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Hong Kong: I Love Mong Kok, Tai Kok Tsui and Sai Yeung Choi Street South

Hello people. How’s your weekend doing? I am feeling tired because I slept late last night. Haha, to be exact is sleepy, but I feel like writing a blog now so today I want to bring you to Hong Kong again. Mong Kok, Tai Kok Tsui and place near there. =D So previously, I went to Western Market, after that I went back to North Point to meet my brother.

After meeting with my brother, we didn’t want to waste more time in the hotel. We went to Kowloon right away, to Mongkok, to Tai Kok Tsui to meet my aunty at her restaurant. Tai Kok Tsui is somewhere near to Mongkok which is not accessible by MTR, though foot would be fine for us.

Alight at Mong Kok station. Mong Kok stands for busy corner in Cantonese.

Nice HSBC Screen. =)

Few years back, we didn’t really know the way to my aunty’s place. My aunty runs a restaurant at Tai Kok Tsui and so we took the cab there. But now we knew the way around and we tried walking there, actually it’s not really far, only 15-20 minutes of walk, and the cooling weather didn’t make us feel uncomfortable.

Sleepy face Yikhung brother.

Nice crossing.

While on the way to Tai Kok Tsui from Mong Kok, we passed by many shops and malls and also stopped by for some bubble tea break. Bubble tea was nice and the feeling of the bubbles jelly were different, it’s more chewy. =D

Dropped by at Langham Place to check out the shopping mall and it’s a nice shopping place for the youngs one because the shops inside are cater for people like us. It’s a super big mall but then the way of shopping is going up and has like 11-12 floors of shopping. There’s many nice stuff to check out and truly recommend this place for shopping. There’s a big H&M on the ground level too.

Then we continue our way and passed by a market that I have been to before 3 years back. It’s still the same, still that many people on the street shopping for food and fruits in the afternoon.

Tai Kok Tsui 大角咀

One weird thing about Hong Kong’s weather when compare to Malaysian’s weather is that I didn’t really see the sun, it’s hazy and always block the view of the round egg yolk-ish sun.

And we reached Pak Lam Restaurant! My aunty’s Hong Kong’s style restaurant. =) Had our lunch and afternoon tea at there and we were really very full after that cause she just keep serving us food non-stop. Haha. We spent like two hours in the restaurant talking with aunty and uncle.

We got to know that operating a restaurant in Hong Kong is not easy because there will be no break and rental is so freaking expensive. People coming in and out nonstop from morning till night and the restaurant is so small.

Pak Lam Restaurant, Tai Kok Tsui.

After saying good bye to uncle and aunty, we went back to Mongkok and proceed to shopping on Sai Yeung Choi Street, the most happenings street in Kowloon.

I guess I’ll like the photo speaks. =D Construction site are nice to be photographed, ohh yum yum delicious construction site. =D

Small little super small petrol station.

Sai Yeung Choi Street South 西洋菜南街

And here we go, we came back to Sai Yeng Choi Street South, Mongkok area. The most happenings electronic and clothing street in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Full of people, a street that vehicle cannot go through and it’s people everywhere on the street, students, worker, shoppers, tourists, anyone! I really like this happening street a lot. Especially the neon signboards and LED screen, real awesome. It’s really a piece of art.

Handsome brother, we don’t look alike though.

Construction site!

One thing that I always saw in Hong Kong is people having a chair in the middle of the road taking up a board writing “buying second hand gadget in high price”, meaning they want your phone and gadget and willing to buy from you. I think some black market are running this, they are everywhere and I am sure people in need of money will go and look for them.

Well, the acid throwing incident that happened in the movie 72 Tenants of Prosperity that shown last year is true that the movie talk about life on this Sai Yeung Choi Street and there’s people throwing acid fluid from rooftop. Really very dangerous.

Awesome. If Penang do have such street, it sure fail, because it’s too hot here. Perhaps they could make an roof for it, then it will be damn awesome. Haha. Mong Kok rocks to the max man!

April 3, 2011
ADV: S.O.X. Drum and Dance Competition 2011 Is Back! BIGGER, BETTER

Hey guys, still remember about the S.O.X. All-Stars Drum and Dance competition that happened last years and year before which have been a topic of all high-school student? It’s back at this time of the year. Still remember it attracted more than 8400 people to the National Stadium last year and it’s really a very big drumline and cheerleadning in Malaysia, in fact it’s the biggest of all AFAIK.

So what I want to tell you guys that the competition is back and be ready to train your drumline and dance team and bring your school into this competition. From what I have know is that are giving out more than RM100,000 worth of cash and prizes this year! OMG, the prize value increases to 6 digits now!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRjy6TGe6Tk&w=640&h=527]

And this year, radio DJ Ean and Zher will be making a special appearance at the competition, so if you are a fan of them, you must come check out this music and beats competition.

And I’ve got some inside source commenting about last year’s event.

3C Band from SM Cochrane (DRUM) – “We feel really, really great today! We enjoyed the performance! Biasa lah, yang jerit mostly the girls kan? We all rasa happy, semangat pun datang!”

D’Starz from SMK (P) Sri Aman (CHEER) – “Everyone was really good but we’re definitely on top!”

Are you feeling itchy now and want to join the competition? Hehe. Do check out the videos below about last year’s competition. It will be bigger, better and better-er. =D

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wsJ4kbTsy0&w=640&h=527]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko60190H8_s&w=640&h=527]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si21UFRf2UE&w=640&h=350]

Faster register your team now and start training! Oh yeah and check out the website too. See ya there at this competition! I will be there.

March 31, 2011
Kuala Lumpur’s Central Market, Petaling Street and Dataran Merdeka with Xiu Xin

In the last post, I talk about the Western Market then now I want to talk to something similar here in Malaysia, an art and craft market that is located in central Kuala Lumpur, it’s the Central Market. Haha. With a little curiosity of what’s there, I went to check out the place with a Penang friend, Xiu Xin few weeks back.

Central Market

He’s Xiu Xin, my high school friend.

Also because of boredness, and don’t feel like staying at home, we went for a walk in town. I am living in Bandar Sunway and I don’t really like it here, I prefer the city, downtown, where there’s more colours and life. Satelite city like these are boring, building are uglys and one more thing, Klang Valley is too big for me. I prefer a small place where everywhere is easily accessible, like my hometown, Penang! Hehe.

We actually took the Kelana Jaya Line LRT and allighted at Pasar Seni, then we walked to Central Market. It’s actually stones throw away from the LRT station.

The building is pretty nice, has some heritage feeling but it’s like crowded with tourists and visitors. It’s another tourist’s attraction in Malaysia, a place targeting tourists mostly, and a minority of locals. We were boring, so we went to check out the place.

Rabbit years for the Chinese! =)

Upon entering the place, you will see many stalls inside selling souvinirs stuff like post card, keychains and more. There’s even a few cafe and restaurant located in there and for sure this place is bigger than Hong Kong’s Western Market that I have visited recently.

I wonder why “whatever” market has to sell arts and crafts and souvinirs stuff, why can’t they sell food? Haha.

Actually there’s nothing much in there. Nothing fancy us, not even the toilet because we need to pay so we didn’t bother to use the toilet. Just walk a round, take some photos, then we were off to somewhere else.

Any nice thing to recommend at Central Market? =)

Petaling Street

Actually I was not very sure what our trip that day was about. It was just simply walking around the town, talking with Xiu Xin and check out the area. Places came in spontaneously. After checking out Central Market, we went to walk around Petaling Street, the so called Chinatown for Kuala Lumpur. Actually the whole Malaysia is a Chinatown already. Haha.

Xiu Xin actually didn’t really come to this place for a long time, so I brought him around the place. The last time I went was to check out a basketball competition in town. =D

Despite all these signage saying no pirated and imitation products, but they are still everywhere on Petaling Street.

Loong Kee’s bakgua is awesome. Hehe.

Randomly found a Chinese temple. LIKES!

Merdeka Square / Dataran Merdeka

Next up we continue walking, from Petaling Street to don’t know where. Then we saw signs pointing a side to Dataran Merdeka, also known as Merdeka Square, so we walked to that direction.

Well, this is quite new to me. I only passed by the area in car but never really walk by this place, so it’s quite fun and exciting. Luckily the weather that day was not that sunny, a little bit warm, a little bit of perspiration breaking out from the body, but it still good.

This place is actually where the father of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman announced the Independence of Malaysia. Notice the brick building on the right, it’s one of the famous building in Malaysia, it’s Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

Well, after that, there’s no more. We went back, but actually we went to KLCC to look for some stuff only go back to the LRT station where we came from.

The Masjid Jamek Station is the interchange between two lines, Kelana Jaya and Ampang Line but very sucks is that they have to walk across the street to change line. What a lousy Malaysian public transportation.

Justin Timberlake?! What the hell and notice UIA is actually stands for International Islamic University. LOL.

Above are some extra photos taken while walking to the LRT station. Seriously, I don’t even know how we get there. If were to ask us to go back to Pasar Seni LRT, I think we couldn’t make it, cause we had forgotten the path. Haha.

March 28, 2011
Hong Kong: Walkaround Western Market, Sheung Wan and to North Point

The last part, we talked about walking on the morning wet market and taking the tram in Hong Kong, this time I’ll bring you to where I went after alighting from the tram. I went to the Western Market located at Shueng Wan. Sheung Wan was known to me as taking the ferry to Macau, I went there like 4 years back, but this year we didn’t go to Macau, we just check out the area around Sheung Wan.

Sheung Wan is pretty like old-Hong Kong, the older side of the modern city yet bringing contemporary and heritage feel, mix together.

Western Market that we went is actually a tourist attraction more than a local attraction, it’s something like Kuala Lumpur’s Central Market, selling art and craft stuff, it’s a market that’s left by the British colony long ago in Hong Kong. Since we have never been there before, I suggested to dad to check out the place, there’s no need entrance fee.

Comparing to our Malaysia Central Market, I have to salute their preservation work and the way the maintain the place. It’s very nice and clean. There’s a feeling of being in Europe once step in, but then the stuffs selling at there is not cool, it’s just souvinirs, arts and crafts. There’s some nice restaurant though.

First thing I went in was to look for a toilet because the feeling was there after sitting in the tram for approximately 45 minutes. Haha. You know I have something for heritage building, walking on the stairs, into the toilet makes me feels like travelling to the past. It’s cool, it’s fun.

The place is packet on the upstairs with stalls and shops and the lobby is pretty spacious. The temperature outside is cold already, inside is even colder because of air-conditioned.

Nice British’s telephone booth.

Just spent a little while inside, the main thing was looking for toilet and wasting time, then we went out to look for breakfast around Sheung Wan area, at the same time waiting for brother to arrive in Hong Kong.

We walk, walk walk, Actually we never really been around this area before, explore and see. We only went to sit the ferry before at the Shun Tak Centre.

This side of Hong Kong is rather different from place like Central, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui, it’s quite quiet in the morning. Although it’s “quiet”, there’s still people walking here and there on the street, the population in Hong Kong is like 8million people and it’s so dense.

Inspired by DigitalRev, now I like taking photos of construction site. =D

After breakfast at a don’t know what Hong Kong’s cafe, we went back to meet my brother at the hotel. We didn’t take the tram though because of the slowness, instead we took the MTR.

45 minutes and less than 15 minutes ride are so much different.

And check out the wall on the MTR tunnel. Pretty cool huh?

More Hong Kong posts are coming, stay tune! =) I misses Hong Kong now.

March 28, 2011
Nick Chan Dot Net Facebook Like Page

In order to be closer to the Facebook community and you guys, my friends and family, I created a Facebook Like Page so that the latest update of my blog and writting will send straight to you. Just a little click on the “Like” button and it’s awesome. =)

March 20, 2011
Hueisean and Friends at Kek Lok Si Temple

Last year, I went to photoshoot at Kek Lok Si temple twice, one with the Leo gang another time with Alvin because there’s not much time on the first visit so we planned a second visit to do some serious photoshooting of the famous Kek Lok Si pagoda and temple in Penang.

The reason of us shooting the Kek Lok Si temple during Chinese New Year is because that the whole thing light up nicely with decorations during that period.

This year, I didn’t have the feeling to do same thing because I did that last year already. I have already shoot most of the thing at Kek Lok Si temple, except a whole Kek Lok Si view which have to be taken far away from the temple.

Although have already did photoshoot last year, but I still visit to the temple this year because of the beatifulness and awesomeness.

What’s different here this year is I went up with Hueisean and her friends. Who is Hueisean? She’s my girlfriend. Oh yeah. Haha. So in the series of photos below, you will see a lot of gorgeous photos of her. =D She has become my subject of photography lately, a free model. =D

Why not? She’s cute, she’s pretty, has a youthful, cheerful look.

I went there like 3 days before the end of Chinese New Year and still the road up Kek Lok Si as usual jam during that time. Kek Lok Si temple has the most visitor during Chinese New Year of all of others time of the year. Everyone come to Penang goes there, Everyone who is from Penang goes there. It’s a must visit spot during Chinese New Year.

Yonye on the camera.

People pray but I see most people were up there just to join the fun, and also take photograph.

This year had some special case happened at the temple as one kid like 18/19 years old hit an old lady while reversing his car. Without apologizing or checking out how’s that old lady was, he scolded and shouted at the family of the old lady. Someone took the video of the happenings and posted on Youtube and Chinese newspaper reported about it. Damn, why youth today so no manners one.

Minvoon on the right.

Zuen with a messy hair.

Kwangliang with the camera.

Chiawen, Szugeng, Weiling, Zuen, Hueisean, Minvoon and Cymin.

Weiling on the right.

Oh my instax. Any idea where have cheap instax mini film?

Photos photos all night long and the breeze up there were kinda nice because it’s after a rainy day. So if you have a chance to visit Penang, do check out this place. =)

March 20, 2011
Malacca Trip: St. Paul Church Ruin and A Famosa

How can a visit to Malacca without visiting the most famous historical site in Malacca, the A Famosa fortress gate and also the St. Paul Church Ruins be? Haha. Both of these are the leftover by the Portugese more than 500 years ago. Dutch are the bad people who destroy the fortress and the church which left only the gate and also the ruins. HAHA. Selfish dutch.

Anyway, don’t want to blame anyone already. But if they did not destroy the fortress, I may have more thing to see today, not only just the little gate.

A Famosa not the water theme park is located somewhere in Malacca Town near to Jonker Walk. Actually I think you are able to walk from Jonker Walk to A Famosa, it takes about 15 minutes I guess but then due to hot weather, we drove there.

All the attractions in Malacca are so closely linked together. The famous Dataran Pahlawan shopping mall is also near here also, so do the Taming Sari Revolving Observation Tower.

The weather was very hot that day. I wish it’s cloudy day.

And dear Hueisean didn’t want to join me up to check out the St. Paul Church Ruin because of the heat as we were already sweating like hell. The bad thing is that the St. Paul Church Ruins is located on a little hill and need to walk up a flight of stairs.

Things get better upon reaching up there because of a little bit of wind breeze. Yet, it’s still hot when there’s no win.

It’s so pretty, I feel it’s even better than the ruins of St Paul’s Church is Macau because there’s four walls intact instead of just one like in Macau. Haha. But the one in Macau is more colorful. Though, both were also left by the Portugese in the past.

Up here, it doesn’t feel like being in Malacca or Malaysia anymore. It’s so western-ish and I kinda like historical thing. The bricks, the tombstones of old-famous Portugese and English are placed up there. There’s people selling art by playing guitar and singing along. What a pretty place.

Didn’t spend really long time up there because there’s nothing much, it’s quite small then I went back down again.

Taming Sari Revolving Observation Tower which I didn’t check it out.

I went down, quickly open up the umbrella-eh-eh and walked back to my vehicle. Hardly stand the heat. Then we went to check out the shopping mall, Dataran Pahlawan and Hatten Square, it’s kinda nice and surprised that Malacca has good mall. Good job on doing a good tourism business, I hope my hometown Penang can be better and even the best! Oh yeah.

March 20, 2011
Malacca Trip: Tang House, A Good and Cheap Guesthosue

On my visit to Malacca few weeks there, I spent a night at Tang House. I found it throught Googling and the rate is quite cheap and affordable in my opinion. The best of all is it’s located at the end of Jonker Walk and the room is pretty clean.

I booked the room a month in advance via email and they put my name in the list. A room for 2 is only RM55. Don’t expect TV or big bed, it’s just 2 bed, air conditioned and free WIFI. =) Free wifi is awesome as nowadays big hotel don’t even provide free wifi.

Although there’s no attached bathroom in the room like hotel, there’s 2 bathroom on the upper floor which is clean and have water heater. The Tang’s family who run the guesthouse was kind and lend us 2 towels because we’ve forgotten to bring along.

There’s no free breakfast but they do prepare you some light meal at an affordable price. I didn’t eat out at there though.

There’s parking behind the hotel and the uncle collect RM2 per day parking. Be aware that if you park on the weekend, you are unable to move your car until midnight because the road is close for the Jonker Walk night market.

Head to the website for more information. =)

March 19, 2011
An Interior Behaviour Study Class

Another day in uni which is the just recent Thursday. =D Design course is not exam-oriented, it’s not about memorizing but it’s more on concept and thinking. Ah! Everyday, I think think think and think to do assignent, which is quite tiring to me, but somehow fun after getting outcome.

Sometimes, I thought, why not just give me exam and take away all the assignment because high school time was all about exam instead of assignment. Exam are easy IMO, it’s just study and memorizing. Haha. But assignment is always about thinking and enhancing the work to perfect.

Interior Behaviour Study is one of the subject I’ve got for this semester. It’s about study on the relationship of human behaviour with interior design. It’s theory again, but the there’s more hands-on work than reading. =(

CK and Arowa from Saudi Arabia.

And my lecturer CK is a perfectionist, so work always get rejected and I always thinking hard on how to do well on the project. Well, it’s OK, I can’t complain that much, yet it’s pretty tiring I feel. Current project is about designing a social place on existing Taylor’s site in-related to the human needs at that site. I think you probably don’t know what am I talk about, cut the crap. Haha.

Tell you something, Indonesian really love BlackBerry a lot. I have no idea why. You can see people with BlackBerry in Taylor’s are mostly Indonesian and they always BBM nonstop. Haa.

Farah, Jia Hui, Steve and Wesley. =D

It’s another day in class and the day was a tutorial on the on-going project we are doing right now. Worksome, and not-awesome. One thing not nice about the class is it’s 4 hours straight with no meal break. So I need to prepare myself a small packet of cookies to eat in class.

LOL. NA from Vincent of Vietnam.

Aseel look so EMO.

Hyper Aida.

Shy shy Wanyi from Penang, Nita and Mellysa from Medan. =D Really International class. Haha.

The fun about being in a small class is that you get close attention and the not-fun is you don’t get to meet new person throughout the course, unless you walk upfront to student of other courses.

And the nice thing about studying in Taylor’s is you meet people of different places. Sweet. =D

Kevin!

English, Mandarin, Hokkien and Malay are the medium of conversation in class. Haha. Multi-languages class. Nice to know that Medan’s Hokkien is almost identical to Penang Hokkien, just unfortunately there’s no people speaking the KL’s local Cantonese dialect which I use to speak to my family.

Vain Wesley from Seremban and Kevin from Vietnam.

Act cool Arvin of Medan.

Ah! I need to catch up with my assignment already. =X Any idea on creating a new interacting spaces on a walkway? Haha.

March 19, 2011
Malacca Trip: The Famous Night Market, Jonker Walk a.k.a. Jalan Hang Jebat

When people talk about Malacca, people talk about Jonker Walk. Jonker Walk is one of the icon of Malacca. So basically what is Jonker Walk? It’s a street which has various name, Jalan Hang Jebat, Jonker Street, Jonker Walk, but commonly known as Jonker Walk that sells souvinirs, antique and food, and also turns into crowded night market on the weekend.

The building on this street are old and have heritage feel and look. I like old building and places, they are real beautiful when compare to today’s architecture because olden’s day art were more complicated, more hard work which is different from today lazy minimaism art.

Jonker Street is quiet in the afternoon but when it comes to night on the weekend, the place turns into a crowded and most happenings place in Malacca. It’s a night market, selling street food, souvinirs, toys, clothing and lots more.

I actually came here before like when I was 13-14 years old but I can’t really recall that much about the place until I revisited a few weeks back. I was amaze by the crowds and how the people run this place. It isn’t like any places in Penang. It’s cool, it’s happening, it’s fun and there’s lots of food.

Local, other states people, tourist, Singaporean, all came to this place in the weekend. One thing that I wish is that it could be as long as the Taman Connaught’s night market, but nevertheless, it’s awesome and I feel it’s better because of the heritage feeling of the place.

Besides night market and stalls, you can locate quite a number of heritage-style restaurant along the Jonker Walk, catering western dishes and local dishes. Yum yum.

Delicious potato springy crispy thing. I like this very much! Various sauce and topping.

I am more into street food and local food so I didn’t really check out the restaurants at there. Street food are cool enough like taiwan sausaages, potato roll, bubble tea and more are damn awesome!

Breaking coconut with one-finger. I didn’t check it out, it’s just another marketing method for some Chinese medicine.

Girlfriend with beautiful light up of Jonker Walk.

In one of the boutique. <3

Sucks, DON’T EAT THIS. IT’S FREAKING RM10 AND NOT DELICIOUS AT ALL.

I am not defaming the sotong bakar, but it’s really very expensive with a small pack and it’s nothing special at all. It’s freaking RM10!

Jonker88. A nice restaurant service some good Malacca food, but crowded all the time and not very clean cause we saw a rat ran over. Haha.

Another nice potato roll stall.

Nice little park in the middle of the street.

The street is about half kilometre and we spent 3 hours at there, I am wondering how we spent so long at there. Haha. There’s some sort of high school student cultural performance at there, after walking tiringly, we sat down to check out what’s happening on the stage. When I see them perform, I misses my high school life, awhhh.

Well, this is a nice place and must-visit place in Malacca during the weekend, remember it’s only available on the weekend. Wear lightly as it’s pretty warm at night and perspiration may break out of your pore. Indulge yourself with the yummy street food and some shopping. =)

Penang, please make some place like this. It’s cool.

March 19, 2011

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