Hello 2008

Images of Thailand - Cultural Dancers

I am in love again!!

Help me!!! I am in love again!!! No not with another woman.. I am in love with the new Honda Accord 2008.

While on my way to Hua Hin, I managed to see a magazine which featured the new Honda Accord. I could see that it is a new model but I do not understand what was written in Thai. I managed to pass by a Honda showroom where there was a unit being displayed but it was too bad that I could not stop to see the car itself. I was also not able to see the car being display in any of the malls that I went to in Bangkok.

So I have to resort to view the website of Honda Thailand at http://www.honda.co.th/accord
I love the car!! It look sleeks and nice and I am awaiting for its arrival in Malaysia, I think would be middle of next year before I decide to... huh? WAKE UP!!!

Ok ok, here are some wallpaper of the car and a YouTube clip of the advertisement:

Swadee Bangkok

The children have completed their examinations (STP and SPM) and they were all rally to go for a vacation. This time around it would be Bangkok. Why Bangkok? Because my wife's uncle and cousin are Thais and they are staying in Bangkok. They were here in KL during Chinese New Year and we thought that it would be nice to reciprocate their visit to foster the relationship. At the same time, my wife's uncle, aunt and cousins have always be requesting to visit them in Bangkok. My daughters were excited because they can shop for their clothings there. So we made arrangement to fly there and join a tour for 3 days and extend our stay in Bangkok for a total of a week. All arrangements for the tickets, tour and accommodation were done on own on. The worse part was the accommodation, it seems that every hotel in Bangkok is full! We hesitated to go to Bangkok when I was informed that the General Election is scheduled on 23 December when were are in Bangkok. Fearing that there my be unrest after the ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, we fear that the party of the former PM would create some problems during the election. My wife made some calls to some friends in Bangkok and got the assurance that the King has requested for a peaceful election and that Bangkok would be safe during the elections.

We took off from Kl on 18th December, taking the ERL from Tasek Selatan to KLIA. We landed at the new (one year old) Suvarnabhumi Airport and it is very obvious that the traffic (passengers and planes) at the Bangkok airport is very much more that our KLIA.

We were greeted by our tour guide, a short guy call Pradit but he prefer to be called by his nickname Noome who speaks so-so English. The van was also waiting for us and we were taken to check-in to our hotel, The First Hotel which is located the center of the busy Pra Tu Nam area of Bangkok. We choose this hotel because it is very near shopping area and walking distance from the Skytrain.

We only had time to freshen up before my wife's aunt and cousin arrived at the hotel to greet us. Our next stop was the famous four face Buddha located in the Erawan Hotel. The San Phra Phrom or Erawan Shrine was created as a spirit house connected to the Erawan Hotel, which has now made way for the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel. There were so many people there both locals and tourist performing their offering and prays there. We bought colourful flower garlands, gold leaves, incense, and candles. We then performed our prayers at the shrine. I managed to made offering twice on all the four faces of Buddha.

Then off we go for our dinner. Dinner was at a local Chinese restaurant but with the added Tomyam to act as the appetizer for the dinner. I am able to take the spicy and sour soup while my children find it hard to take it.

After dinner, we were taken to the famous night bazaar, Suan Num Night Bazaar. I find it hard to do my shopping there because the place is stuffy and hot. Then we need to bargain to buy the goods there. My wife's aunt and cousin came along with us and they managed to bargain much better than us (since they are local there). There was an item were we bought for Baht160 and for the same price, they were about to bargain to buy two items for the same price.

After a tiring day, we went back to the hotel and rested for our long journey for the next day to Pattaya.

Arrival at the Suvarnabhumi airport

One of the many "guardian" gods at the airport

The emblem for the 80th birthday celebration of theKing. The devotion and respect of the King is very obvious in Thailand.

The four-face Buddha shrine

A closer view of the four-faced Buddha

You know that you are in Thailand when you see this sign!!

Merry Christmas greetings

Ho! Ho! Ho!, it is the time of the year to say Merry Christmas to all my readers.
I have been away from home for the past week and was on vacation on Bangkok with the family. We arrived back late last night on Christmas eve and I need to re-adjust myself before I can put up this post. There are stories to be told during my stay in Bangkok and many photos to show. Please come back to view my stories and photos here and also at my Flickr album.

In the meantime, the picture of the Christmas tree was captured at the Twin Tower Hotel in Bangkok.

New malls around KL

As the festive season is in and bonus time is also in, a few malls have pop up within KL and PJ areas. Well only one is new while two others are extension of the existing malls. The new mall is The Pavilion (where I shot some fashion photos) while the Garden is the extension at Mid Valley and Sunway Pyramid had a new extension wing.

Today I have the chance to visit the Garden, the new extension of Mid Valley. There two new anchor tenants which are Isetan and Robinson. The place was nice and with good architecture and interior design. I managed to snap some scenes the place before I was informed by a "security" girl who politely informed me that I am not suppose to take pictures in the premise.

Here are some photos taken during my trip to the Garden and Mid Valley today.

The "security" lady who advise me to stop shotting!!

A view of my son and I through the Christmas tree crystal ball

Rainy days and Monday

Monday.. rainy day.. it is now 9.00 p.m. and it has not stopped raining since 10.00 a.m. this morning. The rainy season is here in Kuala Lumpur.

Yes.. I am back in Kuala Lumpur, my hometown, my city after being away for almost a month in Manila.. I am finally back home!!!

Well actually I left Manila on 1 December. I rushed back to office the following Monday to prepare for my next project.. organising the Team Building event for my group. I volunteered to organise the first team building event for my group after being persuaded by some of my close friend. Most of the work organising the event was done remotely from Manila with the help of my colleagues who are in office. It was not an easy task since rounding up all the staff to participate in the event. Some of them were away from office on assignment overseas, some cannot come because they have to look after their children, the was one who was had tendered his resignation and there a few who said that they could not join the whole event because they need to attend to meetings and other work. Come on!! Where is the team spirit for a TEAM BUILDING event???

Ok ok.. I can bear with them. The event was held at Genting View Resort and the staff were saying why go there where it so near to KL. Why could not they go to the beach or mountain or water rafting?? WHY??? Because we are sort of the budget and there is a direction to have it for a 2 days maximum course!!

How many more obstacle that this event has to go through before we proceed??? Then came the T-shirt issue.. some of those who could not make it to the event wanted the T-shirt. The decision given was that those who are not attending the event are not entitled for the T-shirt. Then there were complains.. in the end, we were given the OK to provide also T-shirts for those who did not attend the event.

On the big day, Friday, 7th December, we were off to Genting View Resort. It rained!!! Wet wet wet and cold. But the event still need to go on and it did. Everyone enjoyed it!! See the pictures.. I don't want to say more.