Mr Three-Oh-Five

"My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, I had to stop for the night>'
Hotel California - Eagles 

It's been a REALLY long time since I've last used the Blogger interface to update my blog...I sure miss it!

I've been driving quite a bit lately and getting used to my dad's Proton Wira is pretty fun. Plus, it has cruise control.

However, while driving home on my own for the first time that night after an extraordinarily long day at college, the tired feel got to me, and the cruise control came in really handy. It was then when I tilted my head up and saw a welcoming sight.

(Photo courtesy of Mynjayz.com) 

This was rather new in Kota Damansara, so I parked my car, went straight up and checked in...

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...on Foursquare.

You honestly think I would check in to a hotel on a weeknight with tons of overdue homework? Not my thing. Besides, by doing so I would probably earn the School Night badge...

But I earned another badge from that checkin, and that was the swarm badge. 50 folks also checked in there.

So what's the big deal about the hotel? Here are 5 star points about it.

1. The rooms look like a typical city hotel.

2. The showers are powered and have hot water.

3. The Air conditioning is available...

(Image from riezarchry.com) 

... for a price

4. Towels are available

5. The beds are EXTRA clean

Five star-points about the hotel. 5-Star service ready to attend to you when you want it.

If you read my blog regularly, you'll see that I am a money oriented Malaysian who boils everything down until it makes sense cents.

That leads me now to the price. So what about the price? Well, the room prices start at RM 9.90. That's cheaper than burning a night out at a cybercafe, ordering 2 buckets of beer while watching football, or even going out to a cheap nightclub.

So if you're tired and sick of driving and you happen to be in Kota Damansara, or if you're looking for a cheap and quick getaway not too far from the city, set your GPS to Tune Hotels.com Kota Damansara and give your legs a break, take a hot shower and relax on an extra clean, five-star bed for less than the price of a full tank of petrol.

It's more than worth it. Let's face it. The Tune group really kept the Malaysian wallets nice and fat!

Love,
D.A.niel

I Really Shouldn’t Miss You, But I Can’t Let You Go

“I went down to the demonstration to get my fair share of abuse. Singing we’re gonna vent our frustration. If we don’t we’re gonna blow a 15 amp fuse.”
You Can’t Always Get What You Want - Mick Jagger

After 2 weeks, Drive The Sensation is BACK on line.

For personal reasons, I have discontinued the Down By The Riverside travelogue. Please don’t ask why. Plus I won’t begin on the Orientale travelogue until I’m emotionally settled.

There are some things that I just seemed to realize about myself today. It never hit me before, and I’m so surprised it didn’t. I guess I’ve been living life too loosely.

1. I LIVE IN A BOX

Even though I have a license and can drive, I hardly ever go out. Most of my time is spent in a room in front of a computer. Heck, I don’t even watch TV. Just last night I almost turned down watching Ip Man 2 with my family so that I can return to my room and do work. Luckily Joel convinced me to come out and watch. Sad huh?

2. I HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR CHEAP THINGS

Anything that has a price label of RM1 grabs my attention instantly. As Scott told me, it ruins me because I can’t resist it. I don’t shop for designer stuff, neither do I always seek the most expensive. I always buy the cheapest alternative on the shelf, even if I know that it won’t last.

3. I HAVE A BAD SENSE OF HUMOUR

Maybe it’s the people around me that influence this, but I really don’t know. I laugh at almost anything. Are my jokes offensive? Off colour? That’s why when I get the “tell a joke” dare in the iPhone Truth or Dare app, I’m doomed to the escape penalty. It’s sad when no one laughs at your jokes especially after being the one of the biggest clowns in my old school. In fact, it sucks. Worst part is, so many people today have grown to like offensive, off colour jokes.

4. I HAVE NO CLOSE FRIENDS

Don’t misunderstand this heading. What I meant is that I don’t have any one friend whom I go out with, do stuff with, spend time with and look back at good memories with. If anyone in the world was given two tickets to an awesome vacation somewhere, no one out there who would care to bring me along. Maybe it’s because I’m single, most of my best friends are of the opposite sex, or that if they’re male, they’re taken.

5. I LOOK LIKE SHIT

Looks don’t matter. That’s probably a fact only in my world. I don’t look appealing to anyone at all. My first date was with someone who used me, nothing more. I was a fool to accept. Some of you may not dare to say it to my face, but I can see it already. I’ve been reading between the lines for years already. It’s nothing new to me.

6. THE MORE I FIGHT FOR SOMETHING, THE MORE VULNERABLE I GET

The beauty about standing up for what’s right is when the subject or prejudice doesn’t apply to you, but you still fight for it. You become a hero for those you fight for. Unfortunately, the more I fight for what I believe is right, the more I’m labelled as part of the discriminated party. I become a saviour of the damned, but the laughing stock of the rest of the world.

7. DEODORANT DOESN’T WORK ON ME

Every morning for the past few weeks, I have been using excessive dosages of deodorant on my entire body but it still can’t combat my body odour that well. Don’t get me wrong. I love AXE and V3 deodorant. if only they were 100x more effective…

8. BEING A LIGHTBULB HAS MANY DISADVANTAGES

In case you’re not aware of the definition of the word light bulb, other than Edison’s orb it also means the “third party” in a relationship. Someone who’s not in the date, but still goes out with the pair that’s dating. I’ve been that idiot for a while with more than one couple. It’s not my fault. They ask me to follow and I innocently tag along, or it’s because I’m in the middle of a conversation with someone.

Now this doesn’t fall into the category of going out with close friends. I’m a good friend with one of them, but I’ve only felt it once, and even then I blew it. I hope you know who you are and if you’re reading this, understand how I felt at that time.

I just got home from Father’s Day dinner with the family. Having 2 backseat drivers is NOT fun, especially when they give conflicting instructions. At least let me drive the friggin car the way I want to. Gosh I really don’t like the way my parents look down on drivers my age. It’s so discriminatory, and they want to talk to ME about discrimination.

If you have read until this point, you have successfully covered 900 words of me venting my frustrations. I guess you know what it feels like now, and thank you for being a listening ear. I’ll repay the favour to the maximum of my extent. Honestly, if you need a friend to talk to, I’m here at +6017-2914344.

Love in it’s most sincere form,
D.A.niel

Down By The Riverside -Part Three- Stranger To Blue Water

“Life is older, older than the trees, younger than the mountains growing like a breeze.”
Take Me Home, Country Roads - John Denver

The morning air was fresh as David’s Honda City pulled up in front of Kenn’s place. I was still hungover from the beer I had the night before, but I still loaded the car.

Gilfred was a little under the weather so the car was really quiet through the first chapter of the journey all the way up to Bentong for breakfast. The Chee Chong Fun there was awesome as an early morning meal. I’ve never had that stuff for breakfast since I was 12.

After a good and hearty breakfast, we hit the road again with our next destination set straight for Kenyir. To pass the time we sang some golden oldies and turned the VTEC Honda were riding into a hippie van right out of the 70s.

I learnt that taking pictures of yourself is a whole lot easier…

…when the camera is held upside down.

I never had a more enjoyable ride through estate roads.

By the time we hit the jetty, our phones already had no coverage of any sort. No signal, no internet. We were wirelessly stranded.

Upon loading the ferry, we enjoyed the awesome and beautiful scenery on the ride in.

And just like my “Angkor What!?” travelogue from Cambodia last December, all of the following scenes are downloadable as wallpapers!

We arrived safely and settled into our rooms before having lunch. I had never seen so many catfish on a dish in my life!

To top the afternoon off, the gang had some real water fun my soaking each other with their water guns and buckets. David, of course, topped off the competition with the pail from the bathroom.

The ferry then took us to the waterfall, where we were armed with 20 cans of coke and waterguns ready for all the fun we could have. Sadly the rain hit just when we were settled in the smooth and relaxing current of the waterfall

What’s worse? None of us have waterproof cameras, so there goes another beautiful Kodak moment down the drain.

Dinner was up and we couldn’t wait. The kitchen was emitting scents that could be picked up at least a mile away.

Moving on, most of the gang went to sleep while I stayed up for my first shot of vodka. It felt awesome. I’ve always waited to try the drink neat and straight down. it burns but it’s damn well worth it. Plus, it bought me back into the poker game I was in.

And that concluded our first night, or so I thought.

I curled up in Room 5 with Joseph on the other bed and nearly dozed off. I had unexplainable joint pains but I blamed it on the vodka. David popped in for a chat.

Kenn joined in a little later and we got to learn so much more about how life works (especially me, the kid who lost the instruction manual to the gift of LIFE). Kenn never opened up so much before.

Wei En crashed in the same room as us. We talked up to about 2 in the morning until everyone else was asleep but poor old me. Good thing I had some music on to help my on my voyage to dreamland.

Love,
D.A.niel

Down By The Riverside -Part Two- High On Helium

“There’s me being just like me, hanging from the family tree.”
Pure Bred Redneck - Jeff Foxworthy

I’ve never been drunk before, and I always thought that if I ever did, it would be in someone’s house where they would have to drag my heavy ass up and down the building to ensure no one trips over my likely-to-be topless body.

As usual, I was wrong.

 
And that was taken when I was still sober. If you can recognize the background, you’d probably tell that I am at the Laundry Bar in The Curve. If you did, then you’re right.

Looking at what I was wearing, they held me up and asked for my IC. i just handed it over to them, no questions asked. Their reply?

“You cannot drink!”

“WHY NOT!?”

“You’re below 18.”

*in my head* don’t f*** with me…

“I AM ABOVE 18!”

“Your birthday isn’t here yet”

>Are you guys stupid or something!?<

“I’m born on 6 January!”

“No! Cannot drink!”

OH WTF MAN!?

“My birthday has passed!”

[FYI: I just forked out RM 30 for 2 small bottles of Heineken, I am NOT gonna just let my money slip away like that.]

>a minute later<

“Sorry sir.”

Took them that long.

Honestly, I dress like shit. I had no idea we were headed to a bar so I just went as I was. Bad choice huh.

But that wasn’t even the end of it.

I walked into the bar area again, this time with my second beer in my hand. The guy walks up to me and says

“Outside beer not allowed here.”

DEY. STOP PICKING ON ME.

“But I ordered this from here. I just sat outside.”

“No outside drinks.”

“THE BUCKET IS OUTSIDE!”

“Oh ok, sorry again.”

Jeez man. My first night in a pub and I get all sorts of shizz. Not to mention how drunk I got after that.

Note to self: NEVER shoot beer.

Being drunk is really a unique feeling. Not that I like it, but it does give me a high. I described it as like being a balloon. Like just floating around without a care in the world.

After our drinking session we proceeded to the Blitzone in Damansara for some DotA. It sounded fun, it turned out to be shit. I still can’t play DotA for nuts.

After that, it was nap time until we hit the road.

TO BE CONTINUED

Love,
D.A.niel

Down By The Riverside -Part One- Roll Out The Carpet

“She likes the samba and the mambo, she likes to breakdance and calypso.”
Rock That Body - Black Eyed Peas

Welcome back folks.

Many apologies for the late update. It was pretty much true. There is no line in Kenyir. No phone signal, no internet connection, no telecommunication, only satellite TV and GPS.

It was really like living in a jungle, and the best part is yet to come, but I’ve got some stuff to acknowledge before starting off.

Knowing that I don’t have even a compact camera of my own, and that my phone camera isn’t the least reliable, I had a few friends help me with the burden of photography. Just like many bloggers do, I’ll be watermarking pictures, and in this case, with their names on them too.

Our first photographer, who took so many pictures that it couldn’t all fit on one memory card,

HOONG WEI EN

The second photographer, who learnt a lot about her own camera through the course of the trip,

JOYCE CHAN SOOK KWAN

The third photographer, whose photos I’ll have to rip off Facebook,

CHEAH PEI SZAN

And then there are photos that are from my own phone camera which may not be of the ultimate quality.

So stay tuned. There’s tons of stuff for me to blog about!

Love,
D.A.niel