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Last Saturday, my colleagues and I went for a food trip to Ipoh and back..all within a day. Why? Well, because we’re bunch of crazy ass people and got nothing else better to do…haha. But seriously, we’ve been planning this trip for the longest time and when it finally materialized, everyone was so excited. You see, in order to get everyone to go, everyone has to be free on a particular weekend…which nowadays..is very hard to come by, seeing that many of us have other commitments.

We started to meet at the mamak below our office. We had a planned out itinerary so everyone had to be punctual and meet at 7AM otherwise, he/she will be paying a penalty by paying extra for the food. So by 710AM sharp, we headed for our first destination, Bidor a small town in Perak, to be in time for breakfast. There is a shop called Pun Chun Noodle House which serves the famous Duck Drumstick Noodles. They are also known for their home made biscuits and Taro Dumplings (Wu-kok in Cantonese). The duck noodles and taro dumplings didn’t disappoint me one bit. It really really good and I would recommend it to anyone who plans to make a stop there.

Duck drumstick noodles

Chicken mushroom noodles

Herbal duck soup

Taro dumplings (wu kok)

After filling our stomachs, our next destination was to Teluk Intan for some sight seeing and to taste the famous Rojak. Well, the famous place to go in Teluk Intan is the leaning clock tower, sort of like the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy…only not as tall, not as old and not as famous. It was the first time for some of my colleagues to be there, so they were quite excited. For me, I’ve been there before more than once, and I got to say…it’s rather sad to see that such a distinct landmark not properly maintained. There was a bazaar, and stalls were setup all around the place that made it an eyesore. It’s sad…but nevertheless we did have fun taking pictures there.

leaning clock tower of Teluk Intan

After the clock tower, we went to have the Rojak Ah Chai which had great reviews from food blogs. Honestly if you ask me, it was only so-so, and nothing great.

Ah Chai Rojak

happy people having rojak and coconut juice

After rojak, we headed to Ipoh to be in time for lunch. On our way there, Eugene who was our convoy leader, decided to ask his GPS to take us through the “scenic route”….we end up in some palm oil plantation where roads were only wide enough for 1 car at a time…so guess what happened when there was a car headed from the opposite direction? The poor guy have to back up and give us way…because we were in a convoy of 4 cars mah! I bet he felt out scared and intimidated…that’s why he gave way. Nevertheless, we made it to Ipoh just in time for the famous Bean Sprout Chicken Rice at Lou Wong. The verdict of this famous Chicken Rice?….Let’s just say I’ve tasted better…and apart from the fat(ter) bean sprouts, I don’t know what the fuss is all about.

us again having chicken rice..

After lunch, we walked across the street to get some famous biscuits, then head to this place called Funny Mountain which is famous for their “Tao Fu Fa” and soya bean milk.

me slurping down tao fu fa

Again..for me it’s nothing great. Maybe because I never was a huge fan of it to begin with, but I got to say the texture is different to those found back home in KL. It’s firmer and smoother…plus it only cost 80 cents per bowl. After that, it looked like we were all going home, until Mike said why don’t we go get some gourmet desserts at Indulgence. I mean..how can anyone resist gourmet desserts right? By this time, I was already too full for desserts, but that didn’t stop everyone else from ordering nearly everything on the dessert menu. The bill came up to about RM182.00, which actually cost more than all of the food we had previously for everyone combined…insane?…yes!

nearly the whole dessert menu..

After dessert, we headed home, all stuffed and satisfied, already planning our next food trip. Where to next?..maybe to Seremban or Malacca? We’ll see what happens. Overall, the trip was a successful one. The company was great, and we really stuck to the planned itinerary and even made it back in time for dinner. With that, here is a group picture which was taken outside a biscuit shop in Ipoh.

See you for the next food trip!!! :)

Photos by: Olivia Siow, Eric Cheong, Sonia Zuzartee, Eugene/Audrey Lim

Last Saturday, I met up with my former colleagues from my ex company for a Chinese New Year reunion dinner. I must say, there are only 3 types of events in the whole calendar year that you are able to get everyone (well almost everyone) together for a catching up session. These events include weddings, birthdays and of course Chinese New Year. While it seemed so hard to get everyone together any other day but during these events, I’m glad that everyone made it and it was an enjoyable night out. We started off having dinner at New Paris Restaurant here in SS2, PJ and then proceed for a drinking/catching up session in Plaza TTDI.

the traditional Yee Sang

Keet & Robin

Gillian & I

Michelle & Angie

Chan Thye & Ashley

Michelle & I

Group pic:- Chan Thye, Angie, Ashley, Gillian, Michelle, Nick, Robin & Justin

MIA: – Lim, Billy, Keet, Dawn

Thanks Ashley for organizing this, and really, thanks everyone who made it that night.

I just got back from a holiday in Hong Kong and Shenzhen for a couple of days and I must say, it was really good to be back there. Well, first of all, my trip was supposed to be during end of November, but was brought forward so that I can meet up with May Lynn there when she "transits" for 5 days, from Korea before flying back to KL. I was also initially supposed to go alone, and was supposed to be a purely shopping trip, but then Mike, my colleague decides to tag along as well. It’s a good thing too as he used to work in Hong Kong for 2 years back in 2002, so he knows where the best places to go are.

So what did we do in Hong Kong and Shenzhen? Well, for me…like intended, it was a shopping trip. For Mike, I think he just enjoys being back for the food and the city after such a long time. I also manage to catch up with old friends as well as meeting new ones.

Well, I won’t be writing a whole report on everything, I will just sum it up with lots of pictures as they always seem to say more anyway…

THE CITY…

awesome skyline via the Star Ferry

THE FOOD…

Pork dumplings stuffed with celery and vegetables with noodles

Braised beef la mien

Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun

Click here for more food pictures…

THE COMPANY…

I met up with May Lynn, Penny, Su-Lin + her family, Melor, Michael and also Vicky. What’s really interesting was because, I have never met Melor and Michael prior to this trip. I used to liaise with them only through phone and emails while working in my previous company. Melor was based in KL before, but strangely enough, we’ve never met at all and Michael is based in Singapore all the while. Now both of them are based in Hong Kong. We kept in touched through MSN and also Facebook all this while (don’t you just love technology?) and finally met for the first time at Discovery Bay at a restaurant overlooking the sea!

  Mike, Vicky, Michael, Melor & I @ Discovery Bay

Mike, May Lynn, Penny & I @ La Qube, Lan Kwai Fong 

Click here for more pictures…

SHENZHEN…

Mike, May Lynn, Penny and I went for a day trip to Shenzhen for shopping. It’s about a 45 minutes ride by train to Lo Wu station, which is the border town between Hong Kong and China. We managed to get on-the-spot visa which entitles you for a 5-day pass into China. We expected a long wait for our visa, but to our surprise, it took us less than 10 minutes! Maybe because it’s a weekday that we went. The visa costs HKD150 (approx RM75) in case you want to know.

After the border, we took the subway to Laojie station. So what’s good in Shenzhen? Well…shopping of course. It’s the land of the knock-offs, land of the pirates…anything you want to call it. These places sell Grade-A fakes and you can’t tell the difference really. Just to illustrate what I mean - I saw this pair of limited edition Nike Footscapes Woven which cost around HKG1900 (approx RM950) at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, and by comparison…I got the same thing (just of a different color) at HKD290 (approx RM145). Cheap isn’t it?

On the bad side, Shenzhen is also known for its snatch theft. My friends and I actually witnessed a guy snatching a girls mobile phone while she was about to board the train! Then, we saw some ruckus amongst a group of people and some policemen! Talk about a dangerous place to be in….but I would still recommend anyone to go there for a day trip….just to shop…but nothing more.

Yatttaa!! - Hiro Nakamura wannabe..

Click here for more photos of Shenzhen…

AND THE SO CALL HAPPENING BITS…

In the end, I would say it was a memorable and awesome trip. And mission accomplished (for me…didn’t I say it was a shopping trip??) …I got 3 pairs of limited edition shoes - 1 from Hong Kong, and the other 2 from Shenzhen, Tees from Esprit and Bossini ranging from HKD39 to HKD79 per piece, Polo Tees from HKD 20 per piece, an Armani Exchange bracelet and souvenirs. It was all good…but tiring as well….but would I do it again?….HELL YES!

We had a company subsidised lunch at Lafite at Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur. It was supposed to be fine dining and high class since it has won numerous awards and have excellent reviews about their food. Well, it was my first time there (since people like me can’t afford these places often) and I got to say, IT WAS SO DISAPPOINTING! The food wasn’t that great…the ambiance was just like any ordinary hotel terrace cafe (in fact…I’ve seen better ones…don’t let the picture on link fool you!). And to top it off, their staff weren’t really well trained due to a certain incident that happend. Ok, it’s too long for me to bitch about it since my colleague already blogged about it, I shall leave it for you to read here.

Would I go back there again? Are you nuts?!! After all that…I don’t think it’s worth the money. It’s not that I can’t afford it….but seriously…RM25++ for a glass of fruit juice that is not even freshly squeezed? I think NOT!

Last Friday, I had a company Christmas dinner on a boat. No really! I’m not kidding! My company charted a whole boat for a dinner cruise at Putrajaya. Well I got to say, it was something quite different. It was a fine-dining, 4-coursed meal, and honestly, it was pretty decent. The cruise took about 2 hours including the dinner. Prior to that, we brought along our gift wrapped presents to be exchanged during what we call “Dirty Santa”. It was fun, except that I ended up with a box of micro jigsaw puzzle with a Disney picture! *grrr* When I say micro, I’m talking about a 200 piece jigsaw that fits into a box the size of a deck of cards. You can imagine how small a piece is right? Well, the whole idea of “Dirty Santa” was to take away another person’s gift in exchange for what he/she wants. I had an Umbro shoe bag, but was “snatched” away in returned for the jigsaw!! Anyway, I will tell you the rules of “Dirty Santa” later.

Here are some pictures from that day..

Our boat for the night

Mike hogging the biggest present!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us!!!

To see more (and larger) photos and the rules for “Dirty Santa” click here