THE SILK ROAD TOUR

THE SILK ROAD TOUR (12D 11N) 29th May to 9th June 2012

ATTRACTIONS FROM URUMUQI TO XI’AN

A tour package filled with lessons on history, cultures, religions, civilisation, archeology, geography, ancient engineering, agriculture and sightseeing of awesome landscapes. The experiences in toilet facilities from most primitive to most advanced were memorable. The bus journey of about 4,000 km passed through the provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, Qing Hai and Shaanxi.
The tour group of 11 consisted of Ayatollah Cheah and Mrs.( Lim Siew Wan), Ms. Yong, Ms. Seow, Mrs. Ng Ai Tee, Ms. Wong, Ms. Ma, Lucy and Rose Foong, Connie and yours truly. Our tour leader was Ms. Lim Hui Yee from Parlo tours.



Day 1 29th May 2012 was totally occupied by the journey, van journey from Ipoh to KLIA, flew from KLIA to Guangzhou, then flew from Guangzhou to Urumuqi. We landed in Urumuqi International Airport at 10.00 pm but it was still bright because the whole of China observes only 1 time zone.


Day 2 30th May 2012 Urumuqi / Turpan

Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake)

Tian Chi is the most famous landscape near Urumuqi, particularly refreshing to travellers arriving in Urumuqi from the barren Xinjiang deserts or from the concrete jungles of the cities. The pristine scene is stunning. The group had a boat cruise on the lake.

The International Grand Bazaar is a magnificent  Islamic commercial architectural complex.  The Bazaar furnishes different kinds of goods made in Xinjiang as well as other neighbouring countries and offers all the ethnic food and souvenirs.

Grape Valley

Turpan is famous for its fruits. Among them, grape is the most famous. The group did not get to savour any fresh grapes because June is not the harvesting season. However, we spotted many unripe bunches hanging down from the vintage frames. We were happy to purchase raisins.

 

Karez Irrigation systems

The Karez systems are ancient major irrigation projects which are the life source of Turpan. They are very delicate irrigation systems made up of vertical wells, underground canals, above-ground canals and small reservoirs. Melting snow from the Tianshan mountain is the water source of the karez. Water is collected by vertical wells and conducted by the underground canals to the oasis, where the water is held in the ground canals for irrigation, especially to the grape valley.

 

to be continued..

No Secret Recipe - Doggy Duck

DOGGY DUCK

Ingredients: Amount:
Oil 1 ½ tblsp.
Ginger 100 gm (cut into slices)
Garlic 2 big cloves, minced
Duck 1 ½ kg (chopped into bite-size pieces)
Kitchap 1 tblsp.
Salt 1 tsp.
Spice mixture 20 gm (RM1.00) from Chinese Medicine Shop, crushed. 2/3 put in muslin bag.
of Pat Kok + Siao Fei remainder 1/3 sieve away fine dust and mix with duck meat.
( bunga lawang + cintan putih)
Msg ½ tsp
Oyster sauce 1 tblsp.
Black sauce ½ tblsp.

Method:
Heat oil in frying pan.
Saute ginger and garlic till fragrant.
Pour in duck meat, stir fry awhile to seal the meat.
Pour in kitchap and stir fry for a minute or two to remove the duck smell.
Add salt ( 1tsp) and put in the 1/3 sieved spice mixture.
Add msg ( ½ tsp) and mix well.
Put in muslin bag containing the 2/3 spice mixture in the centre of the meat.
Pour in 1 liter of water or enough to cover the meat completely.
Stir once in awhile, add water when necessary, if the meat is not tender enough.
Put in oyster sauce and black sauce and mix well.
Check saltiness. Simmer till meat is tender ( about 90 mins ) and till desirable amount of gravy left..
Dish out, garnish and serve.

8d5n Italy Tours (final part)

Day 6 – 10th Nov.2011 Pisa
After breakfast we checked out and proceeded to Pisa, Miracoli Square, the location of the famous Leaning Tower, Cathedral and Baptistery.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Cathedral + Baptistery + Leaning Tower

We spotted the statue of the legendary twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, as babies being suckled by a mother wolf.

Mother wolf suckled Romulus and Remus

There were a lot of souvenir stores near the square. We then continued our journey along the west coast highway to Milan. It was a very pleasant journey with scenic view of farms and hills dotted with residences on the slopes. The highway was built on a mountainous region but a comfortable gradient was always maintained by good engineering with countless bridges across ravines and tunnels going through ranges. It was nice feeling to look at vegetation in autumn manifesting various shades of green, yellow, orange, red and brown in the process of senescence.

Vegetation in Autumn + farm

A town on hill top

We arrived at Serravalle Designer Outlet park where one could find stores retailing A to Z brands of shoes, bags, sports wear, garments, etc. Surprisingly, most of the products were made in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. After 4 hours of shopping we proceeded to Milan arriving for Chinese dinner at Imperial Restaurant. We checked in at our last hotel of the tour – Novotel Hotel near Malpensa Airport.

Day 7 – 11th Nov. 2011 Flew from Milan to Abu Dhabi
Not long after the plane took off from Milan one could have a good view of the Alps covered with snow.

The Alps viewed through the window

on transit for 6 hours at Abu Dhabi Airport.Day 8 – 12th Nov.2011 Flew from Abu Dhabi to KLIA and back to Ipoh by bus – home, sweet home.

8D5N Italy Tour (continued)

Day 4 – 8th Nov. 2011 Florence - Rome
After breakfast we checked out and proceeded to Rome which took 4 hours, and reached at lunch time. We had a simple lunch of plain spaghetti, pizza, salad and ice cream.

Plain spaghetti

In the rain we toured the Vatican City, St. Peter’s square + Basilica, Coliseum, Constantine’s Arch, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and Fountain.

St. Peter’s Square + Basilica in Rome

Constantine’s Arch

Coliseum – outside view

The younger group went shopping for branded handbags instead of seeing the Trevi Fountain. We had Chinese dinner before checking in Idea Hotel in Rome for the night.

Day 5 – 9th Nov. 2011 Rome – Florence
After breakfast we travelled back to Florence. We had a photo stop at Michelangelo’s Square where one could enjoy a panoramic view of Florence City.

Panorama of Florence City

We had a good Italian lunch at Fantasia Restaurant – a generous helping of pasta and spaghetti, a big chicken drumstick and baked potato, salad and fruits.

Pasta + spaghetti + minced meat sauce

Chicken drumstick + baked potato

Then we had a guided tour of popular tourist spots of Florence City – the Arno riversides, Holy Cross Cathedral, Santa Maria Dei Fiore Cathedral. The striking feature of the construction of that Cathedral was the colour schemes of the walls and floors were formed with pieces of marble cut to the exact size and shape. Admirable workmanship !

Santa Maria’s Cathedral

After some shopping for souvenirs, handbags, ice cream, etc, we proceeded to Pisa, 2 hour journey from Florence. We had dinner at Peking Restaurant and checked in at Tulip Inn for the night.

(to be continued)

8D5N Italy Tour

8 Days – Whole of Italy
5th – 12th November 2011

Day 1 – 5th Nov.2011
We flew Etihad, Airlines of the UAE, from KLIA to Abu Dhabi, on transit for 3 hours, then from Abu Dhabi to Milan. We touched down at 7.00 am Italy time on 6th Nov.2011

Day 2 – 6th Nov.2011 Milan – Verona
A tour coach picked us up at 8.30 am and took us to Milan City to visit the Duomo of Milan (Cathedral of Milan) – the World’s largest Gothic Cathedral, built in the 14th Century, which took more than 400 years to complete. The cathedral is a forest of stone pinnacles, flying buttresses, & more than 3500 statues and one could get a fantastic panoramic view of Milan from its roof. From the cathedral square, one could see the Opera House, Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II.

Duomo of Milan

Interior of the Duomo

Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II

We were attracted by an old man ‘basking’ with his saxophone. He blew ‘Summertime’ and ‘Speak Softly Love’ rather sadly expressed. Connie thought he deserved 1 Euro.

“Summertime”

The square was full of tourists as well as pigeons crowding near tourists who fed them grains.

Pigeons expecting some grains from Connie

We had lunch at a Chinese Restaurant before proceeding to Verona,169 km from Milan, to visit Juliet’s home. Juliet’s balcony was exceptionally popular for snapshots.

Juliew at the balcony

There was also a ruined remain of the Arena.

Arena

The younger group of ladies preferred shopping for branded handbags. From 4-6pm we travelled to Venice and had dinner at Choong Hwa Restaurant before checked in at Novotel Hotel for the night. It was a very tiring and torturing start of the tour.

Day 3 – 7th Nov.2011 Venice
Morning call at 6am, breakfast at 7am, and checked out at 8am. Proceeded to Port Tronchetto to take a boat toVenice. We had a gondola ride @25Euro/head for 30 minutes only.

Gondola ride

A Chinese lady tour guide took us for a walking tour of Venice to visit popular spots of Venice – Doge Palace, St. Mark Basilica, St Mark’s Square, Bridge of Sighs, and a glass making workshop.




















St.Mark’s Square

St. Mark’s Square viewed from the sea

After that it was free and easy, shopping for souvenir, branded handbags, etc. For lunch we had squid ink sauce spaghetti.

Squid Ink sauce spaghetti

After lunch we went back to Port Tronchetto and continued our journey to Florence which took 3 ½ hours. We were just in time for dinner at Hua Qiao Restaurant. Then we checked in Hotel Croce Di Malta in Florence which looked old outside but modern inside.

(to be continued)

Phuket tour by bus

Hatyai-Krabi-Phang Nga-Phuket (5D/4N) 31/8/11 – 4/9/11
Super VIP Bus tour organised by Cai Shen Yeh Tour and Travel, Batu Gajah

During the Merdeka / Hari Raya Puasa holidays, Connie and I joined a tour by bus to Thailand covering Hatyai, Krabi, Phang Nga, Coral Island and Phuket. The group of 30 consisting mostly of senior citizens from Batu Gajah, Pusing, Bemban, a young couple from Tronoh and a cute little girl of 2 years old brought along by the grandma and grandpa. The journey started at 12.05 am on 31/8/11 and reached the Thai border at about 7.00 am. We were greeted by our Hakka speaking tour guide, Mr. Lee Yew Choy from Betong. From then on there was never a boring moment for the group because he was able to keep us entertained with jokes, songs, stories, riddles, common words translation from Chinese to Thai which sounded vulgar in Hakka. On the whole, the tour was interesting, good food, good company, comfortable hotels and happy shopping, but the ending was rather distressing because the bus broke down just at the custom check point at Sadao, delaying our journey home.

Tour guide Lee Yew Choy singing

Highlights of the tour.
a) Day 1 -31/8/11- BG to Krabi
On the way to Krabi we stopped at Emerald Pool – nicknamed mini Juijaigo (China). It was a disappointment because the pathway of wooden planks were in the process of replacement with concrete slabs. The beautiful part of the waterfall was not accessible.

We arrived at Krabi at night, checked in Heritage Hotel to pass the night. Krabi is a tourist town, full of activities at night.


Restaurant at Krabi

Heritage Hotel we stayed






Our tour bus

b) Day 2 – 1/9/11 - Phuket
Cruise to PhangNga National Park to see two famous islands, Khao Ping Kan (Hills leaning against each other) and Khao Tapu (Nail ), known as James Bond Islands, in the Andaman Sea. Passed by a Floating Muslim Fishing Village with a few hundred families.
A Muslim Community – beside fishing they are also operating Restaurants for tourists.

The boats went through a sea tunnel before reaching “James Bond” Islands. From the crowd gathering here and the number of souvenir stalls, one could conclude it is a popular tourist spot all because of the 007 show – The Man with the Golden Gun, filmed here in 1974.





Sailing through a sea tunnel


Khao Tapu - boats and ships were prohibited from sailing to this bay.



Khao Phing Kan





A geological mystery – how it happened ?

Look at those souvenir stores.

Lee Yew Choy our tour guide.

Visited a Gems Gallery with ISO 9002 certificate- claim to be the biggest jewelry factory in the world.

Arrived at Aloha Villa, the hotel we stayed for 2 nights at Patong, Phuket. After checked in, it was free and easy to explore Patong and its night life plus some shopping. Patong is quiet and sleepy in the day but bursts to life at night till morning.

c) Day 3 – 2/9/11 - Phuket
Visited a Buddhist temple before tooking a speed boat ride to Coral Island for swimming in crystal clear water on white sand beach. Other sea activities available were snorkeling, parachute sailing, scuba diving, coral watching on boat, etc, all come with additional charge. We wanted to try out parachute sailing (RM70 per minute ) but the crowd saved our money.
After coming back from Coral Island we had a nice buffet lunch at Thai Naan Restaurant
( > 50 dishes )
Next stop was the Laem Phromthep Cape on a hill where we could get a beautiful sea view of the Andaman Sea.

Connie says “I can fly!”

Then, we proceeded to the Snake Farm which houses various types of poisonous snakes. After watching a snake performance we were introduced to snake products. Products from this snake farm included antidote for snake bite, pills for rheumatism, aphrodisiac from snake penis, plus other magical cures.

Playing with cobra

Next stop was a pearl factory

The best item of the day was the FantaSea Show – a variety show of 75 minutes consisting of magic, circus, cultural dance, wayang kulit, etc. Strictly no picture taking in the theatre. Our cameras, hand phones, and video cams were quarantined till the show ended. Even Disneyland do not impose such a fuss. The location is a mini Disneyland with buildings of fanciful architecture and colourfully lighted at night. Entrance fee of RM165 comes with a grand buffet dinner in a ‘palace’ just before show.

Imitation of Khao Tapu

Buffet dining hall, like palace

One of those fanciful buildings

d) Day 4 – 3/9/11 Phuket – Hatyai
We left Phuket for Hatyai.
At a slope, the bus ran out of fuel. Our journey was held up for one hour. We stopped over at Trang for lunch.
Arrived at Hatyai, had dinner before checked in V.L. Hotel. It was free and easy for everyone – shopping, massage, sexy show, etc

Ice cream block with durian flavour we enjoyed

e) Day 5 – 4/9/11 - Depart Hatyai to home – a bitter but memorableA journey.
Arrived at Sadao custom check at 5.00 pm, the bus stalled for the 2nd time, again ran out of fuel. This time it was more serious – battery gone flat and starter coil burned. While waiting for the rescue bus from Ipoh to come, our tour leader’s wife spotted a bus passing through without a single passenger. She ran after the bus and managed to stop her to ask for help. The two bus drivers were young ladies !

Transferring our baggage and goodies to another bus at Sadao Custom check

We were relieved to know that we would not be stranded at the check point till midnight. We stopped at Alor Star for dinner then to Juru to change to the rescue bus from Ipoh, arriving home at 2.30 am. on 5th September 2011 with sweet and unforgettable memories of the tour.