Hi All,

I'm going through a very roller coaster time right now.....so many things are happening and I am definitely not getting enough sleep! Now what can drive a girl to lose precious beauty sleep?

Is it Work?
Is it Money?
Is it Men?

Merdeka's just passed and I didn't celebrate.....not saying in the least that I am ungrateful for the fact that Tunku Abdul Rahman (to paraphrase a recent Edisi Siasat) 'menitik darah' for our Independence, but I thought I'd stay home and pay tribute and custom to the many TV shows that were being aired about the Kemerdekaan Celebrations......I mean somebody's going to have to watch them right?

Anyways, was catching, while reading, the 8TV Quickie with Rena, Marion and Adam......they were very happy and fun and I must say they are very good hosts in the sense that I never get irritated watching them, I never hear bad grammar or just bad English and I actually sit through their Quickies....which is something I rarely do with Malaysian TV......

Then, whaddayaknow! They have little VoxPops (Voice on The Street) where people say why the Like Living in Malaysia or Why Malaysia is Great or something to that effect....and what do I see on National TV on the Day when Malaysians of all creed, colour and race are celebrating in 'perfect' unity????

There is a musical group - the role models for our leaders of tomorrow.....saying, and I quote, "Malaysia is great because of the way it's spelled! M-A-L-A-Y--S-IA!" No mistakes have been made with the hyphens inserted between the letters - just imagine the spaces to denote timing and rhythmn.....Now, tell me what that means and tell me if I am paranoid.

SELAMAT MENYAMBUT HARI MERDEKA EVERYBODY - ESPECIALLY IF YOU REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS!

Well, well, well! Another week, another podcast! Thanks firstly, to all the people who have subscribed and listened and enjoyed and written back re the podcast - we're now at Episode 4, can you believe it and hopefully there'll be many more to come.....

If you haven't tried it out, please come listen and just try it on for size to see if you'll enjoy it, you never know!

Here's the link again:

www.ppsreview.blogspot.com

Don't try, don't know. 'Millions' have tried it and liked it......you may be the next one!

Thanks!!!!

I have a very simple blog this time. Something so simple that I can't believe it even happened.....

The PAN PACIFIC HOTEL next to KLIA - a 5 star hotel.....needed my 15 sen more than me so they kept it!!!

Too upset to talk about it still. Last Friday, I was trying to catch a plan so went to the hotel to grab some dinner. I stupidly suggested Pan Pacific because I'd never been there. Encountered a stupid maitre'd who said, "Ah" to my question about the buffet that was being offered. Well, nowhere else to eat so ordered my food, had some ok food, asked for the bill.....(during which time I saw the maitre'd ask a mat salleh couple 2 times how their food was - this graciousness ostentatiously missing from the dinner service of locals and some Indonesians......Talk about Colonial hangups which perpetuate in this country and make me fume!!!!

The bill came, was paid with cash........There was supposed to be change but hey.....The Pan Pacific Hotel decided they wouldn't bring the change and receipt back to us. They decided they would just keep the (albeit) 15 sen without so much as a "Keep the Change!" from the Customer, or a simple question of "May we keep your change since we are donating 15 sen from every bill to cancer research?"

Audacious? Well, finally after being asked, they brought back 10 sen......I am very honoured to stand beside D who is brave enough to tell them that, "You're a 5 star hotel......even a mamak shop can afford to give customers back their full change."

There you have it - our very own dregs of the hotel industry - if you're reading this Pan Pacific - you'd better conduct better training and design better policies which show you are more customer driven than self-driven!

Suffice to say that I can eat better food at a lot of other places and definitely get better service anywhere else!

All I can ask is: Was 15 sen really worth all this bad press?

Alrighty now, the second podcast has been recorded and will be out soon after it's edited. It's quite a bit of fun this thing although it does require some preparation. No I'm not talking about making up scripts and rehearsing our laughs but we do have to do some work you know.

So, what's been happening with life? Of course, the haze. Enough said about that. I was kinda worried about our security guards at the office cos they are stationed outside the building at various different posts. This coupled with the fact that the haze is especially bad where I work - I asked the management whether there were any plans to outfit our guards with masks. I thought I was doing a kind deed but the reply that came back was that, "Thanks but they're already wearing masks!" Now, if that doesn't make me look like an unobservant idiot, I don't know what does.

So, on to other stuff. Have made plans to go home after a long long time. Yippeee!!! It's birthday month for my family now and it'll be great to get back. Which leads me to - my birthday celebration. D took me to Le Francais Restaurant at One Bangsar. It was quite nice - the appetizer that we had (Salmon and Scallops) was not quite as good as we hoped but the mains we had (Lamb and Duck) were good. The Chocolate Terrine dessert was also not as good as expected but the Thyme Creme Brulee I liked - though D didn't enjoy that quite as much as I did.

The Duck was apparently imported from France so it is supposed to be quite gamey/tough. I told the waiter D was game for the duck! HAhahahhahahahahahahahahaa..........

By the way, shopping in Shanghai China is fantastic - I have a friend there now who's been buying stuff for me (fake) and they're great at great prices!

Til next time! Do good deeds.

Project Petaling Street PODCAST!!!

For the first time ever, I've participated in a Podcast! In case you don't know what a podcast is - it's people recording themselves talking about anything and everything and then making it available to people over the internet. So check my podcast out - I did it with D and it's pretty cool for a first effort!

Here's the link: http://ppsreview.blogspot.com/

So, what we've done is picked some cool blogs out there in the world and then talked about them to try and add some more interesting facets and analysis........but for this one podcast, we're talking about interesting blogs from Project Petaling Street - Project Petaling Street is like this big blog database that showcases Malaysian blogs. However, they're only there for a day and after 24 hours, the blogs are gone foreverrrr!!! So we're here to try and immortalise the most fascinating blogs via online voice.

Have fun!

Bali Hai!!!!!!!

First and foremost, Bali Travel Tips!

1. Bring enough rupiahs
2. Bargain Bargain Bargain - shopping is king!
3. Bring enough rupiahs....

I went for 2.5 days and it wasn't enough by a stretch! Because shopping is tantamount with me, I had to even Skip My Massage session in order to do a bit of last minute shopping on Sunday morning. Since I had already missed the 'Morning Price'for all previous days, I might as well make use of this one eh?

What is morning price then? Well, just as the Chinese have their customs of definitely making the sale to the first person who walks into your shops - so do the Balinese - or maybe it's just the Ubudians - that's where I was.

Ubud is a lovely chock-a-block town of artisans so you get the most beautiful (and not so nice) paintings, metal art, batik, silver work etc. The moment, you walk into a shop or near one, they call out to you, these friendly lovely (CUT THROAT) people. Especially early in the morning because they believe that once you make the first sale of the day, luck will follow and they WILL have roaring business forever......and a day.

Generally, bargaining is expected so the Ubudians start the process by quoting a price about 200% what they will/can sell the item to you for. So, unless you're Donald Trump (but then you don't get to be Donald Trump by buying stupidly), chop the price suggested in half and lower it a bit more. Then, as they come down, you go up - but you should be getting, in the end, at least a 30% discount!

Some kind hearted consumers might feel, gosh! they're so poor, we can't take away too much of their profit. P-shaw! These are seasoned business people, used to the tourist market and making money! If we ever found out their capital for business, we'd be shocked and appalled at how we've been cheated - albeit willingly!

However, I do hold that mantra in mind when dealing with artists - of the painting kind. I find it a bit distateful to negotiate too low a price because it is actually insulting to the artist in question - especially if he's the one selling you the painting. It seems to mean, you don't think too much of his work and will only part with a measly amount of money for the hard work, sweat, blood and tears he's put down to eke out a living! So, my acquisition in that area was a painting on velvet of the Buddha's face - a bit larger than an A4 size piece of picture for RM40-50. I love the picture and think it is my treasure of the trip!

And of course, me being the earring queen - DIDN'T buy any earrings. Seem to have found them too expensive - what with MegaMall selling 3 pairs for RM10 - I didn't see the need to spend RM20 for one pair of delicate silver work. (You know, they won't sell to you when you walk away and they don't keep calling out lowering prices after you!)

Did buy sequined sandals and slippers though - one other person on the tour bought 8 pairs and I thought I was a shoe freak. But it turns out she had friends to give them to. Anyway, I'm not so much into flattie shoes. Me like the high stilleto heel!

Then of course, we have the fun beachy dresses and I bought a lace kebaya and sarong for RM100....think I got mighty screwed on that one but it was my first buy of the trip and I was a greenhorn........

Got souvenirs as well, some carved coconut monkeys that were quite hard to cart around, a bag that D bought for me for an altogether much too high price, went on a Tanah Lot tour for Rupiah 80,000 (Rupiah 50,000 = RM20). I hear the Kintamani Tour is a must-do to see the Black Volcano - but hey, D doesn't relish being told what to do and we decided to strike out on our own to check out the different tours. The thing about Bali is that no matter what you want, there are always at least 5 different vendors who are offering the same thing - for different prices. So check around!

One final note, about Bali, if you're looking for magnets, buy them at the airport - buy them at this souvenir shop near Gate 4 - the Mas departure gate cos I didn't see a piddly piece of magnet anywhere else in Ubud or Seminyak. (Notice I didn't talk much about Seminyak - that's how much I really liked the place - a lot of high market boutiques if that's what you're into). I got my magnet - a slipper - for Rupiah 3000 I believe it was.

Final final note about Bali - Puri Wulandari Boutique Spa and Resort costs RM800 a night, is set about 20 minutes drive away form Ubud town centre in the middle of padi fields. It's gorgeous and luxurious and the service is impeccable - I was Ibu Tan Sen Luang....hehehehehehe. Anyway, I kept thinking to myself, "THIS is how the Rich live!"

So, from now til my next adventure - Bali Hai ...................................
(What DOES that mean anyway?)

Here is a video of the room I stayed in while in Bali. Excuse the drunk cameraman look, I was excited. You can also download the video.

Hey, we're here in KLIA playing withn Free Internet, I guess the emphasis is on 'free', since there isn't much Internet to go by. Thank you very much Samsung Digitall connect. My 28.8 modem was better.

Anyway, beggars can't be choosers, and we've spent the last ten minutes trying to post this. And if you don't see it, it means it hasn't.

We're off to Bali and shopping. And temples. And sunsets. And shopping.

Bai Bai

Has it actually been so long since I last wrote? ( think the preceedeing sentence has become a bit of a traditional precursor for me to any one of my blogs - whenever you don't see this, it must not be me writing! ;) )

By the way, another coool thing that happened while I was in Perhentian was that I was part of the fire show - what? you beg to ask. Well, let me tell you - it's cool having friends in high places. What happened was, there was 'Lady Boy' who was one of the waiters at Bubu Resort - and some of you may know how I have this 'thing' for lady boys, hehehehehehee. Anyway, he was very nice with orange hair; didn't like Mr Black though - arrogant son of a slug - he got his though! Alright, let's get back to happier news. Lady Boy was one of the performers in the nightly fire show....he'd had two chains dangling from each hand, both of which have a ball of fire hanging at one end. These balls are lighted up and guess what, there you go - fire balls for a fire show. He'd swing them balls every which way and create these beautiful patterns in the night scene.

To make everything even more exciting and personal for the audience, of course some of us in the crowd were invited to go on sand (no stage) and try swinging for our lives......Lady Boy picked me, I went, all game and excited and did my turn entertaining my big group of friends. So much fodder for the cameras. No camera of my own but anyway, Liz got a beautiful clear-on pic of me which I shall try to put on the moment I get my hands on it.

Here I am looking for life experiences - there you go, there's one!