Right after camping and whitewater rafting at Sg. Sedim, Kulim, my next destination was this famous and secluded restaurant deep inside Kulim. Many of you might have heard of it, largely because it has been promoted on TV by Jason a.k.a “Axian” of the food program called “Taste With Jason” on Astro AEC.

Yes, I am a big fan of Axian and I would definitely try the food he recommended in his program whenever I have the chance. No matter how far he goes, if I so happen to pass by, I won’t miss my chance to verify his recommendations. Previously was of course the Tanjuang Tualang Fresh Water Lobster/Prawns food post (gonna post a second update, COMING SOON!).

Why is this place so special? It must be really special which drives me all the way from KL to eat in this “ulu kampung” area right? If you are wondering why, Desmond-t is going to tell you that simply because their dish is super-FRESH and most of all - cooked to perfection!

Let’s head to the Restaurant Kolam Ikan.

When you see this small road with shady oil palms, you’re right at the doorstep. Plenty of places to park, but still, the more cars you see, the longer you’ll have to wait for a seat because the restaurant itself does not accomodate more than 25 tables I guess.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ever heard of whitewater rafting? If you know and heard of it, or even seen it on movies or over the web, will ever consider trying it? Desmond-t seriously recommends this extreme sport to those who are willing to face endurance challenge and mind-boggling drops at various levels of creeks.

Venturing Down The "Kiss Drop"... Too fast, too furious! Extreme adventure at its best!

“Wikipedia defines whitewater rafting as a challenging recreational activity utilizing a raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. This is usually done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water, in order to thrill and excite the raft passengers. The development of this activity as a leisure sport has become popular since the mid 1970s.”

Click here to read ther rest of this adventure and watch my rafting video!

*Updated* - New FOOD HUNT and TRAVELOGUE pages are available! Check it out the header navigation above.

A common post-exam question: “What to do after exam???”

Wah, Sien!!!!! Boring…

This won’t be the case for this year. I bet this would be the last time I am having my holidays as a student so I better be planning to do something exciting before I’m back to suffer for one last semester.

It has been plain post exam activities all this while, but this semester, I missed a trip to Malacca with my coursemates. Lucky, I had one hell of a night out with them before their trip. Had several beer towers before all of them began to “talk nonsense” after excessive bottom’s up. Total damage: 4 towers in 3 hours.

Piccadilly, with beer towers and three musketeers.

Piccadilly is a nice restaurant which serves nice and considerably cheap beers and local delicacies. RM25 per jug, is rather cheap by KL standards, right? They too have wide selection of food, from local Malay, Chinese and Indian food, as well as some western food! 

Click here to view more Semester Break surprises in line for me!

This place has been the talking point of the town for quite sometime. How can I ever give this place a miss?

The post-examination syndrome officially kicked off last week. The food hunting began 2 weeks before my exam actually ended… and I bet more adventures of Desmond-t is going to fill this blog real soon.

Straight to NZX Commercial Centre, a new hyped hangout area located in Ara Damansara. You might heard of this place similar to the one in Singapore called “Niu Ze Xui” in Mandarin or Ngau Zhe Shuey” in Cantonese. A concept of open-air commercial centre whereby you can shop, dine and exhibit events for people of all ages.

If you ain’t got no idea how to get to this place, fret not. It’s right opposite Kelana Jaya Putra LRT Station and before you reach Giant at LDP highway. Still not good enough? Go to SaiMatKong’s blog or if you are so lost, watch his YouTube video map on how to go to NZX. So, if you still fail to reach this place, I suggest you make a u-turn, go back home and sleep. That’d be ideal.

Initially, the driving force for me to go to NZX is this Fullhouse Lifestyle Store and Cafe. At first glance, you’d probably think that why on earth that that there’s so many people flocking in a store that sells household decoratives. Why some are just sitting there and chatting?

There’s so many people that you even have to stand and queue before you can be seated. Fine, it was a Sunday night, with some Disney Lantern Exhibition going on.

Click here for more food and store description

Timely for a economical debate here at desmond-t.com.

As I am stepping towards my final semester this December, I already have a clear plan in my mind.

Objective - To secure a job as fast as possible upon graduation. Oh, to be precise, upon the day I finish my last paper, the next day I’ll be off to work (hopefully, fingers crossed).

Many would suggest that I should take a break and go for a holiday instead because after this, I would have to work for a freaking 30 years! Yes, yes so much that I wanted to travel as well, but the predicament is when my bank account is not issuing any travelling visa to me, so I can’t afford to travel!

Last resort, or it is better to say the only choice I have is to find a job… real fast!

However, things are not looking good for my plan. As a Penangite, of course I would opt to work in my hometown. But, today I wanted to check out some MNCs in Penang and their job prospect in the news, this disturbing news came uninvited.

Check out this article from The Star today. 

Holy cow! Seems like afterall, I don’t have to plan any further. With around 30 000 fresh engineering graduates like from in Malaysia stepping into the industry at the same time, how can I possibly get a job? Forget about choosing a good employer especially when these giant MNCs annoucing frozen employment and cut-cost thingy. I begin to ponder will I be another jobless guy with an empty bank account.

Disappointed. Bad enough. Worse still, when I checked my mailbox, another disturbing mail popped out. I consulted my brothers who have been working in the engineering field for quite sometime and check if someone kind enough would consider hiring me as a fresh entry engineer comes this May, 2009.

All I got from my elder brother was some bad bad breaking news. I am not so sure about the following rumors below but I guess it is pretty much the same as the one highlighted in The Star Online today.

• Flextronics 4 days week for Month Nov and Dec.

• AMD Penang announced this morning VSS lay off 500 employees.
  
• Spansion force to take leave (5 days in this quarter)
  
• Jabil planned shut down from Dec 24 to Jan 4, will be 6 days leave.
  
• Agilent planned shut down from Dec 24 to Jan 4, will be 6 days leave. Jan09 might have another shutdown. No increment 2008 review.
  
• Avago no plan shutdown as no more in house production, hiring freeze.
  
• ASE shut down every fortnightly on Monday starting from Nov 3.
  
• Fairchild planned ‘Mass Vacation’ for 9 days leave in FY08

• INTEL – No increment 2008 review, VSS for those under perform and massive cut cost/travel 2009, no shutdown plan yet

• Motorola, Penang- Still hiring+profit, “surprisingly”, Singapore cellphone plant cut 800 job and now waiting for sale.

• Siltera, Kulim – Propose close down this Malaysian 1^st Fab company, loss RM4billion in 2008

Again, I stress that these news are merely rumors (consoling myself that there’s still glimmer of hope for me) and no one really knows the current situation of these MNCs.

I’m lost now. Although it is still early to predict the future, I think the future is not so promosing. I better start to be thrifty or else I’ll be starving in no time.

Yeah, apparently I’m still in the midst of examination but heck I can’t refrain myself from blogging about this food post. It all happened during my study week (the week was supposed for students to prepare for examination) when I travelled back to Penang from KL for my Mom’s birthday celebration.

The journey from KL to Penang took me around 3.5 hours and a stopover is almost inevitable to keep me fresh and focussed for this gruelling 360km journey. This time around, since I left KL around 6am, I already had a clear plan in mind - stopover at Ipoh for Dim Sum breakfast!~~~

I’ve got a few friends from Ipoh and I also made some googling for famous Dim Sum restaurants recommendable in Ipoh. To my surprise, there’s really two really-super-famous restaurants that even have fans dying for their food. These people actually debated and argued in several blog comments column defending for these restaurants.

It’s Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum Restaurant versus Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant. Even some food lovers would planned their trip to go for one restaurant for a certain food and proceed to the other restaurant for other bite of flavour. Initially, I did planned to do the same as well.

From my judgement, I decided to go for Ming Court Dim Sum house for this time around. When I reached there, only do I realized that I’ve been there before years back with my cousins and other relatives. Heck it was too lazy to change my route and of course what’s more when I already found a super nice car park just in front of the restaurant.

Click here to check the rest of the sumptuous Dim Sum galore

Recently, fuel prices began to drop as our ever-hopeful government announced their second fuel price from. First was from RM2.70 to RM2.55 and followed by RM2.55 to RM2.30 for RON97 petrol. It was never too low for me, but not for the others I guess. Judging from the traffic flow in KL, the congestion did decreased during the Raya festivities but for now, it is slowly jamming up once again.

More and more cars on the roads as time passes by. People are just getting richer, I presume. Back in the time when I was in the land Down Under, where fuel prices were so-freaking-high, people resorted to cycle whenever they can.

Which means, they do carry bicycles together with their car. They’d stop, park their cars… and cycle.

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This edition of travelogue brings you to another adventurous exploration, The Taman Negara Pahang or also known as The National Park, Pahang, West Malaysia.

It is widely known as one of the oldest, of not the oldest rainforest in the world (eh, my guide argues it is even older than the Amazon Rainforest, OK?)

My 3D2N trip depends very much on my two jungle guides, very much that we simply agree to whatever they said. If any of us found to be protesting against them, who knows they’d left us in the middle of no man’s land LOL Just kidding.

I’m sure you’ll be very eager to know how I actually planned my trip, just in case you’re planning yours in time to come. Make it simple, I depart from University of Malaya, KL and drove myself all the way to the Sungai Tembeling Jetty Entrance, Jerantut, Pahang.

You’d be killing me by now. Bear with me, for sure I’ll elaborate more about my commotion during my rough ride on the way there.

As you know, I drove there and no way I’m gonna have my hands on the camera. Neither do my friends, all just numb inside my car, some half asleep, some half dreaming, some half sesat.

From KL, we stopped by Mentakab for breakfast and a short visit to my coursemate’s house before we began the gruelling 2 hrs++ drive from Mentakab to Jerantut. Distance is around 150km, but the journey took us 2hrs plus! Winding road, hill slopes and not forgetting feases or cow dung in the middle of the road. For god sake, I was driving, not to avoid pot holes but shit holes! I bet it’s so called the natural toilet for the cows and goats.

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First part of this entry is all about food and dining Yuan Steamboat. This famous steamboat restaurant needs no further recommendation and is well known in Sunway. They have 3 stories of restaurants and even have their own build-in lift! Imagine around 300 patrons can be served at once!

Prices are simple. It’s RM19.90 per person, and it is not inclusive of drinks. It’s eat-all-you-can style, which entitle you to spend longer hours just to slowly eat as much as you like. Well, the tips is, they are freaking famous for their chicken wings! People would die to queue up and grab the chicken wings fresh from the oven!

I’ll let the pictures do the talking k?  

The Tom Yam Steamboat filled with Prawns! My hot favourite!

Read and view more sexy ladies and muscular guys here!