: : 2007 USA Road Trip : :

Ok, I need help. Planning to do a USA Road Trip with my Mum in 2007. We've not made any plans except a goal : 2007 USA Road Trip.

So, any suggestions, recommendations, etc. are welcome. It's going to be tough planning a route via the net. So much information but so much to sort out, etc.

So far, I like what's on this route. Then again, how long does it take to criss-cross USA and get back to Michigan?

Although looking at the flight costs during peak season, it's pretty expensive at over RM7,000 (US$1,844). *shudder* In 2003, it cost me RM4,000++ (USD1,052) to fly from Kuching to Fort Worth, Texas.

Anyway, any suggestions, please drop a line in the comment section. Thanks.

: : Further Updates : :

Hi folks,

Sorry no pictures these past few days. Web admin is fixing some issues with the server. So, until some time next week, I probably will not be uploading any pictures. I could use Flickr.com but it just takes forever to load up on a Sunday evening. Courtesy of loads of kids on school holidays suddenly having a lot of time to surf the net.

In the mean time, will be trying out my new baby. And reading up on how to make full use of the camera. It's a long but very useful read at the Canon USA site.

Have also highlighted to dear old Dad that I'd like a big enough camera bag for Christmas.

This is getting serious, folks.

: : Moving up : :

I know that I will get an email from Mr. S who has been suggesting for me to move into the realm of dSLR for a really long time now.

Let's see now... over the years, I went from this (Sony F77) :



...to this (Canon G5)...



...downgraded to this (Sony-Ericcsson W800i) to take more pics...



...and a few hours ago, major upgrade to this (Canon Digital Rebel XT - EOS 350D) at the Kuching PC Fair...



...and I love the speed it takes the camera picture (I'm just too excited).

Although, I'm more than a bit apprehensive about the camera vest that came with it. According to this posting, it could have been as old as 1999!!! It's definitely going to go into the wash immediately! Probably will also pass it to my uncle. Still considering.

Update : And, ladies and gentlemen, the picture of the free gift :



Pink lock from The World of Peter Rabbit. And if you turn the lock to the other side, the Pikom website is there. Free with every purchase of RM300 in any one bill on the day itself, redeemable from the Pikom booth. They were sneaky as did not publish the fact that they did not offer any free gifts until you grab hold of their free brochure of the event.

: : Customer Service via Phone : :

I couldn't resist blogging about this. Although, I must say they were extremely honest and polite throughout the entire conversation. Calls were to their customer support centers.

Phone Call 1 : Asking about Sony PSP

Wena : Hi. Does your PSP Zorro pack come with Zorro games?

Operator #1 : Sorry miss but it's only the box. The only game is Ridge Racer.

Wena : Wah! So RM300 (USD78.95) extra just for the box ah?

Operator #1 : Errr... you get extra stuff also with it.

Wena : But your box got picture of Zorro on it. Surely you must have something with Zorro in it. That's a pretty expensive box.

Operator #1 : Well, you do get a CD worth of songs.

Wena : What's in it?

Operator #1 : errr...don't know. Anyway, the Zorro theme is just the box.

2 weeks later, they change the promo site to include a table showing what you get with the box. Guess I wasn't the only caller making this type of phone call.

Also note that Malaysia has a huge Sony manufacturing facility here and all their products are still very much so cheaper OVERSEAS than here. Take for example the above Sony PSP unit at Froogle search.

Definitely it's the Zorro box. Oh, and the free neck strap and ID band.

And maybe another added free gift? I got a free metal miniature of that Sony Robot QRIO when I ordered the Sony Ericcson W800i.

Yeah, go figure.

Phone Call 2 : Getting the Contact No. for Sony Service Center in Kuching

Wena : Hi. What's the contact details for the Kuching Sony Service Center? Have a camera that needs repair.

Operator #2 : Yeah. it's ...

Wena : Ok thank. By the way, is your website having problems? It's been down for 2 weeks.

Operator #2 : No leh. Just went in and things were fine.

Wena : Errr... you're from Sony and on the same network. Of course fast. From work and my home, I still can't get in.

Operator #2 : Ok ok. I'll let the IT folks know. They are doing some upgrade but should be done already.

Website came on a few days ago. Then down again. Then up again.

Generally though, the Customer Service Center is quite friendly. Their girls are very pleasant to speak to and are helpful. And when they mean that they will check and try to see if things can be speeded up, they really DO do it.

Note that this is Malaysia, not other countries. Sorry folks.

: : Rock Road Seafood : :

Update : Hi all. Sorry about this. This was actually a draft post that got messed up since Blogger.com has not behaving normally the past few weeks. Or it could have just been the server. Ah well. Below is the completing posting.

Guide : M - Male. F - Female. # - unique number to that particular person.



Last night, I attended a dinner with my colleagues for Mr. H who is leaving for Singapore next week. We arranged for a dinner at Rock Road Seafood, one of the oldest seafood restaurant in Kuching. It's a place where the food is great although a bit more expensive than at TopSpot. Still, we wanted a private room to ourselves as we were going to be noisy minus too much liquor. The set meal we chose was Menu 4.

The blog posting will be slightly different today. It's going to be filled with conversations that took place during the dinner. Yes, we're all a huge bunch of jokers.

M1 starts telling jokes that are pretty disgusting i.e. the old man on the bus spitting into a Milo can and drinking up all his saliva again.

Wena : Doh! Why you tell that kind of story just before eat-eat one?

F1 : He want us to eat less so he can eat more. Sure one!

M1 : Haiya! So that I can have more.

M2 : This table for sure all food go through very very fast one.

F2 : Yeah yeah. Last time I sit with them ah, all finish fast fast.



Braised Seafood Soup with Beancurd.

F2 : (Pours vinegar in soup). Aiya! Put too much!

Wena : Put more soup in lor. Still got some in big bowl.

F2 : Aiya! Waiter take bowl too fast!! Still got some more soup there.



Cold Dish Combination : Spicy Pickled Jellyfish, Salted Chilled Chicken Slices, Fruit & Prawn Salad (the mountain of mayonnaise), Century Egg, Prawn + Chicken Meat rolls

M3 : Aiya you people so fast. (Serves E next to him). Pity F3 who isn't fast enough to eat.

M4 : Aiya, you next to her can serve her lah. You fast mah.

3 min later.

Wena : Wah! So fast finish one.

M1 : It's called TEAMWORK.

M2 : Too slow = no food. Simple.



Sliced garupa in Szechuan Style. Actually, it was pretty good as the fish meat was soft.

M4 goes to washroom. Comes back.

M4 : Wah! No more fish one ah. (Walks to 2nd table)

10 other guys screaming : Wei! What you do here! Go away lay! (Sounds of chopsticks hitting M4 chopsticks). M4 returns to table.

M1 : So little meh.

M4 : Other side hit my chopsticks. How to take? Stupid lah!



Mr. H gave a short farewell speech...



...which was interrupted by the arrival of the next dish : Boneless Chicken with Lemon Sauce

M2 : Go on go on talking. Distract people from the food. Then I can eat more one.

Wena : Doh!



Stewed Cabbage with Chicken Meat

Wena : Are you sure this is nice?

M1 : Yes yes. It's the sauce that's nice. Try it.

Wena : Hmm....nice.

Silence on the table as everyone is eating.

M7 (at next table) : Woi! You people so quiet! Eating is serious business ah! Like study for exam. Scary man!



Braised Sea Slug with Black Mushrooms.

M3 : Eat eat eat eat...must finish one.



Fried Noodles with Shrimps (Prawns).

M2 : Hmm...taste like Maggi Mee lah.

M4 : Just eat lah.

M1 : Come come come...everyone must help finish this one. TEAMWORK mah!

Wena : Yeah but you also must TEAMWORK to eat one bowl lah.

M3 : No thanks for me. *Covers his bowl with his hand.*

M1 : Aiya, come on lah. *Strokes M3's hand.*

M3 : Wei! Don't lah! *Moves hand away. And tries to cover his bowl again. Then 3 guys starts stroking his hand while M1 quickly fills his bowl with noodles.*



Longan with Almond Flavoured Soya Bean Curd

M1 : You're very good at dividing the desert.

Waiter : Must divide equally one. Has to be good mah.

*Round applause around the table.



Chinese Pancake with Red Bean Paste.

M3 : Hmm...nice. What's the glass turn-table called.

M2 : It's a Lazy Susan. But not for eating lah!

The entire set meal per table is RM285 (USD75). One table sits 10 people.

So, that's our meal for that night. Nice and yummy. The party was a blast and Mr. H definitely enjoyed himself and his gift.

: : Hey Mambo! : :

New restaurant in town at the newest and interesting location in town. Mambo Kings at the Travilion although quite a number of people refer it to KTLD.

A lot of people recommended Mambo Kings so off I went to have lunch with my usual work-weekend pal, Lam. Or more like, I drag her along with me but she's always a good sport to come eating with me on my food adventures during the weekend. Well, when it's the working weekend that is. We usually try to eat at a new place during the weekends that we work. Excuse to go for a 2-hr long lunch break.



Onto the meals. Drinks always served first. Tropicana Frappe. I remember there was pineapples inside as well as some bananas. Can't remember anything else! Woooppps! Errrm...ok, for a fruit juice drink it's a wee bit on the high side of RM7.50 (USD1.97) which is about the same price of coffee at Coffee Bean, I think. I did enjoy it it a lot that I finished the whole drink. It was delicious! Healthy too!



Lam and I had the Prawn Noodles. Me with normal mee, her with Bee Hoon. It was tasty although not quite the same as the West Malaysian version. Something was missing but I couldn't pinpoint what. It was generous fillings though although one has to be careful when eating this soup dish. There's two holes by the side of the bowl that will tipped out the soup if one is not careful. How much? RM7.50 (USD1.97). Ok, don't faint. It's an air-conditioned restaurant so definitely more than the normal hawker prices. Still, it was a refreshing change from the normal hawker food i.e. less oily.



Chicken Mambo Salad i.e. chicken slices with fresh lettuces and raisins and walnuts with a touch of Thousand Island Dressing. RM9.00 (USD2.37).

All in all, it was a nice place to have a quiet meal. Lunch was pretty empty but dinner time is usually pack. Especially during the weekends, I'm sure. And that was my lunch today. Next week, another lunch spot elsewhere.

Details

Mambo Kings
Ground Floor, Lot 414,
Section 54, KTLD
Travilion Commercial Center
Jalan Petanak
93100 Kuching, Sarawak
Tel : 082-239816
Email : mumboking_travilion@yahoo.com

: : Wantan! I want! : :

Although I can't remember where did I take this picture. It was somewhere in Kuching last year but just can't remember.

Deep Fried Wantan in an artistic style with some chilli sauce by the side.

As for the neighbour, fire is down. Had to wear a mask throughout the night which I took after once it's bedtime.

Why didn't I go and ask the neighbour politely to douse his fire? Well, for Granny.

Granny : Shhh!! Don't start war over this lah!

Doh. The politics in a neighbourhood.

Other than that, making a huge effort to lose weight. Being doing some Pilates at home for the past 10 days and the stomach size is going down. Yay! Downside is that the stomach muscle is aching everytime I eat.

: : No pictures tonite : :

Because I'm too angry at my stupid neighbour.

They're burning some earth tonight and it's stinking out the whole house. They're so selfish that they even went and put some cooking oil and then laid another layer of earth over it so now it's smothering.

PLUS they did not even burn it inside their house but rather nearer to ours, outside our compound.

And this is how things are like in Malaysia. Don't think that all Malaysians are courteous. Being courteous to tourists doesn't mean that they are courteous to each other. I'm too irritated to write at the moment.

Too dizzy at the moment to blog. I'm going to try and sleep, if I can in this bloody humid smog.

And guess what? They're not even at home to smell the smog.

: : Restaurant Contacts via Handphones : :

Phew! Finally got it done.

A link to a list of restaurants found in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia is up with contact numbers and details of what they serve. Apologies that it's not quite complete. The link is :

http://www.mum-mum.info/addresses.html

The entire filesize is only 13 kb so the cost of viewing it by handphone with GPRS service is very cheap. I'm also trying to add maps into that link but it may take awhile.

Anyway, enjoy it!

: : Baskin & Robbins Promotion : :

If there was ever a time I wish I was back in KL, it's now. Got this
in my email today.

Baskin and Robbins Ice-Cream Parlours are having a ice-cream promotion until the end of this month. For the vouchers, click here. Print them out and use it at any B&R Parlour.

And they still haven't come to Kuching! Bah!

: : Quick Polls : :

Hi all!!

Doing a quick survey to see how many of the readers read this website. Doing a major revamp to make it more accessible to people with different devices.

There are two different polls but due to the way Blogger is configured, I can't put the actual poll here. Sorry guys. Click on the pictures below and a popup window will appear. Make sure that your pop-up blocker allows for pop-ups to appear.


















Oh, and I wanted to put this calendar up but the CSS coding did something do it. Oh well. Will go through it another time.

: : Changes : :

The only constant thing in this world is change.

Well, not the coin change.

Anyway, still trying to redo this site a bit. It definitely looks a bit cleaner but the calendar that was suppose to be up didn't quite work out in the end. Interference from the CSS files. Humph! Ah well. Bit more struggling to do.

No more tagboard. Too many spam appearing on that that I just got irritated about it.

My blog is worth $71,696.58.
How much is your blog worth?

Go missing for 9 months and this is what happens. Oh well. Not too shabby.

Still thinking of how to clean up this page a bit.

And hiya Reid, thanks for the welcome back. Trying to think of new ideas to make this blog interesting again. While I still have the energy to do so, that is.

And to pile through the pictures of food. :)

: : aha, Aha, AHA! : :

What a wet wet day. And I went out of the house. Got myself a new DVD-Writer (it's for the game addiction that I have) from Saberkas. Anyway, some arty tarty pictures today.

Went to AHA Cafe with a friend for some tea and coffee. AHA Cafe has an interesting concept that it promotes healthy eating and living. They have Ayurvedic drinks there as well as a variety of fruit juices. Cooking is usually grilled or toasted. Couldn't see any fried there so that's a plus sign. Also, the interior design of the place is definitely amazing. Found out that it was designed by a local ID designer who currently manages Atelier Gallery.



A Caffe Latte that look very inviting. There's a variety of coffee found there, mostly made using a LaVazza machine. There is a coffee grinder there though. Not sure which coffee drinks are for those.



A smoothie made from honeydew and banana. The banana is to give it a more filling taste. Definitely very very milky and satisfying. And quenches one's thirst.



Definitely a very very healthy chicken salad. A few pieces of chicken meat to vet the appetite and more vegetables. Actually, it turned out to be very nice and tasty. All you men who are groaning, now stop that. Try not eating vegetables for a few days and see if you have constipation. Ha!



Yummy yummy sandwiches. Thick slices of bread with melted cheese, turkey ham, beef bacon and slices of pineapple. I was surprise to see the pineapple slices but it definitely went very well with the sandwiches. Hmm...another way to spruce up boring sandwiches. Going to do that in future although it was canned pineapples that were used and not the fresh ones.



And to top it off, I had a cup of Earl Grey Tea to clean the mouth. Ahhhhhhhhh! Well, that was a nice cuppa for a rainy day today. It was pouring this afternoon and poor Wena got immensely wet. Ah well. It was nice to warm up a bit in AHA Lounge. Try it sometimes. It's at the corner of the same block as Tsui Ha Lau restaurant.

Contact Details

AHA Cafe

Mon - Sat : 7 am - 12 am
Sun & Public Holiday : 8:30 am - 12 am

Ground Floor, Lot 326
Jalan Ban Hock
93100 Kuching, Sarawak
Malaysia.
Tel : 082-414104

: : Saying Hello! : :

Hi all!

A short post to reply to everyone who has posted comments recently in various postings.

It's good to be back. Needed a break from online gaming, although Streamyx is forcing me to go "offline" more often than not. The line that connects between East and West Malaysia goes down fairly often that there's just not enough connections. Hence, slower broadband connection compared to good ol' Jaring dialups. Amazing, isn't it?

Anyway, the new cameraphone is nifty although I do need a lot of lighting. The light diode only works for inanimate objects and not people. Folks get seriously blinded by the light too much that their eyes cannot stay open long enough for me to take a picture. Oh well. Time to look for another small teeny weeny camera to carry around.

Thanks for the warm welcome back guys. Nice to be back. Although, a lot of spring-cleaning to be done in this place. Have been gone for so long that everything is collecting dust. There's about a hundred photos in this PC, idling away as I was too lazy to edit them. Well, going to do something about that.

Replies back :

Farid : Thanks for the greets. I'm not celebrating it though. Errr... different religion. :) Anyway, hope you're having a good time.

cookengr : The W800i phone was RM1,999 (USD526) but I had to order it online. No one in Kuching had is. Ok, it's definitely more expensive than in the USA but this is an unlock version without a subscription. Oh well. The K750i was about RM1,899 (USD500) so I decided to get the W800i instead. The Motorola Razr V3 went down in price so much though. From RM1,900 (USD500) when it first came out to now about RM900(USD237) - don't know why it drops down so fast in less than a year. Also makes me wonder what is not right with the phone - prices usually drop that fast if there is a problem and people just don't like using the phone. It brings back memories of the old StarTAC which was a classy phone in itself before Motorola went and revamp themselves to their V-Series (which was crap). As for your party, yeah, I wouldn't mind joining again although better ask someone else to take pictures. Otherwise, you're going to have to wait another 2 more months before Wena sends you the pictures. :(

fish fish : Hi hon! How's things in Japan? When are you back? Chinese New Year? We should meet up and do the makan-makan thing a bit in Kuching. Am thinking of arranging a small dinner during Chinese New Year. Still thinking about it. Not sure how to go about it yet. Must try to find a new place to do it though.

NSDS3HvLDjJd : Hi! I see you're still alive. Good lah! Now start blogging! :p

killuminati : Hey there! I get the most hits from your website. Why ah? :) Anyway, thanks for the welcome. Hope things are well with you.

Hmm... and there's just too many to say hello, thanks, and I'm back.

So, I'm back. :)

: : Smile! : :

See? Even the food smiles for Wena's camera. Smiley pineapple tarts. Makes you think twice before chomping down on them.

Taken at Fariah's house. And that's Gette.

HI GETTE!

: : How to make oodles and oodles of noodles : :

...or rather, how to make fettucine. The pictures are a bit old. I think they were taking somewhere about a year ago in Ristorante Becchari. It was during the Sunday night Pasta Buffet, one of the many Sundays.



First, have 2 obliging chefs around. They were sporting enough to smile at the camera. Must have thought I'm from out of town or something. Then again, anyone with a big camera cannot be mistaken for being a bit touristy.



Of course, they'd already have some pre-made dough to make the paste.





Right then. With a pasta making machine, they put the dough through the side that makes the lump flat and thin. And they repeat this over and over then, thereby lengthening the entire piece of dough. It should now be very long and flat and thin.



And believe me, it was long. Very very long.



The next thing is the take the crankshaft out of the machine and slot it into another hole. Then put the flat dought into that portion and churn the crankshaft until the entire dough is cut into noodles i.e. the fettucine.



Voila! It's done. Fresh fresh and great tasting pasta at Merdeka Palace, Kuching, Sarawak.

: : Celebrations : :

...Happy Deepavali to all Indian readers...

...Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri to all Muslim readers...

Wena, Granny, Uncle Cyril.

(3rd attempt)