Good Bye 2012, Hello 2013

Yeap, year 2012 is coming to an end. It felt like yesterday year 2011 ended. Which I I felt a little scary. Time is just moving a little too fast. Don’t you think so? Well, whether we like it or not, this year gonna be over real soon. And year 2013 is on its way. The year 2012, just like other previous years a lot of stuff happened. Nah, don’t worry I’m not gonna recap everything that happened this year in my life in the blog. Just some important events or something that really matters to me I would like to share it out with people out there, which I think it worth sharing and I don’t want to forget when time passes. So, here it goes …….

Year 2012 indeed it’s a life changing year for me. Despite reaching a quarter of century’s age i can consider this year would be the best year so far and I hope it will get better in years to come. I wish everyone the same as well.

This year I managed to go out from the country for the first time. And it was an eye opening experiences for me. Visiting South Korea it’s a place that I never dreamed of having the chance to visit. Experiencing the winter its so awesome. Thanks to my ex-company I had this wonderful opportunity. Also, Bali, Indonesia was a place I had so much fun and a lot of sweet memories with fellow friends of mine. I hope I can go visit more countries in the future. Lol.

I quitted my job at last and start becoming a freelance tourist guide. There are so much more for me to learn in this tourism industry. I’ll try my very best to be a great tourist guide. And at the same time look for job. At least that is what I will do for the year 2013 to come. Hopefully my first pot of gold is on my way.

Last but not least. My year 2012 was a great year as I met a lot of wonderful people. I sincerely thank and grateful towards the people that came into my life. I certainly learnt a lot from them. Not forgetting someone who really brightens up my life. I am so fortunate that she once came into my life. I sincerely wishing her all the best and gain her happiness.. thank you.

So, what’s your most memorable events that happened to you all this 2012 year? Anyway, whatever that happened, good or bad, happy or sad… they happened for a reason and we cherished the good ones and we learnt from the bad one. After all, a better year is approaching. And hereby I, Eddie Quah wish everyone out there a very happy new year 2013. and I will see you guys again next year.

See You Guys and Have A Wonderful New Year  2013 !!

~The Sense Of Letting Go~

A lot of us might think that it’s a right thing to own someone that we truly like or perhaps love. Well, it’s just depends on which point of view we’re looking at. Many things in this world might not go the way as we wanted. And we surely can’t blame anyone, or anything that goes against us. After all, everything that happened in this world has its own reasons. And there is nothing we can do about it.

Letting go is not about giving up someone that you love. It’s just a matter of giving them a better place to go or perhaps you think it’s better for them to find their own directions. What is more important in letting go is we understand and we knew that it’s for the better of the particular person. What I’m trying to say is, as long as he/she is happy, there is no harm letting them go. After all, it might be a mistake by keeping them for ourselves without knowing the fact that they are actually unhappy or they are just struggling within themselves.

Of course, we can be a little selfish and just have them for our own without giving a damn about what other people thinks. But is that what we really wanted? ( I know I don’t )

Anyway, brothers and sisters out there, it doesn’t really matter that someday we might need to let go the person we truly love as long they are better off without us. The most important thing is the fond memories we once had will be forever somewhere in our heart. There is an old saying “doesn’t matter if we don’t own them for life, but its good enough for once owning it even just for a while”.  If we’re really meant for each other, I believe he/she will come back to us someday. Deep inside we knew its all worth waiting and there is no regrets. Ever~~ 

~peace~
3ddie Quah..

BATU CAVES EXPERIENCE 08/09/2012

    Hey everybody, its another post in my humble blog. yeah~ ... From the above tittle, i guess it's quite obvious right? That's right, it's the Batu Caves Experience!!! I heard a lot about Batu Caves and i read a lot about it too. And this time i finally has the chance to really go see it for myself. I always wanted to go Batu Caves as it is one of the tourist destination in Malaysia. And there i was, together with some of my friends (Ramesh, Leonard, ChinChun and WeiLing). We decided to go Batu Caves and experience ourself the wonders of the holy and interesting place. Oh ya, btw we agreed that it would be a non car expedition which mean we only took public transport to our destinations. It was a wonderful Saturday (08/09/2012) and our journey started. The weather of the day was very friendly too, Cloudy and windy weather which so comfortable to be out there. So, here it is, some pictures i took. Not really gonna Blog all the way but this time let's just keep it simple and let the pictures speaks on their own. (Some captions will be provided).. 

We started off by buying our ticket. Its real funny when looking at them experimenting on the ticket machine. We took the KTM (keretapi tanah melayu) service and guess what? We didn't know how to purchase our ticket to Batu Caves. Till the end we realise that in order to get to batuCave, we need to purchase the Ticket to Sentul. Aiyo... we all as the 1st timer really bikin malu. Some more all of them seaching all over the machine looking for 'Batu Cave'  button.

Lord Hanuman - The Monkey God
Its a huge statue that welcome us right after we entered the area of Batu Cave. It does make sense why there is a Monkey god watching over the place as Batu Caves is also a place that full of monkeys. Haha, that's right.. Monkeys!! All of these monkeys are indeed very friendly and mind their own business. Tourists are seriously restricted from messing with them. :)

Lol, this girl was tricked to come with us to the destination. But it was all worth it as she had a lot of fun herself. So, she has us to thank for. :)

There is a fish pond at Batu Caves area. It seems Batu Cave had come out with more attractions for tourists that come to Batu Cave,

The beautiful landscape~~

The mighty Lord Murugan. This very very very large golden statue of Lord Murugan its the highlight of Batu Caves, This statue standing majestically at almost 50 metres tall it's why tourists all over the world are here. Just to have a glance and take a picture of it.

Gulp~~~ when I first saw the 272 steps to reach to the top of the temple... I was worried that i might not make it... But, my effort paid off..  i manage to climbed it. Easily~ :)

So, these three took the lead. We were taking our own sweet time. Experiencing the stairs climbing.

Stop for a pic... (well, it was just an excuse for them to take a break half way climbing) lol..

The entrance of the Dark Cave..

Yeah~~ Almost reach. :P

                                  Catching up... "Panting"

Ramesh :   "tunggu dulu" ...

 Photo Session again.

We finally reached to the top and hell yeah, we were exhausted. There were lots of Deities statues inside the cave and a lot of tourists too. We are very fortunate to have Ramesh with us as he will be explaining the stories of the legends of the gods. This trip was educational after all. lol

Beautiful rock formations in the Caves.

These steps are really steeps and slippery. Gonna watch out. :}

View from the top of the stairs... not bad huh?

Seriously no idea what is he doing with the monkey. I think he is trying to grab that monkey's ______ ..











The Dark Cave basically its a protected area in Batu Caves. Tourists need to pay in order to go inside the Dark Cave led by a professional guide. The Dark Cave tour took roughly 45 minutes and tourists were briefed about the do's and dont's before going in the dark cave. Since is our first time here, we also went together in the tour. I would say, it was not that interesting as i thought it would. But its a 'one go' experience.







 

The ticket cost us RM25 (Conservation Fee). Well, a good news for me is that as a Tourist Guide, I actually got to join in the tour for free the next time i am there. (Which i dont think i want to go into the cave again).. lol...

Our guide for that day was Ms.Jolin... She indeed gave a very interesting and informative commentary. And she speaks very good English. (Felt ashamed of myself that i barely can speak the language although i am an 'English language' tourist guide).                                                    

This particular bench was spotted while we were having our Dark Cave tour. And i found the word on the bench highly hilarious.

I didn't know that Malaysia had a 'Prostitution Development Department'...(Pelancungan).

Taking from bottom of the statue. I felt so tiny standing right under the statue... So gigantic. :)

                                         

                                        WL with Lord Murugan..

Leonard as the camera man...
True Story : He was asked to be cameraman for few tourists upon request. i guess because of his height is a suitable height as a tripod... lol .. ( he so gonna kill me if he reads my blogs)

From Left : Leonard, WeiLing, ChinChun, Ramesh

From Right : ChinChun, Ramesh, Eddie, Leonard

    From the top : Lord Murugan, normal human beings... ;p

Pigeons were everywhere... :)

Steel Dildos? Lol... no its not.. but i love the way you imagined it.

  @,@ what the~~

                                    Nice angle~

Myself with the Monkey God~ woo!!

We hung out at Batu Cave till almost 1500 that day. It was a tiring trip but it was all worth it. I finally made it there... Alright folks... that's all about our Batu Cave adventures... Hopefully more places coming in the future.. and do stay with me for more adventures. See you guys again

                                       

Ipoh Heritage Walk

Hi all, I know it’s been a while since the last time I updated my blog.. Well I guess it’s just the human nature where we kind of got lazier and lazier from day to day. We will get to my life story some other time. For now, I am thinking of doing something different.

For those who didn’t know, I have been living in Ipoh, the capital city of Perak state for more than 2 years now. Ipoh it’s not that big hell of a city but yeah I still got lost once in awhile. (such a shame). And also, Ipoh is one of a heritage town back in the early 1900 in Malaya. It has gone thru a lot of changes and development of course. Well, I’m not gonna crap all bout the Ipoh’s history and stuff as I myself also not very sure bout it.. so, lets just leave that to the experts. What I gonna bring to you all is the ‘Ipoh Heritage Trail’ map 1. It has been introduced as a part of the local tourism plan back in year 2010. I went through the trail several times myself, out of sudden I got the idea to go and do it all over again and capture new pics just for u guys. ( whatddup!!)

So, it was a Saturday morning (11\08\2012)… and the journey begins…………  

1.Railway Station

For some reason, when tourists come to Ipoh, the railway station will be one of the place of interest that they were brought to. Maybe its because of the unique Moorish architecture and its also known as the Taj Mahal of Ipoh. I seriously don’t get it, as this railway station it’s not build by some lover boy to express his love towards his love one. But still, the majestic railway station of Ipoh is a must visit place. Being one of the entry ports in Ipoh, the railway station held a lot of wonderful stories back at those days. There was once the most luxurious Hotel named Majestic Hotel / Station Hotel in the Railway Station. What is so special about the hotel it’s none other than the unique elevator. Just in front of the railway station there is the Epu Tree (Pokok Epu), where the name of Ipoh derived from this kind of tree.

The picture of this cenotaph i took it last year before the renovation project started. :)

2.War Memorial
This cenotaph is built to commemorate the brave warriors during the 2^nd world war and also during the Malaya insurgency. It has bronze plat which written the name of the fallen soldiers who fights for their country and freedom.

3.Town Hall And Old Post Office

The town hall and post office were attached to each other. The town hall is in the front and the post office at the back. But somehow the post office no longer using that building and it was shifted to somewhere else. Anyway, the town hall is still functioning. The public can actually use the hall for various ceremony and celebration with prior booking. I happened to know that last time the town hall was a police station. And sumthing very cool bout it is, there was actually an underground tunnel that links from the town hall to the high court across the street. How far it is true? I wish I could find it out for myself.

4.High Court
Before it was used as a high court back during the occupation period, this building actually is the residence of the malay chief in Ipoh. Fun fact : the high court, Town hall and also the railway station of Ipoh was actually built by the same English architect, A.B. Hubback. He also was the architect for the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station as well. Therefore we all can actually see the similarity between these buildings.

 5.Royal Ipoh Club
The oldest club in Ipoh. Founded back in 1895 (was actually much earlier than that). It was known as ‘IPOH CLUB’ back at the early days. Where it was the ‘all white club’. Only the Englishmen were accepted as members of the club. It was a very luxurious club where all the whites will come here for their entertainment or had their meals. At the back of the club was an open field (Ipoh Padang) which still exists until today. Crickets was the most popular game during that time and while the guys playing on the field, the ladies will be sitting on top while sipping their cup of coffee or tea watching their men on the field.
During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese invaded this club and uses it as a laundry house for the Japanese army. A very unique long bar table in the club were destroyed and used as the fire wood by the Japanese. 

6.Church Of St.John The Divine

This morning, its my 1^st time ever entering this church. The gardener of the church kindly letting me in to snap a few pictures of the church. It is old, but still well preserved. After I took a few pictures of it, I stayed for a little longer to enjoy the peaceful environment of the morning. 

Anyway, a little fact.. this church was once used by the Japanese as a noodle factory. I was thinking, the Japanese indeed was a bad ass back at the war period. But now, Japan is such a cool country and we Malaysian actually love Japan. The food, the culture, the porns. (opps~~)

 7.St.Michael’s Institution
One of a la salle’s school. This school holds a memorable history since its establishment in the year 1912. Started by a la salle’s brother with only 12 students in a small wooden hut. During the Japanese occupation, this school was used as the administrative centre by the japs. Today, St.Michael Institution is one of the top secondary school in Perak. As always, all boys school somehow will still have some disciplinary problems. But still, the excellent academic results are remained. Just like St.Anthony School in Teluk Intan, Perak. (take some opportunity to sale SASTI)

8.Town Padang Mosque

9.F.M.S Bar & Restaurant
Founded in 1906 by a Hainanese brothers. F.M.S basically means ‘Federated Malay States’ bar. But the locals called it as the ‘Father Mother Son’ café. It serves one of the best western food and other Chinese food as well. It was a very popular café among the local residence and also the Englishmen during the british colonial era. Unfortunately, it has been closed down for renovation. When I started came to ipoh in year 2010, the building was already closed down and up until today, the café is still closed. But one thing different from the first time I saw this shop is they already painted it yellow. It was blue in colour back in year 2010. Lol.

10.Hongkong & Shanghai BankThis building was once the tallest building back in the 1930’s.. it was build to attract and impress the businessmen and other big companies in Ipoh to do savings or investment from the bank. HSBC is using this building until today.

 11.S.P.H. De Silva Building

12.Chung Thye Phin Building
It was build in 1907 by Chung Type Phin, the last Chinese Kapitan of Perak. It was used as a medical hall and also medication dispensary. Today it is just an abandoned building.

13.Straits Trading Building (OCBC)

 14.The Chartered Bank

15.Mercantile BankThis building is now catered by one of the MLM Company ELKEN.

16.Residence & Law Office Of The Seenivasagam Brothers
This raw of little shop houses is very unique in its on way. Sitting just in front of the IPOH PADANG, these unique shop houses it’s the only 10 of its kind. Used to be the offices of lawyers and therefore the streets name is called the ‘lawyer’s street’. Today, all the law firms had ended their firm or they already shifted to another part of the town. Some of the shop, were taken over by cafes and pubs. During night time, this lawyer’s street is a quite happening spot in Ipoh.

17.Perak Hydro BuildingToday its known as TNB. It was also used as an electric power company before this. The Perak Hydro Eletric Power Company .

18.Birch Memorial The birch memorial clock tower it’s another interesting landmark in Ipoh Old Town. It’s a newly painted tower that just completed earlier this year. With wonderful landscape and it certainly has a better eye viewing experience compare to what it was few years ago. This tower had a story of its own as well. It’s a memorial clock tower built by EWW Birch for his father (JWW Birch) back in 1909. The best part is, the bell still chimes until today. And it sounded exactly like the Big Ben in London. Cool huh?

19.Jan Sahib’s Office

20.Mikasa Photo Shop
The Japanese spy premise. It seems this premise might look like a normal photo shop. At the back of the shop will be a base where the Japanese spy sending information about Malaya back to Japanese army. Today, as  you all can see in the picture, this building is totally shut down. 

21.Dramatists’ Hostel
In Malaysia, one of our entertainments would be going to the cinema for a movie. Back in 1920’s, their entertainment would be opera show. Especially for the Chinese in Ipoh. This building is the dramatist hostel where all the actors and actresses of the opera group stays. Today, the hostel has become a coffee shop, ‘Kedai Kopi Kong Heng’. However, it seems the place is up for rent as a backpacker lodge on the 2^nd floor. That’s what I read in ‘Ipoh Echo’ few months back. Look for more information in the internet. 

22.Perak Ku Kong Chow AssociationNo info bout this building. Moreover, its kinda boring to me. Just that it once being the association of the Cantonese Chinese.

23.Han Chin Pet Soo
This place is also known as the miners club. This is a place where all the rich miners during the old times gathered around and chill. If I’m not mistaken, this miner’s club it’s the only club that has the gambling license provided by the British Government and its valid until today. This club no longer accepting new members since then. I once peek inside and I saw a very unique triangular shaped table. Most probably is used to play the ‘3-legged-mahjong’.. lol

Took this pic back in 2011 before part of the concubine lane were collapse. 

24.Panglima Lane (Concubine Lane)
this final landmark of the heritage trail brings the most stories of all.. I bet there are tones of stories that can be found in the internet. How it was build, and its famous for opium dens and brothels. Most importantly it’s a place for the rich tin miners to keep their concubines in these houses. That’s where the name of the street came from. However, the 4 out of 27 pre-war houses in this 2^nd concubine lane once tumbled down in the year 2011 due to a storm that hit Ipoh that time. It has been restored and it seems the state government is going to develop this concubine lane into a tourism spot. Oh ya, extra fact… during at night, the concubine area will be crowded as there are restaurants and most people come here for the special ‘Snow Beer’ (雪花啤). 

Well, that’s about it. the whole trail duration took me about 1hour 45 minutes walk. So, it’s a very good exercise as well.. Some of the buildings may not looked interesting but they surely brought a thousand tales back at those days when Ipoh is still on its high rising era. There are some buildings were no longer exist, or under renovation, but that is what the Ipoh old town has to offer. And that is just a part of the old town. Some of the buildings I might don’t have explanation or caption bout them, so feel free to read them from the brochures i put in this blog.

So, that all folks.. hope u enjoy my new blog entry in a different kinda style. Hope u guys will like it, and drop me some comments if possible.. will be very glad to reply each and everyone of u. For more pictures for today’s walk, do view it in my facebook. The link its just right here. Thanks once again for the support and see ya.