batch foto

photo: credits to depulson

tanjung piai and kukup (part 2)

We immediately taken into the information centre on the main jetty (is that the correct term?) and we were given brief on the island. Not far from the jetty, there are 2 watch tower connected by a sky bridge. However the other tower on the other side of the skybridge was under maintanence due to its leaning structure. Thus, we crossed over the sky bridge and took some snapshots. After having some height fright, everyone continued their journey on the wooden deck looking around whether they could find any life forms.. I've spotted this eagle size bird busy cleaning its feather approximately 30 metres from where we stand.


Finally, we got to the end of the deck where we are supposed to get on a boat cruise along sungai ular.. but the boat or the boat deck was not operating (huh!) so, we went back to the jetty to return to the mainland, kukup. On our journey back to the jetty, suddenly my friend shouted, "BABI!! Ape bende ni!" as she throws away a huge bag full of prawn crackers to the floor and scooted as fast as she could.. Everyone was in shock and spontanously ran together like a pack of bison chased by lion.. (including the park guide!).. After a few minutes of running everyone looked back and burst out of laugh as everyone realize that it was just a macaque that wants a bit of our food. Everyone thought it was a wildboar!

after that short entertainment, everyone was exhausted and continue laughing at the jetty.. thinking back how silly was our reaction "chased" by the primate who was actually approaching us in cool macho mode without the intention of scaring us. It was not showing any agression when it approach us from the back. That was something.. So, as the boat arrive to take us back to the mainland, we were joined by a couple of Japanese tourist acompanied by a tour guide. Around the island there are several fish farms where they are said to be main exporter to Singapore. The boat stopped at one of the farm and we were taken to see how they feed the fishes. After that, we finally got on the mainland and straight away went to find a place to have lunch.



After having a not-so-appeasing lunch, we picked our bags and went straight to tanjung piai by taxi. Arrived at about 3-4 pm, the checked into our resort room and prepared ourself before we go to Tanjung Piai park. The park was under renovation and the route that usually used by visitors was not operating. So, we took the palm plantation route which is kinda scary as if in a horror movie setting. Though we weren't sure whether the road is gonna take us to the right destination, we kept on walking on the rough rubbles and keep walking, and walking, and walking. Then, finally we arrived at the national park after half an hour of painful steps. We head to the counter to buy drinks as we were exhausted and "dried up". The same as kukup, tanjung piai was surrounded by thick layers of mangrove forest and the faunas are similar. but we didn't find any except for the obnoxious macaques and they are not adorable at all, PERIOD!


After that long walk and talking pictures everywhere we go, we decided to head back to our hotel and get ready for the crit session later that evening. Everyone wasn't prepared actually for the crit.. just that to get comments from the lecturers. Back at the hotel, everyone gathered at a wakaf in front of the block waiting for lecturers but they didn't showed up. so, some of us went upstairs to pray or watch tv. At about 6-7 pm the lecturers arrived .. the crit session starts. but i didn't joined, i just listen to other people's crit. Dinner that nught was on Dr Hamdan and we had quite a chat with him and Dr Zin on the dinner table. As all the food was all finish, the lecturers were ready to get back to JB and we head back to our rooms to get some rest after that tiring day.


The next day after everyone was having a good night sleep, we were ready to hop on the bus straight to UTM.. everyone slept again on the bus


photo: credits to depulson

popcornizered

Celebrating our batch's very own pre graduation day, the juniors specifically 2nd year batch eureka prepared us with an amazing popcornizer event. We all enjoyed the nite eventhough there are some flaws here and there overall, the event was great and we really appreciate it! Thanks to Eureka.. the best part of the event is photo taking session of course! spent almost an hour to do so.. LOL! we were all prepped up to pose and all the girls are like dressed-to-kill. It was fun and all but the essence of the whole event was as a token of appreciation for our batch, chronicles.

some videos on the event:-

the girl in red dress, sweeney todd, the spirit and james bond

group shot 1,2.. there's 4 jokers

Well, the event was seriously amazing because almost all the performance was superb eventhough almost all are bands. FUN!FUN!FUN!.. ow.. i forgot, i dressed up as "The Spirit". in the end, my face was burned due to the fact that my skin is sensitive to the flammable chemical in the art gum that i used. My friend dressed up as "The Spirit" too and used the same gum but he didn't get burns. Well, all worth the effort (and burns) and the important thing is that i have a lot of fun that night and thanks again to Eureka.

my skin got burnt

p/s: the food wasn't really nice actually but its ok.

Impian ke Luar Negara

Dah lama dah berangan nak berhijrah ke luar negara.. (berangan je keje). Bukan ape.. just nak try hidup kat negara org dgn cara hidup yg berbeza. Terus terang aku katakan yang environment kat Malaysia especially kat Kuala Lumpur langsung x menarik minat aku.. dari politician yang semakin terpesong sehinggala suasana kota yang hiruk pikuk tak tau bila nak reda. Ade bbrp negara yg aku shortlistkan utk try nasib:-

- canada (Montreal)
- australia (sydney)


- america (specifically San Francisco@Chicago)


- and last but not least singapore.


Tapi hati aku berkeras nak p US. aku pun tak tau nape.. kalo nak keje kat msia pn ak nak keje either kat kuching ataupun JB. Hopefully dapatlah p nanti.. semoga aku dapat pergi (fingers crossed)

No Place Like Home

I miss kuching so muchhhhh... All i can say is that i really, really want to go back to my beloved hometown.. there's really no place like home. period! i miss all the delicious foods.. mee kolok, laksa sarawak, bubur pedas, terubok masin... waaaaaa... my mouth really is watering right now..

image taken from sensible www.pixie.blogspot.com

laksa sarawak

mee kolok

Most importantly is my family. every second spend with them is like a therapy for me.. They're the only people I rely on and i trust. OMG!OMG! I wanna go home.. ~.. too old for a 23 year old guy like me, eyy?.. nah, I'm among the brave and humble person to admit that unlike those ego centred people.. And I really want to go places every corner of the city.. from santubong to batu 7 and from bau to petra jaya.. T___T

Humanbeing

I accept every human for what they are.. there are humans who like to say bad things about people, there are people who like to eat, there are people who naturally "gedik", there are also people who are basically annoying. Everyone's born with some advantages and disadvantages but we have our own things to do in life. Life is a journey of confronting human behavior whether they're good or bad. I've learned a lot of things in life.. and thats how i came with a solution that whatever that we do, just be good to people.. no matter how bad people treat you. if its too bad you should just leave if there's no importance for you. We just have to adapt to people like this and be reminded that 99% of the world population are good people. And most of them who treated you bad may have some kinda bad day or experience or something.. some people just naturally look or act unpleasant.

People who like to talk bad about people are one of the most common people i've ever met. I admit I do that too but not so extensive that I'll talk bad about everyone. I believe in karma (sorta). I'll always remind myself that every single thing that we do.. there's always a reply. Say for example, you say people are fat and making fun of it.. someday, u'll get fat and by then you'll understand that feeling yourself. I've been there a few times and trust me.. its true. But most people will learn the hard way.. lets say you like to backstab people.. one day, you'll experience something that will really open your eyes wide and see the world with a different perspective. The experience will hurt u a lot that u will wake up from sleep and become a better person.

But sometimes, i felt really confused by these kind of people (i mean people who talk bad about people).. can't they just be descent? how hard is that? can't they just be happy about people's life..? part of me hate people like this.. but most of the part i just accept them for who they are.. That's the way they live and so shall it be.. someday they'll learn the hard way and hopefully all of us can just be a good human being. No want wants to be a bitch, right?

trip to tanjung piai and kukup (part 1)

To be honest, i wasn't looking forward for this trip at first since i'm very short of money plus, i have some other stuff to be worried about. But, thinking about my unit members, what they might say if i didn't go, i decided that i just attend this trip. I was thinking that they might say that I am the one responsible to increase the pay for the trip since lesser people joined in. 2 other people have officially didn't join and if i did the same thing, that wouldn't be too pleasing. So, i woke up last thursday morning prepared to take off from UTM bus stop.



Without high expectation and not really that eager to go, I was quite worried since we have crit on the trip so, i was quite buggled up thinking that i might be in deep shit since i haven't prepared anything.. ANYTHING! for crit.. hush! slap in the face!.. Talking to the others about the crit, I realise that they didn't have anything to crit either.. *feeling quite relieve..(fuhhhh..)





The bus arrived at 9 something (should be at 8) since the bus driver was busy taking some japanese tourist around UTM at the same scheduled time. What a bad start.. the bus driver was rude, unfriendly at all.. geez. so, the plan was that we will go to pulau kukup.. then, the bus will take us to tanjung piai which is 10 km away from kukup town. However, the snobbish driver refuse to wait and drive us there since we will spend quite some time in pulau kukup.. huh! so, the bus went back to UTM and we straight away got to the information centre (pissed off with the bus driver's shit). Nevermind, thats his problem. we're here to enjoy.. not to worry our own head of his immaturity. So, immediately we were given explaination about the 2nd largest no human settlement wetland island in the world. interesting enough, the area is home to some flora and fauna and also a resting place for birds.



After the briefing, we were taken to a sorta hidden jetty. From there we were taken on a boat cruise for approximately 15 minutes to kukup island. on our way there, we saw tonnes of fishing cages where the industry of fish agriculture is a big thing here since it is the largest sea fish exporter to singapore. As everyone was slowly taken over by the sea breeze and the natural mangrove greenary, we arrived at the forest reserve on a shakey wooden deck. After gathering everyone in the main building on the island, we venture into the lush green mangrove forest (of course on a wooden deck pathway ready by the management). The water was tide when we arrived so, the swamp forest floor was all covered with salt water. The wood pathway was 600 metres long about 1 metre above ground.

..later sambungla.. have some work to be done..

photos: credits to depulson

kuching isthmus

Kuching Isthmus project is so far the most potentially not-just-rumored mega project in Kuching. There are several other ambitious projects planned for Kuching before such as the city of 2000 around the masja area and new telaga air administrative district (which all have failed to materialized). But, Kuching Isthmus is progressing quite well with the nearly complete Borneo Convention Centre in the barrack area of Demak-Pending area. The whole masterplan for the breathtaking island is well-planned and designed for the ever developing city of Kuching. Basically, the plan is to developed the land into a new city planning. The whole planning of this ambitious project covers the development of some major projects such as the Kuching Tower, Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, Kuching Isthmus Hypermarket Mall, Office buildings, Luxury hotel and housing area.

Existing site for Kuching Isthmus

The ground breaking ceremony was initiated by Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud on 2 October 2005 with RM300 million start for Borneo Convention Centre. The mega project is situated on a 240 acre riverfront area on the east of Kuching City centre about 5 km away to be specific. The part of Kuching Extension Plan was designed to balance up the identity of Kuching as the capital of Sarawak and also the Borneo island as a whole.

Model of Borneo Convention Centre Kuching
3d rendering of BCCK

latest update on Isthmus Project and Borneo Convention Centre (January 2009)

Taking leaf as an inspiration for roof design

The convention centre is set to become a landmark for the city as well as providing convention and exhibition facilities for the state and also the world in the mystical land of Sarawak. It will be complete with state-of-the-art infrastructure and services to cater the needs for MICE industry. With a capacity of 1,500 delegates at one time, the convention centre, also known as BCCK costs about 195 million ringgit is estimated to be fully completed in August 2009 though there are news of possible delay. The construction of BCCK is accompanied with another the marina which is set to be built at the edge of the island.

Initial design for Kuching Tower by a canadian firm, ZW Group with City Gate Corporation

3d renderings of Kuching Tower by Hijjas Kasturi

The Kuching Tower is another key project in Kuching Isthmus as it is poised to be the tallest building in Sarawak. It will be a landmark for the city as well as the state. Stages of development, the project has not started since the main focus for the time being is on the BCCK. The designing stage however have been considered done and it was designed by famous Malaysian architect, Hijjas Kasturi. The 300 million ringgit tower complex will accomodate offices and luxury 315 room hotel. Standing at height of 150 meters, the 31 level tower (initially 39 floors) will house 200,000 square feet of first class business support office for the first 12 floors. From 15th floor upwards, a luxury hotel with a breathtaking view to the South China Sea and Sungai Sarawak. An 8 storey atrium completes the tower, offering high class Sky Lounge service viewing the surrounding landscape.

perspective rendering of the Isthmus Hypermarket Mall

Other projects are still under unknowned status such as condominium development, Shopping centre complex (Isthmus Hypermarket Mall) and Office building. Ken Yeang, another well-knowned Malaysian architect have been rumored to be building one of his masterpiece on the island. A twin tower with environmental elements in the design. ISthmus Hypermarket Mall is also a anticipating project since it will house big names in retail shopping such as Tesco, Jusco and Ikea. Upon completion, it is expected to be the largest in the region.