A Trip to Malacca

On 20 Dec 2008 and 21 Dec 2008, I went to Malacca with a few people to enjoy the food and sight seeing. Imagine coming back from Hanoi on 17 Dec and go out again on 20 Dec, really is a busy holiday which is enjoying.

When we reach Malacca, we went to eat Hainan chicken rice with rice ball. The food consider normal only and lucky we went there slightly earlier as when we sit down for about 5 mins, crowds started to come into the place.



After the brunch, we walk around Jonker street and we reach the Guan Yin(观音) Temple where we pray to Guan Yin and Confucius (孔夫子).



After praying, we went to order the pineapple cookies and went to eat cendol before heading to Stadhuys which is just opposite the cendol stall.




Next, we visit the fort on the top and bottom of the hills. the view on the top of the hill is very great with nice breeze.




We even have chance to take pictures with stranger. After this, we went to Menara Taming Sari, a revolving tower which can see the entire Malacca, i think. The ticket is only RM 10 per person with shown MyKad. The view was also very spectacular. The down-side of this is that we need to wait under the hot blazing sun with no wind.



After the ride, we had out lunch at a food court and then headed to Mahkota Parade which is just besides the food court before walking back to the guest house to check in. We even bought 4D on the way to the food court and also when we were at Jonker Street.




After checking in, we rest in the room for a few hours before going to Jonker's Street again for light dinner. We also walk around this area and took our cookies from the bakery.





After this, we went to eat satay celup for another light dinner before heading off to Kampung Portugis for supper. During supper, everyone was tired.




After supper, we went back to the guest house and took our nice bath before playings some cards and then go to sleep.

On the following day, we went to Jonker's Street again for our heavy brunch before heading to Ayer Keroh. On arrival to Ayer Keroh, the first destination is the Bee Museum which provide free testing of different honey. Besides the bee museum is Taman Mini Malaysia. We din go inside as nothing attract us and we only took our pictures at the entrance only.




So, our next destination is Zoo Melaka which is very big. Many pictures were taken here. A lot nice n pretty animals can be seen here. We even got a chance to catch the animal show on that day.



After finish visiting Zoo Melaka, we then went to Malacca International Trade Centre for an science exhibition on alien. The ticket is onlt RM4 for college/university with valid student id. but when i see the ticket, is the children ticket. A very interesting exhibition. Whether you believe what you are going to see are alien or not is depends on you.





After finish visiting the exhibition, we went to have our late lunch at Mc Donalds before heading back to Kuala Lumpur. When we were about to leave, rain started to pour down, as if the sky is sad that we were leaving Malacca. The trip back to KL took a long time as there were a lot cars on the road and jam plus heavy rain.



Food eaten on first days were a lot and here goes:
Day time: Hainan chicken rice, normal cendol, lobak rice
Dinner: Baba laksa, durian nyonya cendol, durian ice kacang, satay celup, otak-otak, ikan bakar and 龟苓膏@'gui lin gao'.
*p/s: big eater like me and Kwong Fei still have some room left while the rest were very full
Breakfast: Nasi nyonya, sea coconut ice kacang, fried toufu and fried meat ball
Late lunch: Regular spicy chicken mcdeluxe with twister fries

Comment on the food: Overall, I think the food above average as some foods are nice and some are not. For the not nice one, maybe I'm from Sarawak, thats why my taste different from Semenanjung people.

Place that we missed: the malacca river cruise as there were a lot people and many others attractive places in Ayer Keroh.

For the tourist, we have me myself, Kwong Fei, Suk Yen and Wan Nah while for the tour guide, we have Charlene for 1 day only. Thanks to her for bringing and showing us around Malacca for nice foods and places.

Total money spent: less than RM150. Very worth it.
I end this post with a nice picture. Haha. Super strong Vkvun. Yeah.

A trip to Hanoi

On 13 of Dec 2008 at 10. 40AM, me and my family boarded the MAS aeroplane and waited for the arrival of our plane in Hanoi. The flight took about 3 hours and 20 minutes. Upon arrival and when i switched on my phone, messages kept on coming in regarding the released of exam's result. I'm thankful for those that message me without knowing me I'm in Hanoi for vacation.

The process of entry/immigration took very very long and it was really a waste of time. Being a Malaysian is a privileged as immigration process really finish very fast, just the waiting time for your turn need a lot of time. The time of Hanoi is GMT+7, which is slower than the time of Malaysia by 1 hour and Hanoi have 4 season.

The tour guide in Hanoi fetch us in the Airport and brought us to the MS Hotel (Majestic Salute Hotel). Being told by the guide that there are about 3 million motobikes in Hanoi city and it is the major mode of transportation. Besides that, we can constantly heard the sound of the horn as a sign of warning.




This hotel is the largest in the old town of Hanoi where the business areas are located. Being largest, it has 2 doors at the front and back entrance. After checked in and rest for a while, we are brought to a nearby place for dinner before going to the pasar malam located just in front of the hotel. The pasar malam is only available during the weekends and we were lucky enough to be there when the pasar malam is held. Bad things about this is the place will be very crowded. Even the things that were sold in the market were not suitable to be used in Malaysia and the quality of the goods is still questionable. Besides that, all the people walk in 1 direction only, just like driving on the road. The people will not walk in the opposition direction. For example, all the people going up will walk on the right while people going down will walk on the left. For most of the people in Hanoi, speaking English is a problem unless their have already learned them.



If u can look at the pole, there are a lot of wires connecting together and it was very messy and not nice looking. Imaging having to try and fix them if a problem occur.

The next day, we were brought to the mausoleum of Ho Chin Minh, Father of Vietnam as well as visit the place where he used to stay and work before.




After lunch in Hanoi, we then continued our journey to Ha Long for 3 days and 2 nights. The scenery and view are very nice and pretty. The amount of people and vehicles are very less as compare with Hanoi and also quiet. The trip from Hanoi to Halong took about less than 4 hours journey by van.

At the entrance and beside the check in counter, we can see this: "Welcome to Halong Bay Hotel" with my father name on it. What an honour. However, the number of tourist in the hotel was not many.



Again, view from my room:



After checked in, we rest for a while before heading out for dinner. After dinner, we were given free time and we decided to go to the night market for a visit. The local people can speak mandarin as China is just a few hours ride from Halong. Due to this, we can always saw a lot of China people around this area.

The next day, we were brought to the jetty for a cruise ride around the Halong Bay on a wooden junk.



The view of the Halong Bay was very beautiful.





The people even stay on the sea and earn their living by fishing and 'chopping' the tourist with expensive seafood






We were then brought to a big cave with 3 connecting chambers, from smallest to the biggest. As the name implies, "Sung Sot' meaning 'surprise', you will be suprise to see the next chamber being larger than the previous one.



View of scenery from the cave to the bay:










A stalagmite which almost like a junk and 'Guan Yin' standing on a lotus leaf





After the visit, we had our lunch on the junk and the headed back to our hotel for rest. The next day, we headed back to Hanoi again for a night sleep at the same hotel again. On the way back , we visited a big factory and market which sell from clothes to jewelly as well as furniture and decoration items.







Another thing special about people in Hanoi is that they usually eat at the roadside while sitting on a short chair and short table.



Besides that, the buildings in Hanoi are very small as well.



As Christmas is just round the corner, all the hotels are the Christmas mood with pretty decorations.









I leave Hanoi on 17 of december 2008. Overall, the food in Hanoi consider ok only as the taste is different. Besides that, there are not much place for sight-seeing in Hanoi as the traffic is a lot and hard to cross the roads.

Overall, i think Halong Bay is a nice place to visit as compare with Hanoi.hehe.

p/s: all the pics are taken using Nokia N73

Missing in Action

My friends,

I will be missing in action starting 13 dec 2008 until 17 dec 2008 as i will not be in Malaysia during that time.hehe

Speaking of which, today is 12 of dec which mark the last day of my attachment. Finally!! can have some times to relax become i shift into gear.hehe

Good luck and all the best for the coming release of results.

Take care

Web Browser

There are a lot web browser out there available for us to download, which include Internet Explorer by Microsoft, Safari by Apple, Firefox by Firefox (I think), Google Chrome by Google, Flock by Firefox and others like Opera. Each of them have their own pros and cons. For me, I'm currently using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Flock.

Internet Explorer



I guess everyone of us will know what is Internet Explorer (IE) and sure have used before if they are using pc with Windows as their operating system. In other words, we are forced to use IE if we do not install other web browser. Most of us who use IE will not really like it as it is troublesome as sometimes it will cause error and loading time is slow. Although the new tab feature is very attractive but i seldom use it. I only use IE to download stuffs as the website that i visiting are mostly from china and i using webthunder to download. webthunder only support IE only the source also only support IE. even if i use other web browser to surf the pages, it will be troublesome to copy the link and paste in webthunder. So, i only use IE when needed.

Google Chrome



For Google Chrome (GC), what i like about it is that is is simple and loading time is fast. It also offer the tab feature, which is same with IE. if compare GC and IE, GC loading time is much faster. Besides that, when we open new tab, we could see the 9 most frequent website that we visited. So, with just a click, we can go to the desired webpage. Besides that, for the address place, it already insert the function of a search engine, Google search engine no doubt. So it is very convenient. As for IE, need can either go to the search engine page or install the search engine toolbar for us to search for something. FOr GC, the address bar also incorporate history function. when we key in 1 alphabet, it will search for the pages that we have visited and showed to us.



GC is the default web browser for me and i like using it compare with the rest.

Flock



Flock is a social based web browser. In other words, it incorporate the pages that usually need to interact with peoples from all over the worlds. Being able to save our login and password, it can help us a lot. For example, on the left hand side of the pic, it can show us who has updated their status for facebook without even open the page of facebook. besides that, i also can search for my fren by keying their name in the bottom of the column and with just a click, i can straight away go to his or her facebook page. It is very convenient if you are a frequent facebook user. Besides that, is also have a media bar for pics and video as well as blog editor.



With the media bar, I can just click right on the pic and copy the HTML code provided or even go to the page where the pic is located. For the blog editor, i can update my blog without even login to the blogger page. Resizing the pictures also can be done here. More features of flock, i have yet to find out as i only use these fews for my daily needs.

These 3 are the web browser that I am currently using and I find it quite useful. So it is nice also if anyone of you could try it out, especially GC and flock. These are my opinions only.