2009 Welcoming 2010

So here I am in Hong Kong on my first post of 2010. 2009 as a whole been a colorful one for me. I would not rate it as a fantastic year for me but overall it was a decent one.

Biggest decision in 2009, left my job and took the opportunity for a short project here in Hong Kong. At the time of this post, I am close to my 3 months stay here and in a way or two, it is a good experience. Many were skeptical about my decision to leave my position in a MNC but I also proved to many that life's much better outside here :)

Re-looking back 2009, it was a year where I traveled the most. Started the year with a trip with my primary schoolmates (our very first trip since form 5) to Langkawi. It was hell of a trip and we all felt young once again and how we miss those school days :)

After the Langkawi, I went to Perhentian Island in Terengganu with my college buddies. Enjoyed my time relaxing at the Bubu Island Resort with my 2 best friends forever and never I thought I can be holidaying with one of my ex-gf too. Guess I am too good as a man that none of my ex-es have a chance to get piss with me (praising myself) :p

Now, my first overseas trip was to Bali, Indonesia. I was there for a conference and this trip had been a controversial one as I am the one who decide on the Malaysian delegates there and I do not have to elaborate more on it. But overall it was a good trip because we were all placed in a 6-stars Ayana hotel and Bali is definitely one of my shortlisted countries to bring my the other half for wedding ceremony (so any girl interested? Pls apply within) kekeke...

After the Bali trips, I made few trips to various part of Thailand both on business & leisure. Been to Hat Yai, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Doi Tung & Mae Sai (The Golden Triangle). 2009 certainly a year where I got closer to Thailand, understanding their lifestyle & culture.

Soon after I am back from my Northern Thailand trip, I came to Hong Kong in the 2nd week of October to present. Celebrated my birthday, Christmas & welcomed 2010 here. Met up with a lot of Malaysian friends who visited here. Made a few nice local friends as well as expats who are here for work. Enjoyed working & had great food here but at times do feel lonely missing my friends back home.

So that was about where I went in 2009. So, how about relationship? No luck still, officially I did go after a girl but the she ain't interested in me though :( , unofficially, hmm...for me to know, for you to find out ;)

And 2009, I had a chance to experience the F1 from the paddock. And being a red devil myself, I went to the Manchester United friendly game here in Malaysia.

2009 - Family wise, I became an uncle to Nicholas Song (my nephew) :)

My youngest brother graduated as a civil engineer. Practically my parents can go for retirement :)

I had a new tattoo as well, a traditional Iban's 'Bunga Terung' on both sides of my shoulders but I have yet to take a good snap shot of it.

Misses a few weddings, birthday parties especially towards the end of 2009. To those who invited me, deeply apologized on that.

2009 overall, I found happiness in whatever I do. Money wise which I have not achieve much, I am happy with the turnout of 2009.

So 2010, what's installed? I will be back to Malaysia very soon. Just got the good news that I will be paid by my Malaysian client by next week and I will be flying off to Land of Smile this coming Thursday. Then after my short break in LOS, I will head back to KL to get some unfinished business done then back to Malacca to arrange some big thing.

See you guys soon!

Merry X'mas & A Happy New Year From Hong Kong

Wishes all my readers, family & friends a very Merry X'mas & a Happy New Year all the way from Hong Kong.

Love you all! Enjoy the purple X'mas video I took @ Harbour City ;)

Food in Hong Kong

It's 4AM in the morning. I had just concluded my project file and forwarded the invoice to client. Doing web consultancy job can be fun but at the same time it can be seriously draining your mental capability after a long day staring at the monitor. In between these long hours, I do take a break checking on my facebook or go for a quick puff.

So enough of my work, I am not going to write a lot this time around and let the pictures themselves do the talking ;)

Phew, actually there's a lot more to go but my eyes are closing. Will try to share as much as I can. And I do miss the nasi lemak back home ;)

Let's hope this weekend not a working weekend for me and I shall be back with more stuff soon!

Cheers!

My Birthday Celebration & Updates from Hong Kong

Guys, been neglecting my blog for a bit. Last week practically a busy week for me.

Attended the Asia launch of LG latest Chocolate phone, BL40 at Four Seasons, Hong Kong. Met up with some Malaysian medias & also my ex-colleague, Nicole. The launch was the best LG launch that I had attended so far. It was somehow glamorous for a launch to be decorated with global celebrities like Chi-ling Lin & Nadya Hutagalung.

The press kit given was very well done with an USB drive containing the soft copy of it & product images making updating the blog easier than before.

After the launch, went out with ex-colleague for a shopping & makan around in Hong Kong, good to catch up with Malaysian friends.

Then came my birthday which is a working day for me. My day started at client's office for a meeting then at night my sis arranged a hotpot dinner for me together with some of her colleagues, thanks Sis, Aileen, Jenny, Brian & Allison! The dinner was great!

Then Jenny popped up a suggestion of going to karaoke since it was my birthday, everyone was too shocked to response to her suggestion. Jenny looks like in her 40s but she rocks! Then we decided to go down town to Mongkok Redbox, it was hell of a night thanks to the beer. Thanks people for making it something for me to remember here in Hong Kong.

And not forgetting too, the wishes which I personally thanked each & every one left on my Facebook, SMS & Twitter. So it's back to work again for me, I plan to get it done as soon as possible and if everything is on track, I will be meeting up with my friends in Thailand for a short holiday before I head back to Malaysia.

Jolly time over, back to serious business now! :)

Happy Birthday To Me!

This post is specially made to thank all wishes I received via Facebook & MSN. This is the first time I am out of Malaysia on my birthday. And it is those wishes I received kept me warm while I am at foreign soil.

Received a call from Thailand as well and it did somehow brightened up a bit of my day although I know I got to wake up 7AM later to attend a meeting with client. And thanks to a dear friend who sang me a birthday song all the way from Malaysia, my dear, believe in yourself and let's look at the happier and brighter side ya!

I am indeed really happy now... Guess I am gonna have a sweet sweet dream, and pray for me people, cross fingers that the client will give me a big YES during the meeting on my birthday!

Once again, thanks people!

Welcoming Winter

Hi people!

For the first time, I can see the sign of winter approaching here in Hong Kong. Weather still as sunny over the day but as night approaches, the day ended pretty early, as early as 5PM, we can see darkness here already. And today, the wind blow is strong, I got a feeling that I will experience some typhoon alert here like the one I experienced here last year.

For friends who are coming over, do remember your wind breaker ya, pretty chilly here as the night approaches. As for myself, I am busy with my work here, doing the final mapping and design for approval, let's say once I concluded the design for the Hong Kong HQ, I will be back to Malaysia, targeting December 2009. If not I guess I will be celebrating my Christmas & New Year here.

It's November and for November boys & girls, happy birthday peeps! There are far too many to list out all here, you know who you are!

And some Malaysian friends updated me that the weather there is pretty wet now, it rains almost everyday I heard, so people be extra careful with everything. And of late, heard many back to back incident in Kampar, 6 people were drowned in less than a week. Just take precaution in whatever you do peeps. Kampar indeed is a very nice little town and I pray that there will be no further incident happening here.

A simple text updates here, not much pictures I can upload as of now. Will do a more picturesque posting later this week as I am joining 15 other medias from Malaysia for the latest LG mobile phone launching here in Hong Kong. I will be covering the event for LG Blog as well. In meantime, LG Blog has some 50 pairs tickets to the Da Vinci The Genius exhibition to be given away. Check out the blog post now! Unfortunately I am unable to attend the exclusive exhibition back home but hopefully I can get my project done here soonest possible and pay a little visit to see Da Vinci's exhibits!

Until then people, Happy Winter!

Halloween Greetings From Hong Kong

Hmm... Halloween somehow is a big thing here in Hong Kong, everywhere you go, be it malls or stalls by the roadside, you can see them selling pumpkins, costumes, funny accessories, etc.

Not only that, Disneyland HKG got Halloween theme, Ocean Park got theirs as well, Madame Tussauds the wax museum got some scary shits there. It's blardy happening here!

And what's my plan? Halloween on Saturday, I'm home alone & I got no costume but heck, I am gonna walk down to The Aviator as a hunter, to see if I can get lucky or not, any cutie home alone too???... hiak hiak hiak!

Happy Halloween to all of you & I do hope the guys get lucky ya! ;D

A Month In Hong Kong

It's approaching my first month here in Hong Kong (HKG). I am not totally familiar as yet but today I am going to share a bit of the place where I am currently staying, my client's office and perhaps some tips if you are visiting HKG anytime soon.

Hong Kong is split into 3 areas; New Territories, Kowloon & Hong Kong Island. The name of the place that I am staying is Tung Chung which falls under the area of New Territories. So I will not indulge further on other areas as I am not that familiar as yet. Tung Chung is the city that is the nearest to HKG International Airport.

From the airport, one can take buses numbering S1 or S56 to get to Tung Chung MTR station. The cost is HKD3.50 which is approximately RM1.30 if I were to treat the rate of Ringgit half of the HKG Dollar. Tung Chung will be the last station on the most West side of the line. The subway services here are pretty easy, not as complicated as I first thought when I saw the MTR mapping.

Most of the time when I mentioned the name of the place, many of my friends would not know where is it. Therefore for easier understanding, normally I will tell them that I am one station away from Disneyland station which Sunny Bay.

So for the past 3 weeks or so, I only had the privilege to loiter around this small airport city. It took me approximately close to 40 minutes HKD18 to get to Central Hong Kong from Tung Chung plus my client's office is in fact in the HKIA itself so I need not travel that much actually.

Tung Chung from my observation is like Mon't Kiara or Bangsar in Malaysia because I can see many expats here, and most of the airlines stewardesses, stewards & pilots will stay around this area. There is nothing much to shout about here and the main attraction here would be the Ngong Ping 360, where there is this cable car bring you up a hill to see the big Buddha & Po Lin Monastery.

And for shopping, I had earlier mentioned about Citygate Outlets where it housed all the factory and warehouse outlets here. If you would like to know more, please check it out here. There ain't much to shout on the food though, most of the time I will just dine in the neighborhood cafeteria or in Cantonese, they normally call it "Char Chan Teng", just like Wong Kok Char Chan Teng (WKCCT) in Malaysia except that the food in WKCCT is crap food, con Malaysian food. Any cafeterias here that you go put them to shame really. Average cost per set meal here would be in the region of HKD28-40. Set meal meaning one main dish and one drink.

Hong Kong is a bit similar like Singapore, the people here do not have the privilege to live in a large house or landed property. You gonna be a multi billionaire if you wanna own a landed property here. So obviously myself, I am staying in an apartment as well. Yes it is an apartment and not a condo and see for yourself the apartment here is higher grade than the condo we have in Malaysia. The name of the neighborhood that I am staying is Caribbean Coast. I do not bother to count the number of blocks but there are many blocks and each blocks are made up with 65 floors. Crazy huh?

And if you think you gotta be a billionaire to own a landed property here, then to own an apartment here you better gotta be a millionaire. I am talking bout the billions & millions in Ringgit point of view. Guess how much the apartment I am currently staying now? A mere 800sqft with the current market rate in HKG, it's about HKD2Mil, that is approximately RM1Mil. A simple calculation, it's a whopping RM1,250 per -square-blardy-feet.

And in HKG, I smoke lesser than I do back home. Over here, there is dedicated, designated area for smokers unless you wanna be fined HKD5k you can opt to smoke anywhere you like.

Hmm... the weather around this time is cloudy and it can be pretty windy at night. If you plan to come around this time, do remember your cardigan & wind-breaker.

Until then, more update soon!

ps: Damn! I forgot to remind you guys to get an Octopus Card, it is a must! Don't ask me why, you will need it!

Updates From Hong Kong

I had been receiving the same question again and again but I do see the logic behind this question. Being away from home for a long period, it makes sense for friends back home to ask this.

People, I am here in Hong Kong not entirely for leisure, that is for sure. Hong Kong is not a country like Thailand where you can survive with minimal spending. The pace and living standard in Hong Kong is high, it is only logical for you to earn and spend here. So i will update a bit on what I am doing, why I made this move and when all this will be over.

Thanks to my years of networking in the cyberworld, be it blogging, facebooking, twittering, etc, I was requested by a company here in Hong Kong to assist on their website revamping. This is an international company with networks across 18 cities around the world. Unfortunately, their business had grown rapidly that they ignored entirely the importance of web marketing.

So I was given a task to do a total makeover on their website and at the same time advice them on activities to run online. For the past 2 weeks, I had meetings with the owner of the business and was requested to understand fully on their business before they award me the whole project. So in a way, I am sort like a web marketing consultant if you need to give a position to it.

In terms of knowledge on internet, I would say Malaysians are doing better than the people here in Hong Kong. The people here are more practical and more revenue centric kind of thinking and to invest a substantial money onto web, I need to have a certain level of convincing power towards my client. The few days I had checked in their office and I was given a work desk by them. Though in terms of knowledge we Malaysians have the human resource in this area but unfortunately in Malaysia we are enjoying crap internet connection. The infrastructure here is amazing, in terms of bandwidth that makes surfing a pleasure here not to mention downloading & uploading files.

Client's office is in the Hong Kong International Airport (I will talk about in depth of their businesses in another day). I was given a chance to tour the whole airport both Terminal 1 & 2 and Arrival Hall. This airport is massively huge and a lot of walking around, a simple tour can last about 3 hours per session. I had done 3 tours so far and now is in the final stage of getting all the collective data and findings for my analysis to client.

I am supported by designers in Malaysia and dear if you are reading this, thanks for the great support, we can do great things together and my apology for pushing and giving you info on the very last minute each and every time. As for me, I will be doing the copy writing for them. So I am sort like a medium to coordinate and communicate client's needs and requirements to my designers.

In terms of my own revenue, I would say the amount is not what many would assume it is, in short, OK lah, if not I wouldn't have travel so far for this. That amount was pretty similar to what I made during my employment days in XX company.

Then why do I make this move? Firstly, it is the exposure. Not many would have a chance to work and experience how is it like working in Hong Kong. I had a chance to join the sales & marketing meeting recently and I got to say it is totally a fresh experience for me even though I had been working with Koreans for about 8 years. Secondly, this short project of mine if successfully implemented will do good for my resume definitely. And really, it does make an impact. People with overseas experiences most of the time will have its plus points compare to those with local experiences.

So friends out there, you guys know what I had been doing. And of course, during these period here, I do try my best to meet up friends who make their visit here in Hong Kong. With AirAsia, more and more Malaysians will frequent Hong Kong. Next week will be meeting ex-colleagues who will be here for a launching and I will be attending it. The week after, another 3 female friends will be coming for a shopping trip and the following week 2 other friends are coming. So I manage to squeeze my time to juggle between work and leisure here.

My mom and my youngest brother had just gone home today. So it's home alone most of the time for me here and yes I do miss friends back home. I do not miss Malaysia to be frank but I miss my friends who are able to listen to me, to cheer me up when I need to, I miss them a lot! And I do hope I can conclude my project here and meet up with them for a short time in December, fingers crossed! Brothers, pray for me ya!

And for the next year's plan, I will share when the time is right. At the moment, I just want to focus on this project and I cannot afford to flop at this point of time. Ending this long winded post with a photo taken in Elements in Kowloon.

Until then, work aside, I will update more about my life here soon! Love you!

Final Day in Northern Thailand

What a lovely weather now in Hong Kong. A beautiful Saturday and before continuing on my life here in Hong Kong, I wanna finish up the posting on my recent trip to Northern Thailand. For easier track back, please check out here, here & here.

In brief, Northern Thailand population is mainly made of hill tribes people from Burma who came to Thailand to seek asylum during the civil war there. The Thai government recognized these people as the 2nd class citizen of Thailand which means they will not have the privilege like other Thai citizen to enjoy government subsidized benefits, for example education, etc.

Northern Thailand or the Golden Triangle was once best known for its notorious drugs production & dealing. In the past, those hill tribes who seek asylum in Thailand would grow poppy plants to make a living.

All this however change thanks to the royal presence when the late Princess Mother built the Doi Tung Villa. Thai has very strong passion on its monarchy, that is why it is very important for tourists and foreigners to know this point because unnecessary and unpleasant remarks about the monarchy will land them in hot soup. To stress again, never ever poke fun on Thai's monarchy, the King & the monk.

Ok now on the Doi Tung Villa, a summer palace on the slopes of Doi Tung near Pa Kluay Reservoir, which is now open to the public as a museum. The royal initiative also educated on new agricultural methods to stop slash and burn practices. Opium has now been replaced by crops such as, coffee, teak and various fruits. Thus the life of these hill tribes changed so whenever I asked them about the late Princess Mother, they will passionately described her in many good ways. The rest of the property, including the Mae Fah Luang Garden and Mae Fah Luang Arboretum, is also open to the public. Please note that no photograph is allowed inside the Doi Tung Royal Villa.

At the peak of Doi Tung, 1800m above sea level, Wat Phra That Doi Tung is built around the twin Lanna-style chedi. The chedi were renovated by famous Chiang Mai monk Khruba Siwichai early in the 20th century. What was captivating here to me, the two rows of temple bells, pilgrims bang on the usual row of temple bells to gain merit.

All in all, my this trip there had opened up my eyes in a lot of ways; Thai's culture, its way of living, its food and the home-stay in village had been a great experience for a city boy like me. God willing, I will love to visit it again during the Songkran festival. For those who are seeking advice on this area, do email me, I will try to assist as much as I can :)

As for me now, its my first week here in Hong Kong, the first few days always been exciting when you bump into a new place & new environment, but as time passes, I start to miss friends back home. In Hong Kong, long stay here is not easy, the moment you step out of your house, you start to burn a hole in your pocket so can guess that I most probably home most of the time, or perhaps just go around the neighborhood for a walk. I am currently home alone for a few days here. I am invited for a post mid-autumn celebration party tonight @ the Hong Kong International Airport World Trade Center, was there last night and the view was amazing, will try to snap more pictures & upload it to my Facebook.

Oh ya, not forgetting too, taking this opportunity to wish all my Hindu friends & readers a very happy Diwali, I am so gonna miss the food! Ciao!