Edy’s Wedding @ Batam – The Actual Wedding! August 9, 2008

I should NEVER take afternoon naps on hot Saturday afternoons no matter how tempting that sounds! I don’t wake up until it’s well into the night and then I end up sitting mindlessly in front of the PC, looking at a real-time game like Travianwilling time to move faster. Oh, I won’t be blogging much next week because I’ll be staying over at the company hostel, at least 3 days out of 5. Why? Because we’re having training, and the trainer is also staying over at the company hostel. Boss has this idea to exploit the training to be way past office hours, muwahahhah! As always, whenever there’s a need to work late in the office for long periods of time, we can arrange for a room or two. Since aside from the boss, I’m the only female “foot soldier” in the team, I usually get a room all to myself as well. :3

The deadline for something that I wanted to do but was wishy-washy about has now passed. OH WELLZ!!!! There’s always next year or the year after that, or the year after that.

Scandal in the Malaysia blog arena = consuming my free time. Honestly — I feel bad for the person who is getting ostracised mercilessly now. She is not “psycho” or “b*tchy” or whatever. She is being defensive, which is understandable because even til now everyone is laying the blame on her and none on the guy. Is that fair? How many times do you hear people cursing her “b*tch” as opposed to talking about the guy? Ben, wish you were online now so that we can gossip! Useless talking to Simon about it because he’ll be like “HAIYAH WHY YOU CARE ABOUT ALL THIS PEOPLE!!”

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Final day in Batam! Was contemplating in the hotel room about going for a longgggg massage in the hotel since we were not sure if Anton & co were going to bring us or not. I mean, they said they would, but sometimes not good to abuse the generosity of your hosts, right? So we decided to make back-up plans la. Just as we had calculated our expenses and about to head for the door, Anton called us up and said that he and the rest of the gang will pick us up and go for lunch together before going for massage. Really no wonder why the rest of the gang call Anton “boss”. He’s always super at organising stuff and always the coordinator of everyone’s activities and movements. Hahahhaa.

Pempek time! The rest of the gang that wasn’t going for massages (in the end, only Onn, Eilyn, Jack, Kim and myself went) ate rice as well, but we didn’t because it isn’t a good idea to get massaged on a full stomach. Common sense ya!!

Fried pempek, to be dipped into chilli sauce, and a side of fried chicken wings.
This is the “much better pempek” that I had.

Anton recommended us “Sports Massage Center” for affordable and good massages. I thought the price was reasonable, and had an hour long massage and an hour long body polish. Haih, shouldn’t have gone for Body Polish since my Body Shop African Sea Salt scrub can do an equally good job. Should’ve followed Onn & Jack who had a TWO HOUR LONG MASSAGE. Mmm… bliss!

Massage center.

Price listing in Rupiah. 1 million Indonesian Rupiah = approx. RM360 = approx. USD110

Ginger tea and Chips Ahoy! cookie after the massage.
I loveeee ginger tea. I think I’m going to use my coffee maker to make ginger tea instead. I bought ready made ginger tea, and those have milk inside. I DOWAN!!!

When we got back from the massage center, I was amazed to see the hotel’s driveways lined up with all these congratulatory messages! I think this is the norm in Indonesia, but can’t help snapping a few photos. Hehehe. Each of these message boards are made out of rolled up pieces of tissue paper. Edy must be popular to have cellular (phone?) shops sending him message boards.

Got ready for Edy’s wedding… yes his wedding was on a Monday night! I was nagging him about having in on Monday, else I wouldn’t need to take so much leave. Yeah, I’m a real hoarder of annual leave in the office because I usually like to arrange my holidays in such a way that I get one whole month off. :3 If you’re my team mate, you’ll be boiling away with jealousy, RIGHT OR NOT RAYMOND! Anyway, I got ready damn fast (always an impatient person), so I camwhored a lot while Kim was still doing her make-up.

Ok, people who don’t like my face, pls scroll down damn fast. BTW, my sis said that me wearing fake lashes with diamantes on them = challenge Thai ladyboys WTF. I would prefer it if she, like Kim said that I was chanelling Taylor Swift in Teardrops on my Guitar. Regardless, I don’t recommend these kind of lashes to anyone. Damn hard to wear… and so much opportunity to look like you have no eyeball in photographs. And I really had to force my eyes wide open in order for the lashes to look nice. -___-

Still. Only USD3 wor.

Okay, enough of me. We only had to walk two floors down to get to the wedding hall… and unlike chinese weddings whereby the groom is around but the bride is nowhere to be found, both Edy, Merry, and their parents were in front of the hall waiting to shake hands with all the guests coming in. O_O They started half and hour later (everyone super punctual), and I have to say this is one of the most eye-opening weddings I attended so far, hee hee.

First of all, hotels nowadays have this special presentation for the waiters to present the first dish. Most of the time there’s just some dramatic music and the waiters march in quickly and there’s lights and great fanfare and all that. For Edy’s wedding, the waiters danced in. O____O The lead waiter was some very simple steps with this HUGE smile plastered on his face (must be his secret wish to become a backup dancer) and they danced this small simple steps all the way to the stage and then danced all the way to each table to serve the food. ZOMG. We all also dying of hunger by the time the first dish was served. But it’s damn funny and unique la, especially the happy expressions on the waiters, hehe.

And throughout the whole wedding, Edy’s relatives were apparently queuing to go on stage to sing. And everytime someone sings, the rest of the table can give them angpaus if they think that the singing was good, or just to show your “support”. Edy’s brother went up to sing some love song, and my God, people were LINING UP to give him angpau!! At this point (Edy told us all this later), Edy’s parents told Edy, “Your brother is *shows thumbs up sign*. You are *shows thumbs down sign*”. Edy was fired up!! How could his parents not “show him face” on his own wedding day? So he went up, pulling Merry along. Then, with Merry’s arm firmly looped around his right arm, and his left hand firmly holding a microphone, he started singing. HAHAHHA!! Everyone at our table were laughing because Edy looked so serious! Hahaha, but can tell that he was shy as well… later only his voice became stronger and more confident.

There was also this group of 7 aunties who went on the stage to sing… they were dubbed “the 7 flowers”. After that, 7 uncles went up to sing… so the emcee called them “the 7 grasses”. WTF. According to Edy, there were SO many people who wanted to go up to sing that there wasn’t enough time. Oh, and Edy’s dad is damn sporting… not only did he sing, he danced about on the stage too! Hahaha, in Kim’s words, “Oh my God, don’t play play… uncle is poppin’ and lockin’!!”

*still laughing at the thought of Edy singing and Merry trying to free her arm so that she could accept angpaus from the THRONGS of people going up the stage. And yes, Edy did get more “support” than his brother… hahaha, he’s so competitive!*

Okay, pictures!

The wedding hall.

Drinks available at each table. Oh yeah, each table also gets a stack of empty angpau packets to give to the performers.

The dancing waiters… bad picture, I know.

Now let’s get the food pictures out of the way before I post the group photos. Oh, when I was there, Mikey asked, “Why the food pictures? Malaysia don’t have ar?” and I seriously answered, “No, Malaysia don’t have.” It’s true what! Every wedding dinner serves different food, I just like to keep track. Hahaha. And then he laughed til teeth wanna fall out, sigh. And then he said, “Can you send all the pics you took to me? But I don’t want the pictures of food! Er.. ok I think I only need the photos from Kim’s camera la.” !!!!!!! MY CAMERA GOT NICE PHOTOS TOO!!!! *insulted*

4 seasons… any dish which has century eggs are the bomb!

Normal sharksfin soup.

Shredded steam chicken with a unique chilli sauce dipping.

Pork knuckle in dark sauce with yams. Zomg, so fattening. Didn’t want to eat it, but Onn insisted, and said he would cut away all the fatty bits. T3T.

Steamed fish… quite good!

Some vegetarian dishes.

Something like our ‘bubur chacha’.

Now for photos featuring the bride & groom and all our friends :

Pretty Kim and me. OMG, this photo makes me look as if I have no HAND. O_O I swear I do have both hands, thank you very much!

Okay, another pic of Kim and I!

Me and pretty Eilyn. Thanks for everything!

Picture of myself and Edy. Hahaha, I look teh fugz here, and I can tell you why! Cos while looking at the camera, Edy said, “Cheng, thank you.”
Me : “Hah? For what?”
Edy : “For coming to my wedding.”
Me : “OH…. I thought I came here for a holiday. HAHAHHA!!” (laughing shamelessly at own (bad) joke, camera snapped).

Merry and Edy on their ‘yam seng’ rounds.

Nicer photo of Merry, with her sis and her nephew. Merry’s sis married someone from the ’7 gang’ too… Ah Piah! So Edy was saying about how Batam is in the “Export females to Malaysia” business wtf.

Ah Loong, Edy and Ah Piah… about to ‘yam seng’.

Jack, John and Anton starting to scream ‘yammmmmmmm….’ already. I think our table was pretty darn loud! Must show our support!

Edy, are you ok? Hehehhe. Ah Piah doesn’t look too good either.

Merry, Loong, Onn and Edy.

Kim, Edy and me – the Greenwich Uni grads!

Group photo of the ’7 gang’ – extended family version. (^^,)

I love this picture! Kim, myself, Eilyn and one of Eilyn’s friends who stopped by for a while.

Kim, Eilyn and me.

Took this photo from the screen – this is Edy singing on stage… and you can see him pulling Merry’s hand to tuck under his ARMPIT… lol!!!

Funny picture of Edy bossing people around.

Haih, after that we went back to the hotel room and bathed, removed make up, packed for next day’s travels back to KL… then only did Edy call up and say, “Eh, where did you all go? We are taking group shots now.” Huh?!!? We only left because he told us that he had to go take family photos already, and then we saw other people leaving already, so we also said goodbye la. Haih… missed opportunities…

Anyway, no choice la. Can’t rush back down to the hall, and by then they would’ve dispersed for real. -___- Had lots to pack for the trip back as well, and that’s when I realised the vodka mixers that I bought on day #1 remained full. Didn’t want to lug them back to KL (so mafan!) so I drank both of them in one go, which as I have blogged earlier, was a big mistake.

Big mistake.

After the ferry-puking incident, we took a cab to DFS (much more worth it compared to walking and taking the MRT), and had an hour to kill. Ended up eating at this posh looking cafe called Cream Bistro at Shaw Parade. Oh, and I told Edy that the next time I go to Batam, it’ll be for his kid’s “full moon” celebration (he himself said that getting a kid is his “next project”), and he replied, “Hah??? Baby one month old also need to throw party ar?” I think he’ll think differently when he’s a father!

My ice blended mango and ginger tea… to replenish fluids lost. Not that I could finish either.

Kim’s porkwich.

Signing off — Leech! (Oh, and MANY MANY THANKS to Kim for insisting on passing all the photos from her camera (I think you can tell which photos are from her camera… got different quality wan) so I could blog ASAP. )

Flashback : Edy’s Wedding @ Batam Part Two! August 8, 2008

Wow, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing was so… jaw-dropping! They really didn’t hold anything back, it was an extravaganza in terms of the quality of performers, the sheer AMOUNT of people involved & their perfect movements that betray the endless hours of practice that they had to undergo, the amazing creativity, the perfect make-up and costumes… O_O I am completely bowled over. And also damn proud to be chinese, hahaha!

Oh, and today is 08/08/08! I felt extra “fatt” (prosperous) because Binz treated Hoo, Raymond and myself to Sushi King today. What a nice guy. *devious laughter* Pictures tomorrow, because right now I want to blog the remainder of the Batam trip!

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Day 2 in Batam … Kim and I woke up early in the morning and decided to buy more “ole-ole”, but this time from another shopping mall! There’s only two major shopping centers in Batam, one is Batam Mall in Batam Business Center, and the other one is called Nagoya. This one is slightly bigger than Batam Mall and stores more “branded” stuff. However, like Cambodia, the most branded thing they have there is Nike. I remember complaining to my sister about this and she said, “Sportswear is universally accepted.” Something of that ilk. Regardless, I like Nagoya MUCH more than Batam Mall. Edy, consider relocating to this place!

Hotel breakfast for the first two mornings I was there. On my last day there, was so sick I couldn’t eat much.

We managed to buy quite a lot of souvenirs there. I was proud of getting two batik shirts for my mom (the primary school she teaches in now has “Batik Fridays”), souvenir shirts for the family… oh yeah, in Batam, you can get LOADS of keychains and magnets from… SINGAPORE!!!

The batik shirts for my mom, and the tourist-y shirts for mom & dad.
I also bought normal batik cloth for my mom to sew her own blouse (she’s a good seamstress!) in case she didn’t like the shirts I bought for her. Batik is so cheap there! One piece of batik (large enough for your ‘sarong’) cost only RM12.

After walking around Nagoya, we had lunch at this place called Bistro Godiva. Actually, we looked for a restaurant that served Es Teler, but for some reason the only one that advertised that it serves that hedonistic dessert was not opened. -__- Bistro Godiva was alright though, at least I got my daily dose of coffee! Was just about to tuck in to our hearty meal when Eilyn suddenly called Kim up. Apparently Eilyn and the rest of the gang were about to go “somewhere unique” for lunch. T____T If only she called us 10 minutes earlier! We jammed the food into our stomachs and then ran helter-skelter around the mall trying to find where the rest of them were waiting. T_____T

Kim and her “Cap Gay” (chap choy) rice and me and my …

Ultra spicy squid set! Mmmm… I loveeeee hot stuff!

The coffee which is supposed to be really good here but that I can’t remember how it tastes because I gulped it all down in one go and got BRAIN FREEZE. =P

The place that John drove us to was sooooo far that it was even unknown to the rest of the Indonesians. Hahahha. And he drove this really wonky van that made horrible noises whenever he shifts gear. And there were 4 of us cramped together in the backseat and we got cramps in our legs and couldn’t wait to get out as the pins & needles were killing us. John would also give cryptic descriptions on where the restaurant is, “It’s a restaurant that serves fresh seafood, and it’s located on top of a mountain” WTF. And everytime we went up and over a hill, he would say, “It’s the next hill, I think it is!” and HE KEPT DOING THAT FOR 30 minutes. T___T The rest of the guys promised him sweet & slow death if the food didn’t live up their expectations, haha. Despite the rough ride, it was a really fun experience and the seafood at the end of the journey… totally fresh and delicious!

And strangely, John’s description *was* accurate. We kept going higher and higher up the “mountain” (imagine a journey like driving up Genting Highlands) and when we finally reached the restaurant, we were surrounded by the sea. O____o And the restaurant itself was extended from the land til OVER the sea. The fish, prawns, crabs, etc are kept in cages in the ocean itself and we could pick and see them cook the stuff in front of us. The only bad thing I can say about this restaurant is that there were too many flies and no way to get rid of them except by eating faster than the flies can land on the food. They lit some candles on the tables to get rid of the flies (does this actually work?) but the sea breeze kept blowing out the fire.

The Batam-Tonton brige. A lot of motorcyclists stop here in the evening to watch the sunset. Zomg, causes massive jams. NOTHING BETTER TO DO AR. Anyway, we apparently had to cross 5 small islands to get to the restaurant. It’s a miracle that John even knew about the existence of this restaurant.

“Ah, just after this hill, I can feel it already.”

The restaurant. And honestly – I didn’t even get the name of the restaurant from John!
According to Edy, any other restaurant that John stopped by along the route would’ve been good enough and he had no idea why John had to drive so far. Then again Edy was the one who loved the overdosed-black pepper crabs…

This is the place where they keep their ‘livestock’.:P

Choosing some for our plate.

Me posing stiffly because I feel ughz without any makeup on.

John, part of Ah Loong, Mikey and Jack (actually, I’m not sure if that’s his name because everyone calls him ONN COUSIN, lol).

Kim, Eilyn, Onn Chai, Anton (aka Tonton).

Freshly steamed crabs and fried crab-prawn hybrid. SO DELICIOUS I TELL YOU.
And this is the only picture of food that I took because after that my fingers were smothered with yummy sauces. =) There was much much more that we ate…

John still sniggering over the long drive, Mikey reaching for more rice.

Eilyn, Onn, Anton.
Marvel at the empty dishes spread before us!

We were sooooo satisfied after the meal… many thanks to John for the “hard work” in driving us there, placating all the passengers in his van and even generously paying for the meal! However, we didn’t look forward to the drive back to Batu Ampar… but this time we were well-fed and less cranky. Somehow the journey back seemed to fly by!

Once back, received calls from Edy saying that he wanted all of us to join him in some pre-wedding celebration at Seoul Garden. It’s kind of a welcome dinner for all his relatives that had travelled to Batam for the wedding. Wah, eat again. During the dinner, you would think that Edy’s elder brother was the groom because he went around taking pictures with everyone while Edy sat in a corner eating ready-made stuff. I say “ready made” because Seoul Garden is a steamboat & barbeque type of restaurant, but they do serve SOME stuff that are ready-to-eat, like pandan chicken wings WHICH EDY POLISHES OFF BY THE PLATE.

More gossip, more attempted matchmaking between Kim and ??? Kim was ready to kill Edy! Another fun day, really grateful to all the friendly people who accommodated to Kim and myself. ^_^

YES, I ATE ALL OF THESE:

To those who know and are wondering : YES I DID VISIT EDY’S CYBERCAFE. Hehehhe. From the outside, you’d think that iZONE is a small establishment, but when you walk in, you’ll find that the entire area is super spacious. They have a resting area for gamers to eat or even play chess (!!!) if they are tired of mindless mouse-clicking. To keep a steady stream of customers, they always have some kinda promotion going on. Anyway, I didn’t get a picture of the place, but seriously, if you’re in Batam and you’re looking for an Internet cafe, check them out.

Okay, last part of Batam coming up tomorrow. More pictures of humans (ME! ME! ME!!!!) and less of food, I promise. <3

Flashback : Edy’s Wedding @ Batam August 8, 2008

For me, it was an easy decision to make. Even if I had to pay for the accomodation there, even if there was no transportation available… I would still go for Edy’s wedding in Batam. Edy was my friend since college days – although I’m not as close to him as Kim is, I absolutely cherish the friendship I have with this blur yet extremely smart and dependable creature.

Back in college, we (Edy, Kim and I) would always be part of the same study group since we were all majoring in programming (not that I studied much. Once I see Kim and Edy my love for gossip naturally arises and I just feel like talking to them, much to their annoyance). Edy would always gladly lend a hand in programming projects, and I absolutely hate it when I tell him, “Yeah, fcuk man, in the end I didn’t solve the xxxxx problem, but never mind la, handed in the project already” and he would answer, “Why didn’t you ask me to help you with it?” T___T Because I don’t want to be too dependent on you lor, but it still makes me want to weep that you would offer your help without us needing to ask.

Edy also organised the trip with the rest of the “7 gang” to Redang during our semester break. First and last time that I went there, hehehe. Can’t return to that island due to a “friendship crab pact” that I made with Kim wtf long story. And despite Kim and Edy not being part of our editorial board, they were always welcomed into the Pub and somehow ended up assimilating themselves with the rest of us. It’s wonderful when friends can all gel together so easily… anyway, everyone I know loves Edy & Kim. ;P

I also used to draw (!!!) on the college tables… doodling with my pencil when I’m supposed to be studying with those two. I would draw Edy in the appearance of a loan shark, exaggerating his mole until it takes up 1/4 of his face. Hahaha! And I would make fun of the way Edy speaks… there was once when we were walking in Pyramid and there was this sign promoting Batman… it said “BAT ATTACK” and Edy pronounced it as “BATATAK” (yeah, with no pause in between). WAHLAU. I died laughing that day and kept saying that word randomly. Think that that was the closest instance to Edy wanting to sever our friendship.

Oh, and there were always certain quarters that were jealous of Edy, mainly for his intelligence. And would always suspect him of having ulterior motives. Even after we have left college and all, they are still comparing themselves to him. ?_? First questions asked in conversations would always be “how much are you earning?” Haih, how to compare when you all are makan gaji (white collar workers) and he owns two businesses? :\

And talking about work, I even went for a “job interview” with Edy before! More like I tagged along because I was curious, and then we sat for the IQ test together, haha. Edy did so well in the company that the boss still asks me whether he’s interested in coming back to Malaysia to work. Incidentally, that company is where Kim is working at now.

Anyway, that’s enough reminiscing for me (actually seems more like a list of my misdeeds than about how good Edy is), now about the trip! Fuzzy helped me to book the Airebus tickets, and later our double-decker bus got upgraded to the Business Class bus. More leg space! So it was a very comfortable ride all the way to Singapore (didn’t really enjoy my ride back as I was sick). The only complaint would be that they showed damn old, unknown movies on the bus. Wow, it brings me back to the days when I was in Cambodia watching “the pirated DVD channel”. This was what I watched.

The bus stops at DFS Scotts Galleria which I had NO IDEA where it was. (It’s actually really near Orchard Road).
Walked to the MRT station, was super lost, but I bumped into this REALLY nice & friendly Singaporean lady. Not only did she show me the way there, she was also very chatty and made me really rethink the belief about Singaporeans being stuck-up kiasu lians / aunties. We were also talking about the recent petrol price hike, and about public transportation. I said I wished that the KTM / LRT was as efficient as the MRT. She said that it was not possible because Malaysia is just too large to be able to ever build as comprehensive a system. Mind, she did not say this in an arrogant manner, just rather matter of factly and in a “you can’t compare Malaysia and Singapore, it’s unfair” way. Hmm.. food for thought.

Bought our ferry passes at Harbourfront. At first I thought it was really near Vivocity, and we could go shopping… but you have to take another train to get there. Lazy… especially when you’re lugging bags and all.

I told Kim – “Let’s eat something really Singaporean… cannot find in Malaysia wan!”
We ended up in Yoshinoya. -__________________-

Edy recommends Wavemaster to get to Batam because it’s one of the bigger and more “stable” ferries around. I was expecting Penang ferry, so when I saw this I was damn impressed. Later, when I took Turbojet in Hong Kong, this seems like a poor man’s ferry. Hehehe.

Edy picked us up from the harbourfront in Batu Ampar in his car, and took us to the hotel. First time I saw Edy again, couldn’t stop smiling. Wanted to cry already and say, “Wah.. big boy already ah!! Getting married and all!” WTF. Edy would just roll his eyes or slit his eyes even slittier than they originally are, hehehehe.

Anyway, the hotel was so near that we could’ve walked there! It’s called Pacific Palace Hotel, and if you ever go to Batam, why not stay there? This place is really nice & luxurious. Edy said that all relatives and friends not from Batam were given rooms here. I don’t even want to think about how much he had to pay for all that. o_O And he had TWO weddings, one in his hometown (Selat Panjang) and one in Batam. He said that the one in the hometown was cheaper, but still! Two weddings!! So mafan!!

The reception.

The large and richly decorated lobby.

The grand staircase.

Hotel lifts.

Our room. I warned Kim that I’m quite a kicker in bed. THAT’S WHAT PAULINE SAID. She said that I kicked so much once that she had to get out of the room and stay in the hall. WHY SO CHAM!!

Anyway, Kim said that I didn’t kick her the 2 nights we spent there. *proud of self*

Edy entertaining himself … watching advertisements for the hotel! Lol.

While we were resting and unpacking in the room, Edy asked me what I wanted to do in Batam. He practically shot all my ideas down lor! I said I wanted to see the beach. He said, “The beach is few hours away you know!” -___- Then he asked me what I wanted to eat, so I said, “PORK.” He replied, “Why you come to Indonesia and ask to eat pork? Don’t you know that Indonesia is a Muslim country?” -____- So in the end he just drove us to a nearby mall (Batam Mall) and said that we could get all the “ole-ole” (souvenirs) we wanted, and we could also drop by to see his wife’s – Merry – boutique.

Nothing much to see, to be honest. And I didn’t really get to browse all the girly shops there (their style is ala Sungei Wang). After Edy told me that Merry stocks clothes from Petaling Street, I was like… okay, I’m going to Batam to buy clothes from Malaysia, sweet. Didn’t have time to shop in their boutique either. (Friends mar, so have to “pong chan” a bit).

Ooh, and the first time I met Merry I was like…. so shy. She’s so pretty and a lot of people mistake her for Ayumi Hamasaki in her wedding portraits.

Edy’s damn random though. When his wife is all pleased from the compliments, he says, “Ayumi? Where got. You look like Indomie la.” WTF. What kind of insult is that anyway! -__- But he’s really proud of her and always praises her to us.

Stopped by “Citra Pempek” for late lunch / tea time. Edy said that this place is famous for their “pempek”.
Don’t know what that is..?

This be pempek! It’s a mash of fried fishballs, eggs and other processed meats mixed in with some spicy dark sauce. It was alright, I had better pempek later on.

Another “famous” dish in Indonesia — the nasi kuning, which as you can see, is yellow rice, a side of spicy fried veggies, a piece of fried chicken and sambal on the side. Again, it was just okay for me. The fried chicken was too dry…. but I loved the sambal!

ZOMG BEST DRINK DISCOVERY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!
This is called ‘Es Teler’, which according to Edy, means “blur ice” (direct translation). It’s “blur” because it’s a smorgasbord of avocado, coconut, condensed milk, jackfruit, syrup and other goodies that I can’t remember. Basically, it’s all so mixed up that it becomes “blur”. IT TASTES AWESOME. After that, I kept looking for “es teler” in all the restaurants I went to, but they didn’t have it. Oh well… I found the recipe online!!! I’m so gonna make it… thanks for the recipe!

The “souvenirs” we got that day. The jackfruit chips were in my stomach by the end of the trip. The two packets on the right were not very well-received in the office. Basically, the banana chips were too oily, and the spicy chips were…. too spicy. My parents haven’t opened the fish chips, but I can tell you they have a VERY strong fishy smell…

Later that night, Edy and Merry took us to a nearby seafood restaurant which Edy claims to serve the best black pepper crabs around. There, we met up with a bunch of his other friends, some who also already knew back in college (the “7 gang” days). Met Onn Chai and his girlfriend Eilyn, Anton, John, Mickey (Mikey?), Ah Loong (Anton’s brother) and Jack. I THINK I GOT THE NAMES RIGHT.

Edy, John and Anton.

Eilyn, Merry and Kim on my right.

Shredded dried & barbequed squid with chilli sauce.

Grilled fish with lime and chilli sauce.

Fried squid with lime.

Balitong.

Black pepper crabs and grilled stingray.

Fried chicken with onion.

Fried fish in sweet and sour sauce.

The spread was extensive and the food was delicious, but at the end of the night, some of the guys were unhappy over the slow service and the “famous” black pepper crabs was unsatisfactory as the black pepper completely overwhelmed the taste of the crabs instead of enhancing it. Poor Edy. But at least he got his chance to polish off the rest of the crabs! Had a great time catching up during dinner as well… hahaha. Well, nowadays I don’t really like to talk about my job (nothing much to say, I find it really interesting but if I start geeking out on financial / banking terms, you end up with no friends), so was glad to just listen.

Went back to the hotel room and watched some MTV award show… was hosted by Mike Myers. Hahaha.. Kim found him so gross.

Okay that’s all for today, I’ll continue with Part 2 when I don’t feel like a zombie. >_> Oh, and I’m so going to the supermarket soon to get my hands on the ingredients for es teler! ~

Congratulations and Celebrations June 26, 2008

Am feeling extremely below the weather due to certain incidents that can only be summed up to a simple “Padan muka!” statement. But before I go into that, I would just like to say that it was great meeting Edy and his beautiful wife at Batam for their wedding. It was truly my pleasure to have been able to be present. =) Also, a whole lot of thanks to his friends – Anton, John, Ah Loong, Onn Chai, Eilyn for all kindness and generosity shown to Kim and myself. Seriously, felt very “kam dong”… T__T Thank you guys (and girl) sooooooo much. T3T

I would’ve blogged MUCH earlier, but I like I said, I was under the weather. What happened was this – on the first day I arrived in Batam, Edy suggested going stocking up on snacks as well as buying oleh-oleh (souvenirs) from the local supermarket. After I had stockpiled on kerepek and such, I greedily decided to grab a couple of vodka mixers solely because they were cheaper in Batam. I didn’t even know if they would taste good, but at least they weren’t EXPIRED like the Bacardi Breezers in Cambodia. T_T ANYWAY. The point is that I bought two bottles of these poisonous things, kept them in the fridge and completely forgot about it until it was time to leave. I debated with myself over what to do with the bottles :
a. TO DRINK – might not be able to wake up the next day and I need to wake up ULTRA early for the journey back home, might get grogginess synonymous with me drinking the night before, might get SICK because it’s bad enough that I have a weak stomach for ferry rides. All this despite the fact that it’s just mixers, hello, I’ve drunk way more than that?
b. TO NOT DRINK – WASTE RM10!!!!!!

So in the end I threw caution to the wind and drank the two bottles and then went to sleep. Before slipping in to unconciousness, I remember feeling slight discomfort, but I reckoned that I would just sleep it off. The next morning, I was already curled in a fetal position and I could barely get up. I felt like puking, but since I absolutely HATE vomitting (who LIKES it lar!) I didn’t think about it and went for breakfast with Kim. At the hotel cafe, me, who would usually take 2-3 rounds of food barely managed to swallow the bitter coffee, suddenly sour and undrinkable orange juice and a danish. Edy came to see us off, and seeing me in that horrible condition, said that I could stay another night in the hotel if I wanted to. It was a really tempting suggestion, but I already felt bad that he was paying for our accomodation, and besides, I had already booked the Airebus back to KL. From wasting RM10, it was potentially wasting another RM85. Or RM170 since I would have to pay for Kim’s ticket as well. T_T

After breakfast, I felt sliggggghhtttlyyyy better, so I was a bit gung-ho that all would end well. Rushed to get to the 8:30am ferry, and once I got on the ferry, I knew I was in for a rough ride. FYI, the ferry services advertise that the ride from Singapore to Batam lasts only 45 minutes, but its more like 1 hr 15 minutes! I tried sleeping so that I won’t feel as nauseous, but guess what? One of the things that Indonesians (or Singaporeans??) like to do is to BLAST their walkman phones LOUDLY, like WTF?!?!!? And another thing is they will smoke ANYWHERE, even in enclosed areas. T___T OMG… cigarette smoke doesn’t give me headaches, but they ENHANCE headaches which are already there. With all these nonsense going on, I could barely get any rest.

Once off the ferry, I wanted to rush to the railings and quietly vomit into the sea, but hey, I’m in Singapore. I might be fined for littering! So I had to maintain until I reached the immigration area. Of course, there are no toilets there (don’t want people to hide??) so I had to pass through THRONGS of people who just got off the ferry as well to get my damn passport stamped. Honestly, if I didn’t have Kim’s mints, I think I’d have puked all over myself MUCH earlier. T___T Anyway, I have never been so happy to have a toilet bowl to vomit in to. This sounds gross and I probably shouldn’t write such things… but heck, this isn’t about me being bulimic or whatever! After that, I swore that I wouldn’t put anything into my volatile stomach.

But guess what? When we reached the bus stop 1 hour early, we decided to chill at Pacific Plaza… where I couldn’t say no to a porkwich. =D And thanks to that Porkwich, Teh halia and mango ice-blended, I could barely get any rest on my 5 hour journey from Singapore to KL. T______T

Anyway, I’m feeling much better NOW, but I’ll be more up to documenting the entire trip when Kim gives me more pictures and when this freaking headache goes away! (8 panadols and counting). Oh yeah, for SOME reason, the Singapore immigration officer was bloody interested in my Cambodian visa. O___o

Three pic enticer:

Merry & Edy walking in to the wedding hall.
Bad picture due to me using my old camera (still haven’t gotten my Lumix back. :c), total darkness and me being unable to ZOOM on my old camera. Hahhaa! Better pictures in the entries that follow.

Some of us : Ah Loong, Anton, Kim, Edy, myself, Eilyn and Onn Chai

Just want to show off my false eyelashes! Hehehe, USD3 from a Lancome store in Gilroy.
Do not judge my blending skillz, my entire makeup was put on using a handheld mirror. T_T I think it was good enough seeing what materials I had on hand and the canvas I had to work with, haha.