Babylicious

Dear Almighty-Whoever-You-Are, please grant me a cute baby when I give birth in the future who will eventually be the face of Baby Gap or the infamous Baby Guess label. And please make me the super model mom with perfect figure and youthful complexion so that I can walk down the runway with my baby. Babyllujeah.

Haha...sounds so vain right? Well, I'll be going on and on about baby today and if you are wondering why, it's due to both of my colleagues have just given birth to a baby boy and a baby girl respectively. I wanted to get both of them a gift to congratulate them and thus I went shopping for baby gifts today at 1Utama. The first thing that caught my eye was Baby Gap. What a better way than to give baby clothes as gifts? Somemore it's branded hor.... I don't even wear Gap and these babies are wearing Gap at just 2-months-old!

Recognize the blue label?

I spent almost an hour in the shop trying to search for the perfect clothes for the baby boy & girl. It was not an easy feat due to the many choices and designs to choose from! After much comparing and ooh aahing at the cute clothings and shoes, I finally made up my mind. The clothes especially the baby suits and rompers are so cute! So cute! So cute! Okay, I'm overreacting but seriously even babies are spoilt for choice. And the price tag are quite an eye opener. An infant's (0-12 months) dress will cost about RM139-169, a top costs RM49-69 and a body suit or rompers will cost RM59-139. Whoa, even some of my clothes that used more cloth than these baby clothes also don't cost that much. Even a Zara tank top costs RM35 only. I bought a white romper with collar (RM69) and a bucket hat (RM39) for the baby boy and a spaghetti top(RM49) and a pair of matching sandals(RM49) for the baby girl. The best thing is, they do gift wrapping and I saved some bucks on wrapping papers.

The Gift Box and Paper Bag

The Bucket Hat




The White Romper



The sandals and the spaghetti strap top


The width is just the size of my palms!


OMG, so tiny!


Ok, I know I'm camwhoring the sandal but i couldn't help it. It's too cute and I need to put it beside my feet to show you how big my feet have grown into!


And measure again with the handphone...


What can you do with unused baby sandals/shoes?!! Or if you think that baby shoes are so cute and yet you do not have babies, don't fret, because you can still make the purchase. Just follow:

Eiling's 101 guide to use baby's shoes...


You can play with them by sticking fingers in it.
After that, lift up the shoes with your fingers and use them to slap people. Sure to make a shoe mark on their faces rather than the usual finger marks! Ouch!



OR



You can use them as adorable keychains for your bags and as fashion accessories!


And to more cute babies.....

He'll be the next Baby Gap Jeans Collection model. Look at the tummy, so cute. I'll be worried if he has muscles!

Don't you wish that you can bite his cheeks. I don't know about you but I really want to!

Ooh, everything is so babylicious today! Who wants to marry me? Let's have a baby! Muahaha..

What would you buy with RM1000?!!

So what would you buy if you have RM1000 in hand?

Would you buy this?

A pendant with diamonds & ruby

Or would you buy these?

A tower of Neuhaus chocolates (3kg) worth RM1000

Fidani box of 150 pcs of hand-crafted gourmet chocolates for RM1000

Which one would you choose to buy? You must be thinking that it's crazy to spend so much on chocolates but they are people who are willing to spend that amount on these indulgences. It's not about the perceived value but the experience and enjoyment derived from savouring these delicious celestial delights. However, if you choose to buy chocolates over diamonds for the same price, you have proven yourself to be in the upper society. In the end it's not the value you're getting but what you choose to spend on. I will definitely congratulate you for moving on to an entire new level of spending your moolahs. You have finally understood on how to live large, look for the finer things in life and to of course splurge on something normal people won't, such as chocolates!

Rafflesia 128 pcs of chocolates for RM1500 anyone?

Stupid Nail!

Well, I have two nail stories today. I'll start with the stupid nail and then the other type of nail. Confused? Read on...

I had a long day today. It started with me getting all prepared for the first meeting with Dato for the year 2008 at the factory. There were 6 of us and each and everyone of us got lectured by him maybe except for my assistant as she is still new. He went on and on from 10.30am to 2.30pm. We were all starving and hungry and he's still babbling away on his missions and visions. One thing for sure, we have to remember his jargons because he told us that he'll be using them to assess our performances. For example, "Don't be in gear 1, you should be in gear 2!" and "don't run on the spot". In short, we have to leave our comfort zone and move up to the next level. Can't believe I got f*cked the most with all the plans he wanted me to fulfill. He wants me to leave all my routine work to my assistant which I'm more than happy too as I'm pretty mush tied up doing all the petty stuff each day. He commented that I'm an overpay sales and marketing clerk. I say, I'm underpaid even for that position! Expectations are high and the worst thing is my unachievable KPI (Key Performance Index - where your increment and bonus is judged on). If you ask me to do RM2million sales for you, I'm pretty confident but asking me to fulfill the impossible, I'm flying the white flag already.

Well, at least someone is smart enough to order KFC for us in the office or I'll die there. At 3pm sharp, a group of students from UiTM Malacca came to my office for an assignment that they're supposed to do. They made an appointment to see me and my chef to get some answers for their advertising assignment on Fidani. Apparently, there are 300 students working on this assignment and so far we have seen 20 of them. 280 more to go if they are coming, phew! This is definitely free publicity for Fidani!

I left the office at about 5.30pm and my colleague told me that my car tyre has punctured! What a day! Lucky my factory is surrounded by many car workshops. When I say many, I mean really uncountable. Almost every row of shop houses are car workshops! I drove to the nearest one, just opposite the road across from my factory and had the tyre fixed. There was a big NAIL in the tyre that caused the tyre to be punctured. This is the first stupid nail story! Lucky my colleague informed me because I seldom check my car tyres before driving it. The patching job is done in 15minutes and it only cost RM5.

The worker inserting air into my punctured tyre

My poor darling have to be screwed unscrewed

The boss of the shop also told me that my tyres are not original Ford Escape tyres. Yeah, I told him that I just changed it from Michelin to the Yokohama. According to him, the original tyres are supposed to be the 245 type but my mechanic has changed a 215/45/17 for me. I didn't know that! I think when the tyres have worn out, I'll revert to the original ones as a bigger base will make the car a more stable and smoother ride. Hmm, I wonder how much they'll cost me.....


My new interest lately is painting my NAILS. Usually I only paint my toenails because I find that painting my nails is tedious and a continuous process as the nail colour gets washed off very easily except for the ones on the toenails. Recently, I have been amazed with Cheesie's work of art on her nails and I decided to discover my untapped talent in decorating nails. I don't think I'm so KuKu in this beauty department. Hence I painted my nails a while ago with a pink coat and then follow by glittering silver on the tips of the nails ala french manicure method. Then I used the tweezer from my sister's scrapbook making tool set to arrange the small plastic gemstones on my nails. The last step is to top it with a coat of the Sally Hansen Mega Shine to give it a shiny look as well as to secure the stones. Taada....

My masterpiece and my sister's Nokia N95

My nail decoration kit

This is the end of the story about nails.

An Eclectic Restaurant

Don't ask me what's with food and me nowadays, I seemed to be eating endless and endless of food. I don't usually have heavy lunches but recently I have been having lots of good lunches outside my office. Must be my craving for food or it's the time of the month....

So today's review is on Soho @ 1Utama which I had 2 weeks ago. I have always pass by the restaurant by the highway outside 1 Utama, on the way to Mutiara Damansara but I have never tried it. I've always wonder what does this Soho have in resemblance to the Soho in City of Westminster, London. The Soho in London is an entertainment district which has its reputation of its nightlife and sex shops. I'm not really sure whether it is still what I've described as I didn't pay a visit to Soho when I was in London. That's one of my regrets. Despite I was there for holiday for a month, I didn't even visit the much talked about Soho!

Anyways, back to the Soho at 1 Utama, they did describe the restaurant as a entree to an electic choice of chinese cuisine with endless choices of food and chinese tea for everyone and even the purist according to their claim. I can't stop laughing. Scroll down the picture, look hard and you know what I mean...

Can you see the English jargons, bombastic wordings and those big words they have used to describe their concept? I think it's not good enough if you use big words without attention to its spelling. Entree is spelled entre instead. Appetit turned Apetit. And what is London Cool? I know London is a cool place but I don't see the meaning here. The ones I've boxed in blue is what I called big words. I mean how many of you would wish that you have your dictionary with you to check on the meaning and also the correctness of the words used here considering their poor spelling. Haha, that's why I took a picture of it so that I can check my Wikipedia!

This is a problem with unskilled writers. They used big words to replace simple words but sometimes they neglected the feelings of the readers. It's a frustration of reading something which we could not understand. The objective of the restaurant is to ensure that the customers are comfortable and appreciate the concept of it's restaurant and not make them feel inferior of their language skills. This piece is indeed a poorly written one but made others believe that it's very "high class". It's a plethora of plethoras! Plethora shouldn't be used in this context. Yes, it means abundance but it's bigger than abundance, according to the dictionaries, it means too freakin' big of choices! I don't think I remember seeing their freakin' number of choices of tea.... how many would know that epicurean is an adjective meaning a devoted to the enjoyment of good food and comfort?!!

Okay, we'll leave the English Language lesson behind and proceed to the set-up and the food of the restaurant.

Fresh black & white concept using portraits of people's faces

Cute Chairs and tables but the tables are really uncomfortable!

Interesting black & white corner

Cute Chairs with faces that face our backs or sometimes asses. Lucky it's not my face!

Chinese Tea that comes in cute transparent cups that costs RM4 per person!

The Hong Kong style "Chee Cheong Fun" with prawns

Ginger Chicken and Yam in claypot - I hate ginger so I don't fancy this dish!

Egg whites that resembles crab meat with salted egg yolk

Braised pork ball and they called it Lion's Head in Chinese.

Lotus & pork soup - Very big portion. Should be shared!

Overall, they serve very much of Shanghai dishes but at a quite expensive price. It's prices are higher than Dragon-i. It's good if you can go in a group of 4 people as most of the portions are made for 4. The soup is good as I was surprised that they have used red bean to boil this very traditional lotus and pork soup. However, it's best if you can share it within 2 persons as I find it a bit too much. 4 dishes, 1 soup each for 3 and chinese tea will cost you around RM120. It's rather expensive I must say but no harm trying. Wouldn't return too often.

[Disclaimer: This is strictly my honest opinion and tastes vary with tastebuds. Please do not even waste your time trying to sue me because just like my sister, we ain't rich! Thnx]

Late Lunch @ Kedai Kopi Ah Khoong

I had a late lunch on Saturday because I had breakfast @ 9am in the office. I had the Hakka Mee + Extra Fried Wantons take away from the Chicken Cuisine Coffee Shop near my office. That's the only row of coffee shops and a few restaurants for my source of food everyday at work since it's the nearest place to my office. There are not many places to eat chinese food in Glenmarie & Batu 3 Shah Alam (both of these places are in the same area).

Jon brought me to Kedai Kopi Ah Khoong for lunch. Initially we wanted to eat the traditional dessert such as Yam Cake, Popiah, Fried noodles & sweet dessert such as black glutinous rice and ginkgo barli. That was why we went there at 3pm. In actual fact, they only start at 4pm! But I was hungry then, so I couldn't wait. I had the Khoong Kee Kampar Fishball Noodle. I used to come here for breakfast on Sunday mornings but I had not been coming here for a long time. This corner coffee shop is situated in Sea Park, opposite the used-to-be-Ruby-theater that has turned into a market. This particular fishball noodle stall is a hidden gem. If I were them, I would have opened my own signature fishball noodle shop! I would have franchised it like the mushrooming of Oldtown White Coffee!

The Stall

To be honest, I have never liked to order fishball noodles in KL because of the lack of standard in the taste of the fishballs and the art of making dry noodles! I grew up in Ipoh remember? Ipoh people are famous for its fussy taste in food! And to add up to that, my grandma is a maker of the greatest fishballs remember?!! However, this stall has stood up to it's name with good taste and affordable price. My bowl of dry noodles with 3 fishballs, 1 piece of beancurd with fish paste and a piece of "fu pei" costs only RM4. The fishball tasted good with the right texture. The dry noodles has been done beautifully with the right texture of the noodles and the sauce. I liked the bean sprouts that go with the noodles. It's exactly like the style I liked from Tai Kar Lok in Ipoh.

The Delicious Kampar Fishball Noodles

After eating almost every morsel of the food, I kept on peeping on the dessert stall to see whether has it been opened or not for my sweet indulgence. It was still early and there's still 15 minutes to 4pm so we decided to wait. As the clock strikes 4pm, I walked straight to the stall asking the lady. The old lady asked me to wait for another 5 minutes because the van that brought the food has not arrived and I was tired from waiting so I told her it's okay, I'll come next time. Then she told me not to leave as the van just arrived in front of us. So, I waited patiently as they get prepared. In the end, I bought 3 packets of Black glutinous rice dessert, 1 fried popiah, 1 packet of noodle and 2 pieces of Yam cake. Total bill was RM7.80. I think it's quite cheap! I didn't want to sit there and eat, so I had them to be taken away. When I reached Jon's house, I really couldn't finish it all. All I did was to eat a little bit of everything....

The Dessert Stall

(apparently they supply to Makan Makan in Kota Kemuning)

The Black Glutinous Rice

The Fried Noodles with Fried Popiah

The Yam cake

This is certainly a good place for good old time food that is affordable. I would definitely recommend this place. it's really a hidden gem in PJ.

[Disclaimer: This is strictly my honest opinion and tastes vary with tastebuds. Please do not even waste your time trying to sue me because just like my sister, we ain't rich! Thnx]

Chinese Valentines Day & Chap Goh Meh

21st of February was the last day of Chinese New Year. Yes, the Chinese New Year has come to an end. The day was also called Chap Goh Meh (十五暝; pinyin :shí wǔ wěi; lit. "fifteen night") represents the fifteenth and final day of the Lunar New Year period as celebrated by Chinese migrant communities. The term is from the Hokkien dialect and refers to the fifteenth day of the first month, which is the occasion of the first full moon of the New Year.

It also coincides with the Chinese Valentine's Day. It is also when young unmarried women gather to toss tangerines into the sea, in a hope that their future spouse will pick it up! That's why I love Wikipedia! After this day, no more ang pows would be given out - a disappointment to me but a rejoice for married people. I had a friend sending me a sms asking me whether where would I be throwing mandarin oranges and I replied to him that I wouldn't be throwing any because my mandarin oranges are priceless. They're of special breed and you can't buy it outside. The taste is beyond compare so why would I want to throw it away?!! Moreover, I think we shouldn't pollute the sea or the drains will get clot will all the mandarin oranges since some people do not have access to the sea, they might choose the drains!

Every year this date is a very special day to me. I received a bouquet of lilies in my office on this day. It's been quite some time since I last received a bouquet of lilies. White Lilies have always been my favourite flower. I've never been a girl who love roses, I don't know why either.... It's so nice to receive a bouquet of semi-bloomed lilies and also lily buds waiting to bloom. The sight of it blooming the next day I came to the office fascinates me. The only thing I don't like about it is the yellow flower pollen that gets a bit messy when you move the flowers. It's so nice to come to the office smelling fresh lilies everyday! And who says life couldn't be like a bed of lilies?!!

My beautiful lilies

In the evening, I had a dinner at Elcerdo in (43 & 45, Changkat Bukit Bintang). It means "the pig" in spanish. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures as the place was crowded even on a Thursday night and I felt a bit embarassed to take pictures in such a nice restaurant with people's stares. It was almost like a fine dining restaurant but the placement of the tables are a bit too near to each other. I know that they are trying to maximise the small shops they had but with the price I'm paying for, I wished for more privacy as we can almost hear the conversations going on in the next table! The decorations and ambiance is nice and there are cute piglets pictures hung on the walls. Food wise was great.

Warning : It's a strictly non-halal restaurant that serves great pork dishes. I had the pork shoulder steak and pork schnitzel. They came with a complimentary goulash. The owner is a german, so the menu contains Spanish (Paellas & Sangrias) as well as German food (Bratwurst & Pork knuckles). The sangrias that I had here was different from the ones I had in Spain. Here, it's quite sweet and it's served in wine glasses. Basically, it's quite easy to make sangrias - cheap wine, gin, 7up, apples, oranges and lemon. A glass will cost RM20 but a jug will cost you RM90. So for 2 persons, I recommend a glass each will do. Did I mention that this restaurant has very smart staff too? We ordered 2 dishes to share and then they asked us whether do we want it to be served seperately so that the food will not get cold when we were eating the other dish. i think it's very thoughful of them. We also ordered a dessert (Werner's Special - strawberries in mango cream & wild raspberry sherbet) to share and they came in 2 glasses so we thought they gave us the wrong ones but we were wrong! They had helped us to seperate the dessert into two servings! So clever! I'm so impressed!

I'm really happy with the food. 2 persons, 2 main courses, 2 sangrias and 1 dessert will set you back RM160 poorer. I forgot to mention that half of the suckling pig is RM110 there and they allow you to break the white plates in a wooden pail after you had used them to cut up the porcine delight. It's supposed to be their specialty there. For RM110, I can have almost the whole suckling pig in a chinese restaurant. Not worth it to break some plates for that price. it's something you can do it at home!

Borneo Rainforest Cafe, Bistro and The Ruai @ Sunway

I was at the official opening of the Borneo Rainforest Cafe, Bistro and The Ruai on Wednesday. It was the brainchild of Datin Seri Tiara Jacquelina (yes she have her own blog). She have had a soft launching somewhere back in December but Wednesday night was the official opening with the presence of other local celebrities and the press.

The bistro is just located at the open space carpark opposite the Sunway Resort & Spa Hotel. It used to be Canai & Such last time but she took over the place and turn it into a ka-ching generating place. What an intelligent lady! It was crowded even I arrived there at 8pm. As I entered the place from the main entrance, I was greeted by the receptionist who handed me a beaded necklace and I also signed the guestbook. I was invited by my colleague to join her there as she is a personal friend of Tiara's. The rest of the pictures and event can be view here, written by some of the other bloggers. I was just too lazy to notice what was going on that night because I met my old colleague and we were busy chatting. Of course, there were free flow of booze up to 10pm and I had the whole table full of drinks just to make sure I make the best out of it. I have had 3 vodka lime, 1 shot of the dunno-what-rice-wine, and 1 glass of white wine. The booze was diluted. Maybe it was due to the amount of liquor the guests were consuming that can send Tiara to an account deficit for the month! The music was okay with some really impressive dunno-who-singers whom one look and you thought they were gangsters with long hair whom doesn't know a thing about music notes! I was really surprised by their voices. They're so good, they will send Mawi to shame. the only setback was their looks which I feel that will hinder them from being famous.

Some of my colleagues were there and Shereen brought along Lynn, the principal for Hershey's in Asia and this was her first time coming out at night in KL despite numerous visits. She was happy to come and she even requested my colleague to take her out for some street food after the party. The biggest challenge was my Boss's presence. He was there with his friend, a top brain-surgeon in Malaysia. He told me it's good to get to know his friend so that he can attend to me in instantly when I have brain problems. I said the Chinese always say "Choi" in all these issues. It's just same as "touch wood" meaning we hope it wouldn't happen by trying not to mention it! So I had to be a good girl that night as in trying not to get too wild in front of my colleagues and boss! My boss even said that he'll tell my dad that I've been naughty and I said it's okay since my dad is working in Dubai, he wouldn't know how his daughter became a occasional party animal.

Lynn & Me

I went home at 11.15pm because I need to work the next day. Knowing that you have to work the next day is always the party spoiler! The place was full of good looking guys and ladies and some of them are of course VIPs but I don't know and don't give a darn who they are. All I care was why the waitresses and waiters are so mean. Whenever you place an order on drinks with them, the drinks wouldn't come. I have to ask 4 different people for the same drinks and only one came back with it. So I learnt that the trick is to ask as many waiters as possible for the same thing and hope that one of them will eventually send you the drinks. This wouldn't happen if I'm paying for it. It only happens when things are free.

In conclusion, I had fun and I will be looking forward more parties this year!

Choco-lentine @ 1Utama

Let's have a "choco-lentine" this year instead of the usual Valentine's Day celebrations! Fidani has just completed it's 5-days specials at 1Utama in conjunction with Valentines Day.

Beautiful Giant Chocolates!

It was quite a last minute thing. When everyone else is busy enjoying the Chinese New Year celebrations, I was scratching my head trying to solve the problem of looking for 2 promoters to mend the stall during those 5 days. I was desperate and no one wanted to work during that time because it was CNY and Valentines. So I had sms the 1Utama organiser and tell her that Fidani decides to call it off but she begged me not to because the press ads have all been done. In the end, through her contact, I managed to get 2 promoters to work for me for those 5 days. One of them have just finished SPM and the other was on a semester break in Sunway College. Boy, I was lucky to get both of them to solve my headache.

Fidani Booth in front of Armani Exchange

Chocolate Roses and Bears for sale.....

Besides Fidani, Lavand was there with their impressive couch and products. I say the chocolates have nothing to shout about except for some nice colour wrapped chocolates. You go ahead and try their chocolates and then compared it with Fidani's. I would say Fidani would win hands down not because I work for Fidani but just in my humble opinion. Then there were Laura's Selection of chocolates. An English name, but in actual fact, it's chocolates are locally made like us and the chocolate couverture is belgian of course. Very impressive for a homemade chocolate brand but has yet to try it's recipe. In terms of packaging, it's simple and nice but not as impressive as Fidani's as we have spent quite a substantial amount into developing it's packaging and all.

The first two days was quite crowded as it was the eve and Valentines Day. Everyone was rushing to buy last minute gifts. The next 3 days wasn't that good as sales dipped more than 50% compared to the first 2 days. I hope that all the customers are satisfied with Fidani Chocolates and the services we offered. I had received a mail from a very satisfied customer from USA who ordered a chocolate heart shape filled with Fidani chocolates and also another box of 40 pieces of Fidani Chocolates that I personally helped to deliver to his fiance staying in Bandar Sunway. The next day after Valentines Day, he sent me an email saying how happy he and his fiance were with the gifts and my service and he looks forward in ordering more chocolates from Fidani! I was so happy that I forwarded the email to my colleagues and bosses! Haha...this is what you call marketing!

One happy photo with my promoters, my assistant and IT Exec.

A Squeaky Chinese New Year

The year of the earth rat has finally arrived! Besides being so busy for the past one week until I have no time spare for the blog, the biggest reason was due to my sickness. I fell ill from the 3rd day of CNY until today. Cough has become my companion and fever has just left me. Well, for now, I was hoping cough will leave me alone tomorrow as I'm getting sick of his number of occurrence in a day.

What's the best thing about CNY? I would say the money concealed in the ang pows that need no effort to earn except some Gong Xi Fa Cai wishes and of course the biggest criteria is being single! The other would be the red capped bottle goodies and mandarin oranges! So can you imagine what a bummer that I couldn't eat any of those during this CNY? I only managed to drink half a can of Anglia Shandy! On normal CNY occasions, I would have at least 3 cans a day!

Bottles of sinful treats

Organic Crispy Seaweed

So can you imagine everyday I was staring into these bottles of goodies and not able to eat them because apparently I have a throat infection and I can't take fried food! The feeling was bad. I have been coughing non-stop and fever lasted for 3 days. But I was thankful that I have been able to resist the cookies because if not, I would have gained at least a few kilos during CNY.

I have updated the list of the must-go-places to collect Ang Pow and of course my parents are still ranked 1st place! This year my grandma has improved her ranking from 6th place to become 4th place in my list. Congratulations to PoPo...

Ang Pow Collection Ranking

1. My Parents - RM1000
2. My Boyfriend's Parents - RM50
3. My Music Teacher in Ipoh - RM30
4. My Grandma, Ms. Koh - Inti Students' Affairs Director & My Music Teacher - RM20
5. My Relatives - RM10

Total collection as of yesterday, 15th February stands at RM 1500. This is the exact amount I needed to fill into my bank account as paid the same amount to the person whom I've crashed my car into. My car escaped unhurt but her Honda Civic was dented and the car boot lock was spoilt. Therefore, I didn't really make a gain this year. However, I've just got a bonus from the company and of course increment, and I have given the bonus to my parents. If small fortune don't leak out, big fortune won't roll in!

To my relatives - very soon, you all will not even be in my Top 5 list so I suggest all of you to consider for next year to increase your ang pow money to me! Look at it this way, there are not many more years I'll be earning ang pow from all of you. Give me 3 years maximum and then I'll get married and will be giving ang pows to your children. If you give me RM10, I'll give half of that to your children, so don't blame me! Then years ago, you gave me RM10 and ten years later, I am still receiving RM10. Have you have no idea how much inflation has gone up? I am so disappointed with you guys. Even other people have given me more than you - my own relatives! What a shame!

I am still sick today and my throat is killing me. I took some mandarin oranges and pomelo yesterday. Those must be the culprits! Someone please cure me...please....

Bang-cock Bangkok Trip

I was supposedly bathing in the sun on the beaches in Bali on the 28th but it was such a coincidence that my company scheduled an incentive trip cum sales conference from the 28th till 31st of Jan that left me with no choice but to postpone my flight to Bali. Knowing AirAsia and it's notorious charges for changing of flights, I paid an extra RM300 on top of the original airfare of RM500. In total, it costs me RM800 to fly to Bali. With another 200 bucks extra, I would have gone to Hong Kong with complete hotel stay! What a way to start the year with my money flowing out of my pocket. Looks like I'm not getting any money luck this year. But the chinese always say that if small fortune don't leak out, no big fortune will flow in. Thus, I hope my big fortune will come rolling in soon!

In Bangkok skytrain station

This is my 2nd time to Suvarnabhumi Airport but it's only my first time to Bangkok. The last time I was in this airport was to transit from Shanghai to Bangkok and then back to KL. It was a big airport, impressive enough with a big space dedicated for travel retail but a failure in many ways. For one, the distance from the security gate to the boarding gate was too far away. There were no walkalators in sight. I pity those who had difficulties in walking and those late for boarding. A wheel chair shall be useful. Secondly, the boarding/waiting area was fully surrounded by glass until the ceiling and it was freaking hot during sunny days despite the nice full view of the aircraft.

Herald, Vimelan, Aldrin & Richard at the food court in Central

It took us almost an hour to reach Hotel Arnoma. Me and some of my colleagues wasted no time as we dropped our luggage into the rooms and straight away proceed to have our meal and shopping. The first day was free and easy and the next day was a full day conference. After the conference, I followed Dato, Datin and some of my colleagues for a Thai massage. It's only 550baht for 2 hours and an additional 100baht as tips. It was my first time having a Thai massage. It was quite ticklish at first but I fell asleep after a while until I woke up with a stiff neck when the lady asked me to sit up. Then she went on and start stretching my body and I could hear the "krr krr" sound from the twisting of my hips and arms. She also pulled my body backwards using both of her legs to support my back and I was screaming away in the room!

Someone doing the stretching outside the Thai Massage Centre

Here comes the funny part. After the massage, we asked the driver to take us to the Suan Lam night market to have our dinner and then some shopping. We passed by numerous stalls and I was ogling at the juicy pork sausages, then some more pork chop and more pork dishes. Dang... I forgot, we can only have halal food that night because I had to respect my muslim colleagues. Finally, my chef decided to try the seafood from the 1st stall. Everyone was starving and Dato kept on telling him to order more and in the end, we had more than enough. I was also ogling at the Chang beer tower on the table in front of us. I really wanted to try it but I can't so I just had a glass of Banana+Strawberry+Orange juice. It was awesome. In Bangkok, you can just have any combination of the fruit juices. It was haven!

Salt Farm

Ms. Stuck Up and Mr. Nice

Mr & Ms Stuck Up

Actually, some of my colleagues and I planned to have some pork satay and beer after our shower at the hotel but then one of my eyes were itchy and red so I decided to sleep. Anyways, I have had the pork satay on the first day and it was awesome! Bangkok is like a haven for pork lovers like me. I love Bangkok for we can have pork at anywhere and anytime! Then next day, the company has arranged for a tour to see the original floating market and some sight-seeing around Bangkok. A few of my colleagues were pale and sick as they suffered from food poisoning. Coincidentally, all of them were from the thai massage group so we assumed that it must be the seafood. They were 10 of us and 5 of them were sick. So they had to take a cab back to the hotel when we reached the floating market. I was also worried because I ate every dish as well. In the afternoon, we heard my boss and his wife got the food poisoning as well and it was down to 3 of us. The next day, 1 of them started vomiting and having diarrhea and it was down to my ED's wife and me. Ed said that I might have a stomachache made of plastic and that's why I was immune to dirty food. I say it was due to good training of being a junkie. So I was lucky as I was perfectly fine - to fine until I had constipation!

The Original Floating Market (Dirty water and nothing interesting)

Floating LVs - Whichever models you wished for!

As the boat passes by these pipes I was so afraid that some shit water will splash us!

Cowboy girl

That night, I went shopping alone as many of my colleagues were sick and some of them went to malls that I was not interested. I went shopping at CentralWorld, just opposite the hotel and I came out poorer from Zara and Isetan. True to the word, I came with one luggage and I am now going home with 2 luggages. My new addition would be the Visa by Delsey luggage bag. It was cool and I got it for a bargain from RM500 to RM320 after discount. Moreover, I can claim up to 7% VAT on that. I couldn't resist McDonalds as I make it a point to try at least a meal at McD in every country I visit and this time I have to try the Samurai Pork Burger. It was good. Later that night, I went to Carrefour (they call it Big C) and I stock up the instant pork noodles as requested by my sisters.

Ooh lala..pork burger

Instant Pork Noodles

How come we don't get these Lays here?

Spare Ribs Lays!!!

Overall, it was a nice trip as I have fostered closer ties with the rest of my colleagues whom we don't often see. The trip had set me back RM1000 poorer for sure. I'm so dead when my credit card bills come because I have just swiped another RM500 on a bottle of XO and a bottle of JD for my dad in KLIA yesterday!