Penang - December 2007

I could not recall my first trip to Penang (in 1995), so another trip was in order.

	View of Penang Bridge from hotel room - longest bridge in the country (as far as I'm aware), at 13.5km.
	Wat Chaiyamangalaram (Thai buddist temple) where the Reclining Buddha resides. Our taxi driver referred to Wat Chaiyamangalaram as Buddha's sleeping chamber. Opposite this wat is a Burmese Temple in which the Buddha stands upright.
	The Reclining Buddha (33m long).
	Kek Lok Si Temple ("Temple of Supreme Bliss") - The main attraction here for us was the souvenir stalls. We concluded that it was best to act uninterested. We got offered more than 50% discount at one stall without even opening our mouth.
	Gurney Drive - great for food but a little too crowded for my liking.
	View from hotel window at dawn

I decided that I must mention the accommodation (Grand Continental, Penang) - the word "grand" should drop right off, as far as my touring party is concerned. The rooms were tired looking and were rather disgusting. However, the view was pretty good and the pool was pleasant(but I can't really sleep at the pool, can I?).

Melaka - December 2007

Since I've never ever been to Melaka, we decided to take a day trip to Melaka from KL. We left from Puduraya in KL and arrived in Melaka Sentral. From there, we took a cab to the town centre.

	Upon arrival at the town centre, we made our way to Hoe Kee for the chicken rice balls, in case the shop got busy during lunch time. Perhaps I'm not really crazy about chicken rice, I thought it was OK. After the meal, we were on our way - sightseeing by bus no. 11 (as everything was close by).
	Miniature windmill opposite the Stadhuys. A wee bit surreal seeing a windmill in an Asian country.
	Christ Church at Dutch Square. The bright red buildings in the Square were quite a sight.
	St Paul's Church on top of St Paul's hill. Originally called "Nosa Senhora - Our Lady of the Hill".
	Tombstones with Latin and Portuguese inscriptions at St Paul's church - it was probably a good thing the place was quite crowded, otherwise it might have been a bit spooky for me.
	St Francis Xavier's statue - He was a regular visitor to St Paul's church and his body was interred here for nine months before being taken to his final resting place in Goa. Can't stop wondering whether the statue (the hand) needs to be fixed or whether it is meant to be that way.
	Porta de Santiago - one of the four main gateway into the Portuguese fortress of A' Famosa. I finally get to see the actual building!
	Replica of Melaka Sultanate Palace - excellent place to refresh my memory on those historical stuff (and also an excellent shelter from the sun!)

Putrajaya - December 2007

We took a day trip to PutraJaya, the federal administrative centre of Malaysia. It is a planned city and reminds me of Canberra. We started off by taking the KLIA Transit from KL Sentral. When we arrived in Putrajaya, we prepaid for the taxi to zoom us around the various tourist spots in Putrajaya (in one hour) before taking us to the Mines Shopping Fair.

	Seri Wawasan Bridge with its sail-ship apprearance.
	Putra Mosque - the principal mosque for Putrajaya.
	Istana Darul Ehsan - one of the royal residences of the Sultan of Selangor.
	Perdana Putra which houses the Malaysian Prime Minister's office complex.
	Istana Melawati - second national palace and serving as a royal retreat for the King. (According to our taxi driver - best viewed from faraway).
	Seri Perdana - official residence of the Malaysian Prime Minister.
	Mines Shopping Fair - I had to come here to see the canal running through a mall. There wasn't all that much at the mall (or maybe I was just sick of shopping after 5 days in Bukit Bintang).

Kuala Lumpur - December 2007

My family and I stopped over KL last December. We arrived close to midnight and prepaid for a taxi (less than RM 70) to take us to Bukit Bintang. The hotel (Corona Inn) was average but given that we were going to be out most of the time, I was not fussed. It was close enough to the shopping and the food. (Apparently there were "ladies of the night" operating around the area - according to my fellow travellers who were jet lagged). Sights along the way:

	Transitting at the Changi Airport - We stumbled upon this sunflower garden in our bid to find "fresh air". I have never seen bigger sunflowers in my life.
	View from the Skybridge at Petronas Twin Towers. We arrived before 8am but still had to queue for almost 2 hours to get our free tickets (limited) to the Skybridge.
	Instead of chartering a taxi, we took the hop-on-hop-off bus which took us to the various tourist spots in the city. It stopped for 5-10 minutes at every stop which is long enough if you only wanted to stop for pictures.
	Tugu Negara (or National Monument) - dedicated to the heroic fighters in the cause of peace and freedom. Each of the bronze figure symbolizes leadership, suffering, unity, vigilance, strength, courage and sacrifice. (Memories of school lessons coming back now...)
	Istana Negara (or National Palace) - royal guard. We were lucky the bus stopped long enough for us to witness the changing of the guard ceremonial as well. I have always thought you only have such ceremonial at Buckingham Palace.
	Malaysia's national flower - Bunga Raya (or Hibiscus) at the Hibiscus Garden with Lake Gardens.
	Sultan Abdul Samad building in front of Dataran Merdeka (literally Independence Square). It was good to see the actual building, rather than from books and postcards.
	Dragon's Beard Candy - This candy deserves a mention. I've been looking for it since I last had it in 1996 and I finally found it in Sungai Wang Plaza. It is basically candy (repeatedly stretched and folded, and covered in glutinous rice flour) wrapped around crushed peanuts. It would have been fascinating to watch the process, but the stall only sold the finished products that day.