Chit Chat | SPICEGASM.COM

November 1, 2010

Leaving Phnom Penh for Pattaya

Filed under: Cambodia,Chit Chat,Travel — Alex @ 4:15 am

After 5 days of experiencing Phnom Penh, it was time for all of us to leave. Eddie will be flying back to Malaysia. Zach and I will be leaving for Thailand, Pattaya to meet up with a couple of friends.

Since Eddie’s flight and ours are 1 hour apart, we just went to the airport together. While trying to get our boarding pass, Zach heard someone calling out his name. He was surprised and yet shocked as he doesn’t know anyone in Phnom Penh. The gentleman was Dean and he is a friend to one of Zach’s friend in Pattaya. After being reminded where they have met for the first time, Zach finally remembered. I was introduced to Dean and he was on his way to Pattaya too. What a good coincidence as we could share a cab ride.

When is time for Eddie to board his flight, we bid farewell and thank him for showing us a good time and we promise to meet up again in Phnom Penh in the near future. While waiting to board our plane to Suvarnabhumi airport I had a good chat with Dean. I found out that he is actually a photography teacher teaching in Brooks Institute. Since I am into food blogging, I was so excited to meet him and asked him tons of questions regarding photography. He was very generous with his photography tips and he even took the trouble to take out his Mac Book and showed me pictures that he had taken in Siam Reap and Phnom Penh. Here are some of the pictures that I really do like.

Simply amazing, makes me want to go to Angkor Wat the next time

More Angkor Wat picture by Dean DePhillipo

Buddha face on the rocks

He found a kid sleeping in the cave temple

All his picture are magazine worthy

Buddha monks having their lunch

Cute Khmer girl chilling on a tree

Kids playing after the rain

This cute kid seems to be very happy having her picture taken

One of the perks of traveling is you get to meet new people and friends. I am so happy to have met Dean and very grateful that he was sharing with me his experiences as a professional photographer. He told me is all about the interest and practice. I wish one day I can take pictures as nice as him, I’ll even settle for half his skills.

If you like the work of Dean and would like to contact him, here is his contact info below.

Dean DePhillipo ( link to his Facebook page )

ddephillipo@brooks.edu

Comments (1)

September 1, 2010

Thank God I am a coward

Filed under: Chit Chat — Alex @ 11:55 pm

I had an unpleasant incident yesterday. The day started off perfectly with my breakfast but something happened to me in afternoon that wasn’t that cool. I was deciding whether to post the incident in my good nature blog. I finally made the decision to do it because I am still a little bit childish I guess. I even took the time to write about the incident and email it to The Strait Times Singapore. I am quite certain that they will not publish it. At least I get to hone my writing skills. The incident does not change my perception about Singapore and I hope you guys will not generalize how most Singaporean behaves. Below is my email to the Strait Times Singapore.

My Email to Strait Times

Editor

I am a Malaysian Chinese who often spend my holidays in Singapore. I am a big supporter of Singapore and have always been fascinated with the growth of this tiny Island. Whenever I go abroad I would sometimes referred myself as Singaporean rather than Malaysian. For the record, my dad is born in Singapore but he chose to be a Malaysian when the two countries decided to part ways as he was working in Malaysia. My auntie and cousins are still Singapore citizens up till now.

While I am a big supporter of Singapore, some foreigners do have some complaint about the attitude of Singaporean towards migrant workers. I’ve always tried to defend the Singaporean and argued that is just some bad apples that are acting that way. However today I get to experience first hand while in Lucky Plaza.

We were all queuing up to withdraw some money from an ATM machine of POSB. Right opposite of the ATM machine is a remittance company. Initially I thought everybody was queuing up to send money and not for the ATM. I realized that the queue was for the ATM and quickly fall in line. After a few minutes, a Singapore guy did the same thing by not realizing that he was jumping queue. He was about 7 people in front of me and I pretended to ask the girl behind him if this is the line for ATM hopping to make him realize he was cutting the line. I sensed that he heard but pretended to not care as I caught him stealing a glance at me.

When the ATM was available, he casually walked to the ATM and made his withdrawal. He then proceeded to go to PNB and I am still waiting for my turn to withdraw my money. At that very moment I was deciding to let it slide or to confront him later. When it was my turn to withdraw money, I decided to satisfy my curiosity if the gentleman knew he cut the queue. This is Singapore and this couldn’t be happening as the gentleman appeared to be very cultured with his attire and I-phone.

So when I approached him in the bank, I just casually asked him if he knew he jumped cue. He answered no and wasn’t in an apologetic manner. I wasn’t expecting him to be apologetic like most people do regardless first world or third world. I just said thank you and walked away as my curiosity was answered.

As I was walking out, he then said excuse me and I turned back. He then asked me this question, “If I were to tell you that I did it on purpose, what you are going to do about it?” I have to admit that the question threw me off. I was shocked and angry at the same time on how someone not being apologetic is able to ask such questions. I told him I can’t do anything if he were to answer me that way and I would most probably shake my head and walk away in disgust and mumble something to myself. I am no muscle head and never fought once in my life.

He then proceeded to ask me to “WAIT OUTSIDE” like to challenge me for a fight. I told him that I’m not going to fight him but if he insist that we must, I told him we fight over it at the police station. He then answered me we never involved police one with his Singlish. Then he told me that this is not Philippines and if in Singapore, one must be prepared to face the consequences if you confront somebody. I told him I am not from Philippines and that made me realize that what really ticked him was he couldn’t accept the idea of a migrant worker confronting him about his mistakes.

Finally the bank manager came to us and asked us to tone it down as we disturbing the customers of the bank. I immediately felt embarrassed for being selfish and did not care about the customers feeling at that time. I asked the Singapore gentleman if everything is cool now and he said yes. I just walked off but being human, I was really not satisfied with the outcome.

I really wanted to go back to the bank and asked him if I can see what are the consequences of confronting someone who did something wrong in Singapore. My intention was really to keep taunting him and asked him to go police station with me to show off his manly side. I would either succeed in humiliating him as I don’t think he will go to the police station with me or scenario number 2 would be he will give me a sucker punch out of agitation. I was hoping he would do the later as they are so many witnesses around. I’ll just take one for the team, in this case is team Philippines.

P/S : I hope with some good editing, this email can find it place somewhere in any media. I sincerely believe it is a good read and comical at the same time. If not, it served the purposed of venting out my anger and disgust.

Warmest regards,

Alex Goh

( Still have high regards of Singapore )

There you go guys, that was what happened to me. For those of you who are curious why I chose that title that I thanked God for being a coward. I would have landed myself in trouble with the authorities if I weren’t one. Let’s just say the Singapore dude got a face that is really inviting to give him “ONE TIGHT SLAP”.

Comments (14)

August 11, 2010

World Food Expo in Manila

Filed under: Chit Chat,Philippines — Alex @ 9:05 am

Last Saturday ( 7th August 2010 ), I decided to check out the World Food Expo that was being held at SMX Convention & World Trade Center. I got to know about this expo while surfing the Internet. I was pretty excited to visit the expo as I might get to see some latest food invention or something that might be new to me. The entrance fee was PHP100 and I gladly paid for it and found my way in to the exhibition area.

I have to say it wasn’t what I’ve expected but it was still all right for me to actually go stroll on a lazy Saturday afternoon. The expo was definitely targeted for the big players as most of the exhibits were selling machineries. Most of the machines that were displayed are for food processing and packaging. Also heavy duty kitchen stuff for industrial cooking. I have no idea what all the machines really do but I just continued strolling and gathering brochures. After spending like 2 hours walking around aimlessly, my legs got tired.

I was planning on going to MOA ( Mall of Asia ) as it is located quite near to WTC. But it was drizzling and getting a cab might be a biatch. As I walked out from the main entrance of the expo, I saw Wensha spa and suddenly decided to hang out there instead. Heard about it all the time from friends about the free shabu shabu and eat all you kinda deal. I’m not really a spa kinda guy as I prefer YOGA anyways. Click here to see my claim of being a Yoga dude.

I am glad that my heart told me to check out this spa as the visit to Wensha spa was actually the highlight of the day and not the trip to Food Expo like what my blog title suggested. Paid PHP600 for foot massage and was given a key to go in. The place was really packed with patrons and I can see many families with their kids were enjoying the shabu shabu.

I quickly changed and went to the main area where food is being served buffet style. After eating I just rested a bit and then proceed to the foot massage area. Really cool lazy chairs with personal TV screen. After the food massage I just continued to lie lazily on the chair and just watched TV. I think I spent a total of 3 hours just lying on the chair. I managed to watch an episode of GLEE, some parts of Lethal Weapon 4 and a very cool documentary on China.

After enough of rest and TV watching, I decided to go for round 2 and go for the shabu shabu. Eating shabu shabu is nicer when you have a big group. I still got the employee of Wensha to set up the pot.

I have to say for PHP600, it is definitely a SUPER great deal. There are facilities like jacuzzi and sauna which I did not use that day, but I am sure spa fanatics will love this. Place is clean and really relaxing. I think the fact that I can hang out on the chair and watch TV for a few hours is already worth the price. Looks like I found a new place to hang out in Manila. Another good news is, Wensha sells San Miguel Light only at PHP40 per can. 😉

Comments (2)

July 26, 2010

San Miguel Light is good for you

Filed under: Chit Chat,Philippines — Alex @ 8:36 am

One of my favorite beer when I am in the Philippines gotta be San Miguel Light beer. Draft beer is available but is not very much in demand. So most Filipino drinks their beer with ice. I am used to it coz I do it too when I am in Thailand and Singapore. So the first few words that I learn in Tagalog is “baso chaka yelo”. Not sure if the spelling is correct but I am sure if you are Pinoy you can figure out it is glass with ice. SML is really easy to drink and it is really smooth. Is not hard to gulp 8 bottles of SML in 3 hours. With that amount, it can make me buzz and I suddenly become a happier person. I am not those kind of dudes who get rowdy when they have a little too much to drink ( most drunk claim that as well come to think of it ). I just love to get buzz a little and smile a whole lot more. That’s not really a bad thing right.

But I have to admit that they are times when the mood is right, with the right company of friends and the stars and moon are aligned, we tend to drink a little bit more. When I wake up the next day, I normally wish that I wouldn’t have gone all the way. So I made a resolution that I would control my boozing and not blame it on the pulutan ( snacks or tidbits ) that made me drink like 2012 is for real.

I was happy that I was able to control myself and felt pretty proud for being a responsible drinker for a while. All that changed when I received an email from my brother. It seems like drinking more than normal does gives you the same benefit as YOGA does. When I looked at the pictures that was attached to the mail, I was really convinced that it is true. Here are the pictures for you skeptics.

Savasana – position of total relaxation

Balasana – position that brings the sensation of peace and calm

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana – position calms the brain and heals tired legs

Marjayasana – Position stimulates the mi-drift area and the spinal column.

Halasana – Excellent for back pain and insomnia.

Dolphin – Excellent for the shoulder area, thorax, legs, and arms.

Salambhasana – Exercise to stimulate the lumbar area, legs, and arms.

Ananda Balasana – This position is great for massaging the hip area.

Malasana – This position, for ankles and back muscles.

So there you go. I regard myself as someone who has a fair amount of intelligence. How can I not be convince that beer is actually good for you. Now that I can save money on gym fees, I have extra money to do more YOGA daily. So to all my drinking buddies, I raise my glass and say

INOM TAYO PARE!!!!!!

Comments (5)

July 14, 2010

Another typhoon hit Luzon area

Filed under: Chit Chat,Philippines — Alex @ 6:22 pm

I was chatting with a friend online yesterday and suddenly the power went off. It was probably around 12.30 am ( GMT +8 ). The day started off with light drizzle and as soon as the power went off, strong wind and heavy rain soon started to follow. The wind was really strong and I could hear the sound of trees and awning making funky noises. It was total darkness and I am completely lost without electricity. Luckily I had some candles and I just lit it up. The noises made by the strong wind made me stay awake and I couldn’t sleep. I was afraid that this typhoon would be as bad as Ondoy. Since I couldn’t sleep, I just read a book with the help of candle lights. My cellphone ran out of battery and I just couldn’t call anyone.

After almost 24 hours of no electricity, suddenly my fluorescent light went on and I almost jumped for joy. My first instinct was to check the net to see how bad the typhoon was and did it cause havoc to the people of Luzon. My worries were confirmed as typhoon Basyang did claim some lives. My condolences to the families of the deceased. The news just made me to be a better person in a way. Living without electricity for 24 hours is not bad at all compared to those innocent people whose life was taken. May you all rest in peace.