Blast to the Past

This is outside of my normal writeup about driving trips. But thanks to a friend, I discovered this quaint shop located at Ann Siang Hill (behind Amoy Street Hawker Centre). It is quite a new shop, and from what I see, a kind of cafe + nostalgic knick knacks. The Shop name is "K Ki". (In Hokkien, very polite). It is Japanese for something else.

I feel like I am in Europe


What a strange name


People having coffee and cakes inside


Oh, got a "school bookshop" corner


All very neatly packed


The cakes looked super yummi licious, but I can't afford :(




OMG....school pencil case stuff that I remember!


I think I have one of these before!!


This smelled familiar too..


Girls, please look away


Our kind of barbie dolls those days


Stay any longer will go broke

Today Mall, Sutera Mall

Went Mall hopping today. Jusco Permas, Today's Mall and Sutera Mall. Today's Mall has just started to open and most of the shops are not yet let out or closed for the CNY period. There were plenty of parking lots and we were surprised to see a steady stream of people going into the mall. Later we found that that they were going to the cinema which was on the upper floor. That seemed like a good idea, and we too bought tickets for the movie, "Wolfman". While waiting for the show, we had fun at the arcade which was opened as well.

After the boring show, we decided to seek out the Sutera Mall that a friend has shared with us. I kind of remember accidentatlly stumbling onto it before. And upon reaching there with the help of the GPS, yeap, it was the one all right. However today, it seemed bigger and nicer. Not sure if they haev just expanded, but the Mall was indeed huge. Quite suitable for a day shopping and eating there.

CNY jam. But luckily, we cleared in 45mins


Secret recipe at Permas Jusco

Aiyah, the money changer was closed

Year of the Tiger, checked


Mummy eating Kid's meal

Today Mall

Even the entrance seemed unfinished


Wolfman is showing

A Cafe here

The Cinema ticketing


D and I had fun with a game of pool which she lost miserably, of course


Ah, we like to play this too

Arriving at Sutera Mall

Hey, it is big here

Got CNY tong chiang tong chiang

Nice pond outside the Mall

We were hungry, this looked interesting

Oh my, the portion is huge

How to resize your pictures

A number of friends have problems resizing their pictures from their digi cameras. Here, I will show how to do it with Picasa, the photo gallery tool from Google. Initially when I started using this, I was quite confused with the features. But gradually, I found it to be quite useful and powerful.

First go to Picasa, and download the application


Install the application, and once done, you should see a shortcut like this.


To resize your pictures, first copy your pictures out from your digital camera onto the desktop or a folder of you choice.

Run the application. If this is the first time, Picasa will ask if you want to scan your computer for pictures. Say yes.


After scanning, you should see plenty of folders of your pictures you have.


You can locate your folder by using the search feature. Very powerful.


For the pictures that you want to resize, click on the selected folder


Go to the menu, and select "Export folder"


You will be ask for the folder to put the exported pictures. Key in a new folder. I usually will extend the folder and put the word _resize


Indicate also the size that you want to resize to


Once the files have been resized, the resized folder will pop up. The resized files will be found in the newly created folder


If you have any need to locate the folder, you can right click and select "locate on disk"

Drive up to Mersing, Fishing Bay Resort, Air Papan

This was just an impromptu trip up to Mersing, to check out a resort known as fishing bay resort. As Pat had worked the night shift, we only set off towards it around 2pm. But Mersing wasn't particulary far away and was reachable within slightly more than 2 hours.

The resort was a bit further form the main Mersing Town and was in fact very close to Air Papan. I had visited Air Papan sometime back and quite like the slow lazy feel to it. It was a beach that was called Papan (flat) due to the gradual sloping out. That meant that during the low tide, the water would recede very far away.

Knick Knacks at the Caltex Station that we stopped for refilling


Along the way, Pat stopped at a local petrol station near Mersing. To my amusement, they were selling some vegetables in boxes outside the station.

Arrived here


Ok, correct place


This Mc-Burgler guy keeps taking my photos


View of the lobby


Ooh..a team building is going on


Full of resort type activities


Resort even has a clean swimming pool


Nice "miami" look to it with the tall coconut trees


The rooms facing the beach


We arrived at the resort around 5pm. Although the sign at the entrance said, "parking for guest only", we drove in and parked just outside the rooms. No one came to stop us or question anything.

I was expecting the resort to be on the sea itself. Turned out that it was a beach resort. Facilities are nice, if you are looking for creature comfort. While we were there, there was a company team building going on. Looked like they were having a whale of a time.

Rustic long jetty to the sea


Sir, can I take a picture? Sure, boleh!


Planks well maintained


Family fishing at the end


Catch of a Catfish (Sembilang) and Gelamas (Croakers). Note the worm bait


Looking from the end to the land


Beside the resort, there was a long jetty out to the sea. The jetty was well kept and pretty new. Some local folks were fishing in the water. Water to me, didn't look that good as it was more esturary and even murky. The catches there were mainly Catfishes, and some Gelamas.

Beach looked quite scenic. But has some light oil slicks in the water


Making footprints on the sand


There was a small area of public beach. However, I didn't feel that the beach was clean, as the sand was dark and oily looking. It shouldn't be good to be dipping into the water here

We stopped by a fish farm on the way out


Cow saying, "what you looking at? I "poke" you with my horns then you know"


Arrived at Air Papan


Nope, they don't have Macdonalds here. Ramly burger is the household burger name here


Children better go build a sand castle here


Hmmm...no turtles here for sure


Air Papan shopping mall


Godek resort here


Standard attire here must be bright colored shorts


A beach volley ball match got red flagged


We then went onward to Air Papan which was just round the corner. This time round, the beach looked quite dirty. Due to the monsoon season, the waves were rather strong and due to the strong current, the water had a brownish tint to it from all the disturbed sediments. When we were there, it was high tide. So, we didn't get to see the beach during the low tide, which would be walkable a long distance from the beach front. We rested awhile there and tried out the Ramly burger. After that, it was another 2 hours plus back to JB for more shopping.

Nothing spectacular for this trip. Just a drive up to see if the resort was worth visiting for fishing, given the name. This was also the furthest that Pat had driven on the east coast. The next time, he shall be following me to Redang. *evil laugh*