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28
Nov
Putrajaya Lakehouse Club
Sniffer
Category: Restaurants
Cuisine: Asian
Location: Precinct 8, Putrajaya

Specialty: Malay-styled cooking
Average Price Range: RM 10 – 15 per person; buffet about RM 30 pax available upon request

Analysis:

This place scores the highest points in terms of ambience and architecture. It is a lakehouse club after all, but the way the entire clubhouse was designed was just marvelous. It was like stepping onto a huge boat, complete with secondary decks (reserved dining restaurant for members), mast like structure where one can climb up to see the beautiful Putrajaya lakeview (not a stunt for the problematic hearted..), basement galley where they store the boats and a rowing gym. Even the railings along the main cafe and restaurant is like what you get on a boat! Looking up the ceiling, you can see that painstaking detail has been included to make it really look like a boat!…

OK ok, shall move away from the physical design and on with the food. Although this place serves the typical malay styled ala carte meals (nasi goreng paprik, kung fu koay teow, etc.), the quality of the food is quite exceptional. A colleague told me that he once tried the buffet buka puasa during the month of Ramadhan and the food (although quite a limited spread) was excellent.

That night, what I tried was their dishes –  buttered prawns (fantastic!), mutton kurma (still dreamin’ of it), mixed vege (not bad), deep-fried chicken with onion rings (quite good actually!), fried beehoon (typical, but quite spicy), steamed fish (smelled and tasted quite fishy..) and dessert (mango pudding and fruits). Overall, the food were really tasty the only thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the poor service of refilling our drinks. Although they only had like less than 5 tables to serve that night!

Conclusion:
Great place for a nice romantic or family meal on a “boat” and the night could be completed with the optional stroll along the deck like edges of the boat. The lakeside view of Putrajaya is sure to take your breath away too. This place would have gotten my full 5 stars if not for the poor service given. But with great cookin’ and view to boot, the place is truly highly recommended.

Rating: ★★★★☆

(Originally posted on allandog.multiply.com)

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25
Nov
Sharktale
Sniffer
Category: Movies
Genre: Animation

Maybe I made the mistake of watching The Incredibles first because Pixar’s current blockbuster hit quite simply set a standard in 3D animation and wit that is extremely difficult for its other competitors to rival.

So, when I came out of the cinema after watching Shark Tale, I was fairly disappointed at Dreamwork’s response to Pipxar this year. It seemed that they have taken a step back in the 3D animation race by churning out some underwater tale that bears much resemblance and harbours memories of Pixar’s monster fish story (Nemo) last year. Is Dreamworks contented in just following the waves generated by Pixar? Hmmm.

Why did the movie disappoint? For starters, the main characters and storyline just lacks the depth and originality. By relying too much on its ‘schools’ of references to other mob movies (eg. Goodfellas, The Godfather, etc.) as the main sources for laughs, Shark Tale falls flat as it attempts to painfully drag the audience along the shoreline with its net. Luckily it was a short ride..Heh. Personally I thought I was watching a National Lampoon spoof in 3D animation!

Also, the dialogue was just plain shallow and very much cliched. It was a pain to sit (and hear) through most of the dialogues and I think Shark Tale had to heavily depend on its visual and slapstick physical jokes rather than the smart audible ones.

Lastly, this movie proves that having an all-star cast to voice its characters does not necessarily translate into success.

Final Analysis:
Stale, short running (or swimming, rather) time, and not original. Only watch it to relax the mind after numbless hours of watching the deluge of horror flicks.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

(Originally posted on allandog.multiply.com)

Category: Movies/TV  Leave a Comment
17
Nov
Lost World of Tambun (at Sunway City, Ipoh)
Sniffer

What is it?: Water Theme Park
Price: RM 21 per adult (introductory price)
Rentals: Locker (RM 4 for single usage; RM 6 unlimited); Tubes (RM 5 for single; RM 7 double) Note that tubes are only needed for Attractions 1, 5 & 7.

The newest attraction in Ipoh came to live last week on Deepavali Thursday when the Lost World of Tambun (LWOT) was ‘unearthed’ for all to discover. My review below comes from my first-hand experience in this much hyped park last Monday.

Fell immediately in love with the exterior design of LWOT which greeted all visitors. It’s mayan-like temple entrance structure fits perfectly to the “Lost World” tag. Even most of the interior decor and structures were just as fascinating and rich with mayan/inca civilization themes (e.g. Temple Ruins, Arch Ruins, Pencil Rock and Monkey Valley). However, I was pleased that the operations of LWOT used some of the latest technologies for these type of entertainment parks. For instance, all of our entrance tags were bar-coded and scanned as we entered, and all lockers were computerized!

At the moment, LWOT only offers 7 attractions:

1. Jungle Wave Bay – Typical artificial beach front, complete with waves and loud music. No surfing though, but it gets the job done in attracting beach-deprived city folk.

2. Tambun Hot Springs – My personal favourite. It is a 100% natural hot spring fed bathing pool, complete with bubbling Jacuzzi-like spots and massaging geysers. There was a caution for people to soak in no more than 10 minutes, but I think I almost half-boiled myself here.

3. Cliff Racer – Twin speed tube slides that plunges in parallel. Height was not scary enough and the velocity going down was not intense at all. Only went for one round coz another round might even put me to sleep! Simply pathetic.

4. Tube Raiders – 4 twisting tube slides. Only 3 were operational that day but similarly with No. 3 above, this one was also not high enough and the speed was just not thrilling enough for me. What more for those younger ones with higher adrenaline pumps eh?

5. Adventure River –  Supposedly Malaysia’s longest river ride and the first one with a wave generator! Quite an interesting ride this, especially in sections where the waves generated a rapid-like motion which rocked the tubes. The ride also takes you through the lost-civilization structures mentioned earlier.

6. Tiger Valley – Real life tigers on display! Also managed to watch the feeding of some tiger cubs too! A good break from the water attractions but I think they’d need to add more animals in the future, considering the dismal water (un)attractions.

7. Explorabay – Kids zone with some light slides and a giant tipping bucket. Didn’t embarrass myself playing here but it kinda looked too small to handle many kids at one time.

Future Attractions:
- Dragon Flight (a dry land ride)
- Perak Parade (a dry land attraction)
- Good point to note that there is plenty of land available at the back of the park, hopefully for construction of better water attractions in the future.

Other boo-boos noticed:
- LWOT ran out of lockers by lunch-time. Guess they didn’t quite predict the huge turn-out.
- LWOT also ran out of ready tubes! The queue in the tube cave was quite scary and long as the staff furiously inflated more tubes.
- Slow and delayed queuing times for the water slides. Maybe the staff needs more practice time. Heh.

Overall, I think the water attractions were a big let down as they weren’t fast and furious enough, even for an unfit old hand like me! But in the end, I think I would still give it an average rating because I still had fun after all!

Rating: ★★★☆☆


(Originally posted on allandog.multiply.com)

Category: Miscellaneous  Leave a Comment
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