KK, Gaya Street and the Sunday Morning Market

A family trip to Kota Kinabalu recently let me witness the beauty of the land below the wind.... Sabah, negeri di bawah bayu.

We stayed over at a nice little hotel on Jalan Gaya proved to be a very good experience at a price what I can call a bargain. Hotel 63 is one hotel that I would really recommend to anyone who is visiting this city, with a great location, clean, free internet, and really I may say spacious room and comfortable beds.

Here is a picture of the hotel room.

Around the hotel there are plenty to see as this is one of the places where lots of food, malls, and its also walking distance to the beach. 

This picture is taken just behind a nearby mall. 

And this is a scene during the morning where boatsman looking for passengers for island hopping. One of them approached me and asked me to go on a boat ride to the nearby island for sight seeing. The boat ride will take around 2 hours and cost only RM 50. I guess that's the price for locals. 

Lucky me I stumble upon a nice little pub called Party Play. We hung out here with some friends at night and I had a few Paulaner from their draught. That was the highlight for me :))) 

Taste like haven. 

On Sunday morning the street transform itself into a totally different look. Welcome to the Jalan Gaya Sunday market. 

Some animal skin with the Quran versus on it. Wonder whether it is legal. 

Some cheap pearl jewelry. Made we wonder again on its authenticity.   

This is something I have not seen for a long time. Any idea what it is? These are wooden back scratchers. It works wonders when you don't have someone to scratch your back for you.  

Some colorful food. 

Fruits. 

Cloths. I think getting them here should be a bargain compare to other tourists spots. 

Plants for sale... yes they do have nearly everything here. But there is something even more interesting that I could not believe my eyes when I saw it. Wait for it.... 

Some statues for the Catholics. 

And more of them. 

Road side aquariums. Impressive, isn't it? Remember non of these were here last night.  

When I walked until the end of the street, I saw some bees flying around. And guess what I see next? 

What the....!!!???

Upon closer inspection, I couldn't believe my eyes... they are selling honey from the beehives? Together with the bees!

Street musicians? They are selling gongs. How can that fit in my luggage?  

Again I see some wild life from the ocean. Again I wonder whether this is legal. 

Well, a trip to KK really opened my eyes. One thing that I am really glad is that the ocean there is really clean with crystal clear water. It is not a busy port where I see large vessels like when I see off Port Klang or Penang Island where the beaches here are as dirty as the sewerage. 

The people here are friendly, the food is good, although I hear grouses from the locals and my taxi driver complaining about inflation and how lucky are we from the peninsular where everything is 5-10% cheaper. They are the one of the largest contributor of petroleum in Malaysia but they do not even have access to natural gas at the petrol station. 

KK is a really beautiful place. I hope the next time I come for visit is when I have the purpose of climbing the mighty mount KK. 

All pics taken with my Nikon D7000.

Location of Hotel 63.


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Tauhu Fishing Pond Oct 2012

Last Thursday afternoon, captain called me up describing to me in detail the itch that he was suffering and we would go all length to get it cured. After debating for long, crossing out lists of places that we would not be interested in i.e. ditches, snake infested waters and blood suckering pay ponds that charges an arm and leg for fishing for few hours.... we finally made a decision to visit a place that I have not been for a long time... Tofu Pond.

I am not a big fan of this place. As the first and also the last time I visited this place was like 2 years back, it was known to be a place where people came and went home empty handed. Captain get to convince me otherwise by giving me the latest update about Tofu pond. He is confident that we, or at least one of us would not go home empty handed.

This nice little fishing pond is now situated beside a highway linking Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Selangor, the Latar highway. Strangely enough, the place existed way earlier than the highway and oddly, you cannot use the highway to get here. The place was also covered by a local chinese daily some years back.

Well, we arrived there around 8 pm and another friend of ours Clarence joined us. Bait we use was the local favourite buns and smelly tofu.

An hour or so, Clarence saw his rod started to bend and it seemed that a Mekong cat fish took the bait. Here's the video of the scene at the last 3 minutes when we landed the fish. Don't be surprised as I was unhooking the fish at the tail as somehow this poor fella snagged his own tail on Clarence's hooks and it took him nearly 20 minutes to get the fish landed.

Shortly after, captain got a visitor at the other end of his line which fancied his stinky tofu. All hail the Pacu King. This must be his 1,000th Pacu.

Well... as for me. I guess there is a reason why I don't like the pond. And I am pretty sure the pond feels the same way. Fishing at the same spot, with the same rig and same bait, somehow my luck just doesn't cut it here. I will be back.

For sure.

And here's the location of the place.
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Video recorded with Samsung Galaxy S2 and still image taken using an iphone 4 I think.

Amsterdam Canal Night View

Another picture taken with long exposure with my D3000.

Surisit Taman Tun Dr Ismal

The wife requested for a dinner for her sister who came visiting us in KL with her boyfriend. Dinner venues were discussed and finally short listed. We were going to visit a Thai food restaurant this time around. A place where I did not fully approve of but looking at her enthusiasm looks like the decision was done. I only hope that they would not made me wait like the last time for more than and hour and a half for a decent meal. This is one place that I think it is seriously always short of staffs and always have a good flow of other visitors to make your dinner experience a long one.

A note that This is not ordinary Thai food joint. This place serves pork.

We ordered Tom Yum Pork (featured below in steamboat), green curry, omelet and fried kang kung.

Surprisingly, service was quick and the dishes were served speedily this time around. I was a happy dinner camper.

This pork tom yum tastes not bad. Even visitors from Penang liked it.

I like to eat this omelet with fish sauce.

Closing Time at Restoran Famous Seremban Favourites

Went to gym on after a half day work on a Saturday afternoon landed me on the way back home looking for food. 4 pm in the afternoon was a challenge if you are looking for quick chinese food in PJ as most shops are closed after lunch and not ready for dinner.

I happen to be at Aman Suria and I was really trying hard to avoid nasi kandar or any mamak food and I really don't see myself chowing down another double cheese burger from Mc Donalds's after watching Super Size Me on Youtube.

I remember there was this noodle place in the neighbourhood so I went. It has been some time since I dropped by.

The restaurant had some slight makeover and it now looks cleaner than several years ago. I came here during lunch rush hour before and it was really packed.

I ordered a large size hakka noodle for myself and another Char Siew rice packed to go.

The noodle was awesome and I had refills of the green chilis, I would never enjoy these noodle as much without this stuff.

The noodle again close up. You can see the minced pork. Chow down time.

A snapshot of the famous Char Siew here. The waiter was smart enough to separate sauces for later on consumption. The rice would become really dry if they mixed it.

I would say the operating hours are Wednesday to Monday, 8 am to 4 pm. Closed on Tuesdays.

And here is the location map.




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Amsterdam at Night, Jul 2012

Other than biking. another passion of mine is photography. 

I took up this hobby when I had my first baby boy, that was back in 2009 when my son was 1 years old. My wife and I took many photos of him using our phone camera and decided that he deserves better hence we invested on a Nikon D3000. 

3 years on the camera had really taken many thousands of pictures for our little family. And thanks to my loyal friend, who was a moving information desk answered everything I needed to know about taking photos using a SLR. 

Honestly, taking up photography was one of the most interesting hobby for me to date. One thing to note about it is that it does not come cheap. Any photography enthusiast will tell you the same thing. But here I am using a compact size SLR and complaining about the cost of it all, while I have not even speak about full frame FX format cameras or even the Mamiya or the Hassleblad medium format which would cost you an arm and a leg for owning them. 

My experience with Nikon has been a bitter sweet one. I really enjoy comparing photos taken with mediocre cameras with a proper SLR and seeing the difference just makes me enjoy having the knowledge of understanding how the art of capturing lights works for a person like me. However, I always believe it is not about what gear you carry, but what kind of opportunity you present yourself with.

It may be a neighbour's kid birthday party, or a family outing or even a big trip to explore the other half of the world, with a good camera and loaded with some knowledge, you could actually take some decent photos that could last you a life time. 

This picture below is a picture I took with my Nikon D3000. In fact, it is the very last few pictures that I took with this camera as I already rewarded myself with a nice upgrade to the very noble D7000. But that story should fit in another blog entry which I would be happily share with you, very soon. 

 

dam square 

f8

exposure: 6s

iso 100

focal length: 27mm 

like what you see? please comment. 

White Water Rafting, Sungai Selangor June 2012

It was a breezy morning when the company decides to send us on a team building session near Kuala Kubu Bharu. One may asks what is there to do, and some would say... you guessed it??? White Water Rafting!!! As this is NOT my first drill, and I think that I am made for this!!! And I would say that this is one of the best thing to do in this country... Woohoo!!

Once the company HR has confirmed the trip and we were all excited it, although I have never heard of this Sungai Selangor before.

The minimum age to join this activity is 13 years old and oldest is 60. The class of the rapid after a rainy day could be as high as class 4.5. It would be more fun if you can gather a group of 5-6 in a raft. I would recommend to wear shorts and proper shoes. Sandals would be pointless as you would easily lose them once you get in the water/raft. And I would recommend a very good breakfast and also, bring some easy-to-carry small snack and a water proof camera.

We were asked to gather at the Kuala Kubu Bharu post office 9 am in the morning. This is the only part of the trip that I didn't like. There were in total 40 participants (from other groups who we do not know) on that day, and some guy were late and we were made to wait for them until 10.30 am. This was totally not cool as just because of a few guys, all of us were late and all of us had to wait there and do nothing. Some people just do not have respect for other people's time.

We started moving towards the point A (where rafting starts) driving our own cars which was around 15 minutes drive from the post office, where we were given basic safety / rescue briefing while our friends who drove to A have to drive to point B (where rafting ends) to park their cars and they were chauffeured back to point A. It took them around an hour to do this round trip.

This is the morning briefing before we started. It was quite entertaining as the speaker was trying to crack some jokes in his presentation.

Once we got on the raft, this was what I saw.

The water was cool and refreshing, and nothing really beats the view of the forest in the morning.

This is how the raft looks like, with all participants equipped with a peddle. Helmets and life jacket is a must and there were 2 guides on the raft with us. The experienced guide will sit at the back giving instructions to the team. There were a total of 8 rafts on that day.

There were total around 4-5 rapids, the most intense was the class 4.5 with around 3 meters high. But the one our raft had a problem with was the one with the class 3. Our raft flipped and all of us were in the water. Luckily, no one was hurt.

I took some videos also. This is at the class 4 rapid.

As you can see in video some rafters are really having lots of fun.

The whole rafting time was around 2 hours and towards the end of the trip, there was a rest area with a small water fall. The organizers served us with some light snacks - chocolate, apples and bread. Food always taste better in the forest. 

This is how the waterfall looks like. 

At the end of the trip, our guides let us swim until the finishing line as there were no more rapids and the water was shallow. It was really quite nice as you could just float and enjoy the nature.  

At the end, we got up from the river and found our cards parked at point B. We collect our baggage and hit the shower. Then I realized that we were at a local school. 

This is the outside of the shower.

Lunch was served. By this time, it was already nearly 3 pm. 

Food taste good when you are hungry. 

The cost per person is RM 180. The rafting organizer website can be found here. I think this totally beats sitting at home watching TV or playing with your iPad on a Saturday morning.

All pictures taken with my Samsung Galaxy S II (with a hypergear of course)