the trip to hatyai marked the second foreign country i’ve visited so far… both of them being our northern and southern neighbours… it was a few hours bus ride and quite a nice weekend getaway… i must say that there wasn’t anything exceptional as the environment was more or less like any regular local town… probably the enormous temples, abundance of massage parlours and the colourful nightlife set it apart from what we have back here…

we went sightseeing around various temples such as the wat hat yai nai… the golden brahman shrine on the hilltop of hat yai municipal park… as well as the kuan yin goddess temple on the southern foothill… one of the shots below feels like the stairway to heaven…

the girls loved shopping and we spent hours in lee garden, odean and central… which were the biggest malls within the heart of the town… we continued with more shopping the next day by walking along the day markets by the roadside selling food raw and cooked alike… there was this rather huge and stuffy market along montri road which sold loads of handbags and accessories… and this place was very much alike to the complex beside the main market in kota kinabalu which sold souvenirs…

the highlight of the trip was probably the rejuvenating full body massage which i had been looking forward to… all in all… it was an eye-opening experience in a foreign land…

the cads went to cameron highlands a fortnight back… i’m pretty sure everyone had a great time shopping and photo-taking all over the place… and of course… the warm fellowship of our fellow colleagues…

it was a clear saturday morning when we set off down south… stopped in ipoh for dim sum breakfast at foh san… and some soya bean curd at funny mountain across the street… before heading up to the hills… it wasn’t all too cool during the sunny day but it was refreshing enough especially at night… we visited various places such as cactus valley… rose garden… butterfly farm… kea farm… bee farm… brinchang night market… sungei palas boh tea centre… well… that was about it… dinner that night was the customary steamboat most tourists would have i guess… although i am hardly a fan of it…

we returned on sunday afternoon with the bus filled with the overwhelming aroma of strawberries and flowers… many took the opportunity to buy cheap and fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers and even honey… i hardly spent any money besides purchasing a box of strawberries and a few tubes of strawberry popsicles… and hence became known for being the thriftiest one in the busload… we had an early dinner in lou wong for bean sprout chicken… before continuing our journey home…

some shots from the farewell and birthday celebrations of an ex-colleague over the past months… we had a department lunch at little castle cafe…

later that night… we were at hongkie kopitiam and starbucks chilling out…

a couple of weeks later… we had dinner at chili’s…

and it was followed by a celebration at korea palace a couple of days later…

it’s been a week of hellos and goodbyes… i met up with janet who was back on her annual summer break…

it was also the final week of internship for my jamming buddies chris and erica… and we celebrated with lunch at friday’s…

our department teambuilding was held in jerejak island two fridays ago… it was exciting with numerous physical activities such as jungle trekking, flying fox, rappelling as well as navigating through an obstacle course of ropes and wires which required good balancing skills… while waiting for the boat home… we even had time for some beach soccer and volleyball… :)

the autocity carnival in juru was full of cars and chicks… with various events such as motorcross… drifting… mini parade… japanese super gt queens… eating competitions… as well as a beauty pageant…

yet another birthday dinner at paddington house of pancakes… mine was there too :)