DENcorp

Friday, November 30, 2007

My View On Thai Shopping Malls

Transportation in Bangkok is quite easy.

There are always vacant taxis and public buses around. The fares doesn't cost that much either.

A double decker bus in Bangkok

In fact, I can even walk from my hotel to the closest shopping mall in less than 10 minutes.

Talking about shopping mall, the MBK Centre in Bangkok easily beats out any shopping malls in Brunei.

The design of the building is so futuristic and somehow, on my first glance, I almost thought I was in Korea.

The building is so big that I could stay inside shopping all day long, but the time was too short and most of the time, I have to wait for my mum and sister while they're busy choosing handbags and shoes.

I really hate it. And in the end, I'm the one to hold the plastic bags and the stuffs they bought. Real heavy! So there goes the men-have-to-always-work-for-girls-theory.

That night, we had to resort to walking to Central World as it's just close by.

I have to say, Thai people drives recklessly.

They steps on the gas real hard everytime, making it hard for road passengers to cross the road. Anywhere can be a U-turn, and they keep yanking the horns everytime.

Back in Central World, there were some live bands outside the building and it seems that most of the Thais are enjoying their nightlife pretty good with 3 litres of Singha Beer on every table.

Besides the live band, I think most of the people there are enjoying Liverpool thrashing Newcastle on the two TV screens that time rather than listening to those people singing.

Man, how I wish I could stay in Bangkok longer. Especially if could shop in MBK 24-7.

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 6:51 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Sky High

*NOTE: Contents from this post may not be appropriate for Muslim readers.

My second day at Bangkok started with a nice little breakfast at the 78th floor of the hotel I lived in.

The benefit for people living in this hotel is that they get free breakfasts (Isn't that the benefit of every hotel?). This breakfast is a bit special though, instead of serving cereals and coffee for breakfast, we got a buffet breakfast, which means, we get to choose what we want to eat! And it's free!

So, I guess even an idiot wouldn't turn this chance down. What's more, eating on top of a high-rise building also comes with a bird's eye view over the beautiful city of Bangkok!

The foods available ranges from a variety of cuisines. There were Japanese cuisine, Indian cuisines, Chinese cuisines and some Western food as well but somehow, I don't think there's any Thai cuisine.

Fresh fruits and fruit juices are available as desserts.

If that's not enough, there are also cereals to provide for a nice and delightful breakfast.

The assistant cooks will also be around to make a new scrambled egg or maybe even an egg omelette if you want. There are also breads with an oven beside it for you to toast.

Breads + Scramble Egg = Awesome!

This has to be the first time that I am able to choose from so many foods just to fill my stomach for a little breakfast. The foods here can be a main course already.

This is an example of the food that is available.

From donuts to sausages to hams to bacons to toasts to omelette to fishes to roti murtabak to muffins and etc.

After having our dream breakfast, we then met up with my father's Thai friend who operates a van, driving people around Bangkok.

Using this opportunity to go somewhere Thailand have that Brunei doesn't have or wasn't able to give, we opted to go any nice temple in Thailand.

As the journey would take up to 2 hours, we had a few stops along the way.

We first stopped 7-Eleven, presumed to be at another district, to use the toilet and also to look around for a while.

The latter then brought us to a little town called Suphanburi.

The place seems old, but seems to have a lot of history in it.

We were brought to the market which is known to have lasted for more than 100 years.

Such a historic market doesn't come along everyday, might as well take a good look around.

There is a slight difference between this market and the market in Brunei.

The market here seems like a lot shophouses being put together whereas the market in Brunei is solely the market and the stalls itself.

Even grilled chickens and ducks may be seen here.

You may even buy a new little teddy bear soft-toy here.

Hahaha, obviously that wasn't a soft-toy. It's a kind of food?

It seems like you may even asks for bargain at these place. Yeah, that's the principle of shopping in Thailand - always asks for a bargain.

We had our lunch at a small restaurant, or rather an eatery, at the front of the market.

The eatery is of a wooden house origin. Very classic and doesn't have the word "trendy" in it.

I then saw a couple of photos of some people, presumably some celebrity with the taoke or lady boss of the eatery, hung on the wall of the eatery.

Hmm.. Must be some famous place eh.. Shouldn't underestimate this place.

Even the Pepsi bottles here are old school.

The place may seem old and dirty but the food here tastes nice.

A simple "chao sio, sio ba peng" added with salted egg is what I ordered.

I thought I might rate the food with an "average" but no, it tastes somewhat better than I've expected, considering I'm a very picky person who seldom eats food out of a plate cleanly.

After my mum gave a very good comment about their coffee, I wasted no time and ordered another cup of coffee despite I've already had a Pepsi in hand.

The coffee, filled with so many ice, tastes so good that my mum called it "Starbucks Coffee".

The uncle who makes the coffee here must have decades of kung fu in coffee making.

I'm not someone who likes coffee but this uncle makes me wanna drink coffee everyday.

After we ate, we then went to our desired destination. We spent about 3 hours at the temple. Our journey back to Bangkok took another 2 hours.

It was already dusk by then.

We didn't went back to the hotel directly, but instead we went somewhere else to have our dinner.

We were brought to Somboon Seafood Restaurant, a more high-class restaurant according to Thai standards.

I recommend anyone to go to this restaurant if you're going to Bangkok and looking for delicious food and a clean restaurant. What's more, waiters and waitresses are standing by our table, constantly giving us assistance and refilling our drinks.

And then, we went to Erawan Shrine before we go back to our hotel. I really have to say, being able to visit the Erawan Shrine has to be one of my happiest and proudest moment.

The shrine, situated beside Grand Hyatt Hotel, has to be the center of attraction of the area.

There are even some Thai traditional dance at the area with traditional music.

Just when I was about to go back to my hotel, I was attracted to Pratunam fashion market.

I bought 3 shirts that night, and when I get to try on it in my hotel room, none of them fits!

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 8:04 PM | 0 comments

Monday, November 26, 2007

Touch Down on the "Golden Land"

I touched down at the Suvarnabhumi Airport at roughly 1 a.m. on Thursday midnight, or shall I say Friday.

The airport has to be one of the biggest airport ever in the world!

Even though it's 1am, the airport was still very busy. So many people walking past in every direction.

Some people are so in a rush that they even have to walk so quickly through the moving walkways. I got pushed somewhere on the moving walkway. Is it necessary?

And when I was about to have my passport "chopped", I faced a long queue.

I'm so lucky to go Thailand this year. The Loy Krathong festival is just in a few days after my arrival.

As I was about to walk out of the airport, I saw a group of people, each holding a piece of paper or cards, with texts on it. At my first glance, I thought they were a bunch of protesters! Gave me a little fright here. Almost wanna run away from getting mobbed.

Despite so many taxis were waiting for customers outside the airport, we opted to use a van to go to our hotel.

I love this hotel, dubbed as the tallest tower in the whole of Thailand.

The lobby itself is on the 18th floor. There are so many lifts in this hotel.

Some lifts only transport people to limited number of floors. And the lift moves VERY fast.

Me and my family lived on the 51st floor. The view from here is simply..

..fantastic!

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 2:30 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Capital of Thailand, BangCOCK?

Man, I can't wait. In a few hours time, I'll be going to the airport.

I'm going to Bangkok!

So yeah, I'll be back very soon. Don't stop visiting.

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 4:27 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Sunburn Chronicles

I went to mall this afternoon and watched Beowulf with Tiah, Ayman, Nazrin, Jimbo, Wafi, Najaah, Ahmad, Asnawi and the rest.

The movie was OK, but I just don't quite understand the ending. Wafi gave a bad comment on the movie.

The sunburn is killing me throughout the day. Me, Tiah, Wafi and Ahmad who all got sunburn from yesterday's swimming were rather furious when people started to pat our back which we reacted by screaming and shouting "Ouch!".

Anyways, after watching the movie, we walked around the mall and I saw some pictures sticking on the wall of a particular fashion shop. They are so weird that I just can't stop myself from taking pictures of them.

I'm am so speechless lah..

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 8:46 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Most Tiring Splash

I went to swimming with Nazrin, Tiah, Andy, Lorenzo, Ahmad and Wafi at 8.30am today.

The stadium's swimming pool had a function until 12am, most probably used by Bruneian SEA Games athletes or the royal Brunei police force. Due to this, we had to move to Anggerek Desa's swimming pool instead.

There, the ticket price is much more cheaper. Like 50% off the stadium's price!

If not mistaken, I think it has been a very long time since I last came to this place.

The kid's pool looks a bit yellowish or brownish in color when we reached there. Andy thinks some kids who swam at the pool peed while swimming.

Anyways, there's even some tables and chairs for swimmers who wanna take a break off swimming and eat something maybe like a home-made pasta or noodles.

But we used it to eat roti john.

The water was so cold at first. We came at 8.30am, so there's no doubt the water is cold. But eventually, homeostasis took place and we were adapted to the situation.

There are insects and maybe some dirts in the pool, but we still swam.

There was a radio playing somewhere in the premises. Some of us tried to lip-sync the songs played on the radio and some of us even danced to the tune of the song.

Yeah, it was all very fun. If it wasn't enough, we even got balls and swim boards to play with. We played Monkey and Water Rugby with the ball. Playing rugby with the likes of Lorenzo and Ahmad, there's no way I'll be getting a chance.

At once, we used the swim board to play "Ultimate Frisbees". But in the end, I got hit by the swim board right at my face for don't know how many times. Not nice to play. Later in the day, I also got hit on the face again, this time by the ball.

And then, when we got tired and hungry, we climbed onto the surface again and went to the nearby canteen for food.

Me, Nazrin and Tiah ordered Mee Goreng. We were peacefully waiting for our orders to be done until a man came to us and told us, "Timeout! Timeout!".

I was wondering what's going on, but I was then informed that the pool is set to be closed.

About our food, they'll deliver them to the other side of the canteen, where they'll be tables and chairs for us, just like a restaurant.

I expected the Mee Goreng to be Indofood Mi Gorengs but turns out, it's just fried noodles. But I'm okay with both noodles anyway.

As the pool has been closed, we then had to walk to the stadium after we're done eating, hoping it would be empty so that we could swim, again.

Yeah, we paid $1 at the Anggerek Desa pool, and then paid another $2 at the National Stadium's pool.

We swam again for another 2 hours, where the water is way colder. When it reached 4pm, I left the pool.

After swimming from 8.30am till 4pm, there is no surprise at the fact that I am now suffering from sun burns on my back. Ouch!

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 10:30 PM | 1 comments

Monday, November 19, 2007

What's The Score Again?

Today could be one of the last day I'm at school.

I went to school today because today, our class are supposed to return all the textbooks we borrowed for this year. As stated in the memo, we were to gather and return the books in another class in Block B, not in our class.

See, this is what I like about government schools. We don't buy our own textbooks individually, instead, the school lend it to us. From this, we can save up to $50.

Also, we only pay $30 each year as school fee. Well, only for Bruneians and PRs.

Our form teacher arrived when me, Tiah, Gary, Huzai and Ahmad were playing basketball. Such a bad timing.

We all then waited for our names to be called up, so we can arrange the books on chairs in the order of the subject.

Since me and Gary's name are one of the earliest to be called up, we quickly returned our books and went off to Harun's Gym as we have a futsal match later on.

Yeah, only the two of us. We left the rest in the class, and they then have to help teacher carry all the books into the store room. Hahaaha! What a cunning plan.

Imagine them carrying the thick thick books like the Biology, Malay or Add Maths textbook? Me and Gary escaped that man.. But in the end, we were left waiting at Harun's Gym for nearly an hour. -_-"

So, to the futsal match now.. Ukatrats FC have not faced M5Sc2 for a long time.

The last time we played M5Sc2, we played in big fields, not futsal court, and we won 10-2.

I played only a very small part in today's game because I was in the gym working out for most of the time. So when I eventually played, I didn't play well. I can't relax myself and I think I played very roughly that I think someone from the opposition was pissed off at me. Wanna be a tough-tackling player also cannot.

Although we had a lot of missed chances, everyone in our team was playing in their top form.

Our best player of the day bagged more than a hat-trick. This explains why we're winning 17-12. Yeah, that's our score today. (kanasai)

We conceded a lot, 12 goals. All by careless mistakes. I think we would've conceded less if we played well defensively.

Anyways, after the game, someone opted to use the lift down instead of using the stairs. As I was so tired that time, I also gave in to use the lift.

And look at the lift. Andy called it the "elevator of hell".

Look at the floor of the lift! There's piss in it! Somebody pissed on the elevator! And you have no idea how disgusting the situation was.

The lift makes an ordinary and straight person wanna cry out like a sissy little girl. Maybe even a muscle-packed guy from Harun's Gym would do that.

Yeah, we all took a very deep breath while inside the elevator. A very deep breath. From the 5th floor to the Ground floor dammit!

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 7:15 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Trail? Don't Want Lah..

I received a phone call from Fitness Zone yesterday afternoon.

A guy named Qawi was on the line and claimed that someone (James) has written down my name on their trial list and that I may be able to join Fitness Zone on trial this afternoon in their newly opened branch at Kiulap.

I can't really hear what that guy is saying on the phone because the situation at that time was very noisy.

Several of my friends' name were included too, but they were so reluctant to go. Because none of my friend is going, I don't feel like going too.

Then last night, I received a message from Qawi.

My first impression was, that guy sounded so.. *cough*

"..remind u 4 OUR appointment"?

And I received a message from him this morning again.

I didn't reply him. It's either I ignored him or I forgot to reply him.

Then, James, who went to Fitness Zone later during the day told me..

OMG~ OMG? OMG!

And at around 5pm today, Qawi messaged me again.

Feeling a bit sorry for "pang him pe ki", I replied, yeah, for the first time.

I thought I was a bit harsh, but he didn't seem so disappointed.

If I were to go gym today, I would've gone to Harun's Gym. I don't like trials and I've heard bad things about it like being ignored and so on.

Harun's Gym is the real place for men! And Harun's Gym no pondan!

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 7:08 PM | 0 comments

Trojan turned Red Devils

Played futsal this morning.

All is nice. I think today I did a slightly better performance than before, and I aim to improve better.

Anyways, I've already bought my "new Ukatrats FC's" second jersey. Here are the pictures. P/S: All pictures are taken by me.

I know this is such a boring post. But at least I've updated. Most of my holiday activities are mainly football-related. Will try to blog about something better tomorrow or later than that.

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 6:19 PM | 0 comments

Friday, November 16, 2007

Ukatrats FC's 1st Anniversary

First of all, I want to wish Andy Teo Siang Hoe a Happy 17th Birthday, also a Happy 1st Anniversary to our very own Ukatrats FC.

To show how loyal and faithful Andy is, he had his birthday cake made to resemble the team's logo. This has to be one of the most amazing birthday cakes I've seen.

How coincidence, our team's 1st anniversary falls on his birthday.

In conjunction to our team's 1st anniversary, we'll have a futsal match against M5Sc2 this Monday.

______________________________________

My schedules for the next few days:
Saturday: Futsal Practice @ Harun's Gym (8am - 11am)
Monday: Futsal Match @ Harun's Gym ;Watching Beowulf (subject to change)
Tuesday: Swimming @ Stadium

______________________________________

Meanwhile, the "Board of Directors" of Ukatrats FC has finally confirmed to use Manchester United's 2007/08 Away Kit as its new jersey.

The "board of directors" has explained the main reason to use this jersey is to have an alternative and, a more better quality jersey.

What's more, we all wanna look good while playing football mah...

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 10:50 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Only Time Can Heal The Pain In The Ass

Same as everyone, I can't wait for the end of O Level!

I just can't wait to not face this examination hall anymore.

I'll keep reminding myself, "It's just 4 fucking days of consecutive exams, just take all these papers in one-go and I'll be free to wreak havoc,"

Because I know very very well indeed what I'm going to do when O Level is fucking gone.

I'll spend everyday of my holidays doing things I really enjoy doing. Got to give myself a well-deserved break after what I've done so far for my "studies", right?

I think most probably I'll visit Tasek at least twice in a week in the holidays. I hope so.

For the sake of being a crazy and tireless footballer, I have to keep on exercising, jogging and hiking to maintain my fitness and most importantly increase my stamina. I need to lose some weight. I can't imagine me with a fat belly running around the field chasing after a ball. In the end my body will end up like Michelin, the tyre guy?

Anyways, our very first outdoor activity is already planned, that is, to play futsal.

Everyone in the class are itching to kick some balls. I am no exception. We intended to invite some kids and play football with, so that makes a very good football practice, but our invitation were turned down, much to our disappointment.

So when the guys are playing futsal in Harun's Gym, I might also take the time to go do some work-outs in the gym itself. Is this a smart move? I call this, "One stone, two birds".

And after playing futsal and working-out, we might even hang around in Bandar.

So you see, Bandar is already a place where I can spend 1 whole day outside. What else can I ask for?

Not to forget, after watching the World Pool Championship live on TV for days, I now also can't wait to play pool.

As usual, my regular opponent will always be Edison "the scientist of pool" Tiah.

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 10:53 PM | 0 comments

Friday, November 2, 2007

MV Doulos's last day in Brunei

Since today is the last day MV Doulos will be opened to the Bruneian public, so why not go?

The ship welcomes us with open arms.

Muara Port has got to be the place in Brunei where there are so many bicycles.

Like seriously, you don't get to see so many bicycles parked together right?

Anyways, if you didn't know how the stairs ascending to the vessel looks like, it looks like this.

Yeah, people wearing high heels would have a hard time climbing this stair.

Also, wearing a pair of clogs while climbing the stairs would be difficult too.

These clogs are being displayed inside the ship.

There are other different sizes for these clogs too, so that anyone would be able to fit on them. For instance, this kid below.

Tonight, the ship seems a little bit different than the previous time I've been here.

The 1st floor of the ship now are divided into different sections.

You can get free handpainting in one corner..

And you can dress-up in any attire you want in another corner..

Surprisingly, the dress-up corner has more people and seems to have attracted a lot of attention from people.

This is the perfect place for photo opportunities on the ship.

People on the vessel here try on any attire they can find in this corner.

As usual, the books are messier and messier than before.

People who came, and looked at the books (which they don't buy, eventually) would just throw the books back on the display table. I mean, who would care putting it back onto the same position as it was?

I now saw something I didn't see last time.

I just realised they also sell erasers - smiley-erasers for $1 each. It's $1 OKAY..

$1 for a freaking small eraser!

There's gotta be some mistake with the price tag, or maybe not.

Seeing the price tag on that small eraser, I don't think the information counter would be busy dealing with customers, ever.

I have to say, the mini football seems like it would never be sold out. There's just so many of it. I wonder why they keep so much stock of the mini football.

They'd rather rename this international book fair to international ball fair! LoL, just joking.

I think there are more children's book on the ship. They even got coloring book, sticker book, children's story book and they also sell crayons.

I love dinorsaurs.

The pillars inside the ship are extraordinary. Coiled with a big rope, it makes me feel like I'm inside a ship during the mid-17th century.

Much to my disappointment, most of the ship's souvenirs and merchandises have been sold out.

Well, not most. Only the key-chains have been sold out.

The cap is almost sold out too, with only a few remaining.

So you can see, the ship's still making money on the last day. In fact, quite a lot.

Other than paying out money for buying books, the people here also donates. As this ship is owned by a charitable company, you should expect donations on board right?

Wow, I saw a $5 note!

The toilets are although small, but there's quite a lot of it.

It's a good thing, so that if more than one person needs to take a dump, there's still a room for them.

I wonder, if someone takes a dump on the ship, where does the "poop" goes to? Please don't tell me it got flushed right away to the deep blue sea once someone pulls the flush?

The toilet teaches you how to sit properly when taking a dump.

Meanwhile, I also saw some girls (should be Filipinos), getting so hooked up to a Spanish crew. They seem so obsessed with that guy that they even took pictures with him.

They even talk about where they came from and blah blah blah.

Anyways, there's also quite a lot of safety boat on board. Each and every of the safety boats seemed so heavy and so tightly locked up. i wonder how would they respond quickly to release the safety boat if something occurs? *touchwood*

Sigh~

This marks the end of MV Doulos's journey to Brunei. I heard they won't be coming back again. Don't ask my why, just ask the sponsors instead.

And don't forget the sponsors of the ship coming to Brunei are....

NBT!!!

___________________________________________________________________
:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 11:37 PM | 0 comments