Category: Travel

  • Hong Kong: Walkaround Western Market, Sheung Wan and to North Point

    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.

  • Hong Kong: Morning Walk at North Point Wet Market and Tram to Western Market

    Hong Kong: Morning Walk at North Point Wet Market and Tram to Western Market

    Hello people, after checking out Malacca, today I want to bring you to Hong Kong. Yeah, it’s one of the awesome city in East Asia, also with the title of New York of Asia, I not sure is there such description or not, but I’ll call it that. Haha.

    “Hong Kong, City Where Asian’s Dreams Are Made Of.”

    So during my stay in Hong Kong, instead of picking a accomodation at a crowded area like Mongkok, Kowloon, Central, we stayed at a place call North Point, a little bit far from the CBD and shopping area and is on the Hong Kong island, but it’s still a good stay with nice Hong Kong culture around for us to check out and nice sea view from the hotel too. It’s Hotel Ibis, North Point that I and my family spent our nights at.

    It’s only about RM200 per night. Transportation is not a problem because the North Point MTR subway station is just right beside the hotel and a few minutes walk can reach the tram line which connects to downtown Hong Kong. Before talking about tram, I want to bring you on a morning walk, about 13 degree celcius, foggy a bit to the wet market located right behind our hotel.


    It says, Apple has been successfully jailbroken, free games and ringtones. Nice to see that it’s handwritten in nice Chinese font instead of computer printed.

    A visit to the wet market was accident because we didn’t plan the trip. In fact, the whole trip in Hong Kong was just spontaneously, what came in mind then the place was where we went. =D

    Although it’s far from the Hong Kong busy area like Central district, Causway Bay, Mongkok, yet it’s still have rich Hong Kong culture, it’s people everywhere! Hong Kong has a 8million people population and it’s a super dense city. It’s just people everywhere, shops everywhere and it’s always that happening at every corner. I kinda like this, because it won’t get quiet.

    Probably perhaps the weather is good there, chilling, low temperature, so that people will come out for walk.

    The wet market was really wet in that morning because of there’s drizzle in early morning, but it’s still OK to walk along, seeing old Hong Kees shopping for clothing, food, vegetables, food.

    Philipino and Indonesian maids are everywhere too! They roam freely around the market preparing to serve the home. B

    It’s nothing same like Malaysia, it’s not really a market building but it’s a street, with stalls, selling clothing, food, vegetable and some other little  stuff.

    After walking on the short wet market, we headed to the tramline on King’s Road to take the tram to Western Market.

    Brother was on a early flight this day from Singapore. While waiting for his arrival, we went to check out Western Market and enjoy the tramline and morning city view.

    King’s Road, 英皇道 is actually the main road at this area. Shops, tramline, buses line are all on this road. It’s more happenings when comparing to the other side.

    Tramline are in the middle of the wide car way. In Hong Kong, they called the tram as Ding Ding Cher 丁丁車 (literally means ding ding car) because of the “ding ding” bell sound that the tram driver makes when arriving a stop or to warn the traffic in front. Pretty cute. “I wanna sit ding ding cher!”

    It’s really nice to see that they still preserved the tram until today with a good service. Although there’s no AC yet, it’s clean and maintained well. A ride of the tram cost only 2HK$,
    not even RM1 and the rate is same no matter how far you go. Awesome! Really a cost saver transportation, just that they are slow a little bit, the speed I mean.


    Cleaner cleaning the grilled. Very good.


    Buses and red taxies. New York is yellow cab and Hong Kong is red cab. Malaysia, colourful cab. =.=


    Be aware that different tram goes to different places. So check out the board about where it’s going then hop on. Flat rate HK$2 for adult and HK$1 for children. Cheap!


    There’s quite little seats up there and luckily I found one by the back windows which allow me to take a nice view of the moving scenery of the nice city.


    It’s quite a long journey, takes about 45 minutes to reach the Western Market from North Point.


    I believe this is somewhere near Causeway Bay.


    Central, the CBD area.


    Hello! Reached Western Market’s stop.

    A nice tram ride I had but if you are busy and want to be fast, MTR is for you. MTR takes less than 15 minuts and this takes about 45 minutes. HAHA. Price also different a lot.

    Next up, I will share about Western Market and around the place. =)

  • Nice Yam Chicken Rice Ball at Famosa Chicken Rice Ball

    Nice Yam Chicken Rice Ball at Famosa Chicken Rice Ball

    I can’t resist myself not to write another chicken rice ball post for you. Haha. After sharing the not-so-nice chicken rice ball just now, I now want to share with you a better chicken rice ball at Famosa Chicken Rice Ball, which is another place that serve the ball rice on Jonker Walk,


    Hueisean say hello! =)

    Hueisean kept telling me about some brown colour chicken rice ball which turned out to be the Yam Rice Ball, only served at this Famosa Chicken Rice Ball. This place is not as well-known as the long-time Chung Wah and Hoe Kee and just came in to business like last decade. It’s located in the middle of Jonker Walk and do attracted quite many customers.

    We were just there to try the Yam Rice Ball and surprisingly it’s quite nice despite some bad review from the Internet. Pricing is quite reasonable in my opinion, starting from RM4.50 per set. Besides chicken rice ball, they do serves many other dishes too.

    If you like yam rice, you can try out this place for the yam rice ball instead of chicken rice ball. Yum yum. There’s so many chicken rice ball shop in Malacca, why just stick to one?

    [googlemaps https://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=215278323465761497274.000469feb8850ec72b675&ll=2.197049,102.247589&spn=0.005146,0.006866&z=17&iwloc=00049efbcc0417009718d&output=embed&w=640&h=480]

    28 Jalan Hang Kasturi
    Melaka, Malacca
    06-2860121
    chickenriceball.com

  • Malacca Trip: St. Paul Church Ruin and A Famosa

    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.

  • Malacca Trip: Tang House, A Good and Cheap Guesthosue

    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. =)

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

    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.

  • Malacca Trip: Beautiful Cheng Hoon Teng Taoist Temple on Jalan Tokong

    Malacca Trip: Beautiful Cheng Hoon Teng Taoist Temple on Jalan Tokong

    No, the above picture is not the famous Cheng Hoon Teng temple in Malacca. It’s just located on the same street as the temple. Cheng Hoon Teng temple is a famous Taoist temple in Malacca and also is the oldest Taoist temple in Malaysia, built in 1645 by authentic real China-man Kapitan Lee Wei King during the don’t now what dynasty. So it’s really a very very very very very old temple.

    The temple is located on Jalan Tokong, which is the street next to the famous Jonker Walk and also right down Tang’s House, the guesthouse I was staying. According to the history book, this temple was built with real China material imported from China long ago, only then preserved and repaired by local people.

    It doesn’t look old to me, probably because of preservation and repairing work, but then it is beautiful, just like Khoo Kongsi, Tua Pek Kong Temple in Penang. Although the compound is not super big but it has already shows it beautiness, the well-preservation work is good.

    Good job for the people who do the preservation and repairing work. Another thing is, the place is very clean. Not dusty.

    Spent some time taking photos and did some light praying, then off we go. It was sunset time and there’s still people coming in. It’s open until night time.

    That’s the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple.

    A short while at Kampung Ketek.

    While walking back to Jonker Walk to begin our night market shopping, eating tour, we found Kampung Ketek and kinda curious with the Malay’s leg house and we went to check it out.

    Nothing much, it’s just a small place with a few Malay’s style houses with leg. Surprisingly, this little kampung is clean too. Wow.

    Next up will be our night market tour at the famous Jonker Walk. =)

  • Malacca Trip: Exploring Dutch Square, River Side and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock

    Malacca Trip: Exploring Dutch Square, River Side and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock

    Oh yeah, I am having mid-semester break next week and I am going back to my hometown. University’s style diploma course is relaxing because it follows the standard timetable of university which has 2 sem per year, a long summer holiday in midyear and a month holiday during Christmas. Oh yeah.

    Back to my Malacca trip which I had few weeks back. After walking around Jonker Walk to look for lunch, Hueisean and I went to check out the standard, famous, Malacca’s historical attraction, the Dutch Square which is just stone throws away from Jonker Walk.

    Malacca is pretty small place and all the attractions is just very near by and centralized, so walking around places are easy. If I have not mistaken, I have been here when I was small, like 5/6 years old. Yeah, and this was my second visit.

    The Dutch Square was built by the Dutch during the Dutch colony time which is a long time ago and it’s famous for the RED Christ Church and the RED Stadhuys building. The RED is one of the attraction which is the only place with Dutch architecture, pretty cool. I have no idea what’s a Stadhuys building did last time.

    The Stadhuys is the one beside th Christ Church. We went up to check it out and there’s actually a collection for entrance fee to the museum which houses inside and we walked away. Not worth to pay for museum, IMO because I am not a fan of paying-musuem, in Asia.


    <3


    Memorial stone.

    We kept praying for a cloudy weather and no more sun shines on us and regretted for not bringing an umbrella because it was very hot! Haha. Nice thing to see around is that there’s many tourist checking out the place. I love people visiting my own country. =D

    Checked out the Christ Church and the interior isn’t that fascinating as the exterior afterall. No Roman-Catholoc-Paris-ish feel. Just plain interior. Aduh.

    Nothing much for us to check out already. While on a trip to the public toilet which is by the riverside, we found the riverside. Haha. It’s actually quite nice placing shop houses by the riverside and having walkways by it. I would like to have a home by the river. It’s so nice.


    Walls built by old red bricks.

    There’s nothing much at that area already and we accidentally found another church whch si the St Francis Xavier Church. Pretty awesome and this is a English’s church. Awesome.

    Feeling untolerable with the heatness, we walked back to our guesthouse to take an afternoon rest to prepare for night market. But then we did not took the Jonker Walk route where we came and we walked on the other street parallel to Jonker Walk which is Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock and there’s heritage rows to see too.


    I believe the windmill is just for decoration purpose. Right? Or is it some sort of historical thing again? Hmm.

    While walking to Tun Tan Cheng Lock Road, we found the bigger riverside which is pretty beautiful. I like it. Just due to heat, we didn’t want to stay there for long. And we realised we missed the Maritime Museum by the riverside, though it’s quite far.


    Baba Nyonya Peranakan Musuem which is another need-to-pay museum. So I just passed by. Penang also has a Peranakan House. =)


    This kind of fruit tea is super famous in Malacca and is selling for RM4 per bottle. I asked the person why everywhere is selling this in Malacca, and she told me that it’s only available in Malacca. O.o Cool.


    Nice one, no idea what kind of architecture is this. English?


    It writes Weng Chun, I don’t know is it the Wing Chun martial art thingy or not, so I went in to check it out but there’s nothing related to the Wing Chun thingy.

    One nice thing is that the clan/surname house is open to public all the time and people can go in to check it out.


    Nice hotel.


    In Malacca, they uses parking coupon for road side parking. So don’t simply park without coupon or you will get a “real” parking ticket. The place I parked was right behind Tang’s House for only RM2 perday.


    Alley also can shoot. Haha.

    Yay. Then we slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon then it’s evening time when the night market started. So that’s our afternoon in Malacca Town. Little bit thing to see and it’s quite awesome. And forgot to mention we had the famous Indian chendol at the Dutch Square. If you go to that place, do drop by at the Indian’s chendol store which is by the riverside, opposite the square. It’s refreshing and cheap. It’s different from Penang’s because it has more gula Melaka, sweet! =D

  • Malacca Trip: Afternoon Walkaround Jonker Walk / Jalan Hang Jebat

    Malacca Trip: Afternoon Walkaround Jonker Walk / Jalan Hang Jebat

    The above photo is actually the Tang’s House which was the guesthouse that we stayed in. Very good service, good room and good rate at only RM55 for two bed room. It’s just located at the end of the famous Jonker Walk which also known as Jalan Hang Jebat and there’s a parking area at RM2 per full day, great!

    We couldn’t check in because we were too early, so left our stuff there and went for a walk to look for lunch on the famous Jonker Walk.


    Nice Jonker Boutique Hotel.


    A temple on Jonker Street.


    Some rehearsal going on.

    The weather that day was as usual, hot, no rain. If there’s little drizzle would be perfect but no. It’s freaking hot and I regretted not bring an umbrella with me. We just try to walk where there’s shade to cover ourselves from the sun. Haha. Perspiration got out pretty soon we walked for about 5 minutes.


    Pineapple tart! =)

    Though, it’s still nice checking the place out and taking photos.

    Jonker Walk is famous for its night market which happens on weekends night and we came in a right time because it’s a Friday. Although it’s only happenings at night, but then there’s still shops to shop for stuff like t-shirt, and souvenirs which you will find it the same at the night market.


    <3 Hueisean.

    This is an old street featuring all the heritage shop houses built during the British and Dutch colony and this is more like a Chinatown to Malacca because long long time ago, this street was inhabitat by Chinese mostly. I like how they decorate and preserve the shop houses, unlike Penang, it’s so run down and ugly. Malacca really work hard on preserving their old buildings now.


    A garden in the middle of the street, to be exact, house a public toilet in it.

    Besides that, you will find a lot of antique shops and also clan house for different Chinese’s surname at there. It’s all gather at one place and not spreaded out like Penang, maybe because of this place is small. Malacca is really a super small state.

    It’s pretty quiet during the day, but then when it comes to night, you can’t imagine how happenings it is, but on weekend only. I hope there’s place like this in Penang too, perhaps Campbell Street? Sadly, the Penang’s government haven’t take initiative in working this out.

    Remember, it’s best to bring along an umbrella or wear a hat, it’s for the hot weather, super hot. =)

    And finally we found famous chicken rice ball at the other end of Jonker Walk, which is known to be the start of it, but then that chicken rice ball (Jonker Chicken Rice Ball) was not a nice one. Recommend to try Hor Kee or Farmosa Chicken Rice Ball.

    After lunch. We went to walk around the Dutch Square. Don’t want go back to the guesthouse just to check-in, so we went checking around the places before going back so it won’t waste our leg energy. Haha.

  • Malacca Trip: Checking Out The Hang Li Poh Well

    Malacca Trip: Checking Out The Hang Li Poh Well

    Hello people, I went to Hong Kong last week, but I am not going to talk about Hong Kong this time, I am going to talk about Malacca, the historical state in Malaysia which I went, a week before Hong Kong. Yay. This time was on a road trip with my dearest Hueisean. Was thinking a Valentine’s trip together and Malacca was the destination.

    I actually have been to Malacca for a several times, but the pictures were not really clear in my mind because I was quite young and I didn’t take it seriously. Haha. I have look online for information and the phone’s GPS was my guide to the little town down south from Kuala Lumpur.

    We started our trip in the morning, without any breakfast as we were hoping to starve ourselves to eat all the nice food Malacca have. The road journey took about 1.5 hours to reach there from Kuala Lumpur. Very easy to go only, just drive south on PLUS highway and exit when sees the Malacca Town sign.

    Our itinerary was pretty impromtu, there’s no plan and we go what’s comes into mind first. The first stop was the famous Hang Li Poh Well at Bukit Cina which is known as the older well in the city, built by the Chinese in Malacca long long time ago. I got fooled by the GPS for a few times as it leaded us to a wrong places and thankfully we found the place in the end.

    It’s located outside a Chinese temple and it’s just a well, nothing much. Since I am a fan of temple so I wander around the places, not because I am a very religious person, just kinda attracted to religious architecture, they are pretty cool, and peace.

    Everything was good but the weather was very hot. We came in from the behind of the temple and the well is located in front of the temple. Passed through the temple gate and we will find a well located in a walled location.

    Walking into the walled garden-liked place, I find a well, that’s the Hang Li Poh’s Well or also known as the Sam Poh’s Well. I don’t know what’s so attractive about it. It’s just an old well with no design. Since everywhere on the Internet is talking about it, so I went to check it out. Haha.

    After checking out the well, off we go. There’s no shade at the well and we didn’t want to be tanned, so went off quickly. If it’s not hot, I might check out what’s made it so special. Haha.

    Off to Jonker Street / Jalan Hang Jebat to check into the guest house after that. =)

    How to go: Look for Bukit Cina and you will find the temple. Just park your car by the roadside.

     

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com