Jetty @Teluk Kumbar, Penang

jetty at teluk kumbar, penang. from bayan lepas, head towards teluk kumbar, and turn left into the road heading to gertak sanggul when you see the signboard. it's right after the police station, near the local library.

i guess this is supposed to be "dilarang menjala".

end of the jetty. notice the fallen-off railing. the rest of the railings are also wobbly, so don't lean on them. there are baby swordfishes down there waiting to target-practice on you.

looking back towards the land.

zzz....

Kek Lok Tong, Ipoh

Kek Lok Tong (Cave of Great Happiness?) is another limestone cave temple attraction in Ipoh, Perak. it is located on the same hill range as Sam Poh Tong - but unlike the more popular Sam Poh Tong which is accesible from the main road, one have to go through the Gunung Rapat housing area to reach Kek Lok Tong.

the limestone cave opens up to a beautiful lake garden at the other end. There's a quarry at the other end of the garden, which is partially hidden by some large trees (please excuse the poor quality of the photos - i always do poorly in landscape photography. sigh...).

playground under a large electricity pylon.

there's a lotus pond here, full of lotus plants and many pink flowers.

and also, a blue bird perched on sam-pah tong.

Sunrise: Teluk Tempoyak, Penang

sunrise at teluk tempoyak (tempoyak bay), penang. arrived too late to capture a nice scene of the sunrise, no thanks to the idiotic credit card machine at the petrol station. apparently, it cannot connect to authorise the payment, and yet it lock up my card for a few minutes and kept retrying, and leaves me no way to take out the card. and when the machine finally gave up trying to connect and release the card, the station attendant retry it and again... all in all, it cost me more than 10 minutes' delay. stupid system design.

and then, i missed the turn-in to teluk tempoyak... seems that the only signboard pointing there is a small sign at the entrance of the road showing the road name. and then, i took another wrong turn and ended up at the chalet area instead of the jetty. let's blame telekom malaysia for this. why? cos my home broadband has been down for a few days already (still is), and i can't use Google Earth to check my route.

and by this time, the sun was already high above the horizon and it's starting to get too bright for photo-taking. no point to make my way to the jetty anymore, and just take what's available. yeah, i know there are obvious lens flare in the photos. sigh...

warm chocolate

a warm cup of chocolate + coffee, on a cold, rainy night... while watching that favorite movie of yours for the nth time...

some things in life are priceless

Sam Poh Tong Temple, Ipoh

Sam Poh Tong is one of the popular temple in Ipoh, located at the Gunung Rapat area. it's unique in that it is built directly into the limestone hillside, utilising the existing natural caves.

in front of the temple lies a beautifully landscaped garden, with a fish pond.

a grafitti on the wall, near the staircase leading to the upper floor of the temple.

a walk through the temple will lead to the inner courtyard, where the tortoise pond is located. there is also another temple building here, although it was not open when i was there.

quoting from the information near the entrance:

Sam Poh Tong, discovered in 1912, is a Chinese Buddhist Temple within a natural limestone hill. Developed by the Buddhist commnunity and now has become an international tourist spot attracting visitors from all over the world. Among the main attractions there are a beautifully decorated pavilion in front of the temple and a landscaped garden with a fish pool, which was awarded "The Best Landscaped Garden" in Malaysia 1993. Other than that, statues of Buddha and other deities are placed inside for respective devotees to offer prayers. A small pathway inside the cave leads to a tortoise pond where feeding is allowed if you purchase some Kangkong vegetables at the entrance.