Month: May 2017

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot.

Yong Suan Chinese coffee shop in Ipoh is a true melting pot with okra and customers from various cultures thrown together. Ipoh resident, Vasanthi Mailany, shot this pic at my request. It is at the famous coffee shop in Ipoh with the Indian Muslim nasi kandar (rice) tenant, also known as Nasi Vanggey, or welcome or “come in” in Tamil, it seems. The curry rice and assorted dishes were reportedly so good and addictive, it gained the notorious name of “Nasi Ganja” .

I tried one in KL and and at a couple more counterfeit shops claiming to be original branches in KL. Whenever, I confront the boss to ask if it is a genuine branch, authorised offshoot or legit spinoff, I get a nervous and suspicious answer.

Friend Jugjet Singh Randhawa saw my post and warned me he remembered seeing a sign at the Ipoh shop displaying a warning stating they have NO other branches, implying all others using the same name are fake. With Vasan’s new iPhone 7 pic, I can finally confirm from the horse’s mouth that there are no branches at anywhere else.

While I like some of the imitator’s pirated food, I cannot condone the plagiarism or blatant misuse of a brand name and riding or profiting from someone else’s popularity and hard-earned success. It is also cheating customers outright.

Many people travel to Ipoh on food trips and you can find many good hotel deals at my Ipoh Hotel Deals Finder Page:

http://www.mycen.my/ipoh-hotel-deals-finder/

Find a good hotel, sleep well and get up early for breakfast in Ipoh too.

Thank you Vasanthi Mailany for capturing a beautiful image of mullti ethnicity that is truly Malaysia. First time I am seeing the shop named as “Perniagaan Nasi Kandar Ayam Merah” and the kopitiam’s signboard spelling it as “Yong Suan Coffee Shop ” and not Yong Shuan Kopitiam as seen many times.

Makes sense because “Kopitiam” is a Hokkien word and Ipoh is predominantly Cantonese. As my friend Jahabar Sadiq, an expert on Nasi Kandar, said: “The senseless copying is getting out of hand and must stop”. Will show a comparison pic of real and fake Nasi Ganja soon.

#yongsuan #nasiganja #nasikandar #ipoh #food #ayammerah #mycenhotels #coffeeshop

Pontian Sunset

Pontian Sunset.

Few visitors to Pontian realise it is a district in Johor where its two coastal towns are named Pontian Besar and Pontian Kecil. Ironically, Pontian Kecil is the larger town and administrative capital of the district. It is famous for seafood, just like Kukup, to the south. Drive even further down the coastal road heading south and you will reach Tanjung Piai at the tip. It is Asia’s southernmost point on mainland Asia continent.

Being a former fishing village, Pontian Kecil is famous for seafood. I hunted down one of its famous wonton noodles stalls. Sin Kee served the noodles with tomato ketchup. The use of tomato sauce is possibly influenced by the town’s proximity to Singapore. Pontian region was also, once upon a time, the largest exporter of pineapples in the world.

I loved chilling out under the casuarina trees at the stalls at the breezy esplanade and watching the sunset by the sea. It was beautiful, making Pontian of the most under rated travel and adventure destinations.

There are many hotels in Pontian Kecil. Find a good deal here:
http://www.mycen.my/pontian-kecil-hotel-deals-finder/

#pontian #johor #pontian #pontiankechil #sunset #seaside #adventure #roadtrip #food #kukup #tanjungpiai #mycenhotels

Riccarton Capsule Hotel Kuala Lumpur

What do we know? Kuala Lumpur has a new capsule or pod hotel in the Tiitwangsa area known as the Riccarton Capsule Hotel.

It is in Wisma Q, opposite the McDonald’s Drive Thru in Jalan Pahang.

The lobby seems very spacious and nice. The pigeon holes in the lobby scared me at first. They can’t fit me or midgets, I thought. Turned out to be lockers cabinet for guests to store their shoes after exchanging for slippers and they are not capsules or pods. Lol.

Beside capsules, the budget hotel has regular rooms with double beds too (at a higher rate than pods, of course).

Book or view more of this new, clean budget hotel here

*Pics: External view by me and rooms by hotel’s website and agoda

Hit Me

I used this pic to accompany the Air Asia flying to Guangzhou story on Instagram. Felt that I should share it here too as it is a rare experience and view.

Sometimes, on an inaugural landing, the airport fire fighting truck is hired to spray a jet of water on the fuselage as a salute and welcome gesture. The AirAsia aircraft I sat in was painted in ASEAN Day livery. Good thing I clicked before the water cannon jet hit the window as it blurred out everything. It was surreal. unusual and an unexpected photography opportunity.

Find a room at special rate at http://www.mycen.my/guangzhou-hotel-deals-finder/

#airasia #guangzhou #melaka #malacca #canton #guangdong #flight #china #watersalute #aviation #airport

History Of Travel Pics

History Of Travel Pics.

A new tray of slides are loaded to MyCen Hotels. Since the last update, I have added cities with hotels at discounts such as Hat Yai, Macau, Manila and Yangon to Deals Finder.at http://www.mycen.my/hotel-deals-finder/

A Little History:

Slide film were cut up and mounted in plastic or cardboard mounts. They were then loaded intro a carousel tray to project onto a screen at home. Before the advent of video, it was a popular way of screening a corporate AV show with soundtrack and synchronized slide changing with multiple projectors. One slide gets jammed and the entire show goes haywire.

Screening of slides was popular with travelers in the West. The travelers will arrange all the slides and invite friends and neighbors to view a show in the form of a travelogue. Poor selection and repetitive subjects left audience bored and in tears. A such people used to fear neighbours going for a holiday. Today, social media takes over the role of the loathed slide projector.

To be honest, I hate it when SOME people go on a vacation too. Why would I want to look at your passport cover or a boarding pass? Or a parked airplane on the tarmac? Assholes, get a freaking life or partner to talk to and wait for the plane to land at your destination. It gets worse. The first thing such people do is not to look for a cab. They look for a place to rent a portable wi-fi modem to torture their Fb or IG followers.

The same idiots will bombard you with a selfie or wefie every 3 second, probably without taking in the sights. Ask yourself this? Why would I like to look at the toilet bowl in your hoteI or endless lattes at cafes? I want to gain insights and knowledge about a landmark or new city. Sadly, a few decades later, travel pics are more boring than the dreaded slide shows.

Transparency film can be the types that used E6 processing or Kodachrome which included processing in Australia. They were not very popular locally as they were more expensive. And what humans will wait 2 weeks to see the results?

Veteran photographers friends such as Cy Leow, Rian Maelzer and Lee Hong Leng will remember the good old days. Lee will. He operated a E6 processing lab in Jalan Alor.

#slide #e6 #film #mycenhotels