1) Visit Van Mieu, the first university of Vietnam.. (maybe the first in Indochina)?

2) Visit Patin Square and took photo with Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

3) Take photo with Lenin (you don't have to fly to Russia for that...)

4) Checkout Malaysia Embassy (it seems like much beautiful than any government building at Putrajaya)..

5) Get tired? relax yourself with Vietnam coffee or Hanoi Beer (Bia Ha Noi)...

With a population of just over 300,000 people (small by Chinese standard), Yangshuo is a delightful town located south of Guilin on the bank of the Li River. It is 4 hours by cruise boat from Guilin via the river, or just 90 minutes by bus. But on any good day, thousands of visitors take the water route to witness the scenic beauty of the karst limestone landscape straddling the Li River. By the way, the whole area is included in the Tentative List of Unesco's World Heritage Site.
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Four hours after leaving Guilin by boat (see earlier story HERE), we find ourselves in Yangshuo admiring the beauty of Li River. In summer, during the rainy season, the river can swell so much that even our viewing platform here gets flooded!

The late afternoon sun casts an ochre hue onto the limestone hills on the other side of Li River. Below us, the ubiquitous motorised bamboo boats begin to return home to roost for the night.

In the morning, the mist would hang around giving the karst hills a surreal look, while the colourful bamboo boats await customers. Hire one of these and the whole river is yours for the taking, but make sure there's a lifevest handy.

If you are lucky, there is always an old fisherman with his two fish-catching cormorants near the bamboo boats. For a small sum, you can pose with the cormorants for memorable pictures. I suppose this business venture is, for the gent and his sidekicks, more profitable than actually going fishing.

You can spend all day long admiring the splendid river views or you can explore the famous West Street of Yangshuo. It's a smorgasbord of attractions partial to the tourists, and interestingly enough, almost everybody in the street speaks workable English - can't say the same for Guilin. Live webcam image of West Street can be had HERE.

Along West St, we are particularly attracted to this artform - classical Chinese paintings done on the inside of miniature (some are quite largish) glass containers using a thin brush with crooked hardened bristles. Fine steady hands are required, plus a brain which can work in reverse. :)

Yangshuo is a very scenic pleasant town, full of nice people and interesting stuff. Try to spend as much time as possible here, and to explore the wonderful rustic karst countryside as well. Use Guilin as the gateway to explore this magnificent corner of China, and of course, the easiest way to get to Guilin is via AirAsia's daily flight from Kuala Lumpur.

For more pictures on Li River and Yangshuo, please click HERE and HERE. Thanks!

Yes!! I've just returned from my latest trip. This time, its Yogyakarta!! The long 3 days weekend allowed me to make my usual 3 days 2 nights trip.Personally for me, the difference about this trip were; 1) it was 'wrongly' booked during the fasting month and 2) this was the 1st time for me exploring the options of staying in a 'guesthouse' without making any advance booking.

Nervous? Oh yes, I did. I was even thinking of canceling the plan to travel because of the 2 reasons. But then, if I never have tried I wouldn't know what would happen!

I left LCCT on 29th Aug and the flight was on time. Coincidently one of our intern who just completed her 'internship' with us was on the same flight with me, together with her boyfriend . So, I recommended that we shared the taxi from airport to town to save cost. Must always find ways to reduce costs ;-)

Since I refused to spend money on the Lonely Planet books like some others, I used the information I got from Wikitravel and that was sufficient for me for a 3days 2 nights stay! I stayed at Losmen Nuri, one of the recommended budget guesthouse in Jalan Sosrowijayan, which is walking distance to the famous Malioboro street. Well, I got one of the rooms with attached bathroom for 70,000 rupiah. Clean, comfy and safe - that's all I needed. And it is also walking distance to the 'food place' as I had to wake up at 3am to eat something before I start fasting!

The next day, I booked a tour to the famous ancient temples, Borobodur and Prambanan. In the same van, I got to know a group of girls from the United Kingdom and one from Holland. 4 of them; Caroline, Charli, Ruth and Sophie are in the midst of traveling within Indonesia for about 4-6 weeks whereby Petra from Holland, is on an 8 months travel through out Asia. (Oh yes - they said they love AirAsia )
We ended up to be great friends in a short time period. We toured the place together,took lots of pictures, shared information of the countries and places we've been to, our experiences with the locals..etc..

The temples? They were amazing. I never thought I would fall in love with the place. Its just beautiful and looking at it, it is amazing thinking of how it was built hundreds of years ago. We took a lot of pictures there, trying to ensure we managed to capture every angle of the temples.

By 12 noon, it was really, really hot. With a high temperature and dry season, and as I was fasting as it is Ramadhan, it really tested my patience and stamina. The girls being understanding friends, just drank water as they actually felt guilty to eat in front of me! There were so sweet!

We returned to the guesthouse to rest and promised to meet again for dinner, accompanying me breaking my fast. The rest of the night was spent having good food for dinner, then adjourned to a famous local chain donut place (I persuaded them because of my cravings) and later walked along the Malioboro street to get some souvenirs.

Yogya is also known for its Batik. There are lots and lots of it and at some places we could bargain and get the best price. They also have lots of other souvenirs and its really cheap.

This has been a really great trip for me. Exploring a new place, facing new challenges, making new friends - it is definitely a memorable one!!

Before I left, I dropped by at the AirAsia office to say hi to our Yogya family members. And they are definitely a great bunch of people ! Say hi to them when you travel to Yogya!!

The Li River is a famous waterway in Guangxi Province of southern China, surrounded by amazing karst limestone landscape worthy of inclusion in Unesco's World Heritage Site. Yup, it's that good! So three weeks ago we caught the early morning AirAsia A320 flight from KL to Guilin en route to Li River.
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Sunrise over the South China Sea finds us enjoying breakfast high up in the sky.

Some four hours later, we are at Guilin Liangjiang International Airport, about 40 minutes drive west of Guilin City. With 1.3 million denizens, smallish by Chinese standard, it is a pleasant modern place surrounded by jagged limestone hills, looking like huge guardsmen.

After a couple of days at Guilin, which is enough for us to soak in the modern cityscape, we find ourselves boarding a cruise boat at Zhujiang docks, 40 minutes by road south of downtown.

Li River is indeed no disappointment, as we immerse ourselves into the magnificent karst landscapes on both sides of the river, said to be 200 million years old and jutting out more than 200 metres into the air.

We even witness an invasion by floating fruit sellers, obviously unauthorised, but nobody seems to care - please right-click photo montage below for a bigger version. Just by expert paddling of their bamboo raft, they catch up with the chugging boat, and latch onto it to secure themselves for business. Fascinating!

However this bit of Li River takes the cake. It's immortalised on the Chinese 20 yuan banknote, and a must-see spot for visitors to China.

I would rate the Li River cruise on par with our Milford Sound trip in New Zealand, and better than our boat ride in Halong Bay, Vietnam. The karst scenery is fantastic, and the 4-hour river journey from Guilin to the town of Yangshuo is thoroughly enchanting and wholly recommended. And only AirAsia can take you there pronto and on time!

For more on the Guilin trip, please visit my travel blog HERE. Thanks!

Last 10th July, was the amazing day for my two nephews. It was their first ever experience travel by flight, and we choosed AirAsia to make it happen. Our flight to Ho Chi Minh was at 7.25 am. That means we had to check in 3 hours ealier and make a move from our house by 4.30 am. Yes. 4.30 am. Just imagine how 4 and 3 years old boys want to wake up that early right. Indeed. But once their mums say.."come on boys...we have a flight to catch up!". They suddenly blink their eyes and ask, " aeroplane? kapal terbang?" and ten minutes later they were ready.

Once arrived at the LCCT Airport, the two little cats hang around here and there. Go here. Go there. Settle everything, we walk to the departure hall. Again this two little cats keep busying themself untill its time to depart. All the way walking to the plane, the boys was so excited seeing the big gigantic plane. They cant shut their eyes and keep saying, " oooo the plane is big. Bigggg"

I'm so overwhelming by this precious moment. Their happy feelings, you cant trade it with anything in the world. And I believe their mums feel that way too.

Inside the plane, of course the two little cats wants the window seating. All of us were a bit worry if they scared once the plane take off. We were wrong! They say..." wahh...best! No scared!" Then they start walking around. Walk to my seat. Walk to Tok Ma seat (their grandmother).

We safely landed at the Ho Chi Minh International Airport. We take a taxi to our hotel Saigon Pink 2. All the way, we can see the traffic was so hectic. Seriously crazy. They did not follow any lane. The truth is NO LANE! We check in at Saigon Pink 2 Hotel. The hotel is very convenient in terms of accessiblity to the very famous Ben Thant Market. Just 3 minutes walk and we were in the Ben Thant. For muslim tour, there are severals Halal muslim restaurant. The very, very, near to our hotel is the V.N Halal Restaurant. The food is good and you should not miss the Vietnam Coffee.

In Ho Chi Minh, we spent most of our time at Ben Thant, the Nite Market ( oh..not to mentioned that the Nite Market is just infront of the hotel). You can find loads of fruits and good qualities handmade item. We bought loads of souveniers. You can get t-shirt written Saigon at 2 dollars each.

We also take a famous tour to the Chu Chi Tunnel. This place is about 2 hours journey from Ho Chi Minh center. Half way, we dropped by at the Handicapped Handicraft Centre. Here, you will be surprised how the handicapped people are capable to. All the art works are very-very good. Thums Up to them.

Another very best moment is when all of us rendevous the city by trishaw. Hahaahah.....8 trishaw! Its cost us 20 dollar for 10 of us. Again, the two boys was so happy and excited as it was the first time they ride a trishaw. We see the famous Notredamme, the Post Office, lay our bumps for a while at the Mekong River just to snap a picture.

This are some shots while we are in Ho Chi Minh.

Sadly, we have to leave Ho Chi Minh. The three super duper days for us. Of course for the two little boys. They are jumping, running and sliding at the Ho Chi Minh Airport. Too bad our flight back to KL is at night. So the boys keep wondering why they cant see the plane clearly. So funny! Loads of thanks to AirAsia that make their dreams come true and they are so happy being in the AirAsia Flight.