endroog

Wat Chedi Luang, Chiangmai, Thailand.

What a nice holiday destination is all I could say about this place. Warm and friendly people. Cheap food and massage. Ladies in bikinis & guys in swimming trunks even in the shopping mall.

Talking about shopping mall, Jungceylon is comparable with The Curve. The environment there is livelier all because of the crowd which is more crazy than in Malaysia. Haha.

We stayed at Hemingway’s Hotel in Patong. A nice and cheap hotel in walking distance to Jungceylon. Room is clean and modern interior design. Aircond is powerful. Toilet is super-clean. Their in-house restaurant offers good Thai and Western food at a reasonable price.

There’s this pasar malam every evening at Baan Market which is just right opposite of Jungceylon. Local streetfood that is cheap and tasty made the experience even more memorable. A big fat sweetcorn cost only 20 baht. Otak-otak nuggets also cost only 20 baht for about 8 pieces.

For those of you who are into musical show, the Fanta Sea is something you should not miss. The place is a theme park, fun fair, carnival, shopping bazaar and theater all in one place. Children would love this place. There’s an option of show+buffet dinner which cost about 3000 baht or just the show only which is about 1500 baht. The buffet hall boast to be the hall of its kind the world. There’s elephant ride available.

Phi Phi island should not be missed and the island hopping excursion is a must for all visitors to Phuket. Thats where the fun is…. snorkeling, boat ride, swimming….

Its a nice place and would love to go again.

By the way, Bangla Street is a big thing in Patong Beach. It is the nightlife of Patong Beach.

Wow… at last I’ve been to Jogja. I cancelled the trip to Jogja when I had an accident in 2007. Its a nice place to be and well the people there are warm but could be brutal and harsh at the same time. We didn’t eat much this time as I told earlier… there’s nothing to shout about on Indonesian food. I don’t know why… our local Malay food here are wayyyyy better than top notch Indonesian eateries. I bet ! However… you just have to try some of their food… restaurant such as Bumbu Desa offers good food. There’s Bumbu Desa Restaurant available here in Malaysia. We avoided gudeg as the food looks unhygienic.

Well, we stayed in Novotel, Jl. Jenderal Sudirman. Its not a cheap but its worth the every penny as there is a shopping mall less than 80 metres away. Its so convenient for us to do some shopping and we had our lunch and dinners there. Thank to Ghani of Novotel who told us about Galleria.

Visited Candi Borobudur, one of the ancient seven wonders of the world. It is really magnificent and this is something you have to see at least once in your lifetime. The carvings on the rocks tells the stories of Buddha… well, you can read up on this elsewhere. Candi Prambanan is also another eye-popping wonder. The Ramayana epic was told on the rock carvings…. Hindu and Buddhism had been in the region way before Islam and Christianity arrived here.

While you’re there, I would suggest that you hire a becak (trishaw) for the whole day to see much of Jogja. The becak guy will peddle you around to tourist places such as Kraton (Sultan Palace), Musuem Sonobudhoyo, Benteng Vredeburg (Fort), Tugu (see picture of the monument above). He’ll then will wait for you while you visit the sights.

There’s this guy who approached us at the exit of Kraton and told us that the ticket we paid for the visit to Kraton is inclusive of a visit to the batik crafts centre. He also said his services is free for us as he is paid by the Sultan for taking us to see the batik crafts centre. Being curious…we just followed and the becak guy, Pak Durmo sensed fishy thing and followed us to the centre located in some back alleys. Fuck..its a shop selling batik paintings.

The people there will inch into tourists to take them to buy stuffs… even the guide at Museum Sonobudhoyo led us to a wayang kulit shop behind the museum hoping we would buy something and he’ll get some commission from the shopowner. Even our becak guy, Durmo did it the first time we hired him. We asked him to take us to a place to eat…some gudeg…. and we didn’t know whats a gudeg was. When we reached the place I was shock that its a row of shops selling their local food… you know… those you see on the streets… fried liver, fried fish, fried gizzard…fried tempe… you get the idea.  Durmo parked the trishaw in front one of the gudeg and when we said we’re not gonna have oour dinner there and walked away… the shopowner screwed Durmo and chased him away as he cannot park his trishaw in front of the shop if we’re not eating there.

Then on the third day, when we’re having our dinner at Restoran Bumbu Desa (yes..they shops here in Malaysia too)… there was a earthquake scare. There was a tremor for about 2-3 seconds and the ground was shaking….tables shocked… then suddenly quite a number of people screamed and ran helter skelter out of the premises. The quake then stopped. I knew it was an earthquake. I stood up and waited if there’s anymore. Szer was still sitting on the chair, frozed and speechless. I shouted at her… “come on… lets get the fuck out of here !!”. Then only she realised what happened and we ran like a scady cat out of the building while the two ladies sitting next table chatted and laughed away as if nothing happened. People were talking on their mobile phones outside the building… checking for the magnitude and severity of this incident. We listened to their conversations and when things looked good we returned back to our table to continue our dinner. Luckily the food was not looted by the next table because the food was just served and I was putting the second spoon of rice into my mouth where the quake occured. Much of the lauk pauk were still untouched.

Dinner was uneasy although the food was enak. I looked around for emergency action should the quake comes again and the building collapse… we would be hiding under the table with the food and drinks to survive while waiting for rescue. When we went back to the hotel, I asked the concierge guy, Ghani about the quake just now, he told me that its just a very mild one with 5.0 on the Richter scale. We then checked on a geological website on Internet where they reported on a real-time basis of earthquakes occured worldwide. True, the quake just now was the latest one, registering 4.7 Richter as stated by the website. I now know that earthquake happens in Indonesia every now and then.

Ok… lastly… its a nice place to visit….. for the sake of the wonders… Candi Borobudur and Candi Prambanan that is.

Macau is a very nice place to visit because it is quite a modern place and there are many UNESCO listed heritage places to visit. We covered almost 80-90% of the must-see places on foot. We walked and walked into almost every corners and streets. Macau is not that big and one can practically walk from the east to the west in a matter of 2 hours…. non-stop. The weatheris not that hot as compared to Malaysia… around 22-24 degree Celcius. Most of the local people wears a jacket/sweater at any given time which I don’t understand. Ok…maybe because I walked and I felt hot but…… actually it is the airconditioning in shops/buildings which are very cold (ranging around 14-16 degree Celsius) that made the surrounding cold. And the shops dont have doors and cold air will be flowing out of the premises to the open air outside. I wonder why the people are pretending to be like in a cold country… their energy consumption carbon footprint must be very very high.

There are tons of churches and temples to see. Road signs are in chinese and portuguese…. somehow I wonder if the people really can speak/read portuguese. Our first welcome in Macau is the taxi driver at the airport. We hopped onto the taxi and showed him the email with our hotel booking and the address. He quickly replied he don’t read English. Oh shit… we dont read chinese either… so we calmed down and try to recall what the name of the hotel Ole London in chinese… “Lon ton chau tim, ng kuoi lah, hai ko koh San San chau tim kat lei”. The driver immediately nodded and replied he knows where’s the place. Once at the hotel reception, we quickly took some namecards of the hotel just in case we need to take a taxi again.

So the next few days were spent walking… going to all the UNESCO Heritage sites like Ruins of St Paul, Senado Square, Guia Fortress, Lou Kau Mansion, A-Ma Temple, Penha Church, Mong Ha Fortress, Lou Lim Ioc Garden, Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Centre, Church of St. Lawrence, Jesuitas and the list goes on….the modern places such as Fisherman’s Wharf, Macau Tower etc… at night, we went visiting casinos…Grand Lisboa, MGM Grand, Venetian, Wynn, Sands etc… we did not gamble a single cent…we just go and see most of the big casinos… Grand Lisboa being the grandaddy of them all.

Eating is part of traveling and to enhance the cultural experience of a place. Forget all those traditional performances, folk dances etc…. eating is like heaven. One important note is that Portuguese food in Macau is for scaredy cat…. Malaccan portuguese food is anytime way better (think Portuguese grill fish/ikan bakar)… our ikan kembung (suk yi) is better than bacalhau. The African chicken I had there is like chicken curry (or maybe I was conned). Isn’t it supposed to be like Nando’s peri-peri chicken? However, their wanton mee, suikau mee is superb. Their porridge (congee) is good but to have it for breakfast is a bit out of place but thats the norm in Macau. When you’re in Rome, do like what the Romans do..

Shopping here is also nice… clothes are cheap due to the close proximity to China… rejected original Levi’s jeans are goin for about RM60.00…. the best thing to buy here is  jacket. You will regret if you don’t get a sweater or jacket in Macau. I wanted to buy shoes… but am afraid that it could be immitations.

So, overall… Macau is worth going – for the historical sites, churches, food, gambling, shopping… 4 days is sufficient to cover most of Macau. I’ll do Hong Kong in the near future.

Yeah yeah yeah….. I went to Liverpool…. except to those two lame saddistic stadiums which one is in red and the other in blue. For all Beatles fan… it is a must to do a pilgrimage to Liverpool. Ok… we were there for the Beatlemania although I’m some 45 years late. I confess I’m a fan of The Beatles. Szer said she is also a fan.

The tour cost was about £12 per person. The tour starts at Albert Dock and ends at Mathew Street. The tour cover areas where the four band members – John, Paul George and Ringo stayed when they were kid. We also saw the places that was mentioned in their various wonderful songs – Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and Lime Street just to name a few. My Szer and I were the youngest among the “young” people in the bus. Some of the ladies grew up there seeing the Fab Four perfoming gigs before they became famous. They had since moved elsewhere and now they came back for a reunion and for the Beatles Magical Mystery tour. Some other guys came from as far as America to just to go on the tour.  Geez… the band may have disbanded many many years ago and 2 members were no more living….. but the mania still very much felt in Liverpool. Beatles is so timeless in Liverpool that it is part of their culture and proud history. Young and old people alike still move adn sing to the tunes like She Loves You, Please Mr Postman, Hard Days Night etc.

Beatles Story, Albert Dock. There’s even a Beatles-themed Starbuck coffeshop there.

This is where George Harrison use to stay when he was a kid. the house had long be sold to other people since  then.. and sometime I wonder how the current occupier can cope with the nuisance everyday that there will be a bunch of crazy people taking picture of their house. Ah well, I guess they must be very proud to have a connection or to be linked somewhat to the Beatles.

A closer view. We were early that day. The owner may be still sleeping at home at that time.

Ok… I forgot the name of this church..seriously. The tour guide however said they found a tomb of one “E. Rigby” in the church. Well, this must have been the mystery of the song Eleanor Rigby. Father Mckenzie writing a sermon? Anyone?!

This is the house of John Lennon. A semi-dee. And it has the blue-plate on it.

This is put up at the former house of famous people who had passed away for at least more that 20 years.

Ok. This is where Sir Paul McCartney used to stay… with his mom, Mary (of the “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be… “ fame). The church were so fanatic of that song they made it into the collection of hymms in a book which you can find in the church. The guide told us it was here that many of the the famous songs were penned…. including Penny Lane and of course, Let It Be. See, Szer was so excited and smiling. “All you need is love… all you need is love… love is all you need…”. It may not be relevant in today’s materialistic world though. Kids, do not try this at home.

The guy on the right was our tour guide. A wacky and lovely chap… who is a hardcore Liverfool (read: Liverpool FC fan). He showed us photos of him with Sir Paul taken not long ago… telling how close is him to Sir Paul and all sorts of other Beatles related stories. He’s Liverpool local and the first thing he’d ask as his opening speech was ” Is there any Liverpool FC fan on the bus??” Well, of course he was obviously looking at the cap I was wearing, although it was a discreet brown coloured cap with a badge of the (Red) Devil… which I thought no one will recognise it is a MUFC cap… which I bought in Old Trafford the day before….. You just can bluff the eyes of the arch rivals. He kept on dissing Man Utd and praising the Liverfool team…. even Everton was not spared the diss.

There’s a Sgt Pepper signage on this disused building. Could it be the Sgt Pepper Lonely Heart Club?

Strawberry Fields….forever. It is the orphanage where John used to stay. Man, its a disused place. The local authority should keep it clean, restore and make it place nice for tourist alike. maybe they should turn the place into a museum. This can be a very important landmark in Liverpool.

Penny Lane. This is actually the Penny Lane in Liverpool. Not the one as describe in the song where there was a barber and so on… no shop is seen along this street.

The bus. It is so old school that the interior feels so 60s or 70s. Beatles music were played from the tour guide’s iPod.

The local authority replaced the signage countless time already. It is often stolen by pilgrims and Beatles fans alike as a memorabilia.

Back in town. They even name hotels to beatles related name….. like Hard Days Night Hotel. The Beatlemania is there to live forever…

Mathew Street… one of the most happening place in Liverpool where all the clubs, pubs and discos are located. It is here where the Beatles revolution started in a basement club, The Cavern Club.

There a names on the bricks, of those who performed here in the Cavern.

Marred by graffities.

Well, you dont see youngsters in these places doing hop hop. Haha. Those drinking at the bar are mostly twice my age.

The Magical Mystery Tour was something I wanted to do and at last I finally did it. The Beatles had became very much of the culture and history of Liverpool that will live one for generations to come. They even name the airport after John Lennon. I wonder if there is any other place where a rock band/music figure is so connected to the culture and history of their hometown. Perhaps, Elvis Presley and Memphis? The Selayang Connection Club Band and the town of Selayang? Hmm….

Hey guys… the photos of Venice are ready. Please feel free to view it here.

http://fotologue.jp/endroog#/9103505/9103965

I love Venice because it is the only place that there’s no car ….yes.. car. Without the engine & exhaust sound, honking and tyre screeching sound…. life was better and not so stressful. There’s also cheap wine where you bring your own bottle when you buy it at the shop and they sell by the litres. It was a shop flocked by the locals….. we came upon it out of luck while walking around the “local area” where local people stays.

We’ve seen a lot of Venice in movies (The Italian Job?), postcards, photos, magazines, etc…. I’ve been to the real Venice. A lot walking to do, you’ll get lost despite having a map…. that if you are not careful enough. My first encounter with Italy was Venice. The blokes are stylish…. the ladies are hot.

The day when we were there, Venice was full of tourists especially Chinese. I saw quite a number of them. Piazza San Marco is the landmark. Should you get lost, go to Piazza San Marco. Thats what the tour guide told us. Plenty of al-fresco cafes thereat the piazza. Street performers & pigeons everywhere.

Coming up very soon… Italy.