A Night At Tune Hotels Penang

Ever since Tune Hotels established 3 years ago, I have been wanting to try and stay there just to experience how the hotel is. Last September, I had the time and the chance to go to Penang after Hari Raya Aidilfitri to visit my mother's relative up north. One room was booked and paid online 3 weeks earlier at Tune Hotels Downtown Penang which total up only RM70++ per night. Arrived and checked-in at the hotel at 10pm after being stuck in a one hour jam just before boarding the ferry services.

Check out the photos I've taken:


Tune Hotels Downtown Penang


Tune Hotels Downtown Penang lobby


Tune Hotels Room Hallway


Loved the comfortable bed


RM5 toiletries


The stylish glass door bathroom

Unfortunately the room doesn't have a TV, however it wouldn't be worth the resting time if you spend it watching TV. The bed was astoundingly comfortable. I wish my bed was as comfortable as the bed at Tune Hotels. Overall, I give this hotel a 5 stars rating and would love to stay for another night there.

Discovering Snow In The Tropical

Last Saturday afternoon, after skipping 2 week of classes for my CCNA certificate, I went on an escapade. Being a bootstrapper, the escapade was of course, a cheap and affordable one. The place I went to was The Malaysia Agriculture Park (Taman Pertanian Malaysia Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam). Previously, the place was named Taman Pertanian Bukit Cerakah but that was a long time ago.

Here's better map for you to see where you are heading:

The entrance ticket for the park is RM3 for adult and RM1 each for your children's. You have the option to ride on the park's bus/coaches, rent bicycles or just walk on foot. No fees for riding the bus/coach but you need to pay RM3/hour for the bicycle ride. Before we go further, I would like to introduce you to 3 beautiful ladies who accompanied me to this beautiful park:

It's every man dream to be escorted by ladies to such wonderful place such as the Malaysia Agriculture Park. Am I lucky or what? One of them is actually my girlfriend though. You can guess which is 'the one' later in this post.

The Malaysia Agriculture Park has many sections (as you can on the map above) such as the Orchid Garden, Cactus Garden, Animal Park and many more. So, if you are going to explore all those places, I suggest you come early as you can. I however went there 30 minutes before the main gate is closed (Closed at 4.30pm). So, there are a lot of places that I've actually missed out. Anyway, the main reason I came there was to visit the highlight of the park which is the Four Season Temperate Garden. That is the place where I can see and touch snow. It is basically a big giant freezer adjusted according to the current climate of the other part of the earth but that is what makes the place so special.

Isn't she lovely? Well, don't get distracted yet. Let's go and buy the tickets to enter the garden:

I think RM3 is cheap enough. Ice skating at Sunway Pyramid cost RM14 which is 5 times expensive. It's hot and humid outside, let's go inside quick.

Now this is a diagram shown before entering the four season temperate garden. You don't want to look at it? Well, let's go inside and touch some snow.

Look at them, they like it in the cold weather. At least for the first couple of minutes. There is a sign telling the visitors not to stay inside the temperate garden for more than 3 minutes. We actually spent almost half an hour inside there and my hands almost got numb. We took as many pictures that we can before we went outside to warm ourselves up. I wonder how is it like to be in such a cold country.

For the rest of the trip:

The last time I went to Malaysia Agriculture Park was nearly 5 years ago. At that time, the hanging bridge was still there and I had the opportunity to experience it. It was a long, tough and exciting walk. Unfortunately, a few days later after that, there was a storm and from the news it was announced that a tree fell onto the hanging bridge. So, the hanging bridge walk is discontinued until today. I think I'll pay this place another visit because there are so many places I've missed because the lack of time.

For more information, you can visit the links below:

• Malaysia Agriculture Park (http://www.impression.com.my)
• Taman Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam (MBSA)
• Shah Alam Maps

Selesa Resort Outing 2006

During the last Christmas holiday, my family and I went for a big family outing. The place that was chosen was Selesa Resort, Bukit Tinggi, Pahang. If you are not so sure what "Selesa" is, in Malay language Selesa means Comfortable. Selesa Resort is about 40 minutes drive from my house. We rented 4 units for 6 families to stay over there. We had so much fun.

What I like about this resort is the ambient. The place has an astonishing hillview and the fresh air is so refine. I wished I could live over there, well maybe I could. As long as there is an internet connection. By the way, I've found a way to be online eventhough you are somewhere in the jungle using a satellite dish. I'll write about that later.

Here's a slide show taken using my own digital camera. Eventhough it is not that exclusive but I think the place is superb.

As for Selesa Resort website, I really think the webmaster should be sacked. The website is made using images as such the website is the brochure of the resort. They should have made it in a text version so that search engines can pick up and index a few interesting keywords and make the website more visible.

Anyway, I had fun being there. I think I'll plan a trip there again once I get married for one of my honeymoon trip...hehe..

Events and Travel

Last weekend, I did something unexpected which I haven't done for quite a while. It's amazing how you can get motivated for someone of the opposite sex. Before I go on with my story, as usual, my career journey 1st:

On the 28th of June, I went to Autodesk Solution Day at Sheraton Hotel & Tower in Subang Jaya. It's the same place I went the week before about Microsoft Small Business Server. This software industry is huge and I'm thinking of a plan on how I could 'dip my feet in the water' in this industry.

I'm sure most of you are getting bored of the high flying career stuff. I'm thinking of that right now..haha..anyway, move on to my story. The past few weeks, I got an SMS syndrom whereby my hand couldn't get away from my handphone. I was SMS crazee with a girl I've never met. This isn't my first time BTW plus, I like taking the risk of getting to know someone I have no idea look like. For those of you who haven't tried 'Blind Dates' before and you are a guy, you're missing out hell of an experience.

This girl that I'm supposed to meet had been in contact with me for the past 6 years. I ignored her because I think she's a bit crazy. To cut the story short, after 2 weeks of planning, I executed the plan to meet her just to get dissapointed when she didn't turned up. It was an expensive lesson I've learned as I got myself all the way up to Penang by bus just to see her (She lives in Kedah BTW). Actually, it's not that expensive (RM50 for the bus fare and RM10 for a simple makan) but the thing was, I got screwed and I wasted 5 hours waiting in an odd place. Still, on the bright side, I got to know a very smart, intelligent and business minded 26 years old girl on the way there as she sits beside me. We had a great chat on what I enjoy doing, sharing business information. Anyway, let's look at some pics now:

The last time I was at this place (which was 7 years ago), the place was a very busy bus station linking the Jetty Ferry. I was shocked to see that only the counter is what's left of it.

The bus station or should I say, The Bus Parking Area.

The bus ticket booths is situated under the flyover where I waited there for like 4 hours. I finally gave up waiting and bought a ticket straight back to KL. I should've gone shopping in Komtar if the girl haven't stood me up. Oh well, you get some, you lose some, it's a natural cycle I think.

It's good to see something that haven't changed a lot. This Rail Station is still like the old days where I took a train back to KL for like 8 hours and I was sitting between the coaches. It was some memorable trip.

If you're wondering what did happen to the girl, she called me and apologized and the usual, excuses and more excuses. The thing was, her brother took her handphone and she wasn't allowed to go out of the house. It's very hard not to buy such excuses by a nice, heart shaking, lovable voice of a young hot girl (I can say she's hot because she gave me her pics..hehe..). As a guy who reads www.askmen.com once in a while, I need to stand strong. So, I told her to come down to KL if she wants me to forgive her. We'll see what'll happen next. Until then..keep on blogging..Cheers..