A picture speaks

Oh God. I have never been so afraid of failing an exam my entire life. Time to change my study habits. But....holidays first!! (orz I can just see the cycle repeating itself)

Thank you, Big Guy Up There. :)

Marvelling @ Melaka

Just got back from Melaka!!! Boy it was awesome.

Spent 2 days 1 night there with about nine others including a local Melaka-ite who was our tour guide. :D

Reached Melaka at about 11am, just in time for brunch. Went to this lil place 'under the big tree' for some nyonya food.




Pai Tee. Basically popiah filling looking like a cupcake.


And some popiah!! :D


Laksa.


Mee Siam, pretty normal but much better with lime.


Nasi Lemak.




Small town food prices, how I've missed you.

It was the first of many meals to come. Ohoho.


After that we went up the hill to see the ruins of St Paul's church.






Loads of plaque/tombstone (?) things in there. I felt something vaguely like medieval swashbuckling.


And down to see Kota A Famosa, which is right down the hill from St Paul's church.




500-year-old stone.


Creepy vendors inside kept calling me 'leng lui.....leng lui.....leng lui.....' even after I shook my head indicating disinterest in the stuff they were selling. Meh.


Becas outside A Famosa- rather gaudily decorated, I couldn't even tell which part of the bike was which. We didn't take a ride because it was rather rip-off - RM15 for a short ride or something like that.


And this is the Melaka tree, the type (well not the exact one) Parameswara sat under while the mousedeer kicked the dog's ass. Though if it were me, while naming the place I'd have thought about the kancil rather than what tree I was sitting under.







Some sites around the city centre- Christ Church, the clock tower (save the clock tower!!!) and a fountain.

Had the famous chicken rice ball for lunch, just hours after 'brunch'.

Came in a set of one plate chicken, one plate rice balls. We had two sets. Totalled to about RM6.30 per person.


'Twas good. Oily, but good.


Awesome balls are awesome.

Walked around Jonker St for a while before checking in at the apartment. We rented a 3-bedroom apartment at Mahkota Guesthouse for RM200 a night, which was a pretty good deal for what we got.





The TV came with E! Perfect for killing time in between.

There's actually two parts to the apartment (weird pun) that are joined together by a foyer-like empty room. Didn't get a picture of that, but safe to say the whole place was big enough for all 10 of us to kip for a night.


View from the window- facing a field of lalang, the ocean, and the Eye on Malaysia ferris wheel which got moved from Titiwangsa. Very Honey and Clover.

After freshening up we came out again to Jonker Street.



Jonker Street was somewhat the highlight of the trip. Quaint shophouses and great shopping bargains. It really reminded me of India Street in Kuching.


Lotsa clothes, sovenoirs, knick-knacks- tourist stuff that was suprisingly inexpensive (mostly).












Occasionally a beca would sail past, blaring techno or Micheal Jackson songs.









The only downside was the weather was really hot. If a shop was air conditioned we'd somehow camp there a bit longer. Lol.


Stopped by this place called 三叔公 which sold cottage industry stuffs- coffee to cookies to shrimp paste.




Some stuff would have samples for trying out- like the Ong Lai Kuih here.


Sampling the honey and white coffee. Both were fantastic. I really liked the honey but it came in heavy glass bottles so I bought the much lighter prepackaged instant white coffee instead. Stuff's not cheap- RM11.80 for 12 sachets- but very, very worth it. :D



Stopped by a cendol place at Jonker Street for some...cendol.



Cendol with gula melaka. It doesn't get anymore authentic than this.




The place also sold asam laksa, but I didn't try any. Already feeling the effects of dyspepsia.

The shophouse was this quaint little place - quaint is somehow the prefect word the describe Jonker Street and everything in it.


Antiques on the stairs, a wooden ceiling, grandfather clocks, faded, peeling paint, worn benches, framed centuries-old documents and paintings- it was the real deal, not like all the faux stuff you get at modern lifestyle malls that slap a few replicas and then call it 'authentic'.


Some jazz and 70s music was playing in the background, giving the place the sort of 'ambience' I always long for- without the ridiculous prices that often accompany such atmospheres.


In contrast to the heat outside, the interior was pleasantly cool and breezy. There was a sort of atrium inside- it seemed most of the shophouses had similiar interior architecture, which made it all very um....quaint.

Headed somewhere else for some satay celup. Food- meat to eggs to rolled up vegetables- dipped in boiling peanut satay sauce to cook.



The peanut sauce was heated in a pot in the centre of the table and apparently the sauce wasn't changed in between customers, only refilled. So you better hope the people who dipped their food before you didn't decide it wasn't cooked enough and re-dipped in between bites. XD


50 sen a stick; 60 sen for the red-tipped ones.

Headed for the Mahkota Parade mall for some shopping and air-conditioning.

FOS was having mad crazy sales so we all went mad crazy and bought stuff. I got a pretty sweet deal :)


Dinner was at a food court nearby. Once again I found myself surrounded with foooooood. Had oyster mee sua (RM5). I liked it. :)


More oyster for dinner!! Or chien- an awesome treat from our awesome tour guide.

Breakfast the next day was at a kopitiam. It reminded me of this place in third mile where my parents would have their laksa and kopi peng after stocking up on fresh food from the wet market, without fail, for more than a decade.



Everyone else had a prawn me (RM3) or wanton mee (RM2.80) but I felt a little different.


Soft boiled eggs ftw. One buck apiece. A teensy little bit pricey but I love soft boiled eggs. T_T


And some crumbly crunchy toast+kaya+cheese+butter to go with it. Bliss. RM1.40 a piece.

After breakfast we went back to the apartment to check out and went back to Jonker Street for round two of cendol!!! Zomg.






Ladies packaging gula melaka.

And we're not done yet.


The last Melaka speciality dish- pork satay. With pineapple peanut sauce- slightly different from usual but nevertheless quite fabulous. No picture because I was too busy eating I think. 50 sen a stick.

Hung out at the mall for the rest of the afternoon before heading down the highway back to Bukit Jalil.

MOAR PICTARS




The last time I came to Melaka was a few years back- then it was with family and we stayed at the A Famosa resort, so I didn't get to experience that much of local charm.


(Note the Nasi Lemak Chinese translation.)


It's really different while travelling with friends, especially if they're locals who know the best places and recommendations. Having a car helps a lot too, and I'm grateful for it.


Just like Penang or Kuching, Melaka has this small town charm that just makes all these places- the places we are proud to call our kampung- simply different from hectic big cities. It's a cliche, but then there's nothing wrong with that.


One thing I noticed was how people spoke Mandarin instead of Cantonese. It was quite a relief for me, since my Cantonese is worse than my Japanese and I didn't have to hint that I didn't understand Cantonese before they switched to Mandarin.

Or maybe it's time to pick up some real Cantonese. ^^U



And last but not least, a big thanks to the company that adds the awesome to everything.


And our lovely tour guide for the two days. :)


All pictures taken with the Sony a200, 18-70mm/f3.5-5.6 lens. Apologies for noob-ness.

Welcome to the real world, she said

Welcome to the real world
She said to me kind of condescendingly
Take a seat, take your life
Plot it out in black and white
Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
Id like to think the best of me
Is still hiding up my sleeve
They love to tell you stay inside the lines
But somethings better on the other side


She comes and goes
And comes and goes
Like no one can
She comes and goes
And no one knows
Shes slipping through my hands
Shes always buzzin just like

Neon, neon, neon, neon
Who knows how long, how long, how long
She can go before she burns away

And I know this much is true
Baby you have become my addiction
I’m so strung out on you
I can barely move
But I like it 

when I’m dancing with you
tomorrow doesn’t matter turn
the music up til the windows start to shatter
cuz you’re the only one who can get me on my feet
and I can’t even dance


Reading the lyrics of a John Mayer song on a friend's blog, suddenly jolted me back some eight or nine months ago. A blast to the past, if you will. Coming with it the barrage of songs associated with the month or two. A time I'd like to call 'the good old days'.

Hiphop and John Mayer Tuesdays. Singing Mraz at the top of our voices. Orson. Fedora hats and Petaling Street. Youtube covers. Falling asleep at McDs while waiting for the midnight show. Me leeching your new songs because I was too lazy to learn anything myself. Pizza cone and mantou while mugging for EOS. My old tiny room and the intonation-plagued green semi-acoustic. All-nighter CC sessions and watching the sunrise after. The aching sadness I would feel everytime I listened to Victoria. I remember your scent.

Suddenly, as though I'd been hit by a train, an overwhelming desire surged through me.

I can't wait to see you again.

Guh. Gotta snap back, I'm expecting an important phone call in half an hour.

So what about it?

#1. Mmm explosions. Reminds me why I liked Gurren Lagann so much.

#2. How the hell does MitchellMegan Fox run and skip stairs in 4-inch stilettos?

#3. Cool graphics, but sometimes I couldn't tell a bot from another.

#4. I wish I could read a 900-page book in 4 minutes.

#5. I suppose deus ex machinas are necessary in these kind of action shows.

#6. I really felt fatigued after the 2 and a half hours spent watching it. Too much adenaline rush.

#7. New Divide sounds like What I've Done. I recognized the Nickelback song right away.

#8. Tons of carnage. Made me feel a little uncomfortable.

#9. I should try baking weed cake one day. Or not.

#10. Bumblebee is awesome. So is the way Sam keeps calling him 'bee'.

This is supposed to indicate that exams are over. God, what a gruelling semester.

Epic things, and not-so-epic things

I've seen a lot of awesome IMU videos, but none quite as EPIC as this one.



Cameos by FIA and the cleaning kakak really take the cake IMO. It's just epic on so many levels. A lot of things have changed since then (no IMCCs or 3-days-to-EOS KKB rotations) but shit is still epic. Where have all the epic film-making meddies gone? Too bad the not-so-epic dresscode is still there.

Runner up: Hilter trying to get in IMU. Yes I know it's a meme, but it's still hilarious if you're a student here. This one was the intro to a catwalk fashion show at last April's IMU Ball, which nearly gave the (non-IMU student) MCs a myocardial infarction.

IMU students are a pretty amazing bunch. Dancers, musicians, photographers, atheletes, filmmakers, designers, speakers, managers, IT geeks, writers, chefs, enterpreneurs- beneath the masses of nose-in-books allegedly 'I just want to pass EOS' people, there are plenty of hidden talents that would have sprouted to be something big, if nurtured full-time. But that was not to be the case, and I highly suspect that's because a lot of us have the other interests placed as second choice, that we did not pursue in the end due to reasons you know I know. But let's not go there, now.

EOS in 9 days.

You always want what you can't have

After my typical dose of blog-hopping I've come to the observation that everyone is either 1) travelling 2) working/interning (@earning money) 3) just finished exams. Everything I wish for right now but can't have.

Oh well. Guess we can't have what we want all the time. I'm sure there are people out there who wish they could be mugging for exams and feeling like tearing their hair out with the stress, but instead have to do boring things like bum around and receive paychecks and ride on airplanes. I should count myself lucky.

Someone in the adjacent apartment block is playing the electric guitar. I can hear it all the way in my apartment but it doesn't bother me. He's pretty good. He's playing a song know but can't remember. Sounds vaguely like John Petrucci. Which reminds me how I've neglected my own guitar playing, I've lost the callouses again. Oh well I suppose I'll need sensitive fingertips to feel for apex beats and the like.

There is no drink better for thirst-quenching than ice cold water. Nothing. Shuit cha comes close, but juices/soy milk/isotonic drinks just don't cut it. My bias. But I still wonder why so many people would make a beeline for the vending machine or taufufa man instead of the water-cooler when they're thirsty.

Gosh electric guitar-san is pretty good. Why does inspiration always come at the wrong time?

The silence speaks

There's so many things I want to say here.

There's so many things I've wanted to say for a long, long time.

But I end up not saying anything, as I have for a long time.

Because ultimately actions speak louder than words, still waters run deep, and the empty can rattles the loudest.

Persevere, for vindication is just round the corner.

I seem to live by that mantra everyday.