Saturday, April 07, 2012

Why BYOB

Sometimes I wonder why did I do it. Why did I start a business? Why did I spend time at the shop after work and by the time I get home, dW and LS is already asleep.

For those of you who do not know, BYOB stands for Bring Your Own Bottle where you as the customers come to the shop with all your empty bottles, any kind, and buy refills at our store. We sell household detergents. Laundry, dish, floor, glass, grease, you name it, we probably have it. And the beauty of the business is... we keep the price low. Why? Because we don't have to buy bottles to sell them detergents to you, so no extra costs.

Of course, we do sell bottles in case you do not have any. Its something like Ikea I guess. You buy, you carry, you put it together = cheap cheap. You buy, we deliver, we put it up = expensive.

Anyway, my point is I've been spending too much time on work as well as on business that I'm missing the simple pleasures of life. Without realizing, it has been 3 weeks since I bath LS. Am I doing the right thing?

Times like these makes me think of the Fisherman story.

One day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing pole propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the sparkling blue surf. He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.
About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach, trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family. "You aren't going to catch many fish that way," said the businessman to the fisherman. "You should be working rather than lying on the beach!"
The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, "And what will my reward be?" "Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!" was the businessman's answer. "And then what will my reward be?" asked the fisherman, still smiling. The businessman replied, "You will make money and you'll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!" "And then what will my reward be?" asked the fisherman again. The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman's questions. "You can buy a bigger boat, and hire some people to work for you!" he said.
"And then what will my reward be?" repeated the fisherman. The businessman was getting angry. "Don't you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!" Once again the fisherman asked, "And then what will my reward be?" The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, "Don't you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach, looking at the sunset. You won't have a care in the world!"
The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, "And what do you think I'm doing right now?" 

Now, did I start this for the $$$? Of course! At least partly. It is after all still a business. But what got me thinking about BYOB is the concept of reusing bottles. Sort of like, reuse, recycle, rewatchamacallit... I'm thinking about the future of our planet. I do not want LS to grow up with on a dirty planet.

On what cost though... note to self:- moderation... moderation... must set a pace. This is not a sprint. This is a marathon.

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Tasty Queen Nasi Lemak

Tasty Queen Nasi Lemak...to be honest, I've never heard of it. There is a sticker on the stall that says its the top 10 nasi lemak stall on google. Can anyone verify?

I was curious about this stall as there are a lot of people lining up for it. So here I am with the famous Jason.

Jason Mumbles
 

They ran out of a lot of stuff by the time it was our turn. Manage to grab a fried chicken, luncheon meat and fried egg though. I have to say, the sambal is awesome and for the lack of a better word, the curry is awesomer...

Check out the video below... 



Here is the map to Tasty Queen

Friday, March 16, 2012

Kaw Kaw Burger Bakar

I had the opportunity to try this suddenly famous burger a few days ago. The self-proclaimed "first roadside bbq burger in Malaysia". My first impression was "boy, this is going to be a very long wait". There were a sea of humans around. Like flies over fresh warm cow dung!

True enough, it was a long wait. Our number was 156, current number? 121!!! We soldier on though. Had enough patience for it.

180gm of pure meat. 

Side orders of sausages, chicken wings, beef bacon...

Final product

Does it look delicious?

The boss and his crowd.

Can you break their record?

Pricelist


 Probably Jason Mumbles probably built the hype too much coz as soon as I held my burger, I felt a sense of disappointment. It was cold. There wasn't enough caramelized onion and the meat was pretty well done.

Maybe it is due to the fact that I work in a hotel, or maybe I just prefer my meat done medium rare. Either way, this I'm sure... dSaint will never come back to this stall again.

Ramly burger still rules!!





Friday, March 09, 2012

Bangkok - Day 3 & 4

The 3rd day was a free and easy day. dW and I basically woke up late, took a late morning walk to the BTS station whilst enjoying the morning street food for breakfast. Dimsum and pastries. Delicious stuff.

Where are we heading you ask? Why... Platinum Mall dan kawasan-kawasan sekitarnya of course.


Colorful cabs..

Water bus

See the amount of people who came out of it..
We totally explored the area by foot and found many many amazing stuff around Platinum Mall. We even found a great place for lunch with nice authentic Thai dishes and friendly owners.

Below is the Erawan Shrine. Built to honour the 4 side head Buddha. You make your donation and write down what you want to pray about then kneel. As you pray, the musicians at the side will start playing some sort of zen like trancy music while the dancers behind dance for you.


The 4 side head Buddha
Make your offerings
Purchase offerings inside the temple, those outside are too expensive

If your wish comes true, you have to donate an elephant. See how many came true?

Click for enlarged image to read.
 This was a great surprise for us when we got back to the room. Thanks to the hotel and Ms.Sunan.


Day 4... Stay in the hotel, enjoy the buffet breakfast... Nice spread, but nothing really great to recommend. I enjoyed the below though...


Then it was time to pack and get ready for the airport. Will I come back? Yes... of course. :)

Click to read.



Bangkok - Day 2

2nd day started off bright and early. 7am to be exact. Why? So we could make it to the Maeklong Station Market for the famous market on the railway line.


It is just about an hour drive away and we had the pleasure of exploring the market a little bit before the first train came. Had we miss it, it will be a 2 hours wait for the next one.



Pork noodle, RM1 a bowl!!

The making of pork noodle. I figured out later that you can actually choose what you want in it. God gave us pointer finger for a reason.



Would you still buy the vege?

The train is just slightly above.

Show is over...




Check out the video above if and only if you know that you will never visit it in your lifetime.

Our next destination right after was the floating market. Free fresh coconut awaits you as you alight from your transport. Then, for RM40 each, it is a 90 minute ride along the floating market for some shopping and eating.



Make sure you go through the itinerary properly. We missed out on fish feeding because the guide told us it was a temple trip which we skipped. Had we know there was fish feeding involved, we'd have gone for it.


Coconut factory


Local houses


Much like the stuff found in Jonker Walk, Melaka

A very persistent guava seller
Overall, the floating market was a nice experience. The day not being too hot was a plus. Food was great. We had some sort of noodle soup and roast pork! It was delicious. Clean clear soup with crunchy pork. Great combination.

Not sure why, I didn't take any pictures of our destination which was Chatuchak Market or what the locals call BB Market. It was simply a huge market with everything under the sun sold at a very very affordable price. We didn't spend much time there as dW's target was cloths and cloths at Platinum Mall were of much better quality than the ones here.By the way, the roasted pork here is good too. So are the chicken skins.

Back to the hotel we go then out to the streets for more street food and street market. It seems like there is a street market below every single BTS station in Bangkok. Well, at least the high traffic ones.

We had this superb wanton mee somewhere near Pat Pong, the famous red light district in Bangkok before going for a nice relaxing Thai Massage nearby. RM20 for an hour of body massage. Superb!

And with that ends day 2...