Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Did you know that Tunku Abdul Rahman shouted Merdeka seven times at Stadium Merdeka when we achieved independence in 1957? I betcha you many don't know that cos' I thought he only did it 3 times till 3 days ago. Ha ha ha ha ha! How sadly unpatriotic I am but nevertheless I love Malaysia to bits. I doubt I'd ever leave this the Asian Garden of Eden that's full of such delicious delights!

It's been a wonderful Merdeka weekend that started with Juwita performing at IKANO's Golden Merdeka Celebration Street Party. That was a blast and I got to meet Zainal Abidin, Reshmonu & Vince! We hung out with Vince & his sister Vanessa most of the day and chatted and chatted and chatted! It was fun! Got to meet Hannah T too and she's like super nice! I don't have any pix of myself though but that's generally the case when I wander around snapping shots with my camera phone.

Ju singing "One Golden Celebration"

Fireworks at the Stroke of Midnite!

On Merdeka day itself I spent half of my day at The Curve cos' we needed to complete our registration for the Gemilang Merdeka Race which a bunch of us had entered together. Managed to catch some of the festivities which included a marching band all dressed up in kilts! It was good fun and we waited for a balloon drop but unfortunately none of us won the iPod Shuffles that were up for grabs. Gah!

The Curve Marching Band!

And just today 6 of us made it into the finals for the Gemilang Merdeka Race! Yay! Hopefully my team-mate and I will be able to do our best and perhaps win the Macbooks! It'd be so nice to have a new laptop. My iBook's getting a wee bit old.

The Curve Gemilang Merdeka Race 07 Gang!

After the race the boys and I went over to Subang for some paint-ball & we shot some pool to celebrate Shawn's upcoming wedding to Jac. I'll put up shots of us in our get-up but needless to say it's been a good weekend. I found myself thinking of "her" some but I guess we just gotta move on and live life right?

Boys' Nite Out!

The weekend's still not over yet though! We've still got the race tomorrow and I'm gonna fill up more time and live life as full as I can. Maybe I'll spend a bit of time on the Wii as I just picked up a copy of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption plus I just figured out how to buy Wii Points online so we (my brother & I) can now download Virtual Console games! Heh heh! It's been a good weekend so far and I just thank God so much for life and for being able to enjoy it more even though I still wake up most mornings with such a deep ache but He's been there and He always will. He makes my days better! Definitely!

For more pix click here! Cheers everybody and happy 50th Merdeka to all my fellow Malaysians! MERDEKA!!!

Road Closures @ Mutiara Damansara for 30th Aug 2007

Hello everybody! Here's the latest on road closures at Mutiara Damansara for those of you planning on hitting the IKANO Golden Celebration street party tomorrow evening. I just got an update from the event organisers so check out the map below. Join Ju & me as IKANO kicks off our 50th year of independence. Cheers!

IKANO Golden Merdeka Celebration this THURSDAY

Hi everyone,

This is a shameless plug for Four Forty Records but do join us at IKANO's Golden Merdeka Celebration where Ju (my business partner & good, good friend) will be performing. She'll be joined by other talented individuals in the local scene - Reshmonu, Vince, Zainal Abidin & Fish Leong will be bringing their own unique flavour to the evening's festivities.


So swing by IKANO Power Centre for the biggest & ONLY Merdeka Street Party in Petaling Jaya on the 30th of August from 9.00pm onwards. There will be road closures so I'll keep you guys posted as soon as I get more details.

Cheers & happy 50th Merdeka everyone!

My Indonesian Experience

Being brutally honest is very hard for me because in general I don't like speaking about bad experiences especially if it's something as sensitive about our homes. And so for the first time in my life I'm gonna make a very public statement about something that really wasn't a very good experience for me.

My cell member Jac booked tickets for Bandung, Indonesia ages ago and I was quite looking forward to the trip. I fantasised of nature spots and a picturesque city in my head but reality has a rude way of interrupting sometimes as you will soon hear about in this post.

Flying into Bandung & stepping out onto the runway of the quaint airport was nice and our first meal at this nice restaurant was a pretty good start to the trip but things soon started to take a turn downhill. It took us ages to find a hotel and driving around the city was horrendous due to the one way streets and heavy traffic. Plus Indonesia in general is a pretty dense place and the country overall isn't very well to do which didn't make it very picturesque.

The streets of Bandung

I didn't take any shots of the poorer parts of the city that I got to see but for the most part Bandung looks very much like the shot above. Sigh ... Just being there and seeing the sights & sounds made me appreciate Malaysia very much. It was also strange to see rich structures amidst the overall poor portions of the city. I stepped into a "posh" shopping mall in the southern part of the city and boy was it a very different place compared to most of Bandung. It just made me realise that the disparity between the rich & the poor is huge in Indonesia. It must be such a struggle and when I thought about it I wouldn't even know how to bridge that gap if I were in government in Indonesia.

The Paris Van Java mall

To be fair we did have one highlight and that was the trip up to Tangkuban Prahu where we spent a couple of hours looking at volcanic craters. The experience was marred somewhat by peddlers hawking their wares and doing their utmost to hit our pity nerve (which they did succesfully) but other than that I loved every minute on the volcano. That was the one thing that made my trip to Bandung worthwhile. Our guide was a pleasant chap and I learnt a lot about the volcano and the legend surrounding the formation of the mountain. The hike made my legs ache but it was worth it.

Kawah Ratu - the main crater at Tangkuban Prahu

To be fair to the city, one of my acquaintances whom I met in Singapore last month was a very pleasant chap and he kept SMS-ing me things to look out for which was really nice of him. I wish the other nature sights were nicer but Maribaya waterfall was dirty (at least the part of it that we saw) and we accidentally went to theme park of sorts instead of the Ciater Spa. I guess for me it was an eye-opener because I experienced for myself what life was like to the average Indonesian and it's a difficult life with not much luxury.

The food wasn't that great to me cos' in general Javanese/Sundanese cuisine has a lot of raw vegetables and the average warung or stall doesn't keep their food heated up. A lot of the stuff is just laid out on plates and served cold which didn't make food very appetising. Veggies were served ulam style and eaten raw with chilli. The fried chicken was good though but overall I didn't really enjoy my meals. I guess I've been spoilt somewhat by the variety of Malaysian food ya?

One thing I learnt from the trip was that company makes a world of difference and my travel mates Diani, Jac, Shawn, Sanjay & Abner certainly made the whole thing fun. Guys, if you're reading this ... you guys RAWK! I loved hanging out with you ... and ... shhh ... drinking too. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Love you guys!

For a glimpse of the more scenic shots I took, check out my photo album by clicking here! All taken with my brand new W810i.

Cheerios!