Christmas 2011

Finally it snowed in Debrecen on the 17th December 2011.
We decided to go to the city center that day since there is a Christmas Market there too. Colorful lights, fresh snow and freezing cold, definitely brought in the Christmas spirit!

It's snowing! or "esik a hó" (in Hungarian!). There's a big Christmas tree in front of the Yellow church too!

I decided to bake some Christmas cuppies and muffins for my colleagues...The muffins baked were very healthy and wholesome wholewheat banana honey walnut muffins!

The bigger muffins doesn't look very presentable, thus I decided to give the smaller cupcakes to my colleagues instead.

All wrapped up, with homemade Christmas greeting cards.

On 19th December, some of my colleagues came over to my apartment for some Palinka shots prior to our annual Manufacturing dinner which is held at the same apartment I stayed at.

HK trip with parents-Outdated post

On 9th to 13th March 2011, I was lucky to be able to explore Hong Kong and Macau with my parents. Myself as the tour guide, this is a diary of our experiences in HK as a reminder to myself. I'll be back one day, for sure :)...Overall, it's an enjoyable trip although tiring at times. I hope my parents enjoyed it as much as I do too...This is a brief account on what we did in HK.,

Day 1 :Bound for HK..in the flight with mom and dad :)


Our Hotel Room, YMCA Salisbury Tsim Tsa Tsui..a highly recommended stay!!


Day 2: Macau, here we come!!
We took a Ferry from the China-Macau Ferry Terminal.


Enjoying the Portuguese Egg Tart outside Koi Kei Bakery. We have bought many boxes of the yummylicious almond cookies too, a popular snack here.


A must visit in Macau is none other than the many casinoes that dotted the area. Reminded me of Las Vegas.


Day 3: We're at Ngong Ping 360 Deg Cable Car ride!. Heading towards the big Buddha statue at Tung Chung.


After climbing so many steps upwards, we manage to reach the top of the Buddha statue! Good job to mom and dad!


Again, my landmark jump! hehe..


After we got down from the cable car, we managed to do some shopping at the Outlet Mall at Ngong Ping called Citigates mall.


At night, we decided to stop by Mongkok. Mongkok, is well known for its many food stalls and the various streets selling unique items..Apart from that, it's also the place where the famous Ladies' Night Market is located. To me, there's nothing special on this market, it look something like our Petaling Street.


Day 4: Wong Tai Sin temple!

After the temple visit, we went to the Central district by the high-speed train. Central district on Hong Kong island is the at the heart of the city, a bustling city with skyscrapers and great shopping malls and shops!! Definitely a shopping paradise for me! hehe. In the picture above, the ascending steps here was a familiar scene. It reminded me of some of the scenes in the HK TVB dramas. Typically these narrow paths are a popular shot for the police and thief/bandits road chase on bikes!! Why I said that? That's because at the time I was there, there's already a filming in progress. Guess who I saw? haha..it's Louise Koo and Daniel Wu!! Too bad I didn't manage to snap any pictures. There's just too many plain-clothes policeman and guards all around that prevented me from taking any pictures! :(

There..this is the best that I could capture..in case you're wondering who, that's Louise Koo with his back facing us! haha! :p


At night, we proceeded to The Peak, the highest lookout point at HK.
In the picture, mom and dad's in the tram. On the way up!


That's me posing in front of the 360 deg viewing platform!


The night view! Too bad it was slightly foggy that day :|


Day 5: Final day!!! A relatively free and easy day. We decided to walk around the HK Avenue of Stars! Actually this place is just right across the street from our hotel! :)


Once again, it's too foggy, can barely see the skyscrapers at HK Island.


The iconic Bruce Lee statue!

And here's some of the food selection we enjoyed here..

Mom and dad enjoying the selection of dim sums here!



This sums up our 5 day, 4 nights trip to HK! :)

BKK Trip

Each time I stepped foot at Bangkok it sure did bring back many fond memories to me.

This is already my 3rd trip to Bangkok. The first time I went to Bangkok was back in 2004, right after my graduation. A party of 5 of us, we took a 24-hour train journey from Butterworth Penang to Bangkok, Thailand. Yes, the journey was that long! Mind you, at that time we still don't have the luxury of flying cheap with AirAsia. Air Asia was probably an ailing company then, in dire straits before Mr. Fernandez the Hero, rescued them with a mere "RM1" acquisation.

To be frank, my first trip to Bangkok was also my first backpacking trip, and boy that was my best travelling experience so far! Being so naive and carefree(haven't tasted the hardship of working life yet), every place we ventured was a great adventure. We explored Bangkok and Kanchanaburi by foot most of the time. On other times, we took public transports like tut-tut, the train, taxi and buses. To save cost, we even spent two nights at a brothel-like motel for our accomodation. What do you expect? It cost us only 120 bt (RM12) per night, and we're just students ok, so this what we could only afford.

The experiences we gained? Many. We mingled with fellow backpackers, stayed at a raft house on an elephant farm, tried on elephant rides,took our bath at a serene waterfall-Erawan Falls (as we're too disgusted to bathe in the river where the elephants bathe and relieved themselves too!) and took a journey down history at the River Kwai where the British armies, some of our forefathers, the Indian Gurkhas and local ppl fought for their lives here with the Japanese army in the early 1940s while building the Bridge over River Kwai.

These experiences are something that money can't buy. But to gain such and experiences, we need TIME. Yes, time is the luxury that I don't have.

Eversince I started working, the only available time I have is on weekends. Sigh.

Last year, with the limited TIME I have, I managed to make a trip to Bangkok with BS to visit my sis and bro-in-law who was posted there for 2 years. That was a short trip. We didn't do anything much, in fact I stayed home most of the time. The only thing I enjoyed most is to go shopping and more shopping!

Fast forward to this year. With the worsening economy, my company had asked us to take two days' off per month, which is equivalent to 10% paycut. *sniff* Looking at the bright side, it means, I will have more TIME too!! And with that, I could make another trip down to Bangkok!! Woo hoo! The best part is that my wonderful bro-in-law has offered to sponsor my trip to Bangkok! So this will be a FREE trip for me!!!

This time, it is different however. No backpacking or whatsoever. I will be visiting my sister,brother-in-law and most importantly my little nephew!! Weeeeeee! My parents will be there as well, so this will be a family trip!! Woo hoo!

The highlight of my trip this time is that my parents and I took a half day trip to Damneun Sadok market a.k.a the floating market which is about 2 hours drive from Bangkok. It was really interesting to see vendors selling everything from little trinkets, to clothings to food on the boat. Have you ever experienced traffic jam on a river? Well, this is something unforgettable! haha...

Here's some pictures from my trip.

Vendors on the boat

Traffic jam!

Me on the boat

Family

And not forgetting ................

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The Cheeky lil' fella!! ........SAWADEEKAP :)

A short trip down south

When I was 10 years old, I went on a school trip to Malacca. The very first place I remembered going to at this "Historical city" was the Hang Li Poh well at Bukit Cina. If you don't know who this lady was, then you should be ashame of yourself for not paying attention during History class at school!

Yes, aside from the fact that Princess Hang Li Poh, the chinese maiden who married Sultan Mansur Shah, another intriguing story was that the well that Hang Li Poh had used to bathe herself everyday has never dried up (and will never) over the years. From my last check, despite the ultra hot weather, the well was still filled with water!

Legend has it that if one were to toss a coin into this legendary well, you would return to this very place one day. As an innocent child, I happily tossed a coin and make a silly wish into the well. Little did I know that it will take me another 10 years to return to this very sacred land, and despite having a real short time(I was at Malacca for just a day), BS has insisted that I should visit the well again!

...Gosh, why did I toss the toin in the first place? Now I'm stuck together with a fellow Malaccan for 5 years already! haha!Anyway, apart from Malacca, we did make a stopover at KL. Ikea has been THE place that I would want to visit for ages, and at last we did make it after countless failed attempts to KL!!So, What have I got?? Oh framesss.....I need some framesss for my home...my poor colorful wall has been so bare!!!

Psst..I'll put up the pictures that I'm framing next ..stay tuned! :D
Here's some random pics I took while in KL and Malacca!

This is Cheng Hoon Teng Temple looking splendid after the renovation & restoration works which has been going on for ages!

This is me at the Hang Li Poh well (after a 10 years absence!)

Me again hiking up Bukit Cina. Note the hiking trails are lined up between some centuries-old chinese cemetaries!

I simply love this pic. Note the temple, the brick buildings at the foreground and the old zinc roof kampung style houses in front. What a contrast!

Me posing in front of Cheng Hoon Teng temple.

Just the two of us after the hike. A snap with my camera phone :)

And lastly, a brief stop at Sepang International Circuit! Two down...(first was Silverstone F1 Circuit)

Waterfalls

A few months ago, Ian took us to a short trip to somewhere near Inverkeithing for trekking. It's a shame that I can't really remember the name of the place but I'll let the pictures do the talking. Frankly, I have never expected UK to have waterfalls..and yes it looks like the one in Malaysia, the only difference is that the one in UK, you can't really swim in them or you'll froze to death!

That's me before the trek
CT,Ib (CT's bf) and Pauline(Ian's wife)
A few of the waterfalls

Nice view on top of the hill

Travel stories - South of England

This is a long outdated post of my trip to South England on my 5th Week here with CT. If I don't blog about it, I'll probably forget about it next time and this will be a shame. So here it is, our weekend trip to South of England, a short yet sweet and memorable one.

For this trip, we chose to fly as the flight cost from Edinburgh to Bristol, our first stop was much cheaper by air than by train. Yeah I know, crazy isn't it?... Our plan is to actually meet up with a friend of ours from the company, Ian.We will be staying over his place for just one night. He must be the nicest and kindest person that I've ever met so far. Ian's from Reading and it will take him about an hour's drive to Bristol Airport to meet us. When we first arrived at Bristol, the weather was very foggy, with visibility of less than 10 metres.

Our first destination was heading South to Cheddar at the Sommerset County. Yes, Cheddar as in Cheddar cheese, the home where cheese were first made. We, however were not going there for the cheese. With the foggy weather, we kept our fingers crossed as we made our way to the Cheddar Gorge. When the sun came out, weather improved slightly and boy, it was indeed a sight to behold looking at the marvellous view of the Gorge, just like giant scultures carved out of rocks. Somehow, the view reminded me of the limestone hills on the way to Ipoh..haha...Never can I imagine that there's actually a limestone gorge in England! There were even primitive Bronze Age sheep species, known as "soay sheep" grazing on the hillslopes.



Magnificent view at Cheddar Gorge

That's me posing :D

That's CT posing too

Information on floras and faunas found here

Before the Cheddar Gorge, we did past by the Cheddar Village, which is a pretty little village, very touristy in fact. You can also see and participate in how cheese were made and all in one of the shops. I must admit that CT and I have grown so old these days that getting out of the car to visit these places of interest is more of a chore. We thus chose to just have a quick drive through this town and head for the next destination.


The next destination, we went further South to Glastonbury. Nothing much here except that this is where the headquarter of Clarks ( the famous shoe company) is based. The interesting part here was that there is a shopping village started by Clarks company known as Clarks Village. From a humble beginnings of only 1 shop selling Clarks shoes this shopping village has now grown to cater for more shops that gradually transformed this village into an outlet mall. Brandnames like Timberland, Nike, Gap and Thorthons etc has opened an outlet here too. As usual, shopping is our favourite and with the limited amount of time that we have, we shopped with our adrenaline rushing, whizzing by shop by shop with quick purchases! We simply love shopping!!!!!!!!!


We took our lunch at the food village and make our way to the next destination towards the town of Salisbury at Wiltshire County. On the way, we make a quick detour to check out a winery in one of the little farms scattered all along the backroads we took. Unfortunately, no wineries found but we saw some sheep farms and loads of wild raspberry! We also drove through the Haynes Motor Museum. Ian told us that Haynes is world famous company that provides services to write manuals about DIY repairs for all kinds of vehicles. Interesting.

Sheeps and more sheeps

Wild raspberry bushes

Haynes Motor Museum with a tanker and old double decker bus as exhibits.

After about 2 hours drive, we arrived at Salisbury, the home of Stonehenge. Amazingly, the structure looked smaller than I thought. With the sunny weather and blue sky, the structure looked magnificent. We chose not to pay for the entrance (it costs 6 pounds) as we could well see the structure clearly behind the fence. It has always being my dream to visit all the Unesco World Heritage sites, and I was glad that I can now take this off my list of to-visit :).

Idylic settings at the Stonehenge
Ian relaxing, enjoying the sun

Next off, we head home to Ian's for a BBQ feast.We had the chance to have a look at Reading, and to our surprise Reading was an industrial town with many factories. Microsoft and Oracle has a huge offices there too! When we arrived home, it was already eight, and after we took our dinner and bath, we just hit the sack. It was indeed a tiring day.

Behind CT is Ian's nice and cozy semi-detached home

There's a little Flight Museum at Reading too

Day no.2, the final day, we manage to squeeze our itinery to visit the Windsor Castle at Berkshire. I think this is Queen Elizabeth's weekend retreat. How I wish I have a home like that! Oh, we even saw a cute little crooked House at Windsor also called the Crooked House of Windsor.

Windsor Castle, with a statue of Queen Victoria by the entrance

The Crooked House of Windsor, see how crooked it is? I wonder if there's a crooked lady living there? :D

Next, our plan was to head up North to the town of Oxford, the old university town. Oxford University a.ka. Oxbridge is a place that I have dreamt of and still is dreaming of studying at one day alongside Harvard and MIT..(wishful thinking). At Oxford,we just make a quick drive around the town to save time. One that is worth mentioning is that along the way, we did pass by many quaint little towns which was indeed very pretty too. The next destination is to head up further North to the Northampton County. Our plan is to stop by Silverstone, yes, the home of motorsports, Formula 1. When we were there, I think there was a motorcycle Grand Prix.

Yeah SILVERSTONE, we made it!!

The entrance

Big bikes of a myriad of colors parked outside the circuit during a Motor GP

BMW Mini plant at Swindon nearby Oxford

One of the nice lil' town we passed by.

We also make a quick drivethrough to the University of Southampton to check out the campus, who knows we might further our studies there one day.We then head off to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the town were Shakespeare grew up. Along the way, we also stopped by the Aston Martin headquarter for a quick snapshot while Ian read the map! :D..too bad we were not allowed to get in.


Aston Martin, I want

Our final destination was to get to Cadbury's world in Birmingham. I envisioned it to be something out of Charlie and the Chocolate factory but thankfully not. By the time we got there, it was already 3.45pm. Luckily we were short of 15 minutes before the factory closed and we could make it in time. In fact, we were the last visitors of the day! The factory tour was pretty educational and we were given a few complimentary chocolates too! As usual, the last stop would be the Chocolate shop, and we did buy some chocs and souvenirs as well :D.

Demonstration on how chocs filling are traditionally put

CT and I have turned "chocolaty"...check us out here...

CT marking her territory with non other than chocs of course!



We will be here forever...

After our tour, Ian dropped us off at Birmingham airport where we bade goodbye to him. I would say that this is indeed a short trip but well worth it. Thanks so much to our dear friend, Ian for accompanying us and be our designated driver for the day. It's indeed a memorable trip :)

The End.