A Road Trip Story – Day Three

Few words: MLMB will have a major makeover in layout starting from today post because Bagger Blogger decided to upgrade their posting style and the user, mostly ME, lose all my usual blog style from font colour to photo size and orientation (and yes I can't upload vertical photo anymore). Damn you Thank you blogger.

 

The part three was delayed long enough that I have actually revisited Sitiawan for a few more times and have the same foods dozens of times. Okay enough of light comedy, time for serious stuff. Let’s carry on from where I drop off in day two.

 

The next morning, as usual we stayed in our room till the last check-out call. Don’t you realize that we seldom check-out early? In every Malaysian’s eye, nothing should be wasted if you have paid for it. The same applied to hotel room, ‘die die’ also maximize our stay. Talking about typical Malaysian, I couldn't deny that I’ll always aim for the shower cap, the tiny cute bottles of shampoo and even the tea sachet the first moment I stepped into the hotel room. What? We have paid for that already, not? As I said, typical Malaysian – and you included as well so put away that disgusting smirk face. And for the non-Malaysian, you know better. Remark: Don't proceed further if you can take my JOKE. You may be affected by TOO SERIOUS flu.

One of the must try food recommended by most of the Muslim friend is Mastan Ghani’s mee rebus. We in fact paid Mastan Ghani a visit late evening the day before but alas they only open till 6 pm – I was expecting typical 24 hours operating Mamak stall but it appear not. Despite that, we are even more determined to try this halal food, so we pay Mastan Ghani another visit first thing in the next morning – literally though but it was already lunch time when we checked out.

Anyhow, we reached Mastan Ghani just past lunch hour. Don’t be surprised or confused when you saw two Mastan Ghani stalls just opposite of each other, in fact both belong to the same owners. According to the owners, there was no shop next to their current shop available when they planned to expand their business. But they never gave up and coincidentally the opposite shop is available, so they expanded their business just opposite of their current shop. I got to admit I’d admire their business mind, but I think their franchise is too near. From the latest information, there are actually 4 stalls in Teluk Intan but the best stall is the one opposite The Store.

The two killer dishes served here are mee rebus and mee rojak. The direct translation for the former is steamed noodle while the latter just don’t make any sense – a fusion between two different foods of very contrary category. Let’s skip mee rojak, I will explain later. Mee rebus is traditional Indian-Muslims dishes served with thick sweet and sour prawn gravy. Often it is served with prawn biscuit, fried tofu, boiled egg, plentiful of green salad and a finishing touch – a perfect dash of lime juice right on top of everything else. Voila! That is the Mastan Ghani's killer mee rebus. The noodle blend in so well with the thick gravy which make it totally irresistible, even for a prawn allergy guy like me.

Then here come mee rebus strange sibling, mee rojak which in my opinion is nothing differ from mee rebus. The appearance and everything else is just the same except for the extra fruity rojak taste in their gravy. However, no fruits were found in that plate of mee rojak, I think they mixed the fruits during gravy preparation. Indeed, another ‘mouth opening’ for me.

It was time to head back Ipoh and by looking at our GPS, we must or we could pass by Bidor and what else can we find in Bidor if not that yellow building that serve duck noodle wan ton mee and yam puff. The Pun Chun. I’m not bragging, almost all that travel from Ipoh to KL, back or forth or somehow using that road will stop by to have their lunch there. Don’t believe me, watch 8tv Ho Chak. Speaking of Ho Chak, they aired this a few weeks ago and I was jumping around excitedly telling my friend I went there before but none believed me. Friends, here are some picture to prove you guys wrong.

One of the reason, they are so famous is their location – right in the middle of Ipoh-KL express way. It was just like Singapore in the old days and of course another reason is their foods are worth to stop by too.

Let’s start with Pun Chun's duck noodle wan ton mee – a typical wan ton mee in duck herbal broth. By the way, wan ton mee is a type of thinner noodle usually self-made that give you a crunchy or crispy mouth feel. From their noodle texture, it doesn’t look like self-made noodle; it was way too commercial and rough. The dish is served in a hot herbal broth with duck meat, garnished with leafy vegetable and handful of green onion and scallions. The secret in every wan ton mee is to retain the al dente feel and yet free of plastic smell. In order to do that, the noodle is often blanched in hot water for 10 seconds and immediately rinsed under cold water and placed in serving bowl. Then only the hot broth comes in. The noodle that they are serving still able to retain the crunchy mouth feel but it is not the best I ever tasted. Their broth was ordinary, the same with the duck meat. Overall, okay only.

If you’re looking for yam puff, look for the old man by the small counter inside Pun Chun. Whenever you try to order yam puff from the waitress, they just point toward the old man “Order there, we don’t sell any”. I guess they are having a healthy competition over there, just that next time I would appreciate more if the waitress could lower down her volume. Back to the yam puff, the spider web texture on it does amaze me – a very interesting piece of art. But taste wise is more or less as good as Ipoh Ming Court’s yam puff. Just that I feel the one in Pun Chun is a bit drier. Reflexively, I choked down a few sips of tea to let it go down; no offense though.

After all the good foods, it was time to go home and continue with life aka more work after holidays. That is how my three days road trip (which took more than three months to update) ended. God bless!

A Road Trip Story - Day Two

Few words: Quote of the day ‘if he reply please advice, he got no balls’ by my superintendent.


Let’s carry on with my road trip story and to be frank, my memory is fading away now. I guess that’s the consequence of procrastinating – the longer you delay the fader the memory goes. But luckily I did take photo along the trip and these photos are all that I have to keep me on track. But indeed photo does tell a thousand words; just as long as it is not an overexposed one.

Our next destination was to Sitiawan most famous temple, the Tua Pek Kong Temple. The last thing I remember was we planned to set off early. Rising myself on the bed the next day, I look at my watch; somehow my alarm turned to snoozing mode and by the time it rang again, it was two hour later. DAFUQ! Regardless of that, we still rushed our way there to avoid the sun. Yet, by the time we reached there, the sun was directly ninety degree on top of us. FML! Despite the skin-piercing hot weather, the sweaty feeling under armpit and loads of overexposed shots, the view there is really something to brag of. I’m not comparing to serious contemporary art but in term of temple art, it was amazing enough. The massive statues there were all imported from China nonetheless. Ah, no wonder - enough manpower for sure.

I was told by a lady there that people all around M’sia come here to pray for numbers, lottery numbers to be exact; even Singaporean come all the way just for the numbers. With that being said, we too try our luck with the numbers and buying it for a week consecutively, albeit without success. Why am I doing this? I’ve no idea. I guess luck is not on my side that week, anyhow do tell me if this numbers appears in any lottery first prize; 2466.

After one and half day tour in Sitiawan, it was time to proceed to Teluk Intan. We purposely took a detour via Changkat Jong just for the M. Gulam Rasul famous spiced fried chicken (ayam goreng berempah). By using Changkat Jong route, it is almost impossible to miss this greenish factory sized restaurant just beside the main road.

They started their business with a stall in the 60’s and soon it grows to this friggin big restaurant. Their fame is no joke; their dish appears numerous times in newspaper and it has been the locals’ talk for decades. As I was approaching the counter, they have one big compartment just for their spiced fried chicken. I purposely picked two drumsticks, you know, just to double the taste; after all that is the sole reason I took this detour. They looked well on plate but of course we need to get those into our mouth before I can judge them – on my first bite, the meat won’t chunk off – on my second, it won’t chuck off either. The meat texture was so stiff that my mouth gets tired chewing. The taste and aroma is completely okay just that I was unable to chew anymore. I even spat some half-chewed chunk because my jaws eventually gave up chewing.

Once again feeling betrayed by the bloggers, we continued our journey to Teluk Intan. Upon reaching this still developing town, the mighty leaning tower snatches all the attention. But one thing for sure, don’t expect clean background when you shooting the leaning tower. It was located in the middle of a busy town – just opposite a marketplace and the empty spaces surrounding it were used for car park. Still, the tower remains the lone trademark of Teluk Intan.

Later that day, just right after we checked in our hotel, we headed for Teluk Intan’s CCF – a dish whose reputation dwarfs all other foods in Teluk Intan. CCF is simply an acronym for Chee Cheong Fun or direct translated as pig intestines noodle but not to worry; it is purely organ free foods. In fact, CCF is just a flat layer of skin-like noodle made of flour. Teluk Intan’s CCF is quite unusual from the normal CCF we had which were either served in hot chili sauce, mixed with sesame oil and soy sauce or simply with herbal mushroom stew. Teluk Intan’s CCF is sauce-less and wrapped with dried shrimp and cabbage. Again, not my liking and to be frank, any CCF in Ipoh tasted much better. But anyhow, I had bought three packets. Why am I doing this again? I’ve no idea.

Abandoned the plan to finish all three packets, we decided to venture further for more foods. Just as we were roaming around the small town, we stumbled across the famous Teluk Intan fragrant biscuit or more known as hiong piah by the local. I wasn’t quite sure which one tastes better in Teluk Intan – the Tiger Head Brand or Butterfly Brand; the former is a rival to the latter for many years. Undeterred, I walked into the Butterfly Brand shop and asked which one is more famous. Looking at the shop owner in question, I get the idea I shouldn’t ask it at the first place. Silently, I paid and ran out of the shop.

Living in the city of rumored to be the best hiong piah, Ipoh; the butterfly brand won’t stand a chance. But on the contrary, the butterfly brand does bring a diverse taste – in fact to my personal liking, it is actually better than Ipoh one. I can’t be too sure about this, maybe because I am too used to Ipoh one. But somehow the biscuit is buttery crispier and the maltese is less sticky. In my opinion, the buttery flavor is the final winning blow.

We then arrived at Lana Tea House, a fine dining restaurant in Teluk Intan. Budget and fine dining is never a good match but Lana Tea House makes this possible. When I first opened their menu, I thought I was in some mamak stall. Not that I am complaining but once I learned the price on the menu, I did wonder. Can earn meh? Overall, the dinner was okay, the ambient is superb; fully decorated with 80’s limited edition antique. Great place for friend and family, they not only serve western food but also a wide variety of foods – from Malay, Chinese to Japanese cuisine. It is a good place for stingy, thrifty or tight budget guy who want to treat their girl a dinner. Come to think about it, my friend, Section should go.

The life in Teluk Intan is pretty much unexpected. Before I come to Teluk Intan, I thought the only thing I can do at night is FB to the next morning. But it turned out; Teluk Intan folks really know how to enjoy themselves. As it gets darker at night, the real entertainment is just about to begin. They have this massive Sky Bar with trendy techno songs, high-tech disco lighting and cool DJ. As the eardrum-battering deep bass, thump-thump-thumping of hip-hop music blares from a beat-up boom box stereo, I could have a heart attack if I stayed long enough. There is also a K-box just beside the Sky Bar and the best of all; they are all situated in the same building where my hotel is. But since we weren’t in the mood for booze that night, we opted for K-box instead. We sang our throat out for only below MYR 20 per person; that’s a steal which you can only dream of in Ipoh. Suddenly, Teluk Intan is being hailed as the best cheap high tech entertainment town.

At around 2am, I barely have any voice left. I dragged myself back to the hotel and drop dead to the bed. And that’s how I celebrated my 2012 new year.

Happy New Year Mellymonkeys!!! To be continued...

A Road Trip Story – Day One

Few words: Iphone 4s is literally useless in the hand of Asians. Don’t believe me, try talk to one by not faking your accent.

In my previous post, I say I need a vacation and guess what; I really got myself one last week! Not a luxurious one nonetheless, in fact just a mini getaway from work. It all began as a tipsy conversation between me and my colleagues – a theoretical safari of Perak good foods. How it ended up as an actual road trip I don’t really recall, but somehow I found myself enjoying the country life and good eats for 60 hours session of local foods.

Let’s keep story short, I have decided to take a few days off to travel around Perak – basically to every rural area reachable by road without using the express way. With no exact plan, we started our journey from Ipoh and stop whenever we want. Travel, eat, sleep and repeat. Now where can you find road trip like that?

Before I proceed, I’d need to clarify, I’m neither a food blogger nor a food photographer, and I’ve been spoilt by Ipoh good foods for almost two decades so it’s normal if I don’t feel the local foods. Anyhow, I try not to compare and just blog my humble experience based on my already indulged taste bud.

My first stop was Sitiawan, a famous little Fu Zhou town. Coming to such a town, I have to admit, it was way better than my expectation. In fact, it shouldn’t be classified as a rural area in the first place, my mistake! One thing I do realize in Sitiawan is U-turning signboard is everywhere. Come to think about it, we rarely see one in big cities nowadays. Anyhow, our first stop was to Kampung Koh Wet Market’s famous Loh Mee – a blend of thick dark chili stew served with yellow noodle. Unfortunately that day, the lady mixed it with laksa soup because she doesn’t have enough portions for us. After the first bite, we were speechless – taking a second bite just to make sure it taste differently but no, it remain the same. Total disappointment! I mean it’s just like every other Loh Mee and with the mixed stew, it tasted awfully off. Famous Loh Mee? Baloney! Good lord, wrong publicity guys!

After a grave disappointment, we somehow move on and venture to our next stop, the legendary onion biscuit or precisely Gong Pian - known by the Fu Zhou. We arrived at noon, somewhere passed lunch hour but the queue was darn long. Yes darn long. We finally felt like we were back on track for more good food. My mum told me that they used to sell onion and char siew gong pian but I only saw the onion flavor. The lady then told us that they’re not selling the char siew flavor anymore. A little drawback because it was rumored that the char siew one taste much better. Anyhow we bought 6 of it and by the way, you can’t eat them on the spot, theoretically, since they don’t provide any seat.

Hence, I take it back to my car and have a bite. It was superb! The texture was chewy-crunchy hybrid and the onions goes sinfully well with the gong pian. One bite and the onion scent filled my whole car. I alone had 5 pieces of it, go figure how good it is.

We went for the famous nine layer cake in Yee Si Kopitiam too but the owner told us that the nine layer cake only available after 3.30 pm. If we were to wait, we need to kill another hour waiting. Hence, we decided to skip this and go for James Cendol which is located somewhere near The Store Sitiawan. Honestly, it was an okay okay cendol; nothing to shout about. In fact, it was too sweet for my liking.

As the sun setting down, we travelled to Teluk Batik, a beach for sunset shooting recommended by John, a photographer I know from Photomalaysia. “Teluk Batik has the best sunset in Perak, I can give you a tour” offered John and of course, I won’t want to trouble him. I trusted him nevertheless. I went there with a big hope but no offense John, Teluk Batik is just a piled of rubbish shore; polystyrene floating in the middle of sea, plastic bag along the shoreline, leftover food and basically everything else you can find in a rubbish dump. That is not a good setting for sunset shot! If John were with me that day, I will quietly take out my tripod and beat him to dead. Instead, I went over to Lumut harbor to salvage some shots within the available time left.

At night, we have to pick either Fu Zhou cuisine or Kampung Cina’s seafood for dinner. Since Sitiawan is a Fu Zhou town, logically, it would make better sense to go for their local specialty. So we moved from something that supposedly to be like mantis prawn, flower crab and Aussie oyster to economy rice; I’m not sure we made the correct move. Anyhow the decision had been made, so I ask Lord Google for some recommendation. The bloggers suggest Bei King Restaurant – a local restaurant serving traditional Fu Zhou dishes. For your information, Bei King Restaurant had moved to a new place, somewhere not far behind their old shop lot; we only realized that when we saw the note at their old shop lot. By the way, they have upgraded their status to Bei King Hotel Restaurant. Don’t expect cheap bill anymore. FML!

We ordered three dishes – sweet and sour fish maw soup, stir-fried potato leaves and dry braised red wine chicken. Every single of it is their signature dish but they look exactly the same like the one we ordered for economy rice.

Our first dish is a heavy tomato scent fish maw. I did googled ‘fish maw’ and the result might be fearsome; jaw, throat or stomach of a fish. Gulp. Sweet and sour fish maw soup is a fish jaw (or maybe throat or stomach) with tomato soup that has first-time tasters half suspecting they might be munching on sponge soaked in tomato sauce. The flavor was perfectly inoffensive but the organ part did make me startled – where the heck did they find such a big fish jaw; I doubt it was a pig intestine instead. I had to choke down my first bite with tea but soon my mind stop rebelling and despite the texture – a weird spongy feel exactly like biting on a pig skin but to my surprise, I actually liked it. Mercifully, the strong tomato soup totally covers the soil smell of the fish maw. It was actually the best Fu Zhou dishes I ever had – period. Five stars!

Our next dishes is dry braised red wine chicken, don’t be fooled by their bloodlike colour, according to the waitress, no colouring used. It was all due to the reddish colour of Fu Zhou red wine. The braised chicken is a bit disappointment or maybe I’m more to stronger flavor guy. Frankly, the chicken was a bit tasteless but the meat deserved a praise, it’s tenderly soft.

The stir-fried potato leaves is just another stir-fried potato leaf. Fu Zhou style, maybe? No comment. Our total damage was below MYR 60, still a bargain though.

After the dinner, we decided to drive around the small town until we stumbled across Sitiawan Big Cinema. Since that is the only entertainment place Sitiawan has to offer at this hour, we decide to go in for a 3D movie. That is the first time I go for 3D movie and by the way, 3D movie is only MYR 15 in Big Cinema, screw you TGV Ipoh! And screw you GSC Ipoh for not upgrading!

The movie ended at 11.30PM, I had a great time watching the bullet flying out from the screen. It was time to head back to our hotel but it would take us another 30 minutes trip to get back to our hotel. Somewhere in between, I had a nature call. Perhaps the fish maw determined to fight back in my stomach. I was shivering with cold sweat and my mind went blank, that time I knew I have to stop somewhere to toss the load. Hereby, I want to thank KFC Sitiawan for their clean washroom and best of all, 24 hours operating restaurant. Without them, I won’t make it and most probably forced to untie the knots in my car. Heartily appreciate your help. That’s the best moment I had in KFC.

That should be all for Day 1 – Sitiawan and Lumut. Tune in for more next time, thank you.

To be continued…

Bad Habit Weakness

Few words: Last time when I always lepak, people ask me to get a job. Now that I have a job, people ask me why I don’t come out lepak one? wdafuq!


When my boss first handed me the appraisal form, I think he did smile. Heedlessly, I just put it on my table and in no time, it was stacked with documents. After few days, the appraisal reappeared and casually I just flipped through the form but unintentionally I come across a column which requires me to fill in my weakness. “This is some serious shit!”

When they asked for your weakness, basically, they are trying to make the self-conscious you to betray you. You get what I mean, no? They aren’t really interested in your weakness. What they really interested in are the potential excuses they don’t give you bonus.

Come to think of it, my boss did not smile, it was a smirk instead!

In any case, here I am trying hard to fill up this appraisal form. But frankly speaking, I’d develop a number of bad habits for the past six months.

One thing for sure, I’m always rushing. For the past six months, I’ve been late for at least dozens of times and most of the time if I really made it on time, it is marginally passed. And so I have developed a kind of a chic talk every time I start my car “Let’s do it”; credit taken from Mission Impossible. You know, just a small motivation talk between me and my car. Although as weird as it sound, this motivation really works. Without knowing it, I started to whisper to my car every time I start my car, just to feel like Tom Cruise once in a while. One fine morning, I was fetching my mum to dentistry. Casually I did it again when I started my car, “Let’s do it” and my mum was like “DO WHAT?” with wild-eyed. Glaring in by my mum like this, I won’t want to tell her that I’m talking to a car. Silently, I just put in the first gear and drive.

Also, over the past six months, people have been calling me all sorts of name but all aren’t my real name. Department manager called me Chow, the marketing representative refers me as Jeff in her email and the worse one is from the plating department lady: ‘Stiff’ and that is not even a name. It is more like an adjective but compliment still taken, good eyes lady! Anyhow for the past six months I had not corrected a single person that called me wrongly. I guess for me, a name is just a name.

Lately, I’m into photography so it is a norm for photo enthusiasm like me to practice my framing and composing every chance I have. The great different that distinguishes between professional and amateur is the professional compose their shot in mind whereas amateur usually frame them by fingers. So whenever I see something worth taking, I’ll heedlessly frame the shot with my fingers. Although I tried to minimize this bad habit but sometimes I just can’t help and box my shot with fingers. This is another chic act; holding steadily, controlling my breathing, shooting: It is my second nature but when my mum sees it, she yells, “DO WHAT?” Once again, glared in so intensively by my mum, I just walked away silently.

Although I was supposed to literally send all my emails in English but sometimes I just couldn’t. There are limitations to English words’ expression. Thus, I tend to use stronger words like ‘sibeh’, ‘dulan’, ‘geng’, ‘die die’ and such word of this format in my email. Anyhow, I only limit this in my casual email, albeit sometimes in my formal email as well. Nevertheless there is once when I used this in my email to my manager, it is a one to one email so I thought to myself ‘why so serious?’ and I did that. Well, first of all the word is stronger and secondly it simplify my intention holistically. ‘Customer is not happy and demand us to provide a new solution to our existence control plan’ now can be simplified to ‘deep shit, customer dulan’. But that particular email is escalated to everyone in my manager next reply. Best of all, senior managers are in the loop as well, FML!

After mirroring so many of my bad habits, I have stuck back to reality facing my appraisal most difficult question again. Come to such extent, in any case, I have to write something down.

PLEASE IDENTIFY YOUR WEAKNESS: NONE.

The Write Stuff

Few words: V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N and I need it so badly. A mini escape from work sound just so fine.

Coming to such extent, it is neither about keeping readers nor making pocket money anymore. To be frank, this post was supposed to be uploaded few weeks ago but it was left idling till now. One thing for sure is I can’t give commitment to blogging anymore. It’s ironic how desperate I am to chase customer cycle time each day and how reckless I could to abandon blogging. Well, life has to go on.

I always thought life is a bit of work and fun but turn out I was wrong. Life is a bit of fun but mostly overlapped by work. Put simply, life first priority goes to making money. So if you’re a smart one, look for a job that you really interested in. I was lucky enough to have a job related to writing; well, in such a way. In such a way though…

It started in childhood, when I developed the bad habits of passing or rather throwing notes to friends in the middle of class. But this writing never lasts long because at some point people just throw without writing. Then the computer and internet come along with their email, this has totally changed the whole perspective of writing. Writing is not only limited to paper, ink and pen anymore. But internet only available for the rich, so email is a big NO for me at that time. Some years later, my parent bought me a mobile phone; a bulky Nokia 3310. But back then the calling rate was extremely expensive so most of the time we only able to text or SMS. Come to think of it, I never complaint to text; in fact I love texting because it is more expressive than speaking. Those day I could stay awake in the middle of the night just to wait for a reply. That was how obsessed I'm to writing.

In my early university years, I decided to step in for blogging. I was writing about my daily routine for a year; both in cheers and flames. But it wasn’t till the third year, when more and more people discovered my blog and eventually I start getting question like “Blog updated?” from anonymous; I'd really feel like a newspaper editor at some time. Haha. Writing actually kept me from falling asleep and through writing I know a few more friends. And whenever I feel like sleeping at work, I open up my mailbox and happily replying emails. Of course, not all mails are happy one. The one I found happy to reply to so far is to my friends. The customer mails are normally not so friendly one; occasionally you will find some amusing one too.

From blogging about daily routine turning to monthly routine and it won’t be long before it turns to quarterly routine. Usually, I only write when I have something in mind but for the past few months I just let this something slip passed my mind. Before I knew it, I totally forget about it. Then I realize, I need to jot it down in my notepad. When I open my notepad today, it is an accumulation of keywords and frankly speaking, I don’t even know where to start with. So I decided to write a new one today.

As I said earlier, life first priority is working and when you work from nine to five, the only time left for you is to recharge. Sadly, blogging is not one of the recharging agenda. Once again, coming to such extent it is neither about keeping readers nor making pocket money anymore. I still blog because I love writing.

Thank you and best regards.

Of Money Thru The Net

Few words: It has been a while since my last visit to the gym and yes, I’ve gain weight; ALOT :(


Caution: This entry going to be one hella technical one. There will be some online trading terms that you might/not heard of, I’ll try my best to explain them to you. Enjoy!

The only good thing going to work every day is their paycheck. That’s the sole motivation to work and that’s what kicks my ass up early in the morning; not the alarm. The only negative of this is impulsive buying. Well you see, being a good paycheck receiver for almost four months now have indeed boost up my buying power. Just when your buying power is equal to those of a capable man; eventually you’ll lose control and start buying those silly little thing you don’t even want, yet still manage to cost you an arm, a leg or maybe a head. That’s when Bill Gates started to have houses he didn’t even know. But for my case, I’m a poor man to start with so I start looking for cheap stuff to buy. FML!

I can consider myself as an online bargain hunter; most of the gadgets I owned were bought via the internet so I can humbly say I’m quite a veteran in this. Of course, there are pros and cons buying through internet. I can’t say it’s totally free of risk; most of the time, it’s full of risk but it all depends on your judgement. I mean there are folks out there who really want to run a business and there are conmen out there as well.

You see, most of the internet-based business doesn’t need a shop; hence they’re able to sell their product at a cheaper price. Also, they deal in a larger volume and usually they manage to get all sorts of promotion and discount direct from the manufacturer, hence the cheapest you can get. All in all, they have more variety as they’re dealing on an open platform (read about globalization to understand this). From my previous experience, I save about MYR 300+ dealing online; some local trader can jack the price up by 20-40%. The drawback of this is you need to pay extra MYR 10-30 for the postage fees.

I’m not saying you must buy from internet; in fact don’t start one if you’re not familiar with this. Yet, I’m just suggesting you another option. But if you’re new towards this thing, deal above MYR 200 is off your story. The concept is simple; MYR 200 is better than MYR 2000 for a lesson. Don’t ever accept deal above MYR 200 unless it’s a COD (Cash on Delivery); simply means that you ask the trader out for a face to face dealing method. If you’re okay with the product you pay, otherwise you decline. Play safe! They can give you their FB, address or even their photocopy of their IC; but a cheat is a cheat. The golden rule is to always check their selling history and google their name, bank accounts and etc. If you’re doubt, even for one second; cancel the whole deal. Trust me, there are many cheaters out there.

Due to this impulsive buying, recently I ordered some (read: five) clothing from a pre-order bulk sales trader. Pre-order is basically a selling method by gathering a number of customers, then order in a bulk. The good side of this is you can save on the oversea transportation fees but the down side is you need quite a big number of customers to initiate the order. If the number is below the trader expectation, you might need to wait which is normally one or two months; but for my case, it’s only a day. Delivery arrived the next day; pretty good timing I guess.

Checked on the delivery and erh…this is my first time buying cloth online. The design is alright, the colour is good and the delivery is speedy; but you might want to add this in your rule book if you want to buy cloth online next time: check on their quality first (at least ask). SHAME ON YOU, SO CALLED VETERAN!

Still can wear la. Plus I get a free gift, albeit not useful to me :(
Perhaps my ol' roommate need it?