My Luang Prabang walking tour

There are too many Wat or temple in Luang Prabang and 1 day is totally not enough for a Luang Prabang tour. I focus more on the highlight of Luang Prabang from my view and perspective.


The walking tour starts from Wat Mai along the Chou Fa Ngam road towards Grand Palace Museum. After the Grand Palace Museum then walk across the path to the hill of Phousi. There is an ancient temple name Wat Pa Huak which is worth a visit with ancient painting at the temple walls.



Then walk up the hill to top of Phousi Hill where the Wat Chomsi located. We walk down to the other side of the hill passing by Wat Tham PhouSi. The top of Phousi hill has a beautiful scenery of Luang Prabang and mekong river.














We reach KingKitSalat road, then walk back towards Sakkaline road where there lots of heritage house which all situated at the street e.g. old police station, modern guesthouse etc.







































At the end of the Sakkaline street located Wat Xieng Thong which is our temple highlight and Wat Khili (opposite Wat Xieng Thong). Wat Xieng Thong is a beautiful magnificent temple and also worth a visit at Luang Prabang. Then we took an express tuk tuk to Wat Aham for our final temple. We walk back to Luang Prabang pos office where the night market entrance located and pass by Dara market which is not really fascinating.







We visited Chomphet the next day for some hiking across the mekong river opposite Luang Prabang town. We also visited Wat Chom Phet which is a temple on the hill overlooking Luang Prabang. Then we also visit Wat Tam and also Wat Haw Siew which is being restored. I believe the local government is going to develop the area of Chom Phet where there is some heritage value between the world heritage zones.

Indochina Adventure: Laos Vientiane to Luang Prabang

This is a very interesting indo china trip of Laos. We plan for 8 days Laos covering Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. We reach Vientiane on the first days at late noon. Then we took a taxi van to Francois Ngin and then we look around for guesthouse.
Based on recommendation, we went to Mixok Guesthouse for a night. There is a festival at Laos namely “Boun Ok Phansa” which held during the first week of October based on the Laos calendar. So the city has a lively night market or fun fair for the local’s celebration. We walk around the night market and the city after our local Laos dinner which we had sticky rice. We don’t really enjoy the sticky rice as we still prefer steam rice as for Asian food.

Then on the 2nd day, we are on our journey to Luang Prabang’s Laos world heritage sites. We booked the bus tickets from the local tour agent with pick up to the northern bus station which is out from the city center. The journey to Luang Prabang by bus is really a good experience as the road in Laos is still under development comparing to Thailand, Vietnam and even Cambodia. Imagine the distance of 150km can take up to 3 to 4 hours with the bumpy road. The road to Luang Prabang or Plain of Jars are even far as it is located around the mountain.
Anyway the journey from Vientiane to Luang Prabang took us 12 hours from 8am to 8pm. Once we reach LP, then we took the tuk tuk straight to Jom’s café side lane to look for guesthouse and we found Xayana guesthouse which I like it very much.

During dinner we tried the Laos local economical rice at the side lane of Luang Prabang hotel at the beginning of the night market entrance.

On the 3rd day, it is our first actual tour of Laos where we planned to walk around the city of Luang Prabang to enjoy the world heritage sites. I will elaborate it at “My Luang Prabang walking tour” article.



On the 4th day, we wake up early morning at 5am to witness the morning alms which the monks walk around the town to get the food offering from the locals. It is a beautiful Buddhism traditional culture that shouldn't be missing from our attraction list.

Later in the noon, we try with a little adventure and also witness the other side of the historical value of Luang Prabang which is the temples across the Mekong River. Trying the local long boat to get across the river with visit to some of the temples especially Wat Chom Phet, which is the temple at the hill which we can look at Luang Prabang city from different perspective. In the afternoon, we break into 2 groups where some like to visit the Kuangsi waterfall which I am not interested. I enjoy the LP heritage town more. So I decided to stay at the town to have some Laos coffee and also sunset near the jetty.

On the 5th day, we departed Luang Prabang and going Vang Vieng for some river adventure. The journey took us 7.5 hours to reach Vang Vieng. We reach at 4:45pm and then proceed to look for a reasonable guesthouse at VV. All the guesthouse is charge by 40.000 kip per bed which I found it slightly more expensive comparing to Xayana at LP. We choose Sisavang guesthouse which is just average. There is nothing to shout about or complaint. BTW there is a boon ok phasa festival held on the day we reach Vang Vieng. At night there are fireworks and also locals are making wishes and sent a floating banana leaf to the river. They believe it will send the bad luck away by sending the floating banana leaf to the river. It is a good experience during our trip at Laos.







On the 6th day, it is an adventure day for me as I try the famous tubing at Vang Vieng at the Nam Song River. After my early breakfast, then I went to the tubing office and register myself and look like I am the first tubing customer. I just took the tuk tuk to the stating line for tubing. Before the tubing, I take a break at the starting bar for a Laos’s beer. I guess everyone take Laos beer quite frequent. I started at 9:30am and complete at 12:30pm. I would say the tubing is a must try attraction at Vang Vieng. It is quite cool as the tube is like a kayaking or rafting where you need to use your hand to paddle. The rest of the afternoon is a more relax day after the tubing like having a bottle of beer and see sunset at Elephant crossing hotel bar and restaurant. Elephant crossing hotel is rated top in TA.

We travel back to Vientiane on the 7th day for around 3 hours from 9am. We reach Vientiane at 12pm and then we took a van to Mixay Paradise guesthouse for our final stay at Laos. After check in, we took a tuk tuk and go straight to the Golden temple Wat Pha That Luang. It is a nice temple. Then we walk straight to the Patuxai monument before ending back to the fountain at the city center.

Our final day, we start with 2 more ancient temples at Vientiane, which are Haw Phra Keo and Wat Si Saket. Then walk towards the Talat Sao morning markets for some shopping but it is a little disappointed as there are NO souvenir at the market. Mostly for locals market consists of jewelry and some daily market stuff which is not suitable for tourist. We had a good lunch at a café before departing to the airport to fly back to KL. It is a wonderful Indo China trip for Laos which I will be looking forward to my central Vietnam next year.

Bad Management on Berjaya Redang Resort

I am hard fans of Malaysia heritage sites and beaches. I will try my best to promote my country to the world but this time it is a exceptional case as a Malaysian I really can’t accept what the resort are offering to the guest. I had stay at this Berjaya Redang during the year 2005 (I really love the good old resort during 2005) and recently I drop by Berjaya Redang for a visit as the Berjaya Vacation club member push us to Redang Island Resort which previously known as Berjaya Redang SPA resort under the same company but different management. IMAGINE we are disappointed with the management where they treat us as outsider even my family wanted to have a good meal at the resort. Finally I understand that they just rebrand their resort from Berjaya Redang to Taaraas Resort where the look and feel is the same across all Berjaya resort but with some renovation. Then they are charging guest a really high price which I found it is ridiculous. Seriously there are lots more better resort with that package price range.

No doubt!! Redang island is a beautiful island in Malaysia but too bad the Berjaya Redang management are making it a bad experience to be. Feel like cheated if I were to stay at the resort because the resort is charging a double charge just to cater for tourist. For a price of USD$230 and we can stay at a water villa in other destination but you can only get a garden villa just for that price at Taaraas. Let’s have a reasonable judgement if you are a tourist of Redang Island. Private luxury resort island are not shared island and when you shared the island with 10 resort then you should charge a fair rates and let’s not categorize it as a private luxury resort.

The worst of Berjaya Redang resort are the staff and resort management. The staff and service especially the management are not good. Treating Redang guest as outsider especially our family seem like a prisoner log in and out at the guard house and then the reception are not providing a good hospitality to a guest. They shouldn’t treat customer double standard especially customer from the same sister hotel even thou has a different management.




I believe the room comfort is pretty good as I stay at this resort 5 years ago with the different price structure but with the little refurbish and I seriously don’t find this resort really worth the price.

Disclaimer : It is your decision to judge and It may be my personal view on this resort but it is really a sincere comment on this article.

Beautiful Maldives

I am looking forward to this honeymoon trip from last year when I plan for my marriage ceremonial dinner. We brought a return MAS air ticket to Male for around RM1500 per person. Our Maldives trip is a week with 6 nights where I am planning 2 night stay at Male and 4 nights stay at island resort.







Our flight arrival and departure at night where there are none seaplane transfer at night so we have to stay a night on airport island for a night on arrival. Then at 8am the next day, there is a seaplane transfer with Trans Maldivian Air to Reethi Beach Resort at Baa Atoll. The seaplane takes around 35 minutes to Baa Atoll with beautiful view of Maldives Atoll.






Finally we arrives Reethi Beach Resort on our second day at 10:30am and it is really beautiful where the white sand cover the island with blue turquoise water. We have given a room number ‘208’ water villa and we love the room very much too with sea view from the bed. We have a good rest after our arrivals in the evening before we proceed to join the management cocktail organize by the resort management. Then we proceed to Alifan restaurant for our dinner.

The third day of our Maldives trip would be a full day island itinerary where I went for a diving trip and my wife go for a massage therapy. Then we have a relax noon before ending our day with a romantic dinner at Reethi grill.






On the fourth day, I was planning a 2 dive trip with the dive school but there are some miscommunication on timing which I miss the boat but I still manage to go for a house reef dive and then meet my wife and enjoy the rest of our days on our water villa. There is an attraction not to be miss on Reethi beach resort which is the fish feeding and it is pretty amazing to witness huge stingray around the shore.





I had my last dive on the fifth day of our trips to Hura Cave dive site with multi color corals. Then in the afternoon at 3pm we went for an excursion to a near local island for shopping and also sunset. It was a nice trip for a short excursion. We end our dinner at Moondu bar and restaurant for a last night romantic dinner.







Our sixth day at Maldives and final day at Reethi where we were directed to depart at 3:45pm back to Male and we still have a half day to enjoy the water villa. We walk around the island and also enjoy at the sunset bar before fully relaxing at our room. I have try to jump out from our villa for snorkeling but the wave are too strong and visibility are not good too. So I decided to stay at the balcony to watch the sea view.

Then we took the seaplane to transfer back to Male where we took a dhoni from the airport island for a fare price of USD1 to reach Male city. Then another taxi fare from the jetty at Male to reach Dace hotel for about USD2. We had a early dinner and rest early.






The final day of our Maldives trip waiting for our departure flight at night, so we have a whole day for shopping and city sightseeing at Male. We brought some souvenir near the independence square, then visit the Islamic centre and pass the Hukuru Miskiiy. We have a break with drinks at Traders Hotel before ending our trip with a visit to the fish market but it is too late to visit the market at late noon.

Valentine Day @Bangkok

We took a different flight Luftansa to Bangkok. Reaching bangkok at night on the first day of our journey. Staying at I-Residence Silom which near the BTS Chong Nonsi station. I am satify with the average room at I-Residence.

Second day was a tiring day as I need to tailor made 2 tuxedo, black and white for my dinner. We manage to go back to the shops I made previously, Tailor Smile along silom road. Then in the afternoon we proceed to chatuchak market for a wild shopping.

We are so lucky to be able to celebrate valentine at bangkok where I have planned a valentine itinerary. We start off our valentine day with a romantic lunch atop of Baiyoke sky restaurant for a lunch buffet. It cost us around Baht580 per person.Is a great place for relaxation and also enjoy bangkok scenery. Then we proceed to central for some warehouse shopping before proceeding to "IN LOVE" bar and restaurant for our valentine dinner but too bad is was full and long queue. So we decided to have a valentine dinner beside the jetty.

The fourth day was a heritage tour to ayutthaya city to visit some grand heritage temple at old city of ayutthaya. Then end of the day we went to MBK for some light shopping and brought some mango rice for dinner.

The fifth day was a final shopping and some massage before heading back Kuala Lumpur.

Penang Food Heritage

I would like to break the normality of my blog where I would like to introduce penang food to readers instead of just heritage sites. After staying 2 days at penang town center and I actually found all the recommended food that I would like to try. The 2 food highlight I would like to introduce is penang char kuay teow and penang lor mee.





Penang char kuay teow is really a long chinese food heritage in penang. Previously I try the sister char kuay teow near lorong selamat which I prefer mostly. This round I try another which is called Ah Leng famous penang char kuay teow near lorong dunlop off jalan anson. I order the one with duck egg which I found it not much difference to a normal one. But overall the char kuay teow still very delicious.





The second recommendation is the penang lor mee that located in the heart of penang core zone near lebuh ah quee. It is hard to find good food around that area as everyone also mention there are only good food near komtar. But to break the normality again, I really search for this penang lor mee and it is nice and special to taste it with sugar or garlic.

Walking Penang UNESCO World Heritage 2011

We heading to Penang for our pre wedding photos over the weekend. As you know I am really into world heritage sites and I would put piority to my own country world heritage sites like melaka and penang. We visited melaka on november 2010 which is 2 months ago.





I am targeting the heritage core zone for the photo shooting around beach road. After recommendation from the passionate photographer, we plan to take the photos at jetty in the morning then proceed to beach road where logan heritage located and end up on armenian street and kuan yin temple.







Anyway sunday was the photo shooting day and I hardly walk around the world heritage core zone. I took the opportunity on Monday to walk around with Jess to Kuan yin temple again, cheah kongsi and Dr.Sun Yat Sen museum.





My main target of this penang vacation is to visit penang 2 UNESCO restoration winner, which is Cheong Fatt Sze mansion and sulfolk house. I drop by at Cheong fatt sze mansion and is also call 'Blue Mansion' for a overall photo. I didn't enter the mansion but I save the best for last to Sulfolk house which located outside the core zone. It is a beautiful restoration if you can imagine the previous condition of the house.






Here is the result and effort of the penang photo shooting.