Spice up your life !

It was a normal Thursday evening. Was off from work early, took a swim and had dinner at Tiong Bharu Plaza with friends JC and JA.

First timer to the restaurant, I was quite amused by the name in chinese 别府面馆 (Benpu Menkan) and its decoration which resemble Hell.

Only then I know they are well-known to serve spicy Japanese ramen. Being adventurous, and to accept the challenge of a dare from JC and JA, I ordered the Oniyama Jigoku (Ramen with Fried Chicken from Hell) and with a spicy rating equivalent to 8 chilli padis. For your information, there are choices from 1 chilli, 2 chillies, 4 chillies, 6 chillies and a maximum of 8 chillies.

Notice the chilli rating under the food description

Me:" I would like to have Oniyama Jigoku, 8 chillies please!"
The waiter even suggested :" Are you sure? I suggest you to just take 4 chillies la...."
Me:" Why? 4 chillies and 8 chillies same price woh......8 chillies la!"
Waiter: "ok ......"

JC, in fear I could not finish the spicy noodles, ordered Tatsumaki Jigoku with 1 chilli so that if the worse case happen, we can mix both noodles together and create a 4-chilli noodle.

JA ordered a seafood paperpot and promised to finish a bottle of sake if I could finish the 8-chilli ramen.

The noodles arrived shortly, looking and smelling spicy.

Looks intimidating

Looking at the shock across the table, the waiter kindly asked :" Do you want a glass of ice cold water?"
Me:"Wah, look down on me? I want hot green tea instead!" (actually its better to drink hot drink when you take spicy food la...)
Waiter: "Ok....."

Picking up the unusually large spoon, I tasted the soup for a start, and man, it's spicy, but still tolerable after my hell-like spicy food eating training in Indonesia.

Then I started eating the ramen....and I started to feel the burn in my mouth.

Couple of minutes later, my stomach started catching fire.

And after 10 minutes, I was virtually crying while eating ramen.........

Amazingly, after like 15 minutes, I don't feel anything anymore.....and I managed to finish the whole bowl of ramen, not including the soup of course.

Job done! Viva King of Spice!

Disappointingly, JA did not keep her promise to drink down a bottle of sake.......and I sacrificed without any returns.

JA, you owe me a bottle of sake!

JA's Seafood Paperpot

They even mention the spicy rating on the receipt! Don't play play!

Batu Caves

I got to admit, I've not been to Batu Caves, until last week.
If its not because my colleague Dr.Stefano from Italy insisted, I won't be there.

That's how an Italian PHD holder in Transmission Network looks like when he drinks from a coconut.

The entrance to Batu Caves is impressive, with the world's tallest statue of Lord Murugan blinding our eyes with its shiny gold paint.

The smart Italiano challenged me to run up the stairs.......not knowing there's a couple of hundred of it............


Ok, its just 272 steps in exact. But it did made us sweat a whole lot!

Why did they ever tried to number the steps?

Looking back from inside the cave

There's not a great deal inside the cave, just a couple of shrines and some monkeys wandering around. Not too interesting.

I did manage to capture this funny picture of my colleague though......haha

This is how he got his PhD....determination and dedication

A wonderful day!

You just know its a wonderful day when:

1.) There's no one in the MRT train when you board it.
2.) You can sit throughout the 30-minute MRT trip.
3.) You meet a friend in the MRT and you manage to have a conversation.
4.) The sun was hiding behind the clouds when you walk towards your office.
5.) The traffic lights turn green whenever you intend to cross the road.
6.) You are the earliest to reach the office.
7.) You are being assigned to an "overseas" assignment in KL for one week.
8.) You know you have a bus ticket going towards your home country tonight.

When it comes to the extreme, don't you just appreciate little things like this?

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Random pictures taken by my company sponsored Samsung D880 (Dual Sim Card function oh...)

This is the machine that gives us 8Mbps of Internet juice....

The real chrysanthemum tea.....with lots of chrysanthemum in it......

Yunan Guo Qiang Mi Xian.....if you know what it is.....

Stir fry Nian Gao .....haha

Scene in Ministry of Manpower on a Monday

Have to say the picture quality lacks way behind Sony Eriksson and Nokia phones.

Time to move on

It was time to move on.

And I moved on.

The future is uncertain, but uncertainty makes human better human.

Certainty makes human robots.

People question me, but I have more than enough strong valid reasons for my actions taken.

For the time being, I just fancy sleeping with a pillow on a Singaporean SMRT bus.

How far will you go?

How far can you go to meet a friend?

How much time and money are you willing to sacrifice to meet a friend of the same sex?

Ok, maybe he's a friend since 7 years old, and maybe he's the first person who also writes with his left hand that I knew.

But still, if it's ain't for UNESCO World Heritage Site No.592 near where he's currently residing, I won't even bother!

(dear friend, if you are reading this: I never meant to be so mean, I actually went there to see how your girlfriend looks like!)

Nevertheless, its worth every penny and all the time + effort to be able to witness one of the greatest building in the world -- Candi Borobudur.


Tell me you never heard bout Candi Borobudur and you have to be ashame of yourself. It's in the history textbook! Sejarah Dunia, form 4, remember?




I was told that the top of the building resembles a folded Bohdi leaf.
But due to ligthing damages,it now looks more like an overturned wooden bucket.

You can't get enough of the beautiful architecture, even the rain could not stop people from getting the best shot of Borobudur.

After Candi Borobudur, its time to visit the Prambanan Temple.

To be honest, I myself did not hear much about Prambanan Temple before my trip here, but it's a crime not to pay a visit to this place once in your lifetime.

The Indonesian government did a heck of a good job in turning the historical sites into cultural parks with acres of trees and grass, even Bambee likes it.

After all those unimportant visits to the blocks of old stones, its time to do the "main" thing that brought me to Yogyakarta.

To meet up with my long lost friend and take a picture with him and his girlfriend....haha......
That's how far I will go, just to do this! What a true friend I am........