May 11, 2008

Tickets booked,
accommodation settled,

no point crying over the spilt milk,
the damage has been done.

Anyway,
going to spend few months in New York from 11/05/2008.

Any traveling tips in US, please do let me know...

STA Travel

Went to STA Travel to purchase air ticket to New York via Cathay Pacific Airways.

Depart on the May 11, 2008

Ms W P Chiew
Supervisor - Ticketing
STA Travel (M) Sdn Bhd
Lot 506 5th Floor
Magnum Plaza
128 Jalan Pudu
55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 603 2148 9800 (Ticketing)
603 2710 0108 (Tours)
Fax:603 2143 3046
http://www.statravel.com.my/

STA Travel is the world's leading travel company for students and young people with more than 450 STA Travel branches worldwide.

STA Travel Branches Worldwide

* Japan * Malaysia * Hong Kong * China * Indonesia * South Africa * Thailand * Singapore * Philippines * Taiwan * Australia * New Zealand * UK * Europe * America * Canada

DADDY'S EMPTY CHAIR

A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father.

When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows.

An empty chair sat beside his bed.

The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.

'I guess you were expecting me, he said.'

'No, who are you?' said the father.

The minister told him his name and then remarked, 'I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up,'

'Oh yeah, the chair,' said the bedridden man. 'Would you mind closing the door?'

Puzzled, the minister shut the door.

'I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,' said the man. 'But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head.'

I abandoned any attempt at prayer,' the old man continued, 'until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me,

'Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest.'

'Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I will be with you always'.

'Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now.'

'So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though.If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.'

The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey.

Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.

Did he die in peace?' he asked.

Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead.

But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?'

The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, 'I wish we could all go like that.'

Just send this to four people or more,

and do not break this, please.

Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive.

I asked God for water,

He gave me an ocean.

I asked God for a flower,

He gave me a garden.

I asked God for a friend,

He gave me all of YOU...

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

Happy moments, praise God.

Difficult moments, seek God.

Quiet moments, worship God.

Painful moments, trust God.

Every moment, thank God.

Philip Garden Chalets, Kota Kinabalu

Savour a truly relaxing retreat at PHILIP GARDEN CHALETS, KUNDASANG, RANAU

A secluded haven of brand-new chalets at 6,000 ft on the Mesilau Plateau.

• Each chalet with 2 rooms - one double-bed & 4 single decker beds
• Fully equipped kitchen with refrigerator, cooking utensils and crockery
• TV set
• Excellent environment for walkabout & trekking

Kitchen

Rate per Chalet (per night)

Weekdays RM250

Weekend RM300

Public/School Holidays RM350

Check-out time 12.00 noon

For bookings & enquiries, please contact:

PHILIP GARDEN CHALETS

013-8963899 (Kota Kinabalu)

013-8965688 (Kundasang)

019-8122260 (Patricia Wong, Kudat)

Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa, Kota Kinabalu

Click here for more information and pictures of the resort.

Kota Kinabalu Market

Manukan Island, Sabah

Spotted a monitor lizard scratching for food.

Manukan Island has a stretch of white sandy beach.

A lush island surrounded by abundant marine life and tropical corals.

Beach Bums Jetty.

Mount Kinabalu, Sabah

Mount Kinabalu

As we drove on the Tuaran highway, we passed small towns and villages on the way to the Kundasang Valley. After about two hours of scenic driving, we reached Kinabalu Park.

Fuelled by fresh mountain air and stunning views.

Watching sunrise at the top has been a life-enriching experience.

Mount Kinabalu is the main attraction in Kinabalu Park, which is about 2 hours' drive from Kota Kinabalu. The road cuts and winds through lush countryside dotted with traditional village houses to give us an unforgettable scenic journey.

Once in the Park, we rejuvenate our body and mind at the Poring Hot Springs, a natural health spa where we can relax in open-air baths amidst a tropical rainforest setting.

The sulphur hot springs provide a therapeutic bath.

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

My friends and I took an evening flight with AirAsia (AK5120) from Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) to Kota Kinabalu. The journey took about 2 hours. I'm a Malaysian Citizen, though Sabah is part of Malaysia , I was only allowed to stay in Sabah for a period of 3 months.

Sabah's population is heterogeneous and culturally diverse, with more than 30 different ethnic races and over 80 local dialects spoken.... Well known as the Land Below The Wind and also Land Of The Sacred Mountain, Sabah is a land of varied landscapes and natural wonders."

Read more...

For mountain hiking lovers, you might want to climb the Mount Kinabalu.

'Mount Kinabalu is a prominent mountain in Southeast Asia. It is located in Kinabalu National Park (a World Heritage Site) in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, which is on the island of Borneo in the tropics.'

Read more...

We were in town, Kota Kinabalu market earlier for short sight-seeing.

Sabah, Malaysia is close to the Philippines, and therefore there are many Filipinos here...

The next day, we went to Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa, Kota Kinabalu. It is a beautiful and exclusive resort hotel. If you are in Kota Kinabalu and you need a place to relax, this will be a good choice.

General Election

The 12th Malaysian General Election was held on March 8, 2008. Polls opened in Malaysia on Saturday as voters cast ballots for 222 parliamentary seats and 12 state legislatures. The coalition won 91 percent of parliamentary seats in 2004 election, but not this time around. It was a historic date indeed.

'Barisan Nasional was able to return to power and form the next government, with a simple majority but without the crucial two-thirds majority in parliament. It is BN's worst performance in Malaysia's general election since independence in 1957, winning only 63.5% (140 out of 222) of parliamentary seats that were contested; the only other time the 14-party coalition failed to win a two-thirds majority was in 1969 when it secured 66% of the seats.
'Everyone knows what happened in 1969.

Read more here.

'On March 10, the first trading day since the election, stocks in the KLCI fell 9.5% from 1,296.33 points to 1,173.22 points by 5.00 pm (MST), its biggest one-day decline in a decade. Trading in the KLCI was automatically halted for an hour after stocks fell beyond the 10% limit at 10.5%, as a measure to curb "panic selling"; the KLCI resumed trading at 4.00 pm.

'Source: Malaysia General Election 2008