Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Kuantan and its monsoon




Saturday, December 13, 2014

Tasik Beris

Tasik Beris or Beris Lake is located in Sik-Kedah, some 90km South-East from Alor Star. However, the journey seems a thousand miles away to actually reach the destination. It actually took us almost 2 hours to actually reach Tasik Beris, particularly Lake Beris Vineyard.  

(It's going to take a minimum of 5 hours drive of *450km journey from Kuala Lumpur to Alor Star via North-Klang Valley Expressway (depending on numbers of pit-stops you going to make along the way, that is) (*approximate distance taken from Subang Airport as closest landmark to us)

The trip to Lake Beris was actually to planned for a particular tour to Lake Beris Vineyard. It is very rare for Malaysian climate to actually have a grape-bearing vines plantation due to its tropical climate but this particular vineyard proves that Malaysian climate can as well accommodate to the growth.




Friday, December 12, 2014

Paddy Museum Alor Star - non handicap friendly

The noble intention is highly commendable - to exhibit and showcase, what, how, where, when, which, who and etc relating to paddy the crops. 
The exterior design of the Museum is an interesting piece of architecture without doubt.

However, it is very unfortunate that such building designed for PUBLIC were not equipped and DOES NOT cater for handicap, or not even older folks. For instance;

1. The main entrance staircase is some 20 steps up. No handicap ramp is available within  immediate view, let alone a handicap automatic stair-lift
2. It's main attraction was the 360 mural painting, which is some 2-storey up (59 steps altogether) via  centrally located spiral staircase. Again, there aren't any handicap facility were seen. I did noticed a lift outside the spiral staircase area but none were seen on the observation deck for the mural.
3. The staircase(s), all of it were not designed with children's handrail and of course there aren't any handicap stairs-lift available
4. the Washroom facilities is some 200 meter away, when I say away, it is actually away from the main building where you have to actually exit the building and again there aren't any handicap facilities available.

So, it seems that the museum were only meant for 'young and healthy'.  :(





The Museum (credit to Kedah State Museum Archive)


the amazing 360 mural inside the Museum


example of very bad access for handicap

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Alor Star - Long Due Tour

I was born in Alor Star, and it is still my mom's hometown but we hardly ever had 'a tour around Alor Star' other than the infamous Pekan Rabu everytime we went back for a visit. So, to wrap-up my 'complete coverage of Peninsular Malaysia', together with my parents and brother, we decided to have dedicated tour around Alor Star's most interesting places that we could cover in 2 days. We basically covered these interesting places: 
1. Balai Besar & Muzium Diraja ( The Great Hall & The Royale Museum)
2. We did not make it to State Gallery as it was closed at 330pm on Thursday, and closed on Friday and Saturday
3. Alor Star Tower
4. Former Residence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, our 4th Prime Minister
5. Paddy Museum
6. Lake Beris Vineyard (okay, this particular location is 90km away from Alor Star city centre)

The Royale Museum


The Great Hall (Balai Besar)

Former Residence of Tun Dr Mahathir
Alor Star Tower


The Mural inside Paddy Museum

Friday, December 5, 2014

On the Air

Finally, after so much thinking and and comparing notes on specs and what-not, the Mini-Air is mine  :)