March 2009 – w w w . x e .s . c x

Cameron Highlands: Strawberry View @ Kea Farm

One of my fondest memories of Cameron Highland is the time when my parents and I were having steamboat at a restaurant in Brinchang. It was a restaurant located in a shophouse. It was during the older days when we didn’t have internet booking. Dad decided to screw booking a hotel and went straight up to Cameron Highlands without an accommodation in place. We eventually found a room upstairs of a shop house. It was just few doors away from our restaurant.

Strawberry View @ Kea Farm was recommended by PY’s friend, who is a local in Cameron Highlands. Although named strawberry view, it has nothing to do with strawberries but maybe you get to see a strawberry farm in the day time.

We got ourselves a pot with chicken broth and tom yam divided equally. Tom yam came in a bowl of paste which we had to mix it up to make the soup. I am not a big fan of tom yam but my friends were crazy over it. They threw all the good stuff into the tomyam section 🙁

I must say the food is not bad. We even get to exchange our unwanted eggs with mushrooms.

But after all those food especially tom yam..all I wanted to do is head to the toilet..

Twitter and Facebook

I’ve jump on the Twitter bandwagon. I’ve read many articles about Twitter and how good it is. There was an article on BBC stating that students should study ‘Twitter’. And there was also an article on how Jennifer Aniston broke up with John Mayer because of his Twitter obsession. Yao mouuu?

However, I couldn’t understand why is it so popular. It’s just a small tool where I can post short messages (approximately 140 characters long), just like the Facebook status. I decided to try it myself and boy, it’s pretty addictive! I update at least twice a day!

I installed a Twitter software on my Blackberry. It’s a freeware called Tiny Twitter. I also synchronized my Twitter with my Facebook status. Now my updates on Twitter is shown on my Facebook status.

On an unrelated note, I created a button for the www.xes.cx Facebook group.

Please feel free to join!

Sipahh

Sipahh – pronounced as Sip Ah!
I usually do not write about junk food in my food reviews but this product caught my attention.
This product got me so curious that I bought one pack home to try it. It’s some sort of device that can turn plain milk into all sorts of flavour. The packaging didn’t reveal how the thing would look like. Is it edible or not edible? How does it turn my milk into the flavour that I bought?
So after purchasing a packet and with box of milk, I ripped out the packaging immediately to find a plastic straw with loads of small beads inside. In both ends of the straw, there are two filters that stops the beads from falling out from the straw.

I chucked the straw into my milk and immediately sipped it. Wow! It tasted strawberrish! Not bad!
After finishing my milk, I find that the beads were all gone!
Initially I thought Sipahh is a local product as a local company is named as the manufacturer of the product. However, my research finds that the product was first launched in Australia in October 2005. It is now available in 44 countries across 5 continents. It’s perhaps some sort of device to encourage children to drink milk.
It comes in, among others, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla flavour. I got mine at Cold Storage!

Robbery caught on CCTV @ Taman Maluri, Cheras

Well, this video has been circulating around and I am truly disgusted on how the level of security in Malaysia has turned out.

If you had read the comments in that video, you will notice that there are loads of racially sensitive comments posted there. I must say those who posted those comments are fking stupid fools. Its not about race. I personally think that all these crimes rose mainly due to the economic situation that we are going through now. If the economy had been good, we wouldn’t have rampant theft and robbery going on.

Cameron Highlands: Big Red Strawberry Farm

We stumbled upon this place by chance after having tea at Strawberry Moment.

It’s a farm whereby members of the public are invited to visit it.

Sifat (Butt) shaped strawberry

Sitohbehli with Spora

Mutated Sitohbehli
Other than strawberries, it has also various vegetables and cactus.

Vegetables are sold at a very cheap rate. A friend of mine bought their vegetable in Cameron Highlands and had steamboat at their rented apartment at Cameron Highlands! One of the vendors offered us raw corn. Its unlike our normal corn. It was juicy and sweet!

Clean your shoes here!
Perhaps the most unique bit of this farm is that they have a shop selling everything relating to strawberry. It ranges from food to your air freshners.

Their handwash was strawberry favoured as well.

They even have Doraemon strawberry yogurt! zomggg!!

Speedzone Tour 2009

It’s been a while since I wrote anything about upcoming parties. The latest of course would be the Speedzone Tour Event @ KL Tower. The said event had been a yearly event. Bloggers were initially used to promote this event but it seems that we are no longer in use to promote this event.

They are also promoting the event using YouTube. Not Bad.

Facebook: Speedzone Tour 2009

More info @ http://www.speedzonetour.com

Cameron Highlands: Boh Tea Plantation @ Sungei Palas

Our first destination in Cameron Highlands was the Boh Tea Plantation @ Sungei Palas.
The Boh Tea plantation was first established in 1929 by a British businessman, J.A. Russell. It survived the war and Boh Tea is now a well known brand for tea.
Our intention to visit the Boh Tea Plantation @ Sungei Palas was to visit the cafe located inside the tea plantation. However, the drive to the plantation wasn’t easy. We had to go through a small lane just enough to fit two cars. There was only one way in and one way out from the plantation and hence cars had to squeeze through the tight lanes. Since its a peak period for Cameron Highlands, many cars were trying to get into the plantation. There were a few times we were stuck for a long time because buses were trying to get out from the plantation. There was also once were we were diverted into another road because the roads were too congested. It resulted in two of our cars (Kiang and Eric’s cars) being diverted out from the plantation. After all the hard work in waiting and squeezing through lanes, they had to return to the hotel. I was on the other hand lucky and managed to get into the plantation.

Blood Bustard!!

Finally! Cafe on top of the hill!

Apparently this dog is one of the fixtures around this place

We had to hike around 200m to get to the cafe

The Cafe..after all the bloody hard work.
We ordered loads of pastries and of course tea. Prices are reasonable, tea served by teapot is around RM3.30 while BOH “Teh Tarik” is around RM2.80.

The scones are just so-so. Perhaps dont bother getting your scones here

Boh Tea Tarik

Old skoool!
Other than the cafe, there’s even a shop, a museum and even a guided tour on Boh tea!

Part of the museum 😀
We left the place around 2pm and we got out from the plantation easily. I was told by Kiang and Eric that they took a long time to get out. What made it worst was that everyone’s handphone didnt have signal except for mine which ran on Celcom. The poor chaps have to settle for lunch at the hotel.

Cameron Highlands: Strawberry Moment

As the name suggests, everything is about strawberry here. This coffee shop consist of two sections, one being the dining area and the other side being a shop selling all sorts of strawberry products.

Most of the stuff here are pastries and desserts. We ordered…

Strawberry Juice! Yummmyy! Reminds me of the Ice Blended Strawberry that I had in Bandung!

Strudels. Not bad

Strawberry Tiramisu. So-so only.

Crepes and Strawberry. Good!

Kena cheated..I thought they will fill up the entire bowl with strawberry. Instead, we got cherry tomatoes, marshmallows and even cucumber!

Chocoberry. Fresh strawberry dipped with chocolate 😀
The shop sells, among others, preserved strawberries, strawberry jam and strawberry chocolate. Each product has a tester on the side. Some tasted great but some tasted weird.

My personal favourite would be their strawberry chocolate! The funny thing is that the tester can only be obtain through request. I think its so good that people keep finishing the tester.
Related Link
Strawberry Moment Website
~ Labyrinth ~: Strawberry Moment

Nanyang Wall & Comic Wall @ Batu Caves

Anna, Cris, Edmund, Ping and I made a long delayed trip to Batu Caves to rock climb. This time round with new comers Ken and Sam. It was Ken and Sam’s first time rock climbing.

Since our last time outdoor at Nanyang Wall was quite enjoyable, we decided to head to Nanyang Wall again. However, it rained heavily last night and the place was slightly flooded. Further, many of the stalactites there were dripping water non stop hence many of the handholds and footholds were slippery.

We were the first group to arrive Nanyang Wall. There were hundreds of mosquitoes flying around attacking us. Nanyang Wall was not in good shape as one part of the wall was flooded, the second part had hundreds of mosquitoes lurking around and the last part was burning hot from the sun.

Cris was the first to test out the wall. He accidentally slipped after stepping on a slipper foothold. He got himself a blooded wrist.

and he got bird shit on his back..

The n00bs were next. It was quite difficult for them as they didn’t have experience and not even indoor experience. Nevertheless, we managed to guide them and got them to do the route.

On the last occasion, someone put a little bird up on the tree. The tree is gone now. I wonder what happened to the little bird. Hope he RIP.

Few hours later, Nanyang Wall was filled with more climbers. This time with more girls that guys!

We moved to Comic Wall, which is another climbing wall next for Nanyang Wall. Comic Wall has numerous beginners routes but many of the handholds were quite sharp. It hurts like crap sometimes especially when you have a small sharp handhold and that’s the only available handhold. Tunasing!!!

Comic Wall too has a fair share of mosquitoes. Thank god I had people like Anna and Ping to attract the mosquitoes. I think I didn’t get any mosquito bite. wahha

The Soulizen couple, Cicak and Lai, were there as well. We managed to climb 3 routes together.

One of the unique attractions of Comic Wall is an abandoned Chinese temple. It’s located inside a flooded cave. Nothing much is left in the temple except for some ruins. Bats have now claimed the place as their residence.

The temple ruins

Inside the cave..

Unwanted spectators

Ping’s new found love.

We ended our climb early around 230pm, which is quite early considering that the previous occasion we climbed until late evening.

Map to Comic Wall

eLawyer Law Conference 2009 – Blogging & Law

The event was a great success. Many thanks to eLawyer and the attendees of this conference. A special thank you to all the students who volunteered to help out in organising the event.

Some of the students that helped out 😀

We started off slightly later than the scheduled time as many people were late due to the morning rain and traffic jam.

The crowd picked up quickly and swelled to probably around 200 people. Some of the participants were students, business owners and even lawyers. Fellow bloggers, Suanie, Peter Tan, Chris Tock, Zoe and Julian Hopkins were there as well. A accompanied me to the talk as well.

Me, Eddie, founder of eLawyer and Suanie

The event organiser, eLawyer is an online portal for law related industries. At eLawyer.com.my , you can post job vacancies for people with legal background e.g. lawyers, legal counsel, paralegals, secretaries, chambering students and even attachment students. You can even post legal questions for eLawyer‘s panel lawyers to answer.

The conference was organised to educate the general public on the laws that affects blogging in Malaysia. I was given the task of speaking about Intellectual Property and blogging. I spoke mainly about trade marks and copyright. The other speaker, namely, Nizam Bashir spoke on, among others, defamation and sedition. Both of us were given 45 minutes to speak and also a 15 minute Q and A session.
Nizam and I were speakers together with Jeff Ooi last year at the Forum on Blogging and Defamation held at the Bar Council. It was great to be speaking alongside with Nizam again.

Me and Nizam

After speaking at the rate of a speeding motor boat, the floor was opened for Q and A. Julian Hopkins came up with two questions about Creative Commons License, an item which I am not very familiar with. I managed to waffle my way through and took up other questions. I was then bombarded with numerous questions. It was kinda challenging especially when I had less than a minute to come out with an answer for each question. Fortunately, the questions were not so tough and I managed to waffle my way through again.

Julian Hopkins

Chris Tock

The Chairpersons came to the rescue when they announced that the Q and A session is over. But I wasn’t satisfied as I wanted to answer more questions! I felt that I fare better in Q and As than giving a boring talk.

Nizam

Nizam came up next and spoke about many interesting local cases involving blogs on defamation and sedition. RPK’s name came up numerous times. I hope there will be a reported judgement on his case to set as a precedent to many future cases.

After the talk and Nizam’s Q and A session, prizes were given to the participants and winners of the eLawyer Legal Blog Writing Contest 2008. Lee Shih and Fahri Azzat were the judges for this contest and they personally presented prizes to them.

Chris Tock, Me, Suanie and Zoe

At around 12:30pm, the conference ended. I was immediately approached by the media and some participants. The Chinese media was more interested in my Chinese name rather than what I had earlier mentioned. I guess they understood my talk clearly!

Fellow participant, Vince on the left waiting for me to write my name in Chinese. It looked like I’m giving my autograph.

After the talk, I had lunch with Suanie, Peter Tan and his wife, Julian Hopkins and A. If you’re a blogger or a blog reader, please head to http://www.budurl.com/myblogs2009 to complete a survey conducted by Julian. He’s doing a thesis on monetisation of Malaysian blogs for his PHD. I think this is beneficial for fellow Malaysians and thus please help out.

The conference was reported on Sin Chew Newspaper, China Press, Malaysiakini and New Straits Times. My face appeared on Sin Chew and New Straits Times. My face looked pale and my eyes looked red in NST. HEHE.

I look like I’m going to launch a fireball with my hands. Ka me haaa
Some people asked me whether I was paid to give the talk. No, I was not paid to give the talk. But eLawyer was nice enough to give a small token of appreciation.

My next talk will be 12 April 2009 at New Straits Times. I don’t have much details on the event but it has something to do with blogging for adults. I will be covering the legal part while some other bloggers will be covering technical aspect of blogging and even on public relation. Please come if you’re free!