Over the weekend, there will be chopsticks delivery, wedding receptions, gold exchanges, and a little shopping in KL. All this leaves no time and no room to bring the laptop along, which means, no web access, no checking of news through reader, no email, no blogging and no facebook.

Maybe one year from now, I can get a WiMax Netbook, so that I can all of the above while delivering chopsticks, attending wedding receptions and exchanging gold during the Chinese Wedding Ceremony.  Yea, I know… lame… 

So, switch off the net when you are busy…

I was fortunate enough to have a team building over at Rasa Sayang Shangri-la hotel in Penang last friday, and to end the wonderful evening we were treated with a sumptuous Seafood Buffet dinner at the Spice Garden. I have heard quite a lot about the seafood buffet, especially the price.nbsp; A lot of my friends and colleagues have tried them. The buffet was around RM155 per person. Only the weekend they have the seafood buffet with all you can eat baby lobster and a hefty price tag. In a nutshell, the buffet was excellent and the lobster was the item that I enjoyed the most. We were there as early as 6.30pm, the time the Spice Garden Cafe open. Within 15-20 minutes, the cold baby lobster was all finish, and was promptly replaced with giant prawns. Seams like no refill on this item. The ‘hot’ baby lobster which are being fried by the restaurant chef are being served free flow. However, there are usually a queue on this item. I find the cold baby lobster taste richer than those cooked with spices, and so I was not that much of a fan of the spice fried baby lobsters. The lamb satay was nice, and so was the Japanese food selection.nbsp; Sashimi was of course a hot item. I did not pay much attention to the Chinese section, very few actually took the offered noodles. The only items worth mentioning were the shark fin soup and soft shell crab. For dessert, the Cheese Cake was great, again, was not refilled when it was finish. I got a tip from one of my colleague when I question her why she went for cheese cake a few minutes after we started. Indeed, when finish, it was replaced with some other cakes, not that interesting. There was crepe, and a good selection of chocolate fondue. In Summary, recommended under company expense, if you were to pay your own, better go to the Feringgi Grill, for better food and ambiance.

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The one interesting impression when I first got to Bangkok was pink taxis.  Its not just one or two, but a whole fleet of Toyota Corolla/Altis painted in bright pink.  They have a few Taxi companies, and pink was my favourite.  The second thing that left my an impression on my first day in Bangkok was the Bus Kilang.  In Malaysia (in Penang at lease), the bus kilang (factory bus) are mostly painted Blue, dull blue.  The Bus Kilang in Bangkok, has airbrush cartoons on them.  I tell you, they come in so many variations, every bus is a masterpiece.  The next time you drop into Bangkok, dont forget to take a pink taxi and look out for air brush factory busses. 

After our favourite noodle breakfast at Bukit Cina, we were already thinking of lunch.  It was already 10am after all.  Muar came from my brother in law.  Muar? isn’t that like Johor = far? Its only an hour away max he exclaim.  Well, why not, since we have nothing much to do.  Coming from Penang, I would love to check out the food scene in Muar, especially the hawker fare.  So, we set out to Muar from Malacca just after noon.  To my surprise, it was not that far, there was this one road that we took, direct and looks like a highway, but it is free.  Muar was only less than 50km, and it didn’t take the hour mention by my brother in-law. 

The fist thing I notice in the drive in was the 30ft TV Antenna.  Almost every home has it, watching Singapore programs for free.  The city was decent, clean and was well kept.  It has the rustic feel of an old Malaysian city, but with fresh coat of paint.  Honestly, this city looks like more well kept than Penang, even though I love Penang much.  So, after some left, right, right turn, we came to this hawker section of the town.  My brother in law recommends the wantan mee, I like the ones in Penang better.  The pork satay was good, it was tender and tasty.  Otak Otak was spicy.  Liang Teh was nice.  The Ham Chim Peng was also very nice, it was soft and sweet.  The Muar Chee was ok, like any other muar chee. 

After filling our stomach, we went to the riverside.  I realize that Muar has quite a number of colonial buildings.  I was wondering what were the colonials doing here back in the days? Was muar a port for them to go Singapore and Penang? Nevertheless, the riverside was well kept and nice.  The scenery was also nice and cooling to rest under the huge trees that lines up along the river.  After a few minutes there we went to the famous Muar 434 coffee shop.  The Sai Kee White Coffee Espresso Special was great.  Rich like all other Malaysian home brew, and you can feel the caffeine effect for a while.  The coffee was great with the Ham Chim Peng.  The ambiance of the restaurant was also unique.  You have loads of pictures on the wall, one with Mona Lisa holding the 434 coffee packet on her hand.  Marble tables and wooden floors.  Softly air conditioned with ceiling fan giving the feeling of a cool afternoon breeze.  After having our fix, we head back, and that was our escapade of driving interstate for lunch. 

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The trip started with the last flight of the day from Penang to Singapore.  We transit in Singapore for a couple of hours before boarding a midnight flight to Tokyo, Japan.  We were very excited, and sleep on the flight was scarce.  Time tickle through as we doze in and out of the cramp economy class.  As the sun broke horizon, we arrived in Tokyo, with full of excitement and little energy.  Like in many countries, in fact, in all the countries, the immigration officer rarely smile, and a huge queue greeted non-residents as we chuck our luggage towards the immigration counter.  Without any hassle, we got our entry, and off we go to get our subway pass. 

There was a special subway pass sold at a discount rate for tourist.  This special pass allow one person to go in the subway Metro line unlimited rides for two days, and all this for only 960 Yen.  There is also a single day unlimited rides that goes for 600 Yen.  This ticket can only be purchase at Narita Airport.  We purchase a few of this and off we go to our Ryokan.  It was already about 8am and we went to catch a train right from Narita to Ueno.   It was on this train we first got the impression of Japan.  The scenery looks so different from where we were from.  The land was beautiful clear blue sky, and no haze, and it was sunny.  In a distance, farm land grace the horizon with puddles of home making an honest life of the local residence.  The home design was unique and nice, and the way they park their cars was also memorable.  The train made a couple of stops along the way and up came school children on a field trip to Tokyo.  The entire carriage light up with a smile as the tiny little kids with bright red hats came in.  There were only a Two teaches with more than 10 child, and the passengers in the carriage keep an extra eye over the kids.  It shows how a first world modern society could function as a unit helping each other, something that we don’t see much in Malaysia these days.  Then this little kid with bloody nose that caught my attention, he seams quiet, while other of his comrades chuckling away like a busy bee, he just stares out quietly with a tissue jam up his nose with blood stains.  Its so early in the day, and he already had a lousy start, I could relate to how he feels.  We came into Ueno, and changed to a subway to Tawaramachi Station.  There, we hiked for 5 minutes to our Ryokan.  It was almost 10, and the streets were starting to heat up.  Tokyo streets are filled with walkway, at least 20 feet wide.  Cyclist also goes onto this walkway, so sometimes, full concentration are needed navigating through along a busy walkway.  Again, this was not something that we have often in Malaysia.  The bikes all goes onto the road, and we rarely has 20 feet wide walkway as well.  We arrived at Asakusa Ryokan Toukaisou and was greeted by a friendly and young lady.  We confirm our reservation and put our bags down for safe keeping as we set out to see Tokyo.