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| Introducing our gorgeous Penang writer and her hometown |
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September 21st, 2008 |
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Penang oh Penang… The so-called heaven of Chinese delicacies… Of course what I mean here is the delicious Penang street food. “When one talks about Penang, we think of FOOD FOOD FOOD nothing but the food. Yes, that’s one of the main reason why people come to Penang. We have undeniably the best food around in my opinion, every corner, every hawker’s char koay teow I eat, I taste no difference because to me, they all taste the same, which is delicious! But Penang is more than what meets the eye. Since I’ve started reading up about history, culture and more things about Penang, I feel even prouder to be a Penangnite. It has everything you can ever dream of (I don’t mean to brag). Good cheap food, nice people, beaches, hills, rich heritage and culture. Anything you wish to have under the sun!” Said our Penang writer, Sharon Ong talking about her hometown.
We’re glad that a passionate writer, Sharon Ong from Penang is now joining a4trip to introduce her lovely hometown to us. “When I was first invited to become a member for a4trip, I was very very thrilled indeed! I was super excited that I was jumping around telling my family and couldn’t stop being all happy and excited. You guys do the thing I’ve always dream of and love doing. Two words. Travel and Write.”
A fun loving girl who love travel, love eating, love trying something new, love socializing, love writing and many many more. With her outgoing personality and her love to her hometown, I’m sure she is the best candidate for our Penang travel guide.
“I guess what I like best about my hometown is not only the availability of food in every corner at any time but also the kind of life I can choose to lead here. I could have chosen to work in other cities but I chose to come back to penang, because one, my family is in Penang and two, despite being the industrial base and gearing for more development on the island, Penang still gives one a choice to lead a rather laid back life, unlike other cities where everyday is rush hour day. I love the fact that everything is so close to each other, my working place is 8 mins drive from my house, biggest shopping mall is 15 mins from where I live… every place is within reach! And there’s no toll involved! How superb is that :D I love Penang, I definitely *HEART* it. Best state in Malaysia with everything under the sun, hands down!”
When she was asked about what she like about her hometown, excitedly she said she loves all the food around Penang and every places she wish to go is within reach. Every Penangnite is proud of their varieties food. For all the food lovers out there who crave for varieties of good food, Penang is the best place!
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| They Come, They Play, They Go |
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September 4th, 2008 |
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If interns are like a box of chocolates, you will never know what you will get! When they first came to work, we don’t really know what will happen in the next three months. Let’s see what they have done…
They eat a lot
again…
and again…
They get nervous during presentation.
But, this will not stop them from sending messages at work…
We work hard and they play harder
Not enough with that…
and again…
If you know anything good about them, post it here. I may be wrong. They will be back to school after tomorrow, so don’t wait, say it now. Agnes, Eunice and Yichin - if you have anything to defend to say about yourself, we would love to hear from you too.
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| Mysterious Gift |
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September 3rd, 2008 |
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If you are asked for your postal address from Yichin earlier, the little small monster are probably on their way to your house now, struggling their way by air, sea or land - here is a little hint of what would be knocking your doors soon. Thanks again to the gift-sending team for this little surprise.
We hope all of you will like it :)
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| Wannie’s Tour on Duty |
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September 3rd, 2008 |
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If your friends are going to Macau, I bet you would love to see them coming back with two hands of the craving portuguese egg tarts. I got this news from Agnes that her sister went to Macau. After much lobbying by me and her sister, Wannie was forced agreed to buy us some gifts.
After a week long waiting, I was surprised to see a plastic bag full of travel guides and maps of Macau on my desk yesterday. Thanks Wannie, it is yummier than egg tarts, we love it! Thanks.
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| Get well soon, Jen! |
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August 13th, 2008 |
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It shocked all of us when receiving the email from Jen yesterday, our writer for Vientiane, Laos. She had a terrible fall during her recent Tioman trip, 10 feet onto rocks and sand while having a BBQ dinner. Oh, she injured her neck and was in traction but recovering now. Her parents is taking care of her now.
Please don’t feel bad about any delay on our project. Nothing is more important than for you to get well soon, and we would love to work with you again!
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| Hidden Museum - An Hour Expedition with Adline |
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August 11th, 2008 |
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We arrived at the hidden place at 11am. It is easier if you’re taking the Jalan Bangsar road, heading towards KL city. You’ll pass National Museum and KTM headquarters on your left, and you can find the lost, but remarkable place to visit - Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia.
The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia is one of the world’s youngest museums. This 10-years old, South East Asia’s largest museum of Islamic art houses almost eight thousand artifacts. These range from the tiniest pieces of jewelery to one of the world’s largest scale models of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.
Unlike most other museums, IAMM hosts not just collections from Persia and the Middle East, but also artifacts from Asia, particularly China, India and Southeast Asia. Forgive me, I’m not going to describe each item here. Adline guided us on an hour tour with detail briefing on every gallery. I’m not going to repeat that again (even if I do, I can’t be as good as Adline), buy yourself a ticket (RM12 per person), drop a visit to the museum any time from 10am to 6pm. Shown in the picture is one of the oldest mosque in Kampung Laut, Kelantan.
I particularly like the Qur’an & Manuscript Gallery on the first floor. The collections include treatise on the Prophet Muhammad Ottoman Turkey, marriage certificate of Iran, and many others. Adline showed us the amazing gold-printed cover page of each Qur’an and told us some of the oldest collection there are acquired from Malay Sultans.
Ikat - literally meaning ‘tie’ or ‘bind’. Don’t miss the textile gallery. Lot of interesting Ikat are on displayed, including Limar, Patola, Munisak, etc.
Just like IKEA, the museum restaurant serves middle eastern cuisine when your leg complaints. Opposite the restaurant, where you can find the museum shop with wide variety of crafts. Well, I must admit, it is one of the most interesting museum shop. The logo of the museum is a Kufi square, and this is embedded in most of their souvenir beautifully - don’t miss it!
Check this out! The handy guidebook IKAT is written by Adline. There is also a guidebook of the museum - RM9.90 each.
Enough for the museum, I can’t wait to introduce the best tour guide of the day, our friend Adline - Working mum & freelance writer. Next to her is Marcus!
This is Pin, with Adline. Too bad, Adline had to say good bye to us in rush for her next meeting. There are about 12 galleries here including Achitecture, India, China, Malay, Jewellery, Arms & Armour, Woodwork, Coin & Seal, Metalwork and Ceramins Gallery.
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| Night Shift |
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July 28th, 2008 |
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Followed by a series of Redang, BBQ, Farewell, Lunches, Dinners, Karaoke, Sales Drop… We’ve decided to start another series of Night Shift, Work to Die, Revamp Guidebook, Translation…
First batch of night shift friends reporting to work. Check out the guy on the right, he is going to buzz you for the coming months!
The last one leaving office will be the champion of the day - They will do anything to win, including this liquid-like hand protecting device.
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| Pin’s Bad Reading Habit |
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July 16th, 2008 |
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I must admit, I’m not good at writing at all. This largely contributed by the bad reading habit I have since I was in primary school. I know, it is an excuse :)
In those days, I read about 10 to 20 stories books a day. My book limit was easily over quota, and I had to use my friend’s name, simply to feed me, the book scanning machine. The reason is simple, I jump word by word and never go into details. It is like picking from every page, important keywords and guess the story. One bad thing about this is, I am never good at writing great essay, both English and Chinese.
We want to create a Most Remarkable travel guidebook and sell it on a best Travel Guide Platform. Me and my development team, come from a background of build and operate online business. To produce Remarkable guidebook, we have the best writers in our team joined us, and we will make it for sure, one day.
Yet, I believe, we shall find no excuse to also involve in the production of the guidebook. We would like to get involved, and know our products better. Eisen suggested to record down the activities in producing the guidebook, will keep updating this page :)
15 July 2008
Working on guesthouse in Malacca. I wanted to include Best way to book your room (SMS, phone, email, hotel booking website?). Emailed the owner of guesthouse to verify with them. This dirty job should be done by us first and include in the guidebook. Malacca can be divided to Heritage area and Malacca Raya area. Probably 2-3 guesthouse in each area. I have this idea, a good travel guide should help our travelers to plan, theoretically, they need not to refer to any other website, we should make sure all info are included in the guidebook. We have to help them to decide what is best guesthouse. Surrounding picture of the guesthouse is important. Picture shared by other travelers on that particular guesthouse can be included in the guidebook as well. I think it is crucial to interview owner of guesthouse to find out the availability rate of their guesthouse in general. I am thinking of including Youth Hostel and also info of those CSurfers who allow travelers to stay at their house. I might get more info from Hospitality Club or CouchSurfers website. Probably hot shower and WIFI info as well.
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| Missing Whiteboard |
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July 10th, 2008 |
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When Ryanne came to work the first day, I was not around. It was after a week, I got to know her more and find out how outstanding she is.
Today, she will be taking care of the whiteboard for one last day. After 3-months of her chasing-picture hard work and undertable activities, it was now full of proud members and endangered species!
Ryanne will be back to her college in Terengganu. If you are missing her, you can drive your way there to the east coast. For those who wish to visit her in her hometown in Malacca, make sure you know when she is back. If you are lost, get the Malacca guidebook.
I got an email just now from Agnes & Eunice. Looks like they have opted to adopt the poor whiteboard. Thanks ya!
Do well in your study, Ryanne! We look forward to work with you SOON!
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| A day in a4trip |
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July 2nd, 2008 |
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It was a fresh Tuesday morning with blue sky outside the office…
Wait, what is happening to our daily morning meeting? Looks like it could be not enough sleep last night, or run out of marketing ideas!
It was then Ammie came to office together her ‘Super-A’ roses all the way from Cameron Highland.
Roses in vase? Courtesy of Ammie’s Le Fiores online florist. You would love to see one in your office’s table, order now.
Well, it is not always you get present made-in-sweden. Jian, gout’ed, still make his way to visit us in the office with some swedish alcohol and chocolate. Jian Alcohol lights us up :)
Chailee and Weikey completed their internship training and both are leaving us soon becoming mappers now. Mixed feeling! True is, we miss them both, but we also enjoy the KFC - compare this picture with the one taken during morning meeting and you will know what I am trying to say :)
Two sets for three?
We are going to miss Chailee much after she back to school. Hurry up, everyone taking picture in turns. Starts from Jian, Nic and Weikiat…
Yong, my sister Lynn and Chailee
Hungry look #1…
Hungry look #2…
Champion of the day, Weikey
Back to default mode, eat!
Pin and his new-found personal assistant, Agnes.
3.30pm, picture taken in front of Kill & Fry Chicken. Get back to work :)
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| Big Day |
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June 27th, 2008 |
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After 6 months of test and measuring with our first website (above), we are launching the new a4trip website, today! Yes, in the next couple hours! If you want to find out how we solve the problem of removing shopping cart, yet still allowing multiple orders - stay tuned!
The work will not stop here. We will continue adding more new languages, features and other fine-tuning… which would keep Weikiat busy for the coming days still. Weikiat, the very important peson behind this challenging revamp, is pushing our development to the next new high!
I did a quick search on Google.com with keyword ‘a4trip’ and it returned 8,170 results. Let’s see how much we can grow from here! It would be interesting to check this back in the future.
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| More Than 500 Words |
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June 27th, 2008 |
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It was through the short article, we got to know Adline, working mum & freelance writer. Working on this project, it is great that we can meet wonderful friends out there.
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| The Geographer Cafe Gathering |
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June 9th, 2008 |
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On Sunday, 9th of June, we managed to catch up with Clarence, our writer for Malacca. The gathering is held at the Geographer Cafe at around 3 pm in the afternoon, as Pin and Chin Seng departed from Kluang at around 1 pm.
An Engineer by training, Clarence works in the semi-conductor industry and is based in the Otak-otak town- Muar.
Unfortunately, we are unable to meet up with Fabien, the mapper who will be working with Clarence on the Malacca Guidebook.
Clarence, we hope you’ll enjoy reading Meatball Sundae!
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| 16 to 76 |
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June 9th, 2008 |
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Here’s our 16-year old Charity Ambassador- Mei Yen, also known as Jojo. The picture above is taken while Mei Yen is working as a volunteer at SPCA Penang. Find more about SPCA Penang at their website www.spca-penang.net
Besides taking care of homeless animals, Jojo is also interested in shopping, blogging, photography and music. She’s also a vegetarian “most of the time”, as she also eat a bit of fish from time to time.
During an email interview, Lim said ,”I am particularly passionate about animal rights so the reason why I’d like to join and become a charity ambassador is the help increase animal awareness among us and all help spread the word. I believe animals deserve to be treated well and I am very against animal abuse.”
Featured above is Barbara, who has recently joined the a4trip Team as a proofreader. She’s now 76 years old, and her birthday is on the 20th of October. Bookmark that in your calendar!
When it comes to good food, Barbara said. “I LOVE having my meals cooked and served by somebody else!”
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