A Malaysian's Travel, Photo and Food blog

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Willy CHEN Photowalk: NO Chimping

31-DEC-2011. Sunny day. A group of us. Walked along the streets of Georgetown. About 2.5 KM. It was a farewell shoot. Our 'captain'. Alex Yeap. The rules of the day. No chimping and using prime lens only. Viewing everyone photos in Old Town with Alex's projector. Great time. Until we meet again for next shoot. All the best. Willy Chen.

P/S: Photos with no post processing.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

FILM:DIANA mini

Film is definitely here to stay!

This is the second roll of film I took using Diana Mini. The film I used is Kodak Ultramax ISO400. The format I took is square format. I asked the shop to develop and scan the negative for me. Somehow, I managed to get 31 photos out of 36 frames in that roll. Probably, the film got stuck inside the camera without me knowing it when I tried to wind the film forward. I am quite happy with the result this time. You can view the complete set of photos over here.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

TRAVEL::EUROPE 2011::BRUGGE::PART II

And so the story continues...

The city center of Brugge (Dutch) or Bruges (French) is a popular World Heritage Site of UNESCO. So, do not be surprised that you run into loads of tourist when you visit this historical city center. We came here because of this little medieval town and its architecture. They have done such a good job in preserving this old town. Majority of the medieval architecture are still intact here.

You can practically walk to any part of this little town you like. The narrow cobble-stoned streets are cycling friendly and most of the locals here cycle around to run their chores because of the limited parking spaces within the old town. So, when you are walking on the street, you need to be careful not to step on on the horse dung and being hit by crossing cyclists.

Let's talk about food...and of course beer.

On the first night here, as we arrived late, we had set dinner at the restaurant at the market square after searching for 30 minutes without any clues to dine. We paid 18.50 euros for each set. My set started with soup. Spare ribs, salad and fries as main course . It ended with two scoops of ice cream as dessert. Her set had smoked salmon as starter and stewed chicken as main course.

The cheapest dine-in food we had here was beef stew with salads and chips which is just 10 euros.

The restaurant we went is located a few turns away from the market square. As you can see, the further you walk away from the square, the less you pay for the food. Sometime.

Belgium is famous of its beer. There is a wide variety of beer to choose from. We saw on a beer wall at a brewery here that Belgium has about 780 types of beer. A 0.5l of draught beer costs you about 5-6 euros. The price is also depends on the location of the restaurant and the type of beer. Personally, we like Leffe Dark and also white beer.

Local weekend market is also something we are looking for when we arrived at a destination. The market gives us a glimpse of how the local lives and what they eat. Just ensure that it is the market which most of the local goes and not some tourist flea market. Every Saturday morning, there is a weekend market at one of the squares here. You can find wide variety of stuffs here, from clothes to raspberries. So, please stay over the weekend here if you can.

You can view the complete set of photos I took in Brugge here.

Monday, October 24, 2011

TRAVEL::EUROPE 2011::BRUGGE::PART 1

We arrived at Brugge, Belgium, slightly before 8pm. Our flight from KL to Paris got 4 hours of serious delay. As a result, we missed the train from Paris to Lille Flandres. In order to continue with the journey instead of spending a night at Paris, we had no choice but to buy a new pair of tickets to Lille Flandres which cost us 113 euros. From Lille, we boarded another inter-city train to Brugge. The total train fare from Lille to Brugge is 33.60 euros for two.We tried to exchange the tickets for later time at Paris du Nord station but were told that the exchange can only take place 1 hour before the train departure time and it depends on the condition of the ticket we purchased.

The hotel we booked at Brugge is Hotel 't Keizershof. It is located at about 300 meters from the train station. It can be easily found on the left hand side on the way into the old town.

This hotel is run by a Belgian couple. There is no extra staffs in this hotel. The boss, Stefaan, would make the breakfast every morning for the guests and his wife is in charge of housekeeping. We booked a double room for 44 euros per night with breakfast included. No attached bathroom and no air-con inside the room. Inside the room, there is a wash basin though. The double room given to us is slightly small but nice and clean. We wish to have a bigger room but the space is sufficient for now.

This hotel is located about 15 minutes of walking from the old town center which is the market square. I found out that those hotels which are located nearer to the market square (probably 5 minutes of walking) would be charging 15-20 euros more per night.

One thing we like about this hotel is the breakfast. We were served with 7-8 types of bread and 6 types of jam and butter (mixed fruits jam, caramel jam, strawberry jam, cream cheese, Nutella and butter) every morning. Of course, the breakfast comes with coffee or tea too. Among the jams and butter, our favorite is the caramel jam. We bought two bottles for 3 euros each from Stefaan before checking out.

OK. Today I can only write the first part of the story here. Next part, I would like to share with you about what I captured of this beautiful old town. Stay tuned!

Bed is calling...

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Saturday Breakfast

We went back to Moontree 47 for breakfast again. Feel good to spend time together on Saturday over a simple breakfast. It is a good way to kick start the weekend!

Cheese Omellete.

Soulavki.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Pictory selection

The photo I submitted to Pictory online showcase has been selected for publication.

The theme is Handmade.

I was really excited when I received the notification a day before that my photo is going to be published.

The title of the post has been modified by the editor to "Top Chef".

Mum, I am very proud of you!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Two Breakfasts - Moontree47

Penang really needs more cafes of this sort. This cafe shows what real Penang is for the tourists. It is laid-back, original and yet exciting. Most of the furniture in this cafe are hand made by the owners to give the authentic sense. In my humble opinion, it is very well decorated, although none of furniture looks posh nor expensive. If I were a tourist to Penang, I would to stay in the rooms which this cafe will soon offer.  

It is a cool place to hang out and I will make a second visit soon.

This cafe is located at the middle section of Lebuh Muntri.

I just love this pair of chairs here.The wooden chair gives a nice contrast to the black leather chair. It would be more interesting if the Marilyn Monroe picture could be hung at the center but, again, I am not sure if the picture would take away the attention of these chairs.