Mumbai — formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the second most populous city in the world. A very hot and crowded city. It lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. Mumbai’s port handles over half of India’s maritime cargo.
Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment center of India. It is India’s largest city, and is called the financial capital of the country and home to important financial institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies and numerous multinational corporations. The city also houses India’s Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood. The name Bollywood is a portmanteau of Bombay and Hollywood. Mumbai’s business opportunities, as well as its potential to offer a better standard of living, attract migrants from all over India and, in turn, make the city a potpourri of many communities and cultures.
Anyway, the traffic congestion in Mumbai is quite terrible as long as what I saw during my visit to this city recently. With the hot whether in Mumbai, it is extremely frustrated while taking a no aircon taxi on Mumbai’s roads. Car is moving very slowly. It takes us more than 1 hour to travel for a distance of about 7-8 km.
There are quite a number of beautiful places in this city. The Gateway of India is Mumbai’s most famous monument, this is the starting point for most tourists who want to explore the city. It was built to commemorate the arrival in India, on 2 December 1911, of King George V and Queen Mary and was completed on 4 December 1924. Continue reading →
MacRitchie Reservoir is more than a reservoir. The reservoir, or the forest is a surprise to many of my friends coming to Singapore. Many of them are thinking that Singapore is only a city without knowing that rain forests is also available here!
Surrounded by broad swamps, jungles and greenery, these reservoirs run through the central northern parts of Singapore, providing a serene backdrop to the cityscape.
MacRitchie Reservoir is a rare and beautiful land that has a wide collection of flora and fauna. Over 100 hectare of primary forest still flourishes around MacRitchie Reservoir. Old rubber trees, remnants of the plantations there in the 19th century, can still be seen along the fringes around MacRitchie.
The best way to see the forest is to go on the walking trails that wind through it. There are boardwalks skirting the edge of the scenic MacRitchie Reservoir and walking trails through the forest. Ranging from distances of 3km to 11km, each of the five routes offers different hiking experiences and unique views of the tranquil forest. Continue reading →
Kedah is famous as the largest rice producer in Malaysia.
During the Lunar New Year (2009), we visited the Kedah Paddy Museum (Muzium Padi Kedah) which was not really far away from my home town in Sungai Petani. It is located just near by Gunung Keriang, Alor Star and surrounded by all paddy field country. This place is known locally as Crystal Mountain because there is natural crystal excavated from the mountain.
Nagoya is famous as a Prefecture in Japan. However, you can also find a “Nagoya” in Batam, Indonesia.
Nagoya, Batam is the main town of this Indonesia Island. Nagoya is also known as Lubuk Baja here. It is the heart of Batam and its largest town. You can find many things in this town - shops, restaurants, hotels, cinemas, shopping plaza, food stalls, night markets and many more. It is also at the present Batam’s center of business, trade and finance.
There are many road side food stalls I found near the hotel I stayed in Jakarta city area last week. Some of these food stalls start their business since early in the morning. However, majority of these food stalls appear in the late afternoon and evening on roadsides, sidewalks and in any open space to provide meals to passers-by. It is not surprise that you may find some of the best food but in cheapest price over here. Anyway, it may lack of good hygiene in the road-side food preparation. So be careful, do watch how the food is prepare
There is an Zen-like garden of pebbles and fragrant frangipani just beside the restaurant I take my breakfast in Alila Hotel. It is a really nice view when taking breakfast in the morning.
I wake up quite early in the morning last Saturday. The time in Jakarta is one hour late compare with Singapore. Still not used to Indonesia time.
These are few early morning foggy view of Jakarta city taken at about 5:00am. Still very early in the morning, however, the sky is quite bright already. Pretty quiet … Only few cars on the road.
Was in Jakarta, the capital and largest city of Indonesia these few days. Have visited Jakarta few times so far. The more I visited this huge city the more I found interesting things in it. The people here, my friends here, the food here, all are really nice!
This is one kind of “taxis” I found in Jakarta and New Delhi. According to my friends, these vehicles is imported from India. It is called bajaj, the auto rickshaw in Indonesia, the equivalent to Thailand’s tuk-tuk. You can see this vehicle everywhere in Jakarta city. It will bring you just about everywhere, to the narrowest path in this busy city!
Jakarta suffers from congestion due to heavy traffic, especially in the central business district. It take me about two hours recently traveling from airport to my hotel in central city. However, traffic on weekend morning in Jakarta is still consider good!
