Kuching:Day 5

Day5(18-4-2004, Sunday)

*rise and shine*......for the first time all of us, maybe only me la....woke up before the sun rose! we had to be up by 5.30..... coz today, we were attending Gerald's church, St. Joseph's Catholic Church for thei morning mass....the mass starts at 6.30, so we had to be up and kicking ready by latest 6.15. so here we were all dragging ourselves out of bed.....and we did it! we manage to reach there on time. i decided to go to mass out of curiosity. i've never been for a catholic service and i thoguht it'd be a great chance to see how it's like.

it was a nice service. an eye-opener to me. never been to a catholic church before, and i was a bit lost in their customs, liek when to kneel...the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit thingy.....when to say Amen.....all i could do was sit there and watch.....one thing that caught my attention, was how the organs sounded so beautiful, resonating off the walls. i really felt like i was among angels....missed the serenity.....in an hours time, it was all over......we had planty of things to talk about after after church, about how the priest spoke in that tone of voice, about the communion, about the confession rooms, about how boss had to go to those confessions and confess the many sins he has done...... it was a really memorable experience.

about being holy-holy on sundays.....we went for 2 services today....after the Catholic mass, Charis had pre-arranged for us to visit Calvary Family Church, a church lead by her dad's friend. it was in another part of Kuching....forgot what area di. it was a big church...a more familar setting to the chruches i attend. halfway through the worship i got a call from Ravin telling me about the pasing of Sandhya:( i was pretty shocked and sad.......didn't know she was battling cancer.....she died a strong person. anyways, the church was a touch of the usual service.....but we were lagging from the lack of sleep and the early wake up call....so we were pretty relieved whenit was over.

after service, we headed back to our guesthouse, and made up for our lost sleep.........*tidur in process* ..............

we woke up around 1pm.....Gerald had intended to take us to the Cultural Village near Santubong.. so we shouldn't be late. of we went again.after lunch....chunted tang hoon soup with meatball......we headed for SAntubong.

At teh Cultural Village, we manage to cehck out a few types of houses of the various tribes in Sarawak....the Bidayuh, Iban, Orang Ulu, Melanau, Melayu and Cina houses.....they were real houses...in which people really lived in. saw their dances....their culture....almost everything.....unfortunately, we were short of time...so we had to rush thru all the houses.....missed the 'tuak', so sad:( however, i manage to get the chance to use a real blowpipe. it was powerful enough to send the darts ripping throuhg a Coke can! and i manage to see this Orang Ulu playing his 'guitar' looking instrument.......it was hooked up with Humbucker Pickups, and jacked into a Peavey amp....how modernise can this instrument get? the sound was really amplified and sounded really nice! after all that rushing, we manage to catch the ending show that they had everyday, a show to close the visitation. lots of dancing and singing......and some blow pipe performance....pretty interesting. alot of 'armolangs' were there.

after the show, we went to the Santubong Beach, the beach facing the South CHina Sea....Awesome! really nice place....no swimming though...jsut playing in the low-tide and catching crabs...lots of crabs.....and just walking around. a really nice feeling with the wind blowing against ur face.....i manage to catch the glimpse of the sunset....within 5 mins, the sun was gone....so we were all rushing to take a photo.....most of the guys, except boss was out there hunting crabs the whole while....quite fun also......

after the beach, Aunty Helen took us to this place where they had sea-food! Great food dudes! got lots of nice stuff...eat till cannot eat anymore.....poh yee was talking so much.....the rest all diggin into the food......food food and more food! what more to ask;)

and as usual, after a great meal.........sleep la........hehe. we headed for home....we had the usual, group bath-time....with ppl making 'investments' in their respective cubicles...after all the food intake, there had to be an outlet of some sort:p...we still went together coz after so many days, we were getting used to it, but it still looked a bit intimidating. .....after all that...........zzzzzz

Kuching:Day 4

Day4(17-4-2004,Saturday)

today....was our off day! Gerald and family and Ben weren't free to take us around coz they had some stuff to attend to. so we practically had the whole day to do whatever we wanted. so we took the liberty of waking up at 10am. nice sleep! so up we got......and decided to take a stroll around town...just to take in the sights...

imagine this, each of us dressed up as slack as we could....slippers, shorts...something chill...really selamba...coz we knew all that walking would make us hot......and we started walking.....and picture this....most of us had the map of Kuching in hand....so we looked like a bunch of tourist....keke! serious!

we took a stroll to town....and instead of looking for breakfast first, we were caught up with the souvenier shops along the way. we spent bout an hour in all those street-side shops shopping for all kinds of souveniers...bags, t-shirts, pens...and the whatnots!.... ok...during this time, boss was eating an ice-cream....after all that, we decided to look for Parkson...after being so out of touch with the city life, we wanted something we could relate to...so Parkson was the closest to that ideal. after some scouting, we found the place......had breakfast somewhere, Sugar Bun. i think it's the KFC of Kuching! Sugar Bun is like a fast food restaurant but they serve Nasi Lemak and Nasi Ayam and those kinda rice stuff.....you see more of Sugar Bun than KFC or Mc D. breakfast was okla....expansive though....then off we went to Giant Supermarket....to shop for other essentials, and this was where boss had another ice-cream...nut case! i had one too coz it was cheap:P

we decided to visit the Satok Sunday Market.....a weekend market in Satok, jsut a few blocks from where we were. it's like a Pasar Malam...but full scale, and it lasted one whole day...like 24 hours ++. the tramp that was gonna take us would be arriving around 1pm. so since we had soem time to kill....we took a walk along the Waterfront....the view during the day was different than when it was night....then we visited the Chinese History Museum....nothing much...jsut some history, of how the chinese came about:P boring.....*yawnz* after that, we decided to chill out at Coffee Bean! Kuching's first Coffee Bean Outlet............so here we are in the heart of town sipping coffee away, till time came for us to board the tramp..... in order to sit on the tramp, we had to get special tourist stickers...then only were we permitted to ride. most of the hotels provided those stickers....if u were guest. however, boss went over to Hilton Hotel and ask the receptionist for those stickers....and i think they freely gave thinking we were guest at their hotel. anyways, it was good enough to get us to where we wanted.

the tramp followed a predestined path....so in a few minutes, we were alongside the Satok Sunday Market. it was a huge area of stalls and mini shops. it was a sight to behold.....like a super huge 'pasar malam', only it was during the day.....like 50 times the size of the Bukit Beruang 'pasar malam'...maybe 50 is too big la.....23,30 maybe? there was stuff ranging from clothes to souveniers to food, fruits, vegetables to meat and fish, to hardware and textile...everything la........all buzzing with people! we got our hands on as many souveniers as we could.....just grab grab grab.....bargain bargain bargain......the usual....i didn't buy that many stuf....i was more of exploring the shops and see what's on sale.....saw those creepy crawly Sago Tree Worms....the ones u can fry and pluck out their heads and munch on them;) they were still alive and oozing around in the basket......looked pretty tasty....too bad i couldn't try any:( before leaving the place, i caught sight of some really huge watermelons,mien...the big mamas of watermelons......long and huge!

we saw the tramp and quickly hopped on.....we had to follow the time of the tramp...otherwise we had to walk all the way back. so we did our shopping all in a rush.pretty relaxed ride back,just talking about the stuff we all bought. then as usual, same thing, headed for home....and rested. however this time round, all the guys wanted to visit the cybercafe nearby in Kuching Plaza. the girls wanted to sleep, so let them la:p
at the cybercafe, we were told we had half an hour left to go online....the shop would close at 6.30! mien! how lame was that! anyways we made the best we could....that's when i dropped a lil note in my blog. so, after closing time...went to find the girls for dinner.

this time round, we were on our own again. so liek a bunch of tourist we were walking with maps and all that looking for a decent makan shop. came across one opposite the cineplex. so after dinner, we decided to catch a movie....i guess we still missed out city lifestyle. the cineplex is in this building....the lower ground is a food court...the ground is a disco....the floor 1-8 are car parks, and floor 9 is the cineplex. it looked pretty canggih....GSC...i think...not too sure.....they had alot of funky movie posters all over the place. the movie we decided to watch was 50 first dates! a nice romantic comedy....a bit unrealistic though....but it was a nice watch anyways. dun wanna burst the bubbles of those pitiful ppl who haven't watched it yet, but here is what i thought about the movie: if only we could wake up every morning and fall in love with Jesus all over again! the only setback to the movie was the pathetic sub-woofers they were using.....imagine taking a pen and driving it through the sub-woofer of ur altec lansing, and then blasting the volume up! that's our sound ordeal we had to go through for the whole movie:(

after the show, we still had the knack to supper....so we went to a corner store and tasted the chunnest beef noodles in Kuching! unfortunately only 2 bowls were available....so much for wanting to taste good stuff.

after all that....balik tidur la.....................without first having a group trip to the toilet;).........zzzzzzz

Kuching:Day 3

Day3(16-4-2004, Friday)

today we woke up at 8am as usual and left for breakfast by 9am....the same pattern repeating everyday..healthy;) anyways, went to this shop....ordered tomato mee....while waiting for my mee to come, UNcle Simon ordered a few other specialities of the store for us to try....mien! there were so many types of mee...and dishes and all...and i ate and ate and tried this and tried that by
the time my food was supposed to come, i was stuffed! anyways, my food didn't come:( so much for my tomato mee....manage to curi some from nicky just for tasting purposes. after a hearty meal, off we went.

1st stop, Bau. this is an area near Kuching....remember we used to learn in form 3 geografi:'Bau terkenal kerana mempunyai lombong emas'.....or was it timah...or petroleum....argh! can't remember la...but all i know it's somewhere in the textbook:p yeah that place. we went to Gua Angin(Wind Cave)....our trip to Sarawak didn't permit us to check out the famous Mulu Caves (that everyone else said is a must to visit if ur in sarawak), but this was the closest cave we ever got to....not to forget the closest to bats and loads of 'guano'! (guano is something that is tasty and good to eat). the trip inside the cave didn't take too long as the cave wasn't that big. but it did give us a taste of how caves feel and smell...and tasted..... it was pitch dark in there...there were premade wooden tracks to help us get by throughout the cave.....thank God for the torchlights we brought...though it didn't help much other than shed some decent light just a few feet on front of you. and sad to say, we couldn't avoid the 'guano' plastered everywhere on the floor.there goes my nike! shining the roch up to the ceiling, we could see stalagmites....or is it stalactites....those pointy stuff sticking out from the roof of the cave. neat artwork of God! and bats were jsut clustered everywhere on the ceiling. u could say that nearly the whole roof had bats on it. and their eyes shone red whenever they reflected out lights. kinda eerie sometimes. jsut had a feeling if we had pissed them off....the whole swarm might jsut get us and turn each and everyone of us to BatBoys and Batgirls.*shudders* ....so much for LimpBizKit's Batman song! it was a really kewl experience....the sound of the bats by the hundreds...maybe thousands, reminded me of rushing waters. imagine how many bats there could be?
along the way into the caves, we came across a lil' baby squirrel sprawled on the path. it looked pretty helpless, so we took it with us to the Park Rangers office.so cute!....and edible:P The Ranger told us we could take it back and keep it as a pet........sounded like a nice idea....but then....how could we care for the squirrel during this holiday...i mean, we gotta feed it, and clean the poo and all that stuff.....so after thinking it through...we decided to just leave it there......darn....could have made a nice squirrel soup for us all...too bad.

after the Wind Cave, we wanted to to explore anther cave, the Fairy Cave. after some thought, we didn't go there at all, coz this cave was further away and required more hiking and trekking...we might lose poh yee along the way....so after much thought, we jsut went to check out thsi site beside the hills where they harvested bird's nest. the walls of the hills were so high and the instruments used to harvest the nests were so dangerous. we were told that people have died trying to collect those nests....sighz....the trouble people go to for money;)

up next was a drive to another small town nearby which had the Tasik Biru (Blue Lake). this lake used to be a mining pool...now a tourist attraction.it's a pretty small but very deep lake. the lake looked really blue and serene, unlike all those green algae-filled lakes. the reason y it looked blue was the water was very clear, and the bottom very deep. so the darkness at the bottom gives it a nice shade of blue. u could see .......till it was blackness. alot of fishes though. the lake is not usedfor anything else, due to the high arsenic level contained in it's waters. so u can't drink it, or u'll die of arsenic poisoning......can't fish in it.....the fish will kill you as well with it's arsenic content, neither can u swim in it....you might just mutate into the 'swamp' thing'. who knows? better safe than sorry.

we were still full when lunch time came. so we left Bau, and headed for another part of Sarawak. Next stop was Jong's Crocodile farm....yeap buaya farm.....with some birds and fishes.... alot of crocs were being fed shark meat. could see the carcasses of the shark all over in the croc ponds. there were pictures of the legend Bujang Senang, a man-eating croc that terrorized the villages and killed some people. they had really gross pics of a little boy found in the belly of that croc.urgh! bad stuff to see! not to forget, there was this terrible stench lurking in the air of the farm....but after a while we 'had' to get used to it. we saw some sun bears in there with some ducks and peacocks..... monkeys from different families....and the best....Croc Feeding Time! yeah...they kept some dead chicken for i think a few days till they really stank, then started feeding the hungry crocs. stinko! at one time i was really about to puke! couldn't take it. but it was
nice to see the crocs taunting each other with their catch of dead chikin' ;) gross!

by the time we got home, we were really zonked out. so sleepla. slept till bout 7pm till Gerald came over to pick us up for dinner. tonight was something different: BBQ at Gerald's house. got to see how Gerald's house looked like. did some BBQ, ate some.....the usual stuff that happens in BBQ. well, the unusual things that happened was eating Durian Flower fried in Belacan.....come think of it, i've never seen how durian flowers looked like, let alone eat them. it was really tasty:) yummy. there goes the durians to be! a new thing. besides that was barbequing brinjal....i've never seen ppl do that before...was kewl anyway....along the way a praying mantis dropped by and scared the s*** out of me and nicky....which brought about the beaheading of the praying Mantis's head with one stroke the knife by Nicky. good job man! that'll teach it to go about scaring ppl:P however, with the head detached from the body, the mantis still could move it's feelers and mouth ........ewh!
the other kewl thing about the house is that they have satellite tv, and i'm not talking astro here. this satellite is like 10 times bigger than astro and can receive nearly all the stations from all the satellites up there in space. so we sat in front of their tv....looking randomly at the 400++ channels offered......now that's what i call channel surfing:p and u dun have to pay for anything else other than ur electric bill. it's supposedly illegal, but it's more lenient in sarawak. kewl man......if ever i move to sarawak....i gonna get one of this!

it's a really nice and cozy house.....very homely....Uncle Simon and Aunty Helen sure put alot of effort to make it a nice place to call home. Aunty Helen even rushed to complete a cross-stitch

with the words 'WELCOME' jsut for us. awesome!

by the time we wanted to go, we were pretty tired. so needless to say....reach home....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Kuching:Day 2

Day2(15-4-2004, Thursday)

we woke up at 8am....most of us did. somehow, our lifestyle for this trip would be a pretty healthy one. early to sleep, early to wake up.by 9am, we were on the road to breakfast.how many of us actually have breakfast in Cyber?? ;) see! breakfast was at ben's aunty's shop. food in Kuching is slightly cheaper compared to Peninsular. a lot of noodles. our table ordered all kinds of noodles. ok here's the thing i was told about sarawak's 'kolo' me that's different from the mee we find over here: sarawak's mee is more wrinkled....yes..just imagine if our normal wantan mee grew old, very very old....yeah, that wrinkled. something like how old people's face would look like without Botox treatment. yeap. that's it! the other thing that sets sarawak mee apart from it's Peninsular counterpart is that when u use a chopstick to lift the mee up....only whatever u have picked up will be seprated from the whole chunk of mee. it's pretty kewl! unlike here, whenever u eat those kinda mee, u have to struggle using ur teeth, spoon, whatever to break the loose strands so that in can nicely fit into your mouth. that's 2 point for sarawak mee and 0 for Peninsular.

ok,moving on, we went to DBKU (Dewan Bandaraya Kuching Utara), a big shuttle cock-looing building. the other funny part about Kuching is that eventhough it's such a small town, it has too Majlis Perbandaran....imagine Subang Jaya having 2 Majlis Perbandaran, nuts! one is DBKU, the other is MPKS (Majlis Perbandaran Kuching Selatan). Kuching North is populated by Malays while Kuching South is mainly the Chinese Community. anyways, the Cat Museum, yes u heard rite! the CAT Museum is in the DBKU building. it's all about cats....cats here and cats there....shucks...even Hello Kitty and Garfield are in there somewhere. u can find nearly about anything to do with cats in there. They even had one section dedicated to 'Whiskers', the household catfood brand. on top of that, there was a a brief history of how Kuching came about and how the city progressed till today. other than that.....it was jsut cats. the coolest cat in there was this mummified cat all the way from Egypt;) something i saw on a Cat Poster ," I may not be able to do great things, but i can do small things in a great way".

next was the Orchid Garden.....as the name says it all....plainly loads and loads of Orchids everywhere.......big ones, small ones, colorful ones, dull ones.....it's beautiful! a must for Orchid Lovers!

then we headed for Fort Margherita. i hope i spelled that correct...or is it Marguerita.....nvm. yeah the fort was beside the police headquarters. it's something like A'Famosa, except it looks way nicer. the fascinating part of this Fort to me was the Skull Room. urm, there was this picture of a pirate skull in a room, along the walls of the Fort. and i opened to have a look inside. i didn't read the Police report at the door.i just stepped in and saw this basket hanging from the ceiling. there were some black looking stuff inside. i tot it was some rotten rattan....then i realised they were REAL OLD Skulls! darn! nearly freaked out. i was staring at it real close when i realised it. The Police report said that during the war, soldiers heard laughter from the room in the middle of a rainy night. so they went to check it out, but found no one except those skulls...freaky!

after that, we went to sit the SArawak River's water taxi.some kind of sampan with a roof that ferries people across the Sarawak River to the north or south side of town. it's a mode of transport, and u see alot of ppl using it. my goodness, each sampan even had advertisements placed on their roof...one was Lipton, the other was Fair and Lovely...mien! the extremes of advertisements.it was 30 sens a ride one way.after the boatride, we went to the MPKS to have a look at the building, then off to lunch at one of the MPKS centers.
We ate Belacan bee hoon. first time ever. never heard of that before. tasted good. what was more awesome was the drinks. u know coconut drink, sugarcane drink and lime juice? imagine mixing them up together, either 2 at a time or jsut everything. that's it. wonder y no other shops ever did that? had a few round of drinks.
{coconut+lime},{coconut+sugarcane},{lime+sugarcane},{lime+honey sea coconut}. awesome!

next on the list was the Sarawak Museum.....it's a museum.....so nothing to say about it. pretty nice....reminds me of the Perak State Museum located in Taiping.there was also thing 'palang' thingy.....gross. after that we went to the aquarium beside the Museum.

got to say that Gerald and his Dad did a great job in taking us around. Imagine Uncle Simon took a week off just to take us around. splendid!

anyways, we went back to rest after that. the thing about this trip i noticed, was that we always had evening rest for all the days. so,we had tome to rejuvenate and recharge before we started out night exploits;) so today, we went back and slept abit..well,most of them. i didn't. me,charis, nicky and desmond decided to take a walk around town to get some essentials. so, 4 of us headed out into town, not knowing where is what...jsut walked and walked. our first stop was Kuching Plaza....reminds me of Fajar Melaka. like that....checked out the cybercafes and shops..nothing much...then headed into town...seriously kewl experience.....like tourist....cross roads also like tourist....sesat man! manage to find the stuff we wanted, then headed back.

when we got back,there were some changes in room arrangements. one other thing i noticed, we were the only malaysians as far as i could see lodging in the guesthouse. the rest were the 'armolangs'. the place we stayed was basically a stop point for most of them. lodging at a reasonable price and good comfort. our current room was booked before hand, so me and nicky moved out to another room while boss bunked with benny and desmond. the girls didn't have to move.

at 7pm, gerald and ben came to pick us up for dinner. we had dinner at Hornbill's BBQ and Steamboat. something, like steamboat and bbq on the same stove....for those who've never seen this before....liek restoran Talipon:p it was fun....ben and gerald were really surpised that we ate and ate and ate and ate....2 hours straight.they said that ppl usually gave up after and hour.

mien...you should have seen the look on the other patrons of the restaurant...they thought we were nuts.....we seriously took loads of food. there were lots of 'armolang' customers and i wanted to laugh when i saw the expressions they wore on their faces when they saw the stack of meat i took on the plate!

things that i found out while having dinner:

1.Peak Yin sure can eat.....she's a silent eater....as long as there is food, she would finish it off. so the more u put the more she eats....never stopping:P

2.Boss is the ice-cream king. he took plates after plates of ice-cream. we're not talking bowls.....imagine the plates we eat on, those big round ones, yeah....those kind of plates! he just happily helped himself to them. and instead of using the tiny orange little spoons to scoop the ice-cream,he used the big metal spoon used for dishing out soup. hehe.

3.Benny is the ice-cream cone king. he jsut took stacks of ice-cream cone and started munching on them. so in between cooking, he was just whacking all the cones he could find.

4.Poh Yee and her obsession for tissue. u should have seen the amount of tissue the used up....enough to make Scottex bankrupt. after the meal, there was this pile of tissue stacked up in front of her. the owner would be wondering how come they were facing a loss.

5.Mama Liew aka Charis....(this is the name coined up for her coz during the trip, she was like our Big Mama, calling the shots and taking care of us) she was into frying vegetables for all of us,making sure we had our daily intake of fibre so that there will be easy output...get what i mean;) i think she finished up all the vege they could offer:p

6.Ben was the fire man. he thought us how to use water in the frying pan to make a fire....u know all those 'char kuey teow' fellas making those huge flames in their pan while cooking? yeah, he thought us jsut that. we made small flames, big flames....one so big i could feel the heat coming at me...

after dinner.....we were seriously stuffed up! we headed for the Waterfront, the walkway beside the Sarawak River. it was a nice walk....pretty romantic! but then too bad i didn't have a date! we took a stroll around and after awehile, decided to check out the hotels nearby.....so we walked in and out of hotels......and last stop was 7-11. haha....imagine,all the way to sarawak just to lepak at 7-11;)

after a long day's exploration we retired back home.....this time equiped with Ghost Buster equipment. since this was the 2nd nite, we were pretty used to the place.getting comfy and cozy. i guess the 2nd nite was easier to sleep...after all that walking...nitez......darn.....my nose was running ......boy, did it ran.....sneezed like mad....must be the dust....

ps: in my opinion, Kuching reminds me alot of Melaka. the old town of Kuching resembles Jonker Walk while the newer part of Kuching looks like Melaka Raya....just my opinion.
the other thing, it is customary to ask for tissue paper in Kuching food stalls. they provide u all the tissue you ned and don't charge.....now u understand y Poh Yee swiped up all that tissue;)

Kuching:Day 1

finally! i have time to sit down and talk about my expedition to Kuching. been so bz the past few days helping out with the CFMMU Operasi Orientasi. ok, let's dive in!

Day1(14-4-2004, Wednesday)
straight after IF camp, rushed off to KLIA! siow man!no time to sit down and rest....on the go go go! took the ERL there... ME, Charis, boss, benny and Nicky....together with josh. a bit like jakuns...so many ppl wanted to press the door to open the ERL..u know...the small translucent button....sighz! kids. anyways, out we went into the airport...josh was like a pro, he knew where to go and all that. met up with PohYee and PeakYing and Desmond there. we checked in our stuff.had a good laugh though, we were looking a the stuff that we were not allowed to bring into the plane...for example : swords, fishing rods, bombs, guns.....like DUH! to kill time, we ate at Mc D, but it was a lil more pricey compared to anywhere else. must be so that they can get extra bucks conning those foreigners who stop by to eat.sucks man! then josh had to leave on his flight back to Kedah. Our time soon came, and we walked and walked and walked all the way to the departure lounge. so far....then again we had another jakun experience.there were 2 lines going into the plane, so a few of us thought we smart and lined up at the shorter line, only to find out it was for the 'golden' citizens, kids and the handicaped.sighz, so off to the long line again, i could have argued and told them i was visually handicapped coz i wear specs!

in the plane......i sat with peak yin, poh yee with nicky, desmond with benny and charis and boss. free sitting...everyone free for all! so all the kiasu ppl all fought for the window seats, but being a veteran flyer (kidding myself) i was cool and composed. buckled my seatbelt....and prepared for take off. was trying to check out the air stewardess, unfortunately, they weren't as Hot as i had expected them to be...Thai Airlines had Hotter Stewardess....u can't blame me ok! i was getting bored and i needed something to do:P (dun worry, didn't fell into lust;) had 30 mins delay, but once we took off, i tot i was kewl and relxed but after bumping into a few minor air pockets, i got a bit nervous( so much for the veteran flyer thing!) for the first 45 mins, the flight was a lil bumpy....as though we were travelling along the old dengkil road, the ones with holes. i tried to act kewl, (the guy ego thing) but deep inside i was praying hard. didn't want peak yin to think i was some kind of sissy. she on the other hand was really cool...reading a book...without a care in the world.looks more like a veteran flyer to me:P after a while i got the hang of it...but stil couldn't wait till i touched down. was so relieved when the plane finally landed.*phew* missed the opportunity to check the toilets out:p anyways, this flight was benny's first flight ever! congrats u made it! dunno bout nicky...i think his first too!

kuching airport was smaller and more cozzier.we collected our baggage and headed out. we were greeted by Gerald and his family (Uncle Simon and Aunty Helen) and Ben Ho. went for supper......on the wat i realised Kuching got loads of lights in the shape of cats....wait! duh! it's Kuching! darn nearly forgot. anyways, at supper, i got to know my host a bit better. found out that it's very hard to find mamak here in Kuching, since it's mainly chinese and malay people. so mamak shops are a phenomenon, let alone indian people. they said the longest indian shop lasted about 1 month at the most.so there goes my hope of roti canai:p not only that. i noticed that sarawakian really dig noodles. nearly all the shops was some kind of noodles.....hardly see rice ( my staple food for the entire trip was noodles after noodles and more noodles....u got fat mee, thin mee, medium mee,plaster-looing mee,.....the list goes on. and the sarawakians take pride in the 'kolo' or is it 'konlo' mee...they were making a comparison about their mee over in the Borneo islands to the mee in the Peninsular. the conclusion.....Peninsular Kolo mee sux! i know i'm being rash, but all the noodles are driving me nuts. okok! both side oso nice la!

now, it was bedtime. we booked some rooms with the help of Purdey at an Anglican Guesthouse. it belongs to St. Thomas Church. it looked cozy on the outside. but when we stepped in, i tot 'the haunting' was happening in real life. *kidding-mien, i'm exegerrating big time* it kinda reminded me of my grandma's house here in melaka. it looked colonial and wooden. the walls were concrete, but the floor was all wooden.it creaked when we walked.it looked kidna gloomy too. most of us got the creeps and jitters. we decided to stick together,just in case 'they' were out there to get us! the girls took one room. me, boss and nicky got a room beside theirs and desmond and benny shared a oom upstairs. the stairway looked dark.it was a 3 storey building. my room and the girls room were on the middle level, desmonds room was above.....and the toilets were on the lower level. we visited the toilets and yeah, it was spooky allrite. still very cautious jsut in case 'they' decided to single us one by one and get us. so that night all 8 of us had bath together...not in the same cubicle, duh! mien! the shower was extrememly refreshing! cold water mixed with high pressure...u get a blast!

when we decided to sleep, we looked up at the wooden ceiling, and saw a rope hanging down beside the fan....i wonder what that's for....... *ten ten ten*

zzzz

living on the fast lane

whoah...i'm back in Melaka.reached here bout 8pm last night. mien, i nearly fell asleep at the wheels again. darn! dunno la.i slept before i drove, but somehow, i was still sleepy:p
to cut the crap short, it's great to be back, eating home-cooked food,chilling out with my sisters, talking to mum and dad....seeing a new RO water machine installed near the sink...some pretty looking chandaliers in the hall (that wasn't there before), some kewl white lights on the wall...lots of changes....

since the moment exams ended...life has been on the fast lane for me. no rest:p my last paper ended on friday morning, by afternoon me & joshua were in the office of Pastor Sandra to talk out some 'business'. by the time we closed the 'deal', it was time for Good Friday service till late at night.

next day,saturday, we had some free time in the morning....too long to just sit down and rest, too short to accomplish anything,....so just lazed at home a bit till afternoon.then me and josh had Actstream Academy till bout 5pm. then we had CF committee planning at Shen Shee's house in Putra Permai. the fellowship and bonding was good, but we were there discussing till about 12am in the morning. didn't want to continue, coz we had church the next day. Easter Sunday!

Sunday morning....church! Awesome service! only 1 service for that day, coz they had baptism service after that. same thing again, we had some time after church..too short....too long.... then at 5pm, we continued on with our CF Committee planning @ d same place. both the saturday and sunday, it rained super heavy...i tot i saw some dogs and cats splatted on the road.haven't seen rain so heavy in Cyberjaya for a long time.this time, the meeting ended a lil' later, bout 2am, but we manage to come out with a good plan. by the time i got home, it was around 3pm. then i remembered i haven't packed for IF camp, which was the next day, Monday! so off i went packing...on top of my clothes, i had to help chee yong prepare some games stuff, so by the time i actually got to sleep, it was 5.45 am...i had to wake up at 7am to get ready for camp.

thank God i manage to wake up! had to gather the people....and by the time we left for Broga, it was around 10am....the IF camp was 3 days long, from Monday till Wednesday....(imagine the stuff i had to do after the exams,no rest) i was camp commander for the camp, and as camp commander, i had to bear the 'dreaded' whistle and blow it now and then. i never liked whistles, neither the person holding th whistle. that's y i never liked camp commanders very much if they blew the whistles too much.now, here i am being the person everyone might hate if i blew the 'whistle of power' too much. the irony of life! as camp commander, i had to sleep late to make sure everyone has slept, and i had to wake up extra early to wake the others up for their devotion. the camp was really good. manage to bond with the Melaka-ans.it was a really superb time of fellowshipping. had water bombs.....throw into the pond....being thrown into the pond....jumping into the pond.... (btw, the pond used to be a sewage pond a long time ago,gross) ....raft building......rafting in the pond...then swimming in the pond with the raft...flying fox over the pond....egg-ing....perah susu....babi charsiew...kita sunat....peace....alot of stuff la..... ultimately, we can say the camp manage to reach it's objective. the camp speaker was good also...however, i had to miss a session coz i had to settle soem issues...money issues....sighs...the woes of a camp commander.... no doubt it was fun! on the last day, everyone had left, it was sad that it had to end so fast, but i was the last to leave. had to make sure that everything was in place, so i was last to leave. once i got back ( reached bout 2pm) i had to start packing for my sarawak trip....had to leave by 4pm....so i had only 2 hours to pack....again,no time to sleep....so i packed as fast as i could....then off i went to klia....my flight was a 7.50pm.....hung around klia till the time came....after some delay, we took off around 8.30....touched down on sarawak soil at 10pm........thank God for the safe flight.

was in sarawak from wednesday till monday night. then back to cyber.left for melaka on tuesday......here i am now,typing all this out;)

it's been a packed time.....wanna thank God that thru all the hectic schedule, i'm still breathing...not just breathing...i don't feel the fatigue that i would usually get after all the packed programmes and trips. usually i'll be super duper tired by now, but i'm still ok and well! Praise God! i wasn't tired at the IF camp....throughout the whole camp i was feeling great....later on in sarawak, i was feeling even better. all i can say, it must be God that's sustaining me throughout it all. now i have a few days to unwind and reflect before the semester starts...gona enjoy to the max man!

will talk about sarawak later.

argh....time's running out!

here in sarawak!but the CyberCAfe is going to close soon:( can't write long but will update u guys about it when i get the chance...if not, u just have to wait till i get back:) take care....really having an awesome time here:) really bonding well with everyone...really wish mich could be here as well:( still praying for u :) happy studying;) God bless dudes!

Best Friday!

Just got back from the Good Friday Service in Acts. all my life growing up, my home church in Melaka don't really have services on Fridays, so going for this Friday service was a new thing for me.

anyways, the paper i had today was equally tough. so weird, just the day before i posted up about how i felt breakthrough was coming and all, and then....*smack* ur down there again.....hehe! yeah one of those days. tot i did pretty badly for my test:( hopefully i manage to write some correct answers. was too tired the day before...so i overslept, and didn't manage to wake up and study:( yet I will Praise Him!

had a talk with Pastor Sandra about some life and CF issues. pretty interesting. hopefully i get on my way. alot i know i need to do.now is needing the strength to carry it through. been an encouraging talk.

with all that aside, i began pondering about Good Friday as i waited for the service to start. Pastor Kenneth took some time to share some of the testimonies of the church people. as i listened, one by one, i was really awed. some testimonies were short, some were long, but each one kept me on the edge of my seat! There is GOD! i was really amazed at how God created His work in each of the testimonies. Awesome! and i realised that this is what Good Friday is all about. About Jesus! (like DUH! of coz i knew before this:p but it's a fresh reminder) the level of testimonies ranged from basic needs to sheer miracles, and yet, each one struck me. every Christian, a child of God can undergo testimonies on a daily basis. and this is what it's about. Jesus gave HIs life, so that we can live life abundantly, in Him of coz:p

as i sat, i thought to myself, " Mien! i want to have daily mircales and testimomies taking place in my life too!"
i wanna have something to share about daily.i want to be able to tell others what God has done for me, daily. i want to be a walking testimony! hehe! just letting some ideas run through my head. i want to live in the Power Of the Cross!
As we sang songs of praise and worship, it never felt sweeter. can say my heart was bursting with praise and thanksgiving to Him.

Thank you for saving me:) my life would be so hopeless without You. You are my purpose! You are my hope! You are my Life!

i hope your Good Friday will be a Best Friday. I pray that you're Easter Sunday will be full of His Resurrection Power! Amen!

is it a breakthrough i see??

whoah! been a long week...no thanks to the exams:p however, i still have my share of thanks to God for helping me pull thru a few papers. today was Engine Maths 4...killer:p
the past few days had been pretty tough.2 papers on tuesday and wednesday.still better than some of my seniors....4 papers in 3 days.no doubt, it's still a tough week.i did study, put work to my tutorials and my notes, but somehow, the data doesn't seem to stick on my mind.maybe my mind is coated with Teflon,who knows? ever since i passed through my Alpha year, my studies was never quite the same.back in school, i was among the top...i was so busy, yet i still scored. coming to Alpha, i was twice as busy, yet i could still make the grades. somehow, in Beta, things just changed. somehow, my grades slipped, and it was so hard to pull it back up.i tried my best to study,but yet, i forgot whatever i learned when i stepped into the exam hall. it's so frustrating that everytime i studied, the info only stayed there a couple of days, before i had to refresh it again. nuts! bummer! i've never encountered this problem before in my whole life. and here i am, wondering whether i'm plain stupid? exams in MMU have been sheer nightmares for me. another new feeling for me. in skool, i never feared exams.no matter how little i studied, i knew that if i gave it my best, God would see me through. here am i,dreading the exams that would shape my education....my future.

God, sometimes i just wonder why u let me here? to see defeat in the face:(

this finals, i started my 1st paper last wednesday, and i can't really gauge how i did.it's another weird thing.i used to be able to know my standard.but now, when i sit for exams, i don't even know if i'll pass or fail sometimes. just depressing.but after the 1st paper, i came on my kness and really asked God to bless me this round.i prayed for Wisdom, Knowledge & Understanding. something that the book of proverbs talked about. i asked God to help me through. not on my own strength, but by His Spirit. and whatever happened, i decided i'll still praise God. the next 2 papers, went by, and i was really excited coz, somehow, i could answer the questions....i don't really know if they were correct, but i just had the confidence.it's been a long time since i was able to sit for an exam and answer at least one full question, but here i was answering 3 full questions, out of 4. praise God! i just sensed breakthrough coming. before i stepped into the hall, i was so worried that i would forget my facts...that i'd go blank as i used to...that i'd screw up again. i prayed while everyone else was looking through the questions, i prayed hard. and i manage to walk out the hall knowing i didn't do all that on my own. HE did it!

Praise God! got to go off already. another one more paper.time to rev up the engines again and give it one last final shot!
oh yeah, do keep Michelle in prayer....she's resting at the Taiping MEdical Center. nothing serious, just there so it would be a lot easier for the doctors to nurse her healing wounds. please pray that the wound would be completely healed, both internally and externally. thanks.
God bless!

Thank God! She's back....soon!

Remember Michelle? Yeah! Thank God she's healing very fast.She's getting so much better compared to the first day she entered the hospital.really a miracle. i think in a few hours after bloggoing here, she might be out of the hospital for good:) to come think of it, we could have lost her:( ...hmm... anyways, really glad she can smile and laugh and walk around now. in a little while, she will be completely healed:) but in the meantime, please make sure she doesn't laught too hard or move about too much. can be a wee bit painful;)
Thank You God for healing her and protecting her. Amen!

LOA

a tribute to my hair.....pathetic...i know:p


the aftermath...the present...

Knil Army rocks!

*yawnz*
just got back bout an hour ago....yeah it's early in the morning, i know.....was helping some friends out with their music. really felt privileged to be able to play alongside their band.did some recording of their songs....the recording was part of a project of the band's friend. Didn't know that SAE was so kewl! funky gadgets mien!thank you guys for the opportunity to play with you all. you've been great! glad i could be a part of it in some way;)make it big alrite! and Jack, keep on rocking! u got loads of kewl tunes in your head. been an inspiration!

the updates for the week:
So far, 2 exam papers are over and have been done with. 3 more to go:| mien, feels like forever! anyways, the good thing so far was that i was able to miraculously complete my 2nd paper. i did study for it, but towards the last minute, i couldn't remember what i had studied.and i was feelign a bit discouraged, coz i know that i had studied msot of it, but somehow, i coudn't recall the facts.before i entered the hall, i prayed to God desperately for a miracle.when i entered the hall and checked the questions, i wanted to shout, coz the questions were what i had studied!and i happily managed to answer 3 of the 4 questions quite well...i hope:p at least i know i won't get a C!God, you are so good! please help me...i need a few more miracles to get thru....3 more killer papers to go!

on a brighter note, manage to see michelle in the hospital today.and she's looking way too kewl to be stuck in the hospital bed:) she looked much brighter and cheerful compared to the previous days:)for one,she could smile:) and she was talking and all. her conditions getting better, praise God! pasted some kewl stuff on her wall as well to brighten the hospital room....looks more like a kindergarten classroom...a lil'. looking forward to u getting up on both ur feet and walking again.U'll get better very soon! just hang in there:D. be praying for ya;)

.....getting late...better get some sleep.....gonne be a long day tomoro.more hospital visits....never visited the hospital so many times in my life...lost count already. gotta study too...so nitez

cheerio!