Yosemite: Where The Immortal Giants Live

The giant sequoia trees can be found in Yosemite National Park. They can live up to 3000 over years old and even after death, their wood still stays the same for another few hundreds or perhaps thousands of years. The wood is highly resistant towards fire, termites and decay. The only way a sequoia can die is either through the axe or when it falls over upon it's own massive weight. Words and pictures cannot describe how massive and impressive these trees are. When I stood beside these giants, I was awestruck by their massive height and size. I looked like a rat in a dinosaur era.

After the hike to see the giants, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Yosemite valley. Once again, I was dwarfed by the granite boulders that rise 4000ft straight up. I was literally holding my neck and looked upwards most of the time to see these majestic boulders like the El Capitan, Sentinel Dome and Half Dome. This visit during the summer was just an introductory trip for myself. Perhaps in the future, I will return again during different seasons especially winter time to enjoy that white serenity feeling or spring time to see the great water falls come to life with it's gushing water.

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I-City: Bright Lights, Dull Future

I-City in Shah Alam opened to much fanfare and promise. When it was just opened, many locals flock to this area and came back with beautiful pictures of this LED-lighted park. But beautiful pictures don't translate to actual atmosphere and tourist satisfaction. In my opinion, it was all down to bad planning and bad management. The beautiful park sucks up tons of electricity to power up the LED-lighted trees and maintenance is not cheap. In order to stay afloat, good attractions should be in place to continuously generate interests among visitors so they will return again. However, this place is half dead with only the trees shining brightly. The only visitors keeping this place filled are students from government sponsored schools which come in bus loads. Many commercial buildings around this park are vacant. Without commercial and shopping activities, there will be no drawing power to bring in visitors. The only attractions at the moment are the small water theme park which operates in the day and the boring amusement park cum snow center which operates at night. Parking fee is exorbitant and if you want to rely on public transport, then you're out of luck as this place is in the middle of nowhere. The boring rides at the amusement park are very costly if you pay a-la-carte. Perhaps the management should learn from the success of Sunway Pyramids. LED trees alone will not grow money nor attract investors and visitors. Currently, residents in Klang and Shah Alam have to travel far to Mid Valley or Sunway for weekend entertainment cum shopping activities. If you put a nice shopping mall beside the park, then there are more reasons for the residents here to come down to I-City rather than one time affair with the LED trees.

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Best Peking Duck Restaurant

If you are in Beijing and want to eat Peking duck, you can try DaDong restaurant in one of the four branches in the city. I've tried the one in NanXinCang (南新仓) cultural and pedestrian street at Dongsishitiao Rd. (东四十条). It was the best Peking duck I've tasted in my life. The chef of this restaurant is well known all over the world based on the awards, stars and pictures on their Hall of Fame wall. Since this place is popular among expats, you should come earlier during dinner time. If you don't mind the queue, you can always hang out and socialize at the very modern open bar at the entrance. Although considered fine dining restaurant, the bill is not too exorbitant. I had a ten course meal with Peking duck for just 200 yuan or SGD$40 per person.

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Mini Travel Log: Copenhagen, Denmark (2)

It is summer in Denmark. The sun rises at 4.30am and doesn't set until 10pm. For those loving the sun and outdoor activities, you're gonna love the long day. I enjoyed the sun and lovely weather while walking to see the Little Mermaid one more time. Surprisingly, not many tourists are found at the mermaid. Maybe Denmark is not a very popular tourist destination in Europe. I don't know why. Or perhaps there are better attractions to offer outside the city than the small and timid mermaid. Next time on my return, I shall check out the many countryside castles and cross over to Sweden too since both countries are separated only by a bridge.

On the side note, all the photos taken below are from my Samsung Galaxy S3. I did not bring any camera since it was a short trip. After a couple of updates, the phone is getting even better and the phone camera produces amazing pictures. You can never go wrong with a Galaxy series phone.

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Related link: Mini Travel Log: Copenhagen, Denmark (1)

Hazy Days Ahead

Due to irresponsible people over in Indonesia burning their land, their neighbours in South East Asia has got to pay for the price. This had been going on for decades with Indonesia not taking responsibilities. In respect of each other's sovereignty, there is no way other countries can bring Indonesia to task. In my whole life, I must say this is the worst condition compared to all the previous years. The only way that we perhaps can pressure them to be responsible is to boycott their products and services. Without feeling the economic pinch, these corrupt officials will never act and stop all those illegal burning. The world consumers should stop buying palm oil products from Indonesia until they are environmentally friendly.

Back in Singapore, it is "amazing" to see people blame the Government for not doing anything or buying them "free" masks. They had already done what can be done by disseminating information through various media about the severity of the haze hourly. They have also summoned the Indon officials to pressure them only to get a do-not-interfere reply. So what else is there to be done? Health is a responsibility of own individual. So people, save your breath complaining and take care of your health by wearing N95 mask when you are outside. If you are so smart in finding a solution, then volunteer yourself and go have a war with the Indons and claim their land to rid of the haze.


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Gardens By The Bay

After much procrastination, I finally visited the much acclaimed Singapore Premier Botanical Garden: Gardens By The Bay. I initially had doubts whether this garden is any better than the conventional botanical gardens found around the world. Well, depending on what kind of themes you are looking for, you may like or hate it. This garden is very much an artificial garden with huge man-made structures like the Supertrees and conservatories. It is more extra-terrestrial than you would expect from a botanical garden. The conservatories are worth the visit especially the Tropical Forest conservatory. The gigantic man-made waterfall is magnificent. Outdoor gardens are free for the public but there is nothing much to expect from a hot tropical country except trees and more gigantic trees; the Supertrees. Should you visit this garden, plan your visit to start around 4pm. You'd have ample time to visit both conservatories and then walk around outside. Go to the central Supertrees around 6.30-7.30pm to see the Supertrees come to life with the beautiful sunset city as backdrop. After all this, you can cross the pedestrian bridge over to Marina Bay Sands Shopping Center. You can watch the musical fountain at 8pm right at the wooden deck facing the city.

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Mini Travel Log: Sydney, Australia (2)

It is a rare opportunity for me to have a full day in Sydney. My last long stay here was more than 3 years ago. I revisited the Opera House and the Botanical Garden while enjoying the blue sunny day. I also braved the cold in the evening to view sunset over the Opera House and Harbor Bridge. It is an amazing sight of silhouettes and golden rays. If only the Opera House turns on its dome lights earlier, then it would have been a perfect evening for me.

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Related link: Mini Travel Log: Sydney, Australia (1)

Winter Tulip, Is That Possible?

This year, global warming really wrecked havoc to the world's weather ecosystem. While the Far East experienced early and very warm spring, the West were pounded with snow even in the late months of March/April. Weather is still freezing cold as of this posting which is already coming to the month of May. I returned to Holland earlier this month hoping to see beautiful tulip fields all over the landscape. To my disappointment, I only got to see dirt fields stretching far and beyond. The weather was so cold and no flower is ready to spring from the ground in such harsh conditions. The famous Keukenhof Gardens tried their best to please visitors by putting some potted tulips grown from the greenhouse around the huge garden. But I pity those tulips as it was trying so hard to survive in such cold weather. Luckily my trip was not wasted as they managed to grow beautiful tulips inside their huge greenhouse and opened it for visitors. I spent almost all my time indoor rather than outdoor to admire the tulips and also partly to escape the cold temperature outside.

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For those interested to know how it looks like during the full tulip bloom, you can also check out my previous trip here: Tulip Mania, 2011

I have also returned to Zaanse Schans to visit the windmills, but on my own time own target instead of joining bus tours. I finally had the chance to explore all the windmills without rushing. You can easily take Bus 391 from the Amsterdam Central Station and alight directly in front of Zaanse Schans at the last stop. Both return tickets can be purchased on board the bus. If I'm not mistaken, it's 8 euro for 2-way.

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