an immensely enjoyable and fulfilling trip, i brought back souvenirs and purchases, cholestrol and fats, brochures and photos, and most importantly, memories of time well spent for the first time in quite a long time, while waiting for my O level results. this highly-overdue entry will clearly reflect what i have just stated in the best way possible. mind you, it is going to be an image-intensive one, and while i give you a gentle warning, i assure you it'll not turn out to be one with 100 photos, where your face completely frames up the 2.5" LCD screen 98 times, and each having the same purpose - to disgust and conquer.! continue wondering why a 16yo (turning 17 on the 11th jan people) kid can come back with enough photos to self-acclaim his entry as an image-intensive one, when he merely went to a small town like genting.ROARS.

the most obvious difference between the last time i blog about my overseas trip and at present will be the quality of photos. i love my d40x like i love headporter, muse and stage. previously, i had my point-and-shoot camera which i hated so much because the promoter cheated me on saying the camera is a 10.2 megapixels camera which impressed me quite a bit, but turned out to have only 3.2 definite megapixels. now, i'm armed with the camera. and trust me, it's the only electronic gadget you can invest in, because the opening and closing of the shutter sings "i must stickwitu," which makes a photographer a very happy person. i used up a 512MB and 2GB SD card, and had to purchase another 2GB one so that i can take photos for the remaining 2 days. somehow, i feel pressured to produce quality photos just because i'm handling a camera twice bigger than yours. putting that aside, i should move on.

so, my mom, elder brother, aunt, uncle, ipoh (how should i spell this in english.? ipor, ipoh. penang. johore. yong peng.), and 3rd cousin made our way down to genting. the car ride was smooth, but definitely not on the inside. my aunt commented on my uncle's driving, attitude, behaviour, hairstyle, waist size, tee shirt size, paternal family, watch, handphone, design of boxer, and everything else on earth once every 5 seconds. she paused once, for 30 seconds, only because she wanted my cousin, who was sitting at the front seat, to insert the 881 dvd so that she can watch it. while scolding my uncle again. -.- the characters in the show looked so happy singing on stage, but their voices was drowned by my aunt's constant bawling. luckily they invented little boxes that transmit music into your ears via a wire. mid way up to genting, we stopped by at KL and shopped at their "bugis street". i tell you, it's a bloody galore for cheaps and fakes. they even have LV mahjong tiles. -.-

then we continued our journey up to genting, where my aunt's voice continued sounding victoriously, and me trying my very best to lip-read to decipher what the papaya sisters were saying or singing on the dvd.

when we reached genting, the most boring place ever, we did nothing. my 1st cousin's performance was on the third day, which left us with 2 days to rot alive under the chilling clouds. no place to shop, no good food, we resorted to eating burger king, which was the only thing that appealed to my mom and my elder brother. then i went around aimlessly, shooting equally aimless photos that will never make any impact on clubsnap.
a view of genting highlands. k, not like you don't know. -.-


merry christmas.


christmas carollers.

entrace to the buffet restaurant.

burger king: have it your way. go and kill taxi drivers now, because you must have it your way.





genting (jan-thing). not gern-ting.




on the second day, i became an abandoned child, roaming around genting alone with my d40x strapped around my neck, and my sb600 touching my chin, because all of them decided it was a good thing to gamble and leave a kid alone in a foreign country. nice one. so, i took more photos, and more photos. photos that will forever stay in your personal folder, and never make it to magazine covers.
a view from the hotel.




performance on the stage as i pass by.
the gamblers took their leave and we went to have sushi. my mom, elder brother, 1st cousin, and myself went for a k session. and incredibly, i slept there even with their loud singing.

my d40x went one round around the conveyor belt.

then somewhere somehow, somebody tapped on my shoulder. see, this action is an extremely sensitive one, especially in a place such as genting, where mediocre and hardcore gamblers make up 70% of the visitors. i did a, "tsk," while turning back, and saw somebody very familiar - i called out his name quite loudly, which made my mom think the chill must have somehow affected my nerves because i was calling out my own name excitedly. yay, i saw joey hohohoho. he looked very cute with a scarf tied around his neck. later at night, coming down from the hotel room, my bro and i went for starbucks. while leaving, i saw him again, went over to his table, and started mingering aimlessly in front of his entire family, their ears obviously out to eavesdrop. then we wanted to take a photo together, but my d40x and handphone was lying on the hotel bed. so after that short conversation, joey never did see joey in genting again.

the next day's evening, we gathered and it was my 1st cousin's performance. wah i tell you, i stood at the foot of the stage, and my heart fucking beep-bop-beep-bop so hard and loud it synced perfectly right to the bass count of the song. my cousin sang f.i.r's revolution, and her costume and make up could win her the Emo-iest Individual brought to you by Friendster because she had all the black finger polish, black dress, black boots, and everything else that made her look darker than black. -.- i think it won't be right of me to post her performance photos for my own blog usage, but anyhow, we took quite a lot of photos after outside the hotel room whilst deciding where to go and what to do after the event ended. though she went home with only a consolation prize, we all acknowledged that it was a major achievement for her to come so far in a competition like this, with huge advertisments posted on newspapers and magazines, amongst more than 200 other singers, and in the light of judges like lee wei song.
mom, elder brother, cousin, and myself.
relatives: uncle, aunt, cousin, cousin, cousin. -.-


favourite family portrait.
after washing up, my 1st cousin and 2nd cousin (who took a plane to KL and had a driver drove her up to genting) continued our quest to be the most boring person alive. baskin robins tasted better than 60 cents vanilla cone. we asked the waiter what sauce and topping they had. he replied, "tomato sauce, chilli sauce, mayo," hnngz.

we left for singapore the day after, and squeezed ourselves like orange juice in a Grandis - 9 persons in a 7 seater. then, that was when the fun really began. my uncle was driving, and he was driving real quick, when my aunt decided to tell him off. again. right after my aunt told him off, she suddenly questioned everybody in the car, "want to go macau anot.?" everybody chorused together the answer except for my mom who remained silent. all of us managed to persuade her. so my aunt called one of her assistants at genting to check the availability of air tickets to macau from KL. fully booked, my aunt told her assistant to check for the next day's schedule. yes, they had enough air tickets. through the phone, my aunt told her all the required information while my uncle changed his route towards KL. because my ipoh had something on and had to be back in singapore, she couldn't follow us. all of us dropped at KL's sungei wang (i think) while my aunt and uncle drove my ipoh to the terminal to book a flight back home to singapore.

we made our way to one of the stupid hotels in KL which made our night quite unpleasant, because they refused to give us more pillows and towels for the night, even though we booked in to their suite rooms. after checking in, my mom, elder brother, 1st cousin and myself went down to the pub at the hotel and... watch william gallas score and have his last laugh at chelsea's ass.!
a view from ancasa hotel.
the next day, we checked out and headed to the airport. my uncle drove up to the airport, parked his car there, and we went to get our air tickets. because we took the budget airlines, they didn't have proper direct air conditioned passageway up to the plane. so, everyone of us walked up the plane like it was our private jet. i even got the chance to take some rare up close photos of the aeroplane.
airasia with my cousin, or my cousin with airasia.

i have at least 40 photos of the same identicalaeroplane's wing. don't ask me how i ended up choosing this one.
sunlight: best lighting one can get.

when we reached macau, i was instantly amazed by the number of casinoes and the effort put in by the government to make sure all of them look better than our bloody stupid small durian we call esplanade. after that, i thought the next place we were heading to will definitely be a hotel. when i asked my cousin, he told me, "no la, stay in our house." goodness shitpoo, they have a house in macau.! must be my aunt, whose only love and purpose in life is to gamble and gamble. we went back to my aunt's place, wash up, and came out again for dinner.
casino.
another casino.
money changer, aunt looking quite stress there.




soaking up the christmas spirit.

andrew, i know what you're going to say. so shut up.

lift for food to be transported from the first level (kitchen), to the second, third and so on.
after that, it was shopping. my aunt advised us to not buy anything from macau and wait for the day after because the place we'll be going to sells shockingly cheap stuff.

streets.
historic place about how some god managed to save this place from being bomb-ed. who cares.
okay.?
must try.




more casinoes.
and then, they went to the casinoes again. BUT THIS TIME WITH ME ALONG.! my aunt told me to use my brother's driving license card for identification. i did, and i passed through.! i stood beside my aunt wherever she went, because i was afraid another security guard will come up to me again. the rest went to look for tables dealing blackjack, while my aunt settled down playing baccarat. i don't know how the game works, but my aunt had to fold and bend the cards slowly, like how you'll peep at your second card slowly when your first card's an Ace when you're playing blackjack to have the extra thrill. they call this action 'squeezing'. so, my aunt told me to 'squeeze' her cards for one of the games. pressure i tell you - pressure like a boy walking towards the table to get his results, pressure like a steam cooker, pressure like a pressurizer. i tried to do the 'squeezing' action as slowly as possible, so that my aunt won't reprimand me for being too quick. when i finished 'squeezing' the first card, i looked up and realised my aunt had more than 4000+ macau money worth of chips in bet for that particular deal. wah pressure times 4 million. but i won that game for my aunt.! pressure released as quickly as a thread of fart. the casino was glorious - they had live bands on one side of the building, waitresses pushing trays, serving you drinks, free of charge and free flow, professional architectural designs, and A LOT OF YELLOW-COLOUR UNIFORMED GUARDS WHOM I HAD TO DODGE SKILLFULLY.! finally, a 2nd guard came up to me and asked for my I/C. my aunt being a very loud person told the guard off, and asked him in cantonese, "you think i how old.? tell me, you think i how old now.?" the guard replied, "40+ years old." my aunt shouted even louder, "i'm already 64.!" *grabs my hand and walk away*. damn bloody suave with wind blowing in my hair. but legs shivering like mad under my pants. finally, a 3rd guard came to check on me, then i decided to give up. i showed my brother's driving license and muted him. i told my mom i wanted to go out. so i went out of the casino, and i took more photos.

the venetian: the first i went to. too bad they disallow photography in all casinoes.
symmetrical.?
reflection.
okay, i should stop acting cool with the lame 1-word photo captions that should supposedly give some whole new meaning to the photo.
after that, we took a cab back to my aunt's place and had supper.
aunt's place.

zhu pa bao rocks.
the next morning, all my cousins introduced some special burger they called zhu pa bao (pork chop bun) and i tell you, IT OWNS LIKE A LEVEL 25 FACELESS VOID WITH 2 MONKEY KING BAR, 1 BASHER, 1 POWER THREADS, 1 SATANIC AND 1 BUTTERFLY.! we had that for breakfast all the following morning. after washing up, we took a cab to another immigration at another side of macau, and made our way to a place they call zu hai.

the immigration.
rushing for work.?
the things they sell there are all absurdly cheap. socks going for 3 for 5sgd, blazer+pants going for 40sgd, 128GB thumbdrive (yes no kidding, 128GB, not MB, and a thumbdrive, not a external hard drive) for 12sgd, fake converse which will defnitely pass as real for 7sgd, fake branded card holders, wallets, cigarette boxes each for 2sgd. i will understand if you find it hard to swallow this fact.
camera shooting camera.
3 yuan equals $0.60sgd. $0.60 for a cone of rum and raisins, anyone.?
beggars tugging at your pants. giving them money will indefinitely keep them away from you - they're all taught to ask for a 2nd round. who can blame them.?
my aunt bought a karoake system and got into a serious conflict with the shop tender that the guards had to step in. better left unsaid, but we had a mini k session at home. at midnight.!

the next day, we went to have dim sums at a hotel. we tried to enter the hotel's casino but the security level was too tight. my aunt ended up telling them off right in their faces, saying something like, "you think i want to come to your casino ah.?!" daring aunt equals dope aunt.



the tailors got so ecstatic about my camera, that they asked for a group photo of them. we got their address and my mom promised to send the photos to them.
for that day's afternoon, we went back to zu hai and came back late at night, where my aunt brought us to another casino. this time, they didn't take any chances. they dressed me up like i'm a barbie doll. DON'T WANT TO SHOW YOU PICTURES.*

after that, my cousin and i walked back to our apartment alone, while the rest walked over to another casino. crazy people. then, it was the flight back home.

some kid bugged my cousin and myself throughout the flight plane while we were playing our DS lite.



the parking fee came up to a staggering RM128. we drove from KL all the way back to singapore, in conclusion of this super wild and adventurous trip - supposedly a boring one up to genting for only one sole purpose to support my cousin for her performance, came another more fulfilling trip to the land of casinoes, macau. my elder brother had to take some last minute leaves, which must have boiled his officer. it sure did brought the family together, because for the following 3 or 4 days, i met up with my cousin for mahjong at his house, kitchener road for scissors curry rice, k session with my aunt, and a 1 day trip to johore bahru.

the next crazy trip, please come soon.?

PS: my camera shutter jumped from 7456 to 8488. that means i pressed on my shutter 1032 times (excluding deleted pictures).!

* okay la, show you what i wear to enter the casino the 2nd time.

imagine this with an oversized blazer on. now, do i look like a hongky mafia boss.?