An insight beneath horizon…

I was busy planning and arranging visitation schedule tried my best to fulfill the request by location offices. With all the tight schedule, spending a weekend in Cebu seems to be the most optimized contrive in between Philippines and Hong Kong. Therefore, since I will be having a weekend in Cebu, I was surfing the web for information about Cebu to find out this place is in fact a diving heaven. The more I browsed the web about Cebu’s diving, the more dilemma I was. I was contemplating among the nearby Mactan, the Thresher Shark’s paradise Malapascua or marine sanctuaries Moalboal.

I dropped Mactan because there are too many negative feedback from the material I read. It will only be good if you do Hilutung or Nalusuan island. These place they need more people to go else they will making loss if I’m the only diver. As for Malapascua, it seems to be a great place to dive where you will come across Thresher Sharks and Manta Ray like almost certain. Too bad, it was way too far for my short schedule and of course, too expensive to travel alone.

So, my final decision is Moalboal. When I tried to search for transportation information, there’s only handful of them. The easiest way is to hired a cab directly send you to the destination. However, conveniences always come with a price to pay. If you want hassle free, I would suggest you get your cab from the airport. They have standard price for it. PHP 2,800 for one way or Round Trip for PHP 5,000. I tried to ask the taxi I took around Mactan island, they were asking for PHP 3,500 one way. Frankly speaking, if you have 3 – 4 person with plenty of luggages or dive gears, this will be a very good choice of transporting.

I’m on budget and alone, therefore I was looking up and down for cheaper solution and what I did was taking the Philipino’s way. I took taxi from my hotel in Mactan to Southern Terminal ‘Citylink’ in Cebu City. From there, I squeezed myself into the v-hire (an 18 seater van) which will channel between Cebu City and Moalboal.

The red circles showing the destination of each v-hire van. (Picture is a bit dark cos I’m trying not to look like foreigner. Therefore, I only sneakingly took this with my phone)

I was lucky to be seated in front of the van with a pinay in between me and the driver. The rest have to constrict into 3 rows making 4 persons constrained arm to arm in a row. Well, what you can expect something PHP 100 for a distance of 90km? Perhaps you can pay PHP 200 acquiring spaces for 2 all by yourself.  The total journey took around 2 hours 15 mins. There will be 30 mins of winding road experience starting from Carcar City (marked as red in the picture below). There are some houses along the way that will keep you busy. Oh ya… please remember, the v-hire van will only depart once the van is fully occupied. For my case, when I reached the terminal, one van just left and I have to wait in the following van for about 20 mins before it’s filled. I’m happy with the this service although same claim it is dangerous because the v-hire driver drive like F1 but mine was fine. I do feel safe.

My colleague told me they operate from 5am till 7pm. I didn’t verify this so please do not trust this 100% ya. Also, please remember not to give anyone your money at the station. Some might claim they are the agent and will ran off once you gave it to them. There will be someone collecting the fee from you in the van before it departs.

This will be the journey from Cebu City to Moalboal

Before reaching Moalboal, I saw this (picture below). How is it possible that Coke has a factory outlet in such a place? more over, what they going to sell in Coke factory outlet? expired Coke?

How could this be real? Selling expiry Coke?

After I got down from the v-hire van, I negotiated PHP 20 for a motorbike to send me to Marina Vallage 4km from the main road. Not too sure if this is too expensive. My transportation exploration was a safe one and here I am, looking at the sea at Moalboal. I was inform that there is another way to channel between this 2 places which is the public buses. I was told it is cheaper and just slightly slower than the v-hire. Well, you need to try this out and let me know because I’m not going for this option.

Moalboal at 6pm. Don’t expect some nice white sandy beaches.

My job need me to travel for a bit and it also needs me to look proper in office attire. During business trip, most of the time, I’ll need to have argument with hotel over iron request.

Last week, I was in Bangkok and I was staying in this hotel name Bangkok Resort. Ok, don’t get cheated by the word ‘resort’ ya. It was not a bad hotel after all but it has 2 major downfall. First, it was located slightly far far away from Bangkok city but it was located near our location office and easy access to the main motorway, so be it. Secondly, the hotel does not have someone who can actually understand English which really created some frustrating yet hilarious moment during my 2 nights stay there.

Phone call to reception
ME : Hello, can you please send an iron with ironing board to my room?
Receptionist : Sawarika, thai thai thai no no no (I didn’t know what she said so this is the only way I know how to write it)
ME : ok, I will come down to the reception.

At the Reception, they were 4 of them trying to understand what I wanna express through the sigh & body language. I hold my clothes, did some ironing actions while spoke to them slowly “i-yeern, cloooth, straight..” Finally, still didn’t understand and one of them brought me to see a person at the garden. This dude actually can speak fluent English and I was asked to wait in my room and someone will come over. 15mins later, an obasan (old lady) knock on my door and I handed over my clothes to her and again, spoke Thai to me. -.-” She kept saying none stop and I kept shaking my head “sorry I don’t understand”. Couldn’t stop laughing and eventually she left laughing also. I believe she was trying to tell me how much it will cost because I was given a receipt which I need to pay.

Now, I’m writing this at Philippines and as usual I need iron to make sure I don’t look messy while meeting the customer.

Phone call to reception
ME : Hello, can you please send an iron with ironing board to my room?
Receptionist : Sorry sir, we do not have iron.
ME : what do you mean you do not have an iron. I have been staying here few times and you always deliver the iron to me.
Receptionist : yes sir, the iron is in the laundry room and its locked up. So we cannot send the iron to you.
ME : you only have 1 iron in your whole hotel? Can you like ask your duty manager get the spare key and get the iron?
Receptionist : wait sir, let me check.
(10 second later)
Receptionist : cannot sir, the iron is locked up in a safety box and the person with key is not in. Sorry sir.
ME : WTF, you keep your iron in a safety box??? Furthermore the whole hotel only got 1 person have the key? (In my mind: the iron is make of gold and decorated with jewelry izzit?) This is so ridiculous, is this how you treat your customer? And how you going to expect me to see my customer with a crumpy shirt? If you can get me the iron tonight, please send it to my room early morning before 9.
Receptionist : sorry sir, my manager will go over to see you. (Hanged up)
(5mins later knocking on my door)
Dude : Hello sir.
ME : Are you the manager?
Dude : no sir, I’m the supervisor only. What time you need your iron tomorrow sir?
ME : as long as you can send the iron to me by 9am it will be fine.
Dude : Ok sir. We will send to you. By 8.30am
ME : Thank you very much. This will be helpful.

This was how I ended up doing my ironing. towel on top of the mini fridge

It’s so frustrating and insane to fight for iron on each and every business trip. Oh well, you can say why not stay in better hotel and will get better services and such thing won’t occur. I wish so too but… there is budget concern for the company. Perhaps is time to get a portable iron which will contribute some weight and space in my baggage.

I will be in China next week and let us see if there will be further update. LOL

I believe we’ve all either intentionally or accidentally hummed, mumbled, beatboxed, making all sort of sound out of our mouth to either mimicking our favorite melodies or just some simply random tunes. With Munchy’s Mimic to the Muzic Contest, you will be able to utilize this amazing skill of you to win impressive prizes.

What you need to do is apply your imagination and creativeness mimicking the MUZIC Wafer Jingle in your own unique way. Video recorded it and make sure there is at least one type of MUZIC Wafer Pack as shown below. Not to forget, nothing more than 30 sec OK !!!

Now, get your hard work uploaded to Mimic to the MUZIC Contest site before 5th August 2010 and stand a chance to win some desirable prizes.

Someone told me not to procrastinate this post while I was having my dinner and I’m done with it. So, what are you waiting for? Get your lips moving and camcorder rolling like NOW.

Please do visit http://www.munchysmuzic.com/ for more information.

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit a few famous Italian cities after I finished my studies. I remember the 1st city we stopped was a beautiful historical city, Florence before headed to Pisa for the must see Leaning Tower. The quest on Italiano soil continued down South to the magnificent capital of Italy, Rome and back up North to the amazing Floating City, Venice before heading to France. Other than sightseeing, the only typical Italian food I remembered its taste till now is their pizza Margherita which I had in some alley. I wouldn’t say it’s good but definitely nothing like what we could find here back in Malaysia. 1.5 months of paycheck in a salad factory during semester break wasn’t sufficient for me to enjoy like what we should on a trip. Most of the time, we were munching some bread or ordered something we familiar like pizza etc. We didn’t know much about Italian food back then.

10 years later, thanks to the endless varieties of food available, I’m more exposed to Italian food and know more about it compared to back then when I was actually standing on the ground full of Italian sweat (perhaps more blood than sweat on the sand near Colosseum in Rome). Weeks back, I was lucky to be invited by KY for an Italian food review at Silver Spoon, courtesy from Jessica who is an old friend that owns this restaurant. Unlike most restaurants that would go for some nice notable locations, Silver Spoon on the contrary is located at Bandar Manjalara, Kepong which is kinda secluded at least to me. Despite its location, the interior setup of the restaurant rivals many big names.

Silver Spoon’s deluxe interior with open kitchen concept

Nobita (Doraemon) was with us too

Feta & Olive Focaccia at Silver Spoon

Feta & Olive Focaccia

Sicily originated Arancini (Fried Italian rice ball stuffed with smoke salmon and brie cheese) and fried Mozzarella Cheese Stick were 2nd on the table. They were served hot and you can feel the melted cheese flows with every bite and the scent of the cheese was indescribable. Both of them were good but I personally like the cheese stick more. By the way, the sauce actually emphasized the Italian authenticity of the taste.

Aracini and Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

Bread, Cheese and now Vege, Stuffed Protobello Mushrooms were some of the most surprising dish of the night.  I got to know mushrooms can be quite good in BBQ menus and this, properly cooked, eliminated the crude and raw taste which might not be like by many but remains the juiciness of the mushroom. Of course, the salad beneath and  minced meat on top completes the serving.

Stuffed Protobello Mushrooms

For seafood lovers, how can you miss this? Prawn stacked on avocado. Some might feel the prawns were a little bit overcook but I think I’m fine with it as I love the aroma from slightly over-grilled prawn. The smell of herbs did arouse the sensation of having it in your mouth.

Avocado Prawns

Main course. We had all sorts of typical Italian Cuisine’s delights. Pizza, the #1 and foremost item in Italian Cuisine. We were served with crispy thin crust avocado salmon pizza and by just looking at it, you’d definitely says DELICIOUS. It should taste even better if more tomato sauce is applied. My favorite is still the plain Margherita pizza with only cheese and tomato sauce.

Avocado Salmon Pizza

Apparently, Risotto is one of the Italian delicacies and shamefully, this was the 1st time I tried. It feels like some creamy porridge with strong pleasant mushroom smells. It seems there’s a better and tastier option now rather than just Chinese type porridge if one’s fall sick.

Mushroom Risotto

Spaghetti, how can an Italian stuff complete without it? Seafood Marinara was the serving. The seafood was properly cooked but the marinara sauce was slightly too watery for my liking and I would also prefer a thicker taste. It was not too bad after all. Just not my personal preference.

Seafood Marinara

Grilled baby snapper in caper sauce and lemon was kinda weird. I think normally, fish will be served in fillets instead of whole fish especially in Western Cuisine. This looks very Indonesian style instead. The taste was OK though.

The last dish before dessert was the most anticipated Duck Confit. I always like duck prepared in such a way and what Silver Spoon offered here was scrumptious. I will love to order this again on my next visit. To my knowledge, Duck Confit supposed to be French Cuisine but who cares right? Or perhaps this is an Italian way of Duck Confit which I didn’t mind at all.

Duck Confit

The rest were all excited over dessert serving because of this reputable Chef Ken. I seriously have no idea who he is but with all those food I tried above, I believe the dessert must be as decent as the varieties served. Guess what, I was certainly correct. The desserts were lovely and Tiramisu was awesome. The coffee and the rum…..

Tiramisu | Chocolate Pot | Creme Brulee

The food and BEVERAGES were never inadequate. From juices, mocktail, beers (it’s Weihenstephan wei) to wines and the best part was, Jessica’s dad decided to treat us with his Royal Salute. How can the night not be awesome with all those food and beverages + great companion?

DRINKSSSS lots of em… and then the below appears

Happy People

Kim | Haze | KY | ST | God

I believe we all know that laughter is the best medicine, but in what way?

It is believe that laughter relaxes our body and releases endorphins which boosts the immune system hence, keep you healthy. Endorphins also keep you high, I mean happy and it makes you do silly things like what we did on Redang Island. On top of that, if you notice, hysterical laughter caused your heart to beat faster which improves blood flow and prevent against heart attack. It will be  unless otherwise, when you chocked and died halfway laughing which is unlikely to happen in normal circumstances. So, Joke is good because it makes you laugh (lame).

Other than all the above, I realize there is another benefit from reading jokes especially this one.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip, and after finishing their dinner they retire for the night, and go to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend.

“Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.” “I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes” exclaims Watson. “And what do you deduce from that?” Watson ponders for a minute. “Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?” “Watson, you idiot!” he exclaims, “Somebody’s stolen our tent!”

Joke source

You know what I learn from this short paragraph? It explains all the confusing xxxlogically in simple laymen term for an easy understanding especially someone like me who is poor with ‘Engrand‘.

This joke made me laughed so badly when I relate it to the silly face of Robert Downey Jr. in the movie Sherlock Holmes.  You haven’t watch it, have you? Go watch it will ya (trying to speak like British, apparently FAIL.com). It’s a movie that I would rate 8.5/10. Definitely worth your 128mins in front of the TV.