28 February 2008

Last night, I was all hyped up for Backstreet Boys Unbreakable Concert which was held in Sunway Lagoon Theme Park. Those who joined me was Gerald, Johnny and Timothy. (I didn’t know there were so many guy fans there until I saw the crowd!)

It costs me only RM88 to get a ticket.

Not only that, this was my very first concert and it is no other than my favourite boy band - the Backstreet Boys.

The crowd started to pack like sardines at the Surf Beach of the theme park. What I could see was thousands and thousands of fans aging from as young as primary school kid to as old as 50-year-old citizens!!

The Opening of the concert begins!!!!! (Check out the amount of handphones and cameras!!)

The unfortunate part is I didn’t get to stand quite near the stage. I was like at least more than 50 metres away from the band.

How I wished I came as early as 630pm to queue up in order to stand at the first line!!!

Even then, I still enjoyed myself as the Backstreet Boys belt their hits from the 90’s all the way to their latest album’s release.

From here, I knew why I am still a fan of this greatest boy band of all time!!

Brian (B-Rok) Littrell, as usual, showing his manhood and handsomeness which melted my heart straight away when he belted his solo single “Welcome Home“. (Ahhhhh….)

Nick Carter, not as fat as he used to be a few years ago, rocked the house with his charisma!

AJ (Alexander James) McLean, proved to the crowd that he can still conquer the audience with his spectacular performance even hjs mic wasn’t functioning that well!!

Sweet Howie D (Howard Dorough) is still as sweet as before, living up to his nick for the past 12 years. But to some of the guys, Howie looks “gay“!!! Just that, his voice is a bit shaky lately!

Well, as for me, Backstreet Boys really rock the concert in and out. Even though my heart felt heavy as they bid farewell after the last song, I was in cloud 9.

WHY?

For the first time in 12 years, I finally got to see my Backstreet Boys LIVE!!!

25 February 2008

Halong Bay (Vietnamese: Vịnh Hạ Long) was part of my itinerary when I visited Vietnam last month. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.

This tourism spot is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. It takes about 3 and a half hours drive from Hanoi city to reach the jetty of Halong Bay.

Every tourist who visits Vietnam, will not leave out Halong Bay in their traveling itinerary, trust me on that!

Look at the amount of tourists from all over the world.

The woman in blue shawl is from Canada, and she was helping the Thai lady to cross to another boat.

The Canadian woman was on her 5-month vacation around South East Asia. She just spent a week at Ho Chi Minh City with her husband before she came to Hanoi. She did mentioned that she visited Malaysia before her trip to Vietnam and she even planned to return to Malaysia before heading back to Canada.

On the other hand, the Thai lady was taking a long break from her herbal business in Bangkok. From what she has told me, I could gather that she is a filthy rich businesswoman that has even stayed in Port Klang, Malaysia for 4 years and in Singapore for 2 years. Not only that, she was able to speak in English, Vietnamese and French apart from her native tongue.

Tourists are given a choice to take a small boat, a junk or a medium-sized boat like ours.

The bay consists of a dense cluster of 1,969 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise spectacularly from the ocean.

Isn’t it beautiful?

The first stop during the Halong Bay tour was the fishing village. Originally in Halong Bay there was only one fishing village. Now there are about ten.

According to the tour guide, they live on floating houses and are sustained by capture fishing and marine aquaculture (cultivating marine biota).

I have no idea what is the name of this fish. Perhaps, you can refer to those who study marine science??!!

Is this cuttle fish?

These are crabs!!! And they are so RED in colour!!

I see an octopus and some unknown (read: I mean I don’t recognise these creatures) seashells. Err, wait, are they seashells?? Oh crap, I really do not know what is that!!!

After the fishing village, lunch was included into our Halong Bay package. Trying out the Vietnamese typical lunch was awesome. At least we know what they do normally eat.

The boat continued to tour around Halong Bay where the bay has a 120km long coastline and is approximately 1,553 square kilometres in size!!

The lime stone islets really come in different sizes and shapes. Just like this one. From afar, it looked Disney’s “Lion King” proudly standing on its own!!

As I came closer for a better view, MAN…. it really looked like LION KING!!!!!!

Our second and final stop was Dong Thien Cung.

Here, we were brought to visit a cave found in 1993 by a fisherman who was seeking shelter from a storm.

There were lots of formation of stalamites and staglatites.

It is funny when the tour guide told me that this formation looked like ” A Dragon eating mushrooms”. I was like ‘HUH’??????

Caving in a cold temperature is not a good idea anyway. I don’t feel that comfortable caving in a jacket, hand gloves and a neck scarf! Funny!!!

As I finished caving, there were lots of souvenir stalls whereby the local people will persuade you to get one.

How am I going to get a good souvenir when they only sell such things? Monkeys as souvenirs???

NO way!

The local people doesn’t stop persuading you when you’re at the cave, they continue in the boat when you’re on the way back to the Halong jetty.

This time, they will sell pearls to you. They claim that these are genuine pearls which they rear in Halong Bay.

How genuine the pearls are, I really don’t know. But I am not ready to spend US $6 on the bracelet with a few pearls!

One thing for sure, I know I will be missing Vietnam when I return to Malaysia.

Truly, I am missing Vietnam, missing Halong Bay!

21 February 2008

Have you watched One Night With the King?

One Night with the King is a film that was released in 2006 in the United States. It is a dramatization of the Old Testament Bible story of Esther.

Esther has always been known for her beauty and wisdom

Now for those who wants to know more about Esther, her story takes place near the end of these events described in the Old Testament. The two kingdoms of Israel and Judah had fallen and been taken into captivity in Assyria and Babylon, respectively.

Esther, known as the Jewish Queen of gentile Persia, who risked her life by approaching the king to request that he save the Jewish people. Esther set a remarkable example of personal sacrifice. Although understandably at first hesitant, she willingly risked her life so others could be saved.

During Esther’s appointment as the Queen of Persia

Try to think about the intensity and quality of “The Passion of the Christ”- this movie was also researched, directed, and filmed by Mel Gibson and team with the highest standards of excellence, and its impact is just as amazing.

The history of Esther is a beautiful work of art for the kingdom of God and now everyone who has missed reading the story can discover the power of faith, courage and obedience through the film industry. God is reaching out to His people!

King Xerxes of Persia spending the first wedding night with Queen Esther

For me, I really enjoyed the movie.

The story of Esther is very accurately portrayed and encourages a person to stand up for their beliefs and have the boldness to step out in faith towards their destiny.

It is a must see for all you are awaiting their purpose in life.

& Perhaps, I might get ONE NIGHT WITH THE MP??!! (Since the Elections are drawing near)

20 February 2008

Thanks to Kennysia, who introduced the Sapa Mountains to me when I asked him where I should visit in Vietnam.

In order to proceed to Sapa, we had to take an overnight train from Hanoi to Lao Cai Station at 9:15pm.

The interior of the train was so rundown and made us look like refugees! And they charged us $24 BLOODY USD’s for it??!!

Nontheless, we just had to bear with the blardy 9 hour journey via this old train to Lao Cai. How I survived the rocking cradle (read: the train), I just have no idea.

It was 5am in the morning when we reached Lao Cai station, only to be greeted by the freezing weather at 9°C. We quickly zipped our jackets all the way to the neckline.

The Lao Cai Station does not provide proper pathways for its passengers. Instead of paved walkways, we had to traverse across pebbles and railings in order to reach the platform leading towards the terminal.

We quickly paced towards the warmth of the terminal in the chilly air. There, the travel agency arranged for us for a 1-hour journey to the Sapa Mountains with the local shuttle bus service which started from Lao Cai at 6am.

By the time we reached Sapa, it was about 7:15am. And it was still super foggy in the mountain range. This particular lady looked as though she wrapped her whole head!

Walking along the streets in the town allowed me to paint a clearer picture of the the hill tribes’ lifestyle in Sapa Mountains.

The hill tribes in Vietnam originated from the mountains of China many centuries ago and till date the locals here make a living selling goods to tourists.

But trust me, when you visit Sapa Mountains during winter season, please prepare extra thick winter clothing.

I didn’t expect Sapa to be that cold so I only brought a normal jacket that served me well in Genting’s to fight off the cold here. Alas, my trusty old jacket failed on me and I had to wear several extra layers of T’s to make sure I didn’t freeze to death!

Contrary to the weather forecast of 12-15°C, it was 6°C when I reached this region of Northern Vietnam for goodness sake! Darn weather forecast.

The lady on my far right was actually persuading me to buy something from her. They started to pester and I had to be firm in saying NO to them. Oh, if you see ladies wearing a black head-cover, this means they are from the Black Hmong hill tribe.

The local tour guide brought us to Tram Tonh Pass in a jeep to catch the breathtaking view of the mountain range in Vietnam. See how breathtaking the scenery is? =)

As we neared the summit, the sun tormented our backs as the temperature rose considerably compared to Sapa town. I began peeling like an onion (read: taking off my jacket) because it started to get warm.

This waterfall behind us is a famous tourist spot but it dries up during the winter season. I guess if you visit here in the summer, you would be seeing lots of splash from this waterfall!

In the mountains, you would be able to see a lot of these “pit-stops” for you to enjoy some barbecued stuffs.

They normally barbecue eggs, potatoes, pork and chestnuts for sale to the tourists.

And guess what?

This BBQ-PORK is my favourite bite in Sapa ’cause it beats the one in Philippines!

In the afternoon, we were brought to Sapa Market, which is only available during the weekends. Luckily I chose to visit Sapa on a Saturday. If not, I would miss out this packed and colourful place.

Look how bizarre the bazaar is!

The women in red head-covers are from the Red Dzao hill tribe.

After the brief tour around the Sapa market, the local tour guide (who is also from the Black Hmong tribe) brought us for mountain-trekking to Cat Cat Village which took us approximately 3 hours of sore feet.

After walking for an hour, we finally reached the entrance of the Cat Cat Cultural Village.

My goodness, I couldn’t believe I had to trek a total in excess of 5km when the tour guide told me half way on the way down.

The villagers here dye cloths and sew them into dresses to be sold in the Sapa market for a decent living.

Mei Lem, our young tour guide was showing us the indigo plant that is used to make the dark blue dye for the Black Hmong tribe’s dresses.

The villagers are also into agricultural sector. You can see buffaloes everywhere around the paddy field in the village.

It was almost the end of village-trekking by the time we reached this shaky old suspension bridge.

I had to walk another 1 friggin’ hour back to the Sapa market from this point. Thank God I had the stamina to finish the journey. (I was panting heavily during the last 20 minutes of walking…hahaha)

By 630pm, we left Sapa mountains to catch the 8:15pm train back to Hanoi.

This time, we got a more comfortable cabin on the Tulico train for USD$27 per person.

Trust me, I slept like a babi that night. Perhaps, I was damn exhausted after the 5000km trekking to Cat Cat Village.