A few words that last me a day in Mexico

Audiencia beach in Manzanillo.

It is scary to go to a place without knowing their local language. When i came to know that my ship is calling Manzanillo, i know that i have to know a few words in Spanish. No hablo espaniol! I dun speak Spanish! This is the first sentence i learned.

The locals are friendly but they will only speak to you in spanish. When i got into a taxi, i just mentioned the name of the place that i wanna go. I proceeded on with various sign languages and fingers counting... and hey i'm good at that, man!

Quanto? How much?
Gracias. Thank you.
No comprendo. I dun understand.
La quenta, por favor. Bill, please.
Mariscos. Seafood.
Buenas. Good.

These words were enough for me to get out from the ship, take a taxi, change money, have food, swim at the beach, shopping and back to the ship. One good thing is they dun cheat you. They may charge you a little higher but not as much as a Malaysian taxi driver does. They pronounce our country as Ma-lai-see-ah. Sounds like chinese...hehe.

Adios. Hasta luego!













Drying my jeans up the umbrella and my Spanish notes.

“Dung be a heyro.”

Recently we had a safety meeting on board ship discussing about accidents and fatalities at work. It was a boring 1 hour meeting until my boss said,

“Dung be a heyro.”

Huh, what? That was exactly how my PRC boss said in his chinese accent.

“Dung be a heyro. Safety first. If you die, I go du jail.”

We had a good laugh.

And who is that in this picture? My best bud on a bad day.

Lost

Did we ever get lost while travelling in Queensland? Yes, many times, but their very effective tourist information booths can be found almost everywhere. Think McDonald's. You can find them in many strategic spots.

Friendly volunteers put so much enthusiasm in telling us 'what to do', 'what to see' and 'where to find'. These booths equipped with maps, brochures and electronic information. It's so hard to get lost!

Their interesting comments become our source of motivation in looking forward to see what's next.



This is how we build the best memories in some of the most boring places we had visited :)






A point to remember is try not to stay at one place for too long! Go go go... next place!

FAQ - My Job

These are the questions i get from people all around me. I hope this helps :) It is not the sun, sea and the sand.

I have seen that movie 'Perfect Storm', encounter any waves like that before?
No, i am not on a fishing boat. I am on a containership. We choose the safest route possible according to the weather forecast. We don't go for suicide mission, unless we get paid to do a similar movie like that.

How about pirates?
No, i hope not to see one. Oh yeah, if i ever gonna see one, i doubt they will be like Jack Sparrow and his gang.

Do you carry weapons on board ship?
Missiles, mines, torpedos, nuclear bombs, the recent liquid bombs... just to name a few. For close combat, we armed ourselves with katanas, nunchakus, some chinese brand poisoned needles, staffs and even boxing gloves glazed with broken glasses. For extreme cases, we have nominated suicide bombers to execute kamikaze.

What do you do on board ship?
Work, eat and sleep. Like a prisoner.

What do you do when you are free?
Play game, watch movies, read and think of home.

What happens if your engine breakdown?
Troubleshoot and repair.

If still cannot?
Read manuals, see how it works and improvise.

If still cannot?
Look for spares, change parts or renew parts.

If still cannot?
Call for help.

If still cannot?
Abandon ship.

Abandon ship? How?
Use lifeboats, liferafts or with my personal rubber ducky float.

Do you go fishing while sailing?
No, you can't fish with a fishing rod when the ship is moving at 22 knots which is about 40 kph. But you can throw a fishing net and heave it in later.

Have you seen any whales, dolphins or any other exotic animals swimming in the ocean?
No, don't ask me. Please tune in to Animal Planet or National Geographic.

When are you going to be a captain?
I can't be and will never be one. I am in the engineering side. Which is good, I don't want to lose an arm, a leg or an eye.

What if you are the last survivor on board ship? Can you navigate?
In that case, i can manage.

The ship is so big, can you handle it alone?
Why not? Just insert the key, start the engine, put the auto transmission to 'D' and step on the accelerator. Easier than driving a car. 'Cause ships do not have any brake pedal... one thing lesser to worry about.

Ohhh....
Ahh...

How many people are there on your ship?
About 20 to 30. Soon the manning will get lesser and lesser. One of the world's largest containership that i heard, needs only 13 people. One day, maybe we can operate on OMO (One Monkey Only).

Are you sure? I thought there will be like hundreds of people! The ship is so big!
Yeah, i am not on a cruise ship.

How is your radar like? Is it a black screen with a rotating green line and some green dots indicating nearby ships?
No, it is now like playing Starcraft. You can attack those nearby objects if they are blocking your right of way.

So do you play Starcraft to practice?
No, i am a human Warcraft player.

You don't play Starcraft?
No.

Play it before?
No.

Really? Waahahaahahaha...
Herherher...

Hmmm... do you play any other games?
No, i only play Warcraft at the moment.

The ship is made of steel, how come it will not sink?
I think underneath the ship has some buoyant rubber dinghy stuff.

What do you do when there is an emergency on board? Like fire?
We dial an emergency number for help.

Oh, a helpline! That's very good.
But hardly people use it.

Why?
It takes very long. It goes like, "Press 1 for english, untuk bahasa malaysia, tekan dua... bla bla.. press 0 to speak to an officer." Then they will put you on hold.

Have you ever cross the equator?
Yeah.

How do you know if you have cross the red equator line?
We saw a red line there in the ocean and we crossed it.

Do you communicate by sending morse code?
No, we now can use the internet and have live conference meeting. Or you can record your video and put it on youtube.

How about the internal communication on board ship?
We make use of IM and do messaging. If we wanna complain about something, we usually voice them up in our blogs and ask for votes.

In an emergency, how do you call for help?
We have live cams all around the ship. We can activate a talk back to speak to the officer on watch and we wave frantically in front of the camera.

What if your ship loses its internet connectivity?
Then we might have to bring our laptops to the nearest Starbugs and get online.

Have you ever hit an iceberg?
No, all of us have already watched Titanic and afraid that our ship would break into 2. We take precautions. We can hit any other thing other than an iceberg. We can try hitting an island for instance.

Do you carry stowaways?
I am not sure about that. i can't possibly open all the containers and do a search for them.

Do you stop at every port?
No, if we were to stop at every port, the things that you have bought on ebay, might take ages to reach you.

How long do you stop in a port?
Ranging from 6 hours to 3 days. Depending on the facilities at that port. And it is getting shorter and shorter due to modern technologies.

6 hours? Wow... Can you go out?
Can, i then have less than 6 hours to go out.

Any advice to our readers?
Once, my chief engineer said to me,"Do not make any mistakes, one mistake brings you back very far." Yeah, it's true, see how far i've got. Half a globe away sometimes.

The 10-Day Marathon

Here comes the most hectic period of my stay in Me!bourne. Our friends in Singapore came here for their 10 day breakaway from work. We went everywhere. Too many to list them down.

One enjoyable attraction was the cow milking farm at Caldermeade Farm. We found this place on our way to Philip Island. Wanna know if we have tried milking the mama cows?


Eeeewww... We just stayed at the viewing gallery and watched the merry-go-round cow milking machine.

The Love for Kung Fu movies

I had been a serious youtuber last month, youtubing for all Jet Li's old movies. Starting from Once Upon a Time in China 1, 2, 3 and 6. Then moved on to his Fong Sai Yuk 1 and 2 series.

The song '男兒當自強' - 'A Man of Determination' must be heard to compliment it. It is just like any Hindi movie, it cannot go far without a song. His wong fei hung character never fails to motivate me. Soon later, I suggested to min han,

"Let's do some action movie posters!"

You know, to be able to shoot and to be in the picture as well is difficult. Especially when you are doing some difficult posing because you have no idea how good you look while taking the picture.

Roadside 15 minute quickie

This time we wanted to have our pictures taken at the bottom of a hill instead of at the top. As we went along the tourist road at the Glass House Mountains, i took a turn into Mt. Tipu-tangan (it is actually Mt. Tibrogargan).

This is my best shot.

Hitting the road from Coolangatta airport

Gold Coast is packed with resorts and residential areas. While traveling along the Gold Coast Hwy, we see motels, fast food chains, supermarkets, resorts, petrol stations, caravan parks, restaurants, theme parks, shops, hotels and numbers of beaches with different funny names.

With so many accommodations there, I just cannot imagine how big the crowd would be during peak season. We had chosen a good time to go, winter :) And still, we wanna get ourselves wet :P

"It is the second most populous city in the state and the sixth most populous city in the country."
-Wikipedia

The first 5 are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Which city do you prefer to live in? My choice, Melbourne.

The route we traveled.

Going for the water... and the sand

Beaches, theme parks, shoppings, golf clubs and fishing spots. That's Gold Coast, everyone knows about it. Other attractions are like Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, some National Parks, waterfalls, some mountains, a fish market and you know what's the best thing that i enjoyed?

"Swim between the red and yellow flags."
(and dun get killed by a stingray)

Adding excitement to our winter holiday, we took pictures and videos with our olympus waterproof camera (850SW, if you are interested). Great isn't it? Yea, poor me, because later i found, it is not sand proof. Eventually all the fine golden sand found its way to every small openings on the camera casing until i noticed, i can no longer press the shutter button or turn the control dial easily. I was so depressed, okay! I ran to the nearest toilet and saved it by leaving the camera under running tap water for a few minutes. Whew...

After that, i went back to the hotel and tell myself not to do that again beach for more daring pictures... muahahaha...

Hanging Rock

Climbing a rocky hill like this is not difficult at all. This is one good reason why i like traveling around Melbourne. Most of their attractions provide you an easy footpath to follow. This eventually saves time, giving you lots of buffer time to cover many places in one day.

We didn't think this is a nice place at first. Because there were too little promotional pictures showing us the things to look out for. During the climb, we were more than happy to see there were plenty of nice spots for good photographs.

By spending a little more time, you will be able to find many nice angles to fill your rectangle sensor frame. A challenging terrain for mounting your camera on a tripod. Many times, i exclaimed,"Check this out! My camera is not falling over!"

Keng Boon's Wedding House Party

I am so excited to see my own uploaded video on youtube. Keng Boon, Wei wei, this is for you. I am so sorry that this video didn't reach you guys.(i know, i know, it was years ago, but i just cannot remember how many years ago) You have got to remind us again when exactly you had that party. Andrew and i were so messed up with the dates!

Looking at that video, i was never tired of seeing our mischievious self back then. A 7 minute video is just not enough, i was playing it repeatedly last night. Thanks to Andrew for picking it up for me from his old dusty CD case archive.

Mornington Peninsula

This is one of the most memorable photo during the trip. I have got to admit that the 10 sec timer delay is not enough for me to reach min han on time. I kinda like the bird's eye view, thought that we can smile and look up. But hahaha... this is the closest i can get 'into the frame', one out of the many tries.

Eventually, we reached Portsea, the very end of the peninsula. And guess what, my camera's battery got flat. Spare battery? I had forgotten to had it charged the day before. What a beginner's mistake! Heck, we've gotta go back.

Driving a Smart car

"It makes driving a lot easier and its size makes other vehicles in the vicinity seems more noticable." All in all, it brings safety awareness closer, don't you agree?

I enjoyed travelling with it especially with min han. The car made us sit closer to one another. You just turned your head and you can do your smooch smooch thing!

To all people out there driving a smart car, enjoy!

Fairfield Park Boathouse & Tea Gardens

Pearly took us out for lunch and tea at this lovely boathouse. What is better than having an old friend spending time with us in a foreign place like this, huh?

Talking over coffee, hot chocolate, scones, cakes and not forgetting the pizza. (Hey, Pearly, thanks for the great idea!) We haven't seen each other for more than 10 years. Loved those weird true stories and shitty juicy gossips of all we know. Time changes everything and everyone. These are the things everyone knows. But how many people care to share? Hahaha... guess we are just lucky to bump into each other at the right time and... the right mood.

Wanna row a boat along the Yarra river? Try this place, Fairfield Boathouse... and bring an old friend :)

Good Coffee Day at Starbucks

I considered today is one of the happiest days of my life. Nothing can make me happier than getting a free cup of coffee from Starbucks.

The catch is to get up early, cos they only serve them free from 9 -11 am. That's early to me!

The prize, a tall cup (350 ml) of Cafe Estima Fairtrade Certified coffee. It is a strategy to help coffee farmers to make better and more coffee. People says this Estima Blend tastes bad. But it's okay for me, cos it's free. I wouldn't want to pay for one either.




I thought the queue would be long. But it turned out to be like any other day. Just imagine the queue, if they have this in Malaysia. Camp outside and stay overnight...hahaha...

I got my coffee from the Starbucks at Swanston St next to HSBC bank. Guess how many cups i grab that day?

ANZAC Day at the Shrine of Remembrance

ANZAC Day? What's that? Anyway, I woke up early to watch the Anzac Day parade march from Swanston St to the Shrine of Remembrance. The march dismissed at the shrine about 3 km away from my place.

The shrine is built; "In remembrance of those who served and those who died in the Great War of 1914-1918 and armed conflicts and peacekeeping duties since."

Lots of senior citizen joined the march. Flooding the road with banners, flags and emblems proudly. Some travel in style, in their vintage cars, probably they were too old to walk. Some in wheelchairs, walking sticks and some even with their prosthetic legs. And I noticed, people cheered and clapped louder for these guys. The marching lasted for more than 4 hours.

They had 2 bands playing the whole time, alternately, to give rest to one another. It must be damn tiring, huh? They kept on playing and repeating a number of music pieces until i can recognized the play entitled,"Glorious Victory". La, la, la, la, la, lalala...

At about noon, i felt tired so i went home. Happy ANZAC Day, yea, it is a public holiday.

Kerry's Birthday

We attended Kerry's birthday dinner at Little Malaysia. A restaurant in Liverpool St. This is Mei jie, Min Han's boss at the restaurant. She sometimes help her out during the weekends. The place is small but the low-key lighting ambience feels cozy.

Elaine is there too. Remember her from Singapore Poly? Doing architecture? She is now in Melbourne.

From left: (ignoring the 2 cheeky girls), Kerry, Denise, Elaine and Min Han.

Go for your Life! Festival of Cycling

How do we put our bicycles into good use? Join a cycling event! It was held in Albert Park, about 45 mins of riding from the place we stayed. Getting a free T-shirt was something for me to look forward to.

They were having this Grand Prix Time Trial Challenge for serious cyclists as one of their main activity. For Min Han and i, we just sticked around for the leisure riding around the park.

As when these mascots appeared from nowhere, this event turned out to be like a family day, for those who wants to spend their time cycling in the sun. Meet 'Ranger Roo' and 'Constable T Bear'. Soon enough, a band group started playing some music. Guess who manned the band? 3 men and a woman from a local police department in their uniform! Dude, they really love their job. Big wow.

Early Dim Sim

This lazy fine Saturday early morning, Min Han and i went for dim sim at the Shark Fin Inn restaurant. Meeting up with Min Han's workmates too. Not really that early, 11.30am. And it is still morning. We cannot be there any earlier because they open at 11.30am... hehe :)

I am really not used to getting up with a weather this cold. And it is not even winter yet. I think by then, waking up is going to be difficult.

Anyway, back to the restaurant, the food is good but the service is lousy. Or they just didn't liked us.
From right: Hayley and her husband, Wen, Kei, Wiebke and Florence. This picture looks like as if we are attending a chinese wedding dinner.

Dim Sim is the Australian way of naming dim sum.

To the newly wed, Hayley and Wen, congratulations. And Kei, you are so funny. "Mosh mosh, pan suki ka?" :)

Tibetan and the Han

To split or not to split? This is a demonstration i came across this morning at the State Library of Victoria. The march of the chinese people forced the closure of the intersection between Swanston St and La Trobe St. They are going against the independence of Tibet.

Being a political expert idiot, i have no say about what is going on. I am just interested in what people can do to make a change. Power to the people. All of them could be wrong, but who knows what is right? A tough rat year for china huh?

Hey, what was i doing there? I was on my way home from Coles doing my groceries. What shall i eat today? That sounds more like a problem to me.

Day out at Fed Square

We gonna test out our new bikes! Let's go somewhere! Hmmm, somewhere not far. One fine day, here we go... Federation Square.
















Here in this pic, there is a Canadian woman street performer doing her tricks.















At the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

Where to go with my push bike?

Sitting in the reading corner at Borders, i was deciding on my ride list in Melbourne. Oh man, don't know whether i can still take the challenge on long distance riding. Even the shortest trip is 16km, recommended in this book! I was expecting to see 5km and below. I guess there isn't any good place to ride nearby huh.

Getting my wheels

I got 2 bicycles from Big W that came in a box. Just dialed 1800 251 311 and a delivery guy sent them over. Smiled and asked him to keep the change. Okay, just kidding.

Poor me. i had to carry them home all by myself. It is impossible for me to carry them both so i had to drag them home one by one. Yeah, drag... everyone was looking at me by the noise i made. Luckily i was staying quite near to their store. About 10 mins walk uphill. Poor me again, i had to drag them up the slope.


You must be wondering why i didn't get it assembled and ride home. Yeah, that's a better idea. The thing is, they were on sale, only a few units left on the shelves. I did not have any tools to fix them at that time too. So i grabbed the bikes first, opened them up, checked for what are the tool needed, then only i hunt for the tools. Cos, cheaper tools did not come from the same store.

Fixing is easy but alignment on the brakes pad takes awhile to adjust. People called bicycles as 'push bikes' here.

My 33K seat

This will be my longest holiday in Melbourne so far. I will be spending 2 and a half months there. Wassup in Melbourne? It's autumn now, winter is coming soon. And my girlfriend, Min Han is there!

Best time for me to catch a movie on the plane, can't sleep with an upright seat. But i get quite a good view there. Thanks to my childish assault to a check-in officer at the airport by saying,"I want a window seat, I wanna window seat, awannawinow seat, awanawinosit!".

Oh, by the way, 33K is my seat number.

Flying off to Me!bourne

My sisters sent me to the airport. Thanks, May Po. How much did you pay for your parking there? :) This is my first time flying from KLIA. Wooo... Malaysia Bulllley!

As I was checking-in my baggage, I had this thought. MAS allows baggage check-in 8 hours before flight departure and SIA allows 48 hours. Who would do that? For people travelling in a group, maybe. And for those people who is gonna leave the country and never come back, maybe. But not for me. 2 hours is still kinda difficult for me. I could easily say,"Did i bring my toothbrush?" and "Oh, shit..." follows.