Happy Birthday Sky Bar

Wednesday 28 October 2009

I’ve heard so much about Sky Bar but never had any reason to go there until tonight. Yes, Sky Bar has turned 3 and Weekender was invited to join in the celebrations. Siok Hui RSVPed for us and naturally, for the Thirsty Blogger too.

We had an event at Istana Hotel first - Wild Asia’s winners announcement - so it was pre-cocktails there first before heading to Traders Hotel. Sobered up cause I had to walk all the way there in my heels! Price we pay to look good :P

I love the look of Sky Bar! So poshy and classy.. and they had a great view of the city too. Night was so clear we could see Genting! Pool’s coo too. Was asking the waiter if many people fall in and he said yups! Waiters too with all their drinks. They just fish out the guest and give them a tshirt that says - “You’ve been wet at Sky Bar”. Haha! I want one of those too!

The pool @ Sky Bar overlooking the city - nice!

We had our own tray of healthy snacks

Started off with wine and graduated to Moets by 9pm. Flow stopped at 11pm. Vaguely remember Thirsty Blogger driving back through a road block. Thank god lepas :P

New toy!

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Just bought myself a webcam cause I just downloaded Skype! Hhaha I know, I know.. Skype’s been around for ages - why only now discovering it? Hey, give me a break ya, you know how technology incompetent I am! Didn’t even realise my netbook had an in-built mic!

Was relatively simple to buy it. Thought webcams & mics came separately but this one had an in built one so it was just plug & play! Hehe 8 Mega pixels some more.. super clear on my side.

Free calls! Woo hooo!!

My new toy..

Bavarian Beer & Pork Fest

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Lost a bet with Max which required me to buy him pork knuckles & beers. He chose to claim his prize at Bavarian Bierhaus, this fairly new German pub in The Curve (next to Big Apple Donuts).

There are not many German pubs in KL where you can get good Germen beer & authentic Germen food so any new places serving them is always welcome. Love their deco - Very chilled and relax - loads of wood. Quite like their round high tables. There’s a huge bar right in front displaying their bottles & taps. It’s at the open area near the fountain so you won’t stink of smoke after the night’s over.

The outlet - nice, cosy & chill

Good ol' German beers

Went with the garlic-herb pork knuckles and a (can’t remember the name) salad which was quite good! The salad first I mean. Had generous chunks of pork slices, sun dried tomatoes & fresh green leaves. You can eat that alone and be happy.

The pork knuckles was huge! Meat! It was attacked by 4 of us and we still had quite a lot left to doggy bag for Homey. Not as good as the one at The George & Dragon @ BSC but still good nonetheless.

Yummy & healthy salad

Meat!!

They are having a month long promo for their German beers too - 0.50 cl of Franzishaner goes for RM25. Not a bad deal at all. They had Löwenbräu too but no Paulaners. What?? No Paulaners?? Oh well..

Imported beers - Hoegaarden goes for RM28 a pint.

Prost! to what’s left of Oktoberfest.

Happy Birthday Khang & Ovi!

Saturday 24 October 2009

Khang's birthday is on the 23 Oct while Ovidia's falls on the 25 October. The two housemates decided to celebrate their birthday together on the 24 Oct (fair mah..) and it was mayhem as usual at the BU pad.

Party started at 9pm, people kept on pouring in stages and party officially ended at 7am with the boys having bad cendol at the road side with the remaining zombies. I left at 5am :P Here's a few scenes from the party..

Birthday girl Ovidia with Kevin & Ovi's boss Naomi

Birthday boy Khang (centre) flanked by partners in crime Feroz (left) & Rubin (right)

Birthday boy Khang even had a mini art exhibition of all his arcylic paintings with captions too


The people just kept pouring in

Party scene..

Food review @ Teeq Brasserie

Wednesday 14 October 2009

I’ve been a fan of Teeq Brasserie ever since it launched last week so a food review at this poshy outlet was naturally on the cards. Contacted YTL and they graciously agreed to host me for it. Deep was supposed to join in but he malas drive back so I asked Tyng Tyng to come along instead. Photographer Chan came along too.

Classy...

This is what we ate :

Starters : Tod Muan Pla, Pan-fried sea scallops, Larb Gai

Pla tod gbob 'spicy' - basically fried groupper

Aromatic lamb shank - yummy!



Confit of slow cooked salmon - the best salmon I ever tasted! Perfect!

Confit honey glazed duck

Tiramisu with a twist

Crunchy mixed fruit and passion fruit crumble - absolutely to die for!

Overall, food was very good because Chef Kevin Cape, YTL’s corporate chef, cooked it himself. Portions are small but it’s just nice. Pricing is reasonable for the ambience. The most expensive item on the menu was the grilled grain-fed Australian beef for RM65. Starters are roughly RM20 and mains from RM40 – RM60.

You can pair your food with wines too at a very reasonable price of RM21 for a 15cl glass.

It’s a classy but unpretentious joint where the chef mingles with the guests and makes a point to know you by name. Do try it out, if not for the food, for the classy romantic ambience.

Rafael, Chef Kevin Cape & David Chala

Teeq Brasserie has a seating capacity of 200 guests and offers you a good value three-course meal at approximately RM100. It is open for dinner every evening (except Monday) and also for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. For reservations, please call 03-2782 3555.

Jamming it in KKB

Sunday 18 Oct 09

The Latino boys David and Rafael were saying that they wanted to see a village cause they’ve only seen KL city since they got here. David’s Cuban and Rafael is from the Dominican Republic but they both reside in Hong Kong. They were brought here by YTL’s boss Tan Sri Francis Yeoh to play at Teeq for 8 days. They leave this Thursday so you can still catch them playing at Teeq during dinner time till then.

Hmmm where the heck do I find a village? Only one I could think of was Kuala Kubu Baru (KKB). Called Marj and she was an absolute darling host. Brought us in her 4x4 to an authentic wooden/bamboo orang asli house where they still didn’t have electricity and showed them how the aslis lived and cooked.

Raphael was so fascinated with the tree sap thingy which they use for light. It’s the first stage of amber. You burn the sap and it stays lit for hours. Gives out a nice incense smell too. He liked it so much he bought a piece from them.

Authentic Orang Asli village

Fascinated by the tree sap thingy

Marj gave us a history lesson on KKB and the woes faced by the people there. The water at the dam has fallen 30% due to ‘too much release coz KL needed it’. That’s more politics for ya. The reduced water level was really disturbing as you can see the old line way up the current level. But the dam was still beautiful nonetheless.

KKB dam

Took them to see Antares next. He was happy when we told him they were musicians. He brought out his drums, flute & guitar and had a nice jam session. Met some of his other guests there too a guy from Sri Lanka, one mat salleh (not sure where he’s from) and a young girl from Italy.

Antares jamming with the Latino boys

Jam session

Rafael asked if there were any hotels around the area coz he loves the place so much so we showed him the hotel behind Antares’s place – the gorgeous Bamboo Palace.

The Bamboo Palace

We were short on time as the boys had to work at 8pm so we had to rush back to KL. The Italian girl followed us back too. David invited me for dinner at Teeq to thank me for their outing. They said it was their best time ever throughout their whole time here in Malaysia. Always feels nice to show off our country’s treasures to tourists. Thank god Malaysia has an abundance of natural beauties.

Dinner at Teeq

Champanged @ Rootz Launch

Saturday 17 Oct 2009

This week/month is all about new outlet launches. It’s my 3rd club launch this week alone after coming back from that non-alco free homestay week. Oh wait, It’s Deepavali today too so Happy Deepavali to all my Hindu friends!! May the light shine in your lives always.

What I love about festivals in Malaysia is that everyone celebrates it, no matter race or religion. That means all of us get to go to open houses and makan & tani all we like. There were a few houses to choose but it was all around the same lunch time so went to RV’s. Quite a sizable crew was there – Khabs & Shehnaz, Effa, GB, Sim, Glee and of course our usual Sniper Crew.

Makaning & lepaking @ RV’s pad

Came back, made my 8th batch of tuak and decided to head off to town for the launch of YTL’s new club, Rootz, located next to Teeq Brasserie.

Trust YTL to make it an event to remember. They really are generous when it comes to their launches. Just like their Teeq launch, it was free flow of champagne, wine, beer and a ridiculous assortment of cocktails that lasted throughout the night. It was still flowing when I left at 3am.

The club’s pretty poshy, complimenting their fancy Teeq outlet next door. They had an overseas DJ (didn’t remember who though, but was good), the Latino boys on percussions who performed at Teeq and sexy podium dances too.

Couldn’t find Tiffany but bumped into Victor & Joyce instead.

Fancy fancy

Yea, keep them flowing

The night’s entertainment

Appreciating Public Service

Friday 16 October 2009

What is this? New outlet launches month? After the wonderful opening at Teeq Brasserie, it's on to another new, well, not so new place in Plaza TTDI. It's the opening of Public Service, the centre court area where the old place was.

Deco didn't change much, basically just the name & management but who's complaining when there's free flow to savour?

Got there a bit late cause was stuck in a bloody KL traffic jam but got there in time anyway to enjoy my fair share of the booze.

Won't post many pics coz the pics are from Deep and he'll review the pad in his blog.

Yea, it was def Public Service

Headed back to - where else? Our favourite friendly local water hole, Sid's Pub, with the crew for some more post drinks after the free flow stopped.

Sid's - where everyone knows your name

Teeq Brasserie Launch @ Lot 10 Roof Top

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Think I had enough of the kampung life for now so I jumped at the chance to attend YTL's new pad launch Teeq Brasserie which is located on top of Lot 10. Deep was the invitee, I was the luggage.

The place is really poshy. It lights up beautifully, something like the KLPAC grounds. Trust YTL to do it well. View's not that great coz of the buildings but you could see the twin towers & KL Tower so ok la.. And met Abby of all people at the launch! Awesome!

The outside facade

Abby & I, David from Cuba & Raphael from the Dominican Republic

YTL's really generous with their drinks. there were bubblies (mumms), wine, beer and a HUGE variety of cocktails. We knocked ourselves out. They had good canapes too and really cute burgers :)

Getting happy inside Teeq

Historical City of Melaka

Monday 12 – Wednesday 14 October 2009

I’ve been to Melaka on travel assignments and as a tourist countless of times so I won’t say much about the historical city of Melaka. All I can say is..thank god we’re staying in a hotel! Hooray for civilization and modern amenities.

First stop was the Botanical Café for lunch where the Melaka Menteri Besar came to welcome us. We are THAT important. There was Wifi!! We moved to Mini Malaysia next for some cultural shows but at least this was done professionally and it was quite entertaining too. A pity we didn’t have much time to explore the houses in the park. These were true authentic traditional houses from all the states, not like the so-called ‘modern’ ones we’ve been staying at.

Cultural performances at Mini Malaysia

Chamlong, Tourism News Editor from Bangkok Post, brought 4 canggih professional lenses worth thousands & thousands of bucks (5 figure ok!) and he loaned me his 2nd smallest telescopic lens to fit on my 450D.

OMG the zoom! And the pictures that that lens take! Sharp features capturing expressions against a blurry background. Fell in love on the spot. Don’t need that much skill too. Hmmm good pictures are a result of good equipment instead of the photographer’s skills then? Something to ponder eh? Only drawback is that it’s damn bloody heavy and I don’t think I’ll be able to lug that long big equipment around.

Awesome profile pics taken by me! See, not much skill needed haha

We had to go to another homestay in Parit Penghulu for dinner bout ½ hour from town. Was expecting the traditional Melaka houses with the colourful stone steps but nope, the houses looked just like any kampong house. It was actually the most modern one we’ve been too so far.

Homestay Parit Penghulu

Was supposed to go for a river cruise at night but the rain didn’t allow us too. Again. We were on the boat for 5 minutes and had to turn back cause of safety reasons. 2nd time during this trip that an activity was cancelled because of the weather.

Melaka at night

Went round the historical area to the usual stuff – the church, museums, A’Famosa, St Paul’s hill, etc. Since the Malaysians have been to these places countless of times already, we decided to turn the visit into a photography excursion instead.

Me as the model

Me as the photographer, but with my standard kit lens

Since time was permitting, the organizers brought us back for the river cruise which began operations in Nov 2005. Now why haven’t I been on this before? Was quite nice, the cruise, Malaysian’s version of Venice. Cruise takes 45 minutes for the 90km trip which takes you around the city to see the sights from a different angle.

We passed a little café that was featured in the movie Entrapment, the one with Catherine Zeta-Jones and passed a bridge where the Japs used to behead the Chinese. There are also many large biawaks around the swampy area which are being fed dead chickens every day cause the mgt cleaned the river, resulting in loss of food for these huge lizard-like creatures. We saw a few!

Cruising along the river in Melaka city

There are other new attractions in Melaka as well that I have not been too such as the Taming Sari Tower and the Eye of Melaka which the Melaka govn bought for RM23 million. This is the same one from Lake Titiwangsa in KL. Only diff is, Melaka charges RM10 for a ride while KL was RM30. Sheesh. Milking us KL folks.

Night was the closing ceremony at Equatorial Hotel where the winners are announced. Hafiz’s team won the first prize of RM3000 given in a bundle of Rm1 notes! Haha good stack. Went clubbing at Arena disco after that. Finally! Alcohol. Awesome. Was surprisingly packed for a Tuesday night.

Prizes on closing night

Clubbing at Arena Disco

Homestay in the State of 9

Saturday 10 – Monday 12 October 2009

Our next homestay is in the village of Laman Bangkinang, Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. As with the first one, we were greeted by traditional music and the throwing of yellow rice. Sakit juga terkena ia. Made a pack with Sofian, one of the participants, to wear our 2009 Rainforest t-shirts. Semangat only we boria like that. Rainforest rocks!

There are more families involved in the programme here, around 30 of them and ours foster family was Mak Saadiah. Thank god her house was one of the nicer ones. Some were saying their foster houses were not as well equipped or clean as ours. 4 of us were placed in the room upstairs. I booked the bed.

Rainforest borias and our kampong house for 2 nights

The village folks held a mock wedding for us that night to show us how it’s done the Minagkabau way. The grooms are not allowed to walk to their brides so they were carried on their best man’s shoulders instead. The rest of the night was spent watching cultural activities by the village folks and also the Temuan tribe. All of us had to wear baju kurungs which we borrowed from our foster family.

Mock Minangkabau and Malay wedding

Visited the Istana Seri Menanti the next day to check out the Minagkabau architecture which came from Indonesia. Unfortunately, the palace was closed for renovations but we had to complete a few tasks there such as looking for information about the place, playing tenteng, a traditional Negeri Sembilan game and drawing a part of the palace.

There’s an interesting story to how the word Minangkabau came about. Back in the days, provinces in Indonesia used to wage war against each other with the victor conquering the loser’s province. The leaders of two provinces decided against their people’s bloodshed and sent two kerbau or buffalos to fight against each other instead.

One province sent an angry female buffalo whose calf had been taken away from her. Seeing that, the other province sent a buffalo calf with a knife tied to his nose. The female buffalo died when the calf went to suckle her and the knife pierced her belly. The word win in Indonesian is ‘menang’ and they won using ‘kerbau’ so that’s how Minangkabau came about.

At Istana Sri Menanti

Visited Jeram Tengkek, a waterfall near the village but it was quite pathetic. Water was slow as it’s the dry season and there were rubbish all over the place. Selangor has much better waterfalls. There were a few families having picnic there though. Did a stand upper there. You’ll think it was that awesome after Juliana’s done editing with it. Never believe what you see on TV.

Jeram Tengkek Waterfalls

We had to participate in more kampong games and the organizers went all out this time. First was hitting balloons with a blowpipe, rolling a hoop with a stick, then running with a bamboo pole between our legs, walking on coconut husks, shaving coconuts and balancing on pinang tree trunks. The last one was tough as none of my team mates wanted to get wet so it was yours truly for both tasks. Fell down in the muddy waters twice! Sheesh.

Village games

That night, we had more cultural stuff and a ‘Ratu Kebaya’ beauty contest. All of us had to take part. I wore my kebaya made out of Thai silk I tailored 6 years ago. Damn tight already wei.. buttons were bursting. Shy only. Was 5kg thinner then L. It was more cultural stuff again. Learning about culture is all good and all but there’s something called TOO much culture. I need to speak English. Help. I don’t think I can survive a kampong life. Will go absolutely bonking mad.

‘Ratu Kebaya’ and cultural night