Semmengoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre

As it’s the Gawai holidays, we decided to go to the outdoors for a family trip. We made a trip to the Semmengoh Wildlife Centre (also known as the Orang Utan Rehab Centre). It’s located near 10th Mile (Padawan) and hasn’t got a really big sign advertising where it was so my dad was saying that it was not practical. I suppose we should just move the jungle out to the city and put the rehab centre near the riverside. That would be easy to find!

So below are a few photos that we’ve taken there.

 

We then headed towards Wind Caves and Fairy Caves which are both near Bau. Before that, we stopped by Tasik Biru which is the largest man-made lake and it’s blue. No photos unfortunately.

This is the elusive primate which was seen outside near the river at Wind Caves. :D

My mum, Sarah and me went into Wind Caves, which was pitch dark. It was a good thing we could hire torch lights or we would never have been able to see anything.  There were a lot of bats inside the cave and we had a terrifying moment when we shined the light at the top and there was a bat just on top of us unfolding its wings. No photos as well since I did not have the camera with me, and with the cave so dark i doubt I’ll be able to get any photos even if I had it.

Then we went to Fairy Caves. Been here a few times already so nothing much I can say about it. It was windy though, which was what we expected from Wind Caves but only got from Fairy Caves.

All in all, it was a fun day albeit being tiring walking up the steps in the Caves. We wanted to go trail trekking at the Rehab centre but needed to pay conservation fee so we decided not to. Maybe next time.

Heights of Abraham

Considering the fact that I am not far away from the Peak District, today is the first time I’ve been there. We made a trip to Heights of Abraham at Matlock Bath. What was supposed to be a trip for 5 of us turned out to be a big group trip of 12, which wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be, although there were some weird stuff going on sometimes.

The weather wasn’t as good as it should’ve been, but it was all right. It alternated between drizzling, sun, and rain. Most of the rain fell during the earlier parts of our trip which is a good thing as afterwards we go to enjoy the scenery a bit more!

 

Because of the lousy weather while we were travelling up to Heights of Abraham by cable car, the photos I took of the outside from inside the cable car are all dotted with rain drops.

The following few photos are of the rocks in the cave which are lit up by different lights.. pretty….

Here’s a photo of Matlock Bath town centre. It’s a quiet place with not much people around. I wonder how this sleepy town survives.

Well, just going to end my post with some comments for the day. It was entirely enjoyable apart from some awkward moments when we didn’t know what to talk about and also some irritating moments.

We had dinner at Pretty Orchid which serves Malaysian and Thai cuisine. For some reason, they gave us the set menu, which consisted of yucky food. Verdict? The interior is bad, there’s a weird smell around and the food is not good. Will not go there anymore..

Transport problems

I'm sitting in the train to Nottingham now, but not the train that I was booked on. It's another train which is 15 mins later than the other train and I am lucky to be able to get on this train without additional charge.

We had planned our journey to reach St Pancras International in plenty of time for our 1115 train, and had left at the time planned. Unfortunately, the tube stations were against us leaving London so they all decided to go on strike. Signals failed, lots of tube lines weren't working and we had to go from one tube station to another just to get to St Pancras.

The Hammersmith and City line which is the most convenient for me was down. If we had been able to take that line, we wouldn't have needed to change at any tube stations and just to get down at Kings' Cross and St Pancras. We got down from the bus at the station and found out that the line wasn't working, so we had to take another bus to Paddington Station to take the Circle line, which to our dismay when we got there, it wasn't working as well.

So, we had to take the Bakerloo line to Baker Street and change there for the Metropolitan line to get to St Pancras. And the Metropolitan line is not the most frequent of lines. We had to wait there at the station for 15 mins before our tube arrived, therefore making us late for our 1115 train.

We just queued for the 1130 train and thankfully, after explaining what happened to the attendant at the barrier, she let us in without extra charge. It was such a relief to get onto the train to Nottingham. Else, we would have just turned back and gotten another ticket for another day which would've been cheaper. And just spend Christmas and New Year's in London.

I hate travelling in London.

Portobello Market

I walked out to Portobello Market this morning to try and find a suitable gift under 5 pounds for exchange during my Christmas party. Since it's a Saturday, the whole market was open and there were lots of things to see. As I always forget to bring my camera out, I did not manage to capture any interesting photos.

Two things that happen to catch my eye this morning. One was a stall manned by 2 people from China. They were selling iPod nanos 8Gb for around 50 pounds, which apparently is half of the normal selling price. I wonder if the iPods are genuine ones (which they claim them to be), but they could be fake ones for all I know. I just google'd iPod nano and apparently the ones I saw were the 3rd generation ones, not the new 4th generation. Not a lot of people crowded around that stall though, only a few who seemed to be really interested in buying.

Another was that there was a funeral procession down Portobello Road and there were 2 hearses - one a modern hearse and another was a horse-drawn hearse. Following that was an expensive looking car (which for the life of me I do not recognise). There were also people running after the procession with one guy who seemed to be a reporter.

There were people who stopped and took photos of the horse-drawn hearse which I felt was quite disrespectful to the dead. But I suppose they expect that since they went down such a crowded street. The horses were very pretty though.

Anyway, I still can't find my gift.......

Missing

Arrived in London yesterday by train. When we went into the coach we were in, it was quite full and the baggage compartment (which was small) was left with minimal space for us to squeeze our bags there. When the train reached St Pancras, we let most of the passengers go first before we made a move towards our bags. Mine wasn't there.

I started worrying and wondering why are there such people in life wanting to steal my bag which contains nothing except clothes. Went out of the coach looking up and down, then back into the coach looking up to see if anybody put it there for more space. It wasn't. Until one of the passengers saw me jumping up and down with my worried face and asked me if i lost my bags.

Guess where the bag was. It was beneath someone's seat. And since the bag was brown, it kinda blended into its environment.

Penzance, Cornwall

Well, I'm back from Penzance. 9 hours train trip! I'm quite glad to be home.

When we reached Penzance on Monday afternoon. This was what greeted us:

Ominous clouds gathering together. It didn't really mark a very good beginning to our trip. Despite that, the scene was breathtaking. Good thing the weather was quite beautiful for two days in the morning, even though it drizzled in the afternoon.

Penzance is a very small town. We manage to explore the whole town in a few hours. Monday afternoon was spent exploring but most shops were closed by the time we had checked into the Penzance Backpackers (at 5pm) and went out again. The streets were basically deserted by 5.

The next day, we took a bus to Marazion so that we can go to St Michael's Mount. To reach to the small island, we took the ferry as the the tide wasn't low yet. During low tide, you can actually walk to the Mount from the beach.

 

Trawlerman's Lunch

On the way to Land's End, the bus passed by Sennen Cove. The beach was beautiful. We didn't get down here but I managed to snap some photos from the bus.

Land's End. Cliffs and cliffs and more cliffs.

I like this photo. Sun, sea, sky, clouds and a rainbow.

All in all, the trip was an enjoyable one, although we didn't have enough time to explore more places in Cornwall. But we managed to explore the tip of England.

Back to the main purpose of going to Penzance. I did not manage to find accommodation there as the only places available are bed & breakfasts which cost a fortune. So, unfortunately, I will have to compose a letter soon to decline my placement.

I managed to chipped the lens of my specs. So have to go make a new one soon. ai~

Earthquake!!

There was an earthquake last night. And i was fast asleep when the earthquake started and got woken up by it. You could feel shaking and really loud noise. At first I thought it was the normal loud bangs that we get occasionally but when it continued for a while, I thought it was an earthquake. But not knowing that there were actually earthquakes in England, I just went back to sleep.

Until I woke up in the morning and saw the news and confirmed that there actually was an earthquake.

Scary..

Treasure Hunting!

I just found out that this is only the 99th post.. instead of the last last post that i added.

Anyway, Treasure Hunting! Joined the treasure hunt that Nottingham Malaysian Society organised. The best thing is.. we don't have to pay a cent. And we got a free Kangaroo pass (3 pounds) which allows us to travel on any bus, train or tram for us to get around the whole of Nottingham. We had to solve riddles to find out our destinations. Each team consisted of 4 people and there were 16 teams altogether.

The event was divided into 3 stages: stage 1 was within the University Park campus, stage 2 and stage 3 was in and around Nottingham City.

The stage 1 questions were a bit tough. We spent quite some time in the campus trying to figure out what the answers were to the riddles. Lots of time was spent running around the uni and this wasn't an easy task as the uni isn't exactly on flat ground. It was exhausting. By the time we completed stage 1, we seemed to be the last few teams to leave the campus for the next stage where we had to meet someone in the City centre for our next set of riddles.

Stage 2 was the fun part. We decided to stop by our trusty Nottingham Tourism Centre to ask for directions and to help us find the answers to the riddles. Seemed like everyone else had the same thought as we bumped into other teams who rushed towards the information counter. It was funny to watch the lady giving the same information several times.

Our first stop: The Arboretum. I posted photos of the Arboretum before here in a slide show and it was easy to recognise the place from the photo clues that were given to us in stage 1. Thus, we boarded the tram and went off to the arboretum. The clue we got at that place led us to the Forest Recreation grounds where we needed to find the acorn tree in the photo below, and find out who planted it. We got a few wrong directions from the people we asked but eventually got one helpful guy to tell us where the Forest Lodge is, as the tree was located near it.

Next was the Green's Windmill and Science Centre. It came as a surprise to us that Nottingham actually has a windmill! And a working windmill!

Inside the science centre.
Next was the Nottingham Forest Football Club at the Stadium. It was red. Their slogan: There.. Now.. Forever Forest!
We were then told to explore along the River Trent to find a match to the photo of emblem that we were given. We were also told to find out how high was the River Trent in Feb 1946. The latter answer we got from a wall at the river side.

The River Trent!
The emblem was found on the War Memorial. Which is a beautiful place inside. Should've spent a bit more time exploring inside.

On to the next stage. First was a stop at the City of Caves located at the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre. When we got there, we did not see anyone. The guy who was supposed to be there disappeared for a toilet break as he wasn't expecting us to be so early!

What's a Treasure Hunt without making a pit stop at the Nottingham Castle? This was where most of us got stumped at the riddle that was given. "Grab Low & Spare Fifty Clues" was the phrase that we had to unscramble and find the place. (The place was called Sparrow Bagley & Sutcliffe which was an estate agency)Then a trip to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem which is purported to be England's Oldest Pub where the answer to the riddle was the signpost.

Next: The Nottingham Playhouse where we visited the Sky Mirror. I have seen this mirror several times now and I still don't know why it is famous. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder i guess. Forgot to take a photo of it.

Last was the general Cemetery. Did not enter into cemetery as we got on the same bus as the guy who was meeting us there and we got our clue as soon as we got down the bus. I wanted to look at the interior but the rest of the group wanted to press on and return to the atrium of Portland Building back in Uni.

We were the first to reach back to uni but we stayed around the lake to figure out the answer to the riddle that was given to us in the first stage, therefore we were the 2nd team to arrive back at the atrium. We also were given 3 bonus riddles for us to bring back 3 items: a 20p coin, a shoelace and a Kangaroo pass. After a 3 hour wait at the atrium for the hunt to end and the results to be revealed, we got 2nd place (cuz we got the 20p coin wrong and put in a 50p instead)! Yay!!
It was altogether a very fun and fulfilling day, albeit a tiring one. We spent a lot of time running and rushing after buses. Looking back, i supposed we didn't really need to rush around and could actually spend a bit of time at each place appreciating the beauty of nature.

I actually got to know Nottingham better now, and all for free. If i didn't join this, I wouldn't have known about these places that are quite beautiful. I would definitely want to go to these places again and spend more time exploring. Nottingham's not so boring after all!

Want to end the post with a bit of a complaint. One of my teammates was a bit annoying. She was loud and a bit overbearing at times. She also took off with my camera without telling me. Imagine that: i only knew her for one day and she takes off with my camera! All the photos she took were blur also. Wanna delete them as soon as I pass it on to her!

Busy Weekend..

It has been quite a fun-filled weekend! First, Concert on Thursday Night... which was fun! One thing worth nothing about in the Royal Concert Hall is that most of the patrons had white hair.. The concert was by Halle, and marked their 150th birthday. I'm so in love with Beethoven's Symphony no.7, movement 2 now..

Then it was snowing on Friday! First time I saw snow, but it wasn't heavy enough to make snowman and snowballs. oh ya.. i got my results as well. Wasn't too bad, but could've been better I guess.

Went to Cadbury's Chocolate Factory in Birmingham today. Which was worth it.. we had free chocolate.. but i'm now sick of chocolate.. We had to take a train to Birmingham New Street and from there to Bournville, which is founded by Cadbury's. There were a few hitches at the beginning of the trip but everything was quite ok after that.

The whole gang of us.. 22 in our group.
Chocolate-covered me..

We then went back to Birmingham City Centre for Malaysian Food! Apparently laksa here is quite famous. Puisan had Curry Laksa, Susan had Assam Laksa.. and I had Beef Brisket with Rice..

Anyone know what is Ants on the Tree?Our huge group then broke up into pieces and 4 of us went sight seeing while others decided to be boring and go shopping. We went to see the famous Birmingham Cathedral (aka St Philip Cathedral).
Then we walked around the Bull Ring (which is Birmingham's biggest shopping centre, i think). Borders was huge!
Saw the so-called mentos building.. which is the Selfridges Building.. On the left is the Selfridges building while on the right is St Martin's church (i think). Right in the middle is Puisan..

Puisan forgot her Young Person Railcard and we had a really fun time on the way back.. Adrenaline was pumping through our veins as we cracked our heads to find of ways to avoid being checked on the railcard.. which I guess in the end wasn't really necessary as the conductor didn't really check.

So, now to make myself tidy up my room tomorrow.. Chinese New Year is coming in a few days..