Moving Home

Dear friends, After almost a year staying in Blogger.com, I've finally found a new home for the Asian Cow. From today onwards, the new address would be www.TheAsianCow.com I'll be updating it with more cool stuffs in time to come but in the meantime, please update your links.

After work life

Everyone of us has after-work activities and I would really like to hear some views. Mine goes as this after work Monday : Gym (Weights) Tuesday : Futsal (Cardio, run like a dog) Wednesday : Gym (More weights) Thursday : Blardy Rest Day ! Friday : Drinking Fiesta Saturday : Shopping / Movies Sunday : Tennis Now I’m trying to fill it up with language lessons (yea, I’m doing it) and perhaps some hip-hop dancing class (yea, I’m doing it too).

What's your juice ?

A lot of us rely on some sort of juice to get us going. Austin Power, for example, rely on his mojo to beat the crap out of Dr.Evil and win his girl. My question is what’s your juice ? I’ve been thinking that the juice to get me going might no longer be passion because I’m on the verge of becoming too jaded. Everything I hear in meetings no longer excites me and in fact my eyes feel kinda heavy. I’ve been involved from advertising to CRM, interactive to direct mailer, mobile phones to billboard … the excitement no longer excites. With that in mind, I began to search for new juice to fuel my roads ahead. Once my juice has been found, I will then explain to the world in detail. In the meantime, my current juice will need to work overtime. Again, my question to you … what’s your juice ?

Blog Non-Stop

This is the 1st time i'm writing my blog on my mobile in a taxi. Feels weird though u might not see much difference except certain words were cut short for convenience sake. Anyway, i'm suppose 2 follow up with my recent drinking habit. Its bad. When I was in vietnam, I started with 3 mini bottles of finlandia vodka @ 1200pm, then evening with 1 beer (not a beer person), then 8 shots of tequila, before going on rampage of 8 vodka redbull/sprite. next was 2 sambuca shot finishing with a bottle of smirnoff (had about 3 shots), then bottle went missing. Drinking too much ....

New Launch

Today mark the inaugural launch of my new BLOG - theasiantiger.blogspot.com - my alter ego.

Quirky Vietnam

An underground in Saigon ... mmm .. I thought they called it Cu Chi tunnels. Lucky Plaza everywhere. Singapore has one, Ho Chi Minh has one too. 555 cigarettes ? Now they have 333 beers !! Always important to have a "Dinning" bunker Good for rhemautism wor... Tank with balls !!! Roadside stall selling French baguette. Charging us 3% still not enough for Visa and now, into wine as well. A blardy huge taugeh (bean sprout) omelette Here's my list of quirky photo when I was in Vietnam.

Good morning Vietnam !!!

Before I even had a chance to delve deeper into my one week in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, I was literally lifted to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh) for a crazy weekend. It took me two hours to get there and the first thing I realized when I landed is this place is HOT !!! I mean really hot …. I was sweating the moment I stepped out from the nice Tiger Airways plane onto the tarmac. There were 8 of us (6 guys and 2 girls) and we boarded a nice van down to our hotel. View from my hotel room on Saigon .... It took us about 30 minutes when we finally arrived. A quick check-in, refreshment and we’re out on the street looking for food. First stop, Pho 24 …. A noodle shop. As usual, I order the one with everything from tripe to brisket, fillet to tendon all into one bowl of nice hot soup. I even taken the liberty to add some more meat and meatball to fulfill my hunger (woke up at 500am, no coffee, no breakfast, no lunch and 3 blardy vodka sprite on the plane makes people get REALLY hungry) After we’ve completed the lunch, we went forth to Ben Thanh market for some Cha Tu Chak type shopping. Got what I’ve been wanting … Vietnamese coffee with the drip cups. Happy camper !!! Bought little bits of here and there as well but generally, nothing that captures my interest that much. What market if they don't have scorpions and cobras ! We then return to hotel to freshen up for dinner which was a Saigon river cruise. The food was bland, Chinese and not interesting but the cruise is quite fun. I also found that they have a dish that I’m very curious though I didn’t order it. (Exposure only once squid). Another interesting thing is our tour guide’s name for that night – “Kunt”… so we’re happily calling her and she also happily obliged !!! Later that night, we leave the boat and adjourned to Rain Forest disco. Typical Vietnamese local disco with loud thumping music but we’re kinda treated like VIPs because we ordered a bottle of Tequila. Here comes the shot … Woo Hoo !!! Had about 8 shots, did some dancing and went to Apocalypse Now disco, another joint but with more foreigners. The club was playing RnB, Hip-Hop and Pop stuffs. Here, more crazy drinking ensued … had about 3 Sprite Vodka or 4 Redbull Vodka first. Then I told them maybe more interesting shots … so we ordered Sambuca … had 2 of that. Then top up with a bottle of Finlandia Vodka which we had about 1/3 of a bottle (among 4 of us, the rest drop off) … before finally calling it a night. Woke up the next day at 700am to prepare ourselves for a trip to the tunnels (Cu Chi Tunnels). Again, extremely fascinated by it because it’s definitely an eye opener how resilient Vietnamese are in war. They totally created the word “guerilla” and perfected it to an art form. They can live and squeeze themselves into holes so small, its no surprise the Americans lost this war. Photos and words cannot describe enough of what I saw but you’ll have to experience it yourself to fully understand the extent of their thinking on guerilla warfare. For the Singaporeans or Malaysians, we need to top up with SHOPPING in the middle of the jungle to make this visit even more memorable. So, finish our jungle thing and went back to city for lunch. Met up with another group of 8 (2 guys, 6 girls) who just arrived. We were heading for lunch when a sudden down pour makes us all scatter like little monkeys. Anyway, the new group decided to try Pho 24 (which we had yesterday) and our group went to a new place called, Wrap and Roll … Here we EAT and EAT and EAT and EAT and EAT … we ate for 1.5 hours and we just laughing non-stop while a new dish was brought up. The food was delicious but the company was great. All of us were kinda IDIOTIC so it’s FUN !!! Completing our lunch, the smart-alec in us chose to visit the War Museum…. Highly graphical images of people dying, cut up and so on. Very depressing and emotional when we’re looking at the images. They show probably one side of the story on how Americans kill civilians and even kids but perhaps on the other side of the world, it will be vice-versa. Nevertheless, WAR is not a profitable to either side except the person who made the bullets. SO, I’M GOING FOR PEACE !!! MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR !!!! Woo Hoo !!! Completing this depressing moment, we immediately went shopping and I needed some clothes badly (didn’t bring enough and sweat too much) so I decided to visit our very own Malaysian brand store, Parkson. Again was let down because it wasn’t as cool as the one in KLCC. Finally found a nice printed T-shirt, a painting and some souvenir. Again, happy camper… Dinner tonight is French (Bibi)… after all, it’s a French colony and I can literally see people selling French baguette on the streets. Strange, but true. I wasn’t entirely impressed with this restaurant and I thought they are just kinda usual fare. Nevertheless, we ate happily … 16 of us … Didn’t go party because we took some time eating and by the time we finish, its quite late. We walk around aimlessly before heading back to hotel to order supper !!! Eat and then sleep. Next morning, fly home !!!! And now back in Singapore typing this. More quirky photos coming next.

Friday - P-Day

I think I’m getting old. Didn’t sleep for 36 hours because of a pitch and I feel like shit !! My pitch is at 830am in the morning and suppose to end at 1030am but my flight to Vietnam is 1130am. The GATE shuts at 1100am sharp. Wish me luck, both ways.

The Trip - Hotel

Stayed at three hotel during this whole week. First off, it was at Davis Hotel, Bangkok. A small hotel that has individual theme rooms and I love this kind of stuff. The hotel is a bit far off from BTS line so you will need a taxi everywhere. Overall, I love this hotel because they have great room service - lovely Thai food and their Pad Thai were simply amazing. The bed is nice and soft while the duvet is thick and fluffy. Damage ? About 4,000 baht per night with free breakfast. The next hotel was Fraser Place, a serviced apartment so has microwave and the likes. Its own by Singaporeans so it has that modern "chic" factor. Its quite close by to BTS so its about a 5 - 7 minutes walk to Central Departmental Store. No room service but the place is quite huge. The bed are wonderful ... by far the most comfortable and definitely provide a good night slumber. Damage for this is about 4,500 baht for two rooms, a great deal. Third hotel was Tri Yaan Nas Ros, a REALLY small hotel. Only 8 rooms so we kinda know everyone in the hotel itself. Shared a room with a friend and been sitting out on the deck everyday. I find the place warm and nice but the facilities are not really the greatest. Though the staff will try to accommodate our needs, its still not easy. Like their restaurant menu was so small its not even a restaurant anymore. And ayoyo, I got bitten by so many mosquitos its not funny anymore. But is cost less than 2,000 baht per room per night, so I'm not complaining. Generally, a wonderful service, bed ok, aircond strange, a tad too dark and no hot water. Otherwise, great place !

The Trip - Local Beer

Hey, I'm sure you've tried Singha, which is one of the most famous beer in Thailand. But have you heard of Phuket Lager ? Aha ... now, that's the interesting part because it's a local island beer. I don't want to repeat what the website has so I'm providing you the link - www.phuketbeer.com. I actually found out about this beer in Bangkok but haven't had a chance to try that yet. Maybe the next time I venture to Phuket, I'll try it out.

The Trip - Air Asia Reviewed

Just returned from a week long retreat. Really needed this after such a hectic 1st quarter. I wanted to just chill out and also catch up with friends. So the first write-up on my one-week long trip is probably about the flight. First of all, Air Asia is NEVER on time. Delay , delay and more delays. That's the frustrating part but I doubt there's much to write so I'm going to tell you a bit more on the interesting observation. Can you remember those days when KL still has "Bas mini" and they will be shouting "Masuk Masuk" (Get in, Get in) and you see them quickly speed off to their next destination. Now, relate that to Air Asia, our very own Cheap-and-Good-Fly-Everywhere-Airline-But-Always-Late. Air Asia rush everyone into the plane, close the door and the pilot will literally speed their way from the taxiway to the take-ff runaway. Without even stopping, they will immediately speed off to their destination. I cannot help but continue to laugh at this "Bas Mini" On Air phenomenon. Go ! Go ! Go ! Only had one-second to snap this because they are rushing us into the plane. Always makes me wonder it's so a-t-t-r-a-c-t-i-v-e .... a-a-a-h-h-h-h

What to do on Friday !!!

Ah … Friday. After a hard week, its time to get on to Friday. But what do people do on Friday ? I did a little research with some fellow Singaporeans and the answers I got were amazing. ME : What do you do on Friday ? A : Go home and have sex with my partner. ME : Oh, that’s lovely. Your girlfriend must be excited. A : No. My BOYfriend is. ME : What do you do on Friday ? B : I don’t know. I’m so busy, I’m not sure. ME : No plans yet ? B : Oh, yes … I’ve done my planning. Just need my boss to approve it. ME : duh… ME : What do you do on Friday ? C : Shopping lor ME : Well, that’s a plan. Good for you. C : Wah liau, SALE at Taka ar. Some more got NATAS coming. ME : What do you do on Friday ? D : Drink ME : One only ? D : Yea, one carton ME : Wow, won’t you get really drunk ? D : Who cares, I can go on MC on Monday. ME : What do you do on Friday ? E : Find some sexy young thing ME : Looking for a pet ? E : Sexy Young Thing, you know ?!!! ME : Well, not quite sure. E : You never heard that you can get lucky only at Lucky Plaza on Sunday ? ME : Oh, acquired taste!! Now, here’s the excerpt on some wackier ones and what they would be doing. The sane ones generally have happy hour, meet up with friends for a drink, farewell drinks, team dinners, meeting up new people, go window shopping, go night zoo, go clubbing and the likes. Happy Friday …. Woo hoo !!!

My new digital camera

My latest weekend shopping – It was the IT fair in Singapore and without fail, I move my butt out of bed in the morning and literally ran over to Suntec Convention Centre for an interesting day. I have been waiting to replace a smaller digicam which has an unfortunate accident of wandering around Darling Harbour in Sydney on its own. So, my first stop was going through all the different makes – Sony, Nikon, Casio, Panasonic and Canon. Didn’t bother with Kodak, Samsung or Olympus because I’ve read the ratings and they are not the top performer. I ventured into the Casio booth, looked at the cool Casio Exilim Z600, their latest 6mb pixels (though I only use 3mb most of the time), with all the cool features. I love the fact they have this 32 scenes shots and all the camera has this Anti-Shake thing now. It was retailing at SGD599 with free digital phone, tripod, casing, cleaner and 1gb SD card. Pretty decent deal, I must admit. Secondly, I hover to Panasonic because I’m anxious to see their best model, Panasonic Lumix TZ1, the 10x zoom digital camera. Come on, where would you see any cool 10x camera nowadays ? But it was so cool, they have not launch it in Singapore yet … what a shame … I tried their FX9 but was already feeling dejected and moved on. Went over to Sony booth and was greeted by both T7 and the latest T9. Wah, blardy expensive but its look good so played with it quite a bit but still quite unsure. Went to Nikon, and it was packed with hopefuls. Checked their unit but wasn’t impressed so I quickly rush over to Canon and supposedly the best among all. Look at the highest model, Ixus 750 and totally wasn’t ON with it. So plasticky and then I went on to check their Ixus 60 which at least has the metal body. Feels similar to previous unit but doesn’t have the required multiple scenes so wasn’t so sure. After walking, thinking, mulling and finally decided on the bronzy looking Casio Exilim Z600 … ignore their digital phone and got SGD29 discount. How wonderful. Anyone having anything similar?