Visit Malaysia Year 2014 - Underwater World, Langkawi

To support Visit Malaysia Year 2014, I will be writing on various tourist attractions in the country. Let us work together to bring in tourists to our lovely Malaysia.

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If you grew up watching The Little Mermaid or any underwater movies, you will be enchanted by the beauty of this mystical world and would immediately sign up for diving lessons. But, if you don't know how to swim like me or have phobia of open water, then Underwater World Langkawi is your best solution.

There's more than marine life in the park

A popular attraction in the island, there are more to the theme park than just watching the marine creatures as they have other animals as well. However, as this being Underwater World, these sea darlings take the centre stage. 

The crew of Underwater World feeding the sea creatures

The park itself is 8 sections, namely sub antartic section, temperate section, tropical rainforest section, freshwater section, marine life section, coral section, koi pond and otter pond sections and reptilium section. Personally, the section I enjoyed the most has to be the sub antartic section for it was in this part of the park where the adorable casts of Happy Feet are at.

Angelfish

Corals are aplenty in the theme park

Nothing beats watching these penguins interacting with each other and moving around. In fact, just looking at them doing nothing worth every penny of the ticket for me. Instead of going to North Pole or South Pole, all I have to do is just to purchase the entrance ticket to the theme park and I can see them up clsoe and personal.

The cast of Happy Feet!

Aren't they all adorable?

Info Box

Underwater World,
Zon Pantai Cenang, Mukim Kedawang, 07000 Langkawi.
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. During public or school holidays, the park opens and closes at 9.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. respectively.

Tickets are priced at RM 40 for adults (RM 30 with MyKad) and RM 30 for children between 3 to 12 years old (RM 20 with MyKad). Malaysian senior citizens over 50 years old with MyKad can purchase the entrance tickets at a lower rate of RM 24.
For more information, click here.

Philippines - Baluarte, Vigan

After my morning was spent visiting Santa Maria Church, I took the minivan back to Vigan. It was already in early afternoon when I reached the city and after my lunch, I decided to drop by Baluarte. Baluarte is a mini zoo of sort located about 10 minutes drive from the city centre and it's owned by Governor of Ilocos Sur.

The welcoming committee

This wildlife sanctuary is dedicated to teaching and educating the public on the animals living here. Some of the animals under the care of the sanctuary are tigers, ostriches, macaws, and so on. 

Some of the animals in this mini zoo

One of the best things about Baluarte is that you get to interact with these animals. You get to feed them and take pictures with them. Almost every hour there is animal show for you to watch and be amazed. 

How can I not take the opportunity to snap a photo with this beauty?

The star attraction of Baluarte has to be the tiger. This majestic creature sat there looking pretty and always game for a photo session with the public. I think some might even forget the fact that this is a dangerous animal, what with it looking so cuddly.

The said tiger..I missed out the chance to take photo with it..

I do find the giant dinosaur models a bit weird and it gives off the strange feeling like I was in Jurassic Park or something.

Welcome to Jurassic Park!

There is no entrance fee for Baluarte, making a visit a must for budget travellers looking for some fun in the 'wild'.

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Hong Kong (香港) - Hong Kong Disneyland (香港迪士尼乐园)

The highlight of this Hong Kong trip has to be this magical kingdom of Hong Kong Disneyland. The second Disneyland theme park in Asia, we spent the whole second day inside the amusement park, which quite frankly, was still not enough to fully enjoy yourself. One day is just too short for Disneyland and the one in Hong Kong is said to be the smallest of all 5 existing Disneyland parks. Imagine that!

We were all heading to Hong Kong Disneyland

After breakfast, we took the Mass Transit Rail (MTR) to Sunny Bay station to change to Disneyland Resort Line, taking us directly to the theme park. It took about 45 minutes from city centre to Disneyland, so if you want to maximize your time inside the wonderland, you need to allocate extra time for the transportation and be there right when it opens.

The whole train just shouted Disney

My companions were in deep slumber and unable to wake up early for the day even though I had already reminded them time and time again. Coupled with the dim sum breakfast, by the time we reached Disneyland, it was already 11 a.m. Luckily, there wasn't much of a queue and we redeemed our tickets bought online at a discounted rate. Bags will be checked but the securities would close an eye if they found sandwiches and breads in it.

Water fountain greeted us

I have Woody for ticket!

Once you stepped your feet into the compound, it will never be the same again. Your childhood began to flash before your eyes as the enchanting world of Disney surrounded you. This is especially true if grew up together with Mickey and his gangs as well as those everlasting Disney classics like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and so on. Your inner child just took over and there will always be a grin pasted on your face.

Friday's Newsflash - MyPass Prepaid Card

For foreign travellers planning to visit Malaysia, a new product launched by Touch N' Go Sdn. Bhd. is here for your travel convenience. Introducing MyPass, a multipurpose electronic purse which you can use to make payment on most of the public transportation in Kuala Lumpur, selected retail outlets, food and beverages chains, attractions and theme parks, and so on. Examples of shops that accept MyPass are 7-Eleven stores, MyNews outlets, The Chicken Rice Shop, and so on.

Besides using it as a debit card, you can also redeem discounts at attractions around the capital city as well as selected ones in the country. To name a few of its discounts and privileges, you will receive 10% discount on tickets to KL Tower Observation Deck, 15% discounts for Petrosains, 30% discounts on buffet lunch and dinner in Shogun Japanese restaurant, and many more. 

Sold at the price of RM 38.00, MyPass comes with RM 10.00 preloaded as well as complimentary Hotlink SIM pack and Malaysia travel guide. The MyPass pack can be obtained in the both KLIA and LCCT, KL Sentral, Touch N' Go hubs, KL Hop On Hop Off counter, and selected petrol stations. You can also easily reload the card at any LRT, monorail and KTM stations and petrol stations bearing the Touch N' Go logo. For more information, do look at its website at www.mypass.com.my. I believe such a card will be a popular product among tourists as it is easy to use and comes with lots of discounts and benefits. 

Shah Alam - i-City

Yet to buy a laptop, hence, irregular update.

My friend treated me to i-City, Shah Alam, few weeks back as my birthday treat (a one-month late birthday gift). I always thought that i-City is only for its night light view but apparently, there are other attractions beside the night light show. It was a Group On promotion that we took which include five attractions available in i-City.

Water World @ i-City

First of all, we went to the Water World @ i-City for some water rides. To be honest, I was quite disappointed with the rides available in the park. It was just too small to justify its name. I mean, I would have assume a water theme park named Water World @ i-City would take hours to fully finish their rides. But, sadly, all it took was just an hour plus and you are done with it.

These water slides are just so-so

Look at the Ultimate Tornado which is AMAZING...

And most of the water slides are not thrilling, to be honest. The only saving grace has to be the Ultimate Tornado spiral slide which is AWESOME. Make sure there are four of you for the ride require four persons. If not, ask some strangers to join you for it.

Ultimate Tornado takes four persons to go for it

Next in the voucher is the SnoWalk. While dress code insists its patrons to wear long pants and covered shoes, I went in with shorts and flip flop. I ended up shivering non stop. Generally, nothing much for you to do here other than riding on few slides they have here and taking pictures. I believe the Snow World in Genting Highland is a better option of the two. For SnoWalk, please bring your own gloves and boots if you want to save your budget for the rental fee is steep.

Ice sculptures in SnoWalk

Trick Art Museum is more like a photo taking outlet where public do candid poses along with the paintings. These paintings, if posed correctly, will give off a three dimensional impression. The selection is not that many and appeals only to those who are interested in doing funny shots. The remaining two attractions included in the Group On voucher are Ferris wheel and the double-deck carousel. Nothing much can be said about these two rides.

Entrance to the Trick Art Museum

Few of these paintings on display

I honestly think i-City has the potential to grow but the management team is not really giving all their bests to improve it. The best asset of this place has to be the night light display and understandably so. It is rather beautiful.

Ferris wheel

Carousel

With the Group On voucher, the visit is still border line worth it. However, if you ask me whether I would go without it, sorry, can’t do.

Beautiful night light, the best asset in i-City

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

Each attraction has its own entrance fee. For Water World @ i-City, the price for adult is RM 40.00 on Mondays to Fridays and RM 50.00 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays while for children, it is RM 30.00 and RM 40.00 respectively. For SnoWalk, the entrance prices before 6 pm are RM 25.00 and RM 20.00 for adult and children, after 6 pm are RM 35.00 and RM 30.00 respectively. Trick Art Museum is free of charge if you purchased Water World @ i-City's ticket. If not, the charge is RM 5.00. 

Hong Kong (香港) - Ocean Park - Part 2

Seriously, working drains out all your energy to blog even though I pretty much  do nothing in the office. Hence, the reason why this blog has been so inactive lately. Sorry.

Continuing from where I had stopped last post, once I had reached The Summit, I spent hours queueing up for the thrilling rides that populated there. Due to the fact that it was summer vacation back when we visited Hong Kong, it was inevitably full of youngsters. But the queues were worth it. To be frank, some of the rides in Genting Highland are more exciting than those similar ones in Ocean's Park but it was still enjoyable to say the least. The fantastic views that you get to see while on the rides pretty much compensated the lack of adrenaline these rides provided. Some of the rides we went for were The Abyss (Solero Shot in Genting), Mine Train, The Dragon (Corkscrew) and The Flash. Personally, The Flash is the best of them all. Sadly, my enthusiasm took over my instinct to take photos and there few to almost non existence when it comes to the rides. My inner child took over the blogger in me and left me with no photos to show.

The Flash

Besides those thrill rides, there are other attractions that you can go for if adrenaline-packed adventures are not your things. There are a lot of nature-related and informative joys you can go for. One such adventures that we went to was the Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium Yangtze Exploration where we enjoyed the company of giant fish swimming as we walked and learned about the efforts made to maintain the unique ecosystem the Yangtze River is. 

Another highly recommended attraction would be the Ocean Theatre where dolphins and seals pulled off a performance to entertain the audiences. These sea creatures are such a delight to be watched as they looped high off the pool, doing stunts that required years of trainings (I believed) and the wonderful relationships between the human trainers and the dolphins and seals. 

The famous Ocean Theater

The stage

Look at the crowds!

I had recorded videos of the show and will upload it here soon. We had more than six hours of joys and laughters and in these six hours, we were transformed back to our childlike states. We screamed out loud when we were on those rides. We emitted sounds of amazement while watching dolphins being their endearing selves. These six hours plus were wonderfully spent in Hong Kong's Ocean Park.

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

In order to get a good seat for the dolphins show Ocean Park is famous for, you have to go there very early, like at least 20 minutes before the show started. If you are wondering what to do during these extra 20 plus minutes, worry not for there is a Mexican band performing tunes that are catchy and delightful. You can enjoy your meals/snacks while listening to these songs. 

Hong Kong (香港) - Ocean's Park

I am simply too freaking lazy. My procrastination skill sees no end towards it. I wonder if I still have time to blog once I start working next Monday...

I woke up the next day, feeling all pumped up. We were hitting Ocean's Park today! Being the iconic theme park in Asia, I had been wanting to go there for as long as I remember, back when Disneyland is still in Tokyo and had not branched out to Hong Kong. So, once we had our breakfast at a Japanese restaurant (I think), we were off for some fun in the sun!

Name of the shop

What I had...delicious

We took the MTR from Fotress Hill station to Admiralty to take the bus to Ocean's Park. When we reached there, we were approached by travel agents asking whether we want to take their Ocean's Park package, inclusive of the entrance fee and ride to go to the park itself, at 230 HKD. We can walk on our own once we entered the park and it was cheaper than the entrance fee (250 HKD), so no harm right?

Well, the bus that was supposed to fetch us all (there were others who took the package) 'caught in the traffic jam' (we suspected that the bus broke down) so they, the tour agency, provided us a taxi to go to the park at their expenses. We got to sit on the signature red car for free! The taxi driver is very friendly, entertaining us with tales and recommending us places to go.

After a ten to twenty minutes ride, we finally saw the theme park. To be honest, there are a lot of similarities between Ocean's Park and Sunway Lagoon. There is the seal-in-a-sailor-outfit mascot that resembles the duck-in-a-sailor-outfit mascot Sunway Lagoon has. Ocean's Park has both dry and wet rides, just like Sunway Lagoon. Entrance rate for both theme parks are about the same, all things considered. Yet, Ocean's Park has one thing Sunway Lagoon does not have. The views to die for.

Entrance to the theme park

Ocean's Park has two sections, one at the bottom of a hill where animals attractions are aplenty (known as The Waterfront), and the one at the top of a hill (known as The Summit), where all adrenaline junkies gathered for their thrilling rides. You can take the cable car or the Ocean Express to reach The Summit. As I did not take the Ocean Express, I had no idea what I missed out but I did not regret it for the views by the cable cars are absolutely breath taking. You get to see parts of Hong Kong Island. Stunning!

The cable car

Going UP

LOOK AT THE VIEWS!!!

SIMPLY STUNNING!

Look at the number of the cable cars moving around...

*TO BE CONTINUED*