Operation: SNU KL SALSA STORM (28/04/06 - 01/05/06)



KL was a BLAST!!! I really enjoyed myself and im sure all de rest of us did too. It was 2.5 days and 3 nights of great food, excellent shopping, bombastic dancing and OUT OF THIS WORLD COMPANY!!!!. :p This trip was also a jopurney of self discovery for many of us. I will never forget about the time we shared together. We definately left a great many deep impresions and foot prints for ourselves in KL. SNU U GUYS ROCK!!!!

Anyways, for all you poor souls that couldn't join us this time round, here's a little something to show u wad u guys missed out...wahahahahahaha... Damn, im evil.....

Young in all his evilness...wahahahah

DAY 1

We met up on the 28th at lavendar mrt at 1pm. Sondha had just stepped off her flight from aussieland at 4.30am but i guess nothing could stop her from the trip before us. Damn wa she hyper...hahahaha.

We had lunch at the army market and thereafter began scurrying to the departure point at golden mile complex. This time round as with the last, we decided to take a grassland coach up to kl. At 2.30pm, our long 6 hour ride up the north south highway to KL began.

Bags all falled in

Someone left his food untouched

Was the glutinous rice balls in peanut soup so good? Maybe Kai mincouldn't contain her excitement for the trip too...lol

I didn't managed to get much sleep the day before but neither did i get any on the ride up.lol. The ride was made shorter by the company of good friends. It was laughter galore as many of us caught up with each other. We talked about everything, discussed about life and planned for our later invasion of the KL salsa scene. We stopped briefly at a rest stop in between where we had food. I rnjoyed a gigantic chocolate ice cream but stopped there. I wanted to save the calories for KL....wahahahahaha. After that, we hit the road again... As night fell, young began DJing for the coach with his trusty ZEN NEEON mp3 player and cute white akira speakers... ...

All smiles... ...

The sistas

Jerry all so merry

Elieen caught unaware

Jwo wanted to lick the camera man... ewww

New akira ear phones....lol

Me with my jungle hat and something that looks suspiciously like sherv's hand hovering above it

Chocolate ice SCREM!!!!!

Rest stop

Say no to ... Porn?

We reached KL at about 9.15pm and trooped off to jul's apartment opposite Berjaya times square. There, there was the intial rush and mayhem to clean and spruce up the place abit before we setlled down for abit and got ready to leave for dinner and out first salsa location.

Frenzy

SNU shoe sale

We had dinner at this wannabe HK cha chan tang (tea house) that served lousy food at lousier price. The place was orangey (as in the colour... doh) and oriental themed. I didnt really enjoy the food...

We couldn't wait

Lookin good in my jungle hat

Rave party in the lift

The cool dudes

Cooler dudettes

Iced chocolate

Dinner place

Gwen enjoyed looney toons when she was younger

After dinner, it was off to SALSA HAVANA at the federal hotel!!!! Yippee!!! all of us were bursting wif energy. The atmosphere was electric, the people were excellent and the music was GROOVY!!! We had lotsa fun. At first, we attracted alot of stares as we looked like this big group of aliens invading earth. However, after awhile, after we were identified as singaporean salsa dancers, we were warmly accepted and merged into the crowd easily. We danced and danced and danced. I must say that the msian ladies were not bad. Most of them could follow my lead and a handful could pull of more complex turn patterns wif me. It was fun. I wore my jungle hat to dance but it was so warm and i was perspiring so much that i took it off after 2 dances...wahahahah

Groupy outside salsa havana

Cool young wif red hot wee meng

Lookin pretty in black

Shagged out

Jwo and sonn

Jane shaking it

Standing out in blue

Flashing their pearly whites

Yun Ping and me having a go

The msian guys had their fair share of sg ladies too. Our ladies were hot properties man.... hahaha. Guy after guy, song after song. U go gals.

Me with Emily

Frazzled Chris

I think that it is a universal trend that where u have salsa clubs, you will have a 24hr convenience store nearby. Like the budget salsa dancer i am, i got my drinks there and that was where i first met Sam, salsa sam!!!

Tired and contented

We left late that night and began a long march back to the apartment where we bunked down for the night. The queue for the toilet was long. I mean wad do u expect when 16 people shared 2 toilets?lol Sleeping arrangement also resembled sardines in a can. It was an interesting experience and sight. I couldn't really sleep. Sleeping bags are actually a toture instrument in disguise. When it works in tandem with a cold hard floor, it's worst...hahaha. My sleeping bag was too short and small for me. I felt like a piece of soft shell crab in sushi all wrapped up and stuff. It didnt help that jwo was practicing acrobatics in his sleeping bag all night and i was sandwiched by kai min sleeping on the matteress on the other side... lol. Boy was it a night...hahahaha.

Gigantic sardines

Jwo warming up for his acrobatic act later

DAY 2

It started of relatively earlier at 10pm. I can't really say i woke up cos i didnt really manage to fall asleep in the first place. Kai min and shirine left the house son after to head out to shop. I felt that the epitomise the typical singaporean shopperholic...wahahahah. By the time all of us left the aprtment, it was lunchtime so in the old time tested SNU way, we missed breakfast. We went to a humble shop somewhere nearby and had lunch. We had local food which honestly wasn't of much differnce to what we can find in singapore. I had shao rou fan ( roast pork rice).

The morning after carnage

BTS

Linking up

Off we go

This is my friend jwo... ...

After lunch, we split up to spend the afternoon. Clarence, jwo, sherv, sonn, elieen, jackson, wee meng and i went together. We decided to go and see the petronas twin towers and visit KLCC. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the wanting to save money, we decided to take the monorail to klcc.

Monorail station

Ticket to...

... our ride

Sherv being flanked by 2 bodyguards

The twin towers from the monorail

The 21 and under club

I tell u, KL has many and i mean MANY funkily funny signs.lol

In the monorail station

Please jump of the ledge

"Can i have a HIV STD card please?"

Wowee!!!

We were sleep deprived and suffering from sleeping bag syndrome so during the whole day, we were all rather funny and looney and things we said were all so funny...hahaha. I developed 6 packs just from laughing out the whole day. it was great...lol

KLCC was a giant shopping center that sold the more high ended stuff. There were mainly shops like ZARA, MNG, U2, Top Shop, G2000 and others. It was like shopping at suntec. What really made my day was a berrylicious smoothie from New Zealand's Natural. It was fantastic. Soury and shiok!!!!

KLCC

Jwo playing it cool

Meet farmer young

Freak of nature wanted to eat up the gundam

I also saw a jacket that i really and absolutely lurved at ZARA. When i tried it on and stared at myself in the mirror, I was like WOAH!!! hahaha. It felt great and looked even better. Even jwo said that it looked fabulous from the back. Apity that i couldn't afford it cos it was like freakin RM600+++ ... sob sob... Guess i wont bee able to get my hands on it anytime soon. Well, at least now i have a goal to work towards. For the time being, i'll just have to settle wif a photo....lol

I want... ... ARGH!!!!

We also tried to take a tour up to the skybridge of the twin towers but tickets for the day were out. Awwww... In the end, we just had to be contented to take photos from the bottom.

Petronas Twin Towers

I feel dwarfed

After KLCC, we ttok the monorail back. Clarence and sherv decided to go back to the apartment to do god knows wad...lol while the rest of us went to get massages.

After searching for a while, we decided to to patronise a shop called Old Asia. It is near federal hotel and i must say that i looked very nice. The rest of the shops in the area looked way too sleazy for us. We went in and got ourselves a RM63 packaged which consisted of foot reflexology, back, neck, head, shoulders and hands massage. It lasted for 60 mins.

Tranquil setting

We were treated like VIPs

For the rest of us, it was heaven. It felt really great. I was feeling so refreshed and rejuvenated after it. For jwo however, it was an expensive 60 mins torture session...lol... Jwo's way too ticklish...hahahahahah.

shiok!!!

We got back to the apertment, chilled abit and prepared for dinner. Jul finally got to the apartment too. She was caught up at work so she could only join us on saturday. After all of us were back and ready, we went out for dinner.

All decked out in SNU gear

That dinner was the best meal of the trip to me. It was at the ship. It boasts that it serves the best steak in town... and i AGREE man!!! wahahahaha. This time around, we had lotsa great food. Jwo had seafood choere and he was enjoying it. We had 2 dozens of escargot this time around and all of us enjoyed it.

Ship in the city

Our looooooooong table

Picking our spoils

Full of youth and loving it

The highlight for me was my CARPET BAG STEAK!!!! it was beef steak stuffed with oysters cooked with oyster sauce, served with fries and fresh chopped vegatables. Man was it heavenly!!! The steak was thick, tender and juicy. The oysters stuffed inside were all so flavourful and full of freshness. The taste of the oysters blended sooooo well with the steak. I could have teared after taking that first bite.... yummmmm!!!! Coupled with the escargot and a cup of red wine... ... It was pure sinful indulgence...hahahaha

Shiny tools

French snails

The one and only carpet bag steak

Gluttony caught on film

After dinner, it was off to Little Havana. If u ask me, it looks abit sleazy. It's located in a more rundown part of town, quite scary to walk along the road at night if u ask me. It sits along Changkat Bukit Bintang.

Little havana in cool lime green

On the ground floor, it's a regular pub cum resturant. On the 2nd floor however, it's a big room with smooth flooring that acts as a dance floor. There was also a mini bar counter in a corner. With dim lights hanging from the tall ceiling and brown painted walls with a very little furniture, in the words of sondha, " it looks like a gambling den"...lol... Come to think of it, i can so picture several mahjong tables and roulette tables and people smoking cigars placing bets and all....lol. Well, i felt a bit doghy but it was this shaddiness that added to the whole cool feel...hahaha. It made the whole place feel like an uber secret underground salsa hangout where all the people who were there were like those cool players u always see in the movies...hahaha

Gambling den?

Anyways, we were there rather early at 9.30pm. It was still rather deserted and so we started dancing among ourselves. However as it grew later, the place really started to fill up. Since we wore our SNU shirts, we were soon identified to be the group from singapore and boy was it fun....

The funky salsa group from singapore

We had so much fun.... I danced and danced and danced. The msian ladies were quite alright. I managed to dance with many great ladies. Most of them could really shake it man... hahahaha. I really liked their body movements and stuff. Sizzlin. Some of them also looked real good...hahaha. Model material man...

Wee meng salsaing

Since we were identified as salsa dancers from singapore, many people wanted to dance wif us. The ladies were literally dragged off dance after dance. From them, it seemed that some of the msian guys were really good too. Elieen was blown away by the jap guy, sondha was charmed by iggy... ...

Jul being charmed by a Msian guy

I can see shirine

Us guys did pretty well too. I was busy dancing most of the time and didn't notice much but from eye witness accounts from kai min, sondha and elieen, there was this bunch of beer drinking ladies that sort off kept following me around and swooning all over me...hahaha. Whenever i shifted somewhere else to dance, they changed their positions too.. hahahah. I wonder if it was really true that i was actually attractive to those KL ladies or that they just had too much beer to drink lol. Anyways, this is the first time that stuff like this has happened to me before so yah... im flattered...lol

Getting on wif chris

Spinning and enjoying it

Random shot of the crowd

I dare say that all of the rest had lotsa fun too! The atmosphere was so jovial. Since we had different dance styles and stuff, many people wanted to dance wif us. Whenever i finished a dance wif a lady, they always had that "Oh My God" stunned look....hahaha... I hope it's in a good way though...lol

All of us having fun

Seng Wee was there

Jerry was happy

Young was spent after trying out... erm... dancing with... so many ladies

Halfway through the night, there was this dance called samba line dancing. basically, it's a group dance where people dance to the same 4 steps. Cool...hahahah

At the end of the night, everyone wanted a piece of SNU...lol. I was especially touched by Sam. They call him KL Salsa Sam and he has the legendary status in kl like what jackson in singapore has. Btw, he's a salsa instructor at Havana Estudio in KL and if your are interested, the webbie is www.havanaestudio.com. He actually came up to me and the rest of us to talk to us and thanked us for coming down to KL and spicing up the scene here, uping the tempo and stuff. He was soooo nice and sincere, shaking our hands and stuff. There was not even a hint of snobbishness or " im too cool for you" attitude. He was so down to earth. He definately won me over. We exchanged contacts and stuff and took photos with all of us. Thank you so much Sam, for making our KL trip that much nicer :)

SNU and Sam

Sam and SNU

Besides Sam, alot of other people wanted to take photos with us. There were so many cameras and flashes. I felt like a celebrity. Everyone was so welcoming and wanted to know us better. I felt that we must have left a real good impression. Thanks guys. SNU WE ROCK!!!!! wahahaha.

Emily took photos with us too

When we left, they even invited us to supper at a nearby makan place. I guess it's the same worldwide. Good salsa must be followed up with good food:)

This prata shop isn't located at tanjong pagar

All of left that night on a great note. Thank you Msian dancers for making our day :D

Young looks like that when he's tired but happy

We took a cab back because we were seriously too spent to trek back. After showering and stuff, most of us went to sleep. Sonn had to study and i couldn't sleep so we ended up talking about stuff. It was way interesting to see how people sleep man. hahaha. Jwo did his usually sleeping bag acrobatics stunts, clarence kept scratching his nose, wee meng and jerry practiced sychronised sleeping...lol. Anyways, sonn and i had a long chat till about 7am before deciding that it was time to sleep too..hahaha. Thanks for the chat sonn. It's really much appreciated.


DAY 3

I woke up at about 10.30am. Today, a couple of us were returning to singapore early. Kaimin, shirirne, jane and wee meng left today for singapore. By the time i woke up, most of dem were already half ready to leave.

Day 3 ... ... in the morning

After the usual morning bustle of freshening up, we left at around 11.30am skipping breakfast and heading straight for lunch SNU manner. We had lunch at this chicken buffet place at BTS. Wasn't that bad but i wasn't fanastic either. In this point of time, i gotta tell you that my dear old buddy jwo comes up with the wierdest nonsence all the time. Since i was seriously sleep deprived, i wasn't in the best of moods and was stoning badly. During lunch with jwo howver, he made me feel so much better with all his funny shit. Really left me rolling on the floor man. You rock jwo...wahahahah.

After lunch, we split up again. Today was more or less a shopping day. I had wanted to go to genting badly, to enjoy the weather, have a cup of coffee, just soak in the cool highland air and just watch the world go by for a while but no one was for the idea ( most of dem said that i should just go back to de apartment and turn down the air con. Jerry said that if i wanted mist, he'd just turn on the hot shower and open the door to let vapour out...lol) and since a 1 way cab fare up was RM80, i gave up as well. I went to get a cup of ice blended mocha frap from starbucks to fight the fatigue.

After that, we decided to crash the apartment for a while but when we got there, no one was home and we didn't have the key and so clarence, sherv, jwo and i headed to sungei wang plaza to shop. I was still feelin really stoned. Simce i was the only in the group with a handphone that sould roam, i was the signaller for the day. Anyways, we walked to sungei wang and bummed around until jerry called me and we took his car. He sent sherv and clarence back to the apartment while jwo and i headed off to lot 10 shopping center and resumed shopping.

By then, the caffine had started to kick in and i felt a tad bit better. At lot 100, we stumbled around abit and window shopped. I realised that using the toilets in msia was expensive. The toilet at lot 10 was RM0.30 per entry and they even gave u a coupon upon payment... ... Geez... im only going in to take a crap not to watch a movie or use a jacuzzi. What!!! 30cents and still got coupon.... (-_-!!!)

Present this coupon and receive a free massage as you take a crap

We went into Isetan where i bought an uber vintage style shirt. It is a yellow union bay shirt which is really retro... ... Think old time coal miners on R & R. Well, i found that i really matched my jeans and levi's sneaker so i bought it. The 70% discount of the RM75 price tag was also a great motivating factor.

After lot 10, we made our back to sungei wang as jwo wanted to buy clothes. We milled about, checking out lotsa shops. Sungei Wang is kinda like far east plaza with alot of street wear. However, not all of it is really good cos i felt that alot of the shops screamed ah beng all over. Nevertheless, we found many quirky and interesting shops. There was one shop that really tickled us. It was selling printed t shirts that had funny messages like " If i was a giraffe, i would be that bit taller"...lol

We also found a shop selling dragon beard candy and started to indulge ourselves. Each box of 8 pieces costs RM5. We had a total of 3 boxes between ourselves and spent a good whole box finding out how to eating it without spilling the crushed nuts in the candy. The trick is to first flip the candy over before picking it up gently... lol

Eat dragon beard candy for radiant skin like mine

Upon finishing our tour of sungei wang, we tried to head back to BTS as jwo wanted to get a pair of romp jeans. We were however lost and upon searching, realised that we had wandered into BB plaza from sungei wang as they were connected. After searching a while longer, we finally managed to find our way back to BTS. Jwo bought a romp shirt and we headed back to the apartment to chill.

Back at the apartment, we found sonn studying and clarence and sherv asleep. Jwo, sondha and i jut chilled, talking good ol' fashion crap and just enjoyed each other's company. Jwo also managed to catch up on some sleep. For me however, the caffine was working too well.

Jwo looks like this when he crashes on a couch

It was about 5 plus at that time. by 8 plus, the rest were back too. We all got ready and decided to head to china town area for some bbq fish for dinner.

All smiles as we head for dinner

China town is a really busy and bustling place at night. Lotsa roadside stores selling mouth watering food at reasonable prices. At that time, the effects of caffine had wore out and soon i was stoning yet again....hahaha

I am a white stone...

We had bbq sting ray, sotong, fried mushrooms, lala, bamboo clams and satay that came up to about RM80 plus. It was shiok!!! Really value for money. We also ordered our own ala carte dishes. I had mixed pig organ soup hor fan which was sedap:) There was also a busking band that was playing but i must say they wern't very good...lol

Chinatown in full glory

Looking for a place to chow down

Food...

... food...

... and more food

Yummylicious mixed pig organ souped hor fan for RM4.50

After dinner, the original plan was to go to Zouk but somehow due to some people, we ended up at Q bar at the westin... ... :( Well, I really wanted to go to zouk but wad to do? haiz... ... Anyways, I had 2 very good dances at Q bar. Both of the dances were with shervonne and sondha but the songs were not salsa but actually pop and slow rock numbers. The live band was playing and i must say they were very good, way better than the band at union square.

Geting comfy on the couch outside Q bar

Q bar on the inside

The music was great but what really irked me was the lack of space, lousy crowd and an overly egoistic dancer.

Dosen't young look happy to be at Q bar... ...not :(

First of all, the dance floor was very small, only had space for about 4 couples at most. Secondly, the crowd there was crap. It mainly consisted of toursit and expats whom mostly knew nothing about salsa. So when salsa was played, the non dancers crammed up the dance floor and just started to shake and gyrate tastelessly, wasting precious space. When eyeballed, they couldn't care less anyways.

If that wasn't enuff, there was this dancer that seriously rubbed me the wrong way. There was this big framed guy in blue that was apparently an instructor. According to sondha whom he danced wif, he couldn't lead very well and questioned her why so (becos she danced pretty well wif someone before that). Not only that, he repeatedly said in her face during dancin that he was an instructor (.... .... so what?!). Sorry to tell you this, it just dosen't cut it with singaporean ladies. He further pissed sondha of by blatantly pooping her into a chairleaving her a big blue black but guess wad... ... he just said it's ok and carried on. He also refused to dance wif sondha until she wore her slipper despite sondha explaining that her dance shoes were spoilt.

He also irritated the hell out of yun ping but bugging her to dance when she was smsing by herself. Gwen was also slightly disgusted as he maintained such close contact and did moves that literally wiped his sweat all over her that she had to go to the toilet to wash up after that. Yuck!!!

What really got me real pissed was the fact that he was seriously over egoistic. When i was standing there just tryong to rest and stuff, he came around and sussed us all to go and dance. Im like WHAT THE F***K man... ... Not only that, on the already crowded dance floor, he didn't care hoots about keeping to his space and proceeded to throw his partner around like rag dolls and take up hell lot of space, at his partner's demise too. Talk about dance etiquette. To think that he's a salsa instructor... ... Bloody ass hole. I was so pissed i went to 7-11 twice.

Someone pressed the wrong button and pissed young off badly

At about 2am, i got so pissed that i wanted to leave. I discussed with the rest and decided that we should go to zouk. Well, some of us decided to go back to the apartment. The rest of us took cabs down to zouk.

By the time we reached zouk, it was already very late. Zouk was closing at 3am and by the time we got in, it was 2.43am. grrrr... to think i got myself pissed off and missed out on zouk. At least we got FREE entry...lol. On the way in we say some people dragged a piss drunk lady out. Boy.. it isnt pretty to be drunk.

Singapore's finest export to Malaysia

Outside the happy land

We enjoyed the last 20 mins or so of the night. It was mambo night. The atmosphere was great. Pity the short time we had. I had a tequila shot for RM15.50. Jul, jwo, sonn and i were on the dance floor. I felt that it was way better than Q bar.

Slightly after 3am, the lights went on and they played one final song. That was when i had the best dance of the whole KL trip. Sonn and i decided to salsa to that final song, which was emotions by destiny's child. Although it was heavy on percussions and had no latin flavour to it wadsoeva, somehow the some felt sooooooand flowy. We danced in the zouk dance floor and i dare say that the good many people who saw us were impressed. Thanks sonn :)

Great friends

After that, we took cabs back to the apartment. We watched innocent steps and soon after, under the influence of tequila and lack of sleep, i was snoring...hahahahaha

DAY 4

The last day began at 10.30am. As usual, after the morning frenzy, jwo, clarence, sondha, sherv and i went downstairs to the prata shop to have our first breakfast in KL. The prata was so so to me but they were big. After 1 egg and 2 kosong, i was going to explode...hahaha.

Prata breakfast wif sonn...

... and jwo

After breakfast, it was back to sunei wang for last minute shopping. Nothing much except for a few toy shops that we passed by. We visited a comic shop where io bought 2 anime movies and jwo bought a soundtrack.

What tickled us the most was that jwo bought this coffin shaped portable mini ashtray that would pop open when u pressed a button. It was damn gothic looking. Jwo said that he planned to use it to scare the hell out of everyone and use it to keep sweets... hahahahah... jwo jwo jwo....lol. Pity i forgot to take photos of it...hahaha

The owner must be one bitter ah beng who speaks benglish...lol

We went back to the apartment 1 final time at 1.05 pm. Jul bought 3 skirts and elieen bought a blouse. We did our final packing and left our base camp at 1.15pm. Jerry was waiting for us in his merc E class and we dropped off our luggae in his car as he volunteered to send them to our departure point for us. We then walked to swiss garden hotel under the hot sun to await our ride home.

Trek to the pick up point

Too darn hot

Jwo contemplating before leaving KL

There was a bit of a mix up of coaches but in the end, we got tit sorted out and left on time. The trip was uneventful. I concussed as soon as i hit the head rest. However, when i woke up, i realised that the bus drivers were damn irritating. They were indians and started to play tamil music videos on the vcd player... ... bloody idiots.

Anyways, we talked cock as usaul along the trip back. We also discussed about salsa and the whole trip. The ride back was longer than expected as there was a massive jam along the highway or as jwo puts it "a sea of car butts"...lol

We reached sg at about 9.50pm, close to 10pm. Some of us dropped off at taman jurong and parted ways. Sondha took a cab to the airport to catch her 12 midnight flight, concluding our weekend salsa trip:)

Jul couldn't wait to get home

Preparing to disembark

I'd like to take this oppurtunity to thank alot of people. To jul, thanks sooooooo much for letting us crash your apartment which is right smack in the middle of town yet again. To elieen, thanks for helping us settle our bus ride and coordinating most of the stuff. To jwo and sonn, thanks for making my day and letting me discover so much about myself. To the rest of you guys, thanks for your great company, cooperation that made it such an enjoyable trip.

SNU, WE ARE THE PARTY!!!!! Till the next trip =D

Young couldn't bear to leave... ...