I heard of a lot of wonderful stories from them after they came back from the trip. It was a really enjoyable trip experiencing the heaven like scenery and on experiencing how people make their living there at this little country near the south pole. Needless me to comment about how astonishing and beautiful the landscapes there are, just do a bit of Googling and one can see tons of them. I would presume that you at least watched The Lord of the ring, right? The movie is made there.

Well, anyway, I’m in no position to be to deliver their experience here precisely though but it was really an enjoyable trip! Worth it! Photos and videos captured would speak for them.

Click here to view all photos in slideshow

Auckland – City of sails

Auckland is known as the ‘city of sails’, and an often quoted – though difficult to prove – statistic is that there are more boats per capita in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world. (Quoted from NewZealand.com)

At a farm

Crystal clear river with fishes

Blue pool

On the move, some landscape captured along the way.

I hope I know at which cable car station they are at though.

Serene, peaceful, beautiful town. My parents said that you can never get into traffic jam as they have once counted that there are only 5 cars that pass through a town road in 10 minutes.

Oh wait, some time you do get into traffic when sheeps are making their way across the road to feed on other grassland.

That’s all for now. Enjoy your weekend folks.

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2. Old Raiway Station, Kuala Lumpur (1 May 2010)
3. Kerachut Trip this sunday

Driving on the street of Hat Yai

It has been slightly more than 10 years since I last visited Thailand.

It was really an eye opening experience being able to tag along Wendy and her friends to Hat Yai last month. And of course many thanks to Ah Sea for being our driver! Without her we would be literally blinded in the alien land up north.

It took us about 5 hours ride from Penang as we decided to go through the not-so-hectic Padang Besar (Perlis) check point rather than the usual Bukit Kayu Hitam (Kedah) entry point. Arriving there, we first checked in to the drive-in hotel and later on went out for lunch.

The name of the hotel is Leelawadee Resort (thanks to Wendy for remembering!) I can’t really recall what is the name of this hotel but and it’s reasonable cheap! It only costs us about 350 baths per night!

Drive-in hotel, Hat Yai

For lunch, we had something that’s I can never find back in Malaysia. It’s koay teow-like mee with pig’s blood as the main ingredient for its soup. Definitely a good experience I must say…

Something you can never find in Malaysia. Koay teow alike mee with pig's blood

Moving on, we went to the typical shopping area around Lee Gardens (Wikipedia map). Following the several bombing incidents that rocked southern Thailand many months ago, the security guards may perform check underneath your vehicle and in your car’s boot if they find you cheeky enough!

Around Lee Gardens shopping mall and hotel, Hat Yai

Hat Yai looks very lively with its economy. If I’m not mistaken, I have read a piece of news before saying that during peak period, the number of tourists would actually outnumber the local populations. It seems to me that there are people everywhere in every corner of the city.

It’s practically to safe during the day time but try not to walk alone in quiet places during the night. Staying in the crowd would be a good idea.

Posing with the bronze mermaid statue in Samila beach

Later in the afternoon, we drove to Samila beach, Songkhla (Wikimapia link). This is where the golden bronze statue of a mermaid is located. It is the landmark of Songkhla. Samila beach is really long and it is filled with tons of people on the beach when we visited it.

Recently, they have completed another statue whereby it is a dragon that is really really long where you need to drive from one part of its body to another. What you are seeing in the photo below is the head. The tail and part of its body is far apart.

The head of the dragon

Later in the evening we visited a night market back in the Hat Yai city and only eating our dinner at 12am. That’s the kind of timing you will only get to eat if you have bunch of girls visiting a night market buying clothes like crazy. One more post to follow after this to end this trip’s postings.

Happy Chinese New Year folks.

PS: The map links below shows the location of the bronze statue.

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Alright, this round I’m going to tell you the story about our second stop during our days in Vietnam. As the title can tell, we are heading to Halong Bay on the second day of our 5 days tour.

It started with a 4 hours travel by bus provided by the tour company from Hanoi. It was really an eye opener traveling on the route. Our bus couldn’t really travel fast no thanks to the crazy traffic in Vietnam. Roads are bumpy and there are lots of traffic along the way, particularly when we are crossing a town. I think we were able to travel at only 60km/h maximum throughout the whole journey to Halong City.

After hours of travel time on the bus, we have finally reached the ticketing office for Halong Bay. This is where we boarded a jet boat which later transferred us to Pinta Cruiser. (See discussions on Pinta Cruiser on tripadvisor)

We paid 85USD per pax for this junk. And for 85USD, I think we may be paying a little too much compared to others. Remember that it’s always wise to check the prices around the tour agencies in the Old Quarters back in Hanoi. There are plenty of them there. I overlooked on this point as I made all my arrangements through the hotel counter. It was hassle free though as I only needed to deal with them. The extras are probably for the commissions.

Another thing to note that the junk operator would request to keep our passports with them. I’m not too sure on why they want to do so but I guess it may be for security reasons. Just in case when the ship sinks, the authority will be able to find all of its passengers identity more easily or maybe they just want to make sure that we will clear our bill before leaving the boat (or by jumping and running away).

Prior to all that, the stay in Halong Bay is enjoyable nevertheless though! We need not to worry about not getting TV reception or cellphone network. We are getting satisfactory cellphone reception along the route although it may drops a little some time.

We signed up for 2 days 1 night tour. After our lunch on board, we went to Hang Sung Sot Grotto cave. The entrance ticket the tour operator bought for us back on shore includes the fees to visit one cave.

Situated in the centre of the UNESCO-declared World Heritage area, the Sửng Sôt or Surprise Grotto is on Bồ Hòn Island, and is one of the finest and widest grottoes of Hạ Long Bay.

Ascending to the grotto, the way is covered by trees and foliage, and consists of great paved stone blocks.
Inside, it is partitioned into two chambers; the first one being similar to a wide theatre hall. Many stalactites hang from the high ceiling, with numerous possible forms and shapes.

A narrow passage leads to the second rooms, where a flow of light meets visitors. The chamber is so immense it could contain thousands of people at one time.
At the deepest point of the grotto, a “royal garden” appears with a clear pond and a seemingly fascinating landscape of mountains. Many birds and plants (benjamin figs, cycads and centenary banyan trees) live here. On nice days groups of monkeys might arrive in search of fruit.

It is situated in the central tourism centre of the bay, as well as Ti Tốp Beach, Bô Nâu Grotto, Mê Cung Grotto and Luồn Grotto. French named it “grotte des surprises” (grotto of surprise) From the wharf, you climb 50 steep stone stairs to the mouth of the grotto, which lies 25 m above the sea level. Going down some 10 stone stairs, you reach the mouth of a grotto. The grotto covers some 10,000 m2. Inside the grotto there have thousands of stalactites and stalagmites along the 500-meter paved passage. Light posts line the passage and serve as signposts and ornaments. The lighting system with elegant styles adds more charm to the beauty of the grotto.

Up in the 30-meter roof of the grotto, one can figure out small, soft and even concave spots, which look like patterns in the ceiling of a theater. A huge piece of stone stands up to the ceiling by the grotto’s mouth. This evidences one of the typical karst-style grottoes with high scientific values.

At the side of the entrance, the rock seems to form the shape of a horse with a long sword. Legend has it, that after having defeated the Ân aggressors, Thánh Gióng (the Saint Gióng) helped the population to chase away evil spirits and demons. After this feat, Saint Gióng flew to heaven, leaving a stone horse and sword to continue to keep the demons away.

Quoted from halongtravelguide.com

Along the way to the opening of the cave at the top, we can get a very good view of Halong Bay. Hazy weather hindered us from getting a good shot so I opted for Sephia effect here.

After then, we were just sit back and relax, cruising along the bay for the rest of the day.

On the next day, I went kayaking around Hang Trong. It is advisable to kayak on low tide as we can get higher clearance when kayaking through caves. Going through the cave on high tide may be a little bit riskier but still do-able.

It was another tiring 4 hours trip back to Hanoi after lunch on board. Basically that marks the end of our Halong Bay trip.

If there’s only one place you can go in Vietnam, that would be Halong Bay!

From the jetty, we traveled to hang Song Sat for caving, then stayed overnight at H. Ti Top. On the next day, we went kayak around hang Trong before heading back to the shore.

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Anyhow, I went on with my parents in the end. It was a 5 days 4 nights trip to the world second largest rice exporter country. The country with over 3 thousands kilometers of coastline. Insane.

We traveled using MAS’s as it offers hassle-free transit and it’s actually slightly cheaper than Air Asia. Furthermore, we don’t need to pay a single cent for the meal served on board.

Flying for 3 hours plus without (FREE) food and drinks can be starving and thirsty.

We had our fist lunch at quan an ngon in the Old Quarters after arrival. It’s a well known place among the locals and tourists. Many have recommended this place so we gave it a try.

What you see on the left is what Vietnamese love to eat. Often, they like to wrap their food around like this. It’s something similar to Japanese’s temaki.

Well, I must say that we are not really “into” the local foods over there. Nevertheless, it is a very good experience!

Just enjoy the photos I took during the trip and I’ll tell you more in the next post.

Staying alive is a key to another great trip, you will know why in the next post.

Till then, take care.

PS: Oh ya, if you are viewing the photos in the photo album, make sure you try the slide show feature ya!

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Surviving in the large city, first thing first

Apart from ensuring you do not lose anything while packing yourself out of the airplane, you need to do this right after you get off of the plane. Remember to grab whatever-paper-newspaper-brochure-map-guide that you can see once you touch down. They are FREE but yet highly informational! It’s especially useful to me as I forgot to bring along my Lonely Planet’s Guide to Hong Kong and Macau. Pathetic!

A map is really what you need to kick off your trip! It’s particularly useful when you need to plan your day, see if your desired locations connect to each other in geographical sense.

Get Octopus

That’s really what you need to kick off your trip (also!). We can use it to pay at (very) wide range of merchants across the city and at almost all means of public transportation. Here is how it works.

• First of all, pay HKD50 as initial deposit for the Octopus card. It’s available at all MTR stations and major transportation hubs.
• Top up with the usable value you need, say HKD100. (You have actually paid HKD150 including the deposit)
• You may use continuously until your usable balance finishes.

Overdrafting

• Let say that your usable balance now is HKD10. We may tap into the initial deposit as much as HKD35.
• This translates to amount of HKD10+HKD35 = HKD45.

Example below…

Card balance : HKD 62.40

Transaction amount: HKD 76.80

Balance: HKD62.40 – HKD 76.80 = – HKD 14.40

As you can see, the card now has a value of negative 14.40. We will need to reload it to its positive value before we can use it again.

PS: Over-drafting it is the second best way of spending all the money possible inside the card just in case you forget to return the card before you leave Hong Kong. Just like me.

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Update 2007:

Cheng Cheng! More people got to know this route via NST. Bravo Bravo! Kill the TOLL!

!

Update 3 Feb 2007:

New map: (To clarify your doubts, picked from google map… the guide same as the simplest! instruction above.. after roundabout 3oclock , left, right, left… DANG!)

Update November 2006: Road construction finished and you can easily hit 100km/h on the fresh new hot road surface!

Ever wondered if there’s free road to get out of the concrete desert? Here’s one simple guide for you to get to Puchong/Bukit Jalil without going thru any crappy toll booth.

Using the usual way of going out of Cyberjaya. Go all the way straight, pass thru Kajang/Seremban intersection. Take the next exit which is Serdang/Seri Kembangan.
Next, when you hit the traffic light, turn left or you may want to go straight as well. I assume you turn left, go straight all the way till you reach a roundabout. Take 3 o’clock turning (turn right) and go all the way till you see a intersection. At the intersection, turn left and go all the way straight till you reach another intersection. From there, turn right and go all the way!! You will pass thru dozens of houses all the way then you will see a fuel station on your right. Don’t care bout it, just go straight….

Notice that in the map you can hop into Bukit Jalil highway but its now CLOSED for upgrading work. You need to go into Bandar Kinrara. Its now shown in the map but ill brief you guys thru.

You go all the way.. theres only one way when you see the fuel station. Go all the way till you see intersection, turn left. You see one rows of flats on your left, go all the way till intersection, turn left again. Go straight all the way till you see trafiic light.

Red Line: Turn left to go to Puchong, Sunway, Subang.
Purple Line: Go straight, all the way till another traffic light, turn right will lead you to old klang road.
Blue Line: If you going to Bukit Jalil then you need to turn left, then turn left again then you will hop into Bukit Jalil Highway already. (remmeber its the left turning after the traffic light, taking the first left will lead you to Puchong)

So… after all these lengthy explanation you still want a even easier guide?
ok.. no problem…

From the highway in Cyberjaya. Exit to Serdang/Seri Kembangan.
Traffic light? Turn left.
Roundabout? Turn right. (3 oclock)

Intersection? Turn left.
Intersection again? Turn right.
Intersection again? Turn left.
Get back to the map to choose your route you desire~!

Hope my guide is helpful to you.
Information: There’s road construction going on along the stretch from traffic to roundabout. Be careful when driving!

OLD MAP:

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This is the latest report (as of posting time) that we can obtain from the Highway Authority Malaysia. To view the latest traffic report, you may check out its website at http://www.llmtrafik.gov.my/showtraffic.aspx?hw=PLS

Other than that, you can actually obtain (almost) live image feed of selected locations for all major highways in the country from the Highway Authority website as well.

Below is the traffic report information that is helpful when you are on the move quoted from The Star. (Click on The Star for more)

For further updates during these CNY holidays, tune in to Red FM during these times and days:

Saturday (Feb 13) 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm

Tuesday (Feb 16) 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm

Saturday (Feb 20) 7am, 8am, 10am, 5pm

Sunday (Feb 21) 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm

First published on 18AUG2009: I’m stuck in office at the moment so I decided to try make a quick check on the traffic condition nearby my office. So, I decided to “BUMP” up this post for the sake for the environment. I decided to stay in office doing unpaid OT. Below is the original post…

Some people might not be aware of the traffic monitoring system in Malaysia that are made available on the internet so I decided to post this up!

Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia (Malaysia Highway Authority)

You can get surveillance cameras’ images and traffic information for the following highways

• KESAS – Shah Alam Expressway
• Damansara-Puchong Highway
• LPT – East Coast Highway
• NPE – New Pantai Expressway
• PENANG BRG – Penang Bridge
• PLUS – North-South Expressway
• SPRINT – Kuala Lumpur Traffic Dispersal Scheme
• ELITE – Central Link Expressway

DBKL

UPDATE: Apparently the link for DBKL is dead. Forget it.

As the name suggests, Kuala Lumpur council provides traffic information on the city centre and major route going in/out Kuala Lumpur.

ITIS

You are ought to use this website to check also because government has spent a fortune on this project. ITIS provides the traffic map updates around Kuala Lumpur city centre and its surrounding areas, much larger than DBKL’s. It covers Cheras, Kepong, Sg Besi, Selayang, Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya and so on.

UPDATE: Live traffic images for places around Kuala Lumpur by ITIS

Note: First posted on 17 Dec 2009

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Well, of course, we are given hour long lecture before we can pick out our stuff and get kicking!

It costs us RM 125 per pax for the white water rafting activity. I’m not sure if the price tag is too steep or what as this is my first time joining in. The water level is quite low on that day so we did not really experience any really steep drop that would surely send everyone going haywire panic screaming! Too bad.

There was a part along the journey where it’s called The Broken Dam. It was about a meter plus in height and if the the water stream flow above the wall, surely it gonna be a bang.

We did not know that they are going to charge us a whooping shocking expensive RM 150 for the shots. Fortunately, they shot a couple photo of ours.

After the grandmother story telling session, here’s some advices from HugoLim.com on your next water rafting trip.

Before getting wet.

• Bring your own (waterproof) camera.
• Of course, bring spare clothes to change after the trip.

While you are getting wet.

• Listen to what your guide say, they won’t kill you although you have signed the letter of liability release.
• Is your waterproof camera with you, still?
• Enjoy crushing into stone.

After you get wet.

• Congrats. You are alive. Get a shower, go home.

PS: Just enjoy the show.

Photo album here.

Location of Kampar river is after the jump.

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This is the very first time I step my foot on Sungai Palas Boh tea plantation field. It was a chaotic moment squeezing through the traffic up the highland and into the tea field in the long weekend. Traveling from point A to B that usually takes a 10minutes becomes a good devastating 1 hour. But never mind, the scenery really pay off!

This is my first time I created HDR Panorama too. There’s actually 3 variations made in processing these HDR panoramic. Tell me which one you like. Personally I love the first in the collection.

Hope you enjoy my collection on the tea field this time.

PS: Photos found here are released under Creative Common lisense. You may use them for personal purposes. Just give a credit/link back later on. Cheers.

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Smokehouse Cameron Highlands (Click for flickr/bigger size) Taken using Canon 400D with Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM at 10mm. Post-processed using Digital Photo Professional and tone-maped using Photomatix 3 Pro.

Yes! You got it right! Smokehouse Cameron Highlands is a place where every photo bug must stop-by for a picture or two. We went there for a quick snap shots before going to get our much anticipated steamboats. Smokehouse is popular among photographers for its colonial English style buildings. See the picture itself and you will know why.

Apart from that, I got harsh treatment from the hotel when I walked in to check out the ambiance of the restaurant. Seconds after I got in, a lady says “Sorry this is for patrons only”. Without much thinking, I just walked off. Needless to waste my time on this.

Even if I do not have the intention to dine in there, the hotel shouldn’t treat its potential customers this way. No way. And hell no I will ever dine or stay in this hotel. This reviews speak itself.

Location map (estimate) is after the jump.

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