Good tidings of great joy to you ALL folks...

I am in good mood today! If not, I wouldn't post at this moment right!

I went out to test my new toy this morning to replace my irreplaceable and sentimental favourite! Sentimental because it went to Germany to 'see' the late Pope John Paul II, flew backpacking to Thailand, and numerous other places i couldn't possible mention them here.

I shot quite a lot of crappy pictures because they are test shots with settings set to automatic. Since I am in great Christmas spirit, herewith i post a few selected crappy pictures...

Probably, we don't have reindeers here...so a horse will do...*smile*

Merry Christmas folks....

You Rudolph, me (fill in the blank)...

A clown with Star Sprangled Banner-themed cap...

Ho...Ho...Ho...Ho...Ho...Ho...Ho.......

Have fun folks!

Drink and don't drive, drive and don't drink...hehe

Last Day in Thailand (28th July, 2006)

There was not much thing to do on our last day in Bangkok. Since our flight to Kota Kinabalu was rescheduled with a 2-hour delay late in the afternoon, Andy went for some last minute shopping for souvenirs to take home. The rest of us just keep ourself busy in our room to pack our belongings.

This was our hotel ... urghh... accomodation!

It was located just beside National Stadium Skytrain Station so movement around Bangkok was easy as we could just hop into the train to go to places that are serviced by the trains.


Our breakfast that morning...with a difference! Fried macaroni laced in secret Thai ingredients. I did not know macaroni can be fried too, huh?

On the way to Don Muang Airport

This turned out to be our last flight from Don Muang Airport as Thailand's sparkling new USD3.7B Suvarnahumbi Airport has replaced Don Muang at the end of September 2006.


Burger King's Double Whopper with triple beef patties ...whoaaa... In Kota Kinabalu, we have to make do with a whopper burger with double beef patties! Pricey at B249!

THREE beef patties served with Thai style chili sauce!

Passport inspection at the immigration counter.

Home-bound and tired....

Thailand is a place closer to our home and yet there were so many things we didn't know about Thailand culturally. It was a fun-filled holidays full of moment of enrichment that opened our eyes and mind: one has to really experience it to understand as opposed to reading about it in books or magazines.

We are now bit by the traveller's bug. As 2006 draws to a close, expect us to go further and more extreme in 2007. Tramping for one month in New Zealand is on the agenda subject of course to how much we will be able to save.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year folks.

Thailand Day 10 - To Each His Own (27th July 2006)

Having covered all that I wanted to see and but not all Bangkok has to offer, today would see a different programme for every one of us. Andy and Neal planned to explore Wonder World. Jeremy has his own program. I was on my own. I did not have the inclination to join Andy and Neal, having screamed myself to the extreme riding the world famous Cyclone rollercoaster at Coney Island, New York City, some mild one at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Hershey Amusement Park. Yeah, the kiddo feelings in me seemed to be missing this time. I hope it won’t be permanent!

I would spend my morning sitting for a few hours reading Bangkok Post at Dunkin’ Donuts while enjoying the nonstop free flow of coffee and munching their trademark delicious donuts. It’s been that long since I last tasted Dunkin’ donuts as Dunkin’ Donuts does not have an outlet in Kota Kinabalu! Sitting there, it was like Thai Culture 101 class as I observed people going about their daily life: motorcyclist taxis waiting for and dropping passengers at random spots, tuk-tuk drivers touting for tourists as they walked past, uniformed students queuing to board bus, cigarette vendor selling cigarette by sticks, traffics moving at a snail’s pace ... it was amazing…Thais sure know how to live… everyday is a paradise!


This was the very reason I didn’t use my plastic money! Everything I paid for in cash!



Monk blessing this newly opened shop for prosperity.



Bangkok also got Penang Shark Fins? Penang is one of the state in Malaysia. Shark fin soup is a must have in any Chinese Restaurant menu item. While competition is stiff for such delicacy and good for business, it unnecessarily drives up demands which are a bane to the shark population.



Shark fins galore! Even small sharks were sacrificed for their fins!

Greenpeace might not be happy seeing these.





And of course, some grandma shark might be furious…


Angry grandma....



MBK aka Mahboonkrong is just diagonally across the street from Siam Center. Long lines of small inexpensive stalls and shops sell cheap T-shirts, wallets, handbags, mobile phone accessories, handicrafts, etc. In fact MBK is populated with mobile phone shop and it was little wonder that teenagers like to come here presumably to eye the latest handphone models.



I saw this shop ‘XL FOR MEN’ that will welcome the like of my office colleague whose hapless sizes are hard to come by in Kota Kinabalu. He has to make do with custom tailored ones with brand like “Tailor Made by Ah Seng” stitched in!



I was practically salivating in this shop for about 1 hour seeing all those white knights and red-banded L-lens. This was my first time seeing the complete range of Canon lens in real time!


So close yet so far! Acrophobia Jeremy did not make it! Me like a kid up there!

Come across this outdoor shop in Siam Discovery Center, connected to Siam Center by an enclosed pedestrian bridge. We tried the 3-meter ‘wall climbing’ inside the shop to gauge our stamina after days of gluttoning on Thai food. This shop offers rock climbing packages in Bangkok.

As night approached, it was too early for us to have dinner or to go back to hotel. So we did the unthinkable – going to ‘Phuket without the beach’! Welcome to Bangkok’s famous red light district that is Patpong. Let’s face it… we male homo-sapiens were guilty of being voyeurism where go-go bars were plenty and bikini clad chicks and topless dances were going on inside. Yeah, I could felt the loud music blaring under my feet as we walked past go-go bars with their doors wide open and bouncers manning outside politely tried inviting to walk in. Indeed there were ‘free sex shows’ openly advertised on their doors but as Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia on a Shoestring warned, “Avoid bars touting free sex shows as there are usually hidden charges and when you try to ditch the outrageous bill the doors are suddenly blocked by muscled bouncers.”

Even so, we didn’t go there to have a good time fucking pretty chicks! It just that we did not have the balls haha! I was glad my little brother behaved properly and my head did not succumb to the temptation!

At Patpong too, there is a long open-air market dealing in… you guessed it – fake designer watches, exotic foodtuffs, fake Levi’s that was spelt incorrectly like Live’s!



On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by this crowded open-air bar/pub to have a last hurrah of … Leo beers. We chatted about our trips, the food, Thai culture and so on we didn’t realize the pub was about to close for the night!


to be continued…last part next update :)

Thailand Day 9 - Chao Phraya Cruise & Walking Tour (26th July 2006)

Once called “Venice of the East”, road construction and commercial development have necessitated the filling of much of the original system. Still, Mae Nam Chao Phraya or Chao Phraya River, as we saw today thrive with water transport activities. Our plan for the day was to revisit Thanon Khao San using a different route: Cruising along the Mae Nam Chao Phraya!


After a quickie breakfast (yeah…another fried noodle breakfast!) in the restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel (B40), we took the skytrain to go to Ratchathewi Station as Andy wanted to go to Pantip Plaza to look at the notebooks with a view to purchase one.


Inside skytrain… not as crowded as in previous days yet ‘standing room’ only!




This is the Pantip Plaza, the equivalent of Kuala Lumpur's Low Yat Plaza. Five floors and each floor the size of half of football field, every electronic of imaginable brands sold here! So too pirated latest DVD movies! Andy did not buy the notebook he yearned for as the price was not far different from that in Kota Kinabalu. Also, there is warranty issue. I took a quick survey, maybe about 15 minutes and then got out as I was bored inside being myself in the IT field!

After Pantip, we took the train again to go to Saphan Taksin to board a ferry at Tha Sathon (Sathon Pier). Destination: Phra Athit Pier (B12). Khao San is just 15-minute walking distance from this pier!




In town areas, one can hardly draw a line to divide between the past and the modern-day as they have merged so finely as a cultural entity. However, a cruise along Chao Phraya river lets you take in a riveting tour traversing Bangkok’s old and new. Lo and behold, the modern 5-star hotels and resorts on one side contrast starkly with the vestigial above-the-sea village on the other side.




A long-tail boat passes by Wat Arun or Temple of Dawn, named after the Indian god of dawn, Aruna. More of Wat Arun here.



I loved this snapshot! Despite the chaotic water waves made by passing boats and ferries, this saffron-robed monk was a picture of tranquility as he ponders serenely and silently as Wat Arun passed by in the background! Monks and apprentice-monks get to ride free on any ferries.

We disembarked at Phra Athit Pie and proceeded to walk to Khao San Road.




A lot of foreign travellers (us included *grin*) flock this strip - reading paperbacks, just plain relaxing with nothing to do except drinking beers, surfing the internet (lot of cybercafe here too)… There were also a few enterprising young Thais selling second-hand goods (latest used-LP books, branded backpacks, binoculars, Swiss knives, heavily thumbed page of novels in any languages, raincoats, branded windbreakers, sneakers, hiking shoes, old manual cameras, etc etc etc) that the farangs must have sold/left/pawned at knock-off price.


Our lunch was here…on the road literally!



Fried noodle with veggie eggroll and egg added in – only B25. I decorated my noodle with crunchy peanuts, chilly slices, and chilly powder.



Washed with iced nescafe mixed with sweet condensed milk. Tea and Milo (chocolate) also available. (B10)




It's unique to experience Khao San if you are in Bangkok even if you're trying to avoid the crowd! All sorts of activities are carried out here. We were here on Day 1 but it was already past 2 AM. So we were glad we came back again. I can't elaborate more as I would turn a spoiler man…*chuckle*



Neal in his trademark pose: Right-hand says "I Remember..." and Left-hand says "I Love..."




Just for the experience. Neal trying the reggae-like singer’s hairdo! For this, Neal threw B250.

After Khao San, we walked past National Gallery. Pleaded with the lady to let us tour inside (just after closing hour) then got out after 10 minutes. Inside were old pictures in the old Siam.



Not to be outdone, Andy with his ready toothy smile in front of Emerald Buddha Temple or Wat Phra Kaew. We missed the chance to enter as it was already past closing hour!


As it was starting to get dark, we walked to the nearest pier to board a ferry and take the train to our hotel. Our dinners were take-away hotdogs from 7-Eleven.


to be continued

Shit Happens! What should I gonna do?

C'est la vie! Such is life that I can only hope the finder will at least has the heart to return it!

I inadvertently left my digicam with 512MB SD on the table at CBTL last week when I was too immersed in updating my blog and only realised to my horror when the camera was not in my bag on Sunday afternoon! So sad...

There are a lot of photos inside for my blog, wedding photos of my friends,....!

A bleak Chrismas for me maybe...!

Thailand Day 8 - Window Shopping in Bangkok (25th July 2006)

The snapshot on the left summed up best our activities for the day: Window Shopping. Despite Bangkok’s frailties with air pollution, noise pollution (yeah…the notorious tuk-tuk’s rapid succession coughy-sounding engine made Jeremy’s blood boils!), overdevelopment, to name a few, shopping is king! From the squeaky clean up-market shopping malls to umbrella/tarpaulin shaded markets, choices are plenty for the bargain hunters as well as well-heeled shoppers! We were mostly perambulating in up-market shopping centers between Siam Paragon, Siam Center and Central World Plaza (formerly World Trade Center), which are next to one another! Central World Plaza might claim to be the largest mall in South East Asia!

Informal markets offer remarkable bargains of mostly assortment of plastic toys, household goods, polyester clothes, knock-off designer watches and bags. Best place to go for this is Chatuchak Market, just in front of Moh Chit Skytrain station. This is the mother of all markets consisting over 15,000 stalls. Everything is sold here: live chickens, snakes, dogs, cats, handicrafts, antiques, clothes, handbags etc… Chatuchak Market is held on weekends only so plan your itenerary accordingly.

Since Jeremy and I woke up early, we decided to experience the Skytrain, sightseeing from the comfort inside the coach! Beforehand, we left a note for Andy and Neal that we would be back by 9.00 AM for breakfast. Andy and Neal are late pattern adolescents so we left them to sleep more! The ultra-modern elevated BTS Skytrain offer a better alternative to tuk-tuk, taxi and bus to beat the Bangkok jams. Travelling on Skytrain was easy and the views were simply amazing! Fares vary from B10 – B50 but we purchased stored-value ticket (B100) that was good for one whole day (trains run from 6am – midnight) with unlimited rides!




Not an exhibition for cars! Rather office/government staff parking their cars in front of one of the Skytrain’s stations and take the trains to go to work.




Commuters patiently wait and queue to allow the incoming passengers to go out first before they board in! We rarely see this simple consideration in our own backyard! Big screen plasma television like this one on rooftop entertains commuters while waiting for trains to arrive.




Having covered all the stations, we went back to our hotel. Andy and Neal were ready and waiting. We went for breakfast at the hawker food stalls. Right picture shows row and row of stalls in a semi-circular layout. I didn’t count but the stalls must have easily passed more than 50!




Large or small, these wats or shrines/temples are a common sight in front of big buildings. Usually, the bigger and taller the building is, the bigger the shrine is. It was said there were about 300 such wats in Bangkok alone, rivalled only by Chiang Mai’s 300+ wats.



Not, not a traffic jam. Just the usual scenario on Bangkok roads!




Central World Plaza - a very big big mall. Just recently launched and obviously very few active shops and lots of empty lots waiting for prospective tenants. Business should pick up and run full steam by Christmas! Right pix: Andy dwarfed by the vastness of Central World to his left.


Jeremy and I are soccer aficionados and fans of Manchester United. Yet, I have not seen any shops that sell exclusively United’s paraphernalia. More often than not, we would chance upon red-themed shops catering to Liverpool fans and drool out the like of Pinolobu and FishingChilli!

Don: Jeremy, wahhh…why so many Liverpool shops ah?
Jeremy: Simple explanation mah. We Malaysians are mostly pro-Manchester Utd. People here are Liverpools fans.
Don: Thanks goodness…at least I can save some money…




Behind Central World Plaza, we were fascinated by this biggest TV screen we ever saw to date!




Lunch at the posh Blue Planet Restaurant with reasonable hawker-like price!




Nicely laid out and look very appetizing - a bit deviation from the usual hawker fires!




Musical water fountain beside Siam Paragon, an upscale shopping complex. Water danced in the air in response to musical rhythmic notes. Siam Paragon has an aquaria at the basement (B450 entrance fee). Saw the latest Samsung 60-inch HDTV sold here with an arm and a leg price of B699,000 (for this price, can buy a medium cost apartment in KK!). Just sat there (sofa provided!) for 30 minutes watching a DVD movie (Star War: Return of the Seth)! Wow… the experience indescribable… 3D-like and felt like part of the action!

While at Central World Plaza, we were given a ticket stub inviting us to visit King Power Duty Free Shop on the 11th Floor of Central World. The catch: Free gift and free welcome drink for any visitors without the obligation to buy! Huh… what the heck… just look and see what they have and free gift and drink somemore! “Sawadeeka”, the ladies greeted us at the front door. Things sold there: cigarette of all brands, brandy, dried foodstuff, handbags, etc did not fancy us.

Its food counter and their pretty chicks did attract us by the way. We had our dinner there as it was past 8 PM already.


Tom Yam Goong (according to the menu) with a strong lemon grass flavour. As usual, our bowls were ‘emptied!




Appreciative waitresses grinned as we sweated with their hot concoctions!


to be continued...