Bubba Gump

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant & Market is a chain of seafood restaurants inspired by the movie Forrest Gump. Their menu features shrimp (of course!!), but they serve other seafood, steak and desserts. And they sell souvenirs - featuring the cute & funny shrimps, too.

In 2006, I was starving during dinner and CA brought me to this lovely restaurant. (Maybe that's the reason why I love this place since I was too hungry :P.) The restaurant provides a very relaxing and cozy environment. The friendly waiter talked to us, joked with us, and even gave us a free ice cream after my friend answered 3 questions about the Forrest Gump movie. It gave me a real good experience and impression. However, it only happened during my first visit in 2006. When I visited again in 2007 & this year, the waiters didn't behave as friendly - not sure if it's due to the big crowd as normally I'll be excited to bring all my counterparts there for dinner. Anyway, I still love the environment around the restaurant - it makes the food taste extra good. Everytime when I go Philippines for business trip, I'll make sure I'll have at least one meal @ Bubba Gump.

Food.... Yummy!!!

So far, I have seen Bubba Gump @ Kuta, Bali; Pier 39, San Francisco; Long Beach, Los Angeles. And I was overjoyed when I heard they are opening (or already opened?) @ The Curve, KL - then I can bring EG to try it there when we go KL next time! *wink*. (KL Folks, go and try it!! And then tell me if it's nice :D)

Me @ Bubba Gump Makati 2006

Me @ Bubba Gump San Francisco 2007
Excuse me for the guy next to me - he didn't bother to move!!

Me @ Bubba Gump Makati again 2008 (OK I know I grew fatter :~( )

And of course, since I am currently on business trip to PH, I went there again. And this time, I let CA's new camera captured all the corners & the deco in this lovely restaurant. I hope the Bubba Gump @ The Curve will have the same warm and cozy deco too!

Deco around the restaurant & the drink bar

Top: Some famous phrases from the movie.
Bottom: Instead of whistle loud to get the waiter, you just need to flip to Stop Forrest Stop, and they will come fast. Run Forrest Run means everything is OK.

Some stuff from the movie are all around the restaurant

Morning Light

I am off to Philippines for business trip *again*. This has been the 4th time I travel here since I join the current company, and it is also going to be my 6th and 7th week here.

Not many in my office likes to come to Philippines. Simply because of the waking up time. Most of us will choose to stay at Makati - the most modern city in the country, with 5-stars hotels and nice restaurants around. However, our factory plant located at Cavite - which is probably ~50km from Makati. The problem is, there isn't highways connecting these two cities. OK, there is high way, but most of the time we were traveling on small, one way, winding roads, with kinda scary traffic. As a result, we need at least 1.5 to 2 hours to reach office.

Thank God that this round my training starts at 8am. And thank God that there's a new highway between Makati and Cavite that ensure us to reach office by 8am if we leave by 6.30am. For my previous 3 trips, I have been waking up at 4.30am to catch the shuttle at 5.15am in order to reach office at 7am. (!!!!!) Having said that, now I have to wake up latest by 5.30am to take breakfast from 6am to 6.30am - at least I can enjoy the buffet breakfast in the hotel! I used to tapao.

This morning, I snapped some pictures from my hotel room at 5.30am. In Malaysia, during this time, it will still be very dark. But here, the day gets bright early, and of course it gets dark early too. Most of the peolpe here wake up by 5am+, and sleep at 10pm+. And most of their shopping malls close ~9pm.

The view right opposite my room

Left side

Right side

I still have 10 days here. Thank God again that when I reach back Penang, it'll be a long weekend as Monday is a Holiday. I will have all my time for my beauty sleeeeeeeeeeep.... :)

Las Vegas Trip

I was blessed - to be able to go US again for meetings.
I was blessed - to meet a new gang of friends from PG @ US.
I was blessed - to be able to follow them to visit Las Vegas last weekend.

We planned for LV trip on Friday during dinner and we went off on Saturday morning as early as 4am. Stopped by LV Premium Outlets for lunch & a little shopping and all the way to LV. The only place we walked is the famous Las Vegas Boulevard with all the nice hotels & casinos everywhere. Well, I never walked so much in my life before - at least not that I remember. We started walking from 4pm to 10.30pm (with stops in between of course) and we still couldn't finish the whole street. Anyway, cut the crap and pictures time! :)

The gang who went to LV together (4 out of 7)

M&M

Coca Cola

Harley Davidson

Would you wear these necklaces?

Musical Fountains

Hotel Entrance @ LV

Paris? Neh...

Me @ Mini Venice

A glimpse of the night views @ LV

Trip to San Francisco & Phoenix

I just came back from a business trip to Phoenix, US for 2 weeks. This is the first time I spent almost a day in a plane and flew over the other side of the world.

All these while, except while I am flying home, I hate the feeling of sitting in the plane. I feel very restless while waiting for the plane to reach its destination. Even my previous trip to Philipines which only took 4 hours frustrated me as well. This trip makes no difference, just worse!

On the way to US, I flew for 1 hour from PG to Singapore, later 4 hours from SG to HK, followed by 12 hours from HK to San Francisco, US. And the night mare is, throughout the 17 hours on the flight, I could only close my eyes and slept for 4 hours! And I had to sleep with an eye mask for the first time in my life! My trip back is not much better. The 12 hours from Los Angeles to Tokyo (transit), I couldn't even close my eyes for >10 minutes. So I watched 7 movies on the plane! Such a night mare!

But anyway, the only thing that I enjoyed the most in my trip is, of course, the vist around the places. My friend and I (2 girls!) transitted at San Francisco before we go to Phoenix. We planned out trip around, reading map and asking for direction all around. It's such a nice experience. It's a nice placae with fanstastic perfect weather, around 22 degrees. Cool wind, but it is really sunny. This is when I feel that my Oakley is really useful! :D

Clockwise from left: Me with cable car; in SF Cable car Museum; the famous Lombard Street; SF Ghirardelli square

Clockwise from left: Golden Gates; SF Fisherman's Wharf; Aquarium of the Bay; Famous SF Pier 39

After we left San Francisco, we left to Phoenix. It was US labor's day so it's public holiday. One of my PG friends drove us to Sedona for sight see-ing. The weather is terrible. Terribly hot and stuffy. I put layers and layers on sun block on my face and my body. One thing good is that it's dry in Phoenix, so we don't really feel sticky.

Clockwise from left: Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona; Bell rock (?); @ some national park; Me with a pine tree and Sedona view

Last but not least, I also paid a visit to one of the seven wonders in the world - Grand Canyon. Again, the weather was hot and the trip was tiring. We drove 6 hours to reach Grand Canyon, and another 6 hours to reach back our hotels. However, the view is just AMAZING. I was totally speechless looking at the wonderful creation of God.

A few views from different side of Grand Canyon

Overall, the trip was good. I did a lot a lot of shopping - probably 20 pieces of branded clothes, for EG and my whole family of course. I went with 3/4 full bag, but I came back with 2 full luggage plus one extra bag pack. *wink*. Anyway, I am looking forward to visit US again together with EG one day - that'll be the most fun trip. :)

Sea Lions @ Pier 39, San Francisco

2007 New Year Shang Hai Trip

For the whole February, I think I spent half of the month overseas. 4 days after I came back from Cavite, I flew off to KL to meet my family and flew to China – Shang Hai to spend our Chinese New Year this year.

This is the first time my whole family went for a trip together so all of us were kinda excited. The tour agency told us that the weather in Shang Hai will be cold and we’re fully prepared with all our winter clothing, gloves, scarves, socks and everything that can keep ourselves warm.

It was 8 days 6 nights trip (2 nights on the flight) and I really enjoyed it. I have always been fascinated by China histories, and when I went to the real place, the feeling was just indescribable and I was just amazed and enjoyed the stories told by all the China tour guides when we visited each place. Believe it or not, I actually bought a notebook to write down the stories when we went to all the places as I really wish to remember all of them.

Of course we did not spend our full 8 days in Shang Hai itself. We also went to other places around Shang Hai, i.e. 苏州 (Su Zhou), 无锡 (Wu Xi), 南京 (Nan Jing), 杭州 (Hang Zhou). The places are full of people and the mood for Chinese New Year was just great. You can see lanterns everywhere, and fireworks almost every night. Besides, it’s winter (3 degrees to 10 degrees) and it’s really a total different experience for my whole family. Besides, our mandarin improves tremendously after the trip as the local tour guide used the most correct mandarin while explaining. My family had a real tough time understanding their mandarin as all the 8 words, 16 words, or even 32 words idioms / poems came out in almost all their sentences! LOL....

I can't tell you all the details of my trip. It'll take few days. So, enough crap. Picture time.

Our flight was at 2am on 15th Feb. The flight took 5 hours and we reached China Pudong Airport at around 7am+. And straight away we started our visitings.

Clockwise from top left: View from the flight at 5+am, @ airport waiting for our tour bus, my parents in Pudong Airport, a glimpse of Shang Hai traffic


Clockwise from top left: 上海城隍庙，上海黄浦公园，猪脚，苏州古运河

Top: They said Emperor Qian Long was lost here for 2 hours, 蚕丝(silk worm?)
Bottom: Fantastic place where the Romance of Three Kingdoms was filmed.

The only fireworks pic captured by my bravo bro and sis by standing outside the hotel, freezing and shaking, in the middle of the night on first day of CNY.

Clockwise from top left: They said this is the 8th son of the dragon, Nan Jing's rocks with the names on it, Hang Zhou Tea Farm, Hang Zhou Xi Hu

Last but not least: Shang Hai Night Views

During the trip, we had 2 digital cameras, and guess how many pictures we took for the 8 days trip? 1200++ pics, about a total of 1.6GB. Hmm... I am still thinking of how to filter the pictures to share with other friends. I guess I'll just share through my blog. :D

OK, finally all my holidays are over! It's time to concentrate in work as there're tonnes of things waiting for me to complete!!

Oh ya, before I forgot my promise on my Oakley's picture:

My sister, my china tour guide, me with my Oakley and my mum

Lastly, before the CNY ends, Gong Xi Fa Caii to everyone. Wish all of you have a blessed new year in 2007!

Trip to Manila / Cavite *again*

I just came back from Manila last night. And yes, this is the 2nd time I went to Manila to attend a training in Cavite. Despite the fact that we only have 5 hours sleep as we need wake up at 4.30+am to get onto the shuttle at 5.30am (the journey from Makati - Cavite is 1.5 to 2 hours..), the two trips are totally different experiences.

The first time when I went in March 2006, I did a lot of shopping and spent most of my times walking around the shopping malls near Makati - i.e. Glorietta and Greenbelt. The shopping malls are classy, big, and with great sales. We had good food and took a lot of pictures with a few great restaurants.

As for this time, it was a totally different experience as I went again with two of my good friends from Kulim and ChengDu. We have decided to be more adventurous by going around Manila. On the first Sunday, we took a taxi down to Intramurus. We walked around the area for almost 2 hours (it's a BIG circle) and we went pass a few old churches, and Fort Santiago. The weather was not as hot as I experienced last year. The locals said it's the cold weather now so it's quite a pleasant walk around that area. I have taken some pictures at that area.

San Augustin Church outside.

San Augustin Church inside.
Someone just had a wedding there.

Fort Santiago @ Intramurus

We walked on it. It felt real good as you can see great views over the fort.

Views over the fort. A lot of couples were dating there.
The weather was good with fresh, cooling breeze. The walk was just very relaxing.

The grand old Manila Catheral

On Thursday, we went to another place in Manila which is called Quiapo. It's a free market underneath the bridge. Apparently, the hotel people was telling us it's not recommended as it's kind of crowded and it's not safe. But, being adventurous, we got on a taxi and went there after our breakfast (Training was in the afternoon). I won't say it's impressive but it's another experience. There's a market nearby so it's dirty, smelly, crowded, and hot. I had to be very careful when I am walking as there are pot holes everywhere and you wouldn't want to step on any unpleasant things.

One of the streets @ Quiapo Ilalim

Clockwise from top left: Quiapo Church, Statues of Christ, Street snapshot, Kids playing on streets

On Friday, most of us have used up all our cash. We wanted to go somewhere further or different, but the day tour was just out of our budget (~USD100 per head). Besides, the weather also turned hot. So, we only went to China Street at 4pm. Well, all I can say it, it's quite a bad experience. The place is crowded, noisy and smelly. And the place was just filthy with all sort of people all around. Buses and jeepneys stopping everywhere and shouting for passengers. I had to be extra alert while I was walking as I could trip anytime. The shops are small, and you have to give way everywhere you walk. It's just not a very pleasant experience.

Clockwise from top left: Statue of Ong Pin (I guess it's a hero), carriage on the street, fire engine out of no way, Binondo's church

On the street in China Town - looks crowded to you?

Welcome to Manila China Town

Lastly, when we tried to get a cab back to our hotel, we couldn't get a taxi. How great right? Ended up we stood and waved for almost an hour then only we managed to get into a taxi, and paid the driver almost double the taxi fare as he said the traffic to Makati is terrible. Out of desperation, we did. Anyway, the taxi fare wasn't that expensive.

I can't imagine that I need to go there again in April. It will be my third time in Manila again and tell you what, I have decided to stay just in the Hotel and maybe just do a little shopping like dried mangoes and pearls. I am not coming out ANYMORE!!!!!!

Post Trip... Audit (?)

In my Langkawi trip, we kept all our receipts and entrance tickets. Not for any memory purpose, but for AUDIT!!!

We did an audit after the Langkawi Trip - to check on our total we have spent in the trip.

We even drew a pie chart for the total expenses that we spent in Langkawi.

(I am not good in playing with graphics in Blog, and I have no idea why the pics is so small.. anyway you can click on it to see a bigger chart. :P)

We actually spent 56% of the total expenses on SHOPPING!! Oh my gosh.. Followed by the logistic (car, petrol, tolls, ferry fares, etc). And pathetically we only spent 5% in our food. Well, both of us don't really eat much and our breakfast was FILLING enough for us to have light lunch.

You must be wondering, what the heck did we buy in Langkawi?! Hehehehe....

To make the story short (everyone knows I can be long winded in telling stories...), below are the few things that we got from Langkawi:

• Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio - Men's perfume
• Issey Miyake Limited Edition 2006 (I LOVE IT) - Women's perfume (very good deal, 100ml for less than RM200, some more limited edition..... )
• Dom - RM75 compare to RM92 outside Langkawi
• Chocolates - Of course!!
• 2 cute handphone bags
• Billabong wallet for brother
• Sembonia leather wallet (for myself)

And last but not least

• VISION FRYING PAN!!!

I know I know, most probably you'll be thinking why the hell we bought a FRYING PAN from Langkawi. Well... it's really cheaper there and my dear has an obsession for nice looking kitchen ware. I even suggested him to sleep with the pan since he loves it so much. *wink*. Anyway, the pan looks really nice as it's made of glass. Heavy, but looks elegant! I think I might use only when I am ready to cook, probably after 3-5 years? Hehehehe....

Also, after my trip, I also had more pimples - I FORGOT TO PUT SUNBLOCK ON MY FACE!!!!! My face was dry with small little irritating zits, and old + new pigmentation all floating up!! It freaked me out for a week until my lovely dearest Jourdeness saved it last week. *Phew*

My Trip to Langkawi

After shouting for holidays for months.. finally my trip to Langkawi came true.

Yippiieee yay yay yippiiieee yipppiiiieee yayy........ :D

This isn't the first time me going to Langkawi... I've been there with my bunch of great friends when we visited Jitra. We had a lot of fun there too... and we just couldn't stop talking about the trip for at least a week! I used to think that you'll need to go vacation with a group of friends then only it'll be fun.

Well, this trip proved me wrong!

This trip has been superbly fantastic even though only two of us went together. I have been looking over and over at the ~240 pics (yeah, 240 pics in 3 days 2 nights) we took and just can't stop grinning from ear to ear when i recalled what really happened there. The jokes, the funny faces, hilarious things that we have done, etc etc.
All the pictures in that trip look just FANTASTIC. Well, i can't deny that I had a real good photographer (maybe the camera is good too.. hehehe...).

I guess when someone is really happy, all the pictures will look good. I still can't get bored of the photos even though i have been looking at them for almost 20 times. They're just... TOO NICE....

Below are some of the great scenaries taken...

Again, I thank God for

1. the bestest weather during the trip - no haze, no rain, bright and sunny! Too good to be true!
2. the great little kancil that we rented - quite nice to drive... REALLY!
3. the marvellous resort that we stayed - researched through internet, turned out real good! Good breakfast, and great beaches!
4. the great sunset that we almost missed
5. my fast learning skills in reading map (kekeke) - managed to go all the places of interest that we intended
6. all the shoppings (chocs, perfumes, wallet, FRYING PAN) that we did - with the greatest deal in the whole island!!
7. all the great time that we had...

It's the greatest-est trip that i had ever had.

I guess, it all matters who you're going with. *wink*... Hehehehe...

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Went to Manila Philippines in April 2006 to attend a training. The experience was a pleasant one except it was tiring due to the heavy traffic and long distance there.

Hotel provided newspaper everyday and this is the coolest advertisement that is so different from our country. Imagine free 15-piece KFC Big Bucket Meal when you apply for HSBC Credit Card! How bizarre....

Will you apply? *wink*....