New Image of our BLog!

Hi all, finally i make a new look for Batcity^Zone.

Thanks Woon for the Kluang station picture.

Please feel free to share any post at the blog.

Kluang people would much appreciate on your participation and sharing.

Let's blog, guys and girls!

A trip to Hanoi, Vietnam

I have been to Hanoi, Vietnam on end of February, spending 44days business trip in Hanoi.

Hanoi, capital of Vietnam but the development here are still consider slow. I couldn't see any sophiscated shopping center, can't even find any Pizzahut or Mcdonal here. But KFC still able to penetrate to this peace and old city. I found only 2 KFC at whole Hanoi city.

One thing i must recommend is the Vietnamese Coffee.....

Traditional Vietnamese Coffee

This is how the coffee looks like

Other than coffee, let's see some famous Vietnam local food:
1st picture is the "spring roll" and the 2nd is the fried prawn

Besides the food, let' s see how is the town of Hanoi~

Hoem Kien Lake (sword returning)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoan_Kiem

One of the Landmark of Hanoi City (day time)

One of the Landmark of Hanoi City (night time)

one of the 36 old town street

Halong Bay, another city near Hanoi. Most of people would say, go Hanoi, cannot missed out Halong Bay. The distance between Hanoi and Halong Bay is just around 170Km, but it took me 3.5hours to reach Halong Bay from Hanoi! What's wrong? I just can see the infrastructure in Hanoi need to be get a better development. Their so-called Highway would be bah lia than Jalan Mersing. =_='''. You can see the people ride their bicycle or motorcycle on "highway" , the amazing thing is: Have seen that people can use their motorcycle to bring a cow? can you imagine how the pig can be "ride" on the motorcyble? can you see around 200 hat are stack and bring on bicycle? Too bad i couldn't catch the chance to capture the photos.

Well, here we come the Halong Bay. One of the World Heritage listed by UNESCO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha_Long_Bay

Supposingly i shall post out the blog when i came back from Hanoi, but always couldn't find the mood to blog it out. Well, it's a special feeling now. I'm posting this blog when i'm now in Jakarta.

A whole day of walking around the Lion City!

Harbour Front Vivo City
After meeting up with Soon Wai at Harbour Front station, we proceeded to Vivo City. It's actually located on top of the underground station itself. Then we went to this uniquely designed hawker center to have our lunch. The food was ok but the ambiance was very nice as they designed it into a very traditional chinese eating place. Very tranditional as in all the furnitures are dark brown wood based. We had fish soup rice noodles. Next, we went on top of the complex itself. It was interesting to note that the roof top was a small water park for kids. And on top of that it has quite a view facing Sentosa Island and the Merlion on that mountain. The PSA shipping yard is also located here. According to Soon Wai, Vivo City is actually the largest shopping mall in Singapore. And, Harbour Front is actually where the cable car station is, where people board on star cruises, & where some men take a bought ride to Pulau Batam to have "some fun".

China Town
The Singapore China Town is a must see especially during the Chinese New Year celebration. Although it drizzled all day long, we still went for it. Perhaps we have similar places in Malaysia like the Petaling Street, however China Town is really well preserved, neat and clean. As CNY is just round the corner, the people has already put up all those CNY goods and decorations. I'm not sure how big is the whole China Town, but I think we walked around that area for more than 1 hour. Lots to see: CNY goodies, well-preserved heritage shops, good colour combinations, again lots of food choices, assorted CNY candies and cookies all displayed in a very colorful way. Still, what really caught my attention was the beautifully preserved buildings around the whole China Town. And, another price comparison: The Thailand coconut which is selling in MY for about RM4 , is only selling here for $1. Really tasty and suckulant! China Town would really be nice place to do all the CNY goodies shopping for mommies as the choice are unlimited and prices are reasonable.

Raffles place - KPMG (Hong Leong Building)
As I was not sure where exactly KPMG is, Soon Wai brought and guided me to Hong Leong Building. Do not worry of getting lost in Singapore! At every single MRT station, you will be able to find big wall maps, showing building names, street names, and walking directions from the MRT to your destination. Hong Leong Building is not located exactly at the station itself. I would need walk about 5-10 minutes to it. However, the walking journey is mostly underground and shaded.

City Hall - Citilink - Suntec City - Esplanade
Next, as the rain was getting heavier, we could only visit places which are shaded. So Soon Wai decided to bring me to City Hall MRT Station. In Singapore, the major MRT stations are not merely stations, they are mostly filled with nice eating places, and for Citilink (City Hall Station), its almost like a shopping haven! Citilink is one of the longest stretch of underground shopping center. The shops are new, modern, clean and uniquely designed. This is something where one could not see in KL. Some price comparisons again: A good laptop would only cost $1k+; A pair of Levi's jeans - $100+; A pair of Nike's - $100+; Even for vacation trips, for only $500, you can go Taiwan or Hong Kong. Admittedly, Singapore purchasing power is higher.

At the end of Citilink, we walked up a bridge to arrive at Suntec City. However, there was nothing much to see at Suntec City. I guess it was one of the older shopping centers. Feeling bored at this place, we went to Esplanade. Not knowing what Esplanade was (Both Soon Wai and myself), we just continued our walking journey until we arrive at it. Esplanade is actually a theatre hall where stage dramas and concerts are held. However, that was not our purpose of coming here. Haha. We wanted to see if Esplanade is the building with "Durian" roofs. And oh yes it is! Its one of the sight in Singapore, something like the opera theatre in Sydney.

Raffles City - Merlion Bay
After satisfying our "sight" of the "durian roofs" at the Esplanade, we took a train ride back to Raffles place to search for Merlion (the combination of the Lion head with the fish body and spilling water out of its mouth, hence the name "Merlion"). Well, since I am in Singapore, guess it a must to see that weird creature. From the map, it says the Statue is located at the opposite of Fullerton Hotel.

[A little description of Fullerton Hotel: It's actually 6-star hotel; Huge and the building's night view is awesome. Part of its outdoor coffee house is facing the Singapore river. Nice and cosy. The building architecture is actually the traditional English building.]

Back to Merlion. We have arrived at the Singapore river and Fullerton Hotel, but our dear Merlion is nowhere to sight. Wondering if it had been "kidnapped", Haha! So we continued walking along the river until someone passed us by and shouted in Cantonese, "Hey, I've found the Lion lah!" Then only we realise that dearest Merlion is located opposite the other entrance of Fullerton Hotel. The Merlion Statue is located stragically with all those high rise buildings as its back ground. From the Merlion Bay we could actually see the Esplanade building, then only we realise we could actually walk from there, instead of taking a train ride. Haha, silly Malaysians, well perhaps the next time, we'll be smarter.

Boat Quay
From Merlion Bay, we walked to Boat Quay. Boat Quat is a streched of restaurants (huge variety of cuisines from Chinese to India to Arabian to Western to Thai) located at Singapore river banks. It has a very nice touch and feel. The Buildings are again well-preserved heritage designs. And you can see by the river banks to enjoy your meals. 90% of the customers are westerners. Somehow they just crowded this place and nowhere else. Since its already almost dinner time, we decided to pause our tour and have a break. We had dinner at this Punjabi restaurant. We had a whole grilled chicken and chilli deep-fried cauliflower. Soon Wai's girl friend joined us later on and we order additional Naan with fruits. One would expect the food prices at places like this would cost a bomb, fortunately, it only costed us $50.

Clarke Quay
After dinner, we walked to Clarke Quay. Another famous tourist spot. Clarke Quay is more happening than Boat Quay. The night view is quite breath taking. Again with restaurants at the river banks and also with bigger boats as restaurants. Also, all types of cuisines can be found here. It's a nice place to pamper oneself after a whole week's of hard work. Full of westerners and africans. One thing really surprised me was that they actually have "Hooters" here! [Hooters is a famous drinking place in the States where bar-girls dressed up in extremely hot pants and extremely tight tubes/ singlets to "magnify" their "assets"] Interesting, I guess you would never find such a sight in our dear old Malaysia.

Well, Clarke Quay was the last spot of the day.

We had been walking almost non-stop from 2pm t0 6pm, then 7pm-8.30pm. Fooh! Total transportation fee spent was less than $6. Next spot to go to in the future: East Cost park, with skating, jogging, bicycling and beach for one to relax and let loose - and that's my kind of place.

New Country New Life

Hi all, surprisingly i am here again.

It has been ages since i last post here, and would like to apologise for do not post anything for long time as well as thanks to SV for her effort always "heating up" this blog even she knows that all of us is hibernate at all time.

Sorry for lost contact for sometimes and some might even think that i am missing from this country. Well, indeed I am because i am now working in Singapore, Renesas Solutions Pte Ltd which is located in Harbour Front as a system software engineer.

Well, life is still all right here and somehow still need more time to adapt.In this company, working hour mean working hour and there isn't any culture of browsing for personal purpose or even checking personal mail. This situation maybe due to the reason that my company is a Japanese company gua.And this explain the reason why you guys out there will no more see me chatting online.I am here today because i steal some of my working time for this blog to update my news to friends out there.

Well, working in Singapore is always not so easy ,but don worry i am still fine here as i believe some difficulties and obstrucles in life will always be a very precious experience in our life.

Responding to Ridz engagement, really feel happy for you and my sincere wishes to both of you. For cherrie and Sv, we will meet soon as our annual chinese new year gathering will coming soon.hehe.......For Woon,looking foward you to Singapore, give me a call when you already here ya.For Thai Kiat if i do not received your call after you reach, then you'll know...............hahahah

Cheers to all my friends out there.

Regards,
Soon Wai
~Although we do not share the troubles now , somehow we all shared an unforgettable moment together~

Welcome Back Thai Kiat~~

Glad to inform you guys that Thai Kiat will be back on 31.1.07 reach Malaysia on 1.2.07

Since he is so busy, i just being his representative to spread the news~ Well, this is my task always~

Congratulation upon completion of his Master degree as well~ All The Best, friend

Congratulation to Ridz upon his engagement~

Dear all,

I got the news from Ridz's friendster~ he has been engaged with his gf~ congratulation~ just wanna sharing the news to those we seldom update or don't have friendster account

He is the 1st among us who getting marry soon~ haha...
Those 5s1 fellow, we never expect this la... all putting wrong focus on somebody else~ better don't put his/her name out~

Once again, Congratulation to Ridz upon your engagement!

May both of you stay healthy, live happily and have a wonderful life for years ahead.

Never try, never know~

As what Joanna post, how do we know? i just can answer, never try ,never know

I have already jump from R & D field to Product Marketing now. Just update you guys the latest company i work for now is a telecommunication company. It's great can work in telecommunication field. This is what i expect for my career path. But i never expect i 'll involve in marketing. Since, i have only the technical background.

Well, the chances of exposure would be higher than my previous company. Everything is just new and find that interesting for me at the moment. One thing i never expect is working in KL, this is really out of my plan. That's why joanna's post really voice out what i think during my decision making process. Whether give myself a chance to explore~

Ok, hoping that my try would bring me the valueable experience, this is what i expect always.

How do you know?

How do you know if the decision you've taken would give you the outcome that you were searching for? You'd never know until unless you stepped into the picture and experienced it yourself. What if it turned out to be a negative picture? Does it mean that you've made a wrong step? Or the negative picture was just a fraction of the whole bigger picture?

Say if you did fail, it does not necessarily mean that you could not start all over again. It should not be something that you would feel embarassed about because you didn't know that it would turn out badly. Should you have known, you wouldn't even try it out, would you? You should be glad that you took the courage to test it out and you wouldn't have to wake up 10 years later, asking yourself, what would it have been had you tried it out. Yes, you've failed, but it shouldn't be construed as you've wasted time because what you've gained at that failed experience would be something which you'd be carrying in your heart always.

Life was not meant to be easy going. If life was easy, then everything we did and everything we said to each other would not matter anymore. If things were to be too simple, then effort would be worthless. You shouldn't be praying for a smooth sailing perfect life as life will never be perfect without both the good and bad incidents that happened to us. Instead, pray for the strength to overcome the shortcomings of life that stumbled upon us.

New Stepping Stone

In response to See Voon's update, Yes, working life is totally different from college life. However my college life was not as fun as everyone else's because in order to just pass ACCA, you couldn't afford to waste anytime. So I would say that my college life is rather boring or lifeless. In comparison, I think my work life is much more fun as it gives me a lot freedom. No doubt that once you have started to earn your own $$$$, you have more responsibilities: Room rent, car instalment, petrol, parking, toll, maintenance, your life insurance, phone and internet bills, utility bills, food, money for parents, and at the end of the day, you would left a little for fun.

There's no such thing as a perfect job or a dream job. In every single place you are working, there bound to be something you love and something you hate. It is how you response to the job nature and the work environment that matters most. Most importantly, give it a 100% in everything you do. Some update from my part.

Currently, I am working at the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board. We are the body who sets the Accounting Standards which are compulsory for all listed and non-listed companies to comply with. I have here for a year plus now. And in January 2007, I will pack my bags and leave KL for "good". I will be starting my new job in KPMG Singapore in February as an auditor (Lin Xing will understand the nature of this job >.<). It's a job from "hell" but I still took it up as in my field/ industry, this is one of the jobs which would provide me with the necessary experience for me to qualify as an chartered accountant in 2 years' time (fingers crossed).

Overall, my life has been like a roller coaster, ups and downs. I am trying my best to lead a calm and serene life and style. I have been into the Theravadan Buddhism for more than a year now and it has taught me a lot of things about life. Not all things but at least, to a certain extent, I can better understand why certain things happened. Mostly at nights, I try to meditate for about 30 minutes or more. Just sitting down, leg crossed, and focusing on my in-breath and out-breath, and letting all go. In terms of relationship, I have been in and out of relationships for the past few years, until I came to a point where I say to myself, OK, enough, it's time to focus on other things.

Well, generally, that's me so far. Cheers! Be happy and lead a righteous life.

Update~

hey, guys and gals~ It's a long time nobody post any message here. My turn to "heat up" the blog~ no choice, all of us busy for our own thing. Most of us busy to work for future, fight to lead a better life, work hard to earn our 1st 1 million, this is so-called LIFE.

After graduate from U, another stage of life is getting start. Searching for a better job is not easy, for those who are lucky enough, just congratulate for getting their dream job~ those who are still waiting for the chance, good luck. I also wish the best of luck will come to me one day. Although not very satisfied with the current job, have to work to gain experience 1st~ this is the only way to balance myself. In working life, you can start to experience the life which is totally different duirng in campus~ no more hang out at nite, no more overslept during morning (for me, overslept is very not worth, salary will be deduct~ :( damn~) , dare not to spend as we like-( bills, and all the expense have to pay ourself~ wau, scary~)

By the way, just wanna share some news here. I worked in panasonic, jb, cherrie worked in Agilent , Penang. SW shud b work in Singapore ( this guy i lost contact for a long time, so update his news if any1 knows) and Keet worked in KL ( i donno what company is that). Thomas worked as a Sales person in singapore now, a future businessman~ can ask him gv us big treat lo~

Those i din't mention, pls update ur news lo~ haha... i 'm quite outdated recently. Lost Ah Heng's contact somemore, those who get to connect with him recently, feel free to send me his contact.

Take care, and All the best!