My last 20s birthday

Due to some technical error, this year my birthday appeared as “Dec 4th” in many of my friends’ calendar. Suddenly I received many greetings and wishes over Facebook on the 4th. Though I tried explaining to some of the “early birds” that my birthday has yet to come, more greetings just kept coming in. Anyway it’s a blessing in disguised. Thanks to that I have been receiving greetings and wishes throughout the whole week.

Other than Facebook greetings this year’s birthday was also quite eventful. Janet surprised me with a very early birthday present, followed by two little presents by Huwi Yin during our annual birthday get-together. There are dinner appointments almost everyday. Celebrations also extended - my lunchmates threw me a surprise cake today (3 days past) which is lovely~

This year’s birthday there’s actually some mixed feelings – received some not-so-good news about a friend’s health, just around one month ago my former manager left the company and the world losing a great leader (Nelson Mandela). At the same time I also recalled the two birthdays in the past with some fond memories. Guess you get more sentimental as you grow older…

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, glad to be on Mother Earth for another one year! Also prayers to everyone’s well being…

Once again "Happy birthday" to Huwi Yin, my dai kor in the Land of Oz (Alex) and Sek Hoe. ^^

Taj Mahal, India

I have always wanted to go to Taj Mahal, and this dream was fulfilled recently. Early this October, my boss kindly approved my business travel to India for a partner visit. It was a very short notice and I hesitated for a moment as it coincides with my balik kampong trip. Eventually I decided to go as it will be the last travel approval by my boss. Still very amazed that I managed to put together all the business visa requirements in half a day (there’s a long list of them) and submit the application the next day with a fee of more than RM450 (quite expensive!). My business visa was approved just in time – phew! And on the same day I received an important piece of info from my colleague Stephan that there’s an attraction near Noida, and it’s Taj Mahal! From Noida to Agra (where Taj Mahal is), it used to take 4.5 hours one way. However with the new highway, it only takes about 3 hours one way. Excellent!

We departed immediately after meetings on Day 2 with some packed food from the cafeteria. The whole journey including sightseeing took about 8-9 hours. It was very tiring but it’s all worthwhile. Taj Mahal is indeed very beautiful. The design of Taj Mahal, its surrounding buildings, gardens and gates are symmetrical. Its building architecture leveraged much on optical illusion. There’s no paintings in Taj Mahal – the wordings, the designs all were handcrafted with workmanships and stones. Right behind Taj Mahal is one of the three holy rivers in India, the Yamuna River. Sunset was very beautiful in Taj Mahal as we saw the skyline changing colours during sunset.

Special thanks to my colleague Stephan for all the good advice, my counterpart John for joining me in this brief adventure and last but not least my colleague Anand who assisted us on the transport arrangement. 

Biz trip to UK

One week after my KK trip, I was off to UK for business trip. I will be meeting my boss for the 3^rd time. Most people see their bosses’ everyday, for me meeting my boss and team is like an annual affair. The first week was rather packed with meetings and dinners at night. The second week was vacation – on personal expense of course. Met up with an ex-colleague, Jo and her dearest 3 years son Zac on my first day. We spent some time around Thames River, near Windsor Castle.

First of all I would like to share an interesting story about gaps in expectations and cultural differences. Before departure I was very excited - first time staying in a four star hotel in UK. As I arrived I was rather disappointed with the hotel service – no one bothered to greet as I entered the hotel, the reception area was rather small, the baggage storage was not very organized, there are many fire doors in the hotel and the sound proof was bad. My boss reminded me that I am not in a service-oriented country and must lower my standards, and I did. In addition the hotel is an old building – poor sound proof, plenty of fire doors and staircases are rather common. After staying in multiple hostels during my own travel I must say that the hotel is quite good – points added.

During my first week in the UK sandwich or pasta (normally less than GBP 3) was a norm for lunch. At first I was rather excited. After some time I can start memorizing the menu or types of sandwich or pasta available in Tesco. As a Malaysian I started to miss our food variety - sweet, sour, spicy, fried, soup, steam etc. Good thing they have a variety of fresh juices and smoothies. I really miss those healthy drinks.

Travelling around UK is very convenient via bus, train or flight. Booking in advance saves a lot of money and can be done online. It's better to book long intercity trains in advance for several reasons:

- it can be much cheaper but must travel on the schedule booked

- to reserve a seat. You can choose a front facing, back facing, aisle, window, table etc. Normally intercity has a lot of coaches. As long as A to M - you can imagine how long it takes to walk from one end to the other. The trains arrive and depart on-time. They don't stop for a long time. Not booking in advance means you may not get a seat before the train leaves the station.

Airport check-in in UK may take a long time due to strict checking. Sometimes travelling between airports and cities may take a long time and inconvenient. Depending on the route, taking a bus or train maybe a better choice. 

A brief escape to Kota Kinabalu

The past six months has been crazy, with ups and downs. April was the “travelling month”. I went on a brief escape to Kota Kinabalu (commonly known as KK), “the land below the wind” with my mum. It was a leisure trip – no expedition to Mt Kinabalu.

KK is a small but developing city. A big mall is currently under construction. The old KK town has the 80s feel with pre-war houses, small roads and trees. We stayed at Best Western Hotel which is of walking distance to 1 Borneo Shopping Complex, Jesselton Point, Gaya Street Sunday Market and Filipino Market. Taxi fare in KK is very expensive – minimum RM10 and does not go by meter. If you plan to get out of the city center or outskirts then renting a car would be a better choice.

Lok Kawi Wildlife Park is highly recommended for those who want to have a look at some of the Borneo animals. It takes around 20 minutes drive from the city center. It’s rather near if you go straight from the airport or Tanjung Aru. In Lok Kawi you can see the Sun Bears, Orang Utans, Proboscis Monkeys and other rare species under one roof. Note: You don’t need to sign up for a tour package for Lok Kawi – just grab a taxi, get there and pay the admission fee. However the taxi can be quite pricy – remember paying around RM120 for the return trip. But it’s still cheaper than the tour package for two and there’s more flexibility.

Island hopping or snorkeling is quite convenient in KK. Just go to Jesselton Point and grab a package which includes boat transfer, snorkeling equipments and life jacket. The fare varies according to the number of islands. For those who plan to cover two or more islands, it is advisable to depart early in the morning as the last boat transfer back is around 5pm. We got there around 11am and manage to cover only one island – around RM80 for 2 pax. Pulau Manukan is the biggest island and also with the most visitors. You may get a better snorkeling experience at the smaller islands. Seafood is very cheap in KK – whether it’s cooked, dried or preserved ones.

There are plenty of seafood restaurants around KK. There is one along the same row as the Best Western Hotel which is always crowded with people – unfortunately we didn’t manage to try. We spent most of our dinners in the Filipino market where you can pick the seafood and get it cooked. There is nothing to brat about for the cooking style but the freshness of the seafood has greatly enhanced the taste. Simply delicious!

Our favorite spot for dried seafood is the Filipino Market. There are a lot of varieties and the price here is generally cheaper. Explore the shops at the back – they are way cheaper. We bought several huge packets of the algae for about RM10-15 each – price varies according to the grades.

There are many night markets around KK city. Ladies will be happily shopping for bracelets, necklaces and accessories as they are really nice and cheap. There’s a wide selection as well. For those who miss the night markets, you can still shop at the Gaya Street Sunday Market. There’s much more things to see comparing to night markets e.g. local fruits and handicrafts but selections maybe less. Note: Do bargain when going to markets – you can get quite a good deal.

Soon after my KK trip I was off to UK for 2 weeks - 1 week biz and 1 week leisure. Then back for election, work, the alumni association's annual dinner, house moving, funeral etc. Shall share more on my UK trip in the next post.

Hokkaido - Transport and Food

Hokkaido is a lovely island with fresh air, lots of greeneries, cheap seafood, nice dairy products and desserts etc. There are simply too many good things about this island up north in Japan. The only few minus points would be the expensive transportation cost and long travel time between difference places in Hokkaido.

Transportation in Hokkaido is fairly straightforward, of which most of the transports are operated by JR. So you don’t need to do detail research on which route to take and the cheapest fare. However do take note that Suica (JR version of Touch ‘N’ Go) can only be used at very limited stations in Hokkaido. This is because many train stations in Hokkaido do not have the machines to “check in” and “check out”. Therefore it is strongly recommended that you get tickets from the machines instead to avoid unnecessary hassle. If you are using the JR Pass, then just simply produce your card. Note: The intercity trains in Hokkaido can easily take more than one hour and very costly. For those who plan to spend a week around Hokkaido it is strongly recommended to get a JR pass.

For those who do not speak and read Japanese, travelling around Hokkaido can be quite a hassle. Generally people in Hokkaido speak poorer English compared to Tokyo (many times they only speak in Japanese). They are very friendly but communications can be a problem. For instance rather than telling you that you can get off at the next station, they would just tell you “get off”. Sounds rude isn’t it? It was rather comedy in a sense but they’re just to trying to convey the message :)

Before going to Hokkaido I have always thought that they are famous for seafood. However there’s more than that. In terms of food Hokkaido’s dairy products, desserts and beers are of top class. There’s a lot of focus on the freshness of its raw ingredients in Hokkaido. Milk in glass bottles cost only 100-200 yen, which is very cheap for Japan’s standard. In addition, the milk is really fresh, delicious and without the strong “milk smell”. However the coffee doesn’t taste that good, it’s rather mild. Note: Back then 100 yen = RM3.90. Now is much lower.

Hokkaido is simply a dessert heaven. There are so many types of desserts to choose from. They look great and also delicious! They are so smooth and melt in your mouth. The shops would normally give you some dry ice when you take away. However it needs to maintain certain level of temperature to ensure its quality. So bringing it back to Malaysia while maintaining its goodness is rather mission impossible. I miss the winter melon chocolates and cheese tarts! For those going to Otaru, I would strongly recommend Le Tao Confectionary for desserts.

Generally Hokkaido’s seafood is very fresh. However to get cheap seafood, you would have to visit the local markets. More than 10 pieces of sashimi for only 300 yen, it’s simply too cheap! If you can speak Japanese, you can request for e.g. 500 yen salmon sashimi and they will prepare it for you accordingly. Other than the price, in the market you can see all sorts of fish, shells, crabs etc. It is a real eye-opener. They are also many restaurants in Hokkaido selling seafood rice. What’s in the seafood rice? Well a bowl of rice, on top there will be seafood. There are many variations for the topping, depending on what you order. You can have only fish eggs, a mixture of sashimi etc. A seafood rice cost around 1,000 yen – you won’t be able to get it at this price in Tokyo and Kyoto.

 

Guideline for planning your own Japan trip

Just completed my 12 days free and easy Japan trip more than a month ago. Well “free and easy” is not as easy as it seems, especially when you want to get as much as you can from the limited amount of time. In the 12 days journey, I covered around 4 places – Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hokkaido.

Today’s topic would be on getting around Japan. One of the commonly asked question is “do I need to get a JR Pass?”. I would say it depends. Japan Railway (JR) is a major train operator in Japan. JR Pass is a pass that enables unlimited rides for almost all JR trains and buses within a given period of time, and can only be purchased by foreigners in overseas. JR Pass comes in 7-day, 14-day and 21-day (see http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en003.html ). A 7-day ordinary JR pass costs 28,300 yen. Generally if you are not travelling between cities, it’s not worth buying JR pass:

-          JR pass can only be used for JR trains and buses. However not all trains and buses in Japan are operated by JR.

-          Travelling within the city e.g. Tokyo normally cost less than 1,000 yen per day. Cities like Kyoto have one-day pass for buses which costs only 800 yen.

Would recommend that you plan your trip in advance and check out the fares for your route first, before deciding whether to get a JR pass. 

Note: In Japan there are many types of trains – normal, semi-express, express, shinkansen etc. If you are travelling to location X to Y, there can be many options which consists of different combinations of train, route, number of changes required, travel time and fare. Sometimes the fastest option may also be the cheapest option. You can use tools like Jorudan (http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/e-norikeyin.html) to plan your trip.

Getting around Japan is quite convenient by train. However the train system in Tokyo city can be very complex as there are many lines and operators. There are two major types of train within the city – train (by JR) and subway/metro (by other companies). Yamanote Line, the loop within Tokyo city centre which covers popular locations like Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku, is operated by JR and normally very crowded. It will be crazy taking that line during peak hours.

For locations such as Shinjuku there are multiple operators. Changing to a line operated by a different company, means that you may need to walk as far as more than 1km, or walking to a different station (sometimes you may need to walk out) to change line. A very good experience is Tokyo Station – walking for more than 1km just to change line to go to Disneyland.

For Kyoto, bus is more convenient comparing to train. Many buses depart from Kyoto Station – the transportation hub in Kyoto. Do some homework on the bus # and destinations before departure. You can purchase the one-day pass for bus at 800 yen via the ticketing machines or counter. Ticketing machines are available just beside the “bus stop” at Kyoto Station. If you see many buses and huge crowd queuing up – yes, the machines are somewhere nearby.