le maison bleu

located in leith street, the blue mansion was the home of one of the china's last mandarins and 1st capatalists, cheong fatt tze. arriving penniless from guandong and working as a water carrier, cft grew up to become a legend of rags-to-riches hakka entrepenuer.



the cheong fatt tze mansion was excellently restored to its authentic original form and now turned into a heritage boutique hotel and museum. visitors will be shown around on a guided tour for about an hour which conducted twice daily. the guide during my visit is a descendant of the 6th generation.



the mansion has 38 rooms, 5 courtyards, 7 staircases and 220 windows. the floorplan depicts the architecture of chinese courtyard house and features feng shui principle (with a brilliant fake earth element!). but the combination of gothic louvered windows, venetian shutters, chinese chien nien cut-and-paste porcelain work, stoke-on-trent floor tiles, scottish cast ironworks, art nouveau stained glass and victorian ceiling that turns it into a masterpiece of art. the indigo blue paint meanwhile doesn’t signify anything, it was just to be different from other buildings in that era where paint color was limited.

unfortunately, no photograph is allowed inside the mansion.




the restoration project won the unesco heritage conservation award 2000 and few other awards. the guide shared with us the difficulties during the project from finding the artisans to dealing with bureaucracy. crockery tax for the porcelain bowls which eventually to be broken for chien nien work?



at the end of the tour, we finally managed to have a look at tan tay po, the 7th wife and said to be one of the dominant wives. from the way she looks in those old photos, i would say so.

merentas setia alam

pagi ahad pertama bulan ni, 7hb jun lepas, kakilariks berlari lagi. kali ni new balance klang pacers half marathon kat setia alam. kitorang cuma lari quarter marathon aje iaitu 11km.

larian bermula jam 7am dari setia alam welcome center, bangunan kaca dengan rekabentuk moden. berlari sepanjang persiaran utama dalam setia alam ni. selain dari mendaki 3 flyover bridges, yang lain cuma jalan panjang yang rata. agak selesa laluannya.






3km pertama, aku masih lari bersaing dengan marul. lepas tu terus kena tinggal. haa..ada satu perempuan ni lari kaki ayam lagi. target aku untuk lari bawah satu jam tapi terlebih 27 saat pulak. abis lari, lepak-lepak dulu rehatkan kaki. tapi tak tunggu pun sampai acara cabutan bertuah. kalau tak, mesti ada yang bawak balik basikal. tapi kalau hadiah utamanya banglo sebijik kat setia alam ni, memang aku akan tunggu..

bukit tinggi 09 : monday, 27-apr

again this morning, i went to watch the picturesque surrounding views under the glorious morning sky. cantik gunung-gunung tu ada satu garisan nipis kabus pagi. and as the sun rose, everything turned golden slowly.





masa balik bilik, aku tengok kosong aje cafe. eh..tak kan hari ni takde sarapan. rupanya, hari biasa takde breakfast buffet. mungkin sebab tak ramai orang. after breakfast, we packed up and checked-out. keluar awal sebab jauh jugak perjalanan dan nak singgah-menyinggah nanti.

masa datang hari tu, ada nampak lah air terjun kat tepi jalan. but beside the waterfall, there was nothing much here so we just made a brief stop. nak mandi pun tak boleh. seluruh kawasan ni sebenarnya terletak dalam hutan simpanan lembah anai.


dafit then brought us to taman tirta alami which is located inside anai golf and mountain resort. kat sini boleh mandi katanya. takde air terjun atau sungai pun kat sini tapi air sungai telah dialirkan dalam kolam-kolam buatan. nice place and the pools looked so tempting and cooling but i was too lazy to change. luqman aje yang mandi.




nak masuk ke taman ni memang dah kena bayar. lepas tu, ada lah orang yang datang hulur tikar dan ni pun kena bayar. nak guna pelampung pun kena bayar. dan nak guna mainan kat kolam tu pun kena bayar lagi!



dari sini, terus bergerak ke padang. tak boleh nak singgah mana-mana sebab masih jauh lagi perjalanan. cuma singgah sekejap kat pekan secincin, kampung dafit sebab nak carik nescafe 3-in-1 pass. sedap kopi ni. nasib baik ada. sempat jugak aku borak-borak dengan dafit pasal pemilu. ada satu calon ni, derma carpet kat masjid. tapi bila kalah, terus ambik balik carpet tu! memang tak ikhlas..

we stopped for lunch at rumah makan lamun ombak. hari terakhir kat daerah minangkabau ni jadi makan lah nasi padang puas-puas.


tak jauh pun minangkabau airport dari sini. airport ni letaknya sebelum bandar padang dan masih agak jauh. terus check-in bila sampai. kecik tapi agak sibuk. kat indonesia ni, airport tax kena bayar kat airport jadi kena sediakan siap-siap. dan kat padang ni, kena bayar pulak airport donasi. nasib baik rupiah aku ada lagi..


our flight ak475 was 15mins delayed. i tried to sleep but just couldn't. sejam aje pun penerbangan. landed home safely and from lcct, we took one van to go back to shah alam.

dah jejak lah kaki aku kat sumatera!