Polish-Latino Night in Malaysia

September 19-21, 2009.

It was another week, with yet another holiday -- the Hari Raya Aidilfitri -- a.k.a. End of Ramadan season for Muslims. Yep, ever since I came here, it's been like every week there's a holiday, which explains why I was usually "busy" for the past weekends on travel or just going around KL or chilling out with friends.

Sto lat, sto lat,

Niech żyje, żyje nam.

Sto lat, sto lat,

Niech żyje, żyje nam,

Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz, niech żyje, żyje nam,

Niech żyje nam!

"Sto lat" ("One Hundred Years" in English translation) is a traditional Polish song that is sung to express good wishes, good health and long life to a person.

So what's with the song? Last week, back in Bangsar Permai Condo, we prepared this birthday surprise for our friend, Wiola (her birthday was this last Sunday, September 20).

She's from Poland, and naturally we got to teach ourselves the Polish version of the Happy Birthday song for her. So with combined efforts from Dante and Manuel (both from Mexico), Lucas (Brazil), and the rest of us interns and friends, we were able to pull it off, and man, it was awesome! The details, I can't think of right now, but lemme tell you that Wiola was quite surprised and happy to see everybody on her special day.

After a couple of beers and a Bacardi, some Roti Canai from Jassal, some 80's and some Latino music and getting to know people from all over the world, we went to Changkat in Bukit Bintang where bars are at in our area.

This would mark my first time in a bar in Malaysia then.

And I have to say that it's somehow ...different compared to my country? Haha.

Bars here in Malaysia aren't that filled up with people. Maybe because alcohol and cigarettes here are expensive. (Emphasis on ex-pen-sive. RM 20 for a beer bottle. That's a freakin 200 Pesos or so! Just. for. a. single. tiny. bottle. of. beer.) Or maybe it was just that it was holiday season at that time when we got there. (Muslims are out of the picture because of, as I mentioned, it was the end of Ramadan season.)

But anyway! We went to eat a quick dinner first at this Chinese restaurant nearby, and finally went to hang out at Pincho's bar.

Apparently, it's a bar owned by this Latino Pincho guy.. I think. Haha. It's been playing upbeat Latino music most of the time, and naturally, our Spanish-speaking friend interns from our group (who make up around half of our group, haha) were having so much fun!

Every Latino/Latina -- Mexicans, Peruvians, Colombians, Brazilians.. and even this Filipino right here (What, Filipinos are part-Latino too! Haha!) -- went crazy singing, dancing, and drinking the night away.

It's been one heck of a night with friends, and it couldn't have been so without the help from our crazy friends from these parts of the world.

Crazy Latinos.

Haha!

Perhentian Islands

September 4-7, 2009.

"I've got a peeling feeling, woohoo, that tonight's gonna be..~"

You know that Black Eyed Peas song.

And I've got that 'peeling', alright. (from nasty sunburn, that is. Haha. Ouch!)

So here's the story behind the sunburn. While we were just doing our normal routine at work, Lucas (from Brazil) invited us to go with him and Wiola (from Poland) to go out over the weekend. Long story short, we got ourselves traveling to the wonderful Perhentian Islands, and man, it was amazing!

(Source: Wikipedia)

Think Boracay or Galera or whatever (if you're Pinoy), because it's THE 'beach-slash-islands-to-go-to' that we went to. Sadly, I couldn't compare the beaches here in Malaysia to the beaches in my country, because to tell you the truth, I haven't been to any of the famous beaches in the Philippines (or does Punta Fuego and Corregidor count?). I could only base my 'comparisons' from pictures of Bora or Gale or Coron that I see over the internet, or post cards, or pictures from friends. But I tell you, the beaches are a sight in themselves. White sandy beaches with clear water, flanked by rolling forest-covered hills make the views from the beach spectacular.

Anyway! I'll just write down some highlights a highlight of our Perhentian adventure for this blog entry.

Since I'm not that kind of a beach-person, I thought I'd enjoy myself and get the best out of this island getaway. I thought, hey, it's not like everyday that I have the chance to enjoy the beach and the sun.

So what the heck! So the day when we got to the white sandy beach of Long Island, we got ourselves into a snorkeling party on a boat after only about an hour after we set foot on the said beach. We thought of going for the diving, but, we thought, uh... let's do snorkeling first. Haha.

Yep, you read that right. Snorkeling. Into the sea. All day. My first time. So I was kinda hesitant.

I know swimming wasn't my department, but before I know it, I threw myself out into the water, just because I wanted to try out snorkeling so bad! Haha! And whaddyaknow, I could swim! (Yeah, lame-o. Haha!)

Snorkeling was really amazing. We had lunch in Fish Village, and went back to snorkeling on other sites right after. Thanks to Captain Henry, we got to see lots of marine life out there -- fishes, corals, 'Nemo' (Clown fish) and 'Dory' (uh, dunno the name), sharks, and turtles. HUGE turtles! Ahh, the beauty.

And at the end of the day, we went back to Long Beach to take our rest.

Whew! I think that's it for now. So while I have no pictures to show you yet, you can know more about Perhentian Islands in this Wiki enty here. So check back soon for the next part of our Perhentian adventure!




-- End of blog entry Part 1.

Coming up next, part 2!

And pictures, lah! Haha. --


Edit: I don't think I will have time to update this.. or maybe I might. Haha. Anyway I'll just update this whenever I can. I need to synchronize my blogging with current events, yknow! Haha.

Petronas Towers ...Almost.

Sunday, August 23, 2009.

Tired from the Global Village event, we still woke up early around 6:30am on Sunday morning, because we wanted to go to Petronas on this day. We thought you can't be considered having been to Malaysia if you haven't been to Petronas Towers. So we left Bangsar Permai Condo at around 7am, went on our way and were surprised that highways didn't have so much cars as it used to have on a regular day. We figured, "Hey! Great day to visit the towers today! Not much people!"

Sunday morning in Bangsar: no cars in sight!

So after a train ride and a few minutes of walking, we finally got to Petronas!!

Well, we got there alright..... but was too late to get any tickets, because the place is packed FULL of people! And to think we got there around an hour before they open their gates for visitors! :(

Sigh. We then realized it was a Sunday, and naturally it's when people, local or foreigner, were all on the prowl for tourist spots. Especially if the tourist spot was for free, e.g. Petronas Towers.

We had to look for somewhere else to go then, since we can't anymore get tickets to get ourselves uuuupppp the Petronas Towers' Skybridge. So went on to the nearby KLCC Park instead. Thought there wasn't much to see here, but to our surprise, we get to see more of the Petronas towers! In every angle! So basically we wasted shots and shots to take different angles of the towers the whole morning.

Petronas Towers. Almost. We'll get to the Skybridge next time!

We wasted shots for different angles of the Towers. (and it's usually us, who serve as the "background")

More pictures to be uploaded in FB!

Cheers~


Edit: Pictures now uploaded in FB!