Borobudur, Indonesia

Since my long post have been stuck in my other laptop (weirdly, the program was unable to 'connect to internet') and I'm on the road for the whole week, I though of giving you guys just a little preview of Borobudur, Indonesia which I've visited last year.

Most disgusting display

Been to the Auckland Museum during my trip to New Zealand last year. Its a pretty good museum with lots of displays from natural history to Maori culture and a war memorial (huh, NZ in war? Not quite, but they sent their people to join the British, duh).

And in that museum, I've come across the most disgusting display I've ever seen! Its around the natural history galleries, in the section called "Weird and Wonderful". There is a tank.... well, let the picture speak for itself.

Heli-hike on Franz Josef Glacier

One of the fantastic experience in New Zealand is Heli-hiking up on the glacier. Franz Josef glacier is located on the West Coast of South Island in New Zealand. It is situated within the rainforest climate of New Zealand, which means it gets quite a lot of rain over the years. But these rain actually help make the glaciers.

The glaciers itself is beautiful and much more expansive and huge than any photos can show. It is constantly moving, which is why you can hear cracks, falling ice and even small waterfalls from the melted ice.

A Heli-hike involves taking a helicopter up the the top of the glacier and then a guide brings you to climb around the glaciers, exploring the nooks and crannies of formed ice caves.

Even though sitting in a helicopter and looking down, it the glacier still looks small until you see another helicopter flying around, then you'll get an idea of how massive it really is.

I'm not sure if you're allowed on the glaciers on your own, but having a guide is really the only safe (and sane) choice. With experience, they know which areas are safe to step on without having any ice fall on you, or falling into the crevice of melted ice. Trust me, its worth it.

A guide will also explain the different landscapes around the glaciers and show you things you'd never expect. Like a small stream of melted ice.

Or the best thing on the glaciers, going through an ice cave! The pressure from the formation of the glacier produces this nice blue tinge (which turns white after exposure to the sun). So, finding a blue ice cave that you can slide through is amazing!

If you ever go that way, I'd definitely recommend a hike over the glacier (either Franz Josef or Fox Glacier, both should be equally good, but also depends on your luck with the weather!). The helicopter ride is a bonus, where you get to experience the massiveness of the glaciers and take in the entire glacier.

Pretty cool forest

Some forests in New Zealand are pine forests. These pine trees are not native to the country, but was brought in by early European settlers to replant the area so it would 'look better'. Some of these pines grew so well that it became pests and a danger to the native plants and wildlife.

Anyway, regardless, it is still pretty cool to walk through a pine forests, especially when the lower areas are covered with some kind of fluffy algae (or moss) and made the atmosphere look somewhat greenish.

Peace Pole in New Zealand

Remember sometime back when I posted about "Peace Poles"? Well, this time I've unexpectedly come across yet another Peace Pole.

This Peace Pole is situated in front of the YHA in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand. It is definitely an amazing place for a Peace Pole, very scenic with the mountain range in the background and definitely a very peaceful place to be!

Where else will I find my next Peace Pole?

Mountains in the morning

I am loving Kaikoura, New Zealand so far. Imagine waking up in the morning and finding this view outside your room each day!

Seals!

There's so much wildlife in Kaikoura, New Zealand. Walking around the coast, you'll bump into a colony of fur seals. And they smell too.

Whales!

Finally the weather is nice enough on Kaikoura, New Zealand to go on a whale watching tour. The sea was still rough, but it was so worth it to see these majestic giant creatures (even if you only see the top of their head, and tail)

Rotorua

Rotorua is a town in New Zealand's north Island that is famous for its thermal grounds. There are lots of hot springs here and lots of places with thermal activities. A walk around the park, and you can see lots of steam (stinky though), some boiling water, lots of gas escaping and sometimes even what looks like boiling mud. There is a small place where the temperature is right for soaking tired legs.

For more information, visit their website:http://www.rotoruanz.com/

Lady Knox Geyser

There is a geyser called Lady Knox that goes off at about 10.15am daily near to Rotorua, New Zealand.

This attraction is part of the "thermal wonderland" of Wai-O-Tapu. It normally costs NZD 32 for the admission. However, since the geyser is outside the rest of the park, you can watch it for FREE if you know where to find it (just ask around, its about 2km away).

This geyser would normally erupt once every few days, but a staff from the park help set it off by adding some detergent into it (eco-friendly detergent, apparently).

It doesn't erupt immediately after adding detergent. It still took about 10 minutes before water shoots out and mixes with the cold air to have lots of steam surrounding it. But it was pretty cool anyway. The other place you can see geysers is in the US.

A little bit of Kiwiland

The silver fern, symbol of NZ

Beitou, Taiwan Hotsprings

Beitou, Taiwan is just north of Taipei, about 1 hour in the MRT from downtown (TWD 35, or just RM3.50). This area is known for its hot springs. Even the air stinks of sulphur sometimes.

You can opt to go visit the outdoor hot springs, which is normally full of local people, or you could enjoy one of the many spas at the area.

Most hotels here also provide hot spring water directly into your bathtub!

So, if you're too lazy to climb up the hill to an outdoor hot spring, or don't want to face the crowds there, you can still relax and enjoy the springs right in your own hotel room.

Cutting Creativity

One must have a lot of talent to create a masterpiece so quickly with just a pair of scissors. This woman cuts silhouettes of her customers on the spot in Taipei, Taiwan.

The final piece!

Taiwan's Night Market

Taiwan is famous for its night market. Here's a picture of Ximending right in the centre of the city!

Bangkok by Night

Here's some photos of Bangkok by night. Taken from Lebua Hotel. That river is the Chao Phraya river.

Remembering those who fell in Kanchanaburi

A recent trip to Kanchanaburi was for a workshop, but we had time off one evening to go to the museum, the cemetery and the popular bridge (i.e. bridge over the River Kwai – also a movie).
During World War II, the Japanese invaded South East Asia and brought many POWs to Kanchanaburi to build a railroad that joins Thailand to Myanmar.

The museum had a lot of information on the building of this bridge and train line. Also a lot of focus on the sufferings of British, Australian and Dutch POWs (and a few Canadians and New Zealanders). In a smaller corner of this museum, they had the statistics of the actual number of POWs – guess what, most of those are from Malaysia! There was about 180,000 Asian POWs (most from Malaysia!) and more than half of those died in Kanchanaburi (as compared to 60,000 POWs from western countries, and about 15% died).
Anyway, this is still a very moving place to be.


At last, a small monument to remember at least the Chinese that fell on this place. 

Beauty in Nature

I went to Taman Negara some time ago. Besides looking for animals or doing the canopy walk, there are many more things around us that are naturally beautiful. One only has to open up your eyes and learn to see it.
Here are some pictures. Enjoy!


 

I C Drugs

The name of a pharmacy in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Greenwich Meridian (0°)

Greenwich meridian is the start of how we calculate longitude. It may not sound important, but without that we won’t have time or your GPS would not work. This Greenwich is in London and I went there for a visit last month.

Its cool to see where the line begins. It’s marked on the floor (unfortunately there’s a stupid long queue just to take pictures of yourself standing on the line).

Anyway, its still a nice visit as there’s the planetarium, the nice view and nice cool buildings too.



 
 
 

And you can touch the oldest thing on earth!