Faces at the airports

Do you remember the scene at the end of Love Actually? Where people come and go, meeting, hugging, saying hello, saying goodbye, kissing, crying and such.

Isn't sometimes you want to be just one of those people?

I mean, not everyone have the chance to be missed. Some just stay where they are and keeping everything in place. For you who are travesting the world to come back to.

I never get tired of travelling. As much as the tiredness of travelling will always brings you back to reality the minute you step back into the life you left behind for a while.

Planning to travel again this December and still looking for the place where everyone don't know your name... (unless you got to know them....0

Dinner conversation

I always love the idea of entertaining my friends for dinner and engage them in conversation talking about nothing and everything. My wife is also someone who agrees with me on this and we had our fair share of dinner dates where we call up a few friends to come to our house, have dinner and then have coffee. Just for the sake of asking them to the house, catching up with their life and some of them were to celebrate either a birthday or some other celebration.

Even during Eid, we don't cater out to other people but we either buy some of the food or my wife cooks from scratch. It has been a date most of my wife's friends and mine have been waiting for that we dare not cancel it the last Eid although we were actually too tired to do it.

Last night, a couple dropped by at our house and as they just came back from Vietnam, a country we never been to before, they revel us with the tales of their travel. We showed them a TV show we are currently into and then we pigged out on pizzas and junk food. We served them the non-alcoholic wine and the coffee that they brought.

I think we need to do more of these dinner invites as we really enjoyed it. Maybe this is more of what the world need. Conversation, other than just twittering...

 

You bring childhood until you dies...

Saw this sign at the MINT Toy Museum in Singapore and wonders whether as men and even women, didn't we keep on accumulating toys until we die? Cars, shoes, gadgets and make-up. All toys....

Our Tune Hotel Kuala Lumpur stay

The day before we were to be taking a ride in a bus to Singapore, we decided to sleep at a budget hotel whose some of the shareholders are the same as those who owns AirAsia, that budget airline. Using the name Tune Hotel, we were curious how bad and downtrodden is the hotel. It is located at a place which is kind of dodgy as just down the road is a place where drug addicts and prostitutes are known to frequent.

We heard the stories about the hotel not providing air conditions, about having to bring your own towels and about having to rent everything. It was half-true as you do have to rent those things but they do have enough for you to have a good night sleep.

They offer no television and no room service. What they have are 5 options for you to add on to the comfortable bed and the hot shower. You can rent the air condition for 12 or 24 hours; towels with toileteries; wifi; breakfast or an insurance package. You can opt to not add anything and you may be paying just RM50-00 for the room. The check in time is at 2pm like any other hotel but check-out is quite early at 10am. They do have a Subway outlet at the lobby and a 7-Eleven.

They call their concept as 'Limited Service Concept' and I actually have experience the same concept in Paris at a hotel owned by the Accor group. That one is a much cheaper and lower scale concept. The concept is enough for us who was staying for less than 12 hours as our bus was at 7am. To me, it was a convenience which is affordable and what is important is the comfort.

Here are some pictures of our stay :

Reception. Easy registration but there is a deposit for the towel

 

The lobby has the convenience store and a cafe

The corridor is clean and well-lit

There's an ironing board and a laundry area

The comfortable bed and those are our towels

The air condition which you have to pre-pay

 

Power shower

We first thought there was TV but it was just a place to put your stuff or act like a table

One thing we notice are the advertisements plastered everywhere in the room and the corridors

My verdict? It is good enough for budget travelling be it you are a businessman or for leisure. If you want to spend at a foreign country, you can spend it on other things. Just like if you take a flight...

So hard to pronounce

I went to accompany my wife to meet a new tenant recently at one of the house she is acting as a real estate agent for. The guy was a pilot with a leading airline in Malaysia. He was not a Malaysian and from the name he may be from Spain.

His name has the word 'Ja' in it which is not pronounce as such. Being Spanish, it is said as 'Ha'.

Being Malaysia, and as a Malay, all our words are phonetic. We said what we write. 'Ja' is 'Ja' and no two ways about it. So, it is hard for us to learn languages such as the English language which is not phonetic. Then give us those Spanish or France and you can see us suffer to pronounce it.

I know, I know. It is the lingua franca of the world at one time or another. But, still....

With all my complain, at least we don't have to cluck or anything to talk to each other...

Food galore in Singapore

When I was in Singapore the other week, on the final day we were there, we went to look for the dishes which have now seem to be a must for us to look for it whenever we are in town. The weird thing is, these foods are so common in Malaysia that I even sometimes have them nearly a whole week, every single day.

However, due to the nostalgic nature of the food, my wife and I have made it a must every time we are in Singapore. Since 2006 we have frequented Singapore and never have I neglected to have these 2 meals. Murtaba' and beriyani.

Last Sunday, we had both. I had my chicken beriyani and my wife had lamb beriyani. Then we shared the chicken murtabak which we did not managed to finish. We put it inside a doggy bag and brought it home to Malaysia.

It is not like we cannot find the same food in Malaysia. Heck, there is this one restaurant down the road from my office which claim they also serve Singaporean Murtabak. It is just that when I was a wee lad, my dad love to take me to Singapore for the food. Maybe, the memory just stuck with me...

And I am alsomarried someone who love them as much as me....

Does this actually work?

We have the Tongkat Ali and Kacip Fatimah in Malaysia which are made into all sort of drinks. Some are supposed to give instant energy and some can make you last Alll.......Night...... Loooooonnnnnggg. Yep, those drinks which will make you into a stallion or a tigress in bed.

Then I found this in a 7-Eleven in Singapore :

It says there :

NAUGHTY 'G'

It is BOTH for men and women. It is supposed to give you stamina and performance. Not sure whether it worked or not but a few of those who I told about this drink bought it. A few girls said they bought it as the can is nice...Hm...

If you look closely, one of the ingredient says, it has 'Horny Goat Weed'.No wonder eating goat can make you a bit hot under the collar and they say a bit hornier...

And does the 'G' stands for G-spot? I wonder...

So long ago have I been on a bus tour

I rarely use public transport especially the bus and when I got the invitation to to Singapore to attend an award show, my wife asked me when was the last time I got on a bus to travel especially a place which took nealy 4 to 5 hours drive. That is also the question we asked ourselves as when we drive the car, it took us just 4 hours to drive from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.

It was a nice ride as the bus only stopped at one rest area and was very comfortable. I slept halfway and when it stopped at the final rest area before crossing to Singapore, we were already excited.

The ride back was a bit tiring especially as it was done on a Sunday evening, one of the busiest day on the highway as people from the south returns to Kuala Lumpur. We boarded at 2.30pm and arrived at 8pm. Tiring to say the least but what happened in between made it worthwhile...

Keep on watching the clock

At one of the stops

I think riding a bus to Singapore is not too bad. I love to do it again and I heard there are a few bus company which has comfortable buses...

What has been happening here?

This is very rare for me as I have never really been away from blogging for so long since September last year. I did not even update or commented on any blog since one week ago which was one day before I went to Nuffnang Awards in Singapore. I know some of you have had enough of that award show but I do want to tell my side of the story. Let me give my perspective of it and it may not be as beautiful as some of the 'sponsored' post try to make it be. Heck, if you look closely between the line, you may even find a few disgruntle updates here and there.

Some of the post I need to put up is :

1) The people at the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards on 23.10.09;

2) The tour of Singapore courtesy of Tourism Singapore on 24.10.09;

3) My stay in Tune Hotels Kuala Lumpur a day before the Nuffnang's Singapore trip on 22.10.09;

4) The disastrous Comedy Club Kuala Lumpur show outing on 21.10.09;

5) The free show at the new Actors Studio Kuala Lumpur on top of Lot 10 a week before that;

6) The launch of the Bob Dylan Oris watch;

7) My 3 days getaway at Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside;

8) The new John Grisham book which is made for movie more than ever;

9) My weight which is yo-yo-ing like a er....yo-yo?;

10) My birthday celebration and the 'present' that I got from my wife

That is the 10 that I can think of right now. There are still 3 hours before I have to check-out from this hotel in Putrajaya. I am going to make the most of it and catch on my blogging later. See you guys in a few...

I have been to Singapore before...

I think in one of my last posting about my impending trip to Singapore this Friday, I have put out wrongly that I have never been to Singapore. Even my wife had commented that I wrote as if we have never been to Singapore. Maybe how I worded my

I actually have frequented Singapore in 2 different times.

One as a kid when my parents were posted in Johor Bahru as Felda officers. I remembered those time as the time Singapore was the choice shopping destination. I remembered my father always bringing me to this place called Geylang and Arab Street for us to enjoy murtabak.

As I become an adult, Singapore become more expensive and even their citizens cross over to come to our shore to shop. As I become more culturally affluent, they have more and more interesting musical talents and theater shows. I have been going there on a one-night stay just to enjoy certain theater shows which I have missed when I was in London. I still went to the same murtabak shop in Arab Street just to enjoy the food.

So, tomorrow, I will be going to Singapore on a sponsored trip with Nuffnang. I hope for it to be good as it is sponsored by Tourism Singapore whose branch at Orchard Road I went into the last time I was there. Quite impress with their amenities there and has high expectation of their hospitality...