breakfast with KM

you've read about the rock climbing and tropical fruit farm, but before those things took place, we first had breakfast with KM at this one chinese place (i dont know how to describe it). it's just a simple place you find in a corner of a street. not even airconditioned, but who cares? all we care about was the good food, good company and good server. hahaha!

we have this thing about servers. hahaha! and i just realized that manila place girl isnt the original one. she's just second, 'coz during breakfast with KM, our server was so amazed with QT that she kept on coming back to our table to have a chit-chat and offer us more food (i'm not sure if it was just her strategy to sell more, but it looked like it was genuine / an instant attraction between QT and the server). they share one thing in common - they're both from china. but i noticed one more thing: the smile! HAHAHA!

see?


with KM

manila in malaysia

during my whole stay in malaysia, i didnt really see a lot of filipinos. maybe only on one or two occasions ... (1) when i heard 2 guys speaking filipino in the shuttle (business travelers too from a different company) and (2) when i saw maybe the lounge singers at the hotel. it was a good thing actually that not many were there, at least for a change...hehehe!

but upon seeing this one restaurant called "manila place", weird, but i got excited on the thought that maybe they serve filipino food / dishes and it's about time for me to share something filipino with my chinese/malaysian brothers. to our dismay, it was just but a mere name. they dont serve anything close or unique to filipinos. oh well ... so we just thought that it would be cool to take our photo with the restaurant's name (even though we dont have plans of eating there). so we asked the server to take our photo. here's the very nice shot:



after taking this cool photo ... we all decided to go for a tea break and then all of us came to a common realization -- that the server from manila place is REALLY CUTE!!! so after tea time, we went back to have another photo, but this time WITH the server. Hahaha!!! it was only i who had the chance to have a photo with her (thanks to HL for taking this photo -- which kinda jammed the path with polite people waiting for him to snap the camera). here's the photo: (notice the people standing on the side - thru the glass' reflection, waiting)



we couldnt get enough of manila place girl so on our last day, we decided to go back to the restaurant, check if she's there, dine and try to get a photo of the 3 of us WITH her. we were successful after HL declined a male server and requested HER to be our server (how cool is how lake?!). we were successful after i mustered the guts to ask for her name (due to confidentiality -- we won't reveal the name here). we were successful after we asked for her favorite desserts and drinks from their menu, which we didnt really order after all the sweet talking. HAHAHAH!!!

here's the successful photo :) (notice their little rascal grins and pose)

Merry Christmas!!!

look what i found ...

i want to be a ...

one of the most intriguing conversations we had in the car was talking about religion particularly about after-life. although i'm the only one with a 'religion' among the 3 of us, it wasn't that hard to talk about death and what is there to expect beyond, maybe because with or without religion -- we're all going to die, right?

we talked about being born again after death or 'reincarnation'. asked ourselves what we wanted to be if there really is a reincarnation. ofcourse i wanted to be human again, but probably a different race -- maybe a black american, because they're so talented and i think they're cool. Yang wants to become a tree. i dont remember HL's reply.

wake-up call ...

i remember requesting for the hotel's wake-up call only once. the rest, i had to rely on my phone's alarm. i couldnt really complain waking-up at 630AM in Penang, because it's so much BETTER than waking up at 415AM in Manila.

i remember requesting the hotel's wake-up call for QT once (during the 1st night), and I'm not sure if he continued to request for it the following days. what i know is that i always call him around 10 minutes before the time we expect to leave to check if he's awake and most importantly, ready to go. it worked well except one time when i was also running late and called him a little late too. we ended up taking the taxi. hahaha!

here are some snapshots to show why wake-up call is necessary:

choose your fish...

QT chose right. HL chose left. So I get the middle one, which kinda looks like a MUSHROOM.

I repeat ... a MUSHROOM.

HAHAHAHA!!!

Buy 1 Take 1 PANDA -- FOR SALE!!!

Starting bid: USD500.00

or

BUY NOW @ USD1000

For the benefit of QT's KK travel :P

what a coincidence...

took this photo from nike store in singapore airport ...

the day we rocked ...

follow-up post showing you the sequence of events in photos ...


for the final photo ... click WE MADE IT!

fairytale lyrics

i cannot write so much about this, so i'm just gonna give a brief introduction (based from what i was told). This is a chinese love song which we kept on playing over and over in HL's car. i tried "decoding" it so i could sing it too (even though i dont know what im really saying). in the office, we hum it. now ... i'm having a last song syndrome which is way overdue. i can still hear the music in my head for 5 straight days now.

we'll try to post the mp3 here, but for now, here's the lyrics (c/o of QT):


Song name：童话

Singer：光良 Album：童话


忘了有多久
再没听到你
对我说你最爱的故事
我想了很久
我开始慌了
是不是我又做错什么
你哭着对我说
童话里都是骗人的
我不可能是你的王子
也许你不会懂
从你说爱我以后
我的天空星星都亮了
我愿变成童话里
我要变成童话里
我会变成童话里
你爱的那个天使
张开双手
变成翅膀守护你
你要相信
相信我们会像童话故事里
幸福和快乐是结局

一起写我们的结局

the different segments...

I’m here at Singapore’s Changi Airport once again and it’s almost 1am in the morning. I’m not connected to the internet right now coz I’m too lazy to go to the internet area, so the actual posting of this blog wouldn’t be real-time.
Anyway, the transit hotel is fully-booked so I have no choice but to choose a comfortable spot anywhere in the airport and wait for my 845am boarding. I’m gonna try to get some sleep in a few minutes.

As you may have already figured out … my (and Yang’s) trip to Penang, Malaysia has come to an end. There’s really a LOT of stories to tell and we will try to as much as possible get everything written down here. I don’t even know where to start.

Let me try by jotting down the segments (work not included – hahaha!) and some interesting side stories of the trip and see how the 3 of us go about updating them.

- queensbay mall: the dome
- patrick’s steamboat
- breakfast and the lady from china
- the dam and the rock
- tropical fruit farm
- tropical fruit farm videos
- stopovers: the park and butterfly farm
- the beach
- te ice (not sure of the spelling)
- let’s tie cherry! (hahaha .. not the person, but the fruit)
- sunday brunch
- who’s taller and longer?
- let’s do data-pop (arcade version)
- tea time
- manila place girl parts 1-3
- KTV
- our soundtrack
- 3 on 3 ‘Ball’ Game and our MVP
- time extension!
- closing ARs
- Titanic vs Austin powers
- did we have dinner yet?
- cherry’s farewell ‘kfc’ party
- bbq party
- 30-minute shopping spree
- fishing chair
- our common shit – I mean shirt
- need for speed
- only in Penang (take away fruit juice)
- F-O-O-D … lots of them!
- inside HL’s car
- Don’t drop your egg and No fishing!

Ok … this is it for now. It’s almost 130am and I feel exhausted. It has been another long day…

-JR

ktv photos

hahaha!

HL and QT singing a chinese rock song ...

I was just there rocking with them :P

the day we went singing...

... and made music the universal language.

english is the language that connects us 3 (or the one that connects me to them - haha!). QT can speak chinese and HL can speak both malay + chinese. None of them can speak filipino but me. Wow, all-in-all, we can speak 5 different languages (including the language of music). hehe. how about the language of love? that's a different story. hehehe!

so we went to a ktv (red box) and honestly, i didnt expect these 2 guys to have a game in singing. i was very surprised and i think it's cool. these guys can sing! although i shouldnt really be surprised because when we were driving down from the tropical farm, we were talking about the type of music we like and we started talking about the music we were playing in the car. HL started sharing how he uses music to charm a girl he likes. how all-4-one and boys 2 men did it (or break it) for him. hahaha! QT used celine dion's titanic classic 'my heart will go on' -- which we all agreed is a beautiful song especially when you listen to it while watching the mtv (jack!) hahaha! i know it sounds cheesy, but guys talk about these things too you know. we just dont talk about how celine dion spreads her legs while singing. we actually care about the music lah! hahaha!

going back to the ktv ... i warmed up the mic with a josh groban song (yea, it was out-of-tune -- that's why i said warm-up). unfortunately or fortunately, there were no available filipino songs, so they were spared of hearing me sing in filipino. then came the song "right here waiting for you" by richard marx, which the 3 of us sang in very good harmony i'd say. and so we annointed it as our 'theme song'. haha. and the lyrics -- oh man! hahaha!

Ocean's apart day after day (south china sea?)

And I slowly go insane

I hear your voice on the line (bridge conference line?)

But it doesn't stop the pain

If I see you next to never (cost cutting? :( )

How can we say forever

Wherever you go

Whatever you do

I will be right here waiting for you

Whatever it takes

Or how my heart breaks

I will be right here waiting for you

I took for granted, all the times

That I thought would last somehow

I hear the laughter, I taste the tears

But I can't get near you now

Oh, can't you see it baby

You've got me going crazy

Repeat chorus

I wonder how we can survive

This romance (fishing? hahaha!)

But in the end if I'm with you

I'll take the chance

Oh, can't you see it baby

You've got me going crazy

Repeat chorus

I'm trying to post a photo of 3 of us in the ktv, but for some reason it's not working ...

will try again next time...

the day we went fishing ...

... for FRUITS ... In the photo, you will find at least 10 different kinds of fruits.

Can you find and name them?

After all...we made it!

After all, we finally made it ......

....

......

........

..........

............

..............

................

..................

.....................

to the smaller rock on the right

... hahahaha ...

-- HL

This is what we call team work

So, this is day 5, well...according to Cherry, today is officially day 3 (excluding the weekend ... haha...). Let me post some of our pictures here. Especially this one right here, this is what we call team work. So of you might think, why is it team work in this pic? Here is the story:

We were using a tripod to take this photo, and we only have 10secs timer. I need to run all the way from the place where we set the camera to the back of the rock within this 10secs. "Cutie" will help me to climb up to the small rock on the right of the photo, and I will help him to get up to the bigger rock where "HC" (Hardcore..hehe) is. "HC" will be the one who grab my back. Obviously we didn't make it on time, but anyway, we demostrated the spirit of teamwork. hahahaha......... by the way, "HC" is the producer of this "Teamwork photo of the Year"...... :-)

--HL

no pushing

finally! i just don't know how to describe the feeling. it's like seeing long lost close friends (to think that this is the first time we've all seen one another). we're like a triplet that has been separated at birth. instant connection. oh man, you just can't imagine how hilarious it is with us 3 hanging out together. it's like a web-chat that has come into life. the hahaha's, the smiling and winking emoticons became real. it's like a live comedy sitcom. every 5 seconds, you hear a punchline, then the audience cracks! and the best part is that it's all natural -- no script or whatsoever. oh man, it's just so cool :) i still can't believe it.

to us -- cheers to the friendship! remember ... no pushing!

Yin and Yang

well well well ... 2 down, 1 more to go and we're complete.

here are photos of our very first 'supper' together... me and yang.



watch out for more photos to come in the next 7 days :)

-JR

changi airport

so im here at the changi airport in singapore right now. im waiting for my connecting flight to penang. i still have around 3 hours. i think cherry (our BA for this project) and i can still catch a movie (free movie).

oh man ... im excited to get to malaysia, but i just need to chill first and enjoy my travel.

-JR

..interesting episode 2

So...."holy little cow of horrors!".....to the "insectivorous".
Here is a little information of the "insectivorous" from Wikipedia………

The largest flower in the world: Rafflesia
Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. It contains 15-19 species (including four incompletely known species as recognized by Meijer 1997), all found in southeastern Asia, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra and Kalimantan, West Malaysia, and the Philippines (Huh…I didn’t know that it's found in the Philippines too…..). The flowers have no leaves and hardly any stem, just a huge speckled five-petaled flower with a diameter up to 106 cm, and weighing up to 10 kg. Even the smallest species, R. manillana, has 20 cm diameter flowers. The flowers smell like rotting meat (eww…..), hence its local names which translate to "corpse flower" or "meat flower". The vile smell that the flower gives off can sometimes attract flies. It is parasitic on vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), spreading its roots inside the vine. The fruit is eaten by tree shrews and other forest mammals. Rafflesia is an official state flower of Sabah (KK is a city in Sabah) in Malaysia, as well as for the Surat Thani Province, Thailand.

-HL

interesting...

the mountain is famous for its many carnivorous plant and orchid species, most notably nepenthes rajah. its is also home to a multitude of endemic animal species, including the kinabalu giant red leech and kinabalu giant earthworm.

holy little cow of horrors!

a carnivorous plant (sometimes called an insectivorous plant) is a plant that derives some or most of its nutrients (but not energy) from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, especially insects and other arthropods.

i think i prefer the term "insectivorous".

the photo below is how i picture a carnivorous plant ... (((tenen-tenen-tenen)))

-JR