All Hands on Deck :D:D:D

Hey there folks...

Well, Kuala Lumpur or KL as its affectionately known has recently been awash with sailors hailing from the USS Kitty Hawk.. Certainly a welcome sight from the usual scenes around the KLCC area where I work at...

Me and my best buddy certainly had a good time looking at buffed up and cute hotties... Shameless indeed.. :p

Something about men in uniform that makes us all weak knee'd :D:D:D

Bali... and its aftermath...

Well folks, this has taken a fair amount of time to put up no thanks to my busy schedule lately, both at work and personal life. Folks, have a gander at the fun that we had in Bali. This also happened to be the first time I flew on Air Asia, it's ok and surprised that our flights were on schedule bothways. Anyhow, I just love Bali and perhaps hope to retire there someday. An air of calm seems to engulf you the moment you get off the plane, ever since my first trip last year, i've been addicted to this isle. Anyway folks, pics below...

Me, with Eric and Joyce having our first meal at Warung Made's at one of the side roads of Kuta. Enjoyed the meal..

Our quaint, rustic Ida Hotel in the heart of Kuta, the pool is perfect for lazing around on those hot, sunny days.

Our first stop was to a Kopi Bali factory, on further exploration by the intrepid gang, we found various captions of the locals rendered from ground coffee, interesting stuff eh... We somehow felt 'pressured' to buy the coffee since the took the time to explain, the poor tour guide never knew what hit him after Booker gave him a piece of her mind :) Serves him right for not listening to our simple request.

One of our stops at a silverware factory, I found this nicely carved door and had to get a pic taken.
Seems that most houses in Bali are built on alignment to the 4 points of the compass.

One can only enter a temple once suitably garbed in a sarong... Pity the colour was a bit off, that shade of blue doesn't agree with me :p

Another shot of the gang at the Temple.

A shot of Mount Batur, was a very misty day and the camera couldn't focus onto the surroundings there. As luck would have it, we feel victim to another tourist trap, courtesy of the bumbling tour guide...
60,000 rupiah for a lunch buffet which would have been better spent elsewhere...


A shot from the van with us surrounded with ladies balancing trays of grub and offerings to deities at the temple as it was one of the lunar festivals.
Finally made it to the renowned Tanah Lot, also one of the stops in the inaugural Amazing Race Asia.
Another shot of the temple in Tanah Lot, managed to get across as the tide was low, couldn't enter as we were not 'saronged'

Enjoying our exploration of Tanah Lot, pic below, Booker capturing me in a pensive pose, nice reflection... :D

Sunset at Tanah Lot, fantastic views...



The Bali Memorial for the bomblast victims.. Thankfully the tourists seem to be coming back to Bali.
Who could complain when sunnies only cost the equivalent of RM6...
The yummiest Manggo lassi ever, surrounded by avocado juice and strawberry shake.
All freshly squeezed, better than anything I can find in KL...
Sunset at Kuta Beach, me with Booker.... Pic below, anothe nice sunset at Kuta.
Look at the clear waters, I don't normally see my own feet at beaches in Malaysia, this was just amazing :D

The evening before we came home, we splurged on rather decent Japanese nosh, suddenly everyone developed the typical Japanese syndrome of cameratitis, sudden onset of rapid snapshots on digital cameras. Never have more flashes gone off within a 5 minute period. The people around us must have wondered if we were 'mad' paparazzis taking shots of celebs :p
After Oriental dining, we decided to go try this joint out, it was enroute back to the hotel...
As you may already have guessed, this eaterie is based on the movie Forrest Gump.. The following signs on the table have a very important task to perform... Normally, you'd stick the sign as follows..
This is when you want to order your food, drinks, dessert or even ask for the bill.. Of course both of these signs come with accompaniment of the staff shouting,... you guessed it Stop Forrest Stop or Run Forrest Run (at the top of their lungs I might add!)


Hehehehe.... These are shots of Booker trying on various Kebayas and Sarongs... All nice :D

Lo and Behold the stall next to where Booker was trying on her kebayas was this place selling wood carvings of urm.... you get the picture don't you :D:D:D:D:D:D!!

All this talk of Babi Guling nearly came nought, luckily the girls managed to find or rather sniff out that the famed Ibu Oka Babi Guling in Ubud was actually opened for business, at their own home no less,and by golly the crowd was fantastic! Eric and Marcus grinning like Cheshire Cats once we all managed to get a place to sit under the shade and waiting for the Babi Guling...

Trying iout the Sepia mode on my cam, Marcus and the girls...
Yummylicious Babi Guling, why can't we get this here in KL :(
The amount of Babi Guling that we polished off...
It's all Lurve Booker hunny... :D:D:D
That's just a small sample of the stuff we bought, more hidden under the platform where we were seated..



If we do head back to Ibu Oka's then we'd know if she ever raised prices... Heheheh!
The signpost outside the Ubud Market where we did a lot of shopping and sharpened our bargaining skills.. :D
Me in front of the market...
Another shot of me from a different angle...
The Girls can't get enuf of... oh well you get the picture LOL!!!

On the return trip from Bali, aboard AK905.
The seat on the plane just wouldn't recline no matter how hard I pushed that darned button. SO much for proper aircraft maintenance, perhaps I should write a note to an ex-colleague who now works there.

Well folks, hope you enjoyed the photoblog of the Bali trip. Somehow, life got a bit more challenging when I returned home on the personal front. The person whom I thought wanted to be a part of my life suddenly went cold. Perhaps it's good that we remain friends and that I learnt my lesson now rather than later. As I belief in the transitionary phases of life, the ups and downs no less... Something interesting could very well be happening and perhaps I may just take my time and explore things further before making any decisions. Mighty pleased to find out that I still have what it takes... :D:D Stay tuned folks!

The Light Rail Transit System in Kuala Lumpur - What Morons!

This topic has been a pet peeve of mine ever since I started work in the city. I used to take the train to and from work religiously, supposedly to save on my travel time if I drive to the office. However of late, the reverse seems more appropriate as witnessed by me this morning.

I was dropped of by my significant other at the Bangsar LRT station around 815am, I decided that should be just perfect... However upon reaching the train platform, queues of people were already lining up. To make matters worse the train didn't seem to adhere to the 3 minute peak hour duration. As a result, as soon as people cleared onto the waiting train, more people queued from behind resulting in things being back to square one. Not only that the RapidKL staff were deployed to ensure each train was suitably overloaded with people by cramming everyone into the last remaining square inch..

Have made a promise to myself that on days I don't drive, I will catch a cab instead, similar duration to reach my office and less hassle. People from RapidKL, you suck BIGTIME!!! How long does it take for you people to extend more trains to your service. ANother case of first class facility with third world mentality...

Gym Instructors...

I've been fairly active at the gym the past couple of weeks... Going into the various Group Exercise classes on offer at Fitness First Malaysia, I now have a sense of respect for the various instructors..

Majority of the classes that I go to have excellent instructors and am rather close to them and regularly hang out with them too. Through all this one learns that the instructors are human too and they are more concerned about each individuals wellbeing to what you may think.

Classes are scheduled at all times of the day, it's the early morning and late evening classes that make me feel for the instructors. One can't help but truly feel their passsion that makes them get up early in the morning and stay late for the classes in the evening and this keeps them going through the next day and so forth..

A recent research reported that people that participate in Group Exercise feel better about themselves, perhaps it's the interaction of the participants with the instructor and vice versa that holds the key to why this is so.. I for one certainly can vouch for this observation. Sometimes classes are really a riot when the instructor misses a cue, but it's all good and taken in stride.

Here's a toast to all the Group Exercise Instructors, my babe included for having this inexhaustible passion to continue teaching the various programmes on offer. Certainly makes life a more interesting proposition. People who say otherwise don't know what they are missing out on... Have a great day people! :D:D