Dear Blog,

I am thinking about an old friend right now, someone I care about and admire a lot. To me, he’s my ‘payment knowledge’ dictionary.
My old friend is Uncle Clarence.
I had the privilege of working with him in 2005 in some Hong Kong projects. The knowledge he shared with me was abundant, and over flowing. He’s really generous; a good teacher.
It was even an honour when he came down to KL back in April 2006, and allowed me to bring him out. What an honour!! So, on the first day, my colleagues and I picked him up from Prince Hotel KL, where he lived and went to Pak Loh Chiu Chow Restaurant at the Feast Village, Starhill Gallery.
Honestly, I was nervous around him. I can’t believe I have finally met my role model! Live, and in person! all the way from Hong Kong! like a Hong Kong movie star!! Haha!!
Anyway, the food was so so, and very expensive. I don’t really like TeoChew food, but I think he liked it, so that is more important! I prefer our local Malaysian food.
So on the next day, we took him to Little Penang in Midvalley for lunch. (I am not a guy, so the picture next to him is my senior, CS Tan)
You know, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I prefer the food in hawker stalls. Cheap and yummylicious..hehe…
I’m not gonna talk about the hygiene level in our Malaysian food. It’s not a good topic to talk about..haha!!
His trip to KL was very short. But he taught my team so many things in the training. Honestly, since it has been more than 4 months already, I can only remember 25% of it. Haha!! I hate trainings; I prefer having hands on work.
On his last day in KL, we brought him around KL for sightseeing. Places that I never go, and never want to go unless it’s really necessary. Haha…Many many times, I blurted out aloud “So hot!! So hot-lah!”… hehe…so rude of me…but the weather was really very hot.. But thank God for good weather lor…hiayah.. I am so unappreciative..
I haven’t heard from him for quite a while.
So, I’m going to email him now!!

Why the world needs another Superman Returns sequel

During our stay in Siam Reap, Cambodia, my family and I stayed at the La Villa Loti aka Coconut House.http://www.coconut-hotel-angkor.com/

Just as we checked-in into our double room, it began to rain.

Truthfully, I was very disappointed with my mom’s friend recommendation to stay in this “guest-house”, because I thought we were going to stay in a hotel. La Villa Loti was something like a Bed n’ Breakfast in a little ‘Cambodian Mansion’. Amidst my loud grumbles, my mom comforted me by saying, “my friend told me this place is a home-stay”. Whatever that means-lah!! Moreover, the place was under renovation.
Rainy Season, No Shopping Mall, Mosquito, One toilet, and to make matters worse, no TV (means no world cup), I was feeling very disappointed. Luckily they had air-conditioner, mosquito netting and water heater.
Drizzling, and feeling very hungry, the driver took us all for lunch at the Khmer Kitchen Restaurant near the Old Market (Psah Chas), which was less than a mile from Coconut Hotel. The food there was nice and tasty! But the dishes took so long to come. So slow….zZZZzz (Luckily I had a Clif’s energy bar in my pocket)

Outside the restaurant you will see some beggars waiting for you: young kids holding a baby or a mom with her baby, or a guy who lost his limbs, all waiting for you to give them some money. Surprisingly, there weren’t many of them, not like how my friend described, ‘a bunch of kids swarming at you’. I presume it’s because of the low-peak tourist season.
After lunch, we walked over to the Old Market. I bought 2 Cambodian Coca Cola cans for a dollar. (I collect coca cola cans/bottles; one day I will show my collections in my blog) There were a lot of craft works for sale, but they were more expensive if compared to the Chatucak market in Bangkok. And trading in US dollars is not funny, because we had to multiply 3.80 for conversion.

After that the driver brought us around the town and along the Siam Reap River back to our “guest-house”. There was really nothing to see, just how blessed we were. So we ended up taking a nap.
Later in the afternoon, our former maid Dawi came to visit us. We had dinner together at the Neary Khmer Restaurant. Food was not as tasty as Khmer Kitchen, and pricier.
After dinner, Dawi brought us to the New Market for shopping. My sister bought a lot of fake Lonely Planet books: their price ranges between 3 dollars to 6, depending on its thickness and quality. But do give your book a flip-through, because some them are badly photocopied. I bought some Cambodia tourist shirts. I paid 1 dollar of children’s clothes and 1.50 for those adult sizes.
After that, balik “guest-house”, wait in turn to mandi and then tidur.

Now everyone can fly! Thanks to AirAsia's 2005 year-end free tickets, my family and I had a wonderful trip to Siam Reap, Cambodia on the 30th of June till 3rd of July 2006. http://www.airasia.com

I hope AirAsia will have their free 2 million tickets promotions again!! Then I think I would love to book a free and easy trip to Bangkok, Bali, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Macau and Phuket. Somewhere local too, like Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. I've never been to Sabah.

When we arrived in Siam Reap the weather was a bit dull: June, July is considered rainy season therefore considered low peak tourist season. But during our stay there, we were blessed with great weather. A real miracle: God held the rain till end of day until we finish visiting Angkor!

1 month has past, and the 2006 FIFA World Cup is ending with France and Italy playing the final match. Oh how my predictions are so unreliable...haha...i think its a set up...possible or not possible?
Good bye Caribbean Island Trip!!