Splendid China Part II: Miniature China

Date of Visited: 30th May 2011

Continue from the previous post of Part 1, the other part of Splendid China is Miniature Park. This theme park is one of the world's largest scenery parks where it showcase the replicas of China's historical and ancient buildings, marvellous scenes and exciting culture.

Not only surrounded by the replicas, but the exhibits are also surrounded by pleasant and beautiful gardens with many flowers and trees.

At here, you can see replicas of all the China famous landmark and buildings in one day where it was perfectly being constructed in a ratio of 1:15. The exhibits are even positioned to replicate their geographical locations. Consequently, you will feel like you are visiting the entire China without have to travel so far away.

The long and masterpiece of the replica of Dazu Buddhist Stone Sculpture.

One of the must seen replicas is The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses, where it was being replicated exactly the same like the original one which located at Xian City, Shaanxi Province.

The famous landmarks and building in China. Can you name them all?

There are even some replicas being built on the water, which really impress me.

For your information, this is the second miniature theme park I visited whereas my maiden visit was the one in Taiwan - Window on China Theme Park. Both have their own unique and distinctive features and showcases different kind of replicas but somehow, I think the best miniature theme park will be the one in Taiwan. One of the reason I said so it because Splendid China did a low maintenance for their replicas as I did saw some of them are damaged.

Anyhow, it is worth to make a visit to this theme park with your family and friends as it is comes with two different kind of parks, including China Folk Culture Village with one single ticket. The recommended time to visit this second part of the theme park might roughly be 2-3 hours. It is more spacious than the first one.

There even a park where those trees were planted by the most famous people in the world. Wander around and seeing all the name, sorry to say I can't recognise any of them.

Opening hours: 09:00 to 18:00
Admission fee: 120 RMB including China Folk Culture Village
How to go there: Shenzhen Subway Line 1 and stop at "Huaqiaocheng" (Overseas Chinese Town) station. Upon reaching there, find Exit D and Splendid China is situated on the right-hand side.

[Credit to: Wikipedia, Travel China Guide, Startinchina.com, Passportchop.com]

Snapshot Sunday: Eiffel Tower, France

Small Note: Another new segment of Travel & Living Journal of DT - "Snapshot Sunday". Besides to serve as showcase of the photo I took from my previous trip, this segment also serve for the purpose to reminiscence my old travel post, especially for the new readers. Most of the travel blog I bumped into will have something like "Travel Photo for the Week" but I came out with this segment. Don't want being recognise as copycat mah, as I damn hate copycat!

Many people claimed this place to be City of Romance, but for me, it is one truly "City of Lights". Eiffel Tower is a prominent symbol for both France and Paris. A ring of 12 golden stars around Eiffel Tower represents France as part of the European Union.

Check out my old travel post: Around Europe in 20 Days [Part 1: Paris]

Foodie Friday: Flying Chillies & Gong Cha @ The Gardens

It happened last year where my friends and I decided to meet up and do final gathering before bidding goodbye to me. Initially we agreed to have lunch at Delicious at Mid Valley but upon browsing through their menu, we didn't know what should we ordered. A menu contains with full description but without any images is an epic failure to satisfy our appetite, hence we made up our mind to change other location.

My collegemates that always hanging out together at Delicious, Mid Valley.

Two of my friends told me that there is a Thai restaurant served an authentic Thai food located in The Gardens and because I am so in love with hot and spicy foods, here we are at "Flying Chillies".

I went The Gardens few times but never knew the existence of this restaurant until that day.

With the availability of images in a menu, it is much easier for us to order the foods and here are what we ordered:

Green curry chicken

Signature pineapple fried rice with prawn and cashew nuts

Stir fried kuey teow with light soya sauce and chicken served with thai chilli prawn

Coconut cream with sago and honeydew

Red ruby water chestnuts in coconut milk

Overall we were satisfied with the foods especially with the last two desserts as both are so refreshing and not too sweet. But with the price that a bit pricey and one of my friend comment that the quantity of the foods are too little for him.

After done with the lunch, we decided to watch movie. Yeah! My all-time-favourite when hanging out with friend but too bad, it was fully booked when comes to weekend. Thus, I suggested to have Gong Cha since I haven't try any of it and also in order to kill our time.

Located on 2nd Floor, The Gardens Mall

The strong aromatic taste of the milk tea is really unique and different compare to the other kind of milk tea. Now I done with trying two of the famous milk tea in KL; Chatime and Gong Cha. Anyhow as a truly Sabahan gal, I still prefer our very own local milk tea, Yoyo ;P.

Splendid China Part I: Shenzhen China Folk Culture Village

Date of Visited: 30th May 2011

After shopping like mad for the past 2 days (Day 1 & Day 2 post), I decided to make a visit to one of Shenzhen's attractions on the third day. You know the sinful when brought your camera along to a trip but never fully utilise it.There are few of attractions to name of when comes to Shenzhen including Window of the World, Splendid China, Happy Valley and so on. Upon all the list of the attractions, I more interested with Window of the World and Splendid China as these two are the top list. But due to time constraint, I can only pick one and after done with all the research and findings, Splendid China is my final choice.

Both Window of the World and Splendid China are located so close to each other and if you really have a whole day around Shenzhen, you can visit it both in a day. The reason I choose Splendid China is because I can visit two distinctive parks with a single ticket of entrance. Splendid China is split into two parts; China Folk Culture Village and Miniature China. This is what they call "Travel with Smart". Hence for this first part of post, I will blog about China Folk Culture Village first.

There are many ways to reach Splendid China but we prefer to take subway. Take Shenzhen Subway Line 1 and stop at "Huaqiaocheng" (Overseas Chinese Town) station. Upon reaching there, find Exit D and Splendid China is situated on the right-hand side. The admission fee is 120 RMB for adult and 60 RMB for children.

The performance time and map.

Do take note that the admission fee doesn't include to watch few of the performances which requires you to pay extra.

The vividly coloured Chinese umbrella hanging around the culture village.

Maybe due to cause we reached there quite late, we were unlucky to see those people dressed in ethnic costumes and the portrayal of ethnic village life. Therefore, the only we can do is wander around and took a few photo around the theme park.

The stage for the performance

Loves these huge Chinese changing masks "Bian Lian" hanging on the way

There are few stalls that could buy some local snacks and small gifts.

We took more than an hour to venture around the first part of this Splendid China, whereas you might eventually need at least two hours if interested to watch the performance. For the second part of the Splendid China will be blog soon. So stay tune!


[Credit to: China Highlights, Travel China Guide, Startinchina.com]

Sofitel Dongguan Human Oriental

Small Note: It's been a week I didn't manage to update my blog. It's not because busy for the preparation of CNY, but I was busy hanging out with my boyfie, bestie and family. I did received 2 pairs of free movie ticket for 2 consecutive nights too.

Just like Hilton, Ibis, Novotel, Shangri-La hotels; Sofitel is another kind of hotel chain but more towards to luxury type. There are more than 150 unique of Sofitel hotels over 40 countries and I really felt the bliss when I got the chance to stay one of them during my stay in Shenzen for two nights with my family. It's been quite a while I didn't stay in such kind of luxury hotel since ever I backpacking for more than 10 countries and stayed in backpacker hostel or guest house.

Sofitel Dongguan Humen Oriental is located 45 minutes away from Shenzhen International Airport and it is absolutely an excellent location as there are tons of wholeseller retailer shops behind.

The glamorous entrance of the hotel

Lobby and lounge located on the 10th floor

Catch a glimpse on the big and luxurious room

Overview of the room

The room is equipped with iron, iron board, umbrella and more.

Outstanding freestanding bathtub and separate showers. You can even enjoy watching TV while showering.

Panoramic city view from the room on 39th floors

It's really a sin to see a huge and long mirror inside the room. Not only one, but there are two mirrors somemore.

Overview of the room: What else can I wish for more when staying in this kind of room. Everything is provided and it really makes me feel like I was at home. It is truly a comfort and enjoyable stay. We didn't even bother about our meals as there are many restaurants and shop nearby. However there is always a lil bit of cons when comes to the services. Maybe because of the "nature" attitude and behaviour of China people, their services tend to be in low quality and have a clueless staff. During our last day of stay and about to check out, their staff came in with sudden and it's really gave me a shocked. This is totally a ridiculous service. We did inform the service counter lady regarding this issue and hopefully they will reconsider this in future.

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Before I end this post, I would like each and everyone of you
"Good Luck and Good Fortune in this
Prosperous Chinese New Year"

My latest hairstyle on the right after cutting my 8 inches long and curly hair for this CNY.
(Photo taken and edited using HTC Desire HD)
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7 Hours Road Trip from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei

Just came back from Phuket, Thailand last week and working for 2 days, I off to Brunei again with my family to attend my cousin's wedding. (My 2nd trip for the year 2012) It has been so many years that all of us has anticipated for his big day and now it's finally arrived. Instead of taking flight, my daddy decided to take a long 7 hours drive from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei. He has been doing that for hundreds of time since I was a little gal. Even my aunty and cousin from Kuching, Sarawak, who took a flight to Kota Kinabalu decided to join us too for this long road trip.

Packed all the things and we are ready to go.

Brought along my leftover Brunei Dollar from my previos trip in case wanna buy anything there

This is not the first time my family and I experienced this kind of road trip because we ever drove all the way from Kuching, Sarawak and pass through expensive sultanate Brunei before arrive Kota Kinabalu for a week. The longest road trip I ever had in my life!

Stopby Papar to pump petrol fuel before going for a long long journey

Luckily my dad did pump his vehicle to the maximum because in Brunei, there is a limit amount of petrol fuel given to a Malaysian vehicle by the petrol station; some only allows $5 and even the max will be $20 only.

The stretch covered by this route known as "Borneo Overland Trail" can be both challenging and fascinating; challenging because it involves traveling through some of the more remote corners of Sarawak and Sabah where some of the roads are not being repaired or improved yet (Sigh! This is how our government treat those live in remote areas).

But I guess the most challenging part is where this route brings us across several state and international borders. Don't be surprised when the next thing you enter the border, you will be in one of Brunei District and once you enter another border, you are somewhere around Sarawak. Try imagine a drive from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei, you will need to passthrough 6 IMMIGRATION!

After 2 and half hours we reached the 1st immigration: Sindumin, Sabah

2nd immigration: Lawas, Sarawak

Just a few miles away, we reached the Brunei's border. Quite a long queue because besides inspect passport, they also require to fill in vehicle form.

The 3rd immigration: Temburong, Brunei Darussalam

There even a public bus if you are lazy to drive

Another Brunei's immigration: Puni

The thing you'll probably need the most is patience especially waiting for the lines to get into ferry crossings across the river which can accommodate 6-7 vehicle at a time.

The price list. Which will be more cost saving?
Paying in Ringgit Malaysia or Brunei Dollar? You do the maths

See, now back to Malaysia again. The 5th immigration: Limbang, Sarawak.

Finally the last immigration for this trip: Kuala Lumrah, Brunei and we're officially in Brunei.

There are actually up to maximum of 8 IMMIGRATION if continue the journey to Miri, Sarawak which we did came across in our past road trip. My family and I ever experienced road trip in Peninsular Malaysia too from Penang to Kedah, Perlis and reached Hatyai, Thailand but never encounter so many kind of immigration. Deng!

Once we saw this, we realised that we had reached my aunty's place finally.

7 hours ride is really damn tiring and exhausting journey but the most fascinating throughout this journey was we were enjoy each and every pretty interesting Sabah rural life all along the journey, and see the differences of some district which has developed within the past few years especially Temburong, Brunei. But probably the best part for a part-time traveller like me was "PASSPORT STAMP COLLECTION".

Just a 3 days visit and already occupied 2 pages of my passport