a.r.c.h.i.e

Sabah : Here I Come

2008-08-17T10:09:00.016+08:00

I've bought the ticket to Kota Kinabalu since last May during Air Asia vs. MAS air fare war. With RM0 fare for MAS, the deal was too good to be true, so i bought. We were separated into a few flights whereby mine was the earliest at 4.00 am, Saturday. Others with Air Asia at 6.00 am, 12.30 pm and the last was at 9.00 pm with MAS. The flight went smoothly with MAS with a lot of empty seats.. which my Sabahan friends called it the 'mercy' flight :) But i had a different mission which was to conquer the Mount Kinabalu.. with my brother only.

This is the newly launch pre-pack hot food from MAS. I chose this mee siam with chicken which was marvelous. The flight was very smooth and for your information, one of my favourite if i fly is taking the sky & clouds photos which i find very unique. As we flew towards the sunrise, the scene from the above was so magical.

Kota Kinabalu beach lines started to visible from the darkness.

And finally the best sunrise of Sabah with the Mount Kinabalu background. . marvelous.

We touched down around 6.30 am with the beautiful sunrise.

This is the still under construction Kota Kinabalu Airport which MAS uses. Air Asia has other terminal at the other end of the airport.

As this is a backpacking trip, i stayed at this Akinabalu Youth Hostel which is situated at Jalan Gaya, in the middle of KK town. The location is perfect for budget travellers like me who treasure the authenticity of a place. Everything is in the walking distance which also allows us to explore the town intimately through people daily activities.

A glimpse of KK town from a stranger :)

The backpackers' area around Jalan Gaya, KK.

KK has an interesting pedestrian bridge networking which inter-connecting buildings while also shades people from shine or rain.

The place that we stay is only 5-10 minutes walking distance to the main market which is by the sea. My brother and i went around the town looking for extra climbing gears and also had our lunch. What i cannot stand with KK was the heat. It was so hot that Saturday without cloud and it was very hard for us to jalan-jalan. The only choice was keep ourselves shaded and air-conditioned inside the shopping malls.

At 3.00 pm, we managed to get a boat to the nearby Island of Mamutik for RM17.00 per person for a snorkeling escapade. Sadly, the corals are dying.. nothing much left.

After Mamutik & a short rest at the hostel, i joined Shah, Yazeed and their KK friend for a dinner at the back of the handicraft market which also known as 'Pasar Filipino'.

The bigger than palm size prawns ready to be purchased and grilled.

The all-time favourite of chicken wings.

Our dinner, 2 nos. of grill fishes plus other 2 nos. of big squids for RM100 with rice, that seaweed and some sort of pickled non-dried anchovies.

Unfortunately, i turned down our next activity with Shah, Yazeed, Ham & Hairi later for a late nite outing as i need to sleep early for my early checked out for the Mount Kinabalu climb. An uneasy feeling settled in me thinking about the climb.. emm..

Archidex 2008

2008-07-20T17:38:00.000+08:00

This is the first time i joined the Datum Conference during the annual Archidex exhibition organized by Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM). I represented my company with 2 other colleagues and my boss (of course he joined coz he paid for it!!) This Datum is actually a talk by famous architects all over the world namely USA, The Netherlands, Korea, China, Japan etc and also malaysia over 2 days period. Mostly they were all about their current works which i found very2 interesting.. and i managed not to sleep over the full days talks :) And the 'makan-makan' was good, served by KL Convention Centre catering..

The famous architects answering questions from participants.

The building that changed colours from this..

to this...

and also into this..

This is the Mercedes Benz's Museum in Germany seen from above..

The museum's elevation with interlocking facade of glass & concrete..

the interior of the museum.. marvelous!

A scaled model from a local firm, mimicking the sailing ships..

Some of the work exhibition from the firms.. some very interesting but some still very2 ordinary..

Guess.. where's this building?!!!?

More work exhibition by others..

This is the building products' exhibition held concurrently during the Archidex.. Anyway, it was fun to join these kind of events once in a while and met other fellow architects especially my coursemates who some i never met since graduated. Many are preparing to sit for the exam.. some doing well in firms and others choose to settle down with government agencies all over Malaysia. The event ignited some core questions about what my next step... emm :)

Bukit Tabur

2008-06-28T22:55:00.007+08:00

I haven't been to any climbing quite sometime, but last weekend after going through my monthly hated client's board meeting presentation.. i gave a go to a friend's invitation. I was quite sceptical about the climbing after hearing past incidents, the multi-obstacles etc from my office mate who had been there before. But who cares.. i think i need to do it as a preparation for my big climbing.. so i did.

There were a few of us with my friend, a.k.a. the guy who did it 38 times plus kinabalu etc lead the team. We met at a Taman Melawati petrol station around 8.30 am saturday (usually i never wake up yet :)) and convoyed to the Klang Gate Dam entrance. We parked our cars, did some stretching, double checked our water bottles, snacks etc and started our climbing.

The beginning of the trail was challenging enough to put my breath short and fast until reaching the first tier within 10 minutes. It was 75 degree earth slope climbing, went through trees and bushes. My friend told us that there was once, one of his friend passed out at the first tier because not fit enough.

The dam after 20 minutes climb started to visible.

Ulu Klang Gate Dam visible from 1/4 of the trail after passing through a few stops.

One of my friend and I just arrived. My body was sweating all over and it was feeling good!

We reached down hill around 1.30pm after went through a mix adventure of trekking, rock climbing, abseiling, crawling etc of slopes ranging from 45 - 90 degree with gratefulness, satisfaction and proud. The last trek was descending through a fruit orchard and a rubber estate before entering the compound of a low rise apartment facing the hill.

To me, the main tip is to be extra careful as people tend to misjudge the nature. Some unfortunate miscalculation proved fatal for some cases especially when people slipped and fell from several storeys high rock cliff, which i recently knew happened to my good friend's uncle 6 years ago at the same place.

Nevertheless, it never discourage me from exploring the nature as the best lesson is always from the mother nature itself. My adventure and passion will definitely continue.

Ipoh, Tepeng & KK

2008-06-10T20:53:00.010+08:00

On the last 31st May, i went to Ipoh for an officemates' wedding... It was jam on the way to ipoh but fortunately my buddy drove. I just be a gud co-pilot.. never slept, but the journey was fun with talks.. mostly office stuffs.

We went to Tambun Lost World.. I never been to any theme park for the last 10 years..

One of our friend lost his sanity... he he. Dont mad buddy..

We were all mad with ridings... & posing sakan!

These 2 kids was enjoying themselves... indeed!

After Lost World, with hunger.. we attacked a famous mee rebus restaurant in IPoh.

Even dare to make an appearance into a karaoke of an ipoh mali hang-out place. (the guy in red)

Ohh.. one unidentified still object.. he he. We sang until 3 a.m. Went back continue borak2 until 5 a.m.

The next day, we attended the Wedding of Fakhrul in Tepeng after woke up around 10 a.m. Selamat Pengantin Baru!

Some of the office mates were there did their one day trip all the way from KL.

Me, Zedan & Kerel

Kerol, Keri & Zafan

Stopped by the famous Tepeng Lake Garden.. very scenic :)

There were an indie band group doing there photography session..

An alma mater.. Proud of U!

Last but not least, we stopped by at this beautiful Masjid Ubudiah, Kuala Kangsar before heading to Ipoh and then back to KL. The jam was bad again & we arrived in KL around 1 a.m. after had dinner in Sg Buloh. There's already cakap2 to organise this kind of trip again.. monthly basis.. we'll see. I was thrilled & refreshed..

11.25pm...

2008-05-28T23:26:00.004+08:00

Still working & rushing for tomorrow's meetings... morning till late afternoon. Looking forward out of KL outing during weekend for an officemate's wedding. FOCUS AREL! FOCUS! Weekend is coming..

Casa Idaman

2008-05-20T22:39:00.011+08:00

Last weekend was 'jalan2 cari rumah' for my brother who's looking for his own first house after returning from work in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We went out to Wangsa Maju/ Gombak area on Saturday but the outcome was not that encouraging looking at the brochures/ show houses which sometimes over-priced/ over-speculated/ bad location/ bad design.. based on my opinion.

As a person who's directly involves in the industry, the main factor of location, good design & attractively priced properties is inevitable to be considered. Thus, Casa Idaman was chosen by him with my strong opinion.

The location

Jalan Ipoh was chosen for it's well developed infrastructure and accessibility to many major highways including the property's 6 km location to KLCC.

Exterior perspectives

The chosen layout

Overall, the contemporary design is a major push because highrise buildings meant to be designed such way.. modern, less is more. The layout is simple yet very functional, without any lost spaces like badly design layout which sometimes very difficult for the owners to place their furnitures. For condos, a balcony/ lanai is always a big favourite feature to me as it allows us to have direct contact to the elements even though we are high up there.

The showroom unit was tastefully furnished and it transformed ideas of good interior design to the unit. Designers' furnitures which was simple yet elegant really suit my brother's taste as well as mine. It kept ideas flowing to what he wanted to do to his unit and i told him that he needed to have a quite sum of budget to even have basic furnishing. At least he might abolish his dream of buying a superbike which is objected by mum & me.. i hope.

Entrance & dining

Dining, living & balcony

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

With a typical 1,007 sf total area of 3 beds & 2 baths plus 2 covered carparks, porcelain tiles to living/dining/kitchen area, swimming pool, gym, multi-purpose rooms, cafe, security system etc plus plus plus KLCC/KL Tower view from Level 16.. which i persuaded him last minutes to upgrade was really a big bargain for over RM200k pricetag. For your info, the 608 units are almost 98% sold out and only less than 10 units left even though it will only be launch by this coming weekend!

Last but not least, i will be his pre-booked permanent tenant when it completes in 2010 which also makes the place as a second home to our family who lives in Terengganu.. once in a while they come to KL.

17/05/2008 : Finally..

2008-05-17T00:39:00.004+08:00

I took 4 months to blog again. Gosh! Time fly with never ending datelines, i was exhausted to even log-in. People said, makan.. tido .. kerja and the cycle continues. Initially, i planned to write in the office after working hours. But, as i mentioned.. the plan was scarcely executed. Well, the good news is i just subscribed the streamyx at home last week.. ha ha..

Basicly, nothing much happened this week. Work loads were not as much as before as we're now in the stage where most of the main architectural drawings are there. So, i managed to go back around 7pm on friday (yesterday) after attending discussion with the client and the contractor.. hit the gym, window shopping at my favourite place and finally settled down for a dinner in Carlos, Pavillion.Carlos is a familiar Mexican restaurant for those who frequent The Pavillion. That was my second time there after last week. The magnet in Carlos is the big fresh oysters for RM2.00 a piece. What?! It's so cheap compares to other place around RM30.00 per half a dozen. Previously, i never ever dare to even look at its menu as the interior touch is quite lavish. After reading an article about it in The Star, and they wrote about the cheap oysters, reasonable dishes as well as the brief history of the Malay owner who ventured into the Mexican food, i was as confident as ever. The Spanish Mexican concept is nicely blend with a bar counter at the back and welcoming sofas in front. It also serves Sheeshas for customers to enjoy the aromatic tobacco puff. The restaurant was full when i was there around 10.00pm. For RM35.00 i was totally full with the oysters, 2 big size tachos and a pot of chamomile tea. Huhu.. life is wonderful!

Happy birthday bro!

2008-01-25T20:21:00.000+08:00

Birthday boy..

On the last 15th January, my office mate cum my assistant just celebrate his birthday. We were so busy with datelines that made me almost forgot his birthday. As i couldn't grab him on his birthday, i asked him to go for dinner on the next day. Thinking of he is a diehard fan of japanese food, same like me lah.. i decided to kidnap him to my favourite place - Shogun which is in One Utama Shopping Centre.

Shogun - The Japanese Buffet Restaurant

Whenever I ate japanese buffet, these would be the first i grabbed.. the most favourite :) From left to right - raw tuna, delicious raw salmon shashimi, strips of abalone with fish roe, seaweed, raw squid & last but not least the japanese soy sauce with wasabi... lots of them.. wow! Best sgt2.. Unfortunately, this is the only photo i managed to capture as right after i snapped.. the waiter came to me and said, "sorry sir.. photo taking is not allowed".. Mujur tak hilang selera. What to do.

After a few rounds of 'melantak'.. i went out for smoking. So these two shots were taken during that time. The hanging bridge is next to Shogun which i found out quite interesting with space frame structure and glass. The curvy planes gave a beautiful perspective which i think was intended to look hanging. Nice try..

The birthday boy - from paparazzi point of view

We went back to office fully loaded after 2 hours with the bill reaching RM120. I think it was worth spent especially for a guy who always do his job competently and be there for me whenever i have datelines. Thanx bro.. i really appreciate it.

A dot.. a beginning of 2008/1429

2008-01-12T12:08:00.000+08:00

A dot is the beginning of every single thing we do. The starting point of anything in time & space. For me, it's the starting point of my life's new chapter.. I wish a better of everything for myself, my career, my family & my supportive beloved friends. Happy New Year 2008! But, i'm 12 days late to wish :)

So sorry, especially to my close friends.. coz my work load really demand my full attention regardless of time and space. At this stage of any project, it is 'biasa' to go back at 4 or 5 in the morning while come back later around 9 am. Meetings are almost everyday. Changes in design is inevitable coz client is always right! To me whatever you do, need sacrifices.. a lot of them in order to be a very successful person. So, what to do? 'Alah, tutup mata.. redah jer!' I also try to reduce my stress by forcing myself to do some physical activities after work.

Anyway, i think it is not too late to wish all bloggers Selamat Menyambut Tahun Baru Islam 1429! Fiat Sapienta Virtus..

Goodbye 2007

2007-12-31T10:44:00.001+08:00

2007 was the year full of roller coaster ride for me. I went through the worst and the best moment in life. At the end of the day, i am very grateful to be who i am today. Life is very challenging indeed. To me, as long as i keep my dreams alive.. there's hope somewhere, somehow. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for those who stick to me good and bad. To my beloved family members, my best friends and my new fabulous friends. Here i present the glimpse of the year. Thank you again.

testing 1,2,3...

2007-12-27T19:28:00.000+08:00

Never dream of blogging.. emm. As a new comer, i'll do a few testing before the show begins. Ni kira preview ler. This is some of the photos from my last week's balik kampung for Aidil Adha. Enjoy!

I took half day leave, a day before raya and continued until Xmas. Eagerly leaving the firm at 12.30pm, i headed to Sentul to a proton workshop to replace the battery and brake pads for the first time since i bought my car 2 1/2 years ago. After packing my stuffs and picking my friend Hairi from LRT station, we managed to depart only around 6pm.

By 10pm we're out of Lebuhraya Pantai Timur through Ibok exit. I decided to use main federal road instead of a short-cut route, afraid of flood prone area along the stretch. Thinking of the Cherating-Kuantan road which is very familiar to me with seafood restaurants, made me suddenly hungry. We stopped at a chinese seafood restaurant nearby the road leading to The legend Resort, Cherating. I dragged my ached feet out of the car, relieved. We had a nice dinner of steamed siakap, butter prawn, fried squid and 'kailan goreng'.

My favourite dish indeed, steamed fish

The butter prawn is half palm size, nice but a little bit oily.

I think for RM60++ it was a good dinner for two. I drove back almost half past 12 of 'malam raya' from Cherating while chit chatted with my sleepy co-pilot. Believe it or not, the stretch of Kuantan-Kuala Terengganu road which goes through fishing villages along the South China Sea, is my favourite driving route now and then, forever.

We arrived Kuala Terengganu around 3am 'pagi raya'. Never before i went back for 'raya' this late, but i was grateful to god for a safe journey home. Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha 2007.