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As i left KL, i wondered what’s in stored for me in Laos.
I’ve never been there and didnt know what to expect!
the trip did not start out as great as i hoped it would.
At LCCT the plane was delayed by more than half an hour and i had two very heavy bags with me. One of which’s strap broke while i was walking to the plane.

Upon arrival, i just had to punish myself by choosing the slowest line at immigration
-.-
every other line was getting shorter and shorter and mine stayed pretty much stagnant except when people jumped lanes.
i stupidly stayed on and ended up being one of the last few people left and still the guy at my counter took his own sweet time. I’m guessing he’s new or cant read.
In the end it was down to one last person at every counter so i waited for the next free one.
the guy at my lane’s counter took 3 times the time to precess the simple ‘chop’ and ‘welcome!’
one of the good things about this Lao airport was that at baggage claims, they arranged all the backpacks together neatly in a row and luggages in another row. that was pretty cute a sight i must say!

Hubert was waiting outside with Wai Pon, whom i met 2 years ago in Cambodia during Friends Around the Table. I was to stay with Wai Pon and his family but for the first night i get treated to a night at one of the hotels in town, Asian Pavilion Hotel.
As we drove from the airport i realized that Vientiane is not as ‘backward’ as some claims it to be!
someone actually told me there’s nothing in Vientiane and i’m beginning to think that she must have expected New York City or something..
-.-”
Vientiane is quite similar to certain parts of Bangkok and Siem Reap.

The hotel we were staying at is located in Nan Pu or centre point. It is one of Vientiane’s more popular streets.
the hotel is considered 3 stars in Lao but i think in Malaysian standards it should be around 1 star.
it was livable though.
clean and there were not a single bug or insect in sight.
the room however looked to be from the past!
nothing matches hahaha
even my bed covers and the next was different!
mine’s floral and the other as Donald Duck! hahahaha
the towels had holes in them but they were clean and the shower head sprayed water in every direction!
all the light switches or switches for that matter are all upside down.

i was given about an hour to rest before heading out to dinner.
thank goodness there was wifi but it went off almost every minute.
apparently the network is a little wonky.
its good during the night starting 9pm and is best towards morning but sometimes during the afternoon it goes off and on on its own.
from 6pm-8pm, dont even think of using the wifi because you’ll just end up trying to bald yourself haha!

at 7pm, it was already dark as we walked towards the food area.
we passed by Swensons and the Pizza Place. its new and is currently one of the hotspots of Vientiane!
as we got to central street, we could see food everywhere! there are any types of food you want, asian only though..
there were book shops and clothing shops and small supermarkets that resembles something that came out of a picture dating 50 years back in Malaysia (ok its a bit exaggerated)
we met up with a friend of Hubert’s, Arnold who’s been working in Lao for a very long time.
we had korean by the way.
come all the way to Lao and what do i eat on the very first day? korean. well done.
we got to talking about traveling and between both Hubert and Arnold, they’ve pretyt much covered all of Asia, backpacking and driving and they agreed that if they were given the opportunity to do it again, they’d say NO!!
but Hubert says to go. it will be dangerous and we may encounter a whole load of shit along the way but it should not deter us from it!

after dinner, arnold drove us back and we retreated into our rooms to use the internet.
i somewhat knew that  that would be the last time i’m going to be able to use the internet on my laptop for a long long time.

p.s. oh btw, as we were descending (plane) we were going through cloud after cloud as it was a cool/rainy day. we were also going pass mountains and beautiful greenery it seem like the hallelujah mountains in Avatar! gorgeous sight!

ARGH! finally! internet!
okay maybe i’m exaggerating a little.. i’ve got mobile internet but you know how its like.. tiny words, tiny screen.. cant upload pictures, cant chat cant everything lah!

anyways, i’m in a village called Nee Lai which is about an hour from town..
i’ve been working in a farm there, sleeping on a tiny mattress in an office, and teaching kids how to catwalk and pose for the camera..
(ya ya i know.. odd thing to teach! haha)
i’ll be updating whenever i can and will try to upload pictures when i can as well

there are a lot of things to get used to such as sleeping early, getting more then 8 hours of sleep, lizards EVERYWHERE imma die, eating weird organs, seeing nearly everyone use iphones, lefthand drives, bathroom super far away, pigs governing your daily lives and having to plant pumpkin plants every other day…
oh and have i mentioned that here, and a few other asian countries, the men do lesser work but boss the women around and make women do harder work then the men? yah… i’ve been subjected to that… gone are the sight of gentlemen.. oh well, i asked for it..

oh and because i wished to do Dirty Jobs, i’m actually getting what i asked for..!
gotta be super careful what i wish for next time round

will update soon!

p.s. have you seen how big a male pig’s balls are?! they are the size of my HEAD! pictures soon mwahahahahahahahahahaha!

I was looking thru my Nuffnang analytics and saw that one of the keywords that leads visitors to my blog is Josephine Ipoh

And so I google and see my blog is in which ranking zzz

And I’m in #9 wtf. Disappointed, I checked out what’s so geng about the first few blogpost *kiasu to the max

Blog #1 & #2 gave Josephine a couple of bad comments.  And Blog #3 gave 50/50 rating.

Here’s some excerpts of what they said:

Blogger #1: Pricey, uncomfortable seats, sky juice will only be provided upon request, and their Fusilli Carbonara (the one I tried) looked normal and not worth it. And their menu is printed on A4 paper.

Blogger #2: Mediocre food, paired with bad service, not a very nice review on the Fusilli Carbonara (again!)

Blogger #3: Main dish disappointing, slow service. Colourful jelly was given to kids.

Which made me re-think of my judgement. Is my standard really low? Cos I said so many nice things about them albeit a little exxy. Then I saw, all these posts were written 18 months ago and I guess, the owner must have read the reviews of these bloggers and improved accordingly.

Cos seriously, we were served sky juice without requesting for it. Nah, give you see picture as a prove zzz.

And the service wasn’t slow at all. They were efficient and friendly.

Come to think again, no wonder la the owner kept asking me why do I take pictures of the interior and food like she was afraid of something. I just replied blandly that I wana post them in website. And she started asking like… why would you post it up? Will people read it? And because my Mandarin is limited I just smiled and nod. Then Ming said maybe she’s just afraid that people will copy her concept and interior design that’s why she asked so much of Qs. But then seriously, there are a whole lot of cafe like this especially in KL lor. You can only stand out by offering appetizing food complement with attentive service.

Maybe cos she was afraid of bad reviews (again) but no sweat Owner of Josephine, I would say, it’s a good place to chill. Though I have not tasted their other dishes well, it’s a reason for going back there isn’t it? So go visit Josephine and let me know if the Cheese cake is nice or not.

On another note, social media is a scary thing for business owners. Screw up one time and the whole world knows about it. Good thing for us consumers cos in the end, we’ll get value-for-money service:)

For the past few months, I was deprived of ji mui time and fear of losing my femininity wtf. So I was over the moon when Ming invited me to Ipoh for dimsum and some shopping. Though Sitiawan & Ipoh are fairly near but I haven’t ate dimsum yet *shame on me

Was too happy to see Ming till forget to check out the restaurant name zzz. We went to the one opposite Fu Shan (I think) dimsum restaurant. ANYWAY, here’s what we ate:

Read from Ringo‘s blog quite some time ago, it is true that Ipoh dimsum is bite-sized compared to KL & Penang. And it is undeniably good. I was looking forward to some colourful dimsum (for photo op purposes) but these are what’s left. Maybe cos we arrived quite late for early morning dimsum *hrmph

Bubble milk tea anyone wtf

Corn flavour pau. Not my favourite as it was too sweet for my liking.

We were playing teh tarik to get a perfect shot.  Even the waitress in the restaurant stood to watch our antics *paiseh

Then, to Jusco!

Camwhore fail

Wrong focus so we change to mobile camwhoring zzz

Colour damn big difference kan? That’s why can’t rely on cellphone for a good shot (or maybe it’s just me)

Ming is wearing a bareback dress (very the Serena) and I’m wearing a Blair-esque dress. Picture colour looked dull cos… MNG changing room lighting is not bright enough. And cellphone camera sucks.

After hours of camwhoring/shopping/walking, we headed to Josephine for what we girls do best. Gossiping.

Josephine is small, cosy and warm cafe – make you feel at home instantly. And it was playing melodic jazz.

Love this shot of Ming. And I didn’t edit much at all.

It wouldn’t be right if I do not post up food pictures. So here’s what we had:

Passion Fruit Mojito RM15.00

Caramel Cappucino Blended RM13.00

Something Carbonara wtf RM25.00

When it comes to pasta or spaghetti, I always order Carbonara. And this by far beat the one in D’lish, Bangsar but lose to the one at Royal Bay Beach Club, Pangkor Laut Resort.  It is big enough for two small eaters (like us!) and the cheese smells oh-so-good.

Chocolate Brownies with Ice cream and Strawberry RM12.00

Tasted so-so nia. According to Ming, their Indulgence Cheese cake is a must try. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available that day sigh.

We went upstairs to check out the decor.

Wahahah so funny, I had to post this pic XP

This place is perfect if you would like to throw a small private birthday party. I reckon, the space can accomodate max 15 people. And it has candle everywhere. Very romantic (but Ming blew it jor zzz)

View from the top

Josephine is located at:

Shop 15, Ipoh Garden Plaza,

39, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah Utara,

Ipoh Garden South,

31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Te: 605-547 3267

Operation hour 11.30am – 12.00am (Sunday to Thursday)

11.30am – 1.00am (Friday and Saturday)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MING! For the second time post.

 

♥