I feel like shit today…I think two days straight of hard clubbing will do that to you. 😉
I’m scattered as fuck right now, so I can’t make any coherent posts today. I can’t even think straight.
Oh, and I think I lost my bra…
No shit.
Ketamine experience report and video
Ketamine is a drug that I’ve used on numerous
occasions but never have really written a trip report about since I
consider it a “regular use” drug. However, I do have various trip
reports (personal) and videos shot while I was snorting or injecting
ketamine and I decided it was high time (no pun intended) to put up the
latest one. 😉
I have obtained 2 grams of ketamine crystals earlier this week and decided to go for an introspective k-hole trip
by insufflating the entire packet of ketamine (which cost me RM 450 – k
is not cheap over here). This is the best batch of ketamine (in powder
form) I’ve ever had the pleasure of sampling, though I’ve had access to
liquid pharmaceutical ketamine for IM injections before.
The majority of ketamine users insufflate (snort) the crystals
instead of using a syringe to IM the liquid form of ketamine and
despite certain preconceptions, it IS possible to k-hole by
insufflating ketamine crystals of suitable purity if it’s done in
excessive amounts over a very short period of time (Extreme Ketamine
;)).
It is not as intense as the K-hole achieved through IM injections
but it is comparable (and it’s all too easy to give yourself a line
dose while injecting ketamine as I once did, which rendered me
effectively anesthetized). The ketamine I obtained this week was
sourced from JB and the purity of the ketamine crystals are one of the
best I’ve seen in Malaysia (and even Australia, to be honest).
Download: Video of me snorting ketamine [sixthseal.com]
My cell phone went off while I was insufflating ketamine with a RM
50 dollar bill, and I muttered something about it being the perfect
time to call. 😉
The ketamine experience:
The ketamine experience can be summed up in one word – confusing. I
personally like to call it konfusing as in “k is konfusing” but it’s a
great experience. Ketamine is an NMDA antagonist, which makes it different from other drugs. PCP (Angel’s Dust) and DXM are two other drugs that belong to this exclusive group of NMDA antagonists.
NMDA antagonists are similar to psychedelic drugs (e.g. LSD, magic
mushrooms) in a sense, though purists would argue with this.
Practically, these are REAL mind-altering drugs with hallucinogenic
potential unlike methamphetamine or heroin which just changes the state
of mind e.g. accelerated thought processes in the former and
comfortable dopamine release in the latter.
It’s more similar to what a non drug user would think “drugs” are – ketamine and the likes are mind-altering drugs instead of mind-state change drugs.
Ketamine, like all NMDA antagonists has “plateaus” which gives
different experiences according to the dosage – a low dosage would give
CNS inebriating effects while a large dose will give full blown
hallucinations and profound out of body experiences.
The amount of ketamine I snorted (2 grams of relatively pure
ketamine crystals) was sufficient to bring me into a k-hole, a term
ketamine users use to describe an intense trip characteristic of
ketamine. It’s an amazing mind altering experience where sense of time,
temporal space, and all other “reality grips” are TOTALLY lost.
Ketamine Trip Report:
One recurring “trip theme” I have when I take large doses on ketamine is existentialism or more accurately, human consciousness.
I insufflated about 2 grams of ketamine and I found myself in a
profoundly altered state – everything slows down and familiar shapes
become unfamiliar. I could not talk or move much – I tried standing up,
and promptly sat down again.
The thought processes goes into a completely unfamiliar loop which
can be frightening for first time ketamine users (or those who haven’t
experienced a k-hole). The vision starts to become tunnel-like, walls
and other textures flows and occasionally RGB colors gets infused into
the wall. Closed eye hallucinations are extremely strong and hard to
ignore, as is open eye hallucinations at this point.
I felt like a long, long time has past and I started thinking about
the meaning of life, and one recurring theme is that someone (a divine
being) starts to reveal the secrets of the universe to me – that
“reality”, as we know it, DOES NOT EXIST and even I
(as a person, and my consciousness) does not exist and ketamine is the
substance that “broke me free” from the illusion of “reality” (or life)
as we know it.
I start to see the world as it really was – that we’re just an
insignificant part of a larger life form (divine being?) e.g. I am just
one of the stomach elements in a large being and my job is just to push
the food as it comes through to the next “person” (which is the next
stomach segment) and that’s all I do (reflecting the world’s monotonous
work life).
I can aspire to “break free” of my current “existence” while I’m
tripping on ketamine (always in the same ketamine trip theme) by sheer
force of will. I can go through a scary, hair-raising “transformation”
into one of the Superior Beings (where existence as we know it is only a part of their bodily function) and become a deity, a God, if you will.
The scariest part about this “transformation” (and I always opt to
do it) is that I will have to die in this life in order to make the
leap to become a Superior Being. I start thinking (vaguely) about my
life, my loved ones, and overcome the feelings of fear of death
(I would have no qualms taking my own life at this point, and I
frequently think about doing that if it can expedite my transformation
into the “real world” if I end my life in our current reality
time-space).
…and there is always a repetitive ringing, reverberating sound as
I make my “transformation” to break free from “reality” as we know it
and I start to become one deity in a great chain of deities and my
transformation will continue for all eternity by aspiring to become a
Greater Deity (either by going through a scary out of body, death-like
extreme ketamine trip) or some other greater methods in that spiritual
realm.
There’s a vivid sense of “spiralling” into this new world and I do
not “exist” in this realm, as in I do NOT have a physical body, but my
consciousness is there, and everything that exists in this realm i.e.
“the real world” is just spritual beings and I am one of them and I can
communicate with the others, not through words, but some form of
telepathy. I have a “world” that’s mine, a space where only I exist and
I can see the other lower “worlds” (or realms) and even the higher ones.
I usually can just see the next higher realm above me in great
detail (the even higher realms after that are fuzzy) and that’s where I
will travel. I am able to occasionally “float up” from my current realm
and look from a God-like perspective into the other realms. I glimpse
through the “worlds” (it’s all in a long, long chain) and I see that
the “realm chain” is eternal – it’s infinate.
It’s a long way to go after “breaking free” in this world and
joining the enlightened spiritual realm and the neverending trip to
work my way up to become greater and greater deities and I am exposed
to great vistas and wonders that are never available in this world
though hallucinations (the hallucinations on ketamine are vivid, you
actually experience it in every sense – tactile, sound, sight) in each
transformation I go through in the process to reach Nirvana.
It’s a long journey, and it’s a scary one, but I do it every time.
…and then the trip ends. Ketamine lasts 1-2 hours in the intense
k-hole trip and then tapers off to sobriety at about the 4 hour point.
It’s a great drug. I love ketamine – every trip is always
enlightening. It’s very intense and can be scary during the k-hole, but
if you overcome your fear of death, it will be a great teacher to you.
Guinness Stout Shake / Float Recipe (Stout with ice cream concoction)
The Guinness (or any other brand of stout) Shake (or Float) is a
delicious concoction made with stout (the dark beer) and ice cream.
It’s preferable to use vanilla ice-cream in this recipe as a flavored
ice cream adds an undesirable taste to the resulting drink, though
experimentation is encouraged.
There are various recipes for making a Guinness Stout Shake
and this one is a quick and dirty method of banging out a fast one
within minutes with ingredients that are readily available in your
kitchen (that is, if you keep beer in your fridge). 😉
1. Stout (the dark beer)
Guinness Stout is my preferred stout of choice but Panther Superior Strength Extra Super Stout is a hyperbolic, but acceptable substitute as well. It’s cheaper than Guinness and I love the brewery’s name – Bali Hai. Heh!
2. Ice cream (vanilla)
It’s always a good idea to use premium ice cream (with an
appropriately high fat content and a correlating rich texture) instead
of quasi ice cream, but sometimes, we just have to improvise. 😉 This
is Wall’s Paddle Pop “ice cream”. I just used the vanilla portion of
the dual flavor ice cream in the container instead of the chocolate
side.
3. Mug (or a suitable receptacle)
Purists would want to utilize the traditional glass used to serve a
perfect pint of Guinness Stout, but I think mugs are more practical for
this concoction. Since I don’t have either, I used a saucepan instead.
Improvise! 😉
This receptacle is where you put in the ice cream.
The next step is to open up the can of stout and pour the liquid
slowly into the receptacle with the ice cream in it. The stout will
start to foam as soon as it comes into contact with the ice cream. It
takes about a minute or so for the ice cream to fully dissolve and an
optional step at this point is to agitate the mixture to expedite the
catalyst.
Once the Guinness Stout Shake / Float is ready, pour the mixture
into a suitable drinking receptacle or just drink it straight from the
saucepan. It has a dark roasted coffee stout flavor tempered by the
sweet vanilla ice cream which creates wonderfully complex taste
textures complemented with a great aftertaste.
Enjoy! 🙂
Note: It is important to put in the ice cream
BEFORE the stout to control the catalyst of fizzing and foaming during
the mixing of the Guinness Stout float. It would be unwise to put ice
cream INTO a stout beverage, unless you want uncontrollable foaming to
occur.
Technically, this means that it’s a Guinness Stout shake and not a Guinness Stout float, but that’s arguing semantics. :p
Purple Yam
This vivid purple yam is a tuber plant has a rough and dark colored
exterior and a purple interior. It’s requires proper cooking (like most
wild yams) to detoxify the plant and make it edible, but other than
that macabre bit of information, it tastes really good – fibrous and
starchy texture, with a slightly sweet aftertaste.
I’m told that people used to eat this to supplement their diet during the famine but personally, it tastes alright to me. 🙂
Louisa’s 24th @ Country Cafe, Sibu
Country Cafe Music Restaurant is an old high school
hangout that will always have a place in my heart. I used to go there
with my buddies when I was in Form Five and just hang out and try the
ever-changing huge menu that they had. It was nostalgic…
I brought my girlfriend there last night and the familiar interior
greeted me, bringing back a rush of high school memories.
Unfortunately, although the interior looks pretty much the same (with
some renovations) the menu wasn’t…the place has undergone new
management and the menu that has us spoilt for choice has been trimmed
down into less than a couple of items…
I ordered a wine cooler (had another one later during the meal to
toast the old memories of Country Cafe where the emphasis was on food
instead of a football (soccer) hangout) and my gf opted for 7-Up.
This is what I had for dinner – its beef chop. There really isn’t
much choice on the menu, unlike the previous management where sashimi,
tempura, cold noodles etc were introduced weekly.
My girlfriend had the chicken chop. To be fair, the food wasn’t that
bad. It’s apparently outsourced to another eatery and not the “New
Country Cafe” coz we had two different bills – one for food and the
other for drinks. The egg on top of the chicken and beef goes well with
the meat, but I was disappointed at the limited choice.
Happy Birthday Louisa!
Love always,
HB
Sheraton Restaurant
My mother-in-law to be had her birthday dinner at Sheraton Restaurant
in Sibu on Saturday night. Sheraton Restaurant is an eatery that’s been
around Sibu in one form or another – they recently moved into their own
building due to the high customer demand.
The birthday dinner was a family event with about 10 people for a
dinner gathering. Sheraton has a nice and subtle interior (which is a
nice change from their previous occupancy). The restaurant is almost
always packed – it’s famous for their fish head curry. This is what we
had for dinner:
The cup overfloweth (with cucumber juice)
This is a Foochow tradition where whole eggs are boiled and then
deep fried before being cooked in chicken soup. It’s a must have for
birthdays (for Foochows anyway).
There was also a thin noodle dish (not quite rice vermicelli) that’s served at the same time as the egg dish.
Here’s a closer look at the deep-fried boiled eggs soup dish and the noodles dish.
The next course is deep fried Chinese pancakes filled with savory meat.
It’s very nice – crispy and filling, best to eat while it’s still hot.
One of the house specialties was served after that – its pork cooked
Chinese style over a simmering steel bowl perched precariously on top
of a flame served straight to the table.
The next dish was vegetables (think it was asparagus) dipped in hot water and served straight.
The mandatory fish dish came straight after that – the fish was
evenly sliced in half and the pieces cut into bite-sized manageable
bits arranged around it like a whole fish. Decorative slices of orange
peels were arranged around the dish – these are edible as well.
Happy Birthday!
MAS airlines and their fondness for retiming
I booked a ticket to come back to Sibu for the weekend (arriving
Saturday night, leaving early tomorrow morning – Monday) just to attend
to two birthday celebrations. The flight I was due to be on was 2:50 pm
from Kuching to Sibu…and close to the departure time, the dreaded
R-word came over the PA – it has been retimed.
The ground crew distributed refreshment vouchers (which entitles you
to a meal and a drink) at the airport restaurant (canteen would be a
better description). It seems that the airport restaurant has new
management and most of the major reconstruction at Kuching airport has
forced it into a little nook by the side of the second floor.
I wanted a sandwich but the sandwiches were all sold out so I
settled for some fried rice and a 100 Plus drink (it’s an isotonic
rehydration drink that’s very popular amongst drug users in Malaysia).
The flight has been retimed to 4 pm and then to 4:40 pm and I feared
that this would be a repeat of my previous business trip to KL (where
it was retimed for more than 8 hours).
The announcement came that our flight has been retimed AGAIN to 5:30
pm and then again to 5:35 pm. It’s a good thing that the drinks come
with those “Cool You Down” messages coz I was really
not amused by this tardiness that MAS seems to exhibit lately,
especially as I have a birthday dinner to go to that night.
I had to stare at an abandoned and broken down basketball
entertainment machine that’s been left aside by the construction work
and took a healthy dose of codeine to wait it out. The flight finally
departed at 5:40 pm yesterday evening. I just arrived yesterday and was
barely in time to attend the birthday dinner and I have to depart again
tomorrow at 7:25 am.
Jesus Christ…this “retiming” shit has gotta go.
Cock and Bull in bed
bed is the latest clubbing district in Kota
Kinabalu, Sabah. It is located at the waterfront and shares its block
with other illustrious clubs and pubs like Nam Kwai Fong (a Cantopop feng tau joint) and Cock and Bull (a pub with draft beer that has a high expatriate and traveler audience).
The flagship of this new nightlife neighborhood is the recently built bed club.
The bright neon sign of this simple, yet elegant name is emblazoned
across the building which houses the club. bed is a large club with
multiple floors and areas and it impressed me that KK has this sort of
facility.
We went to bed (the club, not the act) on Saturday night to cap off
our Kota Kinabalu trip with a visit to the entertainment facilities
that the place has to offer. The bouncer at the door opened the door
for us and we were instantly greeted by a huge dance floor located in
the middle of the club. bed has state of the art sound systems and
light displays.
The VIP room is appropriately named the “bed room”. I had guessed that before we had even stepped into the club. 😉
There is also a long bar and seating arrangements for people who’re not into the dance floor or wants to chill out.
Download: bed club video [sixthseal.com]
The next destination we headed to is Cock & Bull
(after dropping into Nam Kwai Fong for a while). This is a pub with a
live band and draft beer and all sorts of amenities that you would
expect a pub to have. It’s located right after bed and Nam Kwai Fong
and probably is meant as an after party destination after the two clubs
close.
It was about 1 am when we arrived at Cock and Bull and we stayed
there till about 3 am. There are two kinds of draft beer on tap (Tiger
Beer and Guinness Stout) and we ordered a jug of Tiger Beer.
I also had their signature cocktail – Cock and Bull (RM 38). It’s a blue hued cocktail with a slice of lemon and has a pretty high alcoholic content. It tastes great!
Cock & Bull also has a pool table where you can practice your inebriated pool shooting skills…
Talk with one of the friendly Cock and Bull waitresses…
Listen to the resident live band perform cover songs…
Watch low alcohol tolerance people puke and moan while slumped on one of the outside tables…
Put on your beer goggles for a bit…
…and maybe order another round of drinks.
It’s a great place to wind down for the night. 🙂
Eating frogs and eels in Sabah
There is a popular seafood center in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah which
serves a lot of live seafood. It’s notable due to the way the live
seafood offerings is presented – the customer is presented with a huge
array of see-through aquariums that hosts a variety of (still alive)
marine life from green lobsters to huge oysters and a lot of swimming
fish in the middle.
We decided to go for something a little unorthodox – frogs.
It tickled me to no end to see large frogs jumping around a container
for the benefit of the customer. I choose three large frogs to be
cooked. Poor frogs. 😉
The proprietor of the stall also recommended their eel.
The eels were swimming around lazily in their aquarium and the eels are
rather long, sinewy characters which looks rather like snakes with
water as their habitat instead of land.
I also chose an eel for our consumption. Poor eel. 😉
There were also local oysters on display, which were flat, solid
looking objects. I also choose a couple for our table but the
proprietor accidentally served it to another table, and that other
table unknowingly accepted, so we forgot about it, since it would take
a long time to prepare another batch.
Here’s a closer look at the eel dish. This was cooked Japanese style
in BBQ sauce with a touch of hot chilli (Sabah style) and it tastes
great! The eel came out hot and oily and it does get a little cloying
to eat too much eel, so small portions are the key.
This is a close up shot of the eel. The (poor) eel has been sliced
into bite-sized pieces – the dish bears a distinctive resemblance to
the live eels, except that it’s been chopped up. 😉 The colorization
and shape (round) of the eel is still visible though.
The frog dish was prepared with the WHOLE frog, which is great for
presentation purposes. This dish was cooked in a very bland sauce,
allowing the natural sweet frog meat taste to shine though.
The Chinese call frogs tien chi which translates to “sweet
chicken”. It’s an euphemism for frog. The frog dish has parts of the
frog still visible – there’s the much lauded frog legs, a little frog
thigh here and there, the body of the frog. It’s frog.
This is the best part of the meal – the frog was wonderfully
prepared, leaving the sweet, tender and juicy frog meat to shine
through. Hop on, frog! 😉
Gardenia Cola vending machine
Gardenia Cola seems to be the leading coke (the
drink) manufacturer in Sabah. This is interesting coz the other states
seem to be dominated by the #1 cola based drink producer – Coca Cola.
Gardenia Cola dominates the carbonated drinks shelves of hypermarkets
and convenience stores like 7-11.
I even saw several vending machines dispending Gardenia Cola and
other Gardenia flavored canned beverages. Gardenia is best known for
its bakery products and is a major producer of bread related goods in
Peninsula Malaysia. Gardenia Cola is made by Gardenia Beverages in Kota
Kinabalu, Sahab. Coca-cola (coke) is still the major brand of cola
drinks in Malaysia though, except in Sabah.
I could not resist addressing this cultural glitch and inserted RM
1.30 in coins into the Gardenia vending machine and purchased a
Gardenia Cola drink. The distinctive red can of Gardenia cola dropped
down into the holding cell of the vending machine, still cold from the
internal cooling system.
Here’s a closer look at the Gardenia Coke can – it has the Gardenia logo on it and “Cola carbonated drink by Gardenia” printed on top of the 325 ml can.
It tastes remarkably like a cross between Coke C2 and Coke Light
(Diet Coke for non-Malaysians). The cola drink is not excessively
carbonated or sweet and leaves a nice, but unusual aftertaste on the
tongue.
