Before leaving for Laoag City, we took group photos with the hotel staffs. With me above is Miss Kaye and the receptionist. Miss Kaye was in constant communication with me even when we missed out flight from Manila. Even throughout the bus journey from Manila to Vigan, i received calls to make sure where we were and that their staffs were on standby once we arrive in their town.
Without a doubt i would recommend Hotel Salcedo de Vigan to anyone who would want to visit this beautiful town!
We then continued our journey heading north to Laoag City. On the way, we stopped by one of the landmarks which is listed as a Unesco Site, Church of Paoay. Founded in 1593.
We barely had 1 hour as we needed to reach Laoag City before dark.
Hannah,”Guys, you have only 30minutes!”.
Everyone scrams! LOL
We left Church of Paoay in a rush and headed towards Laoag City where it poured heavily upon arrival and we also got to eat ….
I finally had the chance to drop by Charlie Brown Cafe last Saturday after going through a Bake At Sugar session.
Both Sugar and Charlie Brown Cafe are located at the 1st floor of Straits Quay, Penang.
The setting of Charlie Brown Cafe brings back a lot of memories when i used to watch them when I was small. It had an impact in me that till today I use some characters name as my nick
As the cartoon has made an impression that could last a lifetime, i wouldn’t say the same for the cafe.
The service was little slow and I just didn’t like how things were managed. The excitement that was built over the month when I saw the phrase Coming Soon, went down the drain almost instantaneously.
The food and beverages were nothing to shout about. It was those typical cafe style kinda menu. Nothing special.
I asked Angeline if she would drop by again and she gave a disappointing “no”. I would have answered the same.
I am better off hanging out at Old Town or even Starbucks.
The moment i read that MAS was promoting on Michael Buble, i was ecstatic! With the current mainstream songs being so poppish and auto-tune-ish, i couldn’t help but enjoy old jazzy music like Buble’s even more. When i got to know the date, i was torn. It was a week after Jay Chou’s concert (yes i attended his concert as well, lol. Awesome CG!) and a week before Angeline leaves for the motherland.
Seeing that Enrich members were given priority and was given a discount, we thought no further.
It was expensive.
But it was totally worth it!
The day finally came and we waited at KL Sentral which had a free shuttle service to Melawati Stadium, specially for Michael Buble’s concert. It took us less than 40 minutes to reach the stadium and there we walked around the F & B stalls waiting for the gates to open up.
Nearby the stalls was a board where everyone had to take a photo. Some even shoved each other to be in front of the board, lol.
We then made our way to the entrance of the stadium after realizing the dark clouds were fast approaching.
The rest also realized it was getting darker and the crowd started building up at the entrance.
After standing for close to 20 minutes, the organizers opened the gates and we all rushed before it started to pour from the skies.
We found our seats with ease and yes we were damn early. It slowly filled up as more and more people rushed in the rain.
The concert started with a local artist and she really had some powerful vocals.
After an hour or so, Michael Buble made his grand entrance and it was spectacular! At that point of time, i still compared any concerts to James Morrisson’s in KLCC where he played all acoustics and it was really classy.
Of course that was all out of the window with Michael Buble.
“Let’s not have a concert but let’s have a party!”.
That’s what Michael said at the beginning and it was definitely a party. Not only did he sing well but he was one hell of a joker!
He told us that to warm up before concerts like this he would sing 2 songs to energy pumped up. Immediately he sang Don’t Stop Believing, the Glee version and everyone burst into laughter. He then sang A Whole New World from Aladdin.
What a joker!
He also did a rendition of Michael Jackson which had the row behind me, screaming like mad. LOL
If only the upload speed for Streamyx was stable and probably faster than the current one, i would have uploaded a couple of videos. Unfortunately after trying over and over again, i only got 2 videos up.
The crowd shouted for an Encore and We Want More! Michael reappears and sings Feeeling Good
This is definitely one of the many highlights of his ‘party’. Watch at the end of the clip. NO SOUND EQUIPMENTS USED. And he is still able to sing to all of us!
Hands down, the best concert / party i have attended to date!
The nearest casino for me would be at least 4 hours away from Penang which is Genting Highlands or 8 hours away which is in Singapore. Nevertheless, once in a while a trip would be planned to experience the casino thrills that are usually seen on the televisions.
The idea of driving or even taking a bus to experience such thrills is definitely tiring especially on the weekends. So what happens if you can make do with traveling but still have the same thrills?
All that from a click of your finger.
Now with Online Craps, you have the chance to have the gambling experience from the comfort of your home.
Why don’t you give it a try yourself? Online Craps
I had the chance to be at the Grand Launch of TGV’s new cinema in Penang last week thanks to Kenny Wong, COO of TGV. The cinema has been operating for a few weeks now and it’s conveniently located at 1st Avenue level 8. In fact prior to the invitation, i have watched 2 movies there and i can tell you the seats are awesome. The leg space especially.
If there’s still knocks on the back of your chair then it’s definitely on purpose!
I arrived slightly late as Angeline could only leave work sharp at 5pm. We were joined by Emily who saw us walking towards the cinema. Upon registering, we were given goodiebags that had potato chips, calendar and a small beanie bag. At this point of time i just didn’t know what has the beanie bag got to do with TGV Cinemas.
I spotted Chun Huey and Wah in front and ended up joining them.
We were served with cocktails and even had the choice to have beer or shandy.
It was later announced that TGV Cinemas in 1st Avenue would be the first cinema to serve beer! Not that i am drinker or what but that’s definitely something different.
While waiting for the event to start, the emcee of the evening, Julie Woon went around giving pop quiz and giving away free TGV tickets if you get the answers right. It was funny to see what kind of answers were given to some questions, lol.
Angeline was one of the unfortunate preys and she was asked, where is TGV’s cinema in Penang?
Probably she got too excited and immediately said, “Prangin Mall! Eh no no no 1st Avenue!”.
LOL!
Julie then handed her 2 tickets for any movies in TGV.
Later on the ceremony started and then it was official! TGV Cinemas has landed in Penang.
We were all given a tour around the cinema and was explained in detail on why certain things were done in a certain manner.
And then we were brought to the highlight of TGV Cinemas’ outlet in Penang ….
… The BeaniePlex!
It had super huge beanies all over and it’s placed in couples. The tickets are RM 26 per couple.
Too bad the cinema hall lights weren’t on. So it was hard to take a proper picture. The moment i sat down, all i wanted was TGV Cinemas to play Lord of the Rings trilogy! That would have been awesome!
So the next time you want to try something different, go for the BeaniePlex in 1st Avenue.
After the tour, it was dinner time.
Angeline and Julie Woon.
Emily, Bryan Soh, Angeline Long, Thean Soon, Me, Angeline, Wah, Chun Huey and Khar Ling.
After dinner, we had the chance to watch Green Hornet 3D.
The movie was alright. I am actually quite impressed that Jay Chou could speak English though at times i felt like scratching my face with my nails as he tried to force out a few words. Nevertheless the movie was entertaining and funny.
Would give it a 6.5 out of 10
The event ended after the movie. I was actually hoping we would be able to watch the movie screening at the BeaniePlex, lol.
Continuation from the previous entry, we carried on with our Calesa ride (horse ride) where we were later brought to one of the main reason why we stopped in Vigan town in the first place …
The Bantay Church.
Some of asked me, why did i visit churches in the Philippines when i am not Christian at all, which is rather an odd question -_-!
You don’t go to another country visiting what they are not famous for. That totally defeats the purpose of traveling all together. Futher more, the past trips has been more on Hinduism and Buddhism and to be fair to my fellow Christian friends, Philippines was the ideal place.
The rest ventured into the church where else i waited outside as i felt i wasn’t dressed properly.
A group shot before leaving the church.
We then proceeded to the Bantay Bell Tower which was about 5 minutes walk from the church.
We then climbed up the bell tower to have an overview of Vigan town.
There weren’t anyone else at the Bell Tower, so we basically we conquered the top of the tower.
We hung around for about 20 minutes before leaving for the main town for lunch.
Upon arriving, we walked around the nearby streets from our hotel in search for lunch but instead we stumbled upon an ice cream seller and the rest was history. LOL.
We finally got to a local restaurant that had chicken chop kinda set lunch and didn’t even think further and entered. I am not too sure why it had the slogan at the top which says …
“The House That Fried Chicken Built”.
The lunch was not bad and it was filling which was good as we would be moving from Vigan to Laoag City right after lunch. We were not sure either how long the journey to the north is going to be, neither Hannah knew.
Some of us felt bloated and so we walked around again, exploring the lovely town of Vigan.
They have really done a good job preserving their Spanish heritage. The shops, the roads.
Everyone window shopped and i think most of them bought nothing. I on the other hand, walked into a shop and got myself a Vigan shirt ! it was less than Rm6 if memory serves me well. Angeline then made noise, saying she too should have gotten a shirt.
Before leaving Vigan for Laoag City, we all camwhored in front of the Hotel de Salcedo. In fact even their staffs joined in. Unfortunately i have yet to get those photos from the rest. Will update again once i have it.
Since we were in a big group, we broke into 2 and boarded one van and another one was a pick up truck and headed towards St Augustine Church or famously known as the Paoay Church of Ilocos Norte (Golden Church).
I usually skip videos where owners mistreat their pets but realizing the screenshot resembles like my sister’s toy poodle, Mutton, i pressed play. And within the first 30 seconds it was clear brutal on how the guy in the video forced the pup to stand up straight with it’s paws up high.
I really felt the pain when the guy pretended to sway his hand and the pup did show his reflex by jerking his face side ways, as though he is expecting a smack. Really pitied the pup.
It was also the one time where my dad and mum who aren’t that active on facebook actually spoke to me about it over lunch. Never have there been a moment where both or even either of my parents have said anything from facebook.
Both of them condemn such action and they even asked how can the video just appear on the facebook like that? Which is a good question. Reading from the comments of the video, it’s said that the girl who uploaded the video actually found a pendrive around KLCC and upon opening it on her PC, she found this video. So the video is most likely from Malaysia.
The video shared here is however from youtube as the facebook video can’t be embedded for some reason.
Whatever it is, what they fella has done to the toy poodle is just crazy. Punching and throwing the fella won’t make him stand with his paw held high but it will actually kill the pup. Other than that, just look at the filth of his room -_-!
As my mum said, “What did the puppy do, to deserve such treatment?”
I had the chance to attend the meet and greet session with the Malaysian football team aka Harimau Malaya thanks to Nike Malaysia. The event was held in-conjunction with the team’s effort of winning the recent AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 where they were against Indonesia in the 2 legged finals.
As i have written in my previous entry, it was one of those moments where the whole country stood still and cheered for Harimau Malaya.
Adrian followed me as he is an ardent fan of Malaysian football, where else i follow updates off and on whenever i read the papers.
Before coming for the event, Adrian asked what i was wearing cause initial plans were i wore my Man Utd jersey and he wore his Liverpool as that night we planned to watch the FA Cup match anyway. Fortunately, i told him i am wearing a normal Nike jersey and he ended up wearing Barcelona’s jersey.
Why did i say fortunately?
This being a Nike event, it’s obvious that the attendees should at least refrain from wearing competitors outfit, hahaha. In fact they did announce that anyone with Adidas shirt won’t be allowed for the meet and greet session.
Nike Malaysia actually had limited stock of the Harimau Malaya’s jersey during the event. As i know most shops in KL have already sold out.
Fans waiting eagerly for the event to start. Adrian and i were just too busy ….
… eating.
We actually lunch at Wong Kok prior to this event. What a waste. If not we would have stuffed ourselves with the buffet.
K. Rajagobal, the coach of the Malaysian football team observing the upcoming players that could one day play for the Harimau Malaya.
One of the highlights of the event is actually having the chance to see the Ultras Malaya. They are so passionate about the national football team that they have came out with a number of chants.
This is them chanting thank you K. Rajagobal, LOL. Quite catchy. More videos at the end of the post.
The exhibition futsal match consisted of the current squad players with upcoming players. In between the game, the coach himself took to the field and showed a thing or two to the youngsters.
It was then followed by a press conference where Nike Malaysia said it was going to extend it’s contract with the national football team. Good news i guess since the jerseys have been quite a head turner especially with the new design.
It’s only the price that is still stopping me from buying. Not everyone can afford a RM 249 jersey
We were then all ushered to the next futsal court where we had the chance to finally meet and greet the coaches and players.
We all had to make a line and only 2 at a time were allowed to go at any point of time.
It was at this point where i realized why the players were confused when i was trying to snap a photo. A lady actually came up to me, not sure if she was one of their spouses or PR personal and asked about my cassette.
Yes my cassette.
She thought i was trying to pull some prank on the players by asking them to pose for my cassette, HAHAHAHA. Have to thank April for this.
I then showed her that it’s my iPhone and she was like OMG i need to get this casing as well!
Hahahaha so there you have it, i confused the Malaysian Football team because of my iPhone case. The fellas are definitely friendly and so were the coaches!
I even joked to Mr. Rajagobal and Mr. Cheng Hoe when Adrian was trembling while taking my photo with them, LOL.
