靴柜新成员 New Member of Shoe Cupboard

上两星期我的走山靴壮烈牺牲在Nuang山里。跟了我5年，它拖着脱皮离骨的身躯也不放弃的陪我走到山脚。它总算是功成身退了。。。在此跟它说声谢谢。

为了要填补它所留下的空缺，星期六我逛了一间商店和两间广场。终于在Subang的谋间广场物色到这双Salomon登山靴。原价RM759没有折扣。。。幸亏助销员跟我说店有做促销，每购买RM150折扣RM30。成为会员可再扣20%；会员费是RM39。总的来说，我的损伤是RM526.20。。。Salomon还有送背包。

虽然不算便宜可是这新成员不仅是走山。它还可以攀高山，下小溪。希望下来的5年内可以发挥到它的潜能。。。



 Two weeks ago my hiking boot was killed at Mount Nuang. It has been faithful with me for the past 5 years rain, shine, and snow. It has struggled to bring me out of the mountain safe and sound during its last mile. Mission well accomplished to it... I thank it for its great service to me.

In order to fill in the empty position left by it, I went shopping last Saturday. Found this new Salomon recruit from one of the shopping mall in Subang. It was originally priced at RM759 with no discount... however, the promoter is kind enough to let me know that the shop is currently running a promotion. Every RM150 spent will entitle a RM30 rebate. She also advice me to join their membership which can obtain 20% discount dispite the promotion. Membership fee is RM39. All in all, my damage is RM526.20... Salomon is also giving out a backpack.

It is not at all cheap but this new member is not merely a hiking shoe. It is also a waterproof, high mountain trekking boot. I hope I can make full use of its potential in this coming 5 years...

我的减压消闲 My De-stress Leisure

有朋友告诉我养鱼是个很好的减压嗜好。每当心情不好时就坐在鱼缸前发呆。看那鱼儿游来游去心情就慢慢的沉淀下来。感觉自己也像鱼儿般轻松悠闲的游着。。。我告诉他这嗜好并不适合我，我没时间清理鱼缸。还没来得及给我减压鱼儿都窒息了。。。

这意见就这样不了了之的给我抛到脑后了。直到刚才我放工回家心情很低落。坐在床上无意中盯住我的小帮手（电动吸尘机）在我房里漫步。好像鱼儿在水里漫游。。。心情也跟着放松了。原来这招真的用得着喔！

My friend once told me that having an aquarium is a good hobby to release stress. When you are unhappy, you can just watch the fish swim about leisurely all day. All your worries and troubles will be calmed just by seeing them swim... I told him that this hobby is not for me. I don't have time for them and they may  suffocate in their algae filled aquarium before they can help me with my stress...

This piece of advice has been kept at the back of my mind for some time until today. I came home from a long day of work feeling empty and down. Sitting on my bed my eyes were caught by my little maid (robotic vacuum cleaner) wondering lazily around my room. Just like a fish swiming gently around my bed... It brought me up again just by gazing at it. It really works for me!

我的小帮手
My little maid

Langkawi Getaway Day2

Our second day of this getaway is the only day that have a pre-planned itinery for the entire trip - The Mangrove EcoTour. This is a half day tour which we have booked from a travel agent at the Langkawi Airport. The entire package cost us RM250 inclusive of return transfer from our motel to Tanjung Rhu jetty and a private chartered boat. A deal you can only get during super low season.

Probably because of our last minute booking (yesterday evening), there are some miscommunication between the travel agent and the tour operator. We waited for more than an hour with constant annoying call to the travel agent... evil me...

无止境的等待。。。
The Endless wait...

The tour pickup service finally arrived around 10:40am with a Nissan Livina. It is a comfortable car and the journey to the jetty took 25 minutes. The only real attractive scenery is when we pass through Tanjung Rhu where rows of pokok rhu line up on both sides of the road. The jetty is hidden behind trees at the end of the road and looks doughy from far. However, it is a really clean and neat place when we got down from the car.

It started to rain right after we arrive at the jetty. We paid the tour operator there and our boat man brings our boat to the embarking platform. It begin to pour heavily when we head out from the jetty... we are forced to take shelter at a floating restaurant.


天不作美。。。
Into the storm...

While waiting for the rain to stop, the boat man show us his pet. It is a stingray which he rear beside the floating restaurant as a showcase to all patrons. "It is supposed to be a fish farm in the making" he told us.

表演仰泳
Stingray backstroke

The rain stop just before noon and the sky is slowly clearing up. It is a blessing in disguise as the weather is just perfect after the down pour with the sun just bright enough but not too hot. Without much ado, we quickly board our boat again and continue (or rather start) our Mangrove EcoTour.


阳光再现
The clearing sky



重新出发
Here we go again

Our first stop is the old charcoal plant... or so they called it. It is some abandoned charcoal making stoves by the river bank. Nothing much there so we just merely slow down while passing by.

遗弃的炭制造地
Abandoned charcoal plant

Next attraction is to see some eagles. These are the smaller ones which our boat man told us they are Brahminy Kite... This boat man really knows his stuff! Kudos to him. Our tour does not include watching the open sea hawk which is far more larger.

饿鹰抢食
Fighting for food

After the feeding frenzy, we cruise along the river admiring the natural habitat of the Mangrove bakau trees. My camera battery is getting low as I forgot to recharge it yesterday. Therefore I have limited photos of the cruise.


猴母子在望什么？
What is the monkey looking at?

Our next highlight of the tour is the crocodile cave. We should be passing through from one end to the other end of the cave but we are late (thanks to the pick-up agent). The tide has raised and there is not enough room for our boat to pass through it. We could only take a peep from the exit of the cave...

鳄鱼洞
Crocodile cave

Then bat cave (gua kelawa) is located deeper into the river. We pass by foreign registered boats where they sail and park there as a pit stop. The cave is accessed by foot. We got down and paid for the cave entrance (RM1 per person) while our boat man wait by the platform. We were guide into the cave by a small boy with a tiny torch light. I only managed to snap one picture with flash before my camera battery died.

蝙蝠洞
Bat cave

The rest of the tour include the fish farm where they showcase the Archerfish, some giant fish (forgot its name), horseshoe crab, and stingray. Here we can experience feeding the archerfish from our finger where they will jump out of the water and suck the food from our finger. Other close interaction with these sea creatures include tickle-ish claw of the horseshoe crab on our palm and the rough jelly feeling of the stingray.

[My camera is out. Please refer to Casendra's blog for more pictures here and here.]

The tour ended with a speedy boat ride to catch some wind on the open sea. We opt to have lunch at the floating restaurant before heading back. Our boat man is more than willing to bring us there and wait. Later we found out that he is one of the share holder of the restaurant as he is helping out with the restaurant renovation. We ordered individual meals each and 3 dishes for share which include 1 steamed fish, 1 grilled fish, and fuyong eggs. The fish tasted very good and very fresh... too fresh for Casie when she saw the man scoop up the fish from the fish farm and into the kitchen...

The lunch cost us RM194 and we feel satisfied as our whole Mangrove EcoTour plus lunch is much cheaper than RM180 per person. Casie mum sponsored RM10 tips for our boat man for being a nice guy. It is almost 3:00pm by the time are back to the jetty and were sent back to our motel by the pick up service.

After resting and charging my camera battery, we went to Awana Porto Malai Resort for some scenery before heading to Eagle square (Dataran Lang), Langkawi designated main attraction. The sunset there is beautiful and everyone is snapping non stop with whatever camera they have.

Awana Porto Malai light house

Sea view from Awana Porto Malai

Boat parking @ Awana

Dataran Lang

Building reflection at Dataran Lang

Spread your wings and fly...

Sunset of Langkawi

Golden evening at Eagle Square

It was getting dark when we are done taking photos of the sunset. It is time for dinner and we make our way to Kuah town hoping to get some ayam percik. To our dismay, it is puasa month and all stalls have cease bussiness by 7:00pm and foods have mostly sold off by the time we arrive. We took a leisure stroll at the night market there not finding anything interesting and head back Cenang beach for dinner.

Our first choice is to try the Bontton Restaurant that we passes by so often... big NO NO after we went in... its a freaking expensive fine dinning restaurant! Why do we bother to have fine dinning here in Langkawi? We leave Bontton (after being seated... pai sei...) and had a normal 大炒in a chinese along the row of shops in Cenang beach. Decent food and reasonably priced.

After dinner Casie & mum accompany me to look for fridge magnet as souvenir for my sister-in-law while FaiTh escorted Annie to have her leg tatooed. When we are done, went and grab some beer before going back to our motel. Later that night, we had beer by the beach. The night is still young after we finished our drinks so Annie, FaiTh, and I took a moonlight shower while sauntering along the beach... It was around 2am when I prepare for bed... Tomorrow would be a more relaxed day, wouldn't it?

海外华文书市

上星期四下班后和Jeff 一同去逛这书市。所谓“读行天下-Reading Embrace The World”。这是海外华文书市的标语。我也呼吁大家多点阅读来增添知识和广阔视野。有时候也可以天马行空地放纵想象，舒缓压力哦。。。

究竟我应为怕人潮所以很少去这些类似展览会的场合。可是那天是开斋节的前夕，大多数人都已经放假回乡了。我是第一次可以那么轻松自在的在书展里挑选我喜欢的书。

我个人比较没时间消化长长的小说。不像以前那样，一星期可以阅完一本。空闲时间少了，读到后尾都已忘了前奏。只好选些没有连接性的短故事来解解书瘾。翻开这本“小故事大道理”读了几页觉得蛮有启发性的一本书所以就把它买下了。

雅琴主编-小故事大道理

接下来是我一向来都有留意的作家，张曼娟。很欣赏她的笔法也很愧疚到现在都没有真正的拥有一本她的书。以前没多余的钱买所以只是跟朋友或书局租借。当天看到这本“天一亮，就出發”就马上拿下。这不是一本张曼娟的小说，它是张曼娟的旅游相册。里面没有密密麻麻的文字。只是照片和简单的讲解或介绍。超爱旅游的我应为钱不够用也只好看书幻想了。。。

张曼娟-天一亮，就出發

以上就是我的收获。。。两本都不需要每天用很长的时间去追读的书。看完后如果很不错再和大家分享。

受伤的狼

假日前夕皆开心
个个脸上带笑容
狼虽有泪藏内心
也得脸皮不改容

天生孤僻不合群
初次天真信友情
以为可以守密情
却把独狼难为情

不是秘密见光明
友谊背叛是致命
后悔当初寻共鸣
换来出卖非联盟

趁着长假透透气
疗伤完毕再冲击
重建卸下的防壁
独狼独狼要争气！

Langkawi Getaway Day1 (Part 2 of 2)

Where should we start? Nobody is familiar with the place so we just turn on Casendra's Garmin Nuvi and search for the nearest restaurant. Aha.... Thai food. Its only 600 meters from where we are.... go go go! Without second thought we followed the GPS direction blindly..... into Berjaya Langkawi Resort. Initially we believe we were just passing through until a guard stop us, "Sini kereta tak boleh masuk, pusing balik." We then realized that the restaurant is inside the resort. A quick glance at the rear view mirror and I saw some disapproving faces....

So we ditch the GPS and headed to Kuah town in hope that we will find some decent and reasonably priced food along the way. Needless to say, there are none. Most of the eateries and shops are closed.... its Puasa month and Nuzul Al-Quran today! What a foolish 5 we were.

We arrive at Kuah town center around 1pm and our stomachs are growling. We spotted a corner chinese eatery opposite the Duty Free shops and went in straight. Everything is like KL (including prices) except the speed of service. We waited around 15 minutes before someone came to clear our table. Noodles cost RM4 per bowl. Annie took mixed rice, 2 veggies and 1 meat cost RM5 (WTH?!). The taste of the food doesn't justify the price... maybe we were hungry because FaiTh and Casie say "mai hiam, buay pai la...." I don't want to comment further...

After lunch, with a bunch of ladies, near duty free shops..... Need I say some more? FaiTh's aching legs are cured miraculously and she was busy shopping around the 3 shops. We bought some chocolates and tidbits as souvenirs for our friends. Annie recomended the Japanese Choya Plum Wine to me and we bought it with another bottle of white wine just in case we got ourselves dangling with just one bottle.... she drinks like a fish, you get what I mean.

The spree ended around 3pm. It could be longer if it hasn't been the heavy exercise this morning. I'm amazed at how efficient these ladies can be when it comes to shopping... less than 2 hours and everyone seems to be carrying more than 2 bags. FaiTh who promise to take over the driving suddenly having leg pain again... but I managed to talk Annie into test driving the car to drive us back to our motel.

We agreed to just have a shower and continue our exploration of the island but everyone is stucked to their bed once they come in touch with it. The heat is overwhelming outside and we gives ourselves lame excuses to stay inside... strategize our itinerary la... compare tour package price la... check email la... and they even force me to lie to cancel a pre-book mangrove tour package as we got a cheaper offer from the travel agent here.

Annie is my savior... she brought her ipod along! I was obsessed playing with it while the rest is still superglued to their bed. Thinking of it now, I have been hogging on her ipod (for the entire trip) since then... addicted. I hope she is not mad at me... sooorrryyy.......

It is already 5pm when Annie, FaiTh and I decided to take a stroll along Cenang beach. We just step foot on the beach and FaiTh immediately run (yup, she ran) to the shade. Walaueh..... is she gonna melt like heated up butter or what? That left Annie and me to explore the coastline. I need to get some sun before mushroom grow out of my skin.

The setting is like a painting. It was very windy and the breeze is gently caressing through us, flapping our hair and cloths..... The waves lashes lazily againts the shore and distance sounds of children playing makes a perfect orchestra. I could feel the warm evening sun on my face and in my heart. Everything is so... tranquilizing.

Annie's face is glowing from the evening sun. Together with her smile and her flapping hair, it reminds me of my first sight of her. It was also by a seashore when I notice her from afar. This time, it is like a close-up of that view. There are people promoting para-sailing to us as the winds are strong. Annie seems interested but I'm an acrophobian so I offer to wait by the beach while she take a spin (I don't want to be the one screaming like a girl from the parachute). She didn't catch the ride after all...

Cenang beach

Coastline view

Trees swaying in the sea breeze

Time passes so quickly... I didn't notice it is almost 7pm because the sky is still bright. We headed back to AB motel and found everyone is waiting for us... outside... the room key is with me.... ops.... sorry....

We grab our stuffs and move out to a pre-pick restaurant (from one of the many fliers) for our dinner. This time FaiTh offered to drive and I set the GPS to our destination. We do not know what's wrong with the GPS as it was pointing us to the wrong direction and make long trip before telling us that we need to make a U-turn. I was suspecting FaiTh is praying too hard that our journey will pass by her favourite go-cart circuit... she has been all exicted about it ever since we land. Please ask her yourself if you want to know the reason and you will be in for a ride... she will make sure you dream about go-cart that night.

FaiTh go-cart circuit

FaiTh looks all tense up behind the wheels. Her back is no longer leaning on the seat and her chest is barely inches from the steering.... After a few turns, we also turn... pale. Ok, that's it. I drive, she guide. It is around 8:30pm when we finally found this 美香海鲜饭店restaurant. The owner keeps pushing the expensive seafood saying that I should order it to let my mother-in-law to try at least once.... What!? Since when I have a mother-in-law!? I'm too tired and hungry to do any explanation and clarification... I hope Casie and mum didn't take it as me eating their 豆腐.

We ordered 5 dishes; mantis prawn, salted bake crab, steam fish, home-made veggie tofu, and stir-fried potato leaves. Everybody is starving and suffering from mosquitoes attack. Luckily I brought an anti-mos roll-on balm and saved us from having itchy legs. The food came around quarter to nine and we ate greedily. By the time Casie wanted to take pictures, it is already a mess... so she only managed to get the mantis prawn on photo.

Yummy mantis prawn

The total bill come to RM230.30 and they did not give us the 10% discount they promised. Hhhmm.... they thought they can escape... they are wrong! We are on tight budget so we hang on to the discount no matter what... The ladies are making most of the noise and we finally got the discount...girl power rocks! Ultimate damage is RM207+.

Right after our hearty meal, it is already time for coffee at the Perdana Quay (or was it Marina Quay?). It was part of the plan to sip coffee there while enjoying the night scene there but we had our dinner late. We ended up just taking a leisure walk along the wooden platform at the quay because we are still full. Some hooligans at one of the bar are trying to woo the ladies when we walk pass... They must be jealous of me....

Row of bars at the quay

After stretching ourselves and having enough of the night air, we decided to call it a day. The drive back to motel is quite peaceful except for FaiTh occassional laughing silly at the GPS monitor. According to her, the car is shaking its bum bum... Don't worry, you wouldn't be the only one who don't understand what she mean. Other than that, we are fascinated at the size of the moon which look so much bigger from here.

I'm too lazy to check the time when we reach AB motel. Had some (whole bottle) white wine over small talk with some music from Annie's computer... We don't know why she bring it but I personally appreciate that we can have some music. After shower, Casie and mum went to bed. I wasn't ready for bed yet... that tad of white wine is a bit too little.

Dragged Annie and FaiTh out to the veranda together with the bottle of Choya. Turn on some music and begin swigging and chatting. We finished the Choya before crashing to bed. Another exciting day is waiting ahead of us, the mangrove tour...

Langkawi Getaway Day1 (Part 1 of 2)

Teet-teet-teet-teet.......! It is 3:45am and my alarm is blaring away. I quickly leap off my bed and switch it off before it wakes the whole neighborhood. Today is my getaway trip to Langkawi with some "jovial" friends. Despite of being sleep deprived, I drag myself to the wash room and freshen up.

It is 4:20am when I'm all set to leave my house. The early morning air felt so cool and refreshing. It has been a while since I last enjoyed it... (partially drunk don't count). I followed my GPS direction to Casendra's house to pick her up (she and her mum to be precise). The journey took 35 minutes and we were exchanging good mornings by 5:00am. Load up and off to FaiTh's house, the gathering point. We gave FaiTh a heads up call while we are on our way just to make sure we don't catch her on her pajamas.

FaiTh's dad is a cool and silent man. He is watering his plant (yes, 5 o'clock in the morning) while we are waiting for FaiTh to get ready.... "Fai Th" 啦... We departed a little late but still manage to reach LCCT around 6am, thanks to FaiTh's dad. She claimed that he is an F1 driver and I will not question that after our ride to the airport.

Annie arrived shortly after us and I proceed to check-in. Two counters are open but one of it was hogged by a family having some ticketing problem. The other line was quite long but our petit F1 daughter managed to over-take and cut into the hugh gap between the first and second position. Luckily our check-in was swift as the person behind us is showing sign of agitation. Sorry..... we honestly thought that they are not queuing due to the big gap infront.

Breakfast time! Went over to McD and found Annie and her bf getting ready to pay at the counter. We quickly slot in our orders together with theirs. Once again, the person behind us is not very pleased with that. This time the process is much longer and Casie and I have to pretend nothing happens and avoid looking behind us. Sweat......

We boarded the plane around 7:10am. A colourful plane indeed with the "AMAZING" word painted in rainbow colours. I doze off right after take off. All I can remember is FaiTh talking non stop (too tired to understand a word). She is a real chatter box...

Arrived at Langkawi around.... oops, forgot to note the time. Raise and shine. Ms chatterbox met her friend while we are preparing to disembark the plane. What a small small world. They throw some....errr.....alot of hugs and wish each other happy vacation before parting separate ways. We head for the information counter to grab a copy of the tourist maps and some tour package information. At the same time, we got hook up by the car rental counter offering Nissan Sentra or Honda City for RM90 per day. We took the Nissan as it is bigger for there are 5 of us.

Our rented car. Don't forget to buy K.T.M. 4D! Hahaha....

Perfect wheather with clear blue sky. Lets go catch some fresh air up Gunung Cincang! Wait..... before that, lets confirm our accomodation first. FaiTh make a few phone calls but it seems that they do not know what booking we are talking about!? OMG... better make a trip to AB Motel to clear things up. After a quick check of our rented car and topping up RM50 petrol, we headed straight to AB Motel.... Not exactly straight as we are trying to read the map. Fortunately, Casendra brought her Garmin Nuvi. That saved us some headache.

The motel has quite a view at Cenang beach. We unload our stuffs into our motel room and grab some bottled water before continuing our adventure at the cable car and sky bridge.

View of Pantai Cenang from AB Motel rooms

The drive to the cable car is slow paced. I am not used to driving at 60KM/h when the road in front is clear. I overtook a few cars in front of us and got a good lecture from all the ladies in the car. "你现在很赶时间吗！？". OK, my bad...... Luckily they allowed me to overtake the 2 horse riding men which we encounter near Berjaya Resort..... Phew....! I almost thought that we will be seeing sunset from the sky bridge.....

When turning into the cable car parking, FaiTh notice an old banner saying it is closed for maintenance. Please tell us the banner is obsolete..... we pray in our heart. Our spirit dented when the guard told us the cable car and sky bridge is closed until 6 September 2010.... Argh......! What a bad start....

We got over our disappointment and proceed to the next attraction nearby, the Seven Wells Waterfall. The waterfall cannot be reach by car and we have to park our car at the desinated parking area at the base of the hill. Cow dung is everywhere when we got down from our car... smell the fresh air, boy? breath it in..... (yeah, it stinks quite bad). Annie spotted some dung beetle hard at work and these yellow eyed insects soon became the victim of paparazzi.

Celebrity of the day - The dung beetle

The climb up to the waterfall is supposed to be a walk in the back yard. Annie is our Tarzan Jane. She briefly stroll up the stairs with no effort. FaiTh is obviously gasping for air with Casie and mum trailing behind. We could hear the waterfall gushing down from far. The waterfall is beautiful even in this dry season with the flow so calm and relaxing. We took off our shoes and soothe our feet in the cold stream but Casie's mum is too afraid to join us in the water.

Stairs guarded by the monkeys

The calm waterfall

Eventhough the current is slow, I almost slip on the slippery rocks. Added a small wound to my left foot... my poor little left foot, always being a victim of my injuries. The journey uphill continues after our foot bath to the Seven Wells located few hundreds stair-step above the waterfall. Our chatter box is complaining non-stop that her legs are aching and she is completing her exercise quota for a whole year.....come on, even the eldest member in our group don't whine that much.

The Seven Wells are so so only with a closed down viewing tower due to lack of maintenance. We are not able to spot all seven of them from where we stand. It is disappointing that we cannot have a sight from the viewing tower. We stop to take some wind and kill the fatigue while Tarzan Jane scout around the vicinity. She really looks like she has come home.....climbing rocks, crossing rivers, wondering into woods, etc, etc.

Seven Wells

Up stream

Annie's scouting result

It is around noon when we finally got Tarzan Jane out of the woods and start our descend. Hunger is starting to kick in due to the "heavy" exercise earlier. Going down hill is far more relaxed and FaiTh even have sufficient stamina to sing 三个字 along the way.... at least it sounded slightly better than her grumbling about her aching legs....

Everyone is exhausted upon reaching the foot of the hill. The sun is extremely hot and we have a sudden urge to have ice-cream. Each of us took one and FaiTh paid for it, amounting to RM9. As we are enjoying the refreshment in front of the stall, a family of Hong Kong tourist approached us to ask about the Seven Wells. They are concern if their kids will be able to make it to the top. Frankly, I worried more for them than for their kids.... probably they are using their kids as an excuse.... cover macho ma.....

Casendra managed to con the Hong Kong family up the hill by showing them some professionally angled photos of the waterfall from her camera. I was silent throughout the 5 minutes coversation between the Hongkies and the ladies in my pack..... wondering how these Hongkie ladies maintain their body shape. Four kids on ground and the curves are still mesmerizing.....

The "fresh" air of cow dung once again fill my nostril when we approach our car. The parking attendant (which is noway to be seen earlier) rush to us to collect the parking fee. The damage is RM2 plus almost stepping on a cow dung... Could they please at least sweep the dungs out the area for crying out loud sake! I wouldn't feel too bad departing with my RM2 if they do that.

We got into our Sentra before deciding where to have lunch. Annie hurt her foot when getting into the car by kicking and breaking the glove compartment.... ok ok, its already broken before that and the fall off part is what Annie kicked on. Off we go to hunt for food...

[More pictures in Casendra and FaiTh's blog]