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Tag: Travel

  • Amazing New Year’s Eve Countdown & Fireworks At London

    Amazing New Year’s Eve Countdown & Fireworks At London

    Amazing New Year’s Eve Countdown At London – Having the chance to countdown for a new year of 2014 at one of the greatest city of the world was already one awesome excitement. I never know that the experience and awesomeness was more than what I’ve expected. It’s all started at around 5pm; ‘Faster liao, faster liao, we have to go to find a good spot for later’s fireworks!’, we were telling each other when we were having the worst Chicken Curry Katsu ever at Wasabi near Harrods after touring the Natural History Museum. Some friends were already there at Westminster, the Thames’ riverside with a good spot where we were having our own sweet time.

    The tube was freaking packed, more than sardine and yes, a friend of ours didn’t get to board the tube and we have to wait for him to arrive at the arrival station – Westminster. Slowly moving our ass out of the tube station, we started to join the sea of people, slowly flowing into Embankment riverside. Phone signal was full, but totally unusable. The whole network was jam, but we kept on trying as to find the location of another group of friends and meet up. Well, we found at last, but couldn’t get to another group as the crowds filled up the space and I couldn’t get any closer to this group, so we just moved to another spot to book a good view for the fireworks. It was on the middle of Westminster Bridge, where we again, met up with another group of people and it felt so good that we were able to spend the eve together with so many people.

    Well, the wait started from then on at 7pm. I’ve read that this year’s fireworks is very different as it provides a multiple sensory experience where you don’t only see, but taste and smell as well! Sounds cool to you and me, BUT I didn’t get to experience that I didn’t know how it works. I did get a pack of goodies including a pack of sweets (taste) and a booklet of (smell). The paper reported that there’s a special location where about 50k of people could taste the edible bubble and smell the fireworks. Hmm?

    What we did in the 5 hours of wait? It’s like ‘shiok sendiri’, having fun on our own, dancing with the music blasting from the speaker right above us, as if we created our own outdoor party. Others was just standing and waiting. Cold, of course, and wet. Luckily, there’s no rain throughout the wait, only it rained 30 minutes before New Year, but it was a small one! The music was pretty cool, but I just think that there should be DJ to hype up the atmosphere to another level instead of us ‘shiok sendiri’.

    I didn’t see previous year’s fireworks before on Youtube, so it’s very much new and exciting to me and I didn’t expect so much too! 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, seriously, I was amazed, mouth dropped with the fireworks, syncing with a series of great music, and colourful lights blasting off the London Eye. The show was spectacular, I just couldn’t stop screaming with excitement. ‘Damn, it’s really very good, and I’d no regret waiting for 5-6 hours.’ I should had go earlier and book a better spot, like the place just across the London Eye. (The video on BBC1 will make you go WOW). My favourite parts of the fireworks is the dubstep part and the final where it blast everything off.

    About 11 minutes of screaming, and ‘Happy New Year’ nonstop, it’s the end of the countdown and 2014 is here, finally. That’s also the worst part of the whole countdown thingy, as getting onto the free tube takes about an hour, and we didn’t bother to queue for it. We just walked, walked and walked under the rain, through the crowds, past a stupid fighting scene, then crossed the bridge, an about an hour, we reached Chinatown at Leicester Square. Chinese restaurants were all open at midnight, and all with an extra special crazy 30% price hike in the menu, yet, we still had our supper. Yeah, some times in the future, I want to come back again. One more thing, after seeing this fireworks, I just don’t know where else has a better fireworks!


    All from Penang, Malaysia.


    Just look at the sea of people. As Chinese always says, People Mountain People Sea. 😛


    Again, with the people from Penang, but all from different part of UK. There’s Liverpool, London, Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle and one outsider, from India.


    With the friends from Newcastle.


    View of London Eye from Westminster Bridge.


    View of Big Ben.


    Here comes the fireworks!


    The street doesn’t look pretty after all.


    All moving out to find a way back home, or back to the city.


    Facilitating the crowds.


    Kilometre long of queue into the tube station of Waterloo.


    Passed by the Royal Courts of Justice while on the way to Chinatown.

  • London’s Natural History Museum In South Kensington

    London’s Natural History Museum In South Kensington

    London’s Natural History Museum In South Kensington – British Museum – CHECKED, Natural History Museum – newly CHECKED. The best thing about London is that there’s plenty of museum and gallery for arts and intellectual individual, and the best of the best that most of that has no entry fee or whatsoever, except some private showcase. Even if you are not a museum person, I still think you should pay a visit to these museums as the architecture and (or) interior design is very cool.

    On the day before 2014 arrives, me and a bunch of Penangite went for a tour at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington before heading to Westminster for the greatest New Year countdown in the world. One, was to kill time as it’s still early, second; was to cross the list of free-museums in London. The visit also brings me to South Kensington for the first time where the Royal Albert Hall, Harrods & Discovery Museum are also located nearby.

    London is really horny, she’s always that wet, as usual on that day. Queuing outside the rainy weather was frustrating and it took about 45 minutes to get in. Yes, the queue is always that long, everyday, even longer during holiday. I didn’t encounter queuing at the British Museum though! Why would people love dinosaurs so much.

    In there, it’s a queue again, more like a line, you can hardly roam freely, you have to follow the viewing line that everyone is moving to see the history of dinosaurs and bones. Then there’s several halls that showcase different type of animals, more like a zoo, except with animal sculpture instead of real animal.  I think there’s more thing to see, but we leaved after seeing dinosaurs and animals cause we found it rather boring and not interesting to us. HAHA. It’s good one, just it was too crowded and we were more looking forward to the New Year’s Eve countdown.


    Cute little man’s skeleton.


    T-Rex! Not really scary after all.

  • London’s Tower Bridge At Night

    London’s Tower Bridge At Night

    London’s Tower Bridge At Night – I always thought the nursery rhyme of ‘London Bridge Is Falling Down’ is refer to the Tower Bridge because the bridge opens and close for ship to pass by. It close as if the bridge is falling down, but then it’s not true that the ‘London Bridge Is Falling Down’ is referring to this Tower Bridge, nor the real London Bridge. Last time, I was at the Millennium Bridge, overlooking the Tower Bridge from far. Now, I am just standing right under of it, chilling.

    One by one, I am crossing the checked list of some major London’s attractions and Tower Bridge is out of the list. But it doesn’t means that I won’t come back again; hey, it’s beautiful! I went to check out the bridge on a cold and wet night after spending the day at Westfield Stratford Mall with a Arron, a Malaysian friend who came all the way from India and also to meet with two friends, Wes and JH who were my classmate back in Taylor’s University. It’s pretty cool that I can still able to meet up with friends from Malaysia at a foreign land. The world is just really small, after all.

    Well, Tower Bridge is truly fabulous at night when it lights up. Don’t even bother to visit it during a cloudy daytime, a clear blue sky day would be nice, otherwise, go at night like I did.

  • London’s Chinatown During Chinese New Year

    London’s Chinatown During Chinese New Year

    London’s Chinatown During Chinese New Year – London’s Chinatown has one of the biggest Chinese New Year celebration out of Asia, read again, it’s not the ‘the biggest’, but one of the biggest, so there’s still other great CNY celebration places like Sydney, Vancouver, NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco and more.

    Although Newcastle has a Chinatown, it’s rather quiet during normal days and during CNY too. So, I’ve travelled down to London to experience the Chinese festive season and to see how great the celebration was. The celebration venues cover the Trafalgar Square and Chinatown where the square has a main stage for performance and Chinatown is the end point for the parade. Sounds interesting?

    Unfortunately, I woke up late due to a party I had the night before and only got to Chinatown at noon! The sound of Chinese drums ‘dong dong qiang’ can be heard from far where the sign of lion dance could not be seen in any near distance. The most craziest thing was the packed crowds, where you can hardly move a bit and the worst, you can’t even see what’s ahead of the crowds. I’ve no idea where were the crowds heading to. It’s like an open-day for Chinatown, people just visit the place, for fun. Seriously, there’s not much to see in Chinatown at that time, it’s just maybe, a few Lion Dance, and that’s it. Why would people wanted to visit the Chinatown so badly during CNY but not normal days?! It’d made me so difficult to walk and look for food at that time. I wanted to have a good lunch at Chinatown, but the ended abandoning the place and head over to Covent Garden for food.

    So, Chinatown during Chinese New Year was really crowded, but honestly, it’s not as fun as I thought. Yes, there’s  the festive feeling, many people, there’s Lion Dance, and lanterns (that were not light up), but that’s it. Come at night, it would be better when the crowd dispersed, or very early in the morning, but not noon time. Now, I want to try other places’ Chinatown like NYC, SF, Sydney and Vancouver which I’ve read that it’s very happenings during Chinese New Year.

  • Macau: Inside Macau Galaxy Resort Hotel

    Macau: Inside Macau Galaxy Resort Hotel

    Macau: Inside Macau Galaxy Resort Hotel – My Taipei trip didn’t end there as my trip continued on to Macau. The Macau Galaxy Resort Hotel was the place I stayed for 2 nights. Well, it does looks very grand and luxurious with all the glittering and shinny decoration as well as the very friendly service from their beautiful staffs.
    Service was really good, and too the atmosphere and the scent that smells good in the hotel. Casino is bright and fresh, and there’s a variety of food and retail outlets to kill your boredom. Talking about food right, after arriving at Macau, the taste buds got turn on again, as I myself still prefer Macau-Hong Kong food rather than Taiwanese food!
    Speaking back to the Galaxy Resort Hotel and a very simple wrap up of the place, the hotel room is quite small when comparing to the other Macau’s hotel – The Venetian Macau, and the interior of The Venetian has more of the European feeling which I more personally prefer. If you are heading in group, like a family, spend the night at The Venetian rather than the Galaxy for bigger room. But after all, the place is real cool! It just depends on whether you like a bright place to gamble or a dim and romantic place to place your bet. =D
    Took the red one (TurboJet) from Hong Kong International Airport to Macau. During my visit to Macau back in 2008, I took the Cotai Water Jet before.
    Heading to heaven.
    Galaxy here I come!
    Dropping of at the lobby. Something interesting I found about in Macau’s hotel is that whenever you alight or board a taxi, the concierge will pass you a ticket, which states the time you get in or off the taxi and the taxi number. I believe this is very useful whenever you have drop anything in the cab, so you can contact the cab company easily.
    Long LIMO!
    Giant Dimaond In Dancing Fountain. Besides being a welcoming piece, I know it’s definitely set up based on feng shui. Come on, this is China.
    Welcome to Galaxy Hotel.
    Inside Galaxy Hotel.
    Reception Area.
    A standard hotel room of Galaxy Macau. Looks very standard, and nothing special.
    Another view of the hotel room.
    Hotel corridor.
    Overlooking Banyan Tree Macau, swimming pool and man-made beach. Although there’s a man-made beach, don’t expect that much, it’s really very small!
    A group of model posing at the lobby. No idea what for, just posing and they looks like Thai’s ladyboy. HAHAHA.
    Ladyboy-alike 1.
    Ladyboy-alike 2.
    Wishing crystals at the Crystals Hall. I know, I know, it’s feng shui again!
    Say hi, to Nick Chan.
  • Taipei: Bopiliao Old Street

    Taipei: Bopiliao Old Street

    Taipei: Bopiliao Old Street – The day before leaving Taipei was a free-and-easy day which that day itself has nothing to do, or place to go. The itinerary of that day was just random walk, shopping, eat and rest before heading to the next destination – Macau. So, I went to ask the hotel receptionist is there is any places to see around Ximending, and she recommended me to go to this Bopiliao Old Street for a little walk.
    Bopiliao Old Street is located along Lane 173, Kangding Road, south of Laosong Elementary School in Taipei’s Wanhua District. At this Bopiliao Historic District, visitors can see well-preserved streets and traditional shop homes from the Qing period, as well as buildings from the Japanese occupation and early post-war periods.
    Well, it’s very history, well-preserved, but it’s quite empty as well and nothing much to do. This place is more like a film setup, or a place for portraiture photography. But hey, if you have nothing to do, so a visit to here can kill time too.
    Spotted this old shoplots along Kangding Road.
    Capturing the crossing.
    The entrance to Bopiliao.
    Just a street, very clean, and very well-restored and preserved.
    Wedding photography on going.
    Several houses were housing some art exhibition.
    A light installation.
    Another view of Bopiliao.
    Nick Chan.
  • Taipei: Famous Shihlin Night Market

    Taipei: Famous Shihlin Night Market

    Taipei: Famous Shihlin Night Market – How can you not visit the famous Shihlin Night Market if you are in Taipei? Although there’s friend claiming that it’s too touristy, there’s some better one like Raohe, or Shida, or Keelung, or blablabla whatever it is, yet it’s still the most famous and one of the best in my opinion! And very sad, I found the same pants that I’ve bought at Wufenpu, was selling cheaper here at Shihlin! So, the one who says Shihlin is touristy and expensive is just not true.
    Yes, it’s touristy, but then there’s still many locals visiting the night market. You can bargain with the stall owner on the price. You can find almost all Taiwanese street food here and the best part for that night, the temperature drop to 18 celcius after so many days of warmness. Oh yeah!
    On the way to Shihlin after alighting at Shihlin Subway Station.
    Funny and cool, the a dedicated pedestrian way on the road instead of bicycle lane of something else.
    Taiwanese at Shihlin.
    Shopping on-going.
    Little vendor selling mobile phone case.
    More Taiwanese.
    Mu Gua Niu Nai, papaya milk shake, good for getting bigger boobs.
    Jelly on a stick.
    The jelly stick.
    Game stall, a thing that you won’t find in Malaysian’s night market. Cute.
    Ji Lie Ge. I didn’t find this stall in the must-eat of Shihlin, but I’ve to tell you after trying it, it’s a must-eat!
    It’s just deep fried chicken cutlet which mixed with various sauces like garlic, cheese and soy sauce. The sauce is the bomb!
    Grilled scallops on a stick.
    There’s a same stall in Gurney Plaza, Penang, and I guess this is the original one in Taiwan. As usual, awesome, but not cheap.
    More Taiwanese!
    More game stall. =D
    Bang.
    Bang bang.
    Shihlin used to have food stalls by the roadside of the night market, but few years ago, the government built an underground space to accommodate all the food stalls to create a food section, underground. Many complains about it, but I find it fine.
    As crowded and happenings as on the ground, the food choices are superb.
    Bitter-gourd juice is my super favourite.
    Tried the sesame pork kidney here. Exotic and delicious!
    Pork Kidney with spring onion in sesame soy sauce.
    Another street food to try – Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang, or literally means small sausage wrapped in big sausage.
    Sausage in making.
    The outer layer is actually rice sausage and the inner sausage is the real sausage. Sweet and yummy! Must try!
  • Taipei: Evening Walk At Tamsui (Dan Shui) & Fisherman Wharf

    Taipei: Evening Walk At Tamsui (Dan Shui) & Fisherman Wharf

    Taipei: Evening Walk At Tamsui (Dan Shui) & Fisherman Wharf – Tamsui or Danshui is a sea-side town out of Taipei city-centre where you can enjoy a weekend stroll, eat some nice street food at the Lao Jie, or capture an awesome scenic sunset.
    Tamsui is pretty relaxing, where you can find food, enjoy the breeze and just take your busy mind off for a little while. Tamsui Laojie also has the stall selling very tall ice cream cone! It’s not just one stall, but there’s a few one, the  authentic one is located at the end of Laojie, nearest to the seaside, and there’s a few imitations in between. Tiedan is one hard preserved egg that can be bought as souvenirs, or just eat at there, though I don’t find it delicious. It’s just sweet, preserved and processed egg, looks like century egg but taste differently.
    Buy a ticket to the ferry, hop on and take a short ferry ride to Fisherman Wharf, then cross the Lover’s Bridge, then your trip at Tamsui is completed. Just catch a bus ride back to Tamsui Metro Station then, it’s time to go back to the city! Yeah.
    Human street art statue, real human, fake dog. Good job.
    Tamsui / Danshui Lao Jie.
    Deep Fried Mushroom.
    Fook Chew Fishball!
    More of Tamsui Lao Jie.
    This is not the first and authentic tall ice cream cone stall! I’ve got misled to this one and bought a cone.
    Red Bean Biscuit, something interesting to try also.
    The real and authentic tall jumbo ice cream cone stall.
    Girl with cone!
    Red Bean Biscuit!
    Tamsui Old Street again.
    Red Bean Biscuit again.
    Poodle and kid.
    Relaxing seaside promenade.
    Statue doing breakdance. LOL. or Gymnast.
    Kuanyin Mountain across the Tamsui River.
    A large patch of green field by the riverside.
    No sunset for that day.
    Jin Se Shui An.
    On the ferry, heading out to Fisherman Wharf and met with strong wave.
    Lover’s Bridge.
    The ferry.
    Just a bridge. I feel that bridges at Putrajaya is so much nicer. HAHA.
    This gives tha name of Lover’s Bridge.
  • Taipei: Interesting Visit To Beitou Hotspring Museum & Thermal Valley

    Taipei: Interesting Visit To Beitou Hotspring Museum & Thermal Valley

    Taipei: Interesting Visit To Beitou Hotspring Museum & Thermal Valley – Taipei has various hot spring site, one of which is Xin Beitou where you can find numerous hot spring hotel where you can enjoy a healthy dip in the natural warm water.
    However, the hot sprint is not as open as I thought, I thought of the hot water pool would be set outdoor, or a nicely built indoor bath pool, but then it’s more like a private hotel room with a bath tub of hot spring water. You can book for a room with the hot spring bath tub by hours, or you can just stay overnight, it’s just like a typical hotel. That’s it. If you visit with your partner, then it’s gonna be a good dip. =D
    Nevertheless, even if you don’t plan for a dip, a visit to Xin Beitou is recommended too, you can check out the old Japanese-built Beitou Hotspring Museum, the beautiful Taipei Public Library, and feel the steam and the farting sulphuric hot gas at the Thermal Valley. Not recommended to visit during summer! It was spring when I visited and it’s still very warm!
    Beitou Station where you change to head to Xin Beitou Station.
    Different metro line as this line only goes to Xin Beitou where the hot spring is.
    Taipei Public Library, Beitou Branch. The architecture darn cool right! Ho liao.
    The Beitou Hot Spring Museum.
    Queuing to get in to the museum. FREE OF CHARGE, I LIKE!
    The hall.
    Old movie poster.
    Very small pool.
    Larger bath pool. It’s definitely so much smaller when you compare it with the Turkish bath houses.
    Corridor.
    It may seems close, but it’s really not good walking under the heat!
    The public hot spring, the one and only with outdoor pool!
    Beitou Thermal Valley. Yeah yeah.
    Steam.
    More Steam.
    A small cafe.
  • Taipei: Gorgeous Scenery At Yangmingshan National Park

    Taipei: Gorgeous Scenery At Yangmingshan National Park

    Taipei: Gorgeous Scenery At Yangmingshan National Park – Enough of city walk and it’s time to spend a day out to the gorgeous and beautiful nature attractions of Taipei – Yangmingshan National Park. Not a perfect day out because of the cloudy weather, mix with a little bit of rain occassionally, but the temperature was just a bit cooler than in the city during that time!
    If you have a lot of time, head over there by public transport and tour the place slowly with their free shuttle bus. If you have little time like me, hired a cab driver and fetch you all over the main attractions of Yangmingshan and ciao! Just negotiate nicely with the cab driver, mine charged when we were on the road and he paused the metre when we visit the attractions and each attractions won’t last you long unless you are a photo-whore or nature freak who really stand there, smell the grass, smell the flower, lick the air.
    Since time was limited and a wet rainy day, I can hardly cover everything and only went to the 3 main attractions at Yangmingshan! Xiaoyoukeng, where you can smell natural fart in the air from the sulphur of the post-volcanic site with a superb scenery that I like! Then stop-by at Ju Zi Hu, the Calla Lilly Farm for a while and didn’t really get to get close to the lily because an entrance fee is needed to get close. The sky drizzled and lastly went to the flower clock for a quick photograph then ciao!

    XIAOYOUKENG

    CALLA LILY FARM / JU ZI HU

    CHERRY BLOSSOM

    OTHER FLOWERS THAT I DON’T KNOW

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