travel update - kuala lumpur and singapore

I got to spend lots of quality time with my family in Kuala Lumpur. Most of the time was spent eating (the photos will tell its story)... highlights include us cousins going on a mad hunt to find durian, and screaming across the road at the durian man when we did eventually find him to save us some; roti tisu - a huge and ultra thin roti doused in sugar and honey... so delicious; and going to the pasar malaam where we gorged ourselves silly on pretty much everything there. But honestly the trip to KL was mainly for my cousin Evelyn's wedding which was on Boxing Day, and after Christmas lunch we had the tea ceremony at home with four generations of Ongs represented. The wedding day was very eventful... my family rushed over to Evelyn's house early in the morning to help set up the obstacles for the groom Ben and his groomsmen for the 接新娘. The rest of the day was spent out in a gorgeous resort out in the middle of nowhere. I had the honour of reading a passage of scripture during the ceremony. Highlight of the day was definitely the bollywood dance the bridal party performed at the reception... it was choreographed by my creative cousin Syl. I also experienced my first Malaysian country-styled wedding reception in Taiping where Ben's grandmother is from. The reception was accompanied by karaoke... and I now can not stop laughing everything I hear 'Ave Maria'.

Oh, I also spent one day in Singapore where I stayed and caught up with my uni friend Katie and also managed to catch up with a couple of my high school friends from HK... It was action packed and I was seriously exhausted by the time I got on the plane back to Perth... but I would not want to trade the good times with my friends for anything.

moses and tim + eve ben with my 六姑婆 and uncle at the tea ceremony

spotted the stunning 'ghost' chairs at a mall + at the pasar malaam

neelam ann catherine + katie and ann

nat and ann + durians

More pics: click here, here and here

favs from the trip:
- hanging out with my cousins
- catching up with friends I hadn't seen in years
- the food
- driving in Petaling Jaya at 4am on New Year's Day

travel update - london, paris & hong kong

I know I haven't updated in a while. After Toronto, I was in London for 3 1/2 days, then Paris for 2 days and Hong Kong for 14 days. I'm currently writing from Singapore's Changi Airport... I'm heading off to Kuala Lumpur to spend time with my family and relatives for Christmas and New Years.

On a side note, I will have been stuck in this airport for over 6 hours... sadly I wasn't able to check-in early for my connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur (not too impressed with Air Asia who had guaranteed I was able to check in 6 hours prior to the departure time) so I had been stuck in the public area of the airport for the past three hours doing not much... FYI all the happening shops, internet access etc are in the transit malls and there isn't all that much in the departures and arrivals halls. I did manage to find a familiar icon - McDonalds where I was able to veg out for a while!

Anyway back to my travelling... the photos will have to be uploaded another time. Due to my time with the internet access here, I won't be able to go into great details... but here are my highlights for London:
- Tate Modern... wow what an amazing museum, and I was able to check out the Mark Rothko exhibition... the printed calendars don't do the paintings any justice.
- Regent Street... fabulous shops
- Catching up with Kate, Wendy, Shak, Vicky and Pete... some of these people I hadn't seen since we finished high school!
- Sightseeing London at night... courtesy of Wendy hiring a Street Car and driving Kate and I around town at night so I could have a look at all the touristy landmarks.

My Paris highlight:
- Walking around Paris city with Pete... this guy insisted on walking everywhere... my poor legs! haha
- Having to use my super rusty French... I often answered in Spanish, then had to correct myself... I reckon had I had a few more days, my French may have gotten a little better.
- Macaroons... different colours and sizes!!!! love love love them.
- The Louvre... need I say more?!
- Crepes... yummo and they are everywhere!!!
- Other touristy things I was able to check out... Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs D'Elysee, Notre Dame, Place de la Concorde, Invalids, Marais, Bastille...
- Tartiflette... a cheesy potato bake type dish... totally delicious and extremely filling!

My Hong Kong highlights:
- Kim, Michael and I wrote a list of the things to eat in HK... and remember that list I made in a previous post?... anyway I managed to go through the list bar 2 items (siu mai and dun lai), and even added more to the list.
- So basically I ate, ate and ate... so awesome, but need some serious detoxing now.
- Caught up with lots of people and some of them I hadn't seen in absolutely ages, so it was lovely seeing them.
- Shopping... my lovely ex-colleague Lettie even took 1 1/2 days to hang out with me and we did some serious shopping around Kowloon (plus lots of crazy eating)... the shopping was so crazy that I had to buy a big packing box from the post office and I managed to fill it completely. Lettie and her husband even came over to where I was staying to pick up the box so they could post it out for me next week!!!
- My night out with the rugby girls... started out at the football club... ended in Lan Kwai... all i can say is jelly shots are not choice of poison.

Alright this connection is about to expire so I better finish up now. I can't believe that I've been away from Perth for five weeks... and two more to go. It's been so much fun... but I do miss home at times :)

travel update - toronto part two

Besides the wedding, I was able to catch up with my friends from my dip ed course, and friends I have known from my HK days. It was so good to see them all, especially in their now hometowns. I was also able to try out the local food haunts and did lots of window shopping... okay so i was able to squish in a little retail therapy too. Ice hockey has always been a game i have wanted to watch and a friend managed to get me an in to get a pair of tickets, so Kel and I went and watched the Toronto Maple Leafs play again the Atlanta Thrashers... unfortunately the game wasn't too spectacular with the Thrashers winning but we did witness some fights! awesome!

Other highlights for me in Toronto:
- drooling at T&T the huge asian supermarket... it's got everything asian!
- trying Kelly's famous chocolate fudge chunks with dried cherries cookies... delicious!
- dropping my contact lens down the sink drain and having to wait a day before I got some help rescuing the lens... Dan and Veronica came over for a hot pot and Dan opened up the sink's u-tube and fished the lens out!

I've uploaded more pics from my trip: my uni reunion; toronto part one; and toronto part two.

My massive Toronto thankyou: Kwun-Ye and Kelly who helped with the playlist; Kwun-Ye for lending me her phone charger cuz mine decided to conk out; Dan who helped rescue my contact lens from the sink drain pipe; Kim who was a big instigator of retail therapy; Kevin who kindly agreed to help work her sister's shift so that she can take me to the airport; Pat and Kel and Gully for putting up with me for the past week... thank you to the Kans, Pat and Kwun-Ye for speaking chinglish with me... & thank you guys, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Toronto... hope to be back next year!

travel update - toronto part one

I have been in Toronto for the past week and a bit, spending my time with my high school best friend Kelly who got married last weekend. Her wedding last weekend was very much talked about, it was full of her close friends and was sooooo much fun. The wedding was at the Metropolitan Hotel and the reception was catered by the famous Lai Wah Heen restaurant in the hotel that served the most incredible Cantonese dishes... wow the food was amazing. There was another Chinese banquet the next evening but only for the relatives and a few others (like myself)... I was so full after it all.

There are plenty of stories to tell from all the festivities but here are some of the highlights from the wedding weekend:
- meeting the Aulis family
- hanging out with Kelly's Torontonian and Bostonian posse
- our own 'tea ceremony' serving the newlyweds the ABT aka Anything But Tea
- Kim, Michael C and I dedicating Jackie Cheung's Snow Wolf Lake and Leon Lai's My Love Ichiban to the newlyweds
- the newlyweds head banging to metal on the dance floor
- the newlyweds salsa-ing their first dance to Michael Buble's Save The Last Dance
- wedding crashers... simply hilarious
- post wedding drinks at the bridal suite... the biggest get together of the Kan and Aulis friends
- Sunday morning breakfast/brunch at Fire On The East Side... wow
- the hip flask containing ABT
- the photographers forgot about the wedding date and had to rush over for the appointment... Kelly and Pat did manage to get some pics taken around the city in the end!
- lots of dancing... even Mrs Kan was boogying!
- dessert buffet... I was so lucky to have been sitting right next to the dessert table

There was a heap of us that took pictures over the weekend... these are the ones from my camera: click here and also here.

travel update - melbourne

After spending my birthday packing and picnic-ing at the supreme court gardens with about 12,000 people (for the Church Together event), I got an airplane and began my seven-week round the world trip. My flight destinations: Melbourne - Toronto - London - Paris - Hong Kong - Singapore - Kuala Lumpur - Singapore - Perth.

Note to self: budget flights are really budget flights, remember to bring own pillow/neck rest etc and be prepared to get jabbed by the person in the seat behind you when they are trying to stretch out and totally cop the impact of the jab!

I spend most of my time in Melbourne catching up with friends from high school, uni and church. It was really great seeing everyone again... made me really miss being in Melbourne.

Anyway here's my list of some of the new things I saw/ did/ checked out this time in Melbourne:
- stayed at a hotel right on Bourke Street Mall which was very convenient
- checked out the newly redesigned GPO which now has fabulous shops inside
- Spicy Fish... a sichuan/shanghainese restaurant in chinatown... so yummy
- Max Brenner... I finally got to taste the chocolate waffles!
- breakfast at Asti's place complete with swedish creamed cod paste
- Kit Cosmetics Christmas VIP event at the Chapel Street store... how much fun did I have!
- I Like You... my friend Tina's shop which has got some amazing clothes and accessories
- an entire lap around the Albert Park lake with Michelle
- SatayStix... my cousins' restaurant on 600 Bourke Street
- Little Creatures has a dining hall on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
- discovering that there was Obama sauce at a hotdog stand
- having breakfast with Liz in the airport just before I left town for Toronto

click here for more pics

a month of posts - day thirtyone

Last day of the month... I had a sugar-filled morning tea this morning where there was a display of homemade goodies doused liberally in saccharine (I contributed the blueberry swirl cheesecakes)... so full of goodness! My office has been really getting into the collegial spirit - up and coming events with my team: Melbourne Cup lunch at the pub (we're going to frock-it and have sweepstakes! woohoo!), dinner with a few of the girls, farewell lunch for a colleague... it's all happening!

images from previous melbourne cups... the event that has the entire nation at a standstill, celebrating horses and fashion

Currently loving:
- Catching up with girlfriends over some late night supper complete with a soothing chai latte...

a month of posts - day thirty

It's the Red Bull Air Race World Championship this weekend. This is the third year in a row that this annual international competition has been held in Perth. Perth will be hosting this event until year 2011. I missed the competitions in the past two year, so I'm looking forward to catching glimpses of the action on Sunday! This competition uses "the fastest, most agile and lightweight racing planes, pilots navigate a low-level aerial race track made up of air-filled pylons, reaching speeds of 370 kilometres per hour while withstanding forces of up to 12 gs." Wow! I heard them above my house last Sunday as the planes are parked in the airport about 5 minutes from my house. We could hear them practising today by the Swan River (my office isn't too far from the river)... those planes can be pretty loud! Anyway can't wait to see all of the action up close on the weekend!

Currently loving:
- Making blueberry swirl cheesecakes... the first batch didn't have any vanilla essence, but I redeemed myself with the second batch.

a month of posts - day twentynine

A group of us at work decided to have a morning tea and do something fun for Halloween. Sure I don't celebrate it, and frankly not too many people in Australia do, but we just thought it would be something different to do. Anyway I had a little look online at the different foods people have been creating for Halloween inspirations (I discovered that there are extreme pumpkin craving designs... even had ones going political) Back in the office at the moment on the cards we've got mini cheezels, blackberry swirl cheesecakes, mud cake and iced arrowroot biscuits... mmm drool.

above pics from marthastewart.com

Currently loving:
- Surprisingly enjoying the twice a week lunch time circuit training... I have started to take a liking to it... never thought I'd ever say I enjoy exercising... guess never say never.

a month of posts - day twentyeight

Less than twenty days before I start my seven-week long travels. There is quite a lot that I still need to arrange beforehand. I'm making lists and trying to stay sane, and not burst with excitement...

this gorgeous card by foxy & winston with alpacas made me melt... they are so adorable

Currently loving:
- Dad's garden... there is a myriad of flowers popping up all over and it looks quite wild yet beautiful.