Vietnam – The Trail of Hanoi (2)

Today we went to visit the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum at the Ba Dinh Square. It is located in a big park. It was nice to walk about but weather was a bit hot.

This is the Ministry of Foreign Affair office which was located a stone away from the mausoleum.

This is the entrance of the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum with the mausoleum guards. There were a lot of visitors both locals and also tourist around the mausoleum.

The map of the Presidential Palace ground in the Ba Dinh Square…which to area to see?

The Presidential Palace which a hundred-year-old French colonial building in the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex surrounding Ba Dinh Square. Nice bright colour, right?

The tree roots at the Garden of Presidential Palace.

Carp pond at the garden of Presidential Palace

Ho Chi Minh Stilt house

Old building converted to souvenir shops. Noticed they are also in bright yellow in colourful like the Presidential Palace.

Postcards to choose from….

Well.. so where’s next? Follow me and find out. 😊

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Taipei – Maokong Gondola and Tea Garden

One of the places that I visited while I was in Taipei was the Maokong Tea Garden. (but do not visit during the summer season; hottest in July – mistake that I did. Freaking hot!!!). It is located in one of the suburbs in Taipei and you can get there by MRT.

Caught a gondola up to the hill which is located in Maokong and the Taipei Zoo is also located next to the station. You can also hike up to the Maokong area but I decided to take the gondola as the weather is not on our side.

One of the gondola.. which can seat up to 4 people.

View from the gondola.

… another view

The Maokong Station up on the hill.

Shops along the track.

As usual… temple again

Next visit to……. ??? come…follow me and find out. =)

Cycling in the Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam – Botanical Garden

Went to the Botanical Garden again. This the 2nd time in 2 days. The day before, I was there to participate in the Skytrex Adventure where I did climbing and doing lots of flying fox up in the air, high wire crossing, doing tarzan swings; 26 thrilling challenges, all up to 17m above ground.

Today, I was there early to enjoy cycling in the park which cover over 1260 hectares. Even though I was early there, there was a lot of people earlier than me, and waiting for the gates to the park to be open. Reason, so they go in and quickly rent a bicycle to cycle as the shop inside only has a limited of up to 200 bicycles for rental.

It was a nice day to cycle as the night before it rain heavily and in the morning, it was cool and nice.

Cycling …. It is not a flat road but an uphill and downhill along the way.

A nice shot of the beam of sunlight through the trees in the morning.

The Skytrex Adventure which is located inside the park.

A group of people doing the initiation training before taking on the real challenges!!

In the garden, there is also an orchard where you can find all sorts of tropical fruits where they have planted and taken care; rambutans, mangosteen, durians, starfruit, dragon fruit and lots more.

Hand picked rambutans directly from  the trees.

Chempedak still on the tress.

Me on the bike….

Dragon fruit trees.

Stop and give way to porcupine crossing

…. and deer crossing too.

Their also built a Malay kampung style building.

On the way back to the entrance, took this shot of a small lake.

It was a nice cycling day all together….. a perfect day for a family outing or group activities.

Shah Alam, Selangor – A visit to the state capital

It has been a while since I visited Shah Alam. It is the state capital for one of the states in Malaysia; Selangor and it is a planned city.

It was a short drive from where I was and the first place we wanted to drop by was the botanical garden. Yes, a botanical park in the middle of the city. The size of the park is 1290  hectares and there is an adventure park in there; Skytrex which I will be going next week. Will tell you more of this next time.

The entrance free is rm3.00 for adults (child above 12 is considered as an adult) and for children is rm1.00.

As soon as I entered, the first I place look for was to rent a bicycle as it is a huge park and walking the place on foot will not be done in a day for sure (maybe if you running, then it may be possible =) )

This is after the entrance, where you can catch a free shuttle bus; every half hourly to partly around the garden.

Queue up!! This is for the rental of bicycles. Heard that they about 200 bicycles for rent but 1 hr after they opened the place… all the bicycle were already out. Had to wait for half an hour or so before earlier ones who rented came back. Rental is on the hourly basis.

Small bicycle.. rm3 for first hour and rm1 for hour thereafter. Big bicycle…. rm5 for the first hour and rm1 for the hour thereafter. Of course they also had the mountain bikes which go at a rate of rm50 per hour!! I think I will give the mountain bike a miss.

How big? Well it is kinda big with lots small little hills but … it is a nice walk if the day is not that hot.

There are a lot of things to look and stop by but only wished they had up keep some of them but can see that they are making some changes.

Becareful!!! Monkey crossing.

It was a good trip but just a short one. I will be back next week to try the adventure park and maybe will explore further in the park the next time.

In the city of Shah Alam, there is also a very big mosque there and nice (unfortunately I know I am not allowed to go in as I was also not dressed appropriate) but shot from outside.

A view through the gate

A partial shot of the mosque

Another shot of t he entrance.

 

Building outside also has that dome shape like a mosque.

Anyway.. hope you enjoy these photos.

Suzhou …. a rush but enjoyable trip (1).

As always a holiday or trip abroad… anyone and everyone would love to spend as much time to see, learn and experience the culture in one place or country.

Well I had a chance a few months back, but for this trip,  it was rather a very short and rush one… which was to Suzhou, China. It was a rush trip and wasn’t really a holiday but more of attending a relative wedding there. It was a first time experiencing a wedding outside my own country as each of us know, each country or culture their own way and definitely, one would like to see and compare the difference. Anyway.. I will not be talking about that but I will just share what I seen and capture when I was there briefly.

  Pan Pacific Suzhou

Internal part of the hotel

This is the external part. Looks like an old time of  China.

As Suzhuo is famous for its many garden, behind the hotel itself, there is a beautiful garden with the Pagoda.

The Pagoda

Some of the scenic views in Suzhou.

The lorries waiting for their turn to unload their goods to the wholesale market.

The people and the activities which you can catch them doing candidly

What are these people doing?

Well… this is what they are doing… they are removing the shell of this water vegetable which can be eaten raw or cook in cold dessert or even cooked with other vegetables.

This picture below is cute… can you spot something that is out of the ordinary?

 

Have you ever seen a table that can sit 18 people? Well it is possible! I have heard than you can even sit up to 30 people per table!! That’s even bigger. The picture below is a place where they only had 1 table …yes 1 table in the whole restaurant and they just only serve that 1 table for the whole night. So you can imagine what will the cost of the meal, rite?

Anyway.. hope you like a brief outlook. If I had a chance… I will definitely go to Suzhou again and explore stay more longer … for sure!