MATTA FAIR, 2 MOVIES & A THEATER

MATTA FAIR - 13 MARCH 2010

It was well known that Matta Fair ended more than a week ago. Like many thousands other people, I was there too. Unlike others whom might be dutifully come every year, this was my first time and I was full with anticipation to consider buying reasonable vacation package here. Little that I know that not much were being offered other than local tourism and other asian countries. Ednel and I went to PWTC via LRT from my house and I must say this was a good plan considering madness congestion near PWTC and its nearby areas. Before going there, we had our lunch first in The Mall. We then queued to buy or entrance tickets before entering into the hall.

RM3.00 to enter into the hall. (courtesy of Ed's hand)

Inside the chaotic hall, there were so many booths offering discounted tours prices but most of them were for either Asian countries or locals tours.. You can guess where was the most places being promoted. Bali, off course....whereas local tours were mostly for either Langkawi, Perhentian & Redang. Before coming here, I did my survey on my desired destination which is Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I had found a few packages from a few tour agencies but either the date was not suitable (during fasting month) or can be more expensive if we requested for halal food. Walking from booth to booth we saw this big booth with pictures of Singapore in it. I have not been to Singapore in years so I was surprised with the package this company was offering. After much discussion with Ednel, we decided to buy this package.

From Berjaya Times Square to Port Klang by bus to board Starship Virgo. One night on the cruise ship (we upgraded the room to ocean view). Depart from Port Klang to Sentosa Island, Singapore for a one night stay. Two complimentary rides. Depart to Kuala Lumpur via bus.

The fare together with insurance cost us RM916.00 nett per person. We paid RM500 first and full payment within a week. We booked our journey on the 29 May 2010.

Afterward, we went to the Sabah Tourism Board's booth. We decided to take the offer of an open ground package below.

4D3N - 3 nights at City Hotel (Best Western), Kinabalu Park + Poring Hot Spring, and Sapi Island. Meals (3 Breakfast 2 Lunch) (1 BBQ Lunch), Land & Boat Transfer, life jacket, snorkeling mask & local guide.

The package price is RM599 per person. We only pay a deposit of RM50 per person and we are to contact the agency once we secured the flight ticket and for them to do the arrangement. For this vacation not date has been fixed yet.

In terms of vacation, I think its a good deal for us. I have been wanting to go for a cruise especially on Superstar Virgo for quite some time and I missed the chance to go to Singapore last year, so this package in all have killed two birds in one stone....I am so very much looking forward for the day to come...

2 MOVIES & 1 THEATER- 20 MARCH 2010

Ednel and I went to Berjaya Times Square last Saturday. Our intention was to watch a movie i.e How to Train Your Dragon but the timing was not right for us due to our other engagement that day.

Will see this movie next..

The only available movie at that time was Under The Mountain. Not enough time to eat, we bought 1901 burgers into the cinema. How was the movie?..well you can read the review by Ednel in his blog here. To me, overall, it can be a better movie..the CGI was actually not bad, the story line is ok but the execution was rather sloppy. It was after all a teenage movie and however scary scenes they might to try on you, it will never work... the 'firestarter' effect at the end of the movie was rather lame...even Drew Barrymore as a child in the other movie can scare the shit out of you.....

After the movie, we stopped to eat at Sweet Chat and behind us, the men singles were playing squash for the CIMB KL Open 2010.

I love it's chicken curry and pulut kuning..

Our next movie was Confucious...coincidentally it was screened at the same cinema that we watched the earlier movie.. Confucious is a 2 hours plus movie starred Chow Yun Fat as the chinese phenomenal philosopher. Though I like this movie a lot, I agreed with Ednel when he said, its strained the eyes reading the subtitles for two hours. On the story itself I found that there was one similarities between Hang Tuah and Confucious's character i.e that same principle of loyalty they had to their rulers. History was my favourite subject and ancient culture howsoever cruel or ridiculous it might be can be interesting to watch. Here, it showed that when the King dies, all his beloved one were to die with him (this is similar to the Egypt .kings and hindu rulers as well). Also stated was that the meaning of such thing can be a symbol or the other. In here, a broken jade given by a King was a significant sign for banishment. In his life time, Confucious had traveled from country to country for years suffering not only from hunger but also violence from other people only to inculcate his theories which emphasize harmony and respect to his disciple.

The right choice of actor for the role....

SRI MERSING - ISTANA BUDAYA

For dinner we went to Johnny's Steamboat and later we went to Istana Budaya. I have booked the ticket earlier and the only available seat was on the second tier costing RM80.00 per seat.

Posing before the show

The detail review of the theater can be read again in Ednel's blog here. I love the story line especially if you can still remember the old movie with the late Nordin Ahmad as Damak, the hero. Here, in the show, the movie is somewhat being extended to Damak's son, Merah years after Damak left Mersing and Seri Mersing, played by Mak Nani (the real Seri Mersing in the movie)...kudos to all the actors in this play especially my favourite actress, Azizah Mahzan, even appeared in small scene but her performance was mesmerizing... Dato' Mustapha Maarof bring out the nostalgic feeling also to the play...all in all, it was a good show. However, if would be better if rather than using minus one, they should have live music throughout the show to give it more effective vibes. All in all, I have seen a better theater in IB before, nonetheless Sri Mersing is no doubt one good show to watch.

What a day today, 2 movies, from a teenage movie to a serious chinese history then to a malay sad story...