March 1, 2009. First day in Kuching, Sarawak. Media trip.

It was almost 11 am by the time we were done being welcomed and then taken to our hotel to check in.

There was a bit of a confusion at the hotel, though. The staff was unable to check us in for some reason, so we left all our luggages in a holding room and went out for breakfast.

Kenny Sia, being born and bred in Kuching, was our appointed guide for the day.

Our first stop: Chong Choon Cafe, Kenny’s favourite Sarawak laksa outlet.

You can get a bowl of Sarawak laksa there for RM3.50 (SGD1.45 or USD0.95). That’s freaking awesome, considering what you get:

Maybe what we had was the RM4.50 version (I’m not sure) but, still!!

Sarawak laksa is unlike any other laksa you know, so it’s best to eat it without any kind of expectation.

Without comparing it to anything, it is good. I can’t really describe the taste. (Mostly because I’m starting to forget, after almost three weeks.) I remember more clearly that I want to eat it again.

The soup is kinda sweet and salty at the same time (and mildly sour if you squeeze in lime juice, as Kenny recommends), with a hint of coconut fragrance.

Kenny actually performed a demo of squeezing in the lime and stirring the laksa up. I wish I had videotaped it. It was pretty funny.

To top that off, we had the Teh C Special, another Sarawak specialty.

The bottom layer is gula melaka (palm sugar), middle layer evaporated milk and top layer tea.

You have to stir it up before drinking it.

Note that the middle mug is a regular-size mug, which means that the left mug is a giant mug.

The drink rocks. It seems easy to make, so I don’t know why nobody’s selling this in Singapore.

Breakfast done, Kenny took us to the Kuching Courthouse.

Photo of Javad taking a photo of the Kuching Courthouse.

It was built ages ago by James Brooke, the first foreigner to rule Sarawak after inheriting it as a reward for quelling a rebellion.

This guy in the stone, Charles Brooke, is his nephew, who took over rule after him.

Okay, end of history lesson. It’s not a courthouse anymore. It’s just a heritage building now. More photos!

Actually, that’s all. I don’t really like to take touristy photos cos, like, it’s lame.

So we put a spin on the regular tourist snapshot.

At the Kuching Waterfront, we took a series of group photos striking different poses depending on whose camera it was taken with.

On my camera, cutesy poses:

Introductions!

From left: Juraida (High Comm of M’sia), Javad (Gadget3), Soh (SPH), Lili (Women’s Weekly), Me, Wai Kit (NTUC), Nicholas (Tourism M’sia).

On Kenny’s camera, we were supposed to do outlandish, crazy poses but I think everyone was tired of posing or out of ideas by then.

Here’s a picture of Kenny trying to flag down a boat to take us across the river:

Haha.

A boat cometh:

There are tons of boats plying the Kuching River to take locals to and fro. There are villagers living across the river, as you will see in a while.

It’s a rather interesting blend. On one side of the river, you have city skysrapers. On the other side, kampong huts dot the landscape.

I think the eclectic mix contributes a lot to the overall charm of Kuching.

Anyway, we got on the boat and I started to camwhore while everyone was pre-occupied with taking postcard photos.

The Kuching Waterfront is one giant postcard. Even though the water is somewhat murky, there is a rather sublime peace about the place that makes you want to sit there all afternoon and gaze off into the horizon.

There’s the kampong I was talking about.

I wonder what it’s like living in one of those huts.

Inside the boat:

Another touristy photo:

On the other side of the river, we ran into a pair of newly-weds in pretty wedding threads! Awwwwww.

Kenny wanted to show us the Astana (the equivalent of our Istana) but we weren’t allowed to go in.

It’s also called Fort Margherita. Charles Brooke had built it for his wife, Margaret, as a bridal gift in 1870. Isn’t that sweet? I doubt anyone would build me so much as a tent, nevermind a whole mansion.

Maybe a Lego one.

We walked around a bit while Kenny gave us history lessons, and then we took the boat back to the city side of the river.

Within walking distance is Main Bazaar, the heart of Kuching. It houses a long row of Chinese-style shophouses, most of them touting souvenirs.

Outside the main shops, you can see many stalls hawking stuff that no one in our group dared or cared to buy.

The highlight: A product called Gambir Sarawak Asli.

It’s little pieces of tree bark from the gambir tree, traditionally used to sooth toothaches and today used as an aphrodisiac.

I don’t get how an anesthetic could become an aphrodisiac, though. Aren’t the two somewhat contradictory?

Other dodgy looking wares:

We were also introduced to the Kuching version of kueh lapis, called kek lapis there. It’s very colourful and comes in all sorts of flavours. I think they’re all home-made because no two stalls featured the exact same pattern-flavour combinations.

I will talk more about the cake in my later posts. What caught my eye then was the kueh lapis seller, a very young girl.

She’s cute!

Kenny found a replica of a tribal weapon that I later learned was a blowpipe, and he made me pose with it.

Well, at least it wasn’t touristy.

One remarkable thing about Kuching city is that it’s really quiet. It was a Sunday afternoon and there were hardly any people around.

I think Kenny said something about the locals preferring to stay indoors or, if they have to go out, preferring to drive than walk, which also explains why the streets are pretty clean.

I like that. The lack of crowds adds to the appeal of the place.

We followed our bazaar tour with a quick visit to the oldest Chinese temple in Kuching.

And then it was lunch time. Barely two hours after breakfast!

We didn’t have a choice, though. Kenny was only given about four or five hours to take us around and we wanted to try as many local delicacies as possible.

Next up: Kuching kolo mee. Aaaaaaaah!!

But I’ll leave that for next time because this entry has gotten too long and I’m getting sleepy.

To be continued…

I have been on media trips before.

But never have I received such personalised, VIP treatment as the one I received from, jointly, Jetstar Asia, Tourism Malaysia and Sarawak Tourism Board, on my four-day media trip to Kuching.

I didn’t even realise that our luggages had been tagged “VIP PTY” (which, I assume, stands for VIP Party) until during our return flight, while we were checking in our luggages.

It explained the shock I received when we first landed in Kuching.

Before I go into that, though, I want to properly chronicle my journey by showing you some random photos I took while on the plane.

Snapping a photo of a Jetstar jet while seated on a Jetstar jet:

Yeah! I got a window seat!

I also sort of secretly took a photo of my media compatriots, all seated in a row beside me. But I’m not going to risk my life and post it up because it shows them in varying states of consciousness, it being a crazily early hour on a Sunday morning when we left Singapore.

So here’s one very awake me, instead:

I was very much looking forward to whatever was in store for us.

This trip commemorated Jetstar Asia’s inaugural flight to Kuching (from Singapore). Yes! We were on the very first Jetstar plane flying to Kuching.

Onboard with us was Datuk Michael Manyin, the Minister for Tourism for Sarawak. We boarded the flight together after being introduced to him at Changi Airport.

Our VIP treatment at Kuching International Airport was probably thanks to him. The moment we stepped off the plane and traversed a ridiculously short connecting tube, we were greeted by flashing lights from a mob of photographers. And garlands.

Yes, we were garlanded. *lol* Here’s mine:

I thought they were there just to welcome the Datuk. But they were there to welcome us, too!

While I followed the VIP procession past the mob of photographers and garlanders, I suddenly heard a voice call out, “Sheylara!”

I thought it was one of the organisers about to tell me that I had forgotten something or some other.

But then I turned around and saw a very familiar face, instead, beaming at me.

It took a second for me to register the face because my brain had been momentarily stupefied by the flashing lights and garland. And because the face had had a hair cut since we last met.

Then I went “OMG” and bounded to him.

It was Kenny Sia, Malaysia’s most famous and popular blogger.

We both said, almost at the same time, “What are you doing here?!”

He didn’t know that I was part of the media group he would be taking around Kuching later in the afternoon.

I didn’t know that we had priority clearance, and that we didn’t have to go through customs, so was wondering how the heck Kenny had managed to sneak into the… well, inside.

Anyway, we were then ushered into a nearby room where a press conference was about to begin.

The front-row seats were reserved for us.

It was all quite formal.

But no less friendly.

Our Sarawakian hosts were very, very hospitable. We even got to meet several tribal people wearing tribal costumes. I guess that was our first introduction to Sarawakian culture.

Army of photographers:

At the end of the conference, some of us received interview requests. That was quite weird and amusing. Media interviewing media!

RTM (a state-owned Malaysian broadcast station), interviewed me on my thoughts of Kuching.

I remember vaguely blabbing about Sawarak laksa and Kuching kolo mee.

That was quite trippy, if you must know.

And then there was mingling, and introductions, and refreshments.

Kenny being introduced to Leong Wai Kit (NTUC Media):

Javad Namazie (Gadget3) and Nicholas Sarasta (Tourism Malaysia) pretending to be cool:

Okay, fine. They are actually quite cool blokes.

And then we were off! In our little van! Away to our hotel!

Only five of us in the photo are actually from the media. The others are, um, assorted related people. Okay, I will be talking more about them in the next entries to come, so we’ll leave it at that for now.

Time for adventure!

But to be continued in the next post, okay?

The self-preservation instinct is strong in me. No matter how head-over-heels in love I am with a guy, I keep a clear head, somehow.

I would never allow myself to do stupid things and hurt myself for love.

Maybe it makes me a somewhat cold person. But better that than end up an exploited, abused woman who does psychopathic things like threaten to kill herself over some stupid guy.

That is not to say that I can’t or won’t love.

Continue reading…

The following post first appeared on Sheylara.com on September 29, 2005.

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This morning, I woke up with a crazy need to answer the phone call of one Madam Nature. It was 6 am and dark as I groped my way to the bathroom.

As I turned the light on and entered the bathroom, I was frozen by the sight of a long, brown thing wriggling in the toilet bowl.

No, it wasn’t a piece of waste. It was alive! It was a giant freaking worm taking a leisurely swim in my toilet bowl.

At first, I thought I was still dreaming. And then I thought maybe someone had taken a dump earlier and forgotten to flush, and that someone had better see a doctor, pronto.

As it slowly became apparent that I wasn’t dreaming, I also realised that my visitor was no ordinary worm. It was a centipede. It was about 10 or 12 cm long and looked like it was enjoying its swim very much. Damn!

I stared at it a while longer in horrified masochistic fashion before beating it to the next nearest continent.

I woke the Goonfather up.

“Wake up! Wake up!! There’s a giant centipede in the toilet bowl!”

“Mmmh… hmmm. Zzzzz.”

“There’s a giant centipede in the toilet bowl!!”

“Ogg… ogay. Zzz.”

“Weiiiiiiiiii!!!”

“Hurrrm? Mmm… flush’way.”

“But WHY IS THERE A GIANT CENTIPEDE IN THE TOILET BOWL??!”

Faced with my persistent encouragement, the Goonfather had no choice but to yank himself out of bed and make an excursion to the bathroom.

I didn’t think I could handle the trauma of seeing the centipede again (my skin crawls even when I see photos of centipedes) so I watched from the relative safety of my bed as the Goonfather stared at the wriggling culprit in wonder before flushing it away. He then took a piss.

I hope the centipede dies from the toxicity of the Goonfather’s pee.

I know centipedes are probably innocent but that doesn’t make them harmless nor give them any business to appear in my toilet bowl in the middle of the night!!

The Goonfather later told me that it’s common for centipedes to show up at toilet bowls.

What?!?

He also said because they live in our sewers and have to survive on our daily offerings, they are probably gimped and weak, so I shouldn’t be too concerned about having a giant centipede chew out my behind while I’m taking a dump.

What?!?

Men have no concept of fear. No respect for danger!!

I told him it’s not common at all because I’ve never seen a centipede in any bathroom, except maybe in the movies. I have read in the papers about a python appearing in some poor guy’s bathroom, though.

I suppose that should have been more traumatising than my encounter since the python guy couldn’t simply flush his python back into the sewers.

But who cares about that? I had a centipede visit my toilet bowl!

Damn.

The last two weeks, I’ve been so busy that the only time I got to play anything was during my four hours of Xbox duty.

We played Left 4 Dead, which was, as usual, hilarious, because the gamers on Xbox LIVE possess an unreserved quota of nonsense, which amuses me greatly.

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 am, suddenly depressed over a couple of things. I couldn’t quell the bad feelings, which meant there was no way I could go back to sleep. So I got up and turned on my PC.

I loaded up Guild Wars (after two weeks of enforced abstinence).

My one enduring cure for depression: MMORPGs.

I played for five hours straight before I was satisfied. Character dinged two levels. Depression totally cured. And still on schedule to work on Gamer Girl Friday!

Life always works out. Eventually.

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Table of Contents

1. Countdown to Guitar Hero: Metallica
2. Your dream girlfriend
3. Singapore’s biggest Halo fan
4. Help put Singapore on the gaming map
5. Speaking at Media Fiesta 2009
6. Results of last week’s contest
7. Win an Xbox 360 laser pointer LED keyring!!

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Countdown to Guitar Hero: Metallica

The good news about the release of GHM: I am a huge huge huge Metallica fan.

The bad news: I don’t have Guitar Hero World Tour.

It’s no secret that I’m pro Rock Band because I own Rock Band, by virtue of it being the first to offer drums play.

Because of that, me and the Goonfather influenced all our friends to buy Rock Band, so, like, everyone has a Rock Band set, also meaning that we have already collectively invested a significant sum of money on song downloads.

Therefore, it was with some horror that I found out Metallica had gone Guitar Hero. Does this mean I must now switch allegiance and spend a few hundred bucks on a GHWT set?

Headache.

Argh! But it’s Metallica!

Guitar Hero: Metallica is releasing in Singapore on March 29 (only the game software for now. A bundle comprising game software and one guitar will be available in May).

I had a go at it yesterday at the New Era office, together with some other media people.

Metallica is awesome!! We played Enter Sandman, Battery, Fade to Black, The Unforgiven, Master of Puppets and Seek & Destroy.

For a full list of GHM tracks, check here. I can’t look at the list without hyperventilating!!!

And a few more !!! for good measure.

The game also comes with bonus videos of Metallica recording the songs, wearing motion capture suits. It’s quite funny to watch.

And, if you can’t get enough of James Hetfield, there’s this silly place where you can go to make him say stuff by pressing button combos.

Well, we’ll see when the game is officially out. Be still, my heart.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Your dream girlfriend

Meet Amanda Johnstone, who was last month appointed by Xbox as the hottest Halo fan in the UK.

This was announced last month before the launch of Halo Wars (of which I have a copy that hasn’t seen the light of my Xbox 360 console, because I haven’t even had time to part it from its wrapper).

What a novel way to rally the dudes to the Halo cause.

You must admit she is very sexy. Not to mention lovable. Girl gamers are always a welcome sight!! If I may say so myself.

Click here to read more about Amanda and see more pics.

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Singapore’s biggest Halo fan

The launch of Halo Wars sure gave rise to a ton of fringe activities. One of the most fun (to me) was the Biggest Halo fan competition.

Five finalists reported to the Xbox Xperience Zone at Challenger Funan last month to perform five minutes of show-and-tell each.

There was so much Halo stuff (brought in by the finalists) that you could have opened a Halo store there and then.

It was quite entertaining watching them convince the crowd to vote for them. I have videos, but no time to edit yet. Next time, okay?

Some of the Xbox gamers that day complained that I had worn the wrong accessory.

Note: Gears of War COG tag.

What the heck lah. Who says cannot wear GOW stuff to a Halo event?

Here’s a look at the five contestants (with me and Merdeka).

They were all wearing quite similar clothes because there aren’t many Halo clothes in the world.

And the winner was…

Marcus Lim, aka SPLiTZiCE (right), aka the guy who won the Halo vest from issue #37 of Gamer Girl Friday! He even went and got his name embroidered for the vest. Impressive!

He won a one-of-a-kind Halo medal, an exlusive Master Chief helmet and a $50 Takashimaya voucher.

Here’s a group photo of the remaining Halo fans who had stuck around till the end.

Photos were printed out on the spot for everyone.

So nice, right?

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Help put Singapore on the gaming map

This is our chance for more glory, people!

Some time back, I mentioned CarneyVale Showtime, a made-in-Singapore game which had won a global game development contest by Microsoft, after which it was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 11th Annual Independent Games Festival.

Okay, I know you lazy asses didn’t read that last mouthful. But the following bit is important:

You can now vote CarneyVale Showtime for the Audience Award at IGF. Go here to submit your vote. Let’s give our fellow Singaporeans some support!

Yes, I played the game. It’s quite fun and addictive, in fact.

All the best, Team Gambit!

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Speaking at Media Fiesta 2009

I just wanted to mention that I was part of Media Fiesta 2009, thanks to Nicholas Aaron Khoo, a CNET blogger (among other things).

In case you have been living in your own world, like I sometimes do, Media Fiesta 2009 is the first month-long media festival that will be happening annually.

Nic had invited me to speak at the SCOGA Gamers Forum, one of the main events during the festival launch at Marina Square Atrium.

Basically, we had a panel of assorted professionals discussing the viability of gaming as a career, as well as the causes and effects of gaming addiction.

Basically, I look damn chubby on the big screen.

Basically, I look quite ugly when I’m talking.

Basically !!!!

Here’s a backstage photo:

Well, not a very good photo, but I generally prefer photos of myself not speaking midway.

Our backstage was kind of weird. It was an enclosed room but the walls were transparent. We could see people milling about outside and people could see what we were up to inside.

The place I was sitting at was a dressing table, complete with the lightbulbs-around-the-mirror thing.

I’m not sure exactly whom it was catered for, but I know I certainly won’t like being made up in the middle of a public arena.

But the whole setup was pretty cool, generally.

Man, Prasad is so tall (standing beside me)!! And I was wearing two-inch heels!

Prasad is a professional gamer, the captain of the famous Team Titans from Singapore.

Basically, professional gamers are teh winzorx!!!

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Results of last week’s contest

It wasn’t technically last week, but never mind. Let’s get on with it.

We have two winners for this very awesome limited-edition SF4 calendar!

Sorry this has taken quite a while, guys. Well, you still have at least nine months to enjoy it!

Ah, yes, the winners!

And the winners are …

1. moralis
2. ahtiong

…by virtue of their entries being slightly amusing.

You go!!!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Win an Xbox 360 laser pointer LED keyring!!

I have this to give away this week:

Length: 6cm, not counting chain. Has laser pointer (red) and LED light (white) activated by two different buttons.

Let’s do something fun this week.

Let’s play Five-Word Story!

Someone start a story (in the comments) using only five words. Then someone else continues it using also five words. (I’m sure you’ve all played this forum game before, so I don’t need to explain, right?)

THAR BE RULES!!!

1. Strictly five words per entry.
2. No R-rated language or themes.
3. No flaming, attacking or insulting any individual. You can make fun of friends insofar as it is in good humour.
4. You can post more than once, as long as you don’t continue your own post.
5. Ignore regular comments interspersing the game.
6. Your continuation must flow logically. (For example: “She ran into the woods / Happy Birthday to you, dude” is wrong because, obviously, it doesn’t sound logical.)
7. In case two people post at around the same time, leading to the slower post being illogical, the slower poster is disqualified.
8. Do not end the story before the closing date.

Anyone breaking any of the rules above will be disqualified.

Everyone who participates and doesn’t get disqualified will get a chance to win the prize.

Bonus: The person who starts the story will get three chances in the randomising stakes (unless you get disqualified halfway through). (This is a special incentive for GGF campers.)

Closing date: March 19,2009, 11:59 pm.

(The story can continue beyond that, but I will stop counting entries posted after the cut-off date.)

YAR! Let the game begin!

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My friends are coming over to my place tonight with their laptops to play Guild Wars while I’m on Xbox duty. Wah lau.

In other news, don’t believe all the bad press you read about gamers and violence. There might be a correlation, but people just like to sensationalise things because it’s more interesting to report that gaming causes violence, rather than, say, movies cause violence.

Like, when a non-gamer does something violent, why don’t journalists report: “Movie causes psycho to gun down 10 strangers”?

Do we ever see: “Man apes serial killer after reading detective novels”?

No.

Yet, every time a gamer so much as gets into a scuffle, the press has a field day with “GAMES CAUSE BOY TO KILL FRIEND” headlines.

There are WAY A LOT MORE violent non-gamers than violent gamers, if it comes to that.

And it is perfectly logical to argue that movies and books and real life issues can cause an individual to become violent.

So, don’t pin all the blame on games!