Xpax Xplay Party.. don’t play play..

I received a DM from Mr. Josh Lim, the boss for Advertlets last Wednesday.

I was in the ‘jungle’ near Bakun and the mobile coverage was really bad but I called him up anyway. First time talking to the man. Excerpt of our painfully transmitted over the sucky mobile coverage went something like this..

Me: “Hello, Josh? Bong here.”

Josh: “Who?”

Me: “Bongkersz.”

Josh: “Oh, yes. Bongkersz. Bong Chan Siong.”

LOL! No need for the full name man! I lost count how many times we asked each other “Hello… can you hear me?” or repeated “Yes I can hear you fine.” during the short conversation. HAHA!

He asked me whether I would be available in Kuching on Friday night for a project. I told him maybe, because I wasn’t sure I would be back on Friday. Anyway he said he would provide me with the details the next day. I was invited to partay Xpax Xplay Party at Paragon, Travillion, Kuching!

I wasn’t overly excited at that time because I wasn’t sure I would be back in Kuching on Friday night.

Then on Friday morning, I have decided to go on a road trip with my colleague, driving back from Simpang Bakun to Kuching. He dropped me at Betong around 4pm and I then continued driving to Kuching with @Emi_Mel. We started around 5.30pm and reached Kuching around 8.30pm and we were ready to partay!! *chanting* Partay people partay people partay people….

Checking with Mr. Josh if I am already in the list.. (click image for full size)

We went to Paragon, Travillion around 10pm and I was surprised that my name was not in the list. I asked them to double, triple check and showed them the tweets from Josh but they still couldn’t find my name. To cut the story short, I managed to get in the club after contacting Josh on phone and he directed me to a lady called Rosemary. But, too bad I didn’t get the ‘VIP tag’ and thus had no access to the ‘VIPs area’ and of course, no free flow drinks for me…

The VIP tag, cheekily named ‘VXP’. This is Fahriee’s tag… (photo stolen from him as well)

I managed to sneak up to the VIPs area for a while and stole a shot with my Crackberreh!

Anyway I had so much fun at the party. DJ Monkey and DJ Funkzu iz teh shitz! Love the beats churned out by the both DJs, really nothing short of awesomeness. I kinda ‘duh!’ when some club Djs playing the same old shits, repetitively cos I rather listen to the radio for that. Keyword here is ‘repetitively’.

This is DJ Monkey. Nice inks man! (photo stolen from Fahriee again)

There were other performances as well, by Soul Higher and Shawn Lee.

Sorry for the poor quality picture hahaha!

Shawn Lee the beatbox machine! Fahriee was not doing him justice when he’s busy tweeting there lol…. or was he tweeting about how awesome Shawn Lee was? Hmm… I recorded the part where Shawn Lee was beatboxing but the sound quality is so crappy for me to put it up. Sigh. One word for Shawn Lee, madness!

Put your hands up in the air partay people! (photo stolen from Xpax’s FB Page)

With Fahriee and Rosemary. (photo stolen from Fahriee)

Huarghhhh! (photo stolen from Fahriee)

Kuching definitely need more of such event to cater for the crazy party revelers here. Looking forward for the upcoming edition of Xpax Xplay party! (They were partying at Opera, Sunway on Saturday night and from the photos.. damn it sure looked like a blast!)

ps: A short hiatus from this blog (last post was a month and a half back…) and the first post after the break is about partying.. Now, Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) is just around the corner…

pss: I no longer look pink after few sips of alcoholic beverages because I am few shades darker after many days slaving in the jungle..

psss: I think the tagline “..when blogging is a constipated affair.” fits this blog real nice now…

Posted in Blogosphere, Event, Facebook, Friends, Fun, Me, Not So Femes, Yet..., People, Social Media, Tweets, Twitter | 12 Comments »

KL Trip (Part 1) : Tweetup with LKS & Tony Pua & Tweetup at The REEF!

I was in KL for the weekend. After breaking up many promises to go and chill out with my friends on the other side (so sorry peeps for that!), finally I made a last minute decision to go. Booked my ticket on Thursday and flew down on Friday evening. I am glad I made it to KL because I had the chance to attend few very important tweetups, meeting old friends – especially my lovely comrades from Facebook, and hanging out with many new friends from Twittersphere.

I touched down at LCCT around 7.30pm, took a bus to KL Sentral which took me an hour to reach there.  Another 10 mins wasted to find a cab. First cab asked for RM35, I told him to go back and sleep, then I went to the roadside and managed to catch a macha. We had a good chat about Sarawak (after he learned that I am a Sarawakian), tuak, toddy, samsu and a little bit on politics. I was heading to Rocket Cafe to attend a tweetup with Lim Kit Siang. Tony Pua was there as well. I was late, reached there around 9pm and luckily I just missed the session about half an hour.

Teeetup with Lim Kit Siang and Tony Pua

The tweetup make-up is a very multiracial one, something different from the usual DAP organised gatherings I have been to. In fact, Vijay whispered to me halfway during the tweetup, “Hey Bong, you know this is the first gathering I’ve been that I see so many races, normally.. majority Chinese and few Indians, very seldom got Malays. Tonight we have so many”.

Many questions and comment were raised during the tweetup. Questions on Lim Kit Siang’s call for boycott during the swearing in ceremony in Perak post GE 2008, September 16 and many more.

I had the chance to ask few questions and make some comments on the image of DAP as a multiracial party hampered by its inability to get the right mixture of members and leaders to reflect a true multiracial party. Many other tweeples jumped in and gave their comments on how DAP is still perceived among Malays as a Chinese party. Something need to be done to change this perception.

Lim Kit Siang gave a good answer on this. He pointed out that in principle, DAP never close its door to any Malaysian, be it Malay, Chinese, Indian etc. The party does not limit any Malaysian of any race and religion to join the party. He then mentioned some prominent Malay leaders in DAP – a well-known Malay, MP Ahmad Nor, who was its vice-president until his death in 2003, Tunku Abdul Aziz the current party vice-president as an example of DAP multiracial and open to all. approach. It’s wrong to say that the DAP is not interested broadening its appeal to the Malays.

But DAP has difficulties to attract other races especially Malays because there are so many other parties to choose from and most of the time being an opposition party doesn’t help. Malays can choose from Umno, Gerakan, PPP then only PAS, PKR and lastly DAP. For those who are pro-opposition, before PKR was formed they would choose either PAS or DAP but now they can choose PKR.

Hmm, for me I personally feel the problem with DAP trying to attract Malay members is that DAP does not have enough specifics in their programmes or policies for the Malays as a specific community. How DAP is going to assist the Malays in their development, what kind of policies DAP has for them. Reaching out to the Malays is different from reaching out to the Chinese and Indians and other Natives for that matter. Religion is one crucial factor.

Another issue brought up was on the dissemination of information to the ground. DAP specifically or Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in general could have done many good things but all this good news are not delivered to the right people due to the distortion, manipulative and blackout in mainstream media.  This problem is also related to the previous question and comments where DAP is perceived as a Chinese party when DAP has always been multi-racial in its composition and outlook.

PR also does not have an official one stop centre’ for all the news, press statements, commentaries on policies and current issues, blogs for its leaders, members and supporters. Independent or alternative media who are pro PR like Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini are not enough. TV Selangor is a good example on how Pakatan Rakyat can use it to present PR’s side on any story and issues of current interests, offering counter-statements, interviews on various issues and showing all the good works carried out by PR. Heck it even has live parliamentary session, something Malaysian cannot get from RTM channels or any mainstream electronic media.

I also commented on the cooperation between Pakatan Rakyat parties – PKR, DAP and PAS where PR still does not portray itself as a coalition with united voice when you have situation where PAS will take lead on a certain issue, DAP will take lead on another issue. I suggested that for DAP to portray and show that it is a party who is after Malaysians’ interests, it should always go to the front.

Tony Pua replied “Let’s say for an example, on the Allah issue if DAP was the first to go out and say ‘It is okay for the Christians to use the Allah word’ and then PAS followed after that, how people would think? How the Muslims would think? Don’t you think Umno and BN would jump to the opportunity to say PAS ‘ikut telunjuk’ (PAS is DAP’s puppet)? That is why for certain issues, we find it is better for us to sit back and let other parties take the lead.

Valid point, which I gave my next comment ‘Then, to avoid such problem, giving impression to the people out there on the disunity of PR parties, of who’s taking the lead and who’s taking the back seat, shouldn’t Pakatan Rakyat issue some sort of joint-statement when dealing with an issue? That way, no question of each party issuing its own statement or the possibility of contradicting each other. It is also more difficult for PR detractors to accuse any party of being submissive to other party. Any statement or comments coming from other PR leaders or parties after the official statement are considered as just personal opinions/views since the official stand has been made.”

Hmm….

Too bad, time was running out and the only reply I got was “Well, that’s an idealistic thinking”. Hmm….

Tweetup at The Reef, TTDI

A friend was waiting for more than 15 mins downstairs for me and Vijay to go for another tweetup at The Reef, TTDI. So after we took some group photos, we left for The Reef. I was so happy to meet up with the regular tweeples in person – @Asohan, @orangasle, @feistyflo (Thanks for inviting me cayang hahaha!), @zeffri (and his lovely wife), @IcedNyior, @thechannelc (she left without saying goodbye! Easier to sneak out than saying goodbye eh??), @sureshdr, @rachelweiyi, @iemzhar, @JcrT, @auzani (he came a bit late after). Sorry if I miss out your name, writing this off the top of my head.

Had so much fun, gyrating to the 80’s tune. We even made a toss to #yorais! We were so loud and at one point chanting “U2, U2, U2″ asking for songs from the band to be played. Too bad, our requests were ignored.. huargghhh! Nobody was taking photos of the tweetup, I think @IcedNyior took some and twitpic-ed it, may need to check her tweets for the photos. We adjourned to the mamak opposite the bar and I had my sleep around 4.30am. I was staying at D’aman Ria, the place where I stayed when I was working in Klang Valley. Thanks CM for opening the door at 4am LOL!

To be continued… (Next post -  fish head noodle, Kanna Curry House farewell lunch and Teh Tarik Tweetup with Anwar Ibrahim)

Posted in Barisan Rakyat, Blogosphere, DAP, Friends, Lim Kit Siang, Malaysia, Me, People, Politicians, Politics, Social Media, Twitter | 9 Comments »

Pimped by The Star!

Other posts can wait, this one cannot.

Blurred screenshot of my Twitter account

First time getting pimped by The Star, together with other Sarawakian bloggers like Kenny Sia, Dine with Annna – Anna Bella Wong ,  Mum-mum: Eat Eat – Rowena Tan, Sixthseal – Huai Bin and Lolly Raja, founder of Kelabit Wiki Project.

Although no mention of my blog name and address in the paper version, (The Star later includes it in the online version), I was quoted in few paragraphs (very politically correct one).  Let me quote one for you guys:

“I am a proud Sarawakian. Sarawak has so much to share with the people out there and I feel obliged to share all the good and bad things about this place so people can learn, gain or make something out of it.“

And they put up my handsome face HAHA! (Thank you Ras, gambar diambik ko juak dipake aku hahah!) Let’s hope #yorais doesn’t read today’s paper. Oh ya, I bought my The Star paper today, after not doing so for so long. Ehem, you know why I don’t buy The Star all this while hehehe

So, grab a copy of The Star today, because I am in it! Star Two pullout, pg 2 and pg. 3. Just don’t read too much on the news inside the Nation pullout eg. Umno’s doors ‘never shut’

Posted in Blogosphere, Mainstream Media, Me, People, Personalities, Twitter | 16 Comments »

‘Makan duit rakyat’ is bad for your stomach…

I am not feeling well today. Went to the toilet a bit too many times yesterday and this morning. Down with fever last night. I slept the whole night, from 7.30pm till this morning.

Heat stroke? All the traveling and standing under the sun for the past two weeks. Food poisoning? Too much beer? Wait, I think I know  the source of my food poisoning. I came back from Bintulu last Thursday and RasMhd fetched me from airport using Sarah. I left Sarah with him and Luky before I went to Bintulu. “Oi, sapa makan aiskrim lam keta aku, dah ya tumpah kat tepi seat!!! Passenger seat. Cheebuy takorang yeeer..”

Went to Bintulu to see this o.O

We decided to eat at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCKK) where Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) convention is held for the past one week. RasMhd needed to go back there to for some photo-shoot sessions. He’s one of the many photographers for the PBB convention. Of course, he is the best among all! “heh heh, promote boh sik!”

A peek inside a photog’s bag

Took this photo when I fetched RasMhd and Luky at their hotel the other day. Luky was distributing tags, bags, hotel keys.“Ney bag aku oii!”

Gotta love the theme for this year – Transformasi Rakyat untuk Mencapai Ekonomi Berpendapatan Tinggi (Transforming People Towards High-Income Economy), hope they understand what it really means, especially the ‘high-income economy part’. Since PM came out with this ‘high-income’ economy thing, everybody is talking about it. Just like the 1Malaysia hype. Islam Hadhari. Malaysia Boleh. Malaysians are suckers for slogans. One of our favourite past times is sloganeering, I guess.

The state relies heavily on palm oil plantations, logging and petroleum as its main sources of income. Apart from petroleum and its related industries, the other sectors are not exactly high-income sectors because those sectors depend a lot on cheap foreign labours with non existence of minimum wages. This article written by Dr. Fong Chan Onn is a good read, for us to understand the limitations and things we need to change before we embark on this mission to be a nation of ‘high-income’ economy – Caught in middle-income trap.

Back to the story, we had dinner at BCCK since meals were prepared for the PBB delegates and people related to the function. Er, I am also related, since I was the driver for my friends who were working for the event. Ha! Ha!

Awesome dishes. Especially love the Daging Masak Kicap. (Beef in Soy Sauce) It reminds me of the days I was a hostel student back in Kolej TDTH Bujang. One of the few dishes at the dining hall I looked forward to eat at that time. LOL!

Just both of us were sitting at the table, eating food prepared for 10 persons. I went home fully stuffed. The next morning (yesterday), I visited the toilets thrice. Few more visits to the loo during along the day. Also a bit stressed out because of the amount of emails I needed to reply, reports to write and meetings to attend.  After work, went to see Sai Wan of The Star for a little chat. He is here for the launch of The Star, Sarawak Edition. I have been tweet-chatting with him on Twitter for a while now. It is great to meet new people and I always look forward to do so to get to know the real persons apart from their online personas, or reputations.

I went back home, dozed off till this morning and visited the toilet few more times again. I need to see a doctor if I still religiously visit the toilet. Hmm… pretty sure this is due to the ‘free food’ I ate last Thursday night at BCCK. I have learned something from this and I wish to share it with my readers. 

1. ‘Makan duit rakyat’ (eating people’s money) is never good. Kthxbai.

2. Toilet affair is more fun now, with the invention of Twitter.

ps: High-income economy. No minimum wages. Message delivered by old farts, for old farts. Party full of old farts. Bunch of old farts run the country. How?

Posted in 2 cents, Boleh-ism, Bolehland, Current Affairs, Food, Freebies, Friends, Me, People, Personal, Tweets, Twitter | 4 Comments »