Shrine of the Serene Light

Phuket Town is full of history, full of interest. I keep stumbling upon new places... I wish there was more time to explore and less time in the office! On Friday I headed into the old town before work, in search of a Chinese shrine called the Shrine of the Serene Light or Ting Kwan Tang. There's not a huge amount of information about this shrine online, and if you are walking around old Phuket Town, as I have done many times, you'll probably miss it. The shrine is on Phang Nga road, just a hundred meters west of the On On Hotel... but it's well hidden. There is an entry off the road leading to a narrow alleyway. The shrine is not yet visible. If you were passing, you'd see the entrance, but the alley does not look like it leads to anything exciting...

 

(Note: update 2011. The entrance to the Shrine of the Serene Light is being widened. Read more here).

I read about the shrine on the "Phuket Town Treasure Map" which you can pick up at various locations around the old town. The main office that produces this map is on Soi Romanee. I was happy to know that there are always some hidden treasures to discover! As you walk down this meter wide alley for about 40 meters you come to a second entrance and can finally see the shrine.



I was the only visitor. The shrine is built amongst the houses in the old town, the treasure map says it was built in 1889 by a local Hokkien Chinese family. The late 19th century was a boom time for Phuket, with money pouring in from the tin mining industry. Chinese families became very important here around that time. The old town is full of Chinese influence - check the shops, the shrines.. the people.



I'll have to go back to get some more pics... it started raining and I really wanted a nice blue sky with sunlight on the elaborate roof decorations. I concentrated instead on the details.

 

The shrine is well cared for, candles and oil lamps were lit, fruit offerings laid out. Only after about 15 minutes did I find that someone lives at the shrine. I did leave 100 Baht in the donations box. The old carvings around some areas certainly need more restoration. I have read that the shrine was all but forgotten for a while, but is now cared for by the local Chinese-Thai community, who do a good job looking after old town.





The walls are covered in murals showing old stories - the walls look old. Alone in the shrine, I certainly felt a sense of history.



The shrine has many prayer points, marked with numbers to ensure you pray in the correct order. Behind the first set of gods you find more...





As the rain fell more heavily I looked for more details to photograph. These shrines fascinate me. So much detail and so much history, most of which I do not understand at all. The Chinese-Thai community in Phuket is very important. Festivals like the Vegetarian festival and Chinese New Year are big events here in Phuket. I enjoy this history, and hope that more visitors might realise that Phuket is so much more than beaches and bars!







This little serene shrine is well worth finding if you are in the old town. Nearby you can also find Jui Tui shrine and it's maybe a 15 minute walk to Bang Neow shrine. I do like the old part of Phuket town, always something new to find.
And even now, I know I have to go back to this shrine, having just read something about a secret passage in the back which leads out to the next street.... I'll be back!

Italy Restaurant at Taman Perling, Johor Bahru

This Italy Restaurant (N1°28.777' E103°40.963') located next to Yew's Cafe of Taman Perling (Persiaran Perling 1), Johor Bahru.
They serve authentic foods of Italy, and also one of the Italian original taste Cafe at Johor bahru. (Recommended by my friend -Lok)

If I'm not mistaken, the business hour is noon to 10pm. When we found the restaurant during that night, it's almost 9pm. So we only left one hour to go.....

Our order :-
1) Lamb Chop
2) Grill Chicken Chop
3) Mushroom Salad
4) Mushroom soup & Garlic Bread (For my daughter)

The Lamb Chop of Italy Restaurant

Grilled Chicken Chop with rice

Mushroom Salad

I forgot to snap the Mushroom Soup & Garlic Bread. :)

Overall, we LOVE the Lamb Chop very much! It's SPECIAL and delicious!! It's cost MYR23.00 with big portion.
Grilled Chicken rice was nothing to shout about, average. The Mushroom Salad also nice! Because they fried it well, and it's not Oily.
My daughter love her mushroom soup, the Garlic Bread & the mushroom salad very much!

I love the environment. It's a idea place to dine here. I believe this restaurant will be Full on every Valentine Day! Haha! Because it's quite romantic...

The damage : MYR49.00 (For 2 adults & 1 child)
I felt the price was justify with the foods and atmosphere.

Rated : 4/5

Location map of Italian Restaurant at Taman Perling

View Larger Map 

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Diabolo Performance at Bukit Gambir, Muar

Surprisingly spotted this 'Forgotten Sport' at Bukit Gambir, Muar during attending a lunch at restaurant.

"The Diabolo (commonly misspelled as diablo; formerly also known as "the devil on two sticks") is a juggling prop consisting of a spool which is whirled and tossed on a string tied to two sticks held one in each hand. A huge variety of tricks are possible using the sticks, string, and various body parts. Multiple diabolos can be spun on a single string."
You can read about Diabolo at Wiki.

The 'Dumbell'

You watch the performance video down below....

The performer also a Diabolo Instructor for Johor Bahru & Singapore.

I'm wondering that, how many of the young generation now know about this sport?

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Indonesia Restaurant at Taman Molek, Johor Bahru

Indonesia Restaurant (N1°31.724' E103°47.606') at Taman Molek, Johot Bahru.

I've heard about this restaurant long time ago about the Good Indonesia foods they serve, only till today I be able to witness it!

The cook actually from Medan, Indonesia. It's not the Sunda foods I like from Bekasi-Jakarta. But after all, the foods seems ok to me...

We order :-
1) Curry Fish Head
2) Sambal Squids
3) Fried Chicken (Village Style) - one of the Signature Dish
4) Vegetabels

Curry Fish Head

Sambal Squids

Kampung (village) Style Fried Chicken

Vegatable - one of the signature dish too!

I felt the foods are localized. It's already switch to local taste rather than Original Medan cook. Especially the Curry Fish Head is same like the local, the fried chicken was crispy....maybe the local customers can't really accept the Indonesia Medan Cook Taste.
Even it's not, but all of the foods were good!

The Damage :- MYR99.00 (For 5 adults and one child)
I feel it's reasonable, especially dining in a Air-Conditional Restaurant.

You can try if you haven't taste the Medan foods before. Most of them are spicy...

I rated : 3.5/5

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MapJack - Phuket Street View - Almost like being here!

I first heard of MapJack a couple of years ago, which was about when it started. It's very similar to Google Street View (available as part of Google Maps), which was launched about the same time. The idea with both - to map towns and cities with street view images. The MapJack images are taken by camera operators on foot or in vehicles. Every few meters, a new 360 degree image. Every street, every building.... put it all together and you can "walk" around your own town, or places you have been or want to visit. It's still in its infancy of course, covering some US cities (MapJack started with San Francisco) and (for reasons I am not clear about) quite a lot of places in Thailand too. Chiang Mai was added first and now... Phuket!

• MapJack Phuket - Start Here.

Google Maps has a lot more coverage - loads of cities in the US and Europe, but MapJack, which claims to be run on a shoestring budget, is doing Thailand. Hurrah! I think the Phuket images are about a year old... the problem with a project like this is keeping images updated, especially in a place like Phuket where there's building a plenty, new roads etc... Things look very different to 10 years ago when I arrived. Google Earth is another great tool, but some of the images of Phuket are over 5 years old now.

Not sure if it's the same for everyone, but I get defaulted to a start image at Kalim beach, just north of Patong. Here's the screenshot:



MapJack is easy to use, you can click on the blue dots to move to the next picture, you can click and drag the picture to spin round 360 degrees, or use the arrow keys to move forward/back/turn. Below the photo is a Google Maps overlay. Best to zoom in a bit to see which areas have MapJack coverage - you can click on the map to move "Jack" to that location. There are a few major Phuket roads missing in the coverage so far, but you can pretty much cruise the whole island and waste entire days at work. Here's a screenshot showing a view from Phromthep Cape:



Each image actually has it's own url (web address) - in the top left of the image you see a little arrow pointing to a circle - click that and you will get a message saying "Link to this location:" followed by the url - for the image above you can click on http://www.mapjack.com/?5R2vTCpvWcgA - and you can then rotate the image to see exactly the same as above.

Here's a screenshot in Phuket Town showing the On On Hotel:



Now, so far.. aside from the fact that some images in the seedier areas of Pattaya were removed, there has been no call for face blurring and licence plate blurring like in Google Street View. I have yet to find myself or anyone I know on MapJack, but I guess I need to waste more hours looking at the images! You might find yourself on there! What you also get in these images is a snapshot of daily life and if you click on different areas in Phuket - a good appreciation that Phuket has a lot of variety, it's not all beaches and tourists!

This is Phuket (Soi Bangla, Patong):



So is this (a small local market north of Phuket Town):



Darn, I could do this all day! You can explore all over Phuket with MapJack - main beaches, quiet side streets in Phuket Town, main roads, minor roads - sure, not every road, but anyway, I have been enjoying playing with this all week - thanks to Alasdair at Phuket Observer for the heads up! MapJack is a bit of fun for me, but a great tool for getting a feel for Phuket and finding places you might want to visit.

Soong Huat Bak Kut Teh, Taman Desa Tebrau - Johor Bahru

Soong Huat Bak Kut Teh (N1°33.283' E103°47.725') is another franchise from Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh. It's located at Jalan Harmonium 23/14 of Taman Desa Tebrau (Row of shoplots behind Jusco Tebrau City).

We visited this restaurant on one of the weekend. The shop was Full and crowded! We had to wait for about 15 minutes for the table, and another 45 minutes for the foods we ordered. That was looong waiting!

Our order :-
1) Bak Kut Teh
2) Claypot Yellow Rice Wine Chicken
3) Tou-fu
4) The Salty vegetable

The Desa Tebrau Soong Huat Bak Kut Teh

Yellow Rice Wine Chicken

The Tou-Fu

Overall, the Yellow Rice Wine Chicken was GOOD & Tasty! You can feel the Yellow Rice Wine of every bite if the chicken. But the Bak Kut Teh was just average (The pork were not soft enough) same as others.
Total Damage : MYR55.00 (For 5 adults and one child)

The price was reasonable, but I just can't stand for the crowd! If you wanna try, please visit it on weekday...unless you have plenty of time & patient to wait for a average Bak Kut Teh.

Rated : 3/5

Bak Kut Teh at Johor Bahru :-
* How Yu Bak Kut Teh, Permas Jaya, Johor
* Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh, Tmn Daya, Johor Bahru
* Shi-Hua Bak Kut Teh, Permas Jaya, Johor Bahru*
* Soon Lee Bak Kut Teh, Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru
* Soong Huat Bak Kut Teh, Taman Desa Tebrau - Johor Bahru
* Ah Soon Bak Kut Teh, Johor Bahru*

Bak Kut Teh at Muar :-
* Leng Kee Bak Kut Teh, Muar, Johor

Bak Kut Teh at Kulai :-
* Sze Hwa Bak Kut Teh, Kulai, Johor*

Bak Kut Teh at Pekan Nanas :-
* Tong Heng Bak Kut Teh at Pekan Nanas, Johor.

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Good Tangkak Beef Noodle at Taman Maju Jaya, Johor Bahru

N1°28.953' E103°46.026'

This stall is located in one of the Kopitiam along Jalan Abiad 1, Taman Maju Jaya. There are varieties food stalls and one of it is the Beef Noodle stall.

The Beef Noodle stall was actually from Permas Jaya few years ago, then it swifted over here. The origin of this noodle is from Tangkak. I Love the Tangkak Beef Noodle very much! Luckily, I can find this one which is similar within Johor Bahru.

The noodle is different from the Famous Pandan Beef Noodle because of the soup. As you can see it's in dark colour. And the beef and others intestine are soft and tasty. MYR6.00 for normal size and MYR8.00 for big size. The business hour is from morning till 4 or 5pm.

If you like Beef Noodle, you must try this once! I believe you will love it!

The Beef Noodle of Tangkak.

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