I’m blogging from one of the net access centers at the C terminal at
KLIA which costs RM 1 per minute. Yes, I’m going back to Melbourne
already. 🙁 Unfortunately, I get to spend my New Years Eve on a plane.
Anyway, I’m pretty bummed about all of this coz I had hoped for a 3 or
4 month holiday in Sibu. I knew it wasn’t possible though coz I still
have to do my Industrial Experience and I’m taking a summer course in 6
days. Oh well, too bad, coz I had wanted to spend more time in Sibu.
Now I can’t even spend Chinese New Year in Sibu! I had heaps of fun
during my one month break though. Anyway, I didn’t get to blog
yesterday because my hard disk decided to die on me so I couldn’t use
my computer at all. Have a happy new year everyone…
Month: December 2002
Pop Pop
Anyone remember these things? I came across a box today and had fun
reliving my childhood. I remember playing with these when I was 5 or 6
years old, that was all I was allowed to have during Chinese New Year.
I think I only got to play with the big firecrackers and fireworks when
I reached Primary 4.
Wherever I May Roam…
Something happened this afternoon at about 3 pm in Jalan Channel in
front of the market. I don’t know exactly what, but there were a lot of
gawkers staring as paramedics pushed someone into the ambulance. As I
stopped to take a photo, a swarm (swarm = about 10 policemen on 5
motorbikes) of policemen descended upon my illegally parked car and
made “move along now, nothing to see here” gestures so I had to leave.
It’s probably an accident, but if it’s anything more interesting, it
would make the papers tomorrow anyway.
Tasik Biru
I went to this lake yesterday but didn’t have time to write it up
until today. It’s this natural (that’s what I heard) lake a couple of
minutes down the road from the Sibu Hospital. There aren’t any signs
pointing to this lake and it seems to be a word of mouth thing. You
have to turn down an unmarked dirt road until you pass a wooden house
and the lake is to the right of the house. It’s the only house down
that dirt road, so you won’t miss it. The lake looks greenish to me
(Tasik Hijau?) but it really is quite pretty and peaceful.
There are a lot of interesting formations near the lake, and several
hills made of clay. I went with a couple of friends and we just sat on
a hill overlooking the lake, singing songs as loud as we could. Nice
place to go to if you want to just chill out or something.
Christmas Present!
I got a belated Christmas present from my girlfriend today. 🙂 It’s a box of Ferrero Rocher and a card.
Shoo
My poor, worn out shoes. I’ve been wearing this pair almost
exclusively ever since I went to Melbourne (about two years ago) and
sadly, it appears to be reaching the end of it’s lifespan. A
significant chuck of my left shoe decided to detach itself from the
main sole as I was playing snooker today. Less than 10 minutes later,
the detached part completely fell off. Fortunately, there is still a
thin sole underneath so I wasn’t exactly walking with just my socks.
Still…it’s high time to go shopping for a new pair of shoes. This one
has served me well, I had walked many, many kilometers with this pair.
Goodbye, orange sneakers and take care.
Rantau Panjang, haircuts and Lan Lan
Rantau Panjang. A place 30 minutes from Sibu with a river, a row of
long houses beside the river, driftwood accumulating on the river bank
and erm…and that’s basically it. What is there to see there? Nothing
basically, but there is a wooden bridge leading to a hut where there
are seats and I hear watching the sun set over there is pretty good. I
went there this evening with a couple of friends to just chill out and
talk for a while.
Anyway, I got my haircut tonight at Alan’s Hair Salon (the branch at
Pulau Babi) and it’s a pretty good place actually. They even have a
courtesy cup of tea for you (complete with a top to avoid hair falling
in, no less) and a haircut only comes to RM 10 so that’s pretty good
value for money. After the haircut, we had a late supper at the Sibu
Jaya food court (I didn’t even know there was one there) and then went
to the Sibu airport for a while to use the toilet. The next itinerary
was the hospital where we saw a couple of guys in very bad shape
(visible cuts with congealed blood and all) being stretchered out by an
overworked warden who had to push a guy in a wheelchair with one hand
and pull a guy on a stretcher with another. I also saw a lot of people
setting out rattan mattresses and sleeping on the floors of the
hospital. State funded hospitals are depressing. I had a very bizarre
day though, what a range of places we went to.
“Carry On”
Heh. My friend told me an anecdote about what happened to him last
night. The time was 2 am, and there he was, making out with his
girlfriend in her car at the abandoned old Sibu airport opposite the
Stadium. That is one of the three most popular make out spots in Sibu.
The other two are Bukit Aup and the Stadium carpark. Anyway, the thing
that happened was: In the middle of their make out session, his
girlfriend noticed someone or something outside the car. The scenario
at this point: He was kissing and hugging his girlfriend, with both the
front car seats down and he was on top of her. I don’t know why he felt
compelled to provide me with all these details, but oh well. Anyway,
his girlfriend stopped suddenly and said there was someone outside the
car and he/she has been there for quite a while. My friend and his
girlfriend then sat up and immediately, the guy outside shined a
flashlight into the car and motioned for them to roll down the windows.
The guy outside didn’t introduce himself and just asked my friend for
hic I.C. (Identity Card – everyone in Malaysia has one).
My friend asked the guy outside whether he was a policeman and asked
to see some ID coz he didn’t look like a policeman with a casual jacket
and no uniform. The guy outside replied with “tengok kereta itu” which
translates to “look at the car behind you”. Sure enough, there was a
authentic police car there, sirens and yellow stripes and big white
POLIS fonts stenciled to both sides. Anyway, my friend produced his
I.C. and the policeman squinted at it for a while and asked for his
girlfriend’s I.C. The policeman squinted at it for another second and
passed both the I.C.s back and said “Carry On”. Hahaha! I laughed
myself to tears when he told me that story. I would have thought that
it would violate some law to make out in a parked car at an abandoned
airport. Disturbing the peace or something, but apparently there is no
such law in Malaysia. It’s funny that the police car sneaked up upon
them without him realizing. Apparently, policemen frequent these spots
coz he said he saw the same police car pulling in again as they left
soon afterwards. Oh man. The funniest thing was what he said the
policeman had said – “Carry On” (in English no less!). Heh. I’m still
laughing as I type this…it soooo funny for some reason. Carry on
indeed. LOL.
Christmas Eve 2002
<p>My night out started with a bang so to speak. I headed out at around
8 pm with Johnny, Ting Chuan and Christopher in search of something to
eat. As we were nearing town, we saw this big plume of smoke near the
town center. We headed over to investigate and was caught in a terrible
traffic jam that took us damn near an hour to get out of. There was a
big fire at Tong Sang Road and there was a lot of gawkers and the
police blocked off one stretch of road, resulting in the traffic jam.
Actually a traffic jam doesn’t do the situation justice, a better word
would be gridlock. I didn’t get near enough to get a good photo, this
is the best one I could get:</p>
<p><img alt=”xmasfire.jpg” src=”http://www.sixthseal.com/archive/December2002/xmasfire.jpg” border=”0″ height=”225″ width=”300″></p>
<p>The final toll was 20 houses burned down in the blaze, they were all
wooden so the fire spread fast and hard. The papers said 180 people
were left homeless by this. What bad luck to have this happen on
Christmas Eve.</p>
<p>Anyway, we headed to McDonalds after that for our Christmas Eve
dinner coz it was pretty late by that time already. I had Bubur Ikan
McD, a coke float and a toffee sundae. This is my Christmas Dinner:</p>
<p><img alt=”xmasdinr.jpg” src=”http://www.sixthseal.com/archive/December2002/xmasdinr.jpg” border=”0″ height=”225″ width=”300″></p>
<p>Grand, ain’t it? 😉 We went to 1 Q after that to play a couple of
games of snooker and then Christopher had to go home so we sent him
home and we arranged to meet Thai Ling, Alan and Ku Ling at Liquid
where Diana and the rest are. Unfortunately, the tickets were all sold
out and they couldn’t let any more people in coz the place was full. We
then decided to go to the Paramount disco (Happy Valley) instead coz it
was closer and the countdown was about to start. I saw my cousin there,
apparently he’s now working in the Paramount kitchen. I also saw Wan
Wen and her friend. We met Chew Yieng (her dad is one of the major
shareholders of Paramount) inside the disco and she bought us all a
round of brandy. I had a couple of beers too and we stayed there until
well past midnight. There was this old guy on the dance floor who was
really going hard out. Heh. Everyone cheered for him, you go dude!</p>
<p><img alt=”xmasgrp.jpg” src=”http://www.sixthseal.com/archive/December2002/xmasgrp.jpg” border=”0″ height=”225″ width=”300″><br>
<i>Part of the original group</i></p>
<p>Anyway, we headed to Pool House after that, but the ambience was not
really conducive to a Christmas Eve party (they were singing karaoke
there), so we headed over to Liquid again and found out that the crowd
has thinned out a bit so we went in. We met Diana and I also saw Jane,
who was there with her group of friends. The music there was pretty
good and I met a lot of people who I used to know but have since lost
touch with. There also was this girl who was dancing and offered
everyone her glass of water. Thanks! That was great for ambience. It
made things more like an MDMA-fuelled rave. 🙂 Alan or Thai Ling
(forgot who) bought us another round of drinks and we stayed there till
the venue slowly emptied. </p>
<p>The rest of the guys wanted to head home, and I had another bunch of
friends who were at Heaven and I thought about joining them, but it was
late at that time and so we decided to call it a night. We had a late
supper at Taman Selera (it was still open) and then headed home. All in
all, it was a great night. Good friends, alcohol and the festive season
goes nicely together. 🙂 Merry Christmas!</p>
Pill review – Orange AK47s
Pill Review: Orange AK47 circa December 2002
Availability: Malaysia
Pill color: Light orange with white blotches
Pill appearance: AK47 imprinted on one side/raised dome on the other side
Beveled?: Beveled edge on the dome side/none on the imprinted side
Other: Seems to be a nicely pressed pill, packed tightly
Price: RM 45
Substance: Not tested (I don’t have reagents here)
Probable substance: Ketamine
Forgive the poor quality of the side and back shots. It’s very time
consuming to get sharp close-up pictures without a scanner, so I only
bothered with the front (imprinted side) coz that’s where the detail is
anyway.
Front view – has “AK47” imprinted
Side view – kinda looks like a bullet with its dome on one side
Back view – has a dome with a beveled edge
Trip report:
I crunched up the pill at 10:20 pm before heading to a Christmas Eve
countdown party with a couple of friends. The pill was only slightly
bitter with a strange salty undertang that made me retch more than a
couple of times. Ugh. I had a light meal about two hours ago and didn’t
feel the pill until about 45 minutes later. I didn’t even feel it
particularly strongly, I was still feeling slightly tired then. I
didn’t really feel speeded up, but had enhanced confidence and didn’t
feel like talking. I supplemented the pill with some alcohol and felt
really good after that. Danced for long time but didn’t feel
particularly speeded up (got tired easily) and by the end of the night
felt rather exhausted but I still danced anyway. It might have been a
bunk pill (had good company and alcohol so I would have had fun anyway)
or a weak ketamine pill. Another thing worthy of note is that I could
sleep about 6 hours after I dropped, so this is definitely not
(meth)amphetamines. The sleep was fitful, but restful. Sounds like a
contradiction, but it’s not. 🙂 By the way, this pill was sold as a
“can sleep pill” (usually ketamine) as opposed to a “cannot sleep pill”
(amphetamines). Is it worth the money? I paid RM 45 (RM 40 – RM 50
seems to be standard for single pills around my part of town) for it so
I don’t think so. If it was a strong speed pill like the legendary green apples
(ching ping guo) circa 1997 it would have been worth it. I would not
have chosen a ketamine pill for a big night out. Had I know it was
ketamine, I would have insufflated (snorted) it for better returns.
Nevertheless, I had a great night anyway – the company of good friends
and a great party atmosphere, and that’s all that counts right? Merry
Christmas everyone.
