Before it's too late...ni aku nak wish everyone Selamat Hari Raya Aidiltri...Maaf Zahir Batin.
Hope you gusy have a good one, and kalao aku ada salah silap (wat muka innocent), here's to a new beginning ok. Seri....0-0 ek!
And by the way, pada yang aku terlupa nak wish, here's a Happy Diwali to everyone celebrating the festival of lights.
Sebab banyak sangat celebrate ni, korang pandai-pandai ler hantar kuih raya memacam kat aku ek. (teringin sangat nak murukku).
Ok...sambung posting after all the festive wishes. Continuing from where I left off.
Anyway...let's see, Friday morning aku up and ready for the next interview which was Ronan. Sebenarnya takder ler hyper sangat sebab last aku jumpa Ronan pun dia cam kerek sikit.
That was MTV Asia in Singapore in 2002 or 2003. Tapi aku pikirkan sebab whole day of shopping ahead, so pala tak tension langsung.
Anyway Joyce, Zoe and I headed for the Banyan Tree Hotel. Interview kat tingkat 59. Sebelum tuh meka bak kami jumpa Ronan nak photoshoot ler kat swimming pool.
Very the Mangga. But then sempat ler chat with him a while. He seems ok this time around.
After that went down to the lobby for a cappucino sat, before we were requested nak naik 59th floor for the interview at the Pier 59 restaurant. Cantik siot tempat tuh. The theme, very underwater, blueish hues everywhere. Meja, kerusi and cutlery dia, kaca biru.
I loved the little water bubble tubes and all. Apa lagik, amik pic ler posing kat sana. Member siap posing sakan ngan beads curtain tuh ala Britney punya album cover (berangan tul).
The view was awesome from the 59th floor, and I could see the whole of Bangkok.
Compared to the view of the hotel ,that was nothing. Sibuk amik pic sana sini, tak amik lak pic ngan Ronan ataupun any of him at all. Cam tak kuasa lak.
Still it was one of the best interviews I ever had as he really warmed up. Respect ler.
In fact two topics we talked about which I was really taken into was the concept of old souls (kalao korang ingat aku penah posting entry pasal tuh just before my 30th birthday) and about his family.
Erm...a little bit off the topic, tapi here are my pics masa tu (not of Ronan but of the view.
Abih tuh memang lega after that horrendous interview, sebab this was heaven compared to that ice queen. Relaxed and very natural flow to the conversation.
In fact, bebudak Universal had to cue us to stop sebab Ronan pun da animated gila babas nak chat.
Said our goodbyes and headed down.
Yes..more shopping coming my way.
Singgah lobby, ter'detained' sat as this woman was playing an instrument (tak hingat what you call it) fully decked in a Thai national costume. Layan sat...merdu sangat.Kami pun, atas cadangan aku, gi Prathunam sebab member semua tatau nak gi sana nak beli belah.
Sampai je, semua naik gila (aku naik gila sebab memang tuh shopping heaven bagi aku, and the girls lak gila baju dan beg pelbagai).
Aku pun start about trying to find something to buy and take home.
Yes, after about less than an hour (which was quite long sebab kalau tak sat jer da sampai), we reached there with lots of plans, sebab dalam cab nak rancang nak beli apa.
Forget the sweltering heat and my headache and motion sickness dok dalam cab lama lama panas camtuh. Ko tengok member-member aku dua orang nih.
Biar aircon pelbagai, peluh abih...abih meka punya kertas serap minyak.
Muka dah leh goreng telor da...tension je.
But I suppose in the end it was all worth it.
In Bangkok, aku dari empat hari, sempat posa dua hari...partly because banyak benda occupy my time, memang tak sempat ingat nak makan atau nak berlapar.
Nak isap rokok sana sini lak...tengok cam orang sini tak isap rokok je.
Bersih sangat satu Bangkok skang sebab kempen lawat Bangkok.
So I laid of the fags as well...(in more ways than one).
After I think almost two horus in Prathunam, kat kawasan Baiyoke, we moved to the mall, Indra Mall aku rasa seberang jalan.
Sebab member aku da tak tahan panas, kami putuskan sanggup bayar just a little bit more to shop in comfort.
Air con ada,,,,
So kami jalan-jalan, then menjalar ke bangunan sebelah lak. Kali ni aku hooked on electronics.
Memang pada mulanya rancang nak beli screen LCD tuk DVD player keta aku, but in the end, after some convincing by the salesperson, hard bargaining (dari RM900 ke RM600), and a trip to the ATM (thank God for the Cirrus network)...I became the proud owner of a protable DVD player.
Leh letak sambung kat keta, bak ke mana-mana...ataupun kalau kat rumah, aku hook up to the sound system in my room, pastuh gantung, aku da ada LCD screen to watch movies on.
Cool!
Depan kedai elektronik tuh, I swear, was the smallest McDonalds restaurant ever. Kecik cam kiosk je.
I think the small signage was the length of the whole restaurant.
Kusi meja dia bersepah around but the outlet itself must have been the smallest I've ever seen (jangan kira kiosk...ni full fledged outlet).
Memasing tukar duit tuk spending sikit sebab da pokai da, and then we decided to grab a tuk tuk nak balik secepat mungkin nak prepare tuk show Ronan belah malam.
Since Friday evening, rush hour nak balik keja, it was definitely the wisest decision...
Tapi mak aih...nyesalnya hidup...
Merasalah di Bangkok masaalah terrorist takde...tapi masaalah TERROR-RIDE ler.
Aku dulu got over my fear of tuk tuks and da naik banyak kali since. Tapi nothing is scarier than a tuk tuk ride in rush hour when the driver nak cepat.
I was praying for my life...berapa kali keta keta semua close enough nak sentuh without even stretching out my arms.
I swear we're talking about a distance of a few inches here. Gila ker haper. And trust me, it is not exactly a nice thing to have a car horn blasting next to you...
Ni gambar dari terror-ride aku! Nothing however could capture the sense of fear and terror masa tuh.
I'm surprised takde F1 driver dari Thailand yang legendary at this rate.
Apapun, setakat rempit kita sini, takde class langsung. Tuk tuk drivers are the best in that sense. Meka ni skillful abih.
Aku penah nampak tuk tuk drivers ni merempit tengah malam kat SIlom. Matilah three wheelers tuh leh wat wheelie katanya.
Gila ke haper... I guess that was what inspired my initial fear of tuk tuks.
Anyway got to the hotel in one piece...nevermind the need to throw up sebab all the swerving or the carbon monoxide poisoning..or my escalating blood pressure sebab horror....
Headed later to the BEC Tero again where there was actually a grand launch of a Thai radio station called Met 107. Ronan was the main artiste performing that night, apart from Tata Young.
It took us nearly two hours for the 20 minute distance to get to BEC Tero sebab jam teruk abih! Stress sebab tuh as well as driver yang tak reti sepatah pun English except for "Die" (not a good sign), "traffic jam" and "thank you".
Keji!
Sampai however, bangga...sebab kami pakai tag 'Artist - Ronan'.
Orang lain pakai memacam tag but somehow because the 'gwailo' (omputeh ler) was the star of the night, semua orang tengok kita semacam.
Siap berapa ramai approach ingat aku Jepun (matilah ko) dan seriously though aku ni part of Ronan's entourage.
All in all, it was a pretty good show with Ronan doing about four or five songs. He did the covers, Iris and If Tomorrow Never Comes, as well as When You Say Nothing At All, Lovin' Each Day as well as single baru, This I Promise You.
Bagus show dia...tapi yang penting, abih je, kami sambung shopping kat Suan Lum Night Bazaar sebelah BEC Tero.
One of the more fascinating shops was this foodstuff punya kedai...selling mostly dried items.
Aku terkejut terdapat banyak jenis dried food products, made from durian!
Memacam...ada chips, dried preserved durian crackers. Wonder how it smells. Ingat nak beli tapi as much as I love durian, I can't imagine how dried preserved durians taste like, so forego it jer lor.
Ni bebanyak products available.
Another shop I liked was one where you could make your own t-shirts in something like ten or fifteen minutes, Ko pilih jer nak text apa, atau if you have yo9urdesign on a disc or something, dia leh transfer it to the t-shirt. Kelas!!!
It's about RM10 for the t-shirt )jimat kalau bak sendiri), Rm10, for any amount of text on the front, and another RM10 kalau nak back dia ada text sekali.
I paid RM30 and got myself this awesome t-shirt that promotes my own blog kat depan, belakang dia, tagline 'it's all about me, i don't give a f**k what you think'.
Leh?
Ni bawah proses dia nak wat t-shirt tuh. Merasalah abang yang stampin g t-shirt aku muka ala ala Pierre Andre versi Siam.
Ni some shots of the small shop, cara meka wat termasuk dari PC, ke cutting out the design, to stamping.
Ok...where was I....oh...ok anyways malam tuh balik, start ler packing...and unpacking...and repacking....sebab nak muatkan segalanya dalam beg Polo aku yang nan ado very the medium sized tuh.
Tuh la akibatnya feeling nak jimat duit duit tanak shopping, back beg kicik...padan muka. Let this be a lesson to all of you.
Kalao tau shopaholic cam aku ni...jangan nak perasan bringing a small bag will stop your innermost cravings.
Last last pening camna nak bak segalanya balik without being taxed or your bloody bag ripping.
Finally got it done. I'm so proud of myself. Never mind it took me over an hour to do it and that it was nearly 5am by the time aku nak tidur.
The proudest acquisition from this trip would have to be this portable DVD player I bought at Indra Mall for a mere RM600!
Aku actually mula mula nak beli LCD screen for my DVD player in the car sebab dengar murah...dulu kak long bagitau dalam RM450. I got it for about RM300!
Tapi pastuh orang kedai tuh cakap, baik portable, bukan je sama leh pasang keta, leh bak sekali...and then aku inspect, siap leh mounting on wall semua (kira kat bilik aku ada 7 inch LCD screen ok ler) aku pikir balik...nak beli screen je ke dan pasang ke keta, atau portable leh pasang keta as well as bawak mana saja.
The cheapest would have been about RM400!!! A steal...murah gila! Brand Worldtech...Siam punya, but the screen resolution...the format...built in sound...bagus. Well for the RM400 one the sound sucked, so I finally got suckered into buying the RM600 punya, which had the swivel screen yang leh pasang kat bilik etc.
Which was no loss....I think. Aku skang da go through Little Man, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (I know it's not that new, but I haven't seen it ok...though I now love it) plus a host of movies I've picked up since. Movie madness!!!
For tech geeks, this is the specs of the WT- 507 I bought.
*Compatible fully with DVD, VCD, CD, MP3,WMA, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW, JPEG CD etc, DISC
*Color system: PAL, N3.58, N4.43, and SECAM (Optional)
*Sound system: B/G (5.5M), 1(6.0m), D/K(6.5M)
*High resolution wide view angle (16:9) TFT LCD screen
*Built-in electronic anti-shock circuit
*Built-in Dolby digital 5.1 surround decoder, DTS decode
*Built-in double channel stereo speaker
*With optical output function
*With Audio output/input
*Full system: PAL/NTSC
*Full function infrared remote control
*High capacity rechargeable DVD battery
*Car adapter
*AC adapter (AC input:110v-240V; DC output: 14.5V)
*Optional Built-in TV & Game Function
Ok ler tuh kan...RM600 kira murah. Aku ada tengok Tesco ke Giant ada offer RM699 byut the spects tuh crappy nak mampos...so this is affordable (think dirt cheap) and functional to the max.
Anyway, sebab aku ada bak travel VCD player aku, aku terpaksa pak up that into my luggage and carry the DVD player sebab it's newer (nak kelentong kastam lama punya kalao kena tahan)
By the way, my other acquisition in Bangkok (which I like but didn't cost anything), is this.
Yes...my Ronan and Rihanna CDs...autographed CDs to add to my collection of autographed albums of people I've interviewed before (penah wat posting entry pasal koleksi aku).
Rihanna's was a normal 'To Joe - Rihanna' thing, but I like Ronan's sebab dia sign (aku tak mintak dia tulis camtuh) - 'To Joe, Your old sole friend, Best wishes, Ronan'.
Awwww...ok so I think 'sole' should have been spelled 'soul' but what the heck.Ou5r interview it turns out went better than I thought. Yes my rantings of being an old soul and my belief in such ideas are shared by others (thankfully pop stars, and not nutters, though at times, it's quite similar).
Next day (read a few hours later) woke up just on time....sib baik barang-barang da packing segala.
Dashed to freshen myself and a quick shower, pastuh zoom downstairs and straight to the airport.
Sampai sana, dalam dilema lak.
Should I masukkan my luggage into the baggage ker, atau nak hand carry.
Aku biasanya hand carry, tapi sebab kali ni beg aku memang super berat, packed to the brim and bursting at the seams (metaphorically), aku pun budget nak masukkan dalam baggage.
At that moment, caught a glimpse of one of those plastic wrap machines, you know yang ko bayar, terus meka packing beg ko ngan plastik jadik cam Ayamas punya ayam.
It was only RM10 or so to shrink wrap my bag, and since aku tak bak padlock tuk bag aku, not planning on it not being hand carried,
I thought ok ler...mai packing kan beg aku.
They had this sign next to the service counter, so I decided to read it masa meka tengah wrapping bag aku. Yes, you can can see that it says 'Protect and Secured Items'...mmm...shouldn't it say 'secure'? Kalau tak it actually sounds like a list of secured items and not the ways of securing your baggage.
Oh whatever....tu boleh maafkan lagik...after all Thai English is atrocious at best. THAT...everyone knows.
'Do you ever have these problems? Let us help you...'
And the next pictures following tuh yang aku pecah perut tergelak. Sambil menitis airmata pas gelak cam orang gila, dan dijeling security airport with shifty, beady eyes, seolah aku ni manical psycho planning to blow up a plane, I took these following shots of the 'explainatory' list of ways shrink wrapping your baggage is good for you.
So remember...the ad now says....let us help you to...
O-K.... so if I shrink wrap my bag...it'll help me...smuggle???!!! Stolen doesn't even make sense...neither does making me unorganised is going to help me. And DAMMAGE???
Ok...so aku paham sebenarnya maksud 'benefits' of wrapping you baggage meka nak advertise, but I mean...this IS the international airport. At least kalau meka takde comprehension of what they're trying to say...wonder what's their excuse for not having a spell check!
After wrapping my bag up (which looked like a huge turkey thawing out), aku decided tanak check in luggage lak....after five minutes, I checked it in anyway.
First thing to spoil my mood....the bloody Thai Immigration.
I mean most of the officers aku tengok laju je wat keja.
Tapi the bloody officer that was tending to my line (on the right) was so bloody lembab. I swear orang lain da tend to at least 10 people, kita punya barisan baru gerak sorang.
What a lame....#$%^&*!!!! Tapi yang sakitkan hati ada lak beberapa orang officer yang dok melepak, padahal ada kaunter kosong yang unmanned. Instead meka sok sek pot pet....well...they must have worked in the Malaysian government service before lah is all I can say. Kalau tak...mesti training government department kita.
Sejuk sikit hati tengok decor Departure hall dia...it's a lot better than the Ariival yang cam tak siap.
Belum apa-apa....nak masuk melalui security kat gate lagik satu hal. Bayangkan, scanner ada tiga bijik. Three counters and yet...this was the scene.
No less than 10 officers, tapi semua sibuk lepak kat one counter with about dua tiga orang je yang actually wat keja.
Camna tuh...???!!!
Dua counter kosong terbiar camtuh saja. I mean...reallly!!! Dahler tengah busy, each flight booked to the brim because it's Deepavali and all. I was just steaming away...and I swear at that moment, they were lucky I couldn't speak more than a few words of Thai, kalau tak memang aku da maki hamun mencarut tak hengat!!!!
Lembab tul meka semua ni...
I guess this is the perfect example of the saying of Tun Mahathir's saying that reflects not only our nation, but also our neighbouring countries.
First world infrastructure, but third world mentality.
I swear masa later sampai KLIA, ada mamat sorang ni...local ler....tapi dia ni cam #$%^&!!!
Leh ludah dalam ashtray masa tunggu taxi. But not before 10 minutes of clearing his throat, bunyi nak cam @#$%^ kompol dan buang kahak.
Eeewww!!!
Terasa kahak kaler rainbow ok!!!
Benci tol!
Anyway...the perfect mirror for this is the sight that greeted me immediately after I got down the escalator pas lepas je security mangkuk hayun ni.
I mean....seriously...
Oh well...cam orang kata kan...hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu dinegeri sendiri...*sigh*
So I hopped on the plane with all my Thai bought souvenirs, tapi aku rasa nyesal that my trip has ended for now. I mean, seriously...nothing beats being back home.
Yerlah....all that rudeness, uncouth displays of unprofessional behaviour....busy, choked roads, horrible levels of pollution... etc.
I mean....why go all the way to Thailand when I already have all that here where I call home.
Boleh gituh???!!!
Amik ko...
Anyways, it was definitely one of my best trips to Bangkok after having gone quite a few times, simply sebab aku ada masa nak betul betul berjalan, and take my own sweet time doing it.
So sempat amik one last pic masa dalam that tunnel, airway thingie to the plane. last call for Bangkok.
Apapun....I'm definitely going on another holiday soon.
Touchdown malam....lega terus. Rushed, got my car....and back to my normal routine. And then spent the next two days sleeping my ass off sebab keletihan teramat.I didn't do much on Monday, except pop into the office, and berbuka puasa with a friend. Tapi...fikiran aku sedikit sebanyak masa tuh melayang sebab Rahsia menjemput aku beraya bersamanya di kampung. Hati mengatakan iya....my brains, which rarely win a fight in this kind of encounter pulled a surprise defeat when it said no.
So called up Rahsia, and said we'll just celebrate in Kuala Lumpur bila dia dah kembali ke ibukota. Tu pun kalao dia ada masa.
Meanwhile, selain Rahsia....hati aku tengah bersoalkan apa kehendak aku sekarang dengan hadirnya seseorang yang ingin berkenalan aku dengan lebih rapat.
Unfortunately for me, I have a feeling that if this one doesn't happen, it's going to be because of external factors and nothing more.
Oh whatever...que sera sera.
Ok ler guys. Aku nak off ni. Be posting about pre-Raya and the first day of Raya punya festivities....merasalah celebrate ngan tidur seharian di rumah.
Actually while semua orang beraya, aku tak dapat rasa festive air langsung. Bukan apa tapi somehow, things just don't seem...well...semeriah cam Raya-Raya lepas.
Anyway, since it was freezing, had to take a leak, so headed for the loo. Strangely enough, while we could make out where the Gents was, we couldn't figure out the sign for the Ladies.
Tapi tima kasih ek 
Anyway, got up feeling hungry as hell.
So ribu pun berpuluh ribu. Berpuluh ribu jadik beratus ribu.
Klinik ni memang nampaknya sexual related conditions je...siap ada walk in treatment untuk erectile dysfunction.
