Company Trip to Surabaya, Indonesia - Part 04 - The scene around the hotel and the Grand City Mall (plus dinner)

See previous posting.

If you face the entrance of the hotel and turn to the left, just above the ground floor is a plaque commemorating the event that spark the Indonesian Revolution. It is here that Surabayans climbed up to the roof to tear down the Dutch flag and hoisted the Republic of Indonesia flag. 

Looking out to the street from the entrance of the hotel you can see the main service centre for the Seiko Watch Group (which also includes Alba).

Traffic is really bad. Good thing there are pedestrian crossings at strategic spots on the roads.

A Seiko Clock Tower.

By evening, I happened to come across the Grand City Mall. A huge mall filled with high-end brands. Surabaya is the second largest city and historically, there are a lot of monied people here.

What I find interesting about this mall is that they provide tram service disguised as a train on the floors!

By this time I was hungry and I decided to try this steak joint. The steak was just so-so.

To be continued.

Sungai Klah Hot Springs, Gua Tempurung & Kellie's Castle - Part 3 - Day 1 - A walk on the resort grounds and dinner at their main cafe

Please refer to the previous posting.

At night the grounds are lighted somewhat by street lamps. However, apart from the roads and some of the main buildings, it's completely pitch black.

I took a picture of a palm tree being bathed with a spotlight. Looks eerie doesn't it.

That night after going back to the pools, we all got dressed to have dinner at the main cafe. Food is fine. If you want to eat out of the resort you need to drive out and it could be a distance before you find a decent restaurant.

To be continued.

Sunday walk along Putrajaya Lake

Last Sunday took a lazy watch along Putrajaya Lake. The weather was overcast which made it a perfect walking environment with strong winds whipping across the body of water. Over the horizon you can see the Maritime Sports Complex (to the left).

On this part of the lake, you are allowed to use motorised water vehicles.

Here as well you will find a very ornate bridge linking the opposite sides of the lake.

At this location one can also find the tallest buildings in Putrajaya. These are for 4 different Ministries such as Multimedia & Telecommunication etc.

A close up of the ornate bridge.

A close up of the tall buildings. Interesting designs.

Sungai Klah Hot Springs, Gua Tempurung & Kellie's Castle - Part 2 - Day 1 - A visit to Gua Tempurung, Perak

See previous posting.

After lunch, we decided to head towards Gua Tempurung.The cave is located in Lembah Tempurung (Tempurung Valley) near Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia. It is 25 km to the south of Ipoh, the capital of the state of Perak.

The cave was first identified in 1887 in the Map of Perak-Malay Peninsula, which indicated a mountain spelt as “Gunong Tempoo Rong”. The Department of Minerals and Geosciences estimated the age of the rock formations in the area of Gua Tempurung to be between 250 and 400 million years. The cave was also known locally as Gua Perah.

Large and intricate cave system with beautiful speleotherms like stalagmites, stalactites, rim stone pools, curtains, straws, calcite crystals and pillars. These and more form the natural limestone cave architecture.

The most commonly known formations are stalagmites (growing on the cave floor) and stalactites (growing on the cave ceiling or wall). For more information go to: http://www.guatempurung.com/

The biggest cave system in Peninsular Malaysia. You can spend hours walking through the various chambers that make up the cave system.

The colours on the walls were breathtaking.

It is estimated that the height from the floor and the ceiling the cave spans 10 stories high!

As go deeper into the hill, it gets cooler and fresh cool wind can be felt. Underground rivers help circulate the air.

Although not that obvious but its quite a drop from where we were standing.

The area outside the cave entrance.

To be continued.

Sungai Klah Hot Springs, Gua Tempurung & Kellie's Castle - Part 1 - Day 1 - The car trip and the dip

During the school holidays, we decided to take our family friends from Bahamas to the Felda Residence Hot Spring in Sungai Klah (Location: http://bit.ly/14UGggk). Just a one night and two day outing but the amount of stuff for the five of us filled the boot of the car to the brim.

The kids getting very excited before the start of the journey.

Heading North for an hour and a half and we arrived at the resort. Sungai Klah Hot Springs is nestled in the serene and lush forest patches, surrounded by hills and clear cold mountain streams and rivers. All 6.5 hectares enjoy the scenic view of well-tended oil palm plantation and durian orchard. Owned by the Felda Group, this area was developed as a wellness resort in 2005.

Its unique concept of a specially designed free flowing Hot Springs Swimming Pool and Therapeutic Park at the foothill of the Titiwangsa Range 200 feet above sea level is design for the family in mind. Another popular family activity not to miss out on is the hot springs egg-boiling experience.

The resort has been set up as a 3 to 4 star hotel. The villas are the units to get although standard rooms are available.

There is ample car park available.

We arrived early, so our villa is not ready yet but we are all roaring to go to the pools.

Leaving our stuff in the car we headed towards the pools.

A large banner where the contact details are listed.

Sprawling property. Loads of  open spaces to play football and such.

A plaque commemorating the opening of the resort back in May 2005 from the then Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib.

The water that comes out of the source is well over 100 degree Celsius (it is possible to be hotter than boiling as minerals in the water increased the boiling point to exceed the boiling point of pure water).

To be continued.

Tokyo Trip: 07 - The trip back home (End)

Please refer to the previous posting.

It was a downcast day when I left Tokyo for home. The early morning mist cast an emerald green blanket over the whole city. Very unique and I was lucky enough to be able to capture it.

Below is a short video I took while on the bus heading towards Narita Airport.

After going thorough immigrations, had to ride a train from the main terminal to a satellite terminal where all the planes were parked.

Took a MAS flight and under the One World Group shared the hospitality suite of Quantas. Not great in terms of food but plentiful of beers!

Nicely tucked into my seat for the 7 hour flight home.

Once arrived, took another mode of transportation, the ERL train to KL Sentral Station.

My only purchase from the Tokyo trip is the nice green dialed Seiko SRB017 Alpinist watch.

The watch in the watchbox with all Japanese instructions. I was told by the salesperson that English translations are available from the website.

Looks nice on my wrist doesn't it?

If ever you are in Tokyo, do visit this shop. It has 7 floors of interesting stuff, not the same stuff  you get in a Jaya Jusco or Metro Jaya or Robinsons.

Went to see Tokyo Tower but didn't go up. Did get a brochure on it though.

These are two essential items you need when in Tokyo. The "Handy Guide" and the "Handy Map". It list all the best places to see and do in Tokyo.

This map also shows the underground rail network.

Brought some friends from the Bahamas to Aquaria, KLCC

Friends came down to KL from the Bahamas. Took them to Aquaria KLCC since they have not been there. Took this photo while in the queue to get tickets.

Our luck was good then, the ushers announced a new temporary ticket counter was up and running to handle credit card only transactions. We all rushed to the new line.

Instead of queuing for a good 30 minutes, we only needed 2 minutes before we were in Aquaria. The kids in a fishbowl observation port at the sea otter sanctuary.

The walk-through aquarium where you see loads of fish. Quite a number of people in the tunnel.

Sharks and stingrays were plentiful.

A tiger shark cruising slowly...

Because of the thick glass between us and the aquarium, the animals look 30% smaller then their actual size.