What to SEE in Melaka

Melaka places of interest are very concentrated around the area of Melaka river in Jalan Kota. You can just stay nearby the hotel or park your car near A Famosa. Within walking distance you can visit most of the places of interest below except King's Well and Poh Sang Teng Temple which located nearby Bukit Cina.

1. Porta de Santiago

This fortress was built by Portuguese in early 16th century. It was one of the four main gateways into the Portuguese fortress of A Famosa. The construct of A Famosa was to prevent frequent attacked from Sultan Mahmud's followers, Acheh and Johor over century. But unfortunately, the British destroyed it due to fear of it being used against them after Melaka handed back to Dutch in 1795. Only Porta de Santiago remains till today.   

2. St. Paul's Church

A ruin church situated on top of Saint Paul Hill, originally was a chapel built by Portuguese, also name as Our Lady of Grace. But when Dutch overtook Malacca in 1641, the Dutch converted the chapel to St. Paul Church and the name remain until today. Until British took over, the tower of the church was destroyed, and it became the storehouse for British gun power.

 
3. Stadthuys & Christ Church Melaka

The Stadhuys (red square) was the Municipal Hall in Dutch. It took almost 20 years to complete it, today it is the history, ethnography and literature museum. The maroon colour was not the originally paint of the building, instead they were faced with brick. 

  

Christ Church was built by Dutch in year 1753 to celebrate their 100 years occupation in Melaka. This church took around 12 years to complete, the wooden ceiling beams, each cut from a single tree, to the elaborately hand-carved pews and frieze of "The Last Supper".

4. Cheng Hoon Teng Temple

The oldest functioning temple in Malaysia, constructed in year1673. It is a Chinese temple that practicing three doctrinal system of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. In the central of altar is dedicated to Kuan Yin (God of Mercy), Ma Choo on the left and Kuan Kong on the right. It is located near to Kampung Kling Mosque and Sri Poyatha Moorthi Temple.

5. Melaka River

Melaka river was once an important trading places between East and West during 15th century.You can take a boat ride to experience the previous glamorous of Melaka where the river has been clean up and rehabilitated.

6. King's Well & Poh San Teng Temple

The King's well also known as "Hang Li Po" well. It was constructed during the reign of Sultan Mansur Shah (1458 - 1477) for his wife, Hang Li Po who came from China.The water in the well will never dry out even with severest of droughts and according to folklore, who ever drink from well will return to Melaka. 

Immediately adjacent to King's well is Po San Teng Temple. Some people mentioned that this temple is associated with admiral Cheng Ho, a Ming-dynasty navigator. But there are no evidence to prove that.  

7. Jonker Street
This is the best place for you to buy souvenir in Melaka, you must also tried Chicken Rice balls and Durian Cendol in here.

Melaka, the Historic City

Melaka and George Town was recently inscribed on UNESCO’s world heritage list for being the historic cities of the Strait of Malacca that have developed over 500 years of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West. 

If you browse through Melaka history, the earliest three periods that had great impacted on Melaka especially in architecture where the historical buildings are still remained today is as follows:

Being a strategic location between East and West, Malacca was once a prosperous, civilization city and important conduit for trade during 15th century. But after the fallen of Malacca into the hand of British, Malacca was no longer an important trading port and it was overtook by Singapore's growing opulent and became one of the world international trading port.

Melaka today is the important tourism spot in Malaysia that rich with historical and multicultural. It is located just two hours drive from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. This is a place you must visit when you travel in Malaysia.

Where to SHOP in BEIJING

1. Wangfujing
One of the famous shopping streets located in Dongcheng district. Surrounded by shopping malls, shop lots and a snack street in the hutongs of the main streets. Read more... 

2. Sanlitun Village

The combination of leisure, shopping, dining, arts and entertainment in this village provide you a shopping-as-entertainment experience. The playful architecture with cosmopolitan feel stands out this village compare to other more traditional design of shopping centers in the area. You can find famous international brands here. 

3. Yashow Clothing Market

This market is located next to Sanlitun Village, compare to Silk Market, this place is much cheaper if you know how to bargain hardly. Try to slash 75% of the retail price provided by the sellers, because normally they will give a high price in upfront.

  

4. Silk Market

This is one of the Beijing's most famous indoor shopping market for tourist. You can bargain aggressively for stuffs such as garments, shoes, bags, watches and fabrics here... But I still find it more expensive than Yashow Clothing Market.

5. Nan Lou Gu Xiang (南 锣 鼓 巷)
This is one of the shopping streets I like where you can experience the Hutong culture, specialty shops and distinctive foods. Located around the area of Bell & Drum tower. You can try the lamb kebab here... 

What to SEE in BEIJING

You can travel by yourself easily in Beijing where most of the tourism spots are link by their subway. The following are the tourism spots suggested for your visit:

1. Great Wall of China

"He who has never been to Great Wall is not a true man" is a phrase derived from Chairman Mao to describe those who can't overcome obstacle and achieve their goal is not a hero. Now I can understand why Great Wall is used in the phrase. Because to climb up to the Great Wall is not an easy job, the stair is steep and the stone step is small.  

The Great Wall has history around 2700 years and it was build to prevent China against the invaders from the North. You can visit Great Wall at Badaling which is easy to reach by train and bus.

2. Forbidden City

Build 1406-1420 by million laborers. Home of the emperor and his household until 1924. Located in the heart of Beijing. Read more...

3. Tiananmen Square
The world largest square, surrounding by Mao's Mausoluem, History Musuem, Great Hall of the People, Forbidden City and Qianmen St. Near National Grand Theater.

4. Qianmen Street

2km long street located just South of Tiananmen square, now meticulously restored to reflect Qianmen's 600-year traditional shopping history and architecture.

5. Summer Palace

This imperial Chinese garden was included in world heritage list under UNESCO, year 1998. It is an outstanding expression of the creative art of Chinese landscape garden design, incorporating the works of humankind and nature in a harmonious whole (UNESCO). The main garden is dominated by Kuming lake and longevity hills, you can also see the 728 meter elaborately painted long corridor and Empress Cixi's marble boat here.

6. Lama Temple (Yonghegong)

It was the residence of the Prince Yong of Qing Dynasty (Emperor Yong Zheng) before it was converted to Lama Temple in 1744. The three things you must not missed seeing here are: the Niche of Buddham which was carved out of nanmu with three layers filigree; the Five-Hundred-Arhat Mountain carved out of red sandalwood; and an 18 meter hight Buddha which was carved out of one grand piece of white sandalwood.

7. National Stadium

The "hemispherical dome" (天圆地方 doctrine) is used in the architecture design in Beijing's National Stadium where the "Bird's Nest" shape is round and the National Aquatics Centre's shape is square. In between, there is a dragon venture. This signified the important of Feng Shui in Chinese architecture and living.

8. Houhai Bar Street

A happening night life place where you can stroll, drink and eats a long the banks of the picturesque Qianhai, Houhai and Xihai lakes. There even have boat services to ride and enjoy the sightseeing. It is close to Bell and Drum towers.

9. Bell & Drum Towers

The Bell & Drum towers were once the time-announcing center of the capital during Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. But unfortunately, there are only one remaining watchman's drum out of 25 previously.

10. Beijing Hutongs

The word "hutong" refers to alley which is almost disappearing. You can tour on foot, bicycle or pedicab to visit atmospheric alleys and courtyards.

 

Foods in Beijing you should try...

What are the foods you must try when you visit Beijing? 

Dumplings or Jiaozi

You must try dumpling - the common dishes of Beijing, but which one is nice? I have tried dumplings in Wangfujing street, but sad to say that the dumpling skin is hard and the filing is little. We tried the dumplings in Feather dumplings 鸿毛饺子restaurant too, comparison it was nicer. Feather dumplings restaurant  is a franchise store with around 25 branches and the number one seller dishes will be the leek dumpling. A dumpling filing consist of minced meat and finely chopped leek arouse great aroma in your mouth with a dipping sauce made of vinegar. There are even free dumpling soup provided in one of the corner in the restaurant. 

Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Bun)

This is one of the dim sum I like, although it is a common food in the Southern such as in Shanghai, but I would like to try it in Beijing too. When you bite the Xiao Long Bao, the soup in side will split all over your mouth when you bite it. I tried something different type which consists of crab meat as follows.

 

 

Cold Noddles

Korea is famous for cold noodles which also known as Raengmyeon. The noodle is chewier and the cold soup is refreshing. If you like cold noodle, you should also try it in Beijing. Beijing (northern) people like cold dishes where you can see people like to relish cold side dishes such as salad with their wine in the restaurant. What are the difference between Korean and Beijing cold noodles? I can't really tell. But the cold noddle I tried in Korea was hardly bite off and I need a scissor for it. 

  

Beijing traditional snack
Douzhir (fermented bean drink) 豆汁, sheep offal soup 羊杂碎汤, baked sweeten wheaten cake 糖火烧, butter fried cake 奶油炸糕... are all famous snacks in Beijing, but whether you like the local taste will be another question for you. I have tried the snacks in Hugo temple snack, but it was hard for me to accept the taste...Read more

Lamb kebabs
You can easily get lamb or other meat kebabs in Beijing's stall.

Titi Eco Farm Resort, Negeri Sembilan

"Organic" is a new way of life, the trend of today's healthy way of living. The organic agriculture is prevailing rapidly worldwide both for health and environmental reasons. For these reasons, I opted to pay a visit to one of our Malaysia's organic agricultural farm - Titi Eco Farm Resort for a day trip. Titi Eco Farm Resort is located in Jalan Sungai Rotai, Titi, Jelebu, 71650 Negeri Sembilan. 

Earlier in the morning before sun raised, I woke up and departed with my family to the destination. I have downloaded the map from the website as guide. Unfortunately, when I passed by Hulu Langat and asked people around for direction, we were told by the local, there were landslide happened two weeks ago in the way heading to the destination. Without any clue and idea on the alternative road to Titi Eco. I have to call for help to the farm resort, but there were no one picking up my call. Luckily, we dropped by a petrol station and successfully got information from the store supervisor for another direction.

We quickly headed to Lekas highway and exit at 2105 (which the Titi Eco representative gave us a wrong direction), actually the correct exit is at 2106 Ampangan. From the exit to Titi Eco Farm is a very long journey. The road is zigzag and dangerous... Finally we reached Titi Eco Farm around 10.45am which the tour around the farm already started for five minutes.

Without further delay, we quickly joined the group for farm tour. We were brought to organic vegetable farm, fruits farm and poultry farm for a visit. There are various types of exotic tropical fruits such as pineapples, bananas, passion fruits, dragon fruits, guavas, rambutans and papayas which I was able to observed. Other vegetables like sweet potato and bitter grounds are also available. 

   
There are only ostriches and rabbits in the poultry farm. It was a bit disappointed. 

   
I think the most excited part of the day trip will be crossing the pond through hanging bridge and playing the flying fox. This is mostly enjoyed by children and my 70 year-old father. He really was great compared to me, I only went through the hanging bridge and did not try the flying fox. Haha... 

But the drawback was, in the another site of the pond were full with mosquitoes, therefore it is advice to bring mosquito repellent along especially you brought your kids. The whole farm tour was finished after the flying fox and hanging bridge, and the next agenda was "free and easy" and took a small rest before lunch provided. 

What you can do in Titi Eco Farm? 
1. Roll Over Grass and let yourself dive into the greens (suggested by Titi Eco)

2.  Play Soap Bubble in the provided area...

3. Visit their Organic Shop and purchase their organic product such as papaya powder, enzyme... and organic vegetables and fruits...

  
4. Play Chess... you can enjoy Chinese set or Western set as provided.

5. Play their stuffs... there have swing, seesaw and slide around...

6. Relax, enjoy and take photograph of lovely scenery...

If you do not enjoy sun bathing or outdoor activities, you might still like the foods provided here. We were served strobilanthes crispus tea for a drink, and the benefit of the tea is good for anti-cancer properties. Before the lunch began, a salad was served as appetizer. Sweet and sour taste really stimulate my appetite to eat more. There are five dishes altogether such as curry vegetable, pak choi, fried sweet potato, chicken, steam fish and a soup of the day. I ordered myself vegetarian food, there are deep fried egg plant, pak choi and lady fingers. 

  
We left before the health sharing session and wholemeal bread demonstration began. We have been waiting for about forty five minutes and my parent felt tired, therefore we decided to leave earlier. Luckily we left earlier, in the midst of driving in Lekas highway, it rained cat and dog until we hardly see the road sign and car in front. We missed the junction and have to took long U-turn back to our house. It was dangerous if we drive in this condition in the Kelawang road. 

In conclusion, there are still a lot of improvement can be made in Malaysia's Eco tourism business compared to other countries I have visited. The farm tour guide can improve their briefing and make it more interesting cause when I came back from the trip, I hardly remember any information shared by him. Second, the day trip can insert activities that involve participate of the visitors such as soap DIY, making paper lantern such as my Taiwan's farm trip... Third, it is very important to told or brief the visitors what and when is the next agenda, don't break the gap too long, people will lost and do not know what to do. I saw few family left before end of the session. Lastly, to boost the sales of the product, they can told the visitors the benefits of the foods they served or the recipe of using their product in the dishes. I saw none of my group were buying product from their store. For your information, I have brought two big recycle bags thinking to purchase their product, but I brought none. No buying impulse... sad...