Wedding Feast in China

October 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment

By now the world knows China a bit better after the recent Beijing Olympic Games. The Opening Ceremony was such an amazing, beautiful and exciting event. The sheer scale of it was astonishing. From this alone, I guess many would have realized how the Chinese people celebrate important occasions.

Bring it a bit closer to the ordinary folks living in smaller towns or even rural villages, the spirit of celebrating a wedding occasion is a big cultural event. Not to the scale of an Olympics event but still by any measure its BIG! Take a look at some photos of such an event shown below. You would have noticed that it is impossible to leave out anyone in the town! Moreover they turn up to share the joy, rain or shine! Wonder how many people have experienced this cultural extravaganza.

The Banquet Place

The Kitchen

The Menu

Literally you are feeding an army here. I guess there is no restaurant big enough to accommodate all the guests! One gets the feeling of the comradeship here in China and the tremendous support given for such joyous occasion like a wedding!

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Posted by User Image bokjae | Filed Under Culture, Life Experiences, Places

Once Upon A Time in Foch Avenue

July 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Foch Avenue! I wonder what it is called today. It used to be our favourite meeting place! I remembered every Saturday after work (those were the days when we were working half-day on Saturdays) Rock used to meet me for lunch! Ah! those sweet, memorable and exciting dating days in the late 60's! Hey it was cheap then compared to today's standard! It costs us only RM $4.00 for two including drinks! I was a cheapie then because she earned more than me! My salary was RM $640.00 under the Suffian Scheme for Government employees!

We used to have lunch at her favourite 'Mee Yoke' or 'Prawn Noodles' stall at this particular coffee shop 'Lai Foong'. Just a few weeks back, I took Jay there to show him where his mom and I used to meet for lunch! Well, the 'Mee Yoke' stall is no longer there but during that time it was the best in town! Heard from rock that the owner of that stall donated it to Genting Casino for keeps! Do you show your children the places where you dated? For me its a nostalgic journey back to when we were young and foolish!

The name of the coffee shop or 'kopi tiam' commonly called locally, bears the same name, looks very much the same except the surrounding structures have changed quite a bit. There was a Goldsmith Shop, Nam Yick which belongs to my uncle just across the road but today it has moved elsewhere. I went there once a month to borrow money from my uncle to survive for 3 months just when I first started working and we don't get our salary until the 3 months probation is over and we received a whole lump sum! How in the world did the Government expect us to survive for 3 months without pay??? Talking about kind, sympathetic Government! Thank God for rich uncles!

With that salary, I could afford to pay rental for a shared room with another friend, pay my car installments, give my parents RM $150 per month and the rest just squandered away dating girlfriends!!! Today, a person with an income of RM $3000.00 could hardly survive!!!! No wonder we call the period then "The Good Old Days". Our Philosophy of living was simple, study, work, get married, have children and then we do not know what else to do!!!! No ambition of climbing Mt. Everest! Aaah! once upon a time when I did not have a need for dentures and V......?!

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Posted by User Image bokjae | Filed Under Life Experiences, Places

Aotearoa

April 6, 2008 | 4 Comments

Thats Maori way of calling their homeland New Zealand or 'Land of the Long White Cloud'. It is a beautiful country and one where my children prefer to live in. Most Asians have been there and personally I love to take long holidays in New Zealnad and South Island is my favourite. I love to go there firstly it is not that far away from Malaysia, slightly more than 10 hours flight! Secondly I feel very at home there especially with so many other Asian Cultures there nowadays. Heck! there is always a number 3 reason and that is the 'Kiwis' are nice friendly, and warm people!

When I first visited that beautiful land in the late 80's it was very quiet and all shops closed by 6pm except for some pubs and restaurant! Now it is getting more like the Asian Cities with 24 hours outlets. If you want to know more about New Zealand you can visit New Zealand.com I know many of you can search for details in Google, Wiki etc but these sites do not respond to you! Try New Zealnd.com and I am sure you'll be surprise by the personal touch you received but please leave your contact or comment there! Cheers!

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Posted by User Image bokjae | Filed Under Places

Multi-Billion Dollar Industry

October 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Tours and Travel is a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry! In fact there is a significant increase in online home-based tours and travel businesses world wide. Another significant development in the online businesses is the use of a Marketing List where business owners can target their advertisements to specific niche segments. Even in the tours and travel sector, a Travel leads will be an effective marketing tool to use. Do you know that you can purchase such a List? What will be the important salient points to look for if you want to purchase such a List or Leads?

An extensive multi-dimensional database.
Years of Experience in tracking, compiling and optimizing.
Relevent database with demographics and psychographic details.
Integrity such that the database is accurate and up-todate.

2007 is Visit Malaysia Year! What better time than NOW to target your attractive travel packages to countries like US, Europe and UK! Perhaps local travel agents lack the market details in such countries! Hey go get yourself a Marketing List and you can have all the information for your campaigns!

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Posted by User Image bokjae | Filed Under Places

Rivers of Babylon

July 23, 2007 | 3 Comments

Get to know about Sunshine only a few days ago and it stirred up memories of Iraq which I visited back in 1982! During that time, there was a war going on between Iraq and Iran. The day I arrived in Baghdad and just as I was alighting from the taxi, there was an explosion a few hundred yards away from the Hilton Hotel where I was staying. What a memorable welcome that was. Life went on as usual as though explosions were a daily affair and in a few hours everyone was on the streets except that area of the blast was cordoned off.

After the official business there I took two days to visit the Ancient City of Babylon, somewhere between the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris which I call the Rivers of Babylon. I was impressed and I heard that they were already trying to re-built the Tower of Babel Took some photos there with the ancient walls as back-drop and mind you they were huge tall walls! Not surprisingly the Mueseum was named after King Nebuchednezzar. I could sense the rich history of that place! Visiting the Middle East is very enriching for these were the land of Bibilical times and read so much about them. Personally saw salt on the dessert sand which reminded me of the phrase 'Salt of the earth'. The only thing which upsets me was to see old donkeys with their leg joint broken intentionally to prevent them from running around! Another awful thing was that they did not have sewerage system in desert towns or villages! they just made a pipe and everything just went into the sand! Through years of doing that certain villages were somewhat flooded with sewerage water and oh! the stench!

Going home was a bit scary because we had to take off in the early hours of the morning around 2am to 3am and you were required to check-in around 8pm! Moreover all flights took off in the dark for fear of being shot down! No cabin lights and no runway lights! I never prayed so hard Welcome to Iraq!