Of celebration and feasting

Last Monday, marked the end of the Chinese New Year for the year 2009. As usual, time passes in a blink. It will be the last Chinese New Year which I celebrated in Malaysia, before going overseas, soon. Having said that, I extended my own CNY holidays for the sake of having a longer one; and more time for feasting, eating and visiting. These are some photos of the pre-CNY celebration in malls around Kuala Lumpur.

The art of pouring tea.

Models flaunting their stuff at Mid Valley.

An event at Sungai Wang

As, I had previously mentioned, my Chinese New Year was celebrated in Kuching this year, Despite the ban on fireworks , pyrotechnics was always an integral part of the celebration. Fireworks started flaring into the skies as the clock struck 12. However, either due to the current economic crisis or stronger legal enforcement; the show ended 30 minutes after 12. A starking contrast to last year's , where the blasting continued till almost 1.30 am.

A glimpse into the fireworks display in Kuching.

I initially wanted to do some studying for linear algebra during the holidays, but as it always happened, plans are laid, but I get too lazy to put those plans into action. I practically, spend the whole week on holiday mode, without touching the book. I did , however, help to "layan" some of the guests.

An inquisitive little kid. Isn't he cute ?

Sure enough, I went on a visiting spree. A record , where I visited the most number of houses throughout all my CNY celebrations.

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There’s certain terms and condition to be eligible for it. You must be DIGI Prepaid/Postpaid registrant for more than 3 months. And the free PA policy covers you with RM 10,000 PA from AIG General Insurance as long as you stay active with DiGi.

Trillionaires, maybe not

Interest rates will be slashed.I guess the government isn't keen of having people walking around with trillion dollar notes, like those issued in Zimbabwe last month.

Ushering in prosperity

Gong Xi Fatt Chai

It's the time of the year again-the lunar New Year . This time around, I'll won't even be going back to Serian. It's interesting to see how my Chinese New Year celebration evolves throughout the years. During my younger years, I still remember my mum busy preparing food for the reunion dinner at my grandpa's place in Serian.Nowadays, my Chinese New Year is celebrated in the city. 
However, one element of the Chinese New Year that has not changed is the red packets or known as ang pows among the Chinese. It's a vital part of celebration and something to make up for my excessive spending over the weeks. This is a short quickie, as, I should be off, preparing to blast some sparks. To everyone who's celebrating , I would like to wish you, Happy Chinese New Year. =)

Meeting up with the lamer

Last Sunday, I went to Mid valley to meet up with Julia before she went back to Providence.On Monday, I found out that she got stranded at JFK Airport and had her valuables which refers to some face wash and stuff confiscated .She came back to Malaysia for her winter break without souvenirs. On that day, Midvalley was rather packed with people.Kelvin , Sing Hoe and Valerie came as well, but they arrived later as they had to go to church in the morning. So, Julia and I had ice-cream, which she later decided was better off applied to the skin-MY skin, went around Midvalley; looking at puppies including a chihuahua which pissed and shit all around, smuggling her into the Malaysia Career and Training Fair 2009, and looking at a certain pink skirt, before the rest arrived to save me .

Nice atmosphere at The Gardens.

Julia and me.

Some gay dude. ( Kelvin)

Sing Hoe and Valerie.

Just pretend that you didn't see the dude on the right.=p

Apparently , Julia has some fetish for glasses or something.Just look at the facebook photos for proof.

Despite her innocent look, she can be quite evil at times.

Look, she 's attempting to hurt the cameraman's eyes.

Rantings of a frequent traveller

Sometimes, travelling around in Malaysia can be a tiresome matter.  Take the KTM for an example.

Crowds of people waiting to board the KTM.

Once in a while, especially during weekends, you see this scene in the KTM.

It's a place where you get pushed, shoved and to some extent molested.

In times like this, where I have to stand, I would stand like a penguin, with my hands on the pockets. Being in a situation that pack like sardines , I don't have to fear falling over, as bodies will form a sort of general support for me. The risk, I would worry about is being pick-pocketed or having my stuff pushed out of my pockets. Trust me , it happens.

This sort of explains why every Malaysian wants to have their own automobile. And why cars are a preferable means of transport.

Something like this.

Another means of transport that I have been taking frequently is planes. 
If you're flying to Kuala Lumpur, you would usually have to walk into the terminal.

Like these people.

But, if you're flying from/ to Kuching, like I always do. You'll get to use the sky bridge to the plane, if you're lucky. Well, so far, I'm always lucky. 

Yes, the sky bridge. Airasia has been trying to upgrade their services.

But LCCT has become a little too pack. Reminds me of KL Sentral or Pudu during the holiday seasons.You get two queues leading to the same counter. Or someone telling you to make way for him/ her to pass. If you still remember my  tiring day at airport , it'll be a terrible experience for tourists if something goes wrong.

Despite LCCT's expansion ,  Airasia's statistics shows that the capacity of LCCT will not be able to sustain the volume of increasing customers of Airasia. 

This would probably lead to some consumers choosing to travel by MAS  @ KLIA over Airasia as for reasons related to comfort and travelling pleasure.
And recently, there's been an ongoing debate on whether Airasia should carry on with their project at Labu. The KLIA-East project. Some say it's a waste of money. Some say it's unnecessary.But, I actually believe this project is a very good one. Not only will it spur economic growth, develop the town of Labu, but it will also propel Malaysia to become South East Asia's aviation hub.