Life at Sea

One of the things I really enjoyed during the BRATs trip was the visit to the fishing villages. The villages are located at the banks of the mangroves so its built on stilts. We all got there by boat and it was fun! There is nothing better than having wind whipping against your face.











My group learned how to make fish crackers! I had the chance to scale fishes and gut them. The floor was a bloody mess by the time we were done.








There were many kids at the fishing villages so they provided LOTS of photo ops, but I shall leave all those for another time. Happy New Year!

What really grinds my gears?

What really grinds my gears? The waitress at Starbucks or the glorified name "Barista". (I think it sounds like a fish, cause it sounds fishy... =_=)

So what? (No, I'm not a rockstar) During Christmas day, I was at KLCC. So I thought to myself, what's a better way to splurge on Christmas day then to buy a LARGE (venti my a$$, more like ventilation) cup of overpriced coffee at the most overrated coffee shop around, Starbucks.

It was a day out with the family, so my sister tagged along with me to get that coffee. So here's how it went down.

Stanley: Hi
Barista: Hi! What can I get you? (Lol, she was so perky I though she would go 2, 4, 6, 8.....which
coffee you wanna get!!?? *spirit fingerssss)
Stanley: Erm....I would like to have a venti caramel frappacino with chocolate chips (Yeah, I
know its a wierd combo...)
Barista (wait, is a female Barista called a Baris-tress??) : Ok, that would be *expensive price
which could get me to sets of McD*
Stanley: *hands money*
Barista: *looks to my sister* What about you? Would you like something to drink?
Sophia : Erm, nope.
Barista: *to the both of us* Yeah, just buy one right =) More romantic right!

The lady though Sophia was my girlfriend! Incest much?! I just smiled at her and walked over to the coffee collecting counter. When we were out of sight we burst out laughing. Lol, I wonder what made the Baristress think that my sister was my girlfriend. Well, I guess that's a story we could laugh to at future family reunions.

Into the Jungle

Back to more BRATs posting! Damn, I can still remember clearly the day I found out that we were going jungle trekking. I saw it coming (Hei, we're in one of the best rainforests in the world) but never thought that we would be staying there!

So we set out with our bags, some of us were equipped with the not so efficient leech socks. We quickly learned that leeches don't always aim for the leg. I got few on my back =_= Phynaz even got one on her stomach.




The Leech Armour...






The trek took 3 hours! Lol, in the middle I sorta got a cramp but it was a wierd kinda cramp. Normally people cramp up their calfs but I had a cramp on my ankles. Later after the trek, guess what? I found 3 freaking huge leeches on my ankles! They were so full they stopped feeding already.

Trying to act all cool I resist crying out loud. (They were freeking huge okay! And don't lie, that's most probably what most of you BRATs did to =_= .....LOL) Hoei helped yank them out. Apparently there's this specific technique to use or else their teeth will get stuck in there....?!!



Perhaps its just me but this totally ruins the whole "out in the wild" mojo that we had going. Lol, at least Digi can prove that they have the widdest coverage.





Then, we had to learn how to set up these thingamajigs up right. We'll be sleeping in them for the next two nights.

Christmas Time

Christmas. Its my personal favourite holiday of the year. When Christmas approaches I usually get that warm fuzzy feeling and start wishing that it would miraculously snow in Malaysia. And I love it when they play those classic Christmas songs at the mall. (Lol, I tend to sing along )

As I said I USUALLY get that warm fuzzy feeling. This Christmas has been the most busiest Christmas ever but somehow to me, it does not feel like Christmas. I went through my "normal" yearly Christmas routine like buying presents, singing carols and partying. Perhaps its just me (I blame the economy!), but this year's Christmas really suck. No, nothing went wrong. I just feel that SOMETHING is missing.

Anyway, here's how my Christmas went down.


Shopping for Christmas presents! It was the time of the year where I got the "splurge" in the sense that I use up all the cash that I have in my wallet. I also had a movie galore, never watched so many movies before in two weeks.


Also went to Mid Valley to "hang" with a few friends and do some last minute shopping. In my case I bought most of my presents already. I only had one more gift to get which is for my dad. (Its so hard to pick out a gift for my dad!)


Then suddenly it started to "snow" in Mid Valley. The song 'Let is Snow' was blazing on the speakers. Kids were jumping up and down with joy, finding that their short lifelong dream has sorta come true. My friend said it was soap. (Salty?)




Then, my friends came over to mah' crib for a grill yo'. Fo shizzle mah nizzle.... =) Didn't take much pictures because I was busy BBQ-ing and eating and conversat-ing.







Then there was the Children's Christmas Party at church. I've grown up attending this event so I thought that it would be nice to help out. The kids were in their element, being cute and all. They even did the same skit I did.....erm....6 years++ ago! (Brought back so many memories).


Then there was the Christmas Dinner at Church. Headed there at 11am for choir practice. We sounded pretty much all over the place during practice. It was an acapella performance and we had to change key for every song so pitching is really crucial. Miraculously, we did really well during the actual performance.


Here's Benji with his reindeer hat! Lol, I found it and simply popped it onto his head for a picture.




Friends Melissa and Melody were kind enough to bake cupcakes for everybody! It even has our names on it. I finished it immediately lol.....First, I wanted to 'find' out how the icing tasted like. So I licked it abit. Then I thought that I'll just give it a small nibble (no harm right....). After that *BAM!!!*, I realised that I was staring at an empty cupcake wrapper. =_=

Merry Christmas everyone!

Rainforest (the place with trees) @Rainforest Discovery Centre at Sepilok, Sabah

The post on Year-End BRATs continues! The next day, my group went to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. Don't have much to say about that place except that it was full of trees! The short walk through the jungle was kind of relaxing (although it wouldn't hurt if they could introduce some air-conditioning).

I guess I'm spoilt in that sense. I do appreciate the things I see around me, I really do. But, as a city boy my world exists in the air-conditioned realm. Its not that a big deal but I have to say that it was a teeny weeny annoying. (Hei! I'm just being honest


This house is located just outside RDC. Totally no connections whatsoever with this post but I thought it looked....erm.....nice?



This is the lake in RDC. Its man made. I think its nice.



When we were told that out guides would be Ben and Kim. I thought they would be guys. Yes, blame me for stereotyping rangers as guys. Ben turned out to be a woman named Bennedete and Kim turned out to be Kimberly (Lol, I thought Kim was a korean guy or something).

The Rainforest Discovery Centre IS a place to discover the rainforest so it was full of trees and plants. Here's the pictures of a few...
















We encountered a few orang utans there!



The journey ended with us crossing the lake with this bridge. This was my second day without my handphone and internet! Yay! I still felt the urge to Facebook but I'm glad the activities kept my mind off those things for a while.

Stanley's Chrismas New Year Giveaway!

Yes! You got that right! I am going to giveaway stuff. Everyone likes stuff right. This is held in conjunction with:

1. My birthday! (8th December)
2. Christmas
3. New Year
4. 1st Year Anniversary of stanleyliew.blogspot.com

I would be giving away postcard sized prints of my photographs for free! Yeah, I wish I could do it like Oprah. Every seen Oprah's "My Favourite Things"? Damn, that lady certainly can give away LOADS of stuff. I wish I can give out cars and HD camcorders but I really am not it that position currently.

So, I'll just give what I can. Here's a few examples of the cards I would be sending out.
















YAY!!! I know you must now be hopping up and down on your chair going "I want it! I want it!". Here's the step by step instructions on how to get your gift.

1. Read the instructions.
2. Read it again.
3. Email me at extreme.stanle@gmail.com with the title "Me want Present" and you're all set.
4. Things to include in the e-mail.
- Name
- Address (So I can send it to you, duh.....)
5. Wait with baited breath.

I have not set a limit yet because I do not know how many people would actually participate. So the current limit is "until I end up broke". Lol, I'll just stop when I think I've spent enough money. Do hurry! Christmas and New Year is approaching and it is not gonna wait.

This is just my little way of saying thanks for all your support. Until then, I wish you all a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. 2009 will bring many interesting changes!

Best wishes,
Stanley

*Stanley is very diplomatic. It does not matter where or which country you are from. I'll mail it!

Meeting the Family @Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Sepilok, Sabah

When I heard that BRATs were going to Sepilok for the Year-End Trip the first thing I did was Google it up! Found out that it is the motherland of Orang Utans (Or the "ah-moh-langs" would call ahrehng utahn) Humans have been fascinated by this creature for being humanlike and intelectually inferior. *applause for being smarter than a monkey*

To my surprise we were brought to see them Orang Utans on the first day itself after lunch and the "tarap" introduction. I was going "Yay, finally my life ambitions and dream are about to come true as I was going to be able to TOUCH an orang utan". However, sadly we did not get the chance to get up close and personal with them orang utans. Apparently, its to keep them safe from us. =_=

It was interesting though. I got to see an Orang Utan bite a human! How often does that happens! Or videographer Adrian was filming the Orang Utan and then it just decided to run up to him and bite him in the ahemmm......region.

OK, I'll stop rambling and present the pictures. After all that's what you guys are here for right!


Here are the BRATs eager to meet the Orang Utans.



Just a random shot. Thought the hair was nice =)



And here we have the Orang Utan!



This one is so hungry it was chewing on the the cage! Lol, I'm sure they are well fed.



We had the privilege of watching the cleaning rituals of an Orang Utan. Its a little modernized unlike the traditional licking. Hmm.....I wonder what shampoo they use.



This is a picture from the Oran Utan Medical checkup. We were told that the best way to take the temperature of an Orang Utan is through the posterior. This is done because the Orang Utans move around alot. So next time when you visit the doctor don't mess around with him/her of the doctor might just shove the thermometer up your a**.





Here's some monkey love!


This is a baby Orang Utan. The trainers actually take care of them like baby humans. They even get fed with milk using milk bottles. Sometimes the trainers even bring them home! Yeah, and I heard something about diapers too. That can NOT be good.


The bond between the trainers and the Orang Utans were very obvious. Some trainers even cry when it was time to free the Orang Utans into the wild.







These animals are big icons of Malaysia and its nice to know that they are well taken care of. It was also amazing to be able to experience and see them in their element.


There were some other "monkeys" at the parking lot too!