Malaysia from Bandung, Indonesia

When I travel, I always make sure that I read the local newspaper. In my recent travel to Indonesia, I have another option of reading the local paper in their national language as Indonesian language is not much different from the Malay language we learn in Malaysia. Of course, being from Sabah and reading Agatha Christie in Indonesian translation and cheesy pop-novel (sometimes bordering on soft-porn.... really soft) by Fredy S. courtesy of Sabah's library did help too. Hence, I need not depend on the English local papers.

I forgot when was the above news came out in the Indonesian paper but somehow it catched my eyes and I remembered it was on the train to Yogya from Bandung. I was on early train, 715 am if I am not mistaken and out of anticipated boredom of the 7-hrs journey, I bought a copy of the paper... sorry, I forgot what's the name but remember the cost is about RM3000Rp. Another thing about the newspaper, I find that the price of the paper will drop in accordance to the time. I remembered some kid try to sell the paper at 1000Rp when it's about 2pm.

Will talk more about the newspaper in other post. But when I read that news above in the train, I let out a laugh that caught some puzzling gaze from other passengers but I wag the attention off by a sheepish smile.

See.... TDM never failed to amaze me, though this time in an amusing way.

LinPeh's At It Again

The funny poem below was taken from LinPeh's blog. See his post here . He's his usual brilliantly funny self here. Made me laughing like mad. HaNx....

Boleh Goes To Court

Boleh Only Good At Simply Tok

Boleh Only Good At Toking Cock

Boleh Took The Neighbour Go To Court

Neighbour Got The Island Boleh Got The Rock

Boleh Blame The Lawyer Not Prepared

Because Lingam Was Not Even There

Boleh Blame The Court Not Fair

Because Fairuz Was Not Sitting There

Ordinary People - Bandung

Discovered the joy of taking photos in Sepia mode, thanks to Sophia's Panasonic Lumix.

This was taken early morning waiting for the 7-seater that will bring us to Tangkuban Perahu, Bandung. I was sitting at the kaki lima in front of the Hotel Kartika watching the time pass by. Students cycling, bus passing, becak strolling, life passing.

This was taken in the train I took from Bandung to Yogyakarta. The mother-daughter were sitting next to me across the other side of the aisle and they were having fun chatting with each other. Just before the train stops, mom was busy combing and styling her daughter's hair.

Here In My Home - Malaysian Artistes for Unity

Featuring a whole lot of Malaysian artistes, yes, here is my home. No one can ask me go anywhere else. Nak balik rumah, sini tempatnya. Thanks Pete Teo for the song.

Goodies from Jakarta

I joined the doughnut craze. J.Co is under the same owner as Bread Talk.

Yes, it's J.Co all the way from its origin in JAKARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I can say is YUMMY.

My Blueberry Nights

One of the gem I bought in Jakarta. Well, this trip to Jakarta, lots of gem found! :) And the price is unbelievably cheap. It's 20,000Rp which is less than RM10 (about 28,000Rp) and not only that, 20,000Rp included 2 mp3s too!!!! Freaking cheap and it's good D9 std to boot!!!

A few years ago, I had a dream. It began in the summer and was over by the following spring. In between, there were as many unhappy nights as there were happy days. Most of them took place in this café. And then one night, a door slammed and the dream was over. - utterred by Jude Law, whose ability to portray fragile, sensitive male lead in scruffy mode is unbeatable.

Wong Kar Wai (WKW) first English feature was not received well indeed but I found it to be a joy to watch. Fans who expected his cryptic dialogue and mysterious frame and camera take will be disappointed as he didn't completely copy what he did in his Chinese features. Having said that, if you are detail and pay enough attention, you will find that he's WKW anyway. The movie is filled with WKW-ness from the setting (still William Chang) to the music score usage. In fact, he used back the score from In The Mood for Love.

Those who's familiar with WKW's movies will notice some similarity here, the names, plots, characters etc. Chung King Express's Tony Leung's cop, Faye Wong's cafe, keys etc...

Casting is the core of the movie. Norah Jones being the title character Elizabeth exudes no master-class acting chops but she's very natural in her role and it's a joy to watch, especially when her soothing vocal serenading the flow of the plot and this made the soundtrack something to get your hands to. Jude Law is effective and his English accent is as attractive as ever.

But the Brit that sizzles here is definitely Rachel Weisz. She's just gorgeous and lighten up the scene! Pairing with David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) in one of the sub-plot, Weisz is hot hot hot! And Natalie Portman also shines. I really amazed by her versatility especially seeing her award winning performance in Closer.

Notable Quotes :
Elizabeth: Why do you keep them? You should just throw them out.
Jeremy: No. No, I couldn't do that.
Elizabeth: Why not?
Jeremy: If I threw these keys away then those doors would be closed forever and that shouldn't be up to me to decide, should it?
Elizabeth: I guess I'm just looking for a reason.
Jeremy: From my observations, sometimes it's better off not knowing, and other times there's no reason to be found.
Elizabeth: Everything has a reason.
Jeremy: Hmm. It's like these pies and cakes. At the end of every night, the cheesecake and the apple pie are always completely gone. The peach cobbler and the chocolate mousse cake are nearly finished... but there's always a whole blueberry pie left untouched.
Elizabeth: So what's wrong with the blueberry pie?
Jeremy: There's nothing wrong with the blueberry pie. Just... people make other choices. You can't blame the blueberry pie, just... no one wants it.
and continuation to.........
Katya: Sometimes, even if you have the keys those doors still can't be opened. Can they?
Jeremy: Even if the door is open, the person you're looking for may not be there, Katya.

--------------------------------------

Elizabeth : It took me nearly a year to get here. It wasn't so hard to cross that street after all, it all depends on who's waiting for you on the other side

Yeah, the blueberry pie was not unwanted. With or without the keys, sometimes it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, it depends on who's waiting on the other side of the door.

Kotobian Tadau Kaamatan (May 30-31) and Happy Gawai (June 1-2)

Happy Harvest Festival (May 30-31) to all my Kadazan-Dusun friends and also to the Sarawakian comrades who's celebration of Gawai will be on June 1-2.

Happy Holiday to all those who tumpang sekaki too!!!

Oct 25 - Jiu Zhu Cultural Village, Sun Moon Lake

Jiu Zhu (JZ) is essentially a cultural village cum theme park.

Familiar sight like in Genting?

House of one of the tribes.

Owl is the sacred symbols of one of the tribe.

Men working hard in the village? It's actually a ceremony to mark the age of entering adulthood. The men were not real, they're statues.

Taken in the cable car. One of the performance venue.

Yup, eerily safe cable car.

You know what it is though it's not proportionately accurate with the two round rocks at the front.

Yes, it's khinzir.

JZ Square.

Cultural performances by all the tribes.

Another part of the JZ village, the entrance with the western style garden.

The police station in Sun Moon Lake.

Taken in the long distance bus from Sun Moon Lake to Taipei. It's a declaration by the bus driver with his name and his alcohol-intake is zero. Wow.... this is credibility.

And the bus is filled with drinking water and reading material too.

Oct 25 - Wow..........Sun Moon Lake

I don't think any caption needed. Just simply breathtaking scenery at dawn in Sun Moon Lake.