June 2008 – w w w . x e .s . c x

Berlin, Germany – Via Condotti @ Berlin

Our concierge recommended us one Italian restaurant nearby our hotel. It’s said that it serves authentic Italian food. Without any hesitation, we headed to Via Condotti.

We were greeted by a man wearing a red Ferrari cap. I think he’s the manager of the place cause he kept scolding a waiter. The waiters were all Italian, and they kept speaking Italian to us. -_-

The highlight of this restaurant, for me, must be their spaghetti with black truffles. The unique thing about this dish is the way that it was served. The manager brought an additional table with a huge slab of cheese on top. A box of black truffles is placed next to it.

Thereafter, the manager started scrubbing the top part of the cheese and set it on fire!

Spaghetti was thereafter thrown into the fire hence extinguishing it.

Seconds later, the spaghetti was served with sliced truffles on top. It tasted extremely goooddddd 😀

Anyone knows where I can get something like this in KL? (minus the truffles of course)

Address:
Fasanenstr, 73 – 10719 Berlin
Tel: (030) 88 67 78 97
Fax: (030) 88 67 78 99
Website: www.viacondotti-berlin.de
Related link
Boo.com Review

Clubbing on Sunday

I always have this perception that Sunday is gay night for most clubs in Kuala Lumpur It would be the night where house music is played – sweaty topless men grind with each other on the dance floor and shaking like sotongs (cuttlefish). However, I never clubbed on Sunday hence it was purely assumptions.
Recently, I found one event on Facebook – held on Sunday at one of the famous clubs in Kuala Lumpur. The flyer was rather intriguing. It had a picture of a naked man with a suggestive title that indicates that the event is only for men.

I went through their “Confirm Guest” List and I notice that most of them are guys – pretty boys and muscular.

Some of the attendees’ Facebook profiles were open and on their “Interested in” section, it was stated “Men”.

And I was invited to this event -_-

REJECT!!!

Notwithstanding the above, the thing that interests me is the DJ of the night, DJ Ann Ang.

According to her Facebook, she said she’s a DJ based in KL and a ladyboy.

\(*O*)/

Ladyboy or not, she is no doubt a good DJ. This is evident from the mixes that she posted on her IMEEM. Makes me wanna take off my shirt and dance like sotong!! YEAAA!!!

Just kidding.

Tribal mixes – Great build up and execution!

Check out:
Her Facebook for info. Don’t bother adding her if you’re not a PLU (people like us, a gay slang denoting homosexual individuals)
Her Imeem for more music!

New Club: Euphoria – Ministry of Sound, Kuala Lumpur

Couple of months back, I posted an entry that a well know superclub from the United Kingdom, Ministry of Sound will be opening a new club in Kuala Lumpur. It’s now open!

Check out their official website: http://www.euphoria.com.my.

They put up contact details of the person in charge if you want to book a table or even the VIP table.
Some pictures of the place stolen from Peng’s facebook. 😛 Thanks Penguin

Wow, designated smoking area. Does that mean no smoking in the club?

Berlin, Germany – Kurfürstendamm and its surroundings

We stayed at Concorde Hotel which is a street away from Kurfürstendamm, a very long boulevard housing many famous designer brands like LV, Gucci and Bvlgari. Things are extremely expensive there. However, there are couple of souvenir shops that are worth looking at. The souvenirs all around Berlin are pretty much identical – fridge magnets, postcards and so called fragments of the Berlin wall.

Along the street of Kurfürstendamm, there were many impressive glass displays featuring all sorts of clothing and wares.

Mercedes Benz display in front of Mercedes Benz store

When I first saw them, I wondered why these glass displays were never vandalised. But soon I found one glass display with a cracked display. I guess someone tried to break into it.

We saw a number of people walking their dogs along Kurfürstendamm. Some responsible owner would pick up the dogs’ poo and disposed them. Some just leave them as it is. But some rich ones dispose them off at one of the ‘poo deposit machines’.

Check out the lookout point on top of the train station

Further down Kurfürstendamm, we can see…

Chinese restaurant

The Chinese restaurant looks like its being squashed by the building on top.

F*ckfashion anyone?? (see the word below the word “xes” in the watermark)

Berlin, Germany – Copy Print

One of the things I’ve learn from my Berlin trip is to have enough business cards. Once you run out of business cards, you would have a lot of explanations to do and probably lose some good contacts. It’s the ultimate weapon to establish contacts.
But life being life, things are always unexpected. You may run out of it while on your business trip or worst of all, you forgot to bring it along.
You could always explain to your contact that you forget your card but you’ll email him your contact later. In such event, the chances of them replying to your email is slim and most likely they have forgotten about you. Further, you’ll be left out of their option when they go through their business cards to see what contacts they have to pass work to.
If anyone encountered any of the aforesaid problems, one of the solutions is to get your name cards printed.
Just next to Schweinske, lies a printing shop which could duplicate business cards. It’s quite impressive but it’s also very expensive. All we need to provide is a copy of the name card or even a soft copy of the name card. For a hard copy of a name card, the shop can duplicate the business card even it’s in someone else’s name! As for the soft copy, always keep a copy online so it’s accessible when it needs to get printed.

It only takes couple of hours to get the business cards printed. However, the quality of the paper may differ from the original one.
I ran out of business cards on my 2nd last day. I had to resort to using my colleague’s business card. I had my name written next to his. It wasn’t a good solution as my writing resembles a bunch of worms mixed up together. But being poor and desperate, I had no choice.
Related Link
http://www.copyprint.de/ (in German)

Wen Kim’s My Aussie Adventure in Melbourne

Catch local celebrities, Naz and Daphne, together with the seven Aussie Ambassadors as they travel in Australia in My Aussie Adventure every Sunday at 7.30pm on TV3!
Former guestblogger, Wen Kim, has been selected to be one of the seven Australia ambassadors for Tourism Australia.

Please vote for her as your favourite ambassador by casting your votes at this website http://www.tv3.com.my/aussieadventure/03_contest/vote.asp
Only five votes can be cast each day. And if you cast enough votes daily till 10 August, and if Kim wins, you could win a free trip to Melbourne.
Catch Wen Kim next Sunday, 29 June at 7.30pm on her trip down Melbourne when it airs on TV3.
Related Links:
Wen Kim & Dr. Adli’s interview
P/S: I wondered why she cried seeing a koala. They stink.

The Kuala Lumpur Bar Blog

In line with the trend, the Kuala Lumpur Bar (Not the bar that serves alcohol but the association of Kuala Lumpur lawyers) has recently set up a blog.

With this website, the public can now see ~~liars~~ lawyers in an informal way and the activities they indulge in. The comments function is currently being disabled as we lawyers know that lawyers tend to make all sorts of stupid statements. I think it would be a bloody war if comments are enabled. Lawyers want to have the last say all the time.
Website: The Kuala Lumpur Bar Blog
The Perak Bar has also launched their blog. Their blog is a little bit more informal and relaxed. Comments are enabled.
Website: The Perak Bar Blog

Berlin, Germany – Schweinske

I had lunch at one restaurant by the name Schweinske. I found this place by accident.

I got lost around this area when I found Schweinske

The theme of this restaurant is based on pigs. Schweinske was established in 1983 in Hamburg and expanded throughout Germany. It has now around 34 outlets.

Upon sitting down, I was given a menu. The menu was in German but I knew what I wanted i.e. Curry Wurst. One of the items in the menu is titled “Miss Piggy” and on the menu, drawings of pigs were everywhere.

So were the walls and ceilings.

The piggies are peeping!

The Currywurst tasted extremely great although I’m not a big fan of sausages. Fries were served on the side and the sausage was topped with a barbeque sauce and curry powder. It costs around 4.95 Euro.

I ordered a bottle of Apollinaris to complement my Currywurst. Apollinaris is some sort of carbonated table water. The taste is extremely weird. It tasted like a mixture of salt and water. I wanted to try Apollinaris because there is a famous English case on Intellectual Property regarding the Apollinaris. This 100 years old case is quoted in many commonwealth jurisdictions.

Website: http://www.schweinske.de (In German)
P/S Sorry for the Haram post.

My titties is on the newspaper – again

Once again, I got picture of my titties on the newspaper. The first time was about 12 years ago when the Star had a picture of me surfing.

Poser maximum.

Recently, the New Straits Times published an article titled “New Straits Times – Sailing the Andaman” on the Sailing Adventure @ Langkawi. This time round, with bigger picture of my titties. In fact, it looks extremely big.

There are more pictures in the hard copy of the article!

Super distorted picture. I look like a hippo having a dip in a river.

Sailing Adventure @ Langkawi – Part VI

Upon boarding the sail boat, we then set sail towards the sea. Our musicians-on-board whipped out their guitar, drums and harmonica and started playing them.

We were also treated with massage by a masseur.

I knew I made the right choice – leaving work and give my mind a rest. But halfway through the journey, I received a text message from a colleague telling me that my staff screwed up on something -_-

I was told that the boat is constructed manually by our boatman. His cabin consists of, among others, a bed, a kitchen and two toilets. It even comes with a barbeque pit.

The boat is manned by a crew.

And a pirate

The toilet is quite small and to flush, we have to manually flush it by pushing a pump. The pump will then draw water to flush out everything. We had to bend down to push the handle cause the handle is on the floor. I had water from the toilet bowl splashing on my face -_-

We stopped at one point to do some caving. We went through a small tunnel which leads us to a cove. It used to be a cave but after many years, it collapsed.

Our boat..is sinking!!

Used to be a cave..

The ‘cave’ is accessible through a man made pathway

Chic Wern and Nicolekiss on the other hand took the opportunity to try out sea kayaking. They went missing for a while but found them at one cove – collecting rubbish. Bravo!

Lunch was served thereafter.

Some of us took the opportunity to soak ourselves in the sea by hanging to a dragnet that was cast next to our boat. Life jacket is available to those who can’t swim. The experience was like sitting in a Jacuzzi. A salty Jacuzzi. It was the highlight of the day.

Some of us had beer while hanging on to the net. But most of the beer had to be disposed off as sea water got into it.

Francis Cheong, Managing Director of Apxara (Got me drunk on the first night) and Conrad, Business Director (One of the nicest guys I’ve met)

Andy, Me & Tahir

Me & Chic Wern

Despite the rain, it was truly an enjoyable experience. If it’s not for the rain, I would have been baked by the sun. Halfway through our journey, the rain stopped.

Toward the end of the journey, I had no idea where I was. Everywhere was just water, trees and islands.

But we eventually reached the river mouth where we first departed. We got off our sail boat back to our speed boat to head back to Kilim Karst Jetty.

[Taken from New Straits Times]

A full-day excursion for join-in cruise only on the yacht is RM295 for adults and RM195 for child below 12. Group tours are about 18 to 25 persons.

For bigger groups, Apxara can arrange special packages on other yachts, including the Raja Laut and Lily Marlin, for up to 250 persons.
The cruise, from Fridays to Tuesdays, starts at 10.30am and ends at 5pm. A sunset cruise with a barbecue from 5.30 to 9.30pm can be arranged on request.

During the peak season from December to April, a seven-day advance booking is required.

You are encouraged to bring towels, swimwear, extra dry clothing, waterproof sunblock lotion and sunglasses.

Return transfers from selected Langkawi hotels/resorts are available.
Apxara Travel also offers Sailing Adventure Retreat Packages with accommodation at Frangipani Resort & Spa Langkawi, Andaman Resort Langkawi, Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa and Berjaya Langkawi Beach & Spa Resort.

Rates, based on twin-sharing basis, range from RM568 to RM995 inclusive of two nights accommodation, daily buffet breakfast and a full-day sailing adventure trip.

For details, contact: Apxara Travel & Events Sdn Bhd, Tel: 03-2282 8768 Fax: 03-2284 9768. Email: info@apxara.com. Website: www.apxara.com
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