Singapore Short trip

11th of January 2011, one of the beautiful date. (11/1/2011) How did you spent this special day?
It was pretty special as it was birthday of two people I know. Happy Birthday to Chris' 22nd and Sheryl's 23rd. May your wishes come true~

Anyway, I didnt spent my day with them. It was announced a public holiday in Johor (Woohooo!), a memorial day of the late Sultan (i was told, it's not Sultan's birthday celebration, LOL). So, more holidays! Yeah! My friend and I was invited to a self-tour trip to Singapore few days before. And we agreed.

I was told that initially, we were supposed to travel in group of 8, with the birthday girl. After a while, the trio couldnt make it, left the 5 of us. I barely know them. We were university-mates for 5th year already, but we never been close before. I just recalled their names yesterday. A-ha. I'm bad.

Anyway, the journey begun at 6.58am on my watch. They picked me up at my hostel. It was so cold. Traveled all the way south to the Johor Checkpoint. Before entering, we had bah kut teh. Being someone constantly having Klang's bah kut teh, this is an interesting experience. Johor's Bah kut teh tastes lighter. The soup is obviously clearer. I miss Klang's bah kut teh. I couldnt tell if it's good or not, since I had tried better ones. So, no picture.

By 8.30am, we were at the checkpoint waiting to conquer enter Singapore. Here I am again, visiting Singapore. To many people, entering Singapore is a routine, as many study and work in Singapore. To me, it's an annual visit. I visited in end of 2009, early of 2010 and another early of 2011. Whatever it is, every visit was different.

The first stop upon entering Spore is always Kranji MRT. After settling all the Ez-link, we headed to Bugis.

Bugis is a street shopping venue which is very much similar to Msia's petaling street. We walked round and round as our gentlemen dont have maps with them.

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple

Sri Krishnan Temple

So, a random walk and bump, we visited a few temples, shopping complex and a food court. What's for lunch? Random food available. While others chose to queue at the longest queue, I and another friend chose to buy food we like. There's nothing special about the food we had, so no review.

Next stop, China Town, a must-go in my every visit. Basically, walking around and looking at the chinese cultures just like malacca. (We kept comparing Spore and Msia in terms of the similarity, not people/law/lifestyle)

Anyway, we visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple at South Bridge Road, Singapore. Well, as said, I had been visiting Chinatown on every visit, but had never visited the upper floor of the temple. My first time and it was great. Although most of the time I dont understand the Buddhism practices. I should have known of this upper-decks-visit earlier because it's informative yet FREE admission! No place in Malaysia is so informative yet free. Even the broken, old museum in Malacca need admission fees.

We spent around 1 hour touring the temple and museum. Not bad. Will visit again.

MARINA BAY@DEC 2009

What's next? Marina Bay! Woohoo...before this visit, Marina Bay was yet to open for public visits. However, it's not 100% completed even in this visit. So, I'll be back soon!
First stop, Marina Bay casino. Situated right in the shopping mall. Singaporean and PR need to be pay $100 for each visit. For foreigner, free admission. So, we entered the casino upon producing your passports to the security. Ladies' bags and sling bags are allowed. They have bag check-in service available. So even if you go with your luggages, they'll take care of it and again, it's FREE.

This visit was pretty fun as we explore the most luxurious place in Singapore, Marina Bay Sands. It is beautiful. Truly the first class venue.

We spent our time walking around the place as the Civil Engineering students look through the constructions.

At the other end of the building, cars were waiting. We bumped into some VIPs who were having their meetings earlier. We waited to see the VIPs, but we dont recognize those people.
WH was taking pictures of the VIPs. A tourist asked him to find out who was the VIPs since he was snapping photo with enthusiasm.
Tourist: Who is that?
WH: I dont know.
Tourist: Then what's the point of you taking photos???
We: [Laughed out really loud.]
Later, two luxurious sports cars stopped in front of us, as if it stopped for us. Haha. Another crazy photo session went on.

After that, we walked to the entrance of the skypark. After checking out the price, we walked off. We kept that for next time.

Next, a quick stop at Orchard Road. The walkway for rich people. LV, Prada and Gucci are everywhere. We named it, Spore's Pavillion. But obviously much much larger than Pavillion, in fact, the whole area is filled with branded shops.

Then, exit Spore and here we are, back to JB.
Ta-ta, Singapore, but we'll be back soon. Don't miss us. XD

Jalan-jalan: Broga Hill

How was my last day of 2010?
A group of friends of mine decided to conquer Broga Hill on the last day of 2010 to watch the last sunrise of 2010. Pretty meaningful trip to Broga Hill, Semenyih.

We departed from Puchong around 4.30am that morning with most of us still remain awake from last night. Except for me, the sleeping queen, dozing off at one corner with others searching for direction.

Upon reaching the entrance, which is not noticeable, it was a pinch dark. You can hardly see anything. None of us been there before, so we decided to ask for directions. A group of 3 young Malay man was equipped and seems to be the some frequent visitors of Broga Hill. After a few round of Q&A. Indeed, it wasnt their first time there.

Anyway, we started climbing with the help of  little light source. Since we have limited torchlights, it limits our climbing/walking speed. And many people were stuck behind us as we were too slow. Haha. We created traffic jam at Broga Hill.

 It was still dark when we reach the first stop.

 Slowly, we see the first light of the day.

 It's it beautiful?

 The other side of the world~

 It's coming! We were getting worried as the sky were covered with clouds, we were quite afraid that we might miss the sunrise.

 Bushy Broga Hill. The grass can be as tall as 2 metres.

At the end of the day, that's it. The sun rose high in the air. Time to go home for sleep.

RM2 for parking at the palm oil farm entrance to Broga Hill.

Tips:
1. Bring your own touchlight. No sharing.
2. Wear tracksuit. Wild grass can be tall and sharp.
3. Bring water and light snacks.
4. Those who rarely exercise are not advised to climb Broga Hill. The journey is short, but you need stamina to climb. No one can help you for this.

Location: 2.938584,101.889439 [GPS coordinate]
The entrance to Broga Hill is not visible. It is basically a palm oil estate. If you are coming from University-of-Nottingham way, Broga Hill entrance is on your left. Drive pass some estate. The entrance is right in front of the Rabbit Fun Land(on your right). There's some fence-like-bars at the entrance while as far as i remembered, there's no fencing all the way near Broga Hill.

Makan-makan: Wind Fook

Aside from Bah Kut Teh in Klang, I found this place serving some interesting dishes.
We reached at the restaurant at about 11.30pm one night and surprisingly, it's still packed with people. Many came with family and friends for supper.

It's optional for customers to have rice or porridge at the restaurant. Quite different from other restaurants. That night, we had porridge.

Pickled lettuce with minced pork (罐头菜心炒瘦肉) looks un-appetizing from it's look but I find it pretty tasty. A good combination of chinese flowering cabbage and minced pork. It is crunchy cabbage with little meat bites at the same time. A must-have combination for porridge.

Preserved vegetable with pork belly (梅菜扣肉) is also one of the common dish. However, we, the youngsters try to avoid the fatty pork belly, we only ate the less fatty parts. Anyway, it was good. The preserved vegetable wasnt salty and was well combined with the marinated pork belly.

 Steamed clams was very disappointing. It was not cleaned properly. Sands was cooked with the clams...YUCKS...thumbs down for this.

Vietnamese Chicken (越南鸡) was superb. My first time tasting it but I love it. The chicken was stir-fried with sugar which made it a little sweet taste. It is suitable for children as they use mostly boneless. But too much of thick chicken skin. :( Anyway, I will go back for more of these!

Information:
Restoran Wind Fook (Corner Shop)
Off Jalan Meru,
Jalan Prai 1,
41050 Klang, Selangor. (Opposite Klang Parade)

[GPS coordinate: 3.06216,101.451681]

Overall: I'll go back for more Vietnamese Chicken!

Note: I dont remember the actual price of it. But we spent RM50.50 for the supper. 4 dishes, 4 drinks and porridge.

Rachel says: Vietnamese Chicken is really special. Must try!

Makan-makan: Jin Xuan Dim Sum

Hong Kong style dim sum for breakfast is perfect on weekends. We, a group of 8 pax, had our breakfast at Restoran Jin Xuan Hong Kong @ Puchong Jaya branch. We reached at the restaurant at 9am and it was pretty packed with people. By the time we were leaving (9.35am), people were queuing up outside the restaurant waiting for their queuing numbers to be called. So, be there early.

Some of the dim sum we ordered that morning.

 This is a steamed custard bun (奶黃包), one of their signature dim sum. Beware of the hot filling with eating! Look out at their walls for signature dishes. Anyway, it is good.

 All their other dim sum are good too!!!

 This is one of the premium-priced dishes. Those with seashell-like plates are premium dishes.

 This is baked crab+prawn with cheese. 4-5 medium sized prawn under the cheese. SLURP! The prawn was really fresh that made this dish worth eating.

 Egg tarts. I find this rather so-so. The one from Kam Ling was better. However, this is not that bad, just that, the egg fillings doesnt have the egg taste. (Only true at the time of my visit)


Bill Total (for 8 pax): RM 153 (I find it pretty expensive. Some signature dishes can be priced up to RM10 per serving, remember to check the price!)

Note: Right before I posted this, I checked the validity of the website given on the name card. As you can see, it links to Restoran Kam Hin. Kam Him here refers to their headquarter.

Information:
Restoran Kam Hin (HQ) [www.jinxuan.com.my]
A 32, 34, 36, Jalan 1/116B,
Kuchai Entrepreneurs' Park,
58200 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-79825110

Restoran Jin Xuan Hong Kong Sdn Bhd

No 59, 61 & 63, Jalan SS22/19, Damansara Jaya

47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Tel: 03-77296866

63G & 65G, Jalan SS21/60, Damansara Utama,
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Tel: 03-77298881

No 7&8, Jalan Kenari 8,
Bandar Puchong Jaya,
47100 Puchong, Selangor. (shop-lots opposite IOI mall)
Tel: 03-80750866
[GPS coordinate: 3.047643,101.62287]

No 19, Jln 1/21 (Old Town),
46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.


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