Postcard from… Taiping

Same old me, always delaying. Today is exactly one week since coming home from Taiping. Yeah, Luke and I backpacked to Taiping! It was one hell of a trip as I didn’t really prepare myself mentally or physically to be honest. Two days before the trip I got a call from Luke (herein will be referred to as Lychee or Raymond Lam Fung) out of the blue asking me to be his fellow traveler. I was in the mood of traveling, in fact not long ago I successfully booked tickets via AirAsia to Kuching next year, and poisoning from programs on Discovery Travel & Living and real life influence from my friend, Deco who had recently returned safely from his first ever backpacking trip. So I was quick to reply a yes after short consideration. In the next 48 hours I could be seen in front of the computer, doing this and that, got my ten fingers in ten pies, none of what I did was related to the impending trip though. I was still awake on the night before the trip 0300 hours to blow my wet sandal I washed earlier with a hairdryer.

Of course, as clever as always, I managed to wake up the next morning, although not exactly on time. After a quick bath, and grabbing my gears and gadgets off I go to the Pudu Bus Station with Lychee. You would think we were going on a trip aimlessly wouldn’t you? Well, I certainly know the importance of preparation before a trip. On the bus Luke said he’s nervous LOL.

29 Nov 2009 1200 GMT: After 4 hours of bus journey, we arrived at Kamunting Bus Station 1200 hours sharp. We then continue our journey to Taiping on a taxi although there are omnibus services at the bus station as we figured out it’ll take more time for the bus to leave according to schedule. As a side note, the taxi operators are uniformed in bright orange as required by their association of taxi operators on every Sunday according to our driver. The fares are also fixed accordingly and for ours trip RM8.00 will be charged. I remembered 4 years ago at KL I was charged the double of the price I’m paying now for a similar service. Our driver was kind enough to introduce a few interesting places along the short 15 minutes journey before reaching Taiping. We stopped perfectly at a casual market where a food court is just right in it besides the public taxi station. Time for lunch! We ordered some of the recommended cuisines we saw from internet like Fried Fishball Kueyteow, Popiah, ABC, rojak and Eight Treasures Tea. For certain reasons we actually took quite a long time in ordering food although we had already decided what to eat, maybe it was because of the bags that we were carrying people turn their eyes to us most of the time which made us feel a tad of awkward. Strange to say but there’s a “rule” in the food court that’s if you’re ordering drink from a beverages stall you would be better off sitting nearby to them or else they might not want to serve you even if you order from them. Having satisfying enough of our taste buds, we were on the move again, and off we go to explore the city of everlasting peace, with heaps of historical traces.

clockwise from top left: Taiping Market or Old Market | backview of District Office | 1930-built now shop lot with accomodation service | Kwang Tung Association building

Just when we were about to leave our table a young girl came and said to me I haven’t pay for the ABC. All blame it upon Mr Raymond Lam for he didn’t tell me the drink is unpaid yet. Taiping is a fairly compact town, with two major roads (Jalan Kota and Jalan Taming Sari) stretching from one end to the other end, connecting every parts of the town are the occasion cross streets, which made destinations and places of interest accessible by walking distance. The town also receives the highest rainfalls in the Peninsular, as you can see in the photographs most of the time the skies are cloudy and dark. I saw a man talking on the phone in Cantonese saying some vulgar words cursing the sky because it started to rain.

clockwise from top: cross road like this made up the town of Taiping | Lychee checking his hair in front of an unusable red telephone booth | we had to rely on this map on display in the Perak Museum for the rest of the day | Clock Tower with tourist information counter but it was closed on Sunday, we had no map!

Thanks to Mr Lychee’s bloody brilliant idea to travel on Sunday where some of the most important places like the tourist information counter below the Clock Tower is closed on Sunday! We then went to 7-11 and Popular bookstore to look for a town map but we can’t seem to find any. Eventually we found a map on display in the Perak Museum so we took a picture of it.

top two images: birds lining along on the cable and lamp post besides the Taiping Market | a white stork caught flying across the top of a building

Went into The Store too, no town map as well, but got myself some Carera ball pens (B-1). I don’t understand why must I go hundreds of kilometers away from home to buy a Carera product. The last time I bought the B-1s was at the KB Mall at Kelantan.

clockwise from top left: Perak Museum, we saw it on our way here on taxi | statue of Col. Walker approaching to an old jet fighter besides the museum | tombstones besides a church we passed by on the way to museum | Taiping Prison Dept. | the church we passed by

The way to the Perak Museum by walking is quite a distance away. Pity Lychee for he had to be my “Ah Sei”, my camera bag and tripod were all attached onto his backpack while I only travel light with my camera strapped on my hand and a rather small backpack I carried along. It was late afternoon by the time we arrived at Perak Museum and it started to rain heavily too! Just in time for us to spend in the oldest museum in Malaysia while waiting for the rain to pause. The museum exhibits lots of wildlife and its skeletons in the front hall. As we visit deeper into the inner part of museum only to found it’s still under renovation. Apparently, Sir Hugh Low, the British Resident of Perak founded this museum in 1883.

Luke posing with Mr Choong, former English teacher, the Taiping Market as backdrop

We took opportunity to rest and rejuvenate while waiting for the heavy downpour to stop. That’s the most noisy museum I’ve ever been to in my opinion. Lots of  kids running around and occasionally amaze in enthusiasm. We moved on shortly after rain had stop to the Taiping Prison, if you have sharp eyes you’d probably by now should be able to anticipate what’s next on our storyline. Well, it’s Sunday, the gate is closed! Since we were at the end of our planned journey we figured out it’s time to return to town and look for accommodation before it’s too dark. But things took a twist we somehow lost our way back, and we ended up arriving at another destination, the Taiping Lake Garden. We were not in the mood for sightseeing anymore as the sky is getting darker so we quickly resort to asking a couple of hawkers in that area and we finally managed to return to town.

Back in town, our task was to look for and locate some hotels that we both know through our studies and then check if the pricing is acceptable. We were still unable to settle down after some searching as they were mostly too expensive, fully booked or too far away from town. An old man in his 70s approached us at the corner of a five foot ways while we were busy looking at my camera screen locating street names. He asked us where did we come from and he even asked our names. He introduced himself as Mr Choong then when I agreed with him that I have the same surname like him he excitedly tapped on my shoulder.  He was a friendly and nice man. We chatted for awhile and he went on to become an instant 15-minutes-tour-guide of the town. The best part was he solved our accommodation problem by recommending us two hotels from the same owner whom he knows. We were so grateful for his helping hands and we asked for a photograph with him. He looked a bit worry at first and told us he is too old for photograph and while saying that he checked his hair with bare hands and said no problem. Meeting this gentle old man is never in our plan but sometimes this kind of thing definitely lift our heart and make a trip more memorable. At the end of the day, we settled down at the Malaya Hotel for RM40.00 per night. Thanks to a fine old man who just wanted to have his dinner before stumbling upon us.

clockwise from top left: Peace Hotel | another hotel across the street owned by the same owner of Malaya Hotel according to Mr Choong | swallow nests hut built on top of building, there are plenty of them in Taiping | City Council Plaza, the lowest level houses a wet market, we had our breakfast the next morning in the food court thanks to Mr Choong's tip and there's a bowling arena in it too!

30 Nov 2009 0900 GMT: We overslept one hour before waking up reluctantly, after one whole hell day of walking and as a result of that two more corns pop up to make it four under my right feet. Remember the “rule” I mentioned earlier in a food court? We went to the upper floor of the City Council Plaza to have our breakfast and I saw one very old lady, she’s a drink stall operator from far waving to us. Maybe because we looked like tourists. We couldn’t bother enough though as we continued looking for food and a place to sit. I glanced at the old lady by chance when we finally sat down at the other side and the following thing I saw actually hits me very hard. Stepping down from her tall chair I saw an old lady with hunchback walking slowly to other place. I felt a lot for her. She then sat back on her tall chair continued inviting customers. I asked Lychee why is the world so unfair. Supposedly our plan of the day was to visit to Matang or Port Weld at the late morning and then return to Taiping Lake Garden cum Taiping Zoo for the rest of the day. We however screwed up the visiting plan to some places of interest namely the Mangrove Forest and Charcoal Factory at Matang, due to communication and time constraint. We headed back to Taiping on an omnibus for lunch. While on our way to lunch we finally got ourselves the town map we had been looking high and low for at the tourist information counter. As for lunch we had the famous Ipoh Beansprout Chicken and some side dishes at a restaurant close to the Lake Garden before going back to the place where we got lost yesterday.

clockwise from top right: Taiping Lake Garden, former tin mine and oldest lake garden in Malaysia | tourist riding a big swan | the famous branches of rain trees along the street bending toward to lake | Lake Garden of Taiping with Maxwell Hill serving as backdrop | a leafless tree bending toward the lake, ignore Lychee

We decided to take the longest path to Taiping Zoo in the hope of seeing and taking more pictures along the Lake Garden before reaching the zoo. It’s a huge piece of god-made landscape. I enjoyed the breeze air and wind there while walking although it was an afternoon. If I’m to be at there again I’m going to find a suitable spot and just lay and laze there while enjoying the gentle breeze of cool weather.

hidden beauties

The ultimate destination of the day – the Taiping Zoo & Night Safari, showcases variety of animals from Sahara desert to tropical forest in the oldest zoo in Malaysia. The Night Safari is also first of its kind in Malaysia but we chose not to visit it. The entrance ticket was RM12.00 per person. I taught some foreigners Malay language at the zoo. She was looking into an empty cage and I told her it’s an empty cage while pointing to a signboard which says “Kandang Kosong”. She smiled and thanked me and I said no problem.

wild life on exhibition at Taiping Zoo

We spent almost half of the day in zoo seeing animals and taking pictures. We were lucky to pay every corner of the zoo a visit before it closes at 1800 hours. Lychee was looking all over the zoo for a tiger because he think it would be a waste if he can’t get to see a tiger in a zoo. It’s surprising to spot some kangaroos (bottom picture between a lazing Malaya Tiger which Lychee finally found before we go back and a butterfly). I saw a magpie too! It was a Magpie Robin (bottom left), sounds like a very heroic bird. It’s the second time in two weeks I encounter a magpie. I know it’s gonna be my lucky day every time I see a magpie around. And Newcastle beat Watford a few days later.

Ready for Another Round; A zoo staff clearing the walkway after the zoo closes and making way for the Night Safari session.

Catching a taxi in Taiping is fairly difficult. We got lost again while on our way back because the Lake Garden is way too enormous. This time it was already dark when we got back and the first thing we did was looking for food. We took a break at an outdoor food court ordering Waat Dan Hor, lobak, Roasted Duck rice, several pastries and herbal teas as our last dinner at Taiping. We took down the picture of the food on the table and a friendly hawker spoke in a loud tone from far “Wa cameraman ah!”

1 Dec 2009 1000 GMT: It was the last day of our trip. We finished the movie, “Vantage Point” on HBO from the comfort of our room before checking out. We spent the next few hours after brunch shopping before purchasing bus ticket at a counter near to a taxi station and got on a taxi shortly to transfer us back to Kamunting Bus Station. The driver kept talking about prison matters, which made me suspect he could be a former prisoner as he told us lots about what’s inside of a prison. At 1500 hours we bid farewell to the town of everlasting peace. Back in KL, we actually had a short adventure in the heart of the city. We missed out the famous Jalan Alor where we intended to have dinner at while looking for it. We came to the landmark McDonald’s at the centre of Bukit Bintang so we thought it’s not a bad idea also since we never have any burger in it. I apologized for the lack of food photos throughout the whole trip as I don’t have them with me. I hope you enjoy the photos, stories and our journey.

Until the next “Postcard from” update, ciao!

颖迷

再一次，郑重声明，这是嘉天下，我係颖迷。

Meet the Choongs

Ever since watching the series Heart of Greed, taking family portraiture photo or at least having all of them come together to have a family meal has been high on my wishing list. Please note it is on my wishing list, and it would be a different story if I said that it is on my must-do list. To reminisce the past pictures of everybody congregated under one roof during joyous event like Chinese New Year, I have to travel back in time at least some 10 years ago. Farcical it sounds I know. But the fact that everybody is so tied up to life made this kind of thing feasible. Life is a big word, well, you know it. Let’s not get too deep into this.

Yesterday, something somewhat unlikely to happen in the past decade happened. Grandma was the mastermind behind of this, which is grandpa’s 80^th anniversary birthday celebration! This is definitely a wonderful chance not to be missed, by me and everybody else in the family. After all, we are so blessed to have an old man who is in his first 80s and still go strong.

Our most beloved and respected elders

As dusk approaches, we were all present in the private room of a nearby restaurant. “Are you my cousin?” asking one of the lads while looking on doubtfully. I guess this is what we get after getting separated for so long. Alright, don’t get carried away that did not happen. At first, the situation somehow was a tad of blends of awkward and tense, thankfully that did not last long and soon after some noise-makings the party got started! Singing, chit-chatting, eating, drinking, playing, joking, photographing, it was a fun-filled evening. Of course not forgetting the main agenda of the night – grandpa’s 80^th anniversary birthday. So dad led the singing and the celebration started with Happy Birthday melodies performed by everybody surrounding grandpa in the middle together with his cake. The next thing we could see was an unbelievable scenario of a newly turned 80-year-old man dancing spontaneously in the crowd which got everybody’s glasses fall onto the floor.

Grandpa gets HIGH

We were all stunned and at the same time too slow to react. We should have danced too! As I mentioned earlier I always wanted to take the photograph of the whole family and I am just glad that I am finally given the opportunity. Surprisingly I never thought of the moment I could become the photographer myself to capture the family portraiture that I am longing for as for all the while I have been imagining all of us spending money at the commercial photography studio to have us framed beautifully and eternally in the pictures. They say good things come to those who wait, with the gear on my hands, and the given beautiful backdrop of golden lights, I cannot ask for anymore, I am simply delighted.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE CHOONGS

*Due to privacy concerns, these are all the photos I could share to the largest extent whilst the portraiture shots will be made undisclosed.

Not-so-Septiembre

*Septiembre is September in Spanish

So Long My Friend

I admit the whole month is not going that smooth. A fortnight ago I had a heart-aching farewell for my mobile phone. My 3-year-old device fell into the hole of toilet bowl through my broken pocket. It just happened I was not even quick to realize it. It just happened! I wanted to save her but I do not know how to besides kicking myself for that blooper. It was a huge blow I had to suffer as all my personal and important stuff went swimming under the sewerage. Many people have been saying this and that as a mean of comforting on my loss but I just felt that it is simply not the way this should happen. I mean there must be a better way of saying goodbye to your ever-leaving gadget right. To my readers I am now collecting back all the lost contacts please bear with my fault if I could not remember some of the many numbers of you all.

I realized I am staying in the dirtiest hostel of all in the university. I was lackadaisical at first about this statement when a friend told me and I did not bother though. Until recently I bumped into some pictures of the other hostels in the university as well as others outside the university only I am at loss of words. Losses of words because of the other hostels have much cleaner and conducive surrounding compared to mine. The unpleasant smell will always be the first thing to welcome me when I have to walk along the corridor with lots of dusts and litters which look like they were and always there since the day earth was born to get into my room, or to go to the washroom, which I will talk about it later on. The weather these days had turned my tiny little room into a furnace. I am sleeping on a half-broken mattress while being toasted and roasted every night. The chair I used to have in my room was also semi-broken until I requested a replacement of a “new” chair. What else, you already know I had an issue with ants constructing homes under the carpet earlier right? The washroom. Do you know I am waking up to water sink filled with disposed food be it nasi lemak or curry Maggi every morning while I have to brush and shave on top of it? I also wash my clothes every day besides a toilet clogged by unknown objects most of the time. Hat off for those people who think the tiny holes above every disposal tank can make substances such as rice and paper pieces go away. Eat up all the remaining food and eject it through your anus into the toilet bowl boneheads. No, Stuart Little can’t help either. Some of the bathrooms are well decorated with clumps of mosses which makes them identical to waterfall surrounded by greenery. Those greenery have done us proud by providing green elements the earth needed. To my surprise, living under the same roof with me is people who are good at being a part time barber. They are especially good in leaving all the overgrown, unwanted, unnecessary hair scattered everywhere across the floor. Can you imagine if you were in my shoes? What am I if not filthy? On a more serious note, I noticed some rashes on my skin and I went to consult a doctor. The feedback from the doctor was needless to say more. I need to get out of this place A.S.A.F.P.

My nose is running now as I am writing this. I am still recovering from sickness. I had minor fever last weekend which got me panicked but managed to recover the next day. Hopefully it gets better, as holidays are approaching, I do not want to be a sick cat during the holidays.

Your USB and You

The USB flash drive is perhaps one of the most useful inventions ever created. A USB flash drive (thumb drive or some call it the PenDrive) acts like a removable storage disk which when plugged in to a PC will enable user to transfer files and documents in a no-sweat condition. I like the gadget because of its mobility and I can do transfer of my favorite and important files in a less hassling way. When I say “less hassling way” I mean there will be chance for a “very hassling way”, just like when I say “I disagree” I could mean “I actually agree” or “I agree with you a lot”. Do you notice when we are arguing we are constantly giving our own definition on an issue demanding the consent of others but in fact we do at the same time already have the mental knowledge or agreement inside of ourselves without realizing it. It is actually prescribed in us already. So tell me what is the point of debating? After all, the art of communication is you people are telling what I want to know but what I want to know is what is happening. Ok ok let us come back.

What is considered a “hassling way” then? That is when you start to play some random game and in the end of the game you realized you are in a hot trouble. One norm I notice is the prevalent and heavy application of the USB flash drive in our daily life. Most of the time we are unaware of the moment we plug in the USB flash drive into a PC we have high chances of contracting with malicious software. The malware normally make use of the AutoRun application (that is the small window that pops out asking what the user want to perform with the removable disk every time we connect it to a PC) by inserting codes during the process. The autorun file once executed will attack the PC. Your important assignment or favourite files might be at risk. Your personal information might be leaked. You have to re-install your system. Now that is hassle.

Do you know holding down the [shift] key when inserting removable media will run the AutoPlay? If you do not want the trouble of holding down the button every time you might as well deselect the AutoPlay by going to the Hardware and Sound settings in the Control Panel. There is also a more complicated way of doing this that is by editing your registry files. You can try all the mentioned solutions yourself by searching related information on how to disable AutoRun as the following row is going to be spared for a software that I would like to share with you – TrueCrypt.

TrueCrypt - encrypt your files

I think this is an enormously useful software. As the name suggest the software encrypts disk. Simply put, your files will be protected by a password.  You can also apply the idea to protect your USB flash drive by encrypting it and at the same time malware will not be able to write codes onto your drive (with the condition that you already fulfilled all the empty spaces in your drive). The software also comes with a traveler mode you can install onto your USB flash drive, in case you want to use it on a PC which have no TrueCrypt installed. So how does this work? After the installation, you can start creating volume (that is the file containing the encrypted virtual disk). But before that if you want to encrypt your USB flash drive, remember to setup a traveler mode onto your USB flash drive first (Tools > Traveler Disk Setup > select your root directory).

Creating a volume (your password-protected file)

To create a volume, click “Next” until you are asked the location of volume. If you want to encrypt your USB flash drive, select your USB flash drive location and name it. Continue with “Next” until you are asked to decide the size of volume. If you are creating a volume for your USB flash drive I recommend the usage of a byte converter (it is available on the internet) to calculate the exact space in your drive. That way you can obtain optimum space allocation on your drive (that is your drive will show “0 byte of free space” when encryption is done). After that you will be prompted to create a password. The final stage would be formatting your newly created volume.

Example of encrypted USB flash drive

Open up your USB flash drive when you are done with formatting and you will see something like this (I created 2 files with different size allocated to each).

Select your file and free drive location

To open up your file, select the file created earlier in the Volume column and choose from any of the available free drives above (that will be the virtual location of your encrypted disk). You will be prompted your password in order to open it.

Mounted file on a free drive

After inserting the correct password, you will see the file is opened in the selected free drive. Double-click on the free drive to access your encrypted disk. You can now start to do normal transferring. Oh yeah, check out your “My Computer”, you will see an extra drive, that is your real-time virtual encrypted disk (simply your volume). If you are done with transferring, to stop, simply click “Dismount”, exit TrueCrypt, and safely remove your USB flash drive. Beware, removing the USB flash drive without dismounting might cause data loss or damage to your drive.

The whole thing is utilized based two ideas, that is firstly your USB flash drive is now fully written, in other word there is no extra space for any malicous code to be written on to your device and secondly outsider will not be able to access your USB flash drive as you will need the correct password. Now you get it. It is not that complicated to use, and believe it or not it is going to be very useful.

Gotcha

Have it not been the sudden declaration of mid-semester break two weeks earlier ago I should have by now starting to enjoy my actual mid-semester break, which should include a whole lot of activities that I can only be dreaming of them this instance. Should all things go accordingly I should have *starting to dream now* attended quite a few of events starting from Saturday, by kicking off the break with a visit to the Kuala Lumpur Photography Fair (KLPF) at Mid Valley. I have not been to any photography fair this year and at the same time I have been looking high and low for a suitable backpack to carry my camera as well as my laptop (I have not encountered a bag that is really say buy-me-buy-me at my first glance yet). Apparently there will be trade fair, talks, showcase and a model shooting competition too in the fair. On another note, one of the agendas on my planner is the Dogathon, which is a carnival held annually in my university for dog lover, and I was about to attend it too. You should start seeing me posting photos by now if the mentioned dreams were to become reality. And the reality is that I am actually having my midterm test! The sudden break had caused the midterm test to postpone to another week later which started from last Monday after the resuming of holidays. Basically, my plans are ruined, pretty ruthlessly.

Talk about university life. Week 7 is approaching, it is almost like the half of the first semester, until the imminent midterm test, only it hits me that, oh my goodness test are coming, assignments are incomplete, presentations are half-way done etc. These things are making me wondering what had kept preventing me from accomplishing what I should have done. Clearly there is something I need to work it out or else the water will only become muddier. On a different note, I joined the Buddhist society in university. Becoming a part of this society is nothing much more than pure co-incidence whilst I believe fate has destined me to be a part of it I want to make sure the affinity shall be prolonged. I attended the first class of activity last Sunday and I got this little surprise. They had this out of the blue but a memorable birthday celebration for me. The seniors were explaining about the rules and regulations that each of us the new members should abide and unexpectedly names of several other newbies including me were called out to the front of the crowd. We were questioned by the seniors whether or not we know what we did wrong, as if we were like prisoners. I hardly recognize and do not know what on earth I had actually done wrong. It was kind of annoying and embarrassing to be questioned over and over again in front of so many people. So the lights went off and the next thing I could hear was the song “Happy Birthday to you”. Truthfully I nearly pissed off by the anonymous actions right before the lights went off. They got me I guess.

Saya Perkasa Putra

The killing orientation week has finally ended, as now I am already in the midst of Week 3. Looking back at all the text messages that I received from everybody, especially from my family and my friends, I owed everybody a deep thank you and I do not like to say this but I will have to say it out this time. The support and courage I got from everybody really mean a lot to me! Let me just put it in this way, I will barely survive without all of you, THANK YOU! That just showed how a dreadful and painful freshmen’s week I had to put up.

Probably my hardest time in life is my first week in university. Being away from home is not really a big concern for me. What really freaked me out is the idea of being alone in a total stranger place. Now that is what the whole thing is about. From the north to the south, what a transition. That was the first stumbling block to me as I do not really familiar with places in the south. All the while I am under the perception that places down south are just not that, you know, things at the bottom will simply never make the cut. It just never really interests me. I have been living up at the north since kid and I think things on the top are “good”. The feeling is like when Newcastle United had to travel all the way down south to match against Southampton, and worst of all if the Magpies lose… Ok let us stay on track. It will only be a geographical matter, perhaps I should start to learn seeing and accepting what is around me, who knows when the south of Kuala Lumpur might become a place as beautiful as Southern France? Before that, let me ask you what could you possibly do if given a time frame of 120 minutes? There is a word saying, “Tunggu keretapi bagai tunggu buah yang tidak gugur.” If you have not heard of it, tell the rest that I said this! A half an hour car journey could take up as long as two hours travelling by public transport. I suggest the first thing which should be improved in order for the south of K.L. to become a beautiful place like the Southern France is the public transport system. The next thing on agenda would be the toilets in most of the restaurants in town and followed by the litters and rubbish which can be found easily behind every “lorong” of the restaurants. Ok let us not stray too far away again. So I call this post “Saya Perkasa Putra” because of two reasons. Firstly I am going to share a bit of bits in university life up to this point, and secondly to proudly annonce that I had undergone every single moments (although I am not that certain if I really did) of the orientation week which was named the “Minggu Perkasa Putra”. Say I am great in naming.

Let us kick off with the place which I will be staying for the coming 12 months – the hostel. I can not really afford to say it is “my” hostel, I just can not do it! Terrible experience I had when cleaning the room on the first day. Guess what? There were ants making hell freaking lots of nests under the carpet when I pulled the whole piece of thing up! Seemed like I am the guest now and the ants are the master of the room before my arrival and these tiny creatures were crawling all over my body when I brutally demolish their homes but forgive me I had to. It took me like a month until today to finally call the hostel “my” hostel. After countless times of “home-improvement”, it is starting to give me the feeling of my own “home” (but still, nothing beats the real home). The best “home” feeling is expressed when I go back to my hostel in a worn-out condition, specifically after commuting with the frustrating and time-wasting public transports everytime, I would cool myself down for a moment and then smack my head onto the bed and slumber. I only have to study for four days in a week for the first semester, I managed to make myself free of classes on Friday, which allows me to go home on Thursday night and return to hostel only on Sunday. However after some consideration I decided to join the co-curicullum which falls on every Saturday morning, that means I have to return to hostel on the night before Saturday to attend the activity and go home again right after the activity ends. I am pretty much a frequent traveller now, who is sick of the system of the public transportation. Life outside home has been gradually getting better as time goes on and what I need now is only more and more exploration and experiences which will be beneficial to me and most importantly makes my life easier. There are fully air-conditioned with modern decal tinting campus buses which look like one of the express buses out there moving within the enormous campus areas which I think is five times the size of a TARC. Sounds like “best aje kan?” Anyhow due to the large population of the students, regardless local or international students, there will always be excessive demand for the services of the buses, which are relatively scarce, hence suggesting there is a problem in which we economically call it “shortage”. This problem become prevalent during “peak hours” like in the morning, during lunch and dinner and some other periods which might still be unknown to me yet. Sometimes I would think it is a big problem, but at times I would not. The library in the university is also known as one of the most comprehensive libraries it has to offer in the country. Apparently some RM10 million will be spent to maintain the library anually, although it does not look like a multi-million library to me. It would still be my frequent hangout spot as it is the only place I get connection onto the internet. Yeah I know what you are thinking right now. My hostel claimed there are wireless internet connection within the premise but to my disappointment the signal will be in all-time low and weak, which means I will never get to online from the inside and comfort of my room. Crap. The food is the final part I am going to share with all of you. Alright, I eat Chinese food outside everyday be it lunch or dinner ever since I discovered it and I will never eat Malay food again, unless under unavoidable circumstances. That is it.

A lengthy post this is really. I have been spending the last five days to come out with this post. It is just a co-incidence that this post would be probably be published today (if I can go online which I do not think it is likely going to be) which is my birthday. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who turned up yesterday for my birthday bash. It would be meaningless had it not been your presence. Organizing a celebration is not an easy task, I would like to credit my gratitude to Ms Lim Yi Ning and others who were in part of the planning. I think I will attend Jia’s birthday next year. (Wicked. I got Jia’s text wishing me happy birthday right after I am done with the last sentence.)

Hardest part, Strangest start

Before the gold and the glimmer have been replaced Another sun soaked season fades away

And the hardest part was letting go, not taking part.

The first photo and caption tells you the author had have a memorable times during his short stint in college. He didn’t realised he had put in so much, to an extent that he finds it heavy to leave it all behind and just say “Goodbye”. Reluctancy. But he knew he have to go, and the plane is ready to go. “And the hardest part was letting go, not taking part” – This just sums up how he felt when he finally pulled himself out.

Let go, believe me, you will get something new

And the strangest thing was waiting for that bell to ring.

The second photo and caption sees a plane is taking off under a setting sun. The dusk illustrates a closure of a chapter, and it is in fact, a little bit strange, as it can be interpreted that the author, is actually flying into the dark. That’s when “And the strangest thing was waiting for that bell to ring” comes into the picture, it can be assumed that, the author have no idea what is it in front that has to offer to him, but one thing for sure, he is up to it.

The idea of the whole post is about the author who have to forgo college so that he can take on the road that he had chosen.

Inspiration Lost

Reminding me I still had life… in me

The author has a story to tell.

He thinks summer is the best time to plan, to plan ahead of the year, on what you have to do, to realise what you want to achieve. Fail to plan is plan to fail, always remember that.

It’s like a start of something new. It’s also one of the best moments to take a hiatus, look back, whether you’re stupid enough or not, to have fall for someone, because love sucks!

He thinks summer is the time when you can get upset easily. Outside is blooming, there is no such thing as cool water coming out from the tap. Inside, troubles arise from the root.

For too much of mind-bogglers, it’ll drive you an inch closer to the wall. It’s down to logic versus emotion, creativity pays, but please don’t look back in anger, don’t look back in anger.

He thinks summer is like an unwelcomed guest. The intensity is killing every single living organism. Beautiful flower dies, if left not attended by him, who has the power, to turn attention to greet blossoming tulips.

He who likes flower should learn something out of it. All flowers go through a cycle, like human, there are highs and lows, just remember do not held your head too high. A flower can die today and flourish back tomorrow, that’s food for thought.

The author thinks whenever we’re faced with situations, we can’t judge on something based on emotion, and that’s the time when we should held our head high, to confront the adversity. Just like the rejuvenation of death flower.

C.O.L.L.E.G.E.

The last whole week was my college’s orientation week. The week before the freshmen’s week was a week which I managed to get through by attending myself to all kinds of big and unrelatively important stuff. The week before the hard-to-get-through-week was a week I spent indulding myself in the beautiful beaches of the East Coast namely the Perhentian and Redang islands. Basically this post will be things that happened over the past 3 weeks after resigning from work. That’s it! Yeah, that just rounded up what had happened in the past 3 weeks. Period.

Haha. Ok. So I attended the college freshmen’s week. I know some of my friends will say: “Aiyah, orientation no need to go one, nothing to do geh.” I’d agree to a certain extent, but I still feel the need to attend the freshmen’s week as
1. It’s the place I’ve been always looking forward to be in.
2. It’s good the get acquainted with a new environment in an early stage.
3. DDDs.

The first day of orientation was the Mass Call which scheduled at 1400GMT. I was being a tad of skeptical before going out as I don’t know which outfit should I put on, pardon me I was too excited for this. The first day ended up with some surprising elements as the VIP of the day, entered the College Hall as we greeted him in a very muhibah manner, by clapping hands and uttering out loud “Huan Ying Ni”, “Welcome”, “Selamat Datang”, “Van na cum”, apparently four different welcome languages, who appeared to be Dato Seri Ong Ka Ting, who then of course delivered an exhilarating speech. There were two activities on the second day as I attended a briefing by the programme supervisor and had some fun meeting my coursemates. The third day was the Society Day. Freshmen like me will get to choose the college’s societies of their own choices. It was also the day I wanted to end Gary Chuah Cheng Wai’s life who were being Two Face by doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. On the fourth day, it was just another ‘compulsory’ briefing and I got my student ID card in the end of the day. I’m beginning to get familiar with the college, which has a campus five times the size of an Old Trafford. On a different note, I did saw a lot of DDDs. It could be due to my prior working environment, which probably changed the way I look at DDD to some different degree. The younger DDDs are just not that attractive to me anymore, unless the DDD is of some character with matured appearance. That’s more or less about it, my college freshmen’s week. Tomorrow would be the first day of study, can’t wait to put on my student ID card, haha!