Nick Chan Dot Net

Second Day of Tiger Chinese New Year at Pengkalan Hulu

Written by Nicholas Chan on March 3, 2010 – 1:50 am -

If you are a long follower of my blog, you must have already know that every second day for Chinese New Year, daddy will drive us down to Pengkalan Hulu, Perak, somewhere far inside, near to the Thailand border where my uncle’s house is located. It’s the same every year ever since I was small. Why there? It’s my grandma’s hometown.

My uncle’s house very boring one, there’s no Astro, no broadband, no shopping mall, no aircon, very hot at there. There’s only a TV with local TV station and my entertainment at there was watching local TV show and drove there around to see what’s around.

It’s very hot day, don’t know why so hot and there’s no air con. Dad drove us around the town and went as far as to the Thailand border. Too bad we didn’t bring passport, or else we would already get over it to check Thailand out.

Went to Klian Intan again, 10 minutes drive from Pengkalan Hulu town, it’s a kampung where my grandma’s real hometown. No idea why we went there, probably because we had no place to go already.

Very small little place, with population less than 400 I guess.

Back to the house again and watch TV. Still remember there’s Stephen Chow’s movie showing on that afternoon, it got rid a little bit of our boredom.

At 5pm, we had our meal ready, it’s a very early dinner for us. Usually I have dinner at later than 7pm, but at there, they eat at 5pm. Wow.

A very unfortunate thing occurred that night and that’s my mom’s handphone had accidentally dropped into the toilet bowl, luckily there’s no shit or pee. But still it feels yucky and dirty. Phone is dead and I dare not try to turn it on because it had been into the bowl before. A chance for mom to get herself a new phone. Hohoho. She always doesn’t want to change her phone to a better one and now there’s a chance for her already.

We went back to Penang at night and it’s late. Brother and I were hungry again and I brought him to Abu to eat Fried Maggi Mee. We were too hungry and we had double, in the end, full until cannot sleep that night. Shit.

Tags: Chinese New Year, cny 10, Far, forest, Kampung, Ulu
Posted in Around Malaysia, Cool Stuff, Lifelog | Comments

Hat Yai At Night, Before My Camera Went Dead

Written by Nicholas Chan on January 28, 2010 – 1:52 am -

Yes, you read me. My camera, Canon 400D went dead on the first night in Hat Yai and which made me feel sad and I couldn’t shoot for the second day.

Oh my god. Luckily, I at least got photos on the first day so I could write it up here. To me, traveling without a camera is not call traveling already, I can’t live without a camera when traveling, I want to capture every moment of it because I don’t know whether I will be going there again or not.

Cut the crap and here comes the photos!

During the evening, I went to meet up a relatives who live in Hat Yai. We call him Wen Shok, I don’t know how to relate him to me, I only know he is close to my grandma. He brought us to see his new home in Hat Yai. It’s a 3 storey shop house.

And at there, I also met his very cute grandson, who can listens to Mandarin more than Thai. Cool right? I didn’t get his name though. Not really interested in new home and my phone GPS had some problem locating my location and I was bored at time. No choice, have to follow my parents.

Then we were brought to a very cool Thai restaurant near the university area. They have a very nice garden and the interior has a cottage-liked look. Like.

Gas station. Woo!

After dinner, we went back to our hotel area. Stalls were all set up by the road side and it’s a shopping street again and, Thai-style night street shopping, it’s just the same at every where in Thailand, Phuket, Bangkok. So, it’s nothing special to me already.

Quite many people went shopping too. I heard from the talking, most speaks Mandarin and Hokkien, so I assumed they were tourists who were from somewhere near my place. =D Another interesting thing is that the Thai at there speaks Mandarin too! We don’t need to speak English or point this and that anymore. Though, I don’t really like this because I like pointing this and that, it’s more challenging. Hehe.

Most stuff by the street were clothes and shoes. Nothing much already.

Boy sleeping while mom’s working.

Mango?

Then food is at another corner.

Famous fish tank/aquarium in Hat Yai. O.O

There’s 3 of us, me, dad and mom and the only person who was really shopping was mom only. Me and dad, two were just like bodyguard, following here and there.

The not-boring part was the foot and neck massage. Really relaxing and it’s one hour at there. The person do my foot, then a little bit of my hand and my neck too! Now I know why dad so like Thai massage.

After a massage would be some supper. It’s 11pm and 12am Malaysian time already, no wonder I felt sleepy a little bit at that moment.

Was planning to go to a live band bistro after supper but sadly, the bistro was full and we were not allow to go in, so in the end went back to hotel and at the same time, my camera went dead. Shit man!

Tags: hat yai, massage, Night, Night Market, Shopping, street, Thailand, Travel, trip
Posted in Lifelog, Shopping, Thailand, Travel | Comments

Afternoon Walkaround in Hat Yai City

Written by Nicholas Chan on January 24, 2010 – 9:02 pm -

After checking into the hotel, Novotel Central in Hat Yai, mom went to do her shopping on her own, dad went to look for massage and I was alone walking around on the street. It’s the downtown or city center of Hat Yai and it’s both tourist and locals populated area, everyone is here, very easy to roam around and I didn’t even have a map on my hand.

Right below my hotel is a shopping centre, Central. I didn’t went in to see, it’s a department store. Instead, I started off my walk from the shopping centre which is right across the street, Lee Garden. I was attracted by the large Lacoste logo and Apple logo. Cool, imagine such a small city has Lacoste and Apple. I only can find Lacoste in Kuala Lumpur here in my own country.

Enjoying the view and wind. =D

It’s nice to see people walking on the street. I always love happenings street and we usually can’t find it in Penang. Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur is happenings though. It’s not very hot in the afternoon, sun shines were blocked by the building so it’s shady.

Lee Garden is a very small shopping mall. I notice that most Hat Yai’s teenager and youngster come here to hang out just like I always go to Gurney Plaza with friends here in Penang.

Although it’s small, there’s many thing to see. The Lacoste shop is in there and Apple too! There’s little area in the mall called Idea Market, it’s like flea market and can see a lot of handmade stuff, and the best part is that it’s air-conned and pop music blasting around. Pretty cool.

Big prawn! Dare to eat?

I like coconut juice. Do you?

I didn’t really buy things because nothing interest me there. It’s just the same as in Phuket, Bangkok which I had visited several times before.

I only bought a mobile sim pack which was used to contact my parents and post photo to my Away From Computer.

Keep walking along the street and found another departmental store, Odean Shopping Mall. Although I am not a fan of departmental store, I did go in to take a look to see how different is their departmental store with us. Surprisingly, interior was not pretty but there’s many people inside and many brands too.

What to buy in Thailand? Thai made funny shirt, I have a few already so I was not interested. Fake AA imitation product? Even if I do buy, I don’t dare to take out also. Genuine FTW!

Food stalls are everywhere. Every few walks, you will see food stalls, cooked and not cooked. Thai’s street food seems delicious but I scared it’s not clean. I only drink coconut juice by the road side before only.

A motel’s lobby. A bit scary.

Walked a few street and things were the same. It’s just like an exercising walk for me on that afternoon, hanging a camera around my neck. For sure, I am a tourist there!

Cute kitty. Do you want to zh’ng (pimp) your car like that?

Walked until very far, didn’t know where was I but I still know the way back the hotel. I believe I walked to Kim Yong Market. There’s many things to see and I was just getting into it, and my mom called me for afternoon tea. Oh shit, didn’t get to roam the whole area.

Another thing I wanted to say is there’s many 7 Eleven convenience store in just a small area. Every few turn into different street, I saw 7 Eleven, I think I saw 3-4 7 Eleven outlets there.

Many fruits! Apple, you like?

I asked her to wait for a while before I was quite far away from her. Another 10 minutes walk only can reach her, she was at a coffee shop near Odean. =D

Tags: city, Downtown, Food, hat yai, Market, Shopping, street, Thailand, Travel, trip, walkaround
Posted in Lifelog, Thailand | Comments

Weekend Roadtrip to Hat Yai from Penang

Written by Nicholas Chan on January 21, 2010 – 11:47 pm -

It’s been a long time I’ve never been to Hat Yai, Thailand already, very very very long time. I hardly have the memory in my mind. I know my parents always bring me to Hat Yai when I was small but my real Hat Yai trip would be this time which happened two weeks ago on the weekend.

Hat Yai located on the southern part of Thailand and it’s just right across the border of the northern part of Malaysia. So they’re connected, and dad drove all the way there, for like 2 hours. It’s shorter than going to Kuala Lumpur from my Penang.

Dad didn’t bring the Touch N Go card so have to go back to the ancient way of paying toll which is queue for ticket and pay by cash. It’s smooth smooth all the way, no traffic jam or anything, passed by a lot of padi field which usually don’t get to see when traveling north and the rest houses are not so pretty. Hehe.

The road trip was good, I slept all the way, it’s so sleepy when sitting in the car for a long time and nothing to do. Didn’t even bother to listen to the music, sleeping is good for pasting time.

We then arrived at place called Changloon, no idea where the place is, but I only know the name and at there, we were already very close to the Thai border.

This is the place where we stopped by for a coffee break, toilet break, money changing and the purchase of insurance for entering the Thai.

I didn’t have toilet feel or anything, so I just wait my dad to settle the car insurance thing. It’s like around RM14 per car for entering Thai and a car can stay in Thailand for 14 days, after that need to come out and renew again.

Then back to car and drive for like 10 minutes and we arrived the border where the immigration buildings of the two countries are.

After passing the Malaysian custom, we need to park our car and got out to go to chop our passport. I waited so long at the queue for like half an hour, very very very slow Thai officer. I was like OMG and the line was so long already.

Mom told me to place RM1 note or 10Baht inside the passport when passing it to the officer. I didn’t know about this because the place didn’t have any sign for us to pay 10Baht for going into Thai, I think this is tips for them.

After the long long wait at the immigration, finally I got cleared and got into Thailand. Mobile phone still showing Malaysian mobile at that time and after a while it only changed to Thai roaming mobile.

It’s not Hat Yai yet, it’s only I-don’t-know-what-it’s-called after the border. I still have to sit in the car for another 45 minutes to reach the city of Hat Yai.

There’s no high rise building but you will see building almost the same height at like 7-10 floors and there’s the city. After a long hour car ride, we arrived in Hat Yai, the city. We went to lunch first only then to look for the hotel. We didn’t have any hotel booking in advance which made us encountered a little problem when looking for hotel.

Dad dropped grandma at a relative’s house, only we went to look for hotel. We actually wanted to go for New Season Hotel, but then it’s fulled. Then walked down a few blocks to May Flower Hotel, it’s full again, in the end went to Novotel Central Hotel. Mom doesn’t really like that hotel because she said the toilet is not very clean. They like New Season Hotel more.

Now we only know that so many Malaysian like to come to Hat Yai on the weekend and we need to book the hotel in advance.

Hat Yai is much alike like other place in Thailand, like Phuket and Bangkok, they all look the same with many cables and not so pretty building and same Thai architecture.

After we parked the car at the hotel carpark, checked in, dropped all our luggage in the hotel room, we went out to walk! Dad went to massage, mom went to shopping, I went to walkaround. Stay tune!

Tags: hat yai, roadtrip, Thailand, Travel, trip, weekend
Posted in Lifelog, Thailand | Comments

I Like Bukit Bintang and Pavilion Shopping Mall

Written by Nicholas Chan on December 29, 2009 – 10:39 pm -

I went to Pavilion shopping mall on the second day and also the last day of my very short and fast Kuala Lumpur trip 2 weeks ago. After checking out from the hotel, had enough of shopping at 1Utama, dad brought us to Bukit Bintang.

Look at the LED electronic road sign. LOL

It’s still the same, jamming everywhere in Kuala Lumpur, guess that’s the uniqueness. He dropped us then he went to visit an exhibition in KLCC.

The trip was not really planned, it’s a shopping trip but we only went to two shopping mall, 1Utama and Pavilion which were pretty enough for us to shop and buy stuff for new year. In Western countries, they do Christmas shopping, as for us, we do Chinese New Year shopping, 6 weeks before Chinese New Year. =D

Police inspecting or buying?

Bukit Bintang is a very fun place in Kuala Lumpur, with so many shopping malls at this area like Lot 10, Sungai Wang Plaza, Lowyat Plaza, Berjaya Times Square and Pavilion. Where in Penang can find place like this?

Malaysia rocks!

Fakes.

But somehow, I have to said that Bukit Bintang still can’t fight with Singapore’s Orchard Rd and never will because Orchard Road is so well-planned, everyone like to walk on Orchard Road and all the shopping malls are beautiful, not like here’s, bad maintain and selling fake imitation stuff by the road side of Bukit Bintang. That’s bad. I don’t like this.

Pavilion is the best shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, beautifully design, many brands, many shops, spacious and bright. Although not as rocking as ION @ Orchard, still it’s nice. I like it.

Some Australian wearing like Scottish.

If Penang has such a mall, I pray for many people will go to it. The shopping demand in Penang is very low and people here tend to stay at home then go walking out on the street which made Penang not very happenings, there’s no street full of people, if it’s weekday, the shopping malls here are pretty quiet, it’s only get crowded on the weekends.

Bought a couple of shirts at there and walked around a lot. Love the people, love the shops.

Too many branded stuff, too expensive, I wish I am very rich, but if I am very rich, my demand will go higher already. So better stay what I am then earn a little bit of extra cash, so do support my sponsors on the right of the screen. Without sponsors, I wouldn’t be sharing so many already. =)

That night got stars from the movie of Bodyguard and Assassin, but I went home by evening, so didn’t get the chance to meet the star.

Do you like Pavilion? Where do you like to go for shopping in Kuala Lumpur?

Tags: Cool Stuff, fun, kl trip dec 09, kuala lumpur, Malaysia, Shopping, shopping mall, Travel, trip
Posted in Around Malaysia, Cool Stuff, Lifelog, Shopping | Comments

Phuket Night Market and Streets

Written by Nicholas Chan on December 4, 2009 – 11:21 am -

My brother is now in Phuket with his friends and this reminded me that I still have some photos of my last Phuket trip haven’t share them with you guys. To make it simple, I’ll let the photos and captions talk.

I like Phuket, do you like Phuket?

Handmade keychains and armband.

Nice Starbucks promotion. I like!

They have this Thai boxing vehicle moving around to promote their Thai boxing event and some drunk kids climbed up “Thai Boxing WOOHOOO”.

Pubs with dancers. (Some) Thai girls do look good, but we always doubt whether they are a real she, or a she-man.

Street magic. This guy locked his arm on the pole, but somehow manage to get of the pole. Pro.

Jungceylon, nearest and biggest shopping mall near my hotel and Patong Beach. Got cinema and departmental stores. Nice place.

At night even got water show.

Saw a fight. Caucasian man vs Thai lady. Throwing of glass and shouting “Fuck you”. I was having dinner opposite and didn’t know what happen, the police came later. End of show.

Thailand-made and designed T-shirts. I have plenty but don’t really like to wear them now.

Usual Phuket’s street market.

Thai’s Starbucks tasted the same.

Tags: Night Market, patong beach, photolog, photos, Phuket, Shopping, Thailand, travel trip
Posted in Thailand, Travel | Comments