soblur.com

The Spice Market Cafe dinner buffet (located in Shangri la Rasa Sayang Resort) is a must try whenever you are in the Ferringhi area is Penang. If offers a huge variety of international cuisine. The most recommended time to try out Spice Market Cafe would be on Fridays where their varieties are mainly fresh lobsters cooked to order and the abundance of seafood – e.g. oysters, etc.

Unfortunately during my stay there it was no where near the weekend so we had standard stuffs but still good.

Huge huge varieties of deserts. My goodness if you could still indulge in their deserts after a hearty pig out at their buffet, I have to take my hats off you. But they are very tempting.

Fancy some fresh sashimi – all you can eat?

Cold seafood varieties.

From all over the world – indian tandoori, chinese style vegetables, malay satay….

Widest range of deserts…

Eat until you puke…

Japanese corner…

Nice classy decorated buffet and the service here is just excellent. Plates cleared immediately, cold water refilled without asking… truly 6 star service.

Dont ask me why but this is my favourite corner of the buffet. This is where I whacked it most.

Overall it is a truly 5 star buffet. I think it is about RM120 ++ per person buffet. Quite pricey but well worth it for those who is seeking a 5 star meal with that special someone or a clientele function. It will never fail to impress the other party.

2009 will be missed. What I missed most is that I went through the year without much hiccups in my life. Almost everything fell into place just nicely.

Happy New Year everyone.

Being its Golden Circle club member has its privileges at all Shangri la hotels and resorts. Priority check in, not that I need it because there werent much guest staying at the resort at that time. And the constant welcome letters, fruit baskets and welcome drinks at the lounge could just make anyone feel special. They do it to at Pangkor Island Beach resort but not as grand and detailed as Shangri la.

The room was pretty big. Old sofa set, nicely decorated nyonya baskets with fruits in them. Big bed!

A work desk – which is a must for me. Free internet – slow though – forget about downloading torrent files here. *heh* – soft pillows… What is there I see – a CRT TV? Not LCD or PLASMA TV?

The usual toiletries – lavender – hmmm…

The bathroom is big – separate shower and bath area – despite the price that you pay, you are getting a big room with big bathroom. I remember the best hotel I have been to would have to be the Ascott at Sathorn, Bangkok but then again that is more of a serviced apartment than a hotel.

I highly recommend for those who have the budget to give Rasa Sayang a try. It was a pleasant stay & a very restful one.

During my younger days my dad took us to this particular resort called Palm Beach (i think) – now more known as Shangri la Golden Sands – the next door resort – Rasa Sayang resort had this exclusivity aura about it – was a more exclusive and obviously more expensive hotel. Years later the hotel went through a major renovation and was closed to the public for many years.

When Rasa Sayang reopened, it became a world-class 6 star spa and beach resort. Which also means that it was more expensive for one to stay in. While planning for a getaway, I decided to try out Rasa Sayang.

The room rates were approximately RM799 ++ per night and what you get is buffet breakfast and one dinner if you were staying on a 3 days 2 nights package. So all in all, you will be spending approximately RM1,600 ++ for 3d 2n stay.

There was a sense of exclusivity when walking into Rasa Sayang. Checking in was a breeze with the reception lady walking you to your lift to the hotel. Your baggage are being carried up to your room – everyone was sincerely friendly (obviously when paying that amount) – hahaha…

I cant remember – but the room above was adjacent to the main lobby. The lobby had huge comfortable couches and sofa on them. At one time I almost fell asleep while sitting at their sofas. Welcome drinks are being served at the above room.

The pool side – just looked so tempting. The saddest part of Batu Ferringhi is that the beach is for decorative purposes only. No one swims on it – everyone is in the pool most of the time.

You could tell from the trees that they are really old. They built the amenities around these beautiful trees.

The great thing about Rasa Sayang is the abundant of different type of restaurants it offers. As a guest, you are able to go over to Golden Sands and have a meal there – I tried the one beside the beach. The view was just awesome.

The staff were genuinely getting to know you. I know as a patron at the many Shangri la – most of them recognise me and have always welcome me back to their resorts.

The great thing about being here is that ever since I was a kid, I told myself that I would one day stay here in this Resort. That one dream fulfilled. Stay tuned. To be continued.

by Autosport.com

Mercedes Grand Prix has signed a long-term sponsorship agreement with Malaysian oil firm Petronas.

Petronas, which formerly sponsored the BMW Sauber team and had been linked with new Malaysian F1 team Lotus, will become title partner to the German manufacturer.

The team has released a concept image of the car, but the final Petronas-liveried Mercedes will be unveiled at the team’s launch, and will take to the track for the first time on February 1 at Valencia.

“Everyone at Mercedes GP is delighted to confirm out long-term agreement with Petronas,” said team principal Ross Brawn.

“Our plans for the new season are progressing well, as is the development of our 2010 challenger. We look forward to seeing the car run in the new Silver Arrows and Petronas livery at Valencia.”

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug added: “Mercedes-Benz and Petronas will work together both on and off the track. Petronas’ home base in Kuala Lumpur is in a fast-growing region for the automotive industry, which makes this new partnership even more valuable.”

Stumbled upon some excellent fonts that I would like to share.

What I was most intrigued was the font heads and …

And GoodDog fonts

Visit them at fonthead.com

Here are some random pictures of Pangkor.

Jetty before heading to Pangkor

Upon reaching the Jetty heading towards Pangkor Island. It seems that things have changed a little. There used to be only a desk for Pangkor Island Beach resort but now there is a counter. A two way ferry to Pangkor Island Beach Resort cost RM19.00 per person.

View from the hotel room. I was put onto the ground floor where we had full access to the pool but I kinda like it a little higher.

Everyone enjoying the sun and beach.

Sunset view from the restaurant – I believed it is called the Hornbill Restaurant.

Hornbills everywhere in this island resort.

Ahh.. what beautiful view.

In the morning, it was just beautiful. Great time for a tan..

Cycled around Pangkor – well I didnt get far but enough to see its other beauties.

Fishing village

Taking the taxi to Pangkor town. I think it is about 10 kilometers from the hotel and it costs about RM20 per person for both ways.

Pangkor Town… not much to see or do…

Dried anchovies are really popular here. Most people say they are much cheaper than in the cities. I just couldn’t be bothered.

Drying noodles called Mee Suah (“Suah” Noodles) – Did I get this right?

Practically the whole town – good thing is that there are two banks here – Maybank and Agrobank.

The pink taxi van which you could see zooming throughout the island.

Well that’s an overview of Pangkor. It is a good getaway away from the city or anything common. I like it here. The weather and the hospitality Pangkor offers is .. somewhat nice and pleasant. Will definitely be back.

I was a bit skeptical – Mighty Mouse for RM110 (approximately USD 30) inclusive of delivery but batteries not included –  when it is selling it at RM240+ (USD 60+) at the Mac stores.

Since there were a lot of good feedbacks on the person selling, I decided to get one myself – a RM110.00 Mighty Mouse. Here are the pictures of the Mighty Mouse from his thread at lowyat.net

I think he has like a huge stock of Mighty Mouse. (pictures taken by the owner – my6962)

Nevertheless, it looks really good except that it doesn’t come in a box but in a plastic like the above. The great thing about it is that it doesn’t have a dongle or is it wired. The Macbook connects the Mighty Mouse through a bluetooth connection.

All I could say is that this is a highly recommended seller – I placed my order on Monday late afternoon and by the next day morning, I got my Mighty Mouse couriered to me. All in all, I am one satisfied customer. If you want one yourself, PM my6962 at this link : http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=1069035&hl=

Good things should be shared.

After going through tons of hours researching on Macbook Apps, I have come up with my preferred apps. So here goes :

1. Microsoft Office (obviously) – pretty cool interface compared to the Windows Office but everything is pretty much the same. The only thing that is different is that Outlook is called Entourage. hmm…
2. Adobe Acrobat - sorry I just cant live without this.
3. Parallel Desktop 5 - I thought I left Windows for good but with certain Enterprise Applications that needs to be run I cant ignore Windows totally. So I have a virtual machine running Windows 7 using Parallel Desktop.  It is awesome.
4. Skype / MSN / Yahoo - chatting tools
5. Firefox - just in case
6. CleanMyMac - it cleans up your Mac from unnecessary rubbish
7. OmniGraffle Pro - Its like Visio but more graphics life.
8. uTorrent / Jdownloader - Torrent downloads applications
9. VLC player – What ever video format QuickTime doesn’t play, VLC plays it.
10. Stuffit - acts like winzip – expands programs that are zipped.
11. TextWrangller - This is my notepad++ for viewing database delimited files better
12. Blackberry Messenger Desktop – for my blackberry.

Well that is pretty much it. I would also like to get myself the Adobe Creative Suite perhaps – some day.

I have been intrigued for some time now with this Macbook Pro. A little skeptical, wondering if I am able to work with it or find the softwares I need for a Mac. But after taking the leap – a huge leap, in my mind right now, it is one of the best notebooks I have ever used. I have tried the ever steady T-series of the IBM Thinkpad, Dell, HP/Compaq, Fujitsu, etc. In my conclusion it is the best ever notebook.

The price however is a little on the high side as a notebook with this specifications will only around RM3,000+ with all the essential softwares in place. However a Macbook Pro Aluminum will cost from RM4499 and adding the Apple Care which give you an additional 2 years warranty + free 4GB DDR3 ram. BUT really you get a wonderfully architectured, well designed powerful notebook.