Taiping Lake Garden

The Taiping Lake Garden is regarded as one of the most beautiful park in the country and I can't say I'm surprise about that. Operational since 1880, the natural lake used to be an old mining land which has turned into a breathtaking park which plays host to a variety of plants, flowers, trees, birds and a dazzling variety of insects.

These 64 hectares of exuberant green turf, trees and plants portray the good sense of environmental rehabilitation and preservation. The clean and well-maintained Lake Garden encompasses a lake, a recreational park and several playgrounds for the kids. Together with the nearby zoo at one section of this park, this whole area forms the green lung of Taiping.

The place where we took our duck boat.

The duck-shaped boat; ours was a yellow duck.

We would have love to spend more time at the lake garden, but due to time constraint, I only managed to take Michelle for a boat ride at the lake. It was a duck-shaped pedal boat and we were given thirty minutes to go around the lake. Despite the fact that I have was born and raised in Taiping, this was only my second time taking this boat ride.

The weather was kind to us, as it was a cloudy day and the sun wasn't shinning that bright on that afternoon. Nevertheless, we were sweating away towards the end of our ride, in which we had great fun doing various of silly stuff like pedaling the boat towards the half-fallen bamboo trunks until our boat hit them and of course, camwhoring.

My long legs kept hitting the maneuver every time I pedal the boat; another disadvantage of being tall.

I like this shot very much :)

Act-yeng attempt.

Our next stop was the Burmese pool, which is situated about five-minute drive from the Lake Garden, along the way to Maxwell Hill or Bukit Larut. It was a lovely afternoon and the place was crowded with many parents who brought their children there for picnics since it was the school holidays. The forest and natural plants surrounding the place makes it a cooling and relaxing place to go.

Burmese pool.

Stopped halfway for a pose under the curving bamboo trees.

We had to walked about one hundred meters from the car park area before coming to a nice spot. There are actually other spots which are much nearer, but there were more people there and we just couldn't imagine soaking ourselves in the water which had been contaminated with people bathing or even urinating, flowing down from the upper part of the river. Thinking about it is enough to make me feel disgusted.

The water rushing through the stream was not as cold as I'd expected, but nevertheless I couldn't resist the temptation to dip my feet into the water. As for her, she seemed to be interested in taking pictures of the flowing water through the huge stones along the stream.

Or was it stones, instead of water?

Me taking her picture taking me taking her picture taking me...

As usual, we spent some time to take a few pictures there before leaving.

Her, posing like a model.

Us, posing like a couple. Haha, I know this is damn lame but I was just looking for a word that rhymes with the word 'model'.

That concludes our half-day outing for the day.

P/S: I bet nobody had notice something unusual about the second last picture. Notice the rock in the middle; there is something written on the rock. It is not so obvious, but here is the enlarged version of the picture.

New Year's Eve

Happy New Year 2009! And I just realised that this is my 501st post.

Our initial plan was to join the New Year's countdown in KL after coming down from Genting, but due to some last-minute change of plan, we decided to return to Malacca instead of joining the crazy and enormous crowd in the city. Besides, I find that countdown parties in KL nowadays are attended by mostly hooligans and Mat Rempits who are only interested to create havoc. We took a 7.30pm bus from Puduraya bus terminal after doing some shopping at Low Yatt Plaza and dinner at Sakae Sushi Pavillion.

Earlier that afternoon, Michelle and I had our lunch at the famous Hon Kee Porridge at Petaling Street. The place holds a significant value to both of us because it was the place that we met for the first time and had our first meal together back in December 2007.

Pak Putra Restaurant.

The bus ride from KL to Malacca was one of the scariest, I would say. The bus was flying and it felt as if we were riding on a roller-coaster. I made a rough calculation and got to know that the bus driver was speeding as fast as 120km per hour. Isn't that crazy? Anyway, we were glad that we arrived safely in one piece.

By the time we reached Malacca, it was just a couple of hours before the clock struck midnight. After refreshing ourselves, we went out for our late supper at a Mamak restaurant near Michelle's house at Kota Laksamana. The name - Pak Putra Restaurant, suggests that it sounds more like a Malay restaurant. Apparently, it is famous for its tandoori chicken and roti naan. The fact that I saw almost every table ordered at least a plate of tandoori chicken and roti naan further confirmed that fact.

While waiting for our orders to be served.

I must say the tandoori is really good; just like what Michelle told me, it is easily one of the best I have ever had, of not the best, hands down. The chicken marinated with various spices was really soft, tender and juicy, and it was cooked to perfection, unlike the usual ones where the chicken is tough like ayam pencen (retired chickens).

The sauce which I guess were made of blended garlic and cili padi was not bad as well. It was neither too hot nor too sweet, just the perfect balance to be dipped with the tandoori chicken.

The orgasmic tandoori chicken.

We ordered garlic cheese naan and a bowl of mutton curry to satisfy my craving for mutton, although I would say it was quite pricey - RM8 for a medium-sized bowl of mutton curry.

Garlic cheese naan.

Mutton curry.

Surprisingly, the traffic around the Malacca town was smooth and there were much fewer cars than we'd expected. I suspect most of the people must have gone to KL for the New Year's countdown celebration, which is good because we get to walk around easier.

The red buildings near the Clock Tower which were beautifully illuminated with red lights.

Posing at the junction around the Clock Tower area.

Along the corridor of the shophouses along th red buildings.

One great thing about the location of Michelle's house is that it is situated just under ten-minute walk from the famous Stadhuys and Clock Tower. After we had our supper, we thought of walking around that area before it turned midnight. There were less people than during the day and it made our camwhoring session much easier. We even get to pose in front of Port de Santiago with only both of us in the photo, something which is impossible to get during the afternoon and evening because it will be crowded with local and foreign tourists.

But come late night, you can almost have the place to yourself to do whatever pose you like for as long as possible.

Along the riverside of Malacca River.

In front of Church of St. Francis Xavier.

Another self-timer shot in front of Port de Santiago.

I was skyping with her when it turned twelve last year, but this time we were walking along the Stadhuys building and our first kiss of the New Year was in front of the small gate that lead to the St. Paul's Hill. There were several spots where they launched the fireworks, one of them was at the Eye on Malaysia by the Straits of Malacca. That was the first time I am watching a fireworks display together with her and although it wasn't the greatest fireworks display that I've seen, words just cannot describe the feeling of standing by her side witnessing the colourful showers of fireworks on New Year's Day.

It was then that I learned how it feel to celebrate it together with you loved one.