December 2010

Tales of Four Virgins – Journey to Undara Lava Tubes

by Daniel Wong

This is a blog post that I should have written one year ago, where I travelled around Australia. Writing this post brings back lots of fun memories.

This is the 7th day of Australia tour, and we were exploring Cairns.

We are heading to Undara, a volcano spot located at Australia inland — close to the desert.

We started driving at 2am, yes freaking midnight.

We relied on GPS device heavily because there’s no civilization around that area as we were told. To make things more exciting, the GPS is a bit malfunction. This is adventure, so we don’t careeeee.

We had to use to cello-tape to manually stick the GPS device on dashboard, another long story….

The journey started at a highway where there’s no street lamp at all. We can’t see our fingers when we switch off the headlamp, seriously… it’s so awesome!!

I was the designated driver for the day, and I was told the drive will take 5-6 hours.

While I was driving, I feel bored. Feeling a bit mischievous — I turn off the light, and say:

“You see!! no lights! wooohoooo!!”

“OIII OIIII !!!!! TURN ON THE LIGHT EHH !!!!!”, Chris shouted in panic. “Don’t play these kind of things” he said.

Suk arrrrrrr?

“我駕車，你定ehhh”, coming from a over-confident driver… that’s me

There’s no public toilet, and we had to release our extra liquid into the wild.

Why stand in front of the headlamp?

It’s too dark — we need the light to show where we are aiming at… we were avoiding potential snake attack. Worst case scenario is having 2 extra holes on our gugujiao.

Oh, I probably killed 10+ frogs along the journey… and avoided a dead boar and buffolo. Whole night I was singing Dead bodies everywhere by KoRn (Youtube).

The sun finally rises, and we realise how pretty our surrounding is.

Look at photo, you cannot see the end of the road… and it’s sooooooooooooo straight.

We would be driving 200km/h if there’s not hidden speed camera, but we didn’t take our chances. We already received a illegal parking ticket at Sydney.

There’s a movie about lorry driver murdering traveler on these Australian highway, and it is based on true story.

Goooood morning!!

Chester did his morning exercise on top of the car.

We finally arrived our destination after 5 hours of driving - Undara Lava Tubes.

“Err… where is that volcano oh?”

“Yalohhhh, not even a small hill along our journey, where is the lava?”

…. it turns out we’re visiting at lava which was formed at pre-history years. Hence, the name “Undara Lava Tubes“.

DIU NYA @#$%@#$@#$!!!!!!! (insert more curse… although unnecessary)

We should have understand the term before deciding to come -_-

According to the tour guide, this is the largest flow of lava from a single volcano in the world. The lava can probably cover whole Malaysia if my calculation is right.

BUT, I WANT TO LOOK AT REAL LAVA!!

“Sorry but there’s no such thing here”…

niama. waste my time only.

The boys get too bored, and we started slapping on each other’s gugujiao as entertainment.

… and the war started.

Every time we take photo, we have to cover our sensitive part because that is when our gugujiao is most vulnerable (two guys stand beside one another, and the hand is within reach…)

PS: This “entertainment” last until end of the trip.

On another note, I found one funny looking tree!

What do you think the tree looks like? Reply in the comments below…

“Ah Bing found a tree that looks like _______, and I like it!”

I learnt lesson the hard way.. I forgot to protect my gugujiao while taking photo with this Sarawak Samseng..

You see the smile on the photo? I faked it, I was holding back my pain. Ngai sat, punya sakit…

Check out the related Australia Trip post here:

Tales of Four Virgins – Expedition to Sydney (Day 1)
Tales of Four Virgins – Expedition to Canberra (Day 2 Part One)
Tales of Four Virgins – Expedition to Canberra (Day 2 Part Two)
Tales of Four Virgins – Expedition to Sydney (Day 3)
Tales of Four Virgins – Expedition to Sydney (Day 4)
Tales of Four Virgins – Ventures to Chillagoe Caves

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The Origines of Hak Lon Da Fun (Glutinous Rice Ball)

by Daniel Wong

Do you know what is this?

In my hometown, this is known as HAK LON DA FUN (Malay pronounciation) — A delicacy that originates from Japan and Taiwan. Originally known as 麻薯.

麻薯
日本人把糯米粉或其他淀粉类制成的有弹性和粘性的食品叫做“饼”，日语发音（もち／mochi），台湾音译之为“麻薯”。
Simple English translation: Japanese -> use glutinous rice -> make it sticky sticky -> call mochi -> Taiwanese also ikut -> then call muaji

And since _____ years ago, this delicacy secretly arrived in Malaysia, and it has became part of our culinary culture.

There are many ways to prepare muaji. Some prefer to coat it with peanut and sugar, others prefer to wrap the peanut and sugar inside the muaji. In my hometown, they prefer the wrap it.

The muaji is covered with a thin layer of powder to prevent it from sticking with other muaji(s).

Did you know?

The word “HAK LON DA FUN” derived from Hakka, literally means “pat powder on your balls”. HAHAHAHAHHA you believe it or not!?

Imagine this,

“Auntie, bin ngai hak lon da fun ehh, ngai oi liong zak” (Translate: Auntie, please give me 2 testicles with powder).

Imagining buying this at market ehhh… incredibly awkward.

“Ngai choi!! zomai ngi ann chuu ohhhhh? moi lon lon gong wah” (Translate: fuck, why are you so rude? don’t simply talk ahh”

This I believe, is the most awesome, and most canggih name for a delicacy, ever. Whoever comes up with this name is a genius.

***

Do you know the real name for this delicacy? What would you name this HAK LON DA FUN if you were to put it in a restaurant menu?

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[Update] My Items Have Arrived From Amazon

by Daniel Wong

“Wong Jian Ping?! Hello?! Wong Jian Ping??”

I heard someone calling my full name while I was reading book at home.

“Kamu Wong Jian Ping kahhh?” the postman asked the renovation worker, who was doing a minor renovation outside my house (who happens to be Chinese also, not illegal immigrant).

I immediately shout “saya! saya!” from my house, preventing the postman to ask more silly questions.

The postman handed me a box..

“Tolong sign sini, tulis nombor IC jugak ya.”

***

“Wah, my parcel from US arrived so quickly geh?” I was damn excited.

I opened the parcel… and my items from Amazon has finally arrived!

I was sooooooooooooo excited! My books arrived earlier than expected. And it’s before Christmas. Oh hell yeah.

These are Christmas presents I bought for myself, this is a reward for myself for being hardworking and discipline in 2010 — I tell you, the feeling of unboxing Christmas gift is so awesome.

I jumped around with the parcel while my mum was cooking.

“Oii, behave yourself” my mum warned me.

Hahahaha, I cannot tahan bah. More excited than receiving my _________ (I don’t know what to fill in the blank)

In the 8 Amazing Items I bought from Amazon as Christmas Gifts post, I said that I bought 8 items. But when I check out, there are some items are not available outside US, so I only bought 4 items instead. 3 books and 1 towel.

The towel is very canggih.. it absorbs waters kaw-kaw!! $24 is a great investment. I showed the towel to mum, she said “wahh, very geng ohh!!”

“Of course la, I got do research one mah. And my taste in fashion is never wrong” I said.

….. I blurred the billing address (above photo), but forgot to blur the shipping address, bummer! Too lazy to re-upload the photo. There goes my privacy.

The book that excites me the most, The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. I know it’s hardcover, but damnnnnn I never expect the book to be so thick! Almost twice the size of his previous book, The 4 Hour Work Week.

There are so many awesome content — I can’t wait to check out Need to finish my current reading list first, though.

P/S: My book collections are slowing building up. If there’s fire, I’d probably save this books first, then only save important documents, such as passports and birth certificates. Haha .

Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah /happy

I have new readings materials lalalalallalala (and also a new towel).

Oh, to readers who left comments on 8 Things I Bought at Amazon, sorry I have to let you down. I am not able to test the “17 countries, 6 weeks, 1 pair of underwear” statement myself. Maybe some other time lah, that’s definitely one of must-have items if I were to go extensive travel on upcoming year.

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Kin Hwa Restaurant at Inanam, Kota Kinabalu

by Daniel Wong

Kin Hwa Restaurant is a Chinese restaurant my friend recommended long time ago. It’s situated directly beside Inanam main bus stop.

The roast duck (燒鴨) and roast pork (燒肉) is very nice. Probably one of the best in KK, in my opinion.

Wanted to blog about this 3 months ago, but decided to test it few more times before posting on blog.

(Actually, laziness is the main reason)

I believe Kin Hwa Restaurant speciality is roast duck, there’s a HUGE picture on the wall — showcasing shiny roasted ducks. Looks succulent and delicious.

The shiny skin is very tempting and I don’t know why.. ^^;

(Shit! my saliva started flowing in mouth as I am writing this)

Errr… roasted duck is on the other side of the plate. My bad ^^;

I ate this noodle for many times. So far, their food standard has been very consistent. Kin Hwa restaurant easily serves the best roast duck in KK.

I usually replace the noodle to flat noodle (扁面), I found that flat noodle has more flavour.

The sifu is very young handsome dude ( *cough* I am not interested in man, mind you). He usually wears a wrist band and baseball cap while chopping the food.

And, again — I don’t know why I have mention it in my blog. I guess I am running out of shits to say, lol.

Don’t be late — I went there around 2pm and everything is sold out.

I learned that the hard way; I ended crying in my room that day. /emo song

If you’re lucky, you can see one dog sits there obediently waiting for the food. I don’t know how frequent the dog goes there, but it’s very interesting