Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon 2012 is coming ...

The once in a year Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon is here again and it's scheduled to held from 15th till 18th March 2012. It's a great event for families and friends, but also importantly, it's one of the major event marked in most photographer's calendar, either professional or newbie. Whoever holding a semi-pro or dSLR camera, don't miss the chance to snap some nice colourful hot air baloon photographs as part of your collection. Shame to say that I never been to this event before, going to participate this time.

The location is in Monumem Alaf Baru in Presinct 2, Putrajaya. For those that's not familiar with Putrajaya, look at the location map in their website http://www.myballoonfiesta.com/index.html. The website is rich in content, covering all the itinerary, activities, location, and etc. I copied some of it for sharing here.


Itinerary of the event, the most interesting for me would be the Hot Air Balloon Flight and the Night Glow Show & Fireworks. But it's 8-9 hours apart, what I'm going to do there??


Event map for the day, and it clearly show where to do what and etc. Good information.

Some photos extracted from the website, just wish I can get shots like these ....

Sepang International Circuit with my Fiat Coupe 20VT+

Life is suppose to be great and I love living it. I believe human are suppose to live to enjoy life, and that has been my life philosophy ever since However, nothing is free in this world. As I grow older and started to climb the career ladder, everything slowly becoming more affordable and my dream life started to come true. One of my hobby is car and everything start from the ownership of Alfa Romeo 147. I've been eyeing to get a chance to drive in the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) since then, but it needs a very deep commitment and also expensive preparation.

I didn't have a chance until 4th of February 2012. RCA organised a Prosperity Track Day at entry fees of RM350 for each car & driver, I grab the chance and register myself with my Fiat Coupe.



Sepang International Circuit is the home of the car sport in Malaysia, and I think everyone should try it at least once in their lifetime. I did my 21km marathon here last year with Energiser Night Race, but it's totally different kind of adrenaline rush standing on the paddock with my driving shoe than my running shoe. The track day start from 4.00pm till 7.00pm and we got 3 hours to burn our tyres. Great.

Reaching the track, we are brought up to the media room in 1st floor for briefing and registration. Safety briefing is given and within minutes, we are done and ready to roll.

Foh Sam Dim Sum Restaurant @ Ipoh

Everyone know what Ipoh is famous of. Pretty girls, taugeh chicken and of course, the Dim Sum as well. Growing up in Ipoh, it's part of the culture to go eat Dim Sum in the morning with the whole family, and we did just that, but only with a new member, my baby boy =)

If you are from Ipoh, then you will know the Dim Sum in other town is really bad, not that they are not good, but not as good as Ipoh. Lots of people can't tell the difference, but it's quite obvious actually. However, I don't really like to visit the Dim Sum restaurant in Ipoh, because it's always packed, there are exemption though. We go nonetheless because it's been really long time since we gather for morning Dim Sum. Choice of restaurant, the new majestic Foh San restaurant in the town. It's the most recognised name for Dim Sum around Malaysia and it's also the most packed restaurant. Holiday season, just want to enjoy the crowd sometimes =) Let's see.


It's best to have a lot of people when eating dim sum, as that's when you can order a lot of variety and test every bit of the specialty they can offer. It's pointless to eat dim sum with just 2-3 person. With an army of us, we ordered the above. So beautiful, abundance of wealth (as chinese put food as wealth. the more you put, the more wealthy you are, hehe. that's why chinese like to put mirror opposite the dining table to double the food / wealth).

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012 Registration

Since my last full marathon event, my body suffered and I got into fatigue mode. Within 2 months, I fall asick for more than 4 times, and that's why taking care of own body after full marathon event is very important. I'm recovering and to keep my ownself healthy, I registered for the upcoming Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012 that will be held on 24th June 2012.



Early bird promotion is up till end of this month at RM55 for 21km runners, and afterwards it's priced at RM65. No reason to pay more, so whoever interested, go register now. In addition to that, something new is that now the organiser charge for issuance and delivery of hard-copy certificate for RM3.00. That's absurd in my opinion, why charge?? Electronic copy is available online, but still, weird. I want to certificate, that's why my sum is RM58 instead. Not happy.

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012 is one of the formal event for runners and the half marathon distance is 21.178km, in accordance to distance set by the regulations. As shown below, starting point is Dataran Merdeka, run towards KL Sentral, turn into Federal Highway, turn into Loke Yew, turn in Jalan Cheras, Jalan Tun Razak, Bukit Bintang, KLCC, and finally to Jalan Raja and back to Dataran Merdeka.



As we used to travel these places in cars and with the traffic jam, it seems quite far away, but that's just 21km distance, and sounds incredible to cover almsot the entire KL. If you are impress by this, try look at the 42km route, it covered basically everywhere you can think of. It's crazy, cannot believe that I actually completed the 42km last year in Penang. Maybe later this year, but now still got nightmare on earlier experience =P