21 Sept 2008 - 24 Sept 2008

I went to Phuket, Thailand with my fiancée for a 4D3N vacation during the end of September, 2008. Overall, I've enjoyed the trip but personally I can't stand the hot weather. I took AirAsia for a budget flight to Phuket, it takes around 80 minutes to reach there from KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport).

Once we reached the airport, we've bound to a numbers of sales person approaching us for taxi and car rents. At last we have decided to rent a car for 4 days for 2400 Baht. The car is a Toyota Vios G which is the same as my own car! :) even the color also the same! We started to drive from the airport to our hotel, Poppa Palace at Patong.

This hotel is highly recommended because the room is comfortable, quiet, the staffs are really polite and friendly. The bad point is the location is not at the main road, you need to turn into soi (small road) to get to this hotel. I booked through Asia Rooms for 976THB per night included breakfast.

Once we get into room, wow... my fiancée was so excited to see the romantic decoration on the bed. That was the first time we saw such a great decoration in a hotel. Quickly, we took some photos of it.



After dropping the luggages, we drove to the Phuket Shooting Range. I chose Automatic Caliber 9mm, 10 bullets for 890THB. I was quite nervous at first to enter the shooting area because the sound of the shot is very loud and need to wear a earphone-like to dampen the loudness. The instructor taught me:
- How to release the magazine
- How to insert the 5 bullets into the magazine and load
- How to aim and shoot
The first shot was very nervous and at the same time can feel very excited to experience the 'kick' (momentum) after firing the shot. Here is the video of my shooting


Hahaha 6 out of 10 bullets on target :)


We drove further south to Promthep Cape to view the sunset and had our dinner there.


On the second day, we went to Phi Phi Island by cruise for 700THB per person including return transfer from/to hotel, snorkeling equipments and lunch. The distance to the island is quite far it took about more than 1 hour to reach there by big cruise. If using speed boat, it might be faster. Overall, the main attraction on the trip was the snorkeling at Tonsai Bay on the way to Phi Phi Don. The corals are very beautiful.


Passing by Phi Phi Ley


After returned to hotel, we went exploring the Patong area. It was an unlucky day, I've got ticket issued for illegal parking at a road side. DO NOT PARK at the right side of Rat-U-Thit 200 road!
300 Baht gone!


I know I've a bad mood after getting the ticket, but I didn't wanna spoil the vacation mood. We continued our journey to Baan Rim Pa for a romantic dinner. The food was a bit overpriced but it has a very nice interior design and also facing the beach. Very romantic!


Butterfly shaped pineapples :)


We headed down to the famous Bang-la Road. The street was closed at night for peoples to walk along the street to see the night life of Patong. Here you can see many bar girls dancing on top of the tables while customers watching from below. Some salesman trying to sell us Agogo show, banana show, watermelon show, whatever show but we did not go.



On the third day, in the morning we went to Phuket Aquarium. The ticket price is 100THB per person. Not much things to see, most of them are just fish, no crabs, no prawns, no seashells and others.


Giant Garoupa


Singray


We can't stand the heat anymore and we went to the Central Festival for some air-con shopping and had our lunch there. Again. the sunshine was very harsh and the heat was unbearable so we went to Jungceylon shopping centre to cool down ourselves.

31 May 2008



Offical Website

Let's have some history on the Statue of Liberty here. It was a gift presented by the French to the Americans in 1886 to commemorates the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and also a gesture of friendship between France and USA.

It is one of the most visited place in USA. The statue is located at the Liberty Island at the south of Manhattan. There are also a many replicas of the statue on several states of America and elsewhere, such as France, China and Japan.

The Pedestal


You can take the subway to reach there, take the 1 train to the South Ferry station, 4 or 5 train to the Bowling Green station or R/W train to the Whitehall Street station. Once you have reached the station, walk to a garden, Battery Park. Tickets can be purchased at the Castle Clinton National Monument at the Battery Park. For more info click here.

I have paid $12 for the entrance fee, the fee schedules:

Ticket Prices	Adults	Seniors	Children
Reserve or Flex	$12	$10	$ 5
with Audio Tour	$18	$16	$11

(children - 4-12; seniors 62+)

You can visit the museum gallery and pedestal observation levels with applying to the Monument Access Pass. This pass is very limited! It is strongly recommended that you reserve the pass online or queue up early. I have missed the chance so reserve it online without any charges!

This is the cruise to Liberty Island and Ellis Island


Boarding on the Statue Cruises Ferry to the Liberty Island from the South Ferry Port.


Why is the Statue Green? Originally, the Statue was actually made of copper. Copper undergoes oxidation and changed gold color to green color over time. Unlike steel, this green color thin layer of coating protects the metal underneath. This natural process is called patination


Korean War Memorial


After visiting the Statue of Liberty, take the ferry and depart to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. This place was once the entry point for immigrants entering the United States.


This is the first immigrant to the USA.


The Sphere - a metallic sculpture located at the Battery Park that once stood in the middle of Austin Tobin Plaza, the area between the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan. It was damaged during the September 11 tradegy.

7 June 2008

I went to M&M and Hershey's in Manhattan to buy some chocolate souvenirs. The exterior and interior decoration of these buildings are very nice and attractive.


M&M's World® New York is located at 1600, Broadway, NY


M&M as the Queen of Liberty....very big head... haha


Inside the M&M shop, you can see this with rows of candies tube that let you choose the colors and customize your gift with according to your own taste.

30 May 2008


This is the place that we gathered to have a great lunch during the second week of the residency program. This Institute of Culinary is located at the north of Fishkill, it has a cafeteria inside the building where we had our lunch. The food was delicious...yummy...

The main entrance foyer has a huge garden landscape. Feels very relax...


From left to right: Prashant from India, Me, Sounak from India, Guilherme from Brazil


From left to right: Sounak from India, Karan (Team Leader) from USA, Guilherme from Brazil and me.

In USA, you can find stuffs like these in a bigger size which I think some countries might not have especially in most of the Asian countries. I bought these from Wal-Mart.

Phat guy - 2.1 Quart (2 litres) Pepsi :)


Very big packet of Lay's ... Yummy!

This is my newly acquired Fender Telecaster electric guitar. I have bought it in one of the Guitar Center branch in New York. It was a sale day and I've got it with $638.99 with a hard case $59.99, and another guitar stand $14.99.

Here is the specifications and user reviews on this guitar.

I chose this model because I like the Satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish which will give a vintage look after few years on the road. Sound wise, it is a bit hotter than the standard series but still giving a crisp and clean tone. In terms of craftsmanship, I feel it is a little bit better compare to the standard series especially on the neck construction.

When I brought it back from the USA, at first, I managed to carry it into the plane and put it nicely on the overhead compartment. The airline was Cathay Pacific and it was boarding from New York to Hong Kong for transit to Malaysia. However, when I boarded to the Malaysia Airlines during transit from Hong Kong to Malaysia, I was not able to put the guitar into the overhead compartment!!! I was so disappointing and at no other choices, they brought it to the luggage area and checked it in :(

27 May 2008

Outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there are many shops selling arts, crafts and souvenirs. However there was also a body art showcase just along the road side!



The girl was just relaxing.....

27 May 2008

A very modern and stylish design of the Apple Building in Manhattan. With all glass architecture from the top of the entrance to the spiral ladder to the basement shop, the design looks marvelous!




Look! even the stairs are made of glass!

26 May 2008

As a Chinese, I've always wanted to get to know more about the culture of the Chinese that live in different part of the world. Since I was around NY, I've planned to go to the Chinatown located at the south of Manhattan. The so-called Chinatown is actually an area surrounding the Canal Road where many Chinese do their trading business on.

Information booth providing maps, information and etc.


A shop selling Wushu/KungFu stuffs such as sword, Bruce Lee's movies, t-shirts and many more.

The Original Chinatown Ice-Cream Factory which is a stall that sells tropical fruits based ice-cream. I had a lychee sorbet. Emmmmmm...... delicious..

Suprise! I found a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown serving Malaysian cuisine. I was missing nasi (Rice) so much, and I had the nasi lemak (Coconut Rice) there. The taste was quite similar to the one back home but it was not that spicy.


Nearby there is a neighborhood, Little Italy where there are many Italian restaurants and shops.

26 May 2008

The evening weather was so good, it was cold, breeze and windy as I was walking towards the Brooklyn bridge from a subway stop at Manhattan.

Here are some of the shots during the dusk and also some beautiful night scenes. Some of the shots are blurry because the platform is very shaky (it's made of wood which I think dated back a long time ago) even I took with a tripod.