Sunday, June 27, 2010

Pot Luck @ Canal Garden

Seriously, I can't recall when was the last time, all 8 of us; "F.R.I.E.N.D.S" from MGS gathered for a eating meetup. So, I was ever too delighted to hear the confirmed attendance and with 3 mummies to be... it's just so happy occassion that I was even glad I had my camera with me to capture the moments.

Pot luck was the event and I prepared macaroni cheese salad. With 3 mummies to be concern with, it has to be careful when picking the menus. So, we had the meetup around 11.30-12am @ Siau Wei's house.

Of course as usual, people don't start eating at the instant arrival. Catching up on the mummies with their coming babies... *chuckled* while waiting for the rest to arrive. Wondering who will be the last to arrive and whether it's still the same old record... Hehehe... Nope, this time wasn't!

*Setting up the table & getting ready to eat at around 1.30pm*

*Everything on the table seems "healthy". Kakaka... Tempting too!*

*It's so hard to get them to take a group picture*

**CHEEEESSSEEEEE**

**Time to dig in & eat...
I'm sure the little ones are very hungry by then... **

**Still have desserts, Yoong Han made cup-cakes...*Yummie*

**And Siau Wei bought RT's cake...Yum Yum**

Thursday, June 10, 2010

KL Hop On Hop Off

Upon hearing that Yen Lin's plan to come back to Malaysia for two weeks, I asked her if she is interested to tour KL city with me on KL Hop On Hop Off. She agreed and I was delighted. It's embarrassing to announce that, I've never visited many tourist spots of KL and so I thought this bus will be an informative idea to put the start of my KL city experience.

RM19 for Malaysians and it starts from 8.30am till 8.30pm with 22 stops. I'm not promoting their service nor getting any commission but it's good to check out their official website: and also another blogger's website: Cikgu

Since it's a working weekday, I suggested to Yen Lin to overnight at my place so that we can just take the train to KL Sentral from Segambut stop. But, yesterday I heard over the radio news that somewhere there was a de-rail since Monday and maybe, Segambut station will not be the right choice.

We woke up at 7.30am and left for the station by 8am and unfortunately, there was a big crowd at the station and it's informed by the guard, no train arrived yet. Since I got Fazly to wait for us just in case, the only option is to drop us at KL Sentral. On our way there, we got hungry and he suggested we have our breakfast first at the KL Majistret Court. It's a very impressive place from the parking lot and I wanted to see for myself the "stuck-up" lawyers' and their dressing as was described to me. Hehehe... The decision to buy the american breakfast set was total failure and dissapointment. *yucks*

It was about 9am we departed the court and headed to KL Sentral, it was a little jam but the journey wasn't too far away. Initial stage, thought the pick-up point at KL Sentral for KL Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) was at Hilton's lobby as described by the operator whom I rang up to enquire. Once we are at the lobby, we were told it's at the entrance of KL Sentral. So we had to walked all the way up and out. Thank God, the bus came shortly just as we reach the stop; what a delight!

With excitement, boarded the bus and purchased our tickets. As agreed, we want to take 1 full round of the 22 stops and check out where specifically we want to get down to explore. While passing by each stops, I was mentally memorizing the roads and the names in order for my future driving-exploration. And actually, some places are not that difficult to get to and like the Tugu Negara, I actually been to that area for a walkathon which I was not even aware the Tugu Negara was there. *shy* After passing by 4 stops from KL Sentral, they allow us 5 mins break to get down to take pictures of the Dataran Square (stop No.16) and the ever famous historical building; "Sultan Abdul Samad". Early morning, the square is peaceful, quiet and clean.


I was remarkable surprised that the traffic was very clear at 10am. Yen Lin said, "everyone is safely in the office building, working away..." and we are touring KL city, "wohhooo.."

~ Do we look like tourists to KL? *kekeke* ~


At stop No.2, KL Tower also we get about 5 minutes to take snap shots of photos. Since the bas we took has an open-deck at the back so I decided to sit there to get some breeze and morning sun after we left the KL Tower as the crowd that was previously busy-ing away-clicking photos have already return into the aircond section. It wasn't too bad the morning air, it was still acceptable by my sensitive-nose.


~ Picture taken while we at the open-deck having KLCC tower as our background ~

When we saw from the pamplet that Stop No.5 is Karyaneka, we thought we get down and make a quick-peep into the crafty-shop before another bus which comes to the same stop after 30 minutes. Without our realisation, we took longer time admiring the crafts, potteries and batik in the shop and we missed the next bus that passes by just as we came out from the shop when we saw the bus turned the corner of the road out of sight!

Since the next stop No.6; Bintang Walk was familiar to us, we went on foot and since Yen Lin has never been to Pavillion, we checked it out and have our lunch there too. Honestly, it's never easy to get economy food in Pavillion! But, one should NOT missed trying the mini-tray cheesecake in The Loaf. So far, the best that I had was in Langkawi but this is definitely not to be missed. It's a divine-melt-in-the-tougue dessert that both Yen Lin and I shared together.

Stop No.6 is actually in front of Piccolo Galleria; between Lot 10 & KL Plaza, so we waited there for a while and the guy there came to chit chat with us. He thought we were students from overseas and he spoke English to us in the beginning. Asking a few questions and blaaa... We hopped on back to the bus and continue our tour.

At stop No.10; National Palace, this time, there is a longer stop of 15 minutes for photo-taking. And "wow" the crowd was huge with other tourist buses parked nearby too. Some kids were even trying to annoy the horse. Seriously, other than the guard on the horse, I don't find this place that attractive and I just wonder why there are such a big crowd... One can't really see the palace from the gate either.

Yen Lin wanted to stop at the parks, so we got down near the Butterfly park and we found out the entrance fee is too costly and we decided to check out the KL Bird Park instead. We paid for our tickets - RM20, if I have my Jusco card with me, I could enjoy a 50% discount. Just too bad I did not have it with me co-incidently.

Unfortunately, Yen Lin's camera had it's battery lasted till National Palace and mine was long gone since the morning, we couldn't take anymore pictures after this. Nevertheless, KL Bird Park was worth the visit. I even get to see my all time favourite, "chicks". So cute and adorable... always wanted to have one as a pet but of course, when it grew into a hen, you will not want it around too long. Kakaka...

After the parks, we hop back on to the bus, and we were stuck in "after-working-hours traffic-jam" on our 2nd round of the full circle since we wanted to go back to KL Sentral and due to stuck in the bus for more than 1 hour and feeling so hungry, we decided to hop out of the bus at Petaling Street for dinner. We couldn't really decided what to eat so, we along the street to have a look around and settled down for claypot-chicken rice. We had some really weird encounter with one of the aunt who sells drinks who somehow wants to "decide" on where we should sit and insisted us to sit at the table we do not want to sit. Gosh; kind of a grumpy woman too! Then, I realised, "gwailo" that come to eat at that area also being treated very weirdly by the same aunty. And then, her daughter got into an arguement with the "gwailo" due to the size of the drink that was wrongly gave.

Thru this trip, I even know where is the "porky" diner that Kien Tat mentioned and wanted to ask me to go once and this street has very interesting diners & pubs. One day, Yen Lin and I will come here for good food!

Well, if you are Malaysian travelling around any states in Malaysia, do remember to bring your MyKad everywhere you go. We get special rebates from all the admission fees & tickets.

Special Thanks to Yen Lin for taking all the pictures (as much as your batteries could last).

Lesson I learned; always carry my camera's battery charger with me whenever I've my camera too!