Events

Things to do in Western Australia

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Perth skyline

I have a lot of high school friends studying in Perth when I was doing my university in Melbourne.
During one of the Easter long weekends, a bunch of us decided to fly to Western Australia. The journey was quite epic but that’s a story for another time.

pinaccles

Well, we had so much fun in Perth that we actually stayed a week and skipped all the lectures and tutorials back in Victoria. I had resigned myself to convince some of the more academically minded friends to stay on and miss a week’s worth of classes, but they really didn’t need much convincing. It was a lot of fun!

nightlife

Totally worth it. 🙂

surfing

Fun Fact: Perth has the longest sunshine hours of any other capital city in Australia!

Perth

The Greenhouse

You can enjoy the extra hours of daylight by lounging in one of the chic cafes that has been sprouting around the CBD area. The Greenhouse is one of the funkiest restaurants in town with food and wine winning rave reviews. I’ll love to check out this place!

Shopping on King Street

Shop at King’s Street – the home of labels like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co and other high end designer houses. It’s also the perfect place to take a “I was here” photo.

Helvetica

You can relax and unwind with a drink at the very chic Helvetica after all that. Hitting all the designer bars can be a huge task, but do not be daunted, and go forth with a stout heart. 😉

Fremantle

Fremantle

Just a 30- minute drive away from Perth lies the quaint port of Fremantle. Don’t forget to eat at Cicerello’s Fish and Chips – it has a great commanding view of the Fremantle’s famous harbor and I’m telling you, you haven’t been to Perth if you haven’t eaten at Cicerello’s. It was one of the main reasons we went there – to see what the fuss is all about and we weren’t disappointed!

Wash down all that with some of the amber brew at the Little Creatures boutique microbrewery…

Fremantle buskers

…and walk off all those calories by browsing through the stalls at the 100-year-old Fremantle Markets and watching buskers (street performers) in action. Plan your trip to coincide with Friday to Sunday though coz that’s when the markets open.

Swan Valley

Duckstein Brewery in Swan Valley

Where’s the first place a couple of college kids head to the moment they’re in Perth? Swan Valley! It has FOUR microbreweries for those who love their beer. If you’re partial to vino, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s the oldest wine producing area in Western Australia too!

Henley Park Wines

Go for a vineyard tour with wine tastings to experience the best Swan Valley has to offer.

Rottnest Island

Cycling on Rottnest

This car-free island is the perfect getaway from the city! There are pristine beaches and bays and it’s just a short high speed ferry ride from Perth.

Rottnest

You can also experience the local wildlife after a long day of swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing at the beaches.

Rottnest Island quokkas

There’s something for everyone who loves the great outdoors – I strongly suggest you go sea kayaking. Powering over the surf can be a very rewarding experience! BTW, that’s a quokka you see in the foreground. What’s a quokka? It’s a marsupial like kangaroos and wallabies, except they’re around the size of a domestic cat. It’s mainly found in the smaller islands off Western Australia, especially Rottnest Island.

South West / Margaret River

bottleneck dolphins

Ah…the experiences you can take home in this region are unparalleled. There’s the Dolphin Discovery Center in Bunbury where you can interact with bottle nose dolphins.

Busselton Jetty

Stroll down the 145-year-old Busselton Jetty or ride the train to the end of the jetty and descend 8 meters below sea level to see the marine life right in front of your eyes.

Valley of Giants

Walk 40 meters above the ground amidst 400 year old trees along the Valley of Giants Treetop Walk!

jewel cave

Follow that up by going *down* down under with the trio of amazing caves – Lake, Mammoth and Jewel.

Coral Coast

Adrenaline junkies, adventure lovers and seekers of the weird and wonderful features of nature rejoice! For thou have reached the Eden of all that you have dreamt of.

The Pinnacles

The Pinnacles is an amazing natural formation that would strike wonder into your hearts. It certainly did the first time I went there. Definitely a must visit.

Get up close and personal with wild dolphins at Ningaloo Reef! It doesn’t get much better than this.

Sandboarding at Lancelin

Marvel at the sand dunes at Lancelin…and then sandboard down! It’s certainly one for the bucket list for all adrenaline seekers.

Upcoming Events

Sculpture by the Sea

Sculpture by the Sea, Cottlesloe
1-19 March
Cottlesloe Beach, Perth

This beach will be transformed into a stunning sculpture park with more than 70 artists, both local and international. Best of all? It’s free!

Sculptures by the beach

Margaret River Wine Region Festival
13-16 April
Margaret River

This five day celebration of wine, food, art, music and lifestyle is a festival featuring events from Augusta to Busselton. It’s a street fiesta that no self-respecting foodie would miss!

Truffle Kerfuffle
16 June
Manjimup

This festival celebrates the wonderful gourmet item known, loved and treasured throughout the world – black truffles! There will everything from cooking classes to truffle hunts and if you’re looking for something just a little bit different from the standard tour offerings – THIS IS IT! 🙂

The Natural Bridge

Hungry and raring to go to Perth? Purchase a package at MATTA Travel Fair from 16-18 March and receive an “Extraordinary Deals” booklet worth up to AUD 2,000 in savings and a Western Australian gift pack!

Suspended table Lake

There is just too much awesomeness going on in Western Australia at any given time that it’s impossible to list everything down. Surf over to westernaustralia.com for more information, links and start planning your itinerary!

The Friendliest Day of the Year

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March 17th

I hear it’s being touted as the Friendliest Day of the Year.

people

It’s one of the few holidays that break out from the country of origin (Ireland, in this case) to metamorphosis from obscurity to become something more…something global, something truly epic!

eat play love

It’s St. Patrick’s Day!

st pat 2010

I go every single year. Guinness has held the biggest St Patrick’s Day parties for two years running in Malaysia. I was at the 2010 celebrations in 1Utama.

st pat 2011

I also went to the 2011 street party at Changkat Bukit Bintang where they have all the awesome street performers and even awesomer (spell check just warned me about this word with the red squiggly line) launch with the jugglers and huge motorcycle parade.

I couldn’t get a good shot at the actual event with everyone jostling around but here’s what it looks like – that’s from the preview event and is almost exactly the same. 😀

dancing

It is always a day full of fun, friendship and laughter.

Fun Fact:
A popular Irish toast on St Patrick’s Day is “May the roof above never fall in, and may we as friends beneath it never fall out”.

performers

This year sees a return of the celebrations to Changkat Bukit Bintang! There will be a month full of celebrations starting right about now. Remember when I said March 17th is going to be known as the Friendliest Day of the Year?

Well, there’s this obscure, little book that you might have heard of. It’s called the Guinness Book of World Records. 😉

friendliest day of the year

This is the real thing, the authoritative tome that people refer to when a feat or record is in doubt. It’s no local wannabe, if you’re in it, you know you’ve done something worth writing down for posterity in the entire known world.

parade

Guinness is attempting to set a new Guinness World Record for the Friendliest Day of the Year by getting 1 million people to pledge online at www.facebook.com/guinnessmalaysia and www.stpatricks.com.my to get into the book. Just click on COUNT ME IN to make it happen! 🙂

st pat 2012

I’m telling you, it’ll be the best fun you ever had. The crowd is always nice and there’s fun and laughter. Get ready for the pure awesomeness that is the main St Patrick’s Day street party:

Date: Saturday (17th March)
Venue: Changkat Bukit Bintang
Time: 6 pm onwards

street performers

There’s even going to be a busker dressed like a court jester. What more can you ask for? 😀

Get more information on the various other parties and promotions being held at www.facebook.com/guinnessmalaysia.

Walking Like a Dream

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walking like a dream

I always get reminded of my trip to Bali to visit Tanah Lot when I listen to the song. The vocals evoke an emotional response that elevates it from a mere song to something a lot more. Walking Like a Dream is the latest Yuna single – it is groundbreaking in a lot of ways.

yuna sms

I wrote a post about Yuna creating music history by having the first online concert in Malaysia. Well, I was one of the 10,000 who got the SMS invite and I logged on to watch her perform.

yuna media session

It was amazing. There was actually a media event at twentyone.tables+terrace in bsc but I elected to use my home connection to watch it.

yuna new single

In hindsight, I wished I had gone to the media session – for one, the screen is much bigger than my notebook and I bet the sound system is more awesome too.

yuna live

Nevertheless, I had an awesome time watching Yuna perform her new single…

yuna music video

…and after a campaign to get the public to star in the music video via Hotlink Yuna Music Booths nationwide (it was in a lot of cities and towns around Malaysia) the final production is complete!

Her single (which was untitled at the time) was also done the same way – the winning entry (crowd sourcing FTW) turned out to be Walking Like a Dream.

yuna single

It really is a great song, I’m loading it into my iPad when I travel to Thailand. I bet it’ll be amazing to listen to it by the beach in Phuket!

tanah lot

You can listen to the awesomeness that is Walking Like a Dream by surfing over to www.nowyoucan.my/yuna – the music video is also there and if you’re a Hotlink or Maxis user, you can download the single from Music Unlimited and listen to it wherever you go. 🙂

It’s a mellow and chill song that’s perfect for anything from beach vacations to stressful drives during rush hour.

Supermarket trolley skating

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supermarket trolley skating

You can get up to all sorts of fun in a supermarket while doing your weekend grocery shopping. Supermarket trolley skating is one of them. It really makes getting around the large hypermarket a lot easier. The only problem is, it’s hard to get locomotion (unless you’re wearing stilts) and the security guards tend to tell you to stop. 😉

…but look at how fun it is!

push

You wait for an initial push (or you can do it yourself before climbing aboard)

shopping

Navigate the aisles for healthy nourishment (usually instant noodles for me) and then…

checkout

Slowly cruise to the checkout!

(Sword not included)

It got me thinking about how you can go supermarket trolley surfing without:

  • Getting stopped numerous times by the security guards
  • Having proper forward momentum
  • In a relatively safe environment (where you won’t break stuff and run into little kids)

meditation

…and after 3 seconds of meditation, I got the answer.

road curves inclines

I’ll use a Ford Ranger to tow the shopping cart. This would be done in a private cordoned off road which has curves and steep inclines – you can surf down *and* up fast with the towing capacity of more than 3 tonnes. There you go – all three problems solved! 🙂

shopping cart

The Malaysia Ranger Challenge is a simple contest where you can write, photograph or film a short entry about how you’ll put the All-New Ford Ranger to the ultimate test. A team of professionals will help you realize the challenge if you’re one of the finalists and you just might be one of the first in Malaysia to own one!

supermarket trolley surfing

Surf on over to The Malaysia Ranger Challenge to get more details. You can also find them on Twitter and Facebook. BTW, that really was my entry. 😀

Happy Chinese New Year 2012 everyone!

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10:30 am

firecrackers for chinese new year

Setting out the fireworks and firecrackers for tonight to dry out in the afternoon sun for the last time. Yes, this actually has a logical basis behind it. I’ll explain some other time. Heh.

3:00 pm

Went to see Ah Beng The Movie – a Malaysian production. It’s a Chinese New Year movie, wanted to catch one before the reunion dinner later. Anyway, the ticketing counter wrote Cineplex 2 on the stub and we waited until 3:10 pm and finally went to ask at the counter if the movie’s starting.

It turns out it was at Cineplex 3. The person made a mistake. I complained and the person at the counter gave us RM 7 tickets instead of RM 9 – got RM 2 each back and got the RM 7 “movie night” tickets instead. I was pissed off coz I hate missing the start of movies but that’s the best they could do. Oh well, that’s Sibu for you.

It’s CNY eve so it was good to catch a CNY movie. 🙂

5:45 pm

I’m about to head out for the extended family reunion dinner. I’m bringing some Chinese firecrackers along, it’s a tradition to let it off before the dinner. I can hear my neighbors already – the sound of firecrackers going off is almost unbroken, everyone starts burning the long Chinese fireworks before the CNY eve dinner.

My dad filmed me playing with this old skool traditional triangle shaped fireworks. It’s called Judas Belt in the Philippines when it’s in a long string, but we get single ones over here – the Chinese name translates to “triangle firecrackers”. I do not recommend you play with firecrackers like I do, I’m actually pretty blase about these things coz I’ve been letting them off for as long as I can remember.

The video is actually quite funny, you can hear my dad’s commentary. Heh.

6:30 pm

cny reunion 2012

The Chinese New Year eve reunion dinner! This is my grandma. I really like her. She’s one of those people that’s cheerful and jovial against all odds. Always love spending time with her when I’m back.

We’re Heng Huas and one cultural thing about the CNY eve dinner is that we don’t eat rice. We eat longevity noodles tossed with lard. It’s not the Foochow type where you eat it in soup – that’s actually totally not cool with Heng Huas coz eating soup during the reunion dinner is supposed to make it rain.

heng hua noodles

Heng Huas eat dry longevity noodles tossed with lard and some deep fried shallots for the reunion dinner. I love the stuff, it’s very flavorful and tastes good with the dishes. That’s one of my favorite on the plate – braised pork with fatt choy (it’s a type of bacteria, seriously).

I’ll keep on adding stuff until tonight!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! 😀

A policeman shouts “Stop!” at someone in an airport…

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…what happens next?

Well, usually things like these don’t turn out very well, but in this case it did.

mas flashmob

I was randomly surfing around when I saw a video of a flash mob in KLIA. Dammit, it was on the exact same day I flew back to Sibu from KL for Chinese New Year but my flight was early morning so I totally missed this.

Anyway, this dude walks in with a guitar and one of the policeman on duty runs out and hollers at him to stop.

*cue curious and confused rubberneckers

The guy breaks into song and people started dancing and I realized it was a flash mob.

flashmob mas

However the sheer scale of it surprised me. It comprised about 100 singers and dancers and had scripted events.

It was like a Hindi movie, people were recording and gawking at the performers and it suddenly segued into another song.

It had English songs, Malay songs, Tamil songs, Chinese songs and I found it highly entertaining.

(especially the Hindi movie tribute bit)

smirk

I used to listen to Ah Niu (the local Malaysian singer) – it was one of my ex girlfriends that got me into Chinese music. There was a segment where a group of Chinese tourists came out singing Lang Hua Yu Duo Duo.

mas flashmob finale

It must have taken them a lot of planning – there were MAS cabin attendants joining in at the 200 strong grand finale before everyone dispersed, going their own way.

The original one I saw was a recording a passenger took. The best flash mobs incorporates elements from where you would not expect it – I was surprised to see a bunch of unassuming old ladies waiting outside bursting into song. I finally found the official video for this one, it’s the complete version and the footage is taken from a variety of sources, including the CCTV cameras.

klia flashmob

I know what you’re thinking – flash mobs have been done to death. That’s true, but the sheer quality of this is like watching a musical production – one that incorporates the entire KLIA arrival hall as its stage, with several things happening at once so there’s always something interesting somewhere.

It’s almost like watching an episode of Glee with the Kit Kat Klub as its cast (recognized some of them from the Tapis Rouge launch).

Check it out! 😀

An awesome pork loin dinner at Kim and Gareth’s

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dinner kim

It’s a wonder to see Kim in the kitchen. She’s got everything down pat (even has a system for cleaning up dirty dishes).

kim kitchen

I was there for dinner on Friday, she had a pork loin going in the oven and I puttered around a bit in the kitchen doing nothing particularly useful until she sat me down in front of the awesome 55” TV with a beer in hand.

baked pork loin

Fruit of the loin. The beautiful pork loin with apple sauce. It was marinated for two days!

baked carrot garlic

Baked carrots and garlic. This is awesome! The baked carrots *looks* burnt and dried but it’s actually super juicy and wonderfully sweet. The garlic bursts with flavor too. Very nice.

kim potatos

You say potato I say potatoe.

buttered peas

Peas with slabs of butter.

yorkshire pudding

Yorkshire pudding.

kim dessert

Kim also made this dessert with molasses (?) – it had a bit of a crater in the middle, which I don’t think was supposed to be there but it tasted just fine.

kim dinner

However, the pork loin with apple sauce was the piece de resistance. I really enjoyed hitting that oink. It’s a good cut, nice marbling and tender to boot. The apple sauce does wonders to it.

pork loin

It weighed in at slightly more than 2.3 kg and the six of us (ST, Kim, Lainey, Fresh, Sin Loo and me) finished the entire pork loin. That’s about the equivalent of each of us eating a 400 gram steak…not including the other dishes.

That’s how awesome it was.

Glen Grant 16yo

There was Ben and Jerry’s ice cream brought by Sin Loo and some Hokkaido cakes from Lainey and we spent (well, at least me and ST did) the night drinking Scotch and beer. I got a bottle of Glen Grant 16 year old single malt and thought it would be funny to text Kim while stuck in a jam about bringing a 16 year old but she didn’t get it until several hours after. Picture nicked from ShaolinTiger’s Twitter.

Thanks for having us over Kim and Gareth!

party

It was a fabulous dinner and I totally enjoyed talking about everything from the good ol’ days of rave music to the murder of Canny Ong (I know right, diverse range of topics). We all ended up leaving at 8 am in the morning. This could be a start of a tradition, first time that happened was at Lainey’s birthday – just chilling, drinking and talking till the break of dawn coz that’s how we roll yo. 😉

hb kim

Kim’s a *great* cook. A delicious dinner with awesome company, you just can’t beat that. I had a laughing fit twice that night, can’t remember why but I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time. Then someone said: You know you’re laughing at *yourself* right. It just made it funnier. Fantastic way to spend a Friday night even though I only woke up at 8 pm on Saturday. Totally worth it. smirk

Siri, how long do I have to wait for an iPhone4S?

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queue

Just look at the queue lining up for the iPhone4S!

steph

I’m just glad I’m on the right side of the barrier. Media pass from Steph. 😉

maxis iphone4s

I was at the launch of the iPhone4S by Maxis on the 15th December 2011. The phone is due to be released at the stroke of midnight.

buffet

There was a press conference followed by dinner at the media lounge. Good thing too, haven’t eaten anything the entire day. #storyofmylife

food

I really liked the rice with sprinkles of raisins, bits of meat, veggies and other assorted stuff on top. Oh and if you’re wondering where the smoked salmon went, I ate most of it.

There you go, your burning questions answered. 😉

entertainment

Anyway, I went back out to check on the line and noticed that Maxis had small enclosures to entertain people at various checkpoints. I thought that was an excellent idea!

popcorn

Popcorn machine. Why?

popcorn distribution

They were handing out water and popcorn to the people queuing up for the iPhone4S. Very nice touch, I really liked that. 🙂

counters

Efficient. Counters for payment and collection all set up for the horde.

aud

Aud was there too!

band

We headed to the VIP lounge where there were drinks and performances. The band that was playing was amazing. Hit after hit of cover songs. I want them to play at my wedding.

countdown

Countdown for the iPhone4S launch. I got it at the 1 second point. #champion There were the first 40 people who will be the first in Malaysia to get it and somehow…

first

…we ended up *behind* them and everyone thought we were the lucky 40. There were people cheering at me, taking photos, and giving me high fives.

me gusta

I played along.

violinist

Anyway, Maxis has some great plans for the iPhone4S – you can check it out here. It starts from RM 100 and during the press conference it was mentioned that they have enough units for everyone. Thus, the answer to the post title is – You don’t have to wait.

shin yee

Maxis also has an awesome new iValue plan with the highest combined mobile and WiFi 11 GB data plan for us power users. 😀

Hitting New Year’s Eve 2012 parties

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kit kat klub

Well, this is one holiday which almost everyone celebrates. A start of a brand, spanking new year. The time to make resolutions you’ll break the very next day and all that jazz. smirk

You know, I haven’t had much luck with New Year’s Eve lately. I was on a plane during NYE 2011. Seriously. I was 35,000 feet in the air en route to London. This was the second New Year’s Eve I’ve spent on a plane with dozing fellow passengers as company.

I don’t know about you but that’s not my exactly my idea of an awesome New Year’s Eve.

Anyway, I was at ENCORP Strand a couple of weeks ago for the launch of Tapis Rouge – the new home of the Kit Kat Klub. I was rather impressed with the area – the Red Carpet Avenue seems set to be the latest place to party with the array of prestigious bars, restaurants and entertainment in the area.

encorp strand

Trivia: The Red Carpet is based upon the Golden Ratio divine proportion (look it up, it’s very interesting stuff and can be found all around us in nature) and the inspiration comes from Champ Elysees in Paris.

*cue my favorite band NOFX

Anyway, I’ve been back to Red Carpet Avenue a couple of times since then. I once brought a friend to watch the theater show at Tapis Rouge.

It was pretty good, comes highly recommended to me. I was in love with the production when I first saw it at the launch with Tiara Jacquelina and the old Kit Kat Klub crew.

ENCORP Strand is going to hold an awesome New Year’s Eve countdown at Red Carpet Avenue this year. Instead of getting your car sprayed with foam at Bukit Bintang or getting squashed in Padang Merdeka, I reckon this one would be one of the great NYE parties around.

red carpet encorp strand kota damansara

You remember that episode in the first season of How I Met Your Mother where they had a limo and was rushing to 5 parties to see which one is the best and head there for the countdown?

Well, this one is going to be hard to beat. MYSTICAL EVE 2012 presents:

  • ENCORP Strand building moving, transforming and coming to live in 3D to the beats of music, lighting effects and fireworks – for the first time in Malaysia
  • Laser lights hand-manipulated – bent, stretched and spun before your very eyes by Laser Man
  • Aerialists twirling through space to synchronized music
  • A contortionist pushing the limits of human flexibility
  • Mizz Nina, Pop Shuvit, Joe Flizzow and other local celebrities performing
  • Aurology, Davern & Jee Hoe, DJ Xu spinning the decks and pumping up the music

mystical eve 2012

MYSTICAL EVE 2012 has the theme “Tonight, Extraordinary Works Overtime” and with the lineup of entertainment that they have, I have no doubt that they can deliver. It starts from 6 pm – 2 pm on 31st December 2011 at Red Carpet Avenue, ENCORP Strand. Find out more at the Red Carpet Avenue Facebook page.

Be there and don’t forget Barney’s “Get Psyched” mix during your ride! 🙂

Express Christmas

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express christmas

Have you heard of Express Christmas? No? Well, it’s when you can’t celebrate it on the day itself, so you wing it, gather a bunch of friends and celebrate it in advance.

me

…and that’s just what I did at Sid’s, TTDI.

sids

You can’t have a proper Christmas party without some beer…

drinks

Buckets of Heineken to spread the festive cheer. I figured Heineken would do the trick nicely – it’s a cool and refreshing beer perfect for our climate. It doesn’t exactly snow here so mulled wine and warm eggnog doesn’t provide the same satisfaction.

trick

There’s this trick where you try to blow a distorted cap into the bottle. It can be done, just like that balance-the-coin-on-the-lemon-suspended-in-liquid tipping jar. It’s just close to impossible.

samantha

Samantha tried it.

kim

Kim tried it. Both to no avail.

newlyweds

Oh, speaking of which, say hello to the newly-weds. 🙂

reindeer

Lainey had this reindeer thing on her head. That’s me with the Santa hat…drinking on the job. Rudolph go! 😀

beer jenga

Heineken Jenga. I built this slightly (actually very) unwieldy contraption with a bit of help from everyone.

heineken jenga

Rules: Everyone pulls one bottle and the person who makes it fall drinks. Kids, do not try this at home or at all. 😉

santa

You wanna come sit on Santa’s lap? 😉 I can’t grant you a wish but I do have…er, lollipops to give out. smirk

stupid trick

Kim also pulled this trick on me. It’s really funny, ask her to show you.

group

Christmas is all about good company. I’ll be in Bali for Christmas so I’m glad I got the chance to celebrate my own Express Christmas with my closest friends. 🙂

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