CK Go Places

Biscuit Sand

2012-05-27T19:05:00.002+08:00

Your probably don't understand what biscuit sand is. The Japanese like to cut short the English word, so when sand is for sandwich, it is understandable.

Perhaps nobody is going to disagree with me that the Japanese do the best-in-the-world packaging for their products. However, they don't do any disclaimer on the product photo with "for illustration purpose only" like the Malaysian do.

The product looks exactly the same as the photo on the packaging. I have to salute the Japanese for making their food products which are not only so presentable but so very tasty as well.

This biscuit ice-cream sandwich was so nice that I kept on salivating while taking these photos. I really miss Japanese food!

Lan E Tuyang

2012-05-26T22:58:00.000+08:00

Lan E Tuyang is a home stay about 30 minutes drive away from Kuching along the road from Batu Kawa to Bau. It was built and is being managed by Matthew Ngau Jau, a prominent figure in the Sarawak traditional music scene. His wife also helps up in running the home stay.

The set-up is traditional longhouse on stilts with steps carved on a tree trunk. The house is decorated with Iban motifs all around, since Matthew Ngau Jau is also an artist by nature.

Traditionally, the lower part of a longhouse is where the tenants rare their stocks. However, you don't get to see the domestic animals here. Instead, you get to see the artworks of Matthew.

As you can see, the place is very well decorated with the traditional Iban items and the artworks by Matthew. There is electricity supply here, so some home appliances are also provided. You don't have to worry about charging all your electronic gadgets.

There is a set of gongs hanging at the corridor. If you feel like having a music-jamming session with Matthew, you can request him to do so. He is more than willing to share his sape playing skill with you.

The sides of the staircase leading to the bathrooms are intricately decorated with motifs too. You can see Matthew's attention to details though all these respects.

At the back of the home-stay longhouse is the sape workshop. If you saty here, you can always request Matthew to arrange a sape-making class for you during your stay. This is also where Matthew produces the sape for sale.

As I mentioned earlier, Matthew is an artist as much as a traditional musician. He is really a multi-talented person. He produces beautiful art pieces as well. The good news is, there are also for sale!

If you happen to be in Kuching during the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), Matthew's musician friends from the rural area will be putting up at his place. You get a bonus of having a free concert during your home stay.

You may contact Matthew Ngau Jau directly through his mobile phone No. +60-13-8203365, if you are interested in the home stay, his sape or art pieces.

Sio Bao & Curry Puff

2012-05-20T16:35:00.001+08:00

There are two prominent bakeries hidden inside a small lane called Lorong Khai Joo (some called it 'coffin' street in the old days) in Kuching. One is called Chong Chon (長春餅店) and the other Tong Kee (棠記). I always buy from Chong Chon since the sio bao there is considered the best in Kuching. I have never tried the food staff from Tong Kee but some say the pastries there are better than Chong Chon.

Yesterday, I went to buy food stuff from this small lane again but all the pastries in Chong Chon were sold out. So, I walked across to Tong Kee to buy some sio bao and curry puffs.

To my surprise, the sio bao has very fluffy pastry skin which is very nice. However, the filling is drier than the one from Chong Chon.

For the curry puffs, the pastry skin is also very nice. The multi-layer texture can be savoured quite nicely in the mouth.

The filling is for those who like it hot. If you are not a spicy food person, this may be too spicy for you. For me, I like it hot!

Getting Carnivorous in Český Krumlov

2012-05-19T21:36:00.000+08:00

Krčma v Šatlavské is a very prominent restaurant in Český Krumlov for meat eater. Some may call it a meat heaven.

The inside of the restaurant is a cellar which is dimly-lit by candles and the overhead floodlights. The flickering flame of the open fire pit also contributes to part of the lighting inside. All these really set a medieval mood for dinners.

When I visited the restaurant, I walked straight in and the waitress told me that all the tables were fully booked by a tour group. Before I walked away with disappointment, she friendlily told me that I could wait for a table at the patio which were also fully filled up. I saw a table which was almost done with their food and since I was the first in the queue, I decided to wait.

I was given a table within 15 minutes and I should considered myself lucky because when I just sat down, there were quite a number of disappointed diners walking away after asking for a table but to no avail. The queue was also starting to get longer for those who were willing to wait. A German couple joined my table since I was alone.

Without any hesitation, I scrolled through the menu and decided on my food for my dinner. The rest of the waiting time was just spent on sipping on my drink and smelling the fragrance of the charcoal grill.

Another 30 minutes later, my food was ready and served on a nice porcelain plate.

The portion was big. There were 18 fingers all together. The meat was stilled quite tender even it was grilled to well done. This was the second best grilled pork ribs that I have ever had. The best that I had was in South Africa.

How Dark is Dark?

2012-05-12T10:46:00.000+08:00

I like dark chocolate very much. However, it is almost impossible to find dark chocolate that can be gobbled up directly from the supermarket shelves in Kuching.

In Japan, I was spoiled for choice! I first bought one box of chocolate with 72% cocoa, but found it not dark enough.

When I came across a slab of chocolate with 99% cocoa, I quickly grabbed it from the shelf, paid at the cashier and went right back to my dormitory to taste it. Yes, you hear me right, 99%! There was not a clue of sweetness and the chocolate flavour was so divine! This has got to the darkest chocolate that I have ever tasted.

I am starting to miss my time in Japan.

Feasting with Sushi

2012-05-06T19:59:00.001+08:00

When I was in Japan about four years ago, I was looking very hard for an eat-all-you-can sushi restaurant. Finally, with the aid of web searching, my friend finally found one in downtown Tokyo and we planned for a lunch trip there.

We had to plan for the trip as Tokyo is one hour away by train, so we had to depart one hour before our planned lunch time. You heard me right! We went down to Tokyo purposely just to have this meal. Luckily there were not that many people and we could still find a table. Frankly speaking, eat-all-you-can meal is not that popular amongst Japanese.

We first ordered something that looked good on the menu to sample the taste. Therefore, we had only two for each type.

The tuna hand rolls looked good and we had only one for each of us. We wanted to taste more variety, so we ordered small quantity for each type.

Our second 'sample' plate was with unagi (eel) sushi and some seashell sushi. We knew that the unagi would taste good, so we ordered more even though that was still our sampling round.

Once we knew what was good from the sampling rounds, we started to make 'bulk' order of our favourites. Just by looking at the amount of unagi sushi, you know which was our ultimate favourite.

Uni (sea urchin) is quite an expensive food in Japan but I was surprised to see it on the eat-all-you-can menu.

We had some sushi with kimchi also just to have more variety in taste and also to clear our mouth from the seafood smell.

The content of our fourth plate of sushi was purely unagi! This was the day in my life that I had the most unagi sushi.

For the final round, we ordered one different type again, which is the sushi with tamago (egg). You can see that we had never left out the unagi! We also had more of the seashells.

To cap it off, each of us had one fried-beancurd-pouch inari sushi. We were all too full with sushi after gobbling up this 'pouch' of rice.

All the rice in the sushi we ate was shaped using a machine. Traditionally, nigiri sushi was supposed to be shaped by hand, but with the price of ¥1050 per person for an eat-all-you-can sushi meal, I couldn't complain too much.

Rainbow After Dark

2012-05-03T22:15:00.000+08:00

When I was about to go to bed just now, my niece and nephew ran up the staircase to my room, excitedly asking me to bring out my camera. I asked why but they couldn't explain. Finally my little nephew said that he saw the ring of light around the moon.

This is a very rare weather phenomenon and I grabbed my tripod and camera to record that special moment of the moon. I think there should be enough water vapour in the air with different layers of density to refract the light to create that ring of rainbow in the night.

Sunrise at Buntal

2012-04-29T19:52:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I woke up at 3:30 a.m. just to meet up with my photography buddies at 4:30 a.m. for my first-ever sunrise photo shooting at Buntal. Buntal is a fishing village about 35 minutes drive away from Kuching city centre. All my photography buddies who went with me had been there several times. For them, they have collected tons of photos of these place, but it was my first time collecting shots of sunrise at Buntal.

We arrived at the beach at around 5:45 a.m. when it was still quite dark. I didn't realised that the mud was so slippery that I slipped. Luckily I landed on the soft ground and there was nothing serious happening on my body, just a little sore at the waist.

At 6:00 a.m., the first light of the day appeared and we started shooting. I only have a series of landscape shots as it was my first time shooting sunrise here. I got too excited until I forgot to shoot other subjects.

We completed our shooting at around 9:00 a.m. and it was time for us to hit the road back to the city for a nice breakfast. I will definitely return to Buntal for shots of landscape and some other subjects.

Bersih 3.0 in Kuching

2012-04-28T19:34:00.000+08:00

Today, April the 28^th, 2012, is an important day in the history of Malaysia where every single Malaysian who wants a fair electoral system; to go on the street for a rally to show his/her concern for the future of Malaysia. The whole world is watching.

At 1:46 p.m., I arrived at the venue for the sit-in rally in Kuching, which is the Old Court House, or some call it Tourism Complex. I saw some policemen around but they neither disturbed the protesters nor disrupted the whole proceedings. Kudos to the civilised police force in Kuching! Unlike their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur who used water cannons to shoot water with harmful chemical at the crowd. They even cast tear gas there! I think the rakyat do not deserve these as these are weapons to be used on criminals and terrorists only.

Before the rally officially started at 2 p.m., the crowd was very well-behaved. I saw people passing drinks on to one and another with a smile. It was just like a carnival.

At around 2 p.m., the group who started marching from Hilton Kuching arrived at the venue and that was when the crowd got excited all over.

The emcee did a very good job by keeping everybody calm and everything in order. He even reminded everybody to not leave any rubbish behind at the end of the rally as to keep the place "bersih".

Some of the people there prepared their own posters, all requesting for fair electoral system and anti-corruption.

Today's rally was truly a 1-Malaysia event. People of all ages and all races joined in to show their concern for a free and fair election.

There were people who are fully armed with photography equipment running up and down in the rally, and there were people who are happy shooting with only smart phones.

The rally ended at 3:35 p.m. and there was no rubbish left behind. It was really "bersih".

Affordable Meal in Downtown Tokyo

2012-04-27T19:38:00.000+08:00

Everybody knows that Japan has very high living expenses. Travellers who are on a tight budget always find it hard to look for reasonably priced food items in downtown Tokyo. However, there are shops scattered around the streets which sell food at affordable price. When I first visited Shinjuku in 2008, this was what I found.

This shop was selling mainly soba but there were some set meals available too. The cheapest soba in soup was ¥250 and the most expensive set meal was ¥570. There was absolutely no pain in the neck for me who doesn't understand Japanese to make the food order. All the food plastic models were life size that looked exactly like the real food.

I settled for the mid-price set meal which was ¥490. After paying at the ticket machine, I was given a coupon of food item ordered. I went to the cooking station and gave them the coupon and they started preparing my meal right away. That's Japanese efficiency.

Minutes later, my set meal of stir-fried beef and salmon with rice was ready. I just needed to carry the tray and find an empty seat to savour my meal. Although the food quality wasn't top notch, it was still a fulfilling meal. It was a cheap meal by Japanese standard.

Trdelník in Český Krumlov

2012-04-22T21:15:00.000+08:00

If I were to choose a pastry that represents Czech Republic, I would undoubtedly answer: "Trdelník!" This unique sweet pastry is everywhere in Prague. The only difference between Prague trdelník and Český Krumlov trdelník is the way that they are sold. In Prague, they are sold in open stalls. In Český Krumlov, they are sold through windows.

If you want to buy the pastry, you just peep at the window and the shopkeeper will show up to serve you.

This is another shop that was always short of trdelník to sale during my visit.

When I peeped through the window, I saw the baker busy manning the oven, preparing freshly baked trdelník, popping hot from the oven.

Every single trdelník detached from the drum was immediately grabbed by the queueing customers.

This trdelník didn't stay long on the pile of crushed nuts before it went to serve the gastronomic journey of a satisfying customer.

Changing Light at Český Krumlov Castle

2012-04-21T21:04:00.002+08:00

During my first evening in Český Krumlov, I waited at the viewing platform to photograph the sunset and dusk views of the Český Krumlov Castle. During summer in 2011, the sun didn't set until about 9 p.m., so I waited.

At 9:30 p.m., the floodlights were switched on, but the sky was still bright. So, I waited again.

It was not until 10 p.m. that the sky turned into a sapphire-blue background for my shooting. It was all worth the wait.

Each of these pictures is a HDR merged from 6 to 9 images. If not for the HDR merging, not much details can be revealed in these high-contrast scenes.

Soba in a Bamboo Box

2012-04-15T20:45:00.002+08:00

Before I visited Japan, I never knew that soba (buckwheat noodles)can be served in hot soup, as most of the Japanese restaurants in Malaysia serve chilled soba with a cold dipping sauce only.

It was almost four years ago on 27^th August 2008 that I had the best yet soba in hot soup in my life! It was at a small restaurant at the scenic Agatsuma-Keikoku in Gunma Prefecture.

This traditional Japanese restaurant even has a fire pit for boiling water and also keeping warm on cold days. It is this kind of ambiance that makes dinning in this restaurant even more enjoyable.

It was low-peak tourist season, so even with five of us, the restaurant owner was surprised by our patronage. We were already very hungry after burning much calories climbing up and down the bridge construction sites, but we still had to wait for our food because the restaurant owner wasn't expecting such a 'big' group.

The hot soup with some side dishes were first served. My host scientist explained to me that the soup was cooked from birds. When he saw the doubtful expression on my face, he tried harder and finally remembered the name of the species - ducks. He wasn't wrong in the first place, duck belongs to the bird family anyway.

The side dishes consist of some pickled cucumber and tomato, and some deep-fried vegetables. I gobbled them up before I ate the noodles.

When the noodles were served, I was quite overwhelmed by the presentation. Noodles in a halved bamboo box! The Japanese always have a way to make the food looks as good as it tastes. I dipped the noodles in the hot soup pile after pile, and this is still the best soba that I have tasted so far.

I really miss Japanese food in Japan!

The Church of St. Vitus in Český Krumlov

2012-04-14T10:36:00.000+08:00

I don't know how many cathedral and churches are named after St. Vitus, but I know at least two of them. One is the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, and the other I am talking about in this post is in Český Krumlov. I have seen people being confused by the locality of each church in discussion forums.

The construction of church began in the 14^th century and it had gone through a series of reconstruction to its state as we see it today. It is still very well maintained.

The bell tower of this Gothic church, together with the Český Krumlov Castle, form the symbolic skyline of Český Krumlov. In the medieval times, these two towers also symbolised the balance of power between the monarchy and religion.

Under the warm-light-tone morning sun, the church has a warm glow.

In mid-day, the church has a neutral colour tone.

At the back of the church is a monastery joined to the church by a bridge.

Entrance to the church is free, but not allowed during church services. Taking photograph is not allowed inside the church, but during my visit, a group of Taiwanese tourists were snapping pictures to their heart content until a prudish attendant came in, pointing to the "No Photography" sign while shouting: "No photo! No photo!"

Take some time to visit this church when you are in Český Krumlov. Although it is not as grand as the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, it has marked on the history of this beautiful small town.

A Touch of Swiss in Český Krumlov

2012-04-11T09:40:00.003+08:00

When I walked along Vltava River to the quieter part of Český Krumlov on one morning, I saw something very interesting. This part of Český Krumlov is more Swiss than Czech.

It was just about 7 a.m. in the morning. Therefore, there were not many people around. Furthermore, these are the hotels on the more tranquil part of Český Krumlov where everybody was still sound asleep.

If I were to stay in Český Krumlov for a longer period, I would surely make an effort to come here again with a mug of coffee and some sandwiches for breakfast.

Since I didn't have time, I brought back these scenes in my camera, just to sip my coffee while munching my sandwiches in front of my computer screen.

Playing with the Statues on Český Krumlov Castle

2012-04-06T10:26:00.002+08:00

There are several statues along the walkway connecting two of the courtyards of the castle. This walkway is actually a bridge on a fort offering the view of the main square. There are statues along both sides of the bridge. When I saw them, I got this idea of making them the interesting foreground for some of my photos. Hence, I got these shots presented to you here.

In fact, the walkway itself is also a very tranquil place. I could sit here for the whole afternoon sipping up my coffee while admiring the beautiful view of Český Krumlov.

Going Vegetarian in Český Krumlov

2012-04-02T20:12:00.000+08:00

After tasting the vegetarian food in Prague, I was quite impressed with the vegetarian food in Czech Republic. So, when I was in Český Krumlov, I patronised another vegetarian Restaurant called Laibon.

This restaurant is hidden inside a small lane off the main street. It took me quite a while to locate it even with a map in hand.

The restaurant is set in a Bohemian atmosphere with vaulted ceiling and lit with candles, but I prefer to sit at the backyard which is just by the river.

With such a view by the river, it surely adds extra points to the dining experience. The waitress and the restaurant owner were also very polite and they were always smiling to me even while providing services to the other tables. The owner came to my table several times to utter some nice words when he was more free. Extra cookie points for that!

There were too many choices on the menu for me to decide on the main meal, so I ordered a pot Senchajo (Japanese green tea) to sip on while going through the menu in more detail. This place is surely a perfect place for tea.

After half pot of tea had gone, I was still undecided on my main meal. Something caught my eyes but I couldn't tell what was the Labyrinth of Tastes. After consulting the restaurant owner, I felt that that this item really suited me well, a combination of five of the daily house specialties.

When my meal was served, I knew that I didn't make the wrong choice. It came in a combination of Indian and Arabian selections, including couscous, which is one of my favourite food.

I cleared up the whole plate of food and this was one of my most satisfying meals in Czech Republic. Who needs meat when one is served with such delicious vegetarian food?

Who Framed Český Krumlov?

2012-03-28T00:00:00.004+08:00

Date taken: 6^th June 2011
Location: Český Krumlov, Czech Republic
Camera equipment: Nikon D300 + Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D

Český Krumlov: A Fairy-tale Town

2012-03-25T21:38:00.000+08:00

The best place to get the spectacular view of Český Krumlov is at the viewing platform of Český Krumlov Castle. I actually went up there twice to capture these views.

In fact, there are several spots along the way up to the viewing platform that offer some good views of this beautiful small town.

However, the best view is still at the viewing platform on the highest ground of the castle without any obstruction. With a wide-angle zoom lens at 17-mm focal length (on cropped DSLR body), I still didn't manage to capture the whole scene.

After putting on my ultra-wide-angle zoom lens at 12-mm focal length, I still need to capture two photos to cover the whole view of this spectacular small town.

When I was satisfied with the wide-angle view of the town, I put on my telephoto zoom lens to shoot the close-up views of St. Vitus Cathedral and the castle tower.

After all these, I still felt that there was something missing. I still hadn't got the shot of the whole town. Therefore, I mount on my wide-angle zoom lens again and took a series of five photos and stitched them into a panorama. Now I am satisfied! You may click on the photo below to view a larger picture.

Ascending to the Český Krumlov Castle

2012-03-24T21:12:00.000+08:00

Český Krumlov Castle is the main attraction to the people visiting Český Krumlov. Its high vantage point offers spectacular view of the main square.

From the main square, it is an ascending cobble-stone pavement all the way to the castle.

This archway marks the beginning of the climb to the castle through the castle's main gate on its left. Beyond this archway is the boundary of this beautiful small town.

Just after the main gate, I spotted two bears wandering around the lower castle ground. They don't come out to greet the visitors that often though, so seeing them is kind of lucky.

Before entering the 1^st courtyard, the castle tower can be admired at a close distance.

After entering into the 1^st courtyard, the castle tower is also in sight, but the bottom part blocked by the other buildings.

The 2^nd courtyard and 3^rd courtyard are connected by a very steep corridor.

Half way up the climb is a viewing platform offering the view of the main square. However, this is still not the best vantage point.

I finally reached the 3^rd courtyard with colourful murals. They are markedly different from the real masonry patterns.

This is where a better view of this beautiful small town can be admired, but still not the best yet.

For better view, I had to keep on ascending to the 4^th courtyard.

With all these views laying before me, all the tiredness form the ascend was all washed away!

Český Krumlov: Bon Bon

2012-03-18T21:25:00.000+08:00

Bon Bon is a chocolate shop in Český Krumlov that every chocolate lover would be crazy about. It's like a pilgrimage to the heaven of chocolate.

Even non-chocolate lover would be amazed by the selection available. There are something that you can imagine and there are something totally out of your imagination.

The more you look at them, the more you will drool. The more you drool, the more you will be tempted.

You may think that I had gobbled up tons of chocolates there, but I only walked out of the shop with a scoop of dark chocolate ice-cream. I have very good self-discipline!

Back from Hangzhou

2012-03-14T10:45:00.004+08:00

Two days before I left for my Hangzhou trip, I already had symptoms of flu. I thought it would clear by itself so long as I drink enough water. I was very wrong! The temperature in Hangzhou had not recovered from the extremely cold winter, and that made my flu even worse. After being back in Kuching for two days already, I'm still on sick leave.

I guess the bad flu is also partly due to lack of quality rest as I still spent 2 afternoons roaming around the West Lake and some old streets of Hangzhou. Surprisingly I still had the energy to do that.

I'm now feeling low in energy and drowsy. I don't think I even have the energy to walk for an hour. But I could walk for more than 5 hours in Hangzhou! I guess it was just the matter of the power of the mind. I didn't want to miss the chance of seeing Hangzhou for the second time.

I need to get back to work tomorrow, so I need to get more quality rest. I will blog more about Hangzhou after I have cleared my backlog on Czech Republic, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Shanghai, Jiangsu, etc. Now I'm reminding myself how seriously backlogged I'm!

Revisiting Hangzhou

2012-03-08T09:36:00.003+08:00

During my trip to Shanghai in year 2009, I detoured to Hangzhou (杭州) and stayed there for a day. It is a very nice city by the scenic West Lake (西湖).

After more than two years without even blogging about this nice city, I am flying off to Kuala Lumpur today; catching my early morning flight to Hangzhou tomorrow!

The weather forecast for the next few days for Hangzhou doesn't look promising for touristy activities. I hope the meteorological department is wrong about that so that I can capture some more pictures of Hangzhou through my lenses. Otherwise I'll just have to stay in the hotel after the conference sessions and food.

Český Krumlov: Moving on to the Main Square

2012-03-04T21:00:00.003+08:00

Český Krumlov is a very small town which can be explored solely on foot. In fact no vehicle is allowed in the town besides taxis for people with disability or less mobility.

Only a few steps away from my hotel, I was already mesmerised by the beautiful view of the castle tower at a viewing platform.

A few more steps ahead, I saw a small lane; also offering the view of the castle tower. This tower has been the main feature of the skyline of this UNESCO World Heritage since its existence.

Along my way to the main square, the streets are lined with nice restaurants and beautiful shops. All the streets are paved with cobble stone, making the strolling even more enjoyable.

Perhaps there were just too many nice things along the way, and without me knowing it; I was already on the main square!

Český Krumlov: Hotel Garni Myší Díra

2012-03-03T15:55:00.001+08:00

I usually book my accommodation for my holidays through Booking.com. It was no exception for my trip to Czech Republic. Hotel Garni Myší Díra seemed decent through the website, so I closed the deal online.

The hotel is just situated at the edge of the busy small town, which is away from the hustle and bustle of the touristy main square. It is also very easy to get to the main town square from here, which is only less than a 5-minute walk.

When I entered the room, I found neither air conditioner nor ceiling fan. I enquired the hotel receptionist about it and they told me this historic building from the 18^th century needs non of those. It's cool in summer and warm in winter. I returned to my room, still unconvinced. After my two-night stay there, I was convinced. It was really cooling although it was already the beginning of summer in early June.

Each of the hotel room has a balcony overlooking the Vltava River, making it a great place for a laid-back vacation. When I needed a rest from the walk around town, I sat here to recharge.

The balcony of my room offered this spectacular view of the quieter part of Český Krumlov. I could sit here biting on my biscuits while sipping on my coffee. I could also enjoy the free wi-fi provided by the hotel here.

Buffet breakfast is complimentary with every booking. There are a variety of bread to choose from, which a few types of cheese and fruit jam. I like the Czech baguettes as the crust is very crunchy. Muesli with dried fruit is also a standard item for me for breakfast.