MAS Business Class

Last week, I had a trip to Surabaya for my friend's wedding. Instead of purchasing an Airasia flight to Surabaya, I decided to fly on MAS this time..moreover, I've found a promotional ticket which costs me only RM591 (inclusive of Taxes and other surcharges) and a baggage allowance of 20kg...at that time, Airasia's ticket was more expensive compare to this MAS flight.

As I was queuing up to board the flight, I noticed that there were many Indonesians boarding the flight (yea the flight's fully booked due to Raya Haji balik Kampung), the MAS flight attendant told me that I've been upgraded to Business Class..I was like whoa..lucky! I've never expect that get a free upgrade!

Their service in Business class was perfect and the food's....well you judge it from the photos below..

Before the flight took off, I got a welcome drink..in a glass instead of the normal conventional plastic cups..classy eh..


Overview of the short haul Boeing 737 Business class seating..I guess most of you have seen this right? it's just like the KL-Penang Super VIP seats

BUT

The seat was very comfortable and in addition to that, there's no one seating beside me..haha
for 2.5 hours..


drinks were served on the side table cloth was laid on the doubleslide table..
Before that, cold tower was given as a facial refreshment...
next a menu was given to us..


That's the menu..click to zoom..


That's the food, satay with fried rice, prawns and avocado salad, blueberry cheese cake with raspberry sauce..and ferero roche choco..what else can you ask for more??

Yeah there're

Plus garlic bread and stainless steel fork and spoon..(not plastic)

and


pepper and salt unlike the one we got on normal flight..packet salt and pepper..

Overall, the food's great and the service was first class..they also served wine and some liquor although these are normal in a long haul economy flight. Wondering what type of business class service it would be in a long haul flight..
Anyway I would give a rating of 5/5 for Malaysia Airlines Business class..and thank you MAS for the free Business Class upgrade!

Thai Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha

Never thought that I would be blogging in KLIA..while waiting for my flight to Surabaya attending my friend's wedding, I'm gonna share a bit of my trip to the Thai Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha which was 2 years ago. As I studied in Bangkok for 2 years I've been able to visit many places and this place was one of the best palace I've been so far. As stated, it was a residential area for the Thai King, 18th century onwards. Construction of the Palace began in 1782 and it has been constantly expanded with various additional structures namely the famous Emerald Buddha. The present King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, however, resides at the Chitralada Palace.

More photos below on the Grand Palace for those who have not been there before.

View of the complex from the outside


Overview of the complex




That's the Prasat Phra Thap Bidon


Two mythological guardian



That is the Phra Si Rattana Chedi


One of the pagoda beside Prasat Phra Thap Bidon


Gold plated..maybe?



The Emerald Buddha wrapped in golden blanket..
Photos are not allowed to be taken inside the hall of the Emerald Buddha, I was lucky because my old camera could zoom up to 12x


That's the Chakri Mahaprasad Hall


That's the Royal Guard on the right...and another POV of the temple complex..

That's all for now..will be another posting soon in about a week time..enjoy !

Winter@ Asakakusa Jinja, 2007 and 08

Asakusa jinja or temple in English is a famous temple in Tokyo. Situated at Asakusa, Taito, Tokyo, it's the Tokyo's oldest temple. It's a temple dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy after a Buddhist scripture were found in a river nearby. It's always nice to visit a place twice..and I'm happy to be there so far for 2 consecutive winter thanx to the IPoS network for their financial support. Honto ni kanshashimasu!

Photos will be of year sequence from the year 2007 and year 2008. Photos from the year 2007 were captured using my old Sony DSC H-1 and the year 2008 were capture using Nikon D60. Enjoy!

Winter year 2007


A guardian statue at the main entrance

Pilgrims and tourists have flocked and shops at small shops along this small lane for centuries

DENBO-IN..
a dwelling place for Abbots serving the temple, Sensoji. It was built in the year 1777 and behind this building there's a beautiful garden with a fountain.

Gate to the Senso-ji after walking along the row of small shops

A temple guardian saying 'OK'..you can enter...hehehe

nice and huge lanterns at the gate of senso ji

Sensoji at night..it's been closed..so I couldn't enter inside

Beautiful lit pagoda at night

love the colors..

Some carvings below the lantern

End of year 2007

next,

Year 2008 winter




a giant lantern named Chochin, at the main entrance


Morning mood along the shops..that's my friend, Yosuke Amakusa in blue jacket


Beautiful morning for a walk

A cake making machine..3 piece for 100 yen (rm3.70)

Reached the inner gate


smokkyyy

Inside the temple

The main shrine

lucky to have met a sumo wrestler praying for success in the tournament..Good luck dude!


Pagoda during the day time..majestic isn't it? and the sun is getting brighter and brighter

An airship passing the temple..and it's as if that it's entering the glowing part of the sky

And these are my friends from various countries..enjoying the day chatting and laughing..really miss you guys there..hope to meet you guys again this winter 2009 in Tokyo.

See ya next month!

LIONs, TIGERs, HIPPOs, TIMONs

This was the 2nd trip of Safari Lion Park in South Africa. Finally I'm able to get a better photos of the wildlife in this private game park aka nature reserve. Well I'm starting with a meerkat (aka Timon of Lion King)

Poor Timon..he's caught in a cage..and Timon on a sentry mode

Timon on Sentry mode while his brother and sisters did some food foraging..and on the right, it's Timon posing for us.
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and here's the Lion King

and next it's the Lion King's'?

Lionesses waiting for food outside


and here comes the Boss


This is soooo NEARRR

Next on Cheetahs one of the fastest animal on Earth..

Two of them quarelling

Jumping for food..first come first serve


And this is Eddy..not the guy's name but the Cheetah's name's Eddy..
Eddy is actually racing with this guy

That's me and Eddy


and here comes the foreigner of South Africa, the Bengal Tigers

Look at how huge is its PAWS...double the size of our palm..isn't it?


We're just ONE FEET AWAY! separated by just a fence.. Scary isn't it? You can actually feel its 'fear aura' from this near and it's bloody hard to get this shot as it could attack my cam anytime

Actually it did attack my cam..just lucky that I'm a little fast to retract my cam, else there goes my DLSR

Let's move on to a friendlier photo,
The smiling baby HIPPO

=))))


2 CUTE baby HIPPOs


Showing us its teeth..Mind you actually they share the same habitat as the crocs. The crocs do not dare to 'cross' these heavy creatures in the river or at the riverbank actually..and these creatures attack the crocs for food sometimes..or you would say robbed the crocs..So would you say that the crocs are more violent than the hippos?hehe

That's all for now folks..please enjoy...
Thanks a bunch and have a nice week!

of LAVENDERS and FLOWER FARMS at Farm Tomita

This is another late posting on Hokkaido. This time it's on flowers again from Farm Tomita which is situated in Nakafurano, Furano, Hokkaido. It was autumm at that time and I was lucky to get to see some beautiful flower fields..and yea..it's very colorful...This farm is famous worldwide and even got featured in Japanese Dramas..
Flowers ranged from lavender, cosmos and other colorful flowers in which i'm still unable to get the name.There are many lavender flavor products and even lavender ice creams. Anyway please enjoy!

That's me at Farm Tomita, should be Tomita Farm though..

Some not so colorful flowers..but these are just the gists

The main dishes are here........
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PLEASE ENJOY!!





Colorful isn't it? These are cloudy pics

The sunny versions are here

Overlooking a small hut


A little further..that's the cosmos flowers in front


Change of POV





These are the cosmos flowers..closeup..
Anyone with information regarding the names of other flowers please do share the information :D

I think that's all for now..
South African posting up next...
Take care and have a nice day...

Himawari, farms, and fields

Biei is a very beautiful and serene town in Hokkaido in central Hokkaido. As it's a small town, the total population was just over 10000 people in the area. Biei is famous for it's wide fields and hills and is often used as a backdrop for many Japanese commercials. It's nostalgic when looking back at those photos during my very first trip to Japan in the year 2007 and Biei became one of my favourite destination for nature tourism in Japan. Well let's enjoy the beautiful photos of Biei.

Clock stroke 12pm at the Biei train station...what a time


Serene and clean road at the town area

That house across on the left is a barber shop

A bee and a sunflower..but this is just the gist...the most beautiful view ever is......
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Beautiful and lovely isn't it?





that's the sunflower fields from the observatory tower

That's the observatory pyramid on the right

and some beautiful fields and farms...


Green and smooth fields



Farmlands, fields and great moutains on the background


That's the tree of 'Ken and Mary' and the name of the restaurant is also called Ken and Mary restaurant...don't ask me why they named it 'Ken and Mary'..



Swirling road

and wavy road in Hokkaido..that's my Taiwanese friend, Cho, and Raj of Nepal behind..


And that's us cycling around the neighbourhood...

Well that's all for now..enjoy the nature and next post will be soon again!
Jyaa mata ne!

Lucky POT HOLES

We've experienced lots of pot holes everyday while driving to and fro a destination..and we've always been cursing on the council or JKR for their irresponsibilities...that's Malaysian Potholes..but what I'm gonna share here with everyone is Lucky Potholes'..well the full name is called the Bourkes Luck Pothole. It's part of the Blyde River Canyon in Graskop (Khraskop), Mpumalanga, South Africa in which I will be showing you soon in the next posting. Back to the potholes, it's name after a gold digger named Tom Burke who has correctly predicted that a large deposit of golds would be found in that area at that time..and the formation of the potholes was caused by swirling whirlpools which made the stones and sands to grind huge cylindrical potholes in the bedrock of the river. So ironic, it's unlike the potholes in Malaysia..lmao..

The entrance to the potholes...


First time seeing a BMW bike..looks cool..

that's the Blyde river, the smaller one..not sure whether it's the upstream or the lower stream

On the left, one of the 2 bridges to be crossed over and one the right, some of the potholes...


Beautiful rock formation


That's me in the middle as a proof


rocks being corroded by moving waters (eons)

Beautiful mini waterfalls


Better view of more lucky potholes
Can you spot some glittering stuff in the potholes?

definitely it's not gold..it's just coins thrown by visitors..
perhaps hoping to accumulate some luck?

Hope you enjoy this posting..more to come on the South African nature...actually tonnes to come.
Cheers and See ya!