UK Trip December 2015 - Part 11 - Tour of St Andrews University

Continuation from: UK Trip December 2015 - Part 10 - Exploring St Andrews, Scotland and Ice Cream!

We then went to visit the University. Below is the international centre.

Below is one of the halls of residence.

At the moment practically empty as it was Christmas break.

A standard cluster of rooms consist of 5individually rooms in a locked corridor.

A typical room comes with internet, TV and attached bathroom.

Standard queen sized bed as a table.

Each cluster has a complete kitchen with living room set.

Well equipped.

The main entrance.

A shot of a top floor of one of the faculties we visited.

Many of the faculties are located at old houses.

The town of St Andrews is practically owned by the University.

Here is another halls of residence that Prince William stayed.

One of the colleges in the University. St Andrews University does practice the same college style setup as Oxford and Cambridge.

This is the old library section of the University.

St Mary's College.

Our tour guide explaining the history of the University.

To be continued.

The 2014 Annual Company Trip - Destination: YTL Pangkor Laut Resort - Jungle adventure walk - Part 7

(Continuation. Please refer to the end of the report for links to the previous parts).

One of the activities in the resort is the jungle adventure or nature walk. Lead by an experienced tracker.

The dark spots seen in the tree are fruit bats. Big and scary looking. 

Our tracker giving a briefing to the participants.

Showing the types of fruit trees available on the resort.

Hornbills.

A gang of hornbills.

A monitor lizard.

The start of the jungle tracking.

There weren't any signals so, this is the GPS location.

Single file.

Not a bad track. Everything is nice and cleared by the resort rangers.

Good thing it was cloudy. Even then we were already sweating buckets.

After a couple of hours, we arrived at Emerald Bay. Time for the beach!!

The gang.

To be continued.

The 2014 Annual Company Trip - Destination: YTL Pangkor Laut Resort - The journey by bus - Part 1

The 2014 Annual Company Trip - Destination: YTL Pangkor Laut Resort - The boat ride and lunch - Part 2

The 2014 Annual Company Trip - Destination: YTL Pangkor Laut Resort - The hilltop villas - Part 3 

The 2014 Annual Company Trip - Destination: YTL Pangkor Laut Resort - Gym and other common areas - Part 4

The 2014 Annual Company Trip - Destination: YTL Pangkor Laut Resort - Sunset cruise - Part 5

The 2014 Annual Company Trip - Destination: YTL Pangkor Laut Resort - Dinner at the famous Uncle Lim Chinese Restaurant - Part 6

 

Bucharest, Romania - Wondering inside the second largest building on Earth - Part 09

Continuation from Bucharest, Romania - A tour of the second largest building in the world, The Palace of Parliament - Part 08

The first room the guide took us is the theater. Here, a full opera can be conducted. Note the massive chandelier at the center of the hall. The guide told us that every material used in the construction of this building was sourced locally. The pride of the nation.

Below is not a hall but a corridor to another cavernous hall.

Even the ceiling was intricately designed by local artisans.

Another corridor. Really unreal. You have to be there to truly appreciate the grandeur of this building.

A beautifully crafted marble staircase. It seems that you can rent the halls for functions.

Not sure whether this is the front of the building.

Wow.

A four tonne chandelier.

To be continued.

Bucharest, Romania - A tour of the second largest building in the world, The Palace of Parliament - Part 08

Continuation from Bucharest, Romania - Introducing the bond valaution concept at a World Bank conference and proud to know Malaysia has something unique to share with a lot of developing economies - Part 07

At the end of the conference, the organisers arranged a trip to The Palace of Parliament, a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. The Palace is the world's largest civilian building with an administrative function, most expensive administrative building and heaviest building.

We took a bus to get to the building.

It is massive!

Made out of marble, the building holds the world record for the heaviest building in the world.

Very impressive facade. Some technical details of the building:

• 270 m by 240 m, 86 m hight
• 92 m underground
• 1,100 rooms
• 12 stories tall with four additional underground levels currently available and in use (another four in different stages of completion)
• Floor area 340,000 m2 (3,700,000 sq ft)

We are currently mingling outside the building waiting for a guide to come to us.

In Bucharest, the weather was just beautiful, clear skies without any clouds.

BPAM bag in Bucharest.

The tour starts. I though this first room was a hall but I was corrected by the guide, it is only a passageway...wow.

Green carpet and a green dial watch.

The guide. Behind her are busts of famous people from Romania and a tapestry that depicts the history of ancient Romania.

A selfie.

To be continued.