Tried out the Swedish meatballs. Really interestingly not bad.

The only Ikea store in Australia I know of is in Perth. Wonder if they will deliver to Adelaide. Some of the kids stuff is really quite funky…yes yes I know even if it is meant for kids…

Ikea does really interesting things with plastic.

Went to Queensway Plaza after that. Right opposite. Its the place for cheap sports shoes and cool clothes, it seems. I was looking for one of those skate shoes. They are chunkily cute. They’ll probably look weird on me but oh well. Price ranged from S$130-170. I’m really kicking myself for not buying a pair from Mongkok. Mongkok is *the* place for cheap shoes. ~_~

I blame the rain on the last day I was in HK…

So far, I bought Edison’s Hazy: 144 hour project (I understand quite a bit of it! My Cantonese has really improved!), a denim mini skirt, and various cute nyanko products from Watson’s (weird place to find nyanko stuff o.O). I thought My luggage would have more space since I got rid of the souvenirs I was carrying…but no…I bought more crap >__<

I’ve uploaded the photos I took in Singapore. They’re pretty much all in Clarke Quay. I was with two other camera toting-tourists, and I tend to only take photos if someone else is taking a photo as well (who knows why ~_~).

Because it was dark, it was harder to take clear photos. But it was fun I guess.

Didn’t really get to take many other photos in Singapore; was sick for that week.

People say Singapore is boring but it’s a different type of interesting to say, Cambodia or Thailand. It’s not an *adventure*, being in Singapore. But be amazed by the orderliness and the efficiency with which the goverment seems to have packed everything into such a tiny isle.

Anyway, all the photos in that album can be found here.

some other government building.
Originally uploaded by tr[n]ty.

Whee. I think my internet problems have temporarily ceased (probably because it is the weekend and many have gone back home, thus reducing the load on the hall LAN. STJians: stay away from hall as long as u can!!). I also realise that I was a bit harsh on STJ in the last entry. I think lack of internet connectivity really brings out the worst in me…

Anyway, the photos in this update are from when I was in Malaysia just recently during the mid-semester holidays (Reading Week). A friend of mine very kindly took on me on a mini-tour of the governmental district in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city. It was quite interesting, since I’ve really only been to the shopping areas…

I would have taken more photos but I was loaded down with shopping plus I didn’t want to flash my camera around too much - there was always the danger that a snatch thief on a motorcycle would come along. (Need I mention again that my mobile got stolen at the taxi stand in front of KLCC….)

See other photos in this batch here.

this guy is located in ampang, usually his stall is just outside the “foong foong” ampang yong tau fu store.

the standard has dropped though. it used to come with this heaps nice sauce (from inside the duck). but now the sauce is some very strong …thing….5-spice powder overdose man…..

actually i took a video of the whole chopping-up process. unfortunately, i hadn’t bought my new camera at that point, so it didn’t have sound. it’s really not the same when you can’t hear the chopping sounds…..

ok…and here ends my blogathon . finally blogged about all the photos that i’ve already uploaded.

i’ll probably have only one more malaysia photo entry, maybe 2, at most 3 more singapore entries…then it will be the start of the hong kong entries…..

ehh…..i’m soo tired -_-

my grandfather has always liked the satay in kajang (supposed to be an area just south of KL city, famous for satay). so he stipulated in his will that whenever family went to his grave site, n if they ate satay at kajang, it would b paid for out of his estate. having done a bit of sucession/property law…i don’t think it’s a valid term due to uncertainty, but oh well. i think it’s a unique thing to do~

so here are the photos from the kajang satay stall:

view full album here.

then after that, we went to the best fish store in the world!! they specialise in “fei zhou yu” (lit.african fish). deepfry, herbal steamed….steamed with hot bean paste….

here’s the menu:

and btw, it’s near imbii plaza…right opposite pudu plaza. i took this photo from the stall itself:

i highly recommend the deepfried egg (omg it’s so crisp n yummy!!!!!) and the herbal steamed fish! mmmmmm……..
(mouse over thumbnails for captions)

see full album here.

alot of the photos are underexposed and very dark. it couldn’t be helped, if i used flash the foreground may b bright, but the background would be totally dark….meh. also, i was running outta batteries……

(mouse over photo thumbnails for captions)

see full photo album here.

speaking of shopping, i’ve noticed that malaysia really loves to go in for the huuuuuge-ass megamalls. they probably have so many shiny new huuuuuggee-ass malls because they have so much (mis-managed) space. n only now did they have so much money?

compare with singapore. singapore simply doesn’t have the space to spend on huge malls. they have new shopping centres, mostly built around mrt stations….(heaps convenient, i have to say). but they are very compact. they can’t afford to be excessive.

movng onto hongkong…well, this is the other extreme. they don’t have many shopping malls. n most of the malls i’ve been to are full of expensive boutiques. their malls r simply not accessible to the common person. most native hongkong people go shopping in these tiny arcade things. they r mostly about 3-4 levels high, and the shops are packed in. like sardines. a single shop can have about about 3 square metres of space. usually, there’s only just enough space for the shop guy to sit. the rest of the space is packed, floor to ceiling, with merchandise. it must b so claustrophobic. the shop walls are normally all glass though, so what u do is just look into the shop. u wouldn’t wanna walk into the shop..n if u want sth, u just call out the shop assistant, n point at what you want. so sometimes u never really have to go in. (oh except for clothes shops i guess.)

===

anyway. on to the photos.

the ones below are taken of a traditional herbal tea shop. they also usually sell guai lin gou (龜零膏). this is a black jelly made out of turtle shell. it’s kinda bitter, so i have to eat it with massive amounts of sugar syrup. it’s fun to eat though. it’s meant to be really good for your skin. makes you look younger and that. oh well.

these photos are of a tou fu fa (sweet soy bean bean curd) cart. it’s a very nice dessert/snack. it also sells soy milk n this weird mixture of soy milk (dou jiong) and liong fun (chin cau, grass jelly). well. i like them both, but it’s weird having both liong fun and soy mlk together…..~_~

for lunch, we ate at this ngau lam mein (beef noodle, where they use meat from around the stomach area) store. it’s been around for ageees (since 1956). the tables n chairs r really old too, made of marble!

well..i think the standard has dropped…but hmm..give it a go. the atmosphere feels very….60s?
it’s kinda cool, in a way.

after that, we went to KLCC. so here are more photos of the mega mall:

let it be known that my mobile was stolen about 30secs after i took these photos. i still feel the pain!! (plus i haven’t bought a mobile yet, there’s too much to choose from….hk, the handphone city ….sometimes i yearn for those days where the only choice u got were nokias…)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

on another day, we went to eat durians. best durians i’ve had in a long time, i reckon.

notice how most of the store is actually over a big drain…and is supported by old doors~!
it’s…quite resourceful, i guess. mm…recycling…

and last…another cty skyline view (kinda hazy).
i thought it was interesting coz it showed how the twin towers (they sit on top of KLCC, where my mobile was stolen…..) stick up above evrything else…you can never get lost if you want to go to KL. just head towards the towers…

see full photo album here.

it’s CNY today. pretty much everyone on my hall has left to go back home. it’s so quiet now! *too* quiet….

i’m so bored bored bored. that’s y i’ve decided to do a whole bunch of blogging today~!
blah. no hongbaos for me this year, huh?

well, at least i had a good dinner. ray and i hung out with a bunch of korean exchange students. we had korean bbq (again ). but this time we did it ourselves. we used the bbq pit near our halls. one of the korean girls is heaps good in cooking!! she prepared korean almost-kimchi pickles for us (almost-kimchi because it’s not marinated for long enough to be kimchi - not fermented yet).
also, they had a heaps nice sauce. it’s very simple. sesame oil, alot of salt, n alot of pepper. after u bbq the beef slices, u just dip it in. if u want to do it in really korean style, then wrap the sauce-covered beef slices in some lettuce to eat. so we had alot of meat, garlic chunks (didn’t touch, not quite used to the idea of eating chunks of garlic yet), there were potato slices, corn on cob, prawns….it was heaps healthy i thought. buch better than australian bbqs. there was so much veg! it was great!
i’m going to bbq korean style from now on!! (urk, gotta get the almost-kimchi recipes off that korean girl!! so delicious!)
i’d have taken photos, but…i forgot to put in the batteries .

anyway, on to the photos! (don’t forget to mouse over the photos for captions. click on them for full screen size.)

first up is the last batch of sg photos b4 i went back to malaysia. see complete album here.

yup. so that’s it, really. then i went back to malaysia. so the next few entries will be ones of malaysia again.
actually …hmmm…i never really took many photos of singapore…what a pity…huh. i think i got a bit lazy towards the end.

big xmas tree in takashimaya shopping centre. notice the middle bit doesn’t have lights shining? probably blew. either way, they were fixed when i came back another day.
taka is this really huge shopping centre on orchard rd, the main shopping strip in sg. i seemed to hang out there alot. probably because the mrt station was connected to it. i didn’t buy anything in there…it was all uber expensive boutiques. but the food court was not bad.
altho the takoyaki there wasn’t as good as the one in isetan KL…not enuff brown takoyaki sauce…….

view of orch rd taken frm wisma atria.

novena square by night. bad exposure becase well…it was night time!~~

the mrts in sg r really cool. so fast, efficient, and frequent!
i reallly like those tap-cards. u tap when u enter the station, n tap when u leave. then the card automatically deducts the right fare from your card.
they have something similar in hk. the mtrs work the same as sg mrts. (but the hk trains are much longer).
those cards r called “octopus cards” in hk. presumably coz in chinese octopus is “8 legged bug”. or something. n 8 is just a lucky number……

=EDIT=
it has come to my attention that in whatever octopus cards are named in chinese, it’s not “octopus”. a literal translation is more like “8 directions cards”. presummably referring to the 4 main directions (nth, east, etc) n the diagonal directions in between (eg nth-east). thanks for bringing that to my attention, “neko-chan”
=EDIT END=

anyway. its usage is much more widespread here. it’s really cool! u can use it to pay for groceries at all the major supermkt chains…use it at 7-11, maccas, all the convenience store chains…n in quite a few retail outlets. u can top it up at any convenience store (such as 7-11). also the main supermarts, i think. this is in addition to the top-up faclities available at the mtr stations, of course.

i discovered this fare discount station in btwn wan chai ferry pier n wan chair mtr station…if u tap it at that machine in that particular building, u get a hk2 discount on ur mtr fare if u travel frm wan chai mtr station that day!

oh yeah on buses, the fare is fixed. it doesn’t calculate how much dstance u have travelled. it depends on where u get on the bus. it’s different frm sg buses, which deducts fare depending on where u get off too…u tap when u enter n when u leave. on hk buses, u tap on entry n tt’s it.

…..n that was my all-too-lengthy comparison of the transport systems of both hk n sg………

photo taken near entrance of chinatown mrt station. very touristy spot. note: do not buy those carve-on-the-spot stone chop things from there. it’s heaps cheaper in hk.

chinatown complex wet market. wet markets r so much more intersting n sg than in australia……..
it’s like..wholesale slaughter possibly in offence of a whole bunch of prevention of animal cruelty laws in australia…….

this is my fav chinese sweet soup dessert store in singapore!!!
it’s sort of in the corner of chinatown complex. it’s a level above the wet market, i think.
it’s been there for years n years. i was so surprised it was still there…actually i was more surprised that i actually found it……
too bad i didn’t find my favourite crayfish kway tew store tho. . maybe it closed down… (i even asked random people if they knew where it was! i put in effort!!)

frogs before……..

frogs after……..

newton circus hawker centre.
supposed to be really famous. it’s a bit touristy. (read: a bit on the expensive side). most of the stalls sell seafood.

i loooooove sugar cane juice…..

we had oyster omellete at newton circus. it wasn’t too bad. the cook was like a robot! mixing it all up n serving it up so fast……so mechanical too…..

mmmm…bbq chicken wings……

it’s a pity i didn’t get to eat one of these prawns. they were huge!
like..20cm long ! it was more expensive than the crayfish…most expensive item on menu. it was so big that people were ordering like…..just one…prawn…….
looked good tho .

some other fishy goodie some one else ordered. i think the shopkeepers mist thnk i’m so weird…walking arnd taking photos…coz i don’t look like a tourist but yet……

=EDIT=
oops, forgot to put in the link for the photo album XD
here it is: link

my destination was sg. why didn’t i fly straight to changi airport in sg? well…it adds on ~RM$200 to the price of the ticket, just because it’s in another country. better to just take bus frm senai to sg. cheaper! it only costs RM2!!

the trip from senai was not too bad. took abt 2 hrs to get into sg proper tho (darn immigration people!!)
johor is still pretty lush…rich with tropical vegetation. at least where people haven’t hacked away it….

well, there are more photos but i’m too lazy to link/comment on them here.
click here to view the rest of the photos, (courtesy of dtran’s wonderful photolog!)

anyway. yes, i stopped blogging because i just wasn’t getting enough sleep. i also got sick somewhere in the middle. i hate runny noses. wake up with a head full o’ cotton wool.

i can’t remember what i said in the last entry. i thnk i was still in KL at that time.

i got my mobile stolen in the taxi stand in front of klcc , so i’m pissed. well, i’m over it now. it happened a few weeks ago.

after that, i went to sg for a few days, then back to kl.

after a few days passed, i went to sg for a few days, then back to kl.

then i went to sg again.

n now, this saturday, i’m flying off to hongkong.

i’m so tired. -_-

things i have done: visited my old haunts. marveled at how things can be somuch the same, n yet at the same time be so different.
i visited the old malls, the old schools.

time passes u by so quickly. it’s as if i wasn’t there. nomarks to remember me by!
well at least for my australian highschool i can point to a board n say “there my name is”. but i was so un-outstanding a student in singapore…….

anyway. my best friend here has introduced something very evil to me. it’s called gashapon. it’s those machines where u put the tokens in n something comes out in a plastic ball, n there’s a toy in the ball, but u don’t know which particular toy it is, n when u don’t get the toy u want, u put in more tokens until u get the toy u want………
not only that, there are tikan tikam boxes as well….same principal as gashapon, except that u choose what box you want. needless to say, u can’t tell what toy is inside either. oh, n u normally get a little sweet too.
soooo evil…….-has duplicates of what she doesn’t want-

oh yeah….n i loooove nyanko cats. it’s a series of stuff…stationery, dangly accessories, etc, with cats stuck in stuff. like…a burger with a cat in the middle. or a plush cake with a cat in the middle with only its head, feet n tail sticking out. i’d take a photo, but i’m lazy.
they r so frickn cute!

anyway, here’s a comic my friend drew (and i added my 2 bits here n there…didn’t draw, coz i can’t draw…) of our gashapon excursion……

so i’m kinda behind on updating this blog .

nevertheless, here is the entry at last. these were taken on the 15th of december.

my family set out pretty early to find the LRT (inter city light rail train system) station. we got majorly lost. i did manage to take alot of car shots tho. this is the area around petaling jaya…i think. we were trying to find the taman jaya LRT station.
the scenary here is quite typical of malaysian outer suburbs, as far as i can tell.

well, we found our way to State (the unofficial name of the suburb centre; because there used to be an old famous theatre there called…….”State”) at last. we had some wonton noodled n curry yong tau foo. delicious. the wonton noodles r supposed to b quite well known, n was recommended to us by my aunt.

malaysian “restorans” are different from singaporean hawker centres…which are sort of their equivalent. usually, the eatery is a corner shop. there may be like..5 stalls there, and none of them operate in built-in premises. in singapore, the stalls are built around the perimeter of the eating area, up against the walls of the area. all tiled n concreted up and evrything.

but in restorans, they just cook n do evrything in moveable stainless steel stalls. they aren’t stuck to the walls, they form a sort of barrier between the outside of the shop, n the patrons eating within. it’s like one big open space where u can clearly see how evry1 is cooking…..

hard to describe. and, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words (tt was corny )

the wonton noodles were really nice. it was really cool watching the woman flip the noodles n mix them up…so fast. i tried capturing a motion shot of it……..but my noodles arrived, n eating took priority over capturing good photos XD

ok, from there we took the LRT into KL city centre. of course i think the singapore MRT system is better…….but the m’sian LRT is a good start. i mean, it is kind of dodgy (very dodgy) at times…inefficient implementation n all……………but i guess tt’s the malaysian way.

all these shots were taken from inside the LRT:

the last one is ashot of the national mosque. it doesn’t really look like a mosque coz there’s no dome …well i couldn’t see it from the LRT anyway. but it’s a huuuuuuuuuuge building! n i guess the muslim latticework all over the facade…n the shape of the doorways..kinda gave it away. i quite like the building. it definitely screamed out “muslim!” to me. they certainly expressed the purpose and aim of the building very well. i thought it was quite admirable how the building told me it was a muslim religious building just by the way it looked. - i had no idea what building it was beforehand.

ok, we got to klcc at last. “Kuala Lumpur city central”, i think, is the unabbreviated form of the name.
it’s this huge complex. it’s located under the petronas twin towers. so it’s offices above, big brand name shopping centre below. it’s very hard to shop there coz there are alot of posh boutiques, like gucci, armani, etcetc. the kinda of store that don’t carry alot of clothes. where clothes are laid out on tables instead of packed onto hangers. yes. so it’s all so laid out n spacious that one doesn’t even need to go into the store, coz u can see evrything thru the expansive glass windows of the shop. not like i can afford any of that stuff anyway. there’s cheaper stuff tt’s just as good outside too!!

oh, n a word about shop assisstants in malaysia - they r bloody annoying. once u step inside, they get up n trail around right behind you. so u can feel their eyes on ur back all the way. usually i just ignore them, but it got really frustrating today. oh well. i think it was the lack of sleep. i guess it’s good customer service in a way, as you can get attention immediately (in australia, u sort of have to hunt for the assisstants)…..not.
i prefer having to hunt for my assisstants. ah. also, the stores here look overstaffed. i guess i’m not used to it.
maybe it’s because wages here r much lower than in australia, so they can afford more sales staff in malaysia? hmmm.

anyway, here are some photos of klcc:

i should really go to sleep now .

……. well i think i fixed it. oh well. if it doesn’t work, do tell me.
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ok, last sunday, before church, we had yum cha (dim sum) for brekkie. it was great~~
it seems to b a pretty famous stall. it was absolutely chockers. there were people even spilling out onto the parking lot just at the front of the place.

unfortunately, i didn’t take a snap of the sign, and my aunt doesn’t remember the name of the restaurant (who cares about the name? as long as we know where it is……….). anyway, it has to be somewhere around puchong. it wasn’t too far from where we live. it’s called “kum hun” or…..something………………

i think it’s completely run by one (very large) family. very interesting, seeing the different generations all running around. the older teenagers were making the dumplings n stuff, the adults were supervising n managing, n the little boys were doing the serving - carrying large platters, bursting with food, around to the different tables for customers to pick:

the staff were really friendly too. one of the manager-woman persons said “go closer, you can take better photos that way”.
here r some snaps of the kitchen staff. unfortunately, they came out a bit blurry. wish my camera had optical stability…..

here’s what the kitchen staff were working on: making the dumplings -

here’s the shop front, where they actually cook the dumplings:

the shop front too, but to the side. the display for the deepfried items:

and here r just general food photos:

here’s a shumui plant just outside the store. i love these plants. when the flowers bloom, the fragrance is wonderful.

…….anyone drooling yet?
i ate till my tummy was so full .

nevertheless! shopping was good! i spent pretty much all my RM$200 already. well, tt’s like US$51.72 (A$67).

ok…time for some pics -rubs hands-

the following pics are taken of the approach up to the pyramids shopping centre. it’s really all very lush. it’s a tropical paradise sort of thing. it has a hospital (my aunt works there), some very nice hotels, the sunway lagoon resort theme park thing (water slides, rides, all that sort of thing) and of course the pyramids. they were taken from inside a car, so there’s a bit of reflection going on.

here are some photos of the lagoon/swimming pool bits of the complex. the following were taken from the pyramids building, by my dad (i think. they just appeared on my camera, n i don’t remember taking them).

this one is a photo of the hotel attached to the pyramids building:

a shot of the interior of the shopping centre:

there’s a genki sushi restaurant in australia. but this one must be some totally different chain:

they had these large motorized animals which kids could ride on. they were so cute!!

there was also “dorayaki”. basically, sweet filling sandwiched between two small pancakes. it’s what doraemon loves to eat. well, i just had to try it then. one dorayaki was RM$1.50 which is ~US$0.40. they were not bad. the pancak- making process was fully motorized. it was very efficient, n very fun to watch ………well, for me, anyway.

when i got there, i did some ice skating with my little cousin, patricia. the ice skating rink in the pyramids is pretty cool, sort of in the middle of the complex:

so, as you can see, alot of people can laugh at u if u fall . well, even after i left, i always stopped now n then, you know, pause from all the shopping …. n if i was in that section, i’d just look down n laugh at people falling. of course, there was some pretty good skaters there. it’s sooooo cool watching them zip around. it always looks so graceful! well, watching the pros made me want to get better, so i started to try speeding up too. (note, this is the 2nd time i’ve ever ice skated, n the first time was like….7 yrs ago). i think my dad was a bit surprised i was going around so fast. hehe. tho i didn’t fall down, i had a few REALLY close ones! there was one time i fully slammed into some guy. amazingly, neither of us fell down!

here i am in the foreground. i’m in the black top with jeans n holding hands with my cousin, who is in the yellow tshirt n shot blue skirt..

skaters can b classed broadly into 4 categories:
1. complete n utter n00bs. they r generally quite harmless. they go slow, so u can watch them coming from afar. also, it’s very amusing watching them fall. well, except when they fall right behind u n trip up your skates (one of my “almosts”)
2. n00bs who think they’re good, but r not. they generally try to push themselves by going faster, sometime failing miserably (not enuff skill) n falling even harder than those in category (1). these r the most dangerous because they r unpredictable, suddenly speeding up or slowing down with their fluctuating confidence levels.
   

i had some sushi for dinner. at sushi king, if you come close to closing time, you get 50% off if you take away sushi from the conveyor belt. well, of course i couldn’t refuse such an offer! i took it away n ate it on the marble ledges near the waterway fountain thing tt runs behind the neptune statue (see above photo):

 
it came up to only RM$13. which would be like….US$3.40. XD. there was tuna maki, tempura fish stick maki, ika nigiri, fish roe/crab stick nigiri, eel nigiri, n deep fried salmon skin. omg, the salmon skin was sooooooooo nice!!!!

lastly, a night-time shot of the adjoining hotel complex:

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btw….a big thank you goes to dtran~~! such a sweetie here. it is also on my links list on the left. i’ll put up different albums for the different countries i’m in.
dtran, remote gallery rocks my socks!!

i realise tt i should have just put captions on the photos n redirected you all to my album there..but i thought meh, might as well make this site a one-stop shop, eh?

……..i’m so tired. this post took so long to do >_>. when i called this travelog “sleepless”, i really meant it .

oh yes. n i’m still pretty with posting so many photos up at once, so do tell me if there r any broken links or anything like that….

anyway, i’m deaaad tired. i’ve been spending the whole day holed up in my room (again) using the pc. i still haven’t ironed out all the template problems yet (like photos sticking outside the main text frame), but i’m too tired to fix it now….

thus, today i only have one photo for your perusal.

the above is paper roti canai (roti prata for sgians).
it’s paper thin. very crisp n yummy. i gotta try the paper tosai next~

hmm malaysia is being very …malaysian towards me.
malaysia in a few words: like a college geek boy’s room.
malaysia in one word: disorganised.

it is soooo haphazard. there is utter run-downness next to polished skyscrapers. it’s like used hamburger wrappers next to a top of the line spanking new pda, all chucked together in the corner of a dorm room. dirty socks next to a high performance desktop. that sort of contrast. think stinky boy’s college room. the gems among the rubbish~~.

the above is an example. i couldn’t realy get a good shot coz i was squashed in the car n couldn’t rotate arnd fast enuff.
but if u look right next to the big sky scrapper, there r a few blocks of very small white very run down flats. very hard to see i guess. n the run-downness is kinda hard to see frm this photo.

these are better shots of the skyscrapper i mentioned above. i love the smooth lines. it’s beautiful. the helicopter pad (circley thing on top) looks like a little cap. i think it’s cute….

some weird building or other, near mid valley megamall. it looks like a tortoise. dome shaped thing. ……..

oh yeah, n apparantly evrything there in cambodia is EVEN CHEAPER than malaysia! usb flash drive 512mb going for like US$20? (compared to A$160). hehe. i wanna go to cambodia . actch, i heard thailand was even cheaper. hrm. i shld go there when i go back to malaysia. i also heard tt gemstones can b obtained for a couple of US dollars apiece, all cut n polished!!
u have to know the right ppl to get quality stones though. need connections…..

a comparison btwn m’sia, cambodia n aust:
in aust, it’s illegal not to wear rear seat belts.
in malaysia, it’s not illegal not to wear rear seat belts, tho u may b mocked.
in cambodia, u r fined if u wear rear seat belts. .
coz that is a very clear indicator tt u r a foreigner. so the traffic police know they can hit u up for lotsa money. they’ll b very polite n all tho. they’ll salute, n say in english “hello, sir! you almost hit a motorcycle just then!” you: ” what motorcycle??” policeman: “well, he just drove off already, that will b US$10 please”.
well, the policeman’s salary is like us$10 a month (btw cambodian money is worthless, so they normally trade in USD or thai bahts). so a nice fine now n then is pretty gd for them. it’s low even by cambodian standards. a construction worker gets US$100? it’s bcos the govt simply doesn’t have the money to pay the policemen. ppl r used to it now tho. the police cmmisioner was confronted abt it once. he said sth like…it’s like a contribution to the police force as a whole. think of it as an extra tax.

well, at least cambodia police corruption is very clear, n understandable. very out in the open. malaysian police corruption is a very secret, under the table sort of thing. n u don’t know exactly what ur in for. i think i prefer the cambodian way .

hrm. traffic here is decidedly hairy. people do not use indicators when chaging lanes! even when the traffic is so busy!!
lane demarcation is an after thought. motorcycles r evrywhere. which would b all right, if they didn’t zip in n out so much. n they don’t wear helmets. i wonder what the traffic accident rate is like .

within a compound…like b4 u get onto the main main arterial roads, anything goes, it seems. my dad had to drive a car the other time, even without an international license. being the very law abiding person tt he is, he felt very uncomfortable doin it.
yup, police hardly ever enter into the residential areas. u really don’t need a license.

i saw this scene:

i thought, what is wrong with this picture? ah. that boy is certainly too young to be riding around in a motorbike!!!!

i have to say something about the toilets. yes yes i know i grew up with the reality of squatting toilets….but i still kinda *totally* forgot about them. when faced with it at the kl airport, i was like “errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”
my tigh muscles have atrophied . it’s kinda hard for me now, holding tt position for long……shitting will be…..a challenge……….

ok, here r other random photos i took around where i was staying. this is the ‘arty’ photo section. or i guess, wannabe arty.
see how u like it. my theme here is ‘photos that capture the essence of suburban malaysian life’ the photos rn’t very big. i’m tryin to maximise the space available to me on photobucket…there’s a 25mb limit . i opened up a photobucket acct. it doesn’t seem too bad. if i upgrade to premium i can get ftp access. and i can upload an unmonitored amount of images. that is…i guess if i upload much more than the average amount a premium user would upload, they can cap me. so the limit is like 250mb. which is not really tt much…..i guess………..i need to buy webspace -_-
oh yeah annual fee for premium photobucket acct is US$25. hrm. dtran~~ let me use ur file space~~~