Year: 2004

Annah Rais hot spring

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annah rais hot spring

This is Annah Rais hot spring in Kuching. Please be warned that the
“Hot Spring” sign is pointing the wrong way. The correct route is not
straight through, as the sign would lead you to believe, but on the
turning to the left into Kampung Annah Rais. It’s the third bridge
after you make the turning, there’s no other signage to indicate that
there’s a hot spring here.

annah rais trail

It’s one of the best kept secrets here…not many people actually
know about this place. We had a hell of a time finding it too, we
aborted the trip last Saturday due to other commitments, but we were
dead set to find the damn hot spring this Sunday. The picture above
shows the trail that leads there…there is no parking, basically you
just park beside the road and walk down that unmarked route.

annah rais parking

You shall behold this sight when you reach the actual hot spring:

annah rais party

It’s a running river that seems cold, until the party that was just
leaving informed us that the “hot spring” is a little nook opposite the
river. There’s the obligatory Caucasian in the photo – he’s from
Amsterdam and he came with the group of tourists.

annah rais river

This is the view of the running river. It’s quite shallow and has a
moderate current which would carry you downstream if you float on the
water – very nice. Here’s a photo of the actual hot spring pool:

annah rais hot springs

It’s basically a warm nook by the river surrounded by rocks. The
water and sand is truly hot, as I unfortunately found out when my
gonads came into contact with the hot spring. There are some places
where it’s extremely hot and there are bubbles and a smell of sulfur
permeating the area.

annah rais sand

It’s fun to dig up the sand and see the contrasting colors of the
rocks. It gets hotter when you dig deeper. There are some parts which
are visibly bubbling in the hot spring:

annah rais bubbles

We thought it’ll be nice to bring some eggs and bury it into the hot
spring sand and eat it later, but we forgot to bring eggs.
Nevertheless, it’s nice to soak in the hot spring and then switch to
drifting afloat in the cold river while blissfully sedated. Highly
recommended, it’s about 70+ km from Kuching. Here are some other shots
from that day:

annah rais leg
OMG, the goo has got my leg!

annah rais me
Please do not attempt this unless you want to decrease your chances of producing offspring.

annah rais ming
Ah Ming

annah rais miriam
Miriam

annah rais lung
Ah Lung

Faham? Awas! (Understand? Beware!)

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lung toilet awas

I saw this classic toilet sign at a washroom facility in a row of
shophouses. It was apparently handwritten to dissuade wayward
proprietors (shared toilet) and their customers from changing the state
of the toilet to an unacceptably filthy level. This is what it says in
English:

Keep this toilet clean
If we find it dirty…we will…take the necessary measures ok…
Understand…beware.

It didn’t seem to strike the fear of God into the hearts of the urgent though, because this is what I saw:

lung toilet floater

It even had a floater in it…there’s a log of human excretion to the left, which is visible if you squint a bit.

Peppermint Fusion Cafe

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peppermint fusion cafe

Peppermint Fusion Cafe is an eating establishment offering Oriental
and Continental cuisine. They have a wide range of offerings on their
menu. Here’s a shot of the interior:

peppermint interior

The establishment seems to attract a wide range of clientele, the ones which we noticed:

1. One mother and son. The mother was trying to get her son to study
and was admonishing him in a rather voluminous manner about the
mistakes he made in his most recent test. The mother in question
apparently found the test results unsatisfactory for a child of her
caliber.

2. One group of females comprising of about 7-8 women in their late
20’s. They were talking about some trivial thing in Hokkien. The
conversation sounded inane…

3. One couple. They were apparently executive level white collar
folks, talking about their respective lines of work. I just realized
something – the major races of Malaysia was represented in that very
moment in Peppermint Fusion Cafe. The mother and son patrons were
Indian. The females were Chinese, and the couple is Malay!

That went way off tangent, my apologies, there is elevated of CHT
(ass backwards) activity right now. Here’s another photo of the
interior for you to have some idea of what the ambience of the place is
like:

peppermint decor

Back to the food, here’s what I ordered for the drink.

peppermint_tea.jpg
Peppermint Tea RM 1.50

I figured it was appropriate, considering the name of the eatery. This is what our starter was:

peppermints_garden_salad.jpg
Peppermint’s Garden Salad RM 4.50

We shared this, though I admit, I don’t really like vegetables and I
wasn’t exactly hungry right then. It does have a nice peppering
of…er, pepper on the garden salad, which lends it a rather nice tang.

This is what my dining companion had:

black pepper sliced beef rice
Black Pepper Sliced Beef Rice RM 4.50

She commented that it tasted nice but was a little too salty. I had
a bite of that, but did not find it salty. It should be noted that I
like salty stuff, so only the hardiest of salts (or would that be
saltiest of salts) will get my seal of approval, and this one gets my
nod of approval, which is different from a seal. 😉 It is salty enough
to taste nice to me, but I wouldn’t say it was too salty.

This is what I had:

grilled nz lamb shoulder
Grilled N.Z. Lamb Shoulder RM 11.50

I asked the waitress what their specialty is and she pointed this
one out. It should be noted that this is the most expensive item on
their menu. Heh. All jokes aside, I found it pretty nice, as did my
dining companion. It was tender all along and raw in the right parts
and I love that game flavor. It just had a hint of that though.

peppermint cafe

Peppermint Cafe is located along Ban Hock Road in Kuching.

The missing doctor shopping episode

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docshopkch2

This is Doctor Shopping #2 Kuching Edition aka The Missing Episode.
Yes, this is a filler post coz I’m very busy today, so it’ll be a short
one. You may have heard me mentioning about this weekly refill before.
It’s:

docshopkch2c
2 mg clonazepam (Rivotril) in the mornings.

docshopkch2l
2 x 1 mg lorazepam (Ativan) at night.

Thus, I’m getting 2 mg clonazepam (Roche branded) and 2 x 1 mg (2
mg) lorazepam (generic Lorans) daily from this doctor. You can see that
I’ve actually dipped into the clonazepam stash before taking the
photos, my apologies, sometimes there are emergencies and clonazepam is
my favorite high availability benzodiazepine with alprazolam running a
very close second. I’m actually not allowed to write about doctor
shopping anymore, due to orders from my significant other, but this is
the missing episode so that’s the end of it.

I’m busy today so all comments will be replied tomorrow. Your patience is appreciated and thanks for visiting sixthseal.com. 😉

Earthquake, Kuching

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earthquake kuching

This is Earthquake in Kuching, affectionately dubbed E-quake. It’s
marketed as a pub and bistro but it’s more like a club atmosphere. We
went here after Denise.

equake
Feel the earth quake!

equake dancer

There are dancers on poles (hired by management) but the music is
not very conducive for chemicals, it caters mostly to the ethanol
clientele so we didn’t stay long. We dropped by coz one of my friends
knows the owner. It’s a nice place though, if you like this kind of
ambience. The place was packed!

equake dj

equake1

equake2

It also seems to have a reputation for having the best looking
chicks (substitute with non-offensive and politically correct term for
young females) in Kuching. Here are the photos, my apologies about the
quality, I wasn’t exactly sober at this point…hell, I wasn’t sober
the whole day…

Saturday is Substance Day! 😉

Denise – The Wine Shop

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denise wine shop

This is Denise, the wine shop in Kuching where there’s a relatively
large selection of wines and a nice ambient atmosphere for drinking. We
went there after the (mis)adventure on Saturday evening. Some other
friends joined us, and we sat there on Saturday night for a while
before going to Earthquake. Here’s a couple of shots of the wine
selection:

denise1

denise2

denise3

denise4

There are wines to suit every taste and budget, with premium selections as well.

denise interior

This is the interior where there are cigars, snacks and comfy seats
for people to sit around and enjoy their wine. We had some Italian
Cabernet Sauvignon which I promptly forgot the name of. The place is
nice, you can even reserve your seats, go out and have supper and then
come back again.

denise wine bucket

Here’s the wine bucket.

denise us

This is some of us, my apologies, I forgot to take photos of everyone.

I saw a table where there was a group of people openly displaying
and consuming Ecstasy pills with their wine before going clubbing:

denise ecstasy

The audacity! 😉 It distracts from the nice clientele this establishment wants to attract.

Hot springs! Hot spring? Hot tires!

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borneo hl

Our adventure to the only (?) hot springs in Kuching began at
approximately 15:30. It was an on the spot decision to go and off we
went to Borneo Highlands (which was the original destination).
Unfortunately, we were told that we needed tickets, which can only be
bought in Kuching town, which is 29 km or so away from where we are.

hotsprings

This was on Saturday afternoon, and I remember vaguely seeing
something about hot springs some 2 km away, so we decided to go for
that instead. With a lot of guesses, intuition, outright trial and
error and 15 mg of Xanax, alcohol and hydroponics produce, we managed
to get our asses pretty fucking lost.

indon link

We took a wrong turn that cost us 1 whole hour under less than
optimal road conditions (think steep inclines, mud and gravel single
lanes). We turned back and noticed that the Hot Spring sign was
pointing right instead of left. Duh. Off we went again, and this road
was way more complex then the last.

piling bridge

There was thrown together pilings as bridges (with one piling missing in the middle).

piling bridge right

piling bridge left

piling bridge far left

There were fucking rotten wood bridges. We didn’t know where we
ended up but we knew that the fuel was running low and according to my
calculations, we used up more gas coming here, so I was thinking we
wouldn’t be going back to Kuching tonight.

pitcher plants

I was actually looking forward to going to spend the night at a
longhouse and drink some tuak and all that. 🙂 There were no cellular
lines (we all carry different mobile operator SIM cards, there just
isn’t any coverage there) so we couldn’t very well attempt to call
friends for gas rescue.

wrong sign

Thus, at one last wrong turn, as it was getting dark, we decided to
leave, on account of the low fuel. I thought it would have been a real
adventure to spend the night in a longhouse with the locals, but alas,
we had plans for that night as well (next two posts will be about the
night part of Saturday night). Thus we tried to drive back (well
everyone except me, since all the three substances together does not a
good driver make).

muddy incline

I said tried. There was this steep incline and we were in a van and
we simply could not get the better of the hill. The wheels were caked
with mud. There was no friction. It kept stopping at some point near
the top of the incline. There were many, many attempts and all three of
us (including Miriam) had to push the van to give it more traction. No
go.

muddy clothes

Look at the tire burn on the rocks.

tire burn 1

tire burn 2

I imagine a lot of tire material was lost to this hill.

tire burn 3

There was even smoke coming out while revving the engine in order to try and fucking own this hill.

tire smoke

All seemed lost until we remembered something Ah Boon had said last
time. Same situation, they used a back weight to compensate for the
traction required to overcome such gnarly situations.

backweight trick

Here’s passing along the advice: Get everyone except the driver to
sit at the back, the back most part of the vehicle. Worked like a
charm. There were at least 10 aborted attempts to get past this
obstacle, but with this backweight (us three), we went over in the
first try and it was onwards, ho!

salam van ahoy

We drove back to the place with the piling bridge, and not satisfied
at not being able to play around in hot springs, we went for this cold
running water instead.

cold spring 1

cold spring 2

It was clean and used for drinking water at the village downstream.

drinking water

It felt cool, but it was dark (nightfall already, spent several hours on the road) so we headed home after a few minutes.

the adventurers

Thus ends our adventure.

We shall try again next Saturday. No hot springs will be the best of us, no sir!

My dear daughter Natalie

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This is the first photo I’ve ever shown of my daughter Natalie, aged
10. I’ve never admitted to having a daughter, but I have an urge to
inform you all about my wonderful daughter. I had a hormone fuelled
transgression when I was at the tender age of 13, and I feel obliged to
post about the consequences of the said transgression – my beautiful
daughter.

natalie ha
Like father, like daughter. Does she look like me?

Okay, so she’s not my daughter. 🙂 Now be honest, who actually fell
for it? Anyway, she’s Natalie Ha Siaw Ching of St. Theresa. She’s in
Primary 5 and is 10 going to 11 this year. She’s the daughter of one of
my coworkers, Lynette. Her mother brought her and her brother into the
office on Saturday morning because there was no one to babysit them.

I found out that she wants to be an author and one of the first
thing she did when she came in is to ask for a pencil and a piece of
paper to write an essay (!). How many 10 year olds have you met
like that? She likes reading too and is very intelligent, which reminds
me of myself when I was young.

This is the original copy of the essay that she wrote. She gave it
to me because she doesn’t keep her work. Here’s a scanned version of
Natalie Ha’s work, handwritten by the future author:

natalie essay

It would be noteworthy to mention that all the events she wrote
about are real. Her parents brought her up candidly, telling her
everything and being open about everything. My coworker (her mom) told
me about these events before I knew Natalie and it was touching and
nice to read her essay (which she completed in a couple of minutes). It
would do well to go back and re-read that piece now that you know
everything she wrote about is real.

Anyway, if you can’t read the scanned image, here’s the transcript:

Seafood at Petanak, Kuching

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petanak central market

This is Petanak Central Market. We went there for seafood last
night. Petanak is another option for Top Spot (?) in the city for
seafood. This place is more down to earth.

petanak 99

We sat at table 99. There was me, Ah Boon, Ah Lung, Miriam and Ah Ann joined us for a while.

poh fah seafood

We ate at Poh Fah Seafood. It had my surname on it. 😉 Stall 38.

petanak garlic

Here’s a must for every seafood meal. Raw garlic. Mmm…

petanak chicken

This is the first dish that came out. I think it’s chicken, comprised exclusively of drumsticks.

petanak fried rice

We all had fried rice (goes well with seafood) except Ah Boon (he had steamed rice).

petanak cockles

This is the next dish – cockles. It’s those shells that goes into halves once cooked. It was nice.

petanak us eating

Here is a blurry photo the proprietor took of us. Beer goes well with seafood too.

petanak seafood

This is some tofu dish. Tasted surprisingly nice when you have the munchies. I had two.

petanak oyster pancake

Here is the classic of all seafood meals here – oyster pancake. It’s
crunchy and nice, with oysters in the middle. Best dish of the meal
disregarding the chicken, which should be discarded since it’s not
seafood per se.

petanak cat

Here’s a skinny stray small cute kitten that I found. I swear I
wasn’t holding onto her by force. She liked me, and stayed under my
chair for the rest of the meal. I like her too, very cute and small and
furry.

Accident: Car fell into drain

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petanak accident

This is a photo I took of one of many accidents in Kuching last
night due to the less than optimal weather. It was raining cats and
dogs and I wasn’t sober as usual, so like I said, I’m the last choice
for the designated driver always. 😉 Ah Lung was driving and I was in
the car with him and Miriam when we saw this accident. He was kind
enough to turn back and let me get a snapshot of this. It’s a white car
going into a drain with a crane trying to extract the car from the mess
it got itself into. The front part was rather damaged. The photo
quality isn’t optimal due to lighting conditions (dark) and atmospheric
issues (heavy rain).

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