Parties & Events » Josh Lim’s Adventures

A Day Out With The New Honda Freed!

Advertlets, Advertlets Bloggers, Parties & Events August 23rd, 2010

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Recently, I was part of an entourage of Advertlets Bloggers together with Paul Tan and crew to test out the new Honda Freed.

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Our day started off at Souled Out, in Sri Hartamas. Bloggers gathered there before our drive, and we had a good breakfast before we set off to Putrajaya.

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We’ve put together an awesome video of the trip, check it out. Featuring sound bites from a few familiar faces and an interesting look at the journey:

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Motoring journalist and Malaysia’s Jeremy Clarkson Harinder Singh was our guide throughout the trip, together with Paul Tan of Paultan.org.

Each car was outfitted with a walkie talkie for the trip, which was useful in discovering the features of the car and inter vehicle communication (for example - “eh, someone sesat already! turn back!”).

Honda bills the Freed as a “premium 4 seater”. However it technically can fit about 6 people (and 8 if you REALLY squeeze As someone who is used to driving a 1.8 liter car, I’m used to a quick pickup. The acceleration power seems to be in mainly in the lower speeds, tapering off at about 100-120 km/h.

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The Honda Freed is powered by a Honda 1.5L i-VTEC engine, and the car had about 165KG of people + cargo at the time of driving. So I would say that the acceleration is okay, I can’t exactly compare it to a sports car but its satisfactory for the vehicle class and the number of people that were in the car.

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The dashboard has a blue backlight. Interesting material - it doesn’t seem to be a ‘light’ in the conventional sense, but rather looks like e-ink as in its not glaringly bright but its visible quite clearly, as if it were printed on.
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The fuel efficiency meter is also a welcome feature, it actually measures how many kilometers you are getting out of your drive - useful for fine tuning your driving habits to squeeze more distance out of each drop.

There are two major differences in positioning - the gearshift is on the dashboard, and the ‘handbrake’ is on the floor. The second one takes a bit of getting used to, but having the gearshift on the dashboard actually makes quite a bit of sense, it frees up some space for you to either store stuff, or be able to walk through to the back of the Freed. The dual layer dashboard is a good idea, and it does give you quite a bit of room to put stuff. I wish it wasn’t sloped downward though - it would be slightly better at a 90 degree flat angle.

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One of the Honda Freed’s selling points is the walkthrough cabin. It’s useful if you have kids and need to crawl to the back and change a diaper, for instance.

The Freed starts from RM112,980. The units involved in this test drive were fitted with a sports kit that included door visors and a tailgate spoiler. If you’re considering the long term cost as well, Honda has helpfully put together preventive maintenance rates and costs per thousand km.

More info can be found here. Overall it was a good trip, bloggers had fun in addition to learning about how to do a test drive. Thanks to Honda’s PR company & Honda Malaysia for giving us this opportunity. Meantime, if you’ll like to check out what the rest of the bloggers in our entourage wrote, check it out: -

(yes, there were lots of us! Advertlets FTW!)

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Boryeong Beach & Boryeong Mud Festival! - Josh Lim in Seoul, Korea)

Korea, Parties & Events, Travelling July 25th, 2010

My feet hurt. But the past two days have been amazing. I’ve been spending my time at Boryeong Beach in South Korea (about 3.5 hours away from Seoul). Just to chill at the beach, and also, for the Boryeong Mud Festival 2010 (yes, it is what it sounds like and it is awesome). Thanks to my hosts Shannon & Ben and their friends for making this a really great experience! More details on these group of excellent people soon - I have to rush to a BBQ shortly.

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Boryeong is really quite beautiful. Clean. Nice sand. Tanned bodies. Colorful floats. Good facilities. One of the best I’ve ever been to. Actually it is the best.

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Yup. This is definitely my favourite shot of the year.

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Or maybe this is

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Here’s a preview of pics from the Boryeong Mud Festival:

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These guys are most likely US military stationed in Korea.

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There were waterslides to play with as well.

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Shannon & a group of Indonesian college students based in South Korea.

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That concludes the post for now. Come back here all next week for more pics from my South Korea trip!

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Josh Lim in Seoul, Korea! Part 2: Seoul Tower, HD Smoking & More!

Advertlets, Korea, Parties & Events, Travelling July 23rd, 2010

Let’s start this post in reverse chronology. The past few days have seen me exploring around Seoul as well as attending the various networking events organized by the Seoul Promotion Program. There was quite a memorable trip to the Seoul N Tower - Seoul’s version of the KL Tower It was really quite beautiful - I’ll be writing a full post on it later, but here are some previews:

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The reception:

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Me with some really lovely Korean ladies. Yes, most of them do look pretty damn good. The pop culture samples you’ve seen (eg Wonder Girls, Girls Generation, Hyori Lee, etc) isn’t quite too far off from the reality. I am…shocked. But pleasantly.

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A picture at the peak with me, Rebecca, Jin Sook (an SPP representative) as well as a good looking dude from Canada.

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Before the trip to the tower, we had dinner by the lakeside -

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Awesome view of the lake from the restaurant balcony:

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A Korean jazz band played as entertainment. Lead singer was really stunning. Reminded me of a Korean movie I’ve seen where the heroine somehow sings with a jazz group in a bar. Damn I forgot the title though.

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The day before that was also another networking night - panorama shot!

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Seoul’s night skyline is…surreallistically beautiful.

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Malls are heavily populated even late at night:

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Lastly here are some interesting Seoul quirks…a special pillow menu at the hotel I was staying, Coex Intercontintal Hotel!

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Energy drinks you can’t find anywhere else:

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And this last one is…like…wow. I usually smoke Kent, but I guess the only way you can smoke Kent in High Definition is in Korea

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More soon! Seoul N Tower really deserves its own post, it will be up too!

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Josh Lim in Seoul, Korea! Part 1: The 14th Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (SICAF 2010)

Advertlets, Korea, Parties & Events, Travelling July 21st, 2010

Quick post. I’m currently writing this from the COEX Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, Korea. I’m here on a sponsored trip from MDEC for business matching - Malaysian + Korean businesses. Anyway, it was a long flight (6+ hours) and I just touched down today at 7AM. I then spent most of the rest of the day walking around the Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (SICAF 2010). Here goes! (pics are fresh, just from 2 hours ago!)

The Bandai booth was pretty impressive: Robots, promoters and all!

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Don’t know who this guy is, but he’s cute

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Me testing out a cool Augmented Reality thing. Hold up the postcard to the webcam (the postcard has a special printed bar code on it), and it will ‘project’ images. Cool thing is that it changes perspective according to how you move and angle the card.

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Another cool thing I tried was a gesture based navigation system. It was built by the guy demoing it in the picture below. It’s kind of like a Nintendo Wii controller thing (move your hand left and right/up and down) to effect what goes on screen. However, it’s without having a physical controller

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This is Won Hee who explained to me about the system. Happy to have met someone that speaks English fluently all the way over here Apparently, she studied abroad!

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I think most of you would be familiar with Domo-kun…

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If you didn’t already know, Samsung is from Korea. They have quite a massive presence in Seoul, I saw Samsung Galaxy S ads…4 times! on the way from the airport to the hotel. You probably know their products well enough, so this is a picture of the pretty girl at the booth…

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A motion capture thing (It’s how they plot out character animations in films such as Avatar). They are waving some sticks that translate to movement on screen. More on that later.

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Lastly I leave you with an angry chicken figurine and his friends.

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More soon! There’s a welcome party for Malaysian and international delegates tonight that I gotta get ready for. Should be fun. Stay tuned for more, I aim to blog daily/live if I can

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A night out at Rootz…

Advertlets, Celebrities, Parties & Events July 9th, 2010

Last weekend was awesome, this particular night being one of them. After viewing the Argentina vs Germany match at Ecoba, a couple of us headed down to Rootz. That’s Sabrina, my date for the night who got a rare night off. You’ll notice that these photos look slightly different from the ones usually - that’s because I was test driving the new Sony NEX, on loan from Sony.

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Regarding the photos, the aspect ratio in particular is interesting, I think it’s 16:9 (widescreen, like movies) instead of the usual 4:3 ratio. This photo was taken on the way to Rootz. Colors turned out quite nice - this is near Maison btw. Generally the cam performs quite well under low lighting, but I’m still learning the settings to get everything in focus (you’ll notice that some pics are blurry).

So then after we arrived at Rootz…That’s Sabrina, Donovan (a new addition to Advertlets, and a Facebook newbie too) and his friend Yenny.

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Yenny seemed quite shy, but she seemed to be very well prepared to pose in the background even while I took a pic of Sabrina.

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Met Darynne there as well.

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The lovely Cay Kuijpers was there too!

Many, many bottles of Moet & Carlsberg were opened throughout the night. Thanks Jacob!

I like how the sparklers look like a dragon here:

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Josiah (who you may remember from here) was there too.

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And to end off this post, some eye candy for the girls, courtesy of Josiah:

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More clubbing pics soon! It seems my clubbing nights are just getting better and better…practice makes perfect perhaps

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Korean pop group BEAST rocks KL Live with Advertlets Bloggers!

Advertlets Bloggers, Parties & Events June 27th, 2010

Korean pop group BEAST (also known as B2ST or 비스트) rocked KL Live, and Advertlets Bloggers were there! Consisting of Yoon Doo Joon, Jang Hyun Seung, Yong Jun Hyung,Yang Yo Seob, Lee Gi Kwang & Son Dong Woon, BEAST performed their hit singles “Shock”, “Bad Girl”, “Special” and more. Over 2000 people attended the recent showcase on the 26th of June 2010 at KL Live, with some queuing up as early as 6AM (the concert was at 6PM!).

Thanks to Universal Music Malaysia, Advertlets Bloggers got to not only skip the massive queue, but also get exclusive photographer passes as well as the opportunity to cover the press conference! Read more exclusive coverage from Advertlets Bloggers here:

http://www.smashpop.net/kpop-group-beast-live-in-malaysia
http://www.ewinee.com/2010/06/beast-showcase-b2st-pics-kl-live-life.html

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures by talented Advertlets Blogger Jason Ong of Mynjayz.com

Thanks again to Universal Music for making this happen. To get exclusive invites through Advertlets for future events with Universal Music artistes (including the upcoming MTV World Stage), register as an Advertlets member. Many fun events are coming soon!

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The Ladies & Race Queens of the Japan Super GT at Sepang International Circuit 2010! (Part 1)

Parties & Events June 20th, 2010

Just got back from the Japan Super GT International Series at Sepang International Circuit (Malaysia). If you’ve been following this blog so far, you know people aren’t coming here for pictures of cars. So, without further ado, here are pictures of the lovely race queens and promoters who were there!

First off, the local flavours…our local girls did the scene proud:

Kawaii time with Melrose and her friend:

The ladies from Denso get comfy…

Farah seems tickled.

The girl on the right looks very familiar.

I love her hair color. Should I dye my hair this color?

“Please, take a fan sir!” (I did)

With the ladies from Toyota…VIOS…Desirable indeed.

Now, let’s bring on the wasabi! Here are the GT girls, flown in all the way from Japan!

That’s it for TODAY! Come back tomorrow for more!

Tags: JapanSuperGT2010

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Back from the Toy Story 3 launch with Advertlets Bloggers!

Advertlets, Advertlets Bloggers, Parties & Events June 12th, 2010

Just a few hours ago, we Advertlets Bloggers attended the launch event and premiere screening of Toy Story 3, sponsored by TM at Mid Valley Megamall! It was quite a blast

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The event started with an introduction by Azura, Disney Buzz host.

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Followed by a short speech by TM Net CEO Jeremy Kung. TM was the presenting sponsor for the event.

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Then, the CEO of Disney Malaysia came up.

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Then of course, the highlight of the event: Woody & Buzz Lightyear!

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The costumes were very well done as you can see from the pictures - I believe this were the official costumes imported from overseas.

Since everyone was shy to go up to take pictures, I went up first.

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And of course, all the bloggers got to pose for an EPIC shot!

Leonard Chua on stage with girls (as usual…*shakes head*)

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Representatives from Disney & TM.

And of course, camwhoring after the event!

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From left - Advertlets Bloggers Dila Ariff, new recruit Kimberley Ng, Ridzuan Richie & Sham Hardy!

From left: Hanie Hidayah, Esther Ng, Josh Lim, Wai Yan & Yvonne Tham.

Stay tuned for more pics and my thoughts on the movie. After all, we did get to watch it ONE WHOLE WEEK earlier!!

Check out posts from other Advertlets Bloggers:

http://yasminetran.blogspot.com/2010/06/toy-story-3-sd-screening.html

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Bloggers at the Sony NEX Launch! (Portraits)

Advertlets Bloggers, Parties & Events June 8th, 2010

Here’s more pics from the Sony NEX launch! I was loaned a Sony Alpha 550 for the event, and here are some of the interesting blogger portrait shots. And yes, I’m really enjoying doing this new magazine caption style thing.

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First off, ShamHardy.com

Wai Yan and Heidi Tan.

Chammaine Tan.

Jason Ong, handsoem male model *cough* cough*

And of course, Amanda Choe!

Link to this post if you’re using any of this pics for your blogs k

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Glenmorangie Single Malt Whisky Tasting with FHM & Their Girls Next Door

Parties & Events June 6th, 2010

So recently I went for a Glenmorangie tasting session, courtesy of FHM:

The venue of the tasting was Zouk Cafe & Bar. Food was served prior to the tasting, which is good - don’t drink on an empty stomach.

The cafe had some very nice light & visual effects. Panels on the walls changed patterns throughout the night.

By the way, yes, the cafe is an official extension of the Zouk Club brand.

(You do know that the Zouk Spa and Zouk Hair Salon are totally not related to Zouk Club right?)

Btw all pictures taken by me. Unless I’m in it. In which case, I didn’t take it myself. I’m also trying something new with the captions, let me know your feedback.

Click read the rest of this entry or click the pictures for more:

Preview of what you’ll find after the jump -

Read the rest of this entry »

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Back from the Sony NEX launch at Teeq with Advertlets Bloggers!

Advertlets, Parties & Events June 5th, 2010

Just yesterday, Advertlets Bloggers headed down to Teeq at the Lot 10 Rooftop to witness the launch of the new Sony Alpha NEX 3 and NEX 5!

Here are some pics:

Here’s a closeup of the exploded view of the Sony Alpha NEX. The Sony Alpha NEX is a prosumer camera that delivers DSLR quality in a compact body:

Here are some shots so you can see the size of it. It’s pretty compact - you can basically cover the whole camera with your hands (depending on how you hold it of course)

More soon, this is just a quick post, with the full post to follow soon!

Meantime, check out posts by other Advertlets Bloggers (you guys are fast!)

Here’s something interesting…

I’m going to be arranging testing sessions for Advertlets Bloggers to try out the new Sony Alpha NEX.

Bloggers will be given testing priority by:

a) how soon their post about the event comes up

b) and…in order of them posting a comment on this post

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At the SKYY Vodka Sex In The City 2 Movie party @ Sultan Lounge, Mandarin Oriental

Celebrities, Parties & Events May 31st, 2010

On Thursday night, 27th of May, I headed down to Sultan Lounge at Mandarin Oriental for the SKYY Vodka Sex And The City 2 party. I had just remembered about about the party earlier that day, and I was glad I came! Here’s some of us that night at the event photoboard:

From left: Tim Chew from FHM, Christie from FJ Benjamin, Erica Ting (blogger), Crystal Hew (blogger), Laura Yong (Miss World Malaysia 2009 finalist), Josh Lim.

Celebrity Advertlets Blogger Belinda Chee was there! On the left is Rebecca Saw from Advertlets.