Eyes on Cameron

31 MAY 2010: Went up to Cameron over the Wesak’s weekend for a short trip with friends. The trip was basically nothing more than eating and vege-shopping. Left KL at 6am and drove to Ipoh for breakfast, and then from Ipoh to Cameron Highlands via the new highway. As it was a long weekend, the traffic was bad along the way and we only manage to reach Tanah Rata at around 1pm. A tiring 6-7 hours of driving it was. I’ve been told by some friends that it’s much nearer to drive up using the old highway instead. Anyone tried that before? How about the road condition and safety?



Anyhow, that’s not the main point. Vege and market shopping is definitely a must when speaking about Cameron. Saw some numbers of familiar “faces” who I’ve seen or spoken before (forgotten where and when) while walked around the market, but I couldn’t recall their names. Therefore, we just had some eye contacts without any words spoken. Is this normal or I was being LCLY?

What would you do in such situation? Would you at least smile a little or even say "Hi"?

4D3N Chiang Mai trip

31 Aug 2009 : DAY 01 - ARRIVAL CHIANGMAI

Took the morning AA flight to Chiang Mai (Around 3 hours). Warm welcome by the tour guide (Mr. Siao Ma) who spoke mandarin. First destination was Doi Suthep temple that located in the west of Chiangmai city on Doi Suthep, 929 feet above sea level. As we have a senior visitor with us, we took the tram car up to the temple. You can choose to climb up the 300 steps by yourself though. It was a wonderful 1st day with fascinating view of Chiang Mai town and chilling fresh air at this temple.

After the trip, we went for a Khantoke Dinner where we were served with Northern Thai food accompanied with cultural Lanna-Style Performance during the dinner. Checked in to our hotel (Centara Duang Tawan Hotel).

1 SEP 2009: DAY 02 – CHIANGRAI DAY-TRIP
Woke up at 630am for early breakfast at hotel and headed to Chiang Rai via Van, which took around 4 hours drive.1st drop off point was Mae Kajan Hot Spring, which didn’t give me any surprise. Stayed for 30 minutes and went to 2nd destination, which was White Temple (Rong Khun Temple). As it was rained at the time we reached, we happily carried our umbrella and walked around the temple. It is a very beautiful temple with all white in color, which is very different from typical temple around Thailand; a must visit place if you happen to come here. Proceed with lunch nearby The Golden Triangle, which is the intersection between Mekong River and Kong River (The border of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos). Took a boat ride to a small village located in Laos, which has nothing much there apart some stalls selling local-made souvenirs. Another 4 hours drive back to Chiang Mai. And yeah, I managed to hit the hotel’s gym for an hour of workout. The night ended with shopping along the night market.

2 SEP 2009: DAY 03 - CHIANGMAI
After breakfast went to visit Orchid & Butterfly Farm before we proceed to Ban Tong Luang (Mix Hill Tribes village) to visit those Chiang Mai famous long-neck people. The village was nice and clean, where the whole village was actually supported by government. There were some nice looking ladies, but most of them were married with kids. Anyhow, I think the village was too commercialized and kind of loss its culture. The next destination was Elephant Camp in a Natural Park, which was quite an interesting place to visit where we were entertained with some performances by those well trained elephants. Took our lunch and visited some bird nest and honey manufacturers before visited the final destination of the day, which was San Kham Pang Village (Home Industries). This village has assorted size and design of those paper-made umbrellas. The umbrella was nicely painted with assorted design and colors. Had dinner and did our final shopping at night market.

3 SEP 2009: DAY 04 - DEPARTURE DATE
After breakfast, packed our stuff and happily flew back to KL.

Walk of Hope for our Earth

28 MAR 2009: Been hearing lots about this event (Walk of Hope) via radio and other media channels and decided to join with couple of friends. It was a charity event where the fund collected would be donated to WWF-Malaysia.

We reached CapSquare at 6pm to collect our T-shirt but the T-shirt was out-of-stock unfortunately. Kind of disappointed but since it was a charity event, I couldn’t say anything. Walk around the CapSquare where I would say has nothing to shout about. The place was packed mostly with teenagers (mostly Malay) and there were some events /performances before the walk started at around 7:30pm.

It was just a short distance of walk (perhaps around 1km) where we took around 15 minutes to complete it. Stayed a while after the walk till 8:30pm for the countdown. Teenagers were happily jumped and shouted, which I hope they do really understand the real purpose of the Earth Hour instead of just another celebration for them.



The Walk of Hope is a great effort done to support Earth Hour, but with a lot of space for improvements. Hope it will be better organized next year (at least with enough T-shirt for everyone!!!).

2D1N Taiping Trip : Lake Garden + Night Safari

7 - 8 MAR 2009: Followed some close friends for 2D1N trip to Taiping. I’ve never been to this town before though I heard a lot about it from a buddy of mine, who is a Taiping local boy. Reached the Taiping town itself at 2pm++ and checked in to the hotel. The hotel is located within walking distance from the Taiping Lake Garden with quite a clean room and free Wi-Fi provided. Not too bad for the price tag of RM79 per night lor.

Took a short nap as we were tired after the long journey, and it was raining by the time we woke up at 5pm. We were lucky as the rain stopped after our simple dinner at the nearby market. Therefore, we drove around the Taiping Lake Garden to enjoy the magnificent view of this famous lake while trying to locate the Taiping Zoo that we would go for Night Safari afterwards.

The Night Safari started at 8pm where the ticket price is RM16 (adult) for a 40 minutes ride around the Zoo. The crowd wasn’t bad due to rain. It wasn’t impressive I would say, and I was pretty disappointed not to see my favorite Hippopotamus. Anyhow, I think the landscape here is much better than our Zoo Negara in KL. Went back to hotel for early rest as we’ve planned for a morning walk at 7am the next morning.

We gathered at 7am the next morning for our morning walk around the Lake Garden. It was surprised that all of my friends could make it on-time as they were normally late. Walked towards the Lake Garden, and there were already quite a lot joggers running/walking around the lake. The scenery around the lake was magnificent, with some tones of romance if you came with your loved one. Took some photos to capture the lovely moment and wouldn’t forget some camwhoring as well. Went for breakfast after that, checked out from hotel and drove down to Ipoh for lunch before heading back to KL.

It was a short trip, but the beauty of Taiping has deeply captured my heart where I will definitely come for a 2nd visit someday.