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Sunday, October 30, 2016

Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si Temple : High in Height/Spirits

One thing I really like when I am traveling is temple-running! (not surprising as I am living in Brunei and the closest thing to a temple around here is a tiny one in the city) (note: I'm a Christian but I love visiting temples, cathedrals alike)

So naturally when we were in Penang. we just had to visit the Kek Lok Si (极乐寺) temple, which is the biggest and most popular Buddhist temple there.

We went to two tourist sites in one day, the Penang Hill/ Bukit Bendera and the Kek Lok Si Temple because it was sights day!

To go to Penang Hill, you had to drive around 30 mins if you were coming from Georgetown like we did. Then you had to queue to take a train to go uphill. The train looks like this:


The queue was quite long and it was very hot but good thing the queue moved quite fast

Tourist Prices

A return ticket for an adult is 30RM
For children aged 4 - 6 years old it is 5RM
Older children / students : 15RM
Senior Citizens : no discount unless you are Malaysian.

If you really want to, you can pay double for the "Fast Lane".

For Malaysian citizens who show their MyKad the prices are as follows :

Adult : 10RM
Children (4-6) : 3RM
Student Ticket : 5RM
Senior Citizens (60+) : 5RM
Students : 4RM

Disabled people can travel for free.
Information retrieved from http://www.travel-penang-malaysia.com/penang-hill-train.html

 All of us were Malaysians with MyKads except my boyfriend but the officials didn't check so we went in with MyKad prices :|

Up we go!!
I remember the tram to be really crowded so thankfully, it wasn't a long ride. Also, it is notable that we went on a public holiday.

Crowded like in a city MRT station at rush hour -_-

Quite a misty view from the top!



My boyfriend and I LOVE these things. Ok fine, maybe its just me and my boyfriend just tags along but I love putting lovelocks on anything with lovelocks that I see! Our first one was in Paris, with this being the second time. Our third will be at Seoul the end of the year :P 

^_^
With our awesome friends who drove down from KL city to hang with us!

Our love bent the bench :P


Then later, we went and took a buggy ride (of course you can choose to walk if you wish but mind you the walk is against gravity and it is around 2km). You can choose whether you want a Mandarin or English speaking guide/ buggy driver.

In the buggy going up ^_^



Bros
Towards the end of the ride and higher up the hill at the Monkey Cup Garden, there was a Kopi Hutan al fresco 'cafe' (notably the highest in Penang- literally) for us to have coffee in the woods!

As you can see, the coffee was made in a moka pot and we had snacks too while seated on rock-stools in the jungle. It was rather cooling and I was grateful there wasn't any mosquitoes!


Yvonne's lovely photography skills are king

The coffee was smooth, like the black coffee I normally drink!


Posing outside the Monkey Cup Garden. We didn't enter the Garden, which is "a collection of various Nephentes (Monkey Cup) species cultivated in a beautifully designed mossy garden at the right environment. There are original as well as hybrid species from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, The Philippines, and other countries. There will be a dedicated tour guide explain and show you around the garden." source: http://penangfoodie.com/highest-cafe-penang-kopi-hutan/


After that we drove for a bit (forgot how long!) to Kek Lok Si (极乐寺) Temple. In Penang Hokkien, Kek Lok Si means "Temple of the Supreme Bliss". So thankful we drove ourselves because it meant we didn't have to walk up!! It was a really hot day.

The 极乐寺 one of Southeast Asia's largest Chinese Buddhist temples and is one of the most well-known attractions in Penang.
I've always been fascinated with religious architecture and writings, so off we went!

We were first greeted by this huge Goddess of Mercy, KuanYin statue, which is a 30.2m of bronze. It was only completed and open to public in 2002.

We then bought these 'wishes' and placed them on wishing trees


My boyfriend made a donation for a roof tile for the construction/ upkeeping of the temple


Many other donors!

A monk handling this donation panel inside the temple
Inside the Grand Hall


The Temple is so large that we had to take a short inclined lift ride to the other side! The inclined lift ride is RM4/person:


There was a Ban Po Thar, the Kek Lok Si Pagoda in the Central Pavilion, which we entered, all 7 tiersof it! The Kek Lok Si Pagoda is interesting because of how it was built. The base of the pagoda was built in a Chinese style, the center is Thai, and the top is Burmese. So there are three sections of culture and history within the pagoda, and you can really see the difference both inside and from the outside structure. 

The pagoda doesn't look very tall here but the walk up was quite tiring, as some of the stairs were steep and narrow, like this:


Due to each floor being of different, we experienced each floor of different styles of Buddha, shrines and decorations that ranged from Chinese, Burmese and Thai. It was really interesting to see what each tier had. There was one with a sleeping Buddha.
The wall tiles were also different on each and every tier, with two of my favorites here:



The view when we reached the 7th level was really beautiful!



Because of the heat and the walk, my friends didn't follow us up so we had to take this using self-timer which i think turned out okay :P


Interestingly enough, brothers Aw Boon Par and Aw Boon Haw gifted the Kek Lok Si Temple this gateway. Last year, my boyfriend and I visited the Haw Par Villa in Singapore, which was built by the two philanthropist brothers.

Also, they are more popularly known to introduce the Tiger Balm ointment :)

Our friends, Yvonne and Kong
Here's a very good and informative link about Kek Lok Si Temple if you want to find out more: http://www.penang-traveltips.com/kek-lok-si-temple.htm

:)

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Sea Circus, Seminyak for breakfast!

In Bali, for one of our short days there, one of my bride friends, Mary wanted to go to Sea Circus. Sea Circus is a quirky little place in Seminyak that serves breakfast thru dinner. They serve mostly western food and has good coffee!

We asked our driver to take us there, so we got there by car.



The place was really colorful, cute and quaint, and it was filled with what I assume were Aussies. We and another table were the only Asians... But you know what they say, Bali is like a mini Australia nowadays.

All our cuppas came with a little note! I also loved how they totally DIY-ed their tables with the patterns. If you look carefully, the patterns are actually drawn on with gold marker pens.

 I can't remember exactly what everyone ordered but here's a flat lay!

You can look at their menu here, but it doesn't seem to be the updated one we saw there.

My Bagus Bagel- which was basically bacon (yum), avocados and eggs stuffed in a bagel :o
Group photo with my gals (notice us being surrounded by westerners lol)

Find Sea Circus here.
Please don't send them your weird trapeze artist cv's ;)
Enjoy! xx

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Day at the (British) Museum

I was in London back in Sept 2015, a year ago and I realized I have not had the opportunity to blog about it yet.

One fine day, we went for breakfast at Duck & Waffle, which is lovely restaurant with a killer view on the 40th floor of 110 Bishopsgate. It is open 24/7 and caters for breakfast til drinks at night. 110 Bishopsgate is one of London’s tallest buildings

Guests are transported to Duck & Waffle from a private entrance on Bishopsgate via two express, double-glazed scenic lifts.

We went there with one of my dear friends, Wendy, who has been relocated to the UK with her husband.

My boyfriend

Mentioned dear friend, Wendy
I ordered the Duck & Waffle because... I figured it was their signature, with their name being.. Duck & Waffle.... My boyfriend ordered the English breakfast set which I don't have a photo of. He said he couldn't accept waffle and a penyet duck. Haha. I was content with my food, with it being quite the special combo. paired with a cuppa latte, my breakfast was great for me to 'bon apetit'!


Picture 40 floors up, photobombed by the Shard
I had some kinda gothic look going on, I know... I was trying out a new lipstick I got from Revlon, I think.

After that, we spent our Day in the Museum!
My boyfriend wanted to check out a museum, so we  went to the British Museum.

Entrance to the Museum is free, but you are encouraged to leave a donation of £5, although it isn't compulsory.


We had to queue for a little bit at the entrance, as there was a quick check by the security guards

Sup?


There are 10 D curatorial and research departments in the British Museum:

We started off with the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan bit first because that was one of the most interesting and popular ones.
There are over 100,000 Egyptian antiquities kept here. 

Room 4 – Colossal bust of Ramesses II, the 'Younger Memnon', 1250 BC




Real mummy!


Rooms 62 to 63 - Mummies on display in the Egyptian Death and Afterlife galleries





After that, we branched out to the Department of Greece and Rome, also a crowd favorite. The Museum was huge and had many floors so we had to literally make our way to find the Departments we wanted to see.








Of course we had to go back to our roots at the Department of Asia:









 So glad to have had my friend take us around London that day!!

We spent a couple of hours in the Museum, which ideally isn't enough if you really want to soak it ALL in, but it was a lot of information and we were pretty contented with what we got to see.. (aka MUMMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no, not really but you know what I mean).

Xx