CHINA TOWN - Kuala Lumpur

PETALING ST. CHINATOWN, KUALA LUMPUR

This Tea tastes like SHIT

Malaysian Coffee in the house

While my wife is walking around i was alone in this coffee shop

Sri Maha Mariamman Temple

A closer look at the details of the temple

Temple Selfie

Another Temple selfie

PETRONAS TOWERS - Our KL Adventure

The PETRONAS Twin Towers are the world's tallest towers until this day. The towers are almost 1500 feet high and the 88 -storey high structure is Malaysia's crown jewel! No tourist would dare visit Malaysia without taking there picture in this wonderful architectural wonder.  The Malaysians say that the place is Majestic by day and dazzling at night and we witnessed its beauty first hand.

The PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS is Malaysia's way of becoming a global player in the world of tourism. The TWin Towers in inspired by Tun Mahathir Mohamad's grand vision to make Malaysia a place to be. Architect Cesar Pelli beautifully made the Malaysia's ambitions and ambitions truly world class. 

The site planing for PETRONAS Twin Towers began in 1992 and excavators began digging down 30 metres below the surface of the site on March 1993. The work required moving 500 truckloads of earth every night.  The foundation alone took one year to complete then in April 1994 the construction of the superstructure began. 

The construction of the PETRONAS Twin Towers cost a fortune. In the six years it was built, the cost was around 1.6 Billion dollars when it was completed. The foundation alone needed 12 months to complete which was 400 meter deep.  Given the tremendous height, the Skyscraper need strong, deep foundations into the ground below.

The PETRONAS Towers is the tallest building in the world when it opened in 1998 until the Taipei 101 building was built in 2004.  To date it is still known as the tallest twin towers in the world. The Towers got recognized worldwide when Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones shot the final sequences of their movie "Entrapment!" in 1999.

The PETRONAS Twin Towers has 29 double-decker high speed elevators, six heavy-duty elevators and four executive lifts. Each passenger deck can carry up to fifty two people in total. The elevator speeds vary form 3.5  miles per second to 6.00 miles per second. The Suria KLCC is just located at the feet of the Petronas. This mall boasts of 300 stores and is one of the largest shopping centers in Malaysia.

"As an internationally recognized landmark, The PETRONAS Twin Towers symbolize the courage, ingenuity, initiative, determination, energy, confidence, advancement and zest of a nation." - Tun Dr. Mahatir Mohamad, 4th & 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia

 

 

PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS

Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088 

Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, 

Malaysia

 

The InterContinental Kuala Lumpur

Our New Year's Day Vacation brought us to

 a prestigious five star hotel in Kuala Lumpur, 

The InterContinental Hotel. 

I was happy to rest on their comfortable and big king sized bed

A big bath tub is also something that i 

enjoy relaxing my sore feet in or just a refreshing bath

They have a very spacious comfort room 

with so many hotel amenities (that he already kept)

The scent of these three are amazing! 

It was just like using a perfume all the time 

especially the bath & shower gel.

Coffee or Tea was available all the time 24/7

My wife became an expert using this 

machine to brew me great coffee!

Again, a very spacious lobby that had 

this design at the center

Of course we had to do a customary selfie!

Enjoyed staying in this luxurious hotel! 

Had so many beautiful memories and 

hope we can go back again!

STAYCATION 2 - with LUNCHMATES

The Get together

The Gorgeous Girls  - Yomi Matienzo & Ces Bermas

The Witness

This is not a love triangle, this is Ayala Triangle

MAH GURLS!

Christmas is all about going BIG!

CHEERS TO EVERYBODY!

Best thing I got in this season of giving

Hearts to everyone

THAI 2019: THE GRAND PALACE

The Grand Palace is one of the most visited places in Bangkok and is a must-see if ever you go to Thailand.  From the name itself, it is so Grand that it will take you hours to go around the whole palace. The palace has been the residences of the Kings of Siam and later on Thailand since 1782.  The construction began in May 1782 at the order of King Rama I. Many kings that kings that succeeded Rama I added many buildings and structures especially during the reign of Rama V.  The Palace is not one structure alone, it is made up of countless buildings, halls, pavilions, set around vast lawns, gardens and courtyards.  The place is partially open to the public as a museum, but it remains a working place.  

THE DEMON GUARDIANS

A hundred and one adventures at the 100 Islands

While living in exile in Dagupan city in 1988, our neighbor who ran a salt business invited me to join them on their outing to the Hundred Islands. The next day, their boat picked us up at Pantal River and we road off all 40 of us to one of the best natural wonders in our country. Upon arriving we immediately went down on the only island allowed to have some people which was the Quezon Island. It was fun eating and swimming on that Island and as the day ended we commuted back to Dagupan city.

In 1993 I went back with my High school friends and lo and behold we were also led to the Quezon Island to have some R&R. Nothing much has changed but back then it was more of enjoying nature and the pristine beach in that island. I am not a tourism consultant but being there you dream of Island hopping and dropping by other Islands.

Twenty years after my dream was realized when I came back to these Islands. First thing that caught my eye was how organized they were in accepting tourists since there was a center being built where you can rent a boat. Everything was centralized, impressive. Next, I discovered that not only can you drop by Quezon Island, but the boatman has an itinerary to tour you around until 5pm or go on specific islands of your choice. Lastly, not only can you swim and eat but there are other activities you can enjoy as well like riding the zip line, snorkeling and many more. We rented a boat for P 1,400 which can fit 5 people. The bigger one is P 1,800 for 6 to 10 people. I think its better now because you don’t have to haggle with boatmen on boat prices like before.

I am happy that the Department of Tourism has finally thought of a way to “sell” the Hundred Island to tourists by way of having a great experience in these islands. Much of the things that you can experience here is now similar to the beach activities in Boracay.

Our tour was quite simple, we alighted at the Governor’s Island which is a must for photographers since it gives you most probably the best view of the Islands from atop. Going up 150 steep flight of stairs for me is enough to see the majestic view from above.

Since there were many people in the other islands we managed to just take a peak at the other islands namely the Marcos Island, Romulo Island, a Children Island. One of the more intriguing islands is the Devil’s Island which had so many trees and I believe more than a thousand bats resting on those trees.

My buddies and I settled for a dip at the Old Scout Island. It’s quite small but had less than a hundred people on it. One thing nice though was that the place is ideal for snorkeling. Unfortunately, there were lots of boats passing by that was why viewing the corals was quite dangerous. Like an old scout, we went on to get our food, placed some used newspapers on the sands and had our lunch old style under the rocks.

We eventually went back after seeing the dark clouds going towards our direction. It was unfortunate for us to get wet because of the strong rains that we braved but luckily we survived it and went back ashore trying to dry up. Good thing there was a shower room for rent at the park where washed off the sticky feeling coming from a rain.

For now the 100 Islands impressed me considering the fact that a national treasure has been reborn. I hope a few years from now I would be able to blog again on new experiences on this fantastic Philippine wonder.

Thanks to Ian Siongco and RJ Marasigan for their wonderful pictures

Pangasinan 2016: Reminiscing my past

Pangasinan is a place close to my heart because for one this is the place where my mom was born and grew up but more importantly this where I found refuge when I was a lost teenager. Although I stayed in Dagupan City which was at the heart of Pangasinan, this trip served as a refresher to me since it brought me back to the western part of the province which I barely remembered since I was quite young then when I first visited this part of the Pangasinan. This visit made me quite amused since a lot has changed and it’s something worth telling to some friends. This visit brought me from West to East with some stops in Bolinao, Alaminos and Manaoag.

In this trip I was with my travel buddies, Rothz de Lima, RJ Marasigan, Ian and Krisvi Siongco. We left Quezon City at 7:30 am, had some stops to buy water and snacks and only stopped when we needed to use the toile as I drove straight to the town of Bolinao. Bolinao has become a popular place for tourists in Pangasinan since it has so many tourist spots and a lot of resorts were developed the past to fifteen years. 

You can actually ride a Victory liner bus or Dagupan bus that can take you to Bolinao or Alaminos straight since I saw the Bus stations of those two Bus lines. It might be a 6 – 8 hour trip depending on the stops and traffic. Since I brought my car along it took us almost six hours to get there. We passed by NLEX and SCTEX and took the Hacienda Luisita Exit. I was trying to look for familiar landmarks but used my Waze app instead to make sure I was led to the right path. After a few minutes I finally found the town that I was looking for which was the Camiling town access road. This access road will lead you to the Pangasinan towns Mangatarem and Sual which will then end leads you towards Alaminos and Bolinao. 

Unfortunately when we visited there was a power interruption that made us cut our visit short because the caves we wanted to visit were not accessible because they needed light inside the caves. So we then visited one of the main attractions that is a haven for photographers – the Cape Bolinao Lighthouse tower. We then went back to our resort and rested after a long morning ride.

Our next day saw us visit one of the country’s top natural wonders – the Hundred Islands. These group of Islands used to be a place that mostly people from Northern Luzon would visit, now it is pretty much more accessible to Southerners and foreigners too. The Hundred Islands in Alaminos, Pangasinan has developed into a Tourism spot where everyone can have a good time. This is my third time to go to the Hundred Islands and I am happy that there has been so many developments in the place that it has now become a popular tourist destination.

First, there are more Islands to go to. The two times I went to these Islands in 1988 and in 1994, you can only access the Quezon Islands and mostly people who can afford it can go for some Island hopping and just go around. Now there are more Islands to discover as they added the Governor’s Island where you can hang around and more importantly have a great view of the place on its view deck which will have you go up to 150 flight of stairs.

Since there were a lot of people in other Islands we decided to stay at the Old Scout Island where there are less than 50 people and was near a great snorkeling area. We eventually brought our baon to the shore and had our sumptuous lunch along the sands. After lunch we saw that the clouds were fast forming into a storm so we headed back to the wharf amidst the heavy rains that went our way. Luckily there were shower rooms for rent at the Park where we came from.

On our third day, we headed east before going back to Manila to visit another popular place in Pangasinan which is frequently visited by faithful Catholics - the town of Manaoag. Everyday, this place is visited by thousands of devout Catholics because this is where the Basilica of our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag is located. Locals would tell you that Manaoag derived its name from the word “Mantaog” which means “to call” in their Pangasinense dialect. The Shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag houses the 17^th century ivory image of the Virgin Mary which was brought to our country from Spain in the same century. It was told that there was an apparition of the Virgin Mary holding a rosary in this area way back in 17^th century and that was where the church was built. The small church has evolved into a bigger one and I cannot recall anymore the images of the church when I last visited the place as a kid. Thousands of devotees flock the place and pray for Miracles that would alter a person’s life most specially one’s health and fate.

My reimmersion of Pangasinan was a great one and the only problem I had was that time was not on our side since we only had three days to tour almost 800 kilometers of driving and getting around. Hopefully next time I can visit my hometown Dagupan and other beautiful towns and beaches in the province to further reacquaint me of my teenage years and who knows some past acquaintances might come up. 

many thanks to Ian Siongco and RJ Marasigan for the beautiful pictures