Ipoh Adventure

This is a adventure that I never thought would be so interesting and challenging. Challenging for me and not the children haha.

First the the long drive from Singapore to Ipoh. Surprisingly I enjoyed the drive, except the 1st part of the journey (JB to Malacca as the road condition wasn't that good. It is noisy and only 2 lanes). From Malacca onward the road was in good condition and spread to 3 lanes offering smooth, quite, easy and safe drive all the way to Ipoh.

Upon reaching Ipoh we stop by Ipoh famous cave temples. It was truely beautiful and awsome.

 

Thereafter we went straight to regalodge hotel and check in.Having a good night rest we proceed to Gopeng for our white water rafting adventure with nomad adventure.

As this was the first time we are trying out white water rafting, nomad crew gave us a complete briefing on what and what not to do during our ride down the river (about 1 hr 30 min). Oh... this is part of their ISO process :) . 

This is Clarissa swimming toward shore for the start of the white water warm up. I mean cold warm up, cause the water is freezing cold eeeee ...

This is Serene floating away ~  hahaha :D rescued by the safety rope.

Now we are all ready to go....

This is our ride down the river, Clarissa fall off the dinggy and this is the rapid that most people fall off. Guess she fall because she is very light.

wow that was great fun, the river rapids was classified as scale 1 to 3. You are watching us drown in scale 3 drop, fully submersed in the river before begin thrown out and up. Don' worry this is the most difficult part of the river and the rest are easy rapids down the river. 

Cave at Gua Tempurung

While the white water rafting is exciting the cave exploration is just as fun. This is the photo shot before we go into the cave.

Total about 650 steps toward the insdie of the cave.   

Here is what you will experience when you go on a wet cave tour ... real cool, I really mean it :). Get ready to get wet and go with a waterproof camera ..

Not to forget we had also rough ourself with the high rope and flying fox packages with Nomad Adventure. Nothing to shout about or scare of ... haha



Before we left Ipoh for Malacca for a night stop over. We stop by the famous ghost house of Ipoh " Kellie's Castle". Althought I didn't capture any ghosts in my pictures the pictures are nice enough for your imagination :)

ShenZhen Golf Escape

1 Sept 2009 (Tuesday)

Another year another place of great Golf.... We took the 7.20 pm Tiger flight direct to Shenzhen. From there the agent pick us up and transport to our hotel for the next 4 days in Changping.

What better place to golf other then Hainan?.... don't know? try Shenzhen ba...it is great but can't beat Hainan for the value for money. Nonetheless a great place to golf with excellent golf course and well trained caddy.

Flew in on Tiger air and reached Shenzhen closed to midnight and proceed directly to changping for out next 4 days of golfing.

2 Sept 09 (Wednesday)
Mission Hill (ANNIKA Course)

We woke up early for a quick bite before we went down to Mission Hill for our first Mission >>> attached Annika. haha I mean Annika Course inside Mission Hill.

A tradition post before tee-off on the first tee. Not to be miss haha.

Ironman Hwee show us how to handle the course  with his traditional 4 Iron Tee shot .... easily out driving any amatuer using the latest BIG head driver ;)

While some of us already got smack by the heat of Annika course our friend here cleverly came prepared for a tough battle, nothing gonna stop us, rain or sun 37 degrees are not going to get to our nerves. Up came the umbrella and arm sock ;)









While TCB cleverly position his 2nd shot under the shade, away from the biting heat of changping.

As Hoo, busily playing bunkering recovering shot, our Ironman Hwee quietly reach the green with a beautiful chip & roll to inches of the pin. Luckily, all this beautiful shot was capture by my trusty Fuji camera with 10x  zoom. This fantastic shot as prove that you dont need driver to have a good score. Sand was not an obstacle too, again he executed a beautiful sand punch to land within feets of the flag. 

Not to be outdone, out season player TCB punch out from the greenside bunker with such precision waiting to convert it into a PAR.  

Finally, this is me taking a breather photo shot with my caddy taking opportunity to recompose myself after all those stray shots. Time to strategise and return back to my game, lots of catching up with Ironman Hwee, 2 holes down with 2 more holes to go. Win to draw, what a challange > I like it ;)

3 Sept 09 (Thursday)

Mission Hill (Duval Course)

Standing infront of Mission Hill sign board. The masterplan of Mission hill 12 x 18 holes world largest golf course. 2 down and 10 more games to go ;) .

Duval lookalike pose competition before tee off. The winner will get a round with David Duval himself at none other then Duval course  . Give your best pose boys.

Duval course was set up differently from Annika. Many of its holes are designed with elevated tee, offering spectacular view of the beautifully lawn green. While Annika course are abit shorter it is strategicly lay with many bunkers.

 

A group photo shot for membrance. Oh before I forget I wish to remind all that we had you had to pay an extra RMB 100 per caddy if you made prior reservation. This are the same caddy to caddy for us on day 1 on Annika course and since they are pretty knowledgeable and excellent caddy we decided to reserve them for day 2. But then we would had let the clud select the caddy if we knew about it earlier. 

SHhhhhhhhh ....silent, no movement please, golfer teeing off.

This beautiful KwanYin was located in the middle of Mission Hill, a stone throw away from the caddy dormitory. We can't resist and got the caddy to bring us here for a quite prayer :-)

All square with Ironman Hwee after 2 roundsat Mission hills despite getting 2 balls from him. Last round at Wind Valley to decide who is the winner. 

4 Sept 09 (Friday)

Public Wind Valley Course

We were plesantly surprise at the beauty of this public course. Some said better then Mission hills course but the fact is it is located on the hill side with well maintained manicure fairway and green. The only setback is the level of difficulty which made it very challenging. Many of the fairway was designed so narrowed that at time tee shot must be so accurate to find the 30meter width landing area.

Easy will do.... ahhhhh not again, another lousy 3 putts... what happen to my putter today? time to change strategy. me: "Caddy can you bring my 3 iron please ?. "  Caddy: "hAR??? bu keyi chec, bu keyi".  

Hoo : "Can you guy please stop talking so loudly, I am trying to make a decent shot here. This is a golf course you now not wet market you know ^*$#%@^"

Ironman Hwee: "sorry sorry.... I was too excited on rebutting BG on his claim on his shot. I will zip my mouth now and play my game quietly."

As usual, with a smooth swing the ball flew toward the green and landed on the fringe. Not a bad shot for this 3 x 5 meter green PAR 3. Now for the difficult undulating putt.

Ironman Hwee said: "Watch my Horse Stand (Ma Pu), here it goes and trust me it is my secret formula in hitting great irons shot time and again. They don't call me Ironman Hwee for nothing you know!!. ;) "

Nice shot Ironman. We are all square after 8th holes and I narrowly won 1stroke on the 1st 9th hole, what a closed fight. On the back nine the story was very different all together. Ironma Hwee came back strongly and easily won by 4 holes... thus ending the 3 rounds of Shenzhen golf challenge "chak Ong Lai" mean all square in hokkien.  

On top of the hill stand a tall and golden Kwan ying. This is the entrance to the golden Kwan Yin, in all there are a total about 600 steps of devotion to reach it.

5 Sept 09 (Saturday)

Day tour to Nan Kun San

No golf today, just russian poker during the 6 hours rides to/fro Nan Kun san.

Upon reaching Nan Kun San we had our sumptious meal, consist of the above chicken, fish soup, paiku, vege etc. The chicken was so fresh the cook had to go back door and catch them, here is a snap shot of the chicken playground :)

Below are some photos of the places we visited in Nan Kun San, nothing to shout of  ..

A 5 story waterfall, what else? nothing else to see...

A few flight of step to see green green grass of mountain, nice? ok lah... all green mountain lor ..

That should be all for the trip back to Singapore. We reached the airport by 9.30 pm waiting for our 11:30 hrs flight but alas it was delayed for 3 hrs. so what can we do? sleep in the airport lor

Snorrrrrrrr.... snorrrrrrr ZZzzzzzzzzzz

We would like to thanks our driver, Chan Sifu for his time and great recommendation on our trip.

New Hobby (Planted Fish Tank)

This is my first attempt in keeping a fish tank. It is not just a fish tank but a planted fish tank. What is the different ?. It is basically focus on the plants as well as creating a el natural or iwagumi aquascape.

I kind of like the simple rock formation (iwagumi) landscape. This is my tank just set up ....


Thought I can keep just the plants growing before introducing fishes but was forced to put some guppies as I found two mosquitoes lava swimming..... ahhhhh .... this is my tanks after 4 days.

I had DIY the CO2 for the plants. Using recycle 1L softdrink bottle with 1 teaspoon of yeast with 1 cup of sugar.

Predicting TOTO

Hi,

Suddenly I woke up on Sunday and felt there is this real push for me not to waste any more money on buying quick-pick toto....

You see I had start buying Singapore quick-pick toto for the pass 1 year and many a time all come out empty, empty not a single number match.

This morning I asked myself Why? why waste my money and wish to strike it rich by being lazy?. This surely wouldnt get me anywhere.

So this morning I start forming a formula on my head and I proceed to work a system of identifying those number that reduce my chance of pure luck to calculated luck. You can get all the past no. at www.singaporepools.com.sg

From there I work backward and after working for days on the method I felt that this set of number have chances to come out for the next few months.

2, 4, 6, 12, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 42.

I had place 9 numbers here and one of the combination will hit the jackpot. I will continue to improve the method for each individual have their own aural which mark whether they will strike toto or not.

Xiamen - A Trip back in time

This is one of the special trip. Why? As I am hoping to seek out my ancestral home, the roots of my family.






With only my grandfather's and father's name, I hope to find and visit my father homeland in China. In what they call "Old Home'. To guide me along, will be my brother god-father (BGF). He is already 80+ years old and a buddy of my father from the same village, Yong Chun. Coming along with us will be his son, Benson, who is also my childhood friend.






We flew directly to Xiamen from Singapore on China Airline. From there my BGF son-in-law with pick us at Xiamen and drove us directly to Yong Chun, which is about 3 hours car ride.






Along the way, we stop for lunch. Wow my BGF order such a wide varities of food it can feed a family of 10. I wonder what was he thinking of when he order all those dishes. He must be thinking we Singaporean are "yao kui"s. hahaha. Anyway we we are only able to finish half of the serving.



The rest of the drive is plain boring and we took a nap along the way, more like falling asleep watching the farms, hills, river pass by.



I managed to capture some rather blur shots along the way, as he drove like Michael Schumacher.

Golf Tips "How to break 90"

This is my first attempt writing about golf. After playing the game for a good 20+ years I still find the game intriguing and challenging. I had successfully in the first time played below 90 , in fact 85 and 88 on my last Hainan Golf Vacation using my technique.

Most beginners will find it difficult to start but once you got the hang of it, it is still challenging. It is like a stock market, sometime you have a good ride but then the next day is a disastrous outing. It is so frustrating that many gave up the game before they ever really got the hang of it. Which is a great lost to everyone.

I do not profess to be an excellent golfer but found a simple and new formula to have a good and consistence game everyday. I had been asking myself why I didn’t found this technique earlier or else I would have enjoy my game more ;). But then it is through all the difficult years and many round of golf throughout Asia that I slowly tune and re-tune till I found this unique and simple “Golf Swing Made Easy”. Not to forget the many golf improvement books that I had bought and tried.

My formula work for beginner to the intermediate and it will really help you in being more consistences. I am not writing those entire long Golf manual to bore and confuse player but rather a very simple technique to be consistence. At the same time I am not going to sell it but rather giving it out free on the net. What I am asking is your donation if you find that my technique had helped you improved your game and reduces your handicap. The donation will help me maintained add more feature to the site. Do assist to tell your friend to visit my site so that they could also benefits from my “golf swing make simple”.


Grip :
A lot had been said about the different type of grips, interlock, base ball grip etc. What I recommend is a grip that you feel comfortable in and that you do not feel the need to grip it so tightly that the club won’t fly away with your swing.

“Insert some picture of different type of grips” Coming Soon :)

Posture:
This is part 1 “fundamental” in having a consistence swing.
It is the Rotation Axis where the swing plane rotates. You need to have a straight-backbone “Rotation Axis” to start with. It doesn’t matter if you are fat, thin, tall or short. You still can achieve in having a Straight- backbone. It is very easy to achieve this posture but it would look odd in the beginning but you will find it comfortable after a while.

1) Stand straight
2) Push out your tummy
3) Push out your buttock
4) Bend your knee slightly.

This is part 1 “Key” in having a consistence swing.

A lot of golfer tends to swing hard thinking that by doing that they could hit further. By doing that they are in fact causing the reverse. That is hitting it shorter and inconsistent swing. How can that be?

Science of Golf said that the distance = the club head speed. What does that mean?

To be continued .... Akang Datang

Hainan Golf Tour

Day One : 19 June 2008

This is my first trip to Hainan Island for Golf for Holiday. Wow, what a surprise did I discovered this jewel had for me. Read along and you will know what I mean.

Cheap food, Good entertainment, Good shopping, Good massage and Great Golf Courses. Currently there are about 19 golf courses in Hainan Island and in 3 years time there will be around 50 golf courses. Mission Hill are building 3 x 18 holes and will be ready by next year to host the World Cup for the next 7 years.

Tiger AirWays had 1 flight per day to Haikou, Hainan Island. The flight leaved Singapore at 12.45 noon from the budget Terminal. Remember to have your full meal before boarding as they don't serve "Free" food as a budget carrier. If you need to drink, a bottle of Mineral water cost SGD3.00, no outside food are allowed. Although you will still see some "budget budget traveller" sneaking in their own bottle of water :) or even food.

Taking off from Changi Airport was a little scary as the plane swirl slightly left to right and right to left before taking off successfully - I must confess it made me a little nervous :o. The total flight take about 3 hours to reached Haikou. Hainan Island have 2 International Airport, Haikou on the north while Sanya on the south.

The arrival was swift as we cleared the immigration in a zippy, mainly because there wasn't many traveller.

This is the Arrival carpark in Haikou Airport, simply push your trolley to the agent waiting car and off we go.

Along the way, we saw many tricycle ferrying school children home as it is already 5.00 pm. Most of them look stone and sleepy, quietly sitting on the back...

On arrival, we proceed to check in to the hotel, BAOHUA Harbour View Hotel. Located in Haikou town with great view of the city park.

In the evening we proceed to have some local dishes which was delicious without the feast. The best was their "Kong Bak" as its' fat just melt in your mouth, sinfully yum yum .......


Other dishes was just as simple and nice. More food arrived till overflowing the table. What do the waitress do? ..... stack the dishes on top of the other, no sweat ... I feel its' kind of lazy way of serving, instead of waiting for the customer to finish their dishes before serving another. Anyway free dishes stacking show for the meal hahaha..

After dinner we went shopping in "Hai Siew Lu " their orchard road style shopping. Be careful of your wallet and belonging as there are many expert pick pocket there.




Street vendor line the street selling their ware at fantastic bargain prices. Items ranging from sock, shirt "imitation" Price from RMB 20 for shirt to watches. While those in the shopping centre offer better quality stuff at higher prices and do look out for their discount too.

Ahhhh... you will sure smell "Chou Tou Fu" as they are fried along the street side by side with other fruit sellers.

Also look out for those Auntie selling your expired body for rmb 50, as I was told..... try if you dare hahaha........

Heard from the agent the following quote:

You do not know money not enough till you reached Shanghai
You do not know shopping not enough till you shopped in Shenzhen
You do not know your history till you are in Beijing and
You do not know your health not enough till you in Hainan ... :)

Day Two: 20 June 2008

Wake up in the morning at 7.30 am and have a good International Breakfast in the hotel, which provide good reasonable quality food.

This morning we will be playing at West Coast Golf Club, Located in the seashore area of Haikou, West Coast Golf Course is only 5 minutes drive to Haikou downtown. Designed by DYE family with a beautiful combination of trees, lakes, sky and ocean. With facilities include double-floor driving range, Unique Buffet & Chinese restaurants, healthy hot spring bath therapy etc..

Opened in January 2004, it had 18 Hole, 7267 yds Par 72. PSPALUM grass and Tif-dwarf Bermuda around the green. PGA Style designed by Perry Dye & Cynthia Dye, the third generation of DYE family. West Coast Golf Club Will host the LPGA in the coming month around Sept 2008.


The Golf course was simply well maintained with beautifully manicure grass. The fairway was wide and challenging especially for the blue Tee, while the Red Tee was more forgiving it is just as interesting for the lady, not a pushed over course.

The caddy were well trained with good eye sight on reading the green break and this had easily help me save at least 5 strokes. Hainan was not like other China with air pollution, it had blue sky and fresh air which is why many inland tourist rushing to Hainan for Holiday during the winter period. The main tourist are from Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Singapore and Malaysia are fast catching up too.


After finishing our game, we had a good meal, Simple porridge with steam fish and various variety of vegetable in the city before setting out to Kangle Garden International Golf Club, located in Xinglong, halfway between Haikou and Sanya about 1 hr 30 min away.

An hour + 30 min later we reached the grand entrance of Kangle. What an honour to be received by their Director of S & M, Peter Zhu.

Our first stop is to check-in to the beautiful and tastefully done up room. Each with its' own Hot Spring on demand : ).
Kangle is located in the famous Xinglong Hot Spring area, this excellent as well as peaceful hotel offers numerous spectacular area attractions.

All the exclusively furnished accommodation units in this hotel are with an infusion of modern comforts to ensure you a comfortable and unique holiday.


For recreational as well as health enthusiasts, the hotel offers a swimming pool (with hot spring), tennis court, gymnasium, sauna, billiards, fish spa and of course Golf Course to relax those aching arms hehe.


They do have this table bowling, that is what I call it hahaha... quite interesting though.


Please be warned that if you are those who are afraid of kutty, you will be laughing to death in the fish spa pool.... hahaha... my buddy almost lost his voice in the fish spa pool.


Day Three : (21 Jun 2008)

Rise early and ready for our round of game at their Spa course. I was spell bound by its' beautifully crafted green line with natural beauty and character of the geographical layout around the hill. It was designed by world class golf architect ,Mr. Robert MacFarland and opened in 1999. It’s located in the Southeast coast of Hainan, XingLong area which is famous for it’s hot spring. One of the key uniqueness of the course is the twin fairway : The front nine holes are embraced by the hill, while the back nine holes runs between the lakes. It is a Golfer thinking course surrounding with pineapple ,coconut ,banana and cocoa trees like being a tropical forest paradise, so golfer not only can enjoy the golfing here but also breath the exotic smell of the nature .

A beautifully second shot but just meter shy of the green. Great power shot buddy ...
This is me, teeing off into their signature Island Hole landing on the fringe with a dissapointing bogey.


I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed with the course in Kangle. As it is both challenging and beautiful.








On Kangle, you have to decide on your strategy of play, as there are few twin fairway to confuse you. To play the safe route or attack the course on the shorter route. Both way you will be rewarded, with beautiful fairway and smart caddy to help to you save putt with their well train eyes on reading the green. The course are line with numerous octopes bunker, the main obstacles here are strategically placed placed in the fairways and around the greens and the water that comes into play on some holes. There are few forced carries, though, with most of the water being lateral. That being said, on Hole 7, 11 and 12 have twin fairway and shorter route need to cross over water, and several water hazards must be avoided off the tees.

After the game we had a simple meal in the golfer terrace and proceed to Sanya for the day. Reaching there around late afternoon, we check-in to Eadry Resort Hotel. just nice to see the sunset over the horizon.


The room was spectacular, a junior suite type of lay-out with a living room divided by the TV in the middle of the room.

Eadry Resort had one special room awaiting all the lady, it is called "lady room". Only lady can check in but not for guy. She is allowed to bring in who ever she fancy though hahaa.
Every thing are decorated with pink and cute cute toys.. so sweet that sleeping on the bed made you feel like sleeping beauty emmmm maybe more princess feeling haha


Eadryy had a rectangle pool and next to it is a fish spa pool full of hungry fishes ready to munch away your tire feet, arm, face whatever are available.


Note: that is not my feet, it belong to an uncle having his feet eaten alive haha.<>Just below the hotel are many pub and KTV. Heard many wild party and dunker partying all night long, sort of cowboy town with many mei mei for your fancy.

Instead we went to "Bu Sin Chei" shopping with many shop selling sea pearl and clothing.



We are pleasantly surprised that most China supermarket are into green enviromental. That is NO plastic bags for your purchases. Bring along your own plastic bags or bags.






Day Four (22 Jun 2008)

Wakeup early for our trip to Sun Valley Golf Resort which is about 30 min from our hotel. From the golf terrace, Sun Valley look like just another golf course but we were spell bond by its' breathtaking scenery and beautifully manicure fairway.






Sun Valley Sanya Golf Resort is located in Yalong Bay, Sanya city, with breathtaking scenery and rich natural resources. Nestled on the mountain ridges and valley only a few kilometers from Yalong Bay coastline, it is situated on higher ground overlooking the whole Yalong Bay basin. The development, comprising 27 hole resort style golf course, with generous fairways, daunting bunkers filled with white sand, contrasts sharply to the lush vegetation and mountainous backdrops.



The clubhouse is designed with tropical elegance in mind and setting standards for others to follow. With its ideal location, natural setting and modern conveniences, the golf resort is destined to be a world-class golf and holiday retreat for enthusiastic golfers. It is considered the first premier holiday destination project in China with comprehensive facilities where you can play golf, and be pampered by our 5-star service… a dream for vacations for any golfing enthusiasts.



It has the only PAR 6 in China, playing 663 yard from the white tee. Not particular difficult as the fairway is general wide and franking the green are some bunker you need to avoid.



Overall it is a excellent course, nested in a valley surrounded by hills. It is not too warm as there are constant cool wind cooling us down.

After the game we proceed on our 3 hours journey back to Haikou for the night before our flight back to Singapore the next day at 4.00 pm. As usual we check-in to Baohua Hotel and prepared packing, all our shopping goodies.

But what come to our mind upon reaching Haikou is a good massage. Just behind our hotel lay New Boost Hotel (no 8 Shanheng road) which had vairous type of massage to revitalise those tire muscle of ours. Level 2 to 7 have various type from foot relex to fish spa. We decide on the ginger massage and was not dissapointed. The massage was fantastic and the thrapist "no 103" was skillful with their fingers in loosening our tighten joints. The ending ginger paste was so hot it can burn a hot in your skin. All this for a bargain of rbm 68.

Conclusion: Value for money Golf Vacation. Total damages about S$1,000 which include TigerAir ticket, 3 games, 4 nights stay in 5 star hotel, good meal, shopping and massage.