The "C" Craze

Miss Angel give me this homework few days ago. Dunno why I have many homeworks to do this month :P I will just write this spontaneously according to whatever 10 words (starting with alphabet C) that come to my mind at this moment.

Canine. Yeah, I’m thinking of my cute little pup. He is no longer a pup but cos of his small & miniature size, he always remain as a dearie little pup in my heart.

Credit Card. Cham loh.. I haven’t settle my credit card payment yet.. Still have few days to go… Searching for cash & cheque book...

Camera. My toy, wat else? I always have my cam with me. I even carried it inside my white coat most of the time ;)

Cake. Why I think of cake? Cos I will be “celebrating” some sort of special “anniversary” very soon.. What is it about? You will know when the day arrive... But sad to say that there won't be any cake on that day.. Gosh, time really flies, and I’m getting older & older day by day.

Cadaver aka Corpse. Hahhaa, don’t worry, I’m not psycho. I'm not chi sin. Don’t call me siao either. Why I suddenly think of this word? I guess May will know the answer. Haha, too much autopsy-talk over the past few days ;)

Cockroach. Dunno lah, everytime I see the chao cockroach, I have the phobia thinking of the possibility that the cockroach might fly around and land on my head. Yucks. I hate that feeling. That’s why everytime I see cockroach, I will kill them before they have any chance to do any funny things :P

Cow. Cows are cute, aren’t they? The adorable Moo-Moo....

Cloud. I like to look at the clouds and the blue sky. But I do it in a comfortable way.. Sitting on the sofa & watching out from the window. But I'm not a cloud-maniac :P

Compete. I just don’t like to compete with others. This is my attitude since small :)

Cruise. Suddenly I feel like going for another cruise trip :) I really enjoy my trip cruising the Three Gorges in the past.

Let me count-count.. 10 already, right? Can I include in the Cantonese dialect words starting with C or not? which we used quite frequently such as Chi sin, Cham, Choi, Cilakak, Chi kek ? Of course there are lotsa other interesting words start with C but since I want to keep this post clean (this is a "U" post), so I won't include all those c**** words inside here :P

***Update: Initially I didn't plan to tag anyone. But after a short chat on yahoo messenger with my "beloved" ah Ben siudidi, I decided to tag him for the alphabet B.. hahaha.. how we come to the conclusion? By flipping coin. Anyone else want to join in the fun? ;)

Gawai Festival

Anything special about 1st June? I guess most of my friends in Peninsular won't notice the significance of this day. It's the Gawai Festival (celebrated on 1st & 2nd June in Sarawak, the Land of Hornbills).

Gawai festival is the celebration of the end of harvesting season & the start of a new farming season. On the 1st June throughout Sarawak, the Dayak community celebrate Gawai in their long houses, villages or urban homes with open house, sharing the finest of their hospitality with the other communities, & not forgetting tuak (a potent local rice wine) - something that I haven't drink for several years...

And I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Dayak friends & bloggers (especially my Iban & Bidayuh friends - Agus, Grace, Fred, Desmond and others..) Happy Gawai Festival 2006. And not forgetting... Grace, please reserve some tuak & Sarang Semut for me.. since I can't visit you & Fred this coming Gawai Festival ;)

Selamat Ari Gawai Dayak 2006
to all Dayak friends & bloggers

(Picture from kapitro.sarawak.gov.my)

p/s: Drive carefully when you travel back home this festive season.

The 16th Penang International Floral Festival 2006 (2)

Today I'm showing some of the special "flower" photos. Not the flowers with colourful pedals but something unique and something different.

Guess what are these? Don't worry, these are not dinasour eggs ! It's the Rafflesia flowers (in the earlier stage).

These are something we see very frequent. I guess most of us played with these stuffs during our childhood time, right?

The seeds being made into key chains. Sold at the price of RM 1 for the smaller seed & RM 2 for the bigger seed.

Remember this? I used to play with these stuff during my childhood time. It's fun to see the seeds floating in the sky as it drop down. Remembering the good old days.. I can't remember what are the name of these stuffs..

Hahaha, this is another great toy. Looks familiar, right? :D It's fun to watch the shuttlecock-like-seed twist & spin around as it drop down from height. Or.. we can play around and kick this seed together with friends. Great toy during childhood time. (Kids nowadays might never see or know the existence of these great stuffs)

These are non other than rubber seeds. Good to throw at people ..

The cute looking Venus Fly Trap :)

These two pictures are bicycles beautifully decorated with flowers by school kids. The first one is the butterfly bike & the second one is the peacock bike.

Duan Wu Jie (端午节 ) / Dragon Boat Festival

Duan Wu Jie (端午节) or Dragon Boat Festival falls on 31/5/2006 this year (5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese Lunar calendar), which commemorates Qu-Yuan, one of the China well loved poets and patriots, who drowned himself in a river. To stop the fish from eating his body, people made rice dumplings and threw them into the river.

Nowadays we can savour zongzi (粽子) or chang or chung or rice dumplings or "whatever you called it" all years round. The most popular one is Bak Chang or Ham Yuk Chung (Steamed glutinous rice with soya sauce stuffed with fatty pork, sausages, chinese mushroom, dried prawns, chestnut, salted egg yolk and beans which are wrapped up in bamboo leaves. Another oily and sinful delight.

I still remember helping my mother preparing the ingredients and wrapping up & tied the chang prior to cooking. Those were the good old days.. Haven't do that since I left home to further my studies more than a decade ago. Nowadays everything becomes more expensive. One huge Bak Chang cost RM 4.

Albie Kor, since no lormaikai, bak chang or ham yuk chung also will do, right? Since the taste is similar ;)

The 16th Penang International Floral Festival 2006 (1)

I went to the Penang International Floral Festival 2006 (held at the Botanical Gardens from 28th to 4th June 2006) last Sunday after visiting the Penang International Dragon Boat Festival . This is the floral festival held annually which draw huge crowds of people. Furthermore the school holidays had just started. As anticipated, there's really a huge crowd of people inside there - 人山人海 aka people mountain people sea (since it's weekend & also the first day of the festival).

Don't ask me the name of the flowers, cos I'm hopeless in naming them :D

By the way, I take quite a number of orchid pictures... since orchid are nice. There are several categories of orchids (don't ask me how to differentiate them cos I've no idea. Anyone can enlighten me? )

Orchids with mini flower..

These are some of the more commonly seen orchids.


Orchids, orchids and orchids.... Of course there are other flowers as well, but orchids caught my attention the most ;)

I took few hundred photos inside there (as usual) but I will just select few to post here. Others are for my album collection ;) This is the second time I visit the Festival. Went there for a brief visit last year.


Tak larat to stay too long cos of the super hot weather (& I'm super dehydrated !! Went out to buy the icey cold coconut juice from the coconut stalls twice to quench my thirst). Few more pictures to come ... (I get tired of uploading so many pictures at the moment) ;)

Penang International Dragon Boat Festival (PIDBF) 2006

Today it drizzled briefly in the late morning; towards the afternoon, the rain stopped. We went to Teluk Bahang Dam in the late afternoon after our church service to watch the Penang International Dragon Boat Festival Races 2006 (held in there from 27 till 28 May 2006). I posted a post on Teluk Bahang Dam not long ago.

Since 2002, the Penang International Dragon Boat Festival (PIDBF) has been staged in Teluk Bahang Dam. The dam, located 1.2km from the seas off the northern coast of Penang Island, offers an ideal racing environment with scenic views of the hills and coastline.

I will say.. the weather is extremely hot... The nice weather with bright sunlight is good for photo shooting, but definitely not good for the skin (but who cares ? - Seems like I'm darker my skin has nice tan now - hitam manis).

I had never been to a dragon boat race before. Can't see much cos the participants and the dragon boats are so far away. Cheh, no nice looking colourful dragon boats... Can't hear any loud drums also.. So disappointing.


So we just stayed for a short while and took few shots before leaving to my next destiny - the Penang Floral Festival & Lantern Festival :) This is gonna be my first & last time visiting the Penang International Dragon Boat Festival Races :P

The I Meme

Carcar tagged me quite some time ago... Time to submit my homework (See? I'm so hardworking, doing my homework one after another; there goes my weekend, hahaha)

I AM: who I am (Isn't this great? )
I JUST NOW: Err, What I did just now ? Yeah, I went for BBQ Steamboat together with my friends.
I SAID: so many meaningful things (although I do say craps occasionally, but definitely not at work)
I WANT: to make some differences, and I believe I can do that
I WISH: I have better memories (what to do? Gettting older day by day)
I HATE: hypocrites and back stabbers
I MISS: my beloved family, my Yamaha Sports 100cc motorbike and my mountain bike
I FEAR: I have too many things to do and yet so little time left
I HEAR: my dog barking
I WONDER: how my life will be if I study something else during my uni days
I REGRET: not doing certain things in the past
I AM NOT: as perfect as you think I am
I SING: occasionally when I'm driving
I CRY: very seldom
I AM NOT ALWAYS: so hardworking (I need to take time to breath as well)
I MADE: you bored and sleepy cos of my boring post ?? (I hope not ..)
I WRITE: whenever I feel like writing
I CONFUSE: myself when I think too much
I NEED: a shoulder massage definitely
I SHOULD: call back home more often
I START: to feel tired & sleepy
I FINISH: answering all these questions (finally !!), phew
I TAG: no one :)

12 midnight liao.. time to Zzzz again ...

My 10 Simple Pleasures

Aiks, being tagged by our dear Little Miss May not long ago for these simple meme... So, I will put aside my Hatyai posts & my never ending Zoo posts aside for a while :)

My 10 Simple Pleasures...
1. Spend quality times with ♥ my loved ones ♥...
2. Seeing my cute little doggy (my dear Min Pin) jumping up and down with great joy and greeting me at the door without fail each time I come back home.
3. Having a nice and relaxing shoulder and body massage in a cosy environment ..
4. Waking up naturally in the morning (No disturbing sound from the alarm clock, which is my faithful nokia handphone). This is what I wish, but everyday... I need to set my handphone to wake me up in the early morning.. except on my off days and during holidays.
5. Curled up under the warm comforter in cold, rainy days..
6. Listening to my favourite compilations of old songs from the 70's to the early 90's .. ♪ ♫ ♪
7. Snap, snap & snap... ☼ What's this? Taking photograph lah..
8. Eating & Enjoying good food.. Remember? We Live to Eat, not Eat to Live
9. Writing some silly entries to my little humble weblog.
10. What's the last one ?? For me to know and for you to figure out yourself .......

Who to tag ah? kekeke...
1. Cynthia - the one I ♥ the most (& my constant victim too) - she knows that
2. Sbanboy - my dear buddy who claims himself to be my long lost twin :D
3. Alicia - both of us have a cute Min Pin (yeah !)
4. Winn - the great detergent, which do wonders !!
5. Ben - the one who can drool till tsunami.. So, watch out!
cukup lah.. sakit tangan already, typing so much.. ☺

***By the way, my Rule of Thumb still applies.. u don't have to oblige to do the meme if u don't feel like doing it. U can just ignore it. ☺

Carcar, I will answer your tag later on ;) Time to ZZzzzzzzzzzz ......

Hatyai, Thailand : Durian (榴槤)

We can't get this all year long.. (what else?? Durian or 榴槤 or better known as liulian by our dear fellow Malaysians :P )

But, at least, when the fruit is not available, we can get this - the Vaccum Freeze-Dried Durian.... Bought this in Hatyai, Thailand out of curiosity, cos I have read several reviews about this product and never tasted it before. So, I wonder how the Freeze-Dried Durian tasted like :) Of course.. the fresh durian is still the best ;) But if the fresh one is not available, this one can do the job as well - can eat this crispy dried durian as snack or dessert ;)


or this... The Durian Cake (榴槤糕) at 25 baht. This one is widely available in Malaysia too. The Thai version is not as sweet as the local ones.

I bought all the above products from Hatyai, Thailand. There are durian sweets as well, but I didn't buy that. And talking about durian liulian reminds me of .......... tempoyak :)

Hatyai, Thailand : Tuk-Tuk

Tuk-tuk is a modified pick-up truck in Hatyai, Thailand. Tuk-tuk in Hatyai is different from the one available in Bangkok. The one in Bangkok is different from the one in Hatyai - the motorised rickshaw or cabin cycle with 3 wheels.

This Tuk-tuk has water proof removable sides for rainy days.

Tuk-tuk provides convenient way of getting around in Hatyai. Tuk-tuks are widely available in Hatyai, and they were found everywhere. Tuk-tuks is a cheap public transport for short distance around the city, each trip costs 15 baht (prevously the price was 10 baht per ride).

These mode of transportation are an essential part of Thai lifestyle - one can go anywhere with the tuk-tuk - to the market, to the shopping complex, to the city centre and to whatever places in town...

Picture of another Tuk-tuk taken from inside the Tuk-tuk.

Hatyai, Thailand : Deep fried food stuffs

Deep fried whole bird. Feel a bit kesian to eat the bird (since so cute), but since I bought it already, don't care so much loh... If I don't eat, it will end up in the dustbin also.. Better to store inside my tummy than in the dustbin ;)

Shrimp. Nothing special. The only special thing is the long claws and the size.. (*updated - now I remember, Thanks to Slurps. Yeah, something special about this shrimp is the "big head"... and there's lotsa roes inside the big head...)

I bought the deep fried whole birds from this particular stall (20 baht per bird). Bought 2 birds and one huge shrimp ( 60 baht per shrimp). There are several stalls selling similar fried foodstuff (whole bird, shrimp, crab, liver, chicken wing, drumstick, sausages etc) in Hatyai, Thailand.

Crabs, Shrimps, Drumstick/Chicken Thigh..

Whole birds, chicken, chicken wings, liver etc..

Hatyai, Thailand : Bee Hoon / Rice Vermicelli

This was what I had for breakfast on the day of arrival in Hatyai, Thailand. A delicious bowl of Bee Hoon/Rice Vermicelli Soup. The chicken meat is very tender and the bean sprout is crunchy. Well done :) I like hot & spicy dishes. That's why I poured in so much chilli powder to my bowl of bee hoon ;)


These are the DIY (Do-it-yourself) ingredients which are available on each table, which consist of :
*chilli powder - hot & spicy taste,
*vinegar with chilli paste - sour taste,
*sugar - sweet taste,
*soy sauce with chilli/salt - salty taste.
Another important ingredient, the aromatic fish sauce (not inside the photo) is available as well. One can add in these ingredients to their food according to their taste :)

I had Tomyam Bee Hoon/Rice Vermicelli the next morning as breakfast. See what I did to my Tomyam Bee Hoon ?

Hahaha.. Colourful, right? I love my food hot & spicy, that's why ;) Slurp..

Hatyai, Thailand : Dog & Scooter

Guess what I see when I visited the Sunday Morning Market in Hatyai, Thailand ?

Isn't this cute? The little doggy is so obedient. He/she just stay or sit still quietly :)