8 to 13 October marked our grand tour to Cambodia. In these 6 days, we encountered joys and laughter, shocks and burns (sunburns). Besides the famous Angkor Archeology Park, Pub Street, Traditional Markets, Museums and Temple’s visits, we have headed off the beaten tracks to a rural area, 1 hour bumpy drive from the Phnom Penh city, for visiting an under-construction school, namely Kumomo School.

The Kumomo School construction is sponsored by NGOs and partially by the Kumomo project from 1.com.my. At the same time, the Kumomo project has managed to sponsor 19 members to visit the fascinating SiemReap and adventurous Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

The lucky 19 members include

The tallest YowChuan, supposes to be our leader, but always missing in action. YowChuan’s gf, Ammie, hates sunlight, and spends most of the time indoor while Ammie’s sister, SokTeng, who was usually guarded by Ammie was successfully escaped at the last day during the Royal Palace visit.

Yong is the first one who dares to crunch on the deep fried insects. Yong’s sister, Elaine loves to try out all the Cambodia foods except the insects. Yong’s gf, HueyChin, only talks to Yong and Elaine most of the time.

Weikiat, our talented web programmer, was always serving his lovely gf, Foong. Foong was always happy except when Weikiat was slightly lost attention on her in the crowded Phnom Penh bus station.

Lily, always look likes 18 year old, although she is married and with two kids, and her caring husband is always carrying her orange bag whenever they visited in Cambodia. Next are our little couple, Cybie and Jason, who enjoys taking photos of all the things in front of their sights from insects to light bulbs. Last and not least are Daniel and his talkative gf, SiewLing, who both need to eat more in order to sustain a healthy weight.

And finally are guy who seldom has the chance to taste others’ foods beside those has been ordered. Watching couples exchanging their food each others in the half way of dining, I always think of they are so lucky to try two tastes in one meal. :)

Here we go… Nicholas, who always maintains his best photogenic post in front of camera, is our photographer, KeeKong, Pin’s buddy, has the best stamina in the group. XiaoMing, Eric’s buddy, had suffered from sore throat since the first day. Marcus, our replacement tour guide, has taken the lead for guideing the big group and lastly, I , ChinSeng, didn’t bring camera to Cambodia, except pen, paper, water and foods.

Stay tuned for the anecdotes on our grand tour to Cambodia!

First, fly with your bike. From the airport, head straight to Sepang, the small town which is located roughly 10km from the airport. From there, it is a pleasant ride from Sepang to Malacca which is roughly about 120km. You can make it a two days trip and stay a night at Port Dickson. You can put up a tent by the beautiful seaside. Malacca is the historical city which I’m sure you will like it a lot!

White sandy Port Dickson beach. You wish you have more days here with a nice book.

This is not Phuket for sure. The public beach is full of people, a scene only available during public holidays.

Along the trunk road, you will pass by many small town with forgotten old buildings.

Traditional malay house which you won’t find it in the city.

Rubber tree’s seed. There are more to see on the road!

From Malacca, make your ways to Muar and then Batu Pahat. Visit the Tanjung Emas and try this famous Ice Kacang and Rojak, nice!

“”Carropi” has arrived in Oregon in fine shape and there were four BEAUTIFUL postage stamps of Malaysia’s birds and plants on the outside of his box. THANK YOU so much! We are adding the stamps to our collection. That was a very thoughtful and fun gift. Carropi is hanging near my computer, so he can remind me that I should quit playing stupid computer games (I am addicted to “Zuma” and “Mah Jong Solitaire”) and do something better,” said Barbara

“The package wouldn’t fit into my mailbox, so the postman knocked on my door. My dear mum who’s wary of strangers didn’t want to answer the door, so it got sent back to the Kelana Jaya post office. I booked a cab and went to pick it up the next day. I went to at least three different counters, before I was sent into the bowels of the post office, where thousands of letters seemed to await their fate. There, a postal officer rummaged through some steel drawers before he found my package, which was quite ’safely’ hidden. Glad to report the toy’s now safe in its new home. My son Amir named his new friend Kashi,” said Adline

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!

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.

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 :)

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.

The “untouched” Domino. What are you guys waiting for?

What is the first thing that our birthday girl, Yi Chin do? Obviously, she seemed to be interested in the BBQ saused chicken wings very much!! Look at her smile. ^^

WOW… what a big pizza feast for Yi Chin’s birthday!! Looks yummy… we really can’t wait to start eatting actually… Without a cake, substitute with the pizza, we sang two languages of birthday songs to wish her a happy birthday.

Left or right? Which is your favourite? The left one is spicy sauce while the right one is BBQ sauce. Tell you all a secret… Yi Chin’s favourite is BBQ sauce one.^^

Again… What are you guys favourite? Left one is BBQ flavour and right one is Aloha Chicken. Both looks delicious!

Looks like the one who took the pictures like pizza very much…Ikan bilis sambal or Seafood flovour?

Above are all the interns that having internship at 1.com.my and dm1.com.my.

We took a group picture before tucking in… Underneath the smile, we all are craving for the pizza!!! Especially Jing Kai!! haha…

oooohhh…… finally can start eatting. Everyone were busying about eatting the pizza but still… “sensitive” to the camera when shooting. Yi Chin, what are you looking at?:)

All the guys are also “sensitive” to the camera too. But wait…where was Marcus?! Don’t worry, he was doing the camera man’s job. Thank you, Marcus!!^^ Where’s Pin? He couldn’t attend Yi Chin’s birthday because he had have lunch with his parents. Where’s Wan Ching? Same with Pin.^^ Where’s Yow Chuan? He’s been missing for a few months… haha, just kidding:P… He is busy with his work.

Last, we all wish Yi Chin’s birthday wishes come true!!^^

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!

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.

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.

I recently talked to John, customer service of Wizard Publications. He is so helpful, and he is sharing few interesting words with me :)

“Eh… why this jie jie looks like my mummy one… ”

“The smile looks so familiar … like the first comforting smile I saw… while my backside still aching from the slaps by some crazy peoples…it’s the same round little nose and nourishing cheeks that tickle my body after my bath!”

“Aww… why these two uncles opposite there so noisy, getting all attentions of my mum and jie jie… trying to act cute ah? grrr… … oh oh… so cold… don’t want that purple thing, papa… it’s cold cold… stomach cold”

“waawaaa..waaaa…waaaaa… protest! protest! waaaaaaa” Sean, 10 months old now, has burst into tears.

Kylie took out an empty bottle from the back of baby stroll and a warm milk bottle has produced in seconds. Perhaps every mother is gifted with this dexterity when her baby is crying. With a few seconds of milk feeding, hugging and comforting, the little cute Sean is back in action to spread his appeal to waitresses, sale representatives and pedestrians. None of them can help themselves to return a delighted smile with their fonded heart, screaming “ohhh so cute!!!”.

Finally, Sean was dancing happily now on Kylie’s lap. Moment ago, poor Sean was pouting his lip in the baby stroll while we discussing on the Hanoi guidebook.

Let’s Poll:

1. Our Jusco Photogenic Baby Winner looks cute also when he is sad, what you think?

2 Do you think Sean is correct? Does his Vicky “jie jie” as pretty as her mum?

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.

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!

From Shirley’s Facebook, I discovered that this young girl has the same birth date as me, and is 10 years younger. Always being cheerful in photos, she has the compelling smile that would stun anyone who is looking at her photo. Don’t believe me? Have a visit on her blog or facebook. Pin was stunned for more than 1 minute… hehe

The long awaiting meet up has come true when we approaching the main entrance of Bukit Bintang. With the afternoon sunbeam shinning from the background, Shirley has magnetized Pin to give his first remarkable handshake, symbolizing the strong tie between Pin’s determination in a4trip and Shirley’s enthusiasm in Langkawi writing.

We proceed to a Hong Kong style cafeteria and had a pleasant conversation. In this 45-minute conversation, Shirley had affirmed some new updates on Langkawi facts and developments. Some examples that elicited my desire to visit this lovely island are the size of Langkawi Island is actually much bigger than Penang Island and the island is not just burgeoned with hotels, but there are also a lot of new infrastructures like Starbuck, cinema, factories and shopping center. Regretfully, we failed to prolong the precious moment with Shirley as there was another meet up scheduled shortly after. .

Back to our guy’s talk during the journey back…
“ Hey, Shirley looks much prettier than her photo!”
“ Haha, I second…”
“ Yupe, let’s plan our Langkawi Island trip soon!”
“Cycling in Langkawi? Anyone?”
“…. …. …”
“ Aiya, you guys should buy a bicycle and join me…cycling is good for health… can enjoy natural view… .. it’s environment friendly….and also spare tyre free at your tummy….. ”
Zzzz… Marcus had fallen asleep due to his unbearable jet lag from England and I was back to my nausea state at the back of “little blue in the sky”.

• Do research on the endangered species of the destination country.
• Write an introduction post on the animal. This will be featured into our travel guide.
• Look for local conservation organizations and build relationship with them.
• Write posts on the organizations and their latest activities.
• Write more posts on the endangered animal in order to create awareness.
• Help a4trip channels the conservation fund to a selected conservation organization.

What to include in the first introduction post?

• A royalty-free photo of the animal.
• Brief introduction about the animal.
• Distribution map of the species and description.
• Why is it in danger of extinction?
• What can you do to help the animal?
• List of conservation organizations/projects and link to their websites.
• See the best example from our Malacca animal ambassador, Leona on The Clouded Leopard.

How to build relationship with conservation organization?

• Do research on the local conservation organization which is supporting that species, short-list and email them.
• Brief them about our a4trip project, and show them how a4trip support animal conservation.
• Ask permission to feature their organization in our travel guide.
• Be friend, and you might get more information and photos from them!

What else to write?

• Information or updates of the animal to let readers know more. Just like how Leona did in Breeding Clouded Leopards.
• Activities and projects of the organization. Example: ProFauna Indonesia taking action for Indonesian Wildlife.
• Information sharing with our readers to know more about animal conservation. Shengnan, our Cambodia’s animal ambassador did it in What is IUCN red list?
• Or even a short but meaningful video! Check out Joke of the Bushveld

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 :)

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.

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.