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Category: Travel

  • A Visit To KL Tower (Menara KL)

    A Visit To KL Tower (Menara KL) – KL Tower is one of the building that beautify up the Kuala Lumpur skyline after the Petronas Twin Towers. It’s actually a telecommunications and broadcasting tower that looks taller than the Petronas Twin Towers from far because it’s located on a hill – Bukit Nanas.

    I am bet many of you have been to the Petronas Twin Towers, I mean the bottom of it, but did not go to the KL Tower before. I know it’s probably because it’s not easy to access by public transport. Last week, brother brought me and his girlfriend to the tower for a visit.

    The entrance is RM35 for Malaysian citizen and RM45 for non-local and included a walk in the observatory zone and a little fun time with either a ride on the pony, or a visit to the super mini animal house, or play the F1 simulation. I’ve got to say, it’s not really a worth visit because it’s just a view and the fun part is just stupid and lame. You will know later.


    Audio guide is available too.

    It’s a good visit on top because you can take a good view on the city, yet not worthwhile. Sigh. It’s really not international standard although the staffs were very friendly, greeting you from bottom to top. Hmm. It’s just a small round at the observatory zone which takes about half an hour.

    Telescope is free to use and there’s mini souvenirs stalls on top. It was going to rain that day, but still get a glimpse of the Klang Valley.

    From top, only then I know that the city planning is kinda, err, not organized. It’s like building here and there with only a few significant architecture. Lalalalalala.

    After taking photos, touring on top, we went down to get a drinks before proceeding to the F1 simulation that was included in our ticket. This is so bullshit that it’s just a steering wheel controller connected to a computer. Maybe the software is good, but I still didn’t get the feel of F1, the chair was not moving, the sound was not loud as if I am at the circuit, it just feels like playing a computer game. Hmmmmm. Lame.

    Untitled

    45 minutes and here goes our RM35.


    The lobby/entrance.

    Bye bye. You can check out the website for more information.

  • Singapore’s Esplanade, Marina Bay Sands And Olympic Walk

    Singapore’s Esplanade, Marina Bay Sands And Olympic Walk

    Singapore’s Esplanade, Marina Bay Sands And Olympic Walk – Today, I want to share with you the beauty of the Singapore’s city and the recent Marina Bay Sands Resorts. I went there a few months back when I was visiting my brother and brother took me for a stroll after dinner at the Esplanade and Marina Bay Sands Resorts to enjoy the night scene of Singapore City and to take photos.

    Singapore is a very standard country, what I mean standard is a very well-organized country with no messy construction. All building in the Singapore skyline are align in a proper manner which makes it a great city. Somehow, I still love my own hometown, Penang, which is also one of the Straits Settlement area.

    Back to Singapore, I walked from Esplanade to Marina Bay Sands Resorts. The walk took about 15 minutes, from Esplanade, passing the Youth Olympic Park and crossing the cool Helix Bridge. It’s my first time going there after so many visit to Singapore almost every year. I will be going there again soon.

    So sad that I didn’t bring a tripod with me, else the photo will be even nicer and cooler. I found some platform which I put my camera there, set on timer and take a shot. The Marina Bay Sands indeed look like a spaceship on top and a very futuristic architecture can be seen. The ArtScience Museum is shaped like a hand and it fired beam during the light show at at night. It’s nice that there’s light show like in the Hong Kong entertaining people.

    Checking out the inside, it’s a shopping mall, hotel plus the main thing, casino! I saw skating in there but I felt weird because there’s isn’t any reflective ice surface nor it looks like ice. While getting closer, it looks like some sort of plastic and after Googling, I found out it’s a kind of plastic laid with oil. Yeah, plastic! Cool, but weird.

    It’s like being in Macau or somewhere else with resort casino. Shopping, play, eat and gamble all under one roof. This is what Marina Bay Sands is, just without the theme park. Yet, the shopping experience is very cool, ranging from high end designers’ brand to mid-end local brand.

    I found out that it has a mini canal in the mall, just like the Venetian in Macau, providing gondola ride too, but then the canal looks just too modern with the lack of “real” canal look and feel.

    At the outside, I found a very very very cool thing which I think is the best part of my tour that night. There’s a big bowl outside Marina Bay Sands, which is actually a roof for the inner part. It’s semi-sphere bowl with a thick glass material. Now the cool part is when you talk to the center of the bowl, your voice can be heard on the other end. It’s just simply fun and marvelous. Brother and I actually found out this when we were standing by and we heard many voices coming around from the center of the bowl, as i someone was talking to us.

    Lastly, we passed Olympic Walk, to the city centre, back to the MRT station and to somewhere else. Weeee. Don’t like the lifestyle of Singaporean, but like visiting the place. =)

  • Hong Kong: Causeway Bay And Somewhere Around

    Hong Kong: Causeway Bay And Somewhere Around

    Hello my friends, I will be writing quite a few posts about Hong Kong this few days because I realized that I still have quite many photos to share with you guys about my Hong Kong trip during Chinese New Year this year. Although it’s late, it’s still nice to share and bring back my memory when I was in Hong Kong. This makes me miss Hong Kong so much.

    As you know, one of the famous place in Hong Kong is Causeway Bay 铜锣湾 which is a mid-high end shopping district and people like to go there to shopping and also number one hang out place for Hong Kees. =)

    Everytime go to Hong Kong must go to this place because of the crowds and it’s the most happening place on the Hong Kong island, whereas on Kowloon side will be the Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok area.

    The famous Times Square shopping mall also situated at there but I tell you it’s quite boring inside, looking old and dull even it features some international brand at there. I don’t really like walking inside.

    One cool thing about this place is that if you comes at night at 1am, there’s still people hanging around, it’s like a place that does not sleep at night. Very happenings.

    I don’t know why Hong Kong has so many happenings place. Unlike Malaysia, Penang or KL. KL has the Bukit Bintang area and that’s all, and Penang, I can’t think of any happenings place, perhaps Gurney Drive? But on the weekend only. I like to go out and join the fun.

    One thing that you must do at Causeway Bay, Times Square area is that go to the street food stall opposite of Times Square and grab some local street food like curry fish ball, mixed beef organs, sausages and more. They are real awesome and my dad love it very much.

    It’s a trend that people either stand by the roadside to eat, or grab and eat and shop at the same time. It’s really an Hong Kong culture, that you probably can’t find it here in Malaysia.

    Causeway Bay is a real shopping district, given you want to find cheap stuff at Jardine’s Crescent, or some young stuff and mid-end fashion at Sogo and Island Bevely Shopping Arcade, if you want high-end, go to Times Square. =D

    Brother and I were actually walking pointlessly, and almost lost the way of going back to Times Square. Haha, but we didn’t went back there, we went to somewhere else we didn’t know where it was. We keep walking and walking to explore the place around.

    And we found World Trade Centre. A office place revamped into a shopping mall too and I found Muji, my favourite Japanese minimalism item store. I wonder when Muji will come to Penang or Malaysia.

    There’s plenty street food corner in Hong Kong, you can find them at almost any corner, so no worry of being hungry in Hong Kong because you can get food easily.

    We also found the famous in TVB series, 打小人 hit small people, which literally means hitting the paper man with the name of the person you hate or want to curse. It’s kinda famous and lame, but still there’s people visiting these grandmas.

    =D D24 Durian at Hong Kong’s Hui Lao Shan.

  • Hong Kong: Sai Yeung Choi Street #3 And Mongkok

    Sai Yeung Choi Street really is love because I just love that street so much, all the neon signs, peoples, shops, LED display and huge TV, and also the night market on the next street parallel to it, it’s really a super duper happening place in Mongkok.

    I went to Sai Yeung Choi Street twice during my last visit to Hong Kong and spent a little while at Fa Yuen Street which features street market.

    The street market selling mostly ladies clothing is not really my type of place to go, we were just accompanying my lovely mommy to go shopping and what’s interest me more is the Sai Yeung Choi Street South. However, nothing much for us to buy already, it’s just that that day was Saturday and it’s a crowded day, we wanted to go there to take photos of crowded people on the street. Haha.

    I am a very weird person. I love Penang for being peaceful and relax and I also love Hong Kong for being fast, happenings and people-ful. Somehow, I don’t like Singapore. *finger cross*

    It was only me and brother Yikhung at Sai Yeung Choi Street as dad and mom went back to hotel early for a rest. You know, you need to have a good stamina if you want to travel to Hong Kong because it’s all about walking, walking, walking and walking, and walking.

    Tired, yet fun. Look at the people, it’s just everywhere on the street. Perhaps their house is small and there’s nothing much to do at home, so they come down for a walk and window shopping, whereas in Penang, home is beautifully designed and packed with entertainment, people felt lazy to go outside the hot weather and don’t want to be stuck in the traffic jam.

    Let’s get the photo shooting started.


    Slow shutter. =D

    One cool thing that will only appear in Hong Kong is that there’s so many mini booth on promoting their local cable and Internet service. It’s just everywhere on the street. They put up a bunting, a mini booth and there you go, a promotional booth for their Internet and cable service.

    Don’t you think the place is so nice?

     

  • Hong Kong’s Central-Mid Levels Escalators

    Don’t you feel awesome where you can take the escalator from the bottom to the middle of the hill. What a nice invention of technology and machinery. In Hong Kong, the Central-Mid Levels Escalators 中环至半山自动扶梯 is a very famous escalator in the world and Hong Kong which commute people up and down the hill.

    In Hong Kong, the hill is not green, it’s all concrete buildings and Central area where the CBD is, is on a slope of a hill. A visit to Hong Kong must check out the escalator, even though it’s just an escalator, it’s long and bring you up very far like 500m or more.

    We thought of  going up Mid-Levels 半山 from Central, then will reach the tram station which goes up to The Peak, but we failed. We couldn’t find any tram station on top. Though, it’s a nice walk through the escalator up Mid-Levels and we saw many thing.

    Mom was busy shopping so it was me, brother and daddy.

    Here we go. The escalator was only available for going up and people have to walk down the stairs if you want to go downwards. There’s so many people, working people, residents and tourists taking the escalator. At the lower level, it’s quite crowded but as you go further up, it become less and less people as there’s less commercial building and it’s all residential area up there.

    It’s a nice walk up the older side of Hong Kong and so cool that we were on a slope of the hill. All the buildings were built very nicely too! With old Hong Kong architecture blends with British architecture, real cool.

    At some point of the escalator way, there’s this mini station which encourages people to tap their Octopus card where you can get 10HK$ rebate. It’s a good way to stop people down and also encourages you to walk and use their service. Octopus Card is actually equivalent to our local’s Touch N’ Go card. You can see in the photo above where people queue up just go for a tap. I tapped my card too. =D

    It seems nice to live at there but then imaging commuting up and down everyday like this also will tired.

    Don’t be surprise to see flats, apartments up there as far as I know, this place is rather super expensive in Hong Kong as it’s so near to Central.

    We reached the highest point of the escalator which is Mid-Levels or just known as middle height of the hill, we thought we could take a tram up to the Peak but then we couldn’t find the station anywhere near us. We walked around, asked and no one seems to know where’s the tram station is. Guess the riches up there don’t know what’s tram and only know about cars and chauffeur.

    At the highest point of the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator is high end residential area. We were tired and thought of taking a cab down there but it seems ridiculous so, we just walked back down slowly.

    And we were back to the lowest point in about 10 minutes. =D

  • Chinese New Year Thematic Lantern Exhibtion At Victoria Harbour

    Chinese New Year Thematic Lantern Exhibtion At Victoria Harbour

    Haha, this is so freaking old post where Chinese New Year was but I still find it interesting to share it up with you guys, hope you guys like it. I actually went to travel to my favourite Asian city, Hong Kong during the last few days of the Chinese New Year.

    We thought of it would be very happenings in Hong Kong during Chinese New Year but unfortunately not during the last few days of Chinese New Year. Luckily, there’s still some mini Lantern Exhibition at Victoria Harbour for people to check it out and take photos.

    On our visit to Victoria Harbour, we spend a little time to check out the lanterns and also the famous light show.

    I got to tell you seriously that their lantern exhibition was real cool and neat. All were high quality and exhibited nicely and neatly which I think it’s not possible to happen in Malaysia. Hmm hmm.

    There’s also some Chinese opera going on at the performing stage and I think they were pretty cool. Enjoying opera and lantern show in a very cool 13 degree celcius weather were fun.


    Yikhung!


    Foggy Hong Kong.

    What a nice place and night at Victoria Harbour.

    There’s cute rabbit too!

    Photos taken with Canon 400D and Canon 50mm f1.8.

  • Hong Kong Night Scene From Victoria Harbour

    Hohoho. Very random right, suddenly I pop up a post about Hong Kong. Yes! I want to bring you to Hong Kong again because I still have plenty of photos that I have taken in Hong Kong few months back to share with you guys.

    One of the must visit place in Hong Kong is the Victoria Harbour, also where Avenue Of Stars is. It’s the best place for you to do some nice photo shoot on Hong Kong night scene and cityscape as it’s overlook the whole Hong Kong island with nice skyscrapers from Kowloon side.

    Brother brought a big tripod, we brought two DSLR, a Canon 400D and a Canon 500D. We was actually planned to spend about half an hour at there only but turn on to be a 1 hour photo shooting of the city, and ourselves. Haha.

    It got fun as we bought a wireless trigger for the camera from Sham Shui Po market that day and directly went to Victoria Harbour for some photo shoot.

    Something’s wrong with the White Balance, but I don’t bother to post process it already as they are already so nice. =D

    Ghost effect! =D Welcome to Hong Kong, I love Hong Kong, I love Victoria Harbour, I love the skyscrapers. Yummy. By the way, I actually went to the same place 3 years back. =D

    Photos taken with Canon 500D and Canon 17-40mm F4L by Yikhung.

  • Hong Kong: North Point and Central 香港北角与中环

    Hong Kong: North Point and Central 香港北角与中环

    Let’s go to Hong Kong now shall we? =D Almost forgotten that I have many photos to share with you during my Hong Kong trip few months back. Hong Kong is indeed a lovely place that I wouldn’t feel bored after visiting for so many times. In this post, I will bring you to Central from North Point.

    Central 中环 in Hong Kong is the CBD (Central Business District) and have various high rise office building and shopping malls too! And North Point 北角 was the place I stayed during my trip in Hong Kong. Hehe.

    Because of cheap fare (HK$2 to everywhere) and want to sightseeing early in the morning, we took the tram connected straight to Central. It’s pretty nice to take the tram with cool weather out there and you can see the city slowly. It was around 10am and we wanted to go Central to “Yum Cha” which literally means drinking tea, but actually is to look for dim sum breakfast. I found out that there’s a very old and famous Hong Kong dim sum tea house.

    After alighting the tram, we tried to look for the place to the dim sum tea house. No one of us actually been there before, we walked there with the guide of Google Maps. Luckily I’ve got a Hong Kong SIM card on my iPhone. =)

    Central area is really pretty because of the huge office towers and old Hong Kong – British architecture. People in suits and OL walking everywhere, it’s really a busy place and I like it. =D

    The morning Hong Kong is so pretty. I just couldn’t resist myself from pressing the camera shutter. I wanted to capture every bit of the place to keep in my photo album and share with you guys. The Hong Kong city is just so beautiful.

    Hong Kong is too densely populated already. CBD is not really CBD, there’s still people living around that area, rich and poor; wet market and groceries store. You can see all walk of life at there too. The Hong Kong culture is really strong. People are walking everywhere, every alley, it’s people all the time and walking.

    I wonder why construction site in Hong Kong are so pretty. They are so colourful that I want to take photos of them. Unlike the one at here are so dull and boring.

    After 20 minutes of walking, we found the dim sum tea house, Lin Heung Lao 莲香楼. It’s just so crowded and there’s not even a spot to sit. We waited for 10 minutes and there’s no people moving out of their seat. The waiter told us that whenever some one get up, we must go to sit down, but then it’s just hardly get 4 people seats together. And in the end, we decided not to eat at there and eat at the opposite.

    It’s so much better. =D

     

  • i-City, Cool Light Garden And Park In Shah Alam

    i-City, Cool Light Garden And Park In Shah Alam

    Not sure if you guys know about this place or not, I think it’s pretty new and I only knew about it recently when I passed by while going to Klang for Bak Kut Teh on one fine night. I saw the place filled with many LED lights trees, it’s like a park, like a garden and it’s called i-City, which is in Shah Alam.

    One fine night, I went there with friends to check out the place with curiosity because I didn’t really know what’s the place is about cause I heard before we need to pay entrance fee, it’s just all light trees, nothing much. But after checking it out, I know what’s that.

    Yes, we need to pay RM10 for parking per car. If walking into the place, you need to pay RM2 per person. Wow! Very expensive park, I am selfish, they shouldn’t charge and open for free to attract more and more and more visitor.

    Well, if you go in the morning or before 7pm, it’s FREE. =D As long as the sky is not dark, you need not to pay. But you will see nothing when it’s bright. It’s actually all fake tree with LED as the leaves and petals. I thought it was LED on the real trip but actually it’s not.


    Lai Quen.


    Gary, my senior.


    Lai Quen, Connie and Zhi Inn.

    Although it’s just light, I think it’s pretty fun to walk around to take photo. Remember to bring a good wide aperture lens like 50mm f/1.8. Too bad I lend that lens to my brother and I only have my Tamron 17-50, shooting at 1600ISO. A steady hand is needed.

    Then there’s some part of the i-City need to pay optional fee like there’s a mini animal park which is just animal sculpture in LED, you pay RM2. I didn’t go in. =D Then there’s also the reptile centre where you need to pay again, it’s real reptile though, like a super duper mini reptile zoo. There’s lots of snake and everything.

    Quite many people taking photos and walking around at there. My friend told me that i-City serves as commercial office blocks in the morning and there’s a few restaurant where people can chill out at night. But the main attraction is the light park.

    Well, do wear lightly, although it’s windy sometimes, but it’s still warm after all and perspiration beats out of our body.

    Then at one side of the park, there’s a few games stall like in the fun fair and I saw a big outdoor LCD screen, it was playing CSI that time. I like the concept of the place, it’s like a new hang out place but they should reduce the parking and have more restaurants and cafe, and shopping too, then it’s perfect.


    Yay, yay, bully. =D


    Wei Kean and the Freako.

    Went back at 12am after checking out the super duper mini reptile zoo. =D RM5 for student entrance. Haha. Very good.

    iCity is a good visit. Want go again when I have a better camera gear, oh yeah!

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

    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!

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