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.

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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...

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KL Eats

lunch at 品香美食小馆 at Sungai Buloh. We had 滑蛋河 and fish porridge. This restaurant, or rather kopitiam, is famous of porridge, especially fish porridge. You will long queue during public holiday and you need to wait for your number.  

2nd day breakfast at one of coffee shops at USJ. As usual, I have wantan mee.

2nd day lunch at Madam Kwan's at Mid Valley Shopping mall. This time, I did not have the popular Nasi Bojari. I ordered the cheaper Nasi Lemak.

3rd day breakfast at one of coffee shops at Taipan USJ.

The Chee Cheong Fun here looks and tastes different from the one we have in Penang.

Tai Po Mee. Don't know what that is. I simply ordered it to try. It tastes like the Pan mee to me.

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Langkawi Nature Discovery Tour - A trip review

I participated in Langkawi Nature Discovery review trip on 20-Nov, 2010. This review trip is part of 'Travel with a Green Heart' campaign organized by penang.cc (Penang Community Center). It is a free day trip to Pulau Langkawi. This trip also made possible by Langkawi Coral Sdn. Bhd. So, thanks for the sponsorship!

Here is the review of the trip.

We met up with our tour guide of the trip, Jeff, at 8.15am and boarded the cruise at around 8.30am. The whole trip to Pulau Langkawi took nearly 3 hours. At around 11.15am, we arrived at Kuah Jetty at Pulau Langkawi.

After the arrival, we were taken in a van to the first destination of the trip - Royal Langkawi Yacht club for lunch. The club provides a nice and breezy environment for family lunch or just small group of lunch gathering. The restaurant of the club is named Charlie's Place.

This is the view looking out from our table during lunch. It was a sunny day and all of us cannot wait to have a good lunch here! Before the lunch is served, we were all over the restaurant to snap photos of this new place.

The lunch was also provided for this trip for free. We were served with Tomato soup, beef burger, chicken burger, club sandwiches, spaghetti, nasi goreng, fish and chips. We decided to share out the dishes so that all of us could taste each dish. If you ask me to give a score for the dishes there, I would give 5 out of 10. The taste of the dishes did not give me any surprises, i.e. below my normal expectation. I would only come here for the view and not the food next trip, given a chance in the future.

After lunch, we spent about 40 minutes on the road to go to the latest tourist attraction of Pulau Langkawi - Langkawi Cable Car. We  arrived at the Oriental Village where the base station of the cable car system is located. I was told that the cable car would bring me to the top of Gunung Mat Cincang to enjoy the panoramic view of the surrounding forest. Unfortunately, after we arrived at the base station, we were told that the cable car system was having some technical issues which required 2 hours to be fixed. This destination was supposed to be the highlight of this trip. I was really looking forward to the cable car ride. 
This photo below was the only scene that I can see from the base station before heading for next destination. I cannot remember when was the last time I go up a cable!

This Oriental Village is a duty free shopping haven. The tourists can shop for souvenirs and clothing there. The architecture of the buildings in this village is specially designed and built around a man-made lake. Thus, it would be nice to stroll around the village at the evening hours.

So, with a disappointed heart, we continued with the journey. Jeff gave a choice to choose whether we would like to visit the Underwater World first before going to Kilim Geoforest Park or the other way round. If we choose the latter, then we would not have time for a short shopping. Eventually, everyone agreed to take the former option as we did not think that shopping is a must. So there we go. We headed for Underwater World.

The road trip to Underwater World from Oriental Village was like taking forever. I lost track of the turns which we went through. But along the way, I can still see that many parts of Pulau Langkawi are still underdeveloped. Probably, it should be kept that way to preserve the greenery. As we were going through the winding roads, I can see the greenery (padi field) as shown in the photo below.

After about 40 minutes of driving and taking a few short-cuts (according to the driver) along the way, we finally arrived at Underwater World of Pulau Langkawi.

Before entering the aquarium, we were told that we only have 50 minutes before the van leaving for next and last destination. 50 minutes are actually too short a time to completely viewing all living things inside the aquarium. I could only manage to read a few names and description of the marine life. So for those who are into marine life, I would think that 2 hours would be sufficient here.

Giant fish!

After the aquarium, we went on to the highlight of this trip - bat cave and fish farm visit, eagle feeding and mangrove tour at Kilim Geoforest Park. This photo below shows the jetty where we boarded the boat to bat cave and fish farm.

Bat cave tour in pitch dark cave. There must be thousands of bat hanging in the cave. The smell in the cave is quite strong.

In between the cave and fish farm, we were fortunate to see some eagles swooped down on its prey. The sight is quite unforgettable to me. I think those eagles do not how to prey now because the tour operators there would feed the eagle everyday.

Fish farm tour. One of the participants in our group had the chance to feed the archer fish with bread sticking on her pinkie. She was thrilled when the fish jumped out of the water to get the bread.

Moments before we were supposed to board the cruise back to Penang, we were told that we can spend 10 minutes at the Eagle Square. Hence, all of us hustled across to the square to snap photos in front of the eagle. This photo is like one of the must have photos when you visit to Pulau Langkawi. 

I guess the trip back to Penang is the experience I would never forget for a long time to come. The interior of the cruise was freezingly cold because of the air-conditioner. The cruise operator told us that they cannot turn down the air-conditioner. So, for the 3-hour cruise trip back to Penang, we were trying to wrap around ourselves with the towel we brought and we were still shivering. Luckily, we were allowed to go out to the top of the cruise to experience the cool evening breeze.

It has been a long while since I last saw a nice sunset like this even though it was a bit cloudy. Thank God for this great creation!

We arrived at Penang at around 9.15pm.

From this trip, I have some suggestions for those who would like to visit Pulau Langkawi.

1. Unless you can find something interesting to do during the 3-hours trip in a boat, I would suggest that going there by flight is definitely a better option. The other option is go to Kuala Kedah and take cruise from the jetty at Kuala Kedah.

2. This day trip tour is quite rush for those who prefer leisure tour. For those who do not have much time to spare, you might want to opt for this tour as this tour brings you to most of the must visit destinations of Langkawi.

3. Check the weather before going for the cable car tour. The cable car would stop operating if it is too cloudy and the wind is too strong.

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Sneak Peek: Langkawi Nature Discovery review trip

I participated in Langkawi Nature Discovery review trip on 20-Nov, 2010. This review trip is part of 'Travel with a Green Heart' campaign organized by penang.cc (Penang Community Center). It is a free day trip to Pulau Langkawi. After the trip, the participants have to submit a blog post sharing about the trip review within two weeks.

So, please stay tuned for the trip review!

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Hong Kong Revisit

It was as if I was meeting an old friend who always give me a mixed feeling whenever we meet. Hong Kong is a destination where I familiar with yet, every time I visit her, she renewed herself to welcome me warmly. This time, more and more shopping complexes had been built in the hope of quenching the insatiable appetite of those shoppers compared to the last visit I made to this city. Thanks God because He has answered our prayer of good weather. We had good weather during this trip although the weather forecast reported that there would be scattered rain for the whole trip. Light rain only came on a day before we left. Humidity was good also compared to the time when I was here last September. As a metropolitan and key finance center of Asia, Hong Kong has naturally attracted a lot of people from different countries in the world to work and live here which created a diversified culture here. So, in order to feed these people, a lot of restaurants which serve authentic food from different countries are opened here. All these have made Hong Kong a food haven. However, I still love the local Hong Kong food more than anything else., especially the dim sum and desserts. So, it is also about food every time when I make a visit. The other favorite activities I enjoy doing there are window shopping and watching people. Watching people is a natural thing to do here since Hong Kong packs about 7 millions people in such a small and limited land and you would see a crowd any way you turn your head. Nobody can get away from doing shopping when in Hong Kong. I am no exception but I only managed to buy two cotton t-shirts for HKD150 in this trip. I also wondered how this could be possible. :D
OK. Enough of nonsense for now. Let's see the photos I took during this trip. I only picked a few for your viewing pleasure. I might be making next trip here very soon at one of these weekends to get myself out of Penang again. Who knows?!

To view the complete set of photos, please go to this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/tang_sk/sets/72157625162438846/

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