Beef Up Tourism in Malaysia

Couple of days ago the Star ran an interesting article about how Malaysia could potentially weather the current economic downturn by developing tourism since it's one of the fastest growing sectors in the global economy.

Besides being a day late and more than a couple of ringgit short, instead of trying to compete with the likes of Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore it makes more sense for Tourism to try to piggyback on their pool by increasing access from said countries. That way they only have to spend couple of million instead of billions to try to improve the whole sector... expectations from tourists also will be lower since it's like a by the way destination. Works out for everyone.

They should also promote Malaysia in Mongolia since we're probably always on the Mongolian news. There's already existing awareness. I was having a real blast coming up with potential taglines. Here are a few that I came up with before I ran out of ammo ;)

Get Blown Away!
Thrilling you to Bits
Have a Blast
A Roaring Good Time

Paris on a Bicycle!

OMG I forgot how cool Paris was and if it's even possible, it's even cooler now with a little more money (last time I was there was '98 studying and broke).

So ended up staying at 9 hotel which is in the 9th Arondissement (Paris Zone), quite a central location and walking distance to Galleries Lafayette and the Shopping district of Boulevard Hausman and biking distance from The Louvre. Yes! I biked it! -Though not without hitting an old man before I was told where the bike lane was. Ok! So I'm mildly retarded.

There were no less than 3, Bike Stations within 5 blocks. They have an awesome self-serve take and return a bike system launched last year. You get a bike where from point-A and return it to a station at point-B at impressively many locations. 1st 30mins FREE!!! 1st additional half hour 1 €, 2nd additional half hour 2 € and 4€ per half hour (priced to discourage hogging) thereafter with a150€ refundable deposit ...

Environmental friendly Kudos to France, apparently Germany has it too... It's not without flaws though, there's like a thing where you charge your card and it spits out a ticket with a pin for a deposit and it took my money but didn't give me my thing. And no one picks up the helpline!!! I got an automated piece of shit!!! Stupid credit card couldn't cancel the transaction???!!! Also finding return bays near The Louvre was a pain in the butt so I chained my bike to my friend's (hahahaha) try stealing that!!! (Ooh! They come with locks) But otherwise trés cool! It ended up being the highlight of the trip... Damn handy also since the Taxis were on strike :(

Sigh! Will never get to Malaysia prolly cos all the bikes will be stolen la, rigged la, vandalised la and whatever else la. Shame-shame since the fuel prices are going up,up,up!!

Maybe the Political Leaders should start 1st. LoL

by Mob's Crib

Trying to Book a Hotel in Paris in June *@*#$$!

Le 9 Hotel, Paris

When traveling, I pour a large portion of research time into finding a cool hotel because it can make or break a trip... an oldy moldy hotel with scary curly furniture and floral bedding will seriously send me screaming out of there split seconds!!!

Thankfully, of late boutique hotels are sprouting up everywhere, easy to book and quite affordable, although nowhere near cheap. New hotels are cool because they have less history... i.e.; stains and unwelcome room-mates (of the pest-y & astral kind). Or so I thought.

Trying to book a reasonably priced hotel in a central part of town in Paris at this time of the year seems to be damn near impossible. Apparently, to quote a french dude that turned my reservations down... "dat izz Paris in June..."

Besides stalking myboutiquehotel (best rates but only paris & london), tablethotels (coolest site but a little pricier) & splendia (almost the same as myboutique but in USD), which are really cool sites for boutique hotels, I've also been calling hotels who all seem to be booked (for my budget) or those that are were in my price range (150Euros thats x 5.2 Ringgits!!!) are now at least 30% more. Sigh! Let's not even get into the frantic calling to Morocco trying to book a Riad there -hardly any English spoken. (Did I mention I'm going to Morocco too?)

Anyway finally heard back from rep at myboutique hotels who should be able to hopefully book for me 9 hotel at 120-190 Euros.

It's Good to be Fish Food

Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus whose nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish (region in Turkey) consume disease affected and dead areas of the skin, allowing healthy new skin growth. They're known to be able cure of psoriasis & dermatitis after repeated treatments.
Although other claimed benefits are yet to be proven.


Garra Fish Spa at Kenko's Pavilion is finally in KL! Ok fine has been for a while. Been dying to try it since they were featured in Ugly Betty. It's supposed to exfoliate and increase circulation plus a bunch good stuff. A steal at RM38 for 30 mins.

It's kinda relaxing after getting use to the initial ticklish sensation. These guys are a vicious hungry bunch of mofos though, they really get into it eating all the dead skin, cuticles, toe jam, and were obsessed with my one scab which they ate and then fought amongst themselves to leech on to the bleeding wound. Blood. Mmmm... -Eeew!!! All said... Felt really smooth after... Bring your own lotion.

* Garra Rufa a similar concept Spa has opened in Bangsar it's nicer and kinda less crowded...
and they have real Gara Fish!!! - According to Gara Rufa's owner Kenko's uses Tilapias!!! -Touche!

Only in Thailand! Tiger Show - Exotic. Strange. Humbling

According to urbandictionary.com:

tiger show
In Thailand, a special sex show involving a number of acrobatic displays. Examples of what to expect at a tiger show are, women shooting darts out of their pussies, women shooting ping pong balls out of their pussies, and women women opening beer bottles with their pussies. Fun is had by all, and generally each man in attendance finishes his night with a private performance from one of the entertainers.

Since my friend was visiting this part of Asia for the 1st time, figured it was a necessary evil. Wondering down Patpong, and within seconds were approached by someone asking if we wanted to catch one.

-Hell Yeah! How did she know?

Ended up in a place called Super Pussy making friends with the friendly lady boy hostess who sat with us and told us about penis sizes & performance abilities of all nationalities... Apparently, Malaysian men have small willies.

The show itself was really fascinating, she was skilled enough to write Welcome to Super Pussy! With a marker on a board!!! Wow!!! We clapped in awe. According to our friendly lady boy, these skills take 10 or more years to acquire and can only be performed by "original pussy" aka real women. It did get annoying after a while because we had to keep tipping the performers before and after every trick. I think it's some kind of scam but whatever was fun while it lasted.

Got to see candles being blown out on a birthday cake, darts accurately hitting balloons, breaking & seperating eggs and metres and meters of ribbon being pulled out. Some people find this demeaning and dirty but I didn't really think it was that bad. I was more humbled... what can my pussy do if it had to give a show???

Long Time No See

Wow! I Haven't Blogged in like forever... As if anyone is reading this. Hahahah

Well Happy Chinese New Year of The Rat!!!

Bali Snapshots

THE BEAUTIFUL SCENERY & ONE WIERD SANDWICH


Ahhh Yummmm...

Rijstafel at Lotus(Ubud)... The Bebek Guling (fried Duck) is crispier (even the bones were edible!) better than the more famous Dirty Duck. My travel bud preffered Dirty duck so I dunno...

Pea Sandie anyone??? The Seri Suites cook got a little too creative with our breakfast
Restaurant at Hu Bar

Driving towards Villa Seri

Sunset by the Theta Spa @ Ramada BintangSide Saddle Bali Style!
Bungee Jumping @ Double 6... After a few drinks, why not?

The Ayung River

Bali Certified Surfer!!!

Kuta, Bali is indeed utopia for surfers & wannabees. -Like me! I got to fulfil my lifelong dream of learning to surf properly at the Hard Rock Surf School!!! How cool am I??? I know, I'm a total dork... but I wanted to learn properly, not try to be some hero and end up dying... I even got a cert to prove it [+ a discount at RipCurl :)] Ok, so I didn't do it before I turned 30like I said I would but so what?

They guarantee you learn to surf by the lesson end (3-4hrs) or next lesson free!!! Basically teach you to body positioning and paddling at the hotel pool like total losers (many hot men sighted) before going out to the beach for the real thing.

And I did it! I also got to ride a couple of waves. I must say it's a real rush but once you get a wave you're on shore really in like 2 seconds. But it takes like forever to get out to where you catch your wave, it's a damn gruelling workout fighting against the tide... But It was worth it! (At least the first 3 times, after that was a total chore... 'cos I'm old).

Conned ...Bali Hotel

Just found out today that Villa Seminyak Lagoon Villas (usually out of my price range) was going for RM600+ for 2+1 nights right after I booked Villa Seri for the same price. There's a cencellation fee! -AAAAAA!!! Bloody useless travel agent! I feel so conned!!!

Scheming in progress ...

Bali High!

Got a my return flight on Quatar? Qatar? Airlines, KUL-DPS cheaper than AirAsia RM630 (available at a travel agent near you 'till 08 -What a steal!) all in... not bad... I try to avoid Air Asia if possible, too many bad experiences.

So Bali here I come, Babeh!!!

The thing about booking accomodations online is that you never know what you'll really get. After a couple of bad experiences I really don't trust the pictures online, since I work in advertising and all we do is touch-up pictures all day (ok, so we do other things too...). My general guideline: Rule out the ones with the curly-wurly carpet & furniture first -those are the worst! And then what? You can still fall into the trap of false advertising & photo manipulation. But am really hoping hard that this time will be different. Check out the hotel I booked for US$55 a night ... Sooooo promising

crossing both fingers & toes

San Fran, USA

DON'T CALL IT FRISCO! THE CUTE BOYS ARE HERE & SO ARE THE HOMELESS PEOPLE!!!

AM AT THE FREAKIN' SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT KILLING TIME WAITING TO LEAVE & THIS DAMN THING CAN'T UNCAP.
FLIGHT TO L.A. DELAYED... PLEASE I NEED TO GO HOME.

My Personal Fave

Muirwoods

Tall Trees

So I went with Chon & Brrr to Muirwoods where they have those over 250 ft. tall giant trees & lots of happy families with their crazy kids today.

Spotted 3 leaf clovers and searched for 4-leaf ones but didn't see any. Looking at my photos just & think I see a tiny one growing. Think it is!!! Yay!!! Good luck to me.

IT IS!!!

While in LA : Shop

The Line at In-N_Out Burger was crazy there was a jam at the drive through, luckily I was clever enough to go inside & just after I got in line like 20 people came in. Too bad for them!

The iPhone was just launched about a week ago and it's the shizznit!!! It's so sexy I wanna make out with it. Alas! It only works with AT&T. Still makes me wanna... -Grrrrr!

SEXY!

*******************

Neverlost. -Yeah, right!

The Dessert Hills Outlet was great , though we got a little lost despite the GPS Navigation system. Can't compare with Woodberry Commons which is the Mother of all outlet malls... still it's quite good.

Gucci, Tod's, Bottega, Prada, Burberry were all there. Most American Brandnames too. My Shockalingam find: AG Jeans at $59. -Goody!

And yes, the laidback West Coast vibe albeit refreshing change from the New York don't look at me or breathe my air vibe has started to bug me... takes forever to get anything done here. Aaaaaaaa!!! The lady at the Gap didn't come back with my size (or at all!) & I didn't get more water at the restaurant. Yeesh!

The Haul

California!!!

Staying at the Beverly Hills Plaza. Nice!!!

So I woke up in LA today; first part of my 14 day trip where I will be visiting LA, San Fran -apparently only those who don't know better call it Frisco & Bloomfield Hills Michigan in between for a wedding.

I love LA already. Great weather nice people but am betting the laidbackness will soon get to me. No cute-boy sightings as of yet but all the ladies look good so far. If I moved here I'd sure be motivated to work out. -Hmmm...

1st stop Dessert Hills Oulet Mall out on Cabazon which should be easy-pea-sy to get to with GPS then IN-'N'-OUT Burger ...Mmmmm! Hope there isn't too long a line.