The Davis, Bangkok

This is my second time staying in Davis hotel in Bangkok. It is not as convenient as the other hotels on the main street like Intercontinental, when it comes to transportation. However, in terms of food and massage, it is fantastic.

Staying in Davis do not require breakfast. I came out of the hotel, and could see Starbucks on my right.

I went in and ordered some simple breakfast, just sandwiches and coffee.


While I was sipping my coffee and reading my book, I found 2 other nearby cafe for great breakfast. Could have gone there earlier, but I took the shortest way!

Just opposite the Starbucks, it is the Kakao Cafe, which serves chocolate stuff - drinks nad food.


And just on the opposite right of Starbuck, is AuBonPain, a bakery with nice chicken wrap - I ate there the night before. :)


Further down the street, there are nice dining restaurants too, but for lunch and dinner. I went there the last time, not this time around though...

What kind of balcony is this?

I came across this in Bangkok:

I kept wondering, why would people build a door that leads to no where, on the first floor? The roof of the lower unit is just made of thin aluminum. From the look, I can tell it definitely cannot support human weight.

So, why have that door? And they are all opened. Yes, I used ‘they’, coz the whole stretch of the wooden shop lots are like that! Interesting…

Car fell off from 8th floor, 1 dead 1 traumatized

When I was in Jakarta few days ago, there was a tragedy in the building that I visited. It happened in the morning, before I arrived – thank God I didn’t have to witness such thing. It could happen just in front of me, just at the taxi drop-off area!

There was a car fell off from 8th floor parking bay. When the car fell off, it went upside down, and hit another car on its left passenger’s side. Luckily the car on the ground, driven by a lady, has no other passengers. She was traumatized, of course, but alive.

The driver of the fallen car died on the spot. Some witnessed told me that the scene was very scary, with blood and brain everywhere. They said his body was half gone!

Apparently the driver wanted to do reverse parking, somewhat went over the edge, hit the grill. It is very common for Indonesia’s building to have such grills for upper floor car parks. That is only to prevent human from falling off, but definitely not cars!

I was told a few months ago, there was a similar incident in a shopping mall, where the whole family died on the spot – a mother, father, 2 kids.

This makes me chilled, when think of parking my car at upper floor.

I remember many years ago when I just got my license, there was a minor accident for me. I wanted to slam on the brake, but something has blinded my senses, I slammed on the accelerator instead! Luckily it didn’t hit any one nor any cars. It just went down to a drain. With some help of a few guys, my car came off easily. Imagine if this ha happened on upper floor? I’d have died long time ago, before I graduated!

Nadaman restaurant, Shangri-la Jakarta

This is the first time I stayed in Shangri-la hotel in Jakarta. They have a very nice Japanese restaurant, with very good food and services. I liked it so much that I revisited the second day – both for lunch as my meeting ended too late.

First Day
I always like to eat gindara shioyaki (grilled cod fish), but not every place serves it. Teriyaki is more common than shioyaki, but I dislike teriyaki sauce.

The Gindara Shioyaki set includes 3 servings of sashimi. As I was recovering from food poisoning, I requested to change that to tempura.

The appetizer is very good. A small portion of chopped toufu covered in some fish flakes. I like the fish flakes, yummy!

They served the tempura first. Ordinary, but fresh.

This is the salad, which has the jellyfish on top, quite different.

And here is the gindara shioyaki. Some simple cooking, just rub some salt on the fish and shallow fry it. Really don’t understand why some restaurants don’t serve this!

Here is the hot ocha, which they serve in individual pot! A luxury, I’d say.

Finally, fruits to end the meal.

Total Cost: IDR 242,000 (RM 84)

Second Day
As I was in a hurry, I ordered from the quick lunch set menu -- mini donburi set. Donburi is usually served in a large bowl, with a lot of rice at the bottom and covered with your choice of topping. Usually chicken, beef, egg, or veggie.

This mini donburi set is very cute. It comes in 3 small bowls, each containing rice about the amount of 2-3 sushi. One topped with salmon sashimi, one with unagi teriyaki, and the last one with prawn tempura. They are really delicious, and I guess their sauce is nice, which makes them different.


It is served with 3 other items, 2 from the pic above – salad (similar to the previous lunch) and agedashi toufu. And here is a bowl of chawan mushi (steamed egg) too.


This time, I ordered cold ocha (green tea), hoping it is not served in pot as it is too much. Well, they still served it in a JAR. LOL!


The dessert that came with this is green tea ice-cream. Very nice, not those type that is too sweet without any ocha fragrant/taste.

Total Cost: IDR 155,955 (RM 54)

Nighmare dealing with accommodation rental

Since JohnChow has blogged about this, you'd have already read this. If not, let me share this ridiculous travel story with you.

Before reading on, let me ask you a question: When you stay in a hotel, are you charged by day or by night stay?

Pedro & Grace are frequent travlers, who has travelled to many places and stayed in many types of accommodations. They will start travelling around the world nonstop for 1 year starting from January 2008, with their second stop in NYC from 18 Jan to 18 Feb, i.e. 31 nights.

As they planned to truly experience NY Living, they wanted to rent an apartment instead of a hotel. They have booked themselves in Furnished Quarters (Jersey City).

Their nightmare has just begun after the availability is confirmed. First, they had to pay $1k for deposit which would only be returned 45-60 days after check-out. Next, they were asked to produced a lot of personal and financial documents including bank statements. And then, they were charged based on days stay, instead of nights stay - i.e. 32 days. The check-in and check-out time is like many hotels (or shorter): 4pm check-in, 12 noon check-out.

Just like many of their experiences, Pedro & Grace blogged about this in their travel blog.

The drama started here...

These guys from Furnished Quarters, apparently read the post, started to make disguised comments there, under various identity posting fake customer testimonials backing up the company. Their comments are not consistent, and their IP is from within the company!

One of the fake customer claimed himself to be a consultant, then later he said he is a real estate broker. LOL! I think he is none of these, but a joker. Hahahah!

You may want to hop over there to read more. Anyway, my comments here are:
1) I've also travel a lot (though not as much as the couple)
2) I've never been charged by days stayed.
3) I've also stayed in business apartment before. And they also charge by nights - instead of what they claimed to be 'standard policy' of daily charges. It is NOT standard.
4) I've never been asked to produce documents of such, really wonder what's the point, isn't credit card and deposit sufficient?

And my final words -- one question to ponder. I normally would check the quotations before making payment. I wonder what the process in their case when securing the booking. If they had checked the booking detail carefully, and refused to pay for the extra 'day', they'd probably not caught in this situation. They are uncomfortable of staying there now, but cancellin at this stage would cost some penalty. Maybe a good lesson learnt?

I hope this blog doesn't catch their attention to place a few fake customer testimonials. LOL!

'Personal' Steamboat

I like to eat steamboat, but I hate to sweat in front of the hot pot, in Malaysia's hot weather!

Recently restaurant with new concept of individual steamboat is mushrooming. Unlike the conventional steamboat where everyone shares the same big 'boat'/pot, this new concept gives everyone an individual pot - all by one self.

On the New Year Eve, we dined in one of these restaurants near Carefour Kepong. I guess people normally order 1 set per person, which costs from around RM18 to RM30 each, depends on the type of meat (beef is more expensive than chicken).

As we went in a group of 5 adults (incl maid) and 2 children, we ordered a 'couple set' (for 2) and another single set. With that, they gave us 3 individual pots. I had one, which I cooked for my 2 children and my maid, which MIL and FIL shared a pot, DH has one for his own.

This is the single set, for 1 person. As you can see, they give 1 noodle per person.


This is the chicken slices that came with the set.


After this, I couldn't take any more photos, as my kids were too curious about the whole 'game' and I had to 'control' them before they hurt themselves!

The experience, despite the mess of dealing with my kids, was extremely good. I agree with my sister - if you have one pot by yourself, you can do whatever you like with it, including throwing back a piece of meat that you bite and realize it is not cooked properly! LOL!

The soup and the 'balls' (fish balls, meat balls, whatever 'balls') are just ordinary. What I like the most is the noodle. It looks and tastes just like instant noodle, or even better. However, the noodle comes in very small size. I can finish it is just 2 bites! We ended up ordered many more. LOL!

Of course, what we ordered weren't enough for all of us. We purposely ordered that way (3 pax set), so we can add on many side dishes. There is one fried vege-balls that I really love, and I'm glad to see they have it on the menu! :)

I think it is a nice place for gathering, for meeting with friends, and for couples too! A place that you can eat slowly and chat for a long while. And since steamboat is rather easy to make, I believe any outlets that offer this type of steamboat would be just fine - as long as the ambience is good I'd definitely walk in!

Vegetarian western food restaurant - Camp Forest

When we first saw the ad of Camp Forest Restaurant in the Kepong Metro magazine, I wondered if it is a branch of Cameleon Vegetarian Restaurant because they share the same Chinese name: 甘味林.

This restaurant is not just a vegetarian restaurant, it is a WESTERN vegetarian restaurant that serves the common western food people like in KL.

We decided to give it a try, because I love the food in Cameleon, and I did hope the quality of Camp Forest is at least equivalent to Cameleon.

We went there on Thu evening. The first impression when we arrived was very good. The restaurant was set up in a tropical forest mood. Dining inside, you won't feel that you are in the city. Instead, it gives me a feeling like having holiday in a resort place!

The restaurant has a few fountains and a man-made 'waterfall' with koi fishes around the diners. It has attracted both my children immediately. They chose to sit near the water so they can observe the fishes and fountains.

My son ordered spaghetti 'O' Olio (like aglio olio, without the chilli flakes). It turned out to be quite tasteless and he rejected it (he likes heavily seasoned food).


I expected him to change his mind, so I ordered something different - their set dinner: Caesar Salad + Rancheros Chicken Breast + Butter Cake with Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce + Jasmine Tea.

The Caesar Salad actually was just normal garden salad (no romain lettuce).


The chicken chop turned out to be very nice. Ian ate half of the chicken chop, and kept telling me it was very tastety. Whew! Made the right choice for my choosy son... Note: This chicken chop is not real chicken, it is made of flour and soy etc, all vegetarian ingredient. However, it tastes just like real chicken - my son didn't know it wasn't!


DH ordered an Indian curry noodle. It came in a very HUGE bowl. There are many ingredients in the curry, and we were impressed by the various types of 'meat' - fish cake, fish ball, chicken, pork, charsiu, etc. They all tasted differently, with different texture - and all are not real meats!


We also ordered a Fried Seaweed Triangle to share. It is a very tasty snack, suitable to go with beer. But as we were over fed by the time this was served, we couldn't finish it.


By the time when they served us the dessert - Butter Cake and Ice Cream, we were too full to eat anything. I thought the dessert would go to waste. I just took a few spoon full of ice cream.


But then, it turned out that Ian loved it so much. Not only that we finished the dessert, he didn't even want to give up the left over peanuts and gravy on the plate. He scooped them into his mouth! LOL! Indeed, the next day he still missed this dessert and told me he wanted to return. :)

The butter cake is not just butter cake. It was warm (like fresh from the oven), coated with crunched peanuts, and topped with chocolate sauce. The dry butter cake blend in very well when eaten together with the ice-cream (but too dry to eat on its own).

Ian ate so much that he actually threw out some before bed time! :) I guess that's also because we seldom indulge him into desserts like this. Now I know what my son loves.

The restaurant's address is:
Lot 13848, Jalan 53,
Taman Desa Jaya Kepong
52100 KL
Tel: +60 16-2296 949

Direction map:

My blog is reviewed

Valmg from Home and Vacation has done a review on Lazy Bone a few weeks ago. She offered to review our blogs for free in the PPP forum, how generous she is!!

In her review of this blog, she pointed out that my blog has very little usage of photos. For a travel blog, photo is very important in bringing out the attractions.

I actually had a problem with that, coz I didn't have a good camera. I relied a lot on my cellphone's camera, which was very sensitive to movements and lights. I often unable to take any photos in a rush.

Now that I've got a new camera, I believe I can make better quality posts with better pictures. :)

Fresh Pistachio from China

When you buy pistachio nuts from countries like Australia, it can easily reach RM100+. At least that was the amount my mom paid when she visited Melbourne.

Last week she spent her holiday in JiuZaiGou in China. Bought a pack of fresh pistachio for only RM15. They are really unprocessed and we need to peel off the hard shell to eat the nuts.

This is the first time I see fresh pistachio.

When I first saw it, I thought it was a pack of Cadbury chocholates!

At first, we were so stupid, used hammers to knock the shell - lots of hassle to eat that tiny nut inside. As a result of that, no one really interested in them. A day later, my sister realized that a tool is provided! The tool looks like a key, is made of steel, with thin edge to be inserted in the natural crack of the nuts and with a slight twist the nut can be pry open easily!

Look, this is the key and the nut (looks like a chocolate, right?):


Can you see the hairline crack on the nut?


Just insert the key like this and then twist.


Pop! The shell is opened and the nut is ready to be tasted!

Traveling to Europe

DH is now in Germany and Denmark for a product training. I have so many expiring Enrich reward points that I really wished to go with him to save some accommodation, but then he is traveling with another male colleage and they share room. :(

Many people would join their hubby like this, and take the opportunity to extend the stay and go to other European countries like Italy's Rome (one of my dream place), Prague, Barcelona and other nearby places.

I hope DH is going again next year. Have heard of how beautiful Germany is, really wish to see it myself...

Radisson Hotel, Noida

In my recent trip to New Delhi, I stayed in the Radisson Hotel in Noida. This hotel is 3-4 years old/new. It is situated in the centre of the Noida district, very near to many office buildings.

It has a very strategic location, as traveling from the hotel to any offices takes only 10 to 15 minutes.

This hotel is very beautiful with nice interior and varieties of restaurants. Its Indian restaurant, RED, is rated the best Indian restaurants in town. Similarly it also has an award winning oriental restaurants.

I love this hotel, but it is very costly, just like any other hotels in India. It costs me INR 16,200 per night (c. RM1,500) inclusive of breakfast and airport transfer. With the same cost, I can probably stay in a 5 star hotel in KL for 4 or 5 nights.

An alternative is to stay in Delhi, an hour drive from the office area. The savings is not great, but still big. Intercontinental Hotel can cost around INR 11,800 per night (c. RM1,000).
For the comfort and convenience, I prefer Radisson. But for the cost and the fact that I can earn reward points, I prefer the InterContinental The Grand in New Delhi, Connaught Place. :) So, who says loyalty/reward point system doesn’t work?

Holiday on Cruise

Apart from a few dream holiday places of mine, I also long to be on a cruise for a holiday.

Since young, I have been wishing to go on a real cruise, but know that it is very expensive. Those cheaper ones in Malaysia are the Star Cruises, which my mom and sister have been. It stopped by at Phuket Island and came back to port Klang.

Based on that experience, my sister told me it is not fun, as most of the activities are targetted at young kids. The main activity for the adults is gambling. :( This is so different from what I imaginated.

However, my friend won a prize to Carribean Cruise. Based on her experience, my impression on cruises is revived. They have many entertainment outlets for adults like Moulin Rouge showroom, cinema, game room, Karaoke, disco, etc. So, not just gambling!

Of course, going on big and nice cruises like the Hawaii Cruises, Alaska Cruises, European Cruises etc, would need us to fly to big cities like Venice, Barcelona, Rome, Seattle, Vancouver, Hawaii, etc.

One day. Yes, one day, I will do that - one of the things in my 'to-do-list-before-I-die'. :)

Paris

Lately, a few of my blogging buddies wrote about Paris. One of them said that, most people think of Paris they think of Paris Hilton.

Guess what? You must be laughing out loud that I am so outdated that I've never heard of Paris Hilton. I searched in Paris Accomodation for Hilton Hotels. Didn't find it.

Then, searched in wiki, only found out that that Paris Hilton is a woman. Paris Hilton doesn't mean Hilton Hotel in Paria! :P

Seriously, Paris to me, only means: Romance, Tourist, Cafes, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe... and recently added Robert Langdon from Da Vinci Code (by Dan Brown)! :P

I haven't been to Paris before. It is a city that I do not want to go on business trip. I'd certainly want to go with hubby. Knowing our styles, we will definitely look for cheap Accomodation in Paris, as we would most likely go backpack. Been talking about this with a friend few years ago. Maybe give it a couple of years more, we will do that!

[Brought to you by CheaperthanHotels.co.uk]

Italy Experience

2 of my best friends went to Italy for their holiday, and returned with sour experience.

I met one of them last week, and got to know some of the detail. I'm waiting for her to give me the details in writing - I have bad memory which city and which hotel those things happened. After getting the details from her, I will share in this blog.

On the other hand, in this travel blog, it lists quite some Italy Highlights, includes things like basic Italy travel guide, things to do, maps, photos, restaurants, attractions, deals, etc.

But one thing I guess missing from this site is what to be caution/lookout for in Italy.

It is either their bad luck, or Italians are generally not friendly to Asians, their bad experience is in almost in every cities, throughout their whole trip!

Well, I guess their disappointment is also amplified with their high expectations before going. They've got too much of movies' influence, thinking that all Italians are warm and friendly. So, when they got cold treatments and being treated with disrespect, they were so disappointed.

[Brought to you by Real Travel]

Trips cancelled

My trips to Hanoi and Jakarta next week were cancelled, very last minute.

It was just yesterday that my boss told me to cancel them. Tickets were already issued so we will have to pay for a 'penalty' fee to airline. But the cost would be minimal compared to the total amount that the whole trip would take.

I was supposed to have a stressful trip next week. Original plan was to fly to Hanoi on Monday, conduct workshop on Tuesday, fly from Hanoi to KL and with 1h15min to transit to Jakarta. A very short time that can be easily screwed up if Hanoi-KL sector is delayed even slightly. If miss the flight to Jakarta I'd miss the last flight out.

But all worries no longer a concern, coz I'm not going anywhere for the rest of this year!

Why? Because we have just realized we blown our travel budget! When I tried to get the latest finance figure, I found out that the budget that we're working on, is entirely different from what finance has. The truth is, we've been using a wrong budget number - a complete screw up!

Now, eventhough I wished to go to Hanoi - a city I've never been to, I will have to wait for next year or go on my own expenses. Even next year, most likely any trip to Vietnam would be to HCMC instead of Hanoi - so sad, so disappointed!

Anyway, for this blog, instead of basing on my business trips, I will dig out something interesting from my holiday in New Zealand 2 years ago. I went there for 17-day trip, in a caravan - some experience to share.

I will also try to dig out the Perth photos to complement the post I wrote early this month.

These are what to expect from this blog in the near future.

Bumpy Trips to Delhi

I’ve been to New Delhi 3 times in 4 years. All the 3 times, the flights were bumpy, all the way from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi.

Yes, ALL THE WAY. Turbulence all the time.

In my first trip, I was 7 months pregnant. The seatbelt sign was switched on all the time. I need to pee, but was advised to sit down, until I couldn’t hole it any more. Hey! 5.5 hours, how to hold???

In my second and the last trips, the seatbelt sign was switched on 70% of the time. Drinks are hard to be kept on the table without spilling.
If we take statistics, it is 100% bumpy. Caution: small sample of n=3. :P

Perth, Australia

Before I got this job, I rarely traveled out of the country. The only few places that I've ever traveled to were: Singapore and Thailand. A year after our marriage, DH & I signed up for a tour to Perth, Western Australia.

Before we went, I got a lot of 'cold water' from people I know. The spontaneous reaction was like "Ergh! Why of all the places, you choose this boring place?" Some said, there is not much of entertainment, not much of night life, etc in Perth, and they said better to go to Sydney.

Now I think back, perhaps these negative comments helped to lower my expectation, I ended up enjoyed the trip very much. After so many years, and after visiting so many places (holiday or business), nothing could beat that Perth trip. It is the best trip I had in memory. Perhaps that time DH & my relationship was at the peak - it felt so romantic with your lover, wherever you go! People thought we were on our honey moon trip, hahahah!

We ended up with a lot of nice photos, and I made a very nice album of it -- those days without kids I had plenty of time. I even printed narrative in two languages (English and Chinese) for our album. People who've seen our album all wanted to go to Perth. :D :D

It was a 5D4N trip. Very eventful... It started very silly - our luggages flew to HK instead of Perth, and waited till the next day to return to Perth! A good lesson for me for all the future trips: to check the luggage tag before leaving the airport counter. :)

We stayed at Pier Street on the first day. I was told the best Perth accommodation is around the Pier Street (may be wrong). We didn't stay in very good 5 star hotel. Instead, the tour originally booked us in Miss Maud Hotel, but changed to Sebel Hotel. Not very great hotel, but considered decent amongst discount hotels.

Here is brief of things that we did/saw in Perth. As we arrived late just enough for dinner, the tour actually starts on the second day.

We first visited the Raeburn Orchard, which grows pear, persimmons, etc. As we visited Perth during winter, we couldn't see fruits on the tree - only bald trees! We bought some persimmons, very nice but expensive (RM48 for just 16 pieces!).

After the orchard, we went to the Caversham Wildlife Park, to feed kangaroos (with food on my palm and the kangaroos licked the food --> yulk, a lot of salivar!), saw koala bear, hug the fat and heavy wombat, etc. For a small fee, we could ride a camel too, but I didn't. Emu is also another attraction for me, and I had a chance to hold its egg for a pic - the egg is in green colour!! We also saw genetically modified white kangaroos!

In the afternoon, we went to the Pinelli Winery to taste and purchase wine, then headed to Matilda Lake Farm Chalets. First we had a Devonshire tea, plucked oranges fresh from the trees and ate at the spot, then we witnessed sheep sheering demonstrations.

Before dinner, we visited the farm behind a tractor. Over 20 people stuffed in a small 'cage'! I thought we were like inside the zoo for the farm animals to laugh at. :P When we reached the cow barn, all cows ran to us waiting to be fed. It was so fun letting them ate the fodder off from our hands. Their hair is very long, unlike the cows in my country. ;)

On the third day, we had an easy and lazy morning stroding in the farm before leaving back to the city. On the way, we stopped by at Lake Monger to see and feed black swans. Nothing great, just a lazy and easy day - I guess this is why people dislike Perth tour, but I enjoyed that pace.

Next we climed to the top of Mount Eliza for a stop at the King's Park. Here we could view the Perth city across the Swan River. Very nice view. We then moved to Fremantle for their 'must-have' --> fish & chips lunch. It is a harbour south of Perth, fish & chips is very common here. The Fremantle Markets sells all sorts of fruits, nougats (must-buy in Australia), toys, souvenirs and handicrafts. A bit like the Silk Street in Beijing, but more pleasant.

Before moving back to our hotel in Perth, we were brought to the casino. Nothing special, I think our Genting is even better.

On the 4th day, it was what I was waiting for -- the trip to the Pinnacles, in a 4WD. On the way, we stopped at Yanchep National Park, seeing all the wild animals and plants all that. Actually, now I think back, if I went without that nice tour guide, it would have been a different story. A lot of the fun parts are because we understood and we learnt, all from that guide. He did a very good explanation -- love him!

The highlight for the day was the Nambung National Park, home of amazing Pinnacles Desert. Thousands of limestone pillars rising out of the golden sand make the pinnacles desert a unique attraction of Western Australia. Unfortunately it was raining. :(

We also went to the sand dunes, did sand boarding. I was the second person to be pushed down the sand slope. The moment I was pushed down, I was so scared that I screamed out loudly for my mom! In my mind, I blamed myself for risking my life and I still wanted to live for many years. Very shamefull. :P It was very exciting, and I actually played a second round. :)

On the last day (5th), it was free and easy. DH & I took the whole morning walking in the town, seeing the Swan Bell Towel, which housed the 14th century Bells of St Martins from Trafalgar Square, London. Not sure what it means, not something that I can emphatize with. :P

That's the end of our tour. There is only one thing that I regret about the trip - not able to see the wild flowers during winter. I bought some postcards - they are marvelous!

Blogging Tips Meme

Got this tag from Sean. Actually his other tag in the same link is more fun to do. Hahaha!

Back to this tag - it is easy, just share with us about your tips in blogging:
*****************************************************************************
Copy the list below and star five of your favourite ones, add your own tip and pass it on
1. Look, read, and learn.
2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other.
3. Don’t let money change ya!
4. Always reply to your comments.
5. Blog about what you know & love.
6. Don’t use filthy language-buy a dictionary.
*7. Blog about something educational.
8. Be yourself; others will follow.
9. Don’t have too many blogs that will become a chore to maintain.
10. Keep it simple, user-friendly, interesting and organized!
*11. Keep the blog simple and sweet!!!
12. Share with others your thoughts and don’t be shy!
*13. Never ask for link exchange. Blog hop to increase traffic.
14. Don’t clutter your blog with ads all over the place. IT’S IRRITATING.
15. Don’t comment for the sake of commenting. Some looked too fake and its a big turn off!
16. Share something interesting and you will gain more readers.
17. Show that we care to all bloggers, treat each other as friends.
18. Pictures say a million words. Keep them coming!
19. Blogging should be fun or you’ll get tired of it pretty soon.
20. Don’t think people will come to your blog if you’re not willing to pay a visit to them.
21. Everyone loves read short posting and best, illustrated with a picture.
22. Try not to publish more than 5 posts in one blog a day. Even if it’s from feed reader, it’s quite hard to digest and catch up reading everything.
23. Blog: the other window to peek into people’s life, minus the trouble. Keep a certain level of privacy to yourself.
*24. Never tell your readers that you are going on vacation. That’s basically telling them to not visit your blog for a week. Instead, write several posts, and take advantage of the timestamp feature.
25. Try and write with people in mind that are “somewhat similar to you”. Allow your audience to identify with your blog and feel “at home”.
26. The key to a good article is a good introduction. A joke, a question or a picture does wonders.
27. If you are looking to earn an income blogging read StevePavlina.com and Problogger.net, you will be amazed at what you can learn.
28. Write for yourself first. Remember that it takes time, effort, patience…and above all, daring. [The Laidback Buddhist]
*29. Enjoy what you write, so that reader can enjoy reading it too – Life’s Roller Coaster~
30. Use pictures in support of your writing, let readers more easier to understand~! - Lifelongsharing.com
31. Write personal experience, do not be a copycat.
*****************************************************************************************************Ok, let’s see other people’s opinions~
Shoppingmum
5xmom
Mumsgather

Movies Onboard

I’ve always disliked sitting the old airbus flying certain sectors like Beijing and Delhi. The seats are old and can only recline slightly just to make one comfortably sitting up – not lying down. Unless one is extremely tired, it would be hard to sleep. Unfortunately these 2 sectors’ flights usually require overnight sleep.

Flights to Beijing usually depart at 12:30 midnight and arrive at 6:30am. Return flights from Delhi usually leave at 2am (KL) and arrive at 7am. Really don’t understand why MAS hasn’t upgraded these planes yet.

Anyway, going back to the topic of this post – movies. These old aircrafts not only have seats that are uncomfortable, they also do not have individual screens for movies. So, you can’t sleep and you have no entertainments unless you want to read the whole night.

In my last trip to Delhi, I was surprised by MAS’s effort to meet this need! They’ve introduced a portable entertainment device, just like their normal TV screens but wireless.

They gave that out after completed take-off. It has a stand, just like a photo frame, to be put on the table for viewing.

It looks like MAS really put a lot of effort trying to satisfy their customers. Changing the aircrafts is too costly from business POV. Instead, they innovatively introduced the portable entertainment units, much inexpensive but equally effective.

The only set backs of the devices are:
They occupy the table, which can be quite clumsy and troublesome during meal times.
They have relatively less programs installed.
Nevertheless, I’m happy with that. :D

Sydney, Australia

Sigh! How many times I've been telling that I've never been to Sydney? Not sure why I kept getting requests to write reviews on hotels in Sydney. I have rejected quite many of such requests, quite sad seeing money flies away like that. :P

I'm not very good at search engines, to be frank I only use Google. I know of wikipedia, but never thought of using it to search for locations like Sydney. This morning, my supplier sent me a link to wikitravel for Hanoi, as we are planning for a trip soon. This is when I tried looking for Sydney in wikitravel. The result is encouraging.

It is like a travel guide book, has an overview, geographical detail, history/people/climate/etc, how to get in, where to stay, how to get around, what to see, what to do, etc.

In the list of places to stay, it lists down cheap hotels, mid class hotels as well as what they call 'Splurge' hotels. Very useful site.

With that site, I learnt something new about Sydney, and really hope I get a chance to be there. But then... it is not my dream place after all. If I have the time and budget, I'd go other more exortic places, unless it is on business. Hahaha!