Chinatown Chinese New Year LightUp Opening Ceremony 2010 and Chinatown Chinese New Year Decorations for 2009 and 2010

I was at the official light-up and opening ceremony for our Chinatown Chinese New Year 2010 Celebrations today. These adorable tiger robots (tiger because it is the year of the tiger for 2010) which are controlled via remote control (like for toy planes and cars) are not only able to move about, but are also able to sing, call out Chinese New Year greetings, introduce themselves and unfurl/keep the red banner with auspicious greetings. I think I must have spent a good 10mins watching the 4 robots which were located near the start of Eu Tong Sen Street interacting with the crowd.

To keep the crowd (which had started packing in as early as 5pm) entertained, there was also a fire-juggler and an inflated God of Fortune mascot. Here is a picture I took of the mascot walking by. The emcees had encouraged the crowd to reach out and stroke its tummy for good luck and it certainly wasn't easy for the mascot to make its way along.

The ceremony started about 7.30pm when the guest of honor arrived. I was seated behind the main stage (which is where the crowd is allowed to gather) as you can see from the photo below. The photo below is of the ministers (and probably some other VIPs) on the stage just before the launch of the light-up ceremony in Chinatown. To mark the moment when all the decorations for CNY would light up, pink balloons were released by the ministers. You can see the balloons drifting up in the sky near the roof the building in the picture. As for the flags and people in the foreground, these belong to the lion dance teams from various countries like Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Apparently there was a lion dance competition the day before and the winners were announced today. Third place went to a team from Malaysia, second place to a team from China and first place to a team from Singapore. Go Singapore!

The fireworks at Chinatown went off about 9.20pm. According to the news, there will be fireworks for the next three Saturdays at the Singapore River near Clarke Quay. Most people left after the fireworks. Here is a picture of the start of the Chinese New Year lightup at Chinatown for 2010. The two creatures at the top are tigers of course!


I managed to take some photos of this year (2010)'s Chinatown Chinese New Year decorations from my car. The decorations are all along Eu Tong Sen Street. The decorations starts here.


As you can see from the picture below, theme this year is Spring, hence the many fake Cherry Blossom plants lining the road.


I thought I'll also show some pictures from last year (2009)'s Chinatown Chinese New Year decorations (which were oranges instead of cherry blossoms) and light up too for comparison sake. Instead of the two tigers for 2010 (above pic), we had this large Chinese character in red instead (Chun2) which means Spring in chinese. The animal for 2009 is an ox, hence the cow statues under the word (Chun2). If you are wondering about the two rats next to the cow, the rat is the animal for the outgoing year 2008. Between the two decorations, I think last year's is nicer :)

This is a picture we took of the giant inflatable God of Fortune erected along Eu Tong Sen Street last year. From the opening ceremony today, it looks like it has been blown up once more and is standing proudly along the same street and in the same spot as last year! However, I couldn't get a picture from where I did last year (to get this picture) as certain parts of Chinatown (in particular, access to bridges) were blocked off tonight because of the VIPs coming for the opening ceremony.

The picture below was taken by my friend from KL whom I had brought to soak in the atmosphere at Chinatown. For visitors, I'll say that coming to Singapore during the Chinese New Year period is certainly one of the best times of the year to visit Singapore because of the decorations and various celebrations going on, especially in Chinatown, and on the eve of Chinese New Year at Chinatown.

Law Abiding Citizen (2009) movie

The trailers for this movie made me go "must-watch" and I managed to catch this movie after a bit of persuasion with a friend who would rather have caught Legion instead. I thought he would have insisted on Legion (as he got the tickets) and was pleasantly surprised that he had got tickets for the movie I wanted to watch instead.

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. There aren't any special effects to make this show a "must-watch" on the big screen and the story is straight forward enough - vigilante movies usually are. A pretty good synopsis of the movie can be found here. This story was a bit more interesting than the usual "kill those who hurt me" movies because the watcher is made to wonder how far Clyde Shelton would go and how he manages to engineer all the assasinations from where he is. Of course, the answers are revealed in the movie towards the end. I loved the bit where he yelled at the judge for granting him bail. That's part of one of the themes explored again and again in the movie about how easy it is to use the law to one's own means - the law becomes the justification for the decision rather than the reason for the decision. Which is pretty much reflective of how humans are like - we always think we have the reasons for our decisions but really, we often arrive at decision and later look for reasons to explain it. The book Blink which I have finished but am still procrastinating from writing about here explores this far more deeply. Ah yes, and the part about "It's not what you know, it's what you can prove" too also struck a cord in me. Blame it on evidence law in the final year of law school and the burden of proof to be proved in a criminal (beyond reasonable doubt) and civil (on the balance of probabilities) case.

Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson

I love this author already. After reading his book "Who moved my Cheese?", I saw his latest book Peaks and Valleys at MPH and decided that I would borrow it from our library which I must say, does a fabulous job stocking up on new books. The reservation system rocks big-time too because one is assured of getting one's desired book ultimately.

The Slog Reviews: Peaks and Valleys. 10/10. I love Spencer Johnson's books because they are so easily read (not thick with small print), engaging (told in a story form) and he always condenses the points he is making on a page so one doesn't miss the message he is trying to get across. Best of all, I love his attitude of encouraging readers to pass the positivity and messages along which all in all, make a better world for everyone to live in (and prob increase his book sales hehe). For peaks and valleys, I read the book twice because it was THAT good and I recommend you all to just grab a copy and read - it won't take more than 1 hour of your life. Some might say he states the obvious but but but...he does it in manner that makes it stick.

Anyway, here are some points worth sharing:

1) It is natural for everyone to have peaks and valleys at work and in life. Peaks and valleys refer to one's personal peaks and valleys - not just the good and bad times that happens to one but also how one feels inside and respond to outside events. You become more peaceful when you realise you aren't your Peaks and not your Valleys. A personal peak can be a triumph over fear.

2) These good or bad moments may last for mins, or for months, or longer. How one feels depends largely on how one views one's situation. The key is to seperate what happens to you from how good and valuable you are as a person.

3) The key is also to understand that personal peaks and valleys are connected and how they are connected. How? The errors you make in today's good times create tomorrow's bad times. And the wise things you do in today's bad times create tomorrow's good times. During bad times, return to basics and concentrate on what matters most. And in good times, do not waste too many resources, get carried away from the basics and ignore what matters most because that will lead to a bad time. So, we actually create our own good and bad times far more than we realise.

4) No one can stay in one place forever. Even if you remain physically in one spot, you are always moving in and out of the places in your heart. The secret is to truly appreciate and enjoy each time for waht it is while you are living it. How you experience a valley has a lot to do with how long you'll remain in it. Peaks are moments when you appreciate what you have and Valleys are moments when you long for what is missing. If you want to have fewer Valleys, avoid comparisons.

5) To change a Valley into a Peak, you need to change one of two things: what is happening, or how you feel about what is happening. The path out of the valley appears when you choose to see things differently ie in a positive way (so you don't appear downtrodden and whiny) You need to find and use the good that is hidden in bad times.

6) Between Peaks there are always Valleys. How you manage your Valley determines how soon you reach your next Peak. If you do not learn in a Valley, you can become bitter. If you truly learn something valuable, you can become better.

7) Like a healthy heartbeat, your personal Peaks and Valleys are an essential part of a normal, healthy life. So are the Plateaus, if they are times of healthy rest when you take stock of what is happening and pause to think about what to do next. While it is unhealthy to try to escape by blocking out reality, it can often be very healthy to relax and rest and trust that things will get better. Because, after a good night's sleep or a few days' break they often do.

8) The source of most pp's fear is ego. Your ego can make you arrogant on the Peak and make you see things as better than they really are. And when you are in a valley, our ego makes you fearful, keeps you from seeing what is real, and makes you see things as worse than they really are. It makes you think a Peak will last forever and a Valley will never end. The most common reason you stay in a Valley too long is fear masquerading as comfort. The most common reason you leave a Peak too soon is arrogance masquerading as confidence. Ask yourself always then 2 qns, 1) what is the truth of the situation? Make reality your friend. 2)How can we use the good that's hidden in this bad time?

9) The best way to get through a valley is by creating and following your own sensible vision. A vision of a future Peak you want to be on that makes good sense to you. Something as big as you can imagine that is also realistic and attainable if you want it enough. And sensible means you can make what you magine more real when you use all your five senses to create an image in such specific detail that you begin to realise you can make it happen. Enjoy doing what takes you there.

10) Wishing leads to no action. When you truly follow a sensible action, you want to do the things that make it happen. Fear blocks you but the truth helps you succeed. Peaks and Valleys is more than a way of looking at things, it's a way of doing things too. And the more you do, the more youl earn and grow, and the more calm and successful you become.

11) The purpose fo the Peak is to celebrate life and the purpose of the Valley is to learn about life.

12) To stay on a peak longer: Be humble and grateful. Do more of what got you there. Keep making things better. Do more for others. Save resources for your upcoming Valleys.

13) You get out of a valley sooner when you manage to get outside of yourself: at work, by being of greater service, and in life, by being more loving.

14) What counted was not where a person lived. but how a person lived. A joyful rich life is a naturally changing landscape of Peaks and Valleys.

No more prawn fishing at Jalan Harimau

In my earlier entry on where to go prawn fishing, one of the places I'd found on the net and listed there was No. 10479, Jalan Harimau , Taman Century, 80250 JB. Well, I've taken it off the list now because after work today, I drove all the way up to Johor Bahru, queued a good 30mins at the customs, missed eating at a nice Jap restaurant all to check out the place and....nada. No such prawn fishing place. Maybe there was a long time ago, but there certainly isn't any now. I even asked the hawkers and dvd sellers at Pusat Makanan Centre Point (Medan Selera Food Center on my GPS). What a colossal waste of time.

So I had dinner instead at the hawker center. This hawker center is located behind Grand Paragon Hotel in JB and has a wide variety of food choices from claypot chicken rice to zi cha to satay. Despite that, and despite havinga pirated dvd stall right in the middle of the center, I wouldn't say that this is a must-visit, must-eat-at place. I ordered the sambal bbq fish and kangkong from the stall next to the stall named yummy wanton. The cost was RM23 (SGD 10) for both items. The Slog Reviews: 8/10 for the bbq fish which was fresh and tasty. The sambal chilli on the top of the fish was also delightfully fresh and spicy enough. However, the kangkong was a disappointment as it was pretty much tasteless and too oily. As for the satay which we ordered from the Malay satay stall (there is a Chinese satay stall), the ketupat was too soft and crummy and there wasn't much meat on the satay sticks. Although it only cost RM 6 (SGD 2.40) which is an unbeatable price, I wouldn't advise you spending calories on that.

And of course, no trip to Malaysia is ever complete without durians! The regular durian seller at Jalan Cantik 8 (he is only there in the night, sells out of a van and is parked in a dark spot) was out of XO durians by the time we got there so we settled for Super durians instead. The cost was RM12/kg (SGD 5/kg) for the two durians I bought back (see pic below) and I ate an entire 1kg durian there by myself. :)

Prawn Fishing at Pasir Ris Park

The first few times I tried out prawn fishing was with my sister after work when she was bumming a ride back from me. Being familiar with Pasir Ris Park where I used to fish with 1 of my ex-boyfriend many years ago (to the extent that he had a single digit amt left in his bank account because each hr cost S$20 and we were but poor students), we decided on a pure whim to check out the fishing ponds. However, while walking around the fishing pond, we stumbled across the prawn fishing ponds located at the side of the large fishing pond. It was relatively deserted on a weekday night.

The first few times we went there (before I got to know of Ebi Culture), our catch-rate was extremely poor - like just 1 or 2 prawns after one whole hour. Other people there were fishing prawns up like pros and there we were standing and waiting. That's the thing about prawning and fishing - the utter sense of helplessness one gets although one is doing everything similar to the person next to you and yet catching squat. However, I find it a useful reminder that we cannot control everything in life. As a line in 1 of my favourite movies (a Korean movie I caught on a flight to Manila for work) goes "We do what we can and leave it to God to do the rest".

Anyhow, this is the very first prawn which I caught prawning. My sister had almost given up after 45mins of not catching any prawns at all and passed the rod to me to hold for the last 15mins of the hour. I saw the float go down, held my breath, struck, and pulled this fella out.

The picture below is the result of our catch in one hour at the prawn fishing farm at Pasir Ris Park. I'll be honest and 'fess up that only 2 of the prawns in the bucket were caught by us. The others were given to us by the operators of the prawning place there. The Slog Reviews: 8/10, using Ebi Culture as a yardstick again, the bite-rates, catch-rates and services provided at this prawning place far exceed those provided at Punggol prawning. 1 old man had almost half a net full of prawns after 3 hours and the crowd there is pretty friendly and sparse (which I like). The operators are also helpful and friendly. They helped us with the baits when at that stage, I was afraid of sawing or tearing up earth worms (my sis still refuses to touch them) and also with unhooking the prawns. And yes, as I had mentioned, they gave us some prawns to take back after seeing our dismal catches. The rods there too, unlike those for rent at Punggol Prawning, are of better quality. If you are new to prawn fishing, this is a good place to spend your S$30. :)

Punggol Prawn Fishing and Geylang Prawn Noodles

After work yesterday, I decided to go check out Punggol Prawn Fishing at Punggol Marina Club. However, I took a slight detour along the way and drove to the end of the road instead which lead me to Punggol Jetty. There were a couple of old men and a group of young boys fishing at the jetty. Peered into their buckets and saw that they had caught really small fishes. One of the old men told me that these were caught using cast-nets. There were also some people shore fishing from the beach but as the weather had taken a turn for the worst, they started to pack up before the thunderstorm. According to the old men, this place doesn't have much fish (like all the licensed areas in Singapore) but I'm glad to have found a lovely place to practice casting with my Shimano Calais reel.

I parked my car along the road leading to the country club (at least the parking is free) and walked in, in the thunderstorm. Although there were a couple of signs pointing to the prawn fishing area (the signs were in the lobby and out of the pier), I could not find the place the first time - maybe it was because of the rain, wind and lack of light. Anyway, the prawn fishing place is located near Pier 1. There are 2 means of access - one through the carpark and the other through the boardwalk along the water edge. As usual, I did not pay to start prawning immediately but sat around watching the bite-rates and the folks prawning. This is a picture of the prawning place at Punggol Marina which consists of three small ponds laid back to back (each pond is the same size).

The Slog Reviews:1/10. Using Ebi Culture (please click here)as a yardstick, punggol prawning, despite its impressive website fails miserably to impress in terms of facilities, prawn size, bite-rates, catch-rates, crowd, service of the staff and rods provided. The ponds are awfully small as you can see from the picture, the prawns caught were NOTHING like that caught from Ebi Culture (see my previous post) but were really small-sized (smaller than one's hand generally) and after sitting there for a good half an hour just watching, most people there failed to catch many prawns (at best, 2 prawns per half hour per rod for one lucky person). The guy in my picture bending over was so desperate to catch prawns that he squatted down and dragged his line up and down but in the end, caught zilch. The man in blue caught only 1 prawn in half an hour and the lady in black who was smoking with a little child nearby, caught nothing. The counter appeared to be manned by a couple in their 30s-40s and a foreign worker. Unlike Ebi Culture, they displayed no interest in engaging their customers personally or even tempting visitors like me sitting there to shell out some $ to prawn. Not outside food and drink allowed on the premises which I can understand but the selection of drinks and food there is very limited. And the rods for rent were cheap thin things - nothing like the sort provided by Ebi Culture. I messaged my prawning kaki about the place and he replied that he had heard how lousy punggol prawning place was too. I'm not wasting S$30 at that place.

Anyway, on the way home, I stopped by Geylang Prawn Noodle at 325 Upper Paya Lebar Road for dinner. It took me quite a while to find the place although I have been to the place several times. It is located along How Son Rd behind a bus stop and parking in front of the row of shops (albeit limited lots) is free. I ordered the 2 in 1 prawn kway teoh soup (2 in 1 means prawns and pcs of meat) which cost SGD 5. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. A bit pricy for the amount one gets but the stocky yet not stalty taste of the soup and freshness of the prawns make up for that. There are also origami type paper on the table which one can and should use to put the prawn shells as opposed to leaving it on the table.

Where to go prawn fishing / prawning

After my last post, I searched the net for places to go prawning or prawn fishing. These are all I could find as of today. I've heard good things said about (1) and (8) but then these are popular places and one must contend with the crowd and competing rods.

In Singapore

(1) Bishan Prawn Fishing Address: 603, Sin Ming Avenue. My review of the place from observing can be found here while my review of the place from prawn fishing can be found here.

(2) Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing Address: 241, Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim(near Jurong Bird Park and located at The Village). My review can be found here and here.

(3) Pasir Ris Town Park Prawn Fishing Address: Pasir Ris Town Park. My review can be found here

(4) Pasir Ris Farmway Prawn Fishing Address: No. 70 Pasir Ris Farmway 3

(5) Punggol Prawn Fishing Address: 600 Punggol Seventeenth Avenue, off Punggol Road (at Marina Country Club). My review can be found here

(6) Yishun Prawn Fishing Address: 81 Lorong Chen Charu (Yishun) (at Bottle Tree Park)

(7) Geylang Prawn Fishing Address: 100 Guillemard road #01-13 (399718)

(8) Geylang Tua Tow Hei Pte Ltd Address: No. 192 , Geylang Road,Ying Lie Building

(9) Marina South Prawn (and Fishing) Pond Address: Marina South near the Superbowl

(10) Westlake Prawn Fishing Address: No 9 , Japanese Garden Road , Singapore 619228

(11) Prawn Fishing at East Coast Costa Sands Address: 1110 East Coast Parkway #01-01 Singapore 449880

(12) Prawn Fishing at East Coast Parkway Address: 1020 East Coast Parkway,Singapore 449878

(13) Prawn Fishing at Sungei Tengah Address: Farmart Centre 67 Sungei Tengah Rd, Singapore 699008

(14) D'Kranji Farm Address: 10, Neo Tiew Lane 2, Singapore 718813

(15) Ebi Culture. 21 Arozoo Avenue. Sadly, it has closed down. My review can be found here.

In Johor Bahru (JB)

(1) Fu4 Lin2 Yuan2 Diao Xia Zhong Xin (福林园钓虾中心) Address: 16 Jalan Pinang 23 Taman Daya 81100 JB

(2) Damai Fishing Village (大马钓虾中心). Address: No 50, Jalan Kassim Noor, Kampung Sungai Danga, Taman Perling 81200 JB

Prawn Fishing at Ebi Culture

Blogging about the freshwater prawns in the previous entry reminded me of how long it has been since I went prawn fishing or to use the incorrect but popular term, "prawning". The last time was 5th December 2009 one day before my regular haunt closed shop due to land issues with the authorities. This is the only picture I have of Ebi Culture - that's my sis's bf in the background and my sis's rod at the side.

I got to know of Ebi Culture when I was buying some deep diver lures at a tackle shop in Beach Rd during lunch time back in Aug 09. 1 of the investors in Ebi Culture was there too and he gave me his namecard. As I was busy flying between Shenzhen and Singapore for the China project, I didn't have time to check out the place till somewhere in early November. I hadn't intended to go prawn fishing that day but only to say hi to the owner since I'd told him I would drop by. Anyhow, I met my regular "prawning" kaki there the first visit (he let me practice some prawn fishing using the package he had) and I grew to love hanging out at Ebi Culture after work at least once a week. There was free parking, the 5 prawning ponds were large enough so one had one's own space to fish, and the staff were really decent friendly chaps. The prawns were also super duper large in size and Ebi Culture introduced yabbies in one of the ponds for a period. Here's a pic of me with one of the yabbies which I caught.


My sister loves prawn fishing too (in fact, it was because of her that I started prawn fishing!) so I introduced her to Ebi Culture. They had this great 1 for 1 ladies' night promo every Tues so I got her hooked to the place. And eventually, she brought her bf along. Alas, the place closed down before the 4 of us could have the prawns BBQ we had planned. Anyhow, here is a picture of one haul in 3 hours in our kitchen sink after one of the trips. My fingers are itchy already - time to find a new place to go prawn fishing!

Kuching on 3th and 4th Jan 2008

Per my earlier post on being in Sibu for the countdown to 2009, I was in Kuching on the 3rd and 4th of January 2008 because there isn't a direct flight from Singapore to Sibu. The only other way to get to Sibu would be to take an airasia flight from Senai Airport and that can be very troublesome because one has to clear both Singapore and Malaysia immigrations by foot first before taking a taxi/bus in JB to Senai airport.

Kuching means Cat in the Malay language and the city seems to have taken great pride in its association with cats. I came across across this large statue of a white cat with its paw raised in a welcoming gesture. Apparently, it is the famous kucing (spelt without the "h" in the Malay language but when it comes to pronounciation, "c" is pronounced as "ch" still like in the Eng lang), the Kuching South City Council Cat Statue.

And also, this collection of cat statues right smack in the city center. The latter appears to be one of the more popular photo-spots for tourists visiting Kuching and I had to wait for my turn to take a picture with the cats.

As we had done absolutely no research on what one could do at Kuching, we spent most of the day wandering around the streets. We also went to the Sarawak Museum below and looked at the various exhibits. The entrance fee, if I remember rightly, is minimal and the exhibits, mildly interesting. There are of course sections in the museum tracing the history of the various towns in Sarawak like Mri and Bintulu (both of which I intend to visit) and documenting the original inhabitants of Borneo Island, the Ibans. There is even a minature longhouse (the type of dwelling that Ibans have) in the museum.

We also went to Kuching's Chinatown. The picture below shows the entrance to the main street. Talk about congestion but our own Chinatown is hardly any different with cars parked along both sides of the road.

Kuching Waterfront is apparently the main focal point of the city center with many little stalls selling touristy and local stuff. Most of the better hotels like Hilton, Holiday Inn etc are situated at the Waterfront area. For a fee, one can purchase a ferry ticket to cruise the Sarawak river. I've heard from a friend that the river has many river-prawns but I didn't see anyone prawn fishing at all - the riverfront was rather deserted in fact.

Ah, and these are some of the local delights that were for sale at the stores along the waterfront. Multi-colored kuey lapis with samples available (in the pink containers) for potential customers. These were really cheap (I think less than RM 15 but I can't remember after all this time) and I bought one back home. No recollection of eating it though - maybe my mother finished it all...

For dinner, we went to the Cat's Eye Place (Bukit Mata Seafood Center), at least, that's the English translation of the Chinese name of the place which you can see in the picture below (the words in blue). 25 is the stall we ate at. Cat's Eye Place is known in Kuching for seafood and indeed rightly so as one is spoilt for choices in terms of the stalls and the variety of seafood neatly arrayed at each stall.

The difference between this place and Sedco Square in KK is that almost all the seafood at Sedco Square is live and kept in the tanks. I don't remember having the choice of live prawns at all (which I would have taken for sure) so I ended up choosing the plate of red prawns (similar to what I had in KK) and 2 of the freshwater prawns with blue claws (these sell for RM10 per 100gm in KK!)

Here is a picture of the reddish prawns fried in the restaurant's special style. The Slog Reviews: 9/10 - the shells were crunchy, buttery and slightly oily which contrasted sharply with the soft sweet flesh within.

I had two of the freshwater prawns steamed with garlic. Each prawn was split length-wise in half with loads of garlic and other garnishing on top. The Slog reviews: 9/10. That's the way to be cooking 'em freshwater prawns instead of how my mum cooked it fried in sambal!

I also had two female crabs steamed with loads of roe (see the reddish-orange bits in the shell). The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Dastardly fresh and cooked in such a way that the sweet flavour of the crab was retained in the meat which filled in the shell nicely. Definitely returning for more!

And guess how much the bill was for the whole feast? Only RM 89 (EGD 36)....unbelievable isn't it? 2 female live crabs, 2 freshwater prawns, about 5 reddish big prawns, 1 plate of Kangkong (RM 6 = SGD 2.40) and 1 other veg dish similarly priced. I'm glad I have a ticket to Kuching already for March 2010!

The next morning before going to the airport, we went to have Kuching's kolo mee at some really crowded coffeeshop near our hotel. It was a nightmare waiting for the food to come because there were so many people ordering and waiting around. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. As you can see, the meat was very thinly sliced and fresh. The noodles were light and springy but overall, I can't bring myself to rave over this bowl of noodles which is particular to Kuching. It's just noodles and some meat to me, if you know what I mean.

I also shared a bowl of Sawarak Laksa with my companion. Again, I would stress that the gravy is far different from Singapore's laksa gravy. This is far less richer in terms of coconut and is thinner. It can't be described as sour (unless you add the lime) but in no way is it sweet either. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Always worth trying local food when in a foreign place but I'll just say that I wouldn't go back for more.

Before we went to the airport, we went to Kuching Civic Center located at Jalan Taman Budaya. Admission was free. We took the lift to the top of the tower where the viewing platform allows one a 360degrees aerial view of the city of Kuching. Do note that the viewing platform is only available for public access during the daytime. We saw a restaurant there but it wasn't opened. Anyway, here's a pic of the lovely city of Kuching taken from the viewing platform.

Daybreaker (2009) movie

I don't like horror movies - I find it unnecessary to torment myself with images of twisted faces, long snaking black hair, eyes without pupil and blood when I shut my eyes. I had no idea what Daybreaker was about before I was in the theatre with my friend who had suggested this movie.

I can't find a decent plot summary on the web to link to this time (the movie has just opened in Singapore) so I'll give a go at it based on my recollection of the movie. The movie starts with a little girl with golden eyes (vampire eyes) writing in a journal dated 2019 about how she can't go on as a vampire, how she's tired of not being able to grow old etc. And then she sits at the driveway, watching the sun slowly rise and then she gets incinerated with a bone-chilling scream. The movie then goes on, using news broadcasts and shots of ordinary citizens with vampire eyes, to inform the viewer that the world comprising 95% vampires is running short on blood supply from humans. Ethan Hawke plays a haemotologist vampire named Edward, who refuses to drink human blood is shown going to work at a high-tech lab where a briefing about how vampires who are deprived of human blood turn into monstrous bat-like creatures who go about attacking other vampires. His boss, Charles pressures Edward to find a blood substitute for the starving population quickly and to test out the prototype Edward currently has developed on a subject. The subject appears to be fine when all the blood substitute is injected into him but suddenly has a violent reaction (vomit, skin bubbling up etc) right after. When the medical team inject him with something else, he appears to go back to normal (the hideous bubbles subside) but then unexpectedly bursts apart, splattering everyone with vampire blood. So, Ethan is driving back that night in a distracted mood when he runs a van off the road accidentally. The van has 3 humans which Edward hides in his car from the vampire cops that come along to investigate the accident although 1 of them named Lisa shot him in the arm with a an arrow from a cross-bow. She also sees Edward's identification and apparently remembers it. When Edward gets home, he gets a surprise visit from his younger brother, Frankie who has signed up with the military. It is Edward's bday so Frankie brings a bottle of blood as a gift but Edward refuses to drink it. They quarrel and Frankie hurls the bottle against the wall. Then, an absolutely frightening and hideous mutated winged vampire bursts into the room and starts lapping up the human blood along with the glass shads. After being knocked around a bit, the vampire brothers manage to kill and behead the mutated vampire. There is much screaming and blood and gore in this scene in addition to close-up shots of the nightmarish face of the mutated vampire. Anyway, after the police leave, Lisa turns up unexpectedly and gives Edward an address to go to. Edward does just that, and meets Elvis, a vampire turned human again. Unfortunately, Frankie must have been trailing Edward because Frankie turns up and calls for the rest of the military. The trio get into Edward's car and escape (by crossing a broken-down bridge) to a hideout belonging to Lisa. There, Edward learns how Elvis became human again - an accident really. He also meets the people there, 1 of whom is in charge of bringing humans together. This guy leaves and meet up with a group of humans, one of whom is Charle's daughter (he tells a story of how she left him after he turned vampire). However, along the way back, they are ambushed and all die except for the senator's daughter. The military also use the walkie-talkie to trace the location of the human's hideout. The rest of the humans there decide to leave for another hideout but Edward is determined to stay because he wants to try to turn human using the vats for fermentation located the hideout. Lisa and Elvis stay with him and Edward manages to turn human on the third try. The soldiers who come to the hideout missed finding them as they were hiding in the large vat. Back to Charles, Edward's boss/ex-boss, he asks Frankie to turn his daughter into a vampire after the daughter stabs him for killing her friends and capturing her. Frankie does so by biting the daughter but the daughter refuses to drink human blood, thereby mutating. She speeds up the mutation process deliberately by biting her own wrists and drinking her vampire blood. Meanwhile, the rest of the world deteriorates too with the lack of human blood available and there is much violence around. It is decided then that all the mutated vampires would be rounded up, chained to a tank and dragged out to be burnt in the sunlight. Frankie watches the execution and Charles' daughter is one of these mutated vampires and she looks at him as she is lead out to be burnt and as she turns to ashes. Regret is seen in Frankie's face. Back to Edward, Elvis and Lisa who go to the other hideout to meet up with the rest of the other humans only to find them all dead. Edward suggests seeking the help of one of his best friends of 6 years at the lab. They wait for him at his house and he pretends to be genuinely interested in how Edward turned human. However, he betrays them and the military arrive to kill them. They get Lisa but Edward and Elvis run into the subways and lose the military. Frankie catches up with them at an abandoned house and also appears to be willing to take their side but suddenly leaps upon Elvis and bite him. Edward is then shown to go to his office and is taken to Charles who is draining Lisa's blood and drinking it. Charles tell Edward he isn't interested in any cure but that a blood substitute has been made in 2 days (by Edward's traitorous friend) and what matters to him is to do return business by selling the blood sub. Edward then taunts Charles into making him a vampire again and incites him to do so by referring to Charles being unable to turn his daughter himself. Charles bite Edward hard and...falling onto the ground, is shown to be human. This is what apparently has happened to Frankie after biting Elvis. Edward ties the now human Charles in a chair and set up in an elevator. The vampire guards are unable to resist their thirst for blood and fall upon Charles when the lift door opens. Edward and Lisa try to escape the building but their route is blocked. Frankie shows up in a car and buy them some breathing space. Surrounded by vampire guards, he hisses at them to run. They remain frozen until Lisa is grabbed by a vampire guard into another room and Edward runs after her. Frankie on the other hand, has been fallen upon by the vampire guards and lies on the ground all bloodied. The guards who bite him turn human and the guards who remain vampires fall upon them and tear them up. At the end of the mass eating orgy, only 3 guards remain as humans. Edward who has killed the vampire guard that grabbed Lisa exits from the room with her and he falls to his knees next to Frankie, his dead brother. There is some gun fire and his traitorous partner shows up with a machine gun that mows down the remaining 3 guards. He is about to shoot the pair when he explodes with a dart sticking out of his chest. Elvis apparently is in time to save the day. All 3 make off in the car that Frankie drove into the building.

The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Lots of frighteningly awfully bloody and grosteque scenes. Unpredictable ending - I thought it would be happily ever each turn, when a cure was discovered to turn vampires back to humans, when frankie turned human, when charles turned human, but it was not to be. All in all, an entertaining enough movie for those with a healthy appreciation of violence and gore.

Day 5 in Kota Kinabalu on 4 Jan 2010 (Coming home)

Airasia changed the timing of the flight back to SG from 6+pm in the evening to 2.45pm which meant that we only had the morning to do whatever we wanted to do. We decided to check out of the room early and leave our bags with the reception. This is the last picture I took of KK from our room (Rm *01) at Cititel Express before we checked out.

My companion's friend picked us up from the hotel and we went to have the famous beef noodle soup at some place 10mins away from KK. The coffeeshop has only one stall, this one, and amazingly at 9am, most of the tables were taken.

I love beef noodles but for some reason, I decided to have fish noodles instead for breakfast. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. The slices of fish were chunky enough without bones but despite the tomato and other veg in the soup, this bowl of fish soup couldn't hit the spot. My companion who had the beef noodles said it wasn't anything special either. Ah well. Maybe it's our tastebuds which are accustomed to Singapore flavors.

We went on a last spin around KK on the motorbike after breakfast. My camera was set to Program mode and my shot of the sailfish statue at the roundabout near Hyatt ended up looking like this, which surprisingly, I like very much despite the over-exposure of light.

We also dropped by the Waterfront for a stroll and a visit to the restaurants (such as coffeebean) located there. None of the restaurants were open for lunch so we just had a couple of drinks at Coffeebean which provides free Wifi.

We went to Sedco Square about 11.30am and to my utter dismay, none of the restaurants were opened for business. :( In the end, we settled for having KFC instead! The last trip to KK, we had KFC as the last meal there too. However, I must say, along with most friends I know, that KFC in Malaysia is infinitely nicer than KFC in Singapore. They also have chicken with rice which I had for lunch and which isn't available in Singapore. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Finger licking good all the way! Then, it was off to KK's terminal 2 (for airasia flights only) with its really dismal shopping choices.

I found that my mum had cooked dinner when I got back home. Now, one thing about my mother is that she is a fabulous cook according to everyone who has eaten her food. My mum however, can be very competitive when it comes to food - we had a christmas party a few days b4 I left for KK and 1 of my aunts had cooked curry chicken wings which I took quite a bit of and raved about. My mother didn't say much on the way back in the car except that she would have used chicken parts and not chicken wings. Well, anyhow, I didnt know exactly how competitive she was until I came home to this huge pot of curry chicken. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Mum's cooking is the best!

My mother also cooked the big head freshwater prawns which I had caught prawn fishing a couple of weeks ago at my regular hangout (which has unfortunately, closed down). Nothing beats eating what one has caught although I wish my mum hadn't waited so long before cooking the prawns and in sambal at that. I need to let her know that these prawns should be steamed with garlic the way I had them cooked in Kuching. Oh, that reminds me, I said in my earlier post on Sibu that I would write about Kuching in another post. I guess I'll do it before I start on my entries on Ho Chi Minh which I was at this weekend.

Day 4 in Kota Kinabalu on 3 Jan 2010 (Mangrove fishing and Little Italy Restaurant)

I'd decided to do a bit of luring (using lures ie fake baits) from 1pm to 5pm at the Papar area. The cost was about RM 200 for 4 hours on a simple boat with minimal shelter up and down the river (not Papar river).

Despite changing lures a couple of times and even resorting to the boatman's famous dead-fish bait to target Mangrove Jacks and estuary cods, it was a zero fighter trip - not even a bite or tug at the lures or baits. So it was just 4 hours of crusing up and down the river in the hot sun (ugh) which had quite a no of other people fishing in it too (maybe the river has been been overfished). Still, we got to see where the river meets the ocean - look at that picture below! That's one of the reasons why I feel that any fishing trip I go to (fishless or otherwise) is never a waste because of the beauty of nature that one is privileged to behold on such trips.

After fishing, we got back to the hotel about 5pm and set off to have some durians as usual. These are the last two durians that I polished off on this KK trip.

For dinner, we decided not to have seafood for a change and to go to the much advertised Little Italy Restaurant located at Hotel Capitol (near Gaya Street). This is a picture of the restaurant which I took on the first day. The restaurant was really crowded and one has to queue for a table. We waited about 10 mins before being ushered to a table and given the menus. The staff there are really friendly and speak good English. The restaurant was patronised by a mix of locals and foreigners (caucasians) and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

I ordered the Arrabbiatissima which is described on the menu as the hottest of the new spicy hot pasta (tomato base with hot chillis). This is how it looked when served. The Slog Reviews: 5/10. Yes, it was hot and spicy but surely, a dish should come with some ingredients, even a light sprinkling of minced meat? Well, this dish had no ingredients which meant it was just a carbo-dish with some veg (tomato and chili) and I did not finish most of it.

We also shared a Hawaiian thin-crust pizza. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The pizza was fabulous - the crust was delicately thin and done just right (no burnt edges, no parts doughy) and the plentiful ingredients were spread out evenly with just the correct amount of cheese melted in to the mix. A must-try at the restaurant, I would say! Eating this left me craving for more pizza when I got back to Singapore.

My companion also ordered this dish to share - I thought it was squid/calamari (sotong) at first but I turned out to be wrong. I am not sure of the name of this dish but it is a mix of the most delightful ingredients comprising largely of cheese and cream. There were 6 pieces and I had only one because it was so sinfully rich. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Cheese-lovers will enjoy this creamy concoction. "Yummilicious"!

After dinner, I was much too stuffed to move but my companion and his friends wanted to have coffee and supper and talk about old times so we adjourned to a corner coffeeshop at Gaya Street where my companion had reunited with a noodle-seller from Sibu in the morning. The store sells mostly specialities from Sibu.

I am not sure what the name of this dish is but it is particular to Sibu (the name is written on a yellow plague on the wall behind the store - the dishes are obstructing the view). The Slog Reviews: 7/10. A thick warm soupy combination much like Singapore's mee hoon kway but without the egg.