Ramblings #2
I always wonder as to the reason why the predefined notions and accepted standards of civility often break down in cyberspace, as shown by the examples where people lash out at each other with crude language whenever a conflict of opinion occurs in an online forum, or the more experienced/veteran players of a particular game exhibiting a snobbish, arrogant and elitist air when dealing with relative newcomers and even the absolute disintegration of whatever language netizens use to communicate with each other. This is definitely a sweeping statement, of course, for there are people who are not involved in any of the aforesaid behaviours mentioned above - but then again, it is an undisputable fact that many people do act like that in cyberspace. Is it because of the lack of laws in cyberspace to define the accepted standards of behaviour of the people using it? In the real world, there are laws enforced by the authorities of every nation in order to govern the nations' individuals' behaviour in public, whereas in cyberspace, there is no clearly defined piece of legislation to control the behaviour of netizens in terms of civility. Or is it because of the protective shield of anonymity the Internet provides to the individuals who use it? Unlike the outside world where if you suddenly commit an audacious (and probably law-breaking act) like running down the neighourhood naked and everybody sees you - resulting in your fifteen minutes of fame on the 8 o'clock news (and perhaps even a day of free food and lodge in the police lock-up), the Internet provides the cover of anonymity to whoever wishes it when he/she is in cyberspace and hence, a sense of "freedom" to do whatever he/she likes, unshackled by the fetters of identity. Could it even be because unlike the real world, in the domain of cyberspace, there are no fears of reprisals from the opposite party when one is rude to another person save a barrage of words typed on-screen, which can be easily ignored or bounded off the offending person's pride? Words typed and displayed on a computer monitor definitely have less impact on a person's mind when compared to the spoken word, for the spoken word bears inflections of emotions and intents. Furthermore, the spoken word is borne on a medium that can only be ignored with much difficulty - the human voice. Don't believe me on the previous statement? Have you ever noticed that when your parents are unleashing a barrage of words on you, reprimanding you of some infraction on your part, and you doing your very best to ignore them and what they are saying to you, some time after that incident, you can still more or less get the gist of what they are saying? The ability to
listen is as a natural to us humans as breathing, and the tendency of attenuating and listening to another human's voice out of the cacophony of our world is another particular trait of us humans. A human's voice is very difficult to be ignored by another human indeed.
The impersonality of the Internet as a communication medium may in some way contribute to the fact that most people are ruder in cyberspace when communicating with one another since they view each other as inorganic entities, as bits and bytes or even as a electronic representation of an individual (which to them, obviously, doesn't carry much weight when it comes to the field of communication etiquette). This bears forth another question worth asking - does the alienation of human traits by the impersonality of technology allow for lax behavioural rules? If the answer is yes, then the past millenia of evolution, cultural growth and the expansion of civilisation have been all for naught. After many ages of an evolving humanity, to which a solid and stable civilisation has been the bedrock for our technological growth, we are devolving into our past barbaric selves once more, albeit a more technologically advanced population than what we once were. For the very foundation of the growth has been us evolving from cavemen with clubs with no concept of civility (I think clubbing anyone who offended you, rightfully or not, was viewed as perfectly acceptable then) to people who understand etiquette (that means no bashing your neighbour in the head with a club just because their stereo is several decibels higher than your liking). For us to degenerate into brutes once more (even if it's just online) due to the advent of the Internet seems highly illogical. It shouldn't be happening, but it is, even right now. Even more perplexing are the examples where people tend to have a completely different personality online - and not in a good way. I know quite a few examples where in real life, a particular individual is a polite and unassuming person, but once this person logs into the Internet, you can literally watch profanities scroll across the computer monitor! Of course, some people do use profanities liberally both in real life and in cyberspace, but the real issue here is the generation of a utterly different character (personality-wise) when some individuals use the Internet! Why does it happen? Could it be because that these particular people repress their "impolite" side in real life to present a "clean" facade to the world, but once online, they release the reins and let their alter-ego run free? Is it a pyschological issue, or does the real issue lie with the Internet? I, for one, do not believe that the fault lies with the Internet. Faulting the Internet would be like damning the invention of the gun - many say that the increase in the rate of serious crimes nowadays is due to the unchecked proliferation of firearms, but actually, we should blame the criminals who are using the guns instead of the growth of the gun industry. However, a gun is really a useful device - it allows us to hunt and ensure the security of a nation if it is placed in the right hands! If the wielder of a tool accidentally cuts himself while using it, you do not blame the tool, right? We as the users of the Internet should check ourselves and exercise necessary restraints behaviour-wise so we can act online as how we should act in real life. The non-existence of clearly defined "etiquette boundaries" in cyberspace doesn't mean that we shouldn't be well-mannered online! We should not blame a medium of communication for our lapses in civility - we should instead blame ourselves, for the medium in which the communications took place is inconsequential to our behaviour. We have only ourselves to account for for our actions.
However, not everybody in the domain of cyberspace is rude or offensive. There are people who are patient and polite to you when explaining something to you (instead of "f*** it dude, what a dumbass question! are you a retard or something?") and help you willingly despite getting no benefit to themselves for doing so, and sometimes even at the expense of their own trouble! These people are the true "residents" of the Internet, for they make the Internet what it should be - a utopian, alter-community, undivided by the borders of nations, where each and every individual is equal to the other, sharing information for the benefit of all and unfettered by the issues of gender, age, race and nationality. I have had the pleasure of encountering several of these people in my long usage of the Internet, and after each and every encounter I feel gratified that in this time and age, these people still do exist despite all the moral rot creeping into humanity in our age. And every single time, I resolved to be like them, do to my part to make cyberspace a more enjoyable place to be in by merely being patient and polite in all of my online conversations. I've had people mock me for being overtly polite at times, or even question the reason for my politeness, but I believe that in life, a modicum of politeness is necessary in one's everyday life - the ability to think is not unique to us humans, as many other organisms have rudimentary intelligence, and the same goes for language, but civility is a defining feature of us humans. Without it we might as well be beasts. So please, let's be more polite to each other online. A little bit goes a long way, but the journey to make the Internet a truly utopian domain is a very
very long way off. And we might as well begin now.
P.S. - Sorry for the slow update, I was researching graphics cards on the Internet (which one gives the most value for money, which one I can ask my parents to sponsor without them throttling me, which one suits my usage needs, etc etc etc) and "How To Install An AGP Graphics Card". I still have not the foggiest notion of which card to buy until now. Same goes for the installation thingy. (27/7/2005)
P.P.S. - Woohoo! I bought an ATI Radeon 9550GT (128mb DDR RAM, 128-bit, 400MHz RAMDAC clock, 250MHz chipset clock, GeCube chipset) for RM262 at the recent PC Fair! It's quite a bargain if you compare it with an equivalent graphics card, the GeForce 6200 - it's definitely value for money! Now, I'll just have to install it....if only I knew how. (29/7/2005)
Chow and Paul's Visit To JB! (Days Three and Four)
It's been ages since I last blogged - so I'm very very sorry for the delay, which was actually inevitable due to my absolutely hectic schedule these past few days! Many factors contributed to the final result of the aforesaid
hectic schedule, and Reason #1 is that I am currently playing the
Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic II (KOTOR II, if you will...) RPG. Wahahaha... Before all of you decide to knock my head off for giving such a bad excuse to justify the much-delayed entry, let me clarify one thing first - this RPG is absolutely addictive! The storyline is great and the gameplay is rather simple compared to the
Final Fantasy series, making for countless hours of fun! Much thanks to Paul who introduced this game to me and blowing away all my misconceptions about the KOTOR series RPGs - and even more thanks to him for getting me so damned addicted to the game (not in a bad way, though)! I think I shouldn't go forth on the merits of playing this game, though - I suspect that you're already yawning as you read this. Alright then, onwards to Reason #2! Reason #2 is the fact that I am supposed to participate in some taekwondo demonstration on the 14th of July and as a result of my participation, I have to go for practice approximately three times a week.
Three times! Every lesson I get my muscles, joints, tendons and whatnots subjected to extreme stress and go home aching all over and before my body parts even realize that they should begin healing instead of slacking off as they are wont to, I have to go for another lesson. My mum has stopped asking me why I walk around the house in a funny manner after two weeks of this. The jokes from Dad hasn't stopped yet, though. However, my body is showing signs of getting used to the new training schedule as I feel a lot better now compared to two weeks ago - maybe I'll even walk normally soon! Hahaha... But until then, I'll keep my fingers crossed. Reason #3 is the part when I start piling blame on myself - hurray. Anyway, the third reason is short and simple. I'm Just Too Lazy To Update My Blog! Adding Reasons #1 and #2 together, and rationalizing that I wouldn't have many hours left in a day if I did everything mentioned above - and include the fact that I'm a person who requires a little "me" time, well, signs are pointing that yes, these past few days I've been slacking off when it comes to my blog. And it's true. Nowadays, I just don't feel like taking time to write an entry even when I have time to do so. I'm beginning to question the very reason for owning a blog when I have to remind myself to type entries - writing entries seem forced to me, somehow. The only reason I'm keeping with this whole thing is because this is the only available avenue for me to practice my written English. When I first created a blog, I thought that it would be a platform for me to write about my daily life, my thoughts, so on and so forth. The blog would be the diary that I never had, the place to actually write down my unaltered thoughts and feelings that never existed before. But as time passed, I realized that this blog became something more of a
news report - I write about everything happening around me. No internal dialouge, no dissection of thoughts, no self-diagnosis. Nothing of what truly matters. You might perhaps add that I could have written all of those if I wanted to, but the truth is that it's not really possible. Writing about one's thoughts is rather risky, you say a lot of things in your head that sometimes aren't meant to be public knowledge, and the end result of writing whatever is in your mind is that you offend people. The farcical product of trying to be as diplomatic as possible when writing about one's life isn't what constitutes a diary (at least, it isn't to me) and it is at the times when I ponder this is when I wonder if this whole "blog" thing is just a big, stupid waste of my time. Perhaps it's time I get a private blog. Perhaps. Just perhaps.
Right, I seem to have drifted off-topic again. Back to the subject.
Day Three (22/6/2005)On the third day of Paul and Tze Chow's mini-trip to Johor Bahru, us Johorians brought the "foreigners" to the most happening shopping centre in Johor Bahru - City Square! Well, to set the record straight, it is the
only shopping centre that is happening in Johor Bahru since it is the place with the largest variety of shops. I think the previous sentences typed above makes it sound as if Johor Bahru is a really lame place to be, but of course you can't compare it to Kuala Lumpur or any other big cities. Each place has its own attraction, and I'm guessing that in Johor Bahru it must be cheap and good food. Shopping complexes aren't exactly our forte, if you get my drift. However, City Square isn't too bad - there's quite a lot of stuff to do (or buy) there! Pirated CD/DVD/VCDs? Check. Clothing? Check. Computer accessories? Check. Restaurants? Check. Cineplex? Check. MOST IMPORTANTLY -
Pikachu? Check! Hahaha... In case you're scratching your head and wondering what on Earth does
Pikachu have to do in determining the "happening-o-meter" readings,
Pikachu is a Japanese restaurant serving extremely good ramen! In fact, it is my favourite restaurant! The portions are large but the price is rather reasonable - coupled with extremely tasty ramen, it makes for a no-brainer whenever I'm there and I'm deciding where to go for my meal! The rest of my friends such as Yih Seong, Jeremy and Chye Hing don't share my enthusiasm towards that restaurant though - I'm guessing either they don't like ramen or they balk at the fact that I
must order the "piss-smelling noodles", as they call it, whenever we go there to eat. Hahaha... Well, I can't help it! The bamboo shoot slices in the Zaru Ramen makes it smell like that - but seriously speaking, it tastes really really good! You won't notice the smell at all once you start eating the noodles, and once you get used to the smell, you'll actually notice how good it smells! Anyway, we reached there around lunchtime, and once everyone had arrived, we headed to - guess where? -
Pikachu for lunch! Anyway, just so you know,
Pikachu actually has a real name. And it's Nippon Yatamura. But most of us just call it
Pikachu since there's a humongous picture of everyone's much-beloved (or equally much-detested) anime character displayed at the restaurant's entrance! Mention "Nippon Yatamura" and you'll be greeted with a blank look and a "huh?" to boot, but mention
Pikachu and everyone understands one another! However, at the restaurant, Tze Chow told me that he had eaten in a similar restaurant before. Something clicked into place in my mind and all of a sudden I recalled that there was a restaurant serving exactly the same stuff in Midvalley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur! Everything was the same - from the menu to the layout of the place - it just had a different name! Ah, well... As long as we get to eat lunch then it doesn't really matter, right? Hahaha...
After our lunch, we went to catch the movie "Batman Begins". The movie was rather okay, it provided an interesting insight on how the Dark Knight began his...um..."crusade", so to speak, against evil, tyranny, injustice and all the other bad stuff you can think of. However, like all comicbook adaptations, there were plenty of no-brainer scenes and painfully cliched lines. The explosions, butt-kicking and huge mean driving machine made up for those scenes though, and all in all it was an interesting watch. After the movie, it was almost dinner time already and a new problem befell us after we stepped out of the cinema -
where do we go for dinner? We had a really tough time working out this problem (Hahaha...funny, isn't it? We're in a shopping complex with at nearly 20 restaurants and we don't know where to go for our dinner!). There were several angles to the problem - one, the price musn't be too expensive; two, the food must be good and different to what we already ate so far, and three, it musn't be too far away from the shopping complex. After much discussion, the final consensus was
to heck with angle no. 2! since some places recommended were too expensive or were situated too far away and so, we went to have our dinner in the Tebrau Hawker Centre (mentioned in the entry about Day One) again. Not only did we have our dinner in the same place, nearly all of the food we ordered were repeats of Day One! But I'm not complaining since the food there is really good! This time, the
ikan bakar we ordered was even better than the
ikan bakar we ordered before since Yih Seong and myself chose the pieces of fish to be grilled, and the "oyster omelette" we ordered was simply delicious! Ah, the pleasures of hawker food - good, cheap, but not necessarily healthy! But who cares? Hahaha... After our sumptous dinner, when everyone was stuffed to the max, Tze Chow suddenly had the craving to play DotA! This notion was immediately seconded by a few of us and we proceeded to good old KingSurf, where much expectedly, the team with Tze Chow in it whacked the other team's collective rears to kingdom come. He really doesn't know how to go easy on us, that guy! We should gather forces to teach him a lesson one day (like having a 5-on-1 match), but I have a nagging suspicion that despite us having greater numbers on our side, he'll still beat us in DotA! Hahaha... Yeah, he's
that good! After the game, everyone went their separate ways again to sleep the exertions of the entire day off - with that, ended Day Three of Paul and Tze Chow's visit to Johor Bahru!
Day Four (23/6/2005)Day Four of Paul and Tze Chow's visit to Johor Bahru had an inoccuous beginning - never in our dreams would we have foreseen what would happen later on! The day began with a quick cybercafe outing involving Paul, Tze Chow, Jeremy, Yih Seong, Ashok and myself at KingSurf before Paul and Tze Chow caught the late evening bus back to Kuala Lumpur since we had nothing better to do in the morning anyway and DotA is always a great way to fill up unused time! Everyone, bar Ashok, gathered at my place early in the morning before heading out to the cybercafe - a reversion to the days when my place was the rally point for any cybercafe/movie/bowling outings at Leisure Mall. However, approximately ten minutes before leaving, Yih Seong "discovered" the wonders of SWAT 4 on my PC and began playing it. Everyone lost track of time as we watched Yih Seong shoot hostages and his SWAT team members - until Jeremy reminded us of our appointment at the cybercafe with Ashok and Ashok called to ask us about our whereabouts. We then made our way to the cybercafe as quickly as we could. Once there, there was no sign of Ashok. We then went into the cybercafe to book the computers first. We waited for quite some time and decided to start on a dry run of DotA while waiting for Ashok. While we were playing, Ashok called Yih Seong to tell him that he was involved in an accident! Yih Seong immediately asked if he was alright and Ashok told him that he was okay and would be joining us later. Then, not long after, Yih Seong was called by Ashok again - this time, Ashok asked us if we could go over to the clinic. We left the cybercafe immediately and went over to the clinic. Anyway, to cut a long story short, what transpired was that while crossing the road, Ashok was knocked down by a motorcycle and that there was some trouble involving the motorcyclist's friends and us - but it was all straightened out in the end. After that incident, Yih Seong brought Paul, Tze Chow and myself for a
bak kut teh lunch, but it was a rather subdued affair after what had happened. After lunch, Jeremy sent Yih Seong and myself back home - and Paul and Tze Chow to his home to get ready their luggage for the trip back to Kuala Lumpur. Thank goodness Ashok only had a few lacerations and abrasions - no broken bones! He recovered rather quickly after receiving treatment at the hospital and resting at home for a few days - when Jeremy, Chuin Hau and myself visited him, his sister even said that barely two days after that incident, Ashok was already playing computer games! Hahaha... Maximum respect to you, Ashok! Well, all's well that ends well, I'd say, and I hope that this incident will never happen again to the people I know. Once is one time too much.
And thus ended Paul and Tze Chow's visit to Johor Bahru. For me, it ended when I waved goodbye to them when I got off Jeremy's car. Waving goodbye to them, I felt sadness dominate my emotions, tinged with a bit of hope in the fact that I'll get to see them again when I go to collect my results in August. I hate goodbyes - especially those to friends that I've come to treasure. Paul and Tze Chow have become extremely great friends to me, and it's been a great honour and pleasure knowing them. Well,
c'est la vie... Goodbyes are part and parcel of life, but one can be happy knowing that nothing, not even partings are permanent - one may meet them again if their paths cross in the future and even beyond the circles of the world, who knows what awaits us there?
Chow and Paul's Visit To JB! (Day Two)
A gloomy morning, replete with grey skies and a slight drizzle greeted us as we awoke to the second day of Paul and Tze Chow's visit to the "homeland" of the Johorians - the southern city of Johor Bahru. And before the sleep was completely rubbed from our eyes, we found ourselves making our way to Yih Seong's place, where we were supposed to meet up and head for breakfast before beginning our sojourn into Singapore. As for me, I still can't believe how on Earth I managed to drag myself away from my bed at the crack of dawn when I had only five hours of sleep the night before - perhaps the prospects of a delicious and filling breakfast is deemed more attractive than my bed by some unconscious thought process in my mind! As it were, we met at Yih Seong's house at around 8am before we headed off, with Yih Seong leading the way, to our breakfast of Kuey Teow Kia (actually, I'm not exactly sure as to the spelling of the noodles that we were supposed to eat - but this is a close enough approximation, I guess). However, when we reached there, we discovered to our dismay that the stall was closed! Spirits sank and morale flagged at the thought of no breakfast before our trip to Singapore, until Yih Seong suggested another restaurant for us to fill our stomachs, a restaurant nearby serving
dim sum! Spirits raised and morale shot up to a hundred percent (maybe even more) as we made our way to the restaurant crammed like sardines in Jeremy's car. The fact that Tze Chow raised a ruckus the entire way to the restaurant is pretty much evidence of the aforesaid statement - but as I was sitting on one of his legs, perhaps he might be complaining due to the pain! Hahaha... So sorry, Tze Chow! When we reached there, we immediately ordered the food and began eating ravenously. The
dim sum was rather delicious and the yellow-coloured vermicelli we ordered was rather unique, with a strong hint of lemongrass which made for a very interesting dish. In fact, we even ordered seconds! Ah, yes... Steaming hot
dim sum is the perfect panacea for gloomy mornings! After our bellies were filled, we made our way back to Yih Seong's house, called a couple of cabs and made our way to the Customs and Immigration Complex in Teams Alpha and Beta, as divided by our expedition leader, Patrick. When both Teams had reached the Customs and Immigration Complex with every man accounted for, we made our way past the immigration counters and proceeded to take a bus across the Causeway to Singapore.
Upon arrival on Singapore soil, we then made our way to the immigration counters once more to have our passports stamped. While waiting, Patrick kept making
Silent Scope-esque jokes by saying how everyone would get sniped if we did something drastic or if the immigration officers found something wrong with our passports.. Haha... When everyone got through fine, we regrouped at the bus stop and took a bus to Kranji MRT Station. Once there, some of us reloaded our EZ-link cards whereas the some of the others, who didn't have an EZ-link card, bought one. It being our first time there, we were slightly lost as to how to proceed to our first stop, the Singapore Zoological Gardens. We wandered around aimlessly until Patrick and Yih Seong went to enquire about the details in getting from where we were to our destination. They came back armed with the neccessary information and we weren't lost anymore! Hurray! We were just starting to get embarrassed! Hahaha... According to their information, we were supposed to take a cab (in our case, two cabs) from the taxi stand straight to the Singapore Zoological Gardens - and we did just that. However, while waiting, we had a surprise! Guess who we would meet in Singapore - it was none other than Kenneth Wong! Yih Seong recognized him straightaway, but me being a person who can't really remember people well, I took some time to recognize him. After asking each other what we were doing there (I notice that people who always meet unexpectedly just
have to ask this question), we went our separate ways.The cabs arrived and we split into two teams again. On our way to the Singapore Zoo, Patrick managed to get a cab driver who was rather disgruntled with the Singaporean government. What was supposed to be a peaceful, five minute drive to our destination became a one-way political critique, with the cab driver giving a very heated speech about the things that he thinks are wrong with the Singaporean government and Patrick being our human sacrifice - he had to entertain the driver by replying at times and nodding his head and saying
mmm most of the time! Hahaha... When we finally reached the Singapore Zoological Gardens, all of us exhaled a sigh of relief as we alighted from the cab. We were finally free from the "rebel taxi driver", a name I think that is particularly suited for our taxi driver! Patrick commented that he always had bad luck with taxi drivers as they seem to like him a lot - I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing...
We then met up with the others and proceeded to buy the tickets and after that, we made our way into the zoo! Goodness knows that it's been ages since I last visited a zoo - and the fact that we were the oldest blokes wandering around made us feel rather embarrassed! All around us, there were small kids with their parents, shrieking with joy at the prospects of seeing several bored-looking animals living out their boring lives cooped up in an artifical enclosure. The kids shrieked. The animals stared impassionately back - most probably thinking,
what's the whole fuss all about, mate? Our self-consciousness lasted only until we met another group of people at roughly the same age as us - internally, all of us were heaving a sigh of relief and thinking phew, at least we're not the only teenagers here! After overcoming the initial awkwardness, Patrick and Yih Seong were designated Official Navigators whereas Paul and myself were designated Official Photographers. And so, our long day at the zoo began. At first, we were rather lost and kept going around in circles, but once our Navigators got the hang of navigating, so to speak, we were on our way! We went to almost all the animal exhibits - we managed to cover the reptiles (we were slightly awed by the sight of a humongous crocodile), went to visit the insect world (some comments about Sand King surfaced when we saw a scorpion), managed to check out our fellow primates (we
aikkked when we saw a pair of monkeys dating), nearly had mud spattered on us by a giant tortoise who had nerfarious plans involving large feet and muddy ground, were spooked by a flying bird when we went into the small-mammals enclosure, laughed at a sleeping lion, symphatized with a zebra who was isolated by the rest of his peers, wondered why on Earth were the penguins shivering in their enclosure - and much more besides. We had to take several pit stops at the rest areas when covering the vast grounds of the zoo, and it was at one of this stops when Paul decided to catch forty winks by lying down on a bench - he can sleep anywhere, can he? Hahaha.. I wish I could do that!
We also managed to watch several animal shows due to the careful planning of our two navigators - the polar bears' feeding time, the lions' feeding time, the white tigers' feeding time and the pygmy hippopotamus' feeding time. The polar bears seemed uninterested in the fish that was thrown in and didn't even bother to go after a live fish that was thrown in to display their "hunter skills" - so much for learning about the great polar bear's ability to catch fish. The lions' feeding time consisted of a couple of zookeepers hurling chunks of chicken meat at the lions and the bored-looking lions chasing after the pieces of meat that tumbled from their grasp. Incredibly boring - and by that time, our stomachs were already rumbling from all that walking! The meat meant for the lions started to look pretty good at that point. Hahahaha... At least the white tigers' feeding time was far more impressive - at least they looked like the predators they were rather than just large cats running after a morsel of food thrown by their owner. They chased and jumped in mid-air to clamp their massive jaws on the meat thrown by the zookeepers, at times even splashing into the water surrounding their enclosure to obtain pieces of meat that fell into the water. In addition to that, we also managed to catch the sea-lion show, by far the most interesting show we had seen the whole day. After that, we headed to the elephant show, where we saw some elephants lift a couple of logs, roll them into a fake river, lie down and...you know, the works. What Elephants Do. By the time we had watched all the shows we deemed interesting or neccessary to watch, we proceeded to take a tram ride around the zoo - our legs just couldn't take ourselves any further! Add the fact that we didn't eat lunch and that the air was incredibly humid due to the large amount of vegetation and the dense canopy overhead, the end result was that most of us couldn't really walk straight anymore. After the tram ride, we exited the zoo and went to the next item on the itinary - Orchard Road and dinner! We returned to the Kranji MRT Station and took the MRT to Orchard Station, fourteen stops away.
Dinner was at Seoul Garden in Takashimaya Shopping Complex, a steamboat-cum-barbeque restaurant akin to the one that us Johorians patronized twice back in Johor Bahru before finally discovering that food drowning in oil is rather disgusting. However, as Yih Seong recommended it - and,
most importantly, it's buffet-style! - the decision to dine there was unanimous. We paid, we entered, and we ate. A lot. The selection of food available for cooking was rather large, and we listened to our growling stomachs and cooked damn near everything in sight! Barely five minutes after settling at our table, the grills were already sizzling with slices of chicken, fish, sausages and beef! After that, what happened was a non-stop eating marathon that continued for nearly an hour - yeah, we were that hungry! For the first half-hour or so, everyone was busy eating and conversation at the tables were kept to a minimum, but after that, the table comprising of myself, Patrick and Ashok kept competing with the other table comprising of Yih Seong, Jeremy, Paul and Tze Chow in terms of creativity when it came to the grill and the steamboat. When Patrick suggested that we crack an egg into the soup in order to make it tastier, the other table followed suit - and that sparked off an inter-table rivalry with each table coming up with more and more ingenious ways to cook food, albeit not always resulting in platable food! After repeated grilling, boiling and eating, we were finally stuffed to the maximum, but that could only have meant one thing when it came to us - dessert time! Since the ice-cream was all-you-can-eat, everyone ate all that they could. Pardon the pun. We loaded up bowl after bowl of the ice-cream and the more adventurous made their very own customised
ais-kacangs. Paul was overambitious and overloaded his bowl with
ais-kacang and when he settled down at the table, a massive spill took place - resulting in the formation of coloured syrup puddles! We scrambled to grab tissues to soak up the mess, and thankfully, Paul's clothing didn't undergo any major changes in colour after we were done. By the time we were done eating, I could have sworn that our weights at least doubled - we did eat that much!
After dinner, we stopped by at Kinokuniya as Paul wanted to check out some books. As we waited there for Paul, we suddenly had a surprise - Eric was there as well! If this doesn't prove that it's indeed a small world, then I don't know what will! Hahaha... Of course, Eric might have been stalking us too, so that might have to be taken into account! Eric then joined our merry party as we headed from Kinokuniya to our last and final item on the itinary - buying the iPod mini and the iPod shuffle! As I had scouted Orchard Road the day before for the best places to buy an iPod mini with my family (and ended up buying my iPod mini), we already had a destination in mind and all we had to do was to get there, find out the best buys and hopefully prevent ourselves from getting suckered into buying unneccessary accessories for the iPod mini or the iPod shuffle. Surprisingly, the first shop we visited offered Paul and Tze Chow rather good prices for the iPod mini and the iPod shuffle respectively - in fact, they paid S$2 less than what I did, GST included! And without wasting time (our legs seemed to have turned to jelly already after spending the whole day in Singapore), they bought the items they wanted and left. Eric followed us until the MRT Station and then we went our separate ways - we took the MRT back to the Kranji MRT Station whereas Eric took a bus back to his hostel. Once we reached the Kranji MRT Station, we took a bus to the Woodlands Customs and Immigration Checkpoint - and repeated the process all over again. Got our passports stamped, took a bus all the way back to the Malaysian side, cleared the Malaysian Customs and Immigration Checkpoint and
voila! We were back in Malaysia! After that, we took a cab back to Yih Seong's house, and everyone went back home - with that, ended a very tiring but fun Day Two of Paul and Tze Chow's visit to Johor Bahru!
Here are some of the pictures we took on Day Two :
Ahh.... There's nothing better than
dim sum for breakfast on a gloomy morning! Even though we might not have gotten to eat Kuey Teow Kia for breakfast as planned, we ended up having something just as tasty, which made up for a superb beginning to our day! Here's Round One of our
dim sum breakfast!
Jeremy and his favourite animal - the camel! Hahaha... Wonder why? That's because the camel is the animal that Jeremy can draw best! Actually, come to think of it, when Jeremy doesn't doodle stuff on the camels he draws - stuff like spectacles, ties and speech bubbles that say "i am yc" - the camels he draws are actually quite good! Well, better than what I can draw anyway.. Hahaha..
"Ladies and gentlemen, no need to panic - yes, we are lost
again, but this is rather routine already." Just joking here - Patrick and Yih Seong, our designated Official Navigators did a very good job leading us around the zoo and planning ahead so that we could watch the animal shows and feeding times that we deemed interesting!
Taking a break at one of the rest stops. The rest stops were air-conditioned, and we were
so tempted to remain in the rest stops indefinitely as the air was incredibly humid! From left - Ashok, Paul and Yih Seong. Check out the sweat on Paul's shirt!
This is a lemur, not the parodies that you see in "Madagascar". I tried summoning them with my signature "I like to move it move it" chant, but no lemurs were forthcoming until we bumped right into them. I am so disillusioned.
Ah, yes - the three stars of the elephant show. Truth be told, the elephant show was rather unimpressive compared to the elephant shows in Thailand, but it was interesting nevertheless. But going to a show just to see elephants pick up logs and roll them all over the place? Their creative director needs to go on a refresher course, methinks.
Next - Days Three and Four!
