After a tiring yesterday, I was denied the opportunity to rest. There was a surprise birthday celebration for Jeff and an after-party gathering. Only got to sleep at 4AM.

I was already awake at 10AM to prepare myself for the big day - my advanced diploma convocation. ^^ I had to wait for YingChee to fetch me as I did not have extra parking coupon for my car. Reaching there, I first registered myself before meeting up with friends. Took photos with Ronald who attended the morning session.

After a two-hours ceremony, we are finally free and the photo session starts. Firstly inside the hall, the outside. First to take photo with me was LiCheng - the ultimate camwhore.

Outside the hall, KK called me and we met up in front of the hall. He and HuiPing delivered the flowers by Jeff, who had just flied to Taiwan at 3PM. Thanks to both of them and also Jeff.


After that was photos with friends from my advanced diploma and degree years. All these photos were grabbed from others albums as I did not bring a camera (I do not own one).







As for diploma friends, only ChongSiang came as others were working today. Too bad. Thanks ChongSiang for the big bunch of flowers. ^^ Did not expect that.


Another flower was presented by YingChee and YeeHeng, the one I liked most. After the convocation, we went out to Pavillion to had some food (Sakae Sushi) and movie (Megamind 3D).




The day ended with a supper with CheeWai, Leong, Eugene and ZhiHang. OMG, I gonna start worry about my finances now. Going to dry up already. T.T

A very joyful day indeed and I am now looking forward to the degree convocation in February. Hope to see more familiar faces there. ^^

My second day on top of Cameron Highlands was a better one. Although I had to wake up quite early, it was not as tired as the first day. At about 8AM, AuYong, my dad and me went down to the lobby and had our breakfast.

Then they brought the tourists to the Cactus Valley which is just a small walking distance away from the hotel. Tourist Guides/Tour Leaders get 50% discount on tickets here (and also Rose Valley). The one hour time frame was not enough for them. There is also a new strawberry farm nearby.







After everyone boarded the bus, we headed to the next three destination - Kea Farm, Bee Farm and Rose Valley. Then, it's the journey back home.






We used the new Simpang Pulai road for our descending journey and stopped at Tapah rest area for lunch. I had some set meal at Dunkin Donuts. There, we can see many buses that had just returned from Cameron Highlands stopping for rest and restaurant.


It was a very tiring journey but at least I had some fun, by myself. I had also learnt a lot and hopefully useful for my future trips. For now, I better sleep.

It's my first local trip since returning from UK and it's somewhere I had not been to for quite a long time. ^^ I followed my dad on his tour bringing TEAC's employees to Cameron Highlands.

I did not have time to sleep and we made a move to the TEAC factory for the meet up at 4AM. There were three buses to ferry the employees and also the MD up the cooling tourist attraction. The other two tourist guides were Shamsul and AuYong. I followed Shamsul's bus.

As this is not a working assignment, I had the chance to actually sleep. The bus departed late and stopped at Seremban for morning prayers of Muslims. There were subsequent stops at Sungai Buloh and Tapah rest area for breakfast and tea.

There were some delay at Tapah as the bus company and tour agency had some dispute on which way to use. We eventually ascend the highlands using the old road, the curvy one. We also witnessed an accident on the way up.

The first stop was a tea house where the tourists enjoyed some nicely brewed tea and snacks. I got a free cup of Teh Tarik, one of the many perks being a tourist guide/tour leader. It was very cooling today.




We continue to ascent the hills and had lunch before visiting the MARDI's Agro-technology Park. The park was very beautiful and it was complemented by the misty environment. We spent about an hour there. I also learnt how to manage the tourist ticketing there.








After MARDI, the bus sent us to the hotel and all three buses of travelers checked-in. It was then a free and easy session. I had dinner with my dad at a Chinese restaurant and it was the end of the day for me. A nice first day, hopefully a better day descending the highlands.

We went to Madame Tussauds in the morning, maybe a little bit too early. @@ We were the first in the line, reaching there about 45 minutes before the wax museum open its doors. We need not queue when the doors opened.

After walking and taking pictures in the museum for more than four hours, we exited the building and decided to go back home before coming out at night to capture the night view of London.

We were lucky that most underground line are still in service that night. We got ourselves to Westminster Palace (the Parliament building & Big Ben) and its surroundings. We took photos around that area which includes the Westminster Abbey, Westminster Bridge, and London Eye.

Finished taking those pictures, we hopped on the Tube again and reached the famous landmark of London - the Tower Bridge. Photos were taking in dozens, or maybe even hundreds here.

We walked along the river before taking the underground to Waterloo station, the one nearest to London Eye. Well, it was quite dark with minimal lighting along the street. After some photo shooting, we cross the bridge and headed back to our hostel.

We were tired but satisfied. Everyone went to rest straight away as we are going to leave Europe tomorrow. A pleasant 4 months outside Malaysia ended in a high note. ^^ I L♥ve London!

A scheduled visit to Madame Tussauds - the world renowned wax museum went on smoothly. We get some nice offers through Burger King, which is a half price discount for adults. We also gave the leftover coupons to the people queuing behind us. ^^ We are the first in line. Hooray?

The first room just after the elevator is the room filled with Hollywood Stars, from tween stars to those cool old guys. Many famous actors and actresses had themselves immortalised here. The girls preferred Robert Pattison more tho. I took pictures with George Clooney, Will Smith, John Travolta, Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise among others.

The room that follows have the actors (and actresses) in their movie characters, such as Robert Downey, Jr in his Sherlock Holmes and Whoopi Goldberg (the one actress I took picture with) in her Sister's Act. There are also Jim Carrey, Marilyn Monroe, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and Bollywood's Bachan.

Then, there's a room dedicated to scientists and artists. Among notable names in the science field here are Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking. In sports, there are those footballers I am not a fan to, the famous US sprinter Jesse Owens, boxer Muhammad Ali and other personalities.

After that, we got to a room with superstars such as Beyonce Knowles and Michael Jackson. In the same room, there are also the Noble Prize winners - Pope John Paul II, Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Gandhi. Prime Ministers of UK and Obama follows.

Just before leaving this room, it's my favourite displays of "baddies". I just love these enemies of the west, or maybe just US. Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Lastly, I hugged a wax statue of Richard Branson (I forgot which camera I used).

Other figures include Princess Diana, head of Marie Antoinette, Spiderman and Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four. Other than the display of wax statues, there is also this description of the process of making it and story of Madame Tussauds.

There is also a ghost trail which scares the fuck out of the girls. =.= I really don't understand them. How can someone be scared if one prepared for it? There's a taxi ride that bring us back through times discovering the history of England.

The tour ends with a 4D movie about Marvel heroes saving British asses. Just a normal movie albeit some water spraying and poking. =.= I did not get any souvenir as it was quite expensive. But we all bought a group photos of us with spidey. ^^