Weekend break at Kuantan Tembeling

Kuantan is the capital of Pahang state located near the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia. We are taking a short break for 3 days 2 nights at Kuantan for a breakaway for mostly food searching as there isn't any much attraction over there.

When we reach on friday, 7th of Jan afternoon, we had our lunch at Kemaman Kopitiam which is similar to Old Town Kopitiam and there isn't any fancy about this kopitiam. We also visited East Coast mall which say to be the largest in Kuantan. I guess the mall is sufficient for kuantan. Then we quickly check into kuantan tembeling resort for our stay. Our first day are quite simple as we are waiting for a group of friends from KL to proceed for our food hunting. We just end our day at teluk cempedak for macdonald as dinner.





Second day would be more interesting as we start our day at Hoi Yin restaurant for famous curry mee in Kuantan but I believe it is too commercial. We have a little break at teluk cempedak for kite even there isn't much wind.






Then we proceed to Chukai town near Kemaman which is around 60km from Kuantan which I found it little far but lucky we had a friend, wong that are familiar around that place. We had a famous 'Yong hai' or stuff crab at chukai town. This is pretty good taste I had so far for the trip. Then we proceed to Hai Peng Kopitiam which I believe it is the original Kemaman kopitiam comparing to the one at kuantan. Original mean it is located at Kemaman as Kemaman is a district in terengganu state.

Then after our lunch and tea break, we are heading back kuantan. We pass by a turtle sanctuary near club med and we visited for a short break. Reach back kuantan tembeling resort and rest. We had our dinner at a simple restorant at Kuantan which are quite cheap around Rm13/person for 5 person. We had fish, squid, clam, tahu and a vegetable. We also had the famous Satay Zul for supper as it is also recommended. I would say it is commercial again but it is worth a try when you visit Kuantan.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR BLOGGER !!!

I believe we are looking forward to the year of rabbit and a bright 2011 year ahead. As for myself it would be a busy year as there are plenty of planning and sharing this year. Hope you get the experience sharing too. Keep in the loop!!

Cheers

Visiting Melaka UNESCO World Heritage

Both I and Jess have a trip to Melaka for photo shooting last weekend. Planning started from about one and half month back. Our assignment on the trip was successfully completed and thanks to all the energetic and motivated photographers like Robin and Frederick. Definitely I am not forgetting my other friends that accompany the journey of tiring photo shooting.





I am taking this opportunity to walk around the day before around Jonker street area. We stay at Hotel Puri, one of a famous Baba Nyonya peranakan mansion and the environment is really amazing. Then we walk upward along Jalan Tan Cheng Lock and reach the entrance of Jonker street night market. We quickly visit the oldest temple at Melaka, Cheng Hoon Teng Temple which is worth the visit.




Then a little further walk down the road of Jalan Tokong would be Kampung Kling mosque. I believe the mosque is hidden from the attraction as it is not really noticeable when the crowded night market are lighting up along the whole Jonker. We had our dinner opposite Jonker boutique hotel near the stage.



After dinner we walk around until the river bridge mouth near famous Chung Wah chicken rice shop and we took a Melaka river cruise along the Melaka river for the price of RM10 per person. Along the river you will see the heritage house along the river but bare in mind that this river cruise cannot compare to romantic river cruise like Venice as it might be crowded with local family or tourist on the cruise. Put your expectation a little lower and enjoy the heritage of Melaka as a tourist.





We continue our heritage walk the next day during our photo shooting. We started at 7:30am from Puri hotel to Stadthuys, namely the red administrative area by Dutch and we proceed up until St Paul church for our 1st shooting location. Walking down to the other side would be A’Famosa the famous Portuguese ruin fortress but we skip that place for our 2nd location. We went back to Hotel Puri for our 2nd location shooting and had our lunch at the hotel restaurant. The whole hotel is really vintage and antique.



Our 3rd location shooting would be a beach out of town namely Klebang beach. Our Melaka trips are indeed a fruitful result.

Visiting Singapore's 1st Integrated Casino

Finally I am taking this opportunity to visit resort world and marina sand during my trip to Singapore this Malaysia day public holiday along the weekend. It is indeed a tiring journey as we drive to Singapore at night. We reach Singapore early morning at 4:30am crossing woodland checkpoint and reach Bukit Panjang at around 5am.

The first day would be a rest day after a tiring journey from Kuala Lumpur but I manage to follow my sister to visit the Jurong bird park with little kazerf, my little nephew. I guess it is a good chance to visit this bird park with kids. The park close at 6pm and we went in at 5pm. Can you imagine the time we squeeze the whole schedule cause we need to wait for little kazerf to wake up from the afternoon nap. Anyway we manage to visit the close encounter of parrots and owl with the train express. BTW the entrance ticket for Singapore zoo and birds park are S$18 respective but we got it for free as my sister got a membership.

Then come the second day suppose to be a exciting day to visit Universal Studio but it is also a disappointed day as it is full booked over the weekend and Friday as well. So we were just pimping outside the theme park and then manage to have a look at the Resort World Sentosa’s casino. It was nothing great as it is exactly the same as Genting’s casino layout. The best of Sentosa’s casino is you can wear a Bermuda pants to get in as along as it is dress smart casual with shoes.

The next day would be the second casino in Singapore located at marina sand near marina bay. These casino is similar to the one at Macau casino, and it is larger than RW Sentosa’ casino. It has 2 floors and widely spread gaming area. Casino is located near the shopping mall opposite the marina sand hotel. We visited the marina sand sky park which located at the highest marina sand hotel witness the amazing swimming pool and the sky park’s view but it is a bad idea combining both visiting for public and hotel guest together. That is why public are going up to view restricted zone only and not allowed to use the facility. Entrance tickets are charge at S$20 per person.

World Cup 2010 @South Africa

South Africa divided into 9 provinces namely Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, Kwazulu-Natal, Northwest, Mpumalanga and Limpopo. The major cities of South Africa are Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Durban, Johannesburg, Polokwane and Port Elizabert which are also the World Cup stadium city.

Let’s spice up the article with World Cup city and World Heritage sites of South Africa where I will focus closely on Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg. I never been to South Africa but because I am watching the World Cup game during this period and I am going a extra mile to understand better of South Africa and looking forward to visit these cities in the future.

Cape Town is one of the city that host the World Cup 2010 where the stadium is called Green Point. Cape Town hosts the group stages and at least 1 match of Round 16, Quarter Final and Semi Final. Cape Town has 2 World Heritage Sites namely Robben Island and Cape Floral Region. Robben Island just off the Cape Town coast where Nelson Mandela was imprison for many years. It is indeed an island rich with history. Cape Province made up of eight protected areas, covering 553,000 ha, the Cape Floral Region is one of the richest areas for plants in the world. It represents less than 0.5% of the area of Africa but is home to nearly 20% of the continent’s flora. If you like flower and this is the place to visit in the world.

Bloemfontein is another city which hosts the World Cup during the group stages and also the famous encounter of bitter rivals Germany and England in the round of 16. One of the World Heritage site, Vredefort dome are located at Free State where it remnants of the largest and oldest meteorite impact crater in the world.

Johannesburg is the final city that I am focusing which is also one of the World Cup host city. The stadium soccer city in Johannesburg which is put to host the opening ceremony, the opening and final matches to the 2010 World Cup. And Johannesburg is located at Gauteng province together with Pretoria. It also host one of the World Heritage site, cradle of humankind where large collection of caves rich in hominid and advanced ape fossils.

Huanglong Trekking

Here is my final trekking about chengdu trekking specific on Huanglong mountain or yellow dragon mountain.

On the third day of our chengdu trip after Jiuzhaigou, then we proceed to huanglong in the morning from Jiuzhai Valley and take about 3.5 hours to reach the national park. It suppose to take 2.5 hours but because of the road and whether condition, 1 hour more are added into the schedule. Firstly the road are still developing with many trucks and construction area. The worst are the mist that make visibility very low which make the journey even longer. This road to huanglong are passing through the Jiuzhai Valley airport.


Anyway we start the trekking at 11am and expected to finish between 3 to 5 hours of trekking at huanglong. We take a 1 way cable car up to the huanglong middle intersection and then trek all the way down to enjoy the national park sceneries. Cable car take about 10 to 15 minutes to reach peak station and we start to trek to the middle-junction about 45 minutes walking in the rain.



From the middle-junction to multi color pond take about 30 minutes. We have a photo session and a little stop at the multi color pond for about 30 minutes as well before proceeding to descend at 1pm.



The descend from huanglong pass through some interesting pond, golden sand structure and waterfall rock formation. Too bad the rain make the visibility bad and scenery not amazing but it is definitely a beautiful forest with natural formations.



After walking down about 20 minutes then you will reach a junction where you decide which descend way to go down and it is indeed the same either left or right to witness the beautiful pond in between. This 2 trek route will meet at a point where the wave rock located.

The descend journey took 2 hours and the whole trekking took 4 hours to complete.

Diving @ Tioman Reef Divers

My last dive was last year June 2009 and I need to log my dive for this year. I have choose Tioman again for my periodically dives. This time I selected Tioman Reef Divers and stay at Babura Resort. Akemi from Tioman Reef Divers help me to organise a night at babura and I manage to dive twice with Tioman Reef Divers. Akemi is very helpful and friendly too.





I been to Tioman twice and most of the time I dive at chebeh and this time I have a chance to dive nearby Tioman Island like Renggis (1st dive) and Soyak (2nd dive). Both diving are really a skill refresh for myself even I dive for 50 times as diving are really an on-going sports recreation. Diving would be diffcult if not dive for more than a year as advised, cause some of thing like environment and weight might change that cause buoyancy to be out of control.


Hope to dive more at Tioman in the future.