Malaysia

A Sunday stroll around Bangsar Village

I woke up early this Sunday morning and opened the curtains just to find out it was raining so my plan to head over for Breakfast at Bangsar Village seamed like a bad option. So I quickly came up with a plan B, to hope for the rain to stop and find my way over to the Village for a nice lunch instead.

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I visited the Bangsar Village a few weeks ago with a friend for dinner and was told it is a great place to hang out during the day as it has a wide selection of cafe’s, Restaurants and shops.

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As soon as the rain stopped i booked a grab taxi, took my camera and I was lucky that the traffic was not to heavy, so it did not take me to long to get there.

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The area has a wide selection of restaurants serving everything from Local food, Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Western cuisine.

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I checked out the lunch menu at the Ril’s Bangsar restaurant and ended up ordering a fantastic tasting Beef. The place have a nice atmosphere, great service and amazing tasting food, so well worth a visit.

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The Pasar Malam Bangsar market is located just next to the village mosque.

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You will find a mix of stalls with option to buy fruit and vegetables, taste the local cooked food or shop for cloths and other items. For sure an interesting place for a stroll and people watching.

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I spent some time at the market, before I found my way over to the shopping center.

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As everywhere else in Kuala Lumpur you have to watch out for the motorbikes and cars as they are driving everywhere.

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At the shopping you will find a wide selection of shops to choose from including the high class brands. So for the once loving shopping it would be easy to spend some hours checking out the stores. As I had spent a few hours walking around outside the shopping centers I decided that the only shopping I would to this Sunday, other than buying a some fruit at the market, would be to buy a few items at the grocery store to take back to my hotel. So exploring the shopping centers will have to be for next time.

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Bangsar Village is located within one of Kuala Lumpur’s most affluent neighbourhoods and is Easily accessible via the Bangsar LRT station, Rapid KL’s Kelana Jaya Line has a stopover along Jalan Bangsar. Jalan Telawi – Bangsar Village I & II’s address – is a five-minute cab ride away. Alternatively, you can hop on the Rapid KL bus U87 (which also goes past Mid Valley Megamall) to get to Bangsar Baru and then walk to the retail emporium.


Street Art in Georgetown

I was walking the streets early morning trying to find my way to Yeng Keng Hotel for a briefing of the photo and coffee crawl i had signed up for. A lady boy was trying to get the attention of a man passing buy, but other than that the streets where quiet.

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Georgetown is known for it’s all year around event and festivals so I went for the Art festival, trying to capture a piece of history, culture and art at the same time. Street Art is something that has been popping up all over Georgetown after the Mirrors George Town Festival in 2012.

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Ernest Zacharavic, a young Lithuania-born artist, has painted Penang. Drawings and portraits that celebrate the exuberance of life in the inner city.

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In 1832, Penang formed part of the Straits Settlement with Malacca and Singapore. The Penang maritime port was among the busiest in the region, attracting rich merchants involved in the lucrative trade of tea, spices, porcelain and cloth. The Influence of Asia and Europe have endowed the town with a multicultural heritage. George Towns with residential and commercial buildings represents the British era from the end of the 18th century. Penang became a melting pot for hybrid communities with the mix of Chinese, Malay, Indian, Siamese and other culture. Settlers and fortune-seekers from all over called Penang home.

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On different corners and places of the city you have the Wrought-iron caricatures with the anecdotal descriptions of the streets that they adorn. One of them being the Cheating husband. The local Chinese say the rich men who lived on Muntri Street kept their mistresses here and by that it is now known by the name Love Lane.

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With the rich heritage, George Town was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. Clan Jetties form part of the Penang Heitage Trail. Today six out of seven Jetties remains with Chew Jetty being the biggest and most visited. The Jetties with the old Chinese settlements is home to houses on stilts of various Chinese clans.

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At the Jetty you also find the street art painted on the walls.

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To get to Penang from Singapore you can fly with:

Tiger Air:  http://www.tigerair.com/sg/en/

Jetstar: http://www.jetstar.com/sg/en/home

Air Asia: http://www.airasia.com/sg/en/home.page?gclid=CM2a1bSYw8ICFU8ojgodf18AAQ

Recommended places to stay:

http://www.museumhotel.com.my/

Home

Recommended places to eat:

http://www.chinahouse.com.my/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Formula One in Kuala Lumpur

A powerful symbol of excellence. Formula One, racing across five continents and one of the circuits, being the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, is where I watched Lewis Hamilton getting in as number one. What an amazing experience.

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The regularly updated Sepang International Circuit of Malaysia, is a great spectators circuit, built in a stadium-like manner. The circuit lays in a valley which enables you to see almost half of the circuit at all times irrespective of where you sit.

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The big concern for the teams in Malaysia was the heat and humidity, which stretched the reliability of the new hybrid turbo power units to the limit. It was a tough affair for both drivers and cars. April being the month with the highest rainfall of the year in Malaysia and average temperatures of 26 degrees centigrade. Having the race at the beginning of this season, the drivers had to be prepared for some some changing weather conditions.

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Out of the 22 starters only 15 made it to the end.

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Since its inauguration in 1999, the Sepang circuit in Malaysia has come to be regarded as one of the toughest for teams and drivers as very hot and humid conditions stretch the competitors to their physical extreme. As the first of a now extensive portfolio of Hermann Tilke designed Grand Prix circuits, it follows his trademark style of long straights followed by a heavy-braking zone, which allows for slip-streaming and out-braking manoeuvres.

 

 

Circuit length 5.543 km
Race distance 310.408 km
Laps 56

 

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