Vacation in Turkey and Santorini island - My itinerary

I guess it is time to come out with a plan for my upcoming trip to Turkey. Thus, I have bought a travel guidebook on Turkey and have done some researches on the places of interest and the routes which I should take. On this trip, I also would like to take the opportunity to visit Santorini island in Greece.

Below is the itinerary for this trip.

4th-Apr
I will be leaving Penang on 9.45pm flight to KLIA.
The connecting flight to Istanbul from KLIA is scheduled at 11.59pm.
Bon Voyage!!!

5th-Apr
I expect to arrive at Ataturk international airport in Istanbul at the early morning.
Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey.
All the while, I thought Istanbul is not the capital of Turkey. As a matter of fact, it is not. The capital of Turkey is Ankara.
What a shame!

Where do I want to stay in Istanbul? That's a very good question as of now. Probably somewhere around Sultanahmet area.

6th, 7th, 8th-Apr
I will exploring around Istanbul.

Places of interest:-
Topkapi Palace
Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia)
Blue Mosque
Byzantine Hippodrome
Taksim Square
Dolmabahce Palace
Grand Bazaar

9th-Apr
I will be taking the first flight out to Kayseri.
The main purpose of coming here is to visit Cappadocia.
I will base myself at Goreme. Goreme is about 90km away from Kayseri.

10th-Apr
Tour around Cappadocia.
Cappadocia is famous of its volcanic landscape, cave hotels and underground cities.

11th-Apr
I plan to take the first flight out of Kayseri to Izmir.
From Izmir, I will take either bus or train to Pamukkale (Cotton castle).

12th-Apr
Morning: tour around Pamukkale (Cotton castle)
Afternoon: Take train or flight back to Istanbul from Denizli

13th-Apr
Arrive at Istanbul at the early morning.
My main plan for today is going to Athens and then proceed to Santorini.
I will catch a flight to Athens.
There are 2 options for me to go to Santorini from Athens - Flight or Ferry.

14th, 15th, 16th-Apr
I will stay on Santorini island for 3 nights.

17th-Apr
Going back to Athens and then fly back to Istanbul.

18th-Apr
A day before I leave Istanbul.
So, to be on a safer side, I better stay in Istanbul tonight.
Probably I will take the Bosphorus cruise.

19th-Apr
My return flight to Malaysia is scheduled at 12.10pm from Istanbul.
I will be reaching KLIA on 20th-Apr.

If you have any tips on the accomodation, travel routes, transportation or anything which you think would be helpful to me during the trip, please kindly share with me.

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Hong Kong Taxi: A short chat with the taxi driver

I just came back from a short business trip from Hong Kong last Saturday. Two of us went to Hong Kong and Shenzhen to visit the customers on this trip. After checking out from the hotel, we were deciding whether we should go to the airport by taxi or by the airport express train. The train fare is HKD90 one way per person from Kowloon station to the airport. The train takes 25 minutes to reach the airport. Before that, I have asked the concierge in the hotel about the taxi fare to the airport. The concierge told me that the taxi fare would come up to be around HKD300 plus. The Kowloon station is about 3km away from my hotel, so we still need to go there by taxi. At the end, we decided to take the taxi to go to the airport but I told my colleague that we cannot let the taxi driver knows our intention of going to the airport by taxi. Otherwise, we would lose the edge of bargaining the taxi fare. I told him that we have to wait for the taxi driver to make his offer and we could start to bargain. If the taxi driver did not make his offer, then we go to the airport by the airport express train. Sounds like a plan, isn’t it?

So, we hopped on a taxi from the hotel.

As expected, the taxi driver made his offer. The taxi driver offered to send us to the airport for HKD260. We counter-proposed HKD240 and he rejected. At the end, we settled for HKD250 and he agreed and he would also give us a receipt for the fare. The whole bargaining process only took less than 1 minute I beckoned. Sigh! Just HKD10 down from the original offer fare. What a bargain! What could HKD10 buy in Hong Kong?!

On the way to the airport, we had a quick chat with the taxi driver to find out more about being a taxi driver in Hong Kong. The following questions and answer are what I captured in my mind while talking to the taxi driver. By the way, the taxi driver who took us to the airport was Mr. Tang (See picture below).

Q: What shift is he normally on?
A: Mr. Tang normally works on morning shift. There are 3 shifts, i.e. morning, afternoon and night shift. Mr. Tang was going to knock off after he picks up some passengers to go to the city.

Q: Is he owned the taxi?
A: No, Mr. Tang told us that he cannot afford to. He needs HKD3~4 millions to have a taxi of his own. He disclosed that there is only a small amount of taxi drivers owned a taxi. The permit of driving a taxi costs at least HKD3 millions. The government would normally auctions off the permits. Most of time, majority of the permits would be snapped up by the rich business men or big consortium.

Q: How much does he paid to rent a taxi?
A: HKD340 per shift for morning shift. The rent for the night shift is a bit cheaper, HKD300 per shift.

Q: How much does he earned in a normal day, when he did not make any trip to the airport?
A: Around HKD800~HKD1000.

Q: How much does he earned in a normal day including one trip to the airport?
A: More than HKD1000.

Q: How many types of taxi in Hong Kong?
A: There are 3 types of taxi in Hong Kong which are grouped in 3 colors, i.e. red, green and blue. Mr. Tang is driving the red taxi. The red taxi is allowed to operate in Hong Kong island, Kowloon and New Territory area. The green taxi is only allowed to go around New Territory area and can send the passengers up to Kowloon Tong MTR station. The main operating territory for the blue taxi is around Tai Yu Shan area.

Q: What other cost does he needs to pay other than the rent?
A: The petrol but this taxi which he drives now is running on LPG and the speeding ticket if he ever gets one. The taxi company only covers for the maintenance of the taxi.

Some fast fact which you need to know before boarding a red taxi in Hong Kong.

First 2 km – HKD15.00
Every subsequent 0.2 km – HKD1.40
Every 1 minute of waiting – HKD1.40
Calling a cab in advance – HKD5.00
Storage for luggage – HKD5.00

The passenger is required to pay for the tunnel toll fare for 2 ways which normally costs HKD10 or HKD15 one way.

There is no 50% surcharge after midnight like the taxi in Malaysia.

The whole ride from the hotel to the airport took us only 25 minutes. Mr. Tang dropped us near the Cathay Pacific counters at the Terminal 1 and we bid goodbye to him.

Thanks for an informative and safe journey to the airport, Mr. Tang.

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Chinese New Year is almost here!

When I heard the clanking sound of the mould when my mom makes the kuih kapit (or love letter in English). The clanking sound reminds me that the Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Kuih Kapit is one of my favorite cookies which I only get to eat during the Chinese New Year. My other favorite cookies is the peanut cookies which my mom will only make for the Chinese New Year. As a kid, I used to help to my mom to fold the Kuih Kapit into fan shape and stack them into a Milo tin. Right now, I still do the same task most of the time but sometime, I get to take care of 5 or 6 moulds by a charcoal stove. The stove is just a temporary stove which my mom builds using sand, bricks and steel bars on the floor for making the Kuih Kapit. It is a hot and tedious job actually. But then, what is Chinese New Year without Kuih Kapit and peanut cookies!

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Sunset in Sungai Burung

The sky was really pouring when we reached Balik Pulau town to meet up with my fellow colleagues on the way to Sungai Burung to shoot the sunset last Sunday. So, we stopped by the Balik Pulau town for laksa and nutmeg drink while waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually, the rain stopped and we continued with our journey. However, when we reached there, the sky was still cloudy and it was not time to shoot the sunset. So, I came up with the idea of shooting backlighting, instead of shooting sunset. The result is not that good but this is the best photo (refer to bottom photo) which I managed to capture on this trip. Sungai Burung is the right place to watch a magnificent sunset if you love to see the sun going down the horizon. The place gives you a feeling of you standing right at the edge of the world and watching the sun going down. Please refer to the top photo. Sometime, the change of the sky and clouds during the sunset would make you in awe. I will be back there many more times to capture my 'dream' sunset!

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Chingay competition & parade in Penang

Chingay competition and parade are the annual events held in Penang. According to Wikipedia, the term of Chingay itself originated from Penang and the first Chingay parade was held in Penang in 1905. The Chingay performance used to be limited to Chinese only. Through the time, it has evolved to become a multi-racial performance now. You can see that Malays and Indians also participated in the Chingay performance at the competition and parade. Although the tricks which they performed might look much simpler than the tricks which performed by Chinese but you can see that they are doing their best in every trick. The art of pulling off a perfect Chingay performance requires a very good teamwork and perfect coordination among the team members. The Chingay parade also featuring lion and dragon dances, stilt walkers and some lighting floats. I have not been to the Chingay parade for quite a number of years and the memory of the last Chingay parade which I saw is very vague now. It was really good to see one again this year.

For more photos, please visit my multiply site.

http://tangsk.multiply.com/

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Penang smallest restaurant???

I saw this little restaurant when I took a leisure walk at one of the lorong next to Chulia street. It is slightly bigger than a car. I never see such a small restaurant in Penang. Must be the smallest I guess.

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若要人不知，除非己莫为

蔡細歷性愛光碟事件验证了一句话。

若要人不知，除非己莫为。

你干的坏事总有一天会被人揭露的时候。

在记者会时，本事件男主角也劝告大家，做这种事时，别为了贪一时方便而住进同一间酒店和同一间房间。你看，这就是经验之谈啦！


所以，本事件男主角的各位同好们，请好自为之！

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Finally, I made up my mind...

Finally, I made up my mind to purchase the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II lense. The main factors which helped me to make my decision are the price of these lenses and the after-sale service of the manufacturers. First of all, the Tamron lense is about RM550 cheaper than the HSM version of Sigma 18-50mm lense. Wow! That's quite a lot of difference here. You can buy a new Nikon SB-600 flash with this amount of money. Secondly, there is no service center in Malaysia for the Sigma lenses. Who am I going to see when there is something wrong with the Sigma lense? Tamron has a service center in KL. Although, the auto-focusing of this Tamron lense is a bit noisy compared to the auto-focus of Nikon 18-70mm kit lense which I still own now but I can still live with the noise. The color of the photo which is captured using this lense is not as warm as I thought initially. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the performance of this lense. It is a lense which gives you value for money. Let me share with you a few photos which I took using this new toy.

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