Google meeting people at Zurich

Lately the Adsense in Your City event took place at Zurich where Google gets to meet publishers from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and France. The agenda includes seminars and presentations about trends in the online advertising market, best tips to optimize Adsense earnings, DFP Small Business, Website usability and truth about common SEO myths. Plus activities like consultation, pizza and beers to get to know each other. Sounds like a fun party to me. Well, I’m still waiting for Google to stop by some place close to where I live. I just hope that it can happen soon. Or, I can work hard in making money using Google Adsense and hopefully I can make enough money to pay for my trip to any coming Adsense in Your City. I think the later suggestion is the best choice. But still it will require some help from Google Adsense. Instead of waiting for Google to come to me, it’s best that I go to them with the paycheck Google send to me.

The view from back seat of the car

I’m always the person who drivers the car when it comes to traveling. That’s the faith of having my own car. Unless somebody else offering me a ride, driver’s seat is the only place for me. Occasionally when there is a need to car pool with family members or colleague, than there is a chance I get to experience the joy of sitting at the back of the car with my hands free.

I love travelling. I love to drive my car exploring places. The scenery along the road and the music of my choices is a wonderful way to spend my time driving. I don’t need any company on my road trip because it will spoil my original plan. Well, when you have somebody along with you in the car, conversation definitely occurs. It’s like you’re trap with another person in a small room and both of you have nothing else to do but talk. So the entertainment of choice becomes chit chat instead of enjoying the view and listening to the music. Plus the so call entertainment chit chat might become strange and uncomfortable if you’re company with a person which has a different channel of mind set.

When you’re at the back seat of the car, the view and responsibility are different. You can eat, drink, read a book, enjoy the scene along the road, play with your smart phone and working with your laptop. I suppose that is why some people prefer to hire a driver. But I think they are trying to make the time either for work or rest while they are on the road.

P/S: I still prefer to drive alone instead of having others to drive me around.

Coffee House Used in the Scene of Japan Drama

I love to watch Japan Drama. One of my favorite Japan dramas is “Yasashii Jikan”. The scene was taken in couple of small coffee shop located in Hokkaido. That’s a location where you’ll experience summer, winter, autumn and spring. Take a look at the video and imagine if you’re able to have coffee in this coffee house from autumn to winter. The best part of this coffee house is the location where it situated in the forest. The windows of the coffee shop are extremely large as you can enjoy the scenery outside. Especially during autumn and winter, the brown color leaves and the white snow are the best scenes you get. These beautiful scenes are best enjoyed with a nice cup of coffee. If you have a chance to go Japan and Hokkaido, find the coffee house. You won’t regret it.

Second Trip to Kuala Terengganu

    After couple of months I’m taking another trip back to Kuala Terengganu again. This time my mission is to deliver a small transportation call “Kancil” from Penang to Kuala Terengganu. The delivery date was 1st Jan 2010 and I have two companions along the trip. The mission estimated will takes about 7 hours of driving. I have to say, driving such a small car on such a long journey is not a good idea. As this is the only option that we have, we just have to do it carefully.

    We start the journey at about 7am in the morning. Everything looks ok. The “Kancil” car has been check and service couple of days right before the journey. It should be fine and free from all the possible damage that can cause the car to break down. You definitely don’t want to have a break down in the middle of the trip from Penang to Kuala Terengganu. The first half of the trip is going up the hills and forest. The only thing that you can see is the road, a few transportation and lots of trees. One thing for sure, cell phone signals are not available at certain areas. So if you really do have a car problem, you’ll just have to ask those who pass by for. Imagine the helpless and danger that you might face if you were to drive at night. Plus animals like elephant or other wild animals might appear along the road during night time. For all that reasons, try not to drive at night if you’re heading to Kuala Terengganu from Penang.

    Driving a small car going up and down hills is not easy, or shall I say it’s far more dangerous than I think. That’s because there are lots of turns and the road condition is not good. Sometimes we have to keep a distance from trucks that carry tree trunks. A simple kiss from these giant trucks is enough to knock us down the hill.

    When we left the hills and enter the second half of the road trip, it began to rain. This part of the road is much safer because we can see houses, mosque and schools along the road. At least there are people living close by the road. For the second part of the trip, the rain is the problem. It never did stop raining once it started. A small car with small tires can easily slip when there is water on the road. Thus we have to drive slower than usual.

    We finally reached Kuala Terengganu but it took us about 7 hours of driving. Lucky this is the second time that we do this but with a smaller car, we have no problem in reaching our destination. As a reward for mission accomplish, we were treated will “Big Tea Rice” at Kuala Terengganu China Town. Check out the photo of the entrance that I took at night.

    We didn’t stay long in Kuala Terengganu. We left the next day taking the bus. The bus departed at about 9:30am in the morning and reached Penang at about 5:30pm. That’s about 8 hours of journey. Don’t think I’m going to take another long bus trip any sooner. It’s really painful having to sit in the bus for such long hours. When we reached the up hills and down hills area, haze form around the road. That’s about 4pm in the afternoon and it’s raining. Driving up and down the hills when it’s raining and the haze around, it’s just dangerous.

P/S: The trip is a bit dangerous but there are lots of great places that you can stop by for sightseeing. There are couples of small waterfalls close by the road that you can have a picnic too.

A walk around Penang Kek Lok Si and the New Temple building

Lately I have a chance to visit Penang Kek Lok Si temple, or shall I say revisit as this is not my first trip. It’s has been a long time since I step foot in Kek Lok Si Temple. I think it’s more than 15 years and I can hardly remember a thing about it. This time I get to drive to Kek Lok Si and park my car in front of the temple. As I went there early in the morning on weekday, there aren’t many visitors. The way to Kek Lok Si temple is simple. All you have to do is search for Kek Lok Si temple using Google Map and you’ll find your way. If you’re coming from Penang Bridge, the best way that you should follow is through Lebuhraya Jelutong -> Jalan Tunku Kudin ->Jalan Masjid Negeri ->Jalan Air Hitam.
Just like any other temple, Kek Lok si temple is a quiet place. A place that people come to pray, wish or searching for a peaceful mind. Kek Lok Si temple is more than 100 years old. You can find lots of old painting, statues and work of art around the temple. Don’t forget to check out the ceilings as that’s the best part of the temple. At the top side of the temple a newly built 16 pillars shelter for the Kuan Yin statue along with some buildings were built. The opening ceremony was carried out just couple of days before I visited the temple. Honestly I have no idea about the ceremony but I did catch up with the evens after the ceremony. There seems to have some presentation and lectures given by the elder monk. I didn’t stay for the lectures. I’m more interested in scouting around the temple. It took me just an hour to check out the whole temple. As Kek Lok Si temple is situated along Penang Hill, you need to walk up hill to reach the newly built temple. Alternately you can try out the mini cable car that connects the old temple and the new temple. It’s a short distance but definitely better for the seniors to ride it. The walk to the upper hill temple is difficult for seniors. It will be better just to take the mini cable car. Plus you can enjoy the scenery from the mini cable car.
There is couple of things that I saw that I don’t like. The first thing is beggars. Don’t be surprise that the money they get might be more than your salary. Another type of beggars or shall I say people that going around asking for donation. These people will play their games offensively rather than defensively like the prior group. Neither one of them is good for the image of tourism. The second thing is the admission fee needed for some area of the temple. I still remember that I was free to go any place in the temple. The admission fee is just preventing people from visiting the area.
If you haven’t been to Kek Lok Si temple for a long time, perhaps this might be a good time to check it out as the new temple has completed. Make sure that you choose the visiting date carefully to avoid the crowd. If not you might spending more time in traffic jam than touring. It’s just a 2 hour tour if you’re able to beat the crowd.

P/S: Make sure your car can go up hill before you try to get to the top new temple. It will be a good idea to just stop at the old temple and take the mini cable car to the new temple.

A Trip From Penang to Kuala Terengganu

Lately I happened to have a chance to travel to East coast Malaysia – Kuala Terengganu. Consider it as a mission to escort 3 lovely princesses for relocation. We have 5 knights with 3 iron wagons fully loaded with supplies. We also have a little fairy call GPS that guide us all the way to our destination. We began our journey at about 6:30am in the morning. We started off from the petrol station at Permatang Pauh and below are the details of our journey.

Permatang Pauh (Road 67) – Kulim (Road 67) – Kuala Ketil (Road 67) – Kupang (Road 67 to K171) – Baling (Road K173 to A173) – Gerik (Road A173 to 4) – Jeli (Road 4) – Ayer Lanas (Road 4) – Machang (Road 4) – Jerteh (Road 3) – Permaisuri (Road 3) – Kuala Terengganu (Road T4)

Basically it’s a simple straight forward road as there is only one way to get from West to East side of Malaysia. We just drive straight ahead until we reached Machang. Turn right as we reached a junction that switch from Road 4 to Road 3. After that just drive straight ahead until we reached a road about. Choose the 2nd exit or 12 o’clock straight ahead road which switch from Road 3 to Road T4. Drive straight ahead for another 10 minutes and we’ve reached the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge. After crossing the bride we arrived at the city of Kuala Terengganu.
I have to say this can be a dangerous journey if you’re not careful. We saw lots of dead animal lying around the road side including monkey, cow, dog and bird. These animals probably hit by cars or trucks. If you’re not careful these animals might cause serious accident. Along the road side we witness signs indicating appearance of deer and elephant. I was hoping to see these animals but instead I saw something that took me by surprise. We saw a wild tiger crossing the road while driving, but that was on my return trip. There are about 500 wild tigers left in Malaysia and it’s very rare for tigers to come out broad day light. Chances of having to see a wild tiger is very slim. I suppose we must be very lucky that day. By the way, the passenger next to me saw the wild tiger too. So I got a witness to prove that I’m not lying. We saw the tiger at about 11:00am in the morning. We couldn’t help to imagine what will happen if motorcyclist saw the wild tiger instead of us. Half of the journey is going up and down between the hills and forest. We are actually very close to where these wild animal lives. At some part of the roads, we did kind of worried about the foggy condition but it was just a short distance only. It was about 9:00am but the foggy condition still there, must be due to the high altitude and the forest around.We were lucky that the weather is fine all the way we drived. The road condition can be very bad if rain. Not to mention if trying to drive at night in these roads, just imagine how dangerous it is. Most of the roads don’t even have lights or reflectors. I can imagine it’s like driving into pitch black with no ends. So what’s the worst condition that you can get if trying to drive at night? Here’s what you might experience, driving through pitch black with no lights, raining, foggy and bumping into wild animals. For safety, it would be best to take this journey day time when the sun is shining above.

This journey is a bit dangerous and time consuming but the views along the road is great. That is if you love site seeing. Some rest area along the road side on top of the hills has great views. We’re able to enjoy the cool wind standing high above the hills scouting around the land below. Perhaps the best views throughout the whole journey are around Tasik Temengor, where we need to cross couple of long bridges. As for the buildings along the road side, I can only remember lots of schools and mosques.

We reached Kuala Terengganu at about 1:00pm. That’s about 7 hours of driving including stopping for fuel and rest. We could reach Kuala Terengganu earlier but for first timer it’s better to take more time and be safe. Crossing the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge was the most exciting moment as that is the sign we reached Kuala Terengganu. The first thing that caught our eyes the moment that we drove on the bridge is number of mosque buildings on our right hand side. I suppose there are at least 5~6 mosques.This is surely an exciting trip and we were able to reach our destination safely and found the castle which our princesses stay. The castle is situated high above the ground and situated in the middle of the city. The view from the castle is gorgeous as we can almost see half of the city. That includes the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge and the mosques. After staying for couple of days and safely relocated our princesses, we return to where we came from. Some of the knights took flights but couple of us drove back hitting on the same road where we came from. Mission accomplished!!

Save money through Airline Credit Cards

The oil price is still going up and it is time to take some action to cut down some travel expenses. Especially for those that travel a lot either it’s on wheels or taking flights, travel expenses definitely will be increase. In this situation, airline credit cards can help you save a lot of money. You can’t stop travelling as its part of your work, so why not make full use of it. Before you apply for an airline credit card, do a study on various airline credit cards available. Choose the best one that suits your travel condition so that you get the best benefits out from it. There are lots of features that you can consider for example no annual fee, bonus miles, double miles on travel and gas, travel insurance and many more. It’s the little things that add up to big saving. Take some time to work it out and you might end up saving form hundreds to thousands.

Planning for Travelling and blogging

My final goal of blogging lifestyle is able to travel around the world and blog at the same time. I’m still working on it and it’s going to be my 1~2 year plan. I hope to establish a stable income from my blogs before I start picking up my bags and move around. Most of the hotels nowadays have internet access, so that won’t be a problem for me to keep on posting. I happened to check out some of the hotels around the world and some of them really are like castle. Spending the time in these hotels might just like having the days in your life. Check out these hotels in Amsterdam and Rome. They are some of the finest hotels in Europe. It sure is a romantic place just nice for couples. Having to go there alone blogging might sound lonely but its one great way to spend time. Especially if you treat it as your freelance working time, inspirations might flows continuously. Anybody ever think of blogging on a topic related to Hotels and traveling? Just pick up your laptops and stay at the hotel that you’ll be discussing in your blog. A freelancer that travels around writing reviews about hotels and local attractions sounds nice, don’t you think.

Real time traffic checking with CCTV cameras in Malaysia

Several highways in Malaysia have install CCTV cameras that allow us to monitor traffic condition online. You can check online and see the conditions of the highway before heading for that location. Some of the cameras are still undergoing beta testing but you still able to see some images on and off. Below are the links of the cameras online to monitor the traffic.

Penang Bridge Traffic
PLUS Highway Traffic
KL Live Traffic

Catching Butterflies right before Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody, its holiday time and we should do something special instead of just staying home blogging. That’s what I though and so I decided to take a trip to enjoy the green environment in my country. I called up few of my friends and we decided to check out Penang Butterfly Farm. I visited the farm about 16 years ago but not much that I can remember about the place. Penang Butterfly Farm is said to be the world 1^st tropical live butterfly sanctuary and has been around since the 80’s. Given that the farm has been around for so long, you can imagine how many collections the farm has. Here’s what you can find in the farm – butterfly eggs & caterpillar, butterfly pupae, white squirrel, wild meadow, giant scorpion, giant millipede, water snake, soft-shell turtle, orchid, iguana & 6 footed tortoise, stick insect, leaf insect, nepenthes, lizard, tropical fish, water Lilly, oriental water dragon, mandarin duck, horse-shoe crab, insect museum, insectariums and many more.

The best time to visit the farm is in the morning at about 9am that is when the farm opens up. You’ll able to witness butterflies emerge into the new world from hundreds of pupae. That is not something that you can see easily out side the farm. Besides you’ll be able to catch the 10am show where you have the chance to be up close with creatures like oriental water dragon, moth, grasshopper and many more.

The best part of being in the farm is that butterflies will never afraid to rest on your body. When I enter the farm, immediately I got 3 butterflies rest on my shoulder, my head and on my palm. That’s really a special experience but you need to be calm and not afraid of bugs. You have to be careful when moving around as there are so many butterflies around and you might accidentally step on it or hit it.

The Penang Butterfly Farm is definitely a place worth visiting as there are lots of insects to see and very educated. Kids love the place and they are really having fun in the farm. Do visit the place when you have the chance. I happened to get some postcards from the farm and I like to send it out to my readers. I got 5 postcards to give to 5 lucky readers. Here’s how you can win yourself one of the cards.

1. Subscribe to my RSS feeds
2. Post about this Butterfly Farm postcard giveaway contest.
3. Leave a comment under this post with the link to your post.

I’ll randomly choose 5 lucky winners, and then contact you for the address to send the post cards. I think the post cards can reach any place in the world unless it gets lost on the way. That I can’t guarantee but you can be sure that I’ll send out those post cards. This contest will end at 8^th Jan 2008.

Looking for last minutes deals for hotel?

Well, Christmas is near. Flight tickets, hotels, buses, should be full by now. It’s going to be difficult if you decided to have a last minute vacation. You can check out cheaperthanhotels to see if there are still any vacancies for the places you want to go. Of cause the destination is limited. Planning on a vacation to a destination that out of your mind might seems crazy or waste of money. That might not entirely true if your main purpose is to just find a place where you can relax and makes you forget about work. Having to go to places that you never think of might be a good adventure. Most of us plan our vacation way ahead and already know where and what we will bump into. That might seem a bit the same as planning the work schedule where you have to plan and get things done. So, if you go on a vacation and still schedule and plan then you might be going through the same thing. Once in a while you should just take your bags and go. It should be fun.

Looking for Hotels for Your Year End Holiday Seasons Vacation?

Plan for a trip for this coming holidays? If you’re looking for Hotel, flights, car rental and vacation packages, then take a look at Hotel Reservations. Lots of choices from hotels, motels, resorts, vacation rentals base on your selection. All you need to do is just follow the 1-2-3 step by step selection on the site and you will be presented with a list of hotels or vacation packages. You can even check for the room availability according to your schedule. Not bad for checking out the info of hotels and availability around the world. The best part of this site is that they are offering rebates up to $100 if you make hotel reservation with them. Check out the site for details. Happy holidays.

50 years of learning and improving...Happy 50th Birthday Malaysia

I just took this picture using my parent's camera. This picture of the moon is taken using BenQ Digital Camera C640. I'm not really good at using a camera. I never really learn to use it. Perhaps it's not a bad idea to start learning as its kind of fun. Life is too short as there are so much more to learn. The more we learn, the more we realize that a lot of things we don't know. Guess what we can do is just keep on learning as much as possible. 31st August 2007 is Malaysia 50 years Independence Day celebration. Malaysia gain independence in 1957 and since then it's already 50 years. The government is planning a big celebration this year. I think the main event will be in Kuala Lumpur, but I'm sure my home town will be celebrating as well. I'll try to take some pictures on that day and post it up after the event. So be sure to check it out.

"Forrest Gump" - I want to live a stupid but wonderful life.
"The Truman Show" - I want to break free from a normal life.
"Good Will Hunting" - I want to do what I love instead of what I want.

Penang Net TV, brings Penang to your home PC...

"We are merely ordinary Penangites. We take this opportunity to create a television culture that is fluid, diverse, exciting and beautiful. We record and host videos of real people that appear over this website."

A new website of video advertising created by the Penang locals. Interesting indeed to promote Penang–Malaysia and a good way too. Instead of just saying or writing it out with beautiful explanation, watching it directly make things more clear and understandable. A video is worth a thousand words. Especially when it involves parties of different culture and religion. I think this just open up another market and business opportunities. This includes international business too. It might be new but it sure has a huge business potential. Even though it is still focus on Penang state but still people around the world have the chance to watch it. The world has a chance to watch closely the culture and lifestyle of Malaysia people. It started out from Penang and I hope that each state will end up having their video advertising too.

For those who interested to know more details please kindly contact:

Name: Mr. Kuek

Contact No: +6012-4256243

Email: kueklb@yahoo.co.uk

The Clock Tower Of My Home Town

This clock tower was built almost 100 years ago. There was once a big flood and the water was up till half of the tower. Luckily the clock tower was able to survive the tragedy. Now it is one of the tourist interest. It is always a place of decoration when there is any function carry out. Often the clock tower will be dress up with thousand of lights. It's just like a lady dress up in a white wedding dress.

One day trip to Singapore

Last week I went to Singapore just to open a bank account. I took a bus right after work and departure to Singapore at night. It took the bus about 8 hours to reach Singapore. It was about 5AM in the morning when I reach there. As it was too early, most of the shops are still close. The only place that I can think of is MacDonald. So, I just have my breakfast and hand out there until the bank opens up.

People at Singapore really makes Christmas a very big event. Almost everybody are preparing for Christmas. They are shopping for presents, Christmas decorations and postcards. Conversation about what they going to do in Christmas holidays can be heard as I’m sitting there enjoying my coffee.

After finish my business here with the bank in Singapore, I just don’t have anything else to do. It’s a one day trip, so I didn’t plan to go any where. I still got about 4 hours to go before my trip back home. So I walk into Star Buck after I had my lunch. There are a few things that I notice that makes me feel comfortable and relax here. After the long hour travel and not having enough sleeps, I’m just almost up to my limit. Lucky that I’m able to find this coffee shop. The shop was playing soft Christmas song as I got myself a cappuccino latte. Find a nice spot to sit to check on my e-mails and enjoy my latte. The shop is equipped with the state of the art audio system – BOSE satellite system. Now that’s my choice of the audio system. The coffee is nice as usual, it’ Star Buck you know what I mean. What actually caught my attention is the service that the waitress provided. A worm well come at the entrance and greets with what your mother will say to you when you back home. They even bring me a cup of worm water along with a cookie. Now that’s the thing that they done to be better then all other competitors. There are so many famous coffee chop franchises and it is not easy to maintain the business. Everybody will be given the same thing when you purchase the franchise. That is why to become better then others, you’ll have to work on the services provided.

I’m able to spend my time comfortable in the coffee shop before I get on my bus. Before I walk out of the coffee shop, I was given a small Christmas present from the waitress. With a smile in their face, it’s not “Good Bye”, it’s “Merry Christmas and please come again” that’s accompany me back home.

The Bridge That I Cross Everyday - Penang Bridge

Another reason that I hang out here almost everyday is because of the traffic condition. Whenever there is a traffic jam and if you are caught right in the middle of it, then it will be at least 1 hour slow moving. Plus this jam happens right before crossing the bridge. Everybody is rushing to that 2-lane entrance. Everybody wants to go home quick and almost everybody get off work at the same time. Of cause there will be a lot of cars out there, and this is too much for the bridge to handle.

When you have a lot of cars on the road, then surely you will expect accident to happen more offend. When there is an accident, you will expect to see a long Q. That's not all of it. There are a lot of reason that will cause massive traffic jam to the bridge. When it's raining, jam. When there is a festival going on, jam. Friday night, jam. New year, jam. Christmas, jam. So check out our Jam Bridge.