shook!

Short Note: Wanted to update a new entry last night. But shit happened. For no reason, I couldn't go online. Will update tonight, after I'm back. Will be going to KL Internation Motorshow: Revisit!



I wanted to write out about this last night, after I reach home from the course. But, something just spoilt my mood. Crap. The problem is still here, will get it fixed over the weekend.

Anyway, it still doesn't beat the experience I had in StarHill Gallery. As I mentioned before, Day 2's lunch is to be at Enak Restaurant. Enak Restaurant serves Indonesian cuisine. There are not set dishes. Instead, we had this all dishes served up at one go, and we dined like one big happy family.

This Indonesian cooking is nowhere like what we always have in mamak stalls, nor it tastes like any typical Malay restaurant. For appetizer, we had this small portion of mixed fruit thing. It is somewhat sour and a little bit spicy. It didn't look fascinating. But, when I had the first taste, It just couldn't stop having the second, and the following scoop. It was really nice.
We had beef, egg, curry fish, vege, and.. gee.. there is one more.. but I can't really recall. It sounds ordinary (maybe cos I don't know the exact dishes' names) right? But they were all simply delicious. The gravvy of curry fish (at least I think it is..) was heavenly great when you had it on the steamed rice they served you. Beef came in as the most tasty food to bite on the table.

Hmm.. I am really bad at describing food. I'll just stop here. That paragraph looks horrible. LoL. In short, I never thought that such simple looking food can be so tasty.

As for finale, we were escorted to the Shook!

"The Shook! Best of Asia and Europe" (I think that's what their tagline is.)

If so, then the tagline says it all. Basically, when you're dining in the Shook. You're actually eating art. Here, we were served on course meal. We had some Italian appetizer, which comprises of cheese, olive leaves, tomato and etc. Bad memory with the name.

Next, we were served some Mandarin Fish soup. It has this shark's fin soup look, just that it doesn't have shark fin in it. It tasted... fishy.. but great! (Now I wish I have photograph to help me in the descriptions!)

For the main course, I chose Cube Beef with Green Pea. (This is the closest name I could ever remember!) After the main course, comes the dessert. It was apple pie, I think it's French.. (Not American Pie.) Can't really recall.

All food served was in small portion, and was all presented in a very artistic way. Everything was arranged nicely, and very beautifully. Like I said earlier.. You're simply eating art!

I am lazy to write now. Here's a photo of the Korean restaurant Koryo Won @ Feast Village, StarHill Gallery.

korean lunch @ feast village, starhill gallery

It's rather unusual for me to post an entry without a photo. But the heck, I'm gonna log this here still. 'Cos the experience was too good to be missed!

I am sent for an external course by my boss for 3 days, starting from today (22 May 2006). The course is on AS/400.. I won't go too mucn into the details with my business there. The three-day-course was scheduled to be at JW Marriott Hotel Kuala Lumpur. As soon as I arrived this morning, I was lost. On the memo, I was told that the course is to be here. To my amusement, the hotel staff said it was on the other building. Despite being puzzled, I just followed instructions, rather.. directions.

I was led to penetrate from JW Marriott, through StarHill Gallery, and to this eventual venue, The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur. Boy, sure YTL Group's boss is mega rich! The Staffs' etiquette there was excellent! Well, they better be! They are serving in a very, very high-class hotel.

Enough on the hotel. The lunch throughout the course is set to be at the Feast Village of StarHill Gallery. Day 1 was at Koryo Won Restaurant. Day 2 will be at Enak Restaurant, while the Shook completes the finale.

I can't seem to get a direct link to the Koryo Won's restaurant's website. Just click here. Then wait for the flash to load. Do expect for a... I don't even know.. wheteher if it's a French or Italian lady singing. Then, move your mouse to Feast > Koryo Won Korean Restaurant (or any of these two: Enak and the Shook).

Koryo Won Restaurant is a Korean restaurant, and of course it serves Korean food. Duh?? I can't remember what I ordered, it was some Korean name. My dish was rather simple. A steel pot filled with beef stew. The soup comprises of sliced marinated beef, onion, and some ingredient I was not familiar with. It serves with a ball of rice. While the rest of the table (I was sitting with 3 other participant, and the trainer.) ordered the bento style rice - which comes with a selection of beef, chicken, cuttlefish and.. I forgot. :P

The bento also comes with side dishes within the container, e.g. kimchi, vege, salad, chilli, fried shrimps and etc. As for me, I didn't just lunch with the soup and white rice. The waiter filled up the centre of table with 7 small plates, each with various type of mouth-watering side snacks (it seems like snack). Those small plates come no different then those you get in the bento container, with just addtional of clams, and mashed potato.

It was an exciting dining experience at Koryo Won. I got free flow of hot green tea, which came timely as the classroom was chilly! It was unfortunate that I didn't have my camera with me, not to mention that my phone is no camera-phone. Sigh.. I wish I can have this, this and this. Else, I could illustrate the whole scene better. I am never good with descriptive writings.

I don't think I will be bringing my camera anyway. The camera is so bulky. It's not like I can keep it in my pocket.. Maybe I will get some shots over some weekends or so.

Can't wait till tomorrow - Enak Restaurant.



End Note: I am really not familiar with Korean stuff, so apologies if I make mistakes in naming the food. :P If everything goes well, I think I will be going for a Japanese Buffet this weekend! ;-) AND.. It seems like I need to get myself a new phone soon!

batu cave on wesak day: warning heavy load of pictures.

Short note: KL International Motorshow is opening this Friday (26 May 2006). I'm preparing for the run-up to this show, who's joining? Hopefully I can gain a lot there.



This year, Wesak Day falls on 12 May, the same day as my mom's birthday. Wesak Day marks the most important birthday among the Buddhist, as it is birthday for Buddha. For further detail, please check here for explanation from Wikipedia.



It was Friday and most importantly, a public holiday. I thought of going over to shoot some event photos. So, I headed off to Batu Cave around 9+am. Batu Cave was just about 15-20 minutes drive from my place.

I was expecting huge crowd and jam on the traffic. But, when I reached there, the crowd and traffic was no where near my expectation. In a way, that is good. At least, I need not to crawl myself out from the crowd when I want to go home later.



Parking withint the Batu Cave compound costs you RM2 per entry. (That is if you're driving a motorcar.) Also take note of this, they do not sell Energizer AA batteries around the shops there. They have only got Panasonic and Sony. I was running out of batteries, and I forgot to get myself a new set before setting off. Bad mistake to make. Fortunantely, I managed to get 4 Sony AA Batteries for just RM 10 in the cave. (Yes. They do sell merchandise in the cave!)

One more note before I share the rest of the photos I took the other day. I am getting more and more frustrated with the camera I am using at the moment. I do not have much control over the camera/photos I am taking. The exposures and color are not right at times. Not to mention that the review screen is half-gone. Only half portion of it is viewable.

I badly need a new camera! I need a sponsor!

Note: This entry consists a lot of graphics/photos. It may take a while for them to load on your browser. Should any fail to load on your browser, right-click on the picture, and select show picture. Your patience is highly appreciated.






I don't know what the statue is called. Anyone mind telling me?





Batu Cave is not just famous for its Hindu temples and statues, I guess they're known for its monkey population too. There are bunch of monkeys caught in the act.








So, here I set my feet up to the couple of hundred steps of staircase.

"Step 263"
No particular meaning in the number. I thought this may look cool from the lens, and also after giving it some photoshop touches. I was experimenting with the various layer blending options available. But, I can't remember which is which.
















To reach the entrance of the cave.. it will take you more or less 270 or so. I didn't take note of the number of steps. But the photos of these steps were taken when I was reaching the top.



Now, the entrance of the cave. Breathtaking view, isn't it?




A view with the combination of religious element and Mother Nature. Simply splendid.





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There I was, standing at the entrance, between the cave and the staircase.

For any of those who has not visited Batu Cave, or any other cave before, my word of advise is to be prepared for the wet environment. You don't come here and expect a dry cave for you. We're in a tropical country, aren't we?

You will get water dripping from the top, and water logged within the cave. Just becareful with your cameras and equipment if you were to bring one along.




Now, entering the cave, I would have less word typed and more pictures posted. I will just let the pictures do the narration.

Inside the cave...














The temples/shrines within the cave...













The statues...




More monkeys in the cave...


There is a note i must make here. While I was taking photos, there was this rare incident, happening too fast for me to record it down. Apparently there was a 'rape' case occurred in this holy place. Nah.. too exaggerating. Truth was, a male monkey was too horny, and was aggressively looking for a partner to mate. And right in front of my eyes, he grabbed the monkey beside him, and started mating. The 'victim' was screaming for her (I assume so) life. Struggled and gave up a fight a bit, before fleaing away from her predator. Wait.. could it be the case of Brokeback Cave? Well, we wouldn't know eh? I am no monkey expert.

After being rejected, that dude didn't give up hope of ending his lust. He ran towards a crowd of monkeys, in search of willing partner. Too bad for him, most of the monkeys were key witness of the 'rape' case. Fear stroke them, and they started to flea before he could even get close to them. At last, he just had to settle to eat banana. Really, not making any pun, he somehow found the fruit on the floor and started eating. I tried capturing it on the cam, but blame it to the slow start up and slow focusing, I couldn't get a clear shot. It was funny though. Rare, but funny.

While I was on my way down...


The monkeys are officially one of the attraction for Batu Cave. Even the angmo tourists are trying to get up close and personal with the star attraction!



Our star with one of the endosing commercial. Cracker ad, only in Batu Cave.

With Mother's Day being just couple of days away, we could see how much mother's love is to an infant. This pair of mother and child drew a lot of attraction.. mainly because of how the mother handled the child.


Take a closer look at the mother's hand..


It should be clearer in this pic...

"Ma, I wanna play with Ah Ming." (fictatious name)
"No, you can't.. too many people outside here-liao.."
"But, I wannna go.." (tried to slip away from mother's sight.)
"I said NO!" (pull!)
"Ouch! Okay-lah. I just stay here to let all these people starring at me-lah."

Mother's love, always a unconditional one.



Look at the numbers on the staircase, it has been reversed back to the single digit. I am back down here where I started. I was at 260++ up there, and now I am back at 0.

It was noon already. I was ready to leave..


And, I saw this other statue..

There is another temple by the side of Batu Cave. I was not sure if visitors are allowed or not. I didn't bother to check out, cos I smell like a cave. I just wanna go home and shower! Eewww..

Next cave I wish to visit? Probably Borneo's Mulu Cave.