Koh Tong - Winter Solstice Festival (The Celebration of Spring)

It was Koh Tong, or known as Winter Solstice Festival. on saturday. Most households would have tong yuen and pak cham kai as food offering for altar of the household deities. It was celebrated in a simple manners.

Tong yuen with gula melaka
in-the-makingky mum's preparing pak cham kai and sang choy for the sembahyang.

After that we make our journey to segamat to visit my parents.

Gunung Ledang, johor - the place where the mystical bunian princess lives

Going back home has a very nice feeling ...

my father bought this for us - the famous segamat durian

on sunday, we met up with my cousin - yoke fong, for yumcha session. segamat town, only moderate in size, offers suprisingly number of cafes with good food and drinks at affordable prices.

nanyang white kopi - only costs rm1.70
kopi peng and wholemeal bread with kaya and butter. we would never miss them each time we come back to segamat.

As monday both of us have to work, we have to travel back on sunday evening itself. mum cooked an early dinner and insisted we ate before we left. the traffic jam started at 6.44pm immediately after we passed air keroh, melaka.
it started to rain at 7.14pm, the crawl continue ....

started to feel a little desperate for a toilet stop ......

.... the never ending line of cars heading to seremban and kl

..... 7.46pm ..... getting very desperate ..... we have not reached seremban yet.

ohmigod .... we didn't realize we are running on a near empty gas tank!

finally we found a petrol station after driving for more than 20km.

god has mercy on us ... we finally reached home around 9pm. it has been a long and tiring weekend.

Planning for A Chinese Wedding

For those who have gone through it they knew how messy and busy the whole affair can be. For those who has not gone through this yet, you will know how it feels when your time come. i don't need to explain.

king yeung and I had a lot of things in our minds. Mostly about money and how to get which things done first, one at a time.

Here are the things we have done so far:
1) the first hurdle - talk to our parents about it. they are perfectly happy with our choices of life's partner.
2) open a join account together and faithfully put in money into it every month.
3) asking around for tips from married friends.
4) bought a file - it is time to do some serious research and planning.

shopping for the wedding rings will come soon after we received our bonuses.

honestly, there are so much of things to do and we do not know where to begin. friends who dropped by to read our blog are welcome to give some advices.

In-line Skating

Remember the time when roller skating was a craze during our school days and everybody talked about it? Still remember the kind of old skates which need to be held with shoes laces and protective gears were literally unheard of?

The pictures of this old pair of roller skates invokes a lot of childhood memories.

At that time, king yeung and I too had wanted to learn skating (we have the same desire even though we were 300km apart and do not know the existence of each other yet). However our parents did not allow us to participate in this dangerous sport and thereafter our dreams buried and forgotten.

Perbadanan Putrajaya Complex

However, during our last trip to Putrajaya, we had stopped at the Perbadanan Putrajaya Complex, just opposite of Istana Kehakiman and we noticed how big and spacious the area is. At that time we saw some cyclists cycled by and we thought how fun that would be if we could travel along the Boulevard in the same manner.


We decided to get ourselves a pair of roller blades each and hence the search for the perfect roller blades started for us. We found them at BU and ky bought them as a gift for me ... hurrah!!

the first time we tried it out both of us had terrible falls and bruises that lasted us for many weeks. after many trials and errors, we finally learn to skate without holding onto the the railing. a victorious day for us ... :)

King Yeung and his roller blades

It is tiring activity and both of us sweat like mad.

KY again....

Me ..... but why only one picture? good question ... that is the only best shot from KY the jelly fingers

something interesting going on here ...

last weekend we went back to segamat and we saw this car parked in front of maybank. we try to capture the photo with king yeung's handphone when we stopped at the traffic light but the result turned out to be dissappointing because it was too far away. however, the next morning when we went to the bank again , there we saw it still parked there.


king yeung's car just two cars away.

i don't think maybank can ask the tow truck to tow away this car. the driver even put out the parking tickets for the whole day. i think he wanted to leave it there for many many days until his message gets across the people inside the building.

A visit to Batu Caves

This is a not-so-updated event but i decided to blog it anyway. During the hari raya holiday, king yeung and i went to Batu Caves on one of our leisure excursions on weekends and holidays.

Each time when I drive to Taman Melati in Wangsa Maju from PJ using MRR II, I will definitely pass by Batu caves and the impressive 42.7m high golden statue of Lord Murugan loom majestically from far.

I remembered paying this historical site a visit during a school trip and i was wonderfully suprised when I saw the statue for the first time. It was only completed in 2006 after three years of construction. The first time i saw it was when King Yeung drove me to Taman Melati to look for a room to rent in Septemeber.

That morning when we were supposed to go to Batu Caves was dark and the clouds were pregnant with rain. When we reached there, part of the lime stones hills were already covered with fine, white mist and light drizzle had started.

We went anyway, especially when I told king yeung that there were hundreds of long-tailed macaque monkeys roaming in the caves and hundreds of koi fishes filled to its brim in the pond. We were excited with the thoughts of getting close to the animals and we had brought along a packet of peanuts to feed them too.

Anyway, it was quite a big disappointment when we discovered the monkeys were no longer there; maybe they were chased away because they always harassed the visitors, and the koi fishes were not there too, as they were renovating the ponds.

We just took some pictures, stop to admire a huge white python snake, a monstrous chameleon and an arrogant old monkey tied to a post at the entrance of the cave as we waited for the heavy rain to subside.

The way down the 272 steps were wet and slippery and we huddled close under the umbrella and make our way down slowly. But still we were wet. At the bottom of the steps water had risen to about 3-4 inches and we had to take off our shoes and socks and rolled up our jeans. From there we walked bare-footed back to the car.

We were wet and cold and we ended the excursion with a nice and hot tomyam meal in 1U. yummy … ^-^


Batu Caves - and the impressive Lord Murugan reigns at 42.7m high. He is the God of War and the patron deity of the Tamil land.

Batu Caves view from the entrance of the cave.

the monkey that we don't get to see.

there are a huge sky hole inside the cave, and a whole new world on top of the lime hills.

there are numbers on each step, from the bottom to the top, 272 steps altogether. no jogging and exercising here please!

the interior of the cave is cooling and mystical. but i did look around nervously for signs of bats. Bats mean got bat's shit. don't want to step onto any ... eeeeiii

Women's Driving Club

I lost my way for nearly two hours last saturday when i tried to go to PJ from wangsa maju. i was terrribly anxious as i need to go to toilet, i don't have a map with me, and king yeung was waiting for me so both of us can travel back to segamat.

but in the end i ended up somewhere in sungai buloh, batu caves, kepong and bandar menjalara, and eventually back to wangsa maju. i never reach PJ on that day. feeling terribly frustrated, terrified and tired, i gave up trying to reach pj. finally, i called ky to pick me up from my place. He has been such a darling, i felt like a failure.

Mid Autumn Festival

I bought a box of mooncakes from The Baker's Cottage today. This is a must have in every household, even more so if we were to buy for in-laws or future in-laws. Giving gifts during festive seasons is deemed good manners and show that we have been brought up properly by our parents.

But how I wish the mooncakes would taste better. Nobody really like to eat them because they are too sweet. But we buy the expensive stuff because they are a must-have and I honestly think the box cost more than the cakes itself.

The mooncakes we bought from the shopping centers never fail to look like the dummy plastic food the Japanese restaurants put out for display. They are odourless, no real texture to chew on, the lotus paste and salted egg yolk are hard and brittle .... and only have one kind of taste... sweet.

Frankly, if I have a choice, I would prefer those fresh baked mooncakes sold from homes. The crust is crispy, the salted egg yolk is definitely fresher, and the lotus paste is hot and fragrance if just taken out from the oven..... hmmm .....

Anyway, unless we know some aunties who would do it from homes, we have to be contented with the machine-made mooncakes churned out from the factories every year.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival everyone!

Making Paper Roses

Aaahhh ..... at last. I managed to get my paper rose right after so many fail attempts last sunday.

I learn from watching how they do it in youtube. I felt so guilty folding the roses as my exam papers pile up at a corner waiting for me to mark and I have a deadline to beat! But once I started I couldn't stop unless I finish the mission.

Today is the third day I made the attempts to fold the rose, after putting in several hours of real concentration. and I have to hide in a corner at work to do it, under the pretext of marking exam papers. shame on me! What would my colleagues think of my crazy obsession during this crucial time of completing my works.

but once i did it, i was washed over with real satisfaction. I folded a few more and put in on my table. kakakaka .... now i can go back to my work. i managed to overcome my distraction.


they are also called kawasaki roses.
this one is difficult to make, because it can bloom or close
the one i folded look something like this.

Watching Fireworks Again

I have taken these photos from United Subang Jaya Forum and Art Lancer. Heck knows I shouldn't lift photographs from other people, but I really wanted to have a photo here to illustrate what I am going to write now. This is by far my most favourite burst of fireworks display. It fell down gently in a golden shower, holding us in captive with its beauty.

We were there early, starting our journey at 7.30pm. When we reached there it was raining and we took shortcuts through the wet muddy field among tall grass to get to the Sri Gemilang Bridge where they would launched the fireworks.

We huddled close under the umbrella in the rain and munched on snacks and chocolates as we waited patiently for the fireworks to start. Again, hundreds and thousands of people flocked to Putrajaya that night just to catch the probably once-in-a-lifetime spectacular sight like this.

Going back traffic was messy as ever but it doesn't really bother us much. We reached Puchong around 1230pm and there we stopped for supper... ^-^ it had been a great night.

Popular Food Guide in Malaysia

This book is exactly like the one we bought at popular bookstore near Ikea last Sunday. Our mission hence is .... jalan-jalan cari makan local food ^-^ hmmm.......

@ Zoo Negara

Mama dear came near me when I gave her some grass.

King Yeung is also trying his luck. Hahaha ^-^ .... see King Yeung's face ... and his empty hands! how to make the deer come to him with no food at all? at least must have pau yee and yee chi mah!

King Yeung the caffeine addict - APM coffee vending machine number one customer.

This baby is cute! We took his photo as we waited for the animals' show to start. We sat there for near to 45 minutes and the crowds is getting bigger.

The show only lasted for 30 minutes. The orang utan is especially cute. very adorable ^-^ ...

Zoo Negara is a nice place to hang around even at 3pm in the afternoon. the surrounding trees give cold shade and the breeze is light and cooling.

Another hungry beast. i wonder if the zoo really feed them well. The ground inside the fence is bare. Not a blade of green grass can be seen. the rusa ate them all.

Pink Flamingoes.

waarrgghh .... papa bear is ferocious. Scary. He is more than 8 feet when he stands tall on his hind legs. Guess what....he loves gardenia loti!

This little poor deer looked so innocent and hungry, but we got nothing for him.

The two swans look very elegant but their table manners is far from graceful. must teach them some.

This orang utan stretched out his hand asking for food from us. When we didn't give him any he just looked away. He got that very hau lian look on his face.

This is a very fake looking camel with one hump. He was shamelessly pee-peeing in front of us when we take this picture

The semester is over and I can afford to take leave for longer visit. Last Saturday King Yeung and I went to Zoo Negara. Why Zoo Negara? Hmmm … I don’t know. It seems as if this is a must visit place during school trips when I was in primary school.

We met Mun Ming, King Yeung's cousin sister, and Ah Kei Kor, her husband-to-be there, at zoo negara. I must admit it is a bit weird paktoh there and meeting familiar people too. We just grinned sheepishly at each other.

But who said nobody go to zoo negara anymore? It is full of people lining up for tickets during school holidays and during the animals’ show a lot of them have to stand cos got no seats.

Anyway, it is a fun day for both of us and at the end of the day, after the long walk, we just sit down on one of the benches and snack on kacang, iced drinks and fried onion rings before heading to wangsa maju for fat man lok lok by the road side and claypot lou shu fan at one the many food stalls there.

Visitor Info - Opening Hours and Rates

Zoo Negara by Day is open daily from 9.00am – 5.00pm
Zoo Negara by Night is open on Saturday, Sunday and Malaysian Public Holidays from 9.00am – 10.30pm.

Rates
Adult RM15.00

Children (3yrs old-12yrs old) RM 6.00

Senior Citizen (60 years above) RM 6.00

Free entry if it is your birthday!
(Please bring along I/C or birth certificate as proof)