00 days

So, there you have it.

The countdown timer has been doing its job diligently. In less than 24hours, on foreign soil is where we shall all be.

To the Toblaterians, good luck for the results! May the 7 months of hardwork finally pays off! To Gayah, we know your spirit will be partying with us in Bali (so don't feel too bad) and your physical being will be supporting us from 1990 kilometres away (by constantly checking the blog for updates) ;p.

Good luck to Mess too, who is on judging duty & safeguarding the results til the Finale night.

And to all our fans at home (& those at work) watchout for our updates/ live blogging from Bali yaawwwwww!

Jalan-jalan Jonker

A fortnight ago, Esah, Meah, Mess and I went for a quick getaway to Melaka. We dedicated the trip to Cik Me'ah who will be migrating to Miri very soon. My faithful Mr Wiggie drove us down, arriving in Melaka just in time for a hefty light lunch @ Donald & Lily's, a cosy little Baba & Nyonya place just nearby Jonker Walk. Famous for its cendol & Curry Laksa, we all had our fair share [except for Cik Esah, who tricked us cause she only ordered taukua rojak for lunch! Deymm you!] hehehe.

 lovely me'ah

 sweet mess

esah and her rojak

 Donald & Lily's

 ❤ the angel

 Non yang tengah comot ;)

We then walked along Jonker Walk to ease our gastrointestinal tracts. 

And then we found this. 

Pineapple tarts. Nyummm!

And of course, we had to do the touristy sh*t stuff too.

Corny Cute T-shirts sold @ Jonker Walk

We also visited Me'ah's favourite Cheongsam shop.

 Meah trying on Cheongsam's with her personal assistant helping her out. 

Miss Nyonya's Next Top Model.

We then spent the afternoon exploring Mahkota Parade [transl. lepak @ Starbucks, minum kopi and gossiping] & wandering around in Dataran Pahlawan [transl. beli Cakar Ayam]. A few hours later, as the sun started setting in the horizon, we made our way to ---- [Esah, fill in the blanks please], a seafood joint located about 1/2 hour from Malacca town. Nice Malay seafood cooking, though we made the mistake of ordering too many chilli-based dishes. Bumped into a senior of ours back in high school, who now resides in the United States. 

[For Toblaterians, 10 pts shall be awarded for guessing correctly who that person is]

After dinner, we headed back to Jonker Walk for the night-time experience this time. Huge crowd, that's for sure. I kept holding on to the thought of enjoying Cendol Durian @ Bibik's house to motivate me through that 'lautan manusia'. Unfortunately, the heavens have decided that I've already eaten too much for the day and it was totally sold out once we reached there.

Luckily we had some entertainment to cheer ourselves up that night. A huge stage was erected in the middle of Jonker Walk for a '1Malaysia' [gulp!] event to celebrate Ali Rustam's 10th year in power as Ketua Menteri Melaka and Jonker Walk's 10th year anniversary. 

 Basically, it was a Chinese karoeke session.

 A cute old Baba dancing along to the singing couple.

You just hafta ❤ his toupée.

All in all,
we had a great trip and a marvellous time. Good food, good company, what more could you ask for. Definitely have to head down again soon to get that Cendol Durian.

Me'ah drove us all back to KL that night, and later confessed that she too had fallen in ❤ with Mr Wiggie. Just as Miss Temah did during our Tenggol trip a few months back. 

Mr Wiggie, you are definitely my unsung hero. 

Perjalanan ke Tangkuban

Our journey to Tangkuban Parahu, 01/01/10 

[The following quoted text is excerpted from Wikipedia]

"Tangkuban Perahu, or Tangkuban Parahu in local Sundanese dialect, is an active volcano 30 km north of the city of Bandung, the provincial capital of West Java, Indonesia. It is a popular tourist attraction where tourists can hike or ride to the edge of the crater to view the hot water springs upclose, and buy eggs cooked on its hot surface. This stratovolcano is on the island of Java and last erupted in 1983.

Local Legend of the Mountain

The name translates roughly to "upturning of (a) boat" or "upturned boat" in Sundanese, referring to the local legend of its creation. The story tells of "Dayang Sumbi", a beauty who lived in West Java. She cast away her son "Sangkuriang" for disobedience, and in her sadness was granted the power of eternal youth by the gods. After many years in exile, Sangkuriang decided to return to his home, long after the two had forgotten and failed to recognize each other. Sangkuriang fell in love with Dayang Sumbi and planned to marry her, only for Dayang Sumbi to recognize his birthmark just as he was about to go hunting. In order to prevent the marriage from taking place, Dayang Sumbi asked Sangkuriang to (1) build a dam on the river Citarum and (2) build a large boat to cross the river, both before the sunrise. Sangkuriang meditated and summoned mythical ogre-like creatures -buta hejo or green giant(s)- to do his bidding. Dayang Sumbi saw that the tasks were almost completed and called on her workers to spread red silk cloths east of the city, to give the impression of impending sunrise. Sangkuriang was fooled, and upon believing that he had failed, kicked the dam and the unfinished boat, resulting in severe flooding and the creation of Tangkuban perahu from the hull of the boat."

Shots from our 'Kereta orang kaya Avanza'

[mind the slight unsharpness of these photos, they were all snapped whilst in rapid motion]

 

 

 

 

 

Bunga Loceng? [I think, I can't remember it's name exactly ;)]

The 2nd Kawah we planned to go to, but abandoned the plan for shopping instead

Shots from Tangkuban Parahu

Odah, Meah, Enon and Temah on top of the Western Java world

Tangkuban Parahu, Bandung

Kawah Ratu (The Queen's Crater)

Ratu Temah

I think this shot can double as a busy marketplace [or am I just seeing things?]

Enon di pergunungan

Temah serius merakam wajah Chacha yang ceria

Pos Parawisata [Tourist's Post]

Somehow we felt as though we were in Nepal here ;P

Angklung player

One of the many [read: many x100] stalls which sold Naruto [?did I get the anime character's name right?]

Enon bersama ayam pujaan Odah [Odah claims this is her favourite photo haha] 

Whoops!!

Odah bersama pria pergunungannya ;)

Solo pose yo!

Kepulan asap putih

Sulfur putih dipagar

Kami ber-lima

Mereka ber-delapan [HANGMAN+ 1 spare? haha]

Tidak henti berposing lagi

Dan lagi

Cover album karoeke

Melompat pula kali ini!

Odah juga!

Lagi skali!

Memasak pula

Selesai masak kita berniaga

Terima kasih bapak, ajar saya bakar jagung!

Kini, kita stail Bollywood, Jai-Ho!

Chacha in the distance

Temah from afar


And now for the portrait session,

Purrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!



On our way back, Odah said to Enon:

Odah: Enon, dengar sini cakap aku. Kau DILARANG turun tau!!

Enon: Kenapa Odah? Gas beracun ke hihihihi[dengan nada beracah-acah]?

Enon: Alamak! Terjatuh lah pulak, Oooooooodaaahhh TOLOOOOOONGG!!

Odah [in Superhero mode]: Enon! Jangan risau, Super-Odah TO THE RESCUE!! 
[Super-Odah then flies over the Kryptonite-laden crater in order to save her arch enemy Enon and return her to safe grounds. Hidup TOBLATER! XD]


THE END!

Lastly, I leave with with one of my favourite photos from the trip ;)