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!

Paradise, I Am Coming

The date is 7th January 2010. I am looking forward to it.

Land of Smiles, I am coming...

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 ;)

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!

Day 4 - Northern Thailand

Continuing from Day 3, quite drunk the night before, woke up about 10AM on Day 4. Washed up, cleaned up, my host brought me to this famous stall that sells "Som Tam" (the popular Thai Salad). We packed quite a bit of this and went again to Pip Uun house again. The day started with brunch, on top of the Som Tam that we bought, there were beef soup, Bah Kut Teh and some real spicy chicken. And again, we drank beer. We finished about 6 bottles of large Leo beer, then Pip Uun planned to bring me to a local waterfall, my wrong for not taking the name down, but the whole journey been something new to me.

In Thai, we can see a lot of pick-ups, so I had the chance to ride on one. 7 of us in a pick-up, along the way we drank and drank and drank. Beer is cheap like I mentioned in my few posts earlier. Reaching there about 3PM, we hang around, we brought food and beer, so it was sort of a picnic for me, I cannot even recall the last time I had picnic, perhaps it was back when I am still in my primary school days. It was fun!

On our journey back at about 6PM, we stopped at a hot-spring, bought eggs meant to be boiled in the hot spring, enjoy the landscape with beer, and I had never drink so much of beer in my life. My friends in Malaysia knowing me, recognize that I am not a beer-man but somehow in Thai, the beer tastes better, most of the beer I drank was quite mild and smooth.

Then came dinner time, we went to my host cousin's place, the guys cooked for us, we had great food and by now we probably had our 3rd dozens of beers. After the dinner, I took my last picture which was the image of the moon but the night was not over as yet. We changed and the plan was to bring me to a local disco.

We went to the one & only BM Disco in Maesai, nothing much to shout about, it is about the same kind of disco we can find in Hatyai or Chiang Mai, DJ dance numbers interval with performances.

It was one great night! We reached home about 3AM that night, fun!

OK, now day 5 coming up!

Before signing off, would like to share this masterpiece song with you all, you need to understand Mandarin & Hokkien to catch the creativeness of the song. Enjoy!

Backpacking Travelogy to Northern Thailand

I had just got back from my trip to the few part of northern Thailand. Will try to share my experience with those interested to visit the place. In fact, it was my second trip there. The very first time was part of the incentive trip with some dealers. Back then, it was pure tour guided trip and visited some major tourist attractions.

This time around, I am doing a backpacking. My destination is actually Doi Tung under the Mae Fah Luang province, about 20km from Mae Sai. The most ideal way to get to the place is of course flying to Chiang Rai which means you either fly direct to Bangkok from KL before taking domestic flight from Bangkok to Chiang Rai.

However, due to budget constraint, I took the direct flight from KL to Chiang Mai instead. Thanks to AirAsia, my one-way ticket to Chiang Mai was about RM150. Getting to LCCT had always been a headache but thanks to the new service by the KLIA transit, I took the option of traveling with KLIA transit train from KL Sentral to Salak Tinggi then commute the free bus ride to LCCT, all in total only cost me about RM12.50 per trip.

Reached Chiang Mai @ noon, 1PM to be exact. From the international airport, I opted for a taxi ride to the Chiang Mai Arcade Bus Station. The fixed rate for my ride to the bus station cost me only about 150Baht. Upon reaching the Arcade Bus Station, I felt like a total stranger as it was crowded only with local, many gave a strange stare but very fortunately I manage to find someone who can speak an "OK" English. She guided me to counter No. 5, I bought the ticket for Chiang Mai en route to Maesai. The ticket cost me 212Baht. To make it easier for me, the ticket teller remarked on my ticket that I will stop at a place called Doi Tung. Since my bus will only be taking off at 3PM, I managed to bump into an internet cafe that serves some really bad food. After that particular session with the cyberworld, I am totally lost touch with it for about a week and I realized I am ok to be apart from Internet actually :)

The bus trip is good though long. It took me 3 hours to reach Doi Tung. Upon reaching there, it was already about 8PM. My host came and pick me up.

I will share more about the rest of my trip tomorrow :)

Stay tune!

PS: Today I also want to wish my very special brother a very happy birthday! Hey Ah Rim, Happy Birthday to you ya!

Blogging From Thailand

Howdy peeps?

My current city now is Chiang Mai, Thailand. Quick update if you don't mind. I am not able to upload any photos as now because I am currently at some restaurant that provides internet service.

I won't be in Chiang Mai for long. Currently I am surfing while waiting for my bus to Chiang Rai, another 3-4 hours of ride. It's been a long day today since 6AM. Thanks to Roy Lim who fetched me all the way to KL Sentral.

From KL Sentral, I took the KLIA transit to Salak Tinggi before commuting via bus to LCCT. I would say the package is worth of it. The whole journey took me slightly less than an hour. Reached LCCT about 8ish. The flight was @ 1020hrs and reached Chiang Mai @ 1230hrs local time.

So, I guess I will be off from the blogosphere and internet world for at least a week because the internet facilities in Thailand are pretty poor.

So I would like to take this opportunity to wish every readers of mine a very happy Mid-Autumn day tomorrow ya! Enjoy the mooncakes, light up more tang-lungs.

And not forgetting too, let's pray for the victims of the earthquake that we Malaysian felt a couple of days ago. The death toll had since increase to an estimated 1,100 deaths. My prayers to them.

Gonna miss you all.

Hugs & Kisses!!!

The Plan

Well, I am unwell for the past 2 days ever since I am back from Genting to cover an LG event up there. Really hope for a speedy recovery as I am flying to Thailand this Friday for a week, then back here to Malaysia for few more days before flying off to Hong Kong (HKG) to spend my remaining days & months of 2009 there.

This will also be the very first time that I am out of the country for a long time and to be frank I am really anticipated about it. What I will miss most of course my family & friends here and not to mention the food here.

And to my brothers - Rim & Chong, don't worry I will be back!

What prompted me to do such decision to leave? Am I not worried leaving a stable job in LG and venturing into something that I am totally green about it? Yes, I am especially seeing my bank account decreasing day by day. But at 30, I looked at what I had achieved in LG, I told myself I had enough, I rather stay happy & healthy than to seek & fight for something that I do not foresee that I can achieve there. Happiness play a key role to my decision, and last I heard my junior who I had been working with close to 2 years leaving too! So to the public reading my blog, I should not talk much bout my ex-company, it does not require a genius to understand the culture and work-like there. Brother Jeremy, I wish you the best in your undertakings, been a pleasure to work with you.

So what's my plan next? Travel only? Nah... I am taking up a job of website revamping in HKG, submitted my quotation, been shortlisted and will still need to do my presentation to client and hopefully can beat the rest of competitors mainly from HKG. Should the project be awarded to me, I will be there to coordinate the implementation up to the execution stage.

Since it is the last quarter of 2009, HKG allows Malaysians to stay up to 90 days, meaning I can at the same time celebrate my X'mas & New Year there, an opportunity that I do not want to miss. I will also be meeting up friends in HKG & Macao (Josie & Sexy, see you people soon!). Plus, will have few friends visiting HKG during my stay there, Deric & Alan, see you guys there!

And this period will also be the best time for me to be a bit slimmer. I somehow lost weight each & every time I travel, the place I am staying in HKG will have all the facilities like gymnasium, swimming pool & jogging track. Must be disciplined enough to look better myself!

For those who want to contact me, sorry peeps, I will be suspending my maxis line before flying off but rest assured I will share with you guys my HKG number on facebook ya! And for friends who want me to help them buy stuff in HKG, email me and visit my other blog @ Shop With Mike, I will try my very best to get it for you all ya!

And cross fingers, hopefully I can spare time to visit China, got my China visa standby as well.

I shall be back in February 2010 just in time for Chinese New Year here. And what's the plan ahead? I am seeking a full-time employment job or perhaps a joint-venture in Bangkok, Thailand. Why Thailand you may ask? Well, it's complicated and remember earlier in my post I mentioned, happiness is the key.

Till then people, more updates on my travelogue!

Michael

Yes, that's my English name and what many of my friends would call me. I do not have it registered on my identity card though but the name was indeed adapted at a very young age.

It was back in 1984 (guess you guys roughly know my age by now) when I was in the kindergarten. There was this one time when they had this talent-time for the kindergarten kids on state level. I represented my kindergarten back then and won the contest.

I won the contest impersonating Michael Jackson. I still can remember I performed twice, one for the preliminary round and another as the finalist. On the preliminary round, I performed 'Billie Jean' and my winning performance was 'Beat It'.

At that time, mom helped me a lot on the custom-made dressing and choreograph the dance moves. It was a good experience for me.

From there on, after the whole experience, kids in my kindergarten called me Michael and I adapted the name until now.

I am inspired to write on this post after watching the untold stories of Neverland and how people had mistakenly accused MJ all this while.

On a separate note, counting down 5 days to my last day of employment in my current company. I will be traveling to Thailand for a few days before joining my sister in Hong Kong.

Will decorate this site with more pictures of my traveling experience.

Good night for now!

My Christmas Eve

The time now is 9.28PM, I am at the Starbucks next to the Kotaraya with the orange juice, my macbook & listening to the jazzy tune of Christmas carols. It had been a while since I really hang out around this area.

Took the LRT from the Kelana Jaya station, another experience I want to forget totally. The Putra LRT sucks maximum, the train services in Malaysia might be newer than the MTR in Hong Kong but the former surely ailing badly.

Sigh... being single... being alone... Christmas will just be like any other day to me except that I do not have to work and perhaps there will be more SMSes today than usual. Thanks for the SMSes wishes. Right now, I am waiting for my bus at 10.30PM heading to.........

Well... Merry Christmas to all and I will definitely put another post to wish you peeps a Happy New Year too. Enjoy the parties, enjoy the booze, enjoy the Christmas sex & enjoy the pressies received. Do not disturb me as I will be celebrating my Christmas eve in the bus :)

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Hong Kong Revisited - Thanks Ally & Jo

OK... sad & pathetic week aside, I revisit Hong Kong for the second time this month. This time around was for a business conference & seminar, The Infocomm Asia 2008. LG had a prominent booth this time around showcasing range of commercial LCD & Plasma panels & also the hotel interactive TV.

In between the working days I had, I managed to slot in some time to meet up some of my Malaysian friends who work in Hong Kong. Thanks to Ally & Josie for allocating their precious time to bring me around, had good food & plenty of pictures.



Moving around Hong Kong during November is a pleasure for its nice weather. Average of 16 degree Celcius, it's pretty cooling. Met up with Josie at the Causeway Bay exit C, went for great Shanghainese food and she brought me to Times Square. As Christmas is around the corner, most of the major malls in HKG are up with amazing decors. Pictures ahead.

















Had a great 2 hours or so with Josie who bought me some really expensive food stuff in one of the most expensive supermarket in HKG. Thanks Josie for the time.



And after that afternoon, met up with Ally in Tsim Sha Tsui, another Malaysian blogger friend who is working in HKG. We met up with another group of Malaysians who are her colleagues & former colleagues. Went for traditional HKG food which I will post it in another post in near future. And after that we walked around the Harbour City. It has one of the best Christmas decor I had ever seen. The locals mentioned that Christmas is more happening than Chinese New Year there. If you happen to visit HKG this coming month, the Harbour City & Times Square is a must. Pretty pictures ahead.





Ally & Josie - thanks a million for the lovely time in Hong Kong.

I miss you girls & I miss Hong Kong...