoration , just like the Chinese making character using the soil right? Anyway this is a type of sweet! But is not edible, the technique of doing this is called吹糖 if not mistaken.

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This is a very cute way of making the desserts above, when you punch the thing, the kuih will come out from another side =At the homeland of Panda, we were too not forgetting to have a look at those cute Panda!

This is also another species of Panda !But I think still the above one is cuter heheGuess how much it costs if you wanna hug the panda and get a snap? The chocolate color panda is just RM100 for a snap, but Rm500 for the black and white panda!

After 2 of my friends went back earlier to Beijing, I was left alone in the youth hostel. What makes thing interesting was it was a mix hostel, so i was staying with different guys in a room for the following whole weeks, which make my parents damn worried about me haha... But I met lots nice guys, from Holland, UK, US etc
I went on a trip to Mount Er Mei and LeShan Buddha for 3 days, it was a nice trip !

This is the famous LeShan Buddha .

Mount ErMei is beautiful as well during winter season =)But it was damn damn slippery, we need to bought a special socks before we get up , or else you hardly walk on it, it was just like walking on the ice !

Overall it was a nice trip, this was where I got to know one of the deceased students of the dragon boat accident, so quite sad when I got to know about the accident.

China-XiMiao School

2010-06-13T17:13:00.005+08:00

Another record I have broken for myself was boarding a 35hours train from Beijing to Chengdu. I felt so happy when I finally reached Chengdu as it was really too bored and tired on a train for 35 hours! Below is the picture of the train , I slept on the 3rd level , which was so narrow and I hardly sit straight up on the bed. And there are 2 seats for 4 person along the corridor , so luckily the people sleeping at the lowest bed are kind enough to allow us to sit on their beds during the day time.

In order to get to XimIao school where I do my voluntary work, we need to hoop up for a 3 hour bus from Chengdu after the 35 hours bus, then an hour van on a very terrible road condition to reach the school.
This is the place I stayed for 1 month at the school. The students there need to squeeze 2 person on a bed, it's really quite pity for them ...

This is our 'office' where we did our stuff when we have no lessons for the students =p

The most amazing part is the toilet of the toilet! It was just like a ditch without doors ( as what most of you know about China's toilet), but the most unbearable part is that there is no water to flush the ditch after you use it! The toilet will only be cleaned by the students every day in the evening, but during weekend when students go home, the toilet wouldn't be flushed/cleaned for 3 days..so you always see many 'gold' in the ditch until you have no feeling on that...but the smell for sure is really unbearable...I could even smell it though I was having heavy cold .

But that's not the most 'awesome' toilet I have ever seen, the most surprising one were at some students' house. There was a toilet which was inside the room where they rear pigs, and the hole of the toilet was just right in front of the pig's gate where you need to use a stick to block the pigs from coming out ! Another toilet was so narrow, just with a width that a person can move, with both pigs beside! You could feel the pigs blowing air onto your face when you are squatting down for toilet, and you need to be careful not to kiss any pigs haha... For both of the toilet, it's basically can't be named 'toilet' for us as it was just a small hole with diameter of 3cm! Could you imagine how small the hole and the toilet?

Below is the pictures when we do some home visit to students' house during weekend. We need to climb 3 hills and cross 2 rivers to get to their house, it took us 1 hour and a half to reach the nearest house haha...
The student is cooking for us ...he is really a good chef, just 16 years old!

This is called " Chuan Chuan" -a typical local snacks that we often have it there !

We taught the students English, Art, Music, Sports, Chinese etc.....It was not a good job teaching there as the class was big consisting of around 60 students per class ! And it was a great challenge to teach the smaller students especially Standard 1 student! They are always fighting, running all over the class which I need to shout and shout always...I got a terrible cold there due to the weather and my voice become so coarse till even after the program end for 3 weeks I still have a coarse voice, total having 7 weeks of terrible coarse voice ...and terrible coughing which I get so painful on the chest!

Other than that, we help to organise many events for the students as well...in which each of us need to train the students from each year to come out with some performances! I had a challenging time training my standard 4 students! Some pictures of the Christmas party ...
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Another record I have broken for myself was I drank countless of beer and wine in China ...I think the most I had ever have before....The teachers and district officer, area officers are all too warm and kind enough to treat us big meal every few days, and even trip to nearby town every weekend! But I'm kinda phobia about the big meals as there were always too much food served, there was a time we visited a town which is famous for Taufu, the restaurant there could made 56 dishes using taufu, and we were served 18 dishes of Tofu just for only 10 person per table, at the end so many food was left. Besides that I'm phobia of 'YUm Xing' there, every time we were treated for dinner, they will sure 'Gan Bei' with us. There are usually 10 person treating us, and each person will at least 'Yum Xing' with you 4-5 times, or even more. 'Yum Xing ' or 'Gan' means you need to finish the whole glass of beer in a shot, so you could imagine how many bottles of beers I drank for a day!!!
The last before we left the school, I even got drunk as I was treated with red wine they made themselves together with more beers! Finally I experienced the feeling of drunk, I could say it's unbearable, you would feel the surrounding spinning, then vomitting, aweful headache...it's really sucks!
Below are all photos with my friends there, all are volunteer like me.

I miss all of them so much and also the lovely students! The students even called me after I left the school and some sent postcard far from China to me in Malaysia during Chinese New Year. I wish I could go back at least once to visit them again , all the best to them and my fellow friends =)

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China-Beijing

2010-06-13T15:22:00.007+08:00

Visited 3 Beijing's famous university, RenMin University , QingHua University and Beijing University. Personally I love the environment of Beijing University the most, how I wish I could study in such great university! Beijing university and Qinghua university hava a beautiful environment with lots of greenery scenery and lakes. Since the universities are so big , so student will usually cycle in the campus area. For me, Beijing university is far more beautiful than QingHua university, I love the university as there are so many cultural performance like opera, drama, musical performance, readers' sharing etc as Beijing university is famous for art subject compared to Qinghua University which is famous for Science subject.

RenMin University
QingHua university

my China's friends and India's friend

Beijing University

Other than that, I have visited other places of interest in Beijing with my room mate in the youth hostel . She is a girl from ShangTong district of China who is also traveling alone in Beijing. It was great to have her as my travel partner =p
This is the traditional type of yogurt drink which is famous in Beijing. It is really nice as it is much more thicker than many of the yogurt drinker I have tried before. The bottles need to be returned to the stalls after finish drinking.

This is WangFuJin street market which sell variety of Beijing famous snacks

salty TauFuHua

There are many more old Beijing typical food and snacks which it is too many for me to describe here hehe... The amount of food per serving in Beijing is double-sized of what we have in Malaysia, so I often ended up having too many food in my stomach after each meal as my China's friends can usually finish up 1 by their own, so I have no choice but to finish my own meal although I'm full after eating quarter of it.

I was also lucky enough to try out the famous 'Lu3Lao4' -is some sort like cheese and pudding, a very famous shop in Beijing NanLoGuXiang which you need to like up for a very queue to buy it and sold off in few hours . I love it so much but so sad I couldn't find any in Malaysia.
I tried out the famous Beijing duck at the most famous shop as well. Luckily there is some one to treat me the meal as the famous restaurant is damn expensive with RM100 plus for the Beijing 's duck. the duck slices is eaten together with pancake and some other things. I don't really like it although it's so famous there haha...

For other places of interest, I personally opt for NanLoGuXiang- a cultural street , the Summer Palace-a must to visit as it is really scenic there and YuanMinYuan. You could view more photos in my facebook album.

Summer Palace

YuanMingYuan

To visit Beijing, you must have good energy as you would require to walk a lot the whole day as all the places of interest are sooo big that each one you could take at least half day to one day just to walk there eg Summer palace, Forbidden city. It is very easy to travel on your own by bus and the railway as it is simply so convenient and easy. It's better to get some maps or ask for info from the youth hostel as people in beijing usually are so 'cold' and not friendly at all to answer your question.
As reminder, just be careful when you walk, there are spit all over in any where they could spit haha...

6 weeks China voluntary internship

2010-05-08T00:16:00.000+08:00

Sorry for updating my trip so late after half year due to my laziness @.@

It was really a memorable trip for me as I have experienced many 'first time experience ' during my 6 weeks trip besides all those smiley warm faces of students of XiMiao.

Things didn't go smoothly upon my arrival at the airport. I was stuck in the airport for 6 hours before I saw someone come fetching me . This was the beginning of my nightmare of the worst management team that I have ever met ( a branded university students' association - so-called). I felt so clueless and helpless waiting anxiously for 6 hours in the airport and the reason they gave me was they forget about my arrival and there was some miscommunication ( although I have sent twice about my arrival date, time and even photo of mine)

Next, I was stuck in the Beijing for 8 days before I departed for my project location in SiChuan which they did not inform me about that and I ended up spending lotz money on my accommodation there . I had my first time traveling alone in Beijing since I was dumped in the hostel doing nothing. Luckily for some of the days, I met my room mate who was traveling alone as well, so both of us traveled together to many of the places of interest in Beijing.

Beijing is really a great city, with convenient transportation system. The railway is accessible to any of the place of interest and the bus is very convenient ( 5 mins per bus ). You would need to be worry about not knowing which bus to take or which station to stop as there are map of buses everywhere and announcement for each station.

i bet the toilet in China is 'so famous and well-known' for everyone as there is no doors for the toilet . I was still ok with it as the worst toilet I had seen was in my student's house in Sichuan which will be described further in later post. But what I really couldn't bear with is the spitting habit of China people. They can spit everywhere, anytime they like. I could say almost every inch that you are stepping outdoor are cover with spit before. I witnessed myself of them spitting even on the escalator, inside the railway which I found disgusting. Maybe this is one of the culture of them as I later found out even primary school students in the school I taught spit in the classroom or running nose stuff on the floor of the classroom and just wipe it with their shoes.

Besides that, I have my first experience in such cold climate. The weather dropped to -18 Celsius the day i came back Beijing after 1 month stay in SiChuan. I was so lucky there to experience the 'heaviest snow in near 50 years in China' . I was outside that time and the snow was as big as the fur size. The snow was so heavy that when I open my mouth to talk it will come flying in my mouth. The next day of the heavy snow was heavily-winded day, which was the most terrible experience of cold I have. I could still bear with the heavy snow though it was cold, but the windy weather was really unbearable. My face was totally numbed being outside as the wind was simply too strong and dry. How I wished I could cover whole face up leaving only my eyes outside . During such weather , nobody will wish to walk outside, the best place is indoor with heater haha...It was really chilling and even painful when your face become too dry blowing by the winds.

To be continued ...

New post for year 2010-graduating

2010-05-07T23:09:00.004+08:00

It has been almost half year since my last update. I have been quite busy stepping into my final semester of my final year doing clerkship in hospital. Since coming back from China,I was a bit lag behind with my studies as I was absent for almost 2 weeks classes. We had a super pack schedule from 8am to 10pm at night almost everyday before Chinese New Year to finish off all the syllabus within that month. Right after Chinese New Year, I started my clerkship In Penang General Hospital while half of my coursemates went Kelantan for their clerkship.

My friend has always asked me what is clerkship about as they often confused it with internship. Clerkship is actually some practical training in hospital to expose ourselves to get hands on experience on what we have learned in 4 years time. We need to clerk some cases every week for case report , the main difference between clerkship and internship is during clerkship, we are in student position doing observation and clerking cases without authority to make any decision or treat patient. Just like what we did in last semester,we have 6 weeks clerkship which we were rotated to different department each week. What was difference from last semester was this semester would be hospital practice clerkship which we are placed in 6 different ward eg psychiatric ward, surgical ward, obstetric & gynecological ward etc.

Although it was really tiring to go to hospital early morning everyday till 5pm, but I did enjoy a lot for the 6 weeks clerkship. I got the chance to witness myself the spontaneous delivery process and caeserian process and realized how great a mother to bear the pain and with such courage to give birth to a baby.

Another memorable ward would be the psychiatric ward. You could hear many funny jokes and interesting conversation from them. Some of them are quite normal actually (I mean look normal ).. Everyone there has their sad story behind, some even abandoned by their families...

Now it's already the end of my semester and I'm finally free of exam ! Flashing back my 4 years memories in university, I really miss all those wonderful moments with my friends. Maybe some of them I don't really have chance to talk much and know further with , but I do thanks them for being my friends in part of my life. If you ask me what is the greatest things I learned in my university life, I would tell you it's 'How to manage the relationship with people and EQ' . I have met different types of people in university and find out the toughest subject we need to learn in lifelong time is the relationship with people, how to deal and manage with different types of people from all walks of life. I grow and develop a lot during my 4 years life, making myself well-prepared to the big society world outside. And for sure another things I treasured a lot is the friendship I gained during my university life, I would cherish the moments I spend with my friends even though it would be difficult for us to gather around in the future.
Lastly, just hope to wish all my friends all the best for their future undertakings and take care always =)

Counting down in rainy days

2009-11-22T00:00:00.000+08:00

It's rainy season now in Malaysia as year end is drawing nearer. In Kelantan, the monsoon season has just arrived. Sometimes the rains poured heavily nonstop for days , flooding many areas in Kelantan. I love rainy days though it might give a gloomy and moody feel for most of us. Besides sleeping, rainy day is a good day for me to reminiscence and contemplate. I love to listen to the sounds of nature like waves bouncing and beating on sands and the sounds of rain...That's the main reason I like sitting besides the seaside alone or lying down on the beaches watching the sparkling stars up sky. These nature sounds make me feel calm, mind-relaxing which rejuvenate me.

In the night of rain now, I'm counting down the time for my flight to Beijing . I have found something new for my semester break- aiesec exchange program . Refreshing back about the application process, I feel myself is rather crazy haha... I came aross this project 1 week before my study week, so without thinking, I was so 'rajin' filling up all the particulars and got my CV done within few hours in the mid night as the authorities is waiting for me to submit my CV for the next day interview session. Since they insisted me for attending the interview face-to-face in Penang, so I was absence the next day for sure as I was still in Kelantan that time . I arranged my time and made a 1 day tour to Penang just for the 15min interview the day after I reached my hometown on the commencing of study week. Luckily I passed the interview smoothly . Initially I opted for an developmental internship in countries like Poland, Turkey, but due to the limitation of projects holding there by that period, so I decided to change to China.

Basically there are a few types of internship available:

1. Developmental

2. Management

3. IT

4. Language teaching

For management and IT internship, we even have the chance to work in big company like Nike, Microsoft etc.Since my field of study is not related to management, so I could just choose between developmental or language teaching for my intern. There are lots projects going on throughout the year worldwide. We could join the internship anytime in the year before we reached 30 years, provided that there's some suitable projects matching with our criterias, personal skills and abilities.If the project's authorities is willing to accept you while you are interested in the same project as well, a match is formed.

Usually we just need to pay for our travelling fees, some projects do offer free accommodation and meals like mine, some would pay you a monthly salary to cover your expenses there. The duration of internship is min 6 weeks to a year which lies on the project itself .

So, I would be away for ' Dare to Dream' project in China for 6 weeks furing the semester break. It is a quite meaningful project, which aims to motivate the children in Sichuan to dream and have a better view of outside world after the drastic earthquake last year. We hope to lit the hope and dream inner them by organising a series of program like Winter camp for children there. Thus, I would be in Beijing for few weeks for preparation while the rest of time spending together with children at Sichuan. I had chosen this project over the HIV awareness project as I have always wished to help the people in Sichuan besides donating to them after the earthquake.

Hope I will enjoy myself there ^^

Last day at Kelantan

2009-11-21T22:48:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was my last day at Kelantan after 3 months stay at Murni. Most of my friends have already waited for the day to come since long times ago, how much they hope they could escape this 'boring' state as soon as possible, haha..

For me, I did feel a bit reluctant to leave. Well,the hostel at usmkk might not be as nice as the one we have in main campus, the campus is not as large as in Penang, the state is not as interesting and full of entertainment like Penang, but I like the friendly and warm people here, perhaps it's the different of big city and developing city.

The person I would certainly miss the most is my rOoMate! I 'm always quite lucky to have nice and caring roomates since my matriculation life, really appreaciate it. My cute roomate-Mimi makes me feel warm and comfortable staying in Murni especially when I haven't get adapted to the room here. We laughed together, and sharing all things happening everyday. She is a very considerate person which comfort and care for me in her own way when I cried myself for hours in the room. ( Mimi, sorry that I still make you worried about me in your last week here, and forgive me for not being able to tell you the truth )

Right after the exam in the morning, I had a great time having lunch and playing snooker with my friends. Thanks Cj for teaching us so patiently as the rest of us know nothing about how to play snooker , instead he still can bear with us as we are damn slow learner and player =p

At night, the whole bunch 16 of us went for trio dinner+supper at Song Phan Mai restaurant, Satay Malaysia and Red Bean Cafe. The thai restaurant, Song Phan Mai is located at a quite hidden place besides a river, but it's so great that they had a table big enough to accommodate 16 of us and nice food !Satay Malaysia Restaurant is quite famous in Kelantan, nearby airport. We were stunned by the numbers of cars parked outside the restaurant! The satay taste good as well =)

Last station we went to Red Bean Cafe for some dessert, but sad that most of the famous food of the shop had already sold out by the time we reached. Recommend you guys the red bean paste with tang yuan and 'Ba bao bin' !

Millions thanks to all my friends at usmkk for showing us around ,I enjoyed the moments we spent together and will certainly miss all of you here ('',) Good bye Kelantan

Life in Kelantan 4

2009-11-20T16:29:00.000+08:00

Forget which museum is this ~

Let's talk about the place of interest in Kelantan after all those eating stuff =p
Basically, there are not much places to visit here, the most famous one would be all the Wat and beaches.

We visited 4 of the famous Wat (Buddhist temple ) here during our stay here.
1. Wat Photivihan (Tumpat)
It is the most famous Buddhist temple in Kelantan . It contains the biggest statue of the
Reclining Buddha in Southeast Asia. The statue - which measures 40 metres long, 11 metres
high and nine metres wide - was completed in 1979.

2. Wat Machimmaram (Tumpat)
The main attraction here is the sitting buddha which is believed to be the second largest in
Southeast Asia- 30 metres high and 47 metres wide

3. Wat Mai Suvankhiri (Tumpat)
This is one of the most beautiful Wat we got to visit. The uniqueness of this temple is it is
placed in a large replication of dragon ship with 2 dragons guiding at the entrance.

4. Wat Phothikyan (Bachok)
This is the Wat that I liked the most among others. There is a 100 foot high standing Buddha
which is just opened to public in June 2009 and a Kuan Yin temple facing the South China sea
nearby.

Besides that, We also visited the "Kampung Kraftangan" where you could search for some souvenirs there. But it might be due to the renovation going on, there is not much to see there and all of us claimed that we entered the museum along mopping the floor using our foots and trousers haha ..( coz it's really very dusty inside =p) It's a regret that we did not able to visit the 'Gelanggang Seni" which there will be some cultural shows from February-September every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

For beaches, I just went to 2 famous beaches , namely Pantai Cahaya Bulan and Pantai Irama. Personally, I would think that Pantai Cahaya Bulan is much cleaner and the sand is softer. But
if you compared those to beaches in Terengganu , I think the latter one is far more better, so nothing much special to describe about the beaches here. Most of the university students like to watch sunrise in the beaches here.

Some of us went to a few waterfalls in Kelantan, all crowded with people, they even brought their own barbecue equipment and roasting all those meats while picnicking...

We even went across the border to terengganu 's to a nearby 'air kolam panas' , but the place is so disappointing haha....
For shopping, you can opt for Rantau panjang or Pengkalan Kubor. If you have time, you can have a look at Pasar Siti Khadijah, variety of things and food selling things, quite nice if you havent been there before .
Visited one of the kite making house, wow...all the wau are damn expensive, the one shown in the picture costs RM500! The smallest one also costs around RM50, just can be 'watched ' without buying =S

Life in Kelantan 3

2009-11-17T20:11:00.000+08:00

Initially most of us come to kelantan wishing to slim down and save some money since there's not much entertainment, but in fact, the real scene turned out to be totally different!

We gained more weight but sampling so many delicious food here and in the mean time burning a hole in our pocket =S...

September and October are the peak season for birthday among our coursemates, I can't really remember how many of them born in these two months and how many times we had celebrated the birthday for everyone of them ....that's one of the main reasons we got broke here haha...

Almost every weekend we will go out hunting food ( coz it's really too bored in the hostel). There are many Thai restaurants here , if would like to get non halal chinese food, Kebun Sultan would be the choice.This is white house, a place for breakfast ( nasi dagang) and supper.

Another restaurant which is recommended by 'Ah Xian' is Chiang Mai restaurant at Tumpat.

Fried bees and worms

Fried Pork Arm ( Thumb-up for this , yummy!)

Fried prawn with cashew nuts, recommended by chef

Four Season restaurant, erm still ok for the dish but slightly expensive for the services haha...

Guangf Ling Restaurant , not bad !

There are much more photos which could been viewed from my facebook as we went to many reaturants and most of the dishes were finished eaten up before any pictures are capture haha=p

Life in Kelantan 2

2009-11-16T21:36:00.000+08:00

Heard about the name of Kelantan, I bet most of the comments are negative for this place eg conservative, islamic, dead boring place, no entertainment at all etc. Talk about my views for this place after 3 months stay, I do like the place in which the people here are more warm and friendly than those big cities like penang. For sure the culture here are a bit different from other states as it is the only states which follow the Islamic law strictly. There are a few differences that we need to adapt ourselves:

1. Learn to say kurang manis when you order any drinks. We need to adapt our taste buds here since most of the food especially the drink and kuih here are sweet in nature. Kelantanese food makes more use of coconut milk than anywhere else as well.

2. Most of the restaurants are closed on Friday especially during noon time, so be sure to check out the operation time if you don't hope to go bang on a 'closed' sign.

3. Most of the supermarkets and petrol station closed during the noon time around 1pm-2pm, so make sure you don't get closed inside the hypermarket.

4. There are no cinemas or any KTVs here, only a bowling and snooker court in KB mall. Other than that, you can choose to exercise, strolling along the beach, enjoying the sunrise and sunset at seasides.

We were considered quite lucky to have come here during fasting months as we got the chance to sample variety of local kuih-muih at pasar Ramadhan. Kelantan is famous for its kuih in which some of it can only be seen in Kelantan. Among those are Kuih Akok, Taik itik, jala mas etc...

This is Akok, which is the kuih that I prefer among others . It's make of egg without egg yolk part and preferably duck egg for less wrinkles haha....
Actually there are lotz more kuih that are only seen here, but I forget the names as there are really too many haha

Others famous in Kelantan is Nasi dagang, make up of white and red glutinous rice blended with coconut milk, so just consume a small portion you will be extremely filling.It is usually served with fish or curry chicken. ( Can try at Kuang Ning or white house in the morning)

The nasi kerabu in Kelantan is mostly white rice with local herbs, veges which is different from the dyed-blue rice in Terengganu. The colouring comes from a type of blue flower. This rice is usually served with fried fish, keropok, solok lada and budu.

I tried a Thai version of nasi kerabu which makes up of thirty plus of herbs mixed into a greenly looked rice.(Located at Jalan Wakaf Mek Zainab). Personally I don't really like the taste, it's a bit salty, but the asam laksa and laksam there are great!
This is the Laksam, for laksa, a must to taste!

Besides that, ayam percik is also one of the main attractions here. It's clipped using bamboo ang grilled with charcoal, dressed with coconut gravy. The most famous shop selling it is Yati ayam percik located at Jalan Long Yunus. But for me, it's just ordinary ayam percik haha..

Other special food are nasi berlauk, nasi sumatera ( must try !) and steam rice.

Life in Kelatan

2009-10-30T22:53:00.001+08:00

It's has been ages since my last updates here . Sorry guys, i have been too lazy during the past few months till my blogs growing tall tall weeds here haha. It has been 3 months since my stay in Kelantan. Basically i do enjoy the life a lot besides the clerkship. We have been to 7 different pharmacy departments namely
1. TDM unit (therapeutic drug monitoring)
2. TPN unit (total parenteral nutrition)
3. Oncology unit
4. Management unit
5. Outpatient unit
6. Satellite pharmacy unit
7. Drug Information unit

Had been quite busy during the 7 weeks of clerkship as we were assigned 4-5 assignments to be done in 5 days for each units. But on the other day we did have a lot of new exposure and hands on experience on what we have learned in the theory. If you ask for how I feel after the 7 weeks of clerkship, I could tell you that I was a little disappointed for my own profession. I feel that it's really quite bored working in the hospital, at least not the job i wished to have, and furthermore, I feel that pharmacists are not playing an active and crucial role in the hospital setting, which makes me feel that we can't really applied what we have learned so much in the 4 years studies.
Another shocking news that disappointed me is the high possibility of an allowance reduction of RM750 from pharmacists' salary starting next year. This shows how our profession is being sidelined by our government where in the mean times other countries have recognized the importance of pharmacist profession in their countries.

Haha back to the title about my life here. Everyone of us regardless of races has build a closer rapport here. We have been so close among course mates since coming here, maybe due to the limited numbers of us here ( around 6x students)

my groupmates during clerkship

Half of my batch who went to Kelantan in 1st sem

Having a great time barbecuing at one of the lecturer's house in HUSM

USMkk, kelantan

2009-08-29T12:41:00.000+08:00

It has been 1 week I'm in Kelantan USMkk since last friday. The first thing that shocked us was the hostel upon our arrival. We were divided into 3 hostel, nuriani( the new hostel), murni (the oldest hostel) and Lot 10 ( shoplots opposite USM for boys). 13 of us were being aggregated in Murni hostel including me. It was far far more different than the hostel I was staying in USM main campus, erm...if we really want to rank it, my hostel in USM Penang is a 6 star hotel while Murni hostel is no star ranking type. It was the worst hostel that I had seen, even worst than any of the old hostel in the main campus and hostel in UM, UKM. This was my first impression to the hostel. Most of my friends can't stand with the hostel even for a night and they used the word 'dahsyat' to describe the room and washroom. Some of them even cried during the 1st night. So the next day, they got to find a house outside the campus, and 9 of them moved out from the hostel. They rather pay more for it than staying in this damn hostel.

For me after 1 night, I found that the room is still ok as I already got adapted to it. It was not that worse as what I have mentioned for my 1st impression. The hostel is a very convenient one as it's near to the nice cafe, library, hospital, printing and photostat shop. I'm indeed quite lucky to get nice roomates as well.

Actually the room is very small, on the right hand side is occupied by 1 person, the other half on the left is shared by 2 persons. It will be much better for 2 person to share the room rather than 3. The thing that is I don't like that much is the study table behind the door. We can't open the door too big as it will knock on the chair of the study table as the space is simple too narrow, damn stupid design.

The standard and condition of the hostel is really not that good compared to main campus, quite pity with the students staying here. No brooms, dustbin etc provided. Aihz, this is so called Apex university's hostel. I think it will frighten students from abroad if there'any exchange students here,wakaka..

Many friends have asked me about the life in Kelantan here. Erm...there are not any Chinese food around USM, only a vege stall in my hostel cafe. During Friday, it is damn hard to get food. All the stalls are closed on friday nearby here. Even KFC 24 hr only opens after 3pm. Many of the restaurants in town are closed on Friday too. So most of the students here just makan maggie or bread for Friday lunch.

As known , there's no entertainments here. No cinema, no KTv. Luckily still got bowling and snookering at KB mall,haha....Most of the Chinese restaurants here are Halal wan...so I guess it's really damn difficult to get pork containing food here =p

15 Malaysia

2009-08-20T01:46:00.000+08:00

Came across the title 15 Malaysia quite some times recently, but I have not really watch any of them till one of my friends sent me the film through Msn.

15Malaysia is a short film project. It consists of 15 short films made by 15 Malaysian filmmakers. These films not only deal with socio-political issues in Malaysia, they also feature some of the best-known faces in the country, including actors, musicians and top political leaders. You may think of them as funky little films made by 15 Malaysian voices for the people of Malaysia. [quoted from facebook]

I just watched 'Chocolate' and 'Potong Saga', thumb up for the films and hence recommend you guys out there who haven't watch it to make a move now for it! You can watch it in www.15malaysia.com or in youtube . Interesting and yet containing many metaphors inside...worth to watch it!Looking forward to the remaining films to be put on web soon ~

忆一位法侣

2009-08-20T00:42:00.000+08:00

刚刚突然听到一个让我晴天霹雳的消息，我一位陪我走过三年佛学道上的法侣要在一个月后剃度了。。。早在一个星期前其实我也略有所闻了，但当时她母亲还未答应，所以我万万也想不到这一切会来的那么快。。。
犹记得我们相识于大一，混得较熟则是大二的辅导员培训课程，而真正变得要好是在大三，只因我们被分派为同一班的辅导员，一起策划带班活动，一起走过甜酸苦辣的日子。其实她并不是我第一位所认识的出家朋友，但却是与我比较亲近要好的一位。我还记得我们曾经抱在一起痛哭的时候，她因为我落泪而陪我一起哭，当时我真的好感动。。。
一起走过的这一年不凡许多不愉快理念不同的时候，但我们都一一克服了。很感谢她与另一位伙伴的体谅与扶持，让我能在课业喘不过气来时为我分担，让我无带班之忧。。。而他们也是我第一次亲自做卡感谢的人。
毕业前，她还对我说会先工作一两年以还清贷学金，尔后她会成为全职的弘法人员，让更多人能体验佛法。。虽晓得她是我们一群人当中其中一位精进有加的，但一切都对我而言太突然了，在写着这篇文的当儿，我的心情是五味杂然的，忆起以往的中中泪水已在眼眶里不停打转。。。好多疑问在我脑海里浮现，究竟是什么原因让她会突然下此重大决定？我知道自己应该为朋友感到开心，若这是她所向往的，但不知何故伤感之意依旧涌现。。。好想在她剃度前再见她一面，明天我就要起程到吉兰丹了，我来得及会她吗？无论如何，朋友，我都会祝福你的，愿你法喜充满，安详快乐。

无题

2009-08-18T21:12:00.000+08:00

在这24小时里其实心情是低落沉闷的。。。好多事情都是我自己在钻牛角尖吗？我自己也不晓得，是自己太执著吗？

在这胡乱写写只是纯粹宣泄一下。。。还几次我都会自个儿驾着车漫无目的的在逛。。。多希望海边是与我毗邻的，那我就能在海风吹袭下静静聍听海浪声。。。

我喜欢在被烦恼纠缠时自己静静一个人思考，聍听海浪声或仰望夜空中的星星。。。但这在我家乡里似乎是遥不可及的，所以我好想念沙巴的海，沙巴那不受灯光污染的星空。。或者是身处一片大草原中过着田园生活。。。

回归现实，我还是继续去寻找一个可以在夜里让我可以独处的地方吧，或许在梦境里可以实现！

Last few days in Penang with friends

2009-08-18T20:34:00.000+08:00

Photos taken after the match last Saturday. One of my friend 'fly aeroplane' that day, another was so unlucky to hurt his waist few minutes before the match started. During this sem, we just managed to have the match twice due to the super packed busy schedule of our syllabus...sad sad...gonna miss it our badminton kaki at Kelantan later =p
After the match, we had our makan trip at Bukit Merajam( crazy team we having to drive there 30min across the bridge just for dinner,haha). Thanks for Viv leading us for the dinner. Nice char koay teow under the tree, Hokkien mee etc at the Tua pek Kong..

A weird combination for singing K,haha....we always come out with weird and surprising team for hanging out or travelling, this is our style,wakaka...Actually we have cancelled the ktv session since some of us can't make it initially and many of them rushing back home after the quiz, then while I was packing in room, messages came in in Msn, so this is how the group was formed in 5 minutes time for this KTV slot,muahaha..
The last time to sing K in Penang this sem, the ulu Kelantan dun have cinema nor ktv there....wondering what I could do there to spend my plentiful free time,lolz..

Convocation 09

2009-08-18T19:48:00.000+08:00

Hi all, don't be misunderstand by the title, it's not my convo yet, it's all my good friends convo this year. There are more than 30 friends of mine graduating in the convocation last week, congratulate them ! Quite broke now for all the convo presents,haha... Just manage to take some pictures with some of them as all of them were too busy and surrounded by my society members....

Family photos with my direct seniors and juniors

Sorry for those friends that I miss your convocation as I was having class during that time =p
Congratulate for my friends at UM too (poh kuan, kaitian, ailing, weixin, CT, geetha etc)!
Miss some of the big group photo session together, but I'm glad to see all those happy faces in facebook, how grand it was when we sang the theme song together under the tree,how everyone of you are thrown up the sky ,everyone looking at us, haha...I will cherish the moments we spent together, all the best for all of you !

steamboat gathering 2009

2009-08-18T19:28:00.000+08:00

Last Thursday night, finally we were free, so our batch held the last gathering dinner at 火锅之家. This was actually the last gathering for this semester before part of us going to Kelantan on this friday. Although not all of us able to make it that day, but the gathering still turned out to be a great one !

Just some of the pictures posted here, many more in facebook by my friends =p
I did like gathering like this as it increases the rapport between us of the batch, should have it more, haha....Can't remember when is the last time our coursemates gathered together for meal, erm... i guess is the 'tuan yuan fan' for CNY...
The food for the steamboat is just ok, but the egg tarts are the best! Wah, i love it so much, how I wish I could dapao back, freshly baked egg tarts, make my saliva dripping now recalling !

After the dinner, some of us continue with the movie G.I Joe at Queensbay mall. The first time we watched the movie in such a rush. We bought the 10pm show time movie at 10pm, entered the hall at 10.15pm after eveyone arrived...luckily still in time haha...
Friendship forever my friends!

Rapid Penang Treasure Hunt

2009-08-07T12:06:00.000+08:00

Since class started, I have been packed with lecturers from morning 8am till 10pm at night, weekends are stuck with all day long case study. This resulted in my blog 'growing grass' for about an month,haha...Last Saturday, finally I manage to squeeze out some time to relax. Joining the treasure hunt was just coincidence. It all started when i received email from my buddy regarding the hunt, actually it the dateline has just passed when I read the mail , but due to my determined characteristic, I still managed to register as participant haha ( friends close to me will sure know that I often come out with something shock in a sudden,wakaka)

There were 2 pairs of us joining as 2 team. Early in the morning we got ready to set off the hunt. Throughout the whole hunt, we were only allowed to use Rapid Penang bus. There are 2 main locations , one centred around Padang Kota Lama and the other at Ferringhi Beach side. There was 4 stations in total. On our 1st stop at one stop shopping mall, we were given 6 questions and 2 treasures to be found out. We need to study the sentence and get the clue from each to lead to the final answer. The answer is actually one of the sign board at that place. When we got the questions, both of us was just stunned as we did not know any of it haha...It was raining heavily that day, added on some element besides the tense atmosphere.
Example of question: It's not a plane, it's not a bird. No ! It's something in between.
Answer: Jatayu airlines

We can't drag too much time at the first point, so we just simple wrote some answers after an hour , passed the answer sheet to marshal and rushed for the next station. This time it was at the beach side at Batu Ferringi,3 challenges. First, we need to ride on a big size motorbike ( some sort of like it, vehicle we could rent at seaside) and race for the fastest time. Secondly, we need to compete on dart. And lastly the questions again. But this time the questions are not as tough as the first station.

3rd station, given an hour to solve 4 IQ questions, it 's some sort of arranging the matches, chess etc. We just managed to solve 2 in allocated time. I was still waiting for them to email me the answer on how to solve the other 2, really curious about the solution.

At the 4th station, we need to hit the golf, play basketball, walk hunt and photo hunt. Walk hunt is walking in certain areas to spot the answers while photo hunt is snapping the right photos for the clue given.Still, the walk was a bit tough for us. Besides all the 4 stations, we need to solve 2 buzz puzzle in the time between we travel to another station.

Above is 1 of the IQ question, need to reaarange the coins into the 2nd sequences, you are only allowed to move in a horitanzontal line, everytime you move, you must move with a big and a small one sticking together. Try it out! The answer is just 4 steps!

We ended all the task and return to Gurney around 7.30pm, had our dinner prepared under the rain and rushed for the prize giving ceremony. The champion team won RM5000 cash with firefly tickets, first runner up RM 3000 cash, second runner up RM1000 cash. Actually we were attracted by the prizes initially when we joined the contest also ( can buy a PDA if we got to win haha..) Both of our team did not win any prizes for sure, as all others participants and the winner were all experienced old man. I bet they had joined this kind of competition various times and very well verse in it already. We were joking that all of the winners had 'pakat' adi one, as they seems knowing each others when on stage,haha...
But it was really a good experience and indeed an eye opener for us as a beginner

Some simple warming up questions for you guys to figure:

Q1 Part Ten
Step 1:keyword no keyword
Step 2: “part” bit,duty,allot,dissect,sever,role,etc and ten can be written as x
Step 3:Look for any of the above.
Step 4: ROLE + X
Step4 : answer is ROLEX

Q2 Sounds like we are asking the lady to give us a lift
Step 1:keyword sounds
Step 2: so the answer sounds as if we are asking the lady to give us a lift
Step 2: other words for LIFT is ELEVATOR
Step 3:Look for Elevator
Step 4:we see MS Elevators (sounds like Miss, elevate us)
Step 4: answer : MS Elevators

Q3 One in my transformer
Step1:keyword : in
Step2: “one” IN my = M ONE Y
Step 3: transformer= changer
Step 3: look for Money Changer
Step 4:answer is MONEY CHANGER

Q4 Malaysian Postal Service , initially
Step1:keyword : initially
Step2: Initially can indicate the first letter of the words that follow.
Step 2: In this case its M P S
Step3: look for MPS
Step 4:answer is MPS

Q5 Don’t have locally
Step1:keyword : locally
Step2: locally means that we have to look for answers in Bahasa
Step 2: Don’t “ have” in Bahasa is Tak ada
Step3: look for Takada
Step 4:answer is TAKADA

Q6 Pass on when I leave
Step1:keyword : leave
Step 2: O it could mean that when I leave we have PASS ON
Step 2: Could be PASSION
Step3: PASSION – I = PASS ON.
Step4:answer is PASSION

H1N1 news

2009-07-04T12:38:00.000+08:00

New update ( 8th July): 35 cases confirmed
Up to date, there are total 15 cases of positive H1N1, 11 participants, 4 group leaders. Temporary there's not any one from USM is being infected. All of them are being quarantined at Bakti hostel untill 8th July.
5 of the Indonesian girls are discharged today and flying back to Indon this evening.
There are still some of us waiting for the result of throat swab, others without any symptoms one are not tested by the hospital.
Hope everyone will be fine and no more increasing cases.
The 180 of us will be having an extra 1 week holiday till 13th July.

p/s: To all my friends, I'm currently still ok here, so don't worry so much. Thanks for all the messages and concern =)

H1N1

2009-07-03T13:27:00.000+08:00

Our program APPS 2009 would have ended nicely if without the cases of H1N1.On the last day of APPS before our Gala Night, we received a shocking news that 1 of our participants had been confirmed as H1N1 positive. We immediately halted all the event and checked the temperature of all participants,asking all of them to wear the mask.The air was so tense, everyone was panic by that time as those having sharing the same apartment need to be quarantined.

Actually we did check the temperature of all the participants everyday. The girl from Indon had been not feeling well since the 2nd day. We bought her to the Pusat Kesihatan of Usm and only got the result in the last day of our event. It was indeed a big challenge to us as if most of them are quarantined, we need to help them to postpone their flight which was on the next day.
The next day, the 2nd case was confirmed, a Malaysian girl which was not in the same room nor same group with the 1st case.

3rd case was the housemate of 2nd case. Whereas the 5 others cases are all close friends of 1st person. So total 8 cases confirmed up to this moment( 2.00pm). We are praying hard not to get the number increasing some more as there were almost 400 of us including the participants and committees. Some of us have direct contact with those 8 persons. It was really a good experience for us to learn how to handle all this emergency thing. We faced difficulty in informing all those involved as some of them can't reach by international call and they are scattered all over the world. A great challenge for us!

Meanwhile, we realised the action plan of M'sia in handling H1N1 issue is so unclear. We were scolded by the doctor when we tried to get the test done for some of the participants with fever and indirect contact with those +cases. The doctor in Penang GH even allow those suspected to go back to their own countries . Oh gosh, how come M'sia is so poor and terrible in handling such big pandemic influenza?Am curious when they are going to take thing seriously?Is it until there are death cases of H1N1? In fact all 400 of us should be quarantined to stop spreading the diseases.

Now, all the committees are ordered to self-quarantined at the hostel until 8th of July. We will be commercing the class on 13th July, which is a week later than others students. Maybe it is good also since all of us can have a longer break and rest well after the tiring week,haha...

APPS 2009

2009-07-03T13:22:00.000+08:00

Finally the event has come to an end on Wednesday. The 200 committees of us have been working so hard for the pass 1 year to make the 8th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) a success. We received 160 participants from all around Asia Pacific region (Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, Korea, Japan etc) , breaking the record of the number of participants for the pass few years.

This is the first time we are organising such a big event. Throughout the organising process, we did face a lot of challenges and obstacles. The first most important problem we faced was the financial problem. USD250 for each participant is certainly not enough to cover all the expenses for 1 whole week as the accommodation alone at hotel already consume a big sum, haven't include all those transportation, dinner at hotel etc. We did not get any sponsor from USM or even the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society, so basically we are standing alone . Luckily with the efforts of all committees, we managed to get the sponsors from the drug companies and others to make it through the event.

Since it was the first time for us to hold this prestigious event, we were all starting from 0, learning through the process. We had to think and figure out all the things by ourselves, the registration form and program prospectus alone had been editted more than 11 times. I 'm glad that we had a good team of role players . Me myself was amazed by the events itself such as the Global Village Night. I bet that it was one of the most interesting and fascinating event that I have ever joined. The performances were really a good one, all of the committees of it had put in so many efforts to learn all different cultures performances from different ethnics though we had only limited time. The slide show of the night was really so great, I didn't know that we had such a great team of technical for doing the slide show, nearly like professional standard.
To my surprise, the booklet of APPS which was designed by my direct junior was praised by so many of the lecturers and VIPs. As his senior, I did not even know that my junior was such talented in doing this. It was really a good piece of job, not an ordinary boring booklet like any other event , but full of innovation and creative.

Basically all the programs for the past 7 seven days went smoothly. I was dead exhausted for the past 10 days, sleeping only 2-3 hours per day. We encountered problem needed to be solved everyday, waking up having heart attacking news. It was really a great challenge to us, having to scratch our heads, figuring the solution of every complaints and problems arise unexpectedly.
I learn a lot throughout this whole year organising process, especially during the 1 week of APPS. All those minors things we need to be careful and take note of although it seems not important. Especially for the protocol of every event, we need to be extremely alert of as there were so many VIPs including those from overseas. I certainly enjoyed all the things although I was really exhausted.

p/s: for my friend who wish to know more about this event can surf our official website at www.usm.my/apps2009

Sum up of the trip

2009-06-22T01:50:00.001+08:00

Finally I have finished updating all about my trip. It took quite some times as I was simply too lazy to upload all those photos, haha..

Personally I do like Sabah for its beauty of nature and rich culture. I like back to nature type travel as it relaxes my mind looking at those greeny scenery. Besides that I love to experience the cultures of different etnic, so backpacking is more suitable for me as I can spend more time to stay at certain places or even homestaying to be really involved in their daily activities.During this trip, we visited quite a numbers of islands as Sabah is famous for its beautiful islands. It's nice to lay on the hammock ,listening to the patting of waves on the shores.

I think sometimes I did act a bit weird during the trip, which has frightened my friends I guess. I like to be quiet sometimes, since all of you claiming I'm too noisy,haha... I like to be alone certain times, reminiscing or thinking myself. It 's not that I'm not in a good mood, just that sometimes I prefer to be alone....In some cases I reallywas in an annoying mood , so I just walked away to cool myself down , or certain times I just don't wanna affects others.My friends thought that I' having depression,haha...

There are fews things that we learnt from the trip:
1. Check the car before you rent you, if not things occured on our 2nd day will happen to you
2. If you are planning for islands hoppings,I mean a few islands, it's better to bring your own snorkelling set ( if not you would need to rent it everytime, RM15-20)
3. Sun block is super super important
4. Wear those long sleeves diving suit for snorkelling, if not you will end up becoming charcoal like me,haha
5. Be prepared for riding bus on those bumpy and rocky roads. (No highway there) Plus, the bus system is slightly different from us , too many bus stops/stations ,make you confused where you are~

Basically, we did not really follow the itinerary that we had planned earlier on, we have added in many places to visit, but luckily we still managed to keep the budget under controlled. The next destination I hope to visit is Surat Thani, Thailand. I hope to go there with my parents as that place is suitable for them to relax , especially my dad.

I came across an organization named Contiki recently. They can help us to arrange for the accomodation and bus services. We can choose vary types of accomodation, ranking of those 5 stars hotel, to homestay, or camping etc .It 's all depend on what type of experience you would like to have and also your budget. It's only for 18-35 years old adults. The tour guide which is on the same range of age will provide all the info when you reach the place and you can arrange your itinerary yourselves with bus services provided. There will be many others tourists from different countries to join in, so we will have the chance to know others.Sounds nice, some more it's main on Europe countries, so maybe I will consider joining it ,haha...

Hiking KK mount

2009-06-21T03:44:00.001+08:00

Finally our last destination-KK mount. Due to some circumstances, we arrived at the starting point late and started off around 11am . A young couples from India joined in our group. They were friendly and nice couples working at Singapore, we still kept in touch now.

We started off using the Mesilau trail.

Group photo before departing

All 6 of us were separated on our way up the hill. One of my friends cramped an hour after we started the hike. So the guide left us walking in front while he accompanied my friend to walked in a slow pace behind us. Later , 3 of us were far in front as the India couples were a bit too slow and kept resting. We can't waited and rested for too long as we need to get up the place we stayed before 7.30pm and the before the sky grow darker.

Luckily we managed to reached our hostel around 6.15pm. It was so cool and tiring. The only motivation to move us forward along the way was just our mental strength. I felt like just slept on the way uphill, moving out a step took me a few seconds. We all walked like old granny in 'tongkat' during the last 2 km up the hill.Oh ya, there were many squirrels in the hill, so bad I did not manage to take any pictures of that.

It was already sunset when we reached the hostel . We rushed down to a hostel below to have our dinner as the dinner time will be over at 7.30pm. We packed some foods for the India couples as they reached there almost 8.30pm .

Right after the dinner, we got on the bed . The weather was damn cool and chilling, even wearing a thick jacket still made me feeling cool.We woke up at 2.30am to prepare for the hike to the peak at 3am. We did not go down the hostel for supper as it was quite far from us and we were simply to cool to move any.

We started off in the dark. Soon after, I was separated from my friends, due to some misunderstand and too many people kept moving forward. Left with no choice, I had to clmin the peak following others people as it was damn scary standing alone in the middle of night not knowing where my friends were. I was indeed quite lucky as the guy I followed was a young student guide that guided me a lot. Thanks to him for nonstop hiking, I managed to reached the peak early at 5.15am. Felt so great as we were among the few that arrived earliest top the peak. It was just a small place at the peak.

Pictures taken half way up. Super cool!

Finally I reached the peak, uhoo!

Waiting at the peak for sun rise. But so sad, we did not manage to view it that day as the cloud has blocked the sun. However, the scene at the peak there was really significant .

I was to have known many friends up there as I was kept asking help from others to take pictures for me.

I went down the peak with an uncle since my friends were still missing. Tips to my friends that wish to hike KK next time, remember to wear a thick jacket, thick trousers, thick gloves, and mask. Because it was really really cool up there. Don't forget to have some training before the hike. Even though it's not the most difficult mountain to hike compared to Gunung Tahan all that, but it was very tiring and mental exhausting,haha...Nice hike.

Trip to Sabah-Kundasang & Ranau

2009-06-21T03:15:00.001+08:00

We boarded a van to Kundasang and Ranau in the late evening 2 days before our hike to kk mount. It's the gateway to hike kk mount, so we spent 2 nights resting at Ranau to rejuvenate enough energy for the climb.It was a 2 hours drive from KK to Ranau. Between Kundasang and Ranau just roughly 30 minutes journey or less. Kundasang is a highland surrounded by mountains, with lots of mist at night and chilling air. It is just like the Cameron Highlands in West Peninsular where agriculture one of the main economic activities eg growing vege, strawberry, tea etc. But there's nothing much in Kundasang, even shophouses are rarely to be seen, just some resorts and houses. So we have all our meals at Ranau.

We visited the Kundasang War Memorial , a small memorial with nothing much to see.

Besides that, we paid a visit to the Sabah Tea Farm and withnessed ourselves the processes of tea making. ( Not to make you guys bored, so I won't put the processes here=p) But for me, the tea farm in Cameron Highlands has a far more nicer view,haha...You can choose to bike up the mountain here, or have some team building activities.

Before we had our dinner, we went to the Poring Hot Spring where there are a few waterfalls , trekking trails and canopy walk.

Soaking ourselves in the smelly sulphurous hot water ~

The people in Ranau are all quite friendly and nice. In the morning before we started off our journey, I went searching for any car renting service. The people there are so warm , even wanna offered me a ride to the place for car renting. Later while I was waiting for the confirmation of car renting in a restaurant, an Uncle came approached me and started talking to me. Later he insisted on treating me my breakfast. But it was scary as well as I was alone that day, my friends has warned me not to kena tipu by 'Kam yu lou",haha..

Trip to Sabah-Survivor Island

2009-06-21T02:18:00.000+08:00

This was another new itinerary that we added in when we reached KK. Pulau Tiga, which is more known as the Survivor Island where the television program 'Survivor' took place in one of the series. It was famous for its mud volcano and snake island nearby. Although the scenery there was really nice, especially the sunset, but this island did leave an indelible mark for me as well as this was the place where I got stung by the jellyfish.

We went jungle trekking the whole evening and dip ourselves in the refreshing volcano mud.

Those beautiful sunset pictures recalled me how I was being stung. My friend and I was playing in the water, he had warned me earlier on to watch out for jellyfish as it was low tide that time. Aihz, I kena stung just when we were walking back after taking pictures in the water, I should have just gone up the shore without turning back to farer side to take pictures. Like what my friend claimed, perhaps that jellyfish was a male one, that's why it just stung me,haha..But now I knew how it felt like being stung by jellyfish. Should be grateful that it was not jellybox, which is very poison and has killed many people even in Sabah, just few minutes after the stung will kill. I suspected that the jellyfish that stung me was a sand jellyfish as I saw spots of sand -like things on my foot after I being stung. It was like fire burning on me once my feet touched the jellyfish, I jumped up to my friend immediately , feeling burning and painful. There was no medicines or doctors in the island, so I was just given some vinegar to apply before I could see a doctor the day after I got out from the island. But the vinegar did not soothe my pain , my feet was burning and painful the whole night, till I hardly fell asleep. Luckily I just kena on one of my feet, not leg or other parts. My leg swelled like 'pig's leg' , reddish for so many days even after seeing the doctor. Now the scar was still there, dunno when it will disappear, ugly black scar covering my whole feet, damn it~ How worried I was that time as there was only 4 days left before my kk mount hike.

Our delicious buffet dinner at Pulau Tiga resort.

After the dinner, we play the snooker and sing karaoko at the resort. This was my first time playing snooker, although some of my friends claimed that they were first-timer also( I guess they tipu wan as they are so 'pro'), but it seemed all of them knew how to play quite well, all the techniques ,rules all that , except me,haha....But I found it was very nice to play it, perhaps should practice more next time.

I searched some information about the jellyfish. Tips for you guys: If you are so lucky being stung, soak the part in the seawater, removed the tentacles using gloves . Can apply vinegar as well to prevent the neomycytes from releasing venom into the body, don't use tape water to wash it, it will just worsen it. For jellybox, you will feel suffocating , seek for doctor as soon as possible.

Trip to Sabah- Kudat

2009-06-21T01:08:00.000+08:00

Kudat- the 1st capital of Sabah and a place with beautiful beaches . It is the home for many of the Rungus etnic. It is the place that I miss a lot in my trip, I will certainly visit this place again in future.

Kudat is a small town 2 and a half hours journey heading to North from KK. Along the way up, we stopped by Tuaran, a small place to try the famous Tuaran Mee. Erm, the taste was still ok and quite nice.

The road to Kudat was really a bumpy one, with many rocks along the roads. We reached our first destination - Kampung Sumangkap Gong Factory in the late evening. The gong is the most important Rungus musical instrument which is played during festivities and grand occadions such as weddings. The gongs that are sold in Kampung Sumangkap vary in sizes. We also have the opportunity to witness the method of gong making by the gong makers in the village.

The biggest gong in the village

Next, we rushed for the Tip of Borneo for sunset viewing( the part of the ear of the dog's shape map ). The road to reach there was simply unbearable, all rocky roads , pity the Kancil 660 that we were driving, next time should have a 4-wheels car here. We managed to reach the tip just on time for the sunset. Sorry guys that I went mad there and nearly spoilt the nice view=p Since the sun was already setting when we reached, so we did not really have as much shots as we could as the sky was getting darker. The beaches along the tip was really nice and scenic, sad that we did have enough time to take pictures there.

We reached the Rungus longhouse late at night and tired.This is where we slept.

The food we have for dinner. It was delicious,typical home-cooked food of the Rungus. The unknown vege-picked from the jungle was quite nice and taste like grass.

The children showing us their traditional games using the bamboo sticks( paiseh I forget the name already) . We joined in after they demonstrated to us. It was quite fun, but exhausting as well, a good exercise for cuting weight as we sweated profusely after a few minutes playing,haha..

Taking pictures with the performers. They showed us their traditional dance and we urged us to join them at the end.

The Rungus women blowing the pipe using the nose .She was blowing the songs to show her love to the Mr Right.

Here's the Mr Right playing the musical instrument like guitar to his beloved one.
The next day morning, we walked around the longhouse and watching the women making those beads crafts. Rungus people are famous in making those beads. We bought some as souveniers as it was quite cheap and nice.

Next we bid farewell to the longhouse and visited the Gombizau Honey Bee Farm.

We have to wear the hat like this to avoid being stung by the bee.

See, this is the where the honey comes from.It was later cut into pieces and sampled by us. Tasted very sweet and felt like chewing chewing gum, it was elastic , i mean the bee comb.

On the way back, we stopped by Kota Belud-the cowboy town. But we did not have much time to view the Bajau etnic performing riding the horses and the rattan crafts making.We also stopped by a small water village along the way back.

Strongly recommend to my friend to visit Kudat to experience the culture and living style staying at the Rungus longhouse, not forgetting the beautiful sunset at Tip of Borneo.

Trip to Sabah-Padas Rafting

2009-06-21T00:12:00.000+08:00

On the 5th day of our trip, we went for rafting early in the morning. Sg Padas is the most adventurous and dangerous place for rafting in Malayisa, according to some of my friend. The rafting level is between 4-5 and many people died here before .

We travelled for 3 hours with half of the road uphill and our an crawling like turtle moving towards. We joined another 15 students from Unimas and UUM for this rafting to get a cheaper rate at RM140 per pax compared to normal price RM200. Upon reaching Tenom, we need to sit on a wooden plat to be moved uphill to the starting point by manpower as the train travelling there had been under repairing for 2 years after the frequent landslide there.

Here's the 'troley', moving using the stick.It's damn damn hot! We travel by the 'troley' for almost an hour more, and my butt was painful sitting,huh~~

Actually I really admired those natives that have fiigured out this way to replace the train temporarily. Along the way, I saw childrens sitting on this troley to go for school , the teachers were the one moving the troley under the sun. Salute those teachers that are so dedicated and resposible!

Finally we reached the starting point . After a short rest and some snacks, we started off around 1pm.

The rafting was a great one. This was my 2nd time rafting after Kampar river raft half year ago. The rafting took up a few hours as the river was really a long long one. We stopped by half way for lunch around 4pm. Damn hungry after breakfast at 7am.

Continued our journey after a full meal,hehe..Pictures of my group members.Others than those rapids, we could swim in the river. Or should I said 'pulled' into the river for countless times by tricking or simply being thrown outside the boat by my guide and members,haha..

Sg. Padas rafting can be described as the best one and most 'syok' in Malaysia for it numerous big rapids. For the first big rapid, everyone in the raft fell into the river except me( don't ask me why,haha). 1 of my friend who are phobia of water was terribly frightened, he hold on another friend's body and kept pulling her down. The scene was like my friend who know how to swim was being drowned by the one who froze there and think nothing except his parents,haha...(okok..stop laughing, my friend would like to kill me adi~~)

I didn't really feel the fun and got frightened till i fell off the raft during thebiggest rapid-the washing machine . I finally realised how it was the feeling of drowning and dying of suffocating. I was really so 'lucky' as I was the only one falling right into the eddy of the river. I just remembered the current kept pulling me downward and downward. I didn't have much time to think of the scary water as my shorts were nearly being pulled off by the strong current under. What's in my mind that time was tried to pull as hard as I could to hold my shorts, all the postures to hold myself into a ball that was taught by my guide was thrown behind my mind. Me myseld did not even know how long I was inside the water. Later did my friend told me that the guide and her was so worry about me as I was disappearing for so long under the water . My mind was really blank that time, just thinking of my shorts that were almost taken off by the currents and keep thinking of when can I go up above the water. Right after I got up the surface of the water, the 2nd current splashed on me and I went under the water again. Luckily I managed to got back to the raft after drinking so many water.( my advice : remember not to struggle when you are being pulled by the eddy, it will just make you drown and deeper faster)

After the end of all rapids, we board on a boat to be transfer back to Beaufort. It took us a few hours to be back on the shore. It was so dark in the river after sunset.

See all the tired faces!

Our guide-Amir. He was really a nice and funny guy, without him, our rafting won't be that much fun and joy. I bet our raft was the most noisiest one among the others rafts. We all miss him a lot! He is a fun friend to hang out with.It was already near 7pm when we got ashore. We headed back to KK town and reached Tune Hotel almost 10.30pm. A tiring day but surely is one of the most fun and memorable day in our trip.

Trip to Sabah -KK

2009-06-19T23:01:00.000+08:00

We have spent 3 nights at kk-the capital of Sabah.Two days after our Sandakan trip, another day after our kk mount hike before we headed back for KL.

For the 2nd night, we spent it at Tune Hotel, just RM8.10 per person per night as we booked it quite early during the promotional period. I miss the hotel a lot as it was really a nice one, new, clean,cheap and comfortable although the room was not that big. It was connected with One Borneo's shopping complex-the biggest in east Peninsular Malaysia. We did not really had a good look at the complex since we were short of time , but it was really quite big, all branded shops there.

Once we arrived at KK, we visited the Gaya Market , a weekly market that sold lotz of the local things . Right after that , we rushed to the jetty to catch for the 9.30am boat the Tunku Abdul Rahman Parks. The park consists of 5 small islands, we just visited Pulau Mamutik,Pulau Sapi and Pulau Manukan.In my opinions, I would rather prefer those islands at Sipadan site eg Mabul,Mataking etc. as it was more well-preserved and the coral there was nicer. The fish variety was not many, and most of the coral was dead since there are many tourists visiting the islands and killed the corals by touching them. For island like Sipadan there, it was farer from the mainland and most of the tourists go for diving there know how to take care of the creatures underwater. But the sandy beaches at Tunku Abdul Rahman park is nicer and softer than Mabul island. So the conclusion we got is ,next time just hop for island at SEmporna , there's no need for a second visit to Tunku Abdul Rahman Park,haha...instead we felt quite bored there without much fish to see.

In the evening , we toured around the University of Sabah. It's really big and the view is spectacular. It will so nice studying at such place, the hostels are like apartment up the hill, surrounded by trees, really a best place to study .

Special thanks to my friend's friends that purposely met us up and showed us around for the nice food and places.

Besides that, we had went to the Monsopiad Cultural Village in KK after the tour to Kudat. It is not a very big one compared with Sarawak Cultural Village. And the performances were just ok for me, but the guide from the village did explain quite well for us along the way. And I missed the chilled rice wine served in bamboo cup.

Picture with the performers

One of my friend trying the Sago's worm. It's still moving~~~ It tasted like coconut milk according to my friends,haha

Yummy food in Sarawak!

2009-06-07T00:24:00.000+08:00

From my previous post in my trip to Sarawak, I did not put any pictures of the delicious food I ate there since most of the photos are with my friend. So now guys, feel free to visit gohchoonfu.blogspot.com (May 21th post) to view the nice shots of the food. Guaranteed you guys will be having your saliva flowing over when you see the nicely arranged photos of all foods that we had tried of in Sarawak, editted by my artistic friend,wakaka...Miss the food so much!

Trip to Sabah-Sandakan

2009-06-05T22:54:00.000+08:00

On Day 3, we drove back Tawau in the late evening to catch the 8pm bus to Sandakan-the 2nd biggest city in Sabah. We reached there 7.30pm, busy taping the exzon for 'n' times to avoid the loud sound being detected by the owner temporarily, rushed to nearby stall to get a RM5.00 economic rice each. The things in Sabah is damn expensive, even if you just pick 3 veges also cost you the same rm5.00.

Oh ya one more thing is that we can't find any Gardenia bread here( in most areas) , Gardenia in Sabah is selling canned drink instead, I just got to know it by then,haha....

The bus that we board was quite new and comfortable. The bus tickets sellers there were damn terrible, we were surrounded by so many guys upon walking near the area during Day 1 , everyone was trying so hard to promote their bus , stucking all the name cards with you although you don't need that much,haha..so my advice is, don't go to the bus station area alone.

Back to the bus we board, there was plastic bag in each seat (for us to vomit I guess as the road was so bumpy without highway), the bus conductors distributed sweets to us and also the anti-emetic pills. It was so special for us as in West Peninsular or even Sarawak, there's no such services except giving a bottle of drink . After 4 hours, we were dropped off in the middle of somewhere in the midnight as the bus was not heading to Sandakan, so we need to stop another bus passed by to hoop on to Sandakan, weird system.Luckily without long, a bus stopped by and we got to continue our journey , or else we will end up standing besides roadside in dark.

The bus stopped by the hotel we booked, so we just dozed off after checking in. The next day morning, my friend's friend came to meet us together with her dad. We were so paiseh as her dad offered to bring us around the whole day. Actually only 1 of my friend knew her, we others 3 just meet her for the 1st time. After breakfast, we headed to the Orang Utan Sanctuary, but we missed the feeding time in the morning, so we decided to visit the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey 1st.

The next place we visited was the Rainforest Discovery Centre. It was a still under construction centre which offer a great spot for bird watching at the 150m long canopy walkway ,providing a spectacular view of the lush rainforest of Sepilok from 25m above the ground. The canopy walkway is great for bird watcher to get a dlimpse of some 250 species of birds including hornbills, kingfishers etc.

There's an exhibition hall which explains teh different type of rainforest in Sabah and the unique plants and animals they support.

A crocodile sample donated by the crocodile farm.

Besides the hall, there's a plant discovery garden which displays many types of plants and economic crops. A very nice and informative garden.

There's some discovery trekking trails to learn about the rainforest ecology, since we were in a rush so we don't spend much time to walk around it.

Subsequently, we rushed for our lunch and headed to Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary for the 3pm feeding time. Actually it's nothing much to see there, only 2 utans were seen plus whole bunch of monkeys.

Next we stopped by a large temple on the hill. The view there is quite nice with the blue sea behind. We ended our one day journey at Sandakan with our 2nd seafood meal. Right after the dinner we caught another bus to Kota Kinabalu. We reached KK around 2pm , and since we have no place to head to and we were allowed to stay in bus till morning, so we just slept in the bus till the sun rose in 6am.What to do, save budget,haha...

Trip to Sabah- Tawau, Semporna, Mabul Island

2009-06-05T15:05:00.000+08:00

Mabul Island

We started of our 12 days journey in Sabah on 20th by taking the early flight to Tawau-our first destination 3 of us arrived roughly near noon time due to the delay, we changed our plan by staying a night at Tawau town. We planned to visit the Tawau Hill Park, but ended up getting lost nowhere in the kampung. The villagers that directed us there had mistaken Bukit Gemok with Kampung Bukit Gemok, we can just laugh at ourselves,haha....So we ended up going nowhere in Tawau. Tawau was once a small coastal fishing village under the Sultan of Sulu until it was ceded to the North Borneo Company. Now it is a bustling town for the cocoa and palm oil plantations industry. Due to sesak jalan, we didn't manage to visit the Cocoa musuem also.
After my friend arrived in the evening, we had our 1st seafood dinner , a nice and cheap one, should have ordered more like Lobsters etc if we knew that Tawau's seafood is far more cheaper than in Kota Kinabalu.At night, we just played cards and having our nice supper-durian.

The next day, we headed to Semporna, a small town an hour away from Tawau and also the gateway to world's best dive sites,Sipadan, Kapalai etc islands. Initially we just planned for a day hoop on one of the island, but it started to rain when we reached there, and due to others cirsumstances we decided to stay a night at Mabul island. Sipadan island is too expensive for us, rm4xx, so we just chose Mabul island, opposite to Sipadan which is far more cheaper, RM160 for 4 meals, a night stay and snorkelling trip.Next time I must visit Sipadan and Mataking island after I learn diving,haha...

Oh ya, forget to mention about our back luck on the car rented. The stupid car made a large noise when we nearly reached Semporna, after checking we realized that the exzon pipe had broken ( actually there are a few broken and mending scar there, so it was not totally our fault to break it, perhaps it was rusted and already in a nearly-to-break condition when we rent the car). So what to do, we can just get some rubber tape to glue it,haha...

Pictures taken before we went to Mabul Island at Dragon Inn.
On the boat to Mabul Island
Clear crystal water of Mabul island. We can see the bottom of the sea from afar from the island, really amazing.

this is the place we stayed. There are all Bajau's etnic groups staying on the islands, so all the houses behind are Bajaus one.If you could stay longer in the island, one would get to know better of the culture of their group. From what other tourists told us, we have to watch out wen walking on the island as many of them still pass their motion in this land of nature. Some of them even got the chance to witness the wedding of Bajau etnic. The children there own their small little boat since they are small, you can see them fishing in the sea or join them in playing al those traditional games that seldom known by the city youngsters nowadays. We could get free fish from the boatman too if you see them passing by before they passed it to those sellers.

At first I thought it is some kind of chicken, later did I know that it can fly . It's bird.

Some of the budget accomodation that our agent supplied.

Actually Mabul , Kapalai and Sipadan do not really have nice beaches like West Peninsular Malaysia, but there are great for the underwater view. We did not have any waterproof casing, so can't show you guys how amazing and beautiful it is under the water. I bet that's the most beautiful underwater scene I have seen compared it in many islands in West Peninsular, even the islands on the other side of Sabah( Kota Kinabalu side, the West China Sea) is not as beautiful as the Celebras Sea side here. So if you are an avid fans of diving, or sea lovers, it is a must to visit here once in a life time, you will know how beauty it is the living creatures under the sea.

Back from Sabah

2009-06-05T14:44:00.000+08:00

It is the fifth day since I ended my trip to Sabah. Finally I have regained my energy after having rested for so many days. I felt the pain in every muscles on my legs the next day I came back for the trip, probably due to the climb to KK mount that make me exhausted. Luckily the pain just lasted for a day . My leg that has been stung by the jellyfish began to swell again , so I have to turn to a doctor for some medicine and cream again to hasten my recovery, really hate looking at my leg now, it is damn ugly,wuwu...don't know when it can fully recovered..

Returning from trip means I have to start working again for the upcoming APPS. There are whole bunch of loads waiting me to be done and settled upon coming back, feel so reluctant to check my mails and get all those messages and calls. I have lagged behind many things since it was inconvenient for me to serve the net during my 2 weeks trip.I guess I have a long list of to-do-list others than the event preparation, just feeling a bit lazy to get myself moved,haha....

My junior paid me a visit 2 days ago, so once again I be the tour guide to bring him around, but I think I was nor performing well for my task due to my tiredness,haha...bring you around again next time, and don't forget your treat for me when i visit Melaka next holiday ya =p

Sarawak trip- Miri & Mulu National Park

2009-05-18T20:51:00.000+08:00

Day 5
Another bad experience for us to travel for 8 hours by bus to Miri. There's no highway, so the bus was moving in those bumpy road, some times even the sandy or road with rocks. I don't really remember how many times the bus had stopped for each small town, what my advice to you is that, don't drink too much water before you board the bus! There 's no resthouse along the way, all I could see was the forest, trees , the only place you can get rid of the urine is the small bus station the bus stopped every 2-3 hours.
It was difficult for us to sleep, so we ended up chatting, talking nonsense for the last 3 hours before we could finally reached. In Sarawak, it is dark around 6 something in the evening, so can you imagine all those people kept going down the bus in the middle of the journey, in place i could only see darkness, trees, forests, I wonder where they stayed at ? some where in the middle of the jungle?

We spent our last 3 days in Mulu National Park. We board the Maswing to Mulu since there are only two means to reach there, either by plane or by 10 hours boat.It was the most expensive part of our trip I guess due to the airplane ticket. It just took us 25minutes to the Mulu airport, a very small one without air-conditioner.

Taken at the balcony of our hostel. Since it was really an 'ulu' place, our hostel only had electricity supply from 6.30pm-11.30pm, meaning that we can't have nap during noon time, have to be in bed before 11.30pm.

Here we are at the entrance of the headquarter and the hanging bridge. During the 1st day, we went to the Deer Cave and the Lang Cave. We had to trek around an hour to reach the caves. We saw a lots of creatures and unique plants along the way.

Guess what's this? A ball? It's actually a flat insect which will roll itself when being touched.

Deer Cave is the largest cave in the world- it got it's name as there were lotz deer staying in the cave in the ancient time. There lived by feeding the guano-bat's feces mixed with mineral. It was an amzing cave, so sad that we din have a good camera to capture all the pictures , so the pictures I posted was not really looked like the actual scene

Do you see the Abraham Lincoln in the picture?

This is known as the Garden of Eden

Lang Cave

In the late evening after our visit of both caves, the rain poured down. We didn't get the chance to the bats flying out the caves due to the bad weather, so we had to walked in the heavy rain back to the headquarter. We got totally drenched after an hour walk although we bought along the umbrellas.
At night, our guide Khairul brought us to the opposite Royal Mulu Resort to sing karaoke upon request by us. The sampan was so scary as it seemed it will turn over easily, so we had to walk so carefully and sit in good balance,haha...
The next day, we went to the Penan settlement before headed to the Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave.

The wind cave was really windy, while the clearwater cave is one of the longest underwater tunnel in Asia. We had our picnic lunch after climbing 200 steps to the Clearwater Cave.

We dipped ourselves in the ice-cooled water after the lunch. It was really chilling and I experienced 1st time how difficult it was to swim against the tide!

In the evening, we climbed up one of the small hill opposite our hostel
The next day before we left for Miri in the afternoon, we went kayaking, some of friends even went fishing under the hot sun!We wished to come back here again next year to climb the pinnacle, a nice view to behold =)

Miri

We didn't have much time to spend in Miri, so we just visited the place with the symbol of Miri-the Seahorse and tour around in the car.

Sarawak trip-Sibu

2009-05-18T20:22:00.000+08:00

Day 4

Early in the morning we caught a ferry to Sibu. The journey tooked us 5 hours ,stopping at different station like Sarikei before we reached our destination. It was really a tiring journey, the ferry was just the one we board to Pangkor, 90 degree seat, narrow space, super cold air-conditioner. I guess bus is even more comfortable that this.

There is nothing much in Sibu actually, a typical small town. The icon for Sibu is the Swan.

This is the Tua Peh Kong temple in Sibu, quite a nice building with the colorful tower. We were lucky to view part of its celebration of Wesak Day, nice lighting at night, they even flied the 'kong min deng' to sky (a old time traditional custom of Chinese . Kong min deng is actually like a big white tanglung,lighted with candle inside.But it has been banned in M'sia as it will disrupt the flying plane)

See how they sold their chickens and ducks in the morning market ...

We had spent less than 24 hours in Sibu as we took the noon bus to Miri on the other day noon time. Although there's not much tourist spot here, but the food here is quite different from Kuching as there's lotz of 'Fook Chow' people here. I like the 'ding bian hu'-like slice of pan mee with soup, the soup is made of from the grounded rice . And Kampua-a type of mee in Sibu like Colok mee.

Thanks to my friend's Chung Eng for entertaining us, providing the stay for us at his house, and not to forget the super abundant of food that his whole family had prepared for us. We really got shocked to see whole table of food, big big fish, vege etc,haha..

Sarawak trip- Cultural Village

2009-05-18T03:37:00.000+08:00

Day 3

After we got out from Bako around 11am, we checked in our inn-Mr. D Inn, a very new, nice ,comfortable inn with cheap price. After the lunch , we visited the Cultural Village which is 40km from the town. A reminder to you guys, next time remember to bring student card before you come here as it only costs RM15 compared to normal price RM60, a big different right,haha ...

Rumah Melayu

Rumah Cina

I;m not sure this is which Rumah already,maybe Rumah Bidayuh

Sieving the Sago

Rumah Orang-Ulu

Rumah Penan

We watched the cultural performance for 45minutes. My friend was being 'tarik' on stage by a fierce-looking Iban guy to try the blow pipe to burst the balloon. The staring of that guy was really so terrifying,I din dare to look into his eye also!

Rumah Iban, the hut above i dunno what it is for also,paiseh =p

This I also dunno what is it coz after our show, the houses were all closed and the person incharged has gesa home.

Oh ya, the 6th person in the picture (2nd from left) is my Su ee's friend-Mr. Handsome.

We really have a gala time in Kuching as all of us really 'siao' wan, talking nonsenses and rubbishes so much, acting so well some more, make us laughed whole day from Day 1 till Day 3, till my stomach was so painful, and get hungry so fast although almost 5-6 meals per day,haha...

Sarawak trip-Bako National Park

2009-05-18T00:28:00.000+08:00

Day 2

Early in the morning we had a strolled nearby the city street to buy some souvenirs. Here is the symbol of Kuching-the cat city.

After the breakfast in inn, we headed to the jetty to catch a boat to Bako National Park

On the boat to Bako National Park

Luckily it was edd tide the time we arrived, if not we would have to walk in the sea to the shore. Behind the picture above was all flooded with sea water during rising tide,almost 100-200m distance.

The main activities in this conservation island is trekking. More than 10 treks are available ,depending on the distance and duration you would like to trek, some even last for days. We just chose a few, the Paku trek, Delima trek, etc for the rest of the day activities.

The above are one of the treks we walked , reached a small sea side at the end of the path.

We boarded boat to view this famous sign of Bako-the rock that looks like python(told by the boatman), what do you guys think?
Actually there are lotz more pictures on the beautiful rocks and seaside, but spaces limited here,hehe...So just visit there one day!
Top hill view from another trek.

Sunset view of seaside in Bako.

The opposite hill far away is the Santubong hill, which we does not have enough time to climb up there.
We saw a lot of funny animals in Bako: crab with 1 hand (i'm not sure the spesies name), probiscious monkey,snake,and the Babi hutan

The nose of the pig is like a vacuum cleaner with 2 holes (look nearer and clearer on the pic oh), especially when you look at it at night. They are not afraid of human, even sleep in front of our hostel while we are playing cards whole night at the balcony,haha...My notty friends even feed them with wasabi twisties!The hostel we stayed for 1 night.

Last picture before we fade goodbye to Bako

8 days trip in sarawak-Day 1

2009-05-17T23:07:00.000+08:00

I have a wonderful and memorable trip in Sarawak, not only because of the interesting places i have been to, but also a gang of friends that have made our trip a really 'super trip'!

Our team consisted of only 4 persons , not including friends that joined us in Sarawak. A long story to tell about the weird team we have formed. 1 is my junior,zhiyen-who started of saying to have a trip to Sarawak , then I invited the top student plus talented guy ,Choon fu in my class who has the same interest to join. At last Sharene joined us without thinking much, so it was how our team was formed, not a good friends team, but I can tell really a good team to make after the trip,haha...

1st day

We arrived at Kuching early 9am in the morning and headed to our breakfast by our 'driver' -Su ee, my junior (Actually he just arrived 7 8 hours before us). We had our first try on Sarawak Laksa, a slight thicker bihun plus brown color sup taste like Kari in Ipoh, but the taste is not as thick as us one. And a cup of mint tea. After that we visited the state museum and tour a bit around the city in car before we had our lunch-'cha siew fan'. Know what, the cha siew really taste super nice , even person like me that dun eat pork also had a lot, we wonder whether the pig reared in Sarawak is more delicious ,haha...(just like what I always Thai and Indon 's pork is 100x more tastier than M'sia one)

Under the terribly hot sun, we went to waterfront, which is a famous spot for tourists especially at night .

We took a boat to the opposite river side. Oops..it was actually a sampan, the ordinaly type which charged us only RM0.50.

We walked in a kampung road, climbing up,sweating profusely to reach Fort Margarita,a historical place.

For tea time, we have ice kacang at a famous spot,together with Belacan Mee and their rojak.

The name of the drinks are so cute, we have 'xue shan fei wu', 'metahong' , 'playboy', gorekgoshtan' etc. 5 of us ordered 10 drinks, really too exhausted,haha..

At night, we stayed at XXX B&B (Bed & Breakfast). Before dinner, we walked to the Tua Peh Kong nearby.

We had a tour in the State Library before we had our dinner. It was really amazing.It was the most beautiful library that I have seen in M'sia, a very large one, with a lake beside, running path,garden, nicely designed building, a perfect place for dating,haha...

See, this was the middle stairs of the library, transparent glass some more.

Subsequently, we have Mee Kolok, the typical Sarawak mee and fried kuai for dinner. The fried got 2 tastes ,sweet and salty one.( All the pictures of food with my friends, so can't upload here)

For supper, we had mee daging and hot lady before we proceeded to a place that is full of sentiment and we missed it so much- Isabella.

Actually the light there is quite dim, some of the seats are under the mosquitoes net...the pictures din seem that nice as what I describe,haha....

Welcome to my new blog

2009-05-17T15:30:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone there, welcome to my new blog. I have abandoned my previous blog at friendster quite some times ago due to the hectic university life. And since friendster's blog restricted a lotz of things and very inconvenient eg : need to sign in to write comment, super long time to upload photo etc, so just open up a new one. For my friends that haven't come across my previous blog before, you can visit blarblarblar.blog.friendster.com to know more about me =). Actually this is my 4th blog, I have another two at multiple and xanga which are under hibernation,haha...

I have procrastinated quite long to get this blog opened as i'm a typical computer idiot...try to change my blog's skin but fail, perhaps later when i have the mood to do so again,haha...
The pictures on my header is taken during my trip to Sarawak in Miri. To four of you inside the pictures, you guys should be pround to be my blog's opening VIP leh,wakaka...

So hope you guys enjoy reading the crapping of my life , feel free to leave me a word or two to stay connected =)