Adios 2012!

I think I have been abandoning my blog again. Haha. I am so sorry as things had got very busy all this while. Anyway, it is the last day of 2012. How was your year? It has been not so bad to me. Of course, good and bad things did happen. We should let the past be the past and focus on the year ahead. It will be a challenging year. I am all-in, looking forward for the arrival of 2013. :D Before that, let me recap my 2012 on this very last holy day. Lol.


First of all, I got myself a smartphone. It was my new year resolution to get one as things will be easier for me. Camera, the Internet etc all in one. So I got myself a Samsung Galaxy Note right after the Chinese New Year. I was very proud of it, until I saw the pink version came out six months after I bought it. o.O And Galaxy Note 2 was released two months after that. What the.... -.-"

After godzilla years, I went to Genting Highlands during the Chinese New Year again, for the Doraemon World event. It was freaking packed, just like how China is. It was even hard to find a place to sit quietly.

Then, my old blog was closed due to the shutdown of the blog domain. I should have chosen Blogspot from the very first place. All my own posts and photos. =.= Anyway, I opened this new blog again and I was hardly maintaining it. Haha. I did not write as much as I used to be. Btw, thanks for still reading this. LOL.

On around April, my old company relocated to Cyberjaya. I drove 70++km a day, to and from the new office. My car was not going to sustain long. So I quit. Lol.

Left that old job after three years of service and accepted the new challenge. New kind of environment with a bunch of new incredible people. So much for me to learn but I strive to excel in this job.

I cut my super long straight hair that I have kept for ten years. It was some ad-hoc mood. I think it was too long and dry. I need a fresh look. Some people called me Chibi Maruko Chan, the Japanese anime character. Now I am trying to keep it long again. Butt itchy.

I developed an affection with dresses. I felt I want to be in dresses so much that I bought sooooo many dresses in one go. Most of them are asymmetric dresses. It all started from the moment I saw a Caucasian girl in a very pretty asymmetric dress. She looked totally awesome. *envy* Haha.

Around September, my Grandma fell ill. I am so glad that I managed to take some time off to fly back to Sabah to visit her. Few weeks after that, she passed away. I flew back again to attend her funeral on a weekend. She had been a great lady, to the family. Hope she is doing well up there. :)

Grandma was not the only one who left us. My hamster that I have been rearing for more than 2 years left me for the Rainbow bridge as well. He was old and ill too. It was a relieve that he did not need to suffer anymore but I truly miss him. My other hamster is of the same age as well. I pray for his good health in the coming year. :)

I have traveled to a few places this year. Quite an accomplishment for me. I took flights until I feel phobia of them now, plus those flights back to Sabah for Grandma. I do not want to take any flight anytime soon. >.<" Right after I left my previous job, I went for a short weekend getaway with my Bestie to Singapore. The last time I was there was 2006. Wow. Met some friends there and had fun in the USS and Marina Bay Sands. Short, rush, tiring but nice trip.

On October, I finally stepped onto the land of Siem Reap after thinking about it since I was in the College. It was a fun trip. I miss the places there. I saw the Angkor Wat and I will be back definitely. I am so glad that I went. :D

Just last week, I went to Beijing/Tianjin with the BF. It was an exhausted trip due to the dumbo AirA*** decided to change the flight route from Tianjin to Beijing. The timing of the flights were so weird that we needed to sleep in the airport. Moreover, due to the super cold weather, I got very ill during the trip. Nevertheless, I visited a lot of places despite my illnesses. Lol. Salute myself.

Not forgetting, I own a Christmas sock for the first time. Thanks to my colleague, Ivy, whom prepared the gift and I got it for the gift exchange session. She is a nice girl. Lol. I like the sock.

I think those are all the highlights happened to me this year. Thanks to those who have treated me well throughout the year. Pray for a happy and healthy year ahead for myself and everyone. Good luck please come to us. Happy New Year! XD

Ante Kitchen & Bar @ Solaris Dutamas

I have been patrolling Publika's area quite often recently, hunting for food. There are a lot of non-franchising cafes and bars around, serving my favourite breakfasts and western foods. :D I Google-d around to find a decent place for celebrating our third year anniversary of paktor-ing. XD Anyway, found this relatively new restaurant located at Solaris Dutamas, at the same row as Pappa Rich called Ante.

Ante~ Sounds like Auntie.

It was very empty as we reached at around 7pm but it was almost fully booked. Fortunately, there were still one or two empty tables left. :D The place was very dim, with yellowish lightning, quite romantic too if minus the customer crowd. Lol~

The empty cafe.

Ante serves mostly western cuisine raging from salad, burgers to steaks. The pricing is quite reasonable with main dishes at around RM30++. They serve pork dishes too! My favourite. :D The pork ribs sound not bad but we did not opt for that. Lol.

Salad~

The BF has a pint of the so-called "Super Dry" (what's that mean?) Asahi (RM26). Tasted watery. o.O First time drinking Asahi, does it taste so bland all the while? :(

Asahi~

Ordered a glass of Apple Juice (RM6) which is obviously not freshly squeezed. -.-"

Bottled Apple Juice.

We had a bowl of Mushroom Soup (RM12) as appetizer. It was creamy enough but was a little cold when served. :( Quite a lot of mushroom chunks but nothing compared to the one we had in The Daily Grind. That was superb. It came with some fried breadcrumbs, which I think was slightly too oily. I would prefer the normal ones, not fried.

Soup, got what soup? (From RK Curry House video.)

We browsed further at the appetizer items and found this interesting, the Cod Crab Mashed (RM18). Although it is called an "appetizer" but it came after the main dishes were served. Not a good idea. =.=" I do not like it as all. It was potato mashed with Cod (I did not find and taste that) and crab meat, then baked with cheese. The BF said it tasted like ordinary mashed potato but it tasted awful to me.

Yucks!

The saviour of the evening was my Char-Grilled Pork Chop (RM33), served in cream sauce with mashed potato and cooked apple (?). The pork chop was grilled to perfection. The meat was very tender and juicy although it was a little bit oily. The pork chop was very thick and I could not finish it by myself. I like this dish. :)

Fattening!

The BF had The Ante Pork Burger ((RM35). Came with pork patty, bacon slice, sliced onions and egg, served with fries. The BF struggled to eat it as it was very thick and the stuffs just got all over. The burger was as tasty too but I still prefer my pork chop. XD

Hello, huge burger.

We did not see any dessert item in the menu. So we headed to elsewhere so that we could complete our three-course dinner. Lol.

Not dessert.

Happy Belated Anniversary to us! :D

We are old! XD

Siem Reap Day 3

It was raining almost for the whole day on our last day at Siem Reap, really from the time we opened our eyes. :( Breakfast at hotel was OK. Since it's complimentary, I have nothing to complain. :D Had cornflakes + muesli + buns + croissant + coffee. Lol~ Typical kiasu here. XD

Yummy breakfast.

Although it was raining, we tried our luck to walk to the Old Market which is located around the pub street too.

The rain got heavier when we almost reached the market. =.=" Nothing much there as it looks like a local market for the Khmer to buy their supplies, like any of our local market. Moreover, it was super pack probably because it was a Sunday.

In the Old Market, scary.

We went to a cafe at the Pub Street to wait for the rain to stop. I think we sat there for one hour and it was still drizzling.

Their fresh spring rolls were disasterous. They put in parsley which I hated the most! >.<

 There was this tuk-tuk driver, aiming at us. He stopped his vehicle right in front of the cafe, waiting for us to leave and he really waited for one hour! o.O He is such a patient fella but too bad we walked back to the hotel. He must be disappointed because he wasted one hour just in hope of earning that USD1. I felt bad~

Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day!

As it was nothing much, we went back to the hotel in the hope that the rain will stop soon. As we wished, it stopped! once we stepped into the hotel. =.=" When we wanted to step out again, it rained. It got very heavy this time that we decided to put on the raincoats. T.T

Luckily I got these useful raincoats last minute at Guardian the day before the trip. :p

We got back to Pub Street for lunch after my afternoon nap. Lol~ Eating some expensive and not-so-nice Khmer food. I prefer the food in Malaysia. :p

Lunch again! o.O

We had earlier booked for the ATV Quad Ride tour with the hotel. Check out their website here. We booked for a 2-hour ride that costed USD55 per person. They provide transportation to and back from their place, around 30 minutes tuk-tuk ride from the hotel.


Once reached their place, the owner started to brief us immediately on how to ride the ATV and some dos and don'ts. Each of us had a guide with us to go for a short round, to test if we are okay to ride the vehicle alone. Too bad, I was too chicken that the guide refused to let me alone. >.<"

Nice scenery, muddy roads.

It was not that bad to have someone to ride with me. At least the guide could chit chat with me in those two hours and he was very friendly. Additionally, he could tell me about some information about the places.

Me and the guide. He was carrying my pink backpack. XD

We went around the countryside, seeing mostly paddy fields. Very beautiful and peaceful green scenery. People still use buffaloes instead of machines to farm, so you can see buffaloes everywhere at the village.

Thinking of a way to pass through these buffaloes.

It rained all the while when we took the ride. We chose to ride in the afternoon the hope to see sunset at the rice fields but we already expected we would not be able to see it due to the weather. By 5pm, the sky was very dark and the rain got heavier and heavier than we needed to stop at a side to wear raincoats prepared by the guide.

See the dark sky?

It got too heavy at a point that we lost our moods to snap photos. All we wanted to do is to get back to their office as soon as possible because it was getting colder. T.T The roads were too muddy that my pants were all wet (due to the rain) and dirty. To me, the ride was really worth it and it will be perfect if it was not raining. A new experience to both of us. :)

Not bad huh? :D

It was just nice at 7:30pm when we finished cleaning ourselves up after the adventurous ride, time for dinner! We walked to the Pub Street again (I do not know how many times we went there but there was the only place where we could find expensive decent food). I already decided earlier to eat some exotic meat BBQs at a restaurant called Cambodian BBQ.

Easily found in the Pub Street.

The place was so packed. It provides some weird meats like the snake, crocodile, kangaroo (wtf?!), ostrich as well as some common ones. We ordered set which include pork, beef, squid, chicken, snake and crocodile, and topped them up with frog legs and fish. Both of the crocodile and snake meats were very chewy, I no like it. >.<"

Snakeeee~~~

And please be noted that after the session, you will smell like BBQ meat yourself too. =.=" I smelled like BBQ panther when I boarded the plane the next day as I wore back the same pants.

Us, the BBQ meat. -.-"

The hotel provided us transportation back to the airport the next morning. It was really a nice trip if it wasn't raining that much. Nice people and beautiful places. I think I will probably be returning some other time during the dyer season. :)

Our Air Asia's Expedia flight.

Siem Reap Day 2

On Day 2, we ditched the tour guide and planned to go by ourselves since no one was listening to him. FHL. Rejuvenated after a good sleep. We started our day at 8am with the hotel's complimentary breakfast~ XD


We hired a tuk-tuk from the hotel for half a day for our tour to the Angkor Wat at USD10. The tuk-tuk would then send us to the places we want to go and wait for us at the attraction. He will then send us back to the hotel. We reached the fortress of the Angkor Wat at around 9:30am. It rained the night before so the weather was slightly cooler but yet the sun was still burning. It was lesser people than I expected and the main entrance of the Angkor Wat was closed for some construction. So we entered using a side entrance. T.T

At the fortress. Windy~

The place was majestic. I was touched as I have been wanting to see the temple for a long time. Moreover, I kept wondering how those people back then built these temples. It was so tall and full of carvings. The best part was that I wondered how they climbed up the staircase? It looks so scary. Did the princesses wear heels ar? If yes, how they use those scary staircases ar? Lol~ I think I would have crawled up and rolled down instead. XD

I iz touched~~ T.T

After spending more than an hour to feel the place (Lol~), we left for Ta Phrohm. It was located deeper inside the park. From Angkor Wat, we had to pass by Angkor Thom and rode another 15 minutes to get there. It was far more crowded there than in Angkor Wat. The road was packed with tuk-tuk and tourist buses that our tuk-tuk driver suggested that we walked in. Since it rained in the morning, the place was super muddy and dirty. (Yucks!)

A lot of people in TaProhm! >.<"

Ta Prohm is famous as the place where Tomb Raider was filmed. It has been built back in thr 12th century as a monastery and university. It was left pretty much the same as it was found. (Credit to Wikipedia again~ XD) The uniqueness of this place is that the trees were left grown out of the temple ruins. It would have been a superb place if there were lesser people and no rain. Too much tourists there that my mood for photographing was slightly spoiled. :( Btw, we got lost inside and we couldn't find our way out. >.<"

Tree on some ruins.

The tuk-tuk driver wanted to bring us to those ceramic making places to suck our money and kept asking if we have any plans. We told him to send us back to the hotel so that we could have some rests and also our lunch. He looked not happy though. Lol~ So we took a bath and went to the nearby for some not-so-nice lunch. LOL. Then we went back to the hotel and rested again, waiting for the time for our massage!


The receptionist at the massage place has a sour face. The massage was not that good, she focused on pressing onto the part below my pelvic bone which made my legs super numbed. =.=" She wrongly recognized me as a Japanese and told me all sorts of Japanese words. -.-"

After masaji! XD

We went back to the room for a nap after the massage. I have been sleeping a lot during the trip. Lol~ The first trip that I slept so much, the bed was very nice. haha. We headed to Pub Street for dinner after rejuvenated. XD We thought of getting the tuk-tuk since it was drizzling but the fella offered it with USD2, so we walked there. Lol. USD2? Kiss my a**~ It was within walking distance. Pub Street is just a short street with some dark alleys filled with pubs and restaurants, like our Changkat Bukit Bintang. It the place where most tourists will hang out at night la.

The Pub Street~

Had our dinner at The Red Piano which Angelina Jolie visited. Right at the corner of the street, a cozy place and it serves Khmer and Western food. It was still quite empty at around 7:30pm.

Cozy place. :D

Although we do not normally drink alcohol. We ordered the Tomb Raider cocktail just because of the name. It was a mixture of Cointreau, lime juice and tonic. Just like an ordinary lime juice. :P

Hello, Lara Croft.

I had their Green Pepper Beef Rice which was ok. I like capsicums~~ :D The portion was very huge and it came with two piles of rice. Weird presentation. XD

The dish is meant for 2 person they mean? But I finished them all by myself.

After eating we walked over to the night market which is located just across the main road. We bought some souvenirs there. We wanted to walk longer but it started to drizzle, so we headed back to the hotel early. :( We missed out some souvenirs.

Night market signage everywhere.

We found Hello Kitty Cambodia shop at the night market. We did not buy anything there and we wanted to return on the following night but it was closed at 10++pm. Night market is closed at night? Lol. They have cute t-shirt with Hello Kitty riding on tuk-tuk and some Hello Kitty in durian costume. Too bad~~~ T.T

Hello Kitty in Angkor Wat~ XD