Tag: mycen hotels

The Cardboard Camera Is Very Practical For A Beach Outing

Someone asked me today about my favourite local beach. Not for swimming or water activities. For sunset photography.
Sunsets are almost always fabulous from the seaside. KL is landlocked. So what do we do? We can travel to the nearest beach. Where can we go? Morib is on the west coast facing the Straits of Malacca and facing the setting sun.

1. The sunsets are consistently good.
2. It is relatively near to KL.
3. The hotels are fairly cheap.
4. We get to stop at Banting where there is good food.
5. If you are adventurous, you may want to drive south to AVANI Sepang Goldcoast Resort in Bagan Lalang.

A long time ago, a Chinese provision (grocery) shop lady in Morib warned me to not walk on the beach at night. She said there were cases of couples getting robbed. The beach is now less deserted at night but always stay safe and alert.
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On the Morib esplanade, Carmen was photographed showing off her IKEA cardboard camera known as KNÄPPA. It was a one time issue, was not for sale nor did it require assembly. Just insert the two included yellow IKEA batteries. Memory is built in. It is fully functional albeit the brutalist design. I like that it uses a peep hole as viewfinder.

The blurry images are like those from Holga and Lomo. Unlike the two, this is digital but minus the cost of film. Blurry and unique should make it a sought after hipster collectible. Is there a tripod screw hole? IKEA wants you to buy a chair for stability.

At the beach, we need not worry about rust from the salty air and sea spray corrosion. However, at home; you might need to worry about silverfishes and other bugs eating your cardboard camera when stored in the drawer! LOL.

Seaside sunsets are unpredictable because of the travel distance and can fade fast because of changing weather.

See Hotels in Morib and the Gold Coast, if you need to spend a night.
http://www.mycen.my/hotels-in-morib-and-gold-coast-selangor/

sunset, dusk, beach, twilight, morib, goldcoast, selangor, ikeacamera, knappa, carmen

Give Thanks

Give Thanks.

I think it was 2004 and there were thousands of pilgrims at the holy site. I spoke to an anonymous Christian man from the Borneo state of Sabah. He told me he was grateful to one man, besides God. Taken aback, while standing next to a grotto, I asked him who? He said it was the owner and founder of budget airline AirAsia who allowed him and his family to make a pilgrimage from Sabah for the first time, for which it will otherwise be unaffordable to him, as in previously. The honest and simple man told me he is illiterate and didn’t know how to convey his appreciation to the correct person. By God’s will. he picked me out from the sea of crowd and came to the right person.

I conveyed what he said To Sir Tony Fernandes via Twitter @tonyfernandes immediately and Tony was quite pleased.

Remember to book or find your hotel at MyCen Hotels by searching for Penang or Bukit Mertajam from my site at http://www.mycen.my/
Picture of pilgrims congregating on the steps of the shrine in 2016.

St. Anne Church Of Bukit Mertajam, Penang on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/St.AnneChurchBM/>
MyCen Hotels on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/mycenhotels/>
Tony Fernandes on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/tonyfernandes/>

#stanne #feast #bukitmertajam #penang #catholic #church #event #sabah #sabahan #airasia #mycenhotels

Pretty and Petite

I met these two strangers at St Anne’s church in Bukit Mertajam in 2004, I think. I wrote in a blog post captions as reproduced below. Fortunately, I always send by mail for Instagram posting and over the years, every post was archived in Gmail, including the attached pics.

“I thought these two petite lasses looked quite pretty with the warm sunset setting behind their tinted hair. So I asked the strangers if I could take a picture of them. Cousins Leow <@leowyh> (left) and Chin (right) <@mellisa_phei> graciously agreed. They are from Penang Island and were at the St Anne’s Church doing selfies as tourists. When I told them I might post their pic on Instagram, they launched their app and followed me on the spot. I did likewise. Haha. Geeks don’t exchange phone numbers”

I followed them on social media over the years and saw them grow. I hated Leow’s love affair with Snapchat filters and Boomerang antics but like Mellisa;s record of going to university in Taiwan. It was was like watching her lifestory unfolding. Leow is now @leow_bbbbb and Mellisa is at @mchinlife on Instagram,

The Feast of St Anne is on 21st July to 30th July this year at the St Anne Sanctuary in Bukit Mertajam. I usually stay in Penang island as the hotels in Bukit Mertajam were usually fully booked. Not unexpected when there are millions of pilgrims from the region. Facebook of St Anne’s Sanctuary BM 大山脚圣安纳堂

Book or find your hotel at MyCen Hotels http://www.mycen.my/ by searching for Penang or Bukit Mertajam from my site.

Rooms may already be tough to find from today, Not unexpected as the celebrations attract millions of pilgrims from the region. Next, I’ll post some pictures of the church from 2004, 2008. 2014 and 2016

#stanne #feast #bukitmertajam #penang #catholic #church #event

Dili, East Timor

My friend, Eric Wong a hobby currency note collector is looking for a piece of East Timor currency to complete his Asian collection.

I contacted academician and activist Ying Hooi who travels to East Timor frequently, She told me the budding new nation prefers to use US currency. That cannot bode well, just like Cambodia where everything is quoted in USD. Everything became more expensive not just for tourists but for local consumers as well, A worker and even street beggars will ask for “one dollah” for tips.

Update: Ying Hooi says Timor Leste has no own currency because they are a small economy, They currently have coins though. Eric may have shown us a colonial day note which should be more valuable.

Ying Hooi is seen here in the first picture on top of the hill where the statue of Cristo Rei of Dili (or Christ the King of Dili). Beautiful and model like Ying Hooi is sitting on a cliff overlooking the Savu Sea. She also shared a ground level shot of the popular landmark.Her pic of Tai besi Market of Dili is very interesting too. It was a beans seller. 4th pic is supposedly East Timor money from Eric;s Fb.

Timor-Leste, or East Timor had a long hard struggle to independence from Portugal in 1975 and was subsequently invaded and annexed by Indonesia until it was granted Independence in 2002..
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Find a hotel in Dili here: http://www.mycen.my/dili-hotel-deals-finder/

#dili #easttimor #timorleste #island #portugal #indonesia #maluku #islands #cristorei

T&L’s Top 100 Hotels in the World – Oberoi

T&L’s Top 100 Hotels in the World.

Travel & Leisure Magazine and website (http://www.travelandleisure.com/) under TIME Inc has an annual list of The Top 100 Hotels in the World ranked with input from readers and savvy travelers.

This year’s list of the best 100 hotels include exclusive safari lodges, urban sanctuaries, and family-friendly beach resorts that they claimed will inspire some serious wanderlust.

We will look at some of the hotels that made the list that are available for booking at MyCen Hotels. Ranked at 84th is the The Oberoi Udaivilas Udaipur Hotel in the beautiful Lake City of India. On its grounds, is a twenty-acre wildlife sanctuary with deers and wild boars.

Book and see more of the hotel here: https://www.agoda.com/partners/partnersearch.aspx?cid=1775757&pcs=1&hid=111166

Pic from Agoda.com

#oberoi #udaipur #lakecity #india #luxuryhotel #myvenhotels #t&l #travel #travellust