NYC Factory Outlet Shopping

Woodbury Common Premium Outlets - for savings at Burberry, Coach, D&G, Gap, Gucci etc.



Can be found at 498 Red Apple Court, Central Valley, NY 10917.

Tel: (845) 928 4000



Have to get Tracy's guide to shopping in NYC. She mentioned that Crate & Barrel is really worth checking out for household items. Bedlinen is also worth getting - high threadcount at very affordable prices.

New York Pass

There's a great tourist pass in New York called the New York Pass (surprise, surprise). It allows admission to over 40 top attractions in New York City, including:

• Empire State Building
• State of Liberty and Ellis Island
• The Guggenheim
• Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
• Brrokly Museum of Art
• NBC Studio Tour
• Radio City Music Hall Stage Door Tour
• The United Nations Tour
• Madison Square Garden All Access Tour
• The Museum of Modern Art

$65 gets a 1-day pass, $95 a 2-day pass, $120 a 3-day pass and $155 a 7-day pass. The pass is valid only for consecutive days, and will allow only one entry per attraction per day. So, say if we got a 2-day pass, we could check out the Empire State Building on the morning of day-1, and then return to check it out during the evening on day-2... Then we'd get 2 different views of NYC.



There are offers online most of the time - check out www.newyorkpass.com

Pulau Pangkil Kecil

Imagine renting a whole island to yourself? No other paying guests except yourselves. To sleep in driftwood palaces and buffet meals, 3 times a day. The only thing to do on the island? "Energy Minimisation. This is without a doubt the primary activity on Pangkil and includes the categories of Sleeping (there are hammocks everywhere), Sun Bathing (choose your beach), Slounging (classy Indonesian furniture is scattered at both ends of the island), Dozing and Reading" (as advertised on www.pangkil.com)

Serendah Getaway

For a quick getaway from KL city. Just a mere 45 minutes drive away, to an excellent retreat - back to nature, to the mossies, and a wonderful experience of cool forests and river water. Property owned by Ng Sek San, an established landscape architect in Malaysia.



There are currently 4 'sheds' that can be rented. They're all about natural ventilation, and being part of the forest - typical Malaysian kampung living, though with a modern twist - glass and steel hardly falls into the natural landscape! Still, it's a wonderful feeling of being out in the open, and yet protected (to a certain degree!).


www.serendah.com

Checking out some stones in Siem Reap

A study trip they call it - fully paid travel by the office for the purposes of widening our experiences. And so it was, to Siem Reap in the Kingdom of Cambodia, to visit the ancient city of Angkor, an architectural marvel as intriguing as the pyramids of Giza. Within our tour, we visited Angkor Thom, Bayoun, Ta Prohm, the Elephant Terrace and of course, Angkor Wat. There were much more smaller temples and structures around the whole complex that would take a couple of days to explore, but I think our visit was just about right. I mean, after half a day, in the tropical summer dust and heat, anything will begin to look uninteresting...

Lake Tonle Sap was an interesting detour. The floating village, a network of structures built on rafts and boats that float along the edge of the lake following the water level of the season. To see life centred around the lake - from washing, to cooking, and floating schools, church and pig pens! - was an eye-opener. The thing that caught our eye was of kids playing in the water. I mean, we're talking about a water body that's brown in colour, has an awful stench... Yes these kids were jumping in an out, seemingly having the time of their lives!

Of course, escaping the lake, it was wonderful to be back at our resort, the Victoria Angkor

Colonial-style building, though only 2 years old, there seems to be a conscious effort by all the staff to maintain a French flavour throughout the place. Oh, breakfast was excellent!! Wonderful breads and pastries, including fresh fruit juices and a variety of other stuff. I love the lifts in the building - with wooden doors, and a double external cage around it, sort of like the ones we see on American TV in old flats.

Angkor Balloon was quite a trip too. It was nice to be 200m up in the air, seeing the whole of Angkor in perspective. What was once a thriving civilisation is now almost completely covered by trees. Yet at the same time, to see the scale of such a huge construction project humbles a lot of what we try to achieve nowadays. If the ancients did it, what's the big deal about what we're doing, right? And they've got better craftsmanship than us too! Haha!

A nice and relaxing trip generally. Not so much a *studying* trip, but for what it's worth, at least I've seen Angkor... :)

Sungai Chiling Nature Trek

Unlike most Malaysians who spent the 48th National Day (31 Aug) either (1) watching the National Day parade on TV (2) sleeping in (3) shopping (4) whatever mundane else people do on public holidays, Wai Khuen, Kevin and I chose instead to wake up at 7.30am, and joined some friends for a Nature Walk at Sungai Chiling.

Located about 1.5 hours drive out of KL, the drive was a relatively easy one : Damansara - Rawang on highway, then minor roads towards Kuala Kubu Bharu. We even passed by the KKB dam (water level looked alarmingly low!) on the way there.

The trail was quite an easy one. It was obvious many had used this path before. It was great spotting a variety of interesting looking plants (and their leaves, flowers, fruits). Tropical forests never felt so rich before! Perhaps it was due to an unusual lack of mossies? Haha...



About 1.15 hours into the trek, and after traversing Sungai Chiling some 4-5 times (and almost drowning at one particularly deep drossing! Ok, ok, I didn't almost drown. But I almost fell into the river, which would have been tragic because my camera would've definitely drowned!), we finally arrived at the eagerly anticipated waterfall.


My only regret was not being prepared by trekking in my swimmers! Would've loved a dip in the river. Water was icy cold! Oh well, soaking up to knee length was still refreshing enough. The trek back felt quicker, and lunch at the local Hainanese coffee shop (chicken chop ala Hainan) was a great cap to a tiring morning.

By the time we got back to KL, it was almost five in the evening. My body was sore the whole of the next day, but it was well worth it. Who knew, that 1.5 hours away from where we are, there's a jewel of nature to retreat to, to get away from city life.

KL Walking Tour

I'm currently on a photography craze, eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new camera (heh). Did a walking tour around KL last weekend, looking for interesting scenes etc. Came across this shop front on Campbell Road (aka Jalan Dang Wangi). Thought it was just simply hilarious that such a 'specialist' existed, and proudly advertising too! :)

Heading off to Lake Gardens tomorrow morning. Should be able to find some interesting things at the Bird Park, Deer Park, Orchid Farm etc...

Either way, KL City seems to be quite interesting to explore too (for the budget and leave conscious KLites) haha...

Oh yeah, in case the image is too small and you can't see it clearly, the proud signage reads: "Tong Nam Piles Specialist" ;p