Kuching Kia Blog

Tattoo: A Tad Too Much?

2009-07-07T14:03:00.010+08:00

Tattoos are so popular nowadays. Almost everyone I know has at least a tattoo. A phoenix on the arm, a butterfly on the butt cheek and even a rose on their foot. Some people might have a negative perception of people sporting tattoos because its associated with criminal gangs like the yakuza in Japan for example.

Scary..

To me tattoo is a form of art that is unique and like any art, some might like them and some might not.

Tattooing is a very long and painful process

To those who like them, its fine with me. Just make sure you do a lot of thinking before tattooing because its permanent and you don't want to regret it later.

For those who don't like them, its fine with me too because like I've said, not everyone likes tattoo. But please make sure you do not reject those with tattoo and treat them like an outcast. Just because they have a tattoo doesn't mean that they are like criminals or gangster. Some of their tattoos have meanings and backgrounds. Some tattoos remind them of someone they had lost and some tattoo is about tradition like the Mayan tribe and most ethnic in Borneo.

An Iban elder with Iban tattoo

So don't just condemn people blindly. Instead try to get to know them a little and see things from other people's perspective. You do not know what they have gone through in life and your criticism might hurt them.

Hehe.. This tattoo you can criticize.

Here is a great article about tattoo and religion. Check it out. http://www.konghee.com/www/2009/04/what-about-tattoos/

Flavoured Tobacco Anyone?

2009-04-11T10:08:00.010+08:00

Been to KL with my dad and cousin recently. As usual, we try to find a place to lepak and drink after walking for several hours around town. My cousin and I reached this roadside kopitiam and ordered two orange juice. Then something surprised me. No, it is not the RM18 orange juice that surprised me, eventhough it is the most expensive roadside kopitiam orange juice ever. No! It is the sight of this long, tall, demonic looking thing on everyone's table around me.

Some people call it shisha and to some it is known as hookah. Could not take a lot of photo because I do not want to be rude. Actually, I do not really bother about people smoking shisha. It is their life and it is up to them to live it. Mind you that shisha is dangerous.

But what shocked me was most of the shisha puffers there were teenagers. A group of young teens, including girls, inhaling the flavoured smoke and passing them around while laughing their heads off. Why are they here? I mean I'm not against having a good time but shouldn't they be doing something more beneficial?

The flavoured tobacco, kinda disgusting eh?

They say it is one of their past time activity. WTH? What happened to watching movies or collecting stamp? Do their parents even know that they are here.

For a session of shisha-smoking, the amount usually charged is between RM10 and RM15. Shame on the shop owner for selling it to underage customers.

What happen to the TAK NAK program? Does it only apply to cigarettes and not other tobacco products?

They thought that shisha is actually safe because they believe that the water filter inside the shisha can actually filter all the nasty stuff.

"The water filter is a gimmick. Most of the toxic chemicals and nicotine are not water-soluble. Hence, they pass through the filter and is inhaled by a smoker, although other irritant substances, which are water-soluble, will get filtered."
Kuala Lumpur health department deputy head Dr Sellehudin Abu Bakar

You should see the look of this teenagers. So proud of what they are doing in public. Not even ashamed. Sad really.

He is having a good time. Lol

Hope someone will do something to prevent these teenagers from indulging themselves in this harmful activity.

My Chinese New Year

2009-02-01T10:47:00.007+08:00

My Chinese new year this year is quite boring. I don't know why. Maybe it is the global economy crisis, or maybe it's because of my high expectations that this year's CNY will be a blast, or maybe it's the one and a half feet of water in front of my house. Yes, I may have exaggerate a little but it is flooding here in Kuching. Darn!

It's been raining and raining and raining and raining non-freakin-stop. Everyone advised me too stay indoors but heck, it is chinese new year and I don't want to just stay at home. So I just drove my mum's Myvi and went visiting with a few of my old school friends. 18 of them to be exact.

It sucks to visit other people's house on a rainy day because its wet. Duh! One thing I regretted the most is that I forgot to bring my camera. I took some photos with my phone but it sucks so I am not putting it here. Maybe I'll get the photos from my friends some other day.

It is quite fun meeting my old friends again and it seems like nothing have changed. Some got fatter, some got thinner, some got preetier, none got uglier, but inside, they are all still the same. By inside I meant character and attitude and not something else. Some still have that annoying habits and some is still as cool as before.

So after visiting about 15 houses or so, we say goodbye and went our seperate ways. I dont know when I'll meet them again because most of them are going overseas. Now the suckiest thing happened when I was about to drive home. There was a flooded road up ahead and I had to go back. So I just went through the flooded road like my mum's Myvi was a kick ass SUV or sumtin and when I finally reached home,

I found this(or lost this? haha).

The license plate is gone.

So that preety much sums up my whole CNY celebration.

Arvind and Amelia's Wedding

2008-12-22T15:40:00.023+08:00

24th of December 2008 was the day my cousin, Amelia, got married. The love of her life is a fine man named Arvind from Kedah. The wedding was held in Sarikei. For those who do not know where Sarikei is, its a four hours drive from Kuching. Here is a picture to help you.

Now you know Sarikei?

Alright. Now its time to talk about the wedding.

The groom arriving.

So the groom arrived at the bride's house about ten in the morning. He greeted everyone and went straight to the bride's room. Very eager I see.

Next is the do-what-your-sister-in law-says-or-you-cant-get-her kinda ceremony. LOL.

Sang a song as demanded.

After the poor guy sang, answered whack questions and did stuff that he will definitely remember for the rest of his life, he finally claimed his prize.

Kiss Kiss Kiss

Then is the traditional tea sipping ceremony and the ang pau giving. Both the bride and groom must say "Ah Ma, Ah Kong lim teh" and bow three times as a sign of respect.

Lim teh...

So after a couple of hours, the groom went back and the bride was getting ready for tonight's wedding dinner. Everyone dressed their best for the dinner. Even the flower girls and flower boys.

Oh..so adorable.

It is 6 pm and everyone is ready. My family and I reached the restaurant to find this.

The restaurant was pretty packed and we had very little room to move around. Why need room? To dance lah.

The food was delicious. I enjoyed every dishes eventhough I had to bump into other people's elbow everytime I put it in my mouth.

This shark fin soup was simply delicious.

Cola, Sprite, 100 Plus and fresh soya bean. Ummm....

The traditional 'yam seng' ceremony.

After a very satisfying dinner, we hit the dance floor. We danced to every tune. Dance, Rock, English, Chinese, Indian and even Christmas songs (Its Christmas eve btw).

The wedding dinner turned into a havoc dance club thanks to my cousins and I.

Shake it. Shake it. Its crazy I tell ya

Ah... So after a tiring night, we all went back. It was definitely a very good night for all of us.

And to Arvind and Amelia, I wish both of you a very blessed and everlasting marriage.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

2008-12-04T17:09:00.002+08:00

Bought this phone last Wednesday. Wanted to buy an mp3 player actually after looking at the new iPod nano (Damn that thing is gorgeous). But since my phone is already a year old, I decided to buy a music phone instead. It is not that expensive, only RM660 and I put in a 2gb micro SD memory card in it.

my old Nokia 6300 and my new 5310

As you can see this phone is actually the same as my old one in size. Its quite attractive actually. Slim, has music buttons, keypad feels nice when pressed and it only cost less than 700.

Now what surprises me about this phone is the sound quality. It is very good. I plugged in the jack which is connected to my home theater sound system to this phone and it is actually strong enough to power the speakers. On top of that the sound is also clear and crisp. Bass is adequate too. If you are gonna use earphones, make sure you buy a better one because the supplied earphones are decent but a better earphone will sound so much better.
The music interface is friendly and it supports album art although the album art looks quite tiny. Well this phone really is a music phone and a pretty good one I must say.

See! Its slim.

The only thing that I want to complain about is the camera performance. The camera is bad. Its slow and sluggish. Photo looks good on the phone display but once you transfer it to a computer, it looks terrible. I might not be a photo expert but I know a terrible photo when I see one. No flash or auto-focus makes photo taking in the dark and close range almost impossible.
Well then again I'm not looking for a good camera phone, I wasn't even thinking of buying a phone in the first place. All I wanted is an mp3 player and if it has a camera and I can use it to call and message, then that is a bonus.

It also lacks 3G capabilities but I can live with that.

Overall a very good phone and definitely worth every penny.