It's Love, It's PEN

So how does a guy's ideal girlfriend gonna be? Well, she's gonna be:
1. nice looking. She doesn't have to be extremely beautiful, yet nice and comfortable to look at. And appearance can be a very subjective thing, some may say she's beautiful but some may say otherwise. That's why every guy end up with a different girl.
2. Unique. Oh yeah, every girl in this world is unique, no doubt of that, but it's just that if this specialty is what a guy want.
3. Size and....size. No offense but yeah this is true. Some prefer skinny girls and some prefer the chubby and cute one.
4. Stuff inside her head. That's 'What the H*ll is she thinking!'
5. and 'Whoa! She's capable of doing that!? Unbelievable!'

Then a guy come to this cross-road:
The 1st path is to this girl: Very capable girl. Cooks very good food, plays piano very well, really lovely personality, hardworking, Perfect housewife type. Her body's like Mariah Carey.

The 2nd path is to the other girl: Quite capable, but not as capable as the 1st girl. She can cook, but sometime mess thing up little bit if you request something she's not familiar with. Somehow lazier. She's gonna complaint if you ask her to work too hard. But she's still as lovely as the first one, fun to play with and she got a very cute face and body like Tae Yeon from SNSD (Girl's Generation); perfect for those who love kawaii Asian girl.

So who will you choose for this guy?

You see, i was having this problem, in choosing...not my girlfriend, but my next camera. Same rules apply and finally i chose the 2nd path. I just want my camera to be more compact, fun yet versatile and expandable. So yeah, i choose to love it, and it's PEN.

Beauty Contest

Old vs New:
Olympus E-PL2 vs Canon S3IS







It's like a girl who just turn 18 vs a woman who has given birth to 5 children.
Different category indeed.

Let's check out some of those who belong in similar category:

Who's the sexy chick here?

Canon G11 vs E-Pl2 vs Sony NEX-3

Boom boom pow my ears!

Well, after waiting for 2 months, i finally got my new earbuds. It's Sennheiser CX-300II.
In the beginning i wasn't thinking of getting an expensive earphone because I've spoiled 4 earphones in 3 years.

But, yeah, there's alwasys a but. Expensive earphones = better quality = better noise insulation = provide better protection to ears = burn my wallet gao gao.

So i found out that in UK they sell this Sennheiser CX-300 II cheap: GBP 17!
In Australia they sell A$60-A$70
In SG and Malaysia they sell approx. RM210
See the difference now? Hell yeah!
So i did some research on it and decide not to get 1 from ebay nor Amazon UK because there're record of people getting counterfeit product from both websites. Then there're people saying that there's a UK website selling genuine Sennheiser: MyMemory

MyMemory sell this earphone a bit more expensive though around GBP20 but they can shipped the product to AUS. Therefore i give it a try.

Till today i can't confirm what i received is 100% genuine Sennheiser because i never see or use a genuine CX-300II before. But the 1 i received has amazing bass, great noise insulation and looks really genuine. So yeah probably it is real. But it's made in China though.

So yeah, if you intend to get an earphones, maybe you can try online purchase, provided the website sell genuine products. It saves some of your hard earn money but it definitely kills your shopping experience. Online shopping is soooo 'no feel'.

布里斯班Brissie的180天

布里斯班 － Brisbane，有些澳洲的人，会叫它Brissie,可能是念起来比较顺口吧。没想到这么久没update我的blog了，上一次update我的blog，就是我刚到brisbane的时候。已经来了这里6个月，应该谈谈它了。

我从来没有到过西方国家，Brisbane是我第一次到达的西方城市。而在我来Brisbane前一个月，我才到台湾旅游，所以会感觉到发达的西方国家和发达的东方国家的差异。

其实我到达Brisbane时，没有很surprise的感觉，也没有觉得，‘哇！好酷噢！’的感觉，或许是因为很清楚来这里的目的－不是来玩的，是来念书的，所以没有多兴奋，只有‘噢，好吧，开始新生活。’心里多少有些不安，毕竟第一次来到陌生的国家，又要从零开始。来到时，连自己的房间都还没找到，还好有朋友借我暂住她的家。

要来Brisbane之前几个星期，才知道原来有一些朋友已经在这里念书了。这消息让我松了一口气，在这种时候有朋友相助，真是雪中送炭。不只如此，他们的存在，真的让我比较不会孤单，这时我才发觉，如果一来到这里却没有朋友，真的会很孤单的啊～

刚到Brisbane的时候是冬天，虽然最低温是8，9度，平时15， 16度，但对我而言，好冷呀！我从来没体验过冬天，偏偏一来到就是个冬天，再加上冬天的太阳5。30pm就下山了，还真的很不习惯。

Brisbane City呢，他们有给它特别的名称，叫做 Brisbane CBD （Central Business District），CBD之外的区域，就叫suburb。这些名词，我在马来西亚听都没听过。拿Selangor做个比例吧： 就好像Bukit Bintang ＋ KLCC那一带叫CBD，Ampang,Cheras,Damansara,Subang这些就叫suburb。

一般上，这里的店都会在5pm左右关门，除了grocery store （就是马来西亚的giant，tesco，everise这种）就会开到9pm。到了星期四，suburb的店会开到9pm，而CBD的店照样5pm关门。星期五，CBD的店开到9pm，suburb的店开到5pm而已。就好像Thursday, Sunway Pyramid开到9pm，但是Sungei Wang开到5pm就关门，然后Friday就Sungei Wang开到9pm，Sunway Pyramid 5pm就关门。然后其他时候Sunway Pyramid和Sungei Wang开到5pm就跟你讲他们要关门了。这种现象如果在马来西亚出现，多好笑，但在这里，大家都可以接受，可爱。。。

在这里的生活费相当高，即使不convert去马币还是满高的。租个房间就要澳币140－150一个星期，搭一次巴士或者火车就要澳币2－3，还好我是学生，可以享有50％折扣。如果在7－eleven买个mineral water，要澳币3元。可能是因为这里工资高吧，法律上工资最少要澳币15一个小时，所以生活费也一样高。

在沙拉越，kolo mee是便宜的食物，西马就是roti canai，nasi lemak了。这里呢，就是balabababa，i'm lovin it － 麦当劳拉！麦当劳啊，hungry jack啊（马来西亚的burger king，来到这里耍酷，换名字），都是这里最便宜的食物了。这里晚上也没有mamak stall的，路边也没有burger stall的，要吗就去mcd，要吗就order domino pizza，pizza hut这些。

不过brisbane还算是一个多元化的城市。这里到处都是亚洲人 － 华人，韩国人，印度人，日本人比较少一点，黑人也比较少一点，缅甸人，然后西方国家的人啊，像意大利人，德国人，还有。。。我不大会认西方人，看到也不懂是哪里来得。所以这里的食物也很多元化。我常常都会吃到韩国餐，日本餐，因为他们的餐馆也好多。在这里，除了burger，pizza，sandwich可以变成fast food，kebab，sushi也可以变成fast food。这里的fast food sushi很特别，长长一条，叫做sushi roll，我第一次看到时，真的傻眼了。还有sushi roll里面放satay chicken，可爱。

在马来西亚，我们有几次上巴士时会跟司机打招呼，下巴士时会跟司机说谢谢呢？在这里，部分的人上巴士会跟司机say hello／hi，下巴士时会说声thank you。我发现到，如果心情低落时，上巴士时跟司机打个招呼，给个微笑，司机也给予同样的回应，心情会顿时开朗了起来，我想这就是为何人家说对别人好，自己也会感到开心的原因吧。当然部分的人也是会把司机当透明。不过，要我回马来西亚对司机say hello and thank you，想想有时还真难，因为他们的态度有时真的很不友善。

除了司机，店里的服务人员都会很亲切的招呼顾客，如果不需要他们的协助，他们会自动闪开，不会一直像盯着囚犯酱看着顾客。如果讲他们polite，他们还真的很polite，不过有些真的很敢用行动表达自己的想法。一些洋人，当他们兴奋时，或者是喝到有点醉时，动作会很大，声量也会提高。如果这时刚好给亚洲人遇到比较racist的就真的衰了。Racist的洋人会突然间比你中指，当你过马路时会哔你，然后骂些难听的，更倒霉的话会被丢酒瓶，鸡蛋。像我就被丢过一次鸡蛋，还好鸡蛋没在我身上破掉，不然我得忙着刷衣服了。

其实这里的治安相较于马来西亚的治安，是好很多。但是想到自己是华人，亚洲人时，夜深一个人走在路上还是会感到不安。怕的不是会被人打枪，强奸就不可能了，哈！担心的是遇到酒醉的Racist洋人，因为他们都好壮，好大只，一拳打过来的话，我就惨了。

在马来西亚，绝大部分的房子的外墙都会漆上油漆，而在台湾，我发现到他们的建筑都很喜欢在外墙铺上瓷砖，在Brisbane呢，好多房子都会暴露它们橙色的砖块。它们外墙若是用砖块建起来的，就会让那些砖块暴露，不会再铺上一层油漆，可能是为了cut cost吧，因为我发现到如果是比较豪华的房子就会铺上一层油漆。所以常常在这里常常会会看到橙色的房子，就是很洋人的feel。

如果想要看到世界各国的俊男美女，来这里，不，应该说来澳洲就对拉～这里的国际学生很多，到处都是国际学生，而且真的很国际，特别是亚洲来的中国人跟韩国人，真的很多。我万万都没想到，这里的韩国人，真的很多，原来他们也跟华人一样，喜欢把孩子送出国念书，不然就是搞移民。啊，没来到这里，还真的不知到韩国人是如何的。我还记得以前在马来西亚念大学时，如果看到韩国人，会感到新鲜，来到这，麻木了，哈！

在这里也可以看到很多残障人士驾着电动轮椅出来逛街，也有很多爷爷，奶奶级的人单独出来逛街。他们好像很习惯自己出来逛逛，虽然是残障，上了年级，还是这么有勇气。可能是残障设施齐全，治安好，公共交通方便，所以他们才有办法独自出门，因为他们真的都搭公共巴士的。

暂时就写到这，如果想看brisbane的照片，可以到我的facebook: www.facebook.com/martinhowe
我懒惰在这里po照片了，因为该放的我都放到fb了，＝D

Taiwan Trip Part II KL-HuaLian

The day after i reached KL, i went to KLIA again but this time, i was with my brother and the two of us were about to fly to Taiwan for a 8days7nights trip.

Of course this time  i was travelling in Economy Class. Not rich enough to fly Business Class mah…( the Business Class i bought for KCH-KL was below RM270). This was actually my first time travelling to oversea by air and therefore, i am a total stranger to KLIA’s international departure terminal.

 

 

 

This  is the train that brings passengers to KLIA’s satellite terminal building from the main terminal building.

Welcome to the Satellite Terminal Building.

Lift in the Satellite Building.

How i wish every airport has this kind of chair.

A mini tropical jungle in the middle of the Satellite Building.

Time for boarding the airplane.

In-flight infotainment navigator.

After 4 hours ++, finally reached TaoYuan International Airport.

What a cute dog! Its duty is duty is to sniff passenger’s bags.

Bus to Taipei Central Rail Station. It took approximately an hour to reach the station. In Taiwan they call these buses 客运. 1 way from TaoYuan International airport to Taipei Main Station is TWD90 per person.

Taiwan’s famous 槟榔西施.

 

Counter to buy ticket to HuaLian.

The ticket to Hualian Station from Taipei Main station is TWD 340 per person, it took us almost 3 hours to reach HuaLian…. 

欢迎光临~This is what they said when they greet each customer in every shops in Taiwan. 

Waiting the train to arrive at the platform.

 

In Taiwan they called the train 台铁. It’s like KTM in Malaysia but trust me, KTM is nowhere to compare with it.

HuaLian Station.

If we wanted to take a shortcut to go to the opposite side of the HuaLian station, we could buy a ticket to get into the train station and walked to the opposite side.

 

The place we stay in HuaLian. It’s not hotel, more like hostel for backpackers. In Taiwan they called it 民宿.

By the time we reach our hostel, it was already 2am ++ and the next morning we woke up at 8am. This was the open ceremony for the most tiring trip i’ve ever had in my life, yet it was fun.