Small Durian Party @ 7 July 2007

Some of us were eager for fish soup at Semb Hill this Sat. In fact, this was to be like the biggest turnout ever. The 2 new girls were quite kaypoh and wanted to join us for the fishsoup that we kept talking about. Andrew and Elyn also dashed all the way for the 500 mile journey to join us in this strange PF ritual. The plan was to proceed later to Woodgrove to get our Durian Fix. But Vicky, Gary and Irene had some prior appointment and would be missing it.

Vicky "showed off" her poor scratched rims. But most of us thought it was quite alright. (Wait till it happens to us!). She got some sand paper to do some carpentry work to reduce the damaged look. Her BF would be in for some DIY duties.

We were a tad early for the Durians and had to do some waiting. It was originally slated for 1.30pm, but due to the rain and the Jam and falling killer branches, it would be at 2pm. It was interesting to see the Lorry load of pricky fruit arriving. The stall was a popular one and the minute the Durians were unloaded, it immediately sprang into business.

We duly got our styrofoam boxes of the addictive yellow stuff and proceeded to my home for the Party. All agreed that the Durians were good stuff and eagerly tucked into the succulent flesh. We ate till we all got too much of it, that there were quite a handful left that nobody wanted to touch. Talk about too much of a good thing.

The guys had fun with Burnout3 in the hope of burning some durian fats, and did some destructive driving. Hopefully on the way back, they could remember not to drive like what they did. Already Vicky scratching the rims was just a heart pain affair.

The fish soupers


Strange posters...Shermaine and Shan were here.




The "long" queue


I had never seen so much Durians in my life.


Burnout!

Mango Trip @ 17 Jun 2007

Kungfu Masters (TESTING)


As per tradition, a short writeup on the trip.

Day started later than usual. Being a Sunday, we could afford to take our time to strut slowly across the causeway. At 7.30am, the causeway was fairly jammed at the Singapore side. But after clearing it, it was smooth sailing all the way. Weather this morning was a little under, but it soon cleared up along the way. Actually, it turned out that the whole day was quite cool and pleasant.

We did a "compulsory" breakfast at Danga Bay at Vicky's request. However, there wasn't much to eat and everyone dug in into some pretty standard fare of Nasi Lemak. After filling our stomachs, we headed onwards to our first stop, Desaru Beach.

But one nitty gritty thing to settle first. Some of us had to change money. Luckily enroute, we had to past by Sentosa. There were shops aplenty there, and we came across a shop there opened early for the likes of us.

By then, it was already 9.30am. We had wasted quite a fair bit of the morning. By the time we reached the beach, it was already like 11am. The water there looked cool and inviting. P2 wanted to dive headlong into the sea, and had to be restrained with substantial force from doing so. We spent some time wading along the edge of the beach and generally had fun . Even though it was the late morning, the sky was overcasted and not hot at all.

After washing up and all, it was already 12pm. Naturally, it was food time, and we headed to Sg Renggit for some chow. Like we did the last time, we ate at the Lucky Restoran. But today, not too lucky, as the restoran was quite crowded. I think we waited like half an hour for the food to arrive. By then, anything would taste good. GG joined us here mid way .

By the time we finished, it was already 2.30pm. Goodness, not much time left. We had to cut short all the extraneous activities and just go for the important sights. The Ostrich farm was just a short 5 mins drive away. For RM8, it was a worthwhile experience. Certainly, we came out much wiser to the life cycle of a humble Ostrich.

Next, it was onwards to the fruit farm. (The grand purpose of the trip this time). Doubtless, it was Mangoes session alright. There were racks upon racks of mangoey smelling green thing. We the aunties and uncles were buying it by the kilos. Most definitely, the load on the car was much heavier than when we arrived.

At around 5pm, we started to head back towards Sin. QG had to be back by 7pm for some classes. Unfortunately, traffic was quite heavy today and we were quite delayed. At one point, GG got lost. With the help of my GPS *ahem*, I located him at one corner eating ice cream. Get back here, I commanded. Yes sir, he replied, and soon was galloping in the distance towards us. Pica7 shed a tear at the sight of a long lost brother coming back to the fold. *play sad music here*.

I think we touched down in Sin around 7.10pm. Sorry that QG had to be late for Whatever. The next meet, I will buy him "Anything" for his "Whatever". Thanks to RT&S for helping to lead the flocks. They weren't feeling too well but yet still tried hard to join us. Don't worry about GNH, I would be back next week for servicing. (and more mangoes). How many kilos you want?

http://forum.onemotoring.com.sg/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=3842#72798

Anniversary @ 19 May 2007

We met at Bukit Timah Hawker for a makan session. The anniversary was hushed hushed in the forum due to some of us not wanting Orange to join. Eric was finally meant to met Andrew and Elyn today, but turned out that they would come later. Eric unfortunately had to go back to work. So, it was a missed opportunity again.

Turnout was quite good with almost all of us, except for our Tek, GG and Su and Isham. Su seemed to have some difficulties with transport as Isham was away at Sentosa for an event. Gary was about to pick her, but her son fell sick and couldn't make it.

After our pleasant dinner, we moved on to Little guiLing for a get together place. Andrew and Elyn + P2 joined us later at our cake cutting there. It had been ages that I had been here, and it was nice to visit again. The place was rather dark and we hobbled under a cave like shelter. Water was very calm and looked tempting. Someone on a bicycle was going around fishing.

We were happy to have Shermaine joined us this round, and we officially made her a member there and then. She was quite surprised and took to our group very well. We all teased her about leaping over the water to demostrate some of her kung fu prowess.

We stayed till late and P2 was getting tired. Andrew and Elyn had to leave. The rest were stil full of energy and suggested to go Mac at West Coast. We hung around there for awhile, but XM was getting quite edgy due to her tiredness. After some drinks and kopi, as well as a few rounds of my Dopod golf games, we went home after an ev.
entful evening.

Secret Spot #2 @ 22 Apr 2007

Great to finally meet Vicky and Melody. Hope you all had fun at the Secret Spot and wasn't too shock in meeting the rojak people of the PFs. I didn't bring my trusty camera to take any pics, so will need to wait for Pica7 and RedTide7 to upload them.

Please put them here.

But meanwhile, I have some pics from my previous trip. Just to share with the others in the forum. See if you can see the birds and the bees.

Pengerang @ 18 Mar 2007

Last minute, speed and 7 couldn't make it and it ended up with only 3 cars. But nevertheless, we took off around 7+am and headed for JB. Traffic was smooth and we cleared the custom and decided to do a big breakfast at Carrefour. We had a hearty meal and had a good time catching up with every other.

8+am, weather was overcast. And it stayed that way, which was kind of nice. Mr Sun only came out after lunch. We drove up to Kota tinggi and turned out towards Desaru. Halfway there, I past by the fruit farm and decided to detour for an early look.

Farm was quite empty, the helpers were all too ha$p$py to see us. However, from the outside, we couldn't see much. There was an entrance fee to be paid to get the tour treatment. We ended up just shopping around the souvenior shop for some goodies. Mangoes were not in season, and nothing much worth buying, just some tidbits.

From there, it was just a 10 mins down the road to Desaru. Reaching there, the sea was really clean, nice and bluish. Lots of people were already there, swimming, and even a duo doing fishing from the beach. Shan22's boy couldn't wait to dash into the water. We spent like about an hour there swiming and kicking sand into people's face.

Moving out from there, it was already near to lunch. We thought it might be better to do the lobster lunch there and then. Driving up to Sg Renggit, we stopped by Redtide's fav shop and had a hearty lobster meal in various style.

After filling our stomachs, we drove further to check out the resort that red was talking about. It was quite a nice (though quiet) place. Good for some r&r. there was an interesting small fishing platform at about 100m into the sea. Looked like guest can take a boat out to fish from there.

Next, we stopped by redtide's some sort of uncle's place and had an interesting visit to an authentic fisherman kind of house. The backyard was a kelong type of platform out into the sea. Very windy and nice view of the ocean. Mahjong was possible here and it would be an ideal setting. Nothing like losing money in a scenic environment. We were shown various keepsake of interest, like a shark teeth skeleton which was caught many years ago, real bird nest and so on. Also, there was a arapaima and we were treated with a demo of how arapaima would feed on a dead fish. The xtreme power of the fish taking the dead fish out of the uncle's hand gave everyone a shock. It was really something. No one dared to stand near the well after that.

Next, was on to ostrich farm. On the way, I almost ran into a dog. Dog was standing on the side of the road. I gave a tap on my horn to get his attention. But to my surprise, after seeing my car, he dashed across the road. I did a quick swerve to the right and barely just missed him. From the rear mirror, he looked alright. But I think I scuff him a little, maybe on the ears or something.

Reaching the farm, from the outside, farm was quite misleading and we sort of couldn't find it when we were just outside of the entrance. The workers were kind of amused that we just drove past them. But the farm itself was really interesting and we were treated to be pecked by ostriches, feeding them, even sitting on them and also seen how the animal behave while doing it courtship dance and such. The egg itself, a human could stand on it and it would take his weight. Really was an eye opener. We were treated to the grand tour by a nice uncle as it wasn't crowded. The uncle really knew his birds and we could see his love for them. There was also this very naughty looking monkey, well, just monkeying around, and entertain us with all its antics. The time was getting late, and we missed running out to Sebana cove for good coffee. Instead, we headed straight to Jusco for dinner and some simple shopping and then back to brave the causeway jam. But surprisingly, the jam wasn't too bad, and I think we all cleared the causeway in roughly 45 mins.

All in all, a very good and informative trip. Kind of like a school excursion. Thanks to redtide for knowing the place so well. We certainly managed to cram quite a few activities in a short time.

http://forum.onemotoring.com.sg/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=3212#52487

Lovey Dovey (TESTING with <img src="...">)

JB Shopping @ 14 Jan 07

The day started out early at 7am, as we had to meet to avoid woodlands jam. Later we found out that it was probably not necessary. Custom traffic was very smooth and no problem crossing the bridge at all. Weather was fine (no rain), although it was a tad gloomy with the darkening skies. This was Cdder first overseas outing with us, and we were glad to have him with us, together with his whole family. The eventual turnout was 5 cars, blue diamond, cobalt, white, black, silver. Tek being the lazy sort would crawl out of bed later to and meet us at Moffiz later. This time round, we headed for Mac at Carrefour to have our breakfast, instead of the usual Danga Bay. Mac here is cheaper than in Singapore and tasted just as good. After filling our stomachs, we took some "pichers" of the cars at the carpark and headed down to Moffiz. We were too early for Moffiz but the Giant there was already open. Good, so we sat off to scratch our shopping itch and shopped around Giant for some bargains. Moffiz opened at 10am and I got my rain visor, and Jacky did his wiring for his back speakers.

Since Jacky was taking some time for the installation, I led the rest to Carrefour for more shopping rather than wait for him. There was an interesting pet shop there carrying scorpions, gecko, cats, star tortoises etc etc...Shopping there was rather quick and Jacky rejoined us around 12.30pm. We decided to head somewhere else for lunch as there wasn't much to eat there.

This time round, I brought them to the GIANT at PLENTONG . It was quite a busy place with many shops around, although not the upmarket ones that you find at Jusco. We had a good lunch together before everyone splited for more shopping till 3.30pm. This was where you could find a poorly run pet food with a skinny money in a cage. The arapaima was an exhibit at the cetnre of the mall. Come 3.3pm, Cdder and Tek had to move off and I led them back to the Carrefour road and we parted ways. At the junction before, Tek mistook my hand signals for "follow me" as "drive like mad and get out of here on your own"...and promptly drove off the wrong way. The last I know, I think he was headed for Russia. (Tek, if you are reading, drop us a note to let us know how you are doing in Russia). I couldn't do anything but to see him gallop into the distance over the horizon. He didn't have roaming, so no way to contact him except by telepathy...but he didn't have the telepathic power like me. Haz.

http://202.172.177.69/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=2797

Kukup @ 10 Dec 2006

We are back. (obviously) For what I thot should be an ez going trip and something that should end mid afternoon, today had been certainly an energy sapping, "make your leg in need of a massage" day. I think partly due to the HOT sizzling weather (at kukup), and also the demands on our leg power for the walkabout. Some people were rather weak in that department and kept complaining about tiring and want to faint and cannot walk. Hng.

We started around 7:15AM, meeting at our standard meetup point. Jane reported sick and Shan couldn't make it as well. So, it was left with four of us to hit the road. GG was a little late, and when he arrived, we admired his new shiny rims and sped off to the custom without much of a Jam. The causeway was sort of jam at the earlier stretch, but that was due to buses blocking the roads, making the way to the checkpoint effectively on 2 lanes. But passing that point (of the butt of the blocking bus), it was quite fast as the queues were short.

We did our usual breakfast at Danga Bay, stuffing ourselves on Nasi Lemak. GG had a special menu that he tapaoed from Singapore. We all "WAH" and thought in our hearts that the next trip, will get him to tapao for us as well. This is GG first overseas outing with us, and he brought along his other better half of his ghost. We did some rounds of intro and a little chit chat.

We reached Kukup around 10+am very smoothly but the weather at this time was scorching hot. I was tempted to strip to my trunks but with the ghosts around, better not. Didn't want them to see my Dragon tatto on my back. First thing to do was to do the visit to fish farm/National Park thingy. Boat came and ferried us to the National Park. From there, we had to pay RM10 for each adult, and RM5 for children. Since our "act like Malaysian" attempt was not successful, no discount for us.

From the entrance, it was a 600m walk down the boardwalk through the mangrove. First, we walked through the suspension bridge and everyone had to walk the plank, "captain jack sparrow" style. From there , there were various stops for observation of some silly crabs and telescopic snails (not kidding), mud slinging skippers and motherly monkeys. Reaching the end was an observation post. But some people didn't take their tongkat ali and couldn't make it climbing up the 5 floors of the tower. From there, the view as airy and nice, although, it was mostly views of tree tops and more tree tops in various shades of green.

After that, back to the jetty to wait for the boat to head for the fish farm. Not sure why, but today seemed like school holiday and the place was very packed. (hey, it IS school holidays...). So the boat was like 5x overloaded and we had to hang on to the front railings, with the salty sea water spraying on to our faces, alla titanic style. At the fish farm, due to the crowd, the tour was rather short and uninspiring. The archer fishes were in a bad mood and didn't want to do "kill" any dried ikan bilis on the planks.. Some more showing of a dog shark, king crab, spider crab, grouper etc.. and then back to the boat to Kukup town. GG by then was famished and we went for a simple seafood lunch at the restaurant there. We all did some guessing on the cost of the lunch and to my surprise, it was quite cheap. around RM80 for about 10 of us.

It was then shopping time and we picked up quite a bit of kukup goodies and munchies and also tried the famous Kukup Jelly, free gift from 7. After some rest, we decided to head for Tanjong Piai. Although I had not driven there before, the way was quite simple from the road signs. The road started to be more uneven, pot holey and less maintained and we drove past some huge banana plantation. Boy, I am sure that this place will be very spooky at night. (night trip here anyone?)

Reaching Tanjong Piai, there was carpark fee of RM2. Mrs cat bought tickets for all with her fluent malay and we managed to get by by paying only RM5 for each adults, the fare for Malaysians. (Non Malaysians should have to pay RM10). We took some pics of the large rock and proceeded in to walk down the jetty. The place here was rather breezy and so the heat wasn't so bad. At te end of the Jetty, we saw a banded sea snake waving at us. After some rest for our legs, we walked the rest of te boardwalk to the true southernest point. The park had erected a giant globe to mark the location. GG did some checking with his GPS device and nodded his head in approval. From that place, we could actually see Singapore Tuas side, with all the flame spewing pollution pipes from the industrial area. My phone went a little hay wire and kept receiving promo messages from Indonesia and Starhub. We walked back to the .Info counter, had a rest and toilet break. A naughtly monkey came by and frighten the hell of anyone. I thought of using my Kung Fu but better not. Maybe Monkey got flu...I didn't want to be the first to get Monkey flu.

Moving out, we headed for Perling to meet up with Vita for dinner. The way back was quite tricky and I almost got lost. Good thing that GG had a good memory and was able to tell that we were going the wrong way. After some bad-tracking, we found our way back to the road to JB. The weather towards JB suddenly looked very dark with lightning flashes and all. True enough, it began to rain shortly and it was to continue until quite a heavy downpour. The sudden cool weather was quite a respite from the heat, but driving became more difficult and we had to drive slowly to perling amidst all the heavier traffic and splashing flood waters.

Luckily we managed to get to Perling unharmed (hey, I am raincat you know) but arrived there quite late. Poor vita had been waiting like 2 hours. We met up and went for a better dinner at a posh looking restaurant. Food was quite delectable and we had a good meal with Vita's mother who was there with us. After that, some shopping at Perling Mall and gu ni hoon and off we go to head back to Singapore.

But strangely, the way back was rather jammed today, even via 2nd link. The queue was quite long at the malaysian custom and then after that, at the Singapore custom. Heard that Vita got into a slight accident at the malaysian end, but not sure what happened as we were not together anymore. Hopefully it wasn't anything serious.

So, quite a good eventful trip. Too bad quite a few of you guys missed it. No chance for fishing, but Tanjong Piai seemed to allow people to fish. (Saw someone with a fishing rod). Since the seafood was quite cheap, we might be back there again. After we all recovered from our aching leg muscles.