I was fortunate to travel to two countries that have close relationship to my life
1) Taiwan: as a descendent of Chinese, it is normal for me to compare with Chinese descendent in Malaysia and in Taiwan

2) Japan: I watch Japanese drama, love Japanese food and use Japanese product. It was dream like for me to be able to travel to Japan
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Interestingly, these countries are closely related to each other.

Taiwan was under Japanese colonial for half a century. Till todate, many things in Taiwan are still heavily influenced by Japanese.

The train, they way they being polite, the product they use, they way they promote the products/awarenes, tv shows.... Etc

I immediately realised this on day 1 I stepped into Japan (i went to Taiwan in April, then to Japan in October)

In Taiwan, I went to Taipei, hualien, kaohsiong, taichung, alishan.

In Japan. I went to Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, nara and Hokkaido.

Nice view in Taiwan... In terms of nature sightseeing in alishan & hualien.

Taipei, taichung and kaohsiong are urban cities (shop till you drop in Taipei and weather in kaohsiong reminds me of KL)

We thought of visiting Taiwan again in few years time but... Malaysia Airline gave us early Christmas gift: we managed to hunt return ticket to Osaka with just... RM189

So, spent another total RM7000 in this trip. All in.

We were pleasantly surprised with all the five places in Japan. Each of them have their own uniqueness.

Osaka: a city with historical places to visit, various food, even more shopping than Taipei

Kobe: peaceful city ... Lots of European style buildings and... Kobe beef.

Kyoto: city of temples. Extra nice if you visit during autumn leaves season.

Nara: city of deers. Where deer > human

Hokkaido: RAMEN AND SEAFOOD! You can't go wrong with those two (er... Skiing wasn't part of the plan so can't comment)

Hokkaido is unique on its own. They have many products produced and sold only in Hokkaido (maybe a marketing strategy, but still feel exclusive) and their airport sells seafood and fresh corn (!!!!??)

When we were back home, my parents stopped mentioning about visiting Taiwan in near future.

My mum kept the Japanese yen asking us when are we going to Japan again.

And the couple spent the next one week revisit the photos taken in Japan.

If you have visited Taiwan, try Japan. You won't be disappointed.

Cheap air ticket, no visa requirement, depreciated Japanese Yen.

What more can I ask for?

Japan here I come!

Ron shared the photo,
I stole the photo.

He granted the permission,
I blogged upon the permission.

He was lost on the captions,
I blogged on my own captions.


Gothic or what?


Cute arc de triomph


Cute hotel


7.50Euro drinks - looks really nice and tasty and refreshing

I called it "dual monorail track" - which they aren't.






Strawberry as the topping?


Reflected


Reflecting


Alternative edition of the sculpture

So me and my friend went to Cameron Highlands yesterday, randomly.


The view behind the old tea factory of Boh Tea Centre


On the way down from the Boh Tea centre


On the way driving out...


from the Boh Tea centre


My friend said "KL jam.. Cameron also jam... Malaysia Boleh."


Equitorial Hotel, car park area


Alcohol ghost (酒鬼)


Which was one of the purpose we went to Cameron Highlands, btw.


Had fries as snack @ Vintage Restaurant.. not bad


Visited Time Tunnel.. as an actor-wannabe (很愛演)


Had Strawberry strudels @ Strawberry Moment... looked nice but tasted so so.. maybe I was too full.


On the way back...

The trip was fun but tiring.. very tiring.

Just got the checklist for the trip...

Sounds like it's gonna be a get-yourself-dirty trip.

With leeches...

With fierce sunshine...

The Mulu Pinnacle has better be good.

Photo taken while it was drizzling. Taken with my beloved C901

So after the previous post, Tee Chong told me that actually the hotel was opened long time ago.

It's called Heritage Station Hotel.

Thanks and sorry for the misinformation.

Further searching on Google, local newspaper The Star has an article about preservation of this heritage, here

Hope the heritage can really be preserved. I'd say it's one of the icons of Kuala Lumpur.

Just back from the trip.

Quite exhausted but the trip was ok.

On my way home, my dad told me his experience back in Taman Negara.

He stayed overnight at the watch tower and was able to see animals.

"Just randomly aim your torch light everywhere - and different animal's eyes will reflect different colours", he said.

He added that the experience of being "surrounded by animal sound at night is unforgettable"

Knowing that i stayed in aircon hostel and heard no animal sound at night, with no leeches, he asked me

"Then why u went to taman negara?"

This guide is for the two ladies, who're gonna be Vienna.

I hope this guide helps. Though I'm not sure if it's too late.

viel Spaß!

Hey my friends. It's been a while since I last blogged. FYI, I've been busy finding my past memory - I'm almost 8 years old and I still haven't found direction in my life.

Then I bumped into my old photo, some photo I took when me and Sebastian were in Vienna, 4 years ago.

In city centre - I forgot the name of the building


In the woods - I forgot the name of the forest, too.


On a hill - of course, the name of hill can't be recalled.


Sebastian had Colleen to hold cos he can't stand well.

Well, as you can see, I've serious memory lost.

And I'm just 8 years old.

I have fond memory of this town. Some part of the city is still well preserved - I felt as if I sat a time machine, went back to old time.


Apart from the nice food, the old building and surroundings slowed down my pace.


Which made me wondered at the time: "Why would people in KL rush like no tomorrow?"


Here, I felt as if the time was frozen

I think I did an achievement lately, I climbed a mountain!

I climbed Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, which is 4,095 metres high.

You may argue that I didn't climb, because I was carried by Trevor. But so what?

I took the photo at the top of the mountain, and I'm better than a lot of bears (and even human, yes, I'm sorry but, human)


Group photo, with me appearing like a small dot among them.


This was where I "stayed" thru out the whole journey. (I wonder why Trevor smiled like a gay in this photo)

It wasn't really comfy but it was water proof. I didn't get wet even though it was raining thru out the journey on Day 2 (please refer to Trevor's post earlier)


This trip was quite fruitful as I met a lot of friends. This is Sarah, whom I know for long time, who is "taking care" of my long lost sister, Francesca.


Siew Kee, my new human friend.


Me with waterfall as background, in the hand of Sarah


Me and Sarah... she was helping me to do warm up exercise before the tough journey

Then I stayed in my room for the rest of the journey, until Day 3

I felt very cold because the weather was less than 8 degree Celsius.

Finally, at around 6.30AM, Trevor and I reached the peak.


What should I say? The gay-est photo you can find - I wonder why Trevor always use me to achieve his gaygenda (gay agenda)

No matter what, this means that I climbed higher than him.


I took a photo with St John peak as the background


I also sat on a rock to take another photo. Sarah was the one who gave idea on this.

There was no need for Trevor to say 1-2-3 smile, because I've been smiling all the while.

I like this photo very much



Me and South peak.


This photo rocks cos of all the climbers in Trevor's group, none of them took proper photo with this signature peak. I felt beary (very) superior.


Me and the valley


Me in the plane, on the way back to home


This trip was an unforgettable one. I've been to some European countries, Asia countries, and now to a mountain.

But diving is not possible I guess, because I don't know how to swim