An Awesome Temple! Wat Rong Kun a.k.a the white temple

Thailand is one of the favourite/ popular tourist destinations. For many of us, first thing that comes across our mind should be 'temple'. If you happen to check out the Thailand map, you will be able to see lots of big and small temples scattered around the place. According to my tour guide in Chiang Rai, temples used to be a learning centre/ school and hospital in the past. That explains why there's a numerous number of temples around. 

When I was in Chiang Rai (northern Thailand) about 2 months ago, I visited an awesome and extraordinary temple. A Buddhist and Hindu temple that is very different from the rest of the temples. It is an outstanding post-modern temple designed by a Thai artist - Chalermchai Kositpipat. 

I snapped a picture with the super talented artist

Me and my family in front of the amazing temple

The design is seriously awesome! I guarantee that you will be amazed by the GREAT designed temple which is white in colour! 

Before we could enter the temple (assembly hall), we passed by the hell. Once we passed through the hell, we got onto a bridge that brought us to the heaven. I believe that the bad guys will join the hell community while the good guys will get a green light to enter the fantastic heaven. =)

People in hell were struggling to get out of that world

Good guys will get the opportunity to enter the heaven through the beautifully constructed bridge

Under the sun, we noticed that the temple were actually shining! When we walked closer, we saw lots of small mini mirrors/ white glass that were stuck on the building. This is an innovative way to make the building looks special!!

When we entered the assembly hall, we saw an undone wall mural (paintings). Sadly, no camera was allowed at the area. However, I still remember there were spiderman, doraemon, batman, Keanu Reeves character in the Matrix and even Osama bin Ladin! There's a story behind the painting. The artist was trying to illustrate that we have heroes in our world and war is going on... bla bla bla...

If you join a tour, you will get to listen to the full story. However, the down side is, tours are usually rush and you wont be able to walk through the whole temple. Therefore, me and my family only got to spend a very limited time to enjoy the beautiful scene of Wat Rong Kun.

Beautiful side view of the white temple

Another building next to the white temple - gold temple

Well, this temple began its constructions in 1997 (14 years ago). However, the constructions work is still on-going. So, probably I will see something different/ more buildings 10 years down the road.

I personally think that this is a must visit if you happen to go to Northern Thailand. =) 

*Cheers*

Pray for Japan

For the time being, lets all pray for the victims of Japan earthquake and tsunami waves. May god bless all of you.

"The US Geological Survey has upgraded the magnitude of Friday's deadly earthquake in Japan to 9.0

The move came after Japan's Meteorological Agency did the same. It's not unusual for scientists to tweak the magnitude of a giant quake after some number-crunching.

US government scientists originally put the Japan quake at 8.9. The change to 9.0 means that the quake was about 1.5 times stronger than initially thought.
The Japan quake is now the fourth largest in the world since 1900 behind the 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatra quake"

Source: The Star

Thai's version Wong Lo Kat

There is a Chinese restaurant nearby to my apartment. We never have problem in food ordering as the owners speak Mandarin. Besides, their menu consists of Thai, English and even Chinese language!

One night, the lady boss recommended me a herbal drinks - Wong Lo Kat. LOL! Thailand have its Wong Lo Kat herbal drinks too! Its packaging is almost the same as Malaysia's besides the additional Thai wordings.

It costs about 30 to 40 Baht (RM3-4)

It tastes good... Sweet =)

*Cheers*

New home for my furry friends

My furry friends finally get into my new apartment in Bangkok!! 

They were stuffed inside my luggage bag last Tuesday and flew over to Bangkok with me by Malaysia Airlines. =) Luckily they are still in good shape. LOL!

*Cheers*

Happy Year of Bunny :-)

Dear all,

Happy Chinese New Year!! Wishing you a wealthy and prosperous new year. Good Luck!! :)

*Cheers*

Challenges over in Bangkok

Working in Bangkok is full of challenges. The most challenging part is the language barrier, which is much more severe than it was in Jakarta. Thai language is a totally different language. So far, I only managed to learn a small handful of Thai language. Its only enough for me to do bargaining at shopping. Hehe!! Bargaining skill is a must in Bangkok!

Our bigger issue is the problem during food ordering, especially those without English menu/ pictures! What can we do were either simply pointed at something or pointed at their customers’ bowl/ plate and asked for the same dish. Then, fingers crossed and hoped that the dish is what was expected. Therefore, we usually opt for the restaurants with an English menu or at least picture menu. We thought the real bowl of rice/ noodle should not go very far off from the picture. Haha!!

Taking about food, another challenge for me is the spicy food!! Their chilies are superb in term of spiciness. Most of their tom yum or soup is added with tones of chilies. The chilies come in different sizes and shapes, including thin & short, fat & short, fat & long, and even green & round!! There was once T thought the rounded green chili was a green pea. LOL! He bitted on it and threw it out immediately. That was freaking spicy! For me, I always ended up with lots of water/ ice after the spicy meals.

Last weekend, my colleagues and I visited the Pratunam market. Along the street, we saw a stall sold some fried stuff. There were fried grasshopper, beetles and worm. I suggested to T to tryout some of them. He bought 1 packet of fried worm and he dared me to eat them!! Ouchh!! They are worms…

Check out the fat and juicy worms

He tried one and commented that it was not bad! ST tried one too. They said it tasted like the Chinese 'kam heung' cooking style of fried worm. Emmm... Ohh well, I ended up trying too! I took 1 bite at the tail instead of the head (the 2 eyes at its head were freaking me out). Its texture tasted like green pea!! I hate eating green pea. So, this is not my cup of tea. I won’t eat it again even though the taste was not horribly freaky.

My half bite fried worm

T seemed to love it a lot. Haha! He poured a lot of the worms onto his plate of chicken rice and ate them as side dish. I should have snapped a picture of his rice island that was surrounded with fried worms.

I believe that there will be more challenges ahead. I'm ready to face all those upcoming challenges/ events. Com’on, bring it on!! :-)

*Cheers*

*Bangkok dangerous*

When I returned to my apartment last night, I found that something was not right. Why was my bedroom door locked?! OMG! The apartment owner did not give me any key for that room!! I must be accidentally locked it in the morning! All my clothes and stuffs were locked in that room!! *(O_o)*

I was desperately wanted to open the door!! I need to get into the room!! T was there trying to unlock the door with various methods. We tried to slip business cards, post cards and brochures in between the door gap and hoped for the door to be unlocked. He even tried to poke the lock with wire and hair pin! However, all those were not working at all!! The door remain as locked.

These are some of the methods we tried to unlock the door (proven not working/ or we just didn't have the skills)

I called my Thai colleague for help, but her phone reception was so bad! We can hardly hear each other. Then, I called ST, another colleague a.k.a. neighbour for help. However, he was like in the mood of partially drunk. I wasn't sure if he heard me and understood my shit hit the fan situation at that time. Haha!

In the end, T and I approached our apartment security guard for assistance. We communicated with him with the simplest English. "Door locked. No key." (added with some sign language) Thank god! He understood and immediately informed a maintenance officer to help me.

The maintenance officer followed us to the apartment unit. I pointed at my door knob. He looked at it and walked into the living hall instead. Guess what? He climbed out from the living hall window and slowly walked towards my room!! Then, he climbed into my room through the room window! Oh my gosh! It was a 12th floor and the sky was so dark! I can't imagine what would happen if he accidentally slipped and fall down. Touch wood!!

Luckily the window in my room was not locked (This picture was snapped from the living hall window)

When I looked down from my 12th floor window, its pretty dangerous!

Within a few minutes, he managed to unlock my room and came out in one piece! *Phew!!* "krap khoon kaaa!!" I thanked him loudly in Thai. He saved my night! =) Now, I will always making sure that I don't repeat the same stupid mistake. I do not want another "Bangkok Dangerous" incident here. LOL!

*Cheers*

A 'cold' & 'wild' birthday treat

My birthday had past for more than 3 months and I have yet to post up my wonderful birthday treat in Indonesia. I finally managed to squeeze some time out of my busy working schedule for some updates.

On my birthday afternoon, Mdm W drove me and another 2 colleagues to a nice Dutch restaurant in Puncak, Bogor. I ordered a dutch style cheese pancake and it was so exceptionally delicious!! On top of that, I ate a plate of spaghetti cabonara too. It was a plate of dry cabonara, which was not the creamy cabonara that we usually have in KL.  Although that was something new to me, I still prefer the normal creamy type :)

After lunch, we walked around the surrounding area of the restaurant. We enjoyed the cooling weather as well as the nice scenery.

I am not sure what plant is this, but it looks special to me. The yellow flowers were looking down at the ground instead of the sky

We snapped a picture under this funny looking tree

The scenery behind was just great!

After that, we entered into the Safari Zoo!! Let me tell you how different is this zoo compared to our normal national zoo! Guess what, we can drive our cars into the zoo! Yes, Mdm W actually drove her 3 Series into this zoo!! First of all, we were greeted by a friendly zebra.

It came so near and it was licking on our car window!! Probably it was hungry and was hoping for some food donation. Hahaha!

Then, we saw animals were free to walk anywhere in the safari zoo!

And wooosh!! Even the lions!!

... and tigers too!!

Before we leaved the zoo, our car was nearly knock down by a hungry elephant. It was walking side-way towards our car when it saw a visitor had a yummy carrot in her hand. But we were lucky enough to move the car away in time. *Phew!!*

Lastly, we shopped for Puncak's famous yogurt drinks before heading home. *Slurp* The yogurt drinks were fresh from the factory!

Overall, I had 3 wonderful experiences of birthday celebrations last year, including my pre-birthday and post-birthday celebrations. =)

*Cheers*

Why It’s Smart To Be Optimistic

I found a useful article from Reader's Digest. After reading this article, I know what is the importance of being an optimistic person. =)

Expecting good things can make you healthier and might even lengthen your life, says researcher Suzanne Segerstrom, PhD, author of Breaking Murphy’s Law. Segerstrom is coauthor of a recent review of studies on the benefits of a positive attitude—and has experienced them herself. We asked her about optimism’s principles and payoffs.

1) Feeling well helps when you’re not well
“When researchers look at people who have similar medical conditions, they can predict who’s likely to live longer: the one who feels his health is better. There’s something about that feeling of wellness that’s important, even—maybe especially—if you’re ill. Optimism also seems to help buffer you against stress. I’ve been studying first-year law students for 16 years. That’s a very stressed group, but in my most recent study, each time a student’s optimism increased one point on a five-point scale, his immune response to an injected virus or yeast improved by 20 percent.”

2) Optimism is something you do
“Anxiety and other negative emotions are known to be detri-mental to the body, especially to your cardiovascular and immune systems, and having an optimistic nature seems to protect against those effects.

In addition, research shows that people who are optimistic about their future behave differently. They exercise more, are less likely to smoke, and follow a better diet. And if they get sick, they’re more apt to actively participate in their treatment. I’ve seen that myself—I have back pain from arthritis, but I think my willingness to do whatever it takes has helped a lot.”

3) Not happy? Don’t worry
“Happiness is a feeling; optimism is a belief that aspects of your future will turn out well. Happiness can fluctuate a lot, but an optimistic disposition is usually pretty stable. If you’re not optimistic, you can try creating a ‘positive events’ log. Good things happen to everyone, but pessimists often don’t take notice; spending a few minutes every day writing about at least three positive things may help you expect them more often. Or instead of trying to be optimistic, do what optimists do: Work hard to reach your goals. Each accomplishment should make it easier to be hopeful about the next one.”

Depending on which study you read, optimists …

…are 9 percent less likely to develop heart disease.

…are only 77 percent as likely to be rehospitalized after some types of major surgery.

…have blood pressure that’s five points lower, on average.

…live an average of 9.5 years longer.

So, start from now, let's be optimistic!!

*Cheers*

What to do when your shoes are wet in the office?

This afternoon I had my lunch at a nearby food stall. When T and I were half way eating our bakmi goreng (fried noodle), the sky turned dark in a sudden. A few minutes later, it was raining cats and dogs!! 

OMG! We had no umbrella at that time!! When we finished lunch, the rain was still very heavy and it didn't seem to be getting slower. We stood in front of the stall and looked for a 'water boy' (kids who rent you their umbrellas during rainy days). We thought of renting an umbrella from one of the kids. However, the demand was higher than the supply and we couldn't get any umbrella.

Luckily, the stall owner offered his umbrella to us. He sent his staff to follow us back to the office and we returned the umbrella to him upon reaching our destination. On the way back, we walked pass tonnes of potholes on the road! On top of that, the passing-by vehicles were splashing water onto the pedestrian pathway. Even though T and I were sharing a huge umbrella, we still got wet, especially my leg.

I even stepped into a puddle of water and got my shoes totally wet! *Sniff* I thought this pair of shoes might be a total loss! I was thinking of shoes shopping already. :p

When I reached the office, I immediately wiped myself dry. I was trying to wipe my shoes also, but it was just too wet. Guess what happened after that...

That was what happened

Hahaha! I put my shoes in front of the fan! I fanned it from 1pm to 5pm. In between, I also changed the position of the shoes so that it can get dry from all angles. Hahaha!! During that 4 hours, one of my colleagues, W was kind enough to lend me her slippers.

W's 'fishy' slippers and my wet high heels

Her slippers were way too cute!! I was so shy to wear it to the toilet. Hahaha! Bottom line, it really works when you are drying your wet shoes under the fan for a couple of hours! My shoes are now dry and wearable. So, next time if you have the same problem, why not try out this way?

*Cheers*

Balinese crispy duck @ Dirty Duck Diner (Bebek Bengkil), Jakarta

Last week T invited me to join him and his friends for lunch in Menteng, Jakarta. His friend, M recommended a restaurant that serves great Balinese crispy duck (a.k.a. bebek bengkil). We wasn't sure the exact location of the restaurant and we thought the cab driver should be able to get us there.

On the next day, we took a cab to Menteng. The first cab driver had no clue where exactly Bebek Bengil was located! We got down from the first cab and took another cab. I told the second cab driver that the place is near Plaza Menteng (that was one of the landmark I saw in google map). The driver nodded his head and fetched us to Menteng.

About 10-15 minutes later, he stopped the cab in front of Plaza Menteng. He told us that he had no idea where was Bebek Bengkil. Gosh! We got stuck and we had no choice but to get down from the cab. We asked one of the shopkeepers nearby and she knew which restaurant we were looking for! Thank god!

She pointed to the left hand side and told us to walk down the road. I asked if it is walking distance (Bisa jalan ke tempat itu, ke?). She answered 'Yes!' (Bisa!) and nodded her head confidently. So, we thought it might be near. Then, she added 'lumayan jugak!'. T and I thought she was commenting the food in Bebek Bengil was quite pricey. Well, we thanked her for the direction. After 15 minutes of walk, we still do not see the restaurant! We even dropped by a few shops for directions but they do not seems to know where is the restaurant. 

Later, M sent an sms to inform us the full address of restaurant. The restaurant was at No.132, and we were right in front of No. 31!! The numbers were not even close!! Not only that, we were not even on the correct street! We started to feel panic and asked for more directions. 

This time, I asked for the particular street instead of the name of the restaurant. The lady knew the street and pointed its way. Then, I asked if its far (jauh?). She nodded her head and said 'lumayan..'... GOSH! T and I were speechless! We finally understood what was the meaning of 'lumayan'... it meant very far!!

Isshh! We were tired and sweaty after the long walk. So, we decided to take a cab to the restaurant. Finally, we managed to get to the restaurant after the misunderstandings due to language barrier.

There were 2 monuments at the entrance of Dirty Duck Diner

And pond with tortoises and fishes in the middle of restaurant =)

 Another view of the restaurant

I told M and MW about how we misunderstood the word 'lumayan'. They laughed out loud!! Hahah! I got to really brush up my Bahasa Indonesia. Or else, more of these may happen in the future. LOL!

For the restaurant, there were two sections - indoor and outdoor. Since the weather looked great, we preferred the outdoor seat. We were sitting under a 'pondok' (small hut). Looked cool huh?

M was distributing food to his daughter

My bebek bengil - the signature meal, came with vegetable and special chili sauce (not in the picture)

The crispy duck was simply great! Although I am not a fan of duck meat, I enjoyed this crispy duck very much! On top of that, the portion of food was pretty generous. I was stuffed even before I could finish up my rice.

 I was relaxed after lunch

T was even more relaxed!

This restaurant was also recommended by a travel magazine recently

Finally, here's the address of the restaurant...

*Cheers*

Tea time @ Kopi Luwak Cafe, Grand Indonesia

Wednesday was a public holiday too in Indonesia. T and I took a break from work and checked out places around Jakarta. We went to Grand Indonesia, one of the most famous shopping mall in Central Jakarta. 

We took the opportunity to shop around. T grabbed himself 2 big bags of discounted branded clothes from a closing down sales. Most of them were on 70-80% off!! However, too bad that I didn't see anything that caught my eyes.

After that, we marched into Sport Warehouse as we saw the 'SALES UP TO 70%' signage!! We couldn't resist to spend some time checking it out! We bought ourselves a pair of half-priced New Balance shoes! It was such a great deal! And I doubt I could get the same pair of shoes in KL with this incredible price. =)

We felt tired after that and dropped by a coffee house - Kopi Luwak Cafe. This coffee house serves the Indonesia most famous coffee, which is Luwak coffee.

Interior of the coffee house, where a lot of coffee bags were placed at the roof as decorations

According to Wikipedia, "Kopi luwak, or civet coffee, is coffee made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet and other related civets, then passed through its digestive tract. A civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In its stomach, proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape. After gathering, thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and brewing, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness, widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world."

T decided to try out the special cup of Luwak coffee (IDR90,000; approximately RM30), while I ordered for a glass of ice-blended avocado coffee (IDR30,000; approximately RM10). When the drinks came, we were rather surprised. The waitress brought a thermos, a cup, sugar and a pack of coffee sachet (looked like the 3-in-1 coffee sachet). Then, she cut open the sachet and let us smelt the aroma of luwak coffee beans. After that, she poured the coffee powder into the cup, added hot water (from the thermos), stirred and covered the cup with a lid. She told T to wait for another 2 minutes before drinking the world's most expensive Luwak coffee.

Luwak coffee was presented to us in this manner

T snapped a picture of me with his precious coffee while waiting for the 2 minutes

And this is my ice-blended avocado coffee

That was my first time trying out the ice-blended avocado coffee. I thought it is something new and special. However, I found its taste was just so-so. I do prefer ice-blended avocado drink with chocolate more than this. *yummers!!* =)
 

*Cheers*

Great Italian food in Jakarta

Last week, my bosses and I had lunch in Caffe D' Angelo, an Italian Restaurant located in The East Mall, Jakarta. Mdm W recommended that their food was great. Hence, we gave it a try. 

When we entered the restaurant, we found that the ambiance and the designs of the restaurant were nice. Besides, there was a section with wine racks and it was full with wine bottles! Cool!

I had a piece of thin crust pizza and a plate of lagsane. The pizza was so crispy and cheesy!! And the lagsane was very cheesy too! I am a cheese lover. So, the cheesy Italian food can really delight me. Heheh! The food portion was very generous and I couldn't finish it. =( But it was really good!

The delicious lagsane *Yummers!!!*

I also ordered a cup of hot chocolate. Guess what... The drink was so thick! I had to 'eat' my hot chocolate with my spoon instead of drinking it from the cup. It was just like some melted chocolate in a cup. Hahah! I think it should be listed in the dessert menu instead of the drinks menu. Or probably I need some strawberry or marshmallow to go with the chocolate.

This is my cup of hot chocolate

I enjoyed my meal very much!! If I have chance to visit this restaurant again, I would try their cabonara spaghetti too!! Overall, Caffe D' Angelo serves great Italian food =)

*Cheers*

An 'oinky' birthday celebration with a bunch of good friends

Notice: This post is a non-halal post

I only get to return to my home-sweet-home (KL) every fortnightly. So, my bunch of uni good friends celebrated my birthday on the weekend I came back to KL. They brought me to El Cerdo for some juicy German roasted suckling pig.

El Cerdo is located at Changkat Bukit Bintang, which is a very happening hang-out place in KL. However, parking is an issue here. =( After a few rounds of circling around the area, A decided to leave his car with the car jockey. This had saved us the hassle of walking far too!

We entered the restaurant and found piggy's pictures and figurines were placed every where! Even their menu has a picture of 2 cute piggies too!!

The menu was hiding behind our Hoegaarden

And many other piggies were kept in the rack behind our table... Oink oink oink...

When the sweet couple - KH and AL arrived, we started to order our dinner. A helped in making the orders as that was already his third time having dinner in this restaurant. He ordered a Spanish ham platter as the appetizer. Followed with a "One plate of 4 different mini sausages" - 1. Farmer; 2. Thuringer; 3. German Pepper; and 4. Spicy Lyonner Saussage. The sausages were so good!! So as the soup, salad and pork ribs! Yummers!! =)

Our final dish was a roasted suckling pig! Aww... Half of the piggy came to our table on a wooden chopping board. We were wondering how to eat it. *(>_<)*

Highlights of the night - The roasted sucking pig

Then, a waiter approached us and asked for a volunteer to chop the piggy into pieces. I had the honor to be the butcher of the night. Hahah!! Guess what? I had to chop it with a plate!! Well, the waiter gave me a lesson on how to chop the piggy.

"Hold the plate like this..." and bla bla bla...

I was ready to chop it!! (The waiter was standing next to me to make sure that I was chopping with the correct way)

According to Mr Waiter, that was one of the traditions from German whereby 1 person had to chop the pig with a plate. Then, put all the bad things/ luck onto the plate before breaking the plate. In return, this person will be granted a wish.

I 'gathered' all my friends' bad stuffs onto the plate and tried to break the plate

However, the plate wasn't break at my first try!! OMG... Maybe I didn't put enough bad stuffs onto the plate. Or, I was just too gentle to the plate. Hahaha! Mr Waiter granted me a second chance to break the plate. This round, I put more strengths in throwing the plate into the wooden basket!

Voila!! The plate was finally broke

Mr Waiter took the roasted pig back into the kitchen and got the professionals to chop the piggy into pieces. Btw, my bf commented that Mr Waiter is quite good looking a.k.a handsome. LOL!

After we had finished eaten the piggy, a group of waiters/ waitresses came out with desserts and a creative birthday song!! "Happy birthday to you, Oink Oink... Happy birthday to you, oink Oink oiNk!!!"... The song was just so cute and oinky!!

I even got a little piggy from the restaurant as birthday pressie!

Mr Waiter informed that this little piggy will bring me luck for only 1 year. So, I got to come back next year to 'renew the contract'. LOL! That was a really good marketing gimmick!!

Special thanks to A, JC, YM, KH and AL for making my birthday so memorable =)

Overall, the food and ambiance of the restaurant were great. *Thumbs up* However, I enjoyed most with the presence of my bunch of good friends who shared laughter and joys with me.

*Cheers*