The Activist

2010-11-14T03:56:00.003+08:00

I SUPPORT KIM WEI WEI!

http://www.smashpop.net

2010-06-09T04:22:00.003+08:00

♥

S'pore- Bintan- Batam (part2)

2010-05-30T01:14:00.018+08:00

We spent our second day in Batam as what I've already stated in my previous post. This time, we boarded a way smaller boat from Bintan to Batam. Once we've reached Batam, we randomly checked in a hotel located in the town according to the taxi driver's recommendation. I didn't take any pictures of Batam simply because we spent too much time in the shopping mall rather than walking around and explore the island! I've to say some of the t-shirts in the department store are very very cheap and pretty nice too! (never compare this to Bandung) We managed to grabbed some really nice t-shirts ;)

Huang Sheng wasn't feeling well :(

Chong Wee playing with his new toy :D

After Batam, we went back to Singapore... As usual, shopping! sorry peee pole.. whenever I mention shopping, usually I will only snap a few pictures. :p (kosong sometimes :x)

From Orchard Road- Marina Bay Shopping Belt to Chinatown and Little India... hmm~ nonono, never enough.. but what to do? Poor little me got not enough SGD to burn, perhaps I should just stick with Indonesian Rupiah(spuluh ribu! dua ratus ribu! woah! sounds so kaya raya eyh~) ;)

owh! and yeah.. we stayed at a backpackers somewhere around Little India called Tresor Taverns. Not bad! reasonable price and pretty cozy place to stay, not to mention there are plenty of eateries around this area too! ;)

On our last day, we went to the Budget terminal, and this is my first time here. It's not as crowded as LCCT (of cause -.-) and it's home for the Singaporean budget carrier- Tiger Airways. We boarded our cute lil tiny ATR 72-500( Firefly) and off we go! Back to Subang Skypark.

The Esplanade

The Merlion

Chilling at Chijmes

More to come. ;) Stay tuned. Food review maybe? hmm~
tata.

S'pore- Bintan- Batam (part1)

2010-05-22T01:51:00.023+08:00

ok, my blog is dead. DEADDddddd... I decided to post some of my past trips to keep it alive =p Well, I can't really remember the details of the trip anymore but I'll write whatever I can recall alright??? and yeah... sorry for not posting anything these few days as I'm currently working really hard to wrap up my last bit of work for this semester and off I go, back to KL to have some goOd rest. ;)

Last year, I managed to grabbed some super cheap air ticket to Singapore both from Air Asia and Firefly. So basically, I flew Air Asia from LCCT- Changi and Changi- Subang Skypark with Firefly. You might be wondering why am I doing this? Wouldn't it be better to just stick with one airline?

Okay, many of you may already know that I love to try out new stuff. Yes, one of my reasons for doing this is to have different kind of experience while travelling. However, many of you may also know that I'm just only a student, a very poor student indeed... :( so, the ultimate reason for this is actually for the sake of saving money! It is essential for us to understand the price structure before we purchase anything. BE a SAVVY consumer! One of the differences between flying both airlines is actually the amount of airport tax that we are actually paying. I was surprised to realised that although Air Asia is a budget airline, but they are not using the Budget Terminal in Changi Airport instead of Terminal 1. On the other hand, Firefly is one of the few airlines operating from the Budget Terminal. This means that if you are flying from LCCT to Singapore, you are actually paying cheaper airport tax unless you choose to fly from the more convenient and comfortable Subang Skypark( higher tax) with Firefly or even private jet. Well, if you are flying from Singapore to KL, the price structure is the other way round. Since Air Asia is not utilizing the Budget Terminal, passengers are expected to pay higher airport tax, whereas Firefly passenger can pay cheaper airport tax because they are using the Budget Terminal. HOWEVER, Air Asia does not charge the so called admin fee like Firefly. So, please compare and spend your money wisely base on your budget, purposes and needs before you purchase your air ticket. Alternatively, you can also fly other airlines from KLIA like MAS or Silkair. I guess Tiger Airways is actually the only airline at the moment operating both LCCT and Budget Terminal. Confusing? Well, there is always another travel option which is equally or some say better way to travel to Singapore, like coach bus(consider these few: aeroline/ Odyssey/ Five Stars).

Few of my buddies from Penang- Chong Wee, Hui ling and Huan Sheng decided to join me after knowing that I'm going to Singapore ;)

As I've no bloody idea why am I going to Singapore AGAIN, -.- I decided to spend my 1st 2 days at the adjacent Indonesian island of Bintan and Batam and the last day in Singapore. Once we've reached the city state's airport, we immediately took a taxi to the ferry terminal in Tanah Merah which took us only around 10 minutes from the airport.

The Tanah Merah ferry terminal is where we board our ferry to Bintan Island. There were heaps of Singaporean boarding to Pulau Bintan as it is a very famous destination for them to seek some relaxation with whole lot of resort accommodation awaits them.YES, you can simply use SGD dollar instead of Rupiah in this resort island but I guess it's still cheaper to pay in Rupiah though.

Since we're pretty tight in budget and there is nothing much to do in this island, we decided to go further south to seek for cheaper accommodation. We came into this "resort" (sorry, can't remember the name, pretty simple but cozy place to stay) and picked two chalets. (who said it's a budget tour?! O.o)

Huan Sheng busy snapping photos

our chalet looks exactly like this

The balcony of my chalet

Simple right?

This is our bed <3Huan Sheng <3

The hallway

The one on the right is our room

As I said before, Bintan is a resort island. There is nothing much you can do here. However, you can choose to pamper yourself with a nice spa/massage or make full use of all the facilities in your own resort.

Since our resort is a bit "bahliah", we decided to hop on to the resort's "shuttle bus" to their sister resort to fill up our time.
We made a reservation for an hour foot massage in the evening and head straight to a restaurant in the resort for dinner.

resort's "shuttle bus" coooL eyh?

Pretty empty

Took some picture before we head back to our room

Bridge to the restaurant

XD sorry sorry.. trying to act cool.. heh

We took a few pictures from our quiet resort at night. Hah! This is what I called kampung feel~

Resort's reception

Our Chalet

Wooden chalet! fooah! I love this ;)

The next morning, we woke up before dawn to capture some pictures as the scenery was magnificient!

From balcony:

Ourside:

The next morning, the taxi driver reached our resort on the appointed time and off we go to the western part of the island. This time we boarded a small boat to Batam Island!

One last shot before we leave

pik CHA time!

to be continued...

眼泪

2010-05-16T20:57:00.006+08:00

天真？人就是天真。我们就活在这虚拟世界里头。生活中的选择就是如此的不完美，但这也正是生活的真正涵义。减轻生命的包袱，放弃一些烦恼，放弃一些利益，你便能轻装上阵，就会与快乐结缘。快乐其实就这么简单。

Easter Break 5

2010-04-18T17:49:00.013+08:00

What's next?

After we've done conquering the southern tip of the North Island, we decided to drive to the West Coast to pay a visit to New Plymouth.

stopped and took some photos while travelling to New Plymouth

emo Ming

By the time we've reached New Plymouth, it's already pretty late and all of us were exhausted. We cooked a simple dinner and phiewww~ off to bed!

The next morning we didn't manage to walk around New Plymouth simply because we have to rush back to Auckland before 2pm to return our car. However, we still managed to stop by a few places for some photos. ;)

small poo vs big poo

Chun Ming refused to look at me -.-

He was pretty emo the whole day

stopped by another beach. It was soo windy~

took this picture before our lunch

took this after my lunch

Guys, I just enlarged my pictures due to a few complaints saying that It was too painful to view some of my pictures. So here it is. better? throw me more feedback ok? ;) will post my video for skydiving later when I'm free.

tata, and happy mama's day! :))))))))))))))) UMA!

Easter Break 4

2010-04-18T16:26:00.018+08:00

Once we stepped into the city of Wellington, the city feel is back again.Wellington, a lovely city which is adjacent to the sea. My friend Chun Ming loves this city so much that he couldn't stop praising every single bit about it. Well, I love this city as well especially Cuba street which has heaps of fancy restaurant and the ambiance of this place is just simply awesome!

Since we love mama nature so much, we decided to park our car somewhere around botanical garden and ride a cable car to the CBD. The botanical garden is a nice place to chill especially with your love ones. hmm.. too bad I've no choice but to travel with these two monkeys : ( The CBD is a place where you can find whole lot of people wearing business attire, restaurant, bars and I personally feel that this is a better place to shop compare to Auckland. ; ) Lastly, we ended our trip in Welly by paying a visit to the Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand. ;D

The Beehive

Cuba St

Wellington Botanical Garden

view from top

inside the cable car

Wellington CBD

shopping arcade

Lambton Harbour

Te Papa

inside Te Papa

yo, really busy these few weeks. will upload my skydiving video SOON. ;)

tata.

Easter Break 3

2010-04-18T16:24:00.010+08:00

On the second day of our trip, we woke up early for breakfast and be prepared for our ultimate goal of this trip- skydiving.

Once we reached our destination, they showed us a few packages. We decided to picked the highest altitude which is 15,000 ft which comes with t-shirt, DVD and photos. Trust me, skydiving is a cash burning activity, this whole package cost me 499NZD! YES. please slap me. -.- This cost more than my return air ticket from K.Lumpur to Kolkata + Columbo. aduiiiiii...... f**k it, can't be bothered, I guess this is the only time I will jump off the plane. After paying the fee, we're all set to go.

yes.. yes.. my name.

20 minutes of plane ride + 60 seconds of freefall + around 4 minutes of parachute + dvd with video and photos. BoooOth! bye bye 499NZD. I don't care, I just gonna do it this time! Well, I have to admit that while travelling up to the sky, the view of Lake Taupo was stunning! ekhem... of cause, you will be able to realise only if you are calm enough during that 20 minutes ride. Once we've reached a certain altitude, the dive master gave us no time to ponder at all as he'll be pushing you to the door. At the same time, the cameraman hanging at the side of the door smiling happily waiting for u to FALL!

syok-ness

adrenaline rush!

Supa man!

The magnificent view of Lake Taupo

The end of freefall.

Overall, it was a great experience. If you want to ask how was it, I would strongly suggest you to give it a try, then we can share our experience later on. ;)

After skydiving, it's time to say bye bye to Taupo. Our next destination is student city, Palmerston North!

As usual, we will stop by and take some photos whenever we see something interesting. ;)

took some photos with our ride. :)

front view

he is a darn good poser

arh! satu lagi

kacak vs hodoh

last photo of Lake Taupo before we depart to Palmy

While driving from Taupo to Palmy, we pulled over at Tongariro National Park. It's not as green as other parts of New Zealand as it is sitting at a volcanic plateau. I've tried the world-renownedTongariro Alpine Crossing last year and it was pretty amazing and I would strongly recommend this 18.5km track to everyone. : )

See, it's brown in colour

sorry mate, a bit childish =P

Mt Ruapehu i guess

Right after National Park, we reached a small town called Taihape around 4.30pm.This time, we decided to try our luck again for bungee in Mokai Gravity Canyon. We have to rush before it closes at 5pm, therefore, our next Malaysian F1 driver-Ken Chan (Ipoh mari) has no choice but to accelerate to the max in order to get our ass there on time. 0.0

Ken's proved that he qualified to become our next F1 driver

It was 4.50pm when we reached Gravity Canyon and we thought that we won't be able to make it again. However, one of the crew member told us that they can fit us in as their last 3 customer of the day. Since it was already pretty late, after paying 120NZD, we head straight to the bridge and 1,2,3 BUNGY!!! one big leap and enjoy!

the bridge

once u reached this platform. NO TURNING BACK

Curious what kind of force make us so eager to burn more than half a thousand to jump twice in a day?

Itulah dia!

After skydiving and bungee. I'm quite sure that I won't go for skydiving anymore unless someone willing to pay for me simply because it is just too costly! whereas I think bungee jumping is way cheaper and I love the feeling of jumping off the platform :) I would love to do more jumps in other places in near future :)

We received our certificate after our jump. : )

Once we finished our jump, we continue our journey south to Palmy!

The Square

Palmerston North is a small and pretty town with some great restaurant. If you want some pizza in Palmy, there is a small restaurant located at CBD called Pompeii. I'm pretty sure everyone in this town knows about it.

tsk tsk.. this is what he loves to do after dinner

Right after dinner, we met up one of my long lost friend, Ching Xiu who is currently studying in Messey University. Ching Xiu brought us to her university and a petrol station which serve yummy ice cream. woo!

On the next morning, we went to Woodville which is not far from Palmerston North for......

THIS!

wind farm

aisheh~

he is always cute

We spent around 20 minutes taking photos of the wind farm and off we go to the capital of New Zealand, Wellington! :D

to be continued...

Easter Break 2

2010-04-18T16:19:00.029+08:00

The next morning is one of the highlight of the trip, we bought our Gondola ticket at the i-site in Rotorua town center which comes with two Luge ride as well as one Sky Swing.

Here are some of the photos I took while traveling up to Mt. Ngongotaha. ;)

Gondola Cableway

Inside Gondola

Once we reached the top, we queue up for our 1st Luge ride. I took one photo before the Luge ride however I took more while we travel back to the top once we finished our ride. :)

Luge ride

queuing for chairlift.

chairlift and Luge track.

lonely uncle travel up alone :(

After the 1st ride. We decided to go for......

Sky Swing!

This Sky Swing is 50m above sea level. Frankly, it was not bad. Worth a try at least ;) After the swing, we took some pictures and continue our second Luge Ride.

Our abang here has to report to his 'boss' after the ride. tsk tsk...

Ignore his perasan-ness -.-

After Gondola, we head to another famous spot-Lake Taupo, which is not far from Rotorua.

While travelling to Rotorua, we stopped by a Maori village. :D

After the stop, I went to the backseat to take some rest.

Here are some random shots.

our 'entau bah'

After a short and relaxing drive, we reached Taupo around 4.45pm and we wanted to do Bungee at Taupo Bungy but unfortunately, we were a bit too late as there were too many people queuing to jump. Therefore, we have no choice but to wait for another day.

We stopped by Lake Taupo and took some photos before sunset.

We parked at the side of the lake and we grilled some fish and chicken, and of cause some real good Chardonnay as well. After dinner, we stopped by a holiday park and get some rest and prepare for Skydiving in the next morning. yeeharh!

Easter Break

2010-04-15T18:24:00.111+08:00

ellos! Long time no see. I just got back from my trip! woO!

Yes, I know, Easter break suppose to be a study break but I decided to travel instead with these two monkeys:

Chun Ming

Ken

yeaP! they are my beloved housemates. ;)

We didn't really plan anything for this trip, however, all three of us pretty sure that our ultimate goal is to do skydiving in Taupo. Therefore, a week before the trip, we went online to look for the best deal in town. Given the fact that most of the skydiving companies are offering package with around the same price, we decided to give Freefall a try.

Once we've done booking online, we went down to town to search for a camper van which is affordable for 3 poor student like us. Unsurprisingly, Escape Camper gave us the cheapest rate with 69NZD a day.

On the very 1st day of our trip, we woke up pretty early to prepare our food and to pick up our camper van in the city. Once we've reached the car rental company, Chun Ming and I were pretty nervous as there were so many kinds of layout for each and every camper van they have in the garage and we are not sure which car are they going to give us. Some look really cool like the one with Bruce Lee but they also have a few which we feel is quite eWw as well.

I'm not really sure whether our camper van is cool or not but overall, we were quite satisfy with our ride.

ladies and gentlemen, jenG jeNg JENG!!!

PIMP

RIDE

After we've done preparing, we head off to Hamilton. Well, we din't do much in Hamilton but we did stop for a while at the famous Hamilton Garden.

Oh ya! not to forget my macho housemate! He saw a little Maori boy jumping off a tree into the pond and he wanted to give it a try! lols!

this is the lil boi!

my macho buddy!

arh.. not this -.-

KEN CHAN! WooO!!

After finished visiting the garden, we went to another tourist attraction- Rotorua. By the time we reached Rotorua, it's already 6pm, therefore, we decided to get some rest early and cooked some nice dinner together with some wine. phew Wit!

To be continued......

ho ho holiday!

2010-04-03T22:35:00.013+08:00

YoOhoo.. I'm back blogging again. :))) sorry for not updating. I just started my break two days ago. Yaya, another boring holiday, : ( well, at least I don't need to go for lectures/ tutorials! woohoO!

I woke up around 6pm ( yes, it may sound ridiculous -.-)Went for Thai cuisine yesterday with my house mate Chung Ming. It has been a while since I eat out (yes, save money!). After that, we decided to chill at Starbucks( next to Skytower, its better than the one on Queen st!). We din't do much, just simply chit-chat for a while and then both of us busy on our own toy-i touch. While he's watching movie with his Ipod, I busy exploring the game that my girlfriend asked me to install, zombie farm. -.-yes.. sounds gay.. what to do.. 0.0

I took some photos that night as well. enjoY! ;-)

Yes, this dude is my housemate. - Chung Ming a.k.a donkey! =p

Strolling around after "yumcha" session ;-)

This is Auckieland. =)

Well, tata!

Thanks for reading, see u soon :D

TATA

2010-03-17T12:35:00.001+08:00

Suddenly I have some sort of power urging me to blog. I don't really know why as well. Ohkay, not that I'm tOo free, i've got heaps of assignments man! It's just that I need a place for me to release stress, and spend sometime on it i guess?

Sorry for not updating a single sh*t here during my summer break, as some of you may know, I spent a whole lot of time travelling around ( backpacking, family trip, visiting, etc) mainly in South Asia and Southeast Asia and around Malaysia as well. Heaps of photos to upload, I'm not sure whether I have the time and will to blog about it or not. However, I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna make this blog as interesting as possible ;-)

Yes, yes, yes, I'm currently back in Auckieland. I miss my family, i miss my friends and of cause, my girlfriend. I'm back to the usual routine that I need to do everything by myself like life without car, uni-sleep-uni, life without yumcha session, travel less than before, video call with friends and family, assignments etc etc.

I'm so bored and I have no one to talk to. Everyone seems so busy with their own stuff. Luckily some of my friends( as far as UK, that's really far despite I'm currently staying in Auckland!) are kind enough to spend sometime chatting with me when i need someone to keep my breath fresh. : )

Some of you may realise that I look haggard nowadays simply because I can't sleep well ever since I came to New Zealand. Well, I don't know why, I'm so moody the whole day that I often wandering around like zombie.. -.- Even while sleeping, I often have nightmare (#%$^&). Usually, the best way for me to refresh myself is to travel. However, this time is not the same, I just want to stay in my room all the time. I'm just sick of going out! I guess, the only time that I walk out from my apartment is either my university or grocery shopping.

Thanks for visiting anyway, will add more interesting elements in the near future. (mainly travel and foodie I guess ).

till then,

byebye.

love weiiiiii

broke my virginity......

2009-12-02T15:38:00.009+08:00

Hola peeps! jeng jeng jeng JENG! surprise? this is my new personal blog! pheww wit! for those of you wondering why the hell BK starts blogging, ahaha! u know that i love to give surprise~ well, I just bought a new camera and enjoying my holidays now, plenty of time to spare...... HOWEVER, I can't promise that i have the time to update/ manage my blog that often... please forgive me if there is no changes for a period of time, I will try my best to spark some interesting elements ;-)
stay tuned~cheers!