1. UK(England, Wales and Scotland) (1994-2000)
- Beautiful places include Lake District, Glens and Lochs of
Highlands Scotland. I skiied for the first time in Cairngorm,
Inverness with Chin Kong, Wai Loong and Li Tsung, and I loved every
bit of it! The funny thing is we only started to learn for the first
time some basics from Li Tsung who had attended a ski course in
Andorra for two weeks. Within an hour, up we went with our little bit
of knowledge of skiing and enjoyed ourselves wholeheartedly
throughout the afternoon with a total expenses of only 10 quids! ;)
-I have been to most of the cities in UK, and some of the
outstanding ones include York, Oxford, Cambridge, Stafford
Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace) and Edinburgh.
-Also been to Stonehenge, Snowdonia and Pembrokshire in Wales.
-Host family visits to Launceston in Cornwall (Dec 1998) and
Sherborne in Dorset (Aug 1999). This HOST program is excellent and highly
recommended to all foreign students in UK. In the first Christmas host
trip to Cornwall, I went together with Tong Hooi. The second trip was over
a weekend at Sherborne and both experiences were marvellous. Sherborne is
such a lovely countryside area and I will not forget the pleasant night
walk under the moonlights across the fields with Anne, my lady host, Kate
and their dog, Charlie.
-Conservation work in Ashdown Forest, Sussex (Aug 1998), a place
made popular by Winnie The Pooh! During this trip, I got to know
Rosemary and her son, Chris and they invited me up for the subsequent
Christmas at their home in Northampton! such friendly gesture and I
totally enjoyed myself there. Many thanks!!
-Warwick Castle and Hampton Court Palace
are also very beautiful sites, which are worth a visit. The occasional
cycling trips to New Forest, Hampshire had also been joyful and
relaxing moments for me.
-Lulworth Cove, Dorset
Coast (10th June 2000) in a walking trip
with my fantastic flatmates (Sy, Yi Ting, Shakeel, Sun Jian, Katie and
DavKa) and of course Ariel Yue, the regular visitor of our flat! This trip
was first initiated by Katie and many thanks to her for introducing us to
the beauty of Dorset. I must say this is the most beautiful coastal
region of England I have visited so far. I also came to realise that Poole
is the second largest natural harbour in the world (after Sydney). Due to
its exceptional geology much of the Dorset coast is now considered as a
World Heritage Site, an honour which it would share with places such as
the Grand Canyon.
2. Spain (Dec 1994)
-Barcelona, this was a trip organised by the Malaysian
Students Association (MSA) of Southampton. It was a long coach trip
but I must admit the beautiful sceneries there made this trip
all worthwhile!! Such a wonderful Olympic venue, lovely Gaudi
architecture, fantastic food and not forgetting the ever so lively
street of Ramblas!
3. America (June-Sept 1995)
- I took part in the British Universities North America Club
(BUNAC) summer exchange program and worked
for 2 months in Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. It was
a giant roaller coaster park located by the Lake Erie, so a lot of water
activities like para-sailing, jet skiing were available. It was a great
experience jet-skiing there with our JPA gang during one of our off-day. Later
I travelled for a month around the States by Amtrak with Mei Ling. Also
travelled together with Tong Hooi at the later stage of our travel.
- Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Yosemite Park, Rocky Mountains in
Denver, DisneyWorld in Florida, Los Angeles+Universal Studios, San
Francisco area, Boston area, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas,
Washington and the magnificient night view of the skyscrapers in Chicago.
4. Canada (July 1995)
-Toronto, visited this city during our car-trip to Niagara Falls
from Cedar Point.
5. Egypt (Dec 1995)
-Bee Leong, Khar Yee, Kenneth and I visited this country in
December 1995 for a week. Also met Aileen See and her friends there
and we then travelled together. Still couldn't forget about our taxi
journey visiting various attractive sites between Luxor and Aswan, with
all 7 of us putting our life in the taxi driver's hands!! Every 5
seconds, he would press the horn , blasting all the way in a true
roller-coaster fashion!! ;)
- visited Luxor, Edna, Edfu, Aswan, Cairo, Giza(Pyramids and
camel riding)
6. Nepal (July 1996)
-Jit Kiat and I travelled for about 40 days in India and Nepal
during the summer. Nepal is still my favourite country thus far. Beautiful
Himalayan sceneries coupled with the ever so friendly people of Nepal,
that is the magic combination and for sure I will be back! I felt
totally relaxed there, enjoying conversations and teas with the Nepalis,
while savouring the majestic beauty of the lake and snow-peaked mountains
in Pokhara. I experienced no hassling at all when visiting the
shops and one of the shopkeeper, a Kashmiri, even invited me to his house
for lunch together. Ironically, he has a Malaysian girlfriend! whom he met
when she came to Nepal for some charity work.
-Jit Kiat has written a short summary about our trip, so to
those who are interested it is appended here. Jit Kiat is right. When mountain is
young and while we are young, go trekking in Nepal !
-Kathmandu, Pokhara, trekking around Annarpurna region.
7. India (July-Aug 1996)
-We were fortunate to have the chance to visit a few of the
superb World Heritage Sites in this country. I managed to finish
reading V. Naipaul's book "India: A Million Mutinies Now " during
our journey here and it has enhanced my understanding about this
diverse and densely populated nation.
- You could observe so much about the people of
this country, simply by observing the activites happening around a
train journey. One anecdote was the wonderful voices of the
innocent schoolchildren in our train journey to Jaipur, Rajasthan, whom
were singing in groups in such great harmony. It just made our entire
journey, standing throughout, all that painless and memorable.
- Also very happy to meet up with Hoi Poh, who studied
medicine in Bangalore.
-Sarnath, Varanasi, Calcutta, Bhubaneshwar, Puri, Sun Temple
of Kornak, Bangalore, Mysore, Ajanta and Ellora Caves, Hampi,
Bijapur, Khajuraho, New Delhi, Qutb Minar in Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur,
Jod phur,Agra(Taj Mahal), Fatehpur Sikri
Most of the European sites below were covered during our one-month Inter-rail farewell trip around Europe, after our graduation in July, 1997. The members included Chin Kong, Wai Loong, Aileen, Li Tsung, James Ooi, Mei Ling and myself. How we managed to travel together in such a big group never cease to amaze me!! Anyway, we have done it and it was a fulfilling journey!
8. Netherlands
-Amsterdam, a colourful city where bicycles could be seen
everywhere!! Next time when I am there, certainly would like to spend some
time cycling around this city!
9. Belgium
-Brussels, didn't spend much time here but definitely the Grand
Palace is worth a visit.
10. Germany
-Berlin, Lake Constance in south and also Fussen, where King
Ludwig I built his fantasy Neushwanstein Castle, which is the original
idea of the creation of Walt Disney's Castle.
-Munich (19th-24th Jan 2000) for the ITG conference, also met up
with Nicolas, Jozef and Jochen who are working there.
11. Hungary
-Budapest, one thing I still remember vividly about this city is
the people, who are so enterprising. The hostels in this city
faced so much competition that they have to hire students, especially
during the summer holidays, to promote their respective hostels in the
trains travelling inwards towards the city. They speaked totally
fluent English. Most of the people from Eastern Europe that I knew are
very good in languages (Piotr is one good example). Once you reached the
central train station, vans were available to pick you up to the hostels
and so you can check out the rooms to see whether you are still interested
to stay there. If you are not interested, you can find some other places
to stay. It was really organized and I haven't seen any other similar
operations in other part of Europe that we have travelled to.
12. Czech Republic
-Prague (July 1997 + Oct 1999), I have been there twice and it is really a lovely city to visit. Who will ever forget about the grand Prague Castle, fascinating Charles Bridge, cheap food and beer?? but do aware about the notorious pickpocketers a
round the city. I personally have not lost anything there but some of my friends did suffer from some bad experiences! As usual, be careful!!
-Brno (second largest city) (Oct 1998)
13. Austria
-Vienna, it is one of the most prominent cultural city in Europe,
made famous by people like Beethoven, Mozart and co. I personally found
this city to be quite relaxing. I could still remember besides visited
the attractions in the city, we also managed to visit the cemetery at the
outskirts of the city, where Beethoven and other famous composers
were buried. Well, well cemetery can be a tourist site as well!
-Innsbruck, a former Winter Olympic venue. We hiked up one
of the mountains there (about 1000m) and the Alps' views were magnificent.
I still remember vividly during the hike, there was one old lady, seemed
to be a local, also hike
up to the top with us. She looked so old (at least 80s) and fragile but I
really respect her stamina and determination. She never stop and rest,
but just keep moving slowly upwards with her stick. Only Wai Loong, James
and myself managed to beat her to the top. The rest didn't even make it
and the funny thing is on the way down, we were lost hiking downwards and
it took us a while to get back on the right track.
14. Italy
-Venice, this city is so different and unique! You have to be
there yourself to experience it!
-Pisa, of course not forgetting to pose with the Leaning Tower of
Pisa! ;)
-Florence, a culturally rich city, certainly worth a visit.
-Rome, besides visited all the famous sites, we also totally
enjoyed ourselves savouring the huge water melons sold by the streets
during the hot summer!! ;)
-Sardinia. I like this island very much. Long sandy beaches
which always reminds me of my hometown, Kuantan!! ;)
15. France
-Cherbourg (1998), a day trip by ferry from Southampton.
-Paris, who will ever miss this romantic city of the world??
-Nice, the city of French Riviera. It was lovely just to walk
around with such fine weather.
16. Republic of Ireland (29th March - 3rd April 2000)
- This trip involved Tong Hooi, Lina, Li Tsung and myself. We
rented a car and made a round trip around this lovely country.
- Cliffs of Moher, one of the most spectacular scene I have
ever observed, certainly as majestic as Grand Canyon! Honestly, I can
sit whole day marvelling at this breathtaking view, a definite wonderful
creation of nature!
- Ring of Kerry, Cork, Kilkenny, Cannamera National Park,
Galway and Dublin. Of course not forgetting to mention about our visit
to the Guinness Factory!
Some dreams:
- Visiting South America, South Africa, Greece, China, Japan, ......
- 2 weeks cycling trip along the coasts of Dorset and Cornwall.
- Trek up to Everest Base Camp and covering the Annapurna trail.