Transformers

I thought it would be on the cinema in early July (cause it says 7.4.7). But I was wrong. I found out about it a few days ago. But I was able to get a ticket to watch it on the first day of showing and that was yesterday.

The movie is very nice....ermmm....no....it's excellent! hehehe. I can't really remember the cartoon version that I watched when I was a kid...not even the names of the robots.

Well, I did a little research on the names of the robots though hehe.

Pictures taken from here

E65, Remote Switch & The Mall

I bought a Nokia E65 two days ago. I couldn't resist it hehe. Maybe bcoz it has Wifi and its a 3G phone. It is slim and just nice to touch and use.

Left: E65, Right: Remote Switch

Today I went to the main post office at Lapangan Terbang Lama, Berakas, to get my Remote Switch C3 for my Canon 30D. Also compatible with 20D and 5D. I bought it from Ebay on June 3rd. (so about 3 weeks to arrive)Only B$29 including shipping. It works the same as RS-80N3, which is much costly. I tested it and it worked. Now I can take pix of night scenery and the stars using "bulb" mode.

After that I went to The Mall to send a motorola charger which doesn't work from the first time being used. Bought about a week ago and still got a waranty. There is also a car exhibition. 26 cars altogether and about 10 motorcycles in The Mall, ground floor. Some of them are Honda Odyssey, Nissan Cefiro, Hyundai Santa Fe, some Volvos, a 4-whell drive Subaru (B9 Tribeca), a camouflage-painted Ford and many more.

KK Journey

As planned, we went to KK and also went to Kundasang/Ranau. But the planned schedule wasn't exactly as we planned.

We were supposed to spend overnight at Promenade Apartment, KK and then went to Kundasang/Ranau on the next day and spend a night at Kinabalu Pine Resort and went back to KK to spend time for shopping.

Instead, we went straight to Kundasang and stay overnight at Rose Cabin. Then went back to KK and stayed at Tabung Haji for 2 nights.

Day 1
At about 7.15 am, we started our journey at Kuala Lurah. We arrived at Rose Cabin, Kundasang, at about 4.30 pm. What a day! Well, we did stop at a public toilet in Sipitang, lunch at Beaufort Town and gas station on the way to Tuaran. After we arrived at Rose Cabin, we spent our time resting for about a hour. Then we went to Kundasang Town to get some food for the dinner. We bought the food from Perkasa Hotel.

Kinabalu Rose Cabin at Kundasang (see the clouds??)

Scenery behind the resort

Day 2
We woke up early in the morning, at about 6.15 am. We were able to see Mt. Kinabalu's top peak, which is usually covered by clouds. At about 7.30 am, we went to Kundasang Town to find the Golf Club. I know that we can see the best view in the morning before 10 am. Too bad my friend didn't want to drive that far (7.5 km from Kundasang Town & bumpy inclined roads with Mazda3...keke!). Well, never mind about that...maybe next time.

We then headed to Poring Hot Spring at Ranau. This is a place I've been to....nothing new about it. I remember we had to reach the canopy by climbing a few hundreds metres of a steep hill and we just had had our meal and it was raining heavily. But this time, we didn't go for the canopy walk. I warned my friends already hehe.

We went to see the waterfall, but only a smaller one. Well...my friends surrendered before we agreed to go because it required them to climb some hills hehe. To kill time, I soaked my feet into the hot water bath in the provided area. I felt good after a few minutes (really was like hell at first). We bought some ice cream and then went to some wet markets before heading back to KK.

I can't really remember the time we arrived at Tabung Haji. On the way home, we ate at KFC at Ranau. At night, we spent time shopping at the Centrepoint and Warisan Square. Dinner at Pizza Hut. Back to the hotel at about 10 pm.

Mt. Kinabalu in the morning

Poring Hot Spring


Waterfall at Poring Hot Spring

Soaking my feet into water bath from the hot spring

Day 3
Woke up at about 8 am...not exactly at 8 am...maybe a bit later than that hehe. We ate our breakfast at the hotel's restaurant and then went back to our hotel room. Rested for a while. We went shopping at noon until about 4 pm. Nuthing much to buy though. Lunch at Burger King. Went back to hotel, rested and took a quick nap. At 9 pm we we to eat seafood. Paid about RM110 for three person. Then back to the hotel. Met some Bruneians staying at the hotel (can also see from their p-license)

Day 4
Packing up, breakfast at the hotel's restaurant and went home. Not to forget buying some fruits from some markets near the road, on our way home. At Limbang, we ate our lunch at Sugar Bun and went shopping. I didn't buy anything though. A very long que at Kuala Lurah border. Back at home safely at about 6 pm.

Watermelons on our way back home

Somewhere in Sarawak, on our way home

BASE Camp - The Opening

Today was the first and the last day I got involved in the BASE Camp 2007. Its a four-day camp but unfortunately, as I mentioned before, I'm going to KK tomorrow hehe. Let see the pictures I took on this first day.

Now look at the date and place...


Then look at the participants taking part in the camp...


Look at the volunteer students...(from MD)...


Look at the committees...


Look at the scouts...


Now let's look at what they bring...(wonder why that girl is sitting around the bags)...


And look at what they "also" bring...(teddy and ermmm... is that a horsey?)


Look at how they set up the camp...


Look at their shoes...(and feet hehe)...


Look at the day activity...(ice breaking)...


Look at the night activity...(astronomy)...


Look at the faces...(before I left the place)...


It was quite fun and I was always ready to press my shutter button whenever they needed me to hehehe.

When some of them turned their faces away from the camera when I point the camera to them (not just one but all the time).....boring!!!

Anyway, I will upload more pix after I return back from KK. :p

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Pictures above taken from here

Had the chance to watch the movie last nite....actually a few hours ago. I like Jessica Alba since a long time ago. But she looks different with blonde hair but still she looks nice.

I watched the movie at Qlap Mall, at night. I like the movie and it was worth watching it. Yeah...I love it!! hehe.

Water taxis and tides

How I travel by boat...

It is common for me to travel by a water taxi boat even though I don't live in Kampong Ayer. It takes just a few minutes (about 4 mins) drive to reach Kampong Sungai Kebun (or Kg. Sg. Kebun). Then from Kg. Sg. Kebun I take a boat to get to Tambing, BSB. This usually takes about 5 mins travelling time.

The pic below shows a place called "Ujung Jalan" (meaning "end of road") at Kg. Sungai Kebun, where water taxis are waiting. Just 50 cents to get to BSB.

Sometimes, travelling by boat is not as easy as it seems and it becomes the last thing on my mind. Here are top 3 reasons why I don't like to travel by boat:

1. When its raining
2. When its very hot
3. During low tide


How tides affect Kg. Ayer...

Today I went to BSB to register my new Easi line @ DST, Yayasan. The tide was quite high. It almost reached some of the houses' floors. But not the highest tide. I've seen higher tide than this. Btw, as you know, this is because of the position of the Moon.

For more info about tide, please read here.

I took the pic below during a low tide evening.

A few more things about low tides:

1. Its hard to get on/off the boat since its very low (due to slippery floors/ladders/stairs).
2. Have to travel using a longer path (see below: Yellow lines showing usual paths. Green line showing the longer path).

red dot - Kg. Sg. Kebun
blue dot - Tambing, BSB

New HP & ....

I accompanied my gf to buy a new handphone today. Its a Sony Ericsson - W850i. Quite a nice one, i can say. I currently have a Motorola - V3x. So I managed to take a pic of the three handphone brands; Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. We tried to take pics of ourselves too. Well...just for testing hehe.

I drove home passing Istana Nurul Iman. On my way home, I saw the road, outside the palace, was unusually brightly illuminated (see pic below). It was a really nice view and we can only see this in certain occasions. Then I remembered we were still celebrating the Royal Wedding (mulih 3 hari). I just drove straight home after that.

Pelangi on-stage - Maria

Where I went to...

It wasn't our plan to go to Taman Jubli Perak to see Pelangi on-stage performances, last nite. We were just going out for swimming and then maybe window shopping. But when I heard Maria was going to perform, I felt like I REALLY needed to go there hehe.

I parked my car at Qlap area and then we walked to Taman Jubli Perak (yeah its just close to Qlap area). I just wanted to avoid a traffic jam. I assumed I would have a hard time looking for a parking space, knowing that many people would be there.

Being in a large crowd isn't something that I like. But it was worth seeing Maria performing on-stage. Here is a pic of maria's performance I took with my compact camera, Lumix fx-7 (3X optical zoom).

Maria - Aku atau Dia

Hmmm....who is Maria?
Maria is a Bruneian singer. I like her songs such as Bisik Hati & Aku atau Dia. I cannot say I'm really a big fan of her. But I do really like her songs and her voice. She's a talented singer. I think she still has a long way to go to become a bigger star.

Royal Wedding - Perarakan

What happened today (June 10th, 2007)...

"The Wedding Ceremony" of the Royal Wedding of Her Royal Highness Princess Hajah Majeedah Nuurul Bulqiah and YM Pengiran Khairul Khalil bin Pengiran Syed Hj Jaafari. In Malay, we call it "Majlis Istiadat Bersanding". It is then followed by a procession (that is, "Acara Perarakan"). The procession took place around the town area (from Istana Nurul Iman to the capital city, BSB & also returning back).

We watched the procession somewhere near "Balai Bomba". We went there in a large group. It took quite a long time for us to get there (not to mention it was really tiring!!).

How we got to the place...

- we took a boat ("temuai") to a ferry/ship provided
*waiting for the ship to be fully occupied took almost an hour

- the ship then arrived at BSB (somewhere near "Tambing")
*travelling time was about 10 minutes

- walking to the provided place took us about 10 minutes
*we waited for about 30 minutes before we walked to the scene

- we then waited for the procession...for hours (but worth it hehe)

What about pix??...


Left: temuai, Right: ferry/ship


Left: a scenery of BSB, Right: a little bit of entertainment


Left & Right: ermmm...dunno what to call them


Left & Right: the Royal Couple


Left: Another pic of the Royal Couple, Right: His Majesty, Her Majesty & Her Royal Highness

Gadong

How to describe Gadong?

- One of the busiest place in town
- Where The Mall is located (the largest mall in Brunei)
- Near to the Pasar Malam (Night Market)
- Cineplex Cinema @ The Mall (the only cinema in Gadong)
- The most crowded during paydays (traffic jam!! arrrgghhh!!)
- The only place in Brunei Muara that has McDonald's (I dunno about other districts)
- Not an easy place to park your car

*Gadong actually means "green" in Bruneian language.

Playing with a long shutter speed

A view of The Mall from McDonald's

A view of The Mall from a different angle

Where i went to (yesterday)...

2:30 pm - 4.30 pm (kiulap)

- carpooling with my 2 frens, we met at Supa Save, Telanai. Then we "zoomed" to Qlap.

- checking out my pc being reformatted and there's a problem with the power source assembly (means more $$ to pay arrrgghhh!)

- and then went to AV electronics to check out Macbook. There was this 13" black notebook with 160 Gb hard disk and we ask them for a quotation. Yea, i'm planning to buy it. I just need to send the quotation to the bank for further process. Maybe tomorrow? hehehe.

- then we went to Tourean Cafe (is that the right spelling?? :p)

chocolate toast

8:00 pm - 1:00 am

- travelling to BSB by a water taxi (carpooling with ma frens afterwards) then heading to Gadong

- watching "Ocean's 13" at Seri Qlap Mall Ciname, quite a nice movie - worth watching

- wandering around BSB with frens. Then travel back home by a water taxi and then by car.

a night scene at Padang SOAS