Tokyo 9 - 18 Nov 2007

Just got back from Tokyo. Happening! It was a really nice experiencing what people call a First World city. Anyway, won't write too long a intro, this post is quite picture intensive. MAKE SURE YOU ARE VERY FREE THEN READ ELSE YOU WILL NOT ENJOY!!! kekeke...

Reach Narita Airport at 7am. Waiting for the airport limousine bus. Here cannot take taxi, a trip from Airport to Shinjuku will cost about S$300! We made a mistake and took a cab after drinks 1 nite. We tot what the hell, only 4 train stations away, end up the cab fare cost us S$50+!!!

Too early to check in so dump our baggage in the hotel and went to look for makan. Our 1st Udon store. Pretty nice and quite cheap, 1 bowl is about S$8. This store only sell udon or soba. but damn good!

The skyline from our hotel window. Looks damn congested!

We had the privilege to have the company of Jacq's ex-colleague who is also there on work then extend. His fiancee and sister came along as well. Our first yakitori dinner. There was a small area near our hotel that has all the very small yakitori stores. Looks interesting. The food is good but we sat upstairs and was totally smoked out from the smoke of the grill and also smokers!!! Not that I'm complaining but the smoke from the grill is really bad!!! We were tearing to the end.

The view of the yakitori store from the front. As you can see it is really small.

Had drinks at one of the more ang-moh pub, Motown at Roponggi.

Quite a nice place, but it is a pub for foreigners.

2nd day - Went Disney Land and Disney Sea. I tell you, Hong Kong one no fight!

One of the more scarier rides, Tower of Terror. You basically sit in a lift-like thing and it goes up and then free-fall. In between the windows will open so you get to see the outside view. Not too bad but given a choice I would rather enjoy a mug of Asahi!

The main water show of Disney Sea. The show was very spectacular. Wonder how much they spend on each show? And they do it on a daily basis!!!

Taking the Disney train to Disney Land.... Check out the Mickey Mouse windows!

Entrance to Disney Land and be prepared to be enchanted...............

3rd-Day - It was spend walking around Shibuya and Harajuku. Bought 2 of the J-League jerseys, Urawa Reds of course being the champions last season and yokohama FC. Sorry no pics on the shopping. The Yakitori at our place was so good we decided to go again. But we tried another store which is bigger and more like a restaurant. The food there is EVEN BETTER!!!!

4th-Day Went fishing in tokyo bay. (See below)

After that more walking around Shinjuku area. Walked so much until my legs wanna break!!! Decided to give ourselves a treat to a more fancy place. Check out the menu, only 4 items, take it or leave it. Click on the menu to enlarge. Basically we spent more than S$150 for our meal there, but every cent is worth it!

Do you know why this dish is called Shabu Shabu? Ask me when you meet me the next time!

We tried all the dishes. This one is called Sukiyaki.

A VERY SATISFIED CUSTOMER although pocket a bit broke after this meal!

The fishing that was done earlier in the day. Our trused boatman, Hasegawa-san!

Basically the fishing was quite good. We don't use live bait. Instead we use lures which is fake fish. We started with smaller lures and the catch rate was good. 5 fishes within 20 minutes! Even Jacq, who is doing it first time, got 2!!! SURE CATCH AH!!!

Then after that, boatman changed our lures to heavier ones, hoping to catch bigger size. :( Sad to say no action after that. This boat trip costs us about S$300 for 4 hours. Expensive in local terms but sure catch leh, what more you want!

This trip is mainly on food. Not much shopping done as the clothes there are expensive.

One of the small sashimi place at (can't remember where liao) Die lah, after eating these in Japan, Singapore no fight leh.... Sigh.......

The sea-urchins (Uni) is also damn good!!!!

The famous Tokyo Rainbow bridge.

6th day - woke up early to go to see the Tsukiji fish market auction. Reached the place at 5.30am!

Then ate sashimi and sushi at 7am!!!!

Yum Yum..........

When we were at Roponggi the other day, noticed this store selling udon got damn long queue. Us being typical Singaporean and noticing that only locals are queueing up. Decided to come back and try during off peak hours. Check out the size of the bowls!

We were looking for a place to club and was walking around Shinjuku. Suddenly remember this place, Loft being mentioned in the Lonely Planet book. So went in. for a moment blur, cannot speak Japanese some more. then found out it is a place where budding rock bands perform. And that nite was a line-up of the more famous bands. Cover charge was 3000 yen (S$40) with a glass of beer served in plastic cups!!!

But when we went in, the atmosphere totally changed our mood. It was happening. Like some mini-nirvana / oasis concert. People were slam-dancing and body surfing. Although we don't understand a word the band is singing but the melody was catchy.

In the end, even bought one of the band's T-shirt and CD. You can see a clip of their performance in the video below.

After that more eating, a famous chain of Ramen store. I call it the Piggy Ramen!

Jacq found this theme park called Fujikyu at the foot of Mt Fuji. The rides there are happening.

This King of Coasters is commended by Guiness Book of Records as the highest coaster in 1990 or 1995?

This is the full view of the coaster. Height is at 80m. About 35-40 storeys high, I think??!!?

There is another one that accelerates to 172 km/h in just 1.8 seconds!

Definitely not for the faint-hearted and me!!

Was at Tokyo Dome City cos there is another coaster, sigh.... Apparently there is some Anime festival so all the young people there are dressed up. Only managed to take one pic cos some of the others do not allow. Maybe they are there without their parent's consent.. *Naughty naughty* But it is very interesting, they really go all out to look just like the japanese comics.

Our final sashimi and sushi place.

Video of "Die Like Dogs" performance...

Actually there is a lot more that happened but lazy to write. If you want to find out more, then gimme a call lah. Then you have excuse to catch up with me mah!!!

Cheers!

Headache! Headache!!!

It's been a while since I blogged. SORRY! Nothing interesting so far. Except for the last 3 weeks, it has been hell!!!

Well, actually my wife and I have been scouting around Singapore for a new place. Been to Oprah Estate, Sin Ming, Serangoon Gardens, Hillview, Thomson, etc. Never really found a place that we like. Either too expensive or too old and it will cost us a bomb to rebuild. It was made worse with the property boom. Even the private owners are taking advantage of this boom and just anyhow whack prices. I was at a point telling my wife that maybe we should just hang on for another year then see how.

Then 1 weekend, nothing much to do so decided to just drive around to look see. Ended up at an estate in Macpherson. Then came across this very unique and beautiful place. Decided for fun just call, I was thinking should be quite ex as it is newly rebuilt. When the agent told us the price, we were surprised???? Valuation is at 810K and owner asking for 750K!!!! Freehold!!! What a catch!!

Ok la, the land area is kinda small, only 1100 sq ft. But just nice, 3 bedrooms. Then now I can move my office back home.... And further more, it is a corner terrace so more space for my pets.

Decided to view the place. It feels good... can really picture myself staying there. Decided not to sound so keen so told them we will arrange to meet the agent again next week.

Then next week arrived sooner than expected. Agent advised us to try 730K and see if owner accept so we just decided the hell with it. I figured I can never find a place at this kinda price and furthermore freehold and newly constructed so we just paid the 1% booking fee. A few days later, the agent came back to say he accepted.

Now headache, last time I bought my current place, it is all handled by HDB and boy the process was smooth. Now private property, need to get quotes from banks, compare, worry about stamping fees, legal fees, etc. Furthermore, we still cannot sell our old place until July then 5 years. Alamak! So we decided to appeal to HDB since the maturity date is only 2 months difference. Now still waiting.

however, the good news is, since we have confirmed the new place, WTH, just try and see what kind of price we can get for our place. So got our neighbour whose an agent to do a valuation. The report came back at 385K. Allright, the price for my place went up by 10K. Initially was expecting to let go at the same price I bought it 5 years ago, 400K, would be a pretty good return. But guess what, manage to get a buyer on the first day of marketing at a price of 410K!!!!

Thank God! To be frank, have been praying the whole week for strength and patience to get thru this cos the numbers, procedures, people, etc is almost driving me crazy. So crazy that I did not even feel like drinking!!!

Well, the irritating thing now is waiting for HDB to approve our appeal for early release else we can't submit the Option to Purchase for my existing flat.

Anyway, the whole process is quite tedious.

Don't worry, once move in, will invite all of you to my housewarming.

Ok, pictures now...

Front view. Basically a 2 storey with attic. The master bedroom will be on the attic.

3 bathrooms, one at each floor.

Another front view.

My future office on 2nd floor.

My maid's room and also cattery.

Our master bedroom. Check it out... got balcony some more!!!

View from balcony. Not too bad, not many obstructions on view as my place is the tallest around, so far......

View of side garden.

Didn't take the living room cos at that time, my mom, auntie, cousin, sister and also the agents are around so dun want them to spoil the picture... hehe...

Well this is the next phase of my life...... dun worry not having kids lah......

Hope the rest of the journey will even be better than my previous 5 years.

God Bless!

Perth AGAIN!! 18 - 25 Feb 2007

Hi Hi!!! Finally got something to blog about after such a long time. Guess what? I was in Perth again during the CNY week! Hah! Tried to siam the CNY mah.... just kidding. I left for Perth on the 1st day of CNY in the evening so still got time to visit my direct families and relatives.

As mentioned in my previous blog, I had unfinished business in Perth and after communicating with Jon via email, I was tempted to go again as now it is still summer and the fishing there has been fantastic since Dec 06. So in the end, WTH, just book the tickets online and off we go.

Arrived at Perth at about 2am, Jon was there to pick us up. Once I step out, I was surprised as the temperature is about 15-18 deg C??? I tot it is summer, apparently it it beginning to get colder the past week. NVM, cool weather is great too.... at least something that Singapore does not have.

By the time we got to Jon's place, it is already 4am so we just knock out and await the dawn of the new day to start our holiday.

First day, went to Subiaco again as my wifey wanted to do shopping, Below is one of the street at Subiaco. I really find their architecture quite interesting, something that Asia will not be able to find.

Basically the first day we only did shopping at Subiaco, however, I was also invited to Jon's friend's place for dinner. Something like a CNY dinner and Yu Sheng and gambling and all. Dinner was ok, but the gambling was quite good. In all, I won about AUD100+!! Hehehe.... my shopping for that day considered free!

The second day, Tues, we decided to check out Penguin Island. Below is the view of the island from the mainland. There are supposed to be wild penguins and their nesting ground so no harm, never seen any wild penguins yet.


We took a ferry over, however, they also have an option that you can walk over. The sea bed is not very deep, about chest high, so there are people who tried to walk over. It takes about 15 mins slow walk. Quite an experience, but we didn't try as Jon's kid is with us.

On the ferry, the skipper was introducing the island and mentioned that Penguins normally will be out feeding in the day and will return at night to the nest. So I was thinking to myself, huh??? then we go see what? Furthermore, the place operates from 9am - 5pm.... hmmmmm.....

Below is a pic of the other side of penguin island which is facing the ocean. Got pretty nice rock structures.


In the end, LL, go and see captive penguins. These penguins are basically either rescued / injured / in the senior age, therefore, they are kept in captive so the staff can monitor and ensure they are living and eating properly.

After Penguin island, we head back Jon's place. Tot of going to this place in the north, Lancilin, to fish. However, in order to satisfy our wives, we played MJ for 1 round first. hehehe..... Bo pian, must compromise mah!

So we headed out to Lancilin, it was a jetty and the water was very clear. We could actually see fishes swimming. I was surprised at the catch rate, basically, you can cast your line and count to 5, confirm got bite!!!

We were there for about 1.5hr and this is our catch: (this excludes those fishes that were thrown back cos inedible or disgusting - puffer fish) In all 6 herrings, 1 skipjack trevally and 3 sea mullets.


When we were there, something happened, the whole jetty blackout! We were instantly covered in total darkness, the only thing we can see are the stars. It was quite a magical feeling and we feel like we are in a giant dome surrounded by thousands and thousands of stars. The next thing was even weirder, the fishes in the sea started jumping out of the water. We are hearing splashes all around us but we are unable to see anything. What a unique experience!!!! Luckily the lights started coming back on again.

On Wed, we went to Perth City for shopping again. Passed by this shopping mall that is designed like Europe. Check out the street inside!

After that we headed down south to Mandurrah, Jon wanted to show me the place where we can just walk in the water to scoop crabs. However, disappointed as crab season not here yet. It will only be here in March. Thus we walked around a bit to enjoy the place. Jon brought us to view the "champion" housing in Mandurrah. Even better than his place....!

Check out the houses and their private jetties!!!

I think Sentosa Cove is trying to copy this concept but frankly I dun think it will work. Most important of all is the weather. It is cool and dry in Perth but Singapore is hot and humid. I can sit at the balcony in the afternoon having a sun tan without breaking a sweat. Not here in SG....

Before we headed back, we were walking along the coast and guess what saw 3 wild dolphins swimming around!!!! Managed to take a pic of one of them only.... What an amazing sight! People pay $ to go out sea to see wild dolphins and there are times where they come back empty-handed but we get to see them for free. Oh, I forgot to mention, at Lancilin jetty we also saw a wild dolphin frolicking near the shoreline as well. What luck!

Thurs: decided to check out the Adventure World in Perth. Sadly, it was not what we expected. The most thrilling rides are these 2 below:

There is also another called Tomb Raider. Basically, we will walk in a group of 7-8 with our hands on each other's shoulders and walk thru a very dark maze. We were told that there will be monsters that may pop out and scare us. It was kinda scary but irritating as the "monsters" are basically people with make up on and hiding in corners waiting for us to walk thru then they will jump out and "Aargh!" you.

Ultimately, felt that the $ not worth the Adventure World.

However, there is this new Koala World so went over to check it out. Basically it is a mini zoo with some emus, kangaroos and koalas.

Friday: our long awaited boat trip. This time we took Bluejuice charters as it was recommended by our friend. overall nothing much to write, the trip was very bad, only managed a red snapper - 1 kg and a queen snapper - 2kg. Some of the other people did not even get a single fish. The current was very strong so maybe that is one of the reason. Anyway, we were expecting to get a better catch the next day with Too Ezy.

After boat trip, Jon and I were tasked to prepare seafood dinner. During the past few days, we lay crab cages just at the jetty behind Jon's place and the collection was wonderful! Average of about 2-3 crabs per half day. Check them out! These are blue mana crabs / swimmer crabs. locally it is known as flower crab but different as local flower crabs does not have blue markings.

The column on the right are male and the other column are female. Amazing, right, free seafood!!!

We also cooked all the other fishes we caught during the past few days as shown:

The end-result....

Very sad, Too Ezy cancelled the trip :( due to weather reporting strong winds for the day up to 25 knots. So never go.

In the end, Jon just brough us around for a bit of sigtseeing. Below is the place called Burns Beach where during seaon, you can go and pluck abalone. No kidding! Their abalone can be bigger that you whole hand!!! But there are restrictions on weight of abalone per person and during season, there will be wildlife wardens guarding the beach. But can you imagine, just snorkel and pluck abalone from the sea!!!

Was a bit disappointed about not going for the Too Ezy trip so in the end, decided to heck it and go back Lancilin again. THis time round it is more exciting. Caught a lot more herrings, skipjack trevally and even squid!

This is how the jetty looks like...

Our total catch.....

There were more but released back, mainly puffer fish and trumpeters.... later in the night, we were visited by 2 giant rays! Their size is easily bigger than those olden kopitiam round tables!!! We quickly tried to lure them to bite our bait. In the end, the bigger mama ray decided to take but of all the rods, she took the weakest one. thus no fight, even before we can strike, the line burst.... what a waste!!!!!

Overall it is a fun trip, however, seems like I still have unfinished business there. May plan to go again in Dec 07 where the timing is just right.....

In any case, depends on how my business is this year, else dun say Perth, even Sentosa also got problem!!!!

Lastly, Gong Xi Fa Cai to all and may your 2007 be a happy and prosperous one!!!

My thousand apologies for not blogging for so long.

Has been a hectic couple of weeks for me.

Was in Hong Kong for a short shopping trip over the weekend before CNY. Main objective is to buy new clothes for CNY and also to change my whole office wardrobe. Have gotten flabby around the tummy area.... fa fu!! Spent a bomb at G2000 but I have to say, the shirts and pants there are cheap compared to Singapore!! You can get a good office pants for less than S$40! My CNY shirt was bought from this shop owned by a gay. His shop is somewhere near Lan Kwai Fong. I have to say, his designs are very unique. Of course there are some which are outright gayish but there are others which I think is really cool! Already bought 1 before and this time, must go there and get one more for CNY. His shirts are not cheap, about S$120 each. But what the heck, the designs are really cool and can't be found anywhere else, to my knowledge.

Then CNY came, for me, I took this opportunity to siam and go to Perth again to visit my friend. My wife and I left on the first day of CNY after visiting our direct relatives and grandmas, then off we go! Spent 7 days there. In fact, just got back! Damn shack and think falling sick somemore!

For HK, never took pictures as it was more like a very focused shopping trip but for Perth, will load up the pics in a few days' time.

As for details of my Perth trip, please look out for it in the coming days. Now just tot of putting in a short blog to show that it is more updated.

Anyway, had a hectic but fun past 2 weeks, a lot of travelling. Now it is back to work and hopefully can plan another trip in June or something.

For now, it is pia all the way until June!!!

Sigh!

F*#KING ASSHOLES!!!

Whoever that stole my laptop bag from my car last Thursday at Sims Ave, I curse you!!!

You actually got the check to force down my window so you can reach your filthy hands in and take my laptop!!!

I never would have thought that this would happen to me in Singapore!!!

No $ then go and freaking earn $ instead of taking other people's property. No proper upbringing with brains smaller than peas!!!

By the way, if you happen to read this, I have already filed a police report and also informed Dell. Good luck to you if the notebook break down, once you send it back to Dell then you will f*#king get it! You have no choice but to send it to Dell.

My notebook is a Dell Inspiron 9400. The serial number is tagged. Dun you even try to sell it cos the police will be able to track the serial number too!!! But you know what! If you got the balls to take, then have the balls to return as there is no way you can sell this in Singapore!

Wah damn pissed man!!!!

$ not the issue, but all my work and important files are inside! Backup also not updated enough.

CR 27 Nov 2006 at West Side

Finally my drinking buddy, Jimmy is able to take a short break after his 2nd baby girl is born. It has been more than 3 months since we got together. So one week before, he has been trying to organise a fishing trip together.

I met up at his place at 6.30am. Then we took his double cab to pick up the rest of the kakis. One in Bedok, then Tampines, then Changi to get our live bait (1kg prawns) and then Teck Whye to fetch the last kaki.

We reached our destination at about 9am. I was quite shack initially as I only slept for 3 hours since I wanted to watch the Man U vs Chelsea match.

Once we reached the pick up area, we saw our boatman came in a small boat, almost like a sampan. I tot, WTH??!!??

Then realised it was just to ferry us to the actual fishing boat. Sigh! The fishing boat was quite spacious. Though not as luxurious as my other trips before but it is a basic fishing boat. The boatman is quite senior, looks like 60+ to me. Have been fishing his whole life from the time Singapore was still a fishing port.

This is how the boat looks like:



The day started on a quiet note. Fishing spots are somewhere around Tuas and Jurong Island. Went to first 2 stops, no bite at all. Only at the 3rd spot, then one of the kaki caught this 1kg Guhood on handline.

Then it was quiet all the way. Rain started at about 3+pm. It was quite disappointing. As I started to reel in to check my bait, One of my kaki, Louis, saw a live sotong attached to my bait. So we scooped the bugger up and tot maybe can try changing from live prawn to sotong to see if it helps. So I hooked on the live sotong onto my Shimano TLD30 and then released to bottom. Within a minute, my rod started tapping! Immediately I rushed to it and started reeling back! It felt heavy! What a surprise when it came up! A nice size grouper. The weight is confirmed at 2.2kg.

With that, it got everyone excited! And we started to be on our attention. Soon after I got another take on my other Shimano 8000. It wasn't as heavy as the first but it felt good to catch something again. Up came another smaller grouper, weight is slightly less than 1kg. But this time it was on live prawns. Jimmy was mentioning that the water is warming up thus the fish is starting to feed.

Within another 5 mins, I got another take, This time it felt fierce, the fish was darting everywhere. In my mind, could it be a Diamond Trevally? I was hoping for one. However, up came a nice Parrotfish. The biggest I've caught so far. In fact the grouper was also the biggest I've caught so far. The weight is about 1kg

Thus this concludes the action for the trip. Louis was cursing and swearing cos the whole time he was in between my 2 rods, only about 0.5m away. But my 2 rods kept gettting hookup and he didn't.

So it is true to say that fishing is 70% luck and 30% skill. And I guess I was the luckiest one that day!

Overall the trip was not as good as I expected however, I had the most catch so no complains.

Can't wait for the next trip. I believe Southern Islands may be more productive, so will try to orgnanise one there.

That's it for now.

Trip on MV Southern Comfort 21 Oct 2006

Had a smashing good time celebrating my birthday on 21 Oct 2006. Decided to do something different so since Eileena's birthday is also on the same day so came up with a suggestion to rent a boat and do BBQ and also fishing at the same time! Was glad that everyone was quite supportive of this so decided to Just Do It!

So the logistic, food and drinks are all settled. We had curry chicken, friend bee hoon, BBQ squid, BBQ stingray, hotdog and chicken wings all prepared thanks to my maid, hehehe....

For drinks we had Chivas, Red Label, Moet & Chandon and a carton of Heineken. Hope it is enough.

Well, instead of me talking non-stop the pictures are as follows:

This is an old pic of the boat we rented, it is called Southern Comfort. The captain, Melvin, did a good job in renovating the boat, Now it looks real good. If you want to find out more, go to http://www.mvsoutherncomfort.com/ for more details.

Of course for a party to be successful, we must have babes! These are the babes. (Sorry all are already "reserved")

When there are babes, there will always be hunks as well. These are the hunks!

This "hunk" came real late so he wasn't in the group photo. Furthermore, never catch any fish but trying to get credit for this seabass caught by Justin! Hehehe...

First stop was in-between Sisters' Island and St John's Island. The water there is calmer so good for BBQ. Of course, we can also do a bit of fishing. Nothing was hooked up on our rods but there were squid around and we were doing some scooping. To our surprise, scooped up a Nurse Shark. It's a baby!

BBQ was fun with good food, good company and good drinks! At about 11+, we headed to an actual fishing spot.

My first catch, a Blue Spotted Ray!

Then Justin's perseverance paid off with a small Seabass!

The catch of the nite, a 2kg Red Snapper (Ang Kuey)

Last catch of the nite, SweetLips.


We didn't catch much as the fishing time was less than 3 hours. Anyway, this trip fishing is not the main agenda so can catch already very good liao!

Justin was doin some scooping later in the nite and managed to scoop up a mini flying fish.

it was a memorable event and hope that everyone on board enjoyed themselves. Thanks to all (Colin, Eileena, Justin, Cynthia, Terence, Joshua, Wanling, Andrew and my wife) for making this happen as I have to admit the costs is not cheap for such an event so I'm grateful that everyone is sporting enough to contribute and share the costs.

It is a special birthday party for me!