JCI Malaysia ANC in Ipoh Perak

Ipoh, Perak in West Malaysia...dang, its been some years since I was last there..of course it was during my days in Sunway College..oh.. lets see now 1992-3? How much has changed or not changed at all in that place..it more or less looks like the same as i left it ..does anything change there at all development wise?-hmm maybe only the state govt ..haha.. anyway I digress..

Ok this time round I was sent over as part of the Penampang JCs (short for Junior Chamber) contingent from Sabah to the JCI Malaysia Annual National Congress which happens to ta da da da in West Msia this year..yap..its Ipoh's turn to host..

So you may ask, whats there to do in Ipoh if ur only got 3 packed& busy days? Umm..IMHO nothing really..
Yes thats right..not much..unless you have ready transport to bring you around this spread out surburban city with scarce skyscrapers and limited shopping centres/malls eg Tesco very far from the town...so shopping like KL? nope..not a chance.

Food haven?..umm yes,supposedly Ipoh is supposedly well known for its tasty dishes..
but generally the fewd I got to taste wasn't as good as I'd hoped (err ok lar except for the dim sum) but in consolation at least it was still better than KL food which was as usual a big joke and Ipoh fewd prices was stil pretty cheap.

and letsee what else ..umm...buy Kampar chicken biscuits?..(sadly didnt have a chance to bring back some- no time to run around and taxis are pretty difficult to get over there, and the shops close pretty early..cant find it in Ipoh Parade even!@_@..what lar?!...bummer.

Anyway as mentioned ealier the all u can eat dim-sum lunch was the most memorable to me where we whacked the dimsums till we were royally stuffed..blissss-I think the bill came to Rm 170++ for our table only...hehe ) but it was a shame the final dinner night ball menu was horribly horribly CHEAP for a grand ball event. Macam kantin food..1 serving of multiple small portions..what an utter disapointment.. Ugghhh! Horrors..

Anyway on another vein...it wasnt all fun and games for me, it seems that I was the ( unofficially appointed ) photographer/ videographer/chronicler for the chapter ..(must be on account of my DSLR... doh)
Why do I say that? Well guess who do they look for everytime when its picture taking time..haha...of course lucky for me there's my good friend aka ' stalwart assistant' Ely with his bridge camera there as well to take over my position while i take 5 and raid the tasty fewd and coffee outside..lol

So long story short, we arrived late on the first day, missing the opening night Tambun Lost World theme park welcoming party event ( yes, we were booked on a 'cheaper' flight late afternoon to KL LCCT via airasia to save costs but the coach traveling time from KL to Ipoh was umm..3+ hours..from a fixed starting schedule of 6pm. so confirm that event cant make it...oh well..
So since the Tambun event is cleary a total loss, (and it rained as well by the time we got there) we dourly headed straight for the Hotel Impiana where the ANC was to be held over the next 3 days. ooo..hotel 24hr aircond and buffet meals...yea luv it..rolling rolling on cold new linen sheets and sleeping like a piggy until its time to get up..best oo.

On the last night we organised our customary ANC room party and it was a fun event. The Penampang, Intan & KK JCI chapters whipped up a great party event and the room table was turned into a makeshift bar and on it were piled bottles of Gentleman JAck, Absolut/JD/Dewars/CaminoTequila, Black Label and when room service came with tasty chicken wings and fries..it was one word....sweeett!
Everyone had a great time drinkng/eating and chit chating, and slowly we got more and more people coming over from the other chapters and soon the whole room was packed until it spilled outside-the smokers being outside of course.

I heard there were other small closed room parties going on with the other chapters but it seems they got couldnt really hold their liquor and were wasted early and that was the end of that..wat larrr..sheesh..oh well too bad..hahahaha..our was the biggest and the best lasting into the wee morning hours. Unfortunately our bus pickup and ride back to LCCT was at 3.30am so we couldnt stay until the end..oh well.
Oh in case ur wondering about pictures of the people signing in ..we even made up a party attendance form jus for fun (yes 45+ people in that small room) where everyone had to sign in before proceeding.... you cannot passss!! says Rachel-dalf & Rina-dalf the gatekeeper...gota sign in first pls then u can..p.s.ignore si Brian tu sebelah Rina, menyibuk ja wana be Brian-dalf hassle Takeshi..haha

Johnnydick & Manmeet's Wedding in Kuala Penyu.

Here is a selection of some of the wedding photos from Johnnydick & Manmeet's wedding shot on the 26 Sept in Kuala Penyu (Turtle Bay), Sabah at the local Catholic church with the brides reception on the same day at her residence and the groom reception the week after (3rd October) at his dad's residence.

Its one of my first outstation assignments so it was a pretty interesting one for me at least.
The groom is my cousin's brother in law and I was hired to shoot for the grooms side. There was another photographer that the bride's side hired from Penampang for their side and to top it all up it was a double wedding in the church with another couple also being married at the same time as well.
Suffice to say there was more than your average number of camera-men & video-men running around that church that day..

Anyway one interesting element of the Kadazan Dusun Kuala Penyu style of wedding is the custom of the bride/groom offering relatives & guests a drink of local rice spirits (similar to the Chinese tea ceremony) at some point during the reception. This is where the bride and groom sit in circle with and MC and trade toasts with their parents relatives and guests.

My very own little vine yard..Growing grapes in Borneo

I always wondered last time wheter you can grow grapes in Sabah and how nice it would be to have your very own grape farm..lol..well yes you can..

Grapes vines easily thrive in our Malaysian climate..and they're also being grown in West Malaysia on a large scale.

So my mom planted a few vines cuttings we rescued from an aunts townhouse in town being cleared up and in a few months they started to grow into this wonderful shady leafy roof in one corner of our garden next to the car porch..soon they started bearing small white flowers on stems which developed into grapes as u can see in picture.

Each of these grapes are bundled in a net stocking to prevent bird attacks on them as when they mature and turn ruby red, the pesky birds will try to feast on them.

They can taste sourish if you eat them before they fully ripen but if you let them mature until they are dark red..they taste can as sweet as the store bought ones.

In the end, I guess the novelty of the idea of just being able to wander under the leafy shade in your garden and just pluck your own grown grapes hanging straight down from the vine is fun and a pretty satisfying thought..lol

Dwen makes the famous Bubur Lambuk Mesjid Kg Baru KL

Seeing as Puasa month is almost over, in keeping with the flava of the month, I decided oh well time to make Bubur Lambuk yesterday but wait a minit.. ahh its not any ole bubur lambuk..its tha famous original recipe Bubur Mesjid Kg Baru KL one.

What is that u ask? Well this bubur (rice porrige) is a porrige with beef that has been made traditionally at the Kg Baru mosque in KL since the 1950s(?) every puasa time to be handed out to the public for them to break fast. However its not only those Malays who can partake of it but also all the other races are also welcomed to try.. so u can see Chinese and Indians also queing up for a plastic bag the free delicious bubur. But knowing Malaysians the word free is probably good enuff.. haha
BTW There are also many other types of bubur lambuk recipes with some like in Kelantan or Trengganu IIRC using fish instead of beef..
So I made it and it was not bad... delicious..well my mom and cousin commented it was..my bro just nyom nyom makan only..lol
I brought some to Dinoza's big birthday party yesterday,but since there was so many food on the table, and we were using paper plates, only Edgar tasted it in the the end..the rest only realised it the next day..in the CSP forums.
Don worry folks maybe I'll make again next time..