Pearly Chan

5D4N Hanoi- Halong Bay (Over night on Junk)

December 6, 2016December 3, 2016 by Pearly Chan

On 20 December 2010, Chan and me travelled free and easy to the above destination. We bought the land tour at SGD285 per pax from Neway travel service Pte Ltd.
Our journey started from Changi airport. We travelled by Vietnam Airlines ($383/pax), transitted in Ho Chin Min before arriving to Hanoi.
We did a brief city tour in Ho Chin Min city, tried the local ‘fur’ (beef noodles soup) in a local market. We arrived and were picked at Noi Bai airport, Hanoi late afternoon to be transferred to The Jasmine Hotel in Hanoi Old quarter.
We moved freely that evening. The city was very congested. The road was very narrow, and packed with two-wheelers and four-wheelers, horning each other. On both sides of the road, there were food sellers and food eaters, either squatting or sitting on stools to enjoy the local cuisines. We are avid traveler who stand firmly on, ‘when you are in Rome, behave like a Roman.’ as such, we appreciated and explored this crowded old city like a local. We had fried rice, vegetable soup and sea food for our dinner.
We had an early night as we were quite tired of the journey. However, our first night in this hotel was rather unpleasant. We encountered broken bed and over flow toilet bowl. Luckily, the housekeeper managed to rush in and mended for us. We requested for a change of room and was entertained.
The next morning, our tour began. We had simple in-house breakfast. Fresh mango juice with American breakfast. (On other days, I saw guests ordered local Vietnamese Breakfast, The waiter actually went out and bought from the street hawkers, transferred them into the hotel’s plates and served the guests). We were picked up by SIS tour to visit Ho Chi Minh Mousoleum and Museum. We enjoyed the architectural and historical aspects of Uncle Ho’s final resting-place. Just next door is Ho Chi Minh’s house on stilts. Lying to one side of the Mausoleum is the One Pillar Pagoda, founded by King Ly Thai To in 1049. This structure has become an important symbol for the people of Hanoi.
Later, we proceed to visit the Quan Thanh Temple (Toaist dating from Ly Dynasty) and Buddhist Tran Quoc Pagoda on West lake.(one of the oldest in Vietnam).
In the afternoon, we proceed to visit the Ehnology Museum, continue to visit the Literature Temple and Quoc Tu Giam – Vietnam’s first university constructed in 1070, its garden and well-preserved architecture offers a relaxing glimpse into Vietnam’s past. We also visited Hoan Kiem lake, saw the peaceful waters, and visited Ngoc Son temple. Later, we traveled leisurely by coach trip along the Hanoi Old Quarter and spent our evening for shopping till night before going back to our hotel.
In between, we visited Ho Chi Minh’s vestige in the Presidential Palance (formerly Indochina’s General Governor Palace. Tis relic complex has become vital memories connecting to President Ho Chi Minh’s fifteen years of living and working from December 1954 to September 1969. We saw the presidential Palace, fish pond, pagoda, orchard, cars, the house of 1954 and especially the historic house-on-stilts of Ho Chi Mihn which symbolised his living way of simplicity, modesty, gentleness and dedication for the nation and the people. The whole site is full of wind, light and fragrant flowers from gardens around. Millions of home and foreign visitors have poured here to learn and to respect the virtue and thoughts of a national liberation hero – a great man of world culture.
We check out our hotel on day 3 after breakfast. At about 8.15am, we left Hanoi for Ha long city by a modern bus. We got into an Imperial Junk boat and enjoy a welcome drink and lunch of savory local seafood. We checked into our cabin at the lower deck and started cruising around the bay to see the amazing karsts with different formations in shapes which looked like Lion, Tea pot, Toad, Dau Nguoi (Human head) islet. Later, we stopped over for a walk through the Sung Sot cave “Amazing Cave”. Subsequently, our boat anchored at a clean calm sea. We enjoy a wonderful sunset dinner in our beautiful restaurant before retiring to the comfort of our cabin.
The next morning, we had our breakfast relax on the cruise. We visited the VAGIA floating village and kayaking to Bai Tu Long Bay. This bay was a neglected area but consisted the most spectacular bay with islands in different shapes. We had a brief visit at Hon Gai market at Poet Island. Finally we arrived at Ha Long City at 11.30am and had our lunch on shore. After lunch, we returned to Hanoi and reached our destination at about 4.00pm. We had another free and easy evening. We went for Vietnamese massage. Frankly, I felt the massagers were very commercialize. They demanded for tips at the exit door and blocked our way if we refused to give. They left a very bad impression in me.
The next morning, we checked out after breakfast and was transferred to airport. We transited in Ho Chin Mihn airport and did some last minute shopping at a nearby shopping mall. Finally, we boarded our flight back to Changi Airport and back home.
To me, Vietnam is not an inviting place for me to revisit.

($383+285 = RM1563.00/ pax)
written on 9/17/2016 7:52:49 PM

Meditation Retreat at Yangon, Myanmar – Part 3

November 26, 2016November 26, 2016 by Pearly Chan

Day 5: 3.30am	We went to Dharma Hall to meditate together
Day 6:	I met and saved four earth worms while I was walking meditation in the garden.
Day 7: 6.45am 11.30am	We queued up at the gate and paid respect to the monks when they went out for alms-round. We had our first interview with our teacher. He was assisted by a local Chinese Monk, Bhante Thieje to do the translation. (To me: this was a holiday retreat. I am getting away from the hectic and stressful life in Malaysia. I was at the right track of meditation by adapting a positive attitude. I gained an insight of Be aware of any picture which came into my mind/ thoughts, I should treat it as watching a movie BUT not putting myself in the act.)
7/12/2005 Day 8 6.45am 1300-1600	We followed the troop of monks on alms-round. We distributed sweets to the villagers. These sweets were sponsored by a 71 years old, local Burmese Chinese Yogi-Dew Sok Yin*. As we followed the troop bare footed on the muddy road, we could see villagers here and there bowed down along the soil road, offering only white rice. Children were delighted, smiling widely and also bowed to as to receive sweets. Two kitchen helpers poured the rice into big containers once the alms were full. These rice was served as lunch of the day for all monks and yogi. It was a marvelous and joyful experience. We contemplated on our footsteps as not to hurt any ants or earth worms wriggling along the way. Wow, blissful and compassionate moment to blend into nature and human being accommodating each other. Our eyes were moist. We really found inner peace. I experienced my first longest sitting meditation continuously for three hours.
Day 9 1830	7-10am, I experienced a three-hourly sitting meditation while listening to Bhante’s Speech. On the same afternoon, I had another three hours sitting meditation without any break. I was feeling extremely exhausted and went for a sound sleep until the following day.
Day 10	I reminded myself of cutting short to do sitting meditation for three hours continuously.
Day 11	Second interview by Teacher
Day 12	Offer dana to the center
Day 13	Visit and offer dana to local nunneries
Day 14	4am: clean up the room, wash up and return all the sleeping accessories 9.30: Depart the center to airport 1545: depart Changi airport to Johor Bahru.

My general impression about this city: The streets were old but clean. Most of the vehicles were above 20 years old. We screamed out aloud during an incident, where the passenger’s door on the left suddenly opened out, when the cab driver made a sharp corner turn on the road. The petrol was expensive. The first 4-gallonn cost 900 kct with government subsidized. Subsequent petrol consumption had to buy from black market at 2500 kct per day. The street drivers were very careful, polite and friendly.

The local people started their day as early as 5am to offer food to the monks. Then, they proceed to any nearby temples to chant or meditate before leaving to their work place. Most of them wore ‘sarong’ and carried metal tiff-in containers as their lunch boxes.

Yangon is a safe city. During our stays, we did not see any road accident or theft. I noticed the local petty traders, bus conductors, stall sellers holding their money in their palm for any monetary transaction. To them, holding bunches of notes in hands just like how we held pieces of paper. Even the money changers operated their business using transparent glass noodle stall shelves by the road side. It was indeed an eye opening to me. (Back in Shwe-Oo-Min Meditation Center, I could see money just lied and expose on the office table.)

It was indeed a fruitful holiday retreat. I gained a lot of cultural experiences, mental and physical rejuvenation, insight exploration to understand the meaning of happiness in lives. I am looking forward to more of this kind of holiday retreats in near future, be it local or oversea.

Meditation Retreat at Yangon, Myanmar – Part 2

November 26, 2016November 26, 2016 by Pearly Chan

Shwe-Oo-Min Meditation Center

2 December 2005 – 13 December 2005

We chartered a cab which took us an hour to Shwe-Oo-Min Meditation Center. Here, we began our retreat for 12 days. This center was located in a paddy field village. The compound was as big as ITPYPJ(community college in Johor Bahru) in a lengthy dimension. From the entrance gate, on the left, laid a big kitchen and dining hall. Next to the dining hall was the admin office, followed by three blocks of male dormitory and one SIMA Hall in between. The Dharma Hall was located just after the third male dormitory.

On the right, laid three blocks of female dormitory. Next to the last female dormitory was a small garden, followed by a single-storey housed by the founder of this center. Next to this house was a double-storey house. The teachers stayed upstairs, whereas an abbot (camp master) stayed downstairs. Immediately after this house was public toilets. Towards the last end of this compound, stood a long row of double-storey dormitory built by Korean Buddhists. This particular dormitory catered for long stay yogi for at least three months and above.

We were received by a staff with welcome drinks and left to take a short rest in the admin office. Later, we were led to pay respect to the abbot, Bhante Kosala for registration. We surrendered our passport to him for safe keeping and took eight precepts from him. He gave us a briefing about the house rules, retreat procedure and room keys. Then we collected our pillows, bed sheets, blankets from meiji (nun) and settled down in our room at the second female dormitory. We were put into a 2 person shared room with two single wooden beds, with only mats, pillows and blankets. Our room faced courtyard. We shared a common bath area outside. We put all our belongings in our suitcase under our bed. There were local wardens who took care of our needs. We did our own laundry and dried our clothes in the open air court yard.

We spent our first night with sound sleep under the twinkle- twinkle little stars in the sea of paddy field.

We began our daily meditation schedule from Day 1 to Day 12 as followed:

(We were advised to jot down some notes and experience within this period of times. Our notes would be discuss during interview session with the teachers.)

Time	Activity
1 am	Woke up and meditate for an hour. (It was totally dark inside and outside the room)
3 am	Wake up bell ring. Brush up and do sitting meditation
4-5 am	Gather in the Dharma Hall for group sitting meditation
5-6am	Queue up for breakfast
6-7am	Cleaning up the compound. (6.45-7.45am: Monks queued up to go for alms-round in the village.
7-8am	Sitting meditation
8-9am	Showering and laundry
9 – 10am	Sitting meditation
10.15-11.30am	Queue up for lunch (the rice were Dana/ alms round by the monks from the villagers)
11.45am	Sitting and listening to dhama talk in the Dhama Hall
1300	Sitting meditation
1400	Walking meditation
1500	Sitting meditation
1600	Juice times, followed by walking meditation
1700	Sitting meditation
1800	Walking meditation
1900	Sitting meditation
2000	Burmese Dharma Talk in Dharma Hall. Lights off for Foreigner Yogi

Meditation Retreat at Yangon, Myanmar – Part 1

November 26, 2016November 26, 2016 by Pearly Chan

Yangon City

30 November 2005 – 12 December 2005

I was blessed to participate for my first oversea retreat with three sisters of Metta Lodge Johor Bahru in year 2005. They were Sister Yap, Sister Choy and Sister Wong. We purchased a special package of 2N3D free and easy tour to Rangoon. This package was promoted by Silk Air via Myanmar Travel and Tours. We extended our stays for another twelve days’ retreat before going home.

Upon arrival at Yangoon airport on the first day, we were received by a young charming staff from 5-star Sedona Hotel for airport transfer and an excellent hotel service to check into our rooms. We were given two linked-superior rooms with king-size beds and spacious amenities. We browsed the TV channels and were impressed with updating programmes, such as: Asia News, Korean Drama, CNN, BBC, Phoenix channels, local Burmesh channels and our favourite evergreen songs Channel 21.
After a brief rest, we took a cab to Little India town to hunt for our dinner. The streets were clean but in dim light. Every stall seemed to sell the same cuisine. It looked quite alike Chow Keat Street in Kuala Lumpur. We ended stuffing ourselves with Briyani Rice and Yogurt drink. Besides, we also bought some blouses, face powder pieces, local apples and oranges.

On the next morning, we had international and local buffet breakfast in the hotel. The food was sumptuous and full of variety. We were given first class service. After breakfast, we went to Kaba Aye Pagoda by bus. We spent our times strolling around the pagoda and a short meditation. From here, we walked to Gem Museum and did some shopping. We saw the largest Jade in the world just outside this museum. We enjoyed chit-chatting with the shop owners. One of them was very helpful and brought us for lunch at a local restaurant. We ate sweet sour chicken, prawn fritter, sweet sour squid, mixed vegetables rice and coke.

After lunch, we proceed to Buddha Tooth Relic Pagoda by cab. From here, we went to visit Karawe Lake Palace and Zoo. There was an entrance fees of USD5 for foreigners. Later, we went to Shwedagon Pagoda. This area was very commercialized. We paid entrance fees and tour guide fees. We saw a lot of kids beggars along the pathway leading to pagoda. There were rows of stalls selling local souvenirs. However, this pagoda was very grand and glittering. It was coated with real diamonds and plated with gold. The cleaning and maintenance work was done in every six years. Needlessly, the night view of this area was simply enchanting, breathless and admirable. It is a MUST visit site in Yangoon.

On day 3, we went to Silu Pagoda by cab. We offered pindapat (food dana) to alms-round monks, and also to handicapped street sweepers. We could see the sweeper was overjoyed. His face was radiated and the rate of sweeping also triplet. From here, we walked to Scott Market for our last minutes shopping. We had an early lunch and got back to hotel for checking-out.

4X4: Malaysia – Thailand – Cambodia Expedition

May 8, 2019August 28, 2016 by Pearly Chan

20 December 2002 – 02 January 2003

As adventurous travelers, we started our journey from Johor Bahru to Butterworth on 19 Dec 2002, with our two daughters and a son aged, 15, 13 and 8 respectively. We joined Penang 4X4 overland trip, a 14 days self-drive overland to Thailand and Cambodia.

We are proud to be the first Malaysian that drive Malaysia's national car, Perodua Kembara from Malaysia to Cambodia — We are proud to be the first Malaysian that drive Malaysia’s national car, Perodua Kembara from Malaysia to Cambodia

Our overland convoy began on 20 December 2002.About 40 vehicles met up at Makro, Butterworth at 10.30am. Ours is the only one from the Southern tip of peninsula Malaysia. We traveled in convoy and reached our first destination, Surathanni at about 8.00pm. We checked into Wang Tai Hotel. We managed to have a proper and sumptuous Thai cuisine despite we had difficulty in communicating with the local Thais.

The next morning, we proceed our convoy and stopped over at Prachup Khiri Khan. It was a small fishing village by the beach. The scenery was picturesque, just like a paradise. We spent about 40 minutes on photo-taking. Later, we continued our journey and had our dinner at a famous Taw-Chew restaurant at Hua Hin. At about 9.00pm, we conveyed to the city of angel- Bangkok to put up for three nights. There was heavy traffic congestion in Bangkok City. We only managed to checked into our hotel after midnight.

We spent our 3 nights 4 days in Bangkok leisurely. Our first morning, we took a taxi to Sunday Market. The market was too huge with endless retail stalls. We were too tired to after we had grabbed some nice, comfortable clothes which cost less than 100 baht. We spent the days in the hotel to recover from lethargy.

Our second day in Bangkok began with a city tour by coach. Our first stop was floating market. There were more tourists boat rides than the sellers’ boats. Next, we moved on to Wat Arun, an ancient temple. It was very serenity and we offered our prayers and donations. Later, we visited Rose Garden. We were entertained by elephants’ show and traditional Thais dance. Unfortunately, we were trapped by BANGKOK traffic jam which jeopardised our itinerary to Four-faced Buddha. Finally, we ended our city tour by watching paper doll show near our hotel. It was a fantastic trip. We were exhausted and flat off when we reached our hotel room.

Our last day of Bangkok was spent in M.B.K shopping center. It was the largest shopping Mall in Bangkok. Everybody was rushing for this last minute shopping in this paradise. We managed to celebrate Christmas Eve at German Beer House.

After saying bye bye to Bangkok, we travelled in convoy to Poipet, the border of Thailand and Cambodia. However, we failed to get through the Thai/Cambodia check point as the border gate shut off by 5pm. Hence, we had an extra ordinary night at the border town, namely Arrayaphatet.

We were ‘quarantined’ at this border town for a night. Our vehicles were help up for inspection. However, we managed to enter into Poipet, Cambodia by local transport. We spent most of the time in the Casino which was operated by a Malaysian –owned company.

On that night, some children fall sick. My daughter was one of them. We were chauffeured by a hotel staff of Holiday Palace, to visit a local doctor who charged us USD30 for the visit. It was indeed a nightmare for most of us.

Finally, on the eighth day of our convoy, our vehicles managed to be on road. We travelled on a rough, dusty and muddy road to Siam Reap. All passengers including the drivers were struggling through the most terrible journey. We released our discomfort in the bushes. We ended having our ‘mad meal’ in one of by sweeping off all the food and drinks in a road side stall within an hour. The stall owner was astonished as she could not replenish her stock in time. She surrendered herself as to close up for the day. This was indeed one of the most unforgotten meal for us before we landed into Angkor Wat, the seven wonders of the world.

Angkor Wat – The seven wonders of the World. It was full of mysterious stories. It was so magnificent and awesome. We could feel the mysterious wind blow and sound……….

We spent almost half a day in Angkor Wat before we convoy to Phnom Penh, the Capital of Cambodia, very late at night

In Phnom Penh, we went for city tour by coach. We visited ‘torturing museum’. We were saddened by the cruelty, inhumanity act of the Khemer Regime in 1975. We saw the ‘torturing tools’, pictures, bones…

After visiting this place, majority of us had no appetite at all to eat. Thus we only opted for a simple lunch and landed on to Grand Palace. We saw lots of Buddha statues made of gold, silver or jade, decorated with diamond. After that, we went for shopping at Phnom Penh Center and back to hotel subsequently. We were served dinner by the poolside.

Thailand and Cambodia border check point in year 2002.

It was the eleventh day of our journey. We checked out and left Phnom Penh after breakfast. We returned to Poipet and put up another night. The next day, we conveyed directly to Suratthani. Along the way, we had stopped over a small village to buy the most popular ‘salted duck eggs’. We managed to grab last minute shopping at Suratthani and drove non-stop to Bukit Kayu Hitam, our homeland.

We spent our last night in Alor Setar and travelled alone to Johor Bahru the very next morning. It was 2^nd January 2003, 4.00pm in JB.