Hong Kong Revisited II

After a long rest from travelling, it's time to update this blog with some data. Hats off to wifey for the planning and scheduling, I totally sit back and relax. Recalling that I have done the planning to Italy, a swap of 'job role' is immensely satisfying.

Woke up early, prepared and got a taxi to the 'small' international airport of Penang.

Bayan lepas airport at dawn with some reflection of the glass :-)

The flight is full and we took off slightly late and the dreadful wait on the plane lasted for 3 hours.

Rolls Royce Trent 800 jet engine flying on Cathay Pacific flight

Another 1 hour transit time wasted on the bus to our hotel. It's a boutique hotel, Lanson Place at CausewayBay(銅鑼灣).

Lanson Place plaque at the entrance.

Map on google.

The concierge area or lobby of Lanson Place

The room that we checked in Lanson Place. Not huge but clean and cosy.

Queen size bed overlooking a school though.

The complementary breakfast serving area. A nice surprise that the package included a complementary breakfast, can save some extra cash :)

Serving area

The breakfast lounge.


The hotel library, I didn't have time to go through books.

Some effects on the chandelier.

Snapshot of Lanson Place.

Off to more shopping and eating ...

Hong Kong - Revisited I

Hong Kong island is rather polluted, the air quality is quite bad. But then, the food and shopping is the major motivation to go out and venture.


Some road near Lanson Place

I noticed in Hong Kong a lot of crabs for sale, I wonder if Hongkies actually like the crabs.


Not so auspicious words to some ...

We managed to find a famous 'wan ton mee' stall and the 'wan ton mee' is actually quite pricey. Snapshot of the menu below:


I took the HK$28 'wan ton mee'


A sneak shot of the small bowl of 'wan ton mee'

After a snack, it is shopping time, the 'Landmark' is one of the new shopping area.


Snapshot out from the shopping mall window, overlooking a street


Huge Christmas tree decoration


Snapshot outside 'Time Square' shopping mall.

We ventured into city super and took time to slowly overview the stuffs in the grocery shops.

Evening shot outside of Times Square

Tsim Sha Tsui harbour area.

Old vessel 'Bounty' in new age Hong Kong.

Another shot at Harbour shopping centre

Ferry docked near the Harbour area

Evening shot of the tallest building in Hong Kong

Panoramic evening shot

We did travel to a lot of good food stalls, I didn't take photos of all of it.

One of the best fish congee place in 'Wan Chai', nice congee, highly recommended.

As usual the sardine subway, crazy packed.

Hong Kong is a place where you walk till you drop :-)

Rome - Part I

Rome has always intrigue me ever since I got so immensely hooked into the famous computer game 'Caesar III' during my uni days. I recall the countless days and weeks spending pretty much every spare time I can find to play the game. The opportunity came during my stay Ireland that I could visit the open air museum on Roma itself.

Spend a few hours going through the budget airlines( not too budget too in terms of ringgit malaysia) like Aerlingus and Ryanair to search for cheap airfares and cosy accomodation and after some damage on the wallet, I finally got myself a plane to Rome and a 3 star accomodation.

Next is the tremendous work of surfing through the net to look for famous and nice place to visit in Roma while I'm there for 3 days. It's no easy task to plan for travel route with potential food joints bundled in, just in case me and wife is hungry. After a few hours of intense research I have listed potential places to visit in a screenshot below.




Mostly googled out from google map, helps a lot when traveling, have a printout just in case.

The regret of traveling in europe during december is that the continent goes dark around 4.00pm, that limits a lot of good sun light for traveling. We landed in Fumicino airport and took the terravision bus to Termini. The terravision website is of no help either, I ended up on a bus to termini for about 1.5 hours and then taking the metrobus( aka underground rail in Rome) to Lepanto. Another 15 minutes walk and looking at the map, I finally found the Diplomatic Hotel. The hotel is quite cosy and nice for it's price and the proximity with the Vatican City.

Off we went to the Vatican city after unloading the luggage.


St. Peter Basilic Church at rome.


The large oval area outside of the famous cathedral or church.


Nice water fountain at the oval centre.


It's rather dark even at 3.00pm



Right smacked at the centre of the round area lies this obelisk from the Circus of Nero. Not sure if St. Peter was cruxified here.


It's almost Christmas eve, the festive mood.


The layout of St. Peter Basilica Church

Vatican city is a sovereign state in Rome, it has it's own police force, administration and some of the sites in Rome are also controlled by Vatican city. It's the city where the pope lives since I don't know when, well just google Vatican City.


St. Pietro( in italian or latin) not sure, in the evening sun.

The interior is filled with immensely crafted decoration, you get carried away easily, it's so beautiful and serene too. First, I apologize the poor photo quality.


The main hallway of the cathedral, right at the centre lies the Bernini Canopy, Bernini is a famous artiste.


To the right side of the main aisle.


To the left side of the main aisle.


The list of popes that dates back to St. Peter

After immensely wonderful tour, we stopped by via Borgo Pio to have some authentic italian food. The food was rather average, we continued out tour around rome after that. More to come...

Rome - Part II

After the late lunch at Borgio Pio, the sun has set, as me and my wife walks across the nearest bridge towards Vatican city, crossing the river Tiber, I took a magnificent shot of river Tiber at evening.



River Tiber on the evening.


We then walk around the city of Rome. Rome street is small and cobbled, a typical ancient city look and feel. After venturing around, we reached the "Pantheon" or the "Temple of all Gods". The ancient gods are no longer at Pantheon, Rome has undergone the Christian faith ever since. The temple is still very well maintained.


Pantheon at night.


Inside Pantheon, there are lots of pictures about christanity.

Inside Pantheon


Another picture in Pantheon


Top dome of the Pantheon

After visiting the Pantheon, we walked on and search for the Trevi Fountain. The fountain was built during ancient Roman period and was subsequently built in later years to this grandeur. The water supplying the fountain to this very day is sourced from the aqueduct built by the ancient romans.


Night shot of Trevi Fountain.

By now it is already 7pm. A peculiar trait of italian restaurant is that dinner is served after 7pm, you can't find a single restaurant open prior 7pm. So we managed to search for a nice cosy restaurant named L'Archetto. As recommended by a host of online tourist guides, this restaurant is known for good food and appropriate pricing.


L'Archetto small dining table with servlet.


Nice cosy environment with small dining tables.


I asked for the L'Archetto spaghetti


Wife asked for 'Chanel' spaghetti.

The food was served promptly and the portion is quite big and also very tasty. After finishing the delicious dinner, we then begin our journey back to the hotel.


The small cosy restaurant L'Archetto

It was quite a long walk, nevertheless, it was very enjoyable to walk in the streets of rome at night.