Day 4 of Bali Travelogue, January 2010

Day 4 began with us taking an hour's drive to Ubud. Reason? To have the very very famous Babi Guling. We arrived at the restaurant an hour early, so we decided to walk around Ubud town to kill time. Arts and crafts stuff here is considerably cheaper than in Malaysia, but I have to say, not everything is cheap. Oh, did I also mention that they sell lots and lots of vanilla pods here? I couldnt find then anywhere else in Bali but here!

So here we are at Restoran Ibu Oka, most famous for Babi Guling in the whole of Bali.

My verdict? I tot it was alright, service was pretty poor though. Unfortunately, the roasted pork skin we had was very very tough, harder than ... I can't even describe it...

After that, we headed towards Mount Agung, to the Mother Temple of Besakih.

On the way we passed by Lake Batur again. We were there on Day 2 where we had tea time at a cafe facing the lake on top of the hill. This time around, we were on the other side of the lake :-)

Seeing this pig rummaging for food by the roadside made me wonder where our Babi Guling pigs came from....

After about 1.5 hours, we finally arrived at the Mother of all temples in Bali, the Besakih Temple.

There are 9 major temples in Bali, and this is the most important temple for the local people of Bali.

Point to note when you arrive at Besakih, there will be a "ticket counter" where you will be given a guide to take you thru a tour of the temple. But at the counter, they ppl will ask you to give donations towards the upkeep of the temple. They will show you a book which shows various visitors' names as well as the amounts they donated.

This is highly suspicious as the handwritings in the book is consistently similar and the amounts seemed to be in the same range. Plus, the guy at the counter says you can donate any amount you'd like, but he advises you tot ake a look at the book to see whats the reasonable standard.

Just be wary at this stage, we did donate some money, but we gave less than what was purported "donated" by other visitors.

While we were there, there was an "upacara" / procession going on. We were told we had just missed one of the major festival by 2 weeks prior to our arrival.

And yes, I wore a sarong for the whole day on Day 4.

After our Besakih tour, we headed back down Mount Agung, and we passed by another Rice terrace. How could we pass up another photo taking opportunity??

We then headed all the way down to the south of Bali. Our main destination was Uluwatu. But since we were ahead of schedule, I asked our driver to make a stop at Padang Padang beach, which is about 15 minutes away from Uluwatu. From what I researched, it was said that Padang Padang had the best beach in the whole of Bali. So a visit to this beach is a must.

The above picture shows the staircase leading to the beach.

The Padang padang beach had blue waters, mainly because the sand is whiter than most parts of Bali. Water was clean, but there was rubbish floating in the sea. And since its a pretty small stretch of beach, it did feel a bit crowded.

Not really recommended

Next stop: Uluwatu temple. Another one of the 9 major temples and we arrived here in time to catch the sunset. As you can see, the temple is located right at the edge of the cliff, giving us a chance to capture dramatic pictures.

The sunset was amazing, after 3 evenings of cloudy skies, Day 4 was great for us!

Oh, please becareful of the monkeys hanging around Uluwatu. your truly was attacked by one of them monkeys and it grabbed my glasses right off my face! It was a moment of horror for me as I thought i was gonna be attacked by a wild monkey.

Thankfully only my glasses was snatched and the monkey ran away with it while some Indons around there chased it for me. The monkey then threw my glasses off the cliff, but luckily for me, it got stuck on the bushes.

Here in this picture, you can see the guys risking their lives to get my glasses back. Yes i did give them a form of Gratitude payment. However, i was then informed that these indonesians actually train a few of the monkeys to steal tourists' items and throw it away, so they can collect it for a fee later.

I'm not sure if there is any basis to this story, but if it is true, then i guess the Balinese are not are friendly and honest as the Thais are.

After a simple dinner, we dropped by the biggest shopping centre in Kuta town for some last minute shopping. it was the 1st time we were in Kuta town for shopping. FInally, some air conditioned shopping for us.

It was here I bought a pair of thong slippers for about RM10 equivalent which I stillw ear till today :-)

Oh did I mention that the monkey chewed on my glasses after it snatched it from my face?

Well, you can see it in the picture above. It's a money can't buy souvenir, i guess ;-p

We went back to the villa after a little shopping and we took a dip in the pool before going to bed.

Boodyboy, out!!!

Day 5 of Bali Travelogue, January 2010

We kinda slept in on the last day and finally left our villa to visit the Seminyak beach at about 10 in the morning. We've stayed in Seminyak for 4 days prior to that and never had the time in our schedule to visit Seminyak as by the time we were back from our daytrips, it was already dark.



From our villa, its about 400m walk to Seminyak beach. Although its only 400m, it felt very long due to the extreme heat and humidity. But yes, we could hear the sea waves as we are about to approach the beach. We got even more excited when the sea was within our horizon.




This is the famous Seminyak beach. The sand on the beach is black, so the water will not look as blue as white sand beaches. Here as you can see, an owner bringing her dogs to the beach for some play time.





We came, we saw, and we casted our shadows! (Veni, Vedi, We casted our shadows; I dont know how to translate it to the Roman language).




The water is super duper clean! I'm very happy with what i saw on the beach, hardly any trash in sight (Seminyak is after all, an upmarket beach with mostly villas in this area). The black sand, was super fine which made the beach feel a bit compact, hence you can walk without losing balance here.

Yup, ppl even took their kids on pony rides on the beach. How cool is that?

The tides maybe a bit strong especially during the off peak season, hence, you need to beware of the rip currents that may drag you out to see. Bali is after all, a surfer's paradise, hence the waves will be stronger than other beaches in Malaysia. After our stroll on the beach, we left to look for breakfast, wondering if we could extend our stay by 1 more day so we could just enjoy Seminyak beach...

This brings public toilet to a whole new level =)

We roamed the streets of Seminyak for a final time, while looking around for spa Packages.

Here, nasi padang is quite famous. It's something like our Economy rice / chap fan, back here.

The only difference is that they stack up all the dishes in a creative manner.

Bike rentals are pretty common among the tourists here. And the Bike designs here trump our M'sian bikes anyday

The very famous Teh Botol in Indonesia. Its just like Teh-O over here but in bottles!

I guess its cheap and more hygienic alternative for those who may have a weak tummy.

As for me? I whack anything that the locals take, hehehe

After our breakfast, we headed back to our villa, for one last dip in the pool as well as just laying down on the sundeck, listening to the birds chirping while looking at the blue skies.

We then checked out of our hotel in the afternoon and headed to the Spa of our choice, where we could kill some time before our flight in the evening. EC took the 4 hours spa package which included Scrub, massage, facial, mani and pedi for something like RM200

I took the 2 hours package which had consists of an hours massage and an hours body scrub. All for less than Rm100! I've never done body scrub before this and I must say, i thoroughly enjoyed my 2 hours. I actually enjoyed laying down in a bathtub full of flower petals and the smoothness of my skin after that ;-p

My sister, had an hours massage and did hair braids on the whole head. and that took about 3 hours to complete.

It was then time for us to head to the airport, and the ride there was complimentary of the villa we rented. We had tonnes of fun and food during our 5 day stay there. It was a beautiful island and I'm sure all of us would like to return again in the future.

By the time we left, we felt we could get used to this balinese lifestyle, heheheh.

We left Bali reluctantly, and with a tinge of sadness.

Boodyboy, out!!

p.s. I did get back and suffered Post Holiday Depression (PHD) the next day, hahahah

The "Burung"s and the "Lebah"s

Ahhh... The Birds and the bees, how can any1 of us forget the feeling when this topic comes up in conversations with family.


Personally, I still feel a bit uncomfortable talking about this topic, especially when it comes to family members. Which makes me wonder, would it be easier if we taught them in schools instead? Maybe if it was taught publicly, then maybe, just maybe, we would be less inclined to have a healthy conversation about SEX.


I guess most of us would have less than formal education about the birds and the bees (Although the only formal education I had about it was Form 4 Biology : The Reproductive System). In school, we only learnt the parts of the reproductive system. But unfortunately, we weren't taught of what it can do and how to go about doing it, the right and responsible way.





Well recently, this brother of one had the strange experience when my sister began asking me some Bird and Bee-esque type questions. On one hand I'm a bit unsettled, partly because I myself have not thought about talking about it. On the other hand, I think it's much better if she asks a family member rather than finding out from friends and etc (not to say that family always gives the best advice while friends tells her thrash, but I'd like to think that I'm not bullshitting when it comes to topics like this).


I don't know if she has asked my parents about it, cause as far as I was concerned, I never spoke to them about it. I only remembered one occasion that topic came up and it was one of the most uncomfortable 10 minutes of my life, followed by another 15 minutes of uncomfortable silence on my part.


I can't say that my education on this topic has all come from the most appropriate and medically proven channels, but I guess I wouldn't be caught looking dumb when it comes to topics like this. And of course, this was due to my habit of reading encyclopedias and "How-to, Why-does" books when I was a kid.


Well, onto my little moments of discomfort with my sister. Although I was a bit apprehensive when answering my sister, but I guess, despite my lack of experience, I am capable of giving decent answers to her queries. So give answers I did. The Q&A didn't last long, but I get a little of them, day by day.


Sigh, the questions she pose makes me realise my sister is all grown up. And being a grown up, it's my duty as her brother to make sure she gets the information right so she can make the right decisions herself. As much as I'd love to decide what's best for her, thats part of the lifecycle. There's only so much I can do now. While I maybe worried to what the answers to the questions will lead to, I will have to trust her judgment that she knows whats best. (Yes I know I sound like a control freak)


But I'm glad she asked me =)



Boodyboy, out!!!


p.s. If you do have questions on the above topic, I would be glad to try and answer your queries, in private to avoid public discomfort :-)

Games we played

Well, this spawned from the previous post, where I was talking about the toys I had when i was a kid.

Thinking about it, I had less toys, but I played more games definitely. I dont have pictures for all the games I played when i was young, but I'll try to show as much as I can while giving a simple explanation of how the game worked. I played these games through my Kampung Aman squatter days thru primary school in SSG.

Lets move on shall we?



1st up is the game of Guli! I dont remember where all my marbles went (pun intended), but I do seriously wish to get some and keep them as memorabilia.

We used to put a few gulis each into a circle and we would stand some distance away from the circle and threw our marbles into the circle, trying to hot and knock more marbles out of the circle. The marbles that went out of the circle was ours to keep :-D

The other way of playing would be a 1 on 1 knock off format where players will try to knock out all the other opponents marbles out of the circle. I can tell you that guli is definitely not one of my best games, as i had a pretty poor eyesight since i was a kid.




Batu Seremban (or 5 stones) was a game I used to play indoors when the days were too hot or when its raining. We played with 5 little pouches filled with rice or beans. I used to remember my mother stiching the pouches for me and my sister to play. it was a game of tossing and picking the pouches in a systematic manner and with varying difficulty stages.

While I had clumsy hands, I was (and hopefully still am) better than my sister, but definitely worse than the girls i used to play with in school. Now if only I could find those little bean bags...




Hopsctoch any1? Back in Primary school, we used to steal the teacher's chalk so we could draw hopscotch boxes on the ground.

We'd place our markers on the ground and skipped according to the numbered boxes and every time we completed a lap, we pick up our marker and tossed it to the next box. Then we would skip thru all the boxes axcept the 1 with our markers in it.

I wasn't very good at this game either due to the fact that i was almost always the shortest kid in class, and hence couldnt jump to the furthest boxes =(




Next up: Getah. The way my school played this game was slightly different from those I watched on TV. The one I played was where I had to jump and step on the getah. After each successful jump and step on the getah, it gets higher and higher until you cant do it anymore.
Very much different from the more popular rope skipping. This was more like high jump with getah ;-p

And due to my height and my lack of flexibility, i too sucked at this game. I'm sure at this point, you must be wondering, is Boodyboy any good at any of the games here at all? ;-p



Yes, I also played with lastik, not the ones of these variety though. I never liked using these lastik to aim at birds and etc. We used to use a rubberband and made a "V" shape with 2 fingers and that was our lastik. Our bullets were carefully folded pieces of paper which we would use to shoot at each other. We'd split into teams and start shooting at each other.


Yeah it was painful, it stung a whole lot, but it was definitely fun. I guess i was good at it until one fine day i realised that If i were careless and shot my friend in the eye, he could go blind. Then i guess i decided not to play that game any more.



Now onto games where i can't find pictures to show the game.



Pepsi cola was a game where the players stood around in a circle. We'd then take 4 steps back while shouting "Pepsi Cola!". Being a few feet apart from each other, the aim of the game was to kick the others person's feet. You take turn attacking the other person in either a clockwise or anti clockwise manner. Once your legs has been hit by your attacker you're out of the game.



This elimination process goes on until only 1 player remains. I could say i was pretty good at this. The game required pretty quick reflexes to avoid kicks as well as being fast enough to hit your opponent's leg. I can tell you, this was one of the games that cost me and my friends a lot of school shoes ;-p



Another game I'd like to share is bottle caps. You need 5 bottle caps to paly this and you basically spin them apart, take one cap out and try to use a bottle cap to hit another to complate a pair. Once done, you stack them and "timbang" it to see how many point you will get. This game can last as long as you want, the guy with the most points wins.



A great game which tests one's accuracy and "angles". Maths skills and a are also required when doing timbang as you need to tally your score as you timbang. I was pretty good at this too! ;-D

I'd love to share more games like: those small cards we stacked and try to hit them with our hands so they'd flip over (dont know the name of the game), ice cream stick game, eraser game, police and thief (which somehow evolved into formula 1 style police and thief later on), eagle and chicken, kunda kundi (digging a stick up while and batter tries to whack the stick that has been flipped up) and many more.



And all these are in addition to our regular football, basketball volleyball games i played in school!



Do you remember any of these games? Or played a different version of them?





Boodyboy, out!!!

My Toy Story

Watching Toy Story 1 & 2 3D double header the other night made me think about the toys I had as a kid.



I don't really remember too much about my childhood, but I know I didn't have many toys. Well that could definitely be due to my family's financial status then (we did after all, stayed in a squatter area in PJ, now has been replaced with Paramount LRT station in PJ). So toys were a luxury, most of the time, I used to run around the squatter village with the other kids. Being the youngest and shortest, I would always be left behind chasing them long after they are gone.






One of the toys i remembered most was a gun that the other village (well it was a kampung setinggan then, wooden houses and some cement houses lah) kids made from pieces of unused wood by the local carpenter. The kids will then fashion it to look like a gun and tie a rubber band, and will employ the above "buah ceri" as bullets! Mind you it is painful when u get hit by these unripe cherries, and we used to have shootouts all over the village. Me being the youngest, always gets spared from the brutal shootings, hehehe!

Well onto toys lah, I'll get into the games i used to play when i was young in another post.



The toy i used to play most with was my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) figurines. I had all 4 of them, and would use to have "adventures" with them almost everyday, with a different bad guy or scenerio (Much like Woody and Buzz's owner, Andy of Toy Story).








The next toy I remembered playing with would be my Bumblebee toy. Yes the old bumbleebee, not the pimped up Camaro version. I only had 1 or 2 Transformers toy, mainly because it was pretty expensive then, hehehe. And I used to play with Bumblebee with my little lego set.

It could be a space mission to rescue the Earth from being destroyed or some other plot, but hey, I guess playing with these toys allowed me to work with my imagination more.




The last game I played with most, and might i say the most cost effective game, is Masak Masak.
While more girls over the other side of the planet played with tea sets, over here, we have masak masak. In fact, i remembered playing with my sister's masak masak set more than her!

Yes, I always enjoed being the head chef of a restaurant. A big Tai Chow place cooking stuff that will have huge flames coming from the stove! Hahahah, but of course, it was all make believe, i didnt have the guts to play with fire back then (and now too ;-p). I love to "cook up a storm" when i was playing on the yard at home.

What were your toys back when you were a kid?

*****************

Thinking about the toys i had sure is a fun trip down memory lane. So was watching Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D. Absolutely fun and enjoyable movie. I can't wait for the third part to be released in June! I'd rate the Toy Story double header a 7 / 10!

Till then,



Boodyboy, out!!

Shutter Island

I managed to catch this movie last week with a dear old friend. It was an interesting night as I initially wanted to watch Toy Story 3D, but my friend insisted she wanted to watch something else. What made it more interesting was that that night I had the option of choosing between 2 fabulous women to go out with, hahaha!!

The unfortunate thing is that both women are already unavailable, no matter how attractive they were (although I wouldn't mind being the fling ;-p).

The venue was also a strange option, Berjaya Times Square. And the only reason why we chose that place was because the screen time suited us. DInner was at Papa John's Pizza, another franchise owned by the Berjaya Group. However, i think the food there kind of disappointed me. DOnt think I'll be back for seconds.

On to the movie, its a great movie if you like thrillers. Once of the most mind engaging movies i've watched for sometime. The movie was well played out, and Leonardo Di Caprio did a great job in this movie.

Not once was I bored despite it being 2 hour plus long. As usual, there are many twists and turns in this movie and I enjoyed every bit of it.

I highly recommend the movie if you are in the mood for some thinking and unravelling.
As for the book, i dont know how good it is, but the movie's great ;-p

8/10 for me!!


Boodyboy, out!

50 Things about the person behind Boodyblog

Yes, in conjuction with the 5 anniversary of me blogging, I thought that I should do a little spotaneuous intro about myself. Maybe just for the dear readers o get to know me better (if ur on my FB you prolly know a lot already ;-p)

So lets get the list rolling (I'm just typing this as I go along, so its not ranked to importance)

**********************************************

50. I love sports, a lot. I follow football, badminton, golf, tennis, pool (billiards), bowling and I play the sports mentioned earlier. I also like basketball, futsal, curling. Though i wish i was good in any of these sports, i do try my best everytime i play. I just love a good sweat.

49. I'm very competitive, especially when i do something which i think i'm good at. Esp when it comes to sports, I love to win, or at least try to win. When I play a team sport and i have team-mates who dont do their best, I get really pissed off. If they tell me they only want to play for fun, win or lose doesnt matter to them; then my message is simple, go over the other team so u can enjoy losing as much as I enjoy winning. But if you at least try your best, then hey, I won't mind, at least we tried our best. Yes I can be that vicious when i have that competitive streak in me.

48. I talk a lot. My friends can vouch for that. Except in instances where there is a huge crowd, then i will let the crowd move on with their conversation. But in a small group, I definitely talk a lot.

47. No. 48 is true, unless I'm intimidated or with some1 whom i feel is very intellectual. Then I might be a bit more reserved for the fear of sounding like an ingorant fool when i speak.

46. I love to bullshit my way through. I hardly lose an argument because people usually just give up. However, my mum will always talk with more sense than me, hence I fail terribly when it comes to talking sense ;-p

45. I love tea. Chinese tea, chamomile tea, green tea and etc...

44. I love the concept of yumcha (drink tea). I enjoy spending time chatting with my friends while sipping tea for hours.

43. I dont really fancy coffee. Drinking them kau will leave me nauseated for hours. but if the brew of coffee is good, i wont mind giving a try just to taste how great it is.

42. So far, my fave places to sit down and send a few hours with friends catching up: Tea for 2 (Bangsar), Delicious (have not tried all outlets but i prefer BV2), Haven (Lookout Point), Alexis Bistro (Ampang for a nite of great jazz as well), any chinese place that has Chinese tea

41. I like the jazz scene here in Malaysia. Its a bit pricey, so I hardly indulge myself in them. But they do provide me with a few good hours of music. Places for me to go to are Alexis, No Black Tie as well as Bangkok Jazz

40. I dig music a lot, though not as much as my friend SN, who by the way is the biggest music freak I have ever known. I mainly like adult contemporary as well as jazzy songs. I especially like songs which I can feel the singers voice emote to the lyrics of the song. Powerful stuff when you hear that.

39. Photography is something I wish I was better at. it seems that I'm pretty bad with things that are related to the artsy fartsy side. I guess I can remmeber all the techinical aspects as well as the theoretical part of photography, but composing pictures is where i definitely suck.

38. To say I dont like to travel would be a lie. I would love to see more of the world, but I don't want to sacrifice my dreams of owning my ow property for the sake of going on holidays. Its a tough balance, but I dont want to lead a life pressed for cash just because I want to travel all the time.

37. I dont really like to travel on tours, maybe unless is a country where its difficult to speak the language or get from 1 place to another. I generally like to plan my own travels which will include a lot of walking. Walking gives you a feel of how the country really is, rather then just looking out of the tour bus window.

36. That being said, I'm not much of a backpacker. I still appreciate a little creature comfort. Dont really fancy dorms or hostels. After a long day of walking I'd like a nice bed to sleep well in ;-p

35. Another downside to me travelling is that I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food. That doesnt mean that I must have rice every meal. But I dont eat beef and lamb, which means my choice is severely limited to chicken, fish and pork.

34. Oh, and I also cannot swim, which sucks cause I like a seaside getaway.

33. I still have a desire to learn how to swim, but i need to get rid of my fear of water 1st.

32. I would also like to learn how to ride a motorcycle. After coming back from Bali and Phuket, i realised it would be very fun if i could rent a bike (preferably a Vespa) and wear those half cononut shell type helmets to ride about, discovering little nooks and crannies in the island.

31. I still have not had my ultimate roadtrip with my friends yet. It used to be the Great Ocean Road in Australia, but a more cost reasonable road trip would be a 1 week drive to Koh Lanta in Thailand. It will include a night's stop in Penang on both ways of the drive leaving 5 nights in the beautiful island of Koh Lanta.

30. My favourite English TV series has got to be Ed. its a bout a big city lawyer who goes back to his hometown, sets up his office as well as to try and get the affections of his high school crush. The storyline about the average guy in school trying to get the hottest girl in school back then appeals so much to me. Now if only i could find DVDs on the series online...

29. My fave Chinese TV series is "At the threshold of an era" starring Gallen Lo Kar Leung. The show is so unpredictable and the bad guy always wins. Nick Chueng Ka Fai does well in his role as a baddie here.

28. I'd like to think that i'm the best brother my sister ever had, although i'm not the most perfect ;-p

27. My driving has gotten worse with age. Am I'm only 26 at this point in time. I definitely drive more and more like a Malaysian as each day passes. Gone were the days when i used to think that driving past 100kmh is speeding.

26. Oh I love to sing, but many ppl who had the misfortune of singing karaoke would know that I'm not Malaysian Idol material. I'm a super monotonous singer who only can sing in 2 styles : louder and softer ;-p

25. I think karaoke are a good way for a person to release stress. Esp for me since i love songs and i feel that i can connect music with my feelings. Singing them songs makes me feel much better.

24. I like to take charge when I'm organising something which involves my friends. Seeing them smile and having a great time gives me immense pleasure.

23. Yes, i like to please people i care about. Tell me what you want and how you want it; I'll try my best to come up with something. Some ppl might say that I'm too accomodating.

22. I may not be a natural leader, but I'll do it if its for the good of every1 and because i know i can do it.

21. My sister says i make a poor boyfriend, to which I strongly disagree

20. But i do think that i'm not boyfriend material. Most people actually see me more as husband material. I guess that the problem, connecting the part from boyfriend to husband, LOL

19. When it comes to getting what I want, sometimes i'm too shy to go for what I want. I'm slightly reserved, but it's not due to the lack of desire. Maybe i dont go for it in a direct manner, which isnt good, cause if there was a competition for what i want, I might end up losing.

18. I'd rather not get what I want just as long as it makes other happy (sounds stupid right?)

17. As much as I preach about Financial planning, i'm not the most disciplined in this aspect myself ;-p

16. I like to think things through and through before making a decision. I'd hate to make a rash decision, and that maybe the reason as to why sometimes i could be fickle.

15. I always try to look at things from the other person's point of view as well as looking at things from a macro aspect.

14. There were a few setback that I experienced last year, hence despite my many travels last year, it wasnt the best year of my life. This year though, i feel that it has to be the year i move on from last year's setbacks. And I'm trying, very hard everyday

13. Once in a while i meet some1 who comes into my life and immediately, you know these are great people to be around with. And you wished you had met them much earlier in your life. I'm blessed to have met these people.

12. I like cooking!! My specialties are Hokkien Mee, Loh Mee, and Braised Yee Mee

11. is my favourite number. Worn by by my favourite player of all time, Ryan Giggs

10. My car is like my mobile shoe closet. I have at least 5 pairs of footwear in it any anytime (except the times when i send it for cleaning)

9. When I use the restroom, i try to use the urinals in the middle

8. I'm a big believer in chivalry as well as fillial piety

7. Is the date of my birthday, and also another jersey number of my favourite player, Eric Cantona

6. My target weight which I have set for my self is 68kg

5. I like to keep my hair long but almost all of my friends have said that i dont look good in it. Always wanted the "Wang lee hom" look

4. I used to have a "curry puff" hairstyle thanks to my frequent use of hairbands

3. I used to wear a phone pouch right at my hips.

2. And I used to wear shorts with a short sleeved shirt to attain the "Uncle" look

1. I am now trying to change my fashion style to look more metro :-p


Thanks for making it this far!



Boodyboy, out!!

Looking back on 5 years of Boodyblog

This month marks 5 years of me on the blogosphere!

When i first started i was already on this bandwagon much later than most people, but that was because i didnt have access to a reliable internet service.

I wasn't expecting much from blogging, and i certainly didnt expect that I could blog for so many years.

I never blogged for money, that is partly due to my whiny posts, and due to the lack of readers( to whoever who still reads this, thanks a lot!). ALthough i would love to blog for money (like Kenny Sia et al), there would have been restrictions to my posts. I'm glad that i dont have this restriction and it's been great to look back at some of my older posts.

I have 3 blogs, the latest being this (hosted on Blogger). The first was hosted on Friendster (2 years), and the 2nd on Multiply (1 year).

For those who may not have known me then or find it too much to read all my previous posts, I will list down some of my favourite or memorable posts here. It's all links, so you will have to click on the link to read the posts. And is not in any order. I'm just going thru them now as well

:-D

Boody's Fave Blogposts!!

1st Reported case of Post Holiday Depression (PHD)

When i was young and naive, thinking about relationships

My 1st time

My 1st training misadventure in JB (due to the color of the text that has blended with the background color in the blog, please highlight the page so you can read the rest of the text) Oh and the post immediately after that were my feelings about the incident.

Trying to make a change

my 1st post on the Annual hungry police festival

my dating strengths and weaknesses back then

goals in life

Little things you wouldn't know about Boody during his time at OSK Trustees

my very young toughts of the world before i graduated

my thoughts on women's right in Uni

can boody get a book deal?

when i was looking for my 1st job after graduating

interviews tips from my own experience

Boody's human lifecycle theory

I guess thats a quick summary from my previous 2 blogs. the rest u can find them here on this blog!

Hope you enjoy reading them posts!


Boodyboy, out!!

Cameron Highlands - Teluk Intan - Sekinchan Road Trip

This is probably a photologue of my recent trip to Cameron Highland over the weekend. It was a 1 nighter, with a stop on the way back at Teluk Intan and Sekinchan.

We left in the afternoon and it took me about 4 hours to reach our place in in Tanah Rata.
After dropping our stuff in the room, we went off in search of a place to visit before night fell.



Our 1st stop was a place called Cactus Point. It's located just a little bit further from Brinchang.
These flower shots are just some of my favourites. Full album can be seen in my Facebook album =). The above shot is a picture of a pink daisy.



I call this orchid the Dancing lady. They look like women dancing when the wind blows :-)




I dont know what this flower is called, but according to Stef, its like cupcakes hanging upside down, mainly because of the star shape at the top of the flower




Crysanthemum flower





Cactus! At Cactus Point, duh~~

I dont know what this flower is called, but it looks nice!

Since most flower farms close at 6pm, we headed back to Brinchang town, where the famous meal would be steamboat dinner. We had steamboat dinner cooked using charcoal, hence you cna see the flame at the top of the picture! Plus it is faster with charcoal as you dont have to wait for the stuff to boil in the soup. It is constantly boiling. Great place to have Steamboat for dinner, thanks to the cool weather

Next morning, we went to Bala's Resort for breakfast, which sucked major time and was pricey. hence no pictures on it. It doesnt deserve any more publicity, not from me. After that, we headed to Kea Farm, where the vegetable market is. Its located near Equitorial Hotel.

Here you can find a huge selection of vegetables, fruits and flowers planted in Camerons.

The all famous Cameron's strawberries, sold just about every corner of this highland wonderland.

Next stop: Gunung Brinchang. Its located near Boh Tea's Sungai Palas Plantation (Note to self: Its closed on Mondays). It about an extra half an hour drive on poor road conditions. But i can bet with you that this has to be the best place to go to in Cameron Highlands! Reason: the forest here is Mossy, and there is tonnes of fresh air!

Here are tonnes of shots of the Mossy Forest.

Like the path to Wonderland!

I had a great time looking out for Wild Pitcher plants / Monkey cups in the forest!

Bamboo sprouting from its branches are a sight to behold, even in the sky

Here, I managed to snap a shot of a Lavender coloured wildflower with a bee landing on it!

And here is a blue eyed butterfly who rested on a fern leaf, and posed long enough for me to get a few shots from different angles

On the ground, there are wild berries, not sure if they are edible though.

More moss!!

Bamboo sprouting right from its branches, or shall I say, branching out ;-p

On the way down from Gunung Brinchang, we stopped by the tea plantation so I could get a few shots of the place.

On the way back for lunch and checking out, we stopped by a strawberry farm so Stef could get some strawberry jam for her friend.

After checking out, I decided to show the girls the unseen landmark of Malaysia. We took the scenic route back. I drove them to Teluk Intan, and showed them the Menara Condong of Teluk Intan. Stef was pretty unhappy at how little the building "Condong-ed". Well if it condeong-ed any more it would have collapsed. Plus this spares you a few grand on air tickets flying to Italy just to get a glimpse of another leaning tower.

We then drove southwards and passed by the small town of Sekinchan. Sekinchan is primarily a town that started due to its Rice planting economy. It still has vast Rice Fields today. This picture above reminds me of a scene from Cast Away starring Tom Hanks. A cross road with nothing in sight in the horizon.

I managed to take some nice shots of lalang / weed in the sunset as well as the paddy fields that evening.

After that, it was a drive all the way back from Sekinchan to Kuala Lumpur and by the time we reached home, it was about 10 ish.

It was a great road trip, boring as I maybe as a host and driver ;-p

Boodyboy, out!!!