Aroi Thai Express @ Bandar Sg Long

This is one interesting place for mini dishes of Thai food to try out. It's probably catered towards UTAR students @ Sg Long area since the promo package is also specially for students. Quite worth a place to chill & have some Thai food.

GPS location: 3.0392841,101.7929789

Surprisingly not found in googlemap. Just explore opposite UTAR shoprow with food courts and Face to Face Pan Mee shop. It's on the end of the one way road. Not so easy to find parking spots since it's directly in front of UTAR.

The shop is located on 2nd floor.

Pretty staircase deco.

At the top , you arrived at Aroi Thai 0km.

It's a neat cafe, with simple decos.

The counter, ordering is via Old town cafe style. Pen and paper then pass your ticked order to the waiter/waitress.

Have a peek at the mini orders. Interesting way to sell.

Can stack up some bowls if you like to taste many types of food at a go.

Decently priced, but not really cheap.

They even have a facebook page.

Fried popiah drenched in thai chili. This is RM2, so looks cheap ah...but ot really.

Pad thai RM7, taste is actually pretty good but the portion is a bit disappointing.

Same goes to tomyum. Why cut the soup portion - the most important thing in tomyum. This really spoils the dish that costs RM7.

Mini thai pan mee is actually a pan wee with fish ball @ RM2.

The belacan fried chicken is good, costing RM2 per pc

We ordered the sticky rice mango..not much mango to go with the sticky rice. Taste is so-so.

Even then, we finished everything.

Dessert is blended coconut shake @ RM4.90 i think it's not so bad. Depending on whether you like the added syrup tasting milk in your shake.

Ice cream coconut is good, RM2 per scoop.

Total damage or RM32.90 for 3 person & 1 todd.

It's good place for students to hang out. Food is average not really top notch, but i would vouch for the chicken wing and ice cream. Tomyum soup is just ok, could have been better and become a hit. Slight miss on that. Pad thai is better than many places i tried. So there you have it. If you plan to have a party with little bowls of treats then this is the place to be.

Update: successfully added marker for this place on Google map. Yay for my first contribution accepted.

Me before you - cinema after >3 years

via googleimage

Gotta take a break once in a while from the parenting marathon. 

We are not really cinema fans, but it's quite nice to see movie once in a while (well especially when the tickets are free). We finally got our break, or managed to squeeze one out when Baby E falls into her afternoon slumber haha. Pretty relaxed since we don't have to worry on watching everything for toddlers -safety, get her there with no injury etc.. The movie is pretty good and reflects on reality of a normal guy that got disabled all of sudden. 

These 2 free tix from SPHR of my company. More is better =)

This is the furthest row the free pass allows. Good enough and not too close enough.

Moral of story, try to live at the moment. Enjoy and appreciate everything we have now, not to say don't plan for your future la... Pretty emo movie.

favim.com

 

  

Tien Hou Kong Temple @ Chiwan, ShenZhen

Since we are heading to splendid china on this day, we thought that it will be fun to drop by Tien Hou temple @ Chiwan station along the same Line 2 MRT of Shenzhen.

GPS location: 22.479419,113.892031

Directions: using MRT go towards Chiwan direction on Line 2 (orange). Can't miss it since it's the last line & the station you are heading to is Chiwan itself. Exit gate C and turn right after going out the station. Walk about 5 mins, go up the staircase on your left , keep walking for about < 10 min and you will find the temple on your left. There is signboard pointing you towards the direction when you are close enough.

Edited from phone. Can do so much nowadays on mobile.

From Laojie to Chiwan, good 45 min shaking on the MRT. Just kidding, only in Malaysia the LRT screech and shakes violently like a wounded beast LOL.

Oh look, hello kitty card. Unfortunately we found out later that can only top by 100 RMB. Too much to waste, so keep it for now as a souvenir.

Have ticketing machine to check balance, reload card or buy MRT single trip token.

When we boarded at Laojie ~9+ or 10am Sunday morning.

Must say it's pretty comfy & ~7 RMB till end of the Line, didn't see any public misbehaving that's supposedly rampant in China. ahem .. :p

(Butt?)-pinching is pretty new and creepy i guess, can't think of where else a stranger wanna pinch on you. I think it's pickpockets mistranslated. 

Station sign, sorry no idea what it says. 

Finally 1 station away from our drop off point.

Here is how it looks like in the MRT now :P

Up the escalators.

There are bikes and cars offering rides - not for free obviously. Car dude asking for 10RMB for ride to temple. It's a great weather for a walk yo, so it's a negative sir.

Again, from station turn right & keep walking till this guy. Follow him up.

Pretty quiet place at the Western side end of Shenzhen.

Same on the road.

Some shades along the way. Btw, its not that stroller friendly. See the tiles condition and also staircase if you decide to take up the challenge with a stroller & baby on tow. A chinese family did this while we are here. Respect hehe.

View from the staircase.

Keep moving forward

You will see a containers storage area on your right.

The sign board, you probably won't miss it unless you didn't go up the staircase earlier.

Far shot.

Near shot.

Finally the front gate of the temple.

There is admission fee to enter. Pretty rare for temples actually from my experience. Can't imagine what people will say if Penang starts imposing fees to enter the Kek Lok Si temple :S

Very serene scene greets you on the entrance walkway inside.

Very simple booth.

Back of the tix.

Front.

Lookout from main temple 

Very well kept temple. I guess the funds raised are well utilized.

Bell shaped incense hall i guess. 

Giant bronze incense holder outside.

Not too sure what this is. 

Dragon carving on pillar

Few steps back, one more shot at the view.

Guardian lion statues, 2 on the front of main gate of temple.

2 watch tower type building in front. One with a ram gong, another with a different type of gong. 

Sorry, i'm really n00b when it comes to Buddhist things, although i'm a Buddhist bordering to free-thinker range. 

There is a 3-4 story building beside with some statues and not much inside. Some of the rooms are locked even. If time is limited, just skip this and the stairs climbing up and down.

Shot from this building opposite.

Kind of like this 3-D drawing. There is a mini museum inside the temple with this drawing.

Really mini one.

This the vertical view of the pool you see on previous pic.

A wishing tree beside the temple area.

??

So many reinforcement done to support it. Must be quite old i think.

In same area as wishing tree.

Some carving arts to appreciate. Dragon & phoenix symbol.

This is along the way out. Not sure if it's done on purpose.

Back gate is also quite grand.

Hmm..not too sure, a lion guard? 

Ok, this concludes the trip here.

Allocate about 1.5 hour if you are visiting leisurely. It's a temple anyway, drop by pray or pay respect & admire it's serenity & beauty. We are ready for our next destination now.

Cotton tree outside temple area.