From Business Class to First Class

This is the day of amazement. I was looking forward to my first taste of business class seat. Arriving at the hotel in the wee morning of 7.25 am, I dully checked in at the special counter.


"Are you giving me my reserved seat?" I asked.

"No, i will not give you your reserved seat. " , the check in man said to the shock of his colleague. "But i will give you a first class seat instead" he smiled and continued.


And I have a Pass to the lounge..
first , i have to find it. :)
Kampung boy..
Oh , this is the FIRST CLASS LOUNGE - not your bz class lounge . haahahha


It was quite a treat coming up to a zen like designed lounge in KLIA. And to add to the surprises , i met my old boss from Loreal who was flying to Singapore. We had a warm shake and small chat before he rushes off.

And did i forget to mention haagen Daaz buffet?

Again , alone and do not know what to do. There are basically everything here , even the kitchen sink. Its free. There is a place to sleep, a lot of chairs and free food and drinks. I had a lot of the good stuff ( being the greedy man ) and topped with a shot of champange. There is also internet , OSim chairs and even a gym. Wow.
Yum... my french blood here


Anyway,as good things come in threes .. i wondered what is next. Perhaps the last 'goodies' is that the plane got resheduled to 11.55 am timing. I just wasted 2 hours here. But hey , there is still the champange...

The delicious Andaman, Langkawi

Imagine going to a 5 star hotel deep in lush jungle with a RM1000 per night price tag. This is the Andaman in Langkawi. North MalaysiaAn Eye gawking entrance with a super wood structure.

The interesting restaurant design brings chic to nature. Breakfast here costs RM88 ++. wow..

Have the priveledge of doing a hotel audit. Traditionally done by anathor department and I got it this time as was planning a meeting plan for my company. Imagine having this job to evaluate hotels. amazing.

The road to the hotel passes over a tunnel with a waterfall besides it. It was quite a show. i do think that it is a man made structure cause the next times i passes over it , the water was adequotely missing.

My melbourne itenary

Update : Oh , i am reachable at 0433057677. Its an Aussie phone.

30th Jan- Tuesday
Arrive in Melbourne, straight to Geelong , reach at 2300 + local time.
( updated real time. am stuck in the KLIA now. the delay is for 2 hours. but for once, i have luxury on my side) :)

31 Jan - 2 Feb
Meeting

3 Feb ( Saturday )
Geelong tour/ Great Ocean Road tour with Poh Hean
Back to Melbourne, perhaps at 10-11 pm
Bunk in with Charlene and Nick

4 Feb ( Sunday )
Church in the morning.
Afternoon go somehere- shopping perhaps, QV market, Yarra Valley
Dinner with Auntie Margaret , Roger , Denise? - meet somewhere in the town.
Bunk in with the Seow's

5 Feb ( Monday )
Meet at Flinders Station
Morning - historical tour + museum
Melbourne one day on the tram - with Ah Wen
Take a trip back with Nick

6 Feb ( Tuesday )
Melbourne Zoo
If bored , go somewhere in the afternoon.

7 Feb ( Wednesday )
Packing for self and Charis's stuff .
Brunch - Taxi from Charlene's house

And.... imagine doing it in yahoo. travel. amazing software where one can read, create and plan your own vacation . Here are mine - Malaysian's Melbourne Trip

More notes...

I remember you saying abt planning a trip to Melbourne soon so i thought i would drop a few hotspots and nice places to eat for yr pleasure in travelling... i'm sure u've already got yr plans lined up and probably already have announced it to all yr contacts in Melbourne... but hey! not everyone knows how to eat and travel.... hehee... so here goes:

Melbourne itinerary for a great friend.

Sight-seeing and taking pictures:
Stroll in St. Kilda and coffee at one of the cafes. Best place to see sunset. Should go on a Sunday coz they've got flea markets every Sunday.. though nothing much to buy from there.
Melbourne Zoo. Boring!! Unless u really really really REALLY wanna see kangaroos and koalas.
Great Ocean Road. Nice place for sight seeing but will take the whole day.... it's the icon of Melbourne.
Penguin Parade. Another full day but those penguins are darn cute.
Melbourne Uni. Sounds weird but man, their campus is just amazing. Right smack at the city.
Victoria Market. A must go... icons of Melbourne. Go on a Sunday after church... they've got heaps of stuff there.
Crown. The view @ Crown overlooking the mini-bridge and Flinders St. Station at night can blow u away. it's jst exhilariting. Mst watch the hourly fire display. Begins every night from 6pm to 12 midnight.
Nice places to eat:
Good but slightly pricey:
Mecca Bah @ Docklands. ideal for dinner. eastern meditarrenean food.
actually, i dont know a lot of expensive places to eat... so i'll pass on this.
Good and reasonable:
Grandma Kimchi @ City or Doncaster (Korean - yr favourite! :).... ) Their hotpots are fantastic especially when u're feeling cold. Beef tepanyaki not bad. ideal for dinner.
Italian food @ Lygon's. I forgot the name of the restaurant but it's the one with very obvious F1 decorations in the store. A few shops away from Sportsgirl. Somewhere along Lygon & Grattan street.
Don Don's at corner of Swanston and La Trobe street. Directly opposite State Library. (Japanese - can't miss their Teriyaki chicken!) ideal for lunch.
La Dolce Vita @ Lygon Street (gelati - CANNOT miss Roche flavour). My ultimate favourite ice-cream. *drooling*
Trampoline's @ corner of Swanston and Little Lonsdale Street. Another place for gelati.
American doughnuts @ Victoria market. It's a mobile van, parked right outside the frozen meat section. You can't miss this.
Krispy Kreme. Buy the original ones. IF you are a big big fan of doughnuts and u miss this place, you're gonna regret it for life.
Stalacites @ corner of Swanston and Lonsdale Street. 24 hrs restaurant offering Greek food. This is seriously super good. Get the mixed plate so u can try everything.
Cow and Chicken. hahaha... yeah, it's a very weird name. Serves very good and reasonable Vietnamese good. Located along La Trobe and Lonsdale, i think. don't quite remember the name of the streets. but it's directly opposite Stalacites. The chicken vermicelli is goodddddd... ideal for lunch.
Latte @ little Collins Street. Melbourne is always famous for their al fresco cafes. very nice environment to just chill and especially, if u have a good conversation.
Hot chocolate @ Max Brenner. I'm pretty sure u're a chocolate fan. so this is THE place to hang out... try their waffles. Indescribeable. Get their classic hot chocolate. the ones that come with the little mug. darn cute. ideal for after dinner drinks.
U can't miss this world-class hot chocolate @ Koko Black. It's the ultimate hot chocolate. once u try this, u wouldn't settle for anything less. Their chocolate set is also highly-recommended. it comes with choc ice-cream, choc cookies, choc mousse and jst chocolate. Crazy for chocolate..... located at Bourke Street. Right outside Jeans West. i forgot the name of the archade. they also have one in Lygon Street.
Though it's kinda funny how when u go Melbourne, u eat all this different kinds of food instead of Australian food. and that's probably one of the best things about Melbourne.. the price is almost the same with every kinds and types of food and it's super food. besides, what is Australian food? :)

My mum once asked me whether did i go to Melbourne to study a degree in communication or a degree in food review... hahaha...

Make sure u print this out yeah so at least u've got back-up places when u and yr friends are stuck...

Have a fantastic holiday in Melbourne. I hope your memories of Melbourne will be as memorable as mine. tell me more about it when you're back...

Irene

Head Cracker

Squirming with pain to take a pic
How it actually looked
Full of blood.

There are some things that one will have to do before 30. Accidentally achieved another of my 'dream' yesterday. Ever wondered how it felt like getting sticthes on your body? I have not had any major operations before. And some times , things happen when you wonder long enough. Look at the nice pics that i took.

So, i was doing a cross-over-court-outstretch-full momentum attempt to get the shuttle. Amazingly i got to the shuttle and returned an impossible shot to score a point. There was a gasp of awe ( btw, my partner and I were loosing 6 games straight- something like Liverpool vs Arsenal on Wed ) and the next thing i see is this big white wall in front of me. So, i plonk head long towards the wall and cannon off with a loud thud. Well, it is either breaking my arm or injuring my limping leg , so i decided to use my head instead.

It was painful even after the stiches . The whole body still wobbles and the neck and shoulder really hurts. So, will not do that in the future. But the whole stitching process was pretty ok , was not as bad as i tot. My Samsung partners were so nice to accompany me to this clinic nearby where we saw 4 girls seating outside watching TV. One of them asked what happened and i replied that I got into a fight over a girl. She gave me THE look and I told the real story. Then she ask me into the dressing room and there was nobody around. Had a funny feeling that the lady out there was not the nurse.. and I was right. But she stitches good ..............

Grandma's 80th Birthday .

To my beloved Grandmother who turned 80.. lots of love from us.

Meritocracy effect in American Universities

Can you imagine that Asian account for more than 30% of almost all major Ivy League universities in US today? It come to me as a big surprise mainly because it was quite a huge figure for a population that consists of 5% of the US population.

So big a percentage and and so fast. Amazing. Read here on the full article.