Thanks so much to my dear sister for sponsoring me the ticket with great seat  This would be my first time ever watching this legendary Asian power house performing live while it’s her 3rd/4th time already. #hardcore fan

LOVE all her costumes. very nice and sexy. She has got some crazy shoes as well, able to put up a match with Lady Gaga!

Diva moment. This is when she started to sing nonstop for 40minutes delivering all her super popular songs. Love it! Still cant believe she sang infront of me! Songs like Ting Hai, Yuan Lai Ni Shen Me Dou Bu Yao, Jie Tuo which I’ve heard for X amount of times in my life. Especially 记得 ( Ji De), the ultimate song to sing at karaoke. She’s really amazing. It’s one of the best concerts I’ve attended. She interact well with the audience with the voices, and dances to go with it. She managed to get almost everyone on their feet at her will, dancing and singing along like mad. The last concert i went where i get to get up and dance freely was Maroon 5. Awesome showmanship and True artist with voice that does not disappoint!

The weather was perfect for an outdoor concert too. Dark clouds was looming before the starts of the concert but then it cleared up into a beautiful clear sky with bright moon. It was around the “super moon” week. When she sang 掉了(Diao Le), the whole stadium was illuminated with handphones light, replicating the songs lyrics, falling stars… The feeling was so serene its surreal.

Then I get to end my fabulous weekend with not only my first little blue box, but second and third as well !!! So Blessed is my life now! Thanks to the angels around me!!!

Unless your phone is 3g enable or above, it’s useless in Japan because they run on a different network than the rest of the world(GSM) bla bla.

After much Google-ing, basically, if you want to be connected with others while in Japan, you can

1. Use roaming service (duhh) but extremely expensive. Japan will always be in the most expensive tier.
2. Rent a phone from the telco desk in Airport. It’s quite hard to rent one once you are out of the airport. The rental would be around US2 per day and comes with a simcard, which you settle the bill upon returning.
3. I believe you can rent a simcard but cost almost same as phone+sim

I wanted to rent a phone when I was there but due to flight delay all the counter was closed by the time I arrived T___T

If you plan to leech on wifi during your stay, I can safely tell you now that, FREE WIFI IS PRACTICALLY NON EXISTENCES. During my 12 days stay, I tried relentlessly to search for free wifi but there’s just none. Not even in McDonald,Starbucks or any cafes/restaurant. I was fortunate that the hotels I stayed in offer free wifi and broadband.

Anyway, Japan offers some nifty pocket wifi devices so you can be a walking modem wherever you are. Around RM160 for 1 week usage. That’s the final resort i think if you really really cant live without internet for a few days. For someone that is so attached to my phones, surprisingly I got on quite well. Maybe because I was on business trip and its just rude to use my phone infront of my boss

This is the metro card(Suica) i got together with the Narita Express ticket. They have special discount if you purchase them together at the airport. Only for foreigners and my Suica is so much cooler than the normal green penguin one that everyone else got. hahhaha

As I only travel around Tokyo, Suica alone is sufficient. If you plan to go out of Tokyo, I will suggest you to find out more about Japan Rail Pass. Only sold outside of Japan and you can have unlimited access on bullet train and JR line (i think? )

The ever confusing and extremely busy metro lines in Tokyo. More confusing than the London underground and Paris Metro as vouched by a French and English man too. I got along quite well just by taking the main green Yamanote line to all main areas.

It does help too with an apps I got on my phone ( trains.jp ) It will help you figure out which train to take, how much and time it takes once you key in your destination. The best best thing about this app is it does not require data to operate. #Win!

Hope someone will benefit from this post for their future trip!

Last year 709 i was in Taiwan dressed in yellow nevertheless. I attended 428 with a group of friends at the Penang Chapter. Vast different from the one with KL.

Traffic was expected to be heavy so we parked somewhere further and walk to our meeting point. The coffeeshop we went for lunch was packed with people in yellow. Friend overheard conversation:

Uncle: this 2 bowls are for the one in yellow
Auntie: which yellow??? Everyone’s wearing yellow!!!

By the time we reached Esplanade at 140pm, the field is already half full. I saw this tweet yesterday = When Malaysians are early, you know the shit just got real.

How true!

It was a truly peaceful rally. Few people taking on the hailer to speak their mind. I was surprised with the turnout, approximately about 10,000. If there’s no rain looming, I believe more would turn up. Anyway, it helped with the otherwise heat and sun.

We were chanting “Bersih! Bersih!” and “Hidup Rakyat! ” throughout on cue.

It’s exactly the reason why I attended the rally. What I want for the future of the country is to have independent citizens with who able to speak their mind, and an environment to foster and encourage that. The most basic human right. I want to be able to trust our election result, no doubts, playing an important role. For it to be more transparent for all.

I’m not a suave writer so I will refer you to my friend’s blog who wrote an excellent piece on the view.

http://angchoonseong.blogspot.com/2012/04/whats-point.html

I wish to see Malaysia to be like Penang someday, one day. Where people are able to gather peacefully without fear of getting arrested or beaten up. To improve.

Channel News Asia folks covering Penang. We tried but failed to be in the footage ahhaha.

For what happened in KL, it is absolutely unnecessary. But happened and the blame game had started again. Being the strong headed Malaysian that we are, I am sure less people would have attended the rally IF the Mayor would have just allowed it go on smoothly. Some people are looking for action, both side.

It’s a big crowd, there are surely some hot headed in there. This is an excellent clip that showed everything. Which makes me very sad…It was afterall a peaceful rally just like Penang before someone decided to be a smart ass. There’s plenty sources online (not MSM), so read and learn before making snap judgement of the event.

Thank you for everyone that had attended the rally from everywhere. Our voices are heard and will not go in vain.

Although most of the time spend was in office ( of course!) I truly every bit of the time I spent there. Frankly speaking, although I love travelling so much, Japan was never on the top of the list of places I wanted to go, for whatever reason. But NOW that I’ve been there and back, I really love the place.

The quote ” It’s the people that makes the place” is so true here.  Tokyo is a very expensive place to be but the people are so nice!! Top notch hospitality. I’ve experience kindness beyond words there.

I was suppose to board the Narita Express train direct to my hotel station but got on the wrong train FML Was so worried as my flight arrive late and all the phone rental kiosk was already closed.  There was only a Japanese family on the same coach as I was, when they manage to tell me, “No, this is the wrong train” it was already too late, door closed and train left the station with me on it … They couldn’t speak English at all, except for the young son who speaks very little english, so they decided to accompany me all the way to my hotel station T_____T so kind!! and it was 40mins away from their own station, meaning, they wasted 80mins for me T_______T First kindness I experience on the very first day I arrived! Humanity is restored~!

This was my “home” for the past 9 days in Tokyo! Lovely lovely hotel!

The Lobby and coffee house where I had breakfast. That’s a freaking glass bridge and water around the platforms.

As I was on work trip, I dont have much time to sight see. On Saturday, we went to Akibahara the electronic town where seems to be alot of nerd boys gathers. My japs friend told me their nickname would be “aki boys” hahah These people are actually queuing up in the cold and unforgiving winds to get inside this AKB48 cafe. Apparently its the #1 girl band in Japan now. -__-

We did not stay long there as there’s nothing much to see/do except electronics stuff, computer parts, parts to build your own robots and of course the Many Many Maids Cafe in that area!

Went back to the hotel and at night, we went over to Roppongi Hills. No idea where we heard about the place, just wanted to go over as its Saturday Night. By the time we reach the station, it’s almost 10pm.

How to get to Roppongi

Take a train to Roppongi station on the Hibiya line. Roppongi is just 2 stations from Ebisu station on the JR Yamanote line.

According to the map, Roppongi hills is 0 minutes walks from the station. I dont see how that’s ever possible except you can teleport yourself..It’s fairly short and easy walk from the station with easy signage in English. By the time we were there, we were the last batch to go up the Observatory area. I think we had less than an hour to enjoy the view and Mori Musuem was close also.

So here’s the view worth ¥1,500

I  recommend this place to anyone who will be visiting Tokyo. Its more worth while than Tokyo Tower as you can SEE Tokyo Tower haha~ and the area was better maintain imho.

Obviously such venue will attract plenty couples having le sweet times there. But for me was forever alone time 

This is my hotel room view. Very nice!! Can see Tokyo Tower too, but from far! Day and night view!

More on Tokyo !

What’s with week and something going on every weekend for me. Good stuff though.

MrSmallface Granny’s 80th birthday so we had something traditional yet fancy. The Chinese poon choy!

Celebrating the March Babies birthday in Mt Kiara. Was awesome catching with everyone in such a big group!

Finally had the chance to try out Antipodean cafe in Bangsar. Was really good but too crowded.

Wind up the month with a reunion with ex colleagues at a wedding. Not really much of a reunion as I still see the girls on regular, really regular basis. haha. But whatever

But when I saw them in full bloom, in rows, I just couldnt stop snapping photos of them.

Beautiful beyond words.

As the title dictated, it’s all about the basic food and accommodation in SiemReap!

We stayed at a really nice hotel – Borei Angkor Resort & Spa, thanks to my kind friend Sophal for hooking up a good deal for us  

One of the grandest in SiemReap, infact. If you are travelling with family, or middle age and above, i will strongly recommend this resort. For group of young people (like us ) I will not as it’s not walking distance to the pubstreet, if you know what i mean. hahaha

Big nice cozy room with very a grand clawfoot bath and separate shower. The chambermaid even place my tiny pillow in the middle after tidying up. A cute surprise when we got back.

Variety of the breakfast is good but the same for the 4 days we stayed there. I always have the same stuff every morning.

Tip: Most hotel are willing to pack your breakfast to go if you inform them earlier. Occasions like you need to go somewhere far for tour or out whole day for Angkor Wat visit.

Since the distance of the hotel is not really far, about 15-20mins away, we returned for breakfast after watching sunrise at Angkor Wat. Omelette with cheese. Really good

Most, if not all, the restaurants are researched by G so thanks to her for all the yummy food! So here goes a long list of Fooooood!!

Blue Pumpkin ice cream!

Not exactly cheap, but not expensive either. You can find a few of this in SiemReap. A nice place to chill and cool off from the dust.

Khmer Kitchen 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ANYONE!!! I think they have a couple of branches as well. The one we went is nearby Pubstreet. I forgot which direction, it’s a corner shop.

So cheap and yummy! The dish in above picture is the famous local dish – Amok Fish. All the amok fish we tried in different restaurant looks and taste different, so no idea what the “real deal” is like -___-

Each dish comes with a bowl of rice. and each dish is like USD2-3 … very worth it.

Another good place to dine is Father’s Restaurant. We went there twice. It’s also next to where we rented our bicycles

Very easy to find as it’s at Central Market. Central Market is also one of the best place to shop for souvenirs! Better than the new market. I think the boys managed to bargain for Tshirt less or US1 for a shirt. Can try the springrolls and amok fish. Price acceptable, not more than $5 per dish

Ecstatic Pizza

Nice pizza, a drunken guy made some drama in the restaurant, funny to watch. Some old Eurasian dude so drunk, he cant talk or think straight. No need to have the “special ingredient” we see haha

As usual, sending a postcard back to myself

Greenstar 

Dinner with my friend Sophal and wife. This is a restaurant with a cause as it claims to be a non-profit restaurant. There’s plenty of such establishment in SiemReap. Some con some maybe not.

Food wise, it was yummy! The fried corn is something like popcorn, must try. Frogs are also one of the yummy dishes we had. I think we ordered everything off the menu and tried everything. Recommended place.

The Touich Restaurant Bar

For the final night, we went to the most “atas” restaurant in SiemReap. Requires advance booking and most if not all patrons are dressed to the nines. I even spotted a guy in a full suit. The whole place is open air so i can’t imagine how warm that fella felt. They are able to pick up from hotel if you inform them earlier as well. In a jeep if you are in luck!

Service was really good. Very attentive as they gave us mosquito repellent hhahaha. Well the story behind was that, the owner will pay for some of the kids education and in return, the kid will have to work in the restaurant after school. In a way, its good as this will keep them out of the streets and provide a good exposure for the kids to practice english with foreigners like us and 99& of the rest of the patrons.

I really love the beef steak and the fish. Infact, i remember we all loved the food there alot! Prices are reasonable around $5 and above.

The WORST meal we had throughout the whole trip was on the grounds of Angkor Wat itself. They have stretch of restaurant overlooking a lake and due to some misunderstanding with our guide, he somehow brought us to the furthest restaurant from the entire stretch instead of Father’s Restaurant -_________-

I dont recall any photos from there. It’s just horrible, and overpriced ! It’s also the most expensive meal we from the entire trip and we can’t even manage to finish our food. It’s that bad.

Bars at Pubstreets

The cocktails are all going at $1 for each. Need we say more?

Showing some bromance before wrapping up! hahha

I have to say the pizza at Le Tigre de Papier was amazing. Its located along the pubstreet. Really good.

I believe I can say on behalf that we all truly enjoyed the trip and cant wait to go back again. Like we said on the first night ” SiemReap is the new Bali baby! ”

Hope those who will go in the future will benefit from our experience! Have fun!

G with one of the 3 cute resident dogs from the hotel

I really like this shot of us. Because i don’t look like me -__-

Anyway, we took a tuktuk to the Old Market after awhile to walk around and rent out bicycles for USD1 for the whole day. So cheap. Anyway, the initial plan was to cycle around Siem Reap, but I canot remember how or why we decided to cycle to Tonle Sap instead. -__-

The start of our cycling journey!!! 30km to and fro.. which is 15km 1 way!! Crazy much!! I haven’t sat on a bicycle for at least 12 years, what more cycle one. So it was such a challenge for me to cycle so far after so many year. Not surprisingly i started off wobbling all the way, like almost toppling over most of the time and shuffling with my feet instead. Also running across the street instead of cycling over it hahahaha..

We dont have a map or idea on where exactly it is. We just ask for direction cycling maybe 70% of the journey on roads like this!! dafuq

When people learn where we were heading, and when we ask ” Tonle Sap, Far?? Near?? ” their face darkens and answer was ” Not soon.. -_-|| ”

Occasionally, we stopped to take some rest. or give some pencils to randoms kids. Or let puppies nomnom you -___-

Finally we reached the jetty of the lake. We knew we are on the right track after plenty of tour buses went that way. Entering the premises cost us about 1-2usd each (forgot). Then we parked our bicycle, was told free. Then here comes the Scambodia stories which you may or may not heard about. Local operators trying to rip off tourist. They tried to charge us USD10 per pax for a 1 hour boat ride or USD15 for 2 hours i think. Honestly, it’s just a dirty lake with some houses.

When we left without taking the boat ride, the operators ask for USD1 from us for parking our bicycle there. We were quite brave thinking back now ahahaha because we just cycle off  :p

There’s plenty of kids running around the area, asking for money from tourist.A series of photos Teong edited pretty much sum up everything.

Is this Real Life? this is how the house/boats looks like on Tonle Sap. Minus the dramatic effect. Loads of rubbish around. I saw a boat tugging a house across the lake with some resident nonchalantly looking back at me

On the way back, we couldnt take the amount of dirt and dust anymore so we decided to improvise as we dont have any mask.

Tada!!

When we finally reached the travel agent to return the bicycle, our tissue was orangey in color. A swipe across the face with out tissue turns it into a different color! and Nostril was so “full” with dirt. -___-

Was sooooo glad at the massage parlour after that i just doze off. Dont know if it’s good massage or im so damn freaking tired. haha! It was well worth it though. Not Tonle Sap but the cycling through local villages and with my friends experiences. You don’t get that in tour packages

It was a pretty exciting moment for me when my best friend told me that there might a slight slim chance to meet LeeHom in person after the concert.

For those who may not know who is LeeHom, he is equivalent to maybe Bruno Mars.

We were there quite early. The entire area was so packed and lack of parking, we had to walk a short distance to the Stadium despite so early.

Then it started to rain FOL

Boredom 
 

With the girls

With family concert go-ers !

Futuristic looking piano that moves in front of his stage.

Quoting Kim: So good looking, how to not die in his hands?? Some more so talented  

The rain was unforgiving throughout the concert.

But the most exciting part come after the concert!!

The traffic condition around the Stadium was horrible after the concert. We were so worried we will miss it.

Doesn’t matter that we all look quite horrible ourselves, been sitting under the rain for few hours already, damp,flat hairs and all. This is the first time I had such opportunity and do not know what to expect.

Been in the field for hours, we have very muddy feet no less FOL T___T  and once we reached the Hotel, the first place we headed was the washroom and we find plenty others trying to clean up, beautify up, but there’s only so much can be done hahaha.. Why do i get to meet one of my favorite artist in such state. seriously FML ~!

Basically, my friend got the pass to go straight into the party but the rest of us had to wait outside until some of her colleagues leave so we can fill in their seats.

The first photo i took of him walking pass me.

SO DAMN NEAR ME! HOW NOT TO GO JELLY!

Anyway, the security around him was very strict and do not allow us to go near him for request of photos of talk to him at all. Only official photos are allowed

But the thought of being such close proximity with him was never even in my wildest dream I am happy enough What we can do was take plenty of paparazzi shots like the below hahaha! WTF  This only happen maybe once in a lifetime, no face also nevermind!!

Family photo with Leehom and his mother…HAHAHAH!!

They actually have a buffet spread for everyone to take but the girls on our table just sat there and stare at him throughout the night. Embarrassing yes, very groupie yes, but I think everyone couldn’t resist soaking in all the gorgeousness in front of us .

so when we finally left, we took a couple of photos with his bassist or guitarist.

and one of his dancer.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience. As for his concert, the organizer really need to buck up. It was a disaster exiting the stadium, so disorganized. Almost like a stampede, everyone rushing and stepping on the chairs as the field was SO muddy. There were no indication which direction to go, we just walk straight and had to climb over a barrier.

The security of the concert was non existing. People were standing up all the time, as my seat was quite upfront (4th from front) people was just standing at the barrier, blocking everyone who was sitting, and it took sometime for 1 or 2 security to usher them back to their seat. They don’t allow people to bring umbrellas in but do not distribute raincoats like some other concerts. So they just expect people to sit under the rain??

Sound system was not working properly, not consistent and the LCD screen had very obvious dead pixels.. like wat??

Abrupt end to this post…

So we woke up really early in the morning in order to catch the Sunrise. Most of the vacation destination that are filled with tourist, one thing i noticed is the people are very obsessed with catching the sunset and sunrise.

They will take a photo of you as the day pass at the entrance to the Archaeological park (USD20) so if you are vain as me, you will consider to put on some makeup even if that means waking up at 4am..

Our mugshot per say..

The beautiful and mystical Angkor Wat. We took about another 50-100 similar shots haaha..

And we were part of the hoard that woke up at ungodly hours, got driven sleepily to Angkor Wat with few hundred more people.

After about 20mins of waiting in the cold, we wanted to leave and the guide was surprise, haha – Now? But you no watch sunrise yet!!

So we stayed for a little more while.

It was a pity that the building was under restoration during our visit, hence the scaffolding was all over the place. We opt to go back to the hotel for our big breakfast since its like 10-15min away. Love the fact that all sight seeing spots in SiemReap are so near the town, unlike Bali.

I’m not going to post all the photos that we took there, I’m sure you will be able to find far more amazing photos using Google.

The 1 day tour that we booked cost – USD10 for each pax, air conditioned van with a driver and tour guide. It’s a norm here to hire a driver and guide as the driver will only pick up and drop off people. I wouldn’t recommend the guide we booked too. He (Sanpark) is a reputable one but did not inform us he will not be our guide on the day. Instead he was replaced with a guy name (Vichet) which unfortunately we met alot others who speaks better English that him.

Among all the temples and ruins we visited, i love Bayon and Ta Prohm the most. Bayon is really like Borobudur with the many Buddha Stupas.

AND – as you may notice, I’m wearing super color block attire on this tomb raiding day. I would say wearing like a maid :( haha, that’s because, you are not allowed to enter the premise of one of the temple if your shoulder are not covered and any shorts, skirts up to knee length. We figure we very pandai can bypass the guards by using our scarf as sarong, but the apparently they are not so lenient anymore, had to buy a pants on the spot.

Ta Prohm, was a very calm and quiet place. Really amazing looking at all the trees crushing the stones..hehe

*when you see it

Ta Prohm or more well known as the Tomb Raider temple. The very spot Angelina Jolie stood hehe.. Such a long queue. I looked at the photos that friends took, it was nicer as there’s no platform or barrier. The price of improvement i guess

I’m surprise to learn that there’s still monks in Angkor Wat.

One of the many group shots we took at Angkor Wat.
One of my favourite of all too

The crowd at 530AM

Next time I’m there, I will be cycling and exploring it with a book. No more lousy guide who only say Yes to all your questions and doesn’t really explain anything.