Theatre-Islamofobia @ KLPac 8th Feb 12

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On Wednesday, 8th February 2012, my wife & I went to see a play titled ‘Islamophobia’.  The play is about a couple from a different backgrounds, the boy is Chinese, and the girl is a Malay Muslim, having to face with many obstacles before they are able to be together. The focus of the play is not on their relationship, but more towards the perception of Malaysian Indians & Chinese towards their Muslim Malaysians,  and misconception about Islam. What is interesting is the play is written by an Indian, Sathira Morgan, and then is verified from Islamic perspective by Dr Osman Chua from Kulliyyah Usuluddin, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

The play was sponsored by Pertubuhan IKRAM Malaysia (IKRAM) through one of it’s arm, Hidayah Centre. Thus the entrance on the day was free. From En Zainal Azirun, the Director of the show, this was the second time the play was performed.  After hearing that, my expectation was the play must be reasonably good. Gladly, I was not wrong on that.

It was held at KL Performing Art Centre (KLPAC), a modern & cutting edge art centre. It is a very impressive building, which houses multiple theaters & various facilities. Located at Sentul Park, the location is very unique since I believe it was the location former workshop for Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB). The area is a greenfield, with many unique buildings from it’s past. It is also very accessible from the KL City centre, the entrance to the area is just from Jalan Ipoh.

KLPacs building at dusk courtesy of http://www.klpac.org

Photos of Sentul Park : http://www.heartpatrick.com/klpac.html

The play is quite basic, with simple props and unknown actors & actresses. Nevertheless,I believe it delivered the message to the audience, which is the understanding of the true Islamic  values and the differences between Islam teachings and cultural heritage of the Malay. From my observation,  it was enjoyable to most audiences, which came from many different backgrounds, because the play is written with a lighter note and is not dwelling on the sensitive issues.

Here are some photos which I took on the night.

En Zainal Azirun was giving a welcoming speech and introduction to the play.

The two main protagonist, the Malay Muslim girl and her boyfriend, a Chinese.

Two supporting characters were talking about the perception of Indian towards Malay Muslim.

Two supporting characters were discussing about the adaptation of recently converted Chinese Muslim.

The couple was trying to reconcile their differences.

Finally they agreed to meet their parents to tell them about their relationship.

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The girls father which is a converted Indian was talking to the boy.

The boys father who was surprised with the boys choice of the girlfriend.

The boys father disapproved of their relationship and disowned his son.

The photos covered halfway through the play. To know the ending, please watch the show when it will be performed again. Don’t worry, trust me, your time will be well spent watching it.

Links & references

http://hidayahcentre.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/teater-%E2%80%9Cislamofobia%E2%80%9D-dedah-pandangan-bukan-islam/

http://www.klpac.org/?p=651

Sunway Hotel Seberang Jaya, Butterworth

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Whenever I went to Butterworth, I always stay in this hotel. A combination of good 4 star hotel, friendly staff, excellent location, and ample parking space make this hotel a winner.


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Sunway Butterworth Hotel from outside, HDR

From the hotel, you can take a short walk to the Sunway Carnival City which is a shopping mall.  If you are looking for a good eateries, Victoria Station which serve western food is just around the corner. Besides that, there are also a few mamak restaurant nearby.

On my last visit, we stayed in the Deluxe Executive Room on the 18th floor. The room that we got were well equipped with LCD TV with at least 12 channels including Sports, and comfortable bathroom with bath tube. On the plus side, unlimited internet access was part of the package. We were well satisfied with the room facilities and the level of service that we got.

Main stair to the ballroom. It must make an excellent place for a group photo, and a wedding potrait shot.

Hotel Lobby, photo courtesy of Asiaroom

Coffee House, photo courtesy of Asiaroom

Path leading to the Deluxe Executive rooms

Comfy Deluxe Exec Room with Two Single Bed

Excellent Bathroom

What surprised us even more is for Executive Rooms, our breakfast was served in a special room at our own floor. It is very convenience because we can have our breakfast in our own floor instead of going down to the Coffee House on the ground floor. The menu for breakfast was also excellent and covers a variety of different kind of food.

Seperate Breakfast place

Breakfast Dessert

Hash brown & Barbecue Chicken

I highly recommend this hotel. It is a little bit pricier for a hotel in Butterworth. The Duluxe Executive room costed a little less then RM300. Having said that, it is worth every penny for the facilities, and the service that we got there.

Links

http://seberangjaya.sunwayhotels.com/default.aspx

http://www.asiarooms.com/id-id/malaysia/penang/174249-sunway_hotel_seberang_jaya-hotel-gallery.html

Restaurant Haji Sharin Low, Sri Gombak

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Last January, our family went for dinner at Haji Shahrin Low Halal Chinese Restaurant, at Sri Gombak.


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http://www.facebook.com/HjSharinLow

Restoren Haji Shahrin Low, Sri Gombak, HDR, Handheld

The restaurant finishing was quite basic, nothing to shout about. When we were there, the restaurant was only 1/3 filled. The waiters who were mostly Malays boys, took our order quickly, and the food then arrived quickly. One thing though, the menu was mostly in text, and we could not understand most of the items in it since it was translated directly from Chinese. For ex, Ayam Jong Cheung & Daging Kung Pao. Luckily, the waiter explained the menu to us.

Udang Goreng Nestum, the dish we were coming for.

Lemon Fried Chicken

Fried Vegetable in Oyster Sauce

The food were really delicious and mouth watering. Before this, we have went to several halal Chinese Restaurant in KL, but this one is the best in term of food. We savored each meal thoroughly and highly recommend it to all.

The food clearly covers the fact that  the decoration of the restaurant is very basic.

The meal is a bit pricier though, our dinner costed about RM70. Before you go, have a look at their menu which can be checked at their Facebook page. But their Fried Rice is very reasonable, at about RM6/plate.

Nasi Kandar Line Clear, Penang

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Nasi kandar Line Clear is one of the oldest nasi kandar restaurant in Penang. It is located on an alley at the Lebuh Chulia and Jalan Penang junction. According to other review, this place has started back in 1947!.


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I came to this ‘original’ mamak restaurant with my boss, who has frequented this place since his early working days. We arrived there at about 12pm, and was lucky that the place was not crowded and managed to get our food pretty fast. From other reviews, I now know that the place is normally crowded on working days. We parl

The restaurant is a make shift place between two shophouses. Definitely a unique experience.

I choosed the special Nasi Beriyani, made from Beras Mathi, which is from India continent. Look at that big fish head curry!

They have a selection of dishes, all cooked in the original spice. Just choose what you would like to have!

I shoot this photo from my hip. That is how I got this angle.

Here is how my meal looks like before it went down to my stomach. It looks yummy right.

My colleague meal.

Another colleague meal.

This is the interior of the restaurant.

Collection of photos of artists and reknowned people who have visited the Restaurant. Some of which I recognised are A Arumugam from Alleycat, & Jehan Miskin.

Original poster from a P Ramlee film which I believe make him famous. P Ramlee was a local boy from Penang before he went to Singapore to become a movie actor, musician & director.

We definitely enjoyed our food and time at the restaurant. The food was hearty, full of original kandar’s spices, and filling. I’ll make appointment to go here when the next time I go to the Penang Island.

Other reviews

http://www.onestopmalaysia.com/food-reviews/penang/line-clear-nasi-kandar.html

http://www.visitpenang.gov.my/portal3/where-to-eat/food-blogger-ck-lam/nasi-lemak-line-clear.html

http://www.what2seeonline.com/2010/01/nasi-kandar-line-clear-on-penang-road/

De Templer Restaurant, Taman Melati, Kuala Lumpur

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Last week, to celebrate my birthday, our family went to the De Templer Restaurant, at Taman Melati. The restaurant is very easy to find, it is located at the stretch of shop houses besides the MRR2.  It is a ‘halal’ upmarket chinese restaurant, famous among the people staying in Taman Melati & nearby areas.

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Email: detempler@yahoo.com

Location: DE TEMPLER RESTAURANT No 17G & 19G, Jalan Melati Utama 4, Melati Utama, 53100 Setapak, Malaysia

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46130524633

This is the second time we went to the place. Last time was on Ramadhan 2011, when the restaurant was jam packed.  This time around, it was a bit empty, there were about two other families having dinner there when we were seated.

The restaurant from outside

The restaurant interior, taken during Ramadhan, courtesy of the restaurant page in Facebook

When we got in, we were greeted by Bangladeshi waitress, not very different from any mamak. But the waiters are better trained & dressed smarter.

Here are the food that we ordered.

Tilapia fish deep fried in De Templers special sauce

Mango Fried Chicken with fresh Chilli Sauce

Vegetable Soup

De Templers Yee Sang

All in all it was a good dinner. The food was great, the ambiance is relaxing for family dinner. The food are a bit pricier though, it cost us a total of RM 120 for a dinner for three adults and 2 young kids. Recommended to those who are looking for a good ‘halal’ Chinese dinner in  around Wangsa Maju, Setapak & Gombak areas.

Other links about the restaurant

http://www.eyriqazz.com/2011/10/de-templer-restaurantchinese-muslim.html

Bihun Sup Utara Pekeliling

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While waiting for my wife to finish her work at Hospital Besar Kuala Lumpur last week, I came across this secluded eating place which serve quite delicious bihun sup. It is located at the jumble of eateries, right in front of the entrance to Titiwangsa Sentral, a recently completed 38th story condominium in the Pekeliling area of Kuala Lumpur.


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GPS Cood: 3.171267,101.697114

Location of Bihun Soup Pekeliling is inside this place.

They served a few types of bihun sup, the top of their menu is called bihun special, which have perut lembu & meat. Besides that, there are a few other eateries nearby which share the same eating area. They serve nasi campur, which is basically white rice with selection of dishes, and varieties of Nasi Ayam Singapore, a Singaporean version of the Hainan Chicken Rice. Thus you can bring together friends to enjoy the many types of food on offer here. I never yet got the opportunity to try them.

A bowl of bihun soup cost between RM4-RM5, depending whether its chicken, meat or perut. The size of their serving is quite small, but the nearby stalls can provide the starter or dessert of your meal, making it more fulfilling.

A serving of bihun sup daging

Roti Bakar@Toasted Bread & Kopi@Coffee Tarek @ Lot 10 Cafe, R&R Ayer Keroh, PLUS

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During last Christmas break, on our way back to Kuala Lumpur, my family and I stopped at the Ayer Keroh R&R. This is the one without the flyover bridge, the first one you’ll meet on your way back from Melaka to Kuala Lumpur. Since we just have quite a hearty lunch, we would like to have something which is simple & short.


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Thus by chance we saw a simple stall, which serve drink and a roti bakar@toasted bread. Simple in a sense that it don’t has a kopitiam like decoration and finishing. In the recent time, a booming new segment of modern kopitiam restaurant has somehow dulling the feeling of having a simple meal traditionally in the old way. The stall which is called Lot10 Cafe, based on its signboard, is located right at the far end corner of the old food court, nearby to the Prayer Room & Toilet.

Kedai No 10, Abdul Malek Chin

We were attracted by its sign which said that they served coffee brand Bintang @ Star. They have two kind of roti bakar, the first one a shaped as bun, and the second one is normal sliced loaf. Without waiting longer, we ordered the kopi tarek & roti bakar of the second type.

Roti Bakar & Roti Tarek @ R&R Ayer Keroh (otw to KL)

The Coffee tasted just nice, it has a nicely mixed coffee with condensed milk. The roti bakar was also very nice, it just have a right balance between crispiness & taste of kaya & Margerine, a kind of butter. The best part was both only cost RM2.20! The same meal at for example Old Town White Coffee franchised outlets would cost a minimum of RM5.00!

Highly recommended to tired drivers looking for coffee and a pit stop to jump start their brain  :)

Day Trip to Singapore-24 Dec 2011

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Because this is the first time I went to Singapore by bus and the weekend is a Christmas weekend, I did not want to take any chance to buy the ticket on the counter. I went to two websites which offer online bus tickets and finally made up my mind to purchase is at (http://www.busonlineticket.com/). On the website, the single ticket from Melaka-Singapore cost SGD 22. I bought a return ticket, together with the service charge, it cost me a total of SGD46.2, which is about RM113. The bus company which I took is S&S International. Only later I found out that the ticket from Malaysia to Singapore only cost RM22 if bought on the counter.  I also found out that they also have online ticket reservation at (www.ssinternational.com.my). I took a mental note to buy directly from them next time since it might be cheaper to do so.

I also downloaded and IPhone App ‘GuidePal Singapore’, which has an interactive map of Singapore &  list & the summary of attractions there. It is very helpful because the map is stored with the apps which means it does not need internet connection to work. One thing the app does not have is the MRT map, so what I did was print out the MRT map beforehand.

Oh ya, I took the bus from Melaka since my family went back to our hometown in Jasin Melaka the day before. So  I went alone to Singapore since this was a very last minute decision to go there.

The bus departed from Melaka Sentral (www.mlksentral.com) at 8:00am. I like that because we can park at the Melaka Sentral’s car park as long as we want literally since the charge is only RM1 per entry. The journey was pretty uneventful. The bus stopped once at the Yong Peng Lay-Bys. At the Malaysian Immigration Terminal in Johor Bahru, everybody had to get down the bus and walked about 500m to the automatic passport machine. The same procedure also applied at the Singapore side, but the queue and the time taken was longer because there were officers who manually registered and stamped on our passports the 30 days Tourist Visa. Overall, including the 30 minutes traffic jam on the Causeway, it took us about 1.5 hours to get through both Malaysia & Singapore immigration. On the whole, the journey took slightly more then 5 hours.

Thus if you plan to go to Singapore for a day trip, I would not recommend to get there by bus since apart from the travel time, you’ll  spend time substantially on the immigration. Consider going there by discount flights, since you’ll save a lot of travel time & immigration checkup since I believe it is more efficient & far less people queuing. If you book earlier about 1-1.5 months, the return ticket cost is only about RM130. Furthermore, later on I found out that you can only claim GST(Government Service Tax) which all things sold in Singapore are subject to 7% of it, if you are taking flight to get there.

I finally arrived there at 1pm.  The bus stop at a quite shop/office complex at Beach Road.

From the Beach Road stop, I walked to the Masjid Sultan, which is a big mosque built circa 1928. It was very clean and organized. The exterior architecture is of Islamic & Indian, very much similar to Bangunan   Sultan Abdul Samad building nearby Dataran Merdeka. The interior reminded me of the churches of the middle ages in Europe, with its high ceiling, long prayer hall shaped like a huge hall and Golden Colored Mimbar at the front. I prayed Zuhur & Asar Jama’ Qasar there before having lunch at Zamzam, a Mamak establishment which served a delicious Murtabak Singapura. The meal together with Nescafe Tarek costed SGD6.50.

View of Masjid Sultan from Zamzam Restaurant-taken on Iphone4g

Interior View of Main Prayer Hall of Masjid Sultan

Then I continued my journey to the Sim Lim Square, a huge IT related shopping complex, very much similar to Low Yat Plaza in KL. There I went to the sixth floor to Orient Photo. There I finally purchased the K-5.

View of Orient Photo on the 6th floor of Sim Lim Square

Pentax equipments & lenses at Orient Photo.

After that, after a recommendation from them, I went to Edison Photo at the ground floor and bought from them the Canon Powershoot 3200IS, a compact camera for my mother. Both of my purchase is cheaper minimum of 15% than Malaysian price, and that even before 7% GST that can be claimed. As I just mentioned before, the counter to claim GST only established at the airport, so to claim GST, you will need to get a flight back.

Just to prove it, I took MRT to Changi Airport from Bugis Station. The MRT station was fully crowded with people since the Christmas Sale has just begun. Nevertheless, I managed to get to MRT without much hassle. The journey to Changi took only about 30 minutes, and the cost is only SGD3, which SGD1 will be refunded if you return the ticket afterward. It definitely very much cheaper from Malaysia’s KLIA Express which cost RM35 per journey.

View in the MRT

After arriving at Changi Airport, I proved that we could not claim GST since they only accepted hand carry item such as the cameras at the GST claim counter in the boarding hall. Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to test the K-5 by taking a few shoots there, and came very satisfied with its high ISO performance.

The feature high ceiling of Changi Airport

Advertisement at Changi Airport

Prohibited Items

Christmas Decoration

Christmas Decoration

I arrived back at Bugis MRT Station at 5:30pm. It was only about 1.5hour before my return bus, so I figured out that I only got enough time to shop around the area. Here are some shots that I took in the shopping area nearby.

Shopping Complex nearby Victoria Street

In the shopping complex at VIctoria Street. Nice decor of the old shop houses.

Christmas Decor at the shopping district

Starbuck Coffee

On my way back to the bus departure place, I pass by a unique building known as the Parkview Square. Its architecture is known for its likeness to the depiction of buildings in Gotham City, home to comic book hero Batman.

Parkview Square @ Gotham City

My bus back arrived 15 minutes late. The journey back was uneventful. There definitely less people at the immigration for both sides since I think most of the morning’s visitors stay overnight. I arrived back at Melaka Sentral at about 11.30pm, which means the journey back only took 4 hours compared to 5 hours for the journey to Singapore.

When it all starts all over again…

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Finally on the third week of December 2011, I made up my mind to get a new DSLR. It must be that the photography bug is biting me back again. It all started when I was drafted in as a last minute photographer for our division’s Gala Night, which is our annual corporate dinner event of TNB ICT Division. My old beloved Pentax K10 DSLR has been problematic for the past 2 year, it was intermittently unable to write to memory card. It  t made me to get a new camera to start shooting again.

I was split between continuing with Pentax or switching to Nikon due to better availability & second hand market of DSLR body, lenses & accessories. Nikon is also very good in flash photography, which is my area of interest. I finally decided to continue with Pentax due to my old Pentax K-10 body, which I cannot trade or sell, and my current meager collection of lenses. The official reasons were the old body at least can be my spare, and I can spare the hassle of selling the lenses & buying new ones.

Later on I found out that Pentax K-5 is a very capable camera which it’s high ISO performance completely surprised me!

During my online research, I came across a thread on Clubsnap (www.clubsnap.com/) , A Singapore Photography Forum, that Pentax Singapore is having a Christmas promotion! They are selling the Pentax K-5 body only at SGD 1220, which is about RM3000. It was very much cheaper than the Malaysia’s K-5 body only which was at the time RM3800. On the thread, it was mentioned that a shop in Singapore, Orient Photo (www.orientfoto.com.sg) was still having it. I immediately called them. A lady, who introduced himself at Lisa, answered my call, and told me that they had only 2 units K-5 left. I immediately make a reservation and told them that I’ll be coming that weekend.

Thus is how I made up my mind to go to the Lion City.

Asam Pedas Jalan Junid, Muar

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Last weekend, our big family in Jasin Melaka decided to go for a family outing to a nearby town, Muar, Johor. We decided to have a family lunch at a famous Asam Pedas Stall at Jalan Junid, Muar. Last time we went there is three years ago, but I can still remember the taste of a mouth watering asam pedas there till now.

The Assam Pedas is basically fish cooked in a light chilli soup mixed with tamarind. They are normally served with a mix of local ulam, or vegetable which is eaten fresh.

Roughly the location is as in the Google Map below.


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Apparently they also have a Facebook Fan page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Asam-Pedas-JJ-Jalan-JunidMuar/145779138780031.

Apparently the place is not that crowded on the Saturday afternoon, we quickly settled ourself in a makeshift dining table for 10 people.

The meal has already been precooked and ready to be served. Here are the food that we have for our lunch.

The Asam Pedas was nicely cooked and the soup has just the right balance of sourness and spiciness. The fish was fresh. The fresh vegetable and ulam, was also fresh but truthfully quite plain and not very different of other places.

Overall it was a very good lunch, and our family might think of going back to this stall again in the future.