Sakura at Yangming Shan National Park Taiwan (陽明山國家公園)

To go to Yangming Shan National Park, first you need to stop at the Jiantan MRT Station (劍潭). There are two buses going to Yangming Shan National Park (Bus 126 and 127) as shown in the photo below. Actually it is not on the 'Holiday' only, but on weekends only. The 'bus stop' is just outside the MRT Jiantan MRT Station (劍潭), Exit 1. 
   

This is the 'bus stop' to Yangming Shan National Park Taiwan (陽明山國家公園). Don't worry about the stops, as Yangming Shan is at the last stop of the route. So, just sit back and relax...

Remember to buy easy card at any of the MRT Station, so that it is easier for you to commute by using public transport around Taipei. There are many packages offered by the Easycard Corporation and there are 2 packages which could be bought by the tourist. The first one is TaipeiPass (台北觀光護照). You can buy the one, two, three or five-day package for unlimited ride of all public transports within the duration of the package. The price is as follow:
1. 1 day pass: NTD 180
2. 2 day pass: NTD 310
3. 3 day pass: NTD 440
4. 5 day pass: NTD 700

However, there is no refund of the card, so after the duration of the card, you can bring it back as a souvenir. The package that i use is the second one which called Normal card. You have to pay NTD500 to buy the card, NTD100 is the deposit which can be refunded when you returned the card to any of the MRT counter. NTD400 is the credit for you to use and it can be recharged upon your need.   

At the entrance of the Park. Oh, i have to mention here, there is no entrance fee!!!

On the half way to see Sakura, there are many stalls at the road side for you to enjoy the snacks and foods of Taiwan. Quite cheap and the most important thing is... tasty!!! We tried the fresh tomato, very small in size but very juicy!!!

Three juicy sausages for NTW100 (around RM10) 

Finally

The 'must take photo' place!!!

Try to pose with the flowers without looking like a gay... hahaha

Ladies: 'scream'!!!!!

Para-para Sakura!!!

In action...

After this stop, we were taking an internal shutter bus to go another interesting point for lunch and sightseeing which will be posted on the next post.  

Taipei City 臺北

First day in Taipei!!! I was very tired in the first day because i have to overnight at Kota Kinabalu Airport in order catch the flight to Taipei at 6.20am. 

View of Taoyuan, Taiwan 

View of Taoyuan, Taiwan 

Welcome by Fahrenheit 飞轮海 at the Taoyuan Airport, haha

To ease our hunger while waiting for my sister in law to arrive from Singapore, we bought this sushi from the airport 7-11. Cost us around RM4 and it was huge and delicious. Another purpose of buying the sushi was because of changing notes. The notes that we got from Malaysia money changer are all NTD 1000. So we need to buy something in order to get small notes. Gentle reminder to tourists, please change your money at the airport money changer as there is no place for you to change your notes in the city except the HQ of certain banks such as Taiwan Bank. During my trip, I thought I can find money changer in the city just like other countries. However, that is not the case in Taiwan.  

Mostly Chinese words on the packaging. If you can't read, then you better ask. Don't worry about asking people because they are very friendly and polite. In order to commute from the Taoyuan International Airport to the Taipei city, we have taken bus no. 5201 which cost us NTD150 (around RM15). It takes around 35 minutes to reach Shuanglian MRT Station which is only a stop away from Zhongshan MRT Station, the place where we stayed. If you wanna go to Taipei 101, just take the MRT to Taipei City Hall stop, from there you can either walk, will take you about 15 minutes, or Taxi, which will cost you about NTD70, to reach Taipei 101.

The Taipei City 

The Taipei City and the shopping mall, Xing Guang San Yue (新光三越) All branded stuffs available in the mall but very costly...

Taipei City

Tapei 101 Tower and I...

More photos and posts are coming soon...

Annual Dinner of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Unimas (University Malaysia Sarawak) 27th March 2011

Last week, the Persatuan Sains Sosial (PSS), Unimas has organized an annual dinner at Grand Continental Hotel, Kuching, Sarawak. It is kind of an annual event for the students at the end of their semester year as well as celebrating with the final year students who are going to graduate soon. 


This is also an occasion to see every student dressed up properly rather than t-shirt and jeans like attending their lecture.













The arrival of invited guests and the committee members.

With the former committee members

Colleagues and students

Haha, got a prize from the lucky draw session, presenting by Mdm Gill

With Nicholas (new colleague)

With the students

Presenting lucky draw gift to the student

With my student, Mary Fong

King and Queen of the Nite (Staff category)

 

All photos were taken by Malex Abdullah Rashid except the first one. 

Look at Taiwan from a Tourist Eyes...

I just back from my Taiwan Trip, about 7 days, and would like to share my feeling about Taiwan as a tourist.

Like my other vacations, the first person I talked to when arrived at the airport was the airport staff who stationed at the information counter. I was totally impressed with Taiwanese manner which is really really polite. An exact opposite side of some other countries I have visited (Regina, u know what I mean). Even the hawker at the side of the road, as I asked this lady who were selling cloths in front of the bus station, where is the entrance of the MRT station. In a very polite manner, she showed me the way and asked me (with a smile), do you know how to use the MRT? 

To me, Taiwanese are really discipline, friendly and polite. Maybe Japan has a strong influence on them because of the occupancy before 1945. 

However, for those foreigners who can not read Chinese, it would be slightly difficult to shop especially at the night market, although most of the shopping centers and MRT Stations have English words on the information and direction board.   

The next thing to remind tourists is the toilet flushing system in Taiwan. Never ever throw the used toilet paper into the toilet bowl, yes even after your 'BIG Business'. There is a small bin in every toilet for you to throw away the used toilet paper. WHY? Because it will be blocking the bowl. It happens at most of the place where there are many tourists, even in the the airport. 

That's all what I wanna say... In fact I'm sitting in 1 Borneo now to write this blog and will be going back to Kuching on tomorrow. Photos are on the way, so stay tune... 

Penang Island - Tilt-shift Photos

Photos were taken from Prangin Mall Multi-story Car Park, Penang. Check my previous post on how to create tilt-shift photos. 

How to Create a Tilt-shift Photo (Miniature Effect)

Love the miniature effect so much!!! Just feel like we are in a small small world!!! Don't have a tilt-shift lens? No worries, there are plenty of online free software which allow you to create such effect. Click here to use the online free software. Enjoy!!!

Sydney (view from the Sydney Tower)

 

Hong Kong

Sydney, Darling Harbour

Sydney, CBD (view from the Sydney Tower)

Melbourne CBD (view from the Skydeck 88)

NBA Allstar Saturday Night 2011 Video

超級星光大道 - 李佳薇- 勇敢

What a beautiful and touching voice... 李佳薇 successfully goes into the Grand Final of  超級星光大道 7!!!

Chinese New Year Decoration...

The newly bought lanterns with additional flowers which added by Kimmy. After we bought it then only we realized that Kenyalang Park is selling the same design with RM20 cheaper... arrggghhh!!! 

Put it at the corner of my living room

'Sumbangsaran' Faculty of Social Sciences Unimas @ Riverside Majestic Hotel Kuching Sarawak

The meeting was organized by Faculty of Social Sciences Unimas on the 5th and 6th of January 2011.

First day of the meeting. According to the tentative program, the dress code is casual smart. So this is what i wear. When arrived at the meeting room, everyone is wearing working attire... then i thought i had dressed wrongly. Luckily in the welcome speech, the dean says that my outfit is correct, the rest are wrong coz too formal, hahaha.

We have few new staffs who just joined FSS, so they have to introduce themselves to the faculty...

Meeting of the early session

Then lunch. Welcome by the new waitresses... hahaha

The afternoon session which chaired by the dean of the faculty, Prof. Dr Spencer

Dinner...

The service of this hotel is excellence but the food... need improvement...

Karaoke by Assoc. Prof. Dr Andrew 

My first malay song on stage... luckily helped by Alif...

Breakfast... again, the food needs improvement...

Second day meeting...

Getting tired...

The admin staffs who did all the hard works.

Group photo

View from my room

View of Kuching from Riverside Majestic Hotel

In overall, it was a very productive meeting and should be organized annually... maybe monthly... hahahaha!!!