Forever 28~

I went to Penang to meet my friends during this Chinese New Year. Hence, he brought us around Penang for food and sightseeing. One of the places that he brought us to go is Khoo Kongsi which is located in Georgetown. The entrance is at an alley, quite unnotceable. If you are not familiar then you might need time to find the entrance.

The entrance fee for Khoo Kongsi has increased from RM5 to RM10 in just half-year time. The fees included two postcards and one entrance stickers. Honestly, I don’t think it is worth for the amoung that we paid (especially for local). But, if you appreciated arts, clanhouse and the history, then maybe you can visit to this place. Of course, if you are from Khoo (邱) family, then perhaps you should visit there to know how the Khoo family travelled to Malaysia in many years ago.

We took about 20 minutes in this area. I don’t see many foreigners visiting the place as well. Usually they like this kind of cultural places in Malaysia. So, worth it or not, you have to see it on your own.

Plus highway is having special discount for the PLUSMiles Cardmembers at the PLUS Expressway during Chinese New Year period. However, the discount is not applicable for non-member and it is only or certain days only.

On 28th and 29th jJanuary and 3rd & 4th February 2011, PLUSMiles Cardmembers can enjoy 20% toll rebate when you pay toll fee between 7:01am until 11:59pm and 30% rebate when you pay toll fees between 12:00am until 7:00am.

Personally, I think the rebate doesn’t bring any impact for the public. Perhaps they should give rebate to all the users and extra rebate for members, and then everyone would get benefit from this. I don’t think it would affect much on their yearly avenue but can bring joys to a lot of people!

picture from http://www.plus.com.my

I had participated Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon (SCKLM) since 2009. The first time I’d participated a 10-KM run, and then I’d participated half-marathon last year in SCKLM 2010. And now, the SCKLM 2011 is open for registration. The run is on 26 June 2011 (Sunday).

At first, I was thinking to challenge myself with the full-marathon which is 42 KM. But then, I was lack of training for quite long, hence I’ve registered for half-marathon in SCKLM2011!

I think the registration fees have slightly increased this year. The early bird discount is from 17 January to 28 February, so if you have made up your mind to participate, do register earlier. If you pay by Standard Chartered credit card, then you can enjoy another 10% discount! So, I paid RM 49.50 for my half-marathon in SCKLM 2011 after early bird and Standard Chartered credit card discount!

Hope to see you all there!

registration fees table derived from http://www.kl-marathon.com

Universal Studio Singapore is a movie theme park located at Resort World Sentosa, Singapore. It is the first Universal Studio Theme Park in Southeast Asia, and the second in Asia after Japan. When the time I were there in September 2010, there are certain areas are still under construction. However, it is still worth to visit!

I went to Universal Studio Singapore during weekend, so the ticket price is $72 but the ticket attached with $5 food voucher and $5 mechanize voucher. If your visit is during weekend, then you only need to pay $66. The advantages for visiting Universal Studio during weekdays are, discounted ticket price and less crowded. But of cause, most of us are working during weekdays.

I went in to Universal Studio about 1130am and it is not so crowded yet. Hence, I could snap photos with those cartoon characters. They only appear at certain time, so you have to grab your chance to snap photo with them.

There are few shows that cannot be missed. Firstly is the Shrek 4D movie. It is located at “Far far away” section. Also not forgetting the interactive show in Donkey Live, it brings a lot of fun and joy to enlighten your day. Secondly is the WaterWorld stunt show at The Lost World. It is a live show where you can see a lot of movie stunt. Do check the show time so that you won’t miss it. The one that I like the most is Lights, Camera, Action: Hosted by Steven Spielberg located at “New York”. This is premiering in the Singapore and you can see a lot of special effects that appear in the movies! I can say this is a must go spot in Universal Studio Singapore.

I am not fancy with rides so I have no comments to their rides. But I can see people are lining up to take the ride in the late afternoon. And I returned again at night about 8pm for the fireworks. The fireworks is nothing to shout about, you can skip this if you are tired after a daylong trip.

As a conclusion, I am very happy with this visit to Universal Studio Singapore. It is really a nice theme park to visit in Southeast Asia!

It has been quite some time I didn’t visit to Singapore. I think my previous visit to Singapore was about 10 years ago. My friend invited me to go to Singapore last September. Since he owns an apartment in Singapore and he has accommodation for me, I happily accepted his invitation.

I took TigerAirway from LCCT to Singapore Changi Airport. Apparently there is budget terminal in Changi Airport as well. The flight is about 1 hour 15 minutes, by the time we reached, it was about 12am. Then, we took taxi to my friend’s house. It is doubled charged for mid-night taxi service, but we didn’t have other alternative.
The taxi driver was very helpful. He is Malay but he spoke English with us most of the time. He patiently find my friend’s place for us and wished us have nice trip. I seldom have chance to take taxi in Malaysia but I heard a lot of complaints about taxi drivers in Malaysia.
That was my first good impression about Singapore after many years…