absolut ginger

Before my trip to Bangkok, I received a lot of “advices” and comments from friends and colleagues alike.

“Wah… you dare to go there nearing the anniversary ah?” A colleague was referring to the demonstration by anti government protesters last year in November that had the entire airport shut down for almost a week.

“You not scared of H1N1 meh?” Hello? Eh… got people stay at home also kena H1N1 lah.

“You are the one getting married and your sister went for honey moon?” a colleague teased my sister when she found out I am going to Bangkok after my sis’ wedding. LOL.

Well, thanks but, I still think I will go to Bangkok no matter what. My main concern is probably the King. His health has not been good of late. I am glad however that His Majesty is getting well again after a few days losing appetite. Actually I worry for selfish reason lah… I couldn’t imagine what will happen if the unfortunate happens. *Touch wood*

Day 1 – 26th September 2009, Saturday

Our AK 746 flight was on time. I am glad that my luggage bag was not tampered. I guess there is really some form of improvements in Air Asia within the last few years. Even the chief stewardess speaks really good English and Malay – unlike the past few years, most of the announcements made were mainly gibberish.

We settled down in Bangkok City Suite Hotel along Petchburi Road. It’s a good value for money hotel – RM120 per night on triple sharing basis. So we ended paying only RM120 each for 3 nights! Also, they give us a free transfer from airport on the first day we arrived. Tai dou lan lorrrr! Haha! Thanks to Peking Duck for recommending this. I really appreciate it.

It has a tv, a fridge, nice hard bed, shower and bath tub, bidet and hair dryer. Unfortunately, the door has no latch which is our major concern for safety. Also, no kettle provided in the room. There goes our coffee fix. Even though the hotel mentioned that, it’s very near to the attractions like Grand Palace or MBK shopping mall, we still need to take a cab there. In order to buy water, we need to walk like 5 minutes to the nearest 7-11 where we passed by some dingy pub and dingy massage parlor. But, the dingy massage parlor provided a good service for foot and body massage; totally not as dingy as it looks from outside. Haha! The breakfast spread, despite being quite modest, is quite good.

No laughing matter

As soon as we got into the hotel elevator, we were greeted by this sign advising us to beware of  tuk tuk syndicate ferrying people to buy fake gemstones, jewelry, souvenirs or tailors. We laughed at it because we have been warned by so many people who visited Bangkok and confidently think that we will not fall into such trap because we are such smart people. Well, too early to say that! Stories later.

We started our late day in Bangkok by going to Suan Lum night market. It was about some 15 minutes ride away because of the unthinkable jam. Bangkok is always jam. Tak pasal pasal jam. Suka suka jam.

Suan Lum Food Court

Anyway, we had our dinner there at the Suan Lum food court before shopping. The food is not too bad. I had the stir-fried minced pork with basil leaves and the girls had the phad thai and fried rice. Never ever drink beer before walking about Suan Lum or else you will sweat like as if you have fallen into the river.  They even have a live band there playing. Kinda cool. You should try the many colored ice cream though! It’s delicious! It’s a good way to cool down yourself from the sweaty walkabout in the market.

Suan Lum night lights

We ended the night early to prepare for an early morning and proud of ourselves that we managed to control our spending at Suan Lum Night Market.

11 Comments | In: Travel | tags: air asia, bangkok, suan lum. | #
Posted by Gina

A colleague took me to Like To Eat Seafood Restaurant for lunch once when he returned from overseas. I have been craving for the buttered pork ribs ever since! So, I decided to bring the family here for a feast last week.

Here are some of the dishes I ordered that dinner.

Buttered Pork Rib (Nai Yao Pai Kuat)

It’s slightly sweet according to my cousin sisters. It would taste better if it’s more salty than sweet. But I like it the way it is. Too bad we didn’t bring some buns so we could dip into the creamy sauce in order not to waste!

Stir fried kai lan with anchovies

The stir-fried kai lan was good as the freshness of the vegetable was preserved.

Marmite Chicken

This one’s a winner! Everybody loved it. Don’t underestimate this simple dish. I tried this dish in other restaurants but this – I could consider it one of the best.

Fried Sotong

Since we seemed not fully satisfied, we ordered this fried sotong to top it up. However, this fried sotong was not up to my expectations. Perhaps it was “underdone” that night so it’s not as crunchy as I hope it would be.

Dishes not in pictures that we had – stir fried shredded cabbage with dried shrimps, steam fish in Teow Chew style, lemon chicken and fried taufu with minced pork.

I like the shredded cabbage with dried shrimps because it had the “wok smell” and the shredded cabbage was still crunchy and fresh. Steam fish in Teow Chew style was not too bad either but for our next visit, we would like to try steam fish with fried ginger. We saw the dish at our neighbour’s table and the “mountain” of fried shredded ginger and it had everyone salivating! Looking quite tantalizing! Lemon chicken was not that great though. The texture of the fried chicken was okay but the lemon sauce that came with it was kinda mediocre. Fried taufu with minced pork was ordinary.

And how much did we spend on this meal? For 8 dishes – 9 adults and 2 children, we only paid RM160+. And the restaurant gave us 3 plates of fruits for free!

To top up the already good food, my mom couldn’t help but to praise the waitresses. They are hot! And mind you, they are not China dolls. I guess they are daughters of the owner. Haha!

Like to Eat Seafood Restaurant
No. 12, Jalan SU 22
Taman Selayang Utama
68100 Batu Caves
Selangor
Tel: 03-6138 9362

10 Comments | In: Makan-makan | | #
Posted by Gina

Absent mindedness

I think my absent mindedness is getting more and more chronic. I sent my passport to the travel agent to get my China Visa done on Wednesday, only to remember that I have a Bangkok trip this weekend. It was a lucky thing that I remember about Bangkok before the travel agent submitted my application form to the China embassy on Thursday.. or else I would tear my hair out! Geez! This is definitely a close call!

Hospital visits

Partly suffering from amnesia, I am glad I still remember to visit a friend in the hospital. She just underwent a double replacement of heart valves. Thanks to those who offered to donate blood. I truly appreciate your kind gestures. She is doing just fine now, apart from the recurring flooding of the right lung which needs to be drained. It pains my heart to see her walking about lugging a flask of her own blood and water in a small trolley and having so many puncture wounds in her small lithe body. There is also an almost 20cm long scar on her chest. So, friends, I guess what she needs now is your prayers for her speedy recovery. Let us pray for her together. Thank you so much.

Tired

Preparing for wedding is no joke. Like my aunt aptly described it – two persons getting married, hundreds of people would be busy as well. Haven’t been getting enough sleep the past two weeks before the wedding. There was so much to be done, last minute things to look into. I was relieved that we hired a photographer or else, I think it would be much worse. I ended being the adhoc runner – fetching things from the room, the car, the house, etc. The chair arranger, crowd controller, money and gold guardian, usherer, multi media organizer, etc.

Clairvoyant?

A few days ago, I dreamed of my primary school friends and we were all sitting in a flying bus. All of us were in pinafores. One of them was my best friend back then, Zarina. We were talking about how we are going to laugh at this moment on a “flying bus” many years from now as most people would reminisce their childhood years with such fondness. We lamented how most of us would not admit that we are getting old. Then, I woke up.

As at today, I haven’t spoken or kept in touch with Zarina since I moved to KL some 20 years ago. We have totally lost touch. The last I heard from a friend, she was in UK under some scholarship scheme. Then, only yesterday, a friend asked me if I am interested to go on a road trip with an old primary school friend who will be coming back from the US this October.

Then, she further mentioned that we will go and look up for Zarina in Taiping. I was flabbergasted. I thought Zarina is in the UK? She said, “No. Zarina has been mysteriously hiding in Taiping for some time now according to her mother.”

I told my friend about my dream and how creepy it was because I never dream or even think about Zarina till now and all these happening so suddenly! Instead of expressing curiosity over such coincidence, she kept asking me if I dreamed about her also. Geez.

4 Comments | In: Random Notes | | #
Posted by Gina

Two weeks before the wedding, my first aunt decided to give the house a new look by painting everything! Imagine, she has the whole year to do so but she only started to paint the gate two weeks before the wedding. Three days before the wedding, she decided to paint the brickwall fence. She decided to spring clean the store room on Saturday morning before relatives came in throngs!

At first, I asked the family if they would like to have a buffet dinner the night before the wedding so I could get people to cook for us. My mom shot down the idea. They decided not to have anything at all. Mana tau, my mom and aunts decided to cook for the family, relatives and some friends on Saturday. The preparation for the dinner started a week earlier – buying ingredients, setting the menu, etc. My aunts from Taiping came to our house on Tuesday night itself and started to prepare things for the Saturday cook out.

On the Saturday morning, all aunts were busy cooking to prepare dishes to be presented at the ancestral altar. There were lobak (meat spring roll, taiping style), fish, stir fried vegetables, acar, yam cake, nam yue chicken, pig’s intestines soup, etc. It was said that, there should be 12 dishes on the table as offering to the ancestors to ask them for blessings for the wedding.

After pouring tea and wine 3 rounds in each tea cup and glass, my sis kow tow to the ancestors 12x to show respect and pray for good marriage and good luck.

Then, my mom “puak puay” by flipping two coins and throwing them on the ground – if the coins showed one side up and one side down, meaning the spirits of the ancestors had arrived to consume the food and gave their blessings for the wedding. Things were rather smooth because every time my mom flip the coins and threw them on the ground, it was always affirmative.

The entire afternoon was spent entertaining relatives and friends that came intermittently. Imagine, we had to prepare the table, warm up the dishes, scooping rice, washing the dishes, etc around the clock till night time! And I was in charge to check in outstation guests at Vistana Hotel and the guests all came at different hours that I had to make 3 trips to the hotel that day!

By the time we finished helping out at the kitchen and making sure all things are packed for the big day on Sunday, it was already 2 am. And I had to wake up at 5.30 am with my sister to follow her to my cousin’s makeup studio at 6 am. After brushing teeth and changing clothes, we headed out to the makeup studio. It was an auspicious day to get married because my other cousin sis is registering on the same day too! So, she was also there at our cousin’s makeup studio. I took a picture of the three of them and my sis was excited to compare it with a picture taken of the three of them some 10 years ago during her 21st birthday!

It was a mad rush at home at 7.30 am. Imagine, there were 15 people in the house and all wanted to use the bathroom and getting dressed in the morning. The whole scenario really pumped up the adrenaline to the max!

Thank God for the fairly good weather. There were drizzles the night before so it was not a very hot morning. However, with some 40 – 60 people walking around the house, you could imagine the heat emitted from everybody. I was practically drenched in my own sweat to the verge of drowning! I couldn’t bear to watch the video because I believe I would be seeing myself wiping my sweat frantically at every scene or me showing disgusted face whenever simian-like kids running around the house, knocking everything and blocking the walkways and their parents were too busy (body) to care!

Night dinner started well before 8.45 pm. I guess it’s a good timing considering there were 60 tables this time.

I wish to thank all my friends for their helping hands during the two busiest days. Thank you to friends who came and also those who didn’t come. Hahah! It was a good thing to have good friends around to celebrate my only sister’s happiest day in her life.

8 Comments | In: Celebrations, Kindred Spirits | | #
Posted by Gina

I had another weird dream the other night.

I was happy to finally have a big room to myself. It has large windows which allow natural sunlight to shine through the room. The floor was tastefully done in lacquer wood. There was a big white bed. One thing weird though – there was a display section. In the display section, I saw a big aquarium. Thinking it contains only possibly kois, I didn’t look into it till 3 days later. (Yes, the dream told me that it was three days later).

Then I notice there was another aquarium in the room covered by a white screen which made the whole section seemed blended to the white wall. That is why I didn’t notice the aquarium at the first place.

To my horror, I saw the aquarium packed with fish! There were palm-size fishes with silver scales and black dotted bodies and there were 3- 5 pre-historic fishes! They were all very hungry looking! After all, it has been 3 days that I blissfully spent in the room without feeding the fishes!

I gestured to somebody (I cannot remember who he was) to come and have a look. The guy came and then laughed and told me that the fishes were harmless! While he was laughing, he pointed at the fishes as if he was making a mockery of them. It was really disturbing. Before I could warn him that the fishes might jump out and bite him, the pre-historic fish really jumped out and ate his arm! Out of reflex, I went to his aid and pulled the fish way from his arm. The fish somehow disintegrated!

Then, I went to check on the display room’s aquarium – there were a few pre-historic fishes in there too. I demanded them to remove the fishes away. Before they do, I woke up.

It was said that if you dream about fish, someone is actually getting pregnant! I hope this is good news even if the pregnant one is not me! Haha! I surely hope someone close to me is getting pregnant!

Meaning of fish dreams, click here.

5 Comments | In: Dreams | | #
Posted by Gina