My foot prints on the world map!

CHD: DuJiangYan - The Ancient Irrigation System

2011-10-03T23:06:00.000+08:00

Early in the morning, cousin and I were to get ourselves ready for our day trip to visit Du Jiang Yan and Mt. Qing Cheng. As we agreed with our driver last night, he will be coming over to pick us up from the hostel as early as 6:30 am. We went down stairs from our room to the hostel lobby once we got ready to meet our driver. Through the dark stairway, we walked down from the staircase passing by the inner courtyard of the building which leads us to the lobby. I was surprised to found that the receptionist boy was sleeping on a sleeping chair next to the reception desk. I was hesitating and stood there for a while, thinking if I should wake him up to open the door for us as it was locked over the night.

Checking my watch, time was running late as our driver should be arriving in minutes, I left with no choice but to wake the little guy up to open up the door. He was looking at me with his blur eyes when I shook him up on his left arm. After getting to know that we would like to get out from hostel, he took the key and open up the door for us. We responded to the little guy with a big thank you and waived good bye to him and get out from the door steps. Seconds later, he locked the door back and headed straight back onto his 'bed' and then we found both of us were standing alone at the side of an empty street without a single soul.

Waited, and waited and waited for many minutes, we were constantly fighting against the bone chilling autumn wind and our driver just did not seem to be arriving. Without a clue, we then decided to give him a call to confirm if he was on his way. I dialed the number and the driver pick it up moment later. He was talking in a very fast tone and his voice was in a very strong accent of local Sichuan slang. Though I can both speak and understand Chinese, but the Sichuan slang proved to be too hard for me to catch what he was trying to say. The guy in the hostel sort of over heard our voices from inside and he then turned up from nowhere, standing right next to us asking for my mobile phone. God must be by my side, he was truly our savior for that morning. He picked up my phone and started to communicate with the driver and ended the call after a few sentences. He explained to us that the driver was on his way to the hostel but was not able to locate the hostel location. He then had explained to the driver the direction to the hostel and assuring us that not to be worried as the driver is on his way. I felt so grateful to him for being so helpful to us, someone who wake him up from his sweet dream. Thank you so much, mate!

We then waited for another 20 minutes before our driver turn up. He picked us up onto his bus with other passengers who were already on board as it seems that we were the last 2 to be picked up. We found ourselves seats right at the end of the bus and I was sitting next to a woman in her mid 40 (I think). It was about 1 hour drive to DuJiangYan. On our way to the site, we were exiting from the city moving towards DuJiangYan town. Along the journey, our little tour guide (his name is Xiao Yang if not mistaken) was greeting everyone of us with his little joke about why a Sichuan dog will barks at the sun. He then further brief us about the site, the irrigation system and about the disastrous 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. He had done a pretty good job trying to keep everyone of us entertained and attended to all our requests throughout the whole journey.

The little tour guide - Xiao Yang.

We arrived at the site around quarter past 8. It was still too early as the site will not be opened till 9 am. We were dropped off at the South Bridge which was located next to the main entrance. We decided to walk around nearby places to look for breakfast as well as checking around the buildings next to south bridge which was sealed and closed off after locals were evacuated out when the earth quake hit in 2008. The structures of the buildings were badly damaged and they will be demolished and rebuilt soon.

South Bridge

Hawker selling roasted corn and potatoes by the road side.

Different view of south bridge.

At around 9am, we gathered at the agreed gathering point which was next to the entrance gate to DuJiangYan site. We took the ticket from Xiao Yang and head straight into the park.

"Du Jiang Yan (都江堰; pinyin: Dūjiāngyàn) is an irrigation infra-structure built in 256 BC during the Warring States Period of China by the Kingdom of Qin. It is located in the Min River (岷江) in Sichuan province, China, near the capital Chengdu. It is still in use today to irrigate over 5,300 square kilometers of land in the region. The Dujiangyan along with the Zhengguo Canal in Shaanxi Province and the Lingqu Canal in Guangxi Province are known as “The three great hydraulic engineering projects of the Qin Dynasty”. A paragraph taken from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dujiangyan_Irrigation_System].

It is all about the ancient Qin governor, Li Bing who was taking charge on building a dam (the current Du Jiang Yan irrigation system) to stop the annual flooding issue which was caused by the fast flowing spring melt-water from the local mountains that burst the banks of the Min River. He then proposed to construct an artificial levee to redirect the a excessive water to the dry Chengdu Plain which made Sichuan as one of the most productive agricultural land in China. The irrigation system proved to be a real success and which represents a truly genius ancient construction. The fact is that this system is still in used today and very much functioning as efficiently as it was for the past 2 thousand years. You may refer to the link above for more detail about the irrigation system.

The site consists of three important parts, namely Yuzui, Feishayan and Baopingkou; they were all designed to automatically control the water flow of the rivers from the mountains to the plains throughout the year. Xiao Yang was leading us walking through the sites to all the "must see" scenic route and to make sure that we will all arrive at the exit gate on time for our next destination - Mout. QingCheng.

First scenic site - the Fei Sha yan. It is a spillway that diverts the sand and stones of the inner river into the outer river.

We then crossed the bridge over spillway and reached the JinGang Dike. Looking back from the dike, we can see the Bao Ping Kou water inlet. Like a neck of a bottle, it is used to bring water into the inner river from Minjiang. At the same time, Baoping Kou controls the amount of the intake water due to its reasonable location.

A closer look at Bao Ping Kou.

To safe time walking from one to the other end of the JinGang Dike, we opted to take the tourists cart which transfer us to the YuZui in 2 minutes. It costs about RMB 10, not too bad of a choice as we need to save some energy for hiking at Mount QingCheng later. We arrived at YuZui in no time. YuZui, like a big fish lying in the Minjiang River, is a watershed dividing the river into two parts: inner river and outside river.

To go to the exit from the site, we need to cross the AnLan cable bridge which bring us to the opposite bank of Minjiang river where the exit was located at.

The bridge was about 4 feets wide and everyone of us had to queue up to cross the bridge as there are a maximum load the bridge can support. As we walked towards the middle of the bridge, it started to swerving from left to right and we could hardly balance our body :). That reminded me of my childhood time where I used to follow my mother to the plantation farm where we needed to crossed a cable bridge like this too. Old memories started to flow in my mind.

Crossed the bridge, we then took a rest at a nearby resting area while waiting for other tour mates before we head for lunch.

Slowly, one by one, everyone arrived at the exit gate and then we boarded our bus and head for lunch right away. It was about 11:30 am before noon. I wish that I could have spent a little more time at the site but as we were joining a day tour, we had no choice but to follow it's crazy tight timeline.

CHD: Chengdu - The True Master of Carefree Lifestyle!

2011-09-28T22:19:00.001+08:00

It was early in the morning of 25th September 2010, if I still can recall correctly. Together with my cousin - Seyton as we all used to called him, we took a cab to the airport 05:30 in the morning. Together, this two very exciting lads boarded the 9am flight bound to Chengdu, China. This trip was planned sometime ago (about 1.5 years before) and both of us were so happy that we both were able to make it at last.

Our plane landed at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport around 2pm. After going through routines like security custom screening and collected our checked in baggage, we head straight out from the arrival hall looking for transport to down town Chengdu. After a quick check with the information counter, we decided to catch a airport bus bound to city. As usual, we always choose for the one of lower cost as we have to work under a very tight budget. The bus fare was around RMB 10 if I still can recall correctly and this should be the cheapest transport you can get to the city center from Shuangliu International airport.

The journey to the city was taking about 35-40 mins by airport transit bus. As we were approaching the city, we were caught in a traffic jam and our bus was crawling slowly towards the city. We found ourselves stuck in a very bad traffic jam and our bus barely moved for 10 minutes. The driver was getting very frustrated and shouted at all the passengers on board that he gonna to dropped us all off the next junction. He claimed that we were all about 15 minutes walk distance to the agreed drop off point - TianFu Square from the junction ahead. Without a choice, we were forced to get down from the bus at an unknown street off Shuang Long Men. Look as blur as we could have been, we started to walk towards the TianFu Square as directed by the driver. As we walked and walked, going through 'Hu Tong's (small roads) for about 30 mins; I started to question if we were on the right direction. I then tried to grab a local to ask for direction to TianFu Square. He confirmed that we were on the right direction and TianFu square is around 20 minutes walk ahead. Without further delay, we walked towards the given direction. The only thing on my mind during that moment was to reach the hostel as soon as possible to drop off my heavy backpack. Oh my gosh, my back was really hurting!

After almost an hour walk from where we were dropped off by the driver, we finally reach the famous TianFu Square and I was so relieve~"phew", at least we know that we were on the right direction to the hostel. After another 15 mins walk, we finally reach the hostel - Lazy Bones Hostel. We quickly check-in to the hostel and grab the key to our room and drop the heavy backpacks and head out to start our journey for the first day.

Chengdu, as described in most of the travel books, it is a very "laid-back" city that emphasizes on culture and relaxation. As a result, there are lots of parks of green spaces in the city center thus making Chengdu being ranked as one of the most livable mega-cities in China. And when we talk about Chengdu's culture, the first thing that pops up would be their Tea Culture. In Chengdu, tea drinking culture is seen as part of the daily lifestyle of the locals. This is comparable to the coffee culture in most of the western countries like US. Tea houses are plentiful in the city, drinking tea and playing Mahjong is the way how locals relax. To get better understanding of their tea culture and ways of relaxations, there is not better place to go but to the People's Park (Ren Min Gong yuan).

As it was only quarter past 4, we decided to head to the People's Park which is located at the west from TianFu Square. We entered the park from the eastern gate. Right at the entrance, there was a monument built in memory of the SiChuan armies killed defending their land from intrusion armies from Japan.

We were walking towards the west gate along the garden path. There were plenty of tea houses within the park and as to experience the Chengdu tea culture, there is no better way than having a cup of tea at one of these tea houses. It costs us RMB 36 for two cups of tea and a pack of melon seeds. We were relaxing in the park with a cup of tea in our hands, truly Chengdu style!

After the tea break, we continue to walk deeper into the park. We then reached at the community area where most of the locals were doing leisure and sports activities such as singing karaoke, dancing and some even practicing Chinese calligraphy art using a big brush and water to write on the floor. Man, that was just awesome!

We went out from the park from the western gate to our following desitnation, the Wide and Narrow Alleys (Kuanzhai Xiangzi - "Kuan" means wide, "Zhai" means narrow and "Xiangzi" is the alleys). It was about 15 minutes walk away from the park. Here, you can see the historical remains of the old Chengdu City which is now mostly renovated and reopened with lots of restaurants, bars, coffee shops and souvenir shops selling touristy items.

Just a little history about the alleys - "The Wide and Narrow Alleys are an area of ancient streets preserved from the Qing dynasty (1616AD-1912AD) in Chengdu. The Wide and Narrow Alleys are the epitome of the old life of Chengdu City. The historical and cultural area is composed of three parallel ancient streets and complex of courtyard houses. The three ancient streets are Kuan Xiangzi, Zhai Xiangzi and Jing Xiangzi. Wide and Narrow Alleys, together with Daci Temple and Wenshu Monastery are the three historical and cultural blocks under protection.".

After dinner, we decided to head back to hostel for early rest as we have booked a trip to the DuJiangYan Dam and the Mt. QingCheng. It was another 30 minutes walk back to hostel. This round we opted to take a different route from where we came from earlier. Walking passed some small and dark alleys with some old shops with red neon light on stating there massaging service. Well, don't get me wrong. This ain't the red light district in Chengdu but one of the lanes in Chengdu where massage services are offered by the blinded one. No comment on this as we did not try it out :).

First day in Chengdu, with a tired body due to lots of walking, I was heading to bed with a smile on my face, "Welcome to Chengdu!", a soft tone that was whispering to me...

Map below marks the places we been through on our very first day at Chengdu.

View Chengdu - Day 1 in a larger map

Penang Food!

2011-09-17T22:59:00.002+08:00

It was about 2 months after our wedding in late July 2011. Looking back at last couple of hectic months where both of us were so busy doing preparation for our wedding, we were indeed very much exhausted. So a weekend getaway was our top priority and there we decided to go for a culinary trip to Penang while celebrating my coming birthday together!

Penang, this is a place which is famous for it's street food (or hawker food as some other would like to call it). For this post, I ain't gonna document much about the journey or places we visited over there at Penang. The main focus would be solely on the food, as every food lover will definitely find this post mouth watering :)! Well, here we go ~~ Bon Appetite!

So, let's get started with something light first.
First stop, we dropped by Penang road where it is in fact a famous road for it's street food. There were so many hawker stalls lining up by both sides of the road, serving great local Penang food ranging from porridge, noodles, rice dishes and desserts! It is definitely a place where your stomach will be "fighting" against all the available food and it will only stops when your stomach is full and can fill in nothing more!

1. The pork porridge.

2. Fried Carrot Cake with shrimps and cockles!

3. Penang style prawn noodles (Harmee).

Next, we move on to Ayer keroh. This place is famous for not only the Chinese temple (Kek Lok Si) but also for it's Assam Laksa (rice noodle in sour & spicy soup)! This is the type of noodles soup that you are either love it our you hate it. Well, for such an Asian tongue like me, this noodles soup was like food from heaven for me :)! One mouthful bite of noodles with chuck of shredded fish fillet, together with a good twist between sour and spiciness, it was all well balanced up with the sweetness of the fermented prawn sauce. A perfect combination I would say! So it will always ended up with bite after bite and you will keep asking for more! It makes me feel hungry by just looking at the picture itself :).

4. Assam Laksa

Prologue: Chengdu, China

2011-09-14T23:04:00.000+08:00

It was almost one whole year past since my last visit to the city or Chengdu, China. With lots of stuff going on all these while, been giving myself too many excuses for not updating new post to this blog :).

Well as for this round (my trip to Chengdu), it was kind of different to the rest of my previous trips though; mainly because I was traveling with a new travel partner - my elder cousin brother, Seiton. I can still recall that the first time I traveled with my cousin was 18 years ago. Back then, I was a 10 years old kid. My cousin was traveling west to the capital (Kuala Lumpur) for during his school break. That was the first time with my parent's permission, I was traveling west together with him and that marked our very first trip traveled together (I can still remember every detail of the trip bro!).

And now 18 years later, we planned another trip together and this time our destination was Chengdu. Reason behind that we chosen Chengdu was that we were looking for a trip with more exploration rather than sight seeing in the city. We were not paired together for the whole journey of this trip but rather half of it. My cousin joined me for the first half of the trip (5 days) and I was traveling alone after that. Our planned travel itineraries included places like LeShan Buddha, ErMei Mount, DuJiangYen Dam and also the most famous travel destination in nearby Chengdu - the JiuZaiGou Park. But due to poor planning, we were hit hard by the long break holidays in China where most of the hotels were fully booked. Tours to some of the places mentioned were fully booked and that hit hard on our planned itinerary though. Well, I guess I better keep those details to coming new posts.

Just to mark the start of my coming new posts, here I present to you the picture of the famous LeShan Buddha as the entry to my coming blog posts about my trip to Chengdu.

Welcome to Chengdu!

BEJ: Olympic Park @ Beijing

2011-01-15T18:38:00.005+08:00

After visiting the Great Wall of China (Badaling), we took a returning bus backed to city which dropped us off at the same station we came from on that morning. It was just around 3:30pm in the afternoon and we have got no more plan for the second half of the day. I took out the travel guidebook we bought earlier at Wang Fu Jing Bookstore and trying to look for places to go.

I flipped to the page that it was writing about the Olympic Park and without a second thought I pointed to Elaine that we just go to the park for a walk and photo shooting as well :). Boarded the underground's train, we were heading straight to the Olympic park station which is located right at the entrance to the Olympic park.

We arrived too early at the Olympic park station, my clock was just 5 minutes to 4pm. Well, as the stadium's light will only be turned on after sunset, we have nothing much to do but just simply walking around the park waiting for the sun to go down when the lights will be on. That was said to be the best moment to snap a couple of photos of the stadiums as the lighting was designed to make the stadium appears as 3D right in front of our eyes especially the Aquatic Stadium - The water cube.

After moment of slow walk loitering around the park, we were constantly battling with the strong wind which blow right on our face with the winter chill. I could stand it no more thus we headed to the nearest Mac Donald for a cup of hot coffee and some chips :). Wow, that was like resurrecting my body from the frozen death out there.

Tick ... tick ... tick... wait... wait ... wait ... Yes!!! My watch beeps for 7pm finally!!! We headed out and below are those stadiums that were dressed up with the beautiful lights and presenting their very best right before our eyes!!! Brilliant concrete art works from the Chinese.

As sun sets, the temperature started to drop lower and lower. Worried that it might be snowing again as predicted by the weather forecast we read that morning, we decided to head back to Xuan Wu Men (the area we rented our apartment). Before we walk down to the undergrounds to catch a train, we caught a old couple with westerner's look and asking for their help to take a picture for both of us. My first instinct was to communicate with them in English but to discover that they don't really get what I meant until I show them my camera and pointed to the stadiums as background and repeating the word "photo ... photo" :). Opps, I found out that I was speaking English to Russians LOL ... But well, with my very limited knowledge of sign language, they finally got what I meant and took a beautiful picture of Elaine and Myself as below.

Спасибо, mates!

BEJ: The Forbidden City

2010-07-15T23:00:00.000+08:00

It was a Monday morning at Beijing with light snow over the night. We woke up from bed to find out that the road outside was covered with a blanket of snow and I was so excited and got myself changed to rush out from our rented apartment to get my first feel on real snow :). It was kind of like a "touchy" moment for me as I never really experienced with snowy weather before as back at home it is summer throughout every seasons of the year.

I recalled that the other night before when we were discussing the plan for Monday, I was out of idea where should we head to as there are so many interesting areas that I wanna visit to. After some time of thinking, we decided to visit to the Forbidden City Museum taking advantage that it was a Monday morning and everyone should be at work or school. So there should not be a huge crowd gathering at the place visiting the museum, ~~ I kept my fingers crossed (it was in fact damn crowded that morning and I can hardly get a good shoot on the views I was taking). So we took the subway to the QianMen station (前门站) right opposite the TiananMen Square and headed towards entrance to the museum.

As usual, let's start with a little introduction to - The Forbidden City. It is called the Palace Museum now, occupies the central part of Beijing municipality and was the imperial palace of Ming and Qing dynasties. It's construction began in year 1406, and forming the very heart of Beijing it is China's most magnificent architectural complex and was completed in year 1420. The huge palace is a compendium of imperial architecture and a lasting monument of dynastic China from which 24 emperors ruled for nearly 500 years. The symbolic center of the Chinese universe, the palace was the exclusive domain of the imperial court and dignitaties until the 1920s.

The Forbidden city itself is divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner court. The outer court is the place where previous emperors handled court affairs and held different ceremony whereas the inner court was where the emperor lived and handled day-to-day work. The imperial garden lies at the north of the inner court forming a natural garden with green pined, exotic flowers, rate stones, ponds and waterside pavilion.

The Forbidden City was not fully opened to the public until year 1949 after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It became one of the key unit of preservation of cultural relcs in 1961 and UNESCO included it in the List of World Heritages in year 1987. Since then, the Forbidden City has radiated the vigour of it youth and become the cultural heritage of mankind.

The Outer Court:
Meridian Gate, it is the main entrance of the Forbidden City. There are 5 high towers with double eaves on it, very lofty and magnificent. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, a ceremony would be helf here whenever generals were sent on an expedition, the army returned in triumph. Prisoners were presented or ever executed here.

Inner Golden Water River, five marble bridges symbolizing the five cardinal virtues of Confusion ism, cross the Golden Water which flows from west to east in a course designed to resemble the jade belt worn by officials.

Unfortunately during our visit, it was all FROZEN! No water was flowing!

The Chinese Lions:
Pairs of lions guard the entrance of halls. The male is portrayed with a ball under his paw, while the female has a lion cub.

Marble Carriageway
The central ramp varved with dragons chasing pearls among clouds was reserved for the emperor.

Hall of Supreme Harmony
The largest hall in the palace, this was used for major occasions such as the enthronement of an emperor. Inside the hall, the ornate throne sits beneath a fabulously colored ceiling.

The Inner Court:
Moving forward from the Hall of Supreme Harmony, we will be entering the compound of the Inner Court.

Palace of Heavenly Purity
The Palace of Heavenly Purity was the emperor's bed chamber and for the reception of officials.

Towards the end of the inner court after passing by a few of the empresses bed chambers, we were arriving at the Imperial Garden.

Imperial Garden was first built in 1417. It was designed in such a unique style that it's luxuriant trees and flowers, well spaced to present a beautiful atmosphere of soleminty and dignity. It is considered foremost of the gardens in the palace.

After visiting the Imperial Garden, we chose to take the eastern route to visit eastern part of the palace while walking back to the entrance where we came from. We were so surprised to discover that there is such a western style of building exists in the palace - The Palace of Prolonging Happiness.

The Palace of Prolonging Happiness, it was constructed in year 1420. It served as the bedchamber of the imperial consorts. In 1845, the palace was destroyed by fire. It was not reconstructed until 1909 with the hall of Water, a three storey building on the original site of the burnt Palace of Prolonging Happiness.

The temparature was dropping to the freezing point and we couldn't stand much longer after our visit at the Palace of Prolonging Happiness. We walked quickly along the eastern wall leading towards the outer court and eventually the exit. Phew... I can still remember that it started to snow when we reached the exit gate and I can still remember the feeling of the cold wind chilling down through my spine down to my toes in such a cold temparature. Much of the areas around the palace had no heating and we were pretty much like visiting a museum within a giant freezer =_=".

A tip to visitors, you will find that there are a lot of halls along the easter and western side of the inner and outer courts. They are actually museum displaying some historical artefacts used previously in the palace such as some of the emperor's belonging as well as empresses accessories. It is worth to spend your time to have a close eye on these artefacts to understand more about the emperors life within the palace. Unfortunately, we were not able to spent too much time there to check on these artefacts as the weather was too cold for us really!

BEJ: Great Wall of China

2010-07-10T14:50:00.002+08:00

Let’s just starts with a brief history about the Great Wall of China (GWC), it is a symbol of China’s historic detachment and sense of vulnerability. The Great Wall snakes through countryside connecting over deserts, hills and plains for several thousand miles. Originally, it was a series of earthen ramparts built by individual states. These individual ramparts were connected after the unification of China under the great emperor of China - Qin Shi Huangdi. Despite impressive battlements, the wall ultimately proved ineffective; it was breached in the 13th century by the Mongols and then, in the 17th century by the Manchu.

Today, only selected sections of it’s crumbling remains have been restored and opened for tourists visit. A trip to the Great Wall of China is a must for any visitor to Beijing, so it is the same for us. During our last visit to Beijing in the month of spring festival 2010, we fulfilled one of our travel dreams by climbing up the Great Wall of China (Badaling section)! Woohoo, I can guarantee that your visit to the GWC would not disappoint ya and it is worth the hassle traveling out from the city to countryside for this historical site.

The ticket counter at the entrance to Badaling Great Wall Section:

A little tips for visitors:

The wall is exposed to the elements so be prepared for all outcomes: wear layers of clothing and a waterproof top, apply suncream.
Bring plenty of water.
The wall can be very steep in places, so make sure you have strong footwear with a good grip such as hiking boots or though waterproof runners.

As we visited the great wall during February - the month of Spring festival, the mountains were still covered with a blanket of snow and the view was simply amazing! The downside of visiting during early Spring is that the weather was so harsh with constant strong winds freezing your body and the blanket of snows covering the stairs up to the watch tower were making it so slippery and very dangerous when walking down from the wall.

The Watch Tower was Ming’s addition. It served as signal towers, forts, living quarters.

Yes!!! We had conquered the Great Wall!

How to travel to Great Wall of China:
Nowadays, most of the hotels will be able to organize a trip to the GWC for you. However, the trip is usually combined with any unwanted diversions planned to cloisonne workshop, jade factory or Chinese medicine clinics. To avoid such trip, there is another option for you to visit the great wall (Badaling section) by public transport. By taking a public transport there, you can have a more personalize visit as you can spend as much of time as you can over there if only you don't miss the last bus back to the city!

So here is a little guideline on how to catch a public bus to the GWC (Badaling section):
1. Take the Line 2 Subway to - Ji Shui Tan station (积水潭). You will find a notice board outside of the station showing you the way to the De Sheng Men Arrow Tower (德胜门箭楼) bus station.

2. Walk towards the east side after getting out from the station to De Sheng Men Arrow Tower (德胜门箭楼).

View Larger Map

3. Take the bus 919 (Badaling express) at the nothern side of the Arrow Tower. Please ask the driver to confirm the bus 919 you are boarding is an express bus to Badaling Great Wall. One way ticket to the Badaling Great Wall costs RMB 12.

4. The bus will go northwardly on Badaling Express Way and shall reach to the Great Wall entrance around 1.5 hours ride. The bus will drop you off here and you will have to walk your way up to the entrance.

Sekinchan ~ The Town of Paddy Fields

2010-06-28T21:42:00.003+08:00

It was only 5:45 am in the saturday morning, I was crawling out from my bed as my alarm clock starts beeping. I quickly rush to prepare myself as I was to join Mimi and Anson to Sekinchan for a photo shooting trip :). They have planned for this trip 2 weeks ago and invited me and Elaine along as we never really visited the place before. So we departed 6:40am in the morning heading northward towards Kuala Selangor direction.

Sekinchan is a small town located 29 km away from Kuala Selangor. It is one of the major rice producing town in Malaysia. Nearby the town itself, it was covered with hectares of paddy fields which form a very unique landscape best for photo snapping when all the rice fields about to turn brownish ready for harvest.

The beautiful paddy field.

A closer look at the paddy.

Snake view?

It was a sunny day with hot & burning sun over us. I am guessing everyone was damped with sweat but their enthusiasms on photography were to be respected.

Instead of hiding under the shade of a tree, the rest of the gang rushed down to the field for close up portrait shooting. Elaine and I was walking around the area while they were happily posting and shooting over the other side of the field and we found that the other side of the paddy fields were harvested few days before.

I like this picture the most!

The other side of the town is actually a fishing village built along the river connected to the Malacca strait. So that really defines the uniqueness of this town with hectares of paddy fields at one side while the other side a fishing village.

This is the first ever time I see a real paddy field and I was really attracted to this unique plantation field. It is only taking 2 hours by car to this town and I believe it could really be a good weekend getaway destination for KL folks like us :).

PKT: Phuket, The Paradise of Southern Thai

2010-06-08T23:56:00.003+08:00

As one of the most well known holiday destinations in Asia, Phuket was my mid year break's destination last month in May. I so happened to have chosen Phuket to escape the hussle and bustle of daily life with a well deserved break enjoying the stunning tropical sunsets and warm blue Andaman sea at Phuket. It was right at the start of low season at Phuket as the dry season comes with skin burning hot sun and late evening showers. To many of travellers, this might not be the best season to visit Phuket but that was not the case for me. I was thinking that this could be the best period to travel to Phuket to avoid the crazy crowd who normally flocking in during the end of the year. Leaving behind the quiet beaches, I was feeling as if I own the whole beach :D.

Under the hot afternoon sun, there is no better activity than sleeping on one of these chairs under the shade of umbrella, enjoying the cooling Andaman sea breeze with a can of beer in your hand! I spent most of my afternoon doing so with my wonderful Thai partner - Singha beer :). Best thing about Thailand is that you can get cheap beers everywhere. With RM3 you can get a can of lager which I think there would not be a better option to ease your thirst and wash away all the afternoon heat!

There is another must-do activity at Phuket which is watching it's stunning sunset. As most of the famous beaches for tourists at Phuket are located at the western side of the island, you would never find a better place to enjoy one of the best tropical sunsets in Asia.

For those who has a very good stamina even after a full day of beach activities, Phuket will never disappoint you as it will turn from a relaxing beach to a partying hotspot with lots of bars, Disco and dance clubs in the night. For those who are more "adventurous", some of these bars offers special shows (e.g. thai-girl show, ping-pong show and even "banana show"). To be honest I really wonder what was the banana show that I heard from one of the bar girl =_=", could it be a guy's stip show? God knows!

Please do not find it surprising if you see a lot of escorts nearby the famous Bangla road at Patong, Phuket. Reject them politely if you are not looking for a "special" night. There is no easy way for you to spot if one is a transvestite else it could just spoil your night :D

There are many day trips organize by licensed tour agents around Phuket to some of the nearby islands. Activities for these trips are pretty standard like sight seeing and snorkelling. Here are the few most well known/visited islands around Phuket - Phi Phi island, Similan island, James bond island and Phang Nga bay.

The famous Maya(moon) bay where the Hollywood movie - The Beach was filmed here. It is a stunningly beautiful bay that's sheltered by 100-metre high cliffs on three sides with the beach looks like a half moon if view from top of the cliff.

The Pi Leh Cove @ Phi Phi Ley, with the colorful fishes and crystal clear water.

Sightseeing at "Viking Cave" where it is a place much revered by local people, who will go there to collect the Swift’s Nests for making bird’s nest soup. And The Viking was there once before and leaving behind some wall paintings on the roof of the cave which are deteriorating fast after it was bought over by owner for commercial bird's nest harvesting.

For those who loves angling, you could join a day game fishing trip which will bring you around Racha Yai and Racha Noi islands (near sourthen part of phuket). Fishing boat will bring you trolling around these two islands and even stop you there for deep sea fishing (60-70 meters deep!).

Fishing boat crew will setup the bait and starts trolling around the island. If there is fish taking the bite, he will hand us the fishing rod for us to start the battling with the fish.

There you go, the baby tuna which ended up in our stomach as lunch for that afternoon :) Yummy!

*Sorry for missing in action for such a long period since January as I was busy with works and lots of trips going on. Been to Beijing, China somewhere in late February, locally to Port Dickson and recently to Phuket. I know I am making excuses for not writing any post all these while. I will write a couple more new posts of day trips that I joined at Phuket as well as the most forgetable journey to Beijing, China. With my first experience of snowing and my first step climbing up the great wall of China! There are many more to come dudes, please stay tuned!

BKK: Cabbages & Condoms

2010-01-20T21:12:00.067+08:00

Let me start with a little background of this restaurant and how the founder came out with such a brilliant idea combining dining together with condoms :).

The Cabbages and Condoms restaurant was established in part to support the programs funded by the Population and Community Development Assosiation (PDA) of Thailand. PDA is one of Thailand's most well established and diverse non-government organisations that operates a wide variety of programs designed to serve and assist the rural poor of Thailand. These programs cover diverse activities as free casectomies, forest replanting schemes, industry relocation into rural areas, mobile health clinics, environmental education programs and many more.

PDA's programs are based on the belief that local people are best suited to shape and sustain their own development. As such, the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant was founded to support the Aids Awareness and Prevention program. Apart from offering excellent food, the restaurant also promotes the health and safety aspects of condom use in a fun and amusing manner inline with the Aids Awareness and Prevention program. The restaurant incomes help fund population control, AIDS awareness, and a host of rural development programs and from there it comes with such a strange name.

At the entrance, a Santa Claus and two young ladies made of condoms were welcoming us :p!

Yet another super hero model made of condom being displayed next to the staircase, Marvel's Condom Hero?

The restaurant was designed with a tropical garden with outdoor dining tables. It was designed in such a cozy and romantic ambiance that makes it an excellent place for dining with the one you love :)!

Apart from the cozy environment, they do offer some very good food too. Let's check out the food we ordered that evening :).

1. Tom Yum Kung (Thai style spicy shrimp soup)

2. Honey roasted chicken.

3. Braised mixed vegetables.

Everything together cost around RM70. The price is rather reasonable as the food served were very big portion.

I kinda like the place for it's nice and cozy environment and friendly staff. The food tasted quite good as well and in very big portion. The experience was a real special one for me as I bet you won't find another place where you can dine and have some condoms as your free gift! I highly recommend this place to you not only for the good food they are serving but you are also helping the Thai people as the money you spent here will help to fund the programs founded by PDA!

For more details, please check Cabbages and Condoms.

Ayu's Farewell

2010-01-20T20:40:00.000+08:00

I started to notice 2 weeks ago why my team suddenly became so quiet in the office. It was really unusual given that we used to be the noisiest, playful and most happening team in the office. But everything seems to be quite normal. We started a new sprint, we attended sprint planning and had our picnic there and as usual we play pool at 5:30pm. When I was seating at my cubicle, I do feel that something amiss but could not tell what was wrong. Deep withing, I was anticipating for something but was not able to tell what it is. Maybe something that comes in a tone of ~~ Ayam Goreng? But why, am I too hungry so I have a hallucination of fried chicken?

Yet another day, I was sitting on my chair concentrating and busy typing on my keyboard. It was so quiet that morning and apart from my busy boss, everyone seems to be just concentrating on their work. As of the old time, there used to be someone knocking me from the back, pulling my chair trying to distract me from my work. There used to be someone who will start a conversation among the team and give everyone a precious moment to be distracted from the never ending work to relax so not to be so stressed up with the stupid system.

Sigh, is this an early sign of memory loss disease? Or am I really a brain damage like what others used to call me? Hmm... I was thinking to myself. I know something is not usual. I can sense that everyone in the team was upset for something and I can tell from their face that they are missing someone.

Oh yeah, right! Now I know what it is. Someone who used to be the cheer leader in the team, who used to be the kedai koperasi head and who used to be the one with lots of smiles left the team. It was you~lah, Masnizarahayu Rosle - "betrayer"! :p

Yea, it was Ayu's farewell dinner about a month ago. I was not around on her last day in the office as I was on leave enjoying my holidays at Bangkok. I remember that she first joined the company around January 2009 and used to be the first batch together with Kim and I who started to work on BPA. She started off as a GT and eventually got promoted to GTA!

My mind started to playback like a DVD player on those memorable moments we had together in the team, going through up and down with the project and most importantly we really had fun together working as a team. Now that she had left the team too after Kim. I started to feel a bit lonely as they both used to be my best buddies in the office :).

But anyway, here I really wish her good luck and all the best on her new job. Stop Facebook~ing in the office and concentrate on work okay :)! Else I will make boss to call you up and give you another round of "lecture" :p! Thank you mate for all the good moments we shared last year together in the team!

BKK: T&K Seafood @ Yaowarat

2010-01-12T23:20:00.000+08:00

We arrived at Yaowarat by ferry from pier 13 (off Khao San road) around 5 pm in the late afternoon. Yaowarat - Bangkok's Chinatown, centered on Th Yaowarat and Th Charoenkrung, is an easy walk from Hualamphong Station and the Si Phraya Express Boat pier 5 (near River City shopping mall). Our purpose of visiting the Chinatown is not for touristy shopping or sight seeing. Shopping is not particularly rewarding at Yaowarat as most of the shops along the street were selling food or gold. So for average travelers like us, our focus would be solely on food!

As of our last visit to Yaowarat, we had been to a very famous seafood restaurant which is serving simple, fresh, tasty southern-Chinese recipes and the best seafood in the area. The restaurant was named T&K. For many, this is one of the best seafood restaurant at Chinatown given with their reasonable price and the quality of food they serve.

T&K Seafood Restaurant from outside! You can see from the picture that so many staff were preparing seafood outside the restaurant as they were char grilling seafood like shrimps and crabs!

T&K restaurant from inside. There is nothing much to look at to be honest but it would be a BIG mistake to be deterred by the rough interior. It is all about the food and brisk service in T&K!

The menu:

Dishes that we ordered that evening:

1. Char-grilled fresh shrimps (~200 baht).

2. Char-grilled escargots (~200 baht):

3. Claypot crab with glass noodle (~220 baht).

Bon appetite!

The dinner cost us 680 baht in total, roughly RM70 for 2 drinks and 3 dishes served with rice. It was one of the best meals I had in Bangkok really. The seafood were so fresh and it is best to just lightly char-grilled them and serve. Yummy, yummy! This is the restaurant I would highly recommend to you guys if you are a seafood lover!

T&K Seafood Restaurant
Cuisine: Seafood
Address: 49-51 Soi Phadung Dao, Yaowarat Rd. (corner Thong Suphan No. 453)

View Larger Map
Tel: +66 (0) 2 223- 4519
Opening Hours: 16:30-02:00

BKK: Khao San Road, The Backpacker's Wonderland

2010-01-09T14:48:00.001+08:00

I remember people keep reckoning to me to Khao San Road at Bangkok. I can't recall of how many travel books or forums I had read before was highlighting about Khao San. So what is Khao San all about when it was called the backpacker's paradise at Bangkok? So during my visit to Bangkok this time, I am about to discover by myself what kind of a place it is :).

Destination:

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Elaine and I headed off to Khao San road early in the morning on our third day in Bangkok. As there is some distance from Sukhumvit to Khao San road and there is no easy public transport there, we decided to catch a taxi there. We waived for a taxi right outside our hostel and told there driver to take us to Khao San. We were told that it is pretty jam on that morning, so he asked us to be patient while he is going to take us there in the shortest time he could. I was leaving him to drive me there as I was totally without any idea how to get there :p.

Just as what he told us, it was pretty jam on that morning. We were stuck half way through to Khao San nearby Petchaburi Road. As I was not in a rush and the driver seems to be pretty honest one as his meter was not running fast like running tap, I was taking my time observing the daily life of the locals by the road side :). Although it was still early in the morning, the place was full of life with crowded people. Our driver squeezing out way through the jammed road and finally got us there at Khao San after some 30 minutes. It was pretty amazing that the fare was only 110 Baht! Pretty cheap right? I truly believe that the right working attitude is implanted in these Thai people in doing their daily business, being honest and without going through short cut by cheating on the tourists! Wake up our fella taxi drivers, please don't make riding taxi an expensive transport in Malaysia!

So let's come back to Khao San. Khao San Road is a short street in central Bangkok, Thailand. It is located in the Banglamphu area of (Phra Nakhon district) about 1 km north of the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. "Khaosan" translates as "milled rice", a reminder that in former times the street was a major Bangkok rice market.

The first business to open on Khao San Road was a small hotel aimed at serving civil servants from the provinces who came to Bangkok on business. In the last 20 years, however, Khaosan Road has developed into a world famous "backpacker ghetto". It offers cheap accommodation, ranging from 'mattress in a box' style hotels to reasonably priced 3-star hotels.

Backpackers from around the globe used to gather at Khao San road and make it their default stop in Bangkok, Thailand before making their next stop to other south-east asean countries. Accommodations, shoppings and restaurants serving international cuisines are available along the road.

Along the street, both sides of it were all packed with stalls selling touristy stuff like souvenir tees, branded beg replicas, art and craft items and many more! Elaine and I were busy doing some shopping around as the touristy stuff we found there were so much different from those we can find from other local markets like Pratunam and Suan Lum market. Apart from that, there were some stalls selling local food which were superb tempting to me. The one that we got was a freshly fried fish cake from a stall which was at the back alley of Khao San road. The snacks cost 20 baht for a big plate of it. The fish cakes were superb fresh and it was best to be eaten while it's still hot! Together it was dressed with some special thai chilly sauce, a perfect bite!

Soon, we got tired of shopping as the sun was so hot. We headed for lunch at one of the "well-known" restaurant at Khao San - Tom Yum Kung. It was a highly rated restaurant at Khao San which was famous for it's thai cuisines. But to our disappointment, the food they served that afternoon was awful =_=". Well famous not necessarily means good :). After lunch, Elaine and I went for a body massage shop at Trok Mayom (a back alley off Khao San road).

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The rate for a full Thai body massage was amazingly low @ 180 Baht for an hour! It is definitely a good choice to spend an hour or two here relaxing and enjoy a full Thai body massage! It will definitely make your day one of the best time of your stay in Bangkok! :) I highly recommend this place!

We were done with our body massage around 3:30 pm. As there was nothing much to discover more about the place, we left and headed off to the nearest pier to catch a public ferry to Yaowarat (Chinatown), our next stop for Seafood dinner :).

BKK: The 1450km Train Ride To Bangkok

2009-12-27T14:33:00.015+08:00

It has been a while since my last update on this blog. I was so busy for the last couple of weeks since I was backed from UK with both work and life. So I decided to give myself a break after such a long period of work. For this time, my destination was set to be Bangkok. Yea right, it is Bangkok again. This would be my second visit to the city as I went for the Songkran Festival earlier in April. The reason for this revisit is because that Bangkok is closer to Malaysia, It is a very happening city with never die at night like 7-11. It is also the best place to do year end shopping as lots of sales going on. And last but not least, let's not forget about the wonderful food available in Bangkok. You can eat yourself around the world at Bangkok with lot's of good and reasonable restaurants serving international cuisine, let alone the yummy street food at Bangkok! There are just too many reasons to visit Bangkok really!

For this round, apart from the few points that I highlighted above, I am in real excitement that I will be going on a train to Bangkok from Butterworth. I will be traveling up from Kuala Lumpur to Georgetown, Penang for overnight stay before heading to Butterworth Train station to catch my train to Bangkok. I opted to go by train instead of flight as I rarely travel by train before. So I thought this could be a very good experience for me to go by train as it will definitely helps a lot in my coming China trips which will involve train travel a lot.

A big thank you to my sister and brother in law for spending a wonderful weekend at Georgetown, Penang with me and Elaine. I was really sorry to'em as I was not able to attend their wedding last month as I was on a business trip to UK. So I thought this is a good chance for us to have a time together to travel around Georgetown, a place that both of them wanted to visit for so much but did not get a real chance to do so as not familiar with the roads there. With them, they made our travel to Butterworth a lot easier as they drove us to the station. Thank you!

Upon arrival at the station, we found that there were only 2 or 3 people waiting there for the afternoon train. As train travel in Malaysia is not particularly popular especially for international train travel, I can truly understand that. We waived good bye to Mimi and Anson and seated quietly waiting for the train.

Slowly, people started to gather at the station and to my surprise that there were nearly 30 of them! Not a small group then :). After 2 hours of waiting time, train arrived around 2:10pm. We boarded the coach 3 and managed to find ourselves the seats. We settled down, putting down our big luggage and seated quietly in excitement awaiting for the train to depart.

*Some small tips/information about train ticket between Butterworth and Bangkok:
1. You may get your ticket from Butterworth to Bangkok from KTMB offices. (The one which is easiest to find would be at Kuala Lumpur Sentral station)
2. As for return ticket from Bangkok to Butterworth, you will not be able to get it from KTMB office but will have to go through travel agency at Bangkok to secure a ticket for you. The service that I got my ticket from was offered by Traveller2000 Pte. Ltd. Ticket purchased through them will be delivered for free to your staying hotel in Bangkok.
3. There were 2 different types of seats for this international train. Lower and upper berth. the difference of prices would be RM125 for lower berth whereas RM115 for upper berth. The lower berth is much spacious than the upper one. So be wise not to be stingy with the RM10 which will give yourself a hard night sleep!

Too~~too~~, our train departed from the station at 2:30pm slowly moving northwardly leaving Butterworth behind. My heart was pumping fast in excitement just like a school kid going on a year end vacation trip! As the train moved slowly on the rail track, I can see the changes on terrains becoming flatter and were all covered by rice fields. Yea, the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia where the states of rice of west Malaysia there it is, Kedah and Perlis. Houses were getting lesser and lesser as we moving north, leaving behind with all the paddy fields. Soon, we were speeding between distant hills after Sungai Petani. We was passing by beds of oil palm plantation field and forest after forest of splender trees, in between many the forest there were areas which were clear out for rubber tree plantations (which used to contribute most of the export's revenue for the country).

Soon after 6pm, we arrived at the Malaysia - Thailand border town, Padang Besar. We were told to get off the train to clear the Thai immigration custom. As soon as we get our entry visa granted, we moved back to the train and continue our journey to Bangkok. Sky was getting dark so fast. We bought ourselves dinner boxes right at the exit of the Thai immigration building and took our dinner on board the train.

After dinner, here comes the sleep time =_=". Coach staff was busy setting up beds for passengers. So to make his job easier, we agreed to go to bed early at 8:30pm - Bed Time!

It was a tiring day for me. I quickly fall asleep as the train continue running northward to Bangkok.It was a good night sleep for me although I was woke up a couple of times through the night as the train made a few stops at some of the stations along our way. I woke up 6am in the morning and quickly get myself brush up awaiting for my first sun rise shooting on a train :p.

Soon after we arrived at the station Hua Hin, they were locals coming on board selling breakfast. I got myself a cup of coffee and another box of noodles for 20 Bath for my breakfast. Train continues surging towards Bangkok, I was thinking to myself that it would be best if I can go for a hot water shower as I felt kinda unpleasant after more than 24 hours without bathing.

Phew, our train finally arrived at Bangkok Hua Lomphong station at 11:30am. It was the longest train ride for me! We quickly get off the train and rush ourselves to the nearest LRT station to catch a light rail transit to our hostel at Sukhumvit - Suk 11 Backpacker's hostel. Yes, I can finally go for a hot water bath!

*To think that this could be my longest train travel experience so far, it was totally wrong. It went worse for our return journey, There was a derailment happened some where after Phetchaburi station. Our train was forced to stop for 4 hours at the station waiting for the rescue team to clear the accident scene and reconnect the track. It was not until midnight 11:30pm that we can continue from Phetchaburi southwardly towards Hat Yai. Our train was delayed for a total of 3:30 hours.

We arrived late to Padang Besar at 12:55pm which was 3 hours behind the scheduled 10am. We were forced to transfer to Bus transport to Butterworth then from Padang Besar. The bus was not arrived until 2:15pm and we finally arrived at Butterworth 4:30 pm. which was 3:30 hours behind the scheduled arrival time!

To think that we are safe, the worse is to come. We caught a bus from Butterworth Bus station to Kuala Lumpur at 5:30pm. The normal bus travel time would take 4 hours to KL the longest. But I don't know what is wrong with our driver that night, it took us 5 hours to KL at Pudu station! Thinking back as we boarded the train at Hua Lomphong station at 2:30pm yesterday, we only arrived at KL the next day 10:30pm! It was the longest ride of my life so far! Be it on time or on distance. It was a 3000 km round trips for both of us :p!

UK: Roman Bath

2009-12-07T21:17:00.015+08:00

Our second destination after the Stonehenge was Roman Bath, a Georgian city some 1 hour drive from Avebury. As our tour bus was climbing uphill on a small and winding road towards the Georgian city, the landscape changes from vast farmland to a valley between small hills. The view was so mesmerizing and I will not be bored enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way.

Direction:

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After roughly an hour drive, we finally arrived at the well known beautiful Georgian city!

As our tour manager was briefing us about the places of interests around the town, here is just a short history about the Roman Bath to share with you guys too. The elegant Georgian city of Bath was originally a Roman settlement built around some hot springs. These springs, which can still be seen today forming a surreal mist over the ancient stones, probably first reached the earth's surface over a million years ago. When the Romans discovered the therapeutic value of the water, they built their famous baths - now one of Britain's finest remaining Roman monuments. Once the Romans left, it was not until the t8th Century that the value of the springs was rediscovered and Bath became not only a healing centre, but also the centre of 18th Century style, etiquette and fashion.

The Roman Baths:

In 1880, sewer diggers unearthed the remains of the original Roman Baths. Victorian architects added to what was there - making the whole complex a fascinating vision of Roman life - from a Victorian's point of view. You will also find an interesting display of genuine Roman articles.

Miniature model of the original Bath's building structure.

Ancient Roman Sun god sculpture unearthed from the ruin.

Ancient drainage system in the bath flowing out to the river.

The cold water bath pool.

Bath Abbey:

The Bath Abbey was built in 1499 on the site of a 7th Century cathedral - some of which was incorporated into the new building. The abbey was built by Bishop Oliver, who was inspired to build by a vision of angels climbing up to heaven - these can be seen as sculptures on the front of the building. The Heritage Vaults (in the Abbey basement) provides a fascinating history of the abbey.

It was a really rushing tour to Bath, we were only given 2 hours to explore around the town. We left with no choice but to cut short of the places of interest that we planned to visit. Straight after the Roman Bath, we headed straight to the Circus to snap a picture of it. As we walked towards the Circus, we lost our way as the buildings inside the town was built so closed to each other thus making it extremely disorientating. Navigation in the town was a nightmare.

So to not wasting any time more as the sky was turning dark covered with dark clouds, I quickly seek help from a local madam who was walking home too. We were so lucky that the lady was going back somewhere near to the Circus too, so she invited us to walk together with her and she will point us to the Circus when we get close to it.

Through a short conversation with the old lady, she was very friendly and helpful. I was really lucky throughout my travel in UK as most of the people I asked for help were extremely helpful and friendly, excellent British other than the bad experience I had when clearing the immigration custom :).

After waiving good bye to the kind old lady, my first glance of the Circus:

Freemason's secret signs can be found all around the Georgian city as seen in picture below - the Key sign. Other signs like the moon, triangle and many more!

As it started to rain short after we arrived at the Circus, we quickly rush back to the nearby restaurant to hide from the rain. As my stomach was complaining, we took a quick lunch in the restaurant while waiting for the rain to stop. We boarded our return bus back to London around 4:30pm. As it was almost the end of autumn season, the sky turned so dark after 5pm. As it was all dark outside, I slept all my way back to London :p. We arrived at London downtown around 7:30pm and quickly went for a quick dinner at Subway before catching our return bus to Nottingham which is another 3 hours of nightmare bus ride. I was finally home at 12am that night =_="

UK: Stonehenge

2009-11-24T03:46:00.019+08:00

It was early in the morning at Bayswater. We woke up early in the morning to catch the tube to Earl's court station where our tour bus gonna pick us up for a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath. The day trip was operated by the Anderson Tours. We never really heard of it before but so happen that we found them out when we were surfing the internet. It is among the cheapest tour operators offering budget day trips from London :).

It was some 2 weeks ago that my mates started to talk about day trip in London to Stonehenge, Winsor Castle and Bath. I was not really interested at first and later I found out that since there is no particular destination that I would like to visit, so I joined them up for the trip as I think Stonehenge is worth visitign as it is one of the World Heritage site.

We arrived at Earl's court 8 in the morning to find out that most of the shops were not opened yet. As the pick up time was 9 am, we just walked around places nearby the station and grabbed a quick breakfast sandwich at the convenience store in the station. The coach arrived at around 8:50am and we boarded the coach welcoming by our very friendly tour manager - Alley. We then started our journey to Amesbury, where Stonehenge site is located at. Along the way, Alley explained to us some history about the Stonehenge. The journey took around 2:30 hours from London.

Destination:

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At the entrance to the Stonehenge, it was so crowded and I heard from Alley saying that there are thousands of visitors coming to the site everyweek!

Let me start with a little bit of history on Stonehenge. Stonehenge consists of a series of large rocks which were arranged in a circular format known as a henge (and where we get the name Stonehenge from). The first structure to be built at the site of Stonehenge was the circular ditch and outer bank round 3,000 BC. The first stones were brought here around 2,500 BC fro the Preseli Mountains in the southwest of Wales, around 220 km away from the site. The outer circle was completed around 1,500 BC and consists of the largest stones in the monument.

These stones weigh up to 50 tons each and it is estimated that at least 600 men were required just to move one of these stones. What you see of Stonehenge in the picture is just the remains of what would have stood here thousands of years ago. It is the most outstanding prehistoric monument in the British Isles and is a World Heritage Site.

Some 7-8,000 years ago the area was mixed pine and hazel woodland before becoming downland. The ancient people built the stone monument on the site to map the course of the sun and moon. It is the center of one of the world's earliest cultures. Being a World Heritage site, Stonehenge is protected for the benefit of future generations. Visitors are not allowed to go near the stones monument. This is to prevent further damage on the monument as thousands of visitors come to visit the site every week.

The heel stone.

It was kinda like out of my expectation that the Stonehenge is rather small. I always think that it is something very big in the size as most of the monuments would be. But that is it, nothing much I can complain about as pre-historic men created it with their primitive tools which will make the project a really grand one!

I am not surprised on how well the site was being managed. Given that it is one of the World Heritage sites, attention was all focus on how to preserve the monuments for the benefit of future generations. This is something that we should learn from them. Given that Penang's George town and Malacca were listed as the new World Heritage sites too, we should put in the same amount of effort to protect the historical buildings before they are all gone.

It was a really nice weather that morning other than with a little bit wind. Some random shots of the grassland at the Stonehenge site which I find it kinda mesmerizing :).

UK: Anfield Stadium @ Liverpool

2009-11-09T09:00:00.010+08:00

As we drove away from Liverpool city, we were heading to our next destination before Manchester - Anfield Stadium! It is a legendary stadium and well known among all the soccer fans who is used to follow English Premier League. It is the home to one of the most successful English football club - Liverpool Football Club (LFC)!

Anfield stadium was located some 10-15km out of Liverpool city center. I could not remember exactly where it is located at but I do remember that it took us quite sometime to figure out the direction to the stadium after a few checks with some locals. We were told to go north out from the city and after we past a fly over then we need to keep left to spot for road sign board leading to Anfield stadium. We did exactly the same but ended up we round and round and lost in an industrial area. But after some searching around the areas, thank god that we finally found it :).

Out side of the stadium, I took a couple of pictures of the legendary stadium. I remember I was introduce to football by my father when I was 14 years old. We were watching a live broadcast of and FA cup final match between Liverpool and Manchester United. I never had any interested in football before that but high tempo of game play quickly attracted me. I noticed then that the game requires lots of teamwork, personal skills as well as tactics and that bring me to the world of soccer immediately. Although eventually Liverpool lost 1-2 to Man Utd, but since then Liverpool football club always be the one and only soccer team that I am supporting! (Although they haven't won any of the premiership title since 90's =_=")

The club had introduced a lot of world class players to the soccer world such as Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish in the 80's, Robbie Fowler, Steve Mcmanaman and Michael Owen in the 90's and in the big names like Steven Gerrard and Jamie Charagher now! Although many would say that the club is not as competitive as those like Man. Utd., Chelsea or Arsenal, but so what? This is what we called being Loyal! Yea, I am the Kop's fan!

We did not go for the traditional stadium tour due to time constraint. But we did manage to walk around it's museum and club store before we left :p.

The club store was full of merchandises like printed jerseys, tee shirts as well as soccer kits. As Christmas was drawn close, the store was decorated with christmas theme and the red christmas color match perfectly with the club's home kit color - RED!

All the merchandises inside the store were branded with Liverpool Footbal Club (LFC). Although it was a bit pricey, but I did get myself a tee as well as a bag soccer training kits for my brother (who is also a LFC fan). It was really costly - 32 pounds for the 2 items!

We left the stadium after some shopping and walked towards the parking to get our rented car. I spotted something at the back of the stadium - the giant Carlsberg beer cans! Carlsberg, the world's best known lager beer, is the major sponsor of the LFC for as many years as I know. Yea, you will always see a Carlsberg logo printed at the front of the Liverpool jersey, be it home or away kits :).

We headed backed into our car and drove our way to our next destination - Manchester city, leaving the Anfield Stadium behind to fade away from our back mirror. Yes, I have made my childhood dream comes true! I have been to the Anfield although I was not able to go on the pitch :). It was a real good day!

UK: Liverpool City Tour

2009-11-09T08:59:00.020+08:00

It was my third week at Nottingham. As usual, weekend was approaching and we were discussing where to visit in the coming weekend. Few ideas pop up - Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester as well as Liverpool! Finally the plan was ironed out with some informal "discussions" between few of us. Our final plan was to drive to Liverpool on Saturday and visiting Manchester together with Peak District on our return journey back to Nottingham.

Direction:

View Larger Map

As our plan was a free and easy kind of weekend trip, we decided to rent a car and drive our own way to the Liverpool. First problem we encountered when we started our journey was that we lost in Nottingham itself, finding it hard to move our way out from the city. Man, that was real hard. I always think that rented car should be installed with GPS as it is meant for tourists like us who is new to the place. Well, we were not fortunate enough to get our's with GPS though. So we ended up with the old way of navigation - map & compass.

It took us some 3-4 hours to arrive finally at Liverpool whereby we made a stop at Derby for lunch. As of Derby, it was just a small town neighboring to Nottingham with nothing interesting though. But yet, we still lost our way in the town after driving thru some housing areas which was very disorientating as most of the buildings look the same. But anyway, thank god that we arrived at Liverpool safely that evening :), though it was a little late...

Slowly Liverpool city was emerging in front of us as we were driving towards the city center.

First glance of the city...

So, we were in a foreign city and without any sense of direction. We decided to park our car and to walk around the city by foot in search of budget hotel for that night. It was a windy evening with a little drizzle, I had no idea where I was heading to but just keeping my mind optimistic that we will be able to get a room somewhere.

After some 20 minutes walking without knowing where we were heading to, I gave up and grab someone on the road asking for nearest budget hotel or hostel. He was a kind lad and pointed me the direction to the nearest budget hotel that he knows. Thank you so much mate! I was so lucky to have met you else we would have to travel to Manchester as we were finding it hard to spot for a budget hotel.

After we checked in to the Ibis hotel which was located right opposite of the Albert dock facing the river, we decided to head back into the city center for a walk. Below are some of the pictures I have taken during my night walk around the city center :).

A beautiful fountain found in front of the city square, with a beautiful monument as it's background.

Just a short history of Liverpool, it is a port city at Merseyside of England. Historically it was a part of Lancashire, the urbanization and expansion of Liverpool were largely brought about by the city's status as a major port. By the 18th century, trade from the West Indies, Ireland and mainland Europe coupled with close links with the Atlantic Slave Trade furthered the economic expansion of Liverpool. By the early 19th century, 40% of the world's trade passed through Liverpool's docks, contributing to Liverpool's rise as a major city.

Early in the morning, I was having a walk at Albert dock so snap a few pictures of the Merseyside river.

There were plenty of shops around Albert dock for touristy shopping. I was enjoying my souvenir shopping there and got my father a Beatles's tee. The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. From 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals). I was not lucky to have visited the Beatles's Museum which was located at the dock as well. It was not open until 11am but it would be too late for us as we needed to check out from the hotel and head to Manchester city the next.

Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians but are also known as "Scousers", in reference to the local dish known as "scouse", a form of stew. The word "Scouse" has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Liverpool's status as a port city has contributed to its diverse population, which, historically, were drawn from a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, particularly those from Ireland. It draws immigrants from all over the world. As a symbol of the Chinese community over here, the China town was built right at the center of the town.

We had done our last city tour by driving around the town after checking out from the hotel. The
Liverpool Cathedral marked our last stop at the city center and we head out town straight to our next destination - Anfield Stadium :). Hurray!!!

UK: Bonfire @ Nottingham

2009-11-07T06:02:00.010+08:00

It was an ordinary Thursday at Nottingham. Suddenly my mate came to me and started to talk about an annual event in Nottingham - Bonfire for Guy Fawkes Night. It is an annual celebration in Great Britain on the evening of 5th November. The event marks the downfall of the Gunpowder plot of 5th November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes who attempted to destroy the Houses of Parliament in London. The Festivities are centered on the use of the fireworks and the lighting of bonfires.

We got off from work around 7:20pm and quickly rushed back to town to catch a tram to a nearby recreational park - The Forest. It was a windy night with a little drizzle. That marks my first time taking a tram in Nottingham and I was double charged for my fare =_=". It cost me 5.60 pounds for a return ride which will only costs half of the price actually.

Upon arrival to the park, we were walking towards the direction where the spot light was. In the middle of the picture we can see that the bonfire was lit up. Photos below were taken from my mate Marcus as I did not bring along my camera that night :). Thanks a lot mate for your photos contribution.

The overall setting at the park was more like an amusement park as there were lots of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the public to have fun.

A game that you can win one of the dolls if you hit the target on the dart board :). 2 pounds for 3 throws, pretty expensive right? I remember that I used to play these kind of games in the fun fare at my hometown when I was a kid, nice!

Bonfire was lit up on a foundation of blocks of woods. Public are banned from walking near to the fire, fences were put on to stop the people from getting close to it. It was burning fiercely there in the middle and it kept everyone warm from the never end drizzle and chilly wind.

Soon around 9pm, the first firework was lit up and that marks the long awaited fireworks session.

Please check out the video on how beautiful the fireworks were that night!

The fireworks session lasted only for some 20 minutes. We left the place once the fireworks session was over as the rain was getting heavier. We managed to reach catch a tram back to city center afterward. It was a wonderful night with some beautiful fireworks. I was really having fun although it was a little too crowded for me as I don't really like to hang around crowded place. Thank you to all my mates who suggested and invited me along to the annual celebration :). Cheers!

UK: London City Tour

2009-11-07T05:59:00.017+08:00

Just to share with everyone the few places I had visited during my trip down to London. This post is more like a random guide to places of interest in London :).

St. Pancras is a the terminus of East Midlands Trains linking London with east midlands cities such as Derby, Leicester and Nottingham. It is a major railway station in United Kingdom which is also the home of the Eurostar train, the default the gateway for your transit to other part of europes.

The statue of John Betjeman in the station, celebrating his role in saving the station from demolition whereby in the 1960s the station was seen as redundant and was about to be closed down. Attempts to close down the station by government provoked strong and successful opposition which was led by John Betjeman.

The station is well celebrated for it's Victorian architecture which is listed as Grade 1 building. The station is located at Euston road in between the British Library and King's Cross Station.

Out from St. Pancras, the King Cross station is the nearest Underground Tube's Station. The London Underground or Tube is a rapid transit system connecting up London and neighboring areas. It is one of the most sophisticated underground rapid transit station which was built up of a total of 11 lines. It has a total of 270 stations and a roughly 400 km of track, making it the longest metro system in the world by route length. Each of the trains of different lines are well defined in different color-code. This was designed in such a way to make it easier to identify the different lines. As shown in picture below, a red line is the Central Line which is operating between west and east bounds neighboring areas cutting across the center London.

The classic red telephone box in London. It was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The telephone box is colored in red to make them easy to spot. It had become one of the classic thingie in London as you can see miniature model of it being made as souvenir key chains as well as fridge magnet :). For those who had checked my souvenir's page will know that I have bought a couple of it too.

As you all know, London is really a world class city and it could have been a city of entertainments. London offers some of the world's best theater and musicals, from West End favorites to cutting edge productions.You will never gonna run out of activities in the city.

Trafalgar Square is a square in central London, England. With its position in the heart of London, it is a tourist attraction; and one of the most famous squares in the United Kingdom and the world. When the square was first built in 1845, the fountains' primary purpose was not aesthetics, but rather to reduce the open space available and the risk of riotous assembly. They were originally fed by a steam engine behind the National Gallery from an artesian well underground.

The Nelson's Column in the center of Trafalgar Square, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. Statues and sculptures are on display in the square, including a fourth plinth displaying changing pieces of contemporary art, and it is a site of political demonstrations.

The National Gallery of London, it was founded in 1824 and houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square too.

The red double-decker buses are commonly seen at London down town :).

St. James's Palace is one of London's oldest palaces. It is situated in Pall Mall, just north of St. James's Park. Although no sovereign has resided there for almost two centuries, it is considered the most senior royal palace in the UK and gives its name to the Royal Court (the "Court of St. James's").

War memorial monument.

The Monument to the Great Fire of London, is a 202 ft (61.57 metre) tall stone Roman Doric column in the City of London, England near to the northern end of London Bridge.

30 St Mary Axe, also known as the Gherkin. It is a skyscraper in London's main financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened on 28 April 2004. It is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, with 40 floors. Its erection symbolised the start of a new high-rise construction boom in London.

Piccadilly Circus is a famous road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly. In this context a circus, from the Latin word meaning a circle, is a circular open space at a street junction.

A very busy shopping street - Regent Street. Even at night time around 9pm you can still see the crowd walking along the streets doing shopping. A huge variety of goods are selling there and you will easily spend the whole day walking around this place. There are just too many shops for you to visit one by one and I bet you will never be able to finish in a day :). Just too many!

UK: Halloween @ London

2009-11-07T05:58:00.010+08:00

It was so coincidentally that I was at London on the October 31 - Halloween! Halloween (also spelled Hallowe'en) is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints, but is today largely a secular celebration.

Halloween activities include trick-or-treating , wearing costumes and attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. Restaurants, bars and shops around the city was all decorated in Halloween theme. For example, this is the decorations of an British bar near Bayswater. You will see all the jack-o'-lanterns in every shops!

To be honest, I was not aware that it was Halloween on that day when arrived at London. I was at somewhere near Piccadilly circus after dinner walking around doing some window shopping :). All out of a sudden I heard the people along the street was cheering loud and I turned myself toward the direction to discover these as below...

Halloween PARADE!

Bunch of teenagers were wearing costumes and gather for parade at one of the busiest streets in London - Regent street. Loud music was put on and everyone was dressed up in Halloween costumes of those monsters such as ghosts, skeletons, witches, devils and many more that you can discover in the pictures below :).

I had a fun night out at London downtown that night, seeing many of them dressed up in costumes of monsters and one even wrapped himself up as an Egyptian mummy! It was a very crowded night at Piccadilly areas especially when the parade started which put the traffic in stand still for some moment :). I wish that time can turn back to when I was a kid then I will be joining the kids dressed up in costume and go from house to house, asking "Trick or treat"?

UK: Buckingham Palace

2009-11-05T05:38:00.014+08:00

As part of the trip down to London, I had visited the Buckingham Palace which is the official London residence of the British monarch. Buckingham palace is located at the city of Westminster as shown in the map below.

View Larger Map

I was walking with my mate from St. James park towards the direction of the palace. It is a really good place of serenity with a very nice garden. Trees were full with leaves turned brown as it was almost the end of autumn season. Together with the green floor of grasses, the colors were just awesome! The park was quiet and it is definitely a good place to relax and get away from the noisy downtown.

First view of Buckingham palace.

"Originally it was known as Buckingham House, the building which forms the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site which had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was subsequently acquired by George III in 1761[2] as a private residence for Queen Charlotte, and known as "The Queen's House". During the 19th century it was enlarged, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, forming three wings around a central courtyard. Buckingham Palace finally became the official royal palace of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837."[Wikipedia]

I was doing some testing with my new camera, turning on the "nostalgic" shooting mode which gives the picture a more "nostalgic" feel. A different kind of feel, more like a old picture isn't it given the rich in brown color.

A picture of the royal guard taken at St. James Castle rather than Buckingham palace as it was too crowded there. I had no chance at all to just even get close enough to the gate for a zoom snap of the real royal guards. But anyway, they all look the same isn't it? Who cares :)

Just give you a rough idea how crowded it was during a weekend. The outer wall of the building was constantly surrounded by bunch of tourists who wanted to take a look at the Changing of the Guard, a major ceremony and tourist attraction. Don't ever dream of to squeeze yourself into the crowd to get close enough to the gate. You will probably ended up being push down to the floor as some of them really went so violent to secure themselves a place to have the best view of the ceremony.

We did not stay long there as it was just too crowded. I was thinking to myself that I did not even bother to visit my country's royal palace, why should I be so fancy about others palace? The building itself was a really grand one with brilliant carvings on it's exterior wall. But I bet you would not want to stay any longer given that there was such a big crowd and that makes it not a place where you can really sit down to relax and enjoy :).

UK: River Cruise @ London

2009-11-04T06:28:00.013+08:00

I believe everyone knows about London. We know that it is the capital of United Kingdom and one of the most dense city in the world with a population of 7,556,900. Yea, that is right. So what other facts that we know about London? Let me start with some history and facts about London :).

London, it is one of the most significant financial and cultural city of the world. As quoted in Wikipedia, it has a recorded history dating back to some 2000 years ago. As documented in the history books, most of the ancient civilizations began along the river. London falls into the same category as it was exactly built by along the lower of River Thames - the second longest river in United Kingdom.

The first major settlement was founded by Romans in 43 AD with a population of 60,000 along the River Thames. Since the first settlement, it had been through wars with vikings in early years, the Great Fire of London which had destroyed many parts of the city in 1666 and was plagued by disease in early 17th century which had cost 100,000 of lives. During mid 18th century, due to the rising number of population in the city causing traffic congestion, it led to the creation of the first rapid transit of the world in London!

So after all the history and facts, I concluded that the best way to discover about the city is by a river cruise along the River Thames. There are many cruise operators along the river side. The one I took was a cruise from Westminster pier to Tower pier which was operated by The City Cruise. The trip costs £7.50 for one way trip and £10.00 for return trip. Pictures below were taken during the river cruise.

Big Ben- the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster. It is the largest s the largest four-faced chiming clock and the third-tallest free-standing clock tower in the world.

London Eye!

A beautiful sun set view together with London Eye and Big Ben :)

So here comes the part that I am more than happy to explain a little more about the funny fact about - the London Bridge :). I believe everyone would have heard the nursery rhyme "London bridge is falling down". So what do you know about London bridge? Picture below is an engraving by Claes Van Visscher showing Old London Bridge in 1616. The old medieval bridge had 19 small arches and a drawbridge with a defensive gatehouse at the southern end and it was crowded with buildings of up to seven stories in height.

In the early 19th century, the old London bridge was too old and needed to be replaced. So, the design of a new London bridge was leaded by engineer John Rennie. The construction cost £2.5 million and the official opening took place on 1 August 1831. The new London bridge was named after the designer - Rennie's bridge. The bridge was widen at 1902-04 from 52 to 65 feet. However, the widening work added too much weight to the bridge foundation and caused the bridge to sink and soon it became apparent that it had to be replaced with a new modern type bridge.

The modern London bridge, as seen in picture below was designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson. It was constructed from 1967 - 1972 and opened by Queen Elizabeth ll on 17 March 1973. The old Rennie's bridge was removed and sold to the American entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. It is now reconstructed at lake Havasu city, Arizona. Since then, it has become the second-biggest tourist attraction in Arizona, after Grand Canyon :).

So after London bridge, I was approaching my last stop where my drop off point is - the Tower pier. Next to the Tower pier was where the Tower bridge of London located at. The Tower bridge is an Iconic symbol of London, which people used to mistaken it as the London bridge. It is a combination of bascule and suspension type of bridge.

The bridge consists of two towers which are tied together at the upper level by means of two horizontal walkways which are designed to withstand the horizontal forces exerted by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers. The vertical component of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower [Wikipedia - Tower Bridge].

There is a castle located between the Tower pier and the Tower bridge - The Tower of London. You can visit the castle or choose to have a slow walk along the river side path to enjoy the beautiful architecture of the bridge. Alternatively there is a tube/underground station - Tower Hill station nearby for those who might want to head off to some other tourist attractions.

*It really has been a while since my last update on my blog. Well, guess those who used to follow my blog will know that this is not a vacation trip in UK but rather a business trip. I was real tired and feel so lazy even to open my laptop when I reach home from office. Thanks for being patient with me and I shall update you with many more beautiful pictures that I have taken during my visit in Britain :).

UK: Evening Walk @ Nottingham

2009-10-25T02:02:00.009+08:00

It was a lonely week here in Nottingham. It became a routine for me to walk my way back to the apartment every evening after work. The office I am working in was located at NG2 Industrial park which is only 10 minutes walk from the town. So instead of taking a cab, I was taking the option to walk home so to burn some calories with an evening walk.The distance between office and my apartment is some 2.2 km, which is around 25 minutes slow walk.

The office building that I am working in right now. It is located at the right side of Queen's drive.

It was only 6pm in the evening and the sun was going down so early.

Walking out from Queen's drive, I reached at the Wilford street. The building with a triangle top is an Irish bar and restaurant. I was thinking to myself that I will visit it one day before I am going home in 5 weeks time.

Sky was getting dark real quick. Here is where the Canal is, cutting through the town from west to east.

Walking along the canal street towards the roundabout at London road.

A left turn at the roundabout will lead me to Belward street where my apartment is located at. Yea, I am home finally. The walk was taking around 25 minutes :).

When I was at the top of the Nottingham castle today, I spotted my office from the hill top :). It is in the red color box in the picture below.

UK: The Tales of Robin Hood

2009-10-25T01:07:00.018+08:00

It has been a week since I arrived at Nottingham on last Saturday. It was a really stressful week for me in a new office working on something that I have no idea of what it is about. But anyway, since this is a Saturday, I am not going to think about work and how bad it could be. After all if things really not work out for me over here, I know that I always have an option - quit. I am not going to think about it for now at least. I don't really want to spoil my weekend mood.

So it was a drizzly Saturday morning, I was planning to visit the castle early in the morning but waited till noon for the rain to stop. The castle was located 1km away from where I am staying at the moment. It was a nice walk down the road to the castle, passing by the town center with lots of people around. It was some 15 minutes walk for me to reach at the castle.

Location:

View Larger Map

When people talk about the castle @ Nottingham, the stories will always be related to a hero in English folklore - Robin Hood. Here at Nottingham is the origin of the tales of Robin Hood. The story was about - Robin Hood, who robbed the rich to feed the poor. Whose favorite pastimes were tricking the Sheriff and poaching the King's deer. His adventures have captured the hearts and minds of ordinary people for 800 years. To know more - visit Robin Hood.

The statue of Robin Hood.

The hero who was a highly skilled archer at medieval time.

The entrance to the Castle.

Inside the castle, I was like going through a time tunnel and backed to old time as the people inside was dressing up like old English-men at Medieval time.

A merchant who was selling his hand made wooden sword.

Woman was starting a fire to boil water. This was how they do things during the Medieval time.

The way it was setup was really like bringing me back to the old time - a king was sitting there with his guards around. You may ask for the permission of this boy at the right side in the picture to lead you in to face the king as an emissary.

Merchant selling shields and armors.

Here is the entrance gate to climb up to the hill where the main castle building is located at.

Climbing up the hill.

The lion statue, or was it a lion after all?

The Nottingham Castle.

The main door to go inside the castle. There is an exhibition hall and a museum within the castle. I was just quickly walk through the halls and museum as I am not really interested in their history after all :p

Nottingham town view from top of the castle.

The sky was still cloudy after the drizzle stopped.

It was so windy and after some 30 minutes, the clouds were blown away and the sun came out :). It made my mood a little better when the sun comes out after a gloomy day.

I was thinking to myself that no matter how hard it is gonna be or how painful it is to go through a period of down fall in your life, you will always be bouncing back when you reach the bottom. Just like the sun will always come out after the rain. I have gotta stay on my feet and do the best I can. No matter how painful it is, I know there is always a better day ahead of me. I might be going through the darkest time of my life but I know tomorrow will always be better. I am feeling okay now :).