Me, Momoe and Pangkor. Unforgettable moments. (Plus a bit of a simple guide fer would-be tourist.)

Pangkor was great. Unspeakably magnificent. Well yes one of the main point of why it's so great is that I'm with someone that I love and that makes it even better. I'm at home right now and I'm missin the experiences so bad. Not to mention I miss Momoe too. 7 days of a total dream getaway. Pangkor is a romantic island. Beautiful and cozy. I feel so sad to leave the place. The sound of the wave is still resoundin in my head continuously. And now I'm back and the torture is unbearable. Such a sweet memories. I feel like the time cheated and jealous of that good moments I was havin back there in Pangkor.

Me and Momoe, we went to Pangkor on 17th of August, takin a direct bus trip from Seremban to Lumut which cost about RM24.00 per person. There's only 2 bus trip from Seremban to Pangkor, 9:45AM and 5:00PM so we took the early trip. The journey is about 6hours. The view isn't that great because it's highway almost all the way but heck Momoe is beside me so there's nothin more that I want. That's more than enough.

Lumut bus station is basically near the jetty area so it's not hard to find the place to get ferry. A ferry trip cost about RM5.00 per person and the trip is not more than 30 minutes. We didn't have time to go around Lumut but I guess the place is not that big. It's a lovely place fer sure. The sight of the open sea is very temptin. There's a TLDM (Tentera Laut DiRaja Malaysia, Malaysian Royal Navy) port there so seein a few navy is a common sight. From Lumut, the ferry will stop at 2 ports with the last port bein the place which common tourist will disembark. Followin Momoe's Pangkor travel guide, we went to Teluk Nipah by taxi (pink vans!) fer RM10.00 fer both of us.

The trip by taxi from Pangkor's jetty to Teluk Nipah is about 10 minutes with the road bein alongside the sea line so the sight is very beautiful. Simply gorgeous. Teluk Nipah is a popular spot fer beach lovers with many resorts from the luxury type to the budget traveller's choice. We opted fer Havana Beach Resort (the 1st resort after we arrive to Teluk Nipah.) which is located near the beach. We wanted to stay at Palma Beach Resort near the centre of Teluk Nipah, but after encounterin a few problems, Havana was the more suitable choice. Bein less than 20 metres from the beach, Havana is not a bad choice at all. The room is good with workin water heater and electric kettle is provided. Oh theres even a big TV with Astro inside. Simple but very cozy.

Although Havana didn't provide us with breakfast (except fer Saturday onward.) nor there's any cafe inside the resort, it's nothin to worry because there's many place to fill our stomach scattered around Teluk Nipah. It'll take only a brief walk to go to many restaurant. The Havana's receptionist recommended us TJ Restaurant, which is just a few minutes walk from our resort and the food is really good. There's another spot which is also our favourite near the center of the beach but I don't know the name of the restaurant. As fer the price, it's just like the normal price around Malaysia and most of the time, the seafood price is much more cheaper. There's cats at TJ so everytime me and Momoe was there, Momoe would go to the cats and play with them. Yeah Momoe, I think the cats is missin you too dear. As fer tea time, me and Momoe just stick to DIY tea (which she brought with her plus a few sachettes of tea with many flavors her friend gave to me as a present.) and snacks. The weather was fine all around and watchin the sea while sippin tea with the 2 of us is simply superb.

On the 1st day there, we're just fillin out the time with walkin around Teluk Nipah, havin dinner and restin in our room because we're practically tired of the journey. We wanted to go out later that night but the resort's gate was locked and the person in charge was sleepin so we're stuck inside and have to make do with another restin time in the room. Beware though, mosquito are a bunch so you might want to bring along a mosquito repellent or anythin if you don't like the air-conditioner to be too cold fer you. Fer us, Momoe brought a small (as small as a car perfume like Glide's.) mosquito repellent device which uses battery and fer a continuous use, it's a 3 days heaven fer us without mosquito.

The next day was the day of enjoyin the beach. The Teluk Nipah beach is beautiful. Because it's weekday, there's not that many people around and it's great. The beach spot infront of Havana is even better because its located on the side of Teluk Nipah and the popular spot was around the center so there's just a few of people who'll be there.

There's another beautiful beach nearby, the Coral Bay. Coral Bay is just a few minutes walk from Teluk Nipah and the people there is even fewer. The water is beautifully green and it's a romantic place to lay down with Momoe watchin the sea, hearin the wave and smellin the fresh saltwater air. Unlike Teluk Nipah, Coral Bay doesn't have any active shops so we bought all the snacks we needed from Teluk Nipah instead. We had to move our picnic mat a few times though because the water level got high in the evenin. I can remember seein a crab on Coral Bay, who's tryin to get an evenin food and Momoe tried to get near the crab but the crab was too fast fer her. The crab would go out of it's hole and everytime Momoe move, the crab would dash into the hole quickly. It's cute. Both of them ;).

There's 2 small island infront of Teluk Nipah, to the left is Mentangor Island and the other one is uhm.. I don't know. The other island is smaller than Mentangor and it's the favourite spot fer snorkelin. The only way to get there is by usin water transportation like boats (RM20 per person, may get hiked if it's weekend.) and kayak (I don't know the cost because Momoe wouldn't allow me to go kayak, wah! :P). If you take a boat, the boatman will take you to a brief tour around the area and give a bit of informations about the places nearby. Cool. The island is so small that it only have a burger stall on it. But the snorkelin experience there was heaven. We tried snorkelin there and we both fell in love with it. The view is gorgeous. The colorfull fishes just puts us in a trance spell. When we arrived to the snorkelin island, the boatman asked fer the duration of our stay there so he could pick us up and when the time is up, we extended the stay fer another 1 1/2 hour because it's so great to be there. It's recommended if you could bring your own set of snorkelin equipment like goggle, snorkel and others because some of the equipment provided by the boatman might not the in the optimum condition. We went to the small island again on the next day, this time we said that we wanted to stay fer 4 hours and again, we extended the stay to another 1 1/2 hour when the time is up because Ahhhhhhh! we love the place and the fishes so much! I had a few piece of bread and it's magnificent to see the fishes takin a bite at the bread I thrown. If you're at Teluk Nipah, go to the small island and experience that. It's an unspeakable pleasure.

Momoe wanted to see around the island so we rented a motorbike. Yeah you can rent bicycle too fer less cost. A standard 4-stroke cub motorbike is RM30.00 fer 24 hours with scooter bein more expensive. Bein a holiday island, you can ride the motorbike without wearin helmet nearby but it's better to be safe. The road there is not that wide and many of the places have a pretty hilly track so it's better to check if the brakes are workin. Fillin up a RM2 worth of petrol, we travelled around the island and have a few more kilometre's worth of petrol to go. It's good. There's many resorts scattered around Pangkor and the small Pangkor town is nice. There's many seafood-snack shops and souveniers too. There's a police station near the town and firestation there too, but I rarely see any policeman at Teluk Nipah. I guess the island is so safe. And from our experiences, the island is safe. The only bad things there is just mosquitos. While ridin the bike, me and Momoe found many other good beaches and I even had the chance to find some nice seashells fer my present to Momoe. While it's quite hard to get lost in Pangkor, it's good to have a map or a guide book. As fer me, I have Momoe. She have a great sense of direction, even way better than me. It's funny because she's the one who'll tell me which direction to go etc. and I am the one who's a Malaysian. Sheesh.

There's 2 lookout points nearby Teluk Nipah if you wanted to see sunset. We haven't had the chance to see sunset but we went to one of the lookout points and the view is splendid. The view when the sun sets must be even way gorgeous. We can see a few fisherman's village on our bike journey and it's cool. Fer me, the bike journey with Momoe is one of the romantic thing. If you're there, rent a bike and go on a bike trip around the island with your loved one. It's an experience.

After extendin our stay in Pangkor fer another day, we left Pangkor on Monday 22nd. I wouldn't go to the details because it's somewhat emotional fer both of us. We fell in love with Pangkor and it's sad to be leavin. Pangkor have all the things we needed fer a nice beach vacation. Boat ride, snorkelin, fishin, kayakin, sun tannin etc. If it's not because of Momoe, I don't know if I'll ever go to Pangkor. And now I've experienced it, I know what Pangkor is truly a nice dream getaway. All made complete with my loved one, Momoe by my side. Such an unforgettable memories. Later.

I'm back & studyin startin from 12th September

Hey. I'm back and sweet dreams are over. Pangkor was absolutely great, me and Momoe had a great time. I'll tell you more bout it later (because I wrote a blog bout it and left it in a diskette at home.) and all I can say is, 8 days date with Momoe felt so fast. I can still hear waves in my head. I can still smell the salty air and I keep on thinkin that everytime I wake up, I'll see Momoe's sweet face again. *sigh*. Now, everythin is empty. I missed Pangkor. And most of all, I miss Momoe.

Looks like I'll be studyin after all. Startin from 12th September, I'll be meltin my braincells again after all this years. It's a good thing and the only thing left fer me to do now is to find a job with a flexible workin hour so that I can focus on my studies while workin at the same time. Well, not literary 'at the same time' but you know what I mean. I'll just be studyin fer 2 hours per day so I might get a deal with the car company I told you before. The company's boss said that he'll ring me after his vacation soon, before September arrive.

I got no more to write now. The Pangkor experience will be posted soon I hope. Ah, I remember that at this hour, me and Momoe will be walkin near the seashore after takin dinner at TJ's. Yeah Momoe, I miss TJ's cats too. Later.

Bad API

How's you API? Yeah it's the "Air Pollution Index". Here it's about 200 somethin I guess. Not quite sure. Klang is lookin pretty bad on the news. Why the heck is Indonesian aren't doin anythin to put out their forest fires? Is it because the wind is blowin to our shore so they won't suffer as bad as us? Sheesh. It's gettin worst everyday. In fact it's gettin so dangerous that some of the worst affected areas will be on 'darurat'. I don't know what 'darurat' in english so don't ask.

I went to the bank and the cheque is not yet cleared. Sheesh. So I can't pay the car yet. I hope tomorrow will bring a good news.

This bad air pollution is makin me coughin. Now where the heck is my ciggy? Ciow!

Kreator in KL! Preparin fer recordin & foggy days.

Yeah I know I'm a bit late on this. But I don't care so I'll write bout it anyhow. Yeah dudes and dudettes, Kreator is comin to town!. This Concert List says that they'll be comin to Kuala Lumpur on 25th September. Fractured will be the openin act. Ok I was jokin bout us bein the openin act. The guys (Fractured) will all be there except fer me. I will most probably be nowhere near that place because I'm broke. :D. But it might change so who knows. Maybe you'll see me on the front row of the headbangers.

Speakin bout music stuff, I guess our (Fractured) last show in KL was the end of our 2005 schedule (pffttt. Sounds like we're on tour or somethin.. 'schedule'. pfftt.). Seems like there's no more offer fer us this year so we might as well concentrate on our new songs and gettin ready to go fer recordin. We currently have 3 new songs (We played 1 of our new songs at the Gegaran Metal gig. So that makes you 'rugi sebab tak datang :P'!). This time around, we've up-the-ante on our recordin budget. Time time we're focusin more on quality sound because that's the most critics we heard from our demo album. Hopefully our next full length album will be released next year.

Foggy. Such a foggy day. The only good thing I can think bout it is that it's not as sunny as most of the hot days. That's where the good things end. Damn it's so hot instead! It's like livin in a microwave. Not to mention that it's bad fer the lungs. Oh yeah ciggy do that too but let's just stick to the fog issue aye? It's worsened by the fact that rain is not that frequent anymore. Includin the ever-goin water ration, it's bloody hot. I miss the time I can just let the tab water runnin and bath meself fer hours. Ever my car didn't get its required shower fer quite a long time. Ah well. Just live it.

Can't wait fer PANGKOR! Later then

Ex-school memories, will PTPTN accept me? & darn, it's a 'AC-Payee Only' cheque...

I went to my ex-school today. Haha. It was funny. I saw 1 of my old teacher. He's still the same like 10 years ago and seems like he haven't aged a bit. The 'text-book' issue was settled because the person incharge fer if started teachin there on 2000 and all the text-book I lost is history. Nobody knows the price or if it's ever will be published anymore and usin her persuasive approach, Kak Ayu won the jackpot and I don't have to pay a penny. Hehe. Still, there's somethin that's botherin me. There's only 1 certificate fer SPVM so the missin 3 subjects is mind bogglin. I still remember I took the 'Lukisan Geometri & Pendawaian' (Geometry & Wiring Plan) test because I took 9/10 of the test time drawin a bungalow house and left me with not enough time to do the wirin plan. Hahaha. Okay funny stories behind. Where the heck is the other 3 subjects? It's stated that any subject with 9 aggregate will not be listed in the certificate but hell I don't think I flunked all 3 Electrical subjects! I passed the Electrical MLVK Level 1 test with flyin colors and it was harder than that. Drats.

But it's somehow very hard to trace back now because the school is no longer a Vokasional (Vokasional was replaced with Teknik now.) and almost all of the old teachers, administration staff and even the Principal is gone now. My bad, I didn't take the result's slip when it was released a few weeks after SPVM exam which list all the details about all the subjects I took so I'm clueless (my ex-teacher, the un-aged guy I told you before was dragged into the issue too. Thanks to me. And his mind boggled too. :D) to what had happen with all the 3 Electrical subjects. I can accept it if I blew the Geometry bla bla test but the other two? Electrical Theory and Wiring? Ho no I don't think I blew that too. But hey, it's a 10 years old stuff, the school is different now and it's not easy to find a decent solution. Fer now, I'm hopin that the certificate I took is enough fer me to get me a seat in Informatic. It's the only chance I get fer studyin again.

Talkin bout studyin. Kak Ayu will call PTPTN soon to ask bout my status. Can PTPTN accept my application? The answer will be known soon. Still, I'll most probably start my studies this September. With or without a study loan. Ah well, PTPTN is not the only loan provider there is. Oh Kak Ayu said that to me so I'm just repeatin it. :D. Ah, such a happy face aye. It's a rarity.

I haven't paid the car yet because I got a cheque which has to be credited into my bank account and not a cash-cheque. *sigh*. So next Monday, BCF staff from KL, the same consistent lady who called me every month to remind me of the car's payment will surely be glad to dial my number again. Ouch. But hey no worries. I have the money but it's not with me right now. Sounds like a good answer? I sure hope so. It sounded more like a drug dealin movie script though. Later then.

Car saved, study again & job that wants me.

Ah. Today is somewhat one of the happiest day of my live. Out of the ordinary, I finally managed to get my car's monthly instalment secured without even borrowin a penny from anybody. The freelance computer job I'm currently doin saved my day. Phew. I need to get a few more bucks and then I can smile in my sleep. The time is quite hard right now but heck, everyone will experience it at least once in their lifetime right?. I'll go and pay the instalment tomorrow.

I had a study opportunity this week. My ex-boss's wife (when I was workin in a computer company a few years ago.) who's a marketin officer fer Informatic called and asked if I could bring my SPVM result and she (along with my ex-boss) will pay the required RM200 fee up-front and apply a PTPTN loan fer me. It's an IT Administration course fer 2 years and 4 months. It's like a dream come true. The problem is that, since I left the Vokasional School and till now, which is 10 years already; I never went to the school to get all my certificates. I lost all the text-book that was lend to me on the final day of school. Somebody stole it. So I never bothered to get the result. So how did I managed to get any jobs you asked? I used the MLVK slip I get. I was an Electrical course student. Not to mention that my 1st real job (in the computer company, the ex-boss's company I mentioned earlier.) opened up a chain of another good job opportunities. I never bothered to get the SPVM result because the result wasn't that great anyway. It's a long and pain story so there's no use fer me to tell it. So, after this whole years of evadin any topics bout my result, I was now forced to get it or suffer the loss of the study opportunity. How?

No worries. It's solved this evenin. My ex-boss's wife (I call her Kak Ayu.) and me went to my ex-school to get my result. It was a very nervous thing because of some wild imagination I had bout me bein scolded in front of everybody fer losin all my text-books. So what happened? I was spared from the humiliation of bein scolded but they (the school administration) have the receipt of all my lost text-books. Drats. I still have to pay fer the loss. Ouch. But I got my SPM result. They have to hold my school certificate until I cleared the debts. Fer now, that's enough. Anyway, as I thought, my English result was way better than my Bahasa Malaysia's. Sigh. My math in the other hand, is pure thrash. Ah well, I was thrown out from my 'kampung' 6 month before SPVM (all I did was standin up fer my big sister. We're both thrown out.), livin in a new house (which took the whole day fer me and my big to find a suitable place to make our new home.) which got electricity only after 3 months we moved in, workin as a trailer co-pilot with my late brother-in-law (who was the driver.) when I should be preparin fer my exam. Ah, the memories. Such pain. Anyway, with all the discouragement I experienced, I'm pretty proud of the SPM result. Below par, but with the state I was when I'm in form 5, it makes me smile. Not because of the result, but because of the story behind it.

I fergot to ask bout my MLVK certificate. The SPM result only have 5 subjects written in it with the other 3 (all electrical subjects) missin. So I think there's another certificate that I fergot to take. So tomorrow, I have to go to the school again, with Kak Ayu (she said she'll sort the text-book thingy fer me. Phew.) and ask bout it. I do hope my PTPTN loan will get approval so I can start the studies in early September.

A car company called me a few days ago, askin me if I'm interested in doin general insurance work (like my last company). The boss was a friend of my last boss, he knew how I work and he have faith in me. If I accept the offer, I will start in September too. I'm still thinkin bout it because I'm puttin priority in my study application. Only if I can demand a flexible workin hour. Still, I still have a few weeks to think it over. If I don't get a spot fer studyin, I'll probably take the job. Didn't ask bout the salary though. I hope it'll be better than the last job.

Oh, the pain I wrote earlier was a false alarm. Phew. I'm still bein cautious bout it.

I'll be goin to Pangkor this month. With Momoe! Now that's somethin to look forward to. Later then.