2007 Lunar New Year

As we head into the year of the hog we must remember that Chinese New Year is not only celebrated by Chinese worldwide but also by other Asian races like the Indo-Chinese and the Japanese.

Here in Australia we prefer to call it Lunar New Year because it is celebrated by not just the Chinese but also by the Vietnamese, Cambodians and other ethnic groups all across the country.

But whatever our races are, we are all Australians and proud to be celebrating our heritage which makes us who we are today. Though a big occasion, Lunar New Year will never be as grand as is celebrated in Malaysia as of right now.

Especially in my hometown of Sibu where firecrackers is a definite must on New Year's eve tonight when the whole town will resembles a war zone. There will be none stop firecrackers going off and smoke choking the whole town for hours leading up to and past midnight.

At least that's how I remember it to be and I'm quite sure it's still the same! It's been 17 years since I was back in Sibu for Chinese New Year and sadly I've lost that yearning for it after such a long absence from the festivity.

But not to worry, I shall try to make an effort to spend Chinese New Year in Sibu one of these years but timing is never right. But that's ok coz there's always next year...and next year...and next year. Have a safe and prosperous New Year people!

Xin Nien Lai Lor!!!

Chinese New Year is this Sunday but unofficially its already here so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers and blogger friends a happy and prosperous New Year!

Ah Mei and her kor kor would also like to wish all you good people a fat piggy year! If you are a non Chinese in Malaysia, just enjoy the holidays and go visit your Chinese friends and you'll probably score some angpows!

And to kick start the New Year, let's all play this Chinese New Year song sang by all the bloggers involved with the 2007 Linpeh's Chinese New Year Sing Song Project which I'm happy to be part of.

Our dear Lilian hosted the song on her FrenzRSS site and you can download an illegal copy one here!

Restoran Bumbu Bali

My brother wanted to take us for a steamboat dinner in Puchong but unfortunately it wasn't open that night so we decided to go to our next choice which was this Balinese restaurant called Restoran Bumbu Bali.

I was told that the owner of this restaurant actually has a Balinese wife so maybe he started this restaurant to keep his wife happy. No that was just me making things up, the keeping the wife happy part.

Don't know why but when we got there they stuck us upstair where there was not a soul and we had the whole floor to ourselves. It must be because of the kids we had with us coz we had my brother's wife and 2 kids with us also mah. Restaurateurs don't like kids coz they disturb other guests.

The restaurant is nicely decorated with a real Balinese theme like all those decors and paintings they had hanging on the wall and the Buddhas sitting all over the place plus other knick knacks.

They even sell Balinese souvenirs like their handicrafts and hand woven baskets but they don't come cheap like RM15 for a pair of sandal? Hate to know how much that chicken is or the handbags, not that I wanted to buy it!

Meet Shin Lin my niece. The last time I saw her was 3 years ago when I came to KL and she was just a newborn. Now she's a princess but she's like Ah Mei who's very wary of me. Don't know me mah! Cute boh?

Their food serving is huge, I can't remember what I ordered but I think it's some kind of beef dish that comes with yellow rice, crackers, some kind of fruit, dipping sauces and lots and lots of chillies and onions!

Terese had the chicken and it comes with the same side dishes like mine. I've never tasted Balinese foods before that day but I think I will have more in the future. Makes you drool oredi onot?

Petaling Street

Not much daylight left, maybe just one more stop before heading back to Puchong for dinner with my brother's family. Haven't seen his wife and kids for 3 years they must look different now especially the kids.

I decided that we should make a quick stop at Petaling Street or rather Chi Cheong Kai as how KL-nites would call it. For those who don't know, its basically a chinatown in KL infamous for pirated goods!

I can't remember the last time I was here, it was a long time ago before I went to Australia and much has changed. I see they provide shelter from the hot sun and rain too, great idea!

OK lah...it doesn't just sell pirated goods only lah, it is also a place to come for great foods. Tourists as well as the locals frequent here for their super cheap stuff. I bought myself a Rayban sunglass for RM18 nia. Yeah maybe I can get even cheaper but the guy has to make a living also mah!

I saw a lot of stalls selling roasted chestnut, smell nice but the fume made me sneezed like crazy coz I had a runny nose. Didn't get any coz we're saving our appetites for dinner later.

But maybe we could've had dinner here instead...look at that big crab, mmm...yum. But no we can't coz we have to meet the kids and their mother so have to abandon this place. Time to go.

Aiks! The ugly side of Petaling Street where the parking lot is. A bit of cleanliness doesn't hurt anyone, in fact it might bring more people here. Just a suggestion.

Eye On Malaysia

After KLCC my brother took us to check out this giant ferris wheel called the Eye On Malaysia. It looks similar to the London Eye but at a smaller scale, kind of like a big funfair type ferris wheel. Hehe..

I heard apparently its a new attraction in town and not every KL-nites been on it so I don't feel like an idiotic tourist gawking at the gigantic wheel. I also heard that they have plan to build one in Melbourne also but that's still in its infancy.

Buy your tickets here at the ticketing booth. RM15 per person, there are private booth for special prices but you can only hold that many people in each booth so don't expect to have a party inside.

Line up here for your turn, fortunately for us there wasn't that many people then so queuing wasn't too long and all the booths are air-conditioned so you won't get cooked inside.

Here's some pictures I took from way up there. I love this one of the twin towers and the KL tower with the surrounding buildings. Good also that we had a clear sky, the last time I went to KL tower 3 years ago but it was hazy and couldn't see much!

I've seen the photos taken by other bloggers of the Eye at night and it's far more spectacular than day time photos. But if I came at night I can only see the city lights and not much of anything else.

Well, it was fun for the first couple of rounds but after that it started to get boring...10 or 15 minutes later your RM15 is all used up but you can always buy a balloon for souvenir. Check out the guy who camwhore for me!

Under The Twin Towers

After the royal lunch with the queen we decided to go to KLCC to check out the twin towers, Malaysia's pride and joy. This is the first time I've ever been there, was in KL 3 years ago but didn't get a chance to go so this time I wasn't going to miss my chance.

Plus, Linpeh also said that I should give him a call when I get there coz he works around there so can get to meet up for coffee or something but niamah...Tan Sri Linpeh said he was busy that day. Never mind, I see how later maybe on Thursday I'll come back again and we can meet up then.

The place is indeed very impressive, I was more awe struck by the architecture than the shops there though coz I've been to so many shopping centres and now they all start to look the same! We did however decided to go check out the sky bridge but unfortunately there was only a limited numbers of tickets issued each day for the public. People queue up from 8.30 am everyday just to get those free tickets to walk the bridge you know!

I wanted to see the twin towers in all their glory so we went outside where this guy tried to sell me a Rolex watch! Don't know why he had to be so secretive like that, quiet quiet pull me aside to show me the watch summore. Choi...Chee Cheong Kai tai pah wor!

I like the park outside KLCC, it has a shallow lake with artistic sculptures of dolphins and whales. I believe there's fountains too but when we were there they were cleaning the pool so nothing exciting happened.

However the children's wadding pool was looking really attractive to me! To me the weather is hot and humid everyday even when it rains at night so cool refreshing water is always a hit with me.

I couldn't resist it anymore, I had to cool myself off in the water even if the water is only ankle deep. Funny thing is when I got into the water everyone disappeared...where's everyone go?

Lunch With The Queen

I rang up Hijackqueen and we decided to meet for lunch at that restaurant she told me about, the one near her work that serves the best durian dessert, the one near 1 Utama.

1 Utama is a big shopping centre and unfortunately for me I didn't get to check out the place when I was in KL because of time constraint, all the more to add to my next itinerary!

Hijackqueen aka Jessie Ling is a friendly and generous person I'm lucky enough to consider a good friend. She's also a foochow like me but one of those foochows that can't speak their own dialect, the one I call the lost tribe of the foochow clan!

I think the restaurant is called Penang Village or something like that, I can't remember. The only thing I can remember is the durian dessert Hijackqueen kept telling me about.

Jessie Ling is not called Hijackqueen for nothing, she thinks my photography skill sucks big time so she hijacked my camera and took all the food pictures! So all the food photos from here on were taken by her with nothing done to them but my blog address added.

Since she's a frequent customer of this restaurant I decided that she should order what she thinks is good and to tell you the truth I can't remember any of the foods we ordered! The previous dish was some type of salad and this one is the butter prawns? Help me out here Jessie!

This is some type of tofu I think but don't know what its called...

Nor this one...

Nor this one...

But this one I know lah! This is the durian ice cream dessert she was yapping about how good it is and she's right. Its the best tasting durian ice cream I've had other than durian itself.

Of course we had to camwhore also. Thank you Jessie for the most wonderfully delicious lunch and durian dessert! So paiseh you had to paid for us, I owe you big time so make sure you come to Melbourne so I can return the favour!

Arriving At KL

I think it was about an hour and a half later when we arrived at Kuala Lumpur. Because we were flying Airasia we had to land at the LCC Terminal which is for the el-cheapo travelers like us.

It was raining when we touched down and my brother who resides in KL was already there waiting for us. Only later did I realised that the airport is sooo... damn far from KL! They should build one closer.

My brother helped us book a room at Hotel Sri Petaling near where he lives. It wasn't a bad little hotel and the rate is quite reasonable. We checked in before going out to eat and didn't get back till way past 1 am which by then I was totally knackered! It's been a long day.

Entrance to the hotel where I found this guy staring out the glass door all night like waiting for his secret lover to meet here or something. But later on I did see a guy bringing his date in to stay the night, bargaining the price with the night manager summore!

The whole lobby was decorated with Chinese New Year theme even though it was only the 8th of January. Never too late to get into the CNY mood right? But after so many years in Australia with hardly any CNY, I've lost that mood already.

My brother thought I was still a smoker so he booked a room on the smoking floor which we later changed because we can't stand the smoky floor. But unfortunately we could only get a twin shared room on the non-smoking floor. It'll have to do..

We overslept that night, it was the best night sleep in a long while. We woke up to see how Sri Petaling looks like outside our window and it wasn't much to look at. I noticed there's too many cars and never enough parking spaces around so people just double park everywhere they can.

Breakfast was from 6.30 am till 10.30 am but because we overslept, we didn't get to the restaurant till 10.30 am when they were starting to pack up! Lucky for us they let us have a quick one but by then there wasn't much left. Well...Hijackqueen did tell me about this wonderful restaurant near her work that serves the yummiest foods and the best durian dessert...

Sila Pakai Tali Pinggang Keledar Anda..

Day: Whatever! I forgot how many days I'm into my holidays but its time to bid farewell to Sibu and fly off to Kuala Lumpur catching the last flight on Airasia. People say the last flight will always delay and they're right, it was delayed by half an hour.

Waiting to board my plane, feeling a bit sad to be leaving Sibu and I think I'm getting a cold..*sniff* Not good, why do I always catch a virus everytime I come back to Malaysia! *sien* Hey do you notice that Sibu people don't like to queue up, its everyone for themselves! First in best served since seats are not allocated.

Finally settled down in the plane and the stewards are about to do the safety procedure stuff. They have a demo kit that contains a life jacket, oxygen mask, safety belt and so on..

Sila pakai tali pinggang keledar anda..thats all I can remember them saying over the PA while the pretty lady showed us the exciting show & tell. Nobody ever pay attention to them except me!

This is a life jacket, you're gotta need it when the shit hit the fan and your life depends on it so pay attention! But of course that's not what they said except in my head coz I don't understand Bahasa Malaysia too well.

Put the life jacket over your head like so and tighten the belts, pull the level only after you exited the plane and blow into these tiny tubes to add more air into jacket.. Hey you, auntie seated behind there.. stop picking your nose and pay attention to the pretty lady!

OK enough of the pretty lady, I'm hungry coz we didn't have a proper meal tonight before we flew. Let's see what we can order here..holy crap! Thats the most expensive maggi noodle in a bowl I've ever seen!