Friday, December 29, 2017

Passing Away Of A Childhood Friend....

I was kind of expected this day to come, though not that fast... but when it happens,, I think you not only mourn, you not only lost a friend, you also lost part of your childhood somehow...it is like ur friends that you grew up, who knows your background, who went to catch fishes at the river with you, who went to pesta with you, who played badminton with you, who took the same examination as you do, and whom is of the same generation as you, you feel part of you are lost.....lost, now where.

And as I write, I feel the pain, I am not sure why....I pray that he follows the path, and he is happy and peaceful in another world.

I shall miss you and till we meet again......in another space, another universe.....


Take care my dear friend,,,,,,,,I am sorry if I didn't do enough for you.


Sincerely,
Me

Friday, December 22, 2017

A thought in the nite of Winter Solstice......

Today is suppose to be the Winter Solstice, and for people of Chinese ancestry, this is an important day, like first day of CNY, and is celebrated throughout places where Chinese culture is being practiced.
Today was quite a busy day, and in the afternoon, I got a call from my childhood friend, asking me to bring him to hospital. And I went to fetch him and we went to a hospital in Penang. The hospital was asking a lot of questions about referral letter, about specialist or emergency doctor, etc.
But that is not my key discussion point here tonite.
My main concern is seeing my childhood friend's health deteriorating, daily, starting with diabetes, then kidney problem, hemodialysis, lung infection and then Stomach ulcer problem, and his body size becoming half of what it used to be, just like human skeleton body structure. It pains me to see this, and I was informed by his younger brother that he fainted 3 times, yesterday till afternoon today.

I am not sure what I can help further, only providing emotional support and when he needs me to fetch him to hospital or take him back home, or make some simple meals for him when I have the time or back in the same hometown of ours, then I shall try to cook something for him.

Which makes me to think, health is actually number 1 importance, and health is something that we always take granted for, thinking that it belongs to us, and will always remain healthy, despite us hurting our body everyday by taking all sorts of food without letting it to rest or recover, until it becomes too late for any help to be effective anymore.

I hope I can help further....let me think about it.


Nite

J
BM

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Visit To India-Mumbai, Jaipur, Agra, New Delhi, Calicut and Mumbai-Part 1, Mumbai

It has been a while and was too lazy or busy or whatever excuses I had, I need to write something, for my reference in the future. I think it is very important to have my personal notes so that I can read later or someone else can read my memo in the future. 

First about my Indian Visa, I would like to mention a bit on this part as I think the department in charge of processing Visa is very efficient and I got my Visa the following day after my application. One point to highlight though, the fees charged, in my opinion is a bit too high. Anyway, I got my E tourist Visa for double entry, and one point to share here is that, when you have e-Visa, there is a special counter at Mumbai immigration department to handle your entry into India, hence you do not need to queue at the normal counters where your visas might be applied via Indian embassies (I lost out sometime, cause I was not aware of this until it was my turn to stamp my passport at the Immigration counter). May be they should highlight this clearly to tourists upon arrival to the airport. One point to mention is that Mumbai airport is quite nice and clean (and I think relatively efficient too).
As for flight, I used my favorite, that was SIA.

Mumbai:
My first arrival, Mumbai, and first impression, a nice one, modern. Walked quite a long way before reaching immigration, and got it cleared and then, I was outside, and my friend, Mario sent his driver to pick me up and I was sent to his local club where we met up after so many years, and having lunch and so catch up before moving to the local clubhouse shop for some sundry. The club is something like Penang club, I was informed it was built during British's time.

Met Lawyer Guo at SIngapore Airport Terminal 3, after so many years.

                                         The clubhouse in Mumbai-Willingdon Sports club



Very traditional clubhouse, British style

                                          Avacado fruits, Indian, look the size is quite big
Local garlic, first time for me to see this type, smaller ones

Walking around the city in the evening

Mumbai city, old Mumbai

The famous stairway, Taj Mahal hotel
                                                    The famous hotel in Mumbai
                                         Old Mumbai, exploring the city
                                          Meeting my old friend, Mario.
Pickle shallots

                                                     Local wine




                                         Old Mumbai
Old Mumbai

Old Mumbai


                                          Old Mumbai








Old Mumbai, in a street where there is a temple and locals are offering prayers

                                          The Mumbai train station
The square near Gateway of India/Taj Mahal hotel

                                          Gateway of India
Elephant island


Dinner at one of the famous restaurant in Mumbai

Queen's necklace, a walking distance from my friend's house.

Just arrived in Mumbai, in the car with my friend's driver taking me to the club.

In front of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station

Mumbai airport-Departure halls

                                        Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya-a museum, and must                                            visit the museum shop where I bought some handicrafts

Mumbai, in short is nice and there are two parts, new and old Mumbai. New Mumbai is just like any metropolitan city, and I personally like Old Mumbai as there are more historical buildings to see. But It is quite dirty in some places as I think the local municipality did not come and clean the areas timely. Taxi drivers most of the times are not very honest, and I got "cheated" like twice, hence most would prefer to use Olacab (local version for Grabcar/Uber) which is very convenient and most drivers can speak good English.
There are a lot of homeless people, most of them, as I understood are migrant workers, and they just live on the streets, in temporary shelters.
Food are delicious, if you like Indian food, and if you go to local restaurants, the food is relatively inexpensive and if the waiter provide good service, it would be nice to provide them with a small tips.
My friend's apartment is at a hillside, know as Malabar hillside, where of course a lot of rich and famous stay and as I was informed, the property prices here are super super expensive.

One thing to mention here is that, it is relatively safe to walk around the city, as no one will come and rob you, or disturbs you. But the road is very congested especially if it is a working day or during rush hours or when it is raining. But overall, like my friend say, I can get everything in Mumbai easily, and he is happy living there and for me, is a new experience visiting the famous Mumbai.

One thing to take note, to visit all touristry attractions, you need to buy entrance tickets and for foreigners, it is usually quite expensive.

Choong
Notes written in December 2017, recalling the visits.


Monday, December 4, 2017

Visit to Hatyai, Thailand-WIth Friends- Dec 2017


Brandon, having this long break from job in HK, is back, and visited me during the weekend, and took the opportunity to have a one nite two days trip to Hatyai with another friend, Nestor, 3 of us together. Have been to Hatyai many times before, but this time around, using different mode of transportation is a first time. First, Komuter (train) to Padang besar, then taxi to the border (both immigration), then to Padang besar town, the take van for the ride to Hatyai city. Need to pay RM 10.70 per person, then RM 10 per head for the taxi and then THB 50 for the van ride to Hatyai city. Coming back, we took another way, that was with Train from Hatyai at 1.05PM, which costs THB 50 per person until padang besar, then RM 10.70 with Komuter back to Bukit Mertajam. Very convenient and easy (and cheaper).

It was a good visit with and catch up with Brandon after so many years, making jokes, taking a walk in the city and also enjoying some nice foods. Nestor wanted to learn the way to go there by train and perhaps can bring his parents there in the next trip.

At nite time, after our food, our beer and the our bedtime stories, ghost stories, told by Brandon, was fun, and exciting before we call it a nite and rest soon after that.

The next morning, went for the morning market, and that was the place we enjoy a lot, breakfast, and bought some supply home. It was a very meaningful trip, hence I put it as a record of my journey here.

Thanks.






Wednesday, November 29, 2017

My Visit to Hokkaido Island In Feb 2017 (Tokyo, Kanazawa and Nikko too)

Again, I was too lazy to right, and until now, I think I should keep a record of this trip as it was meaningful one. Went to Hokkaido island during my Birthday, just want to be away to the land of my fav country in Asia and wanted to have the experience of winter in Hokkaido. Though it was not easy to move around (I fell a few times as the roads was covered with ice and was very slippery, even though I have stayed in Beijing for a few years, still a tropical guy like me, it is not an easy task to walk in the streets full of ice, haha), but nevertheless, I felt it was a worthwhile trip, full of life experiences.

I bought my JR pass-two weeks, which meant I was prepared to travel the island throughout as much as possible using Train/Shinkansen/subway with this JR pass. Please google to get more information about this pass, and I got a 14-day pass, which amounted to USD 402.00 (excluding courier service charge to your location).

Started from Tokyo, then Sendai, Aomori, Sapporo, Kushiro, Abashiri, Shari, Toro, Sapporo, Hakodate, Nikko, Tokyo, Kanazawa, Tokyo and back to home, close to two weeks trip in total.

Sendai-A first stop after Tokyo, actually heard of this name many times, but no chance to pay a visit and finally, have a chance to take a look and stay a nite here. Walked to the famous hillside, and the town a bit, before going back to hotel and take a rest. And also in this city that I stayed for the first time in a cube hotel, very classy, new and hi-tech, and what an experience.
                                         Cube hotel-9hours Sendai city

                                          Sendai
                                         Sendai hillside

It was at Sendai station, that I ate this birthday cake, and it is kind of meaningful for me, simple and yet significant. So I celebrated my birthday here at a little cafe in Sendai station while waiting for Shinkansen to take me to the next destination, that is Aomori.

After Sendai, the next destination was suppose to be Hokkaido Island but because we consider the to go to Sapporo direct instead of stopping by at Hakkodate and worrying that the direct trip to Sapporo will be too taxing, we stop at Aomori, the final JR station in Honshu island. It is kind of wrong idea to stop here as my traveling friend booked a hotel in another nearby city instead of Aomori city, hence we have to take a bus to this place, in the middle of no where and at the time the sky was getting darker, and later it snowed crazily.
Look at the street here, full of snow.

And it was also a kind of blessing and it was actually my birthday nite and the restaurant owner and another guest there treated me with a simple meal and also a glass of sake and the lady, who is the owner of the restaurant, gave me a pack of chocolate. Fabian is traveling together after we met in Tokyo Shinagawa station as he was also going to Hakkaido island.
Forgot to mention, getting the bus out of this city is also a problem early in the morning, especially when we have a shinkansen to catch and most locals cannot speak simple English, but somehow, they say when your karma is good, then you meet kind people that will guide you and we met one lady who helped us and also the bus driver who guided us in smattering English and we were dropped one bus station before the main JR station, which is like 400m walking distance. We were thankful for that.  








Once arrived to Sapporo, it was already late afternoon, and we did just walked around the city. Can see that Sapporo city is very crowded especially with mainland Chinese tourists, and they even made some announcement in Mandarin, very interesting indeed. Find that the food here is quite high price and very similar or might be higher compared to Tokyo.
The next morning, due to the time of SHinkansen trip we booked earlier, and having enough time, we just kept our luggage at the hotel, and walked to a nearby park.

This was the depth of the snow, on the way to a park in Sapporo city. It was a nice walk and I think we walked like more than 10KM, two ways, they pick up our luggage from the hotel and then went back to Sapporo station.



And after this, we went to Kushiro, the place where it is famous for seafood and also where you can see a lot of cranes. Arrived here quite late and the hostel, Yasuzuka Hostel is quite a walking distance from the city and I had a big fall due to the slippery road (or wrong winter shoes that I am wearing).
Nite view, Kushiro city, passing the river you have to use the famous Nusamai bridge.

                                         You can find this "fish-sign" on the pavements in the city of Kushiro.

Kushiro, in short is a small city, but beautiful and they also has a seafood market, just next to the station. Here of course seafood is very famous, as it is next to the sea.
 The port view in another part of Kushiro city. It forms part of Fisherman Wharf and you can walk here from the main station though it is still a distance of walking but it is worth the trip to come here and take a look at the city.

After this city, we took SHinkansen, and went to Abashiri, which is quite a distance away.

The reason I took this picture, as I was walking towards my hotel in Abashiri, was because of this thick snow level and it was really very hard to walk through all these but anyway, I managed it. And later, for another two nites, we changed to another hotel in a better location.
To reach this place, we need to change our train at Toro Station (which on the return way, we stopped by here at this small station and explored a bit of the town)/

Upon reaching Abashiri city, it was already late afternoon, and the snowfall in this area is very high. I have a problem to walk and bringing my luggage and walking though the thick snow was really a big challenge (learned a hard lesson here, no more luggage in future, only backpack or knapsack for future traveling to countries with full winter and lots of snowfall). 

Part of Abshiri city, when we arrived. And as we were very tired, we just walked to the nearest Japanese chain restaurant and had a heavy buffer meals here. The next morning, check out and brought my luggage to the bus station and kept at the left luggage locker at Abashiri station, and went out for a walk. 








The reason I took this picture, as I was walking towards my hotel in Abashiri, was because of this thick snow level and it was really very hard to walk through all these but anyway, I managed it. And later, for another two nites, we changed to another hotel in a better location.




we walked around the city, as we missed the bus ride to Shari and Shiretoko national park, hence we walked around the city, and finally we went to Abashiri lake which was quite beautiful place.

One of the smallest JR station in Abashiri area, and we used JR train service for an experience and also we were too lazy to walk back to Abashiri city.
I would specifically like to mention this restaurant in Abashiri, a family owned biz. On the first nite we were here, they gave us the sashimi and also chocolate, as it was St Valentine's day.
The sashimi
The chocolate



 My dinner 
Then the next morning, we took JR train again to Shari train station, and from there took the bus to Shiretoko National park, and lucky us, the bus took us directly to the park. One must find the time to visit this park, it is just amazing. We spent a few hours here, then too the bus to Otoro town, and spend 2 hours here before taking the bus ride back to Shari Station, then too JR train back to Abashiri city. Put another nite at Abashiri city and then we made our move to the south slowly, stopping a nite at Sapporo city, then another nite at Hakodate.


This is the hotel in Utoro town, on top of the hill and we went here for the onsen bath, managed to spent about 1hour here as by the time we found this place, it was a bit too rush and time was a bit limited.

Then using Shinkansen, we spent a nite at Sapporo and another nite in Hakadote.
Hakadote has changed a bit compared to the time I went there like 10 years ago.

                                          Hakodate city, has changed and look different compared to the time I last went there. And they have more chinese tourists and again, one different thing from last was they allow you to bargain in the market where it was not the case when I was last there or a culture here. The price is usually fixed but somehow may be cause of toursim needs they changed.

 After Hakodate, we moved to Nikko, and Nikko was just a revisit for me, and for Fabian it was his first time, hence I just accompany. As it is a world heritage place, not much changes here. We took Ramen here almost every nite, as it is the most convenient, taste good and relatively cheap.

Around Nikko

                                         Climbing the hill around Nikko, and took pictures along the way

The famous bridge in Nikko.

After Nikko, I stop by at Tokyo for 3 more nites before my, and a day before my departure, I took advantage of my JP pass and went to Kanazawa which is on the west part of Honshu island whereas, Fabian went to Shikoku.

For Tokyo, I did not write much cause it is a revisit, and to a few places that I visited before, but this time around just accompany traveler companion as it was his first time. We went to Asakusa, and Shimbashi area, and also the electronic street for a walk.





Kanazawa is a first time for me, and it was only a day trip hence a bit rush as I have to make sure I get the train back to Tokyo as per the ticket I booked and it took close to 3 hours to for a way ride.




Unesco heritage KenroKuen, a very beautiful park.


The beautiful Kanzawa Station.
                                          Kanazawa castle
                                         
                                                  Part of Omicho market
It was overall, a very meaningful trip for me, first time to explore Hakkaido in winter and visiting Japan is always good, as it is my favorite country in Asia. Would like to go back, again and again.

Choong 
Write-up in 29th Nov. 2017