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I think it is a lil bit late for me to sum up all the major events which had taken place throughout the year 2009 since today is already 6th of January. Well, my final posting at Pediatrics Department is kinda busy tho’.

January:

The year begun when I attended my faculty’s annual dinner (Gosh! I’ve forgotten what’s the name of the club). Good food, nice dresses and entertaining performances. One thing to be proud of was our beloved Dean (of Faculty of Medicine) never fails to attend every dinner organized by my batch.

February:

Post-end of Year 4 exam. Rewarded self with lots of good food. That was the first time I went to Look Out Point at Hulu Langat and Tenji Japanese Buffet at Solaris Mont Kiara. I remembered I made myself the most expensive floats by mixing 3 scoops of Haagen-Dazs ice cream into my coke at Tenji. Hah!

Thereafter, I started my 2-week humanitarian elective posting at Medical Social Work Department. All I need to say is, medical social worker rocks! Their contribution in patient care is significant too.

March:

Holiday! Revisited Cameron Highlands and all thanks to Auntie Bee Hiong for the treat. Besides, both Chuong Hock and I went backpacking for 13 days in Thailand. We started from North Thailand (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Sai), traveling down to Ayutthaya, Bangkok and Pattaya. Faced some “panicking” moments in Bangkok but Chuong Hock, make it a secret of us two ya?

April:

Started my research work officially. Thankful that I had a team who worked with the same school of thoughts as mine. Things went on smoothly as planned although we faced some challenges in between. Definite appreciation is still dedicated to our beloved supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Farihah Haji Suhaimi, who had shown us what true spirit of research is!

May:

A busy month. Finalizing the manuscript and our group was chosen to participate in oral presentation during the Scientific Meeting. Even though we did not win the grand prize, we were satisfied as in our supervisors’ eyes, we were already a winner! Thanks to Prof Farihah and Prof Faizah for the post-conference lunch at Grand Seasons Hotel too. To date, my research manuscript has been accepted by the International Medical Journal (IMJ) and it will be published by September this year. Yippie! That will be my first medical article.

Jun:

Started my final year medical student life officially with its first activity i.e. 3rd Personal and Professional Development (PPD) Camp at BTN Kuala Besut, Terengganu. I believe this is the longest bus journey I’d ever taken. Overall, the camp was a fun and informative (minusing the BTN part). At here, we formed our very first “Killer Gang”. Cool!

July:

July was a gathering month. Firstly was our “Killer Gang” grand reunion where it was a food and games night before starting our new posting! While another one was with my best buddies from secondary school. Especially Anwar, I had not met him for almost 3 years till this reunion was held.

August:

While August was an outing month. 2 major outings in a row i.e. to Sungai Gabai Waterfall with fellow CF members and the most heart pumping hiking at Bukit Tabur, Melawati KL. Definitely there will be no more TCA for me until I overcome my acrophobia. Fuh!

September:

The only holiday for final years fell in this month and it was the most anticipated one! I had booked flight tickets to fly me back home very early for this reason. Home sweet home! Upon coming back, I followed my godbrother to Pesta Tanglung UKM at Kajang (The first visit in my entire 5 years of studies in UKM). I got the chance to write a calligraphy painting at one of the exhibition counters. Well, my writing has deteriorate much. Lacking time to practice I believe. Sigh.

October:

The most historical moment in my medical school life! Where I finally owned a complete buddy line members from first year up to final year (me). A book of generations had been passed down and is to be filled by the new members joining into my “family” every academic year.

November:

Busiest month ever. Filled with lots of activities and programs. Posting at Teluk Intan Hospital, went back home impulsively to celebrate Deepavali with Mak Oi, celebrated buddy Jia Hui’s birthday and got to know 2 new friends, Chee Beng and Alex.

December:

Most awaited month every year. Why? It is my birthday on 22nd! This year is rather special since I spent almost the whole month at Teluk Intan for my Surgery posting under 2 great teachers’ supervision i.e. Mr Pani and Mr Rizal. I was touched by my buddies act to celebrate my birthday at Fullhouse. The venue was specially chosen suiting my fondness in white English cottage style of interior designing. Thank you!

This year 2010 is gonna be TOTALLY DIFERRENT! In 10 weeks time, I’ll graduate. I believe I will spread my wings and fly confidently in the sky of medicine. God bless me and everyone!

15.03.2009

Started the day with Sunday morning worshiping. It felt so great that both Bernard and I could make ourselves available on Sabbath.

We dropped by a laundry shop while we were on our way to the church. I had a total of 3.5kg dirty clothes and pants after the Bong Duet trekking! That’s freaking a lot! Haha.

Praise and worship session was conducted in Thai. Even though I couldn’t understand, yet I knew the hearts to worship Lord are the same. Fortunately, there was a translator helping us translating the sermon into English.

Felt so good that we were invited to have lunch after the service too. ^_^ We headed to Chiang Mai Zoo after the morning church service. Why zoo? I am not a child anymore.

Well, the reason was very simple. We were there after the two stars – Chuang Chuang and Lin-Hui, the giant pandas.

Chuang Chuang, male, 9 years old, 135 kg and 170 cm (OMG! It’s taller than me!)

It was funny to see Chuang Chuang being very active that day. Walking, playing, eating.. It was entertaining to watch him munching the bamboos. Looks cute!

Lin-Hui, female, 8 years old,  105 kg and 160 cm. She’s currently under pregnancy watch! And I believe this is a good news to all Thai?

However, she spent most of time sleeping that day. *sigh*

Of course, we do go-see other animal exhibits too. Just not to waste the 200 baht entrance fees. Hehe.

We left the zoo about 4 pm and took a baht taxi to go up Doi Suthep, the highest geographical point in Chiang Mai and it is said to be one of the must go places in Chiang Mai. The famous Wat Prathat is located here too.

From here, one can see the whole Chiang Mai City. The heavy haze of dry season had somehow turned us down. Felt very disappointed.

The disappointment doubled upon entering Wat Prathat. This beautiful temple on the mountain is currently under renovation! Its beauty has been covered by the bamboo sticks.

Nothing much can be done here besides taking some nice photographs.

These Buddha images have a story for each of them. But, I didn’t know about the stories are about. Just knew that these 7 statues represents the 7 days in a week. That’s all. ^_^

We went back to Chiang Mai City at about 6 pm after an hour journey on a baht taxi. Took our laundry and rested a while before going to the famous Rachadamnoen Road Sunday Walking Street.

It is just a 5-minute walk from Eagle House No.2! And, guess what.. It was so busy and I needed to squeeze through the crowd!

The road is just a quiet and tranquil road on other nights. No car, hardly any human. See the difference? ^_^

The fun part in this market is that it sells Halal foods too! I made me suddenly missing our Malaysian Nasi Kandar, Nasi Lemak and other yummy yummy local cuisines. Frankly saying, the Halal food tasted as nice as the other non-Halal Thai food!

I called it a day after watching some cultural dances of Northern Thailand. I think it is a competition or what so ever similar.

I slept early today since I must wake up very early the next morning for Chiang Rai and Golden Triangle Trip!

Well, it’s nearly a month ago I last updated my blog. Sorry, I went backpacking to Thailand again. I am so in love this country for not knowing the exact reason. Perhaps the warm and friendly locals?

Only Bernard and I made up the group this time. I think it’s fun to have him as travel companion (Seemed like he was kinda reluctant initially. Haha!). Tell you why after this, there are so many of them.

Departed from LCC Terminal KL at 10.20am on 11 March after a long wait. Our first destination was Chiang Mai. I’d heard about this beautiful city years ago and I felt so eager to see it myself.

Ready to take off now!

The journey needed about 2 1/2 hours before reaching Chiang Mai and it was quite boring in the plane since Bernard fell asleep soon after the plane took off. Therefore, I tried to enjoy the sky safari by taking some photos.

Upon our arrival, we hired a taxi with only 120 baht to go to our guest house (The taxis are almost all Toyota and Nissan cars). Can you imagine that these cars are usually vehicles for the middle class in Malaysia and they turned up to be taxis there? *sigh*).

It was so comfortable if I were to compare with our Saga taxi.

Checking into our pre-booked room 207 in Eagle House No. 2 after a 15-minute ride. It’s strategically located within the old city of Chiang Mai with 7-11, internet cafe, water refilling machines and etc, all nearby.

We were kinda surprised, noticing that we were the only two Asians staying there so far after flipping through the check-in book. We were so excited (I still think that this phrase describes better – 山龟) till we wanted to take a photo as a proof. Haha!

Later, we decided to walk around the old city since I was still quite early. Visited a few temples, being said as the 3 must go temples in Chiang Mai, and some other landmarks.

We went to Wat Chiang Mun first. It is the oldest temple in Chiang Mai where two sacred Buddha images are placed here. They are Pra Setangamani and Pra Sila i.e. Crystal Buddha and Marble Buddha respectively. These two small statues are locked and placed very high up. So, I couldn’t really appreciate them.

Followed with Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Prasingh after that. Bernard was not keen in visiting temple so much but for me, it’s nice if viewing from the aspect of architecture and art.

Spotted this cute little girl eating ais kacang while we were on our way to Wat Chedi Luang and we decided to take a photo with her. She wasn’t giving a good eye contact to the camera. Maybe her ais kacang was more temptious than a handsome guy? Haha..

We headed back to Eagle House No. 2 after dinner. We couldn’t stop ourselves to buy some local guava and mango sticky rice as dessert ‘coz they were so irresistable! *salivating*

Not to forget, we took some photos at Chang Phuak Gate, the northern gate of Chiang Mai old city too before going back. The mission: Having all 4 gates as photos!

We slept very early this day at about 10pm since more excitement was yet to come the next morning!