[28.2.2012] Hanoi Day 1 Pt 1

Finally we made it to the Hanoi Blog... haha.. I've been meaning to get to it but i've been oh so busy..

Anyhow, I at least want to start it before officially its passed 1 year since my trip there...

So the story is that at the end of 2010, I went to Ho Chi Minh City.. all by myself and totally fell in love with the place despite the fact that 

a) I was alone

b) It was a whole other language speaking country

c) Vietnamese traffic...

But despite all that I totally fell in love with vietnam and it became the catalyst for wanderlusting and  travelling to countries where I could immerse myself.. So I came back and told my law school travel buddies Fadli and Sheba (we went to Phuket and Bali together) and then after my persistent selling to them and then after that we saw pics of Ha Lon Bay (one of the new 7 wonders of the world) .. I got a call from Sheba one day saying lets go to Hanoi!

So Hanoi it is... We booked for flights almost a year earlier and then by my sheer luck I had fixed a trial the day after the date I was supposed to come back from Hanoi... For months I had cold sweats thinking about having to go to court the day after I got back from holiday from another country... If its the last thing I do, I would like to say.. DO NOT EVER EVER EVER go on holiday before a court matter... hehe coz before court the few weeks before it is left making sure all documents are ready, submissions are ready, clients are in the country, clients know about a proceeding that they are supposed to attend and bosses are briefed and have made any necessary ammendments..bluergh...

Anyhow.. Despite all that, I survived that ordeal due to the fact that the other lawyer choked up and then there was all this drama in my life .. I wont go into anything else and lets just say I got to go to Hanoi with a clear conscience..

So off I wen to the airport at 3AM! Cause the flight out was at 650....For some reason we needed to rush there and off we went.... 

As I arrived at LCCT airport, I met up with Fadli and Sheba and made all the necessary preparations (activating all credit cards, atm cards for overseas usage ) and had a light breakfast at the Old Town White Coffee shop there and it kind of pissed me off as not all of our orders were delivered.. I think there was a drink and side order left... 

Anyhow afterwards we got on the flight and took the 3 and half hour flight to Hanoi.... and came out in Hanoi Airport...   

One thing I forgot to mention was that I was dumb... D. U. M. B... DUMB! I saw that Fadli and Sheba were wearing their jackets but I assumed that it was cause it was 3 am at the airport and they were cold... Then when we were all lining up at passport control after arriving in Vietnam, I realised hey everyone else was wearing jackets... I asked Fadli who went eh you dont know that they have mild cold weather here? ... hahaha I totally forgot that Vietnam South and Vietnam North is two different places at different times of the year and all I brought was shirts and jeans and shorts.. (I EVEN HAD SHORTS!)... I remembered as we were waiting for our bags at the carrousel, the ground crew kept on opening and closing the doors to let in big items like golf clubs which couldnt come in through the carroussel... and the gusts of wind kept on hitting me hard!Suddenly I was worried.. a sudden Oh Sh*t moment was for me there.. hehe but then as we went outside looking for the driver who was supposed to pick us up, I didnt feel that bad.. it wasnt that cold, just mildly so..Little did I know...

view from airport arrival/pick up

Afterwards, the driver from the hotel picked us up and took us to the hotel.. We checked into the Holiday Diamond Hotel and according to Sheba, this was the friendliest hotel as reported by Tripadvisor and true enough they were really helpful... (I have learned over the years from our numerous travels together that always trust Sheba's travel planning.. she will plan everything for you and all you have to do is just go with the flow... ) As we had arrived very early, they invited us to have breakfast... and lesson number one about vietnam is that it was a former french colony.. and being a former french colony, they have great pastry skills and the thing you should savour on is the BREAD..... 

In Malaysia, you get those almost yard long breads which are hard as hell and not that tasty (unless eaten with a stew)... but in Vietnam, you get those types of bread but which are damn soft and pleasant to eat...

After enjoying the breads and eggs and jam  (only things I dared to eat due to halal issue), we were led into our room..

One thing I love about Vietnamese hotels is that they are friendly, the rooms are always cozy and quite clean and then theres always a PC in the rooms.. This is actually to help foreigners who are used to social media and the interned as certain social media like Facebook were banned so some hotels have changed their IP address to allow people to use their facebook accounts and what nots... 

I remembered when I was in Ho Chi Minh I couldnt access most of the things I wanted to access cause it was blocked but my hotel rooms were allowed access... It was only after my friend who is working there told me about it that I understood why... Anyhow.. this going around thing also caused soo much problems for my facebook, gmail and other accounts that they insisted I change my passwords and until now I have problems trying to log in cause I cant remember which password is which..

Afterwards, we went looking for our first necessary thing there... which was to book the cruise for the Ha Lon Bay tours...

Sheba had done the research and found out some reputable names for cruises and also some of the scams that were run by the people there...

Some of the scams come in the form of nice glossy pictures of the Junks (the boats) and when they pick u up, its a total shi*t hole.. 

Anyhow we asked our Hotel reception for help and they gave us the three different cruises that they recommended and we set about haggling and negotiating and ended up with A-Class cruises..

After that was settled, all we had to do was to visit the town and wait for the bus the next day.. hehe...

That will be in part 2. Till then! 

[23.2.2012] Raju's and Breakfast with the Chambies

I had breakfast with the old crew on Saturday.. The old crew I am referring to is the chambies from the firm I did my pupillage in.

Anyhow its been awhile since we had met each other and things have.... changed... for me that is.. Anyhow, since some of us wanted to go jogging before we went, it became a breakfast meeting and I was a bit late as I got lost and ended up in Kanna Curry House instead of Raju's.

Raju's is well known for its Roti Canai ( A local delicacy here which is made from dough and fried on a pan) and being me, I couldnt resist any good roti canai.. So off I went and had a great time catching up with everyone.

What do I think of the place? Well to be frank its ok.. the roti canai wasnt crispy (my favourite kind) and parking was horrible...and add to that the MPSJ were there in full force ready to tow away any illegally parked cars though I dont blame them.. 

The place was ok as we sat under trees and I had my roticanai with teh tarik (as it should be ordered in any mamak stall) and it was really cool.. :)

The roti canai is a bit expensive though.. RM 1.50 for one piece of roti canai.. Yikes... Times have changed... Boon Seong was telling me.. this is the only place where you can add everything up for roti canai and end up having a bill of RM70 bucks! haha..

Check out the pics! 

Roti Canai Served on real banana leaves

My style of roti canai... all banjir (flooded) with gravy and some coconut sauce..

Raju Restaurant

27, Jalan Chantek 5/13

Off Jalan Gasing

Petaling Jaya

[20.2.2013] Die Hard, A Good Day To Die Hard and IMAX Cinema's

Went out the other day to do some work and then headed off to see the new die hard movie... I've always been a fan of Bruce Willis's Die Hard movies ever since I saw the Die Hard With A Vengence with Samuel L. Jackson... Here's the trailer for that movie.

Basically in all the Die Hard Movies, Bruce Wills plays John McClain a cop who just happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up saving everyone and being really really really bloody at the end.

Also, since I also saw that the TGV had opened up with a new IMAX Cinema in One Utama, I decided to go there and try it out....Here's the trailer of the new movie and just some pics of the cinema.

So after booking tickets online, we went and watched the movie...

What I think of the movie? Well its a typical die hard movie... Lots of guns blazing and destruction and Bruce Willis's puns... hehe This time the movie has another McClain in the form of his son John McClain Jr. His son is a CIA officer with a mission in Russia and he was tasked to complete his mission using some non-traditional means which resulted in John McClain Sr. going there to check up on him... turns out that again hes at the wrong place at the wrong time....

Would I recommend the movie? Sure why not? Its great... just dont come with too much of an expectation for realism... but then its quite ok ... no ridiculus taking down a helicopter with a car in this one... I think Bruce Willis is getting old.. he fits this role quite fine but he's gotta get moving on...

I liked the cinema though... As it was during the day, mostly everyone was at work and we almost had the cinema to ourselves... The screeen was HUGEEE and clear and crisp but the sound was too loud especially for an action movie...But seriously I believe that IMAX is the way to go to watch a movie... Totally recommended...

Till then!

[24.2.2012] New Layout

Hellow everybody! How are things... If you are checking things from the PC you may realise that I have made some changes to the blog layout. Hope its not too drastic of a change and hope all of you like it.

Anyhow I was tinkering with it almost the entire day and I think it looks more or less how I want it to look like. So do let me know if you think that there are some changes which need to be made. Till then! :D

Tickling My Tastebuds

Hey guys! I am a big foodie.. I love food and I am big.. so lets just say I have all the qualifications to call myself a BIG FOODIE... Anyhow I want to share something i'm craving at the moment.. Lets just say I've been having quite a lot of this the past few days and i'll do a proper write up soon.. but here's a pic of it..

I present to you a man's dish.. Its banana leaf rice... Its purely a no nonsense food.. its a banana leaf topped with rice and the famous fried bitter gourd and two other vegetable side dishes all covered with dhal gravy. This is a savoury and satisfying dish and with every bite makes you anticipate the next one..and the best part is that its purely vegetarian and can be shared with even the vegetable lovers out there. Now looking at the pic above makes me look at my watch and wonder if I have time to run out for a quick bite.. haha. Looks like I do.. Till then!

[19.2.2013] How are things?

Hellow peeps..

How was your CNY holidays? For some reason i'm still in holiday mood.. haha.. Anyhow been busy with things and gaming... LOTS AND LOTS of gaming.. Been on Modern Warfare 3 (i know there's blackops 2 now) but most of the buds are on MW3 so have to play there..

I've been trying to get the business off the ground but the mind and will power to push me isnt there and theres too many changes in life now and worries about things thats making me feel demotivated. So I might be a lawyer again.. who knows. Will have to start dusting out those CV's again. and then may be I can go on that dive holiday... :)

I'm thinking of creating some sort of story book.. Ideas keep popping into my head.. But I dont know.. May be some sort of epistolary version of the books... who knows.

As for now I will try to give you guys the blog on Hanoi! I dont really remember much from those holidays but i'll do my best to get you guys the scoop on it.

Here's a sneak peak of some of the pics you will see from my Hanoi trip!

[9.10.2013] Happy Chinese New Year

Happy CNY to everyone and especially to that someone!

I dont know that much about CNY but its a big deal here. Its very festive everywhere you go in Malaysia around this time, anyhow... I want to share some of the decorations that i've managed to catch at the malls in Malaysia.


KLCC

Cheras Leisure Mall

Sunway Pyramid Mall

This is the best amongst the malls... Very extravagant!

the ice skating rink

I love shots like this

Bangsar Village II

This one is the worst.. as if no effort was really made..

anddd.. thats it..

hehe.. Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!

[28.10.2012] Kuala Lumpur Bird Park

Ok.. ok.. finally I have gotten to writing about this.. I apologise for making everyone wait for this for soo long  and I really really really want to write and share about this trip.. 

Why? Cause I didnt expect much from it. I dont know about you guys.. but I dont expect much from Malaysian tourist destinations, they always seem to please the tourists but never seem to please me.. BUT THIS TIME I WAS WRONG...

THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!hahaha when you enter here and see the birds, you get a sense that yes the birds are happy...

Anyhow Larina gave the invite and on a nice sunny saturday morning, we went!

This is the view at the entrance to the bird park 

When you enter you will enter into a huge bird cage which allows for lots of the birds to roam free.. check out some of the pics of the birds that I managed to get..  and I admit now that I have no ideas what the names of the birds are.. haha.. mainly cause its flying everywhere..

Doesnt this bird look happy?

Such a majestic bird

Showoff

and for some reason there were lots of these birds which look soo clean and white!

I love this bird!

together with that there were a lot of fowls walking around and peacocks!

and not to forget this bird too...

ahaha and  inside the bird park there are lots of shows, so be early and try to catch them.. Its quite fun.. Here's the schedules.

I had taken some videos of the shows but as we arrived late i didnt manage to get most of it on video and I forgot to delete the other pics on the camera.. So I had to delete manually.. ended up just me staring at my camera throughout most of the show.

Then they had some birds which were kept in enclosures.. Sorry couldnt take good pics..

 and inside the park itself there are lots and lots of ponds and water features.. Lots of birds graze around there and thats where some of the pretty pics came out too!

the whole group

as we were walking around, we found this building which houses the birds which you can feed.. this is truly an up close and personal experience but truly, the birds are soo many and cute!

this is how close we got to them

happy birds feeding.. mind my tummy

arent they cute.. anyhow.. the main highlight at the bird park are the peacocks.. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.... at first i got pretty disappointed as they didnt spread their feathers.. but before we left most of them were strutting their stuff trying to one up each other..

hehehe and here's a video i managed to get of one where it spreads and closes it...

Anyhow.. thats part of the pics I took of the birds in the birdpark.. I do recommend for everyone to go... its really really really worth it and I do recommend a cap to protect from the heat, water for you to drink as it gets pretty warm inside and also some antiseptic wipes if you want to get upclose and personal with them...

Till then! :)