January 30, 2011
Leaving Taiping
taken in Club Med Bali
So I am leaving Taiping today. Came here to pay a visit to an old friend whom I've known in the travel industry for ages.
Found out a lot of things to discover in Taiping and everything is so refreshing. Too bad I didn't get a chance to go up to Maxwell Hill. Because I woke up late. :( Boo*
Not sure when I will ever come back to this little town again though.
Mee rebus at RM2. Only in Taiping.
January 27, 2011
Evil Neighbor's God
Yesterday as I was packing, moving up and down abouts the condo. I spotted that the evil neighbor's curtain was taken out for a wash (on purpose?).
And for the first time I had a clear view of what was placed in their living room.
The god figure under red spotlight...
So without a second though, I whipped out my camera and took a photo. You know, for reference. And as proof. Just in case.
Today I booted up my computer and uploaded the photo onto my desktop. On a 21-inch screen, everything became clearer. On closer inspection, it looked sort of like "bao gong" - 包公.
Now I'm not really an expert on gods, Chinese gods in particular. And even though I know 'bao gong' is not technically a god, but a noble judge in the Ming Dynasty. However that doesn't stop people from praying to his statue.
But for what I know the 'bao gong' I always knew sort of look like this, sitting patiently with both arms on thighs.
Like this.
'bao gong' image obtained from google.
Does anyone know what god this is then?
On a bigger perspective, none of these details matter really. Whatever he's praying to, or believe in, it made him a very very angry person. (Read here if you don't understand what I'm talking about here)
So angry that he had to resort to exert physical actions on his wife and daugther, and verbal abuse on his neighbors, and of course, setting curses on us. -.-
Oh well, it's one more day before we can finally move everything out.
God bless that evil man. However it turns out for him, and his family.
ps// someone helpfully suggested it's Guang Gong. Wasn't Guang Gong a warlord? Was that why he was so angry? ha ha lame joke nvm me.
And for the first time I had a clear view of what was placed in their living room.
The god figure under red spotlight...
So without a second though, I whipped out my camera and took a photo. You know, for reference. And as proof. Just in case.
Today I booted up my computer and uploaded the photo onto my desktop. On a 21-inch screen, everything became clearer. On closer inspection, it looked sort of like "bao gong" - 包公.
Now I'm not really an expert on gods, Chinese gods in particular. And even though I know 'bao gong' is not technically a god, but a noble judge in the Ming Dynasty. However that doesn't stop people from praying to his statue.
But for what I know the 'bao gong' I always knew sort of look like this, sitting patiently with both arms on thighs.
Like this.
'bao gong' image obtained from google.
Does anyone know what god this is then?
On a bigger perspective, none of these details matter really. Whatever he's praying to, or believe in, it made him a very very angry person. (Read here if you don't understand what I'm talking about here)
So angry that he had to resort to exert physical actions on his wife and daugther, and verbal abuse on his neighbors, and of course, setting curses on us. -.-
Oh well, it's one more day before we can finally move everything out.
God bless that evil man. However it turns out for him, and his family.
ps// someone helpfully suggested it's Guang Gong. Wasn't Guang Gong a warlord? Was that why he was so angry? ha ha lame joke nvm me.
January 26, 2011
Somewhere Wet, Somewhere Tropical
And because I'm going to spend the whole day today packing, and probably have no time to sit in front of the computer, here's a little sneak peak to where I'm going to blog next!
It's a little place I brought my baby to his second year's birthday surprise!
I've already gone through half of the photos, so the first post should be up pretty soon. Yay!
It's a little place I brought my baby to his second year's birthday surprise!
I've already gone through half of the photos, so the first post should be up pretty soon. Yay!
January 24, 2011
Cursed (Kena Bomoh)
So I have been missing for several days, and so many things have happened these several days it's absurd.
For one, life has turned upside down for me when I woke up one day realising I was living in a painful reality of lies. I'll skip that part for most of the part right now, since it's too personal and private to talk about about it.
Then I found that my condo has been cursed, yes literally, like "kena bomoh".
"shaman"
And I never really believed this, hearing it from parents and friends never change my skeptical perception on the world and its spiritual realm... that was until I experienced it myself.
I know many of you have heard that line before: oh I never believe it till it actually happened to me.
Well it did.
And till today I wasn't sure if it's psychological or actual dark spirits at work, but I was having really odd moods and always wanted to sleep all day long. I meant, I could sleep up till 18 hours a day and still want to sleep more. Worst part, I was getting nightmares, and the last one struck me so hard it woke me up sobbed in tears.
To top it off, I was getting in fouler and fouler mood, if that explained the angry and moody tweets I've been throwing off on the internet. Sorry about that.
Let me explain.
It started one day, exactly 6 days ago when one morning, my baby found a red string tied to the gate of our condo where the padlock should go. It bound the gate together and we had no idea who did it. But it was creepy.
Red string? Haven't we heard that one before.
Now to explain what further happened, I have to talk about my neighbor, and not just any neighbor, this particular grumpy scrawny middle-age man that lives diagonally from my condo.
I have 7 neighbor on my floor and he is particularly the most evil person I have ever met, not just any neighbor. He used to burn these Chinese money-for-the-dead in front of his house, on the 17th floor, next to the voltage room!!
And could you believe how he smoked all our condos every twice a month he did that?! An utterly inconsiderate man!
That's not all. Whenever someone went up to him and advised against him on his burning act, he would grab a metal stick and threatened to hit you and then chased you away while throwing swears at you.
He was nasty. And he's been nasty to the neighbors for YEARS.
So we called the fire department.
Bla bla bla. Skip the dreary details, fire dept came and he was fined RM10,000 for burning "kim-chua" on a high-rise building, which could set the building on fire.
That was 10 months ago.
Few months later, my baby's car got scratched, three long key-scratch from front to back of his BMW.
(not my baby's car, just an example)
A month after that, one of his tyres was punctured (technically, the valve-cap was unscrewed to let the air out) and had to be towed to a nearby mechanic while mid-way driving on the road.
And then it happened again. Yes, TWICE that bastard punctured our tyres.
And how did we know it was him who performed the deed? Well, he gave it away by parking his Camry in the visitor's parking instead of his given parking lot (which was two cars next to ours) for one whole week.
Point 1: There was survellaince in the visitor's parking (none in our given parking lot area);
Point 2: hiding his car on a different level parking lot.
He just gave himself away as the culprit of all these sneaky indecent slimy acts. That bastard.
Now I have seen inside his condo before, through the curtains, and I knew what I saw, and it wasn't the buddha or the guanyin statue I saw inside that's glowing under the spotlight of red and orange lights. So I'd assume here it's, dare I say, a devil (evil god). Or in Chinese, "xie shen".
the statue I saw wasn't colorful, but just to show you how creepy seeing something this creepy feels like.
I don't know what he's praying but it made him a really angry man, like all the time. It's not the first time I saw him slapped his daugther for not obeying him. There's even one time he whacked her little 6 year-old daugther so hard across the tiny cheek for not obeying him to stand in front of the house, she went to the lift to press the lift button which was 5 tiny steps away from his door.
An old uncle saw it and told him that was not the right way to teach a his daugther, and the evil man scolded that old uncle for dipping in other people's business. WTF?!
Some should call the child abuse authority to take this man to jail!
A day after spotting the red string incident, we found an old lady wandering in front of our door one evening, after hearing footsteps near our place, but she got away by the time we tried to unlock and open the gate to go after her.
You see, we live at the end of a corridor, with our door facing the corridor, so there's no reason for anyone to even walk in the corridor that technically belonged to us unless they want to come into the house.
What was she doing out there? God knows. Or may I say, only the devil knew.
(I'm assuming that old lady is the evil man's mother)
Then finally, a day after that, or exactly on Thursday (four days ago), as my baby stepped in after getting back from work, his foot felt something buldging from beneath the 'welcome' mat outside our door. He lifted the mat up...
Guess what he found?
It was a palm-size black sheet of paper, with a brush of red ink on it, wrapped in dried reptile skin.
it looked something like this.
OMFG it's so creepy talking about it even gave me the pimples now!
F F F F !!!!!
We packed, left and never returned.
Till today.
Only to return in the afternoon to box up the things in the house and started my first day of.... MOVING OUT.
Yes. In a short four days, decision has been made. I am to move out from that cursed place for good. And I have one week to pack before I hand the keys over to my landlord.
And no, I'm not sleeping there anymore.
And in case you're wondering, vivid nightmares of my mom being torned apart to death while sleeping in that place motivated my decision to move out pronto.
ps// a neighbor old aunty told us today that evil man abuses his wife and daugther all the time, for the past 5 years.
pps// if for any reason you think I'm giving in to some superstitious "curse" and denied myself access to my home; I see it this way, even if it's not real, these crazy acts would still be psychologically disturbing to continue living in that space, and if you can't even feel safe or comfortable in your own home, how is it still called a home? Especially staying in close proximity with a neighbor that prays to evil god and abuses his wife and daugther. That thought alone is worrysome enough.
Not to mention the liability to have your cars damaged, scratched and punctured an incosiderable amount of time. If you act back, you're only as low as them, and the battle never ends; if you don't, it's too bloody costly to keep fixing up the car, or giving it a new paint job. So why bother? Moving is the sanest move thus far.
ppps// he parked both his Camry and Altis in the visitor's parkings today. Ah hah!
For one, life has turned upside down for me when I woke up one day realising I was living in a painful reality of lies. I'll skip that part for most of the part right now, since it's too personal and private to talk about about it.
Then I found that my condo has been cursed, yes literally, like "kena bomoh".
"shaman"
And I never really believed this, hearing it from parents and friends never change my skeptical perception on the world and its spiritual realm... that was until I experienced it myself.
I know many of you have heard that line before: oh I never believe it till it actually happened to me.
Well it did.
And till today I wasn't sure if it's psychological or actual dark spirits at work, but I was having really odd moods and always wanted to sleep all day long. I meant, I could sleep up till 18 hours a day and still want to sleep more. Worst part, I was getting nightmares, and the last one struck me so hard it woke me up sobbed in tears.
To top it off, I was getting in fouler and fouler mood, if that explained the angry and moody tweets I've been throwing off on the internet. Sorry about that.
Let me explain.
It started one day, exactly 6 days ago when one morning, my baby found a red string tied to the gate of our condo where the padlock should go. It bound the gate together and we had no idea who did it. But it was creepy.
Red string? Haven't we heard that one before.
Now to explain what further happened, I have to talk about my neighbor, and not just any neighbor, this particular grumpy scrawny middle-age man that lives diagonally from my condo.
I have 7 neighbor on my floor and he is particularly the most evil person I have ever met, not just any neighbor. He used to burn these Chinese money-for-the-dead in front of his house, on the 17th floor, next to the voltage room!!
And could you believe how he smoked all our condos every twice a month he did that?! An utterly inconsiderate man!
That's not all. Whenever someone went up to him and advised against him on his burning act, he would grab a metal stick and threatened to hit you and then chased you away while throwing swears at you.
He was nasty. And he's been nasty to the neighbors for YEARS.
So we called the fire department.
Bla bla bla. Skip the dreary details, fire dept came and he was fined RM10,000 for burning "kim-chua" on a high-rise building, which could set the building on fire.
That was 10 months ago.
Few months later, my baby's car got scratched, three long key-scratch from front to back of his BMW.
(not my baby's car, just an example)
A month after that, one of his tyres was punctured (technically, the valve-cap was unscrewed to let the air out) and had to be towed to a nearby mechanic while mid-way driving on the road.
And then it happened again. Yes, TWICE that bastard punctured our tyres.
And how did we know it was him who performed the deed? Well, he gave it away by parking his Camry in the visitor's parking instead of his given parking lot (which was two cars next to ours) for one whole week.
Point 1: There was survellaince in the visitor's parking (none in our given parking lot area);
Point 2: hiding his car on a different level parking lot.
He just gave himself away as the culprit of all these sneaky indecent slimy acts. That bastard.
Now I have seen inside his condo before, through the curtains, and I knew what I saw, and it wasn't the buddha or the guanyin statue I saw inside that's glowing under the spotlight of red and orange lights. So I'd assume here it's, dare I say, a devil (evil god). Or in Chinese, "xie shen".
the statue I saw wasn't colorful, but just to show you how creepy seeing something this creepy feels like.
I don't know what he's praying but it made him a really angry man, like all the time. It's not the first time I saw him slapped his daugther for not obeying him. There's even one time he whacked her little 6 year-old daugther so hard across the tiny cheek for not obeying him to stand in front of the house, she went to the lift to press the lift button which was 5 tiny steps away from his door.
An old uncle saw it and told him that was not the right way to teach a his daugther, and the evil man scolded that old uncle for dipping in other people's business. WTF?!
Some should call the child abuse authority to take this man to jail!
A day after spotting the red string incident, we found an old lady wandering in front of our door one evening, after hearing footsteps near our place, but she got away by the time we tried to unlock and open the gate to go after her.
You see, we live at the end of a corridor, with our door facing the corridor, so there's no reason for anyone to even walk in the corridor that technically belonged to us unless they want to come into the house.
What was she doing out there? God knows. Or may I say, only the devil knew.
(I'm assuming that old lady is the evil man's mother)
Then finally, a day after that, or exactly on Thursday (four days ago), as my baby stepped in after getting back from work, his foot felt something buldging from beneath the 'welcome' mat outside our door. He lifted the mat up...
Guess what he found?
It was a palm-size black sheet of paper, with a brush of red ink on it, wrapped in dried reptile skin.
it looked something like this.
OMFG it's so creepy talking about it even gave me the pimples now!
F F F F !!!!!
We packed, left and never returned.
Till today.
Only to return in the afternoon to box up the things in the house and started my first day of.... MOVING OUT.
Yes. In a short four days, decision has been made. I am to move out from that cursed place for good. And I have one week to pack before I hand the keys over to my landlord.
And no, I'm not sleeping there anymore.
And in case you're wondering, vivid nightmares of my mom being torned apart to death while sleeping in that place motivated my decision to move out pronto.
ps// a neighbor old aunty told us today that evil man abuses his wife and daugther all the time, for the past 5 years.
pps// if for any reason you think I'm giving in to some superstitious "curse" and denied myself access to my home; I see it this way, even if it's not real, these crazy acts would still be psychologically disturbing to continue living in that space, and if you can't even feel safe or comfortable in your own home, how is it still called a home? Especially staying in close proximity with a neighbor that prays to evil god and abuses his wife and daugther. That thought alone is worrysome enough.
Not to mention the liability to have your cars damaged, scratched and punctured an incosiderable amount of time. If you act back, you're only as low as them, and the battle never ends; if you don't, it's too bloody costly to keep fixing up the car, or giving it a new paint job. So why bother? Moving is the sanest move thus far.
ppps// he parked both his Camry and Altis in the visitor's parkings today. Ah hah!
January 19, 2011
How to Drink Wasabi Shot
Never heard of a Wasabi Shot?
Oh then you're in for an gastronomic adventure ride.
Learnt and drank in Daikanyama from those crazy bartenders with a creative chef that excelled in Japanese cuisine, Wasabi shot is a tequila shot drink which you take with... you guess it... wasabi.
Here are the steps.
1. First prepare the ingredients, you would need one shot of tequila, one shot of tomato juice and a teaspoon of wasabi. This is for one serving. No salt required.
2. Next, spread the wasabi over your hand, like how you would with salt when you take a tequila shot.
3. To start off. Lick off the wasabi from your hand into your mouth.
You heard me. Take it in raw.
Now don't do anything to it yet. Just let the wasabi rest on your tongue, do not squash it with your tongue (if you do, it's at your own risk from here buddy).
4. Very quickly, take the tequila shot BUT DO NOT DRINK it yet.
Instead, swirl it around inside your mouth with the wasabi to blend it together.
Relax, the wasabi won't hit you, yet.
5. Now, swallow. Tequila and the wasabi.
6. Follow up with the tomato juice.
Savour this for a while before you swallow as this would help kill off the "kick" from the wasabi almost instantaneously.
Swallow the tomato juice.
And you're done!
You have done the Wasabi Shot.
*standing ovation*
You shall now experience the heating sensation in your stomach the wasabi is stirring in there. Fun eh?
Remember to take some food, it'll ease the heat.
Oh then you're in for an gastronomic adventure ride.
Learnt and drank in Daikanyama from those crazy bartenders with a creative chef that excelled in Japanese cuisine, Wasabi shot is a tequila shot drink which you take with... you guess it... wasabi.
Here are the steps.
1. First prepare the ingredients, you would need one shot of tequila, one shot of tomato juice and a teaspoon of wasabi. This is for one serving. No salt required.
2. Next, spread the wasabi over your hand, like how you would with salt when you take a tequila shot.
3. To start off. Lick off the wasabi from your hand into your mouth.
You heard me. Take it in raw.
Now don't do anything to it yet. Just let the wasabi rest on your tongue, do not squash it with your tongue (if you do, it's at your own risk from here buddy).
4. Very quickly, take the tequila shot BUT DO NOT DRINK it yet.
Instead, swirl it around inside your mouth with the wasabi to blend it together.
Relax, the wasabi won't hit you, yet.
5. Now, swallow. Tequila and the wasabi.
6. Follow up with the tomato juice.
Savour this for a while before you swallow as this would help kill off the "kick" from the wasabi almost instantaneously.
Swallow the tomato juice.
And you're done!
You have done the Wasabi Shot.
*standing ovation*
You shall now experience the heating sensation in your stomach the wasabi is stirring in there. Fun eh?
Remember to take some food, it'll ease the heat.
January 17, 2011
Daikanyama
The best Japanese bistro in town to have Japanese inspired cocktails.
choya cocktail - japanese plum
They also served really nice snacks to pair with your cocktails on a winding-down evening with your girlfriends after work.
I was invited to try the food there few months ago and I was immensely impressed by the selections of cocktails there. And how delicious each one of them were! (except for one particular green one which tasted weird)
The evening started with my typical favourite: Lychee Martini.
Then moved onto Pink Geisha.
Both of which were divine drinks. Sweeter than normal cocktails but that's how I liked them.
The alcohol helped get the conversation going and before we knew it, other invited guests were swarming in and it was almost time for dinner.
We started with Beef Teri Salad, a very sweet decadent dish that's awesome as starters to get your bites going. Tender and nice.
To which by now I was moving onto my third drink: Choya cocktail.
Now Choya cocktail is basically Daikanyama's signature drink, a mixture of choya (widely used Japanese plum in Japanese dishes), yumeishu and vodka. It's sour, paired with tongue-clapping vodka, made it a drink that you either love or hate. My baby hated it, I loved it.
Here's a list of drinks I loved that night:
There were the lychee martini (98% love), pink geisha (100% love), choya (70% love)...
Also...
Kimosan - 101% love
Apricoto Suppai - 120% love!!!!
And the list of drinks I didn't like that night... (actually, just two)
from left: some green drink I didn't bother to remember the name and grasshoper (I think).
The green cocktail was especially... odd. I couldn't have more than 3 sips. It was recommended by the waitress so maybe it's one of their named Japanese cocktails.
By the time the second dish Soba with Prawn Salad came, I realised a fault in the bistro. Food were slow. Possibly due to the large quantity of people they were serving that night. The good news was drinks were fast, and nice. There's nothing better than free delicious cocktails to keep us busy on a hungry tummy (no sacarsm intended). I have dangerously moved onto my fourth cocktail of the night by now. *warning*
Since I neither liked prawns or soba, I passed this one on.
Nasu Dengaku. Basically grilled eggplant topped with special miso paste. Smallest portion of all but a wonder as an appertiser, delicious.
I would order this chawanmushi just for the two thin slices of smoked duck draped on top if not. Powering taste and very tender and smooth, however it paled the chawanmushi in the process. Really nice served individually, but not together.
Mini Scallop Pizza. Possibly my favourite tit-bits in Daikanyama. It's like crispy nachos with toppings but creamier and sweeter. YUM!
Another close up photo.
Lamb Yaki - grilled teriyaki lamb on a stick. I love anything teriyaki so this was such a pleasure to eat. The chef cooked it to medium, just the way I like it, juicy and tender. So good that I had the waitress brought us another serving. *greedy*
Salmon Truffle Oil Tataki. Pale in comparison with the others but the fact it's salmon, served in truffle oil, made the dish a treat for the night. Who would pass up fresh salmon eh? I wouldn't order this if I had to pay, but would wallop it whole if someone's getting the bill.
Soft Shell Crab with Salmon Maki. Mango was a big no no for me, not in this dish, not in any dish other than dessert.
Fried Unagi Tofu. Couldn't taste the unagi. Took one bite and threw it to someone else.
California Cheese Maki. Anything with Unagi adds points to my ratings. The cheese didn't make any impact but the sweetness of the unagi did. Not the best Unagi sushi maki I had, not bad either.
Saikoro Steak. Sweet tender bite-size beef. Yes, yes and yes. I'm especially particular with beef normally but this hit my palate right on the spot. Bing!
I ended the night with another glass of Apricoto Suppai. Best sweet cocktail EVER!
Daikanyama
42, Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50200 Kuala Lumpur.
Mon-Thurs: 5:30pm - 12:30am
Fri-Sat: 5:30pm - 3am
Tel: 03-2141 0323 (Takes reservations)
choya cocktail - japanese plum
They also served really nice snacks to pair with your cocktails on a winding-down evening with your girlfriends after work.
I was invited to try the food there few months ago and I was immensely impressed by the selections of cocktails there. And how delicious each one of them were! (except for one particular green one which tasted weird)
The evening started with my typical favourite: Lychee Martini.
Then moved onto Pink Geisha.
Both of which were divine drinks. Sweeter than normal cocktails but that's how I liked them.
The alcohol helped get the conversation going and before we knew it, other invited guests were swarming in and it was almost time for dinner.
We started with Beef Teri Salad, a very sweet decadent dish that's awesome as starters to get your bites going. Tender and nice.
To which by now I was moving onto my third drink: Choya cocktail.
Now Choya cocktail is basically Daikanyama's signature drink, a mixture of choya (widely used Japanese plum in Japanese dishes), yumeishu and vodka. It's sour, paired with tongue-clapping vodka, made it a drink that you either love or hate. My baby hated it, I loved it.
Here's a list of drinks I loved that night:
There were the lychee martini (98% love), pink geisha (100% love), choya (70% love)...
Also...
Kimosan - 101% love
Apricoto Suppai - 120% love!!!!
And the list of drinks I didn't like that night... (actually, just two)
from left: some green drink I didn't bother to remember the name and grasshoper (I think).
The green cocktail was especially... odd. I couldn't have more than 3 sips. It was recommended by the waitress so maybe it's one of their named Japanese cocktails.
By the time the second dish Soba with Prawn Salad came, I realised a fault in the bistro. Food were slow. Possibly due to the large quantity of people they were serving that night. The good news was drinks were fast, and nice. There's nothing better than free delicious cocktails to keep us busy on a hungry tummy (no sacarsm intended). I have dangerously moved onto my fourth cocktail of the night by now. *warning*
Since I neither liked prawns or soba, I passed this one on.
Nasu Dengaku. Basically grilled eggplant topped with special miso paste. Smallest portion of all but a wonder as an appertiser, delicious.
I would order this chawanmushi just for the two thin slices of smoked duck draped on top if not. Powering taste and very tender and smooth, however it paled the chawanmushi in the process. Really nice served individually, but not together.
Mini Scallop Pizza. Possibly my favourite tit-bits in Daikanyama. It's like crispy nachos with toppings but creamier and sweeter. YUM!
Another close up photo.
Lamb Yaki - grilled teriyaki lamb on a stick. I love anything teriyaki so this was such a pleasure to eat. The chef cooked it to medium, just the way I like it, juicy and tender. So good that I had the waitress brought us another serving. *greedy*
Salmon Truffle Oil Tataki. Pale in comparison with the others but the fact it's salmon, served in truffle oil, made the dish a treat for the night. Who would pass up fresh salmon eh? I wouldn't order this if I had to pay, but would wallop it whole if someone's getting the bill.
Soft Shell Crab with Salmon Maki. Mango was a big no no for me, not in this dish, not in any dish other than dessert.
Fried Unagi Tofu. Couldn't taste the unagi. Took one bite and threw it to someone else.
California Cheese Maki. Anything with Unagi adds points to my ratings. The cheese didn't make any impact but the sweetness of the unagi did. Not the best Unagi sushi maki I had, not bad either.
Saikoro Steak. Sweet tender bite-size beef. Yes, yes and yes. I'm especially particular with beef normally but this hit my palate right on the spot. Bing!
I ended the night with another glass of Apricoto Suppai. Best sweet cocktail EVER!
Daikanyama
42, Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50200 Kuala Lumpur.
Mon-Thurs: 5:30pm - 12:30am
Fri-Sat: 5:30pm - 3am
Tel: 03-2141 0323 (Takes reservations)