My Great Malaysia Journey

I have a week long to time to kill, what should I do? It has been a long time since I have taken a drive around Malaysia. I have been travelling overseas for the past one and a half years and even holidays with my family is going overseas (the last trip was to Bangkok in December 2007).

Taking a week off, I planned to travel by driving to the east coast to Kuantan, and then work myself up north to Kota Bharu. I took another challenge to drive across the East-West highway. All this was planned out within 2 days.

I am travelling alone this time around because my wife and daughters are busy with their work and studies. My son is very impatient when travelling in a car. I offered him to join me and he declined my offer.

For accommodation, I managed to get a free night at Renaissance Hotel in Kota Bharu from the points that I collected for my Marriot rewards. I did not make any accommodation bookings in Kuantan (where I planned to stay for the night) because I was not sure whether to stay in the town or the beach.

So I started my journey on Saturday morning (31 May) heading to Kuantan. I was in for a surprise. It has been almost 7 years since I step foot in Kuantan. My last trips there were during the 1990 when I doing audit of the Kuantan branch and my last trip there was with my family to beach resort in 2002. The East Coast highway has been completed and the road was good. I managed to speed along the highway at an average speed of about 150km/hr where some stretches I managed to go as high as 180 km/hr. The trip from KL to Kuantan last time took about 3.5 to 4 hours, took me just under 1.5 hours this time.

I was very disappointed when I was in Kuantan, it was a Saturday and the town was like deserted. There were not many people and cars around town around. Even when I went to the beach area, there were not people too.

So I decided to travel along the shore to hunt down some beach resort. All beach resorts were packed due to the school holidays.

Not so many people at the beach at Kuantan

Passing pass all the beach resorts, I decided to have lunch at Cukai, Kemaman for the famous stuffed crab at Tong Juan Restaurant. I reached there right smack during lunch time where all the table were packed. Luckily for me, I managed to get a table for myself. I ordered a stuffed crab, kangkong with belacan and a lemon chicken. I noticed that the size of the stuffing in the stuffed crab have shrunk and it does not taste as good as the last time I took it. All three dishes plus a drink cost me RM24.00. Reasonable? Well, looking at the rising cost of food, I would say that the price was rather on the high side for a lunch at this place but then again, this is a famous restaurant.

Tong Juan Restaurant at Cukai. Famous for its stuffed crab

Beach at Kemaman

After lunch I thought of traveling up to Kuala Trengganu where maybe along the way I may stop over to stay at any of the beach chalets along the way. However, to my disappointment, most of the beach chalets were not to my liking other than the Awana Kijal, but I know that that it has been fully booking.

I have left with no choice but to carry on my journey to Kuala Trengganu hoping that I stay in a hotel at the town. However, I faced another problem. Kuala Trengganu is the host for SUKMA or Sukan Malaysia where it is the nation’s “Olympics”. Before reaching Kuala Trengganu, I was caught a long traffic jam from Marang. I first thought that the jam was caused by the road works that were being done. The traffic jam carried on from Marang to Kuala Trengganu which is about 25 km long. Reaching Kuala Trengganu, I found out that the jam was caused by the high volume of traffic that was in Kuala Trengganu for SUKMA. All hotels were all booked up and there were no rooms in town.

I am frustrated because there were no rooms for me to stay for the night and I was caught in the long traffic jam for more than 1.5 hours. So what to do next, it was already 5.30 p. and it is getting dark soon. I decided to call the Renaissance Hotel in Kota Bharu to check with them whether there are any vacant rooms for the night. The Reservation told me that the hotel was also fully booked for the night. Why? It is the school holidays and it is a weekend and there were many Malay weddings where the relatives of the couples came by the bus loads and took up all the rooms.

My only choice now is to sleep in the car if I fail to get a room. So I decided to drive another 150 km from Kuala Trengganu to Kota Bharu hoping to get a hotel room there. I stopped over for fuel and the attendant told me that there were no rooms in Kuala Trengganu since Friday and many people were also caught in the same situation as I was. I then asked where is the nearest place I can get a room before reaching Kota Bharu. She said I could try to get a room in Besut.

After filling up my tank (I have travelled more than 500 km on my first full tank) and it has already turned dark, I drove north to Kota Bharu. The road was dark but it was a thrill to drive in the dark. I reached Besut district where the town where there could have hotel rooms is at Jerteh.

Guess what? All rooms in Jerteh were also taken up.. all because of the Malay weddings that were going on. I stopped over at Kentucky shop to have my dinner before carrying on my journey to Kota Bharu.

I reached Kota Bharu at almost 10.00 p.m., I decided not to look for accommodation for the night and decided to sleep in my car. The next question is where can I safely park my car and sleep? I saw the sign, “Pantai Cahaya Bulan(PCB)” ( Moonlight beach) in Kota Bharu and though maybe I could park my car on the beach and sleep in my car. When I reached PCB, I was in for a surprise, there were so many food stalls just next to the beach. The beach was separated from the stalls by a long granite boulder wall. I can find a place to park my car, but it is definitely not a place to sleep because there are so many people around.

I decided to park and sleep at the basement of the Renaissance Hotel. At least, it would be safer place and I would not be disturbed. I brought along two pillow where I managed to pull down my driver seat and sleep. Sleeping at the basement was not too comfortable, it was stuffy and hot because I did wind down the car windows and the basement was warm too. So I need to turn on the car air-cond to cool down before switching it off to sleep. I think I did this for about 4 times. Luckily I managed to get some deserving sleep.

I was awaken at about 7.30 a.m. in the morning due to a bang at my car door. At first I thought it was the security guard who did that but it turned out to be the owner of the car next to mine opened his car door which knocked into my car door.

I got up and went to the reception desk to ask when I can check-in to my room. I was told that I could only check-in at 2.00 p.m.. So, I took my car and drove around Kota Bharu to have my breakfast at White House. White House served the best half boiled eggs in town and at the same time, I wanted to eat Nasi Dagang. I managed to find the place and had the stuff that I wanted with a cup of coffee where all cost me RM4.30, reasonable price.

I could not wait till 2.00 p.m. to check-in to the room so I went back to the reception before noon and asked whether I can have a room. Luckily, there was a room available and I managed to check-in. The first thing I did was to have a nice shower and after that write down all this events before I forget about it.

So there are more to come of my journey.. stay tune!!

View of Kota Bharu from my room

Crocodile school!!

Just imagine how crocodiles would like going to school!!!

Alcazar show at Pattaya

A small snippet of the Alcazar show at Pattaya

Swadee Bangkok

The children have completed their examinations (STP and SPM) and they were all rally to go for a vacation. This time around it would be Bangkok. Why Bangkok? Because my wife's uncle and cousin are Thais and they are staying in Bangkok. They were here in KL during Chinese New Year and we thought that it would be nice to reciprocate their visit to foster the relationship. At the same time, my wife's uncle, aunt and cousins have always be requesting to visit them in Bangkok. My daughters were excited because they can shop for their clothings there. So we made arrangement to fly there and join a tour for 3 days and extend our stay in Bangkok for a total of a week. All arrangements for the tickets, tour and accommodation were done on own on. The worse part was the accommodation, it seems that every hotel in Bangkok is full! We hesitated to go to Bangkok when I was informed that the General Election is scheduled on 23 December when were are in Bangkok. Fearing that there my be unrest after the ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, we fear that the party of the former PM would create some problems during the election. My wife made some calls to some friends in Bangkok and got the assurance that the King has requested for a peaceful election and that Bangkok would be safe during the elections.

We took off from Kl on 18th December, taking the ERL from Tasek Selatan to KLIA. We landed at the new (one year old) Suvarnabhumi Airport and it is very obvious that the traffic (passengers and planes) at the Bangkok airport is very much more that our KLIA.

We were greeted by our tour guide, a short guy call Pradit but he prefer to be called by his nickname Noome who speaks so-so English. The van was also waiting for us and we were taken to check-in to our hotel, The First Hotel which is located the center of the busy Pra Tu Nam area of Bangkok. We choose this hotel because it is very near shopping area and walking distance from the Skytrain.

We only had time to freshen up before my wife's aunt and cousin arrived at the hotel to greet us. Our next stop was the famous four face Buddha located in the Erawan Hotel. The San Phra Phrom or Erawan Shrine was created as a spirit house connected to the Erawan Hotel, which has now made way for the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel. There were so many people there both locals and tourist performing their offering and prays there. We bought colourful flower garlands, gold leaves, incense, and candles. We then performed our prayers at the shrine. I managed to made offering twice on all the four faces of Buddha.

Then off we go for our dinner. Dinner was at a local Chinese restaurant but with the added Tomyam to act as the appetizer for the dinner. I am able to take the spicy and sour soup while my children find it hard to take it.

After dinner, we were taken to the famous night bazaar, Suan Num Night Bazaar. I find it hard to do my shopping there because the place is stuffy and hot. Then we need to bargain to buy the goods there. My wife's aunt and cousin came along with us and they managed to bargain much better than us (since they are local there). There was an item were we bought for Baht160 and for the same price, they were about to bargain to buy two items for the same price.

After a tiring day, we went back to the hotel and rested for our long journey for the next day to Pattaya.

Arrival at the Suvarnabhumi airport

One of the many "guardian" gods at the airport

The emblem for the 80th birthday celebration of theKing. The devotion and respect of the King is very obvious in Thailand.

The four-face Buddha shrine

A closer view of the four-faced Buddha

You know that you are in Thailand when you see this sign!!

Merry Christmas greetings

Ho! Ho! Ho!, it is the time of the year to say Merry Christmas to all my readers.
I have been away from home for the past week and was on vacation on Bangkok with the family. We arrived back late last night on Christmas eve and I need to re-adjust myself before I can put up this post. There are stories to be told during my stay in Bangkok and many photos to show. Please come back to view my stories and photos here and also at my Flickr album.

In the meantime, the picture of the Christmas tree was captured at the Twin Tower Hotel in Bangkok.

Staying in an apartment

For a change, I moved into a service apartment during my stay in Manila. There were three of us in my assignment team and we managed to secure a 3-room apartment at Fraser's Place in Makati which is about 15 minutes walking distant from my office.

Fraser's Place, Makati

The 3 rooms apartment is more than 2,00 sq. ft. with a large living room, a large dinning room, a large kitchen, a washing area and a servant room. Staying in an apartment take the loneliness I have when staying alone in a hotel room. We get to cook ... instant noodles (or if we have the chance and skills we can cook up something more decent), have a big 2 door fridge to keep our stuff and a washing machine and dryer to do our own laundry. Even though there is laundry service, the three of us took turn to do out own laundry.. the only thing we did not like is the ironing of the cloths.

The very large living room

The dinning room is at the end of the living room

The washing machine and dryer side by side

The very large kitchen with a 2 door fridge

The apartment has to be rented on a monthly basis to get the full worth of it. It is cheaper to stay in the apartment than a hotel room taking the cost of three rooms in an apartment against three rooms in a hotel.

The only draw back is the lousy breakfast they serve. Breakfast is just normal omelette, bread and some other stuff unlike the various varieties of food to choose from in the restaurant of the hotel. The other thing is housekeeping is not available on Sundays and public holidays so we better keep the apartment clean to cover the days when housekeeping is not available.

Overall, I am beginning to enjoy my stay in the apartment more than my stay in the hotel room.

My Filipino Angels

It has been a while since I did some posting to this blog. I have been kept busy in my project in Manila for the past 20 days. I am finally back home today after a long flight which was delayed for more than one hour.

It has been fun at Manila for the past 20 days even though most of my time is at the office from 8.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. Why? Because I have been working with 5 lovely Angels. I call them my Filipino Angels.

Let me introduce them, the 5 Angels consist of Carmina, Donna, Shiela, Bernadine and Roxanne (who is also known as Yahoo). These girls were the project team officers have have been diligently working to ensure the success of the project which is still on going. They are young and energetic and I have fun working with them.

Here are two photos I have taken of the Angels. I promised them that I will be back to see them after coming back to KL. Actually come to think of it.. I am missing them already.

Here 4 of the 5 Angels - clockwise - Donna, Roxanne, Shiela and Bernadine

All the five of them with me in the middle , clockwise - Carmina, Bernadine, Sheila, Donna and Roxanne

Makati skyline

Some photos of Makati skyline taken from the window of my hotel. This time I manage to secure a room at the 22nd floor of the hotel with a great view. However, I could not enjoy it much because I am at work in the day and by the time I am back, it is already night. I should have brought along by DSLR where I can capture the night lights!!

Defibrillator at KLIA

I am pleased that KLIA is voted as one of the best airports in the world. I do enjoy coming to the airport early while waiting for my flight. Their waiting lounges are very comfortable and Wi-Fi is provided free where I can surf the net when time permits me.



While walking around the airport, I noticed that there was a defibrillator unit being hung on one of the pillars. This is the first unit I have ever seen at any places I have been too. The unit will come in very handy should there be a need to use it on a person who has a heart attack. But then again I wonder how many of us knows how to use a defibrillator!!

Busy Sunday - Trip to the KL Bird Park

It has been a busy and exciting Sunday. My son and I had breakfast at Petaling Street and I brought my camera along. There was a fire at the former Rex Cinema in Jalan Sultan and the fire and rescue department came to put out the fire. Photos and the story of the incident is coming soon.

After breakfast, we went over to the KL Bird Park. It has been some time since we went there. Since I got my camera, I decided to snap some shots of the birds there. The last time I was there I have not bought my current D70s. So it was timely to test out the camera.

Here are some shots of the trip.

Photos from Manila

To commemmorate the centennial of Dr Jose Rizal's martyrdom, the National Centennial Commission and the Department of Tourism have introduced Rizal's shoeprints embedded in the pavement and plaeed markers in areas where he passed on his way to Bagumidayan from his cell in Fort Santiago. Marking his last walk to martyrdom this centennial freedom trail memorizlizes his brave path to martyrdom in early hours of December 30, 1896 and symbolizes the birth of the Filipino nation.

One of the soldier statues around the Fort

Fort Santiago

My daily drink from the hotel's buffet bar

The entrance of Intramuros

Red water lily

Hectic week at Manila

Flag of The Philippines at the Manila Bay area

It has been a week since I last posted that I was in Manila. My schedule there was tight as the team went to Manila to kick start our project there. Meetings were held with the Filipinos the whole day. We normally reached back to our hotel late at night. There was no time to go sight seeing or shopping even though the shopping malls were very near to our hotel.

In Manila, I stayed at the Renaissance Makati City Hotel which is located in the financial district of Manila City. In front of the hotel is the Greenbelt area.
Before I was in Manila, I thought that Greenbelt is a park but it turned out to be a large area of complexes of malls and restaurants where there are Greenbelt 1 to 4. Connecting the Greenbelt area with overhead bridges are other shopping complexes like The Landmark, Gorlietta and SM Mall. The shopping malls and restaurants in the area are packed with people even on weekdays. On weekends, the crowds got bigger.

One thing I like about about the Makati area that I was staying is that there is a long overhead bridge that interlinks all the places that I require to go like to the shopping malls and even up to the office in Ayala Avenue. Walking on the overhead bridge was safer and at the same time the I can view of the streets below which is packed with traffic. But the weather in Manila is very humid. A fifteen minute walk from the hotel to the office would make me sweating even though it is in the morning or evening.

Along the route to Fort Santiago taken from taxi

Another thing that caught me was the level of security in Manila. When I arrived at the hotel, my luggages were required by a dog and I was required to go through a metal detector before going into the hotel lobby. Similarly, security guards were stationed at the entrances of the shopping mall and office building. There would a door for entrance and exit and everyone entering the malls of offices were subjected to the screening and some with metal detectors. The security level made me feel like Manila is under high security threat but the locals are used to these style of life.

It was only on Saturday that I managed to have sometime to go around Manila. My flight was in the afternoon and I thought I would go to an interest tourist spot for a few hours before I head to the airport.

The local guidebooks recommended to go to Fort Santiago where the shrine of the Philippines national hero Jose Rizal lies. I engaged a taxi to take me there and he offered to take be to the other Intrauros area for Peso1,000 (about RM80). Along the way I managed to snap a few photos from the taxi. The first stop was at the Rizal Memorial, then to Fort Santiago and the church area. The whole journey took me about two and half hours. Some of the photos are are here while the bulk of it are posted at my Flickr photo album.

Rizal MemorialFort Santiago

My flight back home was at 3.30 p.m. and I checked out of the hotel at noon reaching the airport in half an hour. From what I understand from the taxi drive there are three (3) Ninoy Aquino Airports which consist of 3 different terminals but only 2 of the terminals are function. The newest terminal which is nearer to the city was not opened due to so dispute between the Government and the people. When I reached the airport there were many passengers there in long queue going at the entrance. All luggages are to be screened at the x-ray machine before going to the check in counters. All the check-in counters were also queue with people. MAS opened up 5 counters for checking 2 flights going to Kuala Lumpur. After the check-in process, then I have proceed to the counter to pay the airport and security charge which cost me Peso 750. Then to the Immigration counter before going to the last security check before going to the board hall. I was caught by surprise at the security check. Every one was required to take off their shoes and belts which are required to be x-ray. Wow, this is the first country that I been to where the security check was so strict and stringent.

The flight to KL was 3 hours and 50 minutes and I reached from the airport at about 9.00 p.m.

Greeting from Manila

I landed in Manila on Sunday afternoon. The flight was delayed by half an hour because the plane that was ferrying people from another destination reached late at KLIA and the plane need to be prepared for our flight to Manila.

This is my first trip to Manila and I was looking forward to see a new country. From the Ninoy Aquino Airport I travel to my hotel which is located in Makati which is the financial centre of Manila. Across the hotel, there were many malls, the biggest is the Greenbelt area where there are malls named Greenbelt 1 to 4. Then there was another shopping mall call Landmark and there is also SM. All the malls were connected by overhead bridge walk ways.

The weather was warm with slight rain. I come to understand that June to October is the raining season Philippines. I just hope that there will not be a typhoon during my 1 week stay here.

I had my dinner at a restaurant called Mr. Forrestor where I had their specialty which is boneless ribs. I took the opportunity to have the local beer, San Miguel (the photo is at the end of this posting)

Here are some shoots I have taken from my room and during my strolls around the Greenbelt and Landmark area.

A lovely day in Shanghai

The weather today in Shanghai reached a high of 30 degree celcius and it was a lovely day with the sun shining brightly. I decided to take a stroll to Nanjing Road and back.

Pudong Avenue, just outside my hotel

As usual, Nanjing Road is packed with people plying up and down the shops. There was even a concert in the centre of Nanjing Road. Here are some shots taken during my short stroll of a lovely day in Shanghai.

A opera singer at the concert in the middle of Nanjing Road

Nanjing Road under the bright sunlight

More photos at my Flickr photo album.