Questions With No Answers

Why are you so resigned?

Why don't your persuade me?

Why don't you convince me?

Why are you stepping back and wait?

What are your fears?

What are your hopes and dreams?

How can you just hope and dream?

Where are your actions?

How can you sit back and wait?

Why are you waiting for me?

Isn't it a "we" and not a "me"?

Why have I always felt like a "me" and not a "we"?

If that is the case, is it worth it?

Are you worth it?

Will we ever be?

If it is to be, isn't it up to "we"?

So, do you want us to be?

Or is it going to be just "you" and "me"?

A Trip To Genting Highlands

I haven't been to Genting, The City Of Entertainment, for ages. So today, Aunt and I made our way up there.

We bought our return bus tickets yesterday from KL Sentral. Really, the bus tickets which were inclusive of the Skyway rides, sold like hot cakes, it being the school holiday season and all. The fare was quite reasonable too. The bus ride was RM4.30 and the Skyway was RM5.00 one way.

The bus departed right on time at 10.00 a.m. The journey to the Skyway Terminal from KL Sentral was slightly over an hour. From there, the Skyway ride up to the Genting Highlands Resort took about 15 minutes. The Genting Skyway is currently the world's fastest and South East Asia's longest cable car system at about 3.4 kilometres.

Picture taken from my cable car

As usual, Genting Highlands Resort is a really busy place. There are so many people there! I had to figure my way about in the chaos. And I did not know my way around at all. I had to rely very much on the signs, which were fortunately quite helpful, to move from one place to the other.

I only viewed the outdoor theme park from the outside. I could not go in as I did not purchase an entrance ticket of RM38.00. The First World Indoor theme park, on the other hand, is free of charge. This place is literally a circus!!! There were so many different types of rides cramped into one place!!

The Statue of Liberty @ First World Indoor Theme Park

I also went into the casinos to have a look. I did not really understand the how any of the games work. But it was quite amusing to see people gamble away. I shook my head in horror as a man lost RM200.00 in less than a minute. Another lady awed me as she won RM200.00 within minutes.

One thing about the casinos was that it was really smoky. It seemed to me that people smoked everywhere while they gambled away! I came out of the casinos covered in the smell of smoke.

View from Theme Park Hotel

A walk outside the hotels, on the other hand, were quite refreshing. The air was much cooler than I expected it to be. It was great to feel the cold wind brush against my cheeks. I wish there were more greens outside in the gardens. Outside the Theme Park Hotel, I saw these beautiful plants.

Pretty blooms

Bright bulb of flower

By the time we walked around the hotels, the theme parks and the garden, it was time to go home. We took the Skyway down to the terminal and waited for our bus, which was scheduled to depart at 4.30 p.m.

In my humble opinion, the management really needs to prep up the place with a new coat of paint. Many of the facilities look shabby and run down. First World Hotel's colourful facade too has faded and is in dire need of a facelift.

I've always found Genting Highlands Resort too commercialised, and that's why I stopped going there. I think it would be great if there were pretty botanical gardens for guests to stroll about outside. Not everyone likes theme parks and casinos.

Anyway, it is really easy and convenient to catch a bus from any of the bus terminals up to Genting Highlands. And I really do not mind going up again sometime.

Dinner @ Madam Lim's Kitchen

One of the places that I like to eat at when I come to KL is Madam Lim's Kitchen. The outlet that I always go to is the one at Jusco Maluri.

On our way home tonight, we decided to drop by for a meal. It is essential to try the house specialty, the Malacca Char Mee. A plate sets you back by RM5.90. The noodles are moist, yet not too oily, slightly piquant and spicy. Tomato chunks, sliced bombay onions, beansprouts, cabbage, chicken fillet slices and beancurd are amongst some ingredients used for this plate of noodles. Squeeze a wedge of limau kasturi on your noodles before you dig in.

Malacca Char Mee

Besides the char mee, we ordered rice and a few dishes. Tonight we decided to order the Beef with Ginger and Spring Onion. The beef slices were tender, not overcooked at all. The savoury sauce tasted just right - not too sweet or salty. I just loved the generous use of spring onions, shredded ginger and fresh chillies in this dish as they added to the bite.

Beef with Ginger and Spring Onion

We also ordered a small serving of Chicken Chop With Plum Sauce, which was another house specialty. The chicken was quite crispy. The sauce did not make much of an impression on me, though. Both the chicken and the beef cost RM7.90 for a small portion.

Chicken Chop With Plum Sauce

I liked both the vegetables we ordered tonight. One of them was Long Bean Stir-fried with Sambal. The sambal is really tasty. The long beans were crunchy, not over-fried.

Long Bean Stir-fried with Sambal

The Brinjal with Taucu Paste, another house specialty, is delicious too. It tasted somewhat similar to the beef, but yummy nonetheless. The vegetables are RM6.00 for a small plate.

Brinjal With Taucu Paste

The Tom Yam Soup came in a claypot. It was thick, tangy and spicy. However, I did not like this dish much. It is RM6.00 for a small bowl.

Tom Yam Soup

Wash your meal down with a delectable dessert. Tonight, we ordered a Nyonya Ice Kacang. I was impressed by its generous serving. Sweet and rich, the ice kacang was quite satisfying indeed. Nyonya Ice Kacang is RM4.50 per serving.

Nyonya Ice Kacang

Madam Lim's Kitchen offers good food at a reasonable price. Highly recommended, if you are in KL.

Woo Pin Fish Head Beehoon

My bowl of fish head beehoon

I was told that the fish head beehoon at this small coffee shop is famous. The coffee shop is run down, really tiny, and it sits by the narrow Jalan Ikan Emas in the midst of the Cheras low-cost housing area. Parking is limited and most customers have no choice but to park by the roadside.

When a place is this dingy, the expensive cars that line the road testify to its good food, most specifically the ever so famous fish head beehoon. When I was there this morning, there was a Mercedes, a Harrier, and a Honda City by the roadside. That's it. I told myself that I had to try the fish head beehoon at Woo Pin湖滨.

It was about 11 a.m., and the coffee shop was packed. Huge bowls of noodles were on all the tables. Cans of Carnation evaporated milk - an essential ingredient - lined the cooking counter, almost hiding the cooks as they dished out bowl after bowl of piping hot noodles.

Customers can choose to have deep-fried fish head or non deep-fried fish head with their beehoon. If you think that fish head is too difficult to eat, the shop also sells fish ball noodles. It is exactly this reason that Dad prefers the fish ball noodles. Customers also have a choice of milky broth or clear broth.

Today, all four of us asked for beehoon with deep-fried fish head and in milky broth. Our orders came in about 10 minutes. I was pretty amazed by the huge bowl. Lol. There's beehoon, cut tomatoes, slivers of salted vegetables, chunks of deep-fried fish head in milky umami broth. A sprinkle of chopped spring onions and deep-fried shallots garnished the noodles.

Well, one taste of the broth is enough to experience the explosion of senses. The broth is sweet and savoury; the tomatoes and the salted vegetables are tangy. In addition, I could taste the distinct flavour of ginger and Shaoxing wine. The Carnation milk adds a rich flavour to the broth. All in all, the flavours complement each other nicely.

The chunks of deep-fried fish head yummy too. Just watch out for the bones. Dip them into light soy sauce spiced with chopped birds' eye chilli, or in the belacan chilli sauce for a more robust flavour.

The fish head beehoon sells for RM6.50 for a regular bowl. The coffee shop in Cheras, situated along Jalan Ikan Emas, is the original outlet. There is an outlet in Taman Danau Desa. THe next time you have a craving for a good bowl of fish head noodles, do give Woo Pin's a try.

A chunk of deep-friend fish head

Light soy sauce flavoured with birds' eye chilli (L) and sambal belacan chilli sauce (R)

Eating @ Ikea

Shopping at Ikea is a wonderful experience. I feast my eyes upon lots of beautiful things - sofas, tables, chairs, utensils, decorations - some with very clever designs too. I would really like to buy some of the furniture and have them shipped back to Miri. Sigh. But for now, all I can do is to buy small items to bring home with me in my luggage.

Today at Ikea, I could not resist eating the hot dog. For only RM 2.00, I get a hot dog in a bun.

Hot dog, undressed

I could dress up my bun according to my liking at the condiments counter. Available there was ketchup, chilli sauce, mustard, chopped onions and sweet relish. I put a bit of everything on my hot dog.

Hot dog, dressed

Ta-da!! Bro's hot dog on the left and mine on the right.
He liked his with lots of onions and sweet relish!

Aunt and sistb liked the curry puffs, which only sold for RM1.00 per piece.

The filling was made up of curried potatoes. A wedge of hardboiled egg can be found inside too.

A trip to Ikea would not be complete without a meal at the restaurant. I first heard about Ikea's Swedish meatballs and Daim cake from my friend S****. On my last trip to KL, I tried both items and liked them a lot. So naturally, I made my way to Ikea's restaurant today for a meal.

The restaurant was really crowded with diners, even though it was 4.00 p.m. in the afternoon. The queue was really long, and there weren't any places to sit at all. I located a table near the entrance but had to clear the dirty dishes myself.

We ordered a platter of meatballs, chicken wings and a Daim cake to share.

The beef meatballs were firm. juicy, and flavorful. Yum. They were served with lingonberry jam and a creamy sauce.

Our plate of Swedish meatballs

A close-up shot of 'em balls

I liked the chicken wings too. They were nicely marinated and grilled. The flavours really infused in the meat.

Chicken wings

The Daim cake never fails to satisfy. To my understanding, it is an Almondy biscuit crust topped with a concoction of Daim chocolate candy. It is sweet and rich and it propels me to cloud nine ;p.

Daim cake

Yummy bite of Daim cake

I Bought My Tag

One of the things that I always wanted to buy is a Tag Heuer Aquaracer.

The box

The watch

Today, I bought my Tag Heuer Aquaracer at The Pavillion Kuala Lumpur.

Dim Sum Breakfast @ Hong Kee

Hello from Kuala Lumpur.

Today, I headed to Damansara Jaya for a dim sum breakfast. The name of the shop is Hong Kee （洪 记）Dim Sum. It is a popular dim sum place here, as testified by many foodies in their blog. Just google "Hong Kee Dim Sum", and you can read about this eatery and feast your eyes upon the yummilicious pictures posted.

This place is not air-conditioned. At 9.30 a.m. in the morning, there were quite a lot of customers. But there were still empty tables waiting for us.

Needless to say, compared to back home, there were a variety of dim sum sold here. We were, however, determined not to overstuff ourselves. We were quite selective with our orders as there were still a whole lot more things that we wanted to eat elsewhere in the day. So it is crucial to save some space in the stomach ;p.

We ordered a small bowl of chicken porridge to share. It came with chicken dices and chunks of century egg. Quite tasty.

Chicken porridge

Char siew pau is a must for me whenever I eat dim sum. The char siew pau here is quite yummy -

Char siew pau

The filling is savoury, sweet and sticky as it should be, and complements the pau pastry wonderfully.

A peek into the char siew pau

We only ordered a few types of dumplings. There were the har gau 蝦餃, a type of siew mai 燒賣 and tofu skin rolls 腐皮捲.

Har gau

A type of siew mai

Tofu skin roll

I like the steamed spare ribs. The meat was tender and flavoured with salted black beans and garlic.

Spare ribs

Okay, we Teochews like yam. So we ordered a yam basket and also yam puffs. I did not like the yam basket much. The deep-fried yam was a bit dry. The filling was something akin to sweet and sour spare rib, and was also dry. The yam puff, on the other hand, was light and fluffy and tasty.

Yam basket

Yam puff

Yam puff

I liked the prawn rolls, but not the mayonnaise that was served with it.

Prawn rolls

I had wanted to eat Yong Tau Foo for so long so I could not resist ordering these. I ordered a portion of stuffed brinjal. Then I requested for a mixed platter of stuffed chillies and stuffed bitter gourd. The waitress was kind enough to oblige.

Brinjals stuffed with fish paste

Bitter gourd and green chillies stuffed with fish paste

Well, there are still a lot more items to be tried here at Hong Kee, and I would need to come back and try the famed items like the Sang Chow Loh Mai Fan, among other things.

A Good Start To My Holiday?

I'm on my way to KL for a week. I arrived at Miri Airport early and proceeded to check myself in at the kiosk. I have a bag, but there is no problem as I can just drop it in at the baggage drop-in counter. There's a banner beside Counter 1 that says "Baggage Drop-In".

Happily, after printing out my boarding pass at the kiosk, my friend and I went for a meal at 1901's. Then, I made my way to Counter 1 once more, intending to drop-in my bag. The counter was not open yet, but there was already a long queue.

Ignoring the daggers looks of some people who were in the queue, I headed to the front. At the same time, the Airasia lady came and got ready to open the Counter 2.

She crossed over to Counter 1 to take a bundle of baggage tags, and I asked her politely if Counter 1 was where I could drop-in my bag. She had her back to me as she was reaching for the tags. When she did not answer immediately, I thought she did not hear me. When she turned around, she said in an annoyed tone that I had to queue.

By this time, the whole queue had shifted to Counter 2, and Geez. It was nine miles long. I was not going to queue! I had checked-in! I just wanted to drop-in my bag!

I thought the whole point of self check-in was to avoid those long queues. Sure, if I had no baggage, it would not be a problem. I would just check myself in and head straight to the departure hall.

The problem arose because I had a baggage.

So I parked myself at Counter 1 as the lady told me that it would be opened in a while. I waited for about 5 minutes before a guy arrived to open up Counter 1. Luckily I did not have to wait for long. And luckily he seemed friendlier. Else, I'd give a whole lot of people a piece of my mind.

Honestly, anger was already brewing at the way the lady spoke to me. The thought of having to queue at Counter 2 seemed to make it worst.

Sigh. Can I suggest to Airasia to have a specific Baggage Drop-In counter in Miri Airport so that passengers who have to check-in their baggage do not have to wait for long?

Annual Dinner 2009

At the end of every academic year, it is customary for the Staff Club to organise an annual dinner at a local hotel. When I found out about the venue of the dinner earlier in the week, I had a lot to say. Why? It was the same venue where we held our convocation earlier on. The food and service were both not impressionable at all. Disappointing. Even the P said, "Hopeless!"

The President of the Staff Club assured me that they'd lodge a complaint about our previous function, and the hotel promised us that they'd provide better food and service this time. It was a slightly more expensive package than previously. RM5.00 difference per pax. That was not much of a difference. So, how good could they be? Hmn. I was still doubtful. I had even wanted to eat my dinner first before attending the event.

Ok. So were there any improvements this time? Well, I must say that there were. First up, the spread of food at the banquet table looked better than previously.

The salad

The desserts

The food? Well, for appetisers, I had Vermicelli Salad, Fern Salad, and Gado-gado.

My platter of appetiser

One spoonful of the vermicelli and the fern will make you jump up. Why? It's too spicy. Many of my colleagues left them uneaten. Well, I like the taste a lot. It's just that it's spicy beyond words. The soup, on the other hand, is ordinary.

Fish maw soup

One of the mains was Mee Goreng Ala Thai.

From the dome serving set, I had these : Nasi Goreng Kerabu, Indonesian Lamb Curry, Xian Tofu, Assam Ikan Pedas Ala Penang, Chinese Style Mixed Vegetables, and Vietnamese Fried Chicken with Pineapple and Peanut. Sounds very international, right?

The food was alright, I guess. Of all the food, I liked the Nasi Goreng Kerabu and the Indonesian Lamb Curry the most. The service for the VIP table also improved a lot. There were waiters and waitresses serving every course. And they served correct! Previously, what happened was that they served according to convenience, when in fact they should have served the VIP first and foremost! To me, it was really embarrassing for their part as they did even know the basics of waitressing! Common sense told me that it's only courtesy to serve the VIP first! Oh yes and this time, plates were also changed after each course.

For desserts, we were served creme caramel and a cake, which were too sweet for my liking. I liked the mango pudding a lot, though. There were also fresh cut fruits.

Creme caramel

Mango pudding

Cake

Overall, I think there has been vast improvement in the food and service, compared the previous function. I'm happy to note that the hotel management took our complaint into consideration and worked at improving their weaknesses. This morning, I heard some of my colleagues still complaining about the food. But then, we can never satisfy everybody, right?