Back home -

It's good to be back home .... boy it's cold! Can't wait for Spring to come sooner.

This photo was taken with Air Asia pilot Mitch and would-be-Air-Asia pilot Miraz @ Seri Petaling driving range restaurant some time back in June.

Mitch's new wheels ..... A lovely M sport BMW.

SM and her mom on the day we were leaving

back home.....

The Eiffel Tower I bought from 紙 箱王 shop at the 高雄火车站 is completed. Yeah.

 

New Airline Pilots

TWO OF MY FRIENDS FROM MY OLD FLYING CLUB DAYS have become airline pilots. Mitch has just received his letter of appointment a few days ago. He will soon start training for his A320 rating. Jonathan has gone through his rating and will probably be on line soon. These 2 guys worked really hard to put themselves through flying training. One used money he shored up as a contractor to pay for his training. Later on he sold his business and concentrated on his flight instructor and corporate pilot career until he has the hours and also passed all the ATPL exams.

Another one was heavily in debt to the bank for the study loan, applied himself, then started paying back the loan as a flight instructor.

Mitch Wong

Jonathan Khoo (Mr Cool)

Week 4 In Asia

Enjoying Some Malaysian Fruits (红毛榴楝）

Monday 23 Feb we took the day easy. I had breakfast with Kee Mun, surfed the net at his office and had lunch with him. There was nothing particularly pressing and it was good just to hang out with Kee Mun and relaxed. In the afternoon I started my journey back to KL and was back at PJ by 4.00pm. Kee Mun's daughter So Jun was such a darling. She made me a card and it was such a nice thought and a nice gesture. Good on you Jun!

Tuesday 24 Feb the mad rush started again. Sent SM's dad to hospital because he complained of asthma symptoms. He felt much better after 30 minutes of O2 intake. He started having this asthma problem some 6 years ago. I wondered if this health problem had to do with the hazy and unhealthy air KL was inundated with due to forest fires and crop burning. By chance some relatives' kids are also having the same problem. Maybe older folks and children are vulnerable to such poor air quality? Managed to send SM for her dentist appointment. I was happy about that because she kept delaying the appointment. Now that it was done we could cross that item out. I took the time out to send her to Julie's @ Kiaramas Cendana in Sri Haratamas. Julie's home is nice, 1850 sq ft, with a balcony, nice interior fittings, 4 bedrooms, some beautiful paintings on the wall and a pleasing garden view outside. I had supper with Kee Mun who came to KL for business. We went to Mackers @ Center Point where they have WIFI. WIFI is a big thing in KL and Asia. Not so in Australia and I wonder why? We checked our mails and I left him to his devices around 10.30pm.

Wednesday 25 Feb SM and I went to Mid Valley Megamall to meet her Gita Bayu friends for brunch at a Nyonya cafe. Megamall was our hang out place when we lived in KL. They recently added a new wing - The Gardens Mall, which is quite nice, like what they have @ KLCC. We did not see a lot of shoppers. The economy is hurting and a lot of folks are not spending.

SM And Gita Bayu Friends Vivian, Yeoh and Mei Ling (太太团）

Nyonya Decorations - Some Kind Of Sarong?

We managed to get to get our insurance organized and also made our way to the MAS building along Jalan Sultan Ismail, KL. Lucky I was able to use the Enrich redemption vouchers to exchange for a bottle of Dunhill EDT. Wonder what the smell is like because I have never used Dunhill. In fact I have not used EDT on a daily basis since March 08!

Thursday 26 Feb I chanced about this Christian gift shop opposite the Toyota service center in PJ Section 19. It's called Psalms Oasis. A very apt name for a Christian shop I was thinking. I went inside and I was mesmerized by the cheerful Christian music being played in the shop from a CD. A lady was humming along nicely and she basically left me alone shifting through the mirage of gifts available for sale there. And there were music CDs, T shirts, iron ons, pendants, chains, book weights, books, and wind chimes. I picked two items a stone cross and a wind chime. Nice gifts for me and the home. I didn't wait till I get back to put the stone cross which came with a chain on my neck! Loved it.

Friday 27 Feb I finally managed to have an opportunity to meet a dear ex-teacher Mrs Tham. We met at The Curve because it would be easy for the both of us. I wanted to have pizza and so we settled for the Italiannie restaurant as Mrs Tham was easy with food. In fact she only had one slice of a Margarita Pizza... We caught up on old times. I managed to tell her all the 1978 friends I have met during this trip to Singapore, KL and Ipoh. To my surprise she remembered most of the names of her ex- students. Mrs Tham was very courteous and friendly. She was a "good friend" to us at school because she was enthusiastic in her profession and she was not that much older than us. I extended to her our invite to be at the 2010 Ipoh Reunion if the timing is right for her. It was a brief meeting and a lunch but we managed to touch base and to link up.

Mrs Tham

Mitch came to meet me after our lunch and we were catching up on the past week and what we each did. He didn't fly a lot this week. He and his boss went to Penang and had to turn back at Tanjung Malim due to severe weather at Bagan Datok. Such was a pilot's day.

I took him out to Mum's Place for dinner. The food was great as I remember it to be. Spicy Petal Fish, Chili Petai Prawns and Kangkong Belacan. Lots of Chinese tea to cool the fiery hot spicy taste buds and one calming espresso for me. Heaven. We used to come to Mum's Place when we lived in KL. The food is Peranakan/Malay. The restaurant uses lots of teak furniture (and they are for sale) and decorated in a homely style. Chris is the boss and I think he hails from Penang or Melaka. The prices have gone up of course but it is well worth the visit.

Petai Fish, Chili Petai Prawns And KangKong Belacan

Saturday 28 Feb we left early to meet Tham and Vivian @ Gita Bayu. Tham now works for Sepang Gold Coast and he is keen to show us his company's iconic resort project at Sepang. Tham drove us to the Sepang site and the journey was long about 1.5 hours from Serdang. The project is sited on the Sepang beach, quite pleasing beach front except I think it is not very swimmer-friendly. There were lots of locals looking for clams and crabs on the mud flats when we were there and a pleasant sea breeze was gently blowing. We were shown the resort chalets by the site marketing people. I must say the chalets are homely, tastefully decorated and not overly luxurious.

Tham and Vivian shouted us steamboat lunch at the resort, and we had dragon fruit juice which was refreshing and different. Thank you Tham and Vivian.

Marketing Office Of The Resort. Tham Told Me The Thatched Roof Was Made Of "Lalang" From Bali

Entrance To The Resort

Nice Tropical Plants

Looking Out To The Beach And Straits Of Malacca

The Balcony Is My Favourite

Lovely Bed & Bed Posts - Very Inviting And Enchanting

Dragon Fruit Juice - Sweet And Pretty To Look At

Having made our way back to Gita Bayu we bid farewell to them and tracked to meet Pat @ Kiaramas. Pat is our long time real estate agent who looked after our previous Sri hartamas condo unit, along with Betty. We were interested to view units @ Sri Hartamas/Mont Kiara and Pat was there to show us some properties. We had a look around Kiaramas Cendana and Ayuria and were impressed how Asia Quest has improved their products since we bought the unit back in 1995. The units we viewed were adequately sized, about 1650 sq ft, and all had high quality landscaping and general finish. The prices are on the decline as the economy continues to erode and we are not in a hurry to buy in. The cash rate had just been reduced to 2% and the bank home loan rates are now around 5.5% to 6%. I suspect the real estate market will dive another 10 to 15% by this year end.

In the evening we were invited out for dinner by Pang and Yeoh @ which was located inside the Chinese Association premises. The food were special because they were cooked with minimal oil and tea leaves. Even the steamed rice was cooked with some tea leaves. They tasted somewhat bland because less salt or soy sauce would have been used to cook them. We enjoyed the meal very much as it was different and tasted good. We felt good eating these special dishes. It was really nice of Pang and Yeoh to shout us. We met them in Melbourne a year ago when they accompanied their eldest to Monash for her uni. They are ever so friendly and sociable. Thank you both and hope to see you in Melbourne soon!

Tofu

Steamed Rice Cooked In Tea. Vege Cooked With Salted Egg. Yum

Chicken With Buns

Sunday March 1 today will be a quiet day as we have scheduled to do house cleaning and also to pack up in readiness for our trip home to Melbourne on Tuesday night. My Brother just rang me from Melbourne and said he would pick us up from the airport. I have yet to see a few more people while I am in KL..... VJ, Yin and SK. Hopefully we can tee up because I certainly count the remaining days left for this holiday in hours! Time is running out!

We managed to pack our bags for the trip back home and tidied up the condo where we were staying. In the evening I managed to clear more boxes of stuff we left behind in KL from years back.... I am sure everyone in his life has lots of unwanted things! So much so I believe I will be very very happy one day when the cleaning and filing is over. In fact if I were to be ruthless I would be chucking all old stuff in the bins and it would be for the better. Old stuff clogs up my life!

Monday March 2 I have a lunch appointment with Yin and NSK. Hopefully Yin manages to get back from her India trip on time and we can meet, finally. I feel that I always leave somethings undone until the last minute. I hate the rush of getting things done and seeing friends before the flight takes off! The stress is killing me!

Week 3 In Asia

Erawan Shrine

Monday Feb 16 we are on our own again today. We caught a BTS Sky Train to the 4 Face Buddha @ Erawan Shrine (Chitlom Station) as SM wanted to visit. As usual there were maybe 50 devotees at the Shrine paying their respect. As today was Monday and it was the day of the week when the King of Thailand was born many Thais pay their respect and revelry to their deity-like King wearing yellow shirts. Yellow is the colour of royalty. We later made our way to The Platinum Fashion Mall on Petchaburi Rd, about 15 minutes down the road from the Shrine (take a right turn at the next traffic junction). The mall has 5 storeys and 1300 shops! There were not a lot of stuff that we wanted because the quality or the designs was not what we were after but SM bought some T shirts she liked.

We tracked back to Siam Square and ducked into Siam Center for some window shopping and a quick lunch. Food Courts are BIG in the shopping malls. There are always plenty of choices but we always settled for Thai food. Who doesn't love Thai!? Then we wanted to have coffee and I found the UCC Coffee Shop that served very good Japanese coffee and chocolate cakes. I also took the opportunity to use their free Internet service to check on my mails! What a wonderful service they provide to their customers!

We Found Moss Burger (Rice Burger) @ Siam Paragon Food Court. The Last Time We Have Had a Moss Burger Was In Singapore Many Years Ago

Thai Omelet On Rice At Baht 50

Thai Fried Rice (Kao Pad) At Baht 50

More shopping ensued till we dropped dead at night. But in between we managed to have some sessions of foot massage and medicure/pedicure for SM at "Grace" near our hotel (Citadines Sukhumvit) on Soi 11. Wonderful service today at Grace and all at very reasonable rates: Baht 400 for my foot massage of 2 hours, Baht 200 for SM's 1 hour foot massage, and Baht 400 for her medicure/pedicure. A total of Baht 1000 or A$ 40! The massages in Thailand are always good and very reasonable. It is one of the big draw cards for tourists, apart from the shopping of course.

Crocs And Lots Of Crocs

Tuesday Feb 17 we wanted to squeeze in some last minute shopping. We were at Robinsons Sukhumvit Soi 19 by 10am. I always find this department store has the wide range of goods I want and always at some larger discounts than other stores. I managed to buy myself a pair of Hitec hiking shoes, SM bought herself 2 pairs of Crocs, and a pair of Clarks. All fantastic and burned a small hole in my pocket. The fact was we were on a holiday mood and bought stuff that we wanted to buy ordinarily but did not feel the urge to do so. Then Mol and Tuk came to pick us up at Citadines at 1pm right on time to send us to the airport. We even managed to squeeze in a nice lunch at a lake near the airport for Baht 905.

The flight back to KL was a non event. Slept a bit on the flight as we were tired. Tomorrow would be another day! Bangkok, we would go back there again and again!

Mol, SM And Friend

Tuk, SM And Friend

Spicy Red Thai Curry

Tom Yum Kung, Fluffy Thai Omelet And Pad Thai

Kamol promised To Send SM The Recipe For the Omelet

Wednesday Feb 18 we got up late today because we were buggered! We managed to do some laundry and ironing and had just bikkies and coffee for breakfast! Truth was we were "fed up" with hawker center food and wanted a change! SM had a lunch appointment in KL so I sent her to the LRT station. I had a lunch appointment with friends Edwin and Ricky @ Holiday Inn Glenmarie for Japanese. Lunch was ok but I was more glad to catch up with the guys. They talked about visiting us in Melbourne sometime in November this year with their families. And talked about buying an apartment for the kids when they go to school there. These guys have done well for themselves and have remained good friends with us for almost 10 years. Good on you guys and I wish you both success.

Tonight I have scheduled a dinner with Captain Mitch and Captain David Low @ Seri Petaling. David works as a First Officer flying Airbus A320 for Air Asia. The dinner was so so but the conversations were flowing. David was sharing his experiences flying for his company for the last 6 months. Prior to joining AA he was a co-pilot at Fire Fly. David is rated on Fokker and Airbus A320/A330. One of his hairiest moments was landing in a windy condition, a direct cross wind of some 17 kts (32 KPH) and he was rated only for 15 kts. Anyway there was of course no issue and he landed well. What David said was he would follow the final approach on an Airbus to 30 ft then at 20 ft he would hold the joy stick control back a little bit for feedback and then chop power to land. Once the main wheels touch the spoilers would deploy automatically. It sounded like a lot of fun and I was sure he was just simplifying the process to make it easy for me to digest! David is a very competent pilot and Mitch looks up to him as a friends and fellow pilot.

Corporate Pilot Capt Mitch, Air Asia Pilot David Low, Private Pilot Capt Chen

Me and Mitch's Partner Having a Yarn

I went to the internet center to check some rates for hotels in Penang. I am going to be in Ipoh on Friday and Saturday staying at Kee Mun's house. Then we will drive up to Penang and stay the night at a hotel and head back to Ipoh on Monday. I plan to visit one of my uncles in Ipoh and another uncle and cousins in Penang. So maybe staying at the Berjaya Georgetown or The Gurney.

Thursday 19 Feb Mitch and David invited me for lunch. Capt Mitch took us to Subang New Village for its special rice wine chicken and sweet and sour pig trotter. Yum. The place was very non plush, in fact even rural, but the food was quite acceptable and quite good. But it was humid! So we "quickly" finished our lunch and made our way to a cooler venue or some cold drinks. We talked and talked, all about airline flying and the life of a professional pilot. We used to do that quite often back in the days when I was learning to fly in 2004. Since I moved to Australia in July 2005 this was the first opportunity we had to catch up on our lives and love for flying. These guys are pros and they are living their lives of their times.

Friday 20 Feb I made my way driving up to Ipoh some 180km from KL to meet Kee Mun. I got there in 2 hours but it took me another 1/2 hour to get from the North-South Highway to his house, negotiating the city traffic. Kee Mun took me to my favourite place for lunch, the Tanjung Rambutan Bus Terminal Nasi Kandar. When I was a kid growing up in Ipoh my mom used to take us kids for Nasi Kandar (a mixture of curries and spices eaten with rice and a selection of goodies such as chicken, prawn, sotong, lady fingers, salted egg etc). at this very restaurant. Needless to say this visit brought back loads of memory for me. The Ipoh folks say that this restaurant add "ganjar" (Opium) to its dishes so that its patrons would keep coming back for more! Such was how good the Nasi Kandar.

Kee Mun took me for a drive around town. We went to most places we used to frequent growing up: Greentown, Fair Park, Ipoh Garden, Canning Garden, Tiger Lane, Thomson Road, Tg Rambutan, Gunung Rapat. I wanted to buy the famous Ipoh Yee Hup Char-broil Hiong Piah ( a type of biscuits) to bring with us to Penang as gifts and so we dropped into Yee Hup the original maker of the Hiong Piah for some shopping.

Cheaply priced Hiong Piah at RM 7 per packet of 10. It's Very Tasty, Sweet, Kind Of Gluey "Biscuit"

Scenery Approaching Ipoh. Picture Taken Along The North-South Highway

Ipoh City Scene. Typical. Traffic, What Else!

Tonight we the Sam Tet Old Boys of Class 1978 (Form 5 S1) met as a large group in Ipoh for the first time since we started the Google Group and Blogging activity. There was pre-dinner drinks at a pub in the Excelsior Hotel at 6pm. Kee Mun and I arrived at 7pm and there were Tali, Boon Chee, Kong Ho, Fook Kheong, Jeffrey Ong, Seng Kian already with beers in their hands. Gradually a few more arrived, Weng Wah, Tong Leong, Chong Hock Choong, Au Chee Keong, Khoo Tuck Ming. Dinner started at 8pm at The Oversea Restaurant opposite the road and it was a time where no guards were up, literally, for all who were present. For details please read stoba1978.blogspot.com.

After dinner and too many whiskey drinks we adjourned to a nearby karaoke and more mayhem took place. Suffice to say some enjoyed more of the KOK that others! The reunion ended with supper at Oon Kee for tauge chicken and Hor Fun at about 1am.

Saturday 21 Feb I visited my only uncle living in Ipoh. Woon Hoy is dad's younger brother and he and my aunt are still around in Ipoh all this while. Most others have gone to live in Melbourne, KL and Singapore. We went to see grandfather's old house which is just across the road from Woon Hoy's. The house is dilapidated and no one has lived in it since a few years back. We are trying to sell the house but it's been difficult to find buyers. There are some sentimental values attached to the house because it was the house my Grandparents and one of the uncles lived. Now that they are gone I feel kind of sad to have to place it on the market but no one would ever live in the house again and so I don't see any point of my hanging on to it anymore.

I also went to see our old house where we lived and grew up. 5 Jalan Brockman, Camay Park conjures up a lot of good memories for me. I lived there till I was 19. All My Siblings Spent Their Early Lives There Too. This trip to Ipoh is a walk down memory lane for me in so many ways. I am glad I have made it here so far because I don't think I will make this kind of trips again. I drove down Jalan Brockman to the end of the street for old time sake and took pictures of WY and KM's old houses. Somehow the street felt a lot shorter and the road a lot narrower than what I thought it was in my mind's eyes. When I was small it felt forever to have to walk from my old house to the end of the street!

Neighbour Kar Ming's Old House. He Lives In The States Now

Neighbour Wai Yin's House. She Lives In KL Now

Sunday 22 Feb I left for Penang driving out of Ipoh at about 8am. I enjoy the car trip as there were sparing traffic and I was by myself and so I could stop for breaks and also enjoy the quiet solitude.

I got to Penang by 10.30am and was able to find my way to Uncle Sim's house. Uncle Sim is mom's younger brother and every time I am back in Malaysia I try to pay him a visit. To cut a long story short we had lunch and dinner together. We were joined by his children (my younger cousins) Kok Choong, Yen Li, and Kok Leong. All were children when I was already in late teens and they used to play with me as I was their big brother. Kok Choong is now a full-fledged architect in his early forties. Kok Leong is a couple of years junior and Yen Li is a couple more years younger than Kok Leong. I enjoyed catching up with them and hoped that they too enjoyed the conversations.

Before going up to Penang from Ipoh I had already decided with Kee Mun that I would not stay over for the night. We think the car trip back to Ipoh on the same day would be manageable. Since Kee Mun would not come up on the same trip with me it would be rather pointless to stay over in Penang for the night. I started driving back to Ipoh at about 7.40pm and managed to get to Kee Mun's house by 10pm +. It's been a long day!