pack and go!

london: amazing weekend trip - day 2

2009-03-31T09:39:00.001-07:00

second day started slow. we only woke up at 9 am and immediately have shower and packed our stuff. we have to get out as soon as possible since there are few places on our list need to be visited. all along the road from our hostel to the station, there were hell lot of souvenir shops there and yeah, we got crazy at baywaters. and, who can say no to some english breakfast? dont ask me what i have.

english breakfast tea

where to babe?

the escalator that bring you deeper underground

after some breakfast, we drag our feet to queensway station and bought another travelcard. we knew that we wont be travelling around so much since we have so limited time but who cares. the stairs that leading down to the platform was so steep. usually they have this kind of escalator but probably it was only small station so they only have elavator or stairs. and we stupidly choose to use the staircase. the first spot on our list was buckingham palace. yeah i know. typical eh? but hell care! we went for a walk at the park nearby the palace, enjoying the greeneries and the sunshine. killing times for sure. and the next thing we knew was we went rushing off to the tube station to get something for our friend somewhere in arsenal. and rushing back to st pancreas for our 4pm train and spending all our coins buying chocolates, water and magazines. we reached brussels at 7 and felt like want to tear off our feet and walk with our hands. by the way, i left you with some photos for you to envy with owkayyy! :)

the signs

memorials for those who died in the countries listed?

i totally dont know how to be photogenic, am i?

the trees without me? yeah...

the famous palace?

we missed this ceremony. but who cares, we have whole morning yesterday to watch some horse arses at whitehall

i am tired and i want to go home!

london: amazing weekend trip - day 1

2009-03-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

2 minggu sebelum gua sampai ke belgium, gua dah sound member gua si zul supaya grab mana-mana tiket eurostar yang paling murah untuk 2 orang ke london. sebabnya, untuk belgium's training trip kali ni gua dan brenda dah nekad untuk cuba menjelajah london berdua sebagai aktiviti hujung minggu kami.

pagi tu, kol 4.30 pagi gua dah ketuk pintu studio brenda. mana taknya, train pukul 6.59am and we have to reach brussels midi at least around 6.15am sebab takut terlewat jadi macam-macam hal pulak. better early la kan kalau tak biasa. lepas prepare bekalan makanan lebih kurang, pukul 5 kami naik train ke brussels midi. perjalanan dari guesthouse ke train station memang mencabar. sejuk, sleepy, ramai orang mabuk (saturday night beb, what do you expect?). nasib baik takde yang bertindak extreme. and seriously, in leuven you will feel totally safe even when you walk alone. sampai je brussels zuid, kami terus check in. we need to fill up some form and answers some random questions that the officers asked about our trip and thats it, off to london we go!

the journey took us exactly 2 hours to reach st pancreas international station. sampai-sampai je sana, terus melangak cari kaunter tiket untuk tube (ala menatang lrt atau metro tu le). kami beli daily travel card untuk zone 1 and 2. most of tourist attraction ada dalam kedua-dua zone tu dan hostel yang kami book pun ada dalam area tu. sangat convinient.

dapat travel card, terus pegi hostel and check in. hostel yang kami book ni, antara yang termurah dalam hostelworld.com. gua takut juga kalau-kalau jadi macam cerita hostel, tapi Alhamdulillah semuanya baik. lepas settlekan bil untuk one night accomodation, kami pun naik la tengok tempat tido kami dengan niat nak simpan barang-barang dulu. masuk-masuk je dalam dorm tu, pergh! sepah dia bukan main. ada 2 bunk bed, tapi 2 katil untuk kami tu penuh dengan baju. siapa tak mengamuk. lepas deal ngan budak yang punya baju, dia pun cakap la by the time kitowang balik nanti dia dah kemas bilik tu. kitowang pun dengan gembira letak barang dan memulakan penjelajahan kami.

big ben

nasib baik kitowang dah buat list malam semalamnya apa yang kitowang nak tengok hari ni. so, the list started with whatever spots that located near the westminster underground station. keluar-keluar dari perut bumi jer, big ben dah terpacak kat sebelah. for your information, Big Ben is part of the Palace of Westminster originally started in 1020. the palace was burnt down in 1834, so the Gothic architecture you see today is comparatively recent. the palace houses both of the the UK's ruling bodies, the Houses of Parliament and the House of Lords. dari westminster bridge tu, kita dah boleh tengok london eye. kami tak naik, tak mau buang masa.

view from the bridge

brenda main talipon, dia kata booth tu bau kencing

dari westminster bridge kami terus ke arah whitehall. dalam perjalanan tu, kami melalui Cenotaph, salah sebuah monumen perang yang terdapat di London. Di sebelah kiri kami pula adalah Downing Street. This is where Houses of Parliament with other government agencies are located and this is where the Prime Minister of Britain lives and works at number 10, with his chancellor responsible for finance next door in number 11.

gambar takde motif

cenotaph

monument for women of world war 2

as we past more government buildings including the Cabinet Office until we reached Horseguards. its so easy to spot because there will be invariably a crowd around the entrance, where two costumed soldiers on horseback offer a premier picture opportunity. hehe! according to our reading, many people find this location much more satisfying than the more famous Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. here crowds are much, much smaller and you are much closer and get uninterupted close up pictures. seriously, we can nearly kiss the horse's butts there!

the horseguard

the guard with horse?

the charade of horseguards

horse butts during changing guard ceremony

gua tengah mengopi

cam-whoring!

we then continued our journey after cuppa coffee to the famous Trafalgar Square. kat sini ada National Gallery. kami tak masuk pun, sekadar tumpang toilet je. lagipun, gua memang jahil seni. artwork project manager gua pun gua kata cantik walhal semua orang kata tah apa-apa je. mungkin kalau gua masuk gallery ni, gua boleh jadi gila.

this look so familiar, doesnt it look similar to a place near concorde in paris?

jom makan, meh!

mana semua merpati???

si gemuk di trafalgar square

bendera berkibar di angkasa!

the famous london cab!

nak dijadikan cerita, boleh pulak terserempak dengan budak sekolah lama aku. wah wah, dia dah kawin dan dah ada sowang baby. keciknya dunia...hehe! tapi gua rasa gua memang selalu kena macam tu. jumpa orang yang tak disangka-sangka di tempat yang juga tidak disangka-sangka.

sizuka dan anaknya, sizuki?

the picture above showing crowds waiting for the PM to go out. time tu escort dia semua dah ready. ado kami peduli? takdo.

next stop adalah The Tower of London dan Tower Bridge. keluar dari tube station tu je, dah ada banyak signboard dah yang menunjuk ke arah The Tower of London ni. for your info, The Tower of London is strategically placed to guard against possible enemies, most liable to approach London coming up the River Thames from the sea. kat sini juga anne boleyn kena pancung (kalau kowang tengok citer The Other Boleyn Girl la).

terowong ke arah tower of london

si anne yang cemburu

tower of london

bangunan yang macam telur kat belakang tu adalah bangunan The Gherkin owned by Swiss Re, second largest insurance company in the world. dan gambar kat bawah ni pula adalah garden yang mengelilingi Tower of London.

manakala Tower Bridge pula adalah jambatan yang dibina pada tahun 1894.we're not lucky i guesss, sebab during our visit bridge tu tak naik pun. bukan senang beb. kena tengok dia punya schedule juga. kat sini ada exhibition la. dia kasi kita jalan-jalan atas jambatan tu punya tower. tengok engine room. play with physics of the bridge dan macam-macam lagi. its worthy to go visit this exhibition sebab kalau compare pameran-pameran yang lain, boleh tahan juga mahalnya!

background: tower bridge

permandangan sungai thames yang keruh

dalam tower bridge

dari sini, kami buat handal jalan-jalan sendiri. konon-konon nak pegi london bridge by foot. actually memang boleh. tapi sebab map tu punya lah tak clear. kami pun sesat. mula-mula okay je. yelah petang sabtu kan. orang lain dok syiok tengok bola, kami macam orang gila cari jalan nak balik. lama-lama, tak jumpa juga masing-masing mula la nak marah je. kami amik keputusan untuk patah balik dan terus pegi picadilly circus. ah, tak payah cerita la apa kami buat kat sini. nak-nak lilywhite tengah sale, apa lagi. shopping le!

selesai, hari pun dah gelap. kaki dah kembang. perut dah lapar. sampai bayswater station, kami terus cari kedai makan orang morroco, belasah makan nasik lauk kari. bila balik hostel, bebudak dalam dorm takde (oh, ada coldplay dan elbow punya concert rupanya malam tu...) dan katil dah berkemas. lepas kemas lebih kurang, gua dan brenda pun dozed off. nyenyak betul tido ye.

pj: kaori

2008-10-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

last week, we went to try this new japanese restaurant, kaori at phileo damansara 1 which is not so far from our office. the ambient of that restaurant is not so japanese and none of the waitress were actually wearing kimono. not to mention, there's no free flow of japanese tea accompanying our meal. err...i also wonder if japanese restaurant actually offer free flow of japanese tea. haha!

the door of this restaurant is one of the thing that make the place more or less like a secret hiding place for those who want to ran away from the typical environment of phileo damansara.

before serving you the meal that you order, they will also serve you some simple appetizer. ours was chicken dumpling that was so delicious with some mayonese. they have few lunch set that price is reasonable with the portion of food.

i order rice with japanese chicken curry. i was so anxious to know how the japanese curry would taste like. yeah, its not as spicy as ours but not bad at all. some colleagues ordered ramen and some other ordered sushi and most of them were satisfied with the portion and the taste.

brisik cafe - jaya one

2008-09-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

few days back, i went out to berbuka with some collegues at brisik cafe (located at jaya one). i've been stalking this place since its opening day but never had a chance to try the food there. yeah, its because i live near jaya one (my new place to pig out!) so i think i need to try every place there! haha! so back to brisik cafe, it received pretty good review when i google it. most of the review is talking about their fruit juice that come together with asam boi as well some of items in their menu. they served not just local food but also pasta and grilled things. i have nasi goreng tom yam and its quite delicious too and it come with sambal goreng with minced anchovies as well as tapioca chips! i also tasted my friend's spaghetti seafood which is also nice with lots of seafood. but of course the portion cannot beat those at williams. :P other items that we tried were seafood 2 musim (plain rice that come with special sambal and bowl of seafood and veggies) and chicken black pepper. all of them are quite spicy but the taste is just nice. :) absolutely worth of trying. the place is also very cosy and you can come just to relax after a long tiring day.

brisik cafe waiting area

table decoration...quite nice!

our table..waiting for the food and the time..:)

s.e and a.e ladies from materialise software development division! two of us from 3-matic team while the rest are from CMF team.

the ambience inside the cafe

the food: nasi goreng tom yam

the food: seafood 2 musim

kuala selangor: kelip-kelip and seafood!

2008-07-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

da lama sangat gua sebut-sebut nak pegi tengok kelip-kelip kat kuala selangor ni. tapi baru la sekarang tercapat hajat tu. kalau tak sebab boss gua yang rajin berjalan ni, gua rasa sampai sudah gua takkan sampai ke kampung kuantan.

perjalanan dari tol penchala ke kuala selangor ni takde la lama sangat. dalam sejam dah sampai sebab jalan dia xde simpang-simpang. cuma dekat area ijok le ada banyak corner baring tapi takde le sehatkor bukit putus, kuala pilah. sebelum enjoy kelip-kelip tu, fairin one of colleagues yang rumah dia dekat-dekat situ jugak bawak kami makan malam di sebuah restoran seafood. ikan-ikan dia memang fresh. harga? agak berpatutan dengan portion of food yang diberikan.

ni gambar sunset yang gua sempat snap sebelum membelasah makanan yang dihidangkan. cantik sangat view kat situ tapi pantai dia berlumpur le. jenis tempat orang cari siput kut. nama pantai tu adalah pantai jeram. jiran dia pantai remis.

selesai belasah seafood, kami pun bergerak ke rumah fairin untuk rehat-rehat sambil buat apa-apa yang patut. and at about 9 pm, kami pun bergerak ke kampung kuantan. kepada sesiapa yang tak penah sampai ke tempat ni, caj untuk masuk ke fireflies park ni adalah rm10. aku rasa memang patut pun kena bayar rm10 sebab untuk pergi ke rimbunan pokok berembang (habitat kelip-kelip ni) yang ada kat tebing sungai tu, kita kena naik sampan. sampan ni pulak didayung menggunakan kudrat manusia. so rm10 tu adalah untuk bayar penat lelah pakcik-pakcik yang penat mendayung kita hanya untuk melihat keindahan cahaya kelip-kelip tu.

cerita pasal kelip-kelip ni, gua pun dapat la beberapa fakta menarik dari pakcik yang jadi guide kami tu. kelip-kelip akan tetap mengeluarkan cahaya walaupun dia dah mati tapi dia tak akan berkelip lagi la. dan perbezaan antara kelip-kelip jantan dan betina ialah, kelip-kelip jantan flicker lebih kerap berbanding dengan kelip-kelip betina. something to do with attracting the female kinda stuff. kelip-kelip juga bertelur di atas tanah, so untuk menjumpai telurnya amat la susah tu pasai la payah nak biakkan binatang ni.

tempat tu memang worthy la kalau pegi. bukan setiap hari kita dapat tengok those tiny little torchs kan? bukan la maknanya kena pegi selalu, its more like once or twice in our lifetime punya experience. yela, sementara benda tu masih ada sebab sekarang pun development dah makin hampir dengan kawasan tu. who knows one day they just dissapear?

sungkai: trolak country resort

2008-07-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

i dont remember when was the last time i participated in the team building activities (exception for Minggu Orientasi in my previous study places, 2 kali je beb sebab gua second intake time teknik dulu!). so bila company gua announce yang depa nak buat team building, gua tertanya-tanya jugak..adakah sama macam tim study punya minggu orientasi? so june 19th, teka teki tu terjawab dan the whole materialise software were put on a day out at trolak country resort which is located in sungkai, perak. it took us almost one and half hour to reach the place. and the first activity to do when we're arrived is listening to some pep talk by our facilitator (common!). and this is my team for that day and we rock! our team leader is the guy is red shirt, harley or soup! haha!

one of the thing we need to do during the pep talk session is to stack all eleven nails on one nails without the use of any external device other that what was given. sound impossible but here is the result!

the next activity was, the so-called astonishing race. and it was really fun. i even get the chance to try on flying fox! the weather was extremely hot but that doesnt stop us from having so much fun.

the guides there were also very sporting. some team were even allowed to try the flying fox twice! haha!
and during the race, one of the tasks also required us to make our own raft out of bamboos! the making process was not as difficult as the rowing part! gua try tak sampai 5 minit je, rasa cam nak patah tangan beb!
lepas buat rakit, naik rakit, kayuh rakit, bukak balik rakit...perut mesti di isi. walaupun lunch punya lauk memang serba sederhana, dek sebab lapar dan penat semuanya dibalun secara bersahaja.
ha, obstacles punya task memang macam cilake payah. payah nak balance satu hal la kan. apa cerita 11 orang dok control balancing atas papan sekeping kan? pastu nak control gelak lagi. the hardest part was when pakcik guide tu suruh we ols beratur 5 belah kiri, 5 belah kanan atas papan balancing tu pastu tukar position!

obstacles yang ada air ni lagi satu hal. mula-mula, buat two by two. pastu buat style lima belah kiri, lima belah kann pstu tukar. lagi cam sial. kalau spiderman, gua rasa kacang je.

tapi apapun, 2 kali gua jadi gimnast time tu. heheh! and for our team, takde sapa pun yang jatuh dalam air, okeh!
after some other indoor stuff, team building pun selesai. tired but still, we're having a good time. it really shows and i hope materialise will provide this kind of activity regularly! yeay!

kepong: FRIM's canopy walk

2008-06-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

as you may all know, FRIM in Kepong is one of the most popular place for some trekking, jungle cycling and picnic. if i'm not mistaken, there were 5 different trails there to be choose depending on your interest and ability. but i can say most of the trails is pretty easy to do if you have enough stamina and energy. and for me, my main interest is to do the canopy walk. the entrance fees is rm1 per person and if you want to park inside the place, you need to pay rm5 for the vehicle.

the outdated map!

we arrived at frim around 10.30 am after some kind of heavy breakfast at leha kelfood, tmn melati. based on the map we found nearby the information center (however we're too lazy to go inside the center). and we managed to go exactly where the map said supposed to be the info center for the canopy walk. but hell, the place was closed and we were almost lost. blame it on the outdated map! even the small waterfall nearby couldn't chilled us down.

rumah melaka..

one of the trail, engkabang trail

we walked back to the information center and finally get the right info. the first step is to purchase the ticket from the souvenir shop for rm5 per person. and start to do the trekking for almost 1.5 km up the hill before reaching the check point.

the right way, finally!

i can say that 1.5km is almost a heavy walk for me since i've full stomach and not so appropriate attire. should just settle with trek bottom and t shirt instead of jeans and long sleeve t shirt. but after reaching the check point, all the tiredness just disappeared. what's left was satisfaction. furthermore on our way back we have to follow the trail of small waterfall...memang heaven wa cakap lu!

que to get to the canopy walk..

peaceful greeneries..

the tree hugger..

adik-adik sekolah rendah...

top of the hut!

its the haze, man!

the finale of the journey...

silver pot steamboat, ttdi

2008-06-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

since our bosses keep dropping by kl for the work purpose it has open up the opportunity for us to go exploring new places to eat. while jan maes, our project manager came to kl last few days, one of the place we took him for dinner is called silver pot steamboat at ttdi. this place is declared halal steamboat so it made things easier. we have few sets of steamboat to satisfy our hunger. the thing is, its not sufficient and we were also charged for our individual pots. they should make it clear what to pay and stuff like that. the steamboat soup was good and the other ingredients were also all right. its just the quantity. if they provide 'all you can eat' package, it would be much more better since its friggin steamboat, man! the concept of stuff your stomach as much as you can should be embrace in eating steamboat. whatever it is, its worth of trying...

SILVER POT
Chinese Muslim Steamboat
26 Jalan Datuk Sulaiman, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, KL
Tel: 03-7729-5899

peranakan place, one utama

2008-06-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

when our boss from belgium came few weeks ago, my collegues and i took her for a dinner at peranakan place, one utama. the food were really nice especially the honey sotong, kerabu mangga and butter prawn! i dig that sotong! and you that 3 guys at our back smiling at the camera? we have no idea who they are! a good way to be memorized eh? haha!

hello!

2008-05-24T01:17:00.000-07:00

this blog meant to record all related stuff regarding to the place where i've been. traveling is always one of the thing that i like to do and it felt nice to read some old travelogue once in a while. and since i don't own any good camera, this is the only way i can documented all the memories. so welcome!

melaka: an escapade

2008-05-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

on one fine morning i suddenly felt like fleeing out of klang valley and seremban. but where is the nearest sanctuary where i can rest my eyes and body and soul for a while? melaka? absolutely that's the nearest place that i knew. i checked few resorts on the internet which might have some good offer valuable for my money. and i found one...

the resorts consists of small traditional wooden chalets complete with verandah. the room smell so nice with aroma from bunga rampai.

the environment is also very scenic with coconut trees and all it makes you forgot you're in melaka and keep in mind that the beach scenery is never nice in melaka!

imagine sitting on this cahir one one windy evening having your tea and watching the greeneries?

or swinging freely on hammock tied in between tall coconut trees on one lovely evening?An evening thats not too hot... terbaik!

the chalet window complete with wooden panel. dont worry, diowang kasi siap-siap ubat nyamuk elektik tu..so jangan risau pasal nyamuk hokeh?

and imagine how it feel when you could spent the morning after breakfast, reading some good book under a deserted patio by the seaside? with the morning breeze from the ocean blowing softly and accompanied by the tunes after tunes of Once OST. i spent my morning until almost twelve reading white teeth unde this patio with wide ocean view.

brussels: mini europe, grand place

2008-03-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

memandangkan sejak dari first visit lagi kami dah kempunan nak membelasah seafood kat brussels, weekend yang ini kami pun menunaikan hajat di hati.

street ni memang penuh dengan restoran dan cafe yang menjual pelbagai jenis seafood dari lobster sampai le ke segala jenis siput.

aku makan paela seafood. ada kawan kata dia letak wine dalam ni tapi sebab aku tak tau, aku pun best je la order. dah jadi taik pun dah ha...

kenyang. puas hati dan lagi best bila waiter tu cakap our drinks are on the haus. tatau apasal, tapi gua puas hati gile. lepas makan seafood, pegi pulak mini europe sebab taman tu dah bukak akhirnya. gambar kat bawah ni adalah relika bagi europian union punya hq.
seperti mana yang penah diceritakan dulu, mini europe hanya dibuka kembali dalam pertengahan bulan mac. so gua kembali ke brussels untuk menikmati apa benda jadah yang hype sangat dengan mini europe ni. syiok la sebab miniature yang ada kat situ memang real. bayangkan macam mana dia resize bangunan-bangunan tu dengan scale 1:25. ada yang handcrafted dengan material yang bermacam-macam. sebab gua tak sempat mengembara satu europe, i am quite fascinated with all the replicas.

ni pulak replica bath..menatang apa bath tu? cuba baca kat sini. yang dalam gambar ni adalah the circus, which consists of three long, curved terraces designed by the elder John Wood to form a circular space or theatre intended for civic functions and games.

gua suka gile eric johnson main lagu cliff of dover. dan kat atas ni pulak adalah replica castle on white cliff of dover..

replika-replika yang ada tu dilengkapi dengan lagu kebangsaan negara-negara berkenaan di samping ada la scene-scene yang digerakkan oleh machine. sebagai contoh, berlin wall yang mana ada scene tembok berkenaan dipecahkan dengan buldozer and all. tapi satu je la, nak tangkap gambar payah sebab ada je orang lalu lalang kat belakang, tak jadi la gua nak jadi gergasi kan?

yang ini, tembok berlin. siap ada jentolak yang kalau kita tekan button tu bergerak dan memecahkan blok-blok tembok tu. cute je...

lepas abis round mini europe, kami terus berkejar-kejar naik metro menuju ke central station balik untuk membeli coklat untuk di bawa pulang ke malaysia..

cantik gile deco display kedai-kedai coklat ni. harga? ada yang mahal ada yang murah. tengok quality dan kat mana kita beli. heheh! kalau nak belasah neuhaus ke godiva ke, pandai-pandai la fork out you money lebih sikit kan? nak murah beli le style leonidas ke apa ke..tapi rasa dan design ni kureng sikit la kut?

ni tak payah nak elaborate panjang la kan. masalahnya, macam nak tercabut tangan masing-masing membeli belah. gua sempat beli lacey stuff untuk mak gua kat salah satu kedai lace kat situ.

balik dari brussels ni, nak dijadikan cerita pulak, kitowang salah amik train. cam cilaker, train tu pegi airport tapi tak pegi leuven. rupa-rupanya kami naik train yang lebih awal dari trains ebenar. apa lagi, kena la tunggu dekat 15 minit kat airport sebelum train sebenar sampai. hehe!

gouvy

2008-03-22T06:45:00.000-07:00

since our arrival, we have been told that winter in belgium doesn't usually snow especially in flander's part. gua pun dah takde la simpan angan-angan nak tengok snow sebab makin lama winter pun dah nak berakhir. tapi dah dekat minggu kitowang nak balik tu, one of our manager informed us that the weather forecast said during that weekend snow akan turun lebat dekat few part dalam wallonia region dan bersempadan dengan grand duchy of luxembourg.

so during that last weekend, gua ngan rakan-rakan lain terus le pack our bag and grab the ticket to gouvy, the place where it said famous with its langlauf skiing site. bukan nak ski pun, saja nak jadi sakai tengok snow. semua kami pun mana penah tengok snow tu yang teruja macam nak gile bila dengar snow turun sampai sanggup spent 2 hours dalam train semata-mata nak main snow.

sepanjang perjalanan, mata dijamu dengan pemandangan countryside yang menghijau dengan ladang-ladang luas, terus teringat buku cerita enyd blyton untuk kesekiankalinya. tapi bila sampai dekat satu part tu, landskap dia berubah sket-sket. dari hijau pegi putih sket pastu putih lebih sket dan seterusnya putihhhh je.

some of the train route we took to gouvy ni adalah route yang sama kami ambil time nak ke koln dulu. cuma kami stop kat liege dan tukar train lain untuk ke gouvy. memang cantik la this part sebab still banyak lagi hutan-hutan. sungai-sungai yang mengalir menambah lagi kecantikan pemandangan sepanjang perjalanan.

tak terasa langsung kena berdiri halfway to there sebab mata asek tengok luar.

ladang-ladang dengan salji yang memutih..

sampai-sampai je kat gouvy, kami terus pegi information office dia dan diberitahu site yang paling dekat dengan town tu tutup pulak sebab snow tak cukup tebal tapi kalau nak langlauf jugak, bole pegi kat tempat yang jauh sket. semua pakat tamau dan just nak main snow dekat dekat situ je.
ni first stop kami lepas belasah hot coffee kat satu-satunya cafe yang bukak pagi tu. tanpa memeprdulikan salji yang turun, kami terus menongkah arus untuk mencari port yang sesuai untuk bermain salji..

orang gile tengah buat snow fairy!

anak mat saleh tengah main snow...cubaan kami untuk membuat snowman gagal sebab snowman kami kecik je. tangan dah beku..tingginya tidak! harap-harap ni bukan pengalaman terakhir gua bermain snow...

eau de cologne!

2008-03-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

aha! skang gua nak citer pasal weekend trip gua ke cologne atau koln plak. koln ni adalah salah sebuah bandar di germany yang terkenal dengan dom cathedralnya dan dari bandar ni la cologne atau air wangi yang kita selalu pakai tu mendapat namanya. eau de cologne.

oleh kerana kitowang dapat tiket ketapi kol 6.59 am dari brussels midi, pukul 5.33 am dah kena catch train ke sana. time sampai kat stesen leuven tu, ada la 2,3 orang tengah tunggu train gak. lalat pun belum bangun time tu gamaknya.

sampai-sampai kat midi, kekawan brussels tak sampai lagi. aku dan awek-awek dari leuven yang lain pun lepak panos sambil belasah croissants. aku macam jadi addict ngan croissants pulak lepas makan kat paris dulu. crispy, hot croissants with moccachino. adeh! untuk ke cologne kali ni, ketapi laju yang kitowang amik namanya ice. lagi best dari thalys. seat dia comfy gile dan spacious sangat.

aku ngan awek-awek dari leuven dapat seat dekat cockpit sementara kekawan brussels plak dapat kat tengah-tengah badan ketapi. terpisah tapi boleh jalan-jalan melangok kat tempat diowang.
dalam kol 8 lebih tak silap aku, sampai lah kami ke koln. Cologne Hauptbanhof, nama stesen ketapi adalah antara stesen ketapi yang tersibuk di eropah tengah ni.

keluar dari station, mata masing-masing terus tertumpu ke arah satu bangunan berseni bina gothic yang sangat le tinggi. macam gotham city punya style pun ada, itu la dia koln dom.

pembinaan cathedral ni mengambil masa 6 kurun untuk disiapkan. gile lama. interior dia memang betul-betul dark nak nak dengan bumbung tinggi dia sekali ngan cermin-cermin tingkap dia yang berwarna-warni.

one of the highlights inside the dom is the Shrine of the Three Magi, which is entirely in gold. mampus gua tatau. rasa cam dh maleh nak melawan mata-mata mat saleh yang pelik tengok gua masuk cathedral diowang, gua pun blah je.

ni pulak adalah gate tinggalan zaman rom dulu. dalam kawasan gate tu ada macam sisa-sisa taman dia. macam pelik juga lokasi dia sebab kiri kanan bangunan moden tiba-tiba ada pulak tinggalan zaman dulu.

koln juga terkenal dengan gorillanya. eh eh, manader. gorilla kat gambar bawah ni adalah salah satu antara aneka barangan yang dijual di salah sebuah kedai arca yang terdapat di sepanjang shopping district di situ. shopping kat cologne ni memang heaven. barang-barang dia jauh lebih murah daripada belgium. tapi walau macam mana pun, gua tetap takde la shopping sangat sebab asek nak congak darab 5 je tetiap kali tengok harga.

rombongan cik kiah tak sah kalau tak singgah hard rock cafe. agenda wajib ni adalah angkara penghulu rombongan iaitu en. zul yang ingin memenuhi nafsu sekaligus hobi mengumpul t shirt hard rocknya. dan tak semena-mena gua kena peluk ngan maskot babi hutan. adakah aku kena samak gak?

fountain nearby the farina house. the house which is also a museum of one of the oldest cologne in the world. gua rasa dia punya bau lagi wangi daripada cologne 4711.

farina house ni ada jugak museum tapi sorang pun tanak layan tengok museum dia..hahah!
mamat kat atas ni adalah pemain organ yang yang bertugas di town hall bila ada wedding. da da da da daa da da da daa!
roman age pavement leads to Römisch-Germanisches Museum. gua tak masuk pun museum ni sebab dari luar nampak batu-batu zaman rom je. lagipun brad pitt mati dalam citer troy. err..ada kena mengena tak?

Hohenzollern Bridge is one of eight in Cologne to span the Rhine and certainly the most photographed. though it just a train bridge, but it also affords pedestrian traffic and makes a great circuit along with the Deutzer Bridge for an excellent photographic vantage point across the river. it was originally built in the early 1900s however it was not as lucky as the cathedral at escaping enemy bombing during ww2.

berbckgroundkan koln dom..

one of many quote yang terukir kat pavement dari dom ke koln bridge..

ni adalah antara protes yang berlangsung pada hari tu. tapi ni kecik punya protes. mengutuk kekejaman israel terhadap palestine.

ha ni pulak protes menentang penggunaan rfid terhadap manusia. "the big brother is watching you". seronok siut tengok diorang buat protest. dari nenek sampai la ke kanak-kanak kecik. ada open gig dan banyak stall yang bukak jual t shirt anti itu ini, against itu ini tapi satu pun gua tak beli. sebab gua dah abis duit beli t shirt hard rock cafe. huahahahah!!!

mendapat sambutan sungguh protes ni...

apatah dia tulis kat banner tu...yang gua paham stop rfid! je...

benda terakhir yang kami buat selepas pekena kopi secawan kat we will rock you lounge adalah naik cruise menyusuri rhine river.

teater hall we will rock you...
bergambar ngan statue freddy mercury yang bersalut emas...

kat atas cruise...
payung terjun...
pas abis shopping-shopping sket, kami pun balik. akibat berjalan terlalu banyak, kaki gua jadi kerepot macam yg gua tunjuk in previous entry. hehe!

mooi amsterdam!

2008-03-08T04:31:00.000-08:00

this post is about my trip to amsterdam few weeks back. i'm not gonna go through all the details about the trip, too lazy! enjoy the photos!

the ticket conductor is checking passenger's tickets or billets as they call it. the train is quite old but still very tidy. the weather is very good as we passed by the country sides and all the towns in our route. it took us almost few hours of sakit belakang before reaching amsterdam.

the amsterdam centraal station is under renovation process. couldn't get the proper shot of it so just bear with this photo ok?

the first stop was sex museum. this museum opened in 1985 and is home to an extensive collection of erotic pictures, paintings, objects, recordings, and sculptures.

the exhibits include mannequins arranged in titillating tableau, Greek temple devotional items, Japanese carved erotic ivories and antique and modern fetish wear. there is a comprehensive selection of manuscripts and drawings ranging from the Karma Sutra to twentieth-century comics and a vast film and photographic library proffering every sexual predilection and preference.

if you have an open mind, this museum is highly recommended. for fun browsing, why not, its just 3 euro!
this funny bike is more or less like beca at melaka or tuk tuk in thailand except for its modern look. didn't try it so i don't know how much it cost.

amsterdam is also well known for its diamond trading activities. and this is the amsterdam diamond centre located in dam square.

at the dam square you can admire the National Monument, New Church, Royal Palace as well as Madame Tussaud! the photo above is the royal palace.

and here is the building that house madame tussaud. the queue was not very long and we didn't really have to wait long for the lift as well. there is a section explaning about the era of becoming of The Netherlands. the smell of piss in this section sangat memeningkan! there is also a section called scream with real actors. memang scream gile la gua!

furthermore Dutch royalty and politicians as well as famous persons from television or music can be seen.
princess diana? haha!
and jon bon jovi?
with mr gandhi for sure since i've never finish reading his autobiography...

ms monroe and her famous white dress. baru aku perasan, dress dia sangat cantik!

after dam square, we headed to famous anne frank house but the queue was damn longa nd we wouldnt want to waste our time.

the statue of anne frank...

have our meal at a local restaurant. the food superb minus the long waiting though.

with one of the waitress at hard rock cafe after some shopping at the boutique.

a walked through the flower market. they sells lot of season flower seeds. kebanyakan bunga-bunga dia dari jenis bebawang dan berubi.

cannabis for your garden anyone? siap starterkit tu beb!

the big chess set nearby the hard rock. there were people who were playing and we were too noisy to stay there so we walked back to town.

the canals were so beautiful. i regret it we didn't take the canal cruise.

some of the canal bike for rent.

a street lamp inside the begjinhof. the tranquility of the begijnhof still cannot beat the one i visited at brugge though.

the way out of the begijnhof.

you know what it is in the photo above, right? one of the many erotic club in the red light district. to get to the red light district, all you have to do is to wander around Amsterdam until you see a large number of "large" young men (height, weight, and depth) and asked them where is it, hahahah! at least that's what we do when we get lost of direction of this place! no picture taking of the girls is allowed though. the environment of that place were crowded with people 'window' staring. hehe!

and we finished our trip to amsterdam by strolling the street back to centraal station where we found there's malaysian restaurant selling malaysian food there! hahah!

paris part 4

2008-03-02T04:27:00.000-08:00

sementara tunggu code gua compile ni, meh gua sambung citer penamat trip gua ke paris. jadinyaa... we started the day with breakfast of toast and crispy delicious croissant from the hotel. gua suka giler croissant dia tapi roti yang lagi satu tu gua tak layan la beb. keras gile.

lepas abis makan, and the rest of the group pun dah sampai dari hotel mereka yang sangat jauh tu..kami pun bergerak keluar menuju destinasi seterusnya, to climb the famous eiffel tower! semalam dah tengok dari jauh...skang, meh kita naik dia pulak kan?

kami stop kat station yang agak jauh sebab silap perhitungan. tapi takpe, jauh perjalanan...luas pemandangan ye tak? sampai-sampai kat eiffel tu, orang beratur dah panjang jugak la. tapi kaunter tiket dia sangat effisyen. cepat jugak sampai kat turn kami. bayaran nak naik adalah 11.50 euro. tapi kalau takat nak naik sekerat je, murah sikit kut. tapi gua takde la kedekut sangat nak naik sekerat je kan. mana bley naik sekerat-sekerat beb, paris ngan seremban bukan macam seremban ngan nilai 3, boleh datang anytime.
lepas beratur beli tiket, kena beratur nak naik lif pulak. life dia ada 2 tingkat. gua naik yang kat atas sket. lif dia bole tahan laju jugak pastu kena transit untuk naik ke part lagi tinggi. takde apa sgt bley dilihat sebab fogs. tapi boleh tengok guna teropong. haaaa, part-part guna teropong ni gua kedekut sket...

gambar kat atas ni ditangkap di platform paling atas la kat menara eiffel tu. lubang grill dia besar-besar boleh hulur kepala tengok bawah kalau tak gayat. gua tak buat la sebab gua taknak la buat perangai bukan-bukan kat tempat orang. mak gua marah nanti. nampak tak seine river kat belakang tu? biru je air dia kan? cantik!
lepas puas buat perangai orang malaysia kat atas tu, kami pun turun beramai-ramai. buat perangai orang malaysia plak kat bawah. jangan tanya perangai apa. tengok gambar kat bawah ni je dah tau perangai apa.
sampai baring-baring tangkap gambar...hish hish!

so, lepas settle semua benda yang dihajati di eiffel tower, kami pun berjalan pulang ke metro station berhampiran. perut pun dah bergendang meriah, kami ke strasburg untuk makan tengah hari. jangan main main beb, gua belasah kari kambing kat paris. dekat berapa bulan tak makan kari, akhirnya dapat gak makan kari. food portion dia memang banyak, nasi macam nak melimpah-limpah. subaidah kat ayer keroh tu bole kata tertinggal pat lima tiang jugak la kalau nak dibandingkan dengan kedai ni punya portion. zul kata ada bangla basuh pinggan kat kedai ni reti cakap melayu. huhu!

ni salah satu gate yang ada kat sini. taik burung bersepah-sepah. kat sini pun ada orang mintak sedekah. so becareful jugak la kalau orang muka cam middle east, comot-comot sket tanya, "do you speak english?". diowang ni rude gila kadang-kadang.

hari dah agak petang, jadi kami pun cepat-cepat bergerak ke destinasi terakhir kami. museum louvre. museum ni dibukak free every first sunday, so memang kena la dengan hari yang kami pegi ni.
museum ni sangat la besar. kalau nak explore semua section dalam masa sehari, mintak maaf la ye tuan-tuan. lainlah kalau ada kaki yang kuat atau kowang sebenarnya tak la minat sangat nak tengok artifak-artifak atau lukisan dan sculpture yang dipamerkan, tapi nak gak datang. gua sempat pegi few sections je sebab hari dah petang, nak mengejar train lagi nanti. ahh!

antara sculpture yang terkenal yang dipamerkan kat museum ni adalah venus de milo. goddess cinta bak kata orang rom yang dah kudung tangannya. bukan kudung sebab apa, tapi hilang tak dijumpai. kalau datang museum ni, kena buka minda luas-luas sebab almost all sculpture dia memang naked atau tutup sikit-sikit je. pepaham la yek.

hall yang mempamerkan lukisan-lukisan pun sangat la luas. tak terpandang! diowang divided kepada banyak sections. lukisan-lukisan dia sangat halus, macam hidup pun iya. kaler dia sangat soft adunannya. orang? tak boleh nak cakap! ramai macam ulat taik. painting yang dipamerkan, allergik dengan flash camera. kalau tangkap gambar dekat-dekat, ada bunyi alarm. hish! tp camera still boleh bawak tak macam museum kat tempat kita!

bilik yang paling crowded macam ada party adalah bilik yang ada lukisan mona lisa. kecik je painting dia minah tu. tapi orang ramai macam ada magnet pulak kat situ. maybe sebab dia dah dikomersilkan terlampau-lampau sangat. siap letak dalam kaca tu dengan security guard. tak boleh pegi dekat-dekat. ha, ni la bilik yang kurator museum tu mati dalam da vinci code.

museum ni bertingkat-tingkat. sikit-sikit tangga, sikit-sikit tangga. lepas tu panas gile. mungkin sebab orang terlalu ramai. temporary exhibition pun banyak. oh ye, dalam masa beberapa tahun lagi, akan ada satu ruang khas yang akan mempamerkan kesenian islam. best kan?

jadinya....lepas semua orang puas bergambar, menjelajahi mana-mana section yang sempat. kitowang pun beramai-ramai pulang.

sampai kat station gare du nord, platform train tatau lagi lagi sebab takde pun terpapar kat board hitam belakang tu, so kena tunggu jugak.

penamat trip ke paris adalah bila aku dengan selesanya dapat duduk kat seat dalam ketapi. hilang semua penat (tipu!). sempat pegi thalys bar lagi kat dalam tu. abis da citer pariss.. :D

paris part 3

2008-03-01T04:22:00.000-08:00

so now, as promised i am going to write about my night experience in paris. to be honest, my night experience while i'm in belgium is very limited. most of the time, my night is spend in my studio, watching tv if not going out to have dinner with my colleagues once in a while. not that i meant that i have a wonderful night life back in malaysia.

when i am still a student, my typical night out usually meant hanging out at mamak having glass of teh tarik and hours of chit chatting with some close friends. if i have some money, i will go out for movie or roaming around jonker walk or any night market and hunting for food with some friends at some familiar places (that has passed certain criterias: the price must be reasonable, the portion must be generous and the taste must be good).

see, i am such a food hunter all the time. however, i can say that i have totally no night life in seremban since i am not keen to go out at night when i'm in seremban (apa je yang ada beb?). and when i was in kl, my night experience is totally depend on whom i was hanging out with. but most of the time, since i am not the type who goes clubbing so they were spent with dining out with some people or went to movie. you see, i have small crowd of people whom i can spent the time talking non stop and this people knew who they are. haha! apa yang aku da melalut ni?

ok lets get back to my paris night. after checking in to our hotel, we took sometimes to get ourselves back on the feet. penat wooo...tapi apapun pengembaraan mesti diteruskan. the initial plan was made by zul and eventhough there were voices heard of not participating, we're on our feet as a huge group again. oh yeah, the thing about going out after checking in is you need to return your room key to the front desk and get it back when you return to the hotel. i wonder if its some kind of rule for any hotel in europe but thats they way it was with ours.

first destination that night, hard rock cafe paris. ok ok, i know some of you are probably giving me 'that' look now and furthermore, i never been to hrc kl, owkay. but then, i think its pretty good plan too since it received support from the whole group where almost everyone ended up buying something at the rockshop. i bought two tees and received a complimentary gift from hrc, guitar shape tomato squeezer or something? i dont give a damn and it looks hideous too. no, we didnt dined in there since we still need to catch metro to see eiffel at night! eiffel at midnight to be exact. im not sure what is the name of the metro station that we stopped at since it was mike and zul who navigated our way. but its not really far actually from a good spot where you can get a good view of eiffel from the other side of siene. the tower was brightly lit up with maybe thousands of light from every corner of tower. it was such a breathtaking view and suddenly my heart pounded with disbelief. funny, but i really pinched myself since i couldn't believe my eyes that i was standing in front of the tall tower that i previously could only see in postcards, magazines or tv. it just so beautiful and inviting and i hardly could take my eyes off of it.

we spent sometimes by the river bank to snap more photos of the tower. and all of sudden, the thing that i wish never happened, is happening. my camera (borrowed from azhan, actually) was running out of battery and how dumb i am, i didnt bring the battery charger with me to paris. that mean, if i ran out of battery now, i would also have no photos tomorrow. i knew i'm in a deep s**t (need to sensor some curses since i think mom and dad is also reading my blog now, :P) dan terpaksa la berjimat-jimat. so i am so sorry for the lack of photo's quality. night photos consumed a lot of battery energy for the flash light. gosh! turned out every face in my night photos bermisai-misai!

after satisfied, we walked along the avenue to trocadero, a wide esplanade between the palais de chaillot and eiffel complete with a beautiful fountains. the stairs to the front terrace of the palais were really one of the challenges to my feet. we sat around the terrace for the remainder of the night watching the lights sparkle at midnight from the eiffel. i read somewhere that it took rock climbers 2 months to install thousands of leds on the outside of the eiffel tower and every hour during the night they are set off randomly. i also learnt that the tower shrinks up to 12cm every winter when the rivettes contract.

the atmosphere was pretty happening up there at the terrace. young people were hanging out with their crowds, couples kissing everywhere (perhaps it made the kiss special to them since its in front of the eiffe, for bottle sake) and there are street vendor trying to sell souvenirs at a very low price and we can even bargain. i've learnt the trick of bargaining that night and ended up buying eiffel miniature at a price that i am so satisfied with.

at midnight, the light from eiffel went blinking beautifully and after the show, we walked back to the nearest metro station to head back to our hotel. there were series of funny incidents happened on the metro. first was when the metro didnt stop at the station we want and 5 of us (jess, brenda, zul, marwan and me) trapped inside the train while mike, mat and azli has already got out at the next station. its because the door stucked and the train has started moving. there were hell lot of running around to catch the next metro back to the station where mike and the rest were waiting for us. and more running to catch the metro that head to the station we want to go. i felt like if i ran more that night, i could break my legs and start walking with my hands. to make it worst, after we hopped in the right metro there were no empty seats available.

still out breath, in front of us there were bunch of drunkened youths in the middle of train making noise. we're making assumption that they were too drunk and got kicked out of any disco. :P at first its pretty annoying but then it started to feel funny. and we started to move our body to the song that the drunkened guy sang. it was eddy murphy's party all the time. seeing our response, the group start to sing even louder and performed some acrobatic stuff on the train. haha!

and guess what happened next? we counterback the group, we sang rasa sayang to them. its damn hillarious and i felt like the whole train is roaring with our voice singing rasa sayang! we were granted with a huge applaused from them right after we finished the song. it felt so good! and they jumped out of the train at the next station and we still couldnt stop laughing like we're on sugar high. perhaps too much running?

we called it a night when we reached our hotel at almost 1 am. i am sharing room with mat and we have this spacious room up on the 6th floor with lot of beds! two single beds and one queen sized. we throw our stuffs on the single beds and tuck ourself into the comfy queen bed. its too cold to sleep alone, heh! the goal has been set for the next day, we need to get up as early as we can to queue for the line to get on the eiffel!

paris part 2

2008-03-01T04:03:00.000-08:00

destinasi pertama kami di kota paris ni adalah roundabout yang terbesar di dunia di mana terletaknya arc de triomphe. panik gua tengok kereta berpusu-pusu tak berhenti kat roundabout tu. roundabout ni adalah titik temu 12 jalan utama di area tu dan salah satu daripadanya adalah champs-elysees. seeing the non-stop flood of vehicles, i dont think even a madman have the slightest of idea how to cross the road without using the tunnel.

gua suka gambar ni..awan dan langit sangat cantik..cuaca memang baik haritu cuma ada sikit windy la..

and as i said, the only sane way to reach the base of the arc is by using underground tunnel from champs-elysees. dekat atas arc ni, ada platform yang kita boleh tengok view sekitar tempat tu. gua tak naik sebab gua rasa tak berapa berbaloi sangat. mahal pun iya jugak. tapi nak dijadikan cerita, tengah-tengah kitowang seronok tiba-tiba terperasan 2 ahli rombongan dah ilang. perasan time kitowang dah chow dari arc tu ke champs-elysees pulak tu. rupa-rupanya, en lee ngan marwan dah lepas naik atas arch de triomphe tu. hehe!

lepas arc de triomphe, kami menyusur pulak jalan yang sangat famous di dunia, champs-elysees. rent kat sini dikatakan yang kedua termahal didunia. butik-butik berjenama popular berlambak-lambak la kat sini. sebut la apa nak, dior, chanel, lv, ysl, lancome tapi kedai yang gua sempat singgah bersama rakan-rakan hanyalah disney shop sebagai pengubat tak dapat pegi disneyland. jangan tanya gua beli apa. lepas tu masuk pula ke butik mercedes. mau bangkrap aku sepanjang weekend ni kalau beli apa-apa kat situ.

dekat champs-elysees ni punya la ramai umat manusia...mebbe sebab hari sabtu, semua orang keluar jalan-jalan dan shopping sebab ahad kedai tutup. beza betul ngan malaysia, hari sabtu ahad la hari yang shopping mall penuh melaut ngan manusia ye tak?

dari champs-elysees tu, kitowang masuk ke winston churchill avenue. kat situ ada petite palais (istana kecik) ngan grand palais (istana besar). tempat ni bukan istana okeh, tetapi digunakan untuk art exhibition dan sebagainya. these buildings, as well as the nearby bridge Pont Alexandre III, were built for the World Fair in Paris in 1900.

gambar kat atas ni adalah bumbung petite palais. senibina bangunan ni adalah daripada style art nouvoue. jangan tanya gua apa benda tu, sebab tu la yang ditulis dek pamphlet ni. dan gambar bawah ni pulak adalah salah satu statue yang ada kat atas bumbung grand palais. bumbung grand palais ni dibuat dari kaca. gaknye kat dalam tu see through la. bley nampak bulan bila malam ek? motiffff...

dekat jalan ni jugak, ada statue general charles de gaulle. general perancis yang mengetuai penentangan terhadap nazi di paris. dan kat hujung jalan ni pulak ada statue winston churchill dengan his famous quote, we shall never surrender.

lepas seronok dapat tangkap gamba statue winston churchill tu, kami meneruskan perjalanan ke arah Pont Alexandre III. jambatan yang tercantik di paris ni pun berseni bina art nouveou. ia siap dibina pada tahun 1900 dan dinamakan sempena nama tsar rusia ketika itu.

next destination is place de la concorde. tempat ni bukan tempat buat kapal terbang concorde tu atau tempat lahir founder hotel concorde, tapi ada sejarahnya sendiri. kat sinila marie antoinette dihukum bunuh dengan gillotin bersama suaminya. tetiba teringat kirstin dunst. let them eat cake!
the main monument that is in this square is the Obélisque. this is one of two obelisks which originally stood in the temple of Luxor next to two huge seated statues of the pharaoh Ramses the Second (the ruler of Egypt from 1279 to 1212 BC). carved on the obelisk are hieroglyphics which describe the achievements of the pharaoh. monumen ni dah ada kat Place de la Concorde ni sejak 1836, sebagai hadiah dari mesir kepada perancis. kat sini pun roundabout dia punya la besar. eh, ke bukan roundabout? ah peduli le...

dari place de la concorde ni jugak, kita bole nampak arc de triomphe dari jauh. memang cantik view dia. selain dari obelisks, kat sini ada fountain yang cantik yang mana inspired by the fountains in Piazza San Pietro dekat Rome sana.

tak jauh dari place de la concorde ni jugak, resides one of the top attractions in paris..la magdalenae.church ni asalnya dibina atas arahan napoleon sebagai monumen untuk his grand armee and himself. it looks more than a greek temple than a catholic church. the style of the church is in fact of a Greek temple, with its bronze doors and huge corinthian columns. but it is nevertheless a church and also a venue for classical musical concerts.

it feels so good resting on the staircase watching the cars passing by the busy road while stretching our tired feet. straight ahead is de la concorde and a good view of rue royale while eating crispy carrefour's biscuits brought by en lee.

the sun is still shining but its still so cold when we're on our feet again. this time, our destination is to see the famous notre dame, an example of one of the finest gothic style building. i didnt go inside the church but taking my time wandering around the place with the camera. on the pavement by the west door of Notre-Dame is a spot known as kilometre zero where all of the main road distances in France are calculated.

some archeology museum nearby notre dame...

one of the most interesting things about this place other than the church itself is its where you can catch roller-skaters displaying their skills while at the background a bunch of baskers playing some classical tunes. i think its quite far from norm where we usually watch the extreme sport accompanied with some rock tunes but here, its cello and violin, dude! and if you feel like shopping for souvenirs, there are a lot of stalls near the riverbank that sells a lot of stuff.

the famous two towers of notre dame and in the photo below is the famous seine which divided paris into two...
"On September 3rd 1973, at 6:28pm and 32 seconds, a bluebottle fly capable of 14,670 wing beats a minute landed on Rue St Vincent, Montmartre."

remember the quote from amelie? its one of my favorite movie and our next aim is to catch the sunset on the top of montmarte where sacre cour, the most beautiful church (i think) in paris located. a little background about this church begin when two catholic businessmen (who must have been loaded) made a pledge to build a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Christ (Sacre Coeur means Sacred Heart), should France be saved from the Prussian war. the basilica took over 40 years to build, the foundations are deeper than those of the Egyptian pyramids! i just love the Byzantine architecture of this building. its seems like a perfect building built on a perfect place. right at its place.
as we were walking up Montmartre, we could hear so many different languages spoken, vendors standing outside of their stores promising something different from the vendor next door, smells wafting out of the many side street cafes that line the area, and artists painting the beautiful Parisian scenery. the walk itself up to the basillica is pretty long, but you see so much along the way. however, if you are too tired, there is a furnicular you can take.
and remember the carousel in the film? its still there and well lighted at night! however, beware of street vendors who sells bracelets made of thread. once you give your hands to them, you will never get away without buying it. whatever it is, i still love this place so much.
on top of the hill nearing the sacre cour, you can enjoy the music from street musician. it made the atmosphere felt so alive and with the good view from the hill top, it made your climb worthy. no joke.
its just so sad to leave this place but the journey need to be continued. and we lost marwan again and only after we have some shopping spree at one of the shop there, he was found somewhere in a good condition (thank God! hehe!). another good thing about this place is you can bargain when you shopping!!!lucky us, we have our bargain goddess with us! hehe!

after had our dinner at one of the kfc (guess what, kfc in paris and amsterdam is halal!) we get back to our hotel and this blog will be continued on how do we spend our saturday night in paris...

paris part 1

2008-03-01T03:44:00.000-08:00

sebelum ni, gua tak pernah pun terfikir untuk merantau sejauh ni. kalau ada pun, angan-angan kosong je le. ingat, my dream vacation hanyalah vietnam dan negara-negara di sekitarnya. time gua dapat job offer ni pun, gua tak berapa mengharap sangat untuk dihantar ke sini. sebabnya, banyak je multinational software company yang ada kat malaysia tu tapi jarang-jarang pulak mereka nak hantar new employee mereka training di hq. tapi apa pun gua bersyukur. gaji gua mungkin tak semasyuk kawan-kawan yang lain tapi gua rasa kalau orang yang style macam gua ni (asek nak makaaaaan sedaaap je), gaji banyak mana pun belum tentu gua dapat save untuk pegi europe. kalau sambung belajar tu lain cerita la kan? tapi cerita sambung belajar kita tolak tepi dulu. yang penting, gua da sampai sini tanpa perlu kumpul duit 10 tahun. :P

macam yang kowang da dapat hidu, gua da sampai paris (akhirnya...). macam mimpi.. pukul 7 am, colleagues gua da tekan door bell suruh turun cepat-cepat sebab kami nak catch train yang paling awal. cuaca pagi tu windy tapi langit takde pulak menunjukkan sebarang tanda nak hujan. perut lapar gile sebab tak breakfast. cafe apapun tak bukak lagi.

sampai dekat brussels midi, kawan-kawan brussels tak sampai lagi. lepas beli air ngan roti kat panos, kami gerak ke thalys information counter sebab nak inquire ticket price for the next trip (jeng!jeng! jeng!). orang dekat counter tu suruh tanya orang dekat travel centre pulak. kat sana kena amik nombor. tak tunggu lama pun, tapi bila sampai kat kaunter dia kata kami da silap tempat untuk tanya. dia soh pegi kaunter information belah hujung. sib baik tak payah amik nombor. tanya punya tanya, ada la dua seat untuk smileys price. maksudnya, murah sangat la berbanding normal price. maknanya oleh kerana sbb ada 2 seat je yang tinggal, the rest kena bayar normal price untuk bawah 26 jugak le.

kami pun pegi balik ke kaunter tadi sebab nak grab tiket smileys tu sebelum terlambat. sampai kat kaunter, minah jual tiket tu plak gaknye lemah betul englishnya. orang kata nak tanya berapa banyak smiley tiket yg ada dia tanya berapa tiket kitowang nak. kitowang tanya berapa tiket smiley yang ada, dia tanya kitowang nak beli tiket berapa banyak. tak paham-paham. alih-alih nak marah-marah kitowang pulak. last-last satu tiket pun tak beli sebab kitowang decide nak beli kat leuven je nanti. oleh sebab hati dah terbakar, kami pun blah cepat-cepat dari travel centre tu. suwey betul, pagi-pagi dah kena marah.

lepas kawan-kawan brussels sampai, kami pun gerak naik ke platform untuk tunggu train. oh ya, ahli rombongan ke paris ni terdiri daripada, en zul selaku ketua rombongan merangkap pembaca peta, en lee selaku ajk security, en mike selaku pembaca map metro, en marwan selaku pembawa bekal nasik, mat, jess, brenda dan gua. time naik ke platform, train dah sampai tapi ada sket delay. yang bestnya, bila tanya kat keje ketapi tu, dia boleh selamba je cakap french ngan kitowang. ternganga dengar. rupa-rupanya, ada part of the coachs yang tak sampai lagi dari amsterdam. ketapi yang kitowang naik thalys namanya and with this train, kita bley sampai paris dlm masa sejam lebih sikiiiit je sebab memang laju.

ada sekali gua sampai terhantuk kat tingkap sebab terkejut time dia selisih ngan ketapi laju yang lain. view sepanjang perjalanan takde apa sangat nak diceritakan sebab lalu kat countryside, ada meadow yang menghijau, pastu kat satu tempat tu gua ada nampak windfarm. busan tak busan, sib baik ada mp4 ija bole jugak gua layan rilo kiley sambil melayan perasaan excited.

sampai kat gare du nord station dalam pukul 10 lebih. perkara pertama gua buat bila sampai mesti la amik gambar ngan kepala ketapi thalys ni kan. hehe! hati memang excited. senyum je pagi-pagi tu.ni adalah station gare du nord tu. op op, bukan yang dalam citer amelie ok?

ni pulak adalah basikal untuk disewa. ada berani?

kami bergerak dari gare du nord untuk mencari hotel penginapan kami yang telah dibook. punya la payah nak mencari. nak-nak bangunan dia semua sama je. hotel yang gua tinggal tu nama dia de paris. hotel budget je. yang jadi frontman, wanita kulit hitam yang tersangat la kerek takmau cakap english. oleh kerana time untuk check in lewat lagi, kitowang letak beg dulu dan pegi cari hotel untuk dak-dak laki plak. nama hotel tu altona.

lepas sesat barat, maka sampai le kami ke hotel tu. dekat pintu dah tergantung sign no vacancy. tapi sebab kitowang dah book, dengan konfidennya kitowang pegi kat frontman cakap nak check in. muka dia punya terkejut. episod tragis kisah hotel pun bermula. katanya, travel agency yang uruskan booking hotel kitowang tu tak forwardkan dekat dia booking kami. lepas en lee kautim apa tah ngan mamat frontdesk tu, dia pun tukarkan hotel budak-budak ni ke hotel lain. hotel baru ni jauh sket dari hotel kitowang. tempatnya macam style lorong haji taib pun ada.

hotel ni star dia macam nak taknak je ada. aku tak tengok le keadaan bilik tapi dengar citer diowang, tangga nak naik atas tu bole tahan berdebar le. memang tragis. untuk mengelakkan berlakunya perkara yg sama kat hotel dak-dak pompuan, kami terus gerak balik ke hotel de paris. minah kulit hitam tu still lagi kat front desk.

she refused to speak english and we refused to leave until we got the confirmation. maunye tak, sapa nak tido tepi jalan malam kang beb! time tunggu tu, kitowang siap boleh makan nasik yang dibawa oleh gang brussels. bawak bekal nasik tu poit pegi paris. perut pulak tengah lapar, habis licin semua. lepas makan, kitowang memang tak boleh tunggu dah. check in tak check in we gamble our luck and hit the road again.

untuk mengeksplore bandar paris ni, adalah crucial untuk kami membeli tiket metro. metro ni macam lrt la. cumanya, metro kat paris ni memang berselirat. kalau duduk paris gua rasa tak payah risau-risau nak beli kereta. memang efficient gile public transportation dia. pass untuk 2 hari berharga 11.20 euro. tiket dia tu alahai...kecik gile. gua ni dah la pelalai, main sumbat masuk poket je.
dengan terbelinya tiket metro ni...maka, bermulalah pengembaraan 8 enthusiastic travellers from malaysia yang dah kenyang makan nasik...di paris!

ghent part 2

2008-02-23T03:30:00.000-08:00

okeh, gua nak sambung citer pasal ghent. seperti mana yang gua da cerita dalam post yang lepas, sebelum sampai ke gravensteen, kitowang menyusur tebing canal dan lorong sempit di patershol. tempat ni tak la scenic gile macam brugge tapi pada aku aku suka.
kat tepi tebing canal ni ada banyak orang lepak-lepak. ada street artist main muzik. ada 3 orang tourists dari malaysia tengah tersengih...macam-macam!
haa... yang kat belakang jessica tu adalah fish market. kalu perati betul-betul, statue yang kat atas bangunan tu adalah neptune, the king of sea. dua lagi status kat belah kiri ngan kanan tu menggambarkan 2 batang sungai yang mengalir di ghent, the Scheldt river and the Leie river.tempat tu tutup sebab dalam proses pemuliharaan so kitowang dapat tengok luar je.

haaa...ni la gravensteen yang gua war-warkan tu.. maksud gua, bangunan blakang gua ngan jessica. gua dah cerita kan pasal gravensteen dalam previous post? so enjoy the photo dulu ok?
ada macam dalam dungeon and dragon tak?
bila nampak baju besi ni gua teringat cerita enyd blyton, siri 5 sekawan yang da ditranslate ke dalam bahasa melayu. tajuk dia misteri menara penunggu. hehe!
tengok la pedang dia...sama tinggi dengan si brenda! eh, lagi tinggi pedang dari brenda!
ni kat puncak dia...gaknye dulu dulu tempat diowang practice main sword ke ha?ni pulak one of the manequin yang menggambarkan salah satu hukuman di zaman medieval dulu. aku rasa askar jepun ada wat benda yang sama kat tanah melayu dulu.
ni pulak gambar kitowang tengah posing atas tembok kat garden gravensteen ni.
okay, lepas gravensteen tu kami menyusur balik the previous path we took and when it comes to a junction, gua nampak papan tanda yang menunjukkan ada begijngof kat area tu. terus gua teringat begijnhof yang ada kat brugge. cari punya cari, tak jumpa so kami pun decided untuk balik. sayang betul rasanya sebab bejinhof kat sini pun antara begijnhof yang diprotect oleh unesco dan of course la scenerynya sangat cantik.
jalan nak balik ni agak jauh sebab ni first time masing-masing datang ghent. and the only guide yang ada adalah the outdated lonely planet book as well as self instinct. tanya-tanya orang, last-last sampai jugak ke st micheal bridge.
paused sekejap atas jambatan for another snappo session! x boleh nampak langsung ruang untuk tangkap gambar..ada je masing-masing nak menyengih!

after reaching the town center, we just followed our previous trail to make things less complicated and reached the station before the next train to leuven. just in time! naik-naik kat dalam train tu, takde pulak seat yang kosong. kaki da macam nak patah time tu. kalau suruh duduk atas lantai pun ada yang sanggup gamaknya.

kami pun jalan dari satu coach ke coach yang lain. dan terjumpa la satu gerabak yang ada plenty of seat. gerabak 1st class. haha! tiket yang kami beli ni hanyalah untuk 2nd class tapi masing masing wat kering je duduk. takde apa yang beza sangat cuma untuk 1st class ada disediakan drinks and maybe some snacks. seat dia pulak lebih comfy, wider dan ada hand rest kat tengah-tengah.

tak lama pastu, tukang check tiket pun datang. dia macam tau-tau je kitowang takde tiket 1st class, terus je dia wat announcement sapa takde tiket 1st class sila-sila angkat bontot dari gerabak 1st class dalam masa 2 minit kalau tak extra charge akan dikenakan. apa lagi...berkeneneng le masing-masing angkat beg. hehe!

kawan-kawan brussels stop kat midi while the rest of us meneruskan perjalanan ke leuven...

ghent part 1

2008-02-23T03:21:00.000-08:00

adik gua bising, dia bosan tengok gua pakai jaket coklat gua dalam tiap-tiap gambar. gua buat tak tau je. sebab gua bukan orang yang suka bergaya jadi kebosanan adik gua tu tak jadi kudis pun yang gua nak risau-risau. :P

so sabtu lepas akhirnya gua dapat jugak ke ghent. and the best thing is, the trip is however not just consisted of two crazy travelers with outdated lonely planet book (like previous trips) but joined with some more friends of us! gambar kat atas ni adalah ladies in the group.

gua gerak dari leuven dengan 2 orang colleague gua yang lain, jess and brenda dalam pukul 8.30 gitu. train datang awal so after grabbed some brood from the nearby panos, we just jumped into the train. it took us almost 20 minutes to reach brussels. oh, kami kena pegi brussels dulu untuk collect our precious train tickets as well as the hotel vouchers for our up coming trip. excited gile gua bila dapat pegang bebenda tu sampai apapun orang travel agency tu cakap gua dengar tak dengar je. mana taknye beb, tempat tu memang gua nak pegi dari gua kecik-kecik dulu (tanpa influence eiffel i'm in love okeh?). and my dream almost come true.

so berbalik pada citer ghent ni. kos untuk train ticket dari brussels ke ghent adalah 8.40 euro pegi balik. masa perjalanan almost 45 minutes tapi rasa kejap je. route ketapi ke ghent ni almost the same as the route to brugge cuma brugge jauh lagi la... nama train station dia sint pieters. kalau tengok cari luar train station dia ni lawa la jugak tapi kat dalam dia banyak sangat refurbishment sampai tatau mana depan mana blakang. sori gambar tak terang sangat..baru art beb! :P

menurut statistik, ghent ni adalah bandar ketiga terpadat di belgium ni. and according to wikipedia, until the 13th century Ghent was the biggest city in Europe after Paris; it was bigger than London, Cologne or Moscow.[citation needed] Within the city walls lived up to 65,000 people. Today, the belfry and the towers of the Saint Bavo Cathedral and Saint Nicholas' Church are just a few examples of the skyline of the period. yeap, i am convinced. cuma masalahnya adalah town center ghent ni almost 2.5km from the train station. memang menggigil kaki berjalan jauh gile. actually ada tram ngan bus kalau nak mudah, tapi the experience is different if we go sightseeing by foot kan? so by foot we off.

kalau pegi kat brugge, along the way nak ke town centre tu kita akan nampak bangunan cantik-cantik je tapi berbeza plak ngan ghent ni. bangunan awal-awal tu biasa-biasa je. mungkin sebab tu ada colleague aku kata dia prefer ghent sebab town dia lebih real instead of brugge yang kita akan rasa macam berjalan dalam muzium. temperature hari tu boleh kata ok la tak sejuk tak panas. boleh berpeluh-peluh jugak la kan. mana taknye, 2.4km beb! sib baik ada fanta free. fanta yang aku suka pulak tu! best best.
da nak dekat sampai kat area korenmarkt tu aku dah nampak satu building yang cantik. rupa-rupanya, tu la the famous saint nicholas church. church ni penah terbakar dalam tahun 1120 ngan 1176 tapi dek sebab orang ghent ni sangat kaya, mereka boleh bina semula church yang lebih besar dan lebih cantik untuk menggantikan church mereka yang terbakar tu. menurut ghent official website, the style of Saint Nicholas is the so-called 'Scheldt Gothic Style'. it differs from the later Brabantine Gothic Style because of the use of the blue-gray stone from the Tournai area. benda pertama kami buat bila sampai kat town center adalah membelasah mc d. lapar gile walaupun aku da belasah chocolade muffin kat stockel. perut perlu diisi beb sebelum perjalanan diteruskan.kat belakang mc d ni, ada jambatang yang terkenal di ghent, Saint Michael's bridge. kat tepi belah kiri jambatan ni ada St.Michael's church yang medieval sungguh architecturenya. batunya kasar-kasar, besar-besar pulak tu. dari atas jambatan ni, pemandangan 3 bangunan besar yang menjadi landmark utama bandar ghent ni menjadi lebih klasik la. macam zaman dolu-dolu except for the tram's cables. spectacular sangat!

pemandangan dari bawah saint micheal's bridge...kat tepi-tepi tu ada exhibition dan orang lepak-lepak.
dalam kepala otak aku tertanya-tanya gak, kenapa ada church yang dekat-dekat antara satu sama lain. sebab kat atas sikit je tadi ada saint nicholas pastu kat bawah jambatan tu ada saint micheal pulak.. nanti esok aku tanya bos aku.

berbalik pada walking tour kami tadi, bawah saint micheal bridge ni terletaknya graslei dan koornlei. graslei means 'street of the herbs and vegetables'. koornlei stands for 'street of the wheat'. both names indicate that these specific products where traded or stocked in that area. kat tepi-tepi canal ni ada cafe-cafe open air. tapi takde pulak sesapa ajak menyinggah. hehe! kalau tak mau je gua pekena hot chocolade secawe.

destinasi seterusnya adalah berjalan-jalan di sekitar patershol. in the middle-ages the patershol was the town-quarter of the trades and handicrafts. so bole tengok la museum of design kat situ, ada view yang mengadap canal dan kat seberang canal tu ada the old meat house. zaman dolu-dolu, butcher kat ghent ni jual hasil ternakan diowang kat situ le kutnya. tapi skang patershol ni d jadi macam mapley da..banyak eateries je kat situ.

kuar je dari lorong sempit patrehol ni..pusing kanan sket, da nampak gravensteen atau castle of the count. castle ni adalah satu-satunya yang survive sebab kebanyakan castle akan dimusnahkan bila counts depa pindah dari satu bandar ke satu bandar. nak masuk kena bayar 6.20 euro tapi sesapa bawah 26 bole dapat masuk dengan hanya 1.20 euro.

kebanyakan tempat dan facilities yang aku penah pegi atau guna memang memberi keistimewaan pada those who are 26 and below. dont ask me why tapi pada pandangan aku mungkin sebab kebanyakan tourists atau backpackers adalah youth jadi memang patutla keistimewaan tu diberi kepada kami.

yay! berbalik pada gravensteen ni, kat dalam tu ada macam-macam benda yang boleh ditengok. daripada senjata-senjata zaman dulu-dulu termasuk la baju besi, pedang-pedang, busur panah... dan tetiba gua terasa dalam citer dungeon and dragon pulak. especially bila tengok budak-budak skolah yang gaknye ada field trip ke gravensteen siap dengan baju askar zaman medieval dulu. pastu ada museum yang mempamerkan alat-alat torture zaman medieval dan stuff related to prison life zaman tu. ngeri wa cakap lu sebijik cam pameran tortura yang gua pegi kat shah alam dulu. siap ngan gilotin skali!

brussels: louise, egmont park, place de sablon..

2008-02-16T03:03:00.000-08:00

ni gambar last saturday...disebabkan gua lambat bangun (again? gosh!), lambat sampai brussel, lambat selesaikan urusan book tiket untuk future trip (ngeh! ngeh! ngeh!)...so plan ke ghent terpaksa ditunda sebaliknya kami amik metro ke louise, another part of brussels.

teke ni statue sapa? a boy who never want to grow up...the tale that i like more than enyd blyton's bedtime stories..haha! we stumbled upon this park while walking along one deserted road that we don't really familiar and it was called egmont park since it is so near to palace de egmont. the park was nice with tall trees parading along the way and there were not many people since the weather was a bit cold that day.

so back to louise ni, member gua kata ala2 bukit bintang la...sebab butik2 terkemuka bersepah2 kat sini. tapi bukan la nak kata apa, butik lv kat bukit bintang pun lagi lawa dr yang kat sini. tak caya tengok gambar kat atas tu.

dari louis, kami jalan ke palais de justice yang tengah dalam proses pemuliharaan. memang bapak besar bangunan tu. menurut buku hikmat gua ni, senibina bangunan ni adalah berdasarkan ancient egyptian's temple. i can imagine that. bangunan ni atas bukit dan kat nearby the building ada macam platform for sightseeing ngan ada 2 lif purposely for people under the hill to come up the hill and vice versa.

kat bawah bukit ni adalah rue haute, street yang ada macam-macam kedai jual barang-barang antik, art gallery dan segala maknika bric-a-brac yang lain. naik atas sket dekat area sablon, ada satu park kecik yang ada fountain. park ni dikelilingi 48 small statues which depicting the medival guilds. nama park ni place du petit sablon. nice sangat.

sampai je kat museum of fine art, tempat tu da nak tutup. xde rejeki. lagipun museum tu besar gile, mebbe tak cukup masa kut kalau nak spent 2,3 jam kat dalam tu sebab dia pecah into 2 section. satu untuk ancient art, satu lagi untuk modern art. kat sekitar tu ada 2,3 museum lagi selain royal palace dengan satu park yang sangat nice nampak dr jauh tapi x sempat nak pegi. apa apa je la...yang penting, hari tu temperature jatuh 0 degrees. gile sejuk... dan gua plak x sabar2 nak balik umah!

antwerp part 2

2008-02-09T02:59:00.000-08:00

ok...ni antara gambar-gambar gua time gi antwerp. anak omputeh kat bawah ni tah camne nak pulak dia dok sekali ngan gua time kat grote market. comel tak kami? :P kat batu belakang tu ada brabo fountain yang dibina pada tahun 1887 sempena nama seorang roman warrior yang menjadi penyumbang nama antwerp ni. menurut legend tu, mamat brabo ni berjaya membunuh giant yang dok asek pau any shipmaster yang nak lalu kat sungai scheldt. lepas dia bunuh giant tu dia pegi potong lak tangan giant tu dan campak dalam sungai. aksi campak tangan (hand werpern) ni la mencetuskan nama antwerp.

yang ni pulak statues kat salah sebuah church yang terkenal kat town antwerp ni, onze lieve vrowkathedraal. church ni adalah church yang mempunyai senibina gothic yang tercantik dan terbesar di belgium. budak-budak gothic yang selalu melepak kat times square tu sila melawat belgium baru boleh jadi budak gothic, ok? church ni mengam bil masa almost 169 tahun untuk disiapkan. siyes cool gile architecture dia. berbalik pada gambar ni, yang pegang bunga tu bukan one of the statues ok, tapi street artist yang akan nyanyi bila kowang campak duit dalam bekas kat depan dia tu. bila dia nyanyi kat gua, terus gua high kejap. bukan senang nak ada orang nyanyi-nyanyi kat gua.

yang ni plak gambar gua tengah interview kakak yang dok asek bagi pigeons tu makan roti. jinak-jinak belaka. member gua bila campak roti sebuku, berebut-rebut dia datang.

ni salah sebuah tembok yang penuh ngan grafitti. ni sebenarnya tak termasuk dalam walking tour yang ada dalam buku hikmat gua tapi terjumpa lepas merayau-rayau takde tujuan kat lorong;-lorong situ. yang mamat pakai baju itam tu bukan orang belgium, okeh. kajang mari.

haaaa, ni la sungai yang gua cakap tu. yang macam castle tu restoran. kat tepi sungai ni ramai gile orang dok lepak-lepak sebab hari tu matahari bersinar dengan amat terang sekali.

kat bawah ni gambar nelayan yang sedang melabuhkan sauh kapalnya di tengah-tengah kota antwerp. tatau la apa nak jadi budak-budak zaman skang.

haaa...ni la the famous belgian tapestry. ada sesapa nak order? gua memang takkan beli le sebab tak sesuai langsung ngan jiwa gua. gua tau, mak gua pun tak minat bebenda camni. eh ye ke? ke mama nak along beli ma? nak nak?

tengah-tengah jalan kat meirs tu tetiba nampak tangan gergasi. bole tak perasan jadi thumbelina kejap? ok ok tak... :P

ni on the way nak ke town center dari train station. siyes ramai gila manusia kat sini. macam ada pesta.

amacam? ada bakat jadi jadi pengakap tua? gua dari tatau baca map skang da pandai baca map da poit.

ni la entrance stesyen ketapi kat antwerp tu. gah kan? kat dalam dia macam biasa-biasa je tapi bertingkat-tingkat. floor paling atas untuk thalys train tapi yang kat bawah-bawah tu train biasa je kut? gua pun kurang periksa.

antwerp part 1

2008-02-09T02:51:00.000-08:00

this trip to antwerp was the first trip yang mana gua menggunakan buku lonely planet belgium and luxemburg yang da agak outdated. plan awalnya nak pegi ramai-ramai tapi bila dah last minute, masing-masing ada hal sendiri dan takkan gua nak bazirkan weekend gua dengan dok rumah, tengok tv atau membuta, kan? so, gua came out ngan plan gua sendiri untuk ke antwerp. sib baik gua ada member yang pun taknak weekendnya dibazirkan dengan aktiviti merenung siling apartment baru dia.

cam biasa, sabtu tu gua bangun agak lambat (habit dari malaysia yang liat nak dibuang).lepas breakfast ala kadar, gua gerak pegi train station. ada la dalam 15 minit jalan kaki..sib baik sejuk kalau tak mau berpeluh gak ketiak. yang best kat sini, tiket dia valid untuk dua hari kalau kita mintak tiket untuk return trip and weekend tiket dia murah berbanding tiket hari biasa. ke komuter pun gitu? kena cekidut juga balik mesia ni. dlm train, gua duduk sebelah makcik ni. dia pun nak ke brussel. actually kalau nak ke antwerp ada je train straight dari leuven tapi sebab member gua ni pun tak pnah ke antwerp adalah lebih mujarab kalau gua ke brussels pastu figure out camne nak ke antwerp dr sana.

dalam train, gua dapat sms dari member gua ni kata station brussel central tutup sejam sebab ada bomb alert..dan-dan tu jugak ada announcement dalam train mengatakan train tak stop kat centraal dan sesapa nak ke central kene turun kat brussel nord (translation dari makcik tu le, gua mana paham dutch ngan french). gua punya la panik. mana gua tau nak pegi central dari situ. yang gua tau, gua kena benti kat central gak camne-camne pun. sib baik makcik tu baik ati soh gua follow dia gak pepehal pun. dia sanggup teman gua jalan kaki pegi central kalau takde train lain. gempak juga budi pekerti orang sini. terharu gua. Alhamdulillah. sampai-sampai kat nord, tetengok ada train lain yang akan bawak passanger pegi central. makcik tu teman sampai gua jumpa member gua. yang gua sempat tanya dia, nama dia beth lewis (adakah kakak jenny lewis?), dia g brussel sebab nak book trip ke peru, dia dah pencen, dia da pegi vietnam and absolutely looking forwad to come to malaysia. huhu!

so berbalik pada trip ke antwerp...tiket dr brussel, 7 euro pegi balik. masa perjalanan tak berapa nak ingat tapi lebih kurang sengah jam. kiranya gerak dlm kol 11 lebih sampai dalam kol 12. dia punya station bapak cantik dan bapak besar. bertingkat2..dan of course la menggabungkan senibina lama dan baru.

entrance dia pun sikit punya grand. gua pun bukak la buku lonely planet gua. since main interest gua towards belgium ni is totally on their architecture (ok ok..coklat jugak laaa), so nafsu membeli gua tak berapa nak ada eventhough antwerp ni dikenali sebagai orang belgium punya shopping district. kiranya kalau orang yang shoppaholic, kalu datang belgium mesti pegi antwerp la. nak nak time sale..mesti rambang mata. memandangkan gua x gila shopping so gua wat tak nampak je la ngan butik2 tu semua..haha!

lagi satu, antwerp ni famous gile dengan diamond. menurut kata manager gua, pusat diamond kat europe ni adalah antwerp la. diamond2 yang datang dr seluruh dunia diproses, di design kat sini. siap dapat certificate tu kalau beli. tapi bukan la nak kata, diamond paling kecik pun paling murah dekat 200 euro..tu pun design simple gile macam nak taknak design je.antara tempat2 yang gua sempat pegi adalah grote market dia, groenplaats, handschoenmarkt dan tetepi sungai dia. untuk ke grote market ni dari train station, gua kena jalan lama jugak.

lalu kat miers... kiri kanan bangunan lama-lama yang dalam tu dah renovate untuk jadi butik-butik dan restaurants tapi exterior of gothic and baroque achitecture pada building tu dikekalkan. just for the info, antwerp ni adalah hometown kepada pieter paul rubens, one of famous baroque artist. seriously gua pun tak kenal, huahaha! mungkin dak2 yang amik architecture tau le kut...gua ni architect wannabe yang gagal je. dkt antwerp ni ada macam port tak port la...sungai dia dalam gile gamaknya sebab ship besar2 pun boleh lalu..kat tepi tu ada maritime museum. free je tapi gua lagi interested nak tengok the real ship. nearby this area ada red district light. eh, manader sempat pegi. kowang ingat gua teruja sangat ke nak tengok awek2 dalam cermin tu? hish hish!

jalan-jalan keliling town dia..sesat2 sket..makan sudah, hari pun da malam...kitowang gerak balik brussel. nak dijadikan citer, train balik tu benti kat brussel nord je. gua panik sekali lagi sebab mana gua reti nak naik2 tren kat stesen tak familiar ni. sib baik ada train lain menghala ke leuven sbb member gua bley balik naik metro je ke apartment dia dr situ. train yang gua naik ni plak bley pegi airport dulu baru patah balik pegi town gua. hish... pelik-pelik betul journey gua hari tu. thrill gile travel sowang...tapi thats how i like it..the less the better, eh?

brussels: atomium and botanical park

2008-02-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

there are a lot of interesting lace to visit at brussels especially the museums. during my first visit to brussels, we manage to go to comic strip museum located not so far from the central station. there are a lot of displays of the comic strips and among the famous are tin tin and friends as well as asterix. and after the museum, we manage to walk to the botanical garden in the heart of the city.

gambar kat atas ni botanical garden dia. time gua datang ni kat dalam tu ada exhibition pasal gay. ada jual buku pasal gay, citer-citer gay dan sebagainya. selain tu, dalam green house dia ada pokok-pokok yang kowang bley tengok kat paya-paya belakang umah kowang tu. pokok buluh le apa le...hish! takde apa sangat la sebab winter kan, pokok2 mati.

tapi park kat luar dia lawa. ada pokok-pokok renik yang menyerupai maze yang memang gua teringin sangat nak tengok live. asek nampak dalam citer omputeh jaman dolu-dolu je kan? ha ni dapat tengok depan mata. pueh hati mak.

on the second time i went to brussels, we managed to go to atomium, or can i say the eiffel tower or brussels. if you're nearby the heysel ark you can see this giant monument from wherever position you are. it symbolized an elementary iron crystal with its 9 atoms amd has been magnified 150 billion times. nearby atomium, there is also the famous bruparck where mini europe resided.

time gua datang tempat tu tutup so tangkap gambar signboard je le. kat dalam mini europe tu ada lebih kurang 350 replika bangunan-bangunan famous kat seluruh europe ni termasuk le eifel tower, tembok berlin, big ben dan banyak lagi. semua replika-replika ni dibina dalam skala 1:25 saiz sebenar dan amat menyerupai bangunan asal hokeh?

gambar di atas adalah salah satu daripada tangga yang ada kat dalam atomium. tapi kalau naik guna tangga ni bole sampai kat benda bulat yang tengah-tengah je. takleh sampai puncak dia. kalau nak g puncak dia, perkara pertama of coz la kena beli tiket...heheh! pastu beratur ngan orang-orang ramai yang lain untuk tunggu turn naik lift. lift dia bapak la laju. tapi bukan la nak kata apa, buat megah je naik atas ni, teropong (gambar di bawah) pun tak reti nak guna. huahahahaha!!!

ni le teropong yang diperkatakan tu. ala-ala macam tablet pc tapi tah camne tah nak control. last-last main tangkap gambar je le dekat situ. orang lain nak main teropong pun bengkek je tengok orang mesia ni main tangkap-tangkap gambar kat situ tapi nak guna teropong tak reti.

ni kat bawah atomium. takde explaination yang jelas selain dari kemaruk nak amik gambar sendiri.