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Friday, November 20, 2009
Around the world in a day!
A little history lesson here. Ibn Battuta is a Morrocan traveller who travelled for nearly 30 years in the past. He travelled to different countries throughout his journey which includes China, Persia, Egypt, India, Tunisia and Andalusia. I guess previously Persian and Andalusia was a country itself...  Yeap, this 6 places Well, do you think its possible to visit those 6 countries in a day? Well, you can do so in the Ibn Battuta Mall. Yeap, there's a mall named after Ibn Battuta. A single level, 1.3km length from one end to another, this is the place built according to the mentioned 6 countries that Battuta travelled to. Besides shopping, shoppers can learn a bit of history here too.  Historic articles and items all over the mall besides the shops Have I mentioned about the decoration? Unlike normal shopping centre, each court here have design based on their own theme. You wouldn't feel like you are walking under the same shopping center!  The boat in China Court  Amazing interior designs in Tunisia Court  Persian court (if I m not mistaken >_<) I can go on and on about how awesome Ibn Battuta's design is. However, this place might not be suitable for window shoppers as there's not much shops here compare to the other shopping center. Moving on, the next place I visited is among the most popular spot in the Middle East. Care to take a guess?  This pic is the clue. For those that have guessed desert, you are CORRECT!!! Wondering why I visited the desert while its already so darn hot? Well, according to a reliable trip website, its on the top of the list of "Must Do in Dubai" and we went there in the evening thus its not that hot anymore.  Me and sis when we just reached.  Ya, silly face of mine yet again ^_^ The desert is actually a nice place to visit, just make sure there's good navigator and lots of people around ya. Hehe... The ride on the 4 wheel drive over the desert are something like a roller coaster ride. They drifted, go uphill, sudden break and everything to ensure that they won't be stuck.  Jumping in the middle of nowhere!  Sunset at the desert ^_^  Here we are, at the destination. Hehe The campsite at the middle of nowhere, with lots of activities. The main event is the belly dancing performances follow by a Lebanese dinner buffet. Before that, we can opt to take a ride on the camel, take a puff or two of shisha, have some appetizer before the dinner and even take pic with a desert eagle... NOT the handgun. XP  Hard to believe you can do all this in the desert ei? Soon after, arabic music started to play all around the campsite and the belly dancer takes on the stage with some impressive moves. Imagine balancing a rod on your waist while still belly dancing! Now that's impressive.  The crowd cheering on for her  There goes the crowd joining the belly dancer  The Lebanese buffet dinner Later on, its the journey back home. Its a totally new and wonderful experience for me. Never ever think that a desert can be so enjoyable. Oh, anybody want any desert sands? They are much smoother and smaller in particle size compare to normal sands. ^_^
Posted at 12:56 pm by Josh524
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
A day after the Nuffnang Awards, bloggers were given the chance to visit places of interest all over Singapore. Didn't join the first part of the tour, thus missing out on the Chinatown Heritage Museum, Mint Museum of Toys and Raffles Hotel.  Lucky i didn't miss the fun part! ^_^ I joined the group when they were at the Royal Selangor Pewter. Had a tour around the place before we had our own "knocking" experience. We are given a flat piece of pewter and the alphabets mold to "knock" on whatever words we wants to. At the end of the knocking session, we were given a certificate for participating in the School of Hard Knocks program. ^_^  And so the knocking begins!  The bunch with the end product ^_^ The next stop is the Singapore Flyer. For the record, this is my third time visiting the flyer. First with my sister, second with Jessiebi and this is the third. The scenery there are still the same, except for the ongoing construction on the Singapore IR (Integrated Resort).  The Flyer's view from below  Me and Chris "meditating"  The super nice group photo! Later on, we went to Marina Bay to chill and take photos. By the time we reached there everyone was tired for different reason. Of course, for our group is due to the 434 session the night previously. Okay crapping aside, I like the photo below. Minus Chris is even better Yes, this photo. ^_^  The mini group photo at Marina Bay After that group shot we became more and more hyper. We did various jump shots. No, not the basketball jump shots... Its the picture taken while you are in the jumping action.  Shots like this Later on made our way to the Merlion and my oh my its already night time. However that still won't stop enthusiastic photographer to keep on shooting.  They are the 3 good examples After that headed down to Bugis before going to Orchard. Was kinda disappointed couldn't get what we wanted to get, but hey at least we get to eat MOS burger. Later on its even more 434 session before the peeps leaving for Malaysia the next day.
Posted at 03:30 pm by Josh524
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The second day was rather adventurous. We went on a mini backpacking tour. Drove for a good 45minutes before we reached somewhere near the Dubai Creek. Along the way, I noticed that the buildings are not just plain squarish design.  The buildings there have nice designs If I am not mistaken, the weather that day was just above 40 degree Celcius. However, I still see people hanging out on open space area. As for me...  Yea, Sunblock don't really help that much... Anyhow, the first stop was the Dubai Museum which was about half an hour walk away from the car park. Located in Al Fahidi Fort, it was built in 1787 and its the oldest existing building in Dubai. It exhibits almost everything from the history of Dubai until the future projects.  I was there! ^_^ Upon entering the museum, the first section was mainly on what people uses previously for their daily living. The weapons, the boats, the daily job's tools and historic articles are among them. Was quite impressed that they managed to maintain the objects until these days.
 Me just being me, only lamer. XP Further exploring into the musuem, we saw the evolved Dubai into a trading centers in between countries. People from all over the world, mainly Europeans and Westerners came to Dubai for business purposes. From that moments onwards Dubai started to bloom.  The "people" there are not shy in front of the camera. XP  Us at the ship building section I don't know how to say this but I enjoy going to the museum. Not to say I must go to a museum whenever I am on tour. Its just the thing about museum that attracts me. I love to see all the exhibition items and all. I don't know if you get what I am trying to say though. XP  Yeah, things like this attracts me. ^_^ After the museum, we travelled by foot to Sheikh Saeed Al-Maktoum House. Along the way, we passed by the old souk. Totally opposite from Madinat Jumeirah, this souk sells cheaper items in the open air. After the old Souk, is another long walk under the sun before we reach Al-Maktoum House.  The place to be for people on a tight budget  Yes, the weather is seriously very very clear... AND HOT! Finally we are here! The moment I stepped into the house, I got a feeling that this place looks so familiar. Its not that I come to Dubai before. Its because this place has been featured in the Amazing Race before! Its featured in Amazing Race Asia season 1 and the Amazing Race features various other places in Dubai too.  Jumping in joy at where the Clue Box was placed(I think) Okay, AR facts aside. The house was just like Dubai Museum but the architecture of the house are way much nicer than the museum. There's coins collection, stamps collection, currency collection and painting collection. Of course, I enjoy my time there. ^_^
 Just a few more camwhore photos Can you believe it that we spent most of the day just in 2 places? By the time we reached home for dinner its already about 6pm. Tired due to walking for the whole day, we decided to end the day with a video conference with the family members back at home.
 We are family~ ^_^
Posted at 08:10 am by Josh524
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Satay outing during Deepavali
I don't celebrate Deepavali at all, but for the past 2 years I did. Last year, I came back from SG to meet the bunch of blogging friends for the first time and went to MOS Euphoria on the first day and TGIF on the second day. This year, I celebrated it by having a dinner outing with fellow blogging friends in Kajang. If you called that a celebration. XP  Kajang eat what? Satay lar of course ^_^ The night started off with guiding Jackie, Nigel and Jacq down to Kajang. Almost there and Chris called. Apparently, he got one of those FML moments. To summarize everything, he got lost in Kajang, phone died, found phone charger but car died... Anyway I found him and he's still alive. XP  Anis was the earliest to reach with her brother and Jeffro was there too. There's some of them that I met them for the first time. Xiang and Sam falls into this category, while Pui Yeng... I knew her for so long but then this is the first time I meet heartless her. XP Everyone has arrived and the satay feasting starts. Its been a while since i last had any satay, and this experience was made more memorable by hanging out with a bunch of friends. Too bad that Jessiebi can't make it since she's in Ipoh. The irony is she went back to visit her sick grandfather and in return she got food poisoning. >_<  Camwhore before makan: Nigel, me and Chris  The duo who reached later than us, Kim and Zhao Finally met voxmui for more than 10 seconds. XP We chit chat-ed and crapped alot until there's continuous laughter all the time. Soon enough it was time for us to go. However, we continue taking pics outside from the Satay place and crap like there's no tomorrow. Roughly about 45 minutes later only we decided to truly call it a day night. XP  Me and Jeffro terrorizing them XP  Not ready yet lar~  Finally a nice group photo ^_^ Oh, all photograph are by Christhoo. Its truly a great experience. Had fun with you guys. ^_^
Posted at 08:42 am by Josh524
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Sunday, November 01, 2009
Yeap, I went to Dubai last month. Before I start to talk about the trip... I would like to bitch about MAS airlines. A 7 hour flight without ANY PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT SCREEN?!?!?!? I can die of boredom seriously if not for my MP3 player and PSP...  DAMN YOU MAS AIRLINES!!! Bitching aside... I landed at the Dubai International Airport around 3am local time. The first thing I feel when I stepped out from the Airport... Freaking HOT! The night time temperature is about the same as the daytime temperature in Malaysia... Imagine how hot it can be during the daytime...  I wonder how the camels can withstand the heat there Went back to rest at sister's apartment before going out for my first ever sight seeing in Dubai. The first place we covered is Madinat Jumeirah. Its widely known as the souk, which means traditional Arabic market.  Madinat Jumeirah, modernly traditional market. ^_^ The architecture and design looks like an open-air souk right? Well, don't be fooled. The whole building is equipped with air-cons. its a great example of fusion between traditional and modern design. Items like souvenir, traditional clothings, painting, house decorations and shisha are widely available here. Just watch out for the price tag before you get anything as not everything is cheap.  Yea, a stall selling shishas only! Bet somebodeh's eyes will go @_@  Me and my sis in front of the stall Just outside from the souk, there's classy dining place all around the waterfront. Just opposite the water front are two resort hotels. There's even boat services for hotel guest to go around the waterfront. Of course, not to forget is the magnificant view of the Burj Al-Arab, the proclaimed first ever "7 star" hotel in the world.  One of the dining place by the waterfront  Guest from the hotel taking a ride on the sampan-like boat  I am touching the tip of the 7 star hotel XP Next stop, Dubai Mall. Totally different from Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai Mall is arguably the biggest mall in the world. The mall itself have an indoor theme park, aquarium, ice skating rinks, cinemas and of course gazillion shops! I bet even shopaholics can't even cover every single shop in the mall in a week time. ^_^  (clocwise from top left) Part of the Dubai Mall, Ice-Rink, Dubai Aquarium and the Fountain.  The Fountain: You dive, I... fly?  A chance to be a spoilt ruler for 10 seconds. XP A short walk out from the mall, there's plenty of wonderful scenery and buildings to look at. The Souk Al Bahar is just opposite Dubai Mall, the tallest building in the world Burj Dubai is within sight and of course the Burj Dubai Lake with Musical Fountain performance from 7pm onwards. By the time we were there, its just about sunset time and we spent a lot of time there snapping the sunset pics. ^_^  I must say, I am impressed with the overall building designs there  Me, Burj Dubai and the sunset. ^_^  Wonder if the structure taste as good as it looks?  Nice sunset view Dinner was at the Souk Al Bahar in a Thai cuisine shop call the Mango Tree. By far this is the grandest thai food I ever had. We took the A-La Carte Buffet special and the food are definitely worth the money. We started off with the welcome snacks and appetizer.  Welcome to Mango Tree, where there will be no mango tree around XP  Comfy sofa with pillows, makes me wanna sleep there after dinner  The welcome snacks, crackers with sauce and dates.  Appetizer consist of beef satay, meatballs, pohpia and Thai-style Veges. I just LOOOOOOOOVE the meatballs! Next up, is the choice between a few Thai specialty soups. Both me and my sis chose the Tom Yum Goong, always the choice when it comes to Thai soup and we didn't regret it. The prawn is so fresh and the Tom Yum is very rich in flavor! Will kill for another bowl right now... >_<
 Among of the best Tom Yum Goong I tried There's 8 dishes to choose from for the main course. Me and my sis decided to try all of them. First up, introducing the least favorite among the 8 dishes. Tow Hoo Nam Daeng (toufu and bok choi with brown sauce), Nua Phad Grapow (minced beef with holy basil and red chilies), Planungmanow (steamed fillet of hammour with spicy lemon sauce) and Gai Phad Med Ma-Maung (stir fried chicken with cashew nuts). Tried something similar like these a lot of times, thus none of these leave a deep impression.  (clocwise from top left) The toufu, beef, fish and chicken. Next up, the other 4 dishes which I think are excellent. Pho Phad Phong Ka Ree (stir fried mud crab in yellow curry), Nua Yong Nam Tok (marinated rib eye steak), Gaeng Kiew Wan Gai (chicken fillet in gree curry sauce) and Phad Thai Jay (rice noodles with tofu and vegetables in phad thai sauce). Although the picture does not look that presentable, the mud crab is the best dish for the night in my opinion. The not so thick yellow curry covering the crab meat are simply delicious. The best thing I love about the other 3 dishes are the sauce that comes with it.
 (clocwise from top left) The mud crab, rib eye steak, green curry and rice noodle. Throughout our dinner, we saw the Musical Fountain performance for about four times. Each time with a different Middle East music. The lights and water move in rhythm with the musics being played.  Musical fountain to entertain the crowds All good things have to come to an end BUT not before we have our desserts! A choice between fruit platter and the dessert of the day, Mango Ice Cream and Cheese Cake. The dessert of the day won our heart that night not only for it appearance but also for its great taste.  The dessert of the day: Mango Ice Cream and Cheese Cake  Fruit Platter
After that, we continue on walking around Dubai Mall before we call it a day. What a great way to kick start my first day in Dubai. By the way, one last thing to share with you peeps. Doesn't the picture below looks like "level gila?" For those who don't understand malay language, "gila" means crazy.  So now you are on level Gila Monster. XP
Posted at 01:46 pm by Josh524
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The most anticipated Nuffnang event across the region, the first ever Nuffnang Awards was held just a few days ago. Lucky bloggers from Malaysia, Australia and Philippines are chosen to join the local bloggers in Singapore for the event. After some delay for the check-in procedure, everyone was finally in the room busy preparing for the awards. I was in the same room as Chris Thoo.  In our room, room 434 ^_^ After the brief SS moment, we proceeded to the lobby. To our surprise, most of the girls were already there. So much for not enough time to prepare for the event huh? XP  Off we go to Pan Pacific's ballroom for the event. Before the event, everyone was free to mingle around with other fellow bloggers. What are bloggers without their camera? Thus the whole night there was photo snapping all the way from before the even till after the event. Wasted no time to take some photos with friends and well known bloggers. ^_^  With Kennysia who was nominated in two categories  Kenny with the girls, and I love his expression. XP The event kick off with a speech from the Nuffnang founders then followed by the Nuffnang milestone video. They have been around for two and a half years. Initially started with a small office in a Penang before expanding to KL and SG. Right now, Nuffnang has 'invaded' the Philippines and Australia as well. Magic duo JC SUM and Magic Babe Ning performed soon after.  Inside the hall, and that's the side of the stage  Timothy Tiah, the co-founder and Audrey (clockwise from top left) The appetizer, the soup, the dessert and the main course. Scrumptious dinner were serve throughout the event. The dishes name were too long to remember but they taste good. There were 12 awards altogether. Me and Jessiebi were predicting who's going to win but somehow our prediction are not even half accurate. Finally found the Singapore's bloggers for some photo snapping moment. ^_^ Allan Wu was the host for the night, and he made a mistake on one of the award presenter's name. As for the first award winner, they are literally speechless on the stage. They were like looking at each other when questions were asked and their answer is not really related. The rest of the nominees were notified to prepare a "thank you" speech for the crowd should they win the award. To watch the awards presentation, proceed to Jessiebi's post. ^_^ Congratz to all the winners especially Xiaxue who won 3 awards that night. If I were to describe the event in one word, I would say that its a good first attempt for the fellow nuffies. ^_^  Miss Earth Singapore Valerie and Mediacorp actress Joanne Peh. ^_^  The final photos for MY and SG bloggers before we call it a night  Room listing, for hang out purpose ^_^ It was such a long wait for the last bus cause apparently the bus was waiting at another location... Tired bloggers finally boarded the bus back to the hotel. After a refreshing shower, I became re-energized again and so did the rest. We decided to get together for time which was eventually known as the 434 sesison. ^_^  Us having fun after the event  The last photo before we call it a night, or should I say before someone called for 10 chicken wings. XP
Posted at 02:04 am by Josh524
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Monday, October 26, 2009
4 years ago, my laptop is one of the latest available in the market. 4 years later, my laptop is throwing tantrums at me... Windows Messenger appear 10 seconds later after I click on it. Photoshop program lags more often. Basically it will hangs for a moment whenever I am using 3 or more application... My awesome lappy...
when it was bought 4 years ago. >_<
Pssst, I am typing all this during my lunch time. Company's lappy is so much faster compare to mine... Too bad I can't use photoshop or video converter here... Else I could have finish some post already... The Kajang Satay makan session  The Nuffnang Asia Pacific Awards  My trip to Dubai Then there's some outing post from here and there... I can see alot of backdated post coming soon. UWARGGHHHHHHHHH!!! Anyone care to donate a brand new super duper fast lappy for me? XP
Posted at 06:53 pm by Josh524
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