Terengganu

Yes, I needed a break badly.. even at the expense of going for a trip myself. Boy was I in for an adventure..

I woke up 6-ish in the morning on Friday. Took a cab down to Stesen Putra. I read from Transnasional website that its the station that sells the ticket. Took a cab down there for 15 bucks. The cab made a wrong turn, earlier than it is supposed to. I decided to walk. Its about 7.00 am, when I finally reached the station. All the counters are closed, I saw two guards there and I asked them.

It turns out that sure.. Transnasional counter sells the ticket.. but the bus will depart from Jalan Duta! Bloody Transnasional.. so I went out and took another cab to Jalan Duta. It costs me another 7 bucks.

I reached there at around 7.20am. Rushed in and discovered that the counters here are still closed. I waited for another 1/2 hr before Transnasional's counter opens. Bought the earliest ticket to Kuala Terengganu at 9am. When asked how long, the ticket lady says 4.30.

I was thinking at the back my head, "Hey, she probably means 4 1/2 hrs". Not bad. It didn't register to me until later that she really meant 4.30pm as I heard from another friend that there's a new highway there (couple of years back, mind you I have not been to the east for a looOOoong time) and it doesn't take long to get across. The whole journey consists of a single stop.. and its only for toilet! My stomach was growling non stop throughout the journey..I was thinking all sort of nice food to eat, fast food, seafood, authentic food, etc etc when I reach there.

Anyway, fast forward, I didn't see any other Chinese nor Indians there at 4.30pm. No restaurant, no fast food in the only shopping complex, Astaka. It's and incredible place, I feel totally alien.

After series of misadventure, tumbling around the town like an idiot. I finally decided to get a place to stay out of town. Took a cab ride to Marang, after much searching I finally settled in a motel/chalet named Rhu Muda Motel by the beach.

Absolutely beautiful surrounding, with tall coconut trees, and almost white sandy beach overlooking Pulau Kapas. A paradise, if it ain't for the rundown chalet that I'm staying in..

For the period of 2 days and 1 night, I've discovered so many nice people there. They are just so friendly and they would sit and talk with you for hours.

To the Pak Cik at the promenade, the pak cik at Seberang Takir and Abang Desa. Thanks for making my trip there so much more interesting. I will remember to visit Duyong, the boat making village, and the lekor factory the next time.

Here's some pictures that I took.


Boat ride across to Seberang Takir from Kuala Terengganu for 80cents


Sunrise from Rhu Muda Motel, Marang.


Coconut trees, Rhu Muda Motel, Marang. You can see bits of Pulau Kapas in the picture on the left


Fisherman boat with an attached sampan. If you look more close, you can see a huge digging ship, right in the middle. Their making a cove/lagoon in preparation for an international yatch race on November.

Faith, Religion, etc...

Had a discussion with some friends over dinner abt religion, culture and how different it is between the different race in Msia. Then I discover that I do not practice alot of 'chinese' culture/ religion at home or in my life.

When we were young and was still staying in my dad's so called office/hse, my parents used to pray to this indian idol called Sai Baba. Then when my dad's business got better and bought a hse, we moved to the new hse but we didnt bring along Sai Baba with us (much to my grandmother's dissapointment). My parents did not really bring us to temple much besides the annual 'Kow Wong Yea' celebration. Then when each of us had to sit for the 'BIG' goverment exam in school (e.g. UPSR, PMR, SPM, etc) my mum would go to temple to pray for a good luck charm which she will burn into a cup of water n force it down out throat on the first day of exam...

Then one day my mum told us that my elder sis was actually adopted to the 'Kwan Yin'.... n as far as I can remember, I dont think my sis ever went n pray to her before.. which is quite funny. So after she got married in Oct last yr, my mum suddenly remembered that her eldest daughter was pledged to Kwan Yin and she did not asked to take her back before her wedding... which I assume is 'wrong'. My mum was suppose give some offerings and request to 'un-adopt' my sis from Kwan Yin before the wedding.. but due to her short-term memory loss, this was only done few months after the wedding... this is kinda funny..

My family is seriously one funny bunch when it comes to practising the religion... I dont even know whether we have one... !! That's why all my life I always tell people i'm an atheist, although officially we're buddist. I think its good to have faith and believe in something.. but when the belief involves constant execution of certain rituals, it becomes something else.

Something to think abt.. issit really important to have a religion?

Self Searching Journey or R&R ?

My babe has went off to Kuala Terengganu for a break ALONE and left me in this cruel working life for the wkend.

Sigh x2!

But he has been working non-stop for the past few wks.. he sure deserve it...

Mad abt CSI

A few of my colleagues just got back from Shanghai after working there for 1 month. With the business trip, came along a whole load of purchased items. Apparently DVDs are very cheap over there.. so everyone went crazy!! Then I found out that my manager bought CSI boxset which contains episodes from Season 1 to Season 5!!!!

Without wasting my time, I asked to borrow the boxset to catchup on any episodes I may hv missed on AXN. I've always been interested in forensic stuff.. although I'm no scientist... so CSI was a refreshing series which I love to watch.

So Ive been watching one episodes to another until I reach the season 5 DVDs... as I was being told that it contains episodes for the whole 5 seasons, I was excited that I didnt miss any episodes... but to my SURPRISE, as i reach the last DVD... I realise its missing the last episodes!! How I know??? I know cos I remember seeing on AXN ad, the season finale has Eric Stokes being kidnapped and trapped in a coffin. Besides that the season finale was directed by Quentin Tarantino! How can this happened??

Frustrated, I went online to confirm... YES, its true, the DVD is missing Season 5 last episodes... so sad...

Note: Thanks Timmy for the tong yuen & pai kuat.

Removing the blogger navbar..

If you look closely, there's no longer a Blogger nav bar on the top of this site. Found a way to remove this pesky navbar from the top. And.. its VERY easy!!

This involves a bit of editing the template codes.. get into your bloggers template coding. Search for the tag "<body>".

You will need to enclose the body tag with a noscript. It should look like this when you're done: "<noscript><body></noscript>".

Save that and republish your site. Thats it. Easy peasy, like ABC, ais kacang, kacang putih, kacang kuda.. any kacangs..

Annie!

Just testing out some black & white shots on my camera. I'm inspired, after going thru some amazing photographs from Steph's buddy! You can check it out in her blog.

Subject : Annie. She's a difficult subject as she's a bit camera shy (and she's cute!). It's hard to get her to face the camera. What I did was to use the speed burst option on the camera and fire away, 5 shots at a go I think.

3 Musketeers Monkies

I have Jeanne's monkies to accompany me work over this wkend...

Just in case you're wondering what they are doing.. each of them has a message to deliver:

See No Evil

Hear No Evil

Speak No Evil