I was browsing through the net when I stumbled upon this song :



Love it. I used to be a very big fan of K-Pop. To be honest, I still do actually just that I lost track with what's happening on the other side of the world. It's been a while since I last get myself crazy over Korean soap operas.

This song, which was featured in the soundtrack of "A Love To Kill", if you listen to it tentatively, you somehow can feel what he's trying to tell you, you know that he sings his heart out. That's what I really like about Shin Seung Hoon's masterpiece. Remember the song "I believe" in "My Sassy Girl"? That number is also by Shin.

Comes Monday,Comes what may, I'm looking forward to each day.

One of the things that I really missed about home when I was in KL was the rumah panjang mood. If people in KL have this "balik kampung" mood, our kampung is our rumah panjang, orang putih call "longhouse". In Iban we call it "rumah panjai". Not much different though.

A long house lives up to its name. It's a basically a very long house. There you go, easy to understand. My rumah panjai is located in Batu Niah, well actually just a few kilometres away from Batu Niah town itself. Have you heard of Niah Cave? My rumah panjai is just around the corner. (Don't get the wrong idea that Sarawakians lives in caves!)



Basically, I go back to my longhouse every Gawai safe to say and sometimes during Christmas, it depends but Gawai, it's a must to go back. That is the only time of the year that relatives from all over the place will come together and celebrate the togetherness within the family.



Usually, a few days before Gawai (some even a week) relatives will start to fill in the "bilik". Eventhough the direct translation of bilik in Malay would be room, in this case "bilik" refers to a house, a unit of within the longhouse. So, if everyone is back for Gawai - the "bilik" will be like a mass grave at night. Everybody basically just sleeps everywhere around the house. It's like dead bodies everywhere!



And for our family, on the eve we will always have BBQ at the back part of the house which we called "tanju". It's a nice, cool and cozy place. Great hang out spot, especially with Tsing Tao or Tiger in hand. Most of the time it's cheap beers because you can't afford to filled in everyone's stomach with Tiger or Heineken all the time. It doesn't matter.



The chit chat will go on and on till God knows when ...



The dishes will keep on coming after one after another. You'll never see the end of it ...



That's mum



And off to the pitt they go! Whooooooa!



Even these taste nice if your whole family is around.



And it won't be complete without this. A nice bottle of "tuak".

Cheers!

"How do you maintain a long distance relationship?"



For a moment I was stunned. I would've never imagined being asked that question. I paused and said;

"I do not know how, really. But I guess giving in and being able to tolerate with whatever comes along the way does help"

Anyone who's ever been in a long-distance relationship can certainly tell you how hard it can be to make a long-distance relationship work but not all will say that they perfectly know how did they make it work.

I do not believe that anybody like or intends to end up in a long-distance relationship, but sometimes it just happens. No one chooses to be in a long distance relationship, often at times they choose you. Along the way you might hear or met people that does not believe in a long distance relationship at all.

Distance between two hearts is not an obstacle; sometimes you like to think that it is true but there are some times that you might not. Emotionally some times it does hurt. It hurts because you can't be there if you're special someone needs you the most, you can't be the crying shoulder, you can't be there for whatever reason that is there when needed - it really hurts.

Some might say that you need a lot of faith in each other, yes I do agree but that is my dear friend, sometimes ; easier said than done. Even if you're not in one you sometimes find that it is quite difficult to do, what more to say in a long distance relationship?

Dealing with conflicts and when differences in opinions surface is quite a tough situation to handle. It's difficult to express yourself clearly on the phone without having to touch, to look that person in the eye and not being able to use your body language at one time. Sometimes, conflicts will be left unattended. Sad, but true.

But a few things I learn along the way is developing understanding, the word sacrifice, give more and expect less - does make a different. Although it's not easy but it's a thing that I myself personally want to do, sincerely. It was not always a smooth ride, sometimes there will be some rough patches somewhere but the experiences does matter. It somehow make me stronger and a better person.

And for that reason, I would like to wish my one and only, the love of my life, my dearest baby a happy birthday! And I dedicate this lovely song just for my baby.



Distance is not the hardest part, it is having to listen to the people who swear it won't work!

Every night I pray on bended knees that you will always be my everything. I am glad to have you in my life.

*Hugs and kisses*

Happy Monday everyone! Never felt better!

It's been quite settled since the day I arrived in Miri. I'm gelling in well with my colleagues. I think it's easier when you have a bunch of folks with a common understanding of how life is at one place, the process of adapting is way much faster than I thought.

A few terms that I will hear every single day will be daily disbursement, sales achieved and short fall. That will be playing on my ears as long as I'm working here. It's not that bad, I guess that's the drive in a new place.

You asked me whether I regret making this decision? No, I did not. Sometimes, after a while changes in nature of work is important. Life will be a dull less after that. I think I would adhere to this pressing new frontier, experiencing the warmth before I grow old. That's the spirit.



xoxo

cibol

Or the other way around.



Here is how my W660i look like a few weeks ago.



I turn it into this for RM50 in Melaka, plus a brand new battery (which I will explain later)



I even put a condom to it.

Back to the battery case. Well, in cut short the story actually I do not know how could it happened but it just happened right in front of my eyes. They actually lost my battery.

I wanted to change my hp housing for quite sometime but due to the price was I must say not that cheap, I held back. A customer of my former employer actually quoted me RM65 for the same thing. I was like WTF???

It took me all the way to Melaka to finally changed my housing into a new one. I found a shop which is located inside Melaka Parade. The shop quoted me RM50 including labor charges. So I said, Okay!

After a few hours, I came back to the shop but that time the thing was not done yet. So, we waited for another half and hour before he came back to me and hand me my handphone in it's new housing.

I noticed there was some uneven surface on my keypad and out of my curiosity I asked him.

"Why is this like this?"

It was another lady who actually attend to me at that moment because the other guy was busy. And so she said ;

"Let me take a look"

She took out the battery and then examine the thing. She looked puzzled and my bet was she also did not know what she was doing and so she handed the thing to the fella who repaired the thing.

"I have to put some sponge in it because the previous cushion is no longer functioning very well"

Okay. By the time I wanted to put the thing back together, I found out that my battery was no longer there. The puzzled girl became more puzzled. She searched high and low for the battery but it was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile the boss keep on asking her;

"Where you put it?"

I can see the stress in her eyes and after a while I asked;

"How should we go about this?"

The girl quickly took out a battery from her own phone and gave it to me and said;

"Take mine. I'm sorry that I've lost yours"

I was like? but I have no choice. I asked the fella if they did found the thing, call me up. The battery belongs to her and not the shop. I do not think that she should be entirely responsible for the incident. Anyone of them could have easily misplaced the thing. The battery that she gave me was quite new and it was a new phone too. I feel bad but I have no choice.

*sigh*

The owner very bad hoh?

From now on, I will take good care of my handphone.

Last Saturday, after a full set of breakfast, Daniel, Mary and we decided to indulge ourselves in some fresh mouthwatering desserts. Mary suggested that we all go for Dessert's Bar in Mont Kiara, a place quite new for me as I always do not have a thick wallet to go and dine or even go to that area. It's like the Beverly Hills of Kuala Lumpur.



Located in the heart of one of the most expensive sites in KL, Dessert's Bar offers a wide range of desserts from smoothies, sorbet, cheesecakes and some small stuffs just to fill that vacant spots in your tummy after a heavy loaded lunch or breakfast.



Yummy cheesecakes!



The area is quite a comfy place, not so much people during the day but according to Mary, the place will be a little bit crowded at night. But even so, you will still enjoy that nice ambiance.



Grapes cheesecake!



I like this shot. I saw Daniel took this pic and so I try my best shot



*hearts* it



I had a glass of passion grape smoothie and a cup of Crème brûlée while Daniel and Mary had blueberry vanilla smoothie and honey lemon respectively. One thing I do not really like about the Crème brûlée was the caramel was not crispy enough. I've had better ones in Finnegan's before but the atmosphere of the place compensate all that.

I enjoyed my time at the place. I like the atmosphere, very relaxing. This is the place where we say goodbye. Thanks guys!

One of the most talk about must have food when you are visiting Melaka is chicken rice balls. Why is it so famous? I do not know. It's just amongst those few things you must try in Melaka. There were three most prominent chicken rice balls eating place in Melaka which is Restoran Famosa Chicken Rice Balls, Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Balls and Chung Wah restaurant. During our stay in Melaka, we tried all three places just to see which one suits our taste better. So, before you read further on - you are reminded that this is solely our opinions and we are not associated to any of these three places or any other places that is included in this blog.

Restoran Famosa Chicken Rice



The shop claimed to have used traditional Hainanese chicken rice recipe, whereby their rich-balls are served with the tender and juicy chicken meat from Bukit Mertajam, which is well-known for its free-range chicken.



The place does not only serves chicken rice but they also serve roasted pork, duck and also curry dishes. We ordered chicken, roasted pork and choi sam and we ordered additional 5 pieces of rice balls.



We also ordered a bowl of cendol.

It was at around 6:30 pm when we got there, and there were still quite a number of people around. The service was quite slow due to heavy orders but given that nobody bothered to take our orders kind of deteriorate the feeling a bit.



Interior decor of the place - not bad



Overall we think that there's nothing to shout about regarding the rice balls and maybe because of the slow service it did give an impact to how we judge the taste of the food there but I give a two thumbs up for the cendol. It was nice. We like it.


Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Balls



We went into this shop as early as 9:00 AM. We went in for breakfast before we started our journey to The Red Square and St Paul's Ruin. This place is located just a few shophouses away from Restoran Famosa Chicken Rice Balls.



I like the very "chantique" look of this building. (Chantique - Beautiful + antique).



I must say that this particular shop got one of the best or if not the best Hainanese chicken I've ever tasted. It was so tender and nothing like those in KL and of course Ipoh Chicken rice is a totally different thing but this? It's out of this world.



Again, the chicken rice balls they have nothing to shout about but it was better than the one we tried previously. Overall, we like the ambiance, the restaurant itself is very spacious and comfy and it's cool eventhough it's not air-conditioned.

Kedai Kopi Chung Wah

From the look of this place, you would not know that they're selling chicken rice balls because the place looks a little dull and it looks rather like a normal "kampung" type kopitiam. It does look like it serves nice coffee judging by the look of it.



and so I ordered white coffee "ping", which was not bad. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of it here. The place somehow gave you this very relaxing feeling - a summary of what it is like to live in Melaka. It's a different kind of feeling from entering "Old Town Kopitiam" if you get what I mean.



Lo and behold! The chicken rice balls. Mama Mia! This is the best we've tasted so far. According to Mani, this shop claimed to be one of the pioneers of this chicken rice balls business. Located nearby the red square, exactly after the bridge, the first shop after the parking space, even as early as 9:00 AM, they already have big orders. Well, not that 9:00 AM is late, it's just that the shops here in Melaka opens at 9:00 AM, so I can't really complaint!



The chicken was so-so, I prefer the ones at Hoe Kee compared to this one.

And so, overall the best chicken rice balls award falls to Chung Wah but if given a chance - I'd have cendol from Famosa, Hainanese chicken from Hoe Kee and rice balls from Chung Wah. That would pretty much make my day!

P/S : In about a few hours I'll be flying back to Bintulu. Thanks so much guys for the company all these years. I'll pay you guys a visit some time. Until then, take care!

Yesterday was my last day at work. Didn't do anything much though because most of my back logs have been cleared like a few days before and so I'm just left with some filings and some minor stuffs like sorting out cheques and queries.

And today, I'll be going to pack up all of my things, mostly are clothes and bed sheets. The rest of my things my sis will bring them back home by Christmas. It will be a very busy day as my sis will also be moving out to Equine Park, further down where the rental is much more cheaper and since my sis just bought a car so I guess transport would not be a problem. Glad that it is settled.

By the way, I got a gift from David of Chocolate Gallery yesterday. I thought it was thoughtful of him. He brought me some chocolates.



They come in three flavors; Tiramisu, Coffee and Coconut



There's a lot of people you want to remember and some you just want to forget. Life in this bank was not always shiny. There are some shitty days as well but of course good things matters the most - Give and take, forgive and forget.

Melaka is pretty much dead during the weekdays. Not in a bad way of course. The shops around the area where we were staying will start to close at about 5:30 PM so, you wanna have some decent meals at night, you got to be pretty sure of places you want to go.



There is this shop at the end of Lorong Hang Jebat, which is just a walking distance from River View Guest House which sells very good oh-chien (oyster ommelette). This place was recommended by Mani actually and she told us to try the pork yam ring. It was only after we had a dose of nice sotong kangkung and sea food rebus nearby Madam Kings that we decided to stop by.

We ordered oh-chien, a plate of vege cooked with garlic and oyster sauce and last but not least, the pork yam ring.The Oh-Chien, fried with plump, juicy tiny oysters was delicious Most of the food here are cooked with lard and you can sense the presence of lard so heavily in all of the dishes. This generous amount of Oh-Chien is only RM 5



The "vege" Also cooked with lard, garlic and juicy oyster sauce. This is really good stuff.



Now, when I ordered Yam Ring, I actually did not know what I was ordering until it came and then I thought :

"Wait a minute, I had these before. Just that I can't really remember the name"



The serving was very filling. The dinner costs us at about RM 20 ++ if I'm not mistaken I can't really recall but it was nice. Considering the food was for two, I think the price was quite reasonable and please do not compare with prices of food in Sarawak, of course back home is cheaper - especially Sibu and Bintulu.

Restoran Sin Yin Hoe
No 135 Lorong Hang Jebat
75200 Melaka

If you've been like many of the tourists, wandering around historical places like The Red Square, St Paul's Church or even around Jonker's Street itself for almost the whole day, I would like to recommend a perfect place for you to relax and take a short rest to re-energize your weary legs. There is a tea house just along Jalan Tukang Besi which can offer you not only the comfort but also the joy and excitement of drinking quality chinese tea. (not those 30 cents that you always order when you go eat nasi campur okay!)



We didn't actually enter the tea house because we knew that there is a tea house around the corner but it was more to we-bumped-onto the tea shop in which I personally do not know that it was actually a tea shop. We entered through the Cheng Ho Museum.



The Zheng He Tea House (Say it like this : Jehrng Her) is managed by Ms Pak and Mr. Lai. While Mr. Lai was busy with the kids the ever friendly Ms. Pak took the opportunity to explain to us about various types of tea and benefits of having good and high quality tea.




There were a few types of tea being displayed. Amongst those that I can remember was the Oo-long Tea and the Pu-erh Tea. There was also one type of scented tea which smells like peach. I felt like putting it into my mouth. The smell was tasty!



The tea leaves are not shredded





For a small fee of RM 15 (correction RM 20), we got our pot of tea and the most important thing for me was the experience of preparing Chinese tea. It's an art not everybody can do plus indulging our self with good quality tea.



It was a new experience for me because I've never really tasted real good quality Chinese tea before. We had great time at the museum and Ms Pak was a good company. We had another pot of tea, on the house!

Zheng He Tea House
17, Jalan Tukang Besi
75200 Melaka

H/P : 016-7640588

or you can add Ms Pak to your facebook buddy list :

psyong_1308@yahoo.com

The last time I was in Melaka was in 2005 and it was a few days before I enter Marcus Evans, and a few days after I recovered from dengue fever. Yes, I did get the fever but it was not strong enough to get me entitled for "hospitalized" status. I was back then a guest at a friend's house, Adel. Since back then I did not know much about Melaka, I thought it was a good idea that I get myself a reliable tour guide. (Back then wikipedia was not an IN thing *kobek*) I spent 3 days with Adel's family and that gave me a rough idea on how to go out and about inside Melaka town.

And so, a few months ago Lily and I decided that we make a quick trip down to Melaka. we spend some time reading and Google-ing around for cheap and reliable accommodations around Melaka and we finally bump onto, River View Guest House. We read a lot of good reviews on the place and since the place is basically within walking distance to most of the places of interests in Melaka, we decided to call them up for a booking.



River View Guest House is located at Jalan Kampong Pantai, which is the traditional commercial centre within the UNESCO World Heritage zone in the old part of Chinatown. It is within a few minutes walk away from Jonker's Street, The red Square and a few other interesting places.



Upon reaching Melaka Sentral, we took a bus ride to town. Our route was getting around bus number 17, which is going to town and Ujong Pasir (if I'm not mistaken). We stopped by The Red Square and continue our journey to the guest house. We walked along Lorong Hang Jebat which is just before the gate of Jonker's Street, by your right side if you're coming from The Red Square. At the end of that alley, you'll find a coffee shop called Sin Yin Hoe, turn left and just walk straight towards the end of the road, you'll find the guest house on your right.



Well, I actually have to call them up for directions. Not that I am really fermilliar with the place.



The host, Mani and Raymond - I must say, you guys are the best. I mean it. Both of them were very friendly and helpful. To my surprise, they told me that the guest house had been up and running only for about six months old. Judging by the reviews I read online I thought that this place have been there for quite a while.

The guest house offers accommodation in comfortable twin(6'x4') or double(6'x6') bedded rooms with fan and common bathrooms (hot & cold shower) for up to 14 guests. All rooms have windows.Bath towels are provided for guest use. There is a sitting, TV and dining area with a kitchen for light cooking. Coffee / tea and drinking water is provided complimentary. The first floor terrace has a magnificent view of the Melaka River snaking majestically through traditional Melaka shop-houses and homes ; thus the name of the guest house. You could sit here in the evening, drink beer and watch the boats go by or just take a walk along the river, which is brightly and beautifully lighted at night. This is true local living.

Taken from : Lonely Planet

It was full house when we reached. I guess travelers from all over the world have come to know about this place then, which is good. The merrier the better.



The room rates are as follows :

For an air-cond room, RM 60 per night and for non air-cond room RM 45 per night.



Photo Courtesy of : Tripadvisor

We actually paid for a three days stay at the guest house.



Chill out area on the second floor



We really loved our stay at the guest house. The place is peaceful and even if there's a lot to see just around the corner it was really hard to leave in the morning! We definitely recommend this place to anyone who wants to visit this beautiful city and have an excellent stay.

River View Guest House
No. 94 & 96
Jalan Kampong Pantai
75200 Melaka

Email : riverviewguesthouse@yahoo.com
Contact : 012-3277746 (Mani)
: 012-3807211 (Raymond)