A H L O K E C A F E

Da Nang Vietnam Travel

2022-04-05T17:09:00.005+08:00

We booked our flights and hotel a few months before the actual trip to Da Nang, Vietnam and we realised that we hit the beginning of the China's Covid-19 epidemic outbreak. Lucky for us the outbreak seems to be self contained in Wuhan, China but gradually it became a very deadly pandemic in a matters of few weeks after we reached back home from our trip from Da Nang, Vietnam. Well, this blog is not about the epidemic but more of our relaxing and utterly enjoyable experience when we visited Da Nang.

For those of you who don't know where Da Nang is located, here's a map of the actual location. Da Nang is located practically along the many beaches which we will be guiding you later in this blog and it's such a great place to visit.

DAY 1 - 28.01.2020

We reached Da Nang International Airport at around late afternoon and manage to get a cab to our accommodation in Seashore Hotel. We proceeded to walk nearby our hotel for dinner and manage to secure a table after searching some of the restaurants for food from google maps recommendations. We headed for Ngoc Huong Seafood restaurant as this was recommended most with 4 star ratings. Generally most places for dinner are seafood as Da Nang nestled around beaches like Myt Khe, Non Nuoc, Lang Co and many more.

Since there are only three of us, we manage to order only a steam grouper, lobster and a Vietnamese fried rice which tasted quite good. The lobster was handpicked by us and the flesh was firm and fresh out of sea indeed.

DAY 2 - 29.01.2020

Our 2nd day we booked a car to visit Hai Van Pass Mountain in Hue City for some photoshoot and it was drizzling and cool possibly around 16 - 18*C. The haze was quite thick and we miss out on some of the sight seeing spots except for Hai Van Gate which turns out great.

After the chilling cool in Hai Van Pass, our driver continue our next stop at Thien Mu Pagoda. It is a seven-story pagoda and it's regarded as the unofficial symbol of the city, and the temple sits on the Hà Khê hill, in the ward of Hương Long in Huế.

Our last stop for the day is a visit to Khai Dinh Tomb and it is said to be located in Chau Chu mountain near Huế in Vietnam. It was built for Khải Định, the twelfth Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. It was built from 1920 to 1931 taking 11 years to complete. The tomb is a blend of Western and Eastern architecture.

ANGKOR WAT SIEM REAP GLORY REVISITED

2014-09-01T16:28:00.003+08:00

It's the time of the year again for another vacation. This time around my wife and I decided that we pay a visit to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I still recall some fuzzy memory of my last visit here at about 7 years ago and it was a pleasant experience and not forgetting the extremely hot weather during the peak season. We really got lucky as the month of June and July of the year are typically low peak season and supposedly rainy and it barely rained except for some minor drizzling.

DAY 1 - 30/6/2014 Monday

We arrived at Siem Reap airport at around 1420hrs Cambodia time. Siem Reap has not changed much but tourism development has sprouted numerous 4 to 5 stars luxurious hotels which are very affordable. We manage to book Royal Crown Hotel & Spa which was located only a short walking distance from the Old Market and Pub Street. Hence, getting around the town having meals, buying souvenirs and visiting some of the local attractions are hassle free.

Since it was pretty late in the afternoon, we wasted no time but headed to old market and have our lunch at The Soup Dragon. We are delighted that the curry fish, seafood salad and the beer were fantastic. Generally, the food in Siem Reap are reasonable priced in the range of USD2 to USD5 per dish. The type of food available comes in huge varieties as the menu of almost each restaurant we had visited are rather impressive. The Cambodian beer is about USD0.50 which was nice too.

After our lunch, we went over to Siem Reap Art Center and there are various kind of crafts, bedsheets, t-shirts, jewelleries, hats and the list goes on. After a short while, we walked over to Wat Damnak which was originally King Sisowath royal palace which eventually becomes a Buddhist monastery. Wat Damnak is now an independent institution on Khmer cultural studies and has one of the largest public academic library in Cambodia outside of Phnom Penh. It is not surprising that we do see students within Wat Damnak having some leisure time, studying and playing around with friends. It was also getting late and we decided to call it a day and return to our hotel.

DAY 2 - 1/7/2014 Tuesday

As usual, we had confirmed our 3 days tour via online with a guy called San Park several months earlier after much research on how to go about our trip. Our 1st day tour was an impressive one as the places that we are covering are staggering. Our morning started off with the purchase of the 3 days pass which cost USD40/person and our tuk tuk driver, Mr.Paul was a very courteous, polite and always a smiling guy. Since I knew that Angkor Wat temples are located less than 9km from Siem Reap, it was a right decision to just take a tuk tuk which cost us about USD60 for 3 days and for both of us which was a great deal.

Our journey started with the visit to the South Gate which was in itself a splendor of what to come. Later, we also have the opportunity to visit Angkor Thom also known as the 'Great City' in Khmer which consists of Bayon, Baphuon, Terraces of Elephants & Leper King which was established during the 12th century ruling of Jayavarman VII. We were left to explore the temples ourselves without our tour guide to rush us which was a bonus. Each of these attractions has its own uniqueness and a story behind it on itself. Bayon was the most distinctive with its huge 4 sided stone faces on most of the towers which some expert refer it to the faces of Jayavarman himself portraying as the God King. Others may refer the faces as the Hindu gods and even Buddha at the later centuries. Nevertheless, the remaining ruins are magnificent and still constantly in restoration at present day.

After much eye opener in just the 1st day morning of our tour, we settled for a simple lunch at a restaurant within the Angkor Wat vicinity as recommended by Mr.Paul. The choices are good but the price are rather high as the restaurant is situated within the temple attractions. We only ordered a sweet and sour pork at about USD8 with rice and plain drinking water and we are quite surprise as the dish in itself is quite a large portion which we barely manage to finish.

After our lunch and much rest, we were on our trip to Banteay Srey which was one of the furthest temple of the archaeological sites and about 26km from our location in Angkor Thom which took us almost an hour to reach via tuk tuk. I still recalled my 1st visit to Banteay Srey in the early hours of the morning and the red sandstone really brings out the temple glory during the sun rise. It's best to visit it during sunrise but our trip this time around was planned in the afternoon and the huge difference is very obvious. Nevertheless, it was not crowded as it's already late afternoon and our visit during a low peak season does give us the opportunity to take more photos without having too much obstructions. Banteay Srey was dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva and built at around 10th century and the main attractions are the intricate decorative carvings which are still visible at present day.

On our way back, we had our chance to visit Banteay Samre, a 12th century hindu temple built by Suryavarman II and Yasovarman II. There's also a legend that tells a Banteay Samre king which was a cucumber farmer but I won't delve into the details. Since I'm at it,... it was told that the original king likes the farmer's cucumber so much that he will kill anyone who tries to eat them. One day the king went to the farm wanting to taste the cucumber late night but was killed by the cucumber farmer thinking the king was a thief. As the king do not have any replacement, it was decided that the royal elephant chose the king by letting it roam the lands and eventually bow to the cucumber farmer and he was bestowed as the new king! However, the royal servants disrespect the new king and the farmer left the palace and hid in Banteay Samre. Sometimes I felt that little stories or legend are told for a reason with a hidden message behind it. Usually there are told among the villagers or the peasant and low ranking hierarchy in society expressing the dissatisfaction in life. Similarly, some are told in novel and art form at present day by artist like Ai Wei Wei, etc.

By the end of the day, Mr.Paul brought us to our requested side tour to the Landmine Museum during our visit in Banteay Srey. Luckily enough we manage to visit the rather small museum (I rather call it an exhibit) and it took us 10 minutes to finish looking around the exhibit but it does give us some history of war and landmines in Cambodia. The entrance fee was recently raised from USD1 to USD3 per person and part of the entrance fee will be used for help care of children who live there and support for the relief center.

Well, our day ended with much anticipation for the 2nd day tour highlights on Angkor Wat.

DAY 3 - 2/7/2014 Wednesday

Our 2nd day tour was really testing our physicality to the limits considering the temples that we are about to visit. Our 1st temple is a visit to Angkor Wat also know as 'City of Temples' which is one of the largest religious monument in the world built by Suryavarman II. The temple is surrounded by a moat with an outer wall of 3.6km and we have to walk across the stone bridge which was about 235m in length. I watched a documentary on Angkor Wat on my flight to Siem Reap and it was told that Suryavarman ambushed and killed his uncle, Dharanindravarman I to take over his throne during the king's excursion in the jungle. It was during his reign of power that he expanded his borders into Siam, Laos and Peninsular Malaysia. It was also his desire to bring heaven down to earth in which Angkor Wat was built with 5 towers representation of Mount Meru with the centre highest tower linking to the chambers where the King rest in peace. There are still several other theories on how Angkor Wat was built but we just have to settle with this as it relates back to the inscriptions found on the bas relief and other expert findings. We might got a chance to know the true story if we only have a time machine! or perhaps hollywood might just do a movie on the reign of Suryavarman II as they did with 'Prince of Egypt' and the upcoming 'Gods and Kings'.

After our lunch we continue with our visit to Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Neak Pean and Pre Rup temples. Ta Prohm was made famous and better known when the movie, Tomb Raider was released some years back. It was founded by Jayavarman VII at around early 13th centrury as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. It was very popular due to its giant silk and banyan trees growth enveloping the temple and its surroundings as though it was just founded by some scholars. However, Ta Prohm did not age well as one of the largest giant tree which was an attraction there was not visible despite our several attempts to find it. I later noticed some of the visitors also surprised as to not finding the giant tree. There's no doubt that there are still several other giant trees here and some of which are at 400 years old. I also notice that one of the giant tree seems to be uprooting and the stones in which the tree roots grasp has been missing and metal brace was used to prevent it from uprooting further. I would certainly imagine that the temples are slowly and gradually deteriorating despite much efforts of restoration. I also noticed some stones are bulging outwards at the bottom of the walls indicating lateral force and inconsistent loading dispersion from the top. This may just be my own opinion and we do hope that it stands majestic for decades to come so that the next generation may see it with awe. We were also quite shock to find that the bridge with its tug of war figures were headless when compared back to our old photos of the Angkor South Gate.

Anyhow, we just have to move on with the other attractions. One of the serene attraction was an artificial island Buddhist temple called Neak Pean which was also built by King Jayavarman VII. I guess the King is certainly having an interesting life with all these constructions during his lifetime. Once we reached Neak Pean, we had to walk about 400 metres toward the temple with the soil path and a very interesting wooden platform crossing a lake. I have to say the lake is rather interesting with slim leafless trees, tree logs floating, whistling sound of crickets and toads. The word Neak in itself means 'naga' in Sanskrit or dragon and most often associated with the 2 dragons of Anavatapta, the mythical lake in Himalayas with its waters having curing properties.

With Preah Khan and Pre Rup visited, we just have to call it a day as it was really a marathon of 10 hours non stop. I still recalled that my friend almost had a heatstroke when visiting Angkor Wat on our 1st visit here having exposed to direct sunlight at 35 degree celcius is just no joke and fun. Once we reached hotel, I just couldn't take it and started to feel ill already and went for dinner at our hotel before hitting our cosy bed.

DAY 4 - 3/7/2014 Thursday

Day 3 was really a killer and I meant killer not because of the marathon of places to visit but the heat. Luckily, I had some medicine last night and now I'm back on my feet for the last day of my tour. We started our journey to floating village near Phnom Krom at about 11km south from our hotel. It was a bumpy ride as there's practically no roads but undulating red earth but we do see a lot of laid back living lifestyle in villages and small huts. Unfortunately, once we reached the floating village, it has already moved out as the rainy seasons are coming and our driver is also not aware of it. We may actually be able to see them by taking a boat to their location which may take 1/2 day from what we overheard later. So, Mr.Paul decided to bring us to the villager's market near Phnom Krom and some of the Roluos Group temples which was not covered in our itineraries. The market was rather small as we manage to walk pass it in less than 1/2 hour.

In fact, I missed out on the Roluos Group on my 1st visit to Cambodia. It actually consists of Lolei, Preah Ko and Bakong. There's also Prasat Pre Monti which our driver skip as it's too small and insignificant. Lolei was the first temple we visit and also the last to be built by Khmer king Yasovarman I for his dedication of Shiva and his member of royal family. It was rather small and still under some kind of restoration. Preah Ko better known as 'The Sacred Bull' in Khmer was built by Indravarman I in 879.

I strongly felt that it was one of the impressive temple within the Roluos Group with its intricate carvings and architecture. Our last visit was Bakong and it was a sizable sandstone temple mountain with a stepped shape pyramid. We did a short walk up the steps and took some photos before returning to our tuk tuk. Some said that Bakong was built in reference to Borobudur temple in Java due to its similar architecture. Our Day 4 was a short one as we manage to finish our tour right before lunch. We requested Mr.Paul to drop us at Siem Reap town for our lunch at old market before returning to hotel.

DAY 5 - 4/7/2014 Friday

On Day 5, we manage to have a long night sleep yesterday and our luggage are all pack up ready to fly back to Malaysia. Mr.Paul agreed to send us to airport with a fare of USD5 which was very reasonable but we just tipped him an extra USD3 for his sincerity and humbleness. We felt that most Cambodian people are very friendly despite being poor and live a simple life. My Cambodia trip did not covers the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh and perhaps it could possibly be my 3rd trip here in future. Overall, my stay in Siem Reap was very pleasant and the food were very nice despite the hot weather throughout our tours.

There's so much more to talk about Angkor Wat but I would just sum it up in 3 words, "Explore, Enjoy & Exhale".

Yogyakarta - Our Java Adventure Trip

2014-06-03T21:18:00.002+08:00

December 2013 is the time of the year for another vacation and we manage to make a flight reserve to visit Yogyakarta, part of central region of Java. Yogyakarta also better known as Yogya or Jogja which actually means 'prosperous city'. It was an interesting visit as Jogja tourism and development are booming with many hotels under construction and a major transformation is underway. Our visit was just the right pace with 5 days and 4 nights and most major attractions in Jogja were pretty much covered in our visit.

DAY 1 - 20/12/2013 [The Arrival]
We arrived at Adi Sucipto Airport around mid noon and proceeded to take the local bus transportation to malioboro which cost about IDR3,000/person and it was extremely cheap. It's barely 10km from airport to Hotel Dafam Fortuna in Malioboro which we stayed. However, for convenience a taxi can be chartered for roughly around IDR100,000 which was not too bad either. Since it was already late noon at around 2:30pm, we are starving like mad and decided to taste some Jogja street food for lunch. We ordered nasi goreng and mee bachok with drinks which were not bad. After having our lunch, we proceeded to the crowded malioboro streets with lots of tourists and locals alike on a buying spree. There are a lot of things available for sale ranging from T-Shirts, handicrafts, scarfs, sarungs, hats, batiks, etc. Although the merchandise sold here are rather reasonable but the price in Malioboro can be further bargain at a very much lower price.

One of the much reasonable fixed price goods in Malioboro is Pasar Seni Nadzar located at the very end of Malioboro street near Tugu Yogyakarta Train Station. We also purchased some handicrafts here and the variety of goods are much diverse compared to Malioboro streets which sadly has mostly repetitive goods only. The javanese locals are quite friendly as we manage to speak to one of them which introduce us their finest batik art exhibition with their small studio housing Java's best artists in batik design. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed.

We also manage to visit Malioboro Mall which is located centrally in Malioboro street. It was having a choir performances as Christmas is just around the corner. The christmas atmosphere reminded us on our last visit to Vietnam as it was the same time of the year.

By the end of the day, we contacted Nomad Tours which we secured for our day tours to confirm our pre planned itineraries for the remaining 3 days. We did some rigorous case studies of the top attractions for Jogya initially and selected most of the tourist spots based on popularity while Nomad Tours provided us with the transportation to bring us to our planned daily visit.

DAY 2 - 21/12/2013 [Borobudur Temple & Dieng Plateau]
We are all pumped up ready for our 1st day tour to Borobudur Temple on an early morning. Our trip to Borobudur took us about 1 hour ++ at 36km from our Hotel. Our driver insisted that he take a short cut as the main road leading to the temple has more vehicles and the journey is also in a way obstructed by traffic lights and jams. Hence, we do not mind and let the driver lead the way which crosses myriad scenes of the countryside agriculture, farming and villages which was a huge departure from city living. Frankly, it was not really a short cut as it took us a bit longer but a smoother ride bypassing the traffic congestion but nevertheless refreshing.

Finally we arrived at Borobudur Temple but no temple is in sight yet. Luckily, our driver got tickets for our visit and we skipped the queue for tickets as though we are the VVIPs,...ahem! Once we entered, there was a nice wide open garden leading up to the elevated Borobudur which was a magnificent view. Borobudur Temple being the 9th century Mahayana Buddhist Temple, it sure has gone through a lot and still looking majestically. The tourist and school children crowd here is huge and packed with people. Borobudur is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues complete with a main dome at the top. It is also surrounded by 72 Buddhas within a stupa which is still visible from the outside but touching the Buddhas is a tad bit difficult. Borobudur is a stupa with stepped pyramid base and consist of three realms in Buddhist cosmology: Kamadhatu (realm of desire), Rupadhatu (realm of form), and Arupadhatu (realm of formlessness). As we observe the sign outside the entrance correctly prior to entering, we noticed that we are supposedly walk from the lowest base clockwise and proceeded to the top base platform.

We proceeded our walk along the path and eventually reaches the main stupa at the top which was rather huge. Most of the lower stupas right below the main one are at the edge of the floor slabs and there is no railing preventing anyone from falling to the lower platform which is probably 1.6 metres in height. We are a bit cautious as the crowd and school children are running around happily everywhere. However, the lower platform is monitored by quite a number of guards and they'll alert you if you are at the edges of the upper level. Well, we do hear the guards shouting every now and then to warn the visitors if they are too near the edges.

From Borobudur we continue our journey to Dieng Plateau ("Abode of Gods") located 77km from our present location. Our visit to Jogja has never intended to see Dieng Plateau but as I was finishing my case reference on Jogja, I stumbled on some major tour groups which introduces Dieng and it has a few nice attractions in one spot which attracted us to list it in our day tour. Dieng Plateau is situated at 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above sea level and dubbed as 2nd highest populated plateau after tibet. As such, this place is quite cold as we needed a sweater to visit Arjuna Temple but we were greeted with light rain upon our foot were set there. We took a few photos and make our way out. As we were walking out halfway, the rain stops probably Arjuna Temple has not shown its full grandiose potential to us. We thought oh well,...we just need to go back and have another look. We spent probably a good 1/2 hour there and Arjuna Temple really did stood up as the mid 7th century oldest standing stone temple in Central Java.

Our next stop in Dieng is the Sikidang Crater ("Deer Hopping Crater"). The reason why it's called deer hopping crater is mostly due to the nature of its brewing mud and earth heat with spewing sulphur smolder everywhere. We just have to wrap our noses with scarf as it's a hazardous and somewhat disgusting smell. The earth formation around these small craters is somewhat 'alien' as it's as though you are walking on another barren planet. As we reach the crater nearer it started drizzling again. We manage to find a nearby gazebo with a group of people which are also shielding themselves from the rain and luckily we are not threaten by the smoke from these craters as the wind did blew away most of it. Once the rain stop we slowly but surely step our way as though we are on the moon to the main crater and as the sulphur starts to penetrate all over our crevices of our body,...woo hoo we just have to surrender and retreat our selves from it. I later only found out that after my visit to Yogya that there's a magma chamber beneath the crater and possibly unstable earth around the craters. Well, a word of caution to smokers, don't throw your cigarette butts here as you might just light up the mountains!
The next attraction in Dieng is the Color and Mirror Lake. The Color Lake was said to be changing its color due to discoloration caused by algae formation under the lake. We did not spend a long time here as it was freezing cold coupled with the irregular rain drops. The view here is rather pleasant if only we can spend an hour or two to soak in the peaceful scenery. Anyway, that wraps up our first day trip in Yogya and it was a tiring marathon for a day and not forgetting the long hours travelling back to our hotel. It's sure a great start for our 1st day tour in Jogja.

DAY 3 - 22/12/2013 [Silver Craft, Batik, Indrayanthi & Parangtritis Beach]
Our morning on our 3rd day tour started with a visit to the silver craft factory. It was sort of a side track for us as we thought maybe we should have a look since our tour did come across it as recommended by our driver. Not forgetting the batik factory which we were presented with the process of making batik using wax, etc. We did get ourselves some souvenirs on both of these occcasions.

The next visit we headed to Indrayanthi beach which was located 65km away from where we are at the southern most of Yogya. It took us roughly 1 hr and 15 minutes to arrive at the beach. It was already late afternoon and luckily the beach is filled with cafe restaurants and we had to settled down for our late lunch there. We ordered noddles and coconut drinks for our lunch - nothing very special but it did replenish our energy for us to continue walking up the hill which was located at the east end. At the very top, it was an impressive scenery overlooking to the entire Indrayanthi beach. We settle down a short while and enjoy the winds and the views before we continue our next visit. On our way out we bought some crispy seaweed snack and it was tasty!

Our last stop for the day is Parangtritis beach located 48km west from our location which took us slightly more than an hour for us to reach. At this point, we are quite drained and tired. Our guide proposed that we settle at Queen of The South Hotel in Parangtritis and decide whether we go down the beach if we have the energy. We manage to pass through Parangtritis beach and it was crowded and fully packed with tourists everywhere on our way to the hotel. Our guide did told us Parangtritis beach was badly hit by Tsunami in couple of years back. Most of the the locals do not return to work in hotels near to the beach and the incident still haunts them even now. That has led us to this somewhat deserted hotel which was once a renown hotel prior to the Tsunami and was once fully accommodated by foreigners. We can see why as we reached the hilltop, the views are spectacular overlooking to the beach below us. The winds are rather strong too but the pool fronting the banquet hall was under major reconstruction.

As we are too lazy coupled with the earlier sensory overload and certainly starving as the afternoon dwindled away, we ordered our early dinner at the banquet hall. We ordered nasi lemak rice and some spring rolls. Our waiter brought the nice spring rolls but drop it before it landed on our table...sigh. After a short while, the lady boss come to us with the replacement and greeted us. After our meal, I've decided to stroll along some pathways which seems to be some chalets next to where we seated. With much rest and relaxation, we call it a day and our guide brought us back to hotel.

DAY 4 - 23/12/2013 [Sultan Palace, Car Museum, Merapi Volcano & Prambanan]
The fourth day was the day we've been looking forward since my first planning to Yogya and it's the Merapi volcano visit. Our tour started with a slower pace with the visit to Sultan Palace or Kraton [residence of the ruler - "Ke-Ratu-an"]. It was Monday and we were quite surprised that they are horde of visitors, some of which are local students and others are tourists like us. Sultan Palace has been the residence of the Sultan in the 1700's. It is still used as cultural performances around the large open air pavilions. There are pieces of art, portrait of the sultanate families and royal gifts to the Sultan which are exhibited here. It's interesting to see that the royalties live in simplistic lives here and respected by the locals everywhere.

Our next planned visit was supposedly Taman Sari Water Castle but the weather is not on our side. So our guide recommend that we have a visit to Museum Kareta [Car Museum]. Oh my! there are these royal horse carts with huge chunks of gold ornaments all around it. I'll let the photos for you to judge and you can almost feel the royal family heydays in your mind.

Check out the small willys vehicle on the bottom right for the sense of scale.

I mean how often one can see the volcano face to face without getting some magma heat on your face or sulphur gas choking your lungs. The last volcano I've witness was Kintamani volcano in Bali. Kintamani and Merapi were both active volcanos and some guides may cancel their tours if there's any irregular volcano activities as cautioned by authorities. Our guide did inform us that he had a very scary experience bringing a volcanologist who is reluctant to evacuate from Merapi.

We departed from our hotel in Malioboro and headed to Kaliadem which was roughly about 29km towards the north. At first, I do recalled in some of the blogs I read that Merapi volcano is visible from Kaliadem but once we reached Kaliadem, there's no sign of Merapi as it was too foggy. Kaliadem is one deserted eerie place to be as the soil are from the Merapi eruptions and the foggy environment reminds me of 'The Mist' movie. But there are a lot of Willys Military 4WD jeeps everywhere and tourists are seen flocking in and out from Kaliadem. Since we are already there we might as well book a Willys to get a closer look into the foot of the giant Merapi. Well, Nicole Kidman was here and a few other celebrity photos was shown here too.

We took 2 tickets (300,000 Rupiah/person) and up we go into the Willys jeep and that's when all the fun starts the moment the Willys engine starts. It was one heck of a ride with all the bumping, twisting and strangling of our bones due to the uneven route of soil, magma, rocks, puddles, mud - You name it and it's all here! There are some surreal sights on our way to Merapi volcano. We did saw a lot of sprouting greenery plants of vegetables planted by the locals here on the volcanic black soil. You can't imagine these black soil is actually in its utmost fertile nature for plants. There are also truckload of sand mining vehicles coming in and out non stop 24 hrs/day from nearby Merapi. Our guide did told us that these sand were used for construction sites and sold at very reasonable price. I can really imagine a whole mountain erupted and spewing million tonnes of sand around it ala' Pompeii style!

As we draw closer to Merapi, there are shocking scenes of abandoned houses already engulfed in flames during the incident. There are also a whole river covered with magma literally dried out and blackened. The most shocking news was we are literally standing 5m above ground on some of the villages buried by the eruptions. Our 1st pit stop was a small house exhibit showcasing the remnants of human belongings and the leftover of the cow bones. Our next stop bring us to the Alien Stone where a huge rock was flung all the way from Merapi eruptions. The Alien Stone does really has some resemblance of a human face but Alien maybe not. We did have our photo taken there.

Eventually we arrived to the titan foot of Merapi and here lies a bunker. We did not waste for a minute and started to walk the inclined slope towards Merapi. It was a magnificent view to behold although we arrive at about 9am it might be a perfect view if we depart much earlier. We rested for a while and we noticed that the mist from the mountain was coming towards us slowly. We took some photos and descend our way down the slopes but the mist seems to picking up speed. Luckily we descended quick enough because the mist was a total whiteout and we might not be able to see the path in front of us as our surroundings were not so visible. We visited the small bunker and I doubt that anyone can survive inside the bunker as it was way too close to Merapi. A quick check on the news revealed that 2 men was killed inside the bunker due to scorching heat from the eruption. Merapi erupted in 1930, 1994 and 2006.

Our next visit of the day was Prambanan which is also the finale day tour highlight in Yogya. Prambanan is a 9th century hindu temple built in 850 CE (Christian Era) by ruler of central Java, Rakai Pikatan during the Mataram Kingdom. It was said a Bristish surveyor of Thomas Stamford Raffles stumbled upon the ruins by pure chance in 1811. As expected, upon arriving it was sparsely crowded everywhere with tourists but it was quite pleasant with large open spaces around us and our guide ushered us in without queueing. The Candi or shrine really a stand out piece of architecture and it is a reminiscence of my trip to Angkor Wat several years back. The main Candi consist of Candi Prambanan, Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu and a few more smaller ones. Candi Shiva has a long queue to enter due to the limited visitors allowed at any one time for safety reasons. Candi Shiva did sustained some significant damages during the May 2006 earthquake but declared stable in February 2013. After queueing for more than 20 minutes we manage to enter Candi Shiva. Upon entering Candi Shiva we noticed the huge stones are reinforced with thick galvanised steel cables and some earthquake monitoring systems were in placed. Everyone are required to wear safety helmets before entering the shrine but if ever an earthquake strike, a single chunk of stone is huge enough to squash us into a pile of exhausted sugar cane juice. It was probably the scary and anxious feeling that makes you wanna explore more of Prambanan ala Indiana Jones.

It was quite an eye opener and the feeling of having a small adventure by visiting Yogya and we are very pleased and happy with our guide and the overall trip. I guess I've finally finish my long overdue blog of my trip here. Thanks for reading! Cheers!

Hong Kong & Macau Trip

2013-11-20T22:48:00.003+08:00

I have always wanted to go to Hong Kong but didn't get the chance to do so. After much consideration, we booked the tickets for our trip on 25 till 30 January 2013 and stayed in Cosmo Hotel in Mongkok. Despite having to pay for the higher exchange rate, it was a worthwhile trip. Some of the places we went on our first day are Temple Street and Ladies Market. The Hong Kong food is good and the drumstick fried goose rice was memorable and coincidentally it's right opposite our hotel. They even sell deep fried piglets rice but often sold out before the lunch hour and sadly we missed out on that. We did try some of the more popular goose rice but tasted just average compared to the restaurant opposite our hotel.

There's no trip complete without a visit to the Avenue of Stars at night. The moment we reach there, it was already pack with people and interestingly there's quite a few buildings with the skyscraper facade light shows. However, capturing it without the proper setup of camera and tripod could be a bit tricky in low lights. After much walking, our stomachs are calling and we manage to grab some cuttle fish snacks from a kiosk there. It tasted quite good too. We also got a chance to have a morning Dim Sum breakfast at 'Dou Heung' the next day. It's quite a nice ambience and reasonable price restaurant. Our next stop is Causeway Bay, the so called Fashiion Walk area via the Tramp. Causeway Bay is crowded with people which reminded me Dongdaemon in South Korea. My destination is to go to UML Hobby but ended up buying my wife collectible Mickey and Minnie Mouse instead of mine.

Our 2nd day was a long one as we headed over to Victoria Peak. The main attraction here is Madamme Tussade Wax Museum and honestly our trip to Hong Kong would not be complete without visiting it. Upon queueing for couple of minutes, we manage to ushered ourselves into the museum. There's a Bruce Lee replica right outside the entrance and looking pretty awesome but the entrance is greeted by Jacky Chan wax figure and taking photos with this martial arts action hero will cost separately altogether which we passed. Since most of these celebrity figures are to scale, I'm pleasantly surprised by how 'midget' there are compared to their screen presence especially when posing with Jet Li, Aaron Kwok and Andy Lau. Some of the figures are very life like with wrinkles, hair and all the imperfections captured in the very minute detail form possible. It was an enjoyable fun visit to Madamme Tussade Wax Musuem and we sure will remember them for a long time to come.

Later part of the evening, we manage to drop by Harbour City Shopping Mall located at Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong. If you are looking for branded couture/boutique, this is a place that you want to be. My wife manage to get a Longchamp and a Guess bag which were value for money compared to what we can get back here in Malaysia. I also got myself a Guees sweater not that I'm into branded stuff which I'm not but after much consideration I had to buy maybe for a momento.

The following day was pretty cool and decided to try porridge in Mongkok which is also around our place where we are staying. The porridge tasted so thick and creamy and we are rather surprised by how good it is compared to all the porridges we have eaten thus far. Our next excursion was to Lantau Island (Chinese: 大嶼山) and it was indeed a pleasing one. It won't be complete without a ride to the Ngong Ping 360, the gondola cable car from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping at about 5.7km within 20 minutes. There are 2 choices of cable car to take in order to reach Ngong Ping namely the crystal cabin and the standard cabin. We decided to try one of each cabin types with the crystal cabin (Glass Floor overlooking below) for a trip on our way down. The main attractions here are the seated Tian Tan Bronze Buddha at 85 foot tall and the Po Lin monastery. Disneyland is not far from here but we had to skip our visit to Mickey's castle this time around as we are short of time staying in Hong Kong.

We headed to Macau Fisherman's Wharf early on the next morning to catch a glimpse of what it has to offer as a theme park. It was surprisingly deserted as there is practically nobody when we arrived but our intentions was not to have fun inside the amusement park but to take some photos. I later found out that the volcano roller coaster had an accident and was closed since then but not too sure about now. However, it was a nice outing especially the huge building structures with various kind of themes like the Tibet setting, 1,001 nights village, Middle East War setting and not forgetting the train ride, bumper cars, camel carousel, etc.

Taken the above Panorama View while we were aboard the Ferry on our way to Macau.

Macau is always a must visit for any trip to Hong Kong. It is a territory for tourism, gambling and not forgetting manufacturing hub for various goods. Our visit here was merely 1 day and we sort of missed out on a lot of attractions where Macau has to offer. One of the 1st places which we visit is the Venetian Macau Resort Hotel. It is a very huge resort with a combination of dining, shopping, entertainment, accommodation, convention and exhibition facilities in one single location. We sort of sidetrack for 2 of the main exhibitions which was available at the time namely the Titanic Experience and The Human Body exhibition. Both are really impressive exhibitions and having visit both exhibits really kill off 1/2 of our day trip in Macau. The Titanic exhibition featured some of the highly detailed and accurate replicas of 400 artifacts recovered from the ocean liner’s wreckage. It also recreated various iconic sections of the Titanic ship. One of which was the ship deck exterior with the decking incline/sloping at one side with strong cold winds and night skies complete with stars. We have to cross this path to enter the door on the opposite side of the exhibit which was quite surprising as we need to balance our body to move toward the door on the other side. Some of the Titanic interior set pieces recreated are very accurate especially The Grand Staircase and The VIP room. The wood works and crafting are dead on precise to the originals. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to enter these areas to take our shots posing as Jack or Rose but we manage to take a few shots at these areas. The other interesting part of the exhibit is the obvious prejudice classification of society as the cabin/sleeping quarters of 3rd class to 1st class are glaringly obvious and similarly to the dining tableware which they used from ceramic plates to silver plates for any meals aboard the ship. Oh well, I believe it's no difference in present day life of the year 2013. However, based on the Class Life Aboard tickets, the 3rd class passenger cost about $40 (equals to $900 today) while the 1st class luxury tickets cost $2,500(equals to $55,750 today). I'm not sure what currency it depicts from the info as shown but if it's USD, it's one heck of an expensive trip! By the way, I'd almost forgotten to mention that we are given a class life ticket aboard when we enter and it's the actual ticket depicting the actual person aboard the Titanic when it sank. We get to compare our tickets to see the outcome from the huge Titanic passenger list whether we survive or otherwise prior to the exit which was a surprising end to the show.

After more than an hour of info fun filled experience on the RMS Titanic ship, we continued our 2nd exhibit to the Human Body exhibition. Well, this ain't any more fun for us as it's eerily spooky truth of our human body. I do recalled that this exhibition was held locally here back in Malaysia Museum Negara some years back but I missed out on that one. Over here, the exhibit are not recreation of the artifacts but most of all we see here are actual real human body from the top of your brains till the toes of your foot's blood vessels literally. The interesting part which we manage to see is the dark speckles/spots development of dying cells on the lungs and forming of cancerous cells due to smoking. It also shows the development of the lungs of a heavy smoker in his later part of life with almost 70% of the lungs are mostly black/darkened cancerous cells! I think I'll probably show the photos to tell the remaining part of the story for this exhibit. *Gasp!*.

After triggering all our senses, we also had our lunch here with some pork steak rice and cuttle fish with meatballs. It was a reasonable lunch and later we proceeded to Rua De St Paulo street and it's pack with people along our way to the Senado Square, St. Dominic church and St. Paul Ruin landmark. Since Macau is also famous for its biscuits, we manage to buy quite a variety of them here including the famous almond flavoured ones which is called 'Hang Yan' biscuits. There are also huge amount of dry meats variety to choose ranging from ostrich, fillet, pork, beef, wild boar and veal. We bought a few of the dry meat combinations with one of it is wild boar. Frankly, I prefer the local Malaysian dry meat over Macau as the latter is rather stiff for my taste. Anyway, I guess that's only our taste.

The very 1st little landmark is the Senado Square. It has been Macau’s urban centre for centuries & popular venue for celebrations complete with wave-patterned mosaic colored stones paved by the Portuguese then. We eventually reached St Paul ruins after much walking along the crowded streets. It was practically the remains of the 16th century iconic stone façade. It also housed the Museum of Sacred Art and Crypt at the bottom of the ruins with many religious artifacts which we sadly missed out as we arrived at the scene by 6pm and it had already closed. Nevertheless, we are physically drained by the time we reached St Paul ruins and we needed to rest for a short while there. Actually, there are still a great deal to explore if only we stayed for 2 nights in Macau. There are much more places which we will try to cover in Macau on our next trip like the Macau Tower, A Ma Temple, Kuan Yin Statue, Wine & Grand Prix Museum, Guia Fortress, City of Dreams, Macau Museum and Camoes Garden.

For those who loved amusement fair, Ocean Park is a treat for any family outing. Frankly, quite a huge group of visitors are all queueing for the buses to Ocean Park early in the morning. As usual there are a lot of fun roller coaster rides. I might be too old for this but we selected the furthest circular saucer ride once we disembark from the bus which was supposedly a ride on a bucket spinning in circles only. Once we reached there, the ride deserted as suspected and there won't be any waiting time here and waited not long for the ride to start. Things get a bit tense when the ride starts spinning as the wheel is also tilting upwards slowly but spinning rather fast. As the speed catches up the wheel and our bucket seat has already tilted up at 90 degress and probably several storeys above ground and it was quite horrifying for some time. Thank god it ended but my head is still spinning in rhythm with the wheel even after we landed back on earth. The park also features the Grand Aquarium which have a lot of fish species to admire.

Our visit to Hong Kong and Macau were very interesting as it leaves behind lots of memories. It came to my senses that writing a blog about my own trip actually serves as a diary and we can recall some of those feelings when we were still there. It was hard to recall back our trip to Hong Kong and to even write this blog considering the time which has lapse for a while now but the photos which we have taken serves a good reference to finally finish this blog on Hong Kong and Macau. I do encourage others to write about their vacation in blogs as it does serves a bit of reference for people who wanted to planned their trips. My tips to write a blog are as followed :

1. Write down the planned itineraries of your trip as this will help to chart out your blog's framework before
    blogging.

2. Take as much photos as possible whether it's a scenery, signboard, something funny, landmark, etc. and try to
categorize all your photos in folders on your PC based on the Date/Day and places. (E.g Folder can be
    categorize as DAY 1/Macau/...)

3. Keep your entrance tickets to a show/event/exhibit, maps, food locations, expenditure,etc which can be a
    valuable info for others.

Singapore Isle Of Entertainment

2013-10-30T22:49:00.001+08:00

It has been a while since my last visit to Singapore. I've been to this nice country twice and both of which were on a business occasion for our case studies of existing buildings for our projects. Singapore building construction are typically built with high standards compared to Malaysia. Not that the latter is bad but the organisation of logistic for construction at site and quality assurance in Singapore are done impeccably.

Enough said about building construction, let's get back to my trip to Singapore. Well, my trip to Singapore for the 3rd time is to enjoy my vacation and not work. I was there on 15 till 18 September 2013 which is just a nice amount of time to cover some grounds there. My wife and myself stayed in The Inn at Temple Street which was a rather nice hotel in the middle of Chinatown. Once we had our stuff check in at the hotel, we wasted no time and proceeded to Little India via the MRT. It's not really much to see there but our intention is to grab our lunch and surprisingly the food was pretty good maybe our stomachs are way too hungry but nevertheless it was nice. We had briyani rice with chicken, fried noodles, murtabak and we were pretty much up to our neck fully top up! I must say that the fried noodles was one of the best that we have tasted for a long time and not to mention the murtabak was quite good too. The fried noodles was dried and the indian spice really bring a level up in tasty goodness N finger lickin',...ahem I hope I'm not carried away but it's that good.

After having our lunch we headed to Mint Museum of Toys which was not far from Bras Basah MRT station. I've heard about this museum and since we have a bit of time, I guess we should head on to our small excursion to see some of the most expensive antique toys collection in the world. It is all situated in this small multi level building where you'll be walking down from the topmost floor (5th Floor if I recall it correctly) after taking a lift all the way up. They have a nice cafe on the outside facing the main road but we skipped it as it was wet after raining. It was a narrow little museum with some old antique toy worth USD15,000/item and above. You can really see some really old I mean ancient little toys all nicely displayed in a custom glass shelves ranging from Star Wars, Astroboy, Popeye, Teddy Bear, Thunderbirds, Batman, Buck Rogers and the list go on. But don't expect to see Hot Toys or Sideshow Collectibles as there won't be any here. My final verdict is if you really want to see toys collection, my recommendation will be Penang Toy Musuem in Malaysia. Our 1st day ended with a night walk at Bugis Junction with some desserts and it has been a long day walk.

Our 2nd day outing can be put in 3 words - "Extreme Nomad Walkathon" as the distance of walking which we had was easily more than 8km. We headed to Harbourfront station and boarded Sentosa Express to SEA Aquarium which was located at Resorts World Sentosa Isle. Originally we planned to visit Underwater World but we changed our minds at the night before to see the purportedly newer SEA Aquarium. My summary is this - it's a live fish aquarium exhibit and quite a large one that is but if you like performances by dolphins, walrus, etc, then,..Underwater World should be a better choice I guess. That's only my assumption as I have not been to Underwater World yet. SEA Aquarium also has 2 separate video performances. One of which is the video introduction of the traders coming to asia with some surprising sun lion head contraption on the huge ship moving around above the screen. Then, we were ushered to view yet another video performances but this time around with the sights, sound and senses all at once. We did had a thrill with real water, wind and underseat rumble sort of like 4D cinema. The video production is not top notch but quite interesting and it was really fun. There's also a small exhibit about the history of the traders in the olden days which was quite informative.

After visiting SEA Aquarium we headed to Merlion Park upon disembarking from Esplanade station. I guess one will not be consider as visitors of Singapore without visiting the part lion head with part fish body landmark. We took a few shots there and over the Sands and proceeded to Singapore Flyer. At this point, the sun is scorching hot and walking onwards is rather tiring. We had to pit stop twice to catch our breath and refresh with water. While we are having a short rest overlooking back at the Merlion, we had a surpirse as it's spewing out water. What a spectacular view and we missed it during our photo session. Nevertheless, I manage to capture a few zoom in shots as we aren't going back to Merlion. As we walk, we notice that everywhere is prepping up for the formula 1 street race with all the high concrete road barriers and high galvanised bull dog fences. Every small little road patches were premix and coordinated. It's kindda feel like you're in Monaco formula one race event. Once we reached the Flyer, we had our late lunch there with some fried oyster and chicken rice. We bought our tickets to the flyer and up up and away we go. Prior to the flyer, there is a small exhibit on how the flyer was constructed which was quite informative. The capsule for the flyer was quite large and only 5 person was allow in our capsule including us which was quite spacious. The full rotation took roughly 30 mins and the views are breathtaking. As the day comes to an end, we return back to temple street for dinner in a Chinese restaurant.

Our 3rd day was an interesting one, we took the Sentosa Express at 9:30am and this time around we went to Universal Studios. There is so much things to see and do there that we spent a whole day in Universal Studios. The 1st ride we took was "Transformers - The Ride". It was a 3D ride with lots of CGI 3D effects and the most memorable one is actually when your car is plummeting down from a skyscrapper! Although it's a 3D ride there is even Megatron saliva spewing out on our faces literally! However, the fun turns into roller coaster nightmare when we took "The Mummy " ride. At first, I really thought it's another of those rides where you get to see some mummy or ghost but this is well over 3 G-force ride man! No wonder we are not allowed to bring our bags and cameras in. Imagine riding a small train cart in a real tunnel ( yes it's a tunnel and not video show here) and there's no lights and the cart make few sudden 3-G force turns and pretty much upset my stomach and senses. After the ride I was totally KO and need to rest almost an hour to continue our journey but my wife is in pretty good condition. The 3rd ride was a treasure hunt ride and no twist and turn here. Phew! that was close. Our fourth ride was the Shrek 4D movie which was fun but the intro before you enter the show was a tad bit too lengthy. I strongly recommend that anyone which have not watch this before should select the furthest seat away from the screen to feel the 3D effect as we seated too close to the front and the 3D has some ghosting and blurry. The highlights of the show is the horse ride and the seat hydraulics are pretty nasty too...haha..!

There are still a few more places to go which we missed out on this trip namely the Zoo/Night Safari, River Cruise, Journey of Dreams, Rainforest Discovery, etc. Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip for both of us and we really do recommend for those who have not visited Singapore.

Sekinchan Savoury Short Trip

2012-08-20T23:41:00.002+08:00

It's good to be back on my blog after a while back since my last visit to Vietnam. This time around we went to Sekinchan and it's the Hari Raya Puasa 2nd day in 2012. Getting there from Klang is pretty easy, however the sad part was the travel duration of supposedly 1 hour has drag till more than 1 1/2 hours due to the traffic jams at Kuala Selangor. Another bad news was that our Sekinchan visit timing in the month of August is not really good as all the padi fields were already harnessed between June till September of each year. Luckily for us there were still some young padi turf planted outside the PLS Marketing's factory's field. These padi spots were carefully nurtured and its green leaves were surprisingly striking in colour.

It was quite a contrast to see part of the fields which were totally bald while the other side was in bright green padi turfing. On our way out, we did manage to stop by at Nan Thien Temple (南天宫) (Nine Emperor Gods Temple). We also manage to buy some crackers @ RM10.00, 'kam kat' (plum extract) at RM11.50,if you buy extra bottles. (Good for cooling down the heaty body, I guess) (Normal price @ RM12.00) and mashed peanuts biscuits @ RM10.00. Finally, we had our late lunch at Guan Seng Long Restaurant. We manage to have some fried prawns, spicy claypot shark's meat, fried cuttlefish, claypot tauhu with mixed crabs, prawns & mushrooms. The big surprise here was the total of all these dishes c/w chinese tea was merely costing about RM80.20 which was very reasonable in comparison with Tanjung Sepat and Kuala Selangor which are way more expensive.

We also realise that the 'kam kat' in Melaka which is probably 20% lesser but cost about RM18.00 per bottle there. Last but not least, we are quite unhappy with some of the Sekinchan map attractions which we downloaded from the web were rather inaccurate (In particular the fishball & crackers as shown on their maps were not apparent at sight). So, we decided to include our GPS POI for 3 of the attractions which are quite easy to locate and also our case study link on Sekinchan which we manage to save as followed:

PLS Marketing - Padi Processing Plant

Address: Lot No 9990, Jalan Tali Air 5, Ban 2, 45400 Sekinchan, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: +603-3243 6558
GPS : 3°31'16.11"N    101° 7'43.37"E

Nan Thien Temple (南天宫) - (Nine Emperor Gods Temple)
GPS :    3°31'24.77"N   101° 8'31.94"E

Guan Seng Long Restaurant
Address: 30-40, Jalan SD1, Taman Sekinchan Damai, 45400 Sekinchan, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Tel: +6019-224 7311 / +6019-323 4337
GPS :    3°30'17.86"N    101° 5'58.25"E

Hope our short guided tour can make your trip much easier to find the main attractions.

Hanoi - A Visit Back To Where It All Begins

2011-06-17T21:34:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since my last post here at my blog. Life really catches up I guess. I took some time off at the early of the year 2011 in the month of January 28th to have a short visit to Hanoi, Vietnam.

Hanoi is located northern side of Ho Chin Minh City and at the right bank of Red River. With ever growing population and majority chinese influence, there's a little bit of everything that you'll get to find in this scenic capital of Vietnam.

We spent about 4 days from 28/1/11 till 31/1/11 in Hanoi witnessing some of the street food, cultural lifestyles and not forgetting the amazing nature and its geographical scenic formations.

We have taken some pretty decent photos and video footage of Hanoi and I will like to take this opportunity to share it here.

The weather is surprisingly cool ranging from 10 deg C to 15 deg C. In general, vietnamese are at 85% of buddhist religion. It's the most crowded and busiest time in Hanoi with most locals buying their food and clothing to celebrate the Lunar New Year quite similar to Malaysia but with way much ambient and celebration. Taking bicycle ride around Tam Coc in Ninh Binh is a lot of fun too. You do see a lot of how the vietnamese people live in their little village like homes.

The food range from spicy hot, sour and sweet are certainly a feast to your senses. There's mutton kindda satay like toast, noodles, kebab vietnamese style and steamboat with some brains!, etc.

As the UNESCO World Heritage, Halong Bay is a-must visit in Hanoi. With over 1,600 islands and islets, there's so much to see and enjoy. Unfortunately, we did not opt for a night stay. It could be a fantastic view witnessing the sunrise and sunset with the backdrop of these marvellous seascapes. It almost feels like going back to nature where it all begins.

P.S - A video blog of Hanoi was uploaded too at Vimeo.com of the link below
http://xrl.us/ahlokeHD

Tanjong Sepat - Day Trip Photos Vol 2

2010-09-08T23:45:00.000+08:00

It's amazing how time flies and it's already 3 months past from my earlier photo upload on Tanjong Sepat. Luckily, I manage to find time to sieve thru some of the Tanjong Sepat remaining photos that I've taken and post it here as Volume 2. Hope you guys enjoy!

On my way back from Tanjong Sepat while passing Jenjarom, I manage to visit Dong Zhen Temple. Here are some of the shots taken for both Tanjong Sepat and Jenjarom.

Tanjong Sepat - Day Trip Photos Vol 1

2010-06-15T22:15:00.002+08:00

Recently, I've visited Tanjong Sepat after much reccomendation from friends and partly also due to some blog postings which I've come acrossed. Sadly, the overall experience is not meeting the expectations of what I've read about this place. It's located at around Banting and once known as a small village. With all the buzz about the seafood, scenery, nice pau and bah kut teh, there's no reason why one should not visit the place.

I don't need to spoil the fun for those who has yet to set foot in Tanjong Sepat. Therefore, I refrain myself to elaborate further about the bad experiences of this place. However, here's some of the photos taken while in Tanjong Sepat and please note that it may not show the 'uglier' side of Tanjong Sepat. Perhaps the beaches which are easily accessible to the public need some serious clean up. Hopefully, the next trip which I'll be visiting soon would turn out much better or quite frankly soothing to the eyes.

BALI - Live The Paces & Feel The Senses

2010-01-31T18:26:00.001+08:00

It took me a while to edit these video shorts of the Bali island, Indonesia during my visit from 28/12/09 to 31/12/09. The videos of my travelog can be view directly here or downloaded. Please do give me your views and comments. Cheers & Njoy.

DOWNLOAD VIDEO 720P HERE

BALI - Arts, Nature & Senses

2010-01-10T00:03:00.002+08:00

Recently I manage to book a flight ticket to Bali, Indonesia at the very last minute decision mainly due to my annual holidays taken without any plannings. The trip was on a bit of premium cost considering the holidays period from 28/12/09 to 31/12/09. Here's a breakdown of the itinerary of places I've visited and not forgetting the snapshots of BALI island which really brought me back to arts, nature and senses.

DAY 1 - UBUD (28/12/2009)

I've arrived at Ngurah Rai International airport with a slight delay and manage to check-in at Ubud at about 3:00pm. A loud noise was heard during the flight taking off from the Air Asia flight, AK362 and we were informed that there's some technical issues with the landing gear. There goes the remaining hours of joy during the 3 hours flight filled with concerns. Thankfully, it was a safe flight to the destination, BALI. Upon check-in, I quickly unpack and headed to Ubud surroundings just to glimpse the towns and hoping to get some info and day tours for the following day excursions. I've seen some nice photos taken from cafe lotus when I was doing some travel findings. After some 15 minutes of walk, I stumbled over Cafe Lotus right across the road 'Jalan Raya Ubud'. I gotta say it's quite expensive for my budget to have a meal there but nevertheless the Pura Taman Kemuda Saraswati temple is worth the rupiah.

After having my late lunch, I've tried to gather as much infos as possible and hoping to get a reasonable bargained day tour but to no avail. The reasons to get a day tour is because it's very much cheaper to see more places at a short period of time or stay in BALI. I'd made this decision considering bemos, bikes and self driving which pretty much has its limitations. If you know your locations around Bali, taking a bike is the best bet or perhaps self driving. However, you'll need an international license just in case you are stopped by police.

My last resort of getting my day tour came to light when I realized that I've gathered a bunch of brochures and leaflets when I arrived in Ngurah Rai. After much bargaining over the phone I've settled for 800K rupiah for my 2 days tour. Usually, tour packages do not take single private tour because the agency will be making a loss. Luckily, with much persuasion in malay language and partly due to various competitions from tour agencies, they have agreed on the price.

DAY 2 - KINTAMANI & BESAKIH TEMPLE TOUR (29/12/2009)

The following day started with a brief breakfast and off we go with tour guide, Mr.Wayang and driver, Mr.Gusti at around 8:30am. We headed to Tohpati for batik painting and Celuk for gold and silver smith crafts. Both were handicrafts of BALI and comes with various designs for shoppers. We were then visiting Batubulan village for the Kris and Barong dance with a short stop to see some stone carvings. The dance performance was quite nice with some humor injected into the play to keep things interesting to the audiences. We also visited Batuan the home of painters and I've gotta say the paintings were way too pricey. It cost at about USD2,300++ for just a mere size of 1' X 1'.

After much arts and crafts displays, I gather my charged up artistic mind and head for Tegenungan water falls for some nature. It was said as the biggest waterfall with approximately 10 till 15 metres but not the highest compared to Gitgit. We were then presented with Bedulu the 11th century elephant cave. For a start, yes it's a cave and I gotta say it's the smallest cave I've seen so far probably 8 metres in length with altar on 3 sides.

The next visit was Seribatu with its coffee, tea and cocoa farm. I managed to taste 4 types of both the coffee and tea but not the luwak coffee though. There goes my whole morning and the next thing I knew, I was swept away to Kintamani for my lunch. The main highlight here is the Mount Batur active volcano and lake Batur overlooking to Mount Agung as the backdrop. It was simply the most breathtaking view in BALI. Before I was in Bali, I scavenged as much updates on Mt.Batur as possible considering that it's an active volcano. I won't want myself to be in the middle of the 'Dante's Peak'. The news I've gathered were rather not forthcoming a week before I board my flight to BALI because Mt.Batur has 90 activities within a day compared to 1 activity per day on a normal condition. I've gathered my bravery and thought maybe this could be once in a lifetime view at an active volcano and perhaps the chances of eruptions maybe quite close. With a bit of luck, I might get to see some smoke billowing out from the crater and maybe not the eruption I hope. ^__^

I still recalled Mount Mayon erupted days before my visit to BALI and the vivid Yellowstone scenes from 2012 fueled the excitement to Kintamani volcano. However, the tour for caldera and crater trekking were closed and I guess I'm happy to settled for a lunch overlooking the majestic volcano and its surroundings.

The next intinerary was Besakih Mother temple or Pura Besakih situated on the slopes of Mount Agung. This is the major attraction for tourist and local Balinese prayers alike with annual festivals carried out around the year within the Agama Dharma Hindu complex. Finally, my last stop of the day was a visit to Bukit Jambul rice terrace and some glimpse of the country side.

DAY 3 - BACK TO NATURE (30/12/2009)

After some 9 hours non stop tour of my 1st day, I woke up the following day with much excitement because it's pretty much a tour about nature with lakes, beach and waterfalls. We started with the 1 1/2 hours drive to Bedugul with its Beratan lake and Ulun Danu temple. The temple is surrounded by hills from Pucak Sangkur, Batur, Beratan, Tapak and Watukaru Mount. I can see the clouds enveloping the mounts as though the mount has reaches its peak within the Beratan lake. The tour continues with a visit to Pacung rice terrace view and followed by Buyan and Tamblingan lake. The lakes were simply serene and it's the nature at its best in BALI.

We were then whisked to Banjar village, the hot spring bathing place. The hot spring water was as green as the grass and a quick deep of my feet could not really feel much of the needed heat I desire. Mr. Wayang then introduced me to an upper level which was several steps where a shrine for praying was situated with a small basin like catchment. The water was very clean, clear and a definite source of the hot spring. For some reasons I cannot fathom why the public hot spring was green in colour.

Anyhow, there goes the whole morning and we headed north to Lovina, the black sand beach for lunch. Finally, my last visit of the day and the tour was Gitgit waterfall, the tallest waterfall in BALI at 35m high. I reached there probably about 4:00pm after 1 km walk along some dozens upon dozens of arts, crafts, paintings and souvenir shops along the way. It was a pleasant surprise to reach the bottom of Gitgit falls without any tourist there. I took several shots and walked slowly towards the falls. The immense shear power of the falls can be felt with the water splashing towards me as I walked closer. I doubt at first whether I can even stand beneath the stones under the falls but after a while of steadily steps of movement, I've succeeded. The water was cool, clean and and it's really a breathtaking senses standing underneath Gitgit. I was quite surprised that most tourist did not take a dip underneath the falls despite the falls was quite an adrenaline rush for some and even Mr.Wayang has not tried it himself.

DAY 4 - HOME SWEET HOME (31/12/2009)

It has been another of my rush holidays and how the days past so quickly in a flash. I took an early breakfast and took some photos around my place in Ubud and boarded my flight AK363 back home to Malaysia on the new year eve. It was a cloudy day and our plane hit several rounds of the clouds. We were having some nasty shakeout with the air stewardess literally flip and screamed. Well, nothing happens after that fortunately and we all headed back to Malaysia safely.

Days & Nites

2009-12-17T21:38:00.019+08:00

Yep! here's another look at the poignant Kuala Lumpur, city that probably sleeps rather the least among other states in comparison. Some light strobing, a march of vehicles, a feast of food choices, an overzealous neons and a crowd with some time to kill.

This is just another movie about Kuala Lumpur and not another place which you have not been but it's a sure city not to be ignore for those who are not from any part of south east asia.

Don't wait, don't hesitate and don't waste the chance to give yourself sometime with KL. As a quick look on our city, Kuala Lumpur, here's a 2:50 mins glimpse at a city near you.

Days & Nites from Ah Loke on Vimeo.

This HD 720p video can be D O W N L O A D E D H E R E. nJOY.

Not forgetting are a few more photos just to remind us all that we live in a time where pretty much of what we have now will be the future generations to remember. From the world tallest flag pole to the world tallest twin towers, these are quite some landmark to be reckon of. A quick walk in and around KLCC, we have dozens of high end residentials fetching price with a range of RM2,000 psf and above. There's no shortage of luxury, convenience, shopping haven and epitome of the modern living in Kuala Lumpur.

Oh yes, I've started to draw the above caricature for a couple of weeks now and just got it finished and uploaded here. As our prime minister intensified the 1 Malaysia campaign, we all can't help but to think whether the concept will achieve its purpose at the end of the day. With all the 8 values and adverts going on around town and media, there's no doubts that our government is very serious in preserving and enhancing unity. However, one may ask the effectiveness of all this efforts in achieving its goals overtime.

Frankly, there are some major things need to be mend to pave the way towards unity. What major things you may ask? Well, let me just express some of my thoughts which happened quite recently. I used to take an early breakfast at a local mamak restaurant near to my house which is adjacent to a primary public school. For some reasons, I went to the same mamak to take my lunch most probably due to my office location is a mere 10 minutes drive from here. As I was taking my usual lunch, a group of primary students were there and there was this boy with a rather pitchy voice chatting with his friends about what happened a day before a fight broke up between his friends.

What really startled me was that the student mentioned that it was a 'racial fight'. I could imagine that it's likely that a small fight broke up between 2 different race at the school. I guess I don't need to mentioned what are the race of these students but the point is these small kids are impregnated with mis-understandings of other races probably from home or friends. As a result, the gap of understanding other races becomes bigger as we grew up if the interaction among us becomes lesser.

One of the things that did pretty well in forging unity although not without hiccups are the Rakan Muda and National Service. The concept of unity has to be look upon with a wider appeal of just simple fundamentals of what really separate us. Somehow, we can't have 1 Malaysia and yet with 2 or more system objecting the very principles of unity. Hence, there are simple but painful decisions which should be implemented in a long period of time to allow flexibility and improvements. We all just have to look at the bigger overall picture and cannot allow our differences dictate our unity.

The Peak Of Kuala Lumpur

2009-11-23T00:42:00.014+08:00

I've wanted to write about my one in a lifetime experience trip to the highest peak of Kuala Lumpur a while back now. Fortunately, my old photos at about 7 years now are still in good resolution. Those days the the digital camera is probably 1 or 2 megapixels. Nevertheless, here are the shots of our trip to the gondola level of KLCC Twin Towers.

Photo above showing massive gondola structure supporting the arm carrying the gondola bucket.

You may wonder how we actually gain access to the highest peak of the Petronas Twin Towers. Well, our firm happens to design an upcoming highrise commercial building then which requires a pretty good gondola system. So, maybe to cut the story short, the industry specialist in gondola system invited 4 representatives from our firm to view the existing one in KLCC. After much walking around the back of house (BOH) and through various checkpoints, one of which requires going through a magnetic scanner in the BOH, we were then allowed entry to the upper floors.

For a while I thought we must be going to some highly secured area of sorts. Eventually we reach the gondola level which was in fact higher than all the KLCC floors. The ex-Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad office was a mere 4 floors down below us.

The gondola arm extending out from the highest peak of KLCC.

It was rather interesting to know that the steel cladding can open around the gondola level at 360 degress and the gondola arm can operate at any facade of the windows all around. The opening sequence of the steel cladding was mesmerizing, kind of like we were transported into the fortress of the 'Dark Knight'. We were allowed to walk out the external perimeter deck of the gondola level. The cross wind was pretty strong and the steel deck are also vibrating. We can actually see thru these steel deck between 2 panels where a gap of 15 to 20mm is showing the earth below. Frankly, our legs were quite shaky standing on the perimeter open deck.

Gondola workers climbing into the bucket in a rather daredevil style.

I must admit although gondola level seems to be the highest peak but there is one last stop which we sort of regretted for not participating and that was the antenna section. The antenna reaches the clouds above at 451.9m (1,482.6ft) and with 88 floors below it, there is no other monument ihigher than this.The antenna seems to be accessible from within the gondola floor level. I manage to take the shot below showing the structural support on the antenna of KLCC. It was some sort of a base plate support from the bottom.

Sadly, it was quite windy and hazy to take a wide shot over the city skyline of Kuala Lumpur. Here's the several other shots which I manage to take on this marvellous trip to the peak of KL. I hope those of us who knew KLCC will know now a bit further in terms of the cleaning mechanism which goes into cleaning of the facade of high rise buildings using gondola.

The Social, Culture & Its Heritage Underpinnings

2009-11-15T21:15:00.007+08:00

I took this two photos while I'm on my way home from Kuala Lumpur on 15 November 2009, Sunday afternoon. I thought it was quite vibrant and perhaps hoping it may turn out to be a nice photo. While posting the photos here, I realise these days signages do use Bahasa Malaysia (Malay language) rather often than some previous years. I guess these are efforts by either the present government or initiatives by financial banking. Nevertheless, a main medium of instruction can in some ways promote the community or the society into uniformity of communication.

Today, a walk down the city of Kuala Lumpur, one will see multi cultural people ranging from malays, chinese, indians, indigenous and others. There is no doubt that our society has diversified in various sectors regardless of it's race or religion. However, there are still Jalan Chow Kit, Petaling Street and Jalan Masjid India where each of these streets are catered by vendors who are predominantly malays, chinese and indians. Any foreigner looking for sarees, textiles or a money changer can have a look at Jalan Masjid India or what they call as 'Little India'. If you need to see the largest wet market in Kuala Lumpur, there is no other than Bazaar Baru Chow Kit with selection of vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and crabs. For those of which who want some inexpensive dresses, sunglasses, shoes, fabrics and souvenirs, head on to the chinatown of Petaling Street.

In some ways despite having 3 different shopping havens, these streets were rather segregated from each other. Sometimes, I'll go down to Petaling Street on a weekend but I find it rather small with half and hour walk, I'll probably finish seeing the whole area. I feel strongly that these 3 streets should be given a chance to be relocated to a central bazaar in Kuala Lumpur which is similar to some of the much well known markets like Chatuchak in Bangkok. This will surely be a major tourist attraction for foreighners and locals alike. In other words, a closer interaction among races will give a better chance for each of us to understand our culture and foster harmony. The government should in some ways lay the foundations and path underpinning the social, culture and heritage into a truly '1 Malaysia' rather than pure advertisements.

For the moment, here's some of the shots I took for our very own small Chinatown in Petaling Street.

Finally, for those of us here who are participating BLOG4FT and also my readers, here's a wallpaper for your desktop. Cheers!

History, Present & 1 Vision

2009-10-21T12:34:00.004+08:00

Personally, I thought 'Blog4FT' was a pretty good exposure platform for new and amateur Malaysians alike to give some insights on our country especially the Federal Territories namely Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.

As an amateur, I've barely started blogging on April 2009 this year. I've been living in Kuala Lumpur (KL) for over 37 years now and I gotta say that we have develop so much so that we are in some ways very close to our neighbouring developed countries. I can still remember cleary that at about 10 years back, people in KL use to go down south in Singapore to shop during festival eves but these days KL has some of the best shopping in asia. Well, we are all aware that Pavilion Kuala Lumpur now has won the prestigious Fiabci Prix d'Excellence Awards 2009, the international property award under the retail category. In short, we have most of what the international retail has to offer now.

Here's two of the photos taken a while back while in town showing the more prominent and reknowned retail shopping in KL. Before this we all have to settle for Globe Silk Store, Hankyu Jaya, Yuyi Shangdian and Pertama Complex. Not all shopping mall manage to last in a couple of decades but with the older ones and current existing retail around towns and some upcoming ones in neighbourhood like Sunway and Bandar Utama, the consumers really do have a variety of choices.

Despite having staying in Kuala Lumpur for 37 years, I don't really know much of what happens before 1972 except of what we find in our history text books. So I guess maybe I should do some case studies and back track a bit on our history before I blog any further. I came across numerous sites featuring Kuala Lumpur history from wikipedia which was pretty darn good. As I was searching deeper into the WWW, I found a site named chinahistoryforum.com. For a moment, I really thought this could be a good way to start considering my background as a chinese. Upon venturing into the site I realise that it has a small section featuring Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Old Time Memories.

The site has some of the earliest shots of Kuala Lumpur in 1880s when KL was in actual fact 'Kuala Berlumpur' or what some called 'muddy confluence' where Gombak and Klang rivers merge. I was quite awe with the shots because it really brings back the time when KL was merely a small town and as it progresses, the transformation was depicted quite well despite some are rather grainy. One might have forgotten how old was Pudu Jail but the photos do give you a rough indication that it has been here for more than 113 years since 1896. We may have seen tourist or perhaps we ourselves have taken pictures of Sultan Abdul Samad but not much of us have seen a photo taken during the World War II. As a small glimpse on this web site, here's a snapshot montage as gathered and please do click on the URL link above for more. Nevertheless, I did found it quite truthful and realise that a picture really does tells a thousand stories.

After viewing the forum with all this backstory photos of Kuala Lumpur, I decided to take a good look at some of the same spot today on 15 October 2009 at around Sultan Abdul Samad. It seems part of the mid section was undergoing some reconstruction with scaffolding surrounding it. This could be a good sign of our local authority are still actively preserving some of the historical buildings for next generation to witness and appreciate. Well, there goes my chance to take a close up shot but I manage to take a couple of wider shots here below using my high pixel phone.

The 2nd shot is the present day KTM Railway Station taken on 18 October 2009. It was a pretty shiny bright day indeed and I must say it's pretty hot too. With a temperature fluctuation ranging from 26 to 33 degress Celcius daily, it's really the ultimate summer time almost all year long. A quick look in comparison at the earlier historical 1950s photos above revealed pretty much of the architecture are still intact. The Kuala Lumpur Railway Station was designed by Arthur Benison Hubback and the building was completed in 1911. It is surrounded by other notable buildings like the National Mosque, Heritage Station Hotel and Dayabumi Complex.

Kuala Lumpur has undergone tremendous change these days and it's good that some of the things we have improved but most importantly our values must still be intact. These old but historical buildings for some reasons do make us ponder about the past and remind us the roots of our culture and our society.

Sometimes it's not always history which shapes us to become what we are but also vision and will to carve the future. I'm quite sure we use to debate with colleagues or peers about how Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad gives us his vision and laid the foundation to bring us out from an agricultural depending sector to the Information Technology age. One of the notable achievements by Mahathir is the formation of the Administrative Centre of the Federal Government of Malaysia in Putrajaya which is situated west of Cyberjaya and within the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).

Frankly, I've not been to Putrajaya not until 2006 when I was invited to attend a conference in Putrajaya International Convention Centre. It was pretty awesome to actually feel the space within the halls and corridors. We were invited to have an early breakfast at the wide corridors facing the glass facade towards the east. Coincidentally, it was also the sunrise and I gotta say that the wide corridors glass facade on the elevated floors above ground really do give you a sense of wide view towards the horizon. I only manage to take a few shots within the conference at the end of the day and maybe I thought I showed it here. (See below)

Overtime, I get to know more about Putrajaya after my first visit. Putrajaya needs no introduction about its facts but with an estimated cost of US$ 8.1 billion and the amount of job opportunities created due to mostly Malaysian companies participation, it's no small feat for other Prime Minister to emulate. I've also manage to take some of these shots below when I was in Putrajaya several times since 2006 till now.

This blog has undoubtedly given me the chance to look back and explore the past or history which shapes our present day lives and we know that with a vision, we will be able to chart out our path in succeeding the Vision 2020 of becoming a modernize country. Let us all hope that we will reach that path at the end of the tunnel but not forgetting our responsiblities and values.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this short movie and wallpaper I've created for all Malaysians and let's not forget the importance of the Federal Territories of Malaysia.

Visions In Your Eyes from Ah Loke on Vimeo.
The full version of the 720p HD movie can be downloaded HERE

My Wide Shots & Montage

2009-10-10T17:15:00.002+08:00

I guess one of my favourite photography is taking wide shots and most of the time people enjoy the scenic views when they go on vacation but taking the photos may turn out differently. I took the above photos largely from Angkor Wat and the bottom photo is a wide shot of Tanjung Rhu, Langkawi. The 3rd photo from the top is taken from Banteay Srei, Cambodia and it's considered as one of the smaller 10th century hindu influenced temple with intricate craftmanship. It was built mostly in red sandstone and to really enjoy it is to visit Banteay Srei right before sunrise.

The red sanstone and the many carvings of devatas truly shines once the first morning light hits and washes the walls. At first my friend did told me to prepare for Banteay Srei in the early morning when we were still doing our case studies before even we book the tickets to Cambodia. I was thinking to myself why would we want to get up in the early morning before sunrise just to view this site? Aren't we suppose to relax and view the sites in Angkor Wat at our own pace? But now, after witnessing it, I gotta say Banteay Srei looks perfect during sunrise.

Well, it's quite true also in photography that sunrise is the perfect timing to take photos whether if it's an outdoor setting, scenic view or family outing. This is because the natural color saturation are higher and you don't really rely much on various settings in your DSLR to achieve a good picture.

KL - A Nite 2 Remember

2009-10-08T20:06:00.004+08:00

Kuala Lumpur nightlife is definitely not everyone's cup of tea but nevertheless one may see some pretty fancy pubs, live band performances, fine dining, cafe and a host of others from Bukit Bintang, Jalan Pinang, Jalan P Ramlee and Jalan Ampang. I personally don't go out that frequent but I did tried out Aloha live band performances in one of the festival eves. It's kindda nuts 'cuz the amount of people pouring in is staggering. Later over the nite, my friend and I proceeded to what some of us dubbed as the more trendier bar in town, Luna rooftop bar with a decent pool at the centre of an open rooftop.

We manage to go up the upper deck pretty much towards mid nite and I gotta say that Kuala Lumpur skyline is quite breathtaking from the rooftop. The lighting from the highrise around the city can be seen very cleary. It's situated at 34th Floor, Menara PanGlobal, Jalan Punchak, Off Jalan P. Ramlee. Frankly, having witness the Kuala Lumpur skyline from the highest peak gondola level right below the antenna of Petronas tower was quite exciting but the sight from Luna bar made me realise Kuala Lumpur has more to offer.

I'll probably post the shots taken from the gondola level in my next post but for the moment here's 2 shots taken right after mid nite in Bukit Bintang.

The Forsaken & The Revitalised

2009-10-05T21:14:00.003+08:00

Having working in an architectural firm for a while, my desire over architecture or buildings have diminished over the years. Maybe due to the long wee hours of design and documentation work which had made me a tad bit weary. But quite recently the desire to go back and appreciate some of the older buildings around Kuala Lumpur {KL} has keep my interest back purely because of my present nature of work which involves property development and after exiting the consultancy office. For the most part despite a steep learning curve I've to face in property, I managed to go thru the tougher times.

I took a few shots on some of the oldest building around town in KL situated in Petaling Street, Jalan Loke Yew and Sultan Abdul Samad building. Not much of us really appreciate these buildings nowadays but this is how our city of KL all started. Some of which were revitalised and some were taken down to make way for new development.

Frankly, KL started off as a tin mining area from as early as 1857. During that period, Raja Abdullah, the Royal family of Selangor had pave ways for chinese to thrived in tin mining. With the tin mining and trading from various merchants ranging from Ampang, Klang and Gombak, KL has eventually emerged as capital of Malaysia. It's no surprise that KL has undergone quite a lot of hurdles before it reaches to it stature today considering the Japanese occupation, communist-led guerrilla insurgency and others.

At around 1974, KL was formally detached from the State of Selangor and made into a Federal Territory. KL is now has its own administration headed by a minister of cabinet rank.

Nature's True Revelations

2009-07-27T23:17:00.000+08:00

I thought it'll be nice to compile a few of the shots which I took a while back and post it here under a nature theme of somewhat. Guess which of the 2 shots were taken at my hometown small garden.

Peace Reunion

2009-07-27T23:05:00.000+08:00

For some reasons, this sculpture from the Korean War Memorial Museum was one of my favourite shots. It does gives a small glimpse of impact of war as a deterrent for hope, prosperity, peace and reunion.

Phuket & Phi Phi Isles - My Short Escapist Trip

2009-06-17T22:46:00.000+08:00

DAY 1 - PATONG BEACH & BANGLA ROAD (15/5/09)

I must say that my short trip to Phuket & Phi Phi Isles were one of my better experiences. Well, at least it's not in the period of peak season. It was on Friday in the month of May and I reached Phuket International Airport at around 2:30p.m. with a short 1 1/2 hours flight via Air Asia.

After check-in at Baumanburi Resort Hotel, I headed straight to Patong beach. Well, not for swimming but to source for a trip package to Phi Phi Isles the next day. True enough after bargaining with probably several tour companies, I finally manage to get a great deal for a Day Trip the next day to Phi Phi Isles.

I manage to take a few shots (Patong Beach Top Pic 1 & 2 above) and headed back to hotel. As the sun goes down the nite life in Bangla Road is everywhere. Well, I guess pictures may not tell you everything about the nite life in Bangla Road, so I have my HD 720p video travel log uploaded here for you to enjoy :http://vimeo.com/channels/44627

DAY 2 - PHI PHI ISLES (16/5/2009)

There's lotsa activities and places to visit and some of which are Phi Phi Lay's Maya Bay, Loh Samah Bay, Pileh cove and Viking Cave. My last stop was at Khai Nok Island. For some reasons, I felt that Khai Nok Island has a better scenery compared to all the other major attractions. (See 2 Pics from bottom). Overall, the month of May is a great time to visit Phuket & Phi Phi but the sun is at its hottest time of the year and luckily there's still rain at about less than 5 minutes!

There are still lots of people everywhere but not as much as other peak seasons like 4th quarter of the year. Nevertheless, drinking and eating around Bangla Street or Patong are rather moderate in crowds.

DAY 3 - FLY BACK HOME (17/6/2009)

Although it was a rather short trip at 3 Days 2 Nites but Phi Phi Isles really does somewhat live up to its name as one of the most beautiful islands in the world. With all the fond memories, uneven tanned, peeling skin and beers, I'm glad I went to Phi Phi.

Chilling & Serene

2009-05-11T19:21:00.000+08:00

Took this shot just several steps away from my Dongdaemun Hotel,...Dongdaemun, Seoul in December 2008. My colleagues wanted to take an early breakfast just right about sunrise. Can't recall the exact time though, probably around 7:30 am. It was barely about 2 deg Celcius.

Manage to stop by a hawker stall after being persuaded by the lady chef which happens to speaks mandarin. It so happens that she's from China so we took some plain noddles thinking that we will have a better lunch later. The chef seems nice and open to talk about her experiences working in Korea but heck no! We were billed 10,000 won for a cup of plain noodles. That's about RM28-00 and it was a rip off. It only cost a mere 5,000 won to eat in a restaurant but this is only a hawker stall. I guess chinese really do know how to slash whether you're a chinese or non chinese.

Anyway, I'll talk about other more pleasant experiences later I hope.

Kanching Forest Trekking & Waterfalls

2009-05-02T17:58:00.000+08:00

Recently, I heard that there's multiple waterfalls somewhere in Rawang called Kanching. Thought I googled it for some info and yes it's located in Selayang towards Rawang (E1). You will noticed a signboard 'Taman Rimba Komanwel & signs pointing the way to Hutan Lipur Sg. Kanching' right after you pass pasar borong Selayang.

Managed by the Selangor Forestry Department, nice trails offer easy access to each of the 7 tropical waterfalls as you hike up the slope. Frankly, I'm there to take some snapshots but as I go higher especially the last waterfall, it's really tempting to have a good swim. Unfortunately, I came unprepared and as a result I have to settled for a leg dipping only - Gasp! the water is real cool. I bet you can bring some drinks to cool 'em too.

Buddhist Temple

2009-04-28T20:37:00.000+08:00

Came across 'Kun Yam Thong' in Jalan Ampang while on my way to Citibank Kuala Lumpur last month. Just thought since it's weekend, I just took my time to walk over to clear my outstanding payment-debts. I always recall that there's a Buddhist temple which seems to be renovated recently with new primary colors on its roof tiles.

So I thought I grab a few shots on this temple after I settle my debts. It's actually situated in between Nasi Kandar Pelita Samudra and MCA Building.

Soul of Asia

2009-04-28T20:20:00.000+08:00

This shot taken from my colleague's hotel room in Busan which is at south eastern part of South Korea in December 2008. It's Korea's second largest city with close to 4 million people. It also serves as the country's main port for international cargo, as well as passenger ferries to Japan and Jeju Island.

We were on business trip, so we don't really get to go sight seeing here. Nevertheless, the skies here are pretty clear compared to any other areas. The houses and roads around here seems to be densely populated.