Auscultating : Malacca

Finals ended with me knowing my grades for 2 important medicine subjects; good to know that I managed to ace them. Let's hope my CGPA remains in dean's list so I wouldn't die trying to pull the grades up next semester.

Marching into the final year in the vet school ain't no joke; as we will be required to present 2 clinical conference cases in the final 2 semesters within one slot among the 14 Fridays of each semesters.

Being me, I got in touch with one of the consultants so that I get to tag along while she have appointments on cardiac patients.

Coincidentally,(trust me I did not know) she was the academician in charge of 4 Thai exchange students and one pretty damn good looking clinician from Khon Khaen University; and I was asked if I were free to bring them around to places they have YET to go.

My list was:
1- KLCC
2- KL Bird park
3- Petaling Street
4- Putrajaya
5- Merdeka Field.

But they all have been there. I literally ORZ-ed

Then I came up with another list:
1- Sekinchan
2- Tanjung Sepat
3- Pulau Ketam
4- Kuala Selangor
5- Malacca

Lo and behold, the last one of the list became their choice.

Well, I would if I were a tourist. The only qualm I had as the driver is the traffic.

Luckily, luck was on my side, I had a smooth traffic with 1.5 hours drive through and fro, each of course.

Malacca itself is a sigh seeing place, but its really much more fun if someone knew the history to explain. I had literally little to no time to get my facts right; while I've only managed to time their itinerary like 5 hours before I fetch the next day, so I just went there without any historical knowledge of each attraction.

Our first stop was A'Famosa, also known as Porte De Santiago. Well, the sun was blazing I almost died in the heat; but we had a great picture and climb up the port to the next stop; St Paul Church.

Spent  a little time exploring the ruins, taking pictures and noticing the lost of the St Paul's right hand; probably due to the war, it's a good place to hang out for picnic I would say. Either way, to me its better for historical enthusiasts compared to me.

Came to the Dutch Square and decided not to go into Stadhuy's museums simply because there ain't value for them. Walked around and rested from the walking, took pictures, and yea. Taking pictures is what we all did. But what else can we do right?

and yea, my arm length selfie is a must.

St Francis Xavier Church was apparently in their list, but I'd figure it's more like a touch and go because they had Sunday masses. It was beautifully constructed and apparently a Japanese enthusiast brought the first priest into Malacca and founded the establishment. Cool history. 

I enjoyed this part of the day most; and it was a good thing they brought this up. We went for a gallery tour on the Chen family's Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum; where they offer a good nyonya tour guide to show us various cultural legacies available in the museum. From the altars, the architecture, the sewings and even a 1956 version of CCTV; I think the price of RM16 for a good tour to relate and know about the peranakan heritage is worth every sens. I personally feel that this was enjoyable because I could relate a lot, especially from a Hokkien background.

Heck, I even eat with hands when my grandma is around. I somewhat felt I had peranakan background because of my grandma as well; but who knows right? 

PS: I'm also 1/8th portuguese, which explains the size and height.

Spent the lunch in Jonker 88, the Thais loved the Asam and Lemak Laksa. Breakfast in Hoe Kee, was pretty disappointing for me.

Since we've managed to cover all their listed places,(there were more but not worth mentioning haha) we've decided to hit Menara Taming Sari, named after the legendary keris owned by Hang Tuah. It's a tower similar to the Solero shot machine, just that it ascends and descends much slower with a possible 360 view of the Malacca Straits. The view was fascinating, and RM15 for Malaysians is definitely worth going up. I wasn't too keen to begin with, but after the ride it was pretty impressive. The pictures you can take through the glass walls are breathtaking.

Our last stop of the day was Sam Poh Keng Temple, or Tua Pek Kong Temple. Only me and the clinician paid our respect because of our Chinese heritage. It was like other temples as well, just a little history on how Hang Li Poh was related to this temple due to the Sultan's love for her.

With everyone's legs screaming after the whole day walking under the scorching sun, I got everyone to the Capitol Satay so that we can start waiting before the line gets crazy. Good thing that we got there about 20 minutes before the line went berserkishly long, while we too only have waited 20 minutes only before we got our seats. It was a good experience, the satay broth was freakishly good with the combination of peanuts and spice; when it was piping hot some how everything went 10x better. I'm glad the Thais enjoyed it, and they were really just doing it because it wad fun doing it, not because they really wanted to have it for dinner.

So where did we have our dinner? Same ol' Bak Kut Teh in Serdang near the Wisma Boston. Surprisingly everything was good tonight because I'd swear I have worse servings here before. The soup base was sweet while the pork vinegar just killed me from inside. Their dry BKT wasn't my favorite, but the Thais thoroughly enjoyed it.

Before we called it a night, we went for our virgin arcade dance off in the Mines. It's very fun when you have something in common to go crazy with, especially with foreigners. 

It was a great outing, I was just glad that my lecturer asked me for the favor while I too enjoyed it all the way.

Buffetting : Getting Real

It has been a while hasn't it?

A few updates:

1- Japan has been great. I wouldn't miss it because I'm definitely going back
2- I wanted to call off with N. But N wants to go for a second go. Should I bother?
3- Year 4 kicked in hard. For the first half of the semester I will be zombified because of all the rotation in small animal clinic, ward and surgery. I should survive.

4- I've decided to pursue internal medicine in companion animals for now, until I find a way to apply it in wildlife medicine
5- I've also decided which lecturer to go to for my Final Year Project. I was a little afraid to go to the lecturer before because she is pretty prominent and I wasn't sure if she would be open to the idea. However, the recent email I got opened up some doors, and I'm probably sticking to this one.

Life has been good so far.  I'm moving into my new house soon, and I can't imagine living alone in a house myself yet. But, I have to say I'm a pretty lucky boy.

Buffetting : Another Chance

Well, I sure hope that was with T. Dreams have been daunting lately.

Apart from various issues with the family and studies, T apparently became a huge chunk of it.

Maybe its the subconscious of mine, but probably its a way my body is trying to deal with the issue for me to move on, for good.

It is hard, I have no problems now to wipe those emotions off my mind; its just the constant remembrance that is bothering me a little.

Back to another chance; this is pretty Japanese-direct-translate of me.

Another lucky chance for me to land a spot in the upcoming WSAVA conference in Bangkok 2015! I kinda pitched myself a little in the email and it worked out pretty well. Let's hope I do get to learn a lot, aside from volunteering in the booth for WSAVA.

Adding that to the list, I'll be flying a lot in 2015!

February - Japan(OSAKA) for Vet Youth Summit Japan

May- Thailand(BANGKOK) for WSAVA Congress 2015

June- Thailand(BANGKOK) for Ruminant and Large Animal Rotation

August- Japan(YAMAGUCHI) for Laboratory Clinical Rotation

4 flights, 4 places, 4 purposes. Who knows, maybe in the new academic year in September onwards I will be having another few more other flights? But by then I should where should I spend my 15 weeks of additional practical time.

Updates on the previous week practical and current practical later!

Buffetting : Ending 2014

I'd figure I should do this now and get back to my finals cramming before the 4.0 just fly out of my lap.

2014, has been a long year. I think I grew up emotionally a lot this year, because of so many things happening with so many parties getting involved in my life. I would say I grew at some point, managing things is now a little different while I have made several bold moves along the way.

January 2014:

The semester ended with another wedding in-line which my cousin brother had with me being the driver cum bridegroom brigade*or is there another term for this?* Nothing much except for the fact that a lot of our cousins in our generation is slowly heading towards the next stage of their lives in building a family and being parents themselves. Responsibility much?

February 2014:

3 weeks stuck in the breeder chicken farm in the middle of Karak was crazy. Daily morning shower with water as cold as ice and being completely naked in front of the foreign labor was, just something I probably will avoid forever. However, the nights spending to watch The Little Nyonya, trying the fill the gaps in between egg collection during work and the moments killing each other in the dorm with the girls were just fun.

March 2014:

Getting back to the faculty in this time of the year means Vetsports and Vet Dinner. After all the heavy work last year its time for my batch to chill out this year. Our batch is pretty famous for our lack of skills in sports, but we still do very great in tug-o-war, cheer leading as well as indoor games. Vet Dinner was pretty quaint this year, but only a few of us attended simply because we had to as directors and presidents of various interest clubs in the faculty.

April 2014:

This was a very special month no doubt. Apart from Majlis Silaturahim which my batch definitely have done a splendid job as the organizer with me being the crazy Chinese vampire, I took a bold step to fly and meet T in Chiang Mai; with my interest of wildlife practical as well. 

Spending time, cuddling for the first time, had my first kiss taken away all in the same week fueled the happy hormones in my body. I was actually living the dream relationship I thought I never could have. At the same time, I was also glad I was able to be part of T's life.

May 2014:

It become the worst month of the year. I had plenty of unnecessary commitments in clubs which I never begin to imagine I would join. The last call was for T to drop in a bombshell of all days Wesak day to break up with me. This is probably the worst Wesak I had with immense anger and fear clogged up in the whole afternoon. I was alone because I had no one to talk to, and thank goodness Biolexus was there to hear out before I implode. On the same night, I took the bold move and became the president of the club I never imagined I would.

On the contrary, my sister too moved into the next stage of her life and got married as well. Talk about double blow. But it was a good thing because it became the very tool that changed my relationship with my family as well.

June 2014:

Ending yet another semester means to step into another practical. 3 weeks of practical in the goat farm was pretty fun, as they are really cute yet annoying. Although I know less from the other girls because of my academic year, I proved myself to be an asset in restraining the animals while learning plenty about the debridement, artificial insemination and general management for a typical meat goat farm. The relationship between the girls and I definitely flourished even more, as we had the same problem with the drama source of our practical.

July 2014:

The month seemingly spent a lot on relaxing and enjoying life. The practical by the east coast with the Turtle Sanctuary was just soothing and mentally relaxing. Although the strolls at night can be a pain in the ass because of the long hours and cold weather, not to mention sand flies killing our feet, it was a great place to take our minds off hectic life of the urban areas with a decent amount of jobs to be done like getting rotten eggs out of the hatchery. A good time to relax, but definitely can't be my whole life.

PS: I forgot the most important thing happened this month. I became an uncle!

August 2014:

August is probably the crazies month with a lot of flights in and out of the airport! Again, spending my birthday out of the country, this time it was Sri Lanka! Its the Vetsoul annual trip again and it was definitely worth every sen and second spending our quality time there. Stubby was a great hose, while her dad probably forked out thousands of USD to make sure we are actually enjoying our trip. 

A week back from Sri Lanka, 8 of us headed to Chagar Hutang for yet another turtle sanctuary. A different group with a different managerial system, its pretty exciting to see how 2 different entities manage a same species of ecosystem. It is obvious UMT had better management and funding, but Cherating is probably very much restricted by the federal government policies.

September 2014:

A new academic year begin where I stepped into my official 3rd year. Thinking that it would be much of a less burdening semester I was wrong, because being a president of a new club is not easy, AT ALL. We had to go all out to establish contacts, get into the good side of all equestrian entities out there, trying to work with the resources we have to develop our members; things are just not easy at all. But with perseverance and support from the high committee, the club managed to pull over with our first work with Selangor Turf club in the International Horse Show 2014. 

October 2014:

Wrapping up several commitments this month, I am pretty surprised I'm still on track with the lectures and information in class. I spend a hefty 3 days in Bangkok earlier on for the APVC 2014 in the quest to get more knowledge and exposure on the veterinary side in our region; which turned out to be splendid. 

On the other note, Dogathon 2014 managed to break the Malaysia Book of Record in achieving 1200 dogs as the largest dog gathering in Malaysia! Great work to be direct mentor of the co-directors, and I'm sure they have churned a lot of effort in succeeding this achievement!

November 2014:

Mundane month with a lot studies and birthday celebrations; making me to have more posts this month anyway. Did a lot of thinking and planning for the practicals in 2015, making me having access to Japan and Thailand, hopefully with a lot of knowledge gained back home. A crazy little thing happened in the mundane month is probably the theft of my wallet. That probably sucked up the whole month

December 2014:

Contrary to November, although the month was filled with tests and assignment deadlines, plenty of events and outings were thrown around my life. Christmas season fun was everywhere, though I actually celebrated Christmas not on the day itself. 

These celebrations too make me realize, I have managed to get the best of both worlds. Vet souls, and Kaki Jalan. It is a blessing truly, because I never imagined I would be able to attain friendship crossing both academic years so strong.

PS: Another wedding this year, I guess my friendship with Queen probably will go on until life ends in both our sides; only if my parents would stop assuming I'm actually seeing her romantically.

2014 definitely was good, and crazy. 

I was lucky to have spent time with T.

I was lucky to have people being there when T broke up with me.

I was lucky to have people aiding me with academics and clubs.

I was lucky to have my niece coming into my family, patching up those holes I have with my family.

I was lucky to not stay in the limbo of losing T, now back up and moving again.

I was lucky to just be safe, well and happy always; even though there were multiple occasions when my blood pressure could have killed me.

Now, to get back to finals.

Buffetting : APVC Bangkok 2014

Finally back from the long hiatus!

Just for the continuity from the previous post on my grades, thank goodness one of them was a barely safe A. Another subject probably wouldn't too nice to me.

I probably wouldn't strangle myself if I hadn't apply for the Asia Pacific Veterinary Conference 2014 in BITEC, Bangkok last October!

The whole batch wanted to go at first, but after all the deliberation and stuffs, it boiled down to only 11 of us going for the conference.

My intentions for the conference originally were to learn more on large animal, make connections as well as get insights of my future career path. Yet, the conference geared more towards small animal practice; something which I don't mind learning at all though it isn't in the top of the list.

Back to the conference, it was held 3 days in BITEC, a very strategically placed trade center about 15 to 20 kilometers away from the city center.

Our stay was in a pretty budgeted hotel around BITEC named Avana Bangkok for a stay of about RM80 for a king size bed for 3 person wasn't that bad.

The promotion we took named Trendy room was located in the new building of the hotel, probably for more economical budgets compared to the old building which is obviously more posh and well furbished. But, our room was pretty comfy for 4 nights stay with minimal hassle. Good bed, TV, pretty decent toilet even a tub, complimentary bottles of water everyday; its a good deal to have 3 person sharing the room.

I spoke Thai throughout the stay in the hotel and to everyone else's delight I'd actually understood almost 90% of the conversation between the staffs in the hotel and transactions were smooth. The staffs in Avana Bangkok were also extremely helpful and nice throughout our stay. The only downside was wifi wasn't complimentary and you need to pay for it. It ought to be better to get broadband services for a cheap RM7 from the nearest 7-11 for 1GB.

BITEC is about a 3 minutes taxi drive from Avana Bangkok, making the hotel one of the best hotels in terms of distance to BITEC. Taxi services are really fast and safe here, and it really only take about RM4 just to get from the hotel to BITEC. If I were to come to BITEC again, I'd probably still go for this hotel.

The first day in the conference was pretty cool because you get to see people from all over the places. The speakers in the conference were almost, if not all Americans from the North America Veterinary Council. The talks spanned from orthopaedics, nephrology, emergency care, clinical pathology, soft tissue surgery, diagnostic imaging, cardiology, neurology, infectious disease, internal medicine, and feline medicine. The catch of the conference is the topics in a day for one subject links from one lecture to another. To get the most of it, the best thing is to go for all the lectures under the same subject for that day; which was what I did.

I couldn't appreciate the other subjects, hence I went for nephrology, cardiology, emergency medicine as well as a small session on internal medicine. I personally adored all the speakers of the subjects I have attended , and they are probably the reason I could stay in the talk for the whole day 9am to 4pm.

The conference was extremely useful even for veterinary student like us because the lecturers were concise and pretty basic. It is probably like a refresh for all the veterinarians attended, as well as a little bit more on the new approaches in handling cases and discussions. It was fun looking at how the veterinarians discuss their cases and views in the end of each talk with the questions flying across the halls; someday when I'm good enough I would probably do the same as well.

For 3 days, the lectures were conducted in the day. And I have definitely exposed more on the field of small animal; or rather companion animals. It is not a bad field, but I'm not too certain if I'm the type which stays in the hospital one whole day. Maybe a mixed-practice veterinarian will suit me better? Going to the conference is like entering a national scale of a veterinary faculty; and almost everyone knows everyone around there because the veterinary circle is just so small! So small till the point that every little mistake can be noted by everyone in the field too.

The best part of the conference is, we are paying the price at RM300 as veterinary students, while the working veterinarians are paying RM3000! It was a 90% discount for us, with access to all the facilities available under APVC 2014. The 2nd best part of the conference was probably the food! World class standard food for lunch every afternoon, man I gained like 5 kg when I'm back from the conference from the good food.

The good food doesn't end in the lunch because we too had great food at night.

On the first night we've decided not to be too adventurous because we barely had time and we wanted somewhere close. We went for the nearest 7-11 for good ol' Chareon Porkphand on the go food. Not much pictures here, but I definitely love Thailand's 7-11 1000times more than Malaysia's.

The second night we've decided to be a little more adventurous, but time caught us in our back because we were taking too much time resting after walking back from BITEC. We went to a close stop taking taxi, namely Central Bang Na for a food court experience. The food was so so, not very cheap but we had an okay meal. We were baffled when we found out there were street food vendors right beside of the mall when it closed at 10.30pm!

Grilled seafood, padthai, friend insects, som dtam and grilled pork were the main attraction in this area. The seafood was great because of the chilli and spice sauce which goes with it, and the grilled pork was downright juicy and breathtakingly good. We stooped by 7-11 nearby again before we walked back to the hotel, with some little pups feeding along the way.

The 3rd night was probably the best because we've finally decided to try our luck on the BTS from the Bang Na station. We didn't know where to go until the senior we met in the conference suggested that we head to the Victory Monument for the famous Thai boat noodle. We took our chances, and heck we totally loved the experience there. The BTS sky train in Bangkok is extremely efficient, similar to the LRT in Malaysia. It connects the central of Bangkok to a little bit further in the outskirts of Bangkok, far enough to the BITEC station to our glee. The map of the BTS probably will show where you need to board and get off to the places you wish to go.

BTS was a little costly from station to station, and for station hopping the unlimited pass would probably be better; but since we are only there for a week, pay per ride is probably a much wiser thing to do. Although the taxi can be cheaper, BTS skips all the jam and saves you all the time. We probably only waited tops 3 minutes for all our rides on BTS. Thumbs up for the services of BTS.

Victory monument is an area not only for tourist but for the locals as well. The place there is famous for their boat noodles, in while the noodles are only RM1.20 each but you can finish them in like, seconds. The idea is for you to order more and eat more with less portion in a bowl. There are other side dishes like pork curry, fish curry,sliced beed, and fried pork skin to be ordered for about RM4 to be shared among 5 or 2, and they were really good too. They have several different flavors of boat noodles too, some including tomyam, braised pork, braised beef, braised chicken, spiced chicken, and a few others. I adored the braised series because the broth was yummilicious~~

For every 10 bowls of noodles comes with a complimentary bottle of coke too. Something really cute in this business; I meant the cups. The restaurant had like multiple competitions along the streets, but I guess everyone have their own no.1 in their mind when they step in. The local Thais infested the whole place, and we are probably the really odd aliens around with me as the pseudo-thai speaking to the waiters and boss for order.

The Victory Monument is definitely one of the most bustling areas in town. The density of the people is probably double of that in Kuala Lumpur. In KL, you see more laborers around, and the density is not as packed as it is over here with all the locals. A great area to walk around for cheap stuffs and great food.

The 2nd night didn't end there because the boat noodles didn't exactly quench our hunger. We took another train trip to the Mo Chit station to get down on the mall Terminal 21. Terminal 21 is an extremely chique mall with the idea of an airport; hence the Terminal. Even entry to the mall require the security check and we were required to go through the metal detector.

Every floor has a different theme of destination; spanning from San Francisco to Tokyo, Istanbul to Hollywood; with also a set of security guard uniform and toilet to go with the theme. I wasn't crazy enough to enter all the toilets in every floor to snap pictures, but its definitely a good thing to do with your loved ones if they were to be of same sex; or with a crazy bunch of friends.

My favorite floor is none but the 5th floor- Pier 21. It's remodeled after the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, but it collects all the food in the mall within this floor. There are the usual convention Starbucks, Bubba Gump, Ice Monster and etc; but we were all aiming only for the food court.

The food court collects probably the best and the cheapest food in Bangkok ranging from authentic Thai food and dessert to the typical Mediterranean, Asian and Western mix. We went all bonkers for the Thai food and dessert because they were THAT cheap. RM3.50 for a decent Pad Thai, RM4.9 for a really good Durian Sticky Rice and RM2.00 for a coconut shake about 500ml is definitely cheap in such a posh mall.

Our hunt for food ended in Terminal 21 on the 2nd night, and we headed back to the hotel on BTS and taxi for a good satisfying night sleep.

Our 3rd night was just so so because we had to go to multiple places to get multiple items, especially souvenirs for all the lost souls back in Malaysia. We had time, so we went to Siam Paragon just for a short 30 minutes to see how posh the place is, MBK Center to check out the cheap items; which were not all that cheap after, and the sleazy Patpong Road. 

I enjoyed Patpong road a lot because of the sleazy experience, as well me being so holy to fend my friends from the dealers offering sex shows around the streets. They were all extremely surprised when I spoke Thai and it really stopped them from coming after us. It's even more fun to talk about the people who'd actually pay visits into the bars or the deep rooms upstairs to enjoy those sex shows. It's not like its a crime or what not, but its just something to gossip and laugh over the walk around. 

I will definitely pay a good visit to Siam Paragon again because we really just walked to the Underwater World to see the entrance, and a stroll around the grocery area. That was it. I will want to explore it well, even for window shopping the next time I'm back in Bangkok; which is just really soon. I wouldn't really bother about MBK anymore, because Chatuchak market is much cheaper and better than MBK. It was just an airconditioned Chatuchak with more expensive price.

The last day, just 4 hours before our flight back home we took a short session to Chatuchak Market. Heck I'm definitely coming back here again to get more stuffs. 

This place has everything under THE SUN.

 From souvenirs to everyday domestic use items, from potteries and plants to exotic pets; I've probably seen almost every products to be sold in this market. 

We didn't haggle much in this place because it is already very cheap; what we do was rounding up a better price for the stuffs that we want. Saying so, we have still managed to get what we wanted for much cheaper price compared to the items outside of this market. 

Getting to Chatuchak weekend market is pretty easy. Take the BTS or MRT line to the Mo Chit station, walk along the Chatuchak park and you will see the market around the corner. If you wish to come from the Don Mueang Airport directly, taking the A1 bus for RM2 directly to the BTS Mo Chit station and walk towards the area.

Overall, this trip to Bangkok was extremely fulfilling. It made me loved Thailand so much more, and being an expatriate in this place ain't that bad either. The living condition is probably still fine, but really it has so much to offer. Maybe being a veterinarian here wouldn't earn that much, but I'd probably going for a regional work instead for me to get the best of my vet experience.

APVC Bangkok 2014 was a blast, and heck, I'm dying to go back to Bangkok again to experience the life there better. The next time, for a whopping 28 days!