A Road Trip Story – Day One

Few words: Iphone 4s is literally useless in the hand of Asians. Don’t believe me, try talk to one by not faking your accent.

In my previous post, I say I need a vacation and guess what; I really got myself one last week! Not a luxurious one nonetheless, in fact just a mini getaway from work. It all began as a tipsy conversation between me and my colleagues – a theoretical safari of Perak good foods. How it ended up as an actual road trip I don’t really recall, but somehow I found myself enjoying the country life and good eats for 60 hours session of local foods.

Let’s keep story short, I have decided to take a few days off to travel around Perak – basically to every rural area reachable by road without using the express way. With no exact plan, we started our journey from Ipoh and stop whenever we want. Travel, eat, sleep and repeat. Now where can you find road trip like that?

Before I proceed, I’d need to clarify, I’m neither a food blogger nor a food photographer, and I’ve been spoilt by Ipoh good foods for almost two decades so it’s normal if I don’t feel the local foods. Anyhow, I try not to compare and just blog my humble experience based on my already indulged taste bud.

My first stop was Sitiawan, a famous little Fu Zhou town. Coming to such a town, I have to admit, it was way better than my expectation. In fact, it shouldn’t be classified as a rural area in the first place, my mistake! One thing I do realize in Sitiawan is U-turning signboard is everywhere. Come to think about it, we rarely see one in big cities nowadays. Anyhow, our first stop was to Kampung Koh Wet Market’s famous Loh Mee – a blend of thick dark chili stew served with yellow noodle. Unfortunately that day, the lady mixed it with laksa soup because she doesn’t have enough portions for us. After the first bite, we were speechless – taking a second bite just to make sure it taste differently but no, it remain the same. Total disappointment! I mean it’s just like every other Loh Mee and with the mixed stew, it tasted awfully off. Famous Loh Mee? Baloney! Good lord, wrong publicity guys!

After a grave disappointment, we somehow move on and venture to our next stop, the legendary onion biscuit or precisely Gong Pian - known by the Fu Zhou. We arrived at noon, somewhere passed lunch hour but the queue was darn long. Yes darn long. We finally felt like we were back on track for more good food. My mum told me that they used to sell onion and char siew gong pian but I only saw the onion flavor. The lady then told us that they’re not selling the char siew flavor anymore. A little drawback because it was rumored that the char siew one taste much better. Anyhow we bought 6 of it and by the way, you can’t eat them on the spot, theoretically, since they don’t provide any seat.

Hence, I take it back to my car and have a bite. It was superb! The texture was chewy-crunchy hybrid and the onions goes sinfully well with the gong pian. One bite and the onion scent filled my whole car. I alone had 5 pieces of it, go figure how good it is.

We went for the famous nine layer cake in Yee Si Kopitiam too but the owner told us that the nine layer cake only available after 3.30 pm. If we were to wait, we need to kill another hour waiting. Hence, we decided to skip this and go for James Cendol which is located somewhere near The Store Sitiawan. Honestly, it was an okay okay cendol; nothing to shout about. In fact, it was too sweet for my liking.

As the sun setting down, we travelled to Teluk Batik, a beach for sunset shooting recommended by John, a photographer I know from Photomalaysia. “Teluk Batik has the best sunset in Perak, I can give you a tour” offered John and of course, I won’t want to trouble him. I trusted him nevertheless. I went there with a big hope but no offense John, Teluk Batik is just a piled of rubbish shore; polystyrene floating in the middle of sea, plastic bag along the shoreline, leftover food and basically everything else you can find in a rubbish dump. That is not a good setting for sunset shot! If John were with me that day, I will quietly take out my tripod and beat him to dead. Instead, I went over to Lumut harbor to salvage some shots within the available time left.

At night, we have to pick either Fu Zhou cuisine or Kampung Cina’s seafood for dinner. Since Sitiawan is a Fu Zhou town, logically, it would make better sense to go for their local specialty. So we moved from something that supposedly to be like mantis prawn, flower crab and Aussie oyster to economy rice; I’m not sure we made the correct move. Anyhow the decision had been made, so I ask Lord Google for some recommendation. The bloggers suggest Bei King Restaurant – a local restaurant serving traditional Fu Zhou dishes. For your information, Bei King Restaurant had moved to a new place, somewhere not far behind their old shop lot; we only realized that when we saw the note at their old shop lot. By the way, they have upgraded their status to Bei King Hotel Restaurant. Don’t expect cheap bill anymore. FML!

We ordered three dishes – sweet and sour fish maw soup, stir-fried potato leaves and dry braised red wine chicken. Every single of it is their signature dish but they look exactly the same like the one we ordered for economy rice.

Our first dish is a heavy tomato scent fish maw. I did googled ‘fish maw’ and the result might be fearsome; jaw, throat or stomach of a fish. Gulp. Sweet and sour fish maw soup is a fish jaw (or maybe throat or stomach) with tomato soup that has first-time tasters half suspecting they might be munching on sponge soaked in tomato sauce. The flavor was perfectly inoffensive but the organ part did make me startled – where the heck did they find such a big fish jaw; I doubt it was a pig intestine instead. I had to choke down my first bite with tea but soon my mind stop rebelling and despite the texture – a weird spongy feel exactly like biting on a pig skin but to my surprise, I actually liked it. Mercifully, the strong tomato soup totally covers the soil smell of the fish maw. It was actually the best Fu Zhou dishes I ever had – period. Five stars!

Our next dishes is dry braised red wine chicken, don’t be fooled by their bloodlike colour, according to the waitress, no colouring used. It was all due to the reddish colour of Fu Zhou red wine. The braised chicken is a bit disappointment or maybe I’m more to stronger flavor guy. Frankly, the chicken was a bit tasteless but the meat deserved a praise, it’s tenderly soft.

The stir-fried potato leaves is just another stir-fried potato leaf. Fu Zhou style, maybe? No comment. Our total damage was below MYR 60, still a bargain though.

After the dinner, we decided to drive around the small town until we stumbled across Sitiawan Big Cinema. Since that is the only entertainment place Sitiawan has to offer at this hour, we decide to go in for a 3D movie. That is the first time I go for 3D movie and by the way, 3D movie is only MYR 15 in Big Cinema, screw you TGV Ipoh! And screw you GSC Ipoh for not upgrading!

The movie ended at 11.30PM, I had a great time watching the bullet flying out from the screen. It was time to head back to our hotel but it would take us another 30 minutes trip to get back to our hotel. Somewhere in between, I had a nature call. Perhaps the fish maw determined to fight back in my stomach. I was shivering with cold sweat and my mind went blank, that time I knew I have to stop somewhere to toss the load. Hereby, I want to thank KFC Sitiawan for their clean washroom and best of all, 24 hours operating restaurant. Without them, I won’t make it and most probably forced to untie the knots in my car. Heartily appreciate your help. That’s the best moment I had in KFC.

That should be all for Day 1 – Sitiawan and Lumut. Tune in for more next time, thank you.

To be continued…

Bad Habit Weakness

Few words: Last time when I always lepak, people ask me to get a job. Now that I have a job, people ask me why I don’t come out lepak one? wdafuq!


When my boss first handed me the appraisal form, I think he did smile. Heedlessly, I just put it on my table and in no time, it was stacked with documents. After few days, the appraisal reappeared and casually I just flipped through the form but unintentionally I come across a column which requires me to fill in my weakness. “This is some serious shit!”

When they asked for your weakness, basically, they are trying to make the self-conscious you to betray you. You get what I mean, no? They aren’t really interested in your weakness. What they really interested in are the potential excuses they don’t give you bonus.

Come to think of it, my boss did not smile, it was a smirk instead!

In any case, here I am trying hard to fill up this appraisal form. But frankly speaking, I’d develop a number of bad habits for the past six months.

One thing for sure, I’m always rushing. For the past six months, I’ve been late for at least dozens of times and most of the time if I really made it on time, it is marginally passed. And so I have developed a kind of a chic talk every time I start my car “Let’s do it”; credit taken from Mission Impossible. You know, just a small motivation talk between me and my car. Although as weird as it sound, this motivation really works. Without knowing it, I started to whisper to my car every time I start my car, just to feel like Tom Cruise once in a while. One fine morning, I was fetching my mum to dentistry. Casually I did it again when I started my car, “Let’s do it” and my mum was like “DO WHAT?” with wild-eyed. Glaring in by my mum like this, I won’t want to tell her that I’m talking to a car. Silently, I just put in the first gear and drive.

Also, over the past six months, people have been calling me all sorts of name but all aren’t my real name. Department manager called me Chow, the marketing representative refers me as Jeff in her email and the worse one is from the plating department lady: ‘Stiff’ and that is not even a name. It is more like an adjective but compliment still taken, good eyes lady! Anyhow for the past six months I had not corrected a single person that called me wrongly. I guess for me, a name is just a name.

Lately, I’m into photography so it is a norm for photo enthusiasm like me to practice my framing and composing every chance I have. The great different that distinguishes between professional and amateur is the professional compose their shot in mind whereas amateur usually frame them by fingers. So whenever I see something worth taking, I’ll heedlessly frame the shot with my fingers. Although I tried to minimize this bad habit but sometimes I just can’t help and box my shot with fingers. This is another chic act; holding steadily, controlling my breathing, shooting: It is my second nature but when my mum sees it, she yells, “DO WHAT?” Once again, glared in so intensively by my mum, I just walked away silently.

Although I was supposed to literally send all my emails in English but sometimes I just couldn’t. There are limitations to English words’ expression. Thus, I tend to use stronger words like ‘sibeh’, ‘dulan’, ‘geng’, ‘die die’ and such word of this format in my email. Anyhow, I only limit this in my casual email, albeit sometimes in my formal email as well. Nevertheless there is once when I used this in my email to my manager, it is a one to one email so I thought to myself ‘why so serious?’ and I did that. Well, first of all the word is stronger and secondly it simplify my intention holistically. ‘Customer is not happy and demand us to provide a new solution to our existence control plan’ now can be simplified to ‘deep shit, customer dulan’. But that particular email is escalated to everyone in my manager next reply. Best of all, senior managers are in the loop as well, FML!

After mirroring so many of my bad habits, I have stuck back to reality facing my appraisal most difficult question again. Come to such extent, in any case, I have to write something down.

PLEASE IDENTIFY YOUR WEAKNESS: NONE.

The Write Stuff

Few words: V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N and I need it so badly. A mini escape from work sound just so fine.

Coming to such extent, it is neither about keeping readers nor making pocket money anymore. To be frank, this post was supposed to be uploaded few weeks ago but it was left idling till now. One thing for sure is I can’t give commitment to blogging anymore. It’s ironic how desperate I am to chase customer cycle time each day and how reckless I could to abandon blogging. Well, life has to go on.

I always thought life is a bit of work and fun but turn out I was wrong. Life is a bit of fun but mostly overlapped by work. Put simply, life first priority goes to making money. So if you’re a smart one, look for a job that you really interested in. I was lucky enough to have a job related to writing; well, in such a way. In such a way though…

It started in childhood, when I developed the bad habits of passing or rather throwing notes to friends in the middle of class. But this writing never lasts long because at some point people just throw without writing. Then the computer and internet come along with their email, this has totally changed the whole perspective of writing. Writing is not only limited to paper, ink and pen anymore. But internet only available for the rich, so email is a big NO for me at that time. Some years later, my parent bought me a mobile phone; a bulky Nokia 3310. But back then the calling rate was extremely expensive so most of the time we only able to text or SMS. Come to think of it, I never complaint to text; in fact I love texting because it is more expressive than speaking. Those day I could stay awake in the middle of the night just to wait for a reply. That was how obsessed I'm to writing.

In my early university years, I decided to step in for blogging. I was writing about my daily routine for a year; both in cheers and flames. But it wasn’t till the third year, when more and more people discovered my blog and eventually I start getting question like “Blog updated?” from anonymous; I'd really feel like a newspaper editor at some time. Haha. Writing actually kept me from falling asleep and through writing I know a few more friends. And whenever I feel like sleeping at work, I open up my mailbox and happily replying emails. Of course, not all mails are happy one. The one I found happy to reply to so far is to my friends. The customer mails are normally not so friendly one; occasionally you will find some amusing one too.

From blogging about daily routine turning to monthly routine and it won’t be long before it turns to quarterly routine. Usually, I only write when I have something in mind but for the past few months I just let this something slip passed my mind. Before I knew it, I totally forget about it. Then I realize, I need to jot it down in my notepad. When I open my notepad today, it is an accumulation of keywords and frankly speaking, I don’t even know where to start with. So I decided to write a new one today.

As I said earlier, life first priority is working and when you work from nine to five, the only time left for you is to recharge. Sadly, blogging is not one of the recharging agenda. Once again, coming to such extent it is neither about keeping readers nor making pocket money anymore. I still blog because I love writing.

Thank you and best regards.

Of Money Thru The Net

Few words: It has been a while since my last visit to the gym and yes, I’ve gain weight; ALOT :(


Caution: This entry going to be one hella technical one. There will be some online trading terms that you might/not heard of, I’ll try my best to explain them to you. Enjoy!

The only good thing going to work every day is their paycheck. That’s the sole motivation to work and that’s what kicks my ass up early in the morning; not the alarm. The only negative of this is impulsive buying. Well you see, being a good paycheck receiver for almost four months now have indeed boost up my buying power. Just when your buying power is equal to those of a capable man; eventually you’ll lose control and start buying those silly little thing you don’t even want, yet still manage to cost you an arm, a leg or maybe a head. That’s when Bill Gates started to have houses he didn’t even know. But for my case, I’m a poor man to start with so I start looking for cheap stuff to buy. FML!

I can consider myself as an online bargain hunter; most of the gadgets I owned were bought via the internet so I can humbly say I’m quite a veteran in this. Of course, there are pros and cons buying through internet. I can’t say it’s totally free of risk; most of the time, it’s full of risk but it all depends on your judgement. I mean there are folks out there who really want to run a business and there are conmen out there as well.

You see, most of the internet-based business doesn’t need a shop; hence they’re able to sell their product at a cheaper price. Also, they deal in a larger volume and usually they manage to get all sorts of promotion and discount direct from the manufacturer, hence the cheapest you can get. All in all, they have more variety as they’re dealing on an open platform (read about globalization to understand this). From my previous experience, I save about MYR 300+ dealing online; some local trader can jack the price up by 20-40%. The drawback of this is you need to pay extra MYR 10-30 for the postage fees.

I’m not saying you must buy from internet; in fact don’t start one if you’re not familiar with this. Yet, I’m just suggesting you another option. But if you’re new towards this thing, deal above MYR 200 is off your story. The concept is simple; MYR 200 is better than MYR 2000 for a lesson. Don’t ever accept deal above MYR 200 unless it’s a COD (Cash on Delivery); simply means that you ask the trader out for a face to face dealing method. If you’re okay with the product you pay, otherwise you decline. Play safe! They can give you their FB, address or even their photocopy of their IC; but a cheat is a cheat. The golden rule is to always check their selling history and google their name, bank accounts and etc. If you’re doubt, even for one second; cancel the whole deal. Trust me, there are many cheaters out there.

Due to this impulsive buying, recently I ordered some (read: five) clothing from a pre-order bulk sales trader. Pre-order is basically a selling method by gathering a number of customers, then order in a bulk. The good side of this is you can save on the oversea transportation fees but the down side is you need quite a big number of customers to initiate the order. If the number is below the trader expectation, you might need to wait which is normally one or two months; but for my case, it’s only a day. Delivery arrived the next day; pretty good timing I guess.

Checked on the delivery and erh…this is my first time buying cloth online. The design is alright, the colour is good and the delivery is speedy; but you might want to add this in your rule book if you want to buy cloth online next time: check on their quality first (at least ask). SHAME ON YOU, SO CALLED VETERAN!

Still can wear la. Plus I get a free gift, albeit not useful to me :(
Perhaps my ol' roommate need it?

Office Weight Gain

Few words: When your life becomes routine, you’re exactly a machine. You've just replaced your life with AA size battery. Congratulations!


One of every white collar biggest fear is gaining weight. You can’t fight the gravity on this; I mean you’re sitting there eight hours a day with light to no movement. Why is that not possible? Of course you’re constantly typing, but the rule of thumb is if the task you’re doing doesn’t involve sweating, that can’t be considered a cardio exercise. Moreover, the air-cond is not helping at all. Hence you gain weight or to be precise: 99.9% extra virgin fat.

I have to come clean, I’ve indeed gain some weight; to be exact a sinful-shit-load of 3 kilos spare tyres. Because of this, I tell myself I must start exercising no matter what so recently I’ve start hitting gym again; albeit without success. Contrarily, I’ve gain one more kilo after going gym. FML!

Seriously I don’t know why this is happening to me. Let me just recall….

Let's see, this is my desk (default view - higher chances during audits).

And this is my desk (non-default view).

Yet, even till now, I still don’t know why I've gain weight despite all the exercises. I wonder where went wrong. Darn! Should I stop gym?

University's Sugar, Work's Grenade.

Few words: Maxis is giving me free call on my birthday, but I’m too busy to use it. FML!


Working life is so much different than university life. Metaphorically, it’s like comparing durian with mangosteen, both come in pair yet they taste totally another way. Same like working and university life, they often related but they’re totally different things.

In university, when a lecturer ask you a question. You raised up your hand high, you answer with pride to gain one mark. Extra marks will be given if you can give additional information relevant to the lecturer’s question. More marks will be given if you’re able to give reasoning to support your answer. But, if you still apply that in your working career, trust me, you won’t have any soon.

In working life, additional information or extra answer will only expose you for more questions. Don’t try to impress your customers by giving them your extra piece of your mind; that’s one way ticket to hell. Bear in mind, if you were to be frank with customer; you’re actually exposing the company secret. I’m not saying that you can’t tell, but think twice and think again for your salary sake. Although it’s unwritten but lying is a basic job scope for every employee. Feel bad about lying? Don’t worry; your paycheck already covers for it. If possible, try to give your customer whatever they want but still keeping it short and simple. Trust me, this is all based on my experience; I learned it the hard way though.

In university, when the lecturer asks for suggestion; you’re free to suggest. When you make a wrong suggestion, the class will laugh about it and that is it. In working life, when the boss asks for suggestion; you don’t make a voice if you have not done your homework. Suggestion is meant for management level only. Every suggestion you made mirror your IQ. If you make a wrong suggestion that day, they might refer you as retard for the whole year. Even if it’s a good suggestion; let’s just say a 5 stars suggestion. The boss will nod his head and asked you to execute your suggestion for a week and see how’s the outcome; ALL ON YOUR OWN. Now you see, why suggestion is only meant for management level because they can always ask somebody to execute his suggestion. Even if it is a bad one, the manager can always blame it to their subordinates.

In university, whenever you had trouble with your team members, you can always consult your lecturer. They are more than glad to help. In working life, whenever you had trouble with your team members, try to settle it ASAP. Never try to bring this case to the boss; there is this ‘first come first die basis’. The one that meet the boss first is usually the less independent one, and guess what? Bosses don’t like dependant staff. Golden advice from my boss “Identify those who slow you down, break their neck and close the case before it get to me”.

In university, your CGPA almost equal to your capability. High CGPA guys are well respected. In working life, you can trash your CGPA away, no one give a darn about it. You can have all the A’s you want even with a 4.00/4.00 CGPA but when you’re not performing, you’re only being labeled as epic phail nerd who only know how to read [fullstops].

Sigh! I missed university life, period; if at all possible with salary. But I'd enjoy Bacardi with assignments :-)

Work is an awful song

Few words: Yellow is the new crime. Ridiculously absurd! One thing that really bother me is why only youtube broadcasting the truth? Haih..so PO-Ri-TIK one.

I just got my first paycheck last two weeks and half of it already gone. People say the happiest day is when you get your salary, it’s indeed; but that happiness only last for a day.

Your job scope will get bigger so take this chance to learn more.

And I thought that is just another power-responsibility gimmick, you know so that the boss looks cooler in front of you. Nevertheless, that gimmick becomes reality somehow. No doubt, my job load is increasing day by day; from sitting there doing nothing to light document reviewing and finally to what every engineer do.

So, what do every engineer do?

I get this a lot, especially from my mum. For the elders, engineer is someone who repair machine, design machine, operate machine or build machine. If the machine my mum referring to is a computer, a mouse, a printer or a desk phone; the answer would be hell yeah, I operating them all day long. But I think the machine my mum referring to would be something twice or ten times my size, then sadly NO mum. Undeniably, there are engineer doing that but most of the ‘modern’ engineer nowadays is sitting in the office, clicking on the computer and filing customer complains. When I tell my mum what I’m doing every day, she then compares me to a PR officer. Yes mum, engineer is a PR officer with an engineering degree, no different.

Then why spend another year studying?

Maybe I have shitload time on my hand to kill? (Dead silent)

Working in a big company, like it or not, you have to work with a lot of people. That is when your social skill comes in handy. Just like when you’re in your university rushing your fellow lazy coursemate to finish their parts in some group report. That thing still haunts you even when you’re working. No doubt, there are lazy engineers too. When you talk to them about deadline, there would be 3 scenarios.

1. They ignore you.
2. They ignore you.
3. They still ignore you.

You see, when you’re a newbie, old engineers, technicians and staff take your word for granted. They treat you like a toddle; your deadline threat is weightless to them. That’s when you need to bring in the manager. Sometimes I would refer a manager as lubricant, just bring in the manager, and everything become so damn lubricating. Try CC the manager in the e-mail you send, guaranteed a reply in 5 minutes saying Yes Your Majesty. To start a mental war or just to add a few kilos to your deadline threat, you purposely phone that lazy engineer and tell them, you accidentally BCC their boss. That would be fun.

But still, one good thing of being a white collar office guy is you get treated occasionally; not every day though. Maybe once in a blue moon, when some big shot guy went on a business trip, they will bring some souvenir back. You know, just to brag how much they enjoy going on tour by company money. Even if they forget, I can guarantee you, they ‘die die’ also grab something from the airport souvenir shop. Why? Company money mar, no harm.

Of course, this is nothing if you compare to my previous boss who used to treat us secret recipe on our birthday. But even so, a treat is a treat. As long as it’s free, I’m happy :)

But it contains peanuts. Darn! *scratching*