My xx Birthday Celebration

Birthday Birthday! I really forgot the last time I celebrated my birthday with my parents. Not to mention about blowing a cake at home.

Year 2005, Siao Yenn and Chan Veevern celebrated in my "red monster car". This was really a surprise because I did not expect that Veevern was actually carrying a cake in the plastic bag when I picked her up. Thank you, Siao Yenn and Veevern.



Friday 15 September Year 2006. Supposed to be a very grand celebration but it was a silent and peaceful one though. My close friends from Sunway Tes had a mini celebration for me in their office before my evening class with Ms Menon.


He ain't heavy, he is my brother for life

After the class ended at 930pm, we were supposed to celebrate somewhere but the time seems to pass very quickly that night. Ended up cancelling it. Rachel Ong was very sympathised for me as it was my 21st and she can't accept the fact that I am spending birthday night at home. She dragged me out to OUG's Wong Kok Char Chan Teng with Alicia for a short celebration. If you celebrate your birthday on the actual day in Wong Kok Char Chan Teng, with a minimum of 5 person and a bill of RM 30, you will be given a super gigantic glass of milk tea. When we were at the restaurant, we were really scratching our head because we are short of 2 person. In the end, Alicia called her sister and brought out her nephew of 4 yrs old to make up the number. Thank you, Alicia and Rachel.

Alicia and Rachel from Sunway TES

Saturday 15 Sept 2007. Grace Tan, the mastermind for this year with a few others. She sent an email to everyone and even message some of my friends (whom she don't know) in Friendster and tried gathering everyone for the surprise party. Too bad, I was one of her recipient in her emailing list. I was really suprised, haha! Grace Tan celebrated with me on the 14th in SS2's Hau Xiang Lai Steamboat because I was craving for Bak Kut Teh and Steamboat when I was in Phuket.

This year, we celebrated at The Curve's Italiannies.

Grace Ch'ng, don't simply touch la. Public ok!!

Grace Chng and Ker Ching were looking forward to my birthday because of one reason. They wanted to take revenge. During Ker Ching's birthday in May, I requested the TGIF staffs to make her stand on the chair and do all sorts of stuff. As for Grace Chng's birthday in August, I made her stand on the table in TGIF also. By the time,Roney and his gang reached our table with 2 slices of cake, I knew I was in trouble because I have offended 2 sweet ladies during their birthday.

Roney the waiter giving me a hard time

Grace Chng showing off her skills in eating cake with 2 forks and a spoon

Thank you everybody.

Standing up : Jun Seong, Jit Jian, Siew Han, Beauty Ker Ching, Bertauliah Grace Tan, Rachel, Jack, Hui Leng (why all wear black? berkabung meh?)

Seated : Ze Yoon, Grace Chng, Ah Pek, Lin Lin, Jessica

Came late : Sue Leng

That's all for 2007. A week after my birthday, I realised something...

I did not get to blow a full round birthday cake but 2 slice of cakes from Italiannies and the most important of all,

I HAVEN'T MAKE A WISH!!!!!!

Who haven't celebrate for me? Time to redeem your second chance in year 2007.

Phuket

Day 1

Phuket is one of the places that I wanted to visit for quite some time. This time, I am travelling on AirAsia's FEMALE plane instead of the Manchester United Airbus 320 aeroplane.

One thing I really hate about long journey is that you need to bear with those irritating passengers who sits around you. I encountered one bloody fool on the way to Phuket. Throughout the whole freaking 1 hour 45 min journey, he kept talking nonsense and make some idiotic sound when the plane changes direction. Trust me, he is at least 23-24 yrs old. Bloody hell! One of his conversation goes like this:

Bloody hell : Eh, look down there! Can see the shark ah?

Poor Friend : We are so high up. Can see meh?

Bloody hell : There...over there la! See properly!!

I was damn bloody irritated by him and I really pity the poor friend and the 2 girls who are travelling with him. Well, I think he can see the pimples on your face from 20 metres away. The worst part was when the plane take off and land. You will feel like asking him to shut up because he tried to imitate the aeroplane's engine!!!

Can you spot the shark? I can't but that bloody hell who sits behind me can

Upon reaching the airport, we got down to work to cover as much as we can as half the day was gone.

My dinner for that night, Pork with fried egg and rice

The hotel that we are staying this time is the 5 star Naithonburi Beach Resort which is about 10 minutes drive away from the Phuket International Airport and along the way, you will pass by small villages which are mostly occupied by Muslim Thais. Naithonburi does not provide free transportation to the airport everyday. They will only provide free transportation on your check in and when you check out which means on other days, you have to pay 300 Baht if you want to get to the airport. Upon arrival at the hotel, they will serve you a nice refreshing cold Ribena drink (I think) and a face towel. Good serviceee!!

The view of the swimming pool from my room's balcony

The view of the lobby and reception area from my room's balcony

By far, this is the most "romantic" hotel that I have stayed in because of the "slide window" in the bathroom. Means you can peep who is outside while you are bathing. Haha..more like the other way, right? But slide window is going to be closed for the next 5 days because I don't feel comfortable seeing a guy bathing.

They provide a ping-pong table and a pool table. Play all you want.

As usual, some balls are missing

Day 2

During the morning breakfast, I was craving for Teh Tarik or Teh Ais badly. Somehow the staffs bought us a drink which tasted something like Teh Ais.

Super sweet

As for lunch, we went to the Thai Restaurant which is in the airport itself. From the airport, you can see aeroplane landing and taking off from Phuket. The food in Phuket suits me better and the food that we ordered tasted super AROY (delicious). Forgot to take pictures.

Dinner time. The staffs went to the local market (something like pasar malam) and shared some local food with us.

Grilled flattened banana with coconut milk

Tom Yam Kung

Plain rice with Tom Yam Kung and fried omelet

Day 3

Well, day 1,2 & 3 are purely for work. I can't wait for the 4th day as we are nearing completion of our work.

I will talk about the hotel since there's nothing to talk about work. Naithonburi Beach Resort is located about 32 kilometres away from the Phuket town and Patong Beach which are located at the south. Since it's not peak season, there's no one along the road and the beach. Hollow area but definitely a great place to rest and relax.

Imagine walking along this street at night. I did!

The entrance into Naithonburi

Nice-leh?

Wonderful-leh?

Glamour-leh?

Boring-leh?

Sexy ass-leh?

I have been eating this kind of food for the past 3 weeks.

I tried eating HoneyStars, CornFlakes and KokoCrunch with orange juice. Freaking sour man. Anyways, it's already Wednesday and we are almost to the finishing line. We completed our work by evening and the staffs were on standby mode to assist us and provide info for our one day trip around Phuket tmr. Bla bla bla~~

At night, we were brought to Phuket town for dinner. The dinner was so good and sorry, no pictures again because it's rude to take pictures during dinner. By the way, an earthquake with a 8.2 scale magnitude struck Sumatra that night and they were very worried about possible Tsunami hitting Phuket again like last time. You can see the fear in their faces and how quick the phone calls kept coming in. Thank God, there's no tsunami.

Day 4

For convenience, flexibility and cheapability, we hired a car from one of the staffs. She rented us her private car which is a Toyota Vios. Only for 900 Baht for one day. I think it's cheap! What say you?

Proud owner of a Toyota Vios for a day

Driving around Phuket is like driving around in Langkawi. The road signs are clear and I think it's quite difficult to get lost in Phuket. Our first roadtrip was the famous Patong Beach where skins are being revealed to the public. Too bad, it's low season! Nothing much to see except aunties and uncles.

Along the beach, you can see alot of these signs. When we were at the beach, our new friend alerted us about the aftershocks and asked us to becareful in the event of a possible tsunami hitting Patong Beach. How thoughtful of him! And Pikky as well!

Can roughly guess how strong is the wind? Look at my hair

Red flag means no swimming is allowed

We walked approximately 2km along the beach and it's time to hit the streets.

One of the shop that provides scuba diving lesson

The famous BANANA disco which is also the oldest disco in Patong

Seeing that big banana makes me feel hungry. Since Phuket food suited us better compared to Chiang Mai's, there's no way we gonna have expensive western fast food for our meals.

Old Coconut

Seafood fried rice

Spicy moo (pork)

I think our lunch only cost us some 200-300 Baht.

Another famous disco, the Seduction Discotheque

Bangla Boxing Stadium where people gathers to watch Muay Thai or Thai Boxing. Not Bangladesh fighters

This nutcase saw me holding a camera and asked me to take photo of him and his Thai companion

Oh Si bar

Quite a famous club in Bangla Road

Unfortunately this McDonalds in Patong does not sell Pork Burger

Before leaving the Patong Beach, I went for an hour of Thai massage for 250 Baht. Pikky is my new Thai friend and she was on leave that day so she's taking us out to visit Phuket. We left Patong Beach around 4pm and drove to the Tesco Lotus to meet up with her.



Driving in and out of Patong beach really gives you a great feeling. Probably because you have to drive up and down the hill before reaching the other side. Anyways, these Tesco Lotus's McDonalds sell Pork Burger. So if you go to Phuket, I have already tell you clearly where to find Pork Burger.


Yes..Pork burger sold here

Our friendly tour guide, Pikky brought us to Kao-Khad Viewing Tower. From here, you can view the scenery of Phuket town and the sea. Not many tourists come here because of the long journey deep into those small villages.

The view from the Kao-Khad Tower

We spent around 20 minutes at the Kao-Khad Tower before leaving for our next destination. The Thais told us, " If you come Phuket and missed the Promthep Cape, it means that you have not step into Phuket". Being a kiasu, I MUST VISIT PROMTHEP CAPE NO MATTER WHAT!!!

Promthep Cape is the most suitable place where you can witness the sunset "into the sea" right infront of your eyes.

Pikky!! My tour guide

Unfortunately, Mrs Cloud was hiding Mr Sun

Here's a short video clip of the view from the Promthep Cape!

For those lovebirds, there is a restaurant where you can dine and watch the sunset

When you reach the Promthep Cape, there are alot of stalls selling souvenirs. This stall sells...

Pay 30 Baht and you won't regret eating the squid with their spicy sauce

Pikky wanted to bring us to her favourite seafood restaurant but she was quite worried about a possible tsunami since the restaurant is beside the sea. She brought us to another seafood restaurant which is in town.

Curry crab

Sour and spicy steamed fish

A bowl of Seafood Tom Yam

Yes..Pork again

After dinner, she brought us to another hill to enjoy the view of Phuket town at night

Ladies and gentleman, the night is still young and we shall head to Patong Beach!! Pikky couldn't join us as she's working morning shift the next day so we dropped her back to Tesco Lotus and here we are...

During the daytime, Bangla Road is busy with Tuk-tuks, cars, motorbikes etc but when comes to the evening, the road is closed only for party goers. Along the road, you can see alot of bars and clubs blasting their sound systems and their own girls doing the pole dance.

Somewhere in the middle, you can see a large crowd of people standing and doing nothing but watch the ladyboys dancing around, taking photos and asking the "victim" to put money into their cleavage. I saw 2 ladyboys danced sexily and they stared at someone randomly while licking their lips and showed some seducing facial expression. Besides that, they purposely dropped their top or dress to show off their fake boobs. Anyways, some ladyboys are just so pretty until you can't take your eyes off them.

At one of the bars, I was harassed by a few Thai ladies as they wanted me to drink at their bar. One of them stopped me by laying her hands on my chest and then the rest started pulling my shirt and hand to their bar. Seriously the force of 4-5 girls can't be underestimated. I struggled to break lose by pulling a passer-by's hand asking for help but he said, " Oh Oh...good luck to you man. I am going off!!Haha!!" Along the way, there will be Thai people asking you to visit their A-go-go bars along the Soi Seadragon and others are found on the side lanes off Bangla Road where the girls dance sexily in their bikinis. Go search online if you want to know more. I didn't visit the a-go-go bar because I am a innocent boy.

We chose a decent beer bar with no poles and sat down with our small bottle of Heineken, 80 Baht each and drank till 1am. More stories if you meet up with me personally!! Hehe..

Day 5

Our last day in Phuket and I have yet to swim along the beach. That morning, the weather was super weird. It rained and stopped and rained and stopped for almost.......uncountable times. Haha

Short video clip of the Naithonburi beach

Prior to check in, we had our last lunch in Phuket Airport. I have seen this Chester's Grill in Chiang Mai and was tempted to give it a try.

Yewwww....REGRET! Double Regret!!

Time to leave Phuket.

15 minutes before landing at LCCT

Phuket has become one of my favourite place on earth and it's only enjoyable if you are here with a group of friends.

Sunday 16th September 2007 - The One Two Go budget airline's plane departed from Bangkok and was carrying foreign tourists to Phuket. The weather was bad and the plane crashed while the pilot was attempting to land the plane.

When I was at the Promthep Cape, I came across this T-shirt

Few hours after the accident happened, Pikky msn-ed me and told me that this was the answer to the 2007 What's next question.

This post are dedicated to those who lost their lives during Sunday's tragic event.