Happy 2012!

Goodbye 2011. It was a good year. Quite a bit of traveling. Advancement in my career. Quite a number of concerts. Some hits, some misses. Only had 17 posts in 2011 according to wordpress’s personalised report which I must see is very COOL!

Now.. let’s all say Hello! to 2012! *clap! clap! clap!*
Looking forward to a number of things… Mainly the London Olympics!

and seeing whether the world does end or becomes an Ice Age like in 2012, the movie.

Irregardless, this year… I shall enjoy myself as if it were the last year we’ll ever have on Earth.

Yeah.. haven’t done a lot of things on my list. But at least I’m enjoying myself. =)

Have a great year ahead dear readers!

If you wanna travel, travel.
If you wanna sing in public, sing
If you wanna move overseas, move.

If you want a life, live.

Merry Christmas!

*Caroling mode: I’mmm…  Dreaming of a Whiiiiiite Christmaaas…..*

Piak! *a slap across the face* “Wake Up! It’s Malaysia! How will there be a White Christmas!? Stop dreaming!”

Yowzah! Some wake up call.

It’s almost the middle of December!

Time to dig out those Christmas songs and loop it on your playlist while singing  Alvin & the Chipmunks “I still want a hula hoop…..” repeatedly just to irritate your colleagues and say cheerfully that they have “No Xmas spirit.” if they get angry.

Alvin, Simon.... Theodore!

Time to increase your brain speed and think of what to get for everyone before raiding the store.

I want everything in the store!

Wrap them presents up. Throw in under the tree. Get the lights out. Get the Santa suit, Santa Hat, elves, Santarina… and what nots and place them round the house. Stuff the socks with all kinds of sock stuffers and drink a hot cup o cocoa as 25th December draws near.

Then you can make and some eggnog, get some roast meat a yule log and all kinds of stuff and shout “MERRY CHRISTMAS!“

So… Merry Christmas there readers! May this Christmas be a Jolly event!

In case I forget… Happy New Year too!

 

P.S. Go out and blast those Christmas Songs!

 

MO.A 2011 in Malaysia

MO.A 2011

Don’t know what’s with me and kpop these days. Anyway, I made my way to this one cause I’m a huge fan of…….. not Super Junior… but Miss A! Overall it would have been great if there wasn’t so many problems.

Major Problem list

1. Seating layout (false advertisment)

2. Security, awful

#1 – Seating Layout

Original seating plan

Since from the advertisement, the seats stretched out past the first gates. Me and me mates decided to get the seats right next to the gate. The rock zone tickets were a bit pricey.

So… excitedly we went into the stadium and my oh my the layout is entirely far off from the seating plan. The actual seating plan looked more like,

Actual Seating Plan

The stage barely even reached the first row of the seats at the side. Instead of seats occupying the whole stadium on the field, it was only half occupied and the side seats were mostly occupied which made the whole concert seem somewhat odd.

I’m sure the organizers faced some problems, most likely the lack of sales, that’s why they cut the stage into half, but WE as consumers have the right to know too! They could have offered us alternatives to upgrade our seats or just inform us so we can give our feedback. Just changing it without notifying us is plain wrong and definitely FALSE ADVERTISING!

It’s like buying a house. From the floor plan you see 3 rooms and 2 toilets for the house, so you purchase the house. After the house is built and the keys to the house is passed to you and you step into the house for the very first time, you find out that Hey! The house only have 2 rooms and 1 toilet!  That’s not acceptable right?

I’m pondering whether to complain to the NCCC. This is definitely false advertising in my books.

#2 – Security

This is by far the worst security I have ever seen. The crew doesn’t seem to know how to control crowds.

There were actually people at the side seats that ran to the rock zone because all the zones were not segregated with gates and fences.

Their “cure” was to close the gate to the seating zone which actually quite smart but a smarter move would have been to check all the tickets of the concertgoers that were moving to the field instead of closing the gate so the crew can watch the concert too. I’m sure there were people who managed to sneak in because the crew definitely did not check all tickets.

They also let vendors come in to sell glow sticks and other things which they were selling. Is that even possible? They even let them enter the field. Mind boggling, really!

I also read that there were people that fainted and the security didn’t help the person who fainted and just waited for the “paramedics”.

Recommendation: Segregate the zones properly and check people’s tickets. Close out each area and make just make a few entrances to those zones. There is no use giving verbal warnings. It’s like those do not litter signs. Malaysians still litter! Though not all.

Another really irritating thing at the back of my mind is…

As the concert was approaching, Groupon had a 50% discount for rock zone tickets! OMG! I could have went to the rockzone if I just waited till the last minute. Totally unfair! Totally!!!

Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy it. I’m sure the organizers worked really hard and definitely experience in organizing events, but this concert was overall a letdown. The sound system wasn’t every good either and the promotion was lacking. It seemed to be a word of mouth event.

My guess is the organizers did not have a local organizer so they faced obstacles which might have been difficult to overcome. I’m sure the Korean Music Wave had a local organizer, I feel that one was very well organized. I’m not even comparing this to MTV World Stage. This would have been an epic fail compared to MTV World Stage.

So, thank you CJ Entertainment for bringing Miss A here. I appreciated it but next time, get help from a local organizer. I’m sure they know how opportunistic Malaysians can get. They are Malaysians too!

2pm Hands Up Asia Tour 2011

Yowza! 2pm was here yesterday for their HANDS UP tour and man were they HOT! Sizzling! Ssssssssss….

Waded our way through the usual Friday Night jam to Stadium Negara and sat at our pretty far seats.

*No rock zone this time since didn’t quite feel the atmosphere last time round.. besides, it’s expensive*

Stadium Negara slowly filling up

Something good about Korean artist’s concerts, they almost always start on time.

Bursting on to stage

Yes. I can’t see their faces very clearly. Like I said, pretty far seats. =( I think their first song was “Electricity”, which sounded so much better live.

Something interesting about the concert, the live video being played actually has lyrics to them so U can sing along heehee. And whenever one of the men speaks in Korean, there is a English translated version on screen. Interesting.

Lyrics on screen ala karaoke

The men also performed some solo stages.

Junho and Wooyoung performed a song composed by Junho.

Chansung showed of his martial arts skills which reminded me of video games.

Junsu sang his “Alive” song and Nickhun and Tacyeon appeared in what look like pyjamas to sing “My Valentine”.

Junho which looks a lot like Rain

Singing "I Can't". Junsu looks super cute in tux.

Wooyoung and Chansung giving out flowers

After performing the uber dramatic “Heartbeat”,

Nickhun's wings burned in flames before he ripped his shirt and "died". Fuoah!

Concert ending soon after performing "Thank you"

After their goodbye speech, they continued to perform an encore with “10 out of 10 points” and “Hands Up”.

2pm's final farewell!

Junsu got the cute panda stuff. How cute. =)

Before they left, Chansung removed his shirt and threw it into the crowd. Fuaaaooow!

Overall, it was an awesome concert! Wooyoung’s moves are super slick and their voices were so clear. Yowza!

They performed their signature dance moves from “Again & Again”, “Without You”, “I’ll Be Back” and also “I’m Your Man” which is super hot!

I feel the best song was “Heartbeat” though. Dramatic with the red lights and red curtains for effect. Not to mention their outrageous ways of dying, ie, Junho doing a backflip to die.

They definitely lived up to their name of “Beastly Idols”, with super strong dance moves and quite a few shirt ripping.

P.S. Should have bought more expensive tix. There’s always next time though.

Domino’s GPS Tracker

Hey! I didn’t know Domino’s has stuff like this….

Domino's GPS Tracker

I am impressed. Came on time too. I’m one pleased customer.

Jodphur

When the Airasia sale begins, I start to dream of all the places to go and then get disappointed due to the lack of funds. =(

Ah well. Dreaming is free =)

I’ve been dreaming of going to India for awhile now. Mainly to see Taj Mahal and the wonderful colours of “Incredible India”!

Now to add to the places to visit in India is…..

Jodphur (Blue City, India)

Man, I feel blue.

Looks pretty eh? Fascinating… I wonder why they picked blue. To blend in with the Sky?
To be honest, “Finding Mr. Destiny” made me wanna visit this place. Never knew it existed before.

Added to my list of places to visit. =)

Korean Music Wave in Malaysia 2011

Yeap! U read that right! Ur’s trully paid top dollar  just to see TOP and listen to Lee Hong Ki’s awesome voice! Gosh!

The line up is as below. Pretty good lineup actually.

Korean Music Wave Malaysia 2011 lineup

But, no 2ne1 & no Miss A as compared to Singapore but oh well, at least there was still F.T. Island, Park Jung Min and GD & TOP.

Now for a little recap. No pics cause well…. I was dumb not to bring a camera. *The ticket said no camera mar! It should have specifically said professional camera!*

This concert was a little different from the ones I’ve attended before. I expected a queue when I reached but looks like the doors were already opened when I arrived. As expected most of the crowd were pretty young. Some still in primary I think. Anyway, we’re all there for the same objective.

There were 4 MCs that night, Jeff (MY fm) Kevin & Dong Ho (U-Kiss) and a dude from Arirang TV. Kevin spoke really fluent english and Dong Ho spoke pretty good mandarin. Surprising! (the mandarin part)

The show started with a mini opening act with a beatboxer and a singer. The beatboxer was cool!

Then out popped up the MCs and soon F.T. Island was on!

They’re pretty rocking alright! Can’t say much about the crowd though. The lead singer, Lee Hong Ki, was hitting those sky high notes till his face went red. Seriously! He has a good voice. They performed 5 songs, “Hello, Hello”, “Love, Love, Love” “Bing, Bing, Bing” “I, Hope” and a slower song which I don’t know the title of. =)

F.T.ISland at a press conference?

Next up was Teen Top. Not my kinda stuff but some songs were catchy. For me the person that appeared to be the leader looked a little girlish. Male version of Angelina? The only song which I can remember them performing is “Supa Luv” cause they had a dance move that made them look like supermen.

3rd Act was 4minute!

Their moves are hot! and they seem much smaller in the flesh. They are what I call pint size, but still tall. Their legs, super slim! Ah… korean idols they are. Songs are catchy. They performed “Muzik”, “I My Me Mine”, “Mirror Mirror”, “Hear to Heart” & “Hot Issue”. Hey! I remembered.

Soon, it was U-Kiss. When they came on, I thought of Beast’s live performance. I think these korean boybands are getting quite similar to me. Only the songs are different. Anyway, they performed their latest song “Neverland”, much nicer sounding as compared to watching  through youtube. Other songs were “0330″ “Man Man Ha Ni” “Binguel Binguel”. *Don’t ask me what they mean. I was just there to listen and appreciate. =D*

Dong Ho, the MC and U-Kiss member actually has this mushroom haircut and he actually raps in some of the songs which kinda contradicts his image. LOL

Next up was Park Jung Min!

This angle seems manlier. LOL

He is one pretty boy. Seriously. So darn pretty. I think most of them are actually. I would say he is a very sporting and charming singer. He knows how to entertain the crowd and knows what would make the crowd eat outta his palm! He performed “Not Alone”, a song I was looking forward to cause it has a nice orchestral background, and some other songs which I don’t know. There was a christmas song too. Hehehe.

Soon it will be the trio below…

Seung Ri, TOP & GD

with Seung Ri performing first.

Honestly I don’t really like Seung Ri’s songs. It’s not my kinda song. But it’s good for performing though, the kind that would get people up on their feet jiggy a little to the music. Not like that was what the crowd did, or least not where I was standing, but that’s besides the point. He only performed 3 songs. =( He left abruptly and the picture of GD & TOP appeared at the stage screen!.

The crowd went WILD and GD & TOP burst onto the stage with “Knockout!“. They soon proceeded to “Oh Yeah” without Park Bom. So GD & TOP sang the part where Park Bom was supposed to sing. TOP singing Park Bom’s park was a bit funny considering Park Bom’s voice is pretty high pitched and TOP’s is deep deep deep.

They stopped for a mo for the MCs to interview them. Most questions were answered by GD in English and TOP was a man of few words. :p He’s super good looking though. As evident from the picture above. LOL

Then they broke out to the crowd favourite “High High” The crowd went absolutely high! *figuratively speaking*

And they too like Seung Ri left abruptly after that.

Then the MCs appeared and said goodnite and that was it. “WHAT!? that’s it?” No encore nothing. That’s it. Just 3 songs? Disappointing really. They probably appeared like 15 mins? Maybe less.

Overall, the concert was filled with screaming fans! Haha no.. that’s not it. It was good overall but I guess I have 2 grievances?

#1- If there would be something like that again I think I’ll just sit in the stands. Standing in the “rock” zone only gets u a closer look. There’s no rock atmosphere whatsoever. They shouldn’t even name it the rock zone. They should name it the “standing” zone! Or rather I’ll just skip these kinda stuff and go straight for rock concerts.

#2 – Last 2 acts were too short. Come On! How come the first few acts had 5 songs but the last 2 only had 3. Plus they are the top acts! Aren’t they supposed to be performing the same length or longer? The concert started late and ended at 2210. Like.. what!?

Between World Stage and this, I prefer World Stage much much more. And that one was free! World Stage had Jared Leto performing and interacting with the crowd for at least 30 mins! And the crowd was much more awesome! World Stage rocks full stop.

Oh there was this girl who kept crouching in the “rock” zone next to me, during performances! Probably she’s not feeling well but crouching in the rock zone is freaking dangerous! It’s freaking dark! All anyone sees is a black hole to move into and take ur spot! No one can see u crouching there and people will jump, not in this case, fine.. move a lot and they might trip and fall over! If you’re not feeling well move to somewhere safer to rest!

 

Note: Pictures are not taken nor owned by me. Credit to whoever took them. I apologize if I used them inappropriately.

Tteokbokki

I made this for lunch just now….

Mmmm.... Cheese Tteokbokki!

Doesn’t look like it has cheese cause I put it in the pot before taking it out. Never tasted cheese tteokbokki before so I have no idea how one would taste like. Mine had that cheesy taste but no cheese in sight. I had a hard boiled egg too. Din’t have fish cakes but it felt fine to me.

Overall result, better than my last try although the rice cake was a little too much on the chewy side.

 

 

 

 

AH… EHHHHHH….

I think I partially fail as a blogger. 10 entries in a year? (not including the welcome 2011 one… ) 10 is…. ok at least I’m roughly at an average of 1/month. Not bad… I suppose…

Anyway, to get things started let’s talk about the weather. Sweltering hot this days. After bathing, you sit under the fan and you’re still sweating. Crazy hell. Today a sudden burst of rain happened albeit only for 1-2 mins but it still reminded me of the time in Cambodia where the sky suddenly just became dark and WHOOSH! The rain started pouring. So…. I shall get straight into the topic of the day.

SIEM REAP!

Brief History:

Siem = Siam (Thailand)

Reap = Defeat

Siem Reap is named as such because eons ago the Thai army was defeated at this very fine spot. Hence the name Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is THE place to go to if U want to visit the Majestic Angkor Wat! It is truly majestic and a rich source of history I must say.

I said today reminded me of Siem Reap because it practically rained everyday when we were there *Not surprising since we travelled in August during the rainy season*. Everyday without fail there would be

Rain.

Raining on the first day.

Rain.

Raining in Angkor Wat

And… you guessed right! More RAIN!

WHAT!? We're walking through there? But it's flooded!

Although the rain made the weather pretty pleasant. At least it wasn’t burning hot. It was pretty fun walking/running in the rain too. Exciting!

Anyways Day 1 at Siem Reap saw us exploring the town of Siem Reap. Checking out the tourists area, the Central Market, the old market, pub street…. etc. I must say those scarves are pretty cheap. Cambodian? No idea.

Day 2 saw us waking up in the wee hours of the morning to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Yeeeaaap! We didn’t get to see the bright orange Sun shining straight into our eyes because it rained a lot and the clouds covered it. But the pink hue on the clouds were nice!

After that we had a tour around the Bayon area, which includes Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, the one with the Tomb Raider tree, and of course Angkor Wat.

We hired a guide Mr. Be, he’s english is good, interested peeps can email him @ besotheara@yahoo.com (HAHAHAHA I’m advertisng!)

He gave us an in depth explanation about the history of Cambodia. I forgot which King built Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat and which one was for his Mum and which was for his Dad. I do remember that there were a lot of wars back then most because of religion I suppose. Hinduism then Buddhism then Hinduism again ultimately the Khmer people are mostly Buddhist. Because of this warring, there were quite a lot of carvings carved out from the walls of the Angkors (I think it was the Hindus that carved out the carvings that depict Buddhism).

Enough of words, how bout some pictures?

Ta Prohm

A very cool Spung tree taking over the ruins @ Ta Prohm

Angkor Wat from the East Entrance (I think)

Day 2 also introduced us to some fantastic tasting Khmer soup. It was chicken soup in their menu but it tasted like a non spicy Tom Yum. Yum! Yum!

On Day 3 we went for a bicycle tour to the countryside. The ride was pleasant. The tour brought us through smaller paths into the countryside. Along the way, you can catch a glimpse of the life of the Khmer people. A lot of the people will say “Hello!” and wave to you.  There are a lot of paddy fields too. As it’s the rainy season, the grass is lush green. Very soothing for them eyes. We stopped by a countryside market. Boy things look pretty unhygienic there. The local delicacies which our guide was explaining to us was constantly attacked by flies. We visited a lotus farm too.

As I was cycling, I can’t offer you any soothing green pictures.

At night we headed to Temple! (A Restaurant/Bar) because they offered free Apsara shows for people who dine there. Apsara is actually a celestial beauty but the Apsara Show includes local dances like the coconut knocking dance, Apsara Dance and Peacock dance.

Apsara Dance

We had front row seats. My suggestion would be to reserve ahead if you want front row seats.

Day 4 was the day we went to Tonle Sap Lake. Boy is this lake brown but huge! We went to the Lake through a river where the floating village was. When we were at Tonle Sap Lake, we couldn’t see any land! That’s how HUGE the lake is! Wow.

The floating village was quite an eye opener. The villagers practically living off  the lake. They even take water from the lake. That’s why they are born with a lot of sickness the boatman said. Sad really.

Children happily rowing about in basins

I’m pretty sure any adult that uses a basin to row about will sink once they get in.

After that we headed to the Cultural Village where we caught a performance of a Khmer wedding.

Khmer Wedding with a very Korean looking groom

Through out our vacation we had a good walk around the markets (Angkor Market, Siem Reap Market, Old market, central market), all of them mostly sold the same things, scarves, local handmade goods, t-shirts, local jewelry,clothes, souveniers). Stuff are considerably cheap if haggling is involved. However due to baggage constraints I didn’t get much stuff.

Alcohol is also dirt cheap with draft beers going at USD 1 and some cocktails at USD1.50. Who’s gonna drink plain water?

We also came across a very refreshing drink (but very fattening I assume)

Coconut shake!

This is yummy after a long walk and of course when one is hot and needs some cooling down.

Overall, the Khmer people are extremely friendly and helpful (maybe because they haven’t been truly introduced to commercialisation). The service at the hotel was exceptional. The food, mmmm yum! Shopping not bad! Massage? 2 thumbs up! Will I come again? Maybe after a few years…

Oh anyone looking for a tuk-tuk driving that speaks Malay you can contact Mr. Nasir @ Nasiryusuf18@yahoo.com . The dude worked in Malaysia before so he understands Malay and speaks pretty good english too. His prices are good too! Better than our hotel’s.

To end this entry I shall throw in a lame joke

Tuk tuk driver: “Hello tuk-tuk.”

Tourist: “Do I look like a TUK-TUK to you?”

Selamat Hari Raya!

Selamat Hari Raya to all mah Muslim friends!

Hope this Raya you’ll get your intake of rendang, lemang and still not pack on the kilos!

Well time sure flies by when one is erm… enjoying every “down” time *in my case, non-peak time* I’m still not quite ready to blog about mah trip down under or my trip slightly up North. But typing it out now makes me wanna blog about it. Tsk tsk tsk… contradicting self.

Ever thought of renting a place and have a “party? These properties seem great. Pricey though. Very pricey. But pretty. Very pretty. Maybe one day. It should be an interesting experience.

I’m having writer’s block. Ciao then.