There's never a dull moment when you're with Sam.

A while ago, Sam told me that she'll come back to Spore on 27th Aug to get her passport chopped. This is because she is only allowed to stay in Msia for 30 days as her work permit is still in the midst of application. Yesterday, she smsed me saying that her work permit arrived and she'll not be coming back. I half believed it. Then when I got home from work yesterday, I received an email from Aeroline notifying me of a booked trip back to Spore on 27th departing at 8am. Sam used my login id, which I had used to book the coach to KL, to book her trip back. And so I planned to surprise her back by waiting for her at Harbourfront Centre where she will alight.

Then last night, she called me to tell me that she is coming back afterall. Her confession was because I tested her by saying that I was planning to take leave today since she was coming back but I cancelled it because she said she wasn't gonna come back. To think that she already told WC to arrange to meet me for dinner tonight and not turn up in the end so that she can surprise me. This is what an old trick that has been used countless times. In the end, I told her about my plan.

Lesson learnt: Sam is not very good at surprising people and too lazy to carry out her own plan.

So, I was gonna leave my house at about 1230pm to pick her up. Then I received a phonecall from her. She told me that she was detained at the Msia custom 'cos she overstayed by one day. I was in shock. I thought she had made sure that she came back before the 30 days. She told me that she thought she can stay in Msia for 30 days and come back on the 31st day. I could tell that it was a lame excuse because which person will think that way. I knew that she made a mistake in counting the 30 days. After putting down the phone with her, I thought that she was trying to surprise me. Her last futile attempt. However, I didn't think that she will kid about such issues. So I called up Aeroline to check if they had a passenger detained, then they confirmed it and I hurriedly called up Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get some help. In the end, Sam paid a fine of 100rm and she took the next Aeroline bus to Harbourfront.

Lesson learnt: Sam cannot count from 1 to 30 because she only has 10 fingers and 10 toes. Either that or Sam's level of intelligence has dropped to the level of Msians.

Perhaps like what WC said when he called me to arrange dinner and I told him about the whole thing, I quote him "well, Sam wu3 xim1 la but no brains."

Day 6

I was slightly woken up when the alarm went off at 5am. Sam had to get ready for work. My bus was only gonna leave at 10am so I didn't have to wake till 830am. Whatever happened between 5am to 830am was a blur to me as I was either unconscious or barely half awake.

Sam got up to get ready and all. I continued sleeping. The night before I told myself that I'll get up when she does and accompany her till she left then I'll continue sleeping. Now I truly understand what the phrase 'the mind is willing but the flesh is weak' means. I was unable to wake up at all, except on a few occassions.

While I was sleeping, suddenly somebody shouted at me. I got a shock and was woken up for that split second. Then I realised Sam was on the phone with the driver to check what time he was coming to fetch her. So I went back to sleep. I really had a shock man.

The next moment I got up, I thought Sam left already. Then I was like oh shit. Luckily, I saw from the reflection in the mirror that she was in the toilet. Phew, so I went back to sleep.

Then the next moment, Sam was sitting right beside me. If you watched Money No Enough 2, yeah it was abit like when the mother sat beside the sleeping Mark Lee in one of the scenes. Luckily Sam was not senile nor was she unable to find her orh sek eh micky mouse lai sar.

I was woken by my alarm. Woke up and realised that oh man it was 830am. Lol. I failed to wake up to accompany Sam. =P

So I started packing my stuff and washed up and got ready to leave. Wah lan eh the feeling is kan sad. Its like those drama/movie that you see.. the dude wakes up to find that his wife packed all her stuff and left the house with the kids that kinda feeling.

Yep, so this is the end of my adventure in KL. Hope you guys have enjoyed it!

Day 5

Sam went to work before noon. I was kinda disappointed that the astro channel on my hotel tv wasn't gonna show the badminton women's singles finals between lao char bor Zhang Ning and "Beauty" Xie Xing Fang (dubbed by the Chinese media).

Thus, I stumbled downstairs in search of live telecast of the match. And I found one almost immediately at T.G.I.Fridays. However, I wasn't really in the mood for western food. So I walked around somemore and found a place serving oriental food plus they were showing the match. The best thing is they had some Olympic set meal. Something thats like a claypot rice plus ice coffee for 8.80rm. Shiok shiok la.

So apparently quite alot of people had gathered there for lunch to watch the match. I finally got to hear Malaysian Chinese speak. And its ultimate funny la. No matter young or old, male or female, they speak the same way.


watch this funny clip to see how msia chinese speak.


After lunch I went to the pool to chill for abit. Soon it started getting cloudy so I went up. Then after that I went to walk around the shopping malls. They were pretty crowded cos it was a Saturday. I ended up drinking English Breakfast Tea Latte at Coffeebean and reading my book.

Sam finally finished work at about 7pm. We went to eat horrible teppanyaki. My worst meal during my trip. Super sucky la. Luckily we had Baskin Robbins, yet again, to make up for the horrible dinner. Sam had work at 6am the next day so we retreated to our room to watch olympics, pack our stuff cos we were checking out the next day, and rest.

My trip was coming to an end. =(

Day 4

This was the morning which I refused to wake up for breakfast. Everyday eat same food can die one lor. So we woke up abit later and went for Hometown Coffee's Kaya Toast set. I had the Space Bun set though. Its the latest craze in coffee shops.

The weather was pretty good so we went to chill at the pool. Sam the pig kept sleeping. I tanned abit, read a few chapters from a book that I had borrowed from the Bt Merah library, and then attempted to swim. Gosh the water was really murky la. Wear goggles also cannot see shit. I told Sam that the water was murky but she insisted its due to the color of the swimming pool walls. I really doubt so.


the kids' pool


the adult's pool

Remember I mentioned that Sam said we were supposed to stay 3 nights in the normal room and 2 nights in the club room? Well, Day 4 was the day for the switch. So we packed our stuff and all, then the bellboy delivered our new keys. Bloody hell, the room we were switching to is just the room opposite ours. There was no need to pack la. So we went to check out our new club room. We were like wtf. The new club room is smaller than our normal room?!?! We were pretty angst so we went all the way down to the reception. Sam was gonna scold the receptionist and tell her that if thats the case, we rather stay in our old room and give the new & more expensive room to the next guest. I guess we were walking towards the reception with black faces so the girl was abit shocked. Sam asked her if our stay covers both the normal room and the club room. The girl meekly replied, "Yes madam. Your new room is the normal room. The old one was the club room."

At this point I wanted to strangle the ditzy doodle idiot. At Day 1 she told me we are staying 3 nights in the normal room and the remaining 2 nights in the club room. We burst out laughing at our stupidity for wanting to confront them and hurriedly ran up to our room.


the club studio - thats the sliding door to the balcony


the normal room - no balcony only got window

We had our second welcome drink cos we changed rooms. After that, we went for lunch at I-cannot-rem-where. Lol. Sam had work that evening. So we went back to the hotel after lunch. She was supposed to read her stuff while I watch tv or nap. I dozed off and woke up to find her taking a nap too. I really think she can sleep 20hrs a day. The remaining 4hrs are for eating, shitting, and showering. But at least I had some peace la otherwise she keeps talking non-stop when she is awake.


our second round of welcome drinks

When she went for work in the evening, I was watching Badminton semis. Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei vs Korea's Lee Hyunil. When Lee CW scored the last 2 points to win the match, I could hear people shouting from downstairs. My gosh, the Malaysians are like how supportive of their athlete. I wondered if the same thing happened in Spore when the women's table tennis team qualified for the finals. Speaking of table tennis, I really need to talk about our dear Ah Gu from the women's table tennis team. Think I'll blog about her in a separate post much later.

I went to dabao Macs from downstairs for dinner. Msia's macs the fries really sucked. But their burger is still ok. I watched TV all the way till it was almost 10. Decided to go buy donuts cos I was abit greedy and I wasn't sure what time Sam will be back and she might be hungry. I bought Big Apple donuts. Its really nice! Almost the same as those Donut Factory in Spore. 6 donuts cost me 11.50rm nia. Not sure if it is cheaper than Spore. But sibe shiok la. And I secretly bought Baskin Robbins for myself. Sam later found the cone wrapper in our room's dustbin though.

Poor Sam came back close to midnight. I was freaking bored staying in the room and I was craving for bubble tea. So we went to the Ming Ge Can Ting, again, below our hotel. See I really meant it when I said there's everything in the area I stayed. After ordering our drinks and food, Sam filled in the song request sheet and was gonna pass it to the waitress. And then the two singers stood up and said thanks all for the support and goodnight. WAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. That was superbly funny.

A few tables diagonally from us, there was this couple who were engaged in a heated discussion. The guy was the only one speaking, and he was speaking in cantonese. I don't really much understand alot of cantonese. The guy talk and talk, like explaining something to the girl, while the girl just sat there with her arms crossed. Then the guy held up three fingers and said 'blah blah blah ngor zhong yi lei blah blah blah'. Then he pointed to his handphone and ask the girl to look at it. But the girl looked away then he started dialling some numbers and held the phone at his ear.

Sam looked totally lost so I, with a bit of creativity, told her the story. My version that is. I told her the girl heard rumours that the guy cheated on her. Then the guy was saying no thats not true i can swear that you're the one i love. Then he prob said hey look i can call the girl you're talking about and you can ask her yourself. Then he pretended to press the buttons and put the phone to his ears then he pretended it was dialling then after that he told the girl 'eh she never answer.' Sam was pretty impressed and she thought I got shun4 feng1 er plus I understand canto. Lol.

Thats the end of the day. Stay tuned for Day 5 - my last full day in Royale Bintang Damansara.

Day 3

This was the second consecutive day that Sam had no work. By now, my memory is already abit clouded. Oh wait. We thought Sam had to work 'cos the driver was supposed to pick her up at 2pm. Around noon, while we were bumming at a nearby shopping centre, she received a call saying that she didn't have to go to work. Happily, we went to 1 Utama to eat BarBQ. Its some Thai restaurant that serves special steamboat. Forgot to take a picture. But you can find this Thai restaurant at MBK in Bangkok. Nice food.

After lunch, I was deliberating whether to go for Thai massage at 1 Utama. But it costs 75rm can. Sam was deliberating whether to go for manicure. She wanted to find one that costs less than 30rm. Cheapo. In the end, we decided to head back to our hotel for spa.

The highlight of the day was our spa session at the hotel spa. They had this special promotion for hotel guests. 98rm++ for a spa package. Coffee scrub, aromatherapy massage, and ginger tea. It was not say fantastic la, but it was cheap. Oh we swam for 30mins in the swimming pool before that to kill time. I forgot that the swimming trunks beneath my board shorts was still wet and I sat down at the sofa near the spa reception. When we got up to go for the spa, there was a big wet patch on their fabric sofa. So malu.

After spa we had a yummy dinner at a cha can ting near our hotel. Then I introduced Sam to sinful Baskin Robbins chocolate flavour ice cream! Now she's a fan of it too. Well done me. Oh by the way we had lunch at Marche on Day 2. I kinda forgot. Haha.


i'm sucha fan i eat 2 at one go


the newest fan of Baskin Robbins Chocolate flavour ice cream

On and off we caught quite a bit of Olympic action. Sam is damn funny when she watches sports. Especially badminton and boxing. Especially boxing. When the commentator was introducing one of the boxers, he said "XXX is going up against the favourite tonight!" And Sam thought he said that the XXX is the favourite. So I managed to trick her into betting who will win. I, of course, took the favourite. She took the super underdog. It was a crushing defeat for the underdog. Sam, as usual, did not honour her bet. Pui.

Stay tuned for day 4..

P.S. Pardon my bad memory.

Day 2

Woke up at 930am for breakfast at the hotel. I don't really dig hotel breakfasts 'cos its always the same ol' same ol'. Somehow Sam loves it. I think its due to the fact that at the place where they put her up, she eats biscuits n eggs for breakfast, cup noodles n eggs for lunch, and cup noodles n eggs for dinner. Nothing spectacular to talk about the breakfast. Only thing I noted was that the staff were super lazy. They rather stand around and chit chat with one another instead of serving the guests.

So after breakfast was my favourite post-bfast nap. Woke up again and left the hotel at noon for lunch. Had kopi at the Hometown Coffee downstairs. Perhaps you have heard of Oldtown Coffee. I guess its a rivalry thing like our Ya Kun vs Toast Box. Dunno whats up also la, in KL they like to serve white coffee which is actually not white.


inspired-by-kopi look


us at Hometown Coffee

We proceeded to walk around the Curve, which is the shopping mall below my hotel. Then we took a cab to 1 Utama, yet another shopping centre. From there we took a cab to Pavilion which is in the KL city centre vicinity. The cab ride cost 20rm excluding a 1rm toll because we had to take the highway. Shows how far I stayed from KLCC. Pavilion was nice. I think our Paragon is trying to copy that but WC strongly denies it. Then we walked around the area and stumbled at a LRT station. We wanted to go Sungei Wang. I had a feeling it should be within walking distance from Pavilion but Sam didn't think so. I thought the town planners of KL will have planned their shopping area just like our Orchard Road. So probably Pavilion to Sungei Wang should be like walking from Paragon to Far East, at least thats what I imagined. Sam totally thinks that KL doesn't have proper town planning and all. She doubted that they have a URA in Malaysia.



the two sides of Pavilion's main entrace. do check back this post after Paragon's facelift is done.

So here's the joke of the day. Sam went to ask the LRT information counter dude how to get to Sungei Wang by train - which station to alight at. The dude had a bewildered look on his face. I knew something was amiss. He was confirm amm-cheoing when he pointed at the building right behind us, prob about 10 metres away from where we were standing. We both burst out laughing at our stupidity.

Sungei Wang wasn't that spectacular. There were just shops n shops n it was crowded. We left shortly and walked to Times Square. See, KL does have town planning. The shopping area is indeed like that of Orchard Rd, just like what I pictured in my mind. Times Square was where I stayed the other time when I went up to KL with my study buddies. We walked around abit, hurriedly ate dinner there, instead of searching for the famous ampang yong tau foo, cos it was almost 7pm and getting dark and KL really seem dangerous.


hurriedly trying to finish my Oldtown White Coffee and Nasi Lemak


I think Sam was having a headache or sth. Dunno simi pose lai eh.

We got back to our hotel at about 9 and went to buy tickets for a movie at Cineleisure Damansara. It is owned by Cathay by the way. Just like our Orchard Cineleisure. I wonder who copied who. We caught Wall.E at 1130pm. The movie was really good, you guys should go watch it too. There's now a soft-toy of Wall.E in my car and Sam has a soft-toy of Eve. They are how cute la.


this scene is so sweet

Stay tuned for Day 3..

And so here I am back in depressing Singapore.

Day 1

I boarded the Aeroline bus at Harbourfront Center after work. Strongly recommend this bus that goes to various parts of Malaysia. Non-stop journey except for a 20-min toilet break, which happened to be the highlight of my journey on the road. Watched a Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson movie on board the bus and they even served chicken rice (half a normal portion) for dinner.

I finally reached 1 Utama shopping centre at about 1130pm. No cabs in sight to go to my hotel. When I finally found a row of waiting cabs, they were the touts. I was offered 15rm to go to my hotel which is pretty near. I said no thanks and walked away. The dude asked me how much I can offer and I was generous enough to offer 10rm. He said ok and off we went to find Sam! The actual taxi fare should be 5rm. Not a bad deal that I manage to cut. Luckily I took a negotiation module in my final sem in school.

My hotel was good. Royale Bintang Damansara. There's another Royale Bintang KL. I figured I wasn't exactly in KL but nearer to Selangor. I went to the reception and ask them to put me through to room 08-14. The bloody idiot at the desk told me there's no such room. I was like wtf. Then he asked for the name of the guest who had checked in. So I told them. And then the dude was like 'eureka! ms sam tan is in room 814.' KNNBCCB. 0814 and 814. You tell me the diff la.

Finally I met Sam. The room was fantastic. Sam told me that we will be staying 3 days in their normal room and the last 2 days in their club room. So I was pretty amazed by their normal room. Balcony, big bathroom, LCD TV and all. Shiok.

So after unpacking, the adventurous me decided to check out the streets below. Wow I was maciam staying at Robertson Quay la. There was The Curve which is a shopping mall with branded stuff, Cineleisure Damansara which needless to say is a cineplex, Ikea, and another shopping mall. The streets were lined with F&B outlets from pubs to restaurants to cafes. Being on foreign soil, I decided to go to a pub to get some Spore comfort food - Tiger beer. And my goodness, either I was too nervous about meeting Sam after quite some time or due to the fact that I was drinking on a pretty empty stomach, I puked much later on back in the hotel room. It was simply hilarious.

Ok thats all for now. Stay tune for Day Two.

In another 10 hours or so, I'll be on my way to KL. Gonna be there till Sunday. Short-lived joy but oh wells..

I'm holding on your rope, got me ten feet off the ground

This post is dedicated to Sam who is a fan of 'The Adventures of Ping and Pong' on 987FM.

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Pong: Hi Ping!

Ping: Hi Pong!

Pong: Pingggggg, why are you holding a ruler to sleep?

Ping: Because I want to measure how long I sleep!
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4 more days!

9 more days. =(


No Air

Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air

If I should die before I wake
It's 'cause you took my breath away
Losing you is like living in a world with no air

I'm here alone, didn't wanna leave
My heart won't move, it's incomplete
Wish there was a way that I can make you understand

But how do you expect me
to live alone with just me
'Cause my world revolves around you
It's so hard for me to breathe

Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air
Can't live, can't breathe with no air
It's how I feel whenever you ain't there
It's no air, no air
Got me out here in the water so deep
Tell me how you gonna be without me
If you ain't here, I just can't breathe
It's no air, no air

I walked, I ran, I jumped, I flew
Right off the ground to float to you
There's no gravity to hold me down for real

But somehow I'm still alive inside
You took my breath, but I survived
I don't know how, but I don't even care

So how do you expect me
to live alone with just me
'Cause my world revolves around you
It's so hard for me to breathe

Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air
Can't live, can't breathe with no air
It's how I feel whenever you ain't there
It's no air, no air
Got me out here in the water so deep
Tell me how you gonna be without me
If you ain't here, I just can't breathe
It's no air, no air