Showing posts with label Penang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penang. Show all posts

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Being Penangite BRATs For 4 Days

Laughter, stress, drowsiness, boredom, fatigue, andof course wackiness.
Those are the words to describe the recent BRATs Penang workshop i seniored. If only by a word, i would say laughter.

Among the few workshops I've seniored, this one really cracks me up. As usual with BRATs workshops, this one filled with various participants of colourful personalities.
You have the energetic 1, the laughing 1, the 'blond' 1, the blur 1(actually in brats, we have loads of them), the quiet 1, the lost 1, the sleepy 1, the emo 1...and the list goes on.

Not gonna elaborate much bout the programmes they went thru, as probably the rest of BRATs already blogged that out.
To have a little fun, lets make this post a little different.

10 Things You Should Know About The Penang Brats Workshop 2008

#1
First thing came to anyone's mind when being informed bout goin for Penang BRATs: "Wow, I'm sure you get to try loads of good food there!"
These poor participants were crying out loud of wanting to eat Penang food everyday k. Cause all meals were provided and its all IN the hotel. Lol. Like I told them, technically they are eating Penang food, only in a hotel of course *evil grin*

Niki was being nice to people as usual (maybe he should pay me to say this), so there was a night where everyone was given Rm10 and we're free to roam down to the nearby hawker street to fulfill their desire for PENANG FOOD.

I was sharing my funds with Gan, to widen up our choices of 'cuisine'. What do you know, my funds left with a negative RM2. And who the heck said Penang food is cheap??

#2
There were 2 contagious laughter BRATs.

I found the first one during the game of 'Honey, I Love You'.
This might seemed a lil mean, but she sucked big time in this game. Lol. Before the middle person able to do or say anything, she started laughing and blushing nonstop. I can already imagine her covering her mouth with her hands, taking 2 steps back and start laughing hysterically.

I'm not sure where I first heard the laughter of this 2nd person. She has this unique and hilarious type of laugh. And as said by others, she was never aware how her laugh sounded like!
While we're all laughing at some random jokes, we will probably spend the next few seconds laughing bout how she laugh upon it.

Ok, lets not say the word 'laugh' anymore.

#3
Loads and loads of Youtube videos were played during the workshop. Thanks to Niki's little interest of collecting funny and interesting vids.
During the multimedia session, he played the video of Gmail, Xbox, English language learning, Google, CNN and the most popular one, the Scrub's Guy Love! I think Ian loves that the most.

At other times, (just some little entertainment among us) there was the American Idol Renaldo Lapuz audition, Rick Miller doing the Bohemian Rhapsody (I love this the most) and some Russell Peters :)

#4
This might sound kinda unbelievable. but this batch of BRATs wasn't that enthusiastic to figure out our traditional BRATs riddles and IQ games!

I know I did torture them a little with some Papa and Mama. Before going on to Johnny Whoops and Grandma.
But when it comes to the arithmetics or we rather call it BRATematics, most of them gave up after few minutes and went back to their assignments!

Poor them, must be too stressed up.
Imagine you're so stressed up with assignments and suddenly someone asked you how many horses are there.

#5
Rubix cube!

I don't really know whatsup with Ian and Niki's obsession with the cube. But apparently there will be a huge commotion if there's someone actually able to finish it.

So far, I've only seen Kei done it. Did Jasmine finished that? Can't really recall it. I was busy playing the memory game using the cards. Darn it, took 4 people bout 10 mins to finish playing that.

#6
The BRATs really slept early during those 3 nites.

As usual we conduct the room check. To my suprise, half of them already lights off and sleeping! Oops, sorry for the 'inconvenience'.

Of course it sorta wasted my effort as well. As told, they were not suppose to open the door for anyone except the facilitators and the seniors. So after knocking or ringing the bell, I would start to dance in front of the door and hopefully they can recognise me thru the peephole.

Hey, I was bored k! Don't give me that eye-rolling look.

#7
Loads of creepy and weird tourist in the Sunway hotel.

I have nothing against Arab tourists or any hotel guests. But, it gets really creepy when they seemed to be TOO friendly.

I remember spotting Yew Chong being dragged into a conversation with few of the guys. They were showing him pictures and telling him their traveling experiences. I could see his expression that he wanted out from that conversation badly. But sorry man, couldn't rescue you out from there, I was rushing to get something done. lol.

During the last day, me and the other seniors were inside the van and ready to get to the bus station. I was waving goodbye to some of them who was waiting at the lobby front. While waving, this Arabian guy waved back at me and smile so ever happily as tho I'm related to him in an inseparable manner.

If only you could see my expression, there was a huge WTF written across my face.

#8
Vinu (if that's how you spell her name) has indirectly became the legendary aiyo ping pong piang BRAT. To make it shorter, sometimes we'll just call her the one.

Let say we have 20 rounds of the APPP game. Her group lost 16 rounds. 14 rounds was caused by her. lol.
Imagine she can sink her group 4 times in a row, and during that 4 times, it was their group to start off the new round! So imagine before even completing the APPP words, they already doomed theselves. Amazing.

She puffed, stoned, said Ping Ping and even shouted a group which doesn't exist.
No doubt, she is the one.

On another side note, apparently Niki still wanted to continue the tradition of using flour instead of musking tapes (due to the hotel policy of cleanliness in the function room). So, we played the final 6 rounds using flour(and water too) instead of tapes.

Niki: " Since its the end of the game, and group 2 got the worse out of any other groups...."

Ok, let me put away my watch and tag and sit in a comfortable position.
I can already see Muzani, Gan and Diyana running for cover. Of course the door was blocked by Phui Yee. So no point of running actually.

Before Niki able to finish his sentence of giving permission to group 2 to grab some flour and put it on anyone, I can already seen 2 or 3 of them came charging towards me with flour filled hands.

So yeah, moral of the story, seniors can never get away with it.

#9
The had hilarious performances, from all the 4 groups.

Seriously, it got us laughing so hard and nonstop.
It ranges from the imitation of Niki and Muzani to some inside jokes.

Added on with the Debra's laughter, it just took the entire thing up a notch.

#10
It's the very first workshop where the groups able to finish all their assignments!
1 slideshow presentation, 1 video presentation and 2 articles from each group. Never been done before. I seniored Taiping before this and they got either 1 slideshow or 1 video with 2 articles.

You guys totally nailed it. With all the stress and time constraint, still able to pull it off.
Good job :)
Or should I say great job?

Its all worthed it in the end, aint it? Nice articles being published in Ole Brats today. You can see your pretty and good looking faces in the papers as well as your hardwork.

Here are the videos from thestaronline.tv











...And some pictures from my phone




And yeah, regarding bout the group i seniored. It was the Group 1, also known as NewsFlash 10!
From some complication and a joke-turn-true incident, it somehow became NewsFlash 10.5. No prize for guessing who was the .5 fella :P

Kel Vin: The tai kor and editor of the group. Always cool and calm when managing the group.

Michelle: The tai kah che of the group and also the sub-editor. Hard worker. She barely stops working on her assignment. I don't think anyone can catch up with her

Julian: Quiet but efficient writer. He has some really nice articles written out

Wei Kang: The blur camera man. lol. But the video at Chew Jetty turned out fine aint it? :)

Mikha: My roommie as well! Cool guy and loads of ideas working up his head

Ming Yuen: He look darn serious. And of course his contribution to the group is seriously good as well (pardon my lame pun)

Joye Ter Ji-Xi: Don't ask me, somehow i remember her 'unique' chinese name. And yes Joye, you really brought alot of joy and fun to the group (once again, pardon my pun)

May Khei: The one who played it all cool and easy. I don't think I can see her being all stressed up. Shud have give her more riddles to mess with her a little:P

Kei: The asian cum mexican cum jap gal (somehow i'm not very comfortable with the 'cum' word). She entertains me alot. Lol. Its good in a way that I won't be free to disturb the others :P

Tammy: She's like this inseparable twin of Joye. They were like siamese twins at the Chowrasta market. So yeah, brought even more joy to the group. (don't worry, no pun here)

Thats my group! Congratulation on the article guys. In case you didn't notice, you guys had the biggest article in Ole BRATs! Almost half of the page k. And I sincerely would say that you all did an amazing job. With all the beautiful pics, creative articles and hard work on the video (although it was a lil overexposed, lets blame it on Panasonic camcorders this time k :P)

If I can remember, Kel Vin, Joye and Khei's pics got published rite? Haha, Khei's highly debated hotel pic got published afterall.

Damn, I'm gettin tired of blogging since hours ago. So lets end this alrite?

To my good pal Muzani, nice senioring with you AGAIN. Loads of funny shit and accents goin on...as USUAL :D

To Diyana, the noob senior (sorry to use the word noob, but you are! lol) your the one who has successfully convinced me to play concentration. Ku Ku Ku Ku!

To Gan, ANOTHER noob senior. I can see you're very passionate bout Spongebob and Patrick. Keep that up. And please control your excited laughter. Hehe

Nice senioring with you all :) Any workshop could be my last senioring due to particular reasons. So good luck especially to both of you noobs! I hope its a blasting first time senioring for you both. And congrats on the nicely done summary article :) Good adrenaline rush for the deadline eh?

Oh yeah, didn't have the chance to congrats Di on her scholarship. Congrats!

I'm gettin all long winded and as tho i'm receiving an award. Lol.

Ciaoz!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Penang 2007

Somehow me and Sin Yee has this thing bout going for 'compulsory' trips with our form 6 friends each year (don't deny that! you will be coming along for the Perhentian 2008 trip). We tried gettin more of our old chaps from school. But somehow its always bout working, exams or being at some other continents :P

Well, probably I'm the one with nothing else better to do. But heck, Langkawi 2006 was a blast.

The casts for this trip will be me, Sin Yee, Pui San, E-von, Chun Hor, Gabriel and Meng Wai.
And joined by E-von's penangite friends :)

I am impressed by the fuel consumption of my 1.3 Iswara/Saga (i'm still a lil' confused till now). The tank was bone dry till i need to urgently refill another 50 bucks nearby my house. And before you know it, the second refill was at Penang nearing Tanjung Bunga. That wasn't even an urgent refill!

Enough bout the 'Belilah Buatan Malaysia' advertisement.

Took us bout 4 and a half hour to reach Butterworth, including some light breakfast at Tapah.
Since we have all the time in the world, why not we hike the ferry?

And before that, i apologise for those blurry pics that u see. It came from my SE W810i 2megapixel cam phone. Unfortunately, the Sony cam was screwed up. The best quality was probably the one with loads of lightings around. Just a lil dim and noise patterns will be formed.
Where were we again? Oh yeah, the ferry ride.



We were doing some hotel hunting soon before we met up with the second car and go for lunch at Penang St. (Jalan Penang, just in case you thought i'm referring to any tar roads being located in Penang).
There was the famed asam laksa and cendol(not to forget the wannabe cendol stall right opposite the original one). Hmm, is it me or is it the hype ppl get from the asam laksa? Coz it seemed pretty normal for me. Diluted soup, very little 'content' but its rich with taste.

Probably that was the first destination for us, next one was the Snake Temple.
Took us a whooping 2 mins to complete the whole tour around it!
The front altar was under construction, the backyard garden was erm... 'delightfully small' and grand total of number of snakes:
...
...
...
TWO
..
..
....hmm....


Moving on,
The Cheng Ho Footstep Temple, or at least thats how you describe the place with a single name.
Wasn't he sent to Malacca instead? Poor Chinese dude must have lost his way around and stepped into a puddle of mud.

I wondered myself as well, what is the big deal bout his footstep?
Its just some ordinary footpri....WHOA!!!

Its a friggin' size 27 1/2 Nike footwear print there!

Well,ladies and gentlemen, we have proudly found your mysterious yeti, abominable snowman or bigfoot in Malaysia...if thats the actual size of his feet.

Our first dinner was at the McAlister road. Great variety and taste of food if you ask me. Its half of a road filled with hawker stalls on both sides. Knowing the fact that Penang food comes in small portion, we just ordered a plate of everything. I cant really remember what food i ate, but heck it was whole lotta stuffs in my stomach that night.

As for the next morning, to the Botanical Gardens. Damn, now we're really like tourists. Like the actual tourist who didn't know there's something else in between Thailand and Singapore.
Its famed for its numerous monkeys around. But i barely see any tho.

Next stop, a-bundle-of-temples.
I wouldnt really know how to describe it, so pics will do the trick.

This is a funny incident. I think it was Jastin who asked Chun Hor to pose for a pic in front of the stall. He has no idea we weren't really focusing on him OR the stall. Haha.

We're just trying to capture this few hot chicks(not in a kidnapping way).But damn, how could someone dressed up like her could enter a temple? Any daring gal wouldnt even attempt that in Mid Valley.

The Kek Lok Si Temple:
We really spent alot of time on this one. Loads of statues, altars and designs.
Yeah we went up the pagoda.I suppose that's the one. 4 bucks per entry. They even have the revolving thingy (like the one you see in themeparks) right at the entrance. Lol. Tourist attraction was at its best definition.

We then headed up to the Guan Yin statue.
Warning: Do not brake your 1.3cc car at any point on the slope unless you have reached to the flat surface of the parking area. Balancing your gear in the middle of the slope is near impossible. Well, you can do the balancing. Of course your car will be the most at stationary point.

Or the other alternative will be paying like a few bucks to hike the cable car up.

Pity the statue is still not done yet. Coz it would turn out really magnificent.
I think no one really notice this statue. Haha

Went down to the nearby area for yet another famous asam laksa. Now that's way better than Penang Road's.

Penang Hill/Bukit Bendera:
We arrived early just to get the tix of the cable car. You should look at the crowd. at least a few busses full of kids and elderly folks. Doesn't really matter, as long we have our tix and timing secured :)

Upon the hill, we hiked on this 4WD to get to the canopy walk area. Of course the other alternative will be renting a bike. But it would take us an hour or so and we don't really have tht much time for it.

Pretty cool eh? I was more amused at how they actually built it. Since its rather high up on the trees.

So the last stop was the TOY MUSEUM!
I've been picturing like a huge Toys R' Us. But its rather close to it. Its full of complete figurines collection of everything!

The toys...

The toilet...

and the idiot who ran out of poses


Practically thats all bout our main spots and journeys. Sorry, i couldnt upload every single pics here and describe it.

These are my best shots, rather suprised as its only a tiny cam phone. Way to go Sony Ericsson!

1. The jetty nearby the Cheng Ho footsteps. The quality is terrible due to the poor lightings. But i like the composition of it (the planks sure look unstable to be standing on it)
2. Kek Lok Si
3. Same thing
4. The ceiling of one of the temples in Kek Lok Si. I think its the entrance to the pagoda.
5. The statue head of Guan Yin.
6. Bukit Bendera (literally as well)

And many thanks to Sin Yee, Evon and Gabriel who contributed to the pics collection
So here you go, the complete GALLERY

(CLICK HERE)

I thought of putting a thumbnail gallery, but in realisation, the amount of pics needed to be load will cause extreme stress :P

Here's the external link
http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=201622&owner=miux