Two more days to go till opening ceremony

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1

Yeap...my uni (the new AIMST campus. The old one was in Amanjaya) is having its official opening ceremony this coming Sunday. And guess what, our Honorable Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is officiating it! I attended the preparation meeting yesterday (there's another rehearsal later). This meeting is just to let us students know about the plans and how things work on that day. I volunteered for ushering and we ushers job is to welcome the PM and the Cabinet as well as other VVIPs. About 40 students are stationed at the main entrance of the Great Hall and we are the very first students who will be seeing the PM coming down from his car. It is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us. More ushers are stationed in the Great Hall itself and other places such as the lifts and strategic spots around the campus. Marquees (Big canopies and fully air-conditioned. 5-Star canopies) are set up near the admin building for the VVIPs and the delegates to have their lunch. Some students can also take their lunch there if there are seats available. The roofs of the buildings are washed (it is sparkling clean right now) since the lasts 2 weeks and many preparations are being made to make this event a success. It is really a proudful moment for our uni. Decorations are also made to make it more memorable and beautiful.

Furthermore, the whole campus will be lit up tomorrow night! It is gonna be a beautiful sight. Now as you can see, only few main lights (most of it are spotlights, so you know how much energy is wasted if too many lights are switched on every single night) are on around the campus during normal days. So when we knew that the WHOLE uni is going to be lit up, we know that it is again a once-in-a-lifetime scene. So get ready your cameras, guys!

I'll try to update about the ceremony with pictures in my latter posts (an absolute for tomorrow's night campus lit-up sight) .

So till then, please pray for this coming Sunday event and continue to pray for me.

God bless. Jesus loves you.

Venturing the Land of the Free (I)

"A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)

I went to Thailand a month ago with my family. It was a planned last year. So on the 29th of June, I took a leave from my classes, packed my things and made my way early in the morning to Alor Star Airport. My flight was an early one. From the airport, I flew to LCCT-KLIA to meet my family. It was a long-awaited trip so you know how excited I was then. Meeting up with my family after 2 weeks and going for a vacation together was memorable and fun.

An 'isolated' airport. As it was o645 in the morning, there were only few passengers at the airport. I recalled that other than me, there were 2 families and two business men.

Took this amazing view during my flight from Kedah to KL

Managed to grab some food to fill my growling stomach (I didn't have time to take my breakfast before my flight)

And so, after an hour flight, I reached LCCT and waited for the arrival of my family from Kuching. It was quite a long wait so I decided to connect to wireless connection and surf the net. Doing so make the time flies even faster. Soon, I met my family and boarded the afternoon plane to Bangkok. The journey to Thailand took us 2 whole hours. It was quite tiring for me as I didn't have much sleep the night before. I almost slept the whole way but I managed to take some photos. As we neared Bangkok, there were lots of paddy fields down below(I think the number of paddy fields in Kedah is only 1/8 of the paddy fields that I saw at Thailand). We were totally taken back by the view. It was wonderful. It was even better when we managed to pass the Menam Chao Phraya River. This too, runs for miles and miles.

Chao Phraya River, the pride of Thailand

When we finally landed, we were again amazed by the size of the airport. No offense, but if you think KLIA is big, the Bangkok airport is like...I think 3-4 times bigger. No doubt, Thailand is a hot-tourism spot for tourists ad it has to accommodate millions and millions of passengers every year. This means that approx. hundred of thousands of passengers probably 'embark' the airport every day. To cut everything short, these are the pictures of it:

This is only a semi-quarter of the whole-lot of passengers that I could capture with my camera.

Part of the arrival hall

Just look at the complicated yet creative works of many experienced architects and workmanship

The taxis in Bangkok are the cars that we always thought are the 'rich people' cars in our country. So think twice when you see a luxury car in our streets.

We then took a cab to our hotel in city. One tip for those who plan to visit Bangkok: Before calling a cab, translate the name of places you want to go into Thai (ask at the airport information counter or management). Most of the taxi drivers can't read and converse in English. Try to learn some basic Thai language too to make life easier.

The view of the city from my hotel room.

After unpacking our luggage and getting ourselves freshened up, we went to China Town nearby. It was congested with people and the air is very polluted. On the road, vehicles zoomed passed us and 'Tut Tuts' (I'll explain what's this is in one of my latter posts) roared by us. We quickly got our way from the busy streets into a another street where vendors selling a variety of goods and food and shops are located. We were shocked when we saw that they actually sell real guns and food like fried beetles and such. I wanted to try the food but due to the shortage of time, I didn't manage to cause we there were other better food to try. There were lots of places to be explored at China Street. The small walking path didn't even stop cars from passing through. We had to take care of our valuables as we reckoned that there were pick pockets around.

Preserved food

Unusual fried food

Try guessing what this is

China Street

A taxi trying to 'resist' the 'back flow of humans' through a narrow street

Hawker stalls with great food all the way to the back

Top: if I'm not wrong, it is beef+pig intestine soup (couldn't recall the proper name)

Bottom: Thai noodles, it tastes totally delicious (a must try)

China Street's night life

As there are too many photos and things to write, I have to divide them into a few posts. So till then, I have to get back to my work in and will update again when there is time to spare. Please continue to pray for me and take care.

God bless. Jesus loves you.

Olympics 8/8/2008 - Destination China

See the five pandas? They are the official mascots for this year's Olympics

The world's biggest and oldest sports event held once in every 4 years is now here (opening ceremony tonight). This time, it is held in China. To make this event a success, the Chinese have spent millions, probably billions of dollars to upgrade its sports facilities, hotels, roads, buildings, and such - in hope of making China a more recognised country around the world and to boost up its tourism industry. Security is reinforced and it is made compulsory for the Chinese citizens to study and learn some English to enable themselves to converse to those sportsmen/ women and tourists from overseas.

The athletes come to compete for one of these, and also to bring glory and fame to themselves and their respective country

These buildings are some of the Chinese hard-efforts to organise the many sports events:

The 'Birds Nest'

The 'Egg'

The 'Water Cube' (left) and the 'Birds Nest' (right)

So, what do you think about all these preparations? In my opinion, the Chinese had really done a great job and it was truly a worth investment.

It was a WOW for me when I first saw these magnificent buildings (I bet that the same goes to you too).

Till then, God bless.

Status: Uni. student (Part 2)

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way should go; I will guide you with My eye." (Psalm 32:8)

And so, it all started with my flight from Kuching International Airport early on a beautiful morning on 17th June 2008. My destination is Penang International Airport, and to get there, I transited through KLIA. For now, let the pictures do the talking.

Passing the Penisular's coastline

Landed: KLIA

Boarded this plane to Penang

Approximately after 5 hours(transit hours included) of flight, I finally reached Penang and my taxi driver drove me to my uni which is about an hour 1/4 drive away. As expected , there are lots of paddy fields along the roads in Kedah (the ricebowl of Malaysia). I caught the first glimpse of my uni when my taxi reached to a more developed area. It was huge at first sight. The admin. and the faculty buidings stood tall in the distance.

Along Penang bridge

The cafeteria from my room window

My hostel block

Night falls upon the boys hostel

The girls hostel in the distance

Cut, cut, cut...(the registration, orientation and stuff)

As promised, I took some pictures of the falculty and sports complex. Here they are...

The Dentistry, Engineering, IT, and business buiding

Sports complex: holds an olympic sized pool and other facilities

Gym

Basketball court: the guy(right) is Richard

Tennis court

The food here actually taste not bad (although some say otherwise). We should be contented (compared to what I heard from other unis and colleges).

One of the sets of breakfast

One of the sets of lunch (lots of rice in Kedah)

And here are some of my batch mates who came from different states around the country...

Best friends

A lunch at Pizza Hut

Sitting (from left to right): Kirath, Rachel, Ai Ping, Sherlyn, Yvonne, Ang

Standing (from left to right): Tiffeny, Alvis, Bong, Sing, Richard, me, and Rome

Girl in the middle (doing the peace sign) : Elaine

This is me, Rome (in blue shirt) , and Joe (far end) at the library (taken a month ago)

About two weeks ago, my friends and I had a trip to Seberang Perai and Penang. We stayed at Tiffeny's house for a couple of days and had lots of fun visiting places and did some shopping. Oh yeah, we also watched X-Files and tell you what, most of my friends and I agreed to give it a rating of 2-5/10 after watching it, so you should know how 'terrific' the movie is. These are some of the pictures taken.... memories....

Let's get rough!!

Poses of the Year

I also grabbed the opportunity to get my hair cut in Seberang Perai. It has gone really thick and untidy after so many weeks since my last hair cut. So this is it, my new hair style (the recent me):

Just woke up at Tiff's house early in the morning

As usual, assignments and lessons are pouring in and the days are getting busy here. Please continue to pray for me and take care.

God bless. Jesus loves you.