How I spend my Christmas - Part 3

This post continue from How I Spend my Christmas - Part 2. On the previous post, we stopped at Orchard Road. But that is not how we end this year Christmas eve. After Orchard Road, we took the MRT to the Esplanade station and walk to the Esplanade - Theatres on the bay.



The place is alongside Marina Bay, so we can actually see Marina Bay from here. The Esplanade building itself is beautiful. Then we walk to the Merlion Park where we have some snapshots of the beautiful surroundings and have a cup of coffee at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. That wraps up our Christmas eve.





The next morning, we took the MRT to Vivo City and then took the monorail to Sentosa. There we go to our main purpose of Singapore visit - the Universal Studio. Inside Universal Studio we experienced how movies are made in the Lights, Camera, Action in New York. We also experienced the Transformers ride with Evac.









We have our middle eastern style lunch at the Oasis Spice Cafe in Egypt. Next, we walked to The Lost World, but due to long queue, we did not experience the Canopy Ride that we initially planned. But, we watch the Waterworld show, well, the show is actually awesome with all the effects and loud noise which makes the show real.

Next we move on to Far Far Away before going Madagascar to take a ride, hmm, not sure what is the name of the ride in Madagascar, but it was fun, though. Our final destination in the Universal Studio is back to Hollywood, where we shopped for souvenirs. It was like a whole day in the Universal Studio and we took a bus ride back to Vivo City Mall where we had our dinner there at the Mussels.





Finally, we took the MRT back to the hotel. My younger sister and I left the hotel to take some famous biscuits and cookies from Ipoh to her office, and travel back to her place where I met my friend at the nearest McD. We chatted for hours before finally call it a day.


Well, that sorts of wraps up my Christmas celebration this year - traveling in Singapore with my family, well, except brother. It's an interesting vacation, although everyone is like very tired when we are all back in Malaysia.

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How I spend my Christmas - Part 2

This post continue from How I spend my Christmas - Part 1. Well, once we reached there Singapore at about 4 in the morning, we call my younger sister and parked our car nearby. We all went into the room that she's staying and everyone else is like getting a nap except both of us and finally we drove to nearby for our breakfast. Well, I even posted the Singapore laksa which is the Malaysian curry mee. Anyway, thank God that my breakfast, although not good, but still better as I heard a lot of comment from others that the food in Singapore is a little bit sweet.




Then we checked into Peninsula Excelsior Hotel and go to the nearest MRT station to buy the day ticket as we will be traveling a lot on this Christmas eve. Since my mum requested to go Haw Par Villa, we go there. It seems like we are a bit luckily as according to my friend, the place was undergoing renovation just not long ago. Anyway, we get to visit this place and took some interesting pictures of the place.







Next, we went to Holland Village to meet up with my grand uncle who stayed nearby and we have lunch with him and his wife at the Crystal Jade Restaurant. To my surprise, the "har kao" can match closely with the "har kao" at Foh San Restaurant back in Ipoh. After the lunch and tea break with him, finally, we go back to the hotel where everyone else except me and my younger sister take a 2 hour nap.




I followed her back to her place to take something and then we are back to the hotel to have shower and then move on to a monument place named Chijmes to have our dinner there. After our dinner, we took the MRT to Sommerset and walk to Orchard Road where the road is nicely decorated by Christmas decoration. The place is so crowded but still, we manage to get the feel of Christmas in Singapore.







Ok. Guess that's all for now. Tomorrow will blog the remaining Singapore trip. Now wanna go to sleep already. Nitez guys.

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How I spend my Christmas - Part 1

On the way back to Ipoh

Well, Christmas is over, but to me, I am still having Christmas spirit in me. Hmm....actually not the real Christmas spirit, it is only the holiday mood that is actually with me. Anyway, this year, Christmas has been different for me. Usually on Christmas, our family members will be gathering together and have Christmas meals, be it in the form of course meals or BBQ style.




This year however, my mum intended to visit Singapore and so, everyone of us agree to go to Singapore except, my brother. Well, he told me the reason that he did not want to go is due to budget constraint, so, me and my younger sister will not force him to go with us, although we can sponsor him actually.

Anyway, last Friday, I directly came back from work from Kulim and then pack my stuff. While I was packing, my parents went to reload the Touch and Go card and then we pack our luggage into my car as we will be driving to Singapore from Ipoh. Before we left for Singapore, we had supper at McD with my brother and then finally drive to Singapore.

The journey took us about 6 hours plus. Then we have our car checked into Singapore and finally search for the way to my younger sister's place, Admiralty. Coincidentally, an ex-colleague cum friend also stayed there, so, I am to meet her on our second night in Singapore.

My breakfast in Singapore, Singapore laksa which is Malaysia curry Mee

My sister's place

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Looking Back and Ahead

Of late, I have become lazy again and this blog was left idle for like a month while I busy consolidate photos that I took from the Chengdu and Bangkok trip two months back and in fact, I just finish copy those photos from my friends' laptop to mine.

It has been sort of non productive month for me in September, maybe due to the long holiday that we have during the Raya week by the end of August. Over the month, just work and go through the same boring life as always, nothing special except went out for The Smurfs movie with a friend on one of the weekends in Kulim.


Looking ahead, this will be a busy month for me from work or even personal activities. In office, I will need to engage on some software and setup activities which could take some time, or even time consuming to some extend as I do not have any experience with the software.


On personal acitivies.....My brother's convocation ceremony will be held in University of Malaya this weekend, so this week my family members and I are traveling to Kuala Lumpur to attend the convocation ceremony and we will be staying one night - time for siblings gathering to catch up what's happen on our side.

Subsequently I will need to look back what I have achieved this year and then start to plan for 2012 - travel plans, 2012 plans and goals, financial goals and many more.


P/S: I've linked my sister's blog, Doink to this blog as well, finally.

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Back in Malaysia on Saturday.....My Sister Flying To Singapore Today

Well, guess what. I have been back in Malaysia and been doing some stuff with my siblings, mainly because I have been away for like a while and then my younger sister will be starting her work in Singapore tomorrow and she has already flew to Singapore earlier today.


I reached Penang International Airport On Saturday evening and then directly went back to my house in Ipoh, which is about two to three hours drive. Well, I did not unpack my luggage. I just unpack my stuff in the new laptop bag that I bought back in Chengdu, so that my sister could take that laptop bag with her when she go Singapore.

The following day, I just do what I have always been doing during the Sunday, which is to go Sunday for the morning service and then have lunch with my grandmum at her place. However, we have a dinner at the East Ocean Restaurant, treat by my aunt from England as she will be flying back to England on Tuesday midnight. Phew, seems like this year there are many of us flew.

After the dinner, we went to my grandma's place for some "blow water" session and then me and my brother watch Manchester United trashed Arsenal 8-2 at some mamak stall within driving distance from our house.

Next day, I watched Overheard 2 with my siblings, as well as my brother's girlfriend. Before watching Overheard 2, helped out my younger sister packing her stuff to Singapore, well, just giving her some idea how to pack effectively to fully utilize all the space, while at the same time, unpacking some of my stuff from the luggage.

Finally, today, sent my younger sister to the Sultan Azlan Airport as she will be flying off to Singapore and then start work tomorrow. I'm still trying to finish blogging Chengdu trip, but at the moment I will need to consolidate all the photos from different cameras before uploading it to Facebook.

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Kuanghaixiang Alley - The Forgotten Alley In Chengdu

Been very sick over the weekends and not able to blog about my trip in other places in Chengdu yesterday. But now I'm getting a little and while watching Scott Pilgrim VS the World now I think maybe I can blog a bit what I did after the visit to the Wuhou Memorial Temple. I missed out something in the visit to the Wuhou Memorial Temple, I did not even realized that I stepped into Jinli Ancient Street until my sister told me. How silly is that.


Our agenda did not stop only at the Wuhou Memorial Temple and Jinli Ancient Street. We also visited the forgotten alley in Chengdu, known as Broad and Narrow Alley or Kuanghaixiang Alley in Jinhe Road.

The alleys were built in the beginning of Qing Dynasty (1644 C 1911). After the Qing troops arrived here, they built some cities and some hutongs to the north of the Tai City become residence, and was forbidden for Han people. Officers lived in those broad alleys, while the Eight Flag members lived in a narrow alley that was parallel to the broad one.

Some might asked, if the alley is with historical value, why the alleys have been descended? The reason is simple, the alleys are so unnoticeable. Anyway, it is a good experience walking around the alleys as the admission is fee unlike visiting Wuhou Memorial Temple.

Guess I want to stop now. Seems like Scott Pilgrim vs The World movie is like game movie only. Is that guy dreaming or sees everything like computer game or what? I have no idea. So, back to watch movie. :D


Photos are uploaded to my facebook profile at Jason Toh.
Direct links to the Broad and Narrow Alley photos that I took.

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Visit to the Wuhou Memorial Temple

I have not been blogging over the past two weeks as I find it a hassle to have to keep logging onto the blogspot or facebook using my office laptop as the China government has blocked the Facebook and blogspot. Anyway, here I am again, blogging what I did last 3 weeks.


I will continue where I stopped last post on Touchdown at Chengdu. On that Saturday, we were planning to go out early in the morning, well not so early, but still early, maybe about 9am to 10am timeframe, but in the end we have to push it out because it was drizzling at that time.

Anyway, we (me and my two colleagues) did actually manage to visit one of the "Must Visit" place in Chengdu - the Wuhou Memorial Temple. Wuhou actually means Martial Marquis and the temple is dedicated to Zhuge Liang, the Martial Marquis of Shu in the Three Kingdoms.








The temple is about 400K square feet and is next to the Temple of Liu Bei. We can see a lot of the statues of the characters and stuff from the Romance of the Three Kingdom like Liu Bei.


Ok, guess that is all for now. Wanna watch the King of Fighters now.

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Touchdown at Chengdu

After a tiring whole day walk in QingChengShan yesterday, I'm having a relaxing Sunday in my hotel room, just watching TV and surf net. While I'm watching Iron Man 2, I'm thinking, maybe I can write the experience once I've touchdown at Chengdu.

As I posted on my previous blog entry - Sightseeing at Hong Kong City Center, I have touched down at Chengdu late night on Thursday. So, the two colleagues of mine and I rushed to get a taxi to the hotel and check in late at night. The ride to the hotel took about thirty plus minutes.


My first impression on Chengdu is that, wow…..everything here looks big; cars, buildings etc.... I mean the buildings that I saw is like huge, malls are connected – you can just walk from one malls to another without having to repark your car or getting a taxi ride. The next thing that I noticed about Chengdu is that it is foggy…..well, not exactly fog, but haze. The air pollution here must be extremely bad. Next, I noticed many people; including those driving very luxury cars like a seven series are driving with open window and not to use the car air-cond, could be for fuel savings.

Next day, we had our breakfast here in the hotel and then we report to work. We grab a taxi from the hotel to Intel. To be honest, the taxi ride here is horrifying and I’m sort of like having a culture shock. Even if we are to get our own car rental, I’m pretty sure that the three of us would still prefer to get a taxi. It seems like there is no rule or just that we are not used to the driving condition here.

Everywhere we go, we can hear the honking sound from cars, and cars are coming in from all over the directions. We are not even sure when the cars are supposed to stop, and sometimes we can see cars from the opposite directions are coming towards us…….eventhough it is our turn to move. However, I really salute the drivers in Chengdu, or it can be in any other place in China as well. They drive so aggressively and dangerously, yet, they give priority to the pedestrians and bicycles and motorbikes. These people drive cars like riding a bike, swaying here and there as if they own the road, yet it is so efficient and effective here.


Ok, guess I better continue watching Iron Man 2. Will blog about some of the places that I have been visiting in Chengdu soon.

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Sightseeing at Hong Kong City Center

I fly from Penang early morning last Thursday, and I only reached Chengdu late at night. The flight actually not long, just 2 hours plus from Penang to Hong Kong, and then another 2 hours plus to Chengdu. However, we got quite a long layover in Hong Kong, so, me and my colleagues decided to go sight seeing in Hong Kong with the 5 hours plus that we have.
























After checking out from the Hong Kong International Airport, we took the Airport Express (I think that is what the train is called) to Hong Kong city center, although passenger from the train can stop at Kowloon as well. At the Hong Kong city center, we took the bus ride to explore some of the more popular places around the city center. We stopped by Bowrington Road to have our lunch - which is quite costly, but I knew all along that the food in Hong Kong is not cheap. Well, seriously speaking, the food is not bad and I kinda like it. Before we know it, after the whole sight seeing stuff, few hours gone, and it is time to go check in back to the airport.

It was tiring after the whole sight seeing in Hong Kong city center. We reached Chengdu airport at about nine plus at night and then by the time we checked out from the airport, it is already late at night. We get a taxi to go to the Crowne Plaza hotel and then go to our respective room. I had my shower late late night and then sleep as I need to report to work the next day. The next few posts will be about Chengdu.

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Few Hours Before Flying To Chengdu

Well, it has been quite some time since I've update this blog. The last update was on my gain weight progress and then I got nothing much to share on the gain weight progress due to no progress :p. Seems like I'm stuck at 3kg extra and then no more progress on that. Sigh :(


Anyway, been a hectic week for me as I have to finalized my flight to Chengdu, due to a very last minute request. My actual trip to Chengdu will not happened until the next two weeks, but due to this request, it was pull in to two weeks earlier.

I was kind of excited with the trip actually although I know this trip is to go there and help solve some issues which I still blur about it. But this is what makes our life interesting, we venture into the unknown territory and then conquer it.

Hmm, still about another 6 hours before I can check-in, and then depart from the Penang International Airport at 7.45 in the morning. This will be a whole day trip and by the time I reached Chengdu it would been late in the night.

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Vegas Trip

This post continue from My Visit to Dupont - 4th of July Weekends


One of the place I travel outside the Washington State is Las Vegas Strip, the location of many of the largest hotel, casino and resort properties in the world. In fact, when one travel to the United States, one should not really missed out the opportunity to have a weekends trip to Las Vegas.


Well, I went to Las Vegas on the 17th of July evening. Bryan and I had our dinner at Anthony's in the SEA-TAC airport before boarding for our late evening flight to Vegas.







After we reached Vegas, we took shuttle to the car rental area and get our rental car and set the GPS to the Luxor and this is where we stay.







Luxor indeed a cool and unique hotel because of its pyramid shape and the room is with decent size. Another cool thing about Luxor is that it is connected to Excalibur and Mandalay Bay, so if you happen to reach Excalibur or Mandalay Bay accidentally, don't be surprise.





Vegas is famous for its casinos and besides casinos, there are actually many shows that are available and these shows are not cheap as well. Besides that, the buffet in Vegas is really worth it because people will be spoil with the limitless choices of food.

Anyway, here are some of the photos that I took in Vegas. Will upload everything to my Facebook profile when I have the free time to do so.

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