MALAYSIA OWN HAVEN...............

Before I found this place I would not had belief that such place existed in Malaysia. Sorry for not having much fate in Malaysia beauty. I still stand by what I had always believed that is Malaysia tourism are handle by a bunch of idiot. That is why I don't believe that such place existed. Some of you might even heard of this place because Star Publication had write about it. Serendah is a small and I mean small much unknown or should I said uninterested by most Malaysian including me (or it is just me). However in this place there lie a beautiful, quite, near to heaven retreat. I really have no idea what is the name of the place but here is the website. http://www.serendah.com/home.html. Believe the actual place is 90% close to what is shown in the website. Leave the 10% to your imagination. The whole place is an enclose area with 5 living area to rent. 2 glass house, 2 mud house and one wooden house. My advice only rent the glass house because the place can house up to 6 person even more if you don't mind sleeping on the flood. The place is great to have a few friend gather together with food, unlimited alcohol that you can waste the night away.



' The entrance to heaven" Before arriving at the retreat the journey will take you through a small old town, an orange asli settlement and lots of rocking road that you feel that it goes no where. In the end you arrived to big surprise.



The glass house makes you feel like that you are living inside a forest. Its not really a glass glass house, more like a open concept house. you can enjoy it if you had being living in brick wall for most of your life. One thing does irritate the hell out of me is the noise of insect and river water running down the stream. It sounded peaceful and great most of the time except when you are trying to go to bed.


The little hole is actually the entrance to the living room, so another advice would be if you were to bring children along make sure you keep close eye on them.



The living room is connected to the barbecue spot. you can sit in or out. This is the best enjoyment for being away from the buzzing noise of traffic and actually enjoy a meal with friend. Most of the time when you go out and have meal with friend, you will be surrounded by people. Here you can actually sit together and hear each other voice loud and clear.


The greatest perk here is the pool. Here again, the best advice from me is to rent this place on weekday. That you have more chance of booking the place all by yourself and you can enjoy the place more. The water is as clear as it get, not sure where the water come from but we thought that it might come from mountain. Sia actually taste it and said that there was no chlorine put in it (pls don't fully take my word for this). When I told my friend who was going later that it was mountain water, he actually drink it and thank god he did not die. He said there was chlorine in it



I don't know how death I would be for posting this picture but I cant really resisted it. I was wondering how I would caption the second picture, the best I could come up with is Sia trying to do Yoga and Yoke Teng is trying to think of way to imitate but fail.


Lastly the sleeping place. Not so important because that would be the last thing you do in place like this. It will be waste to sleep. They provided mosquito net for the sleeping area but let me tell you that there is no such need. To my very surprise knowledge there was no mosquito. We were really well prepared for this ( Yoke Teng and I make sure of all the thing we must bring repellent). I don't know why there was no mosquito but I do have another theory, when we first reach there Yoke Teng being afraid of getting mosquito bite, she spray a whole can on her body maybe she had become our repellent.


We have excellent cook there namely Sia(person in yellow shirt), we didn't used the barbecue instead we made our own grill seafood and steamboat. Most of cooking utensil are available there but in case you might want to bring a knife because the knife they have there are useless.




Going to this place you will be leaving behind what one is used to in their everyday life, traffic, noise (except the one coming from the insect) and electronic item which is to me the biggest disturbance of our life (phone ringing non stop). The best thing to do is to drink the night away. Just another word of advice. When I said drink the night away it is an enjoyment but if you get drunk its a nightmare but still a great memory.

SORRY SORRY SORRY..............

I know what a slacker I'm when it come to updating my blog which is why it took me like a life time to start a blog. Lucky I have constants nagging from a particular friend to remind me to update. My next update would not be on Taiwan because I don't have certain info like the hotel we stay in. The rest of my stay in Taiwan was organised by my other friend. So until i get to info, I will blog about other stuff. Later I will come back to blog about the rest of my trip to Taiwan.

Taiwan was the reason why I started to blog, I being thinking how should or what should I write about after Taiwan. To write just on travel would be hard as I m not rich enough to travel so often. To write about food I m no critic, I only know how to eat. In the end I decide I would just write about what come to mind and interesting that I encounter. Don't expect too much, right now the most interesting that is happening is I finally found the beauty of shopping online. Let just said I have gotten a bit crazy with my friend YIP YOKE TENG.

HIDDEN LOCATION......

In this post I will talk about somewhere which every person living in KL can go. If friend ask me what other passion I have apart from Photography and traveling it would be eating, or it should be said looking out for unique restaurant or cafe. After going to Thailand and Taiwan one of the many complaint I have of KL is the lack of unique restaurant and cafe we have here. We do have a lot of restaurant and cafe here with go food but not a lot with creative aspect to it. So when I come across this cafe I was like wow wow wow................



This restaurant is called Full House located at 牛车水 NiuZeXui (NZX), Ara Damansara, This place is like an open courtyard shopping center, that is the best way to described it. This place is quite new, it had a number of food outlet but still a lot of empty shoplots. The biggest problem with this place NZX is the location, if you are not familiar with Ara Damansara, looking for this place is like looking for needle in an ocean. However my purpose is not to introduce this place but the cafe itself, I just hope the cafe would still be around after I posted this.


According to the owner these is a Korean concept cafe. There is 2 level bottom is a cafe and upper level is boutique. At the bottom level apart from being a cafe. They also sell lots of gift item from Korea. I don't know why the owner said this is a Korean concept cafe because to me the whole design of the cafe is like a English doll house with beautiful chandelier light.




Great detail effort have been put into the design of the cafe.



They sell a lot of little gift item and women clothing, The owner said the item are from Korean so you can imagine the price is not cheap.


Now come to the important stuff the food. All I can said is that the food look great but not of the best of taste. Don't come here expecting the best of food. Come with the mind of enjoying a nice cup of tea in this great environment. They have a variety serving for Malaysia and western taste bug. I order nasi lemak, nothing to ho ha about it is just nasi lemak. Thought the food is not the best (still good), the way they presented it, from the menu to the display of the desert is up to par with their design of the cafe.


The menu is like a story book. This is something new and cute to read through.




Like I said this is a place where you go for afternoon tea. The desert is pretty good. It look great huh.

Expect the unexpected........

The most beautiful part of a holiday is when you get to do something out of the ordinary, out of expectation and out of the unimaginable. I skip blogging for Kaohsiung because of all the place I being to in Taiwan, Kaohsiung seem to be the least exciting of all. I had great fun there but just nothing special to write about. So here I decided to write about Luye in Taitung. After all the walking and traveling by the time we were in Luye it was near the end of our whole trip in Taiwan. With tiredness starting to hit on us, Luye was totally a relaxing heaven.

These is the train station, it feel like one of those in the movie right.


we were a bit worry to had to arrived in Luye late in the night but sitting in the station waiting for our pick up from the home stay, some how we just feel a sense of calmness and peacefulness. NO FEAR AT ALL.



There were more crazy stuff we did. These picture are just the started. The thing we did in Luye was probably something we would never imagine we would ever do. Earlier post in my blog where I posted photo of picture of the three of us together were all mostly taken in Luye.


It is not so much the placed that make me want to talk about Luye but the stuff we did there. We were really lucky as when we arrived in Luye we have a great guide to take us around. Her name was 小鱼(sorry I think that is how you write her name, my Chinese is pre school level). We didn't have to paid for her to take us around, she was working for the home stay we stay in. Here is the website http://www.lc550808.com.tw/house.htm (I not sure if they still provided the service but the place is beautiful to stay in).

The home stay we stay in is just a simple elegant design home with just 2 to 3 bed room. With 小鱼 taking care of us, everything that is simple to our normal everyday life seem to bring a unique experience. She brought us lychee to tried, the breakfast was a simple white porridge and bun but it had a warm feeling while we were eating it. Just before we left she let us tried the art of drinking Chinese tea and cookes the most tasty instant noodle. All this was great hospitality with no extra cost.


From the moment we arrived 小鱼 took just to a small road side stall for simple but delicious bean curd stew with white rice. After dinner we ask if there is any hot spring in Luye and she said we should tried hot spring dip at night. We each book a room with hot spring, it was only RM30. In the room there was a hots spring with small opening door where you can look up into the sky with infinity star and old melody music playing in the back ground. Gosh tell me that is not heaven I don't know what is (sorry too indulge to take picture).


After hot spring 小鱼 took us on ride on this road at night. She said at night this road is known as timeless tunnel. Because there is no street light driving at night it feel like you are traveling on a never ending road. 小鱼 said everyone who come to Luye should tried driving on these road and night and in the morning you can rent a bike. The feeling is amazing.


Another activity to do in Luye is Paragliding. We didn't get to do it because to wind was to great on that day but standing on the edge looking at the beautiful scenery. I can half imagined what it would feel to Para glide from there.


Luye give us memory where the three of us will treasure for the rest of our lifetime. It seem like its fate for me to choose Luye out of all the other place to go in Taiwan. I had no info or expectation when choosing Luye. I was looking at a pamphlet where it was introducing all the farm stay in Taiwan. I choose Luye because it was the cheapest. The result of the choice was amazing. I guess this fit the saying "expect the unexpected". I hope 小鱼 can read this because of her I get to have such beautiful memory of Luye.............

My five year Partner................

This will be the only memory left I have of this car. I officially sold the car off today. I know I'm being sentimental but this car had being with me for the past 5yrs of cause I have to show some emotion. bye bye bye.................

Railway Journey.................

Best way to travel in Taiwan is going by the train. I had never ride in a train in my life, so I had my imagination of what train ride is like. Excitement and fear are both in the bag. To talk about fear, it would be whether or not it was going to be dirty. Now I can tell you there is NO NEED TO FEAR, not only was it clean, you would be traveling in total comfort. I have proof........(evidents below). Traveling by train is an experience on its owned, I'm not sure if you will be able to feel this kind of experience even if you take train ride in other country. One of the must tried feature while traveling by train in Taiwan is buying a lunch box. You can buy it when the train stop at the station or on the platform while you are waiting for the train. A ladies will carry the lunch box onto the train or sell it at the waiting platform. This practice had being around for a very long time. The most important thing is the food are not bad. The final and one of the most important reason for taking the train is the scenery. Along the east coast the scenery is mile and mile of ocean view. Provided you don't fall asleep the view is great.



This is why I'm always the one holding the camera. This look like they are as comfortable as they are sleeping in their owned bed.


Because we travel by train around the Island, so at some point we had to do crazy stuff. Here I leave it to our very own Low Lay Phon. I shouted at her for jumping in while I was taking the picture, but looking through all the shot I had taken, this picture come out the best.


This is train station Chencheng. There is so many reason why we decided to come to this place. I'm not sure how famous this place is to the westerner but in Taiwan is very famous. This station run on one of the last three old railway track in Taiwan. The track had being around since the Japanese occupation. This place is well known for it wood work. I stumbler on this place through a television show introducing a restaurant. (I will talk about the restaurant next). The more I search for info on these place, the more I was fascinated with the history and scenery of it. If you have time it is a must to stop by maybe just for half day. another fun thing to do there is the DIY wood work factory, after that you can bring back the work as souvenir. Here is the website you can check out for activity to do in Chencheng http://www.grove.com.tw/.


This is the one of the reason why you must go to Chencheng. The food is not bad but the fun thing is after you finish with the food you can take home the bucket. (Yoke Teng grab the bucket) Here is the website for the restaurant http://www.cedarteahouse.com/. There is not a lot of surprise about the restaurant, it is just a chick modern cafe. The bucket lunch set was the main attraction for me to go to Chencheng but when I reach there I found a new uniqueness about the place. Here you have a place which is still very much a old traditional town with very little development, yet right in the center of the attraction is this new modern trend restaurant. It give the feel of a old and new era combine together.


Traveling is about the whole experience of the journey, it is not only about visiting a particular place but also the journey it take to reach the place. The journey on the train is as much an exciting experience as visiting the different place in Taiwan. Backpack traveling can sometime be tiring. Take time to stop by in Chencheng for lunch is a great way relax and breath in fresh air.

日月潭...................SUN MOON LAKE

WHY..................Sun Moon Lake, apart from the fact that every TOM DICK AND HARRY will have to go to if they decide to travel to Taiwan because it had to be within the top 10 list of tourist must go destination in Taiwan. I however will give you my reason why give this place a go. Even without my words, check out this website http://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/welcome.aspx and you see why I had chosen to go the Sun Moon Lake. The thing is there is not much to do in SML but the scenery is breath taking. Hearing the name in Chinese is like going back to ancient time, something like the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. If you are Chinese you know what I am trying to get at. To be able to walk into this fairytale scenery, the place is worth going to anytime. If I described Jiu Feng to be the ancient beauty of Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake would have to be the modern beauty. Some residents of SML said because of the earthquake few year ago a lot had being destroy. So I m sure the place would have being even more beautiful than.


One of the must to do thing is book a boat ride around the lake. that is the most beautiful tranquil feel of calmness in the lake and you be able to feel it when you go on the ride. Most booking can be done through hotel or the home stay. Price are usually cheaper.


It would have being picture perfect if it was a guy and girl in the picture. instead we have two crazy girl here.


The beauty of the photo is the wall. This and the photo just above is taken on a walk up to a temple. If you take the boat ride, this will be one place where they will stop for a visit.


This was our mode of transport, the owner of the home stay provide transport to take us around. These two girl was so excited with riding in the back of a stock pickup van. If you look closely they are sitting on a box. I think even a limo ride cannot give us this much excitement.





All I know how to caption the three picture above is "3 women found their childhood memory or just us trying to act young". Overall it was great fun. Yoke Teng riding on miniature train, Lay Phon on merry go round and me just hanging in air.



I should had written about the hotel stay at the very beginning but the picture didnt turn out good so I leave it till the end. Thought the picture didnt turn out good but the actual place is great. There is really no need to book hotel in advance unless you are going during the very peak season, otherwise there is plenty of home stay around. I actually book in advance but when I reach there I found the hotel was in the middle of no where, so we went looking for another place the next day. We found a home stay (shown in the picture above). The room rate is cheap, although the room is small but design was very cosy, so I highly recommended it to everyone. You can also bargain the price with walk in.

We had our fun in SML but I think the place are made more for lover. It is just so beautifully romantic. There was a joke I had with Yoke Teng. If there was me, her and a guy in a boat, I will push her off the boat because she would just ruined a picture perfect scene.