St Francis Xavier Church Melaka

We had a weekend in Melaka in the last week of Oct 2011 and we attended the sunset mass at the SFX Melaka. Whenever, we go to Melaka (my parents are born and raised here), we normally attend mass at this church as it was very near my grandmother's house then.

The church was built in the late 1800s and has renovations have been done not too long ago and the church now looks good.

A front view of the church.

The side entrance view.

A statue of the patron saint in front.

Also a statue of Mother Mary at the front

 There are quite a number of stained glassed around the church and this gives character to the building.

Above the windows.

Above the front door.

The front facade.

Above the main altar.

View of the altar.

St Joseph

Way of the cross station.

View of the side.

Main wing of the church.

The music for the mass was well played and the air circulation is good. The public address system is also done properly without echos as a number of the older churches tend to have this problem if not done right.

Until the next time, cheers.

Mount Livinia Hotel, Colombo

This is a historic building, the former Governor's residence in Sri Lanka. It has a fantastic view of the ocean. This is my second time to the hotel and it looks better now as some renovation works had been done. The first time was quite a few years ago. We was there for lunch with  a few of my business associates.

View of the main building from the entrance.

The entrance to the hotel.

One of the hotel wings.

A view of the reception.

The lobby lounge area.

Whilst some renovation work have been done and the hotel looks much better than the past, it is still not in the league of Raffles Hotels and other such hotels. It's location on a cliff is however, quite breathtaking. The hotel also has it's own character as in all colonial building such as this.

The buffett lunch spread was good and prices reasonably. However, I did not have the buffett but a hamburger instead. The burger was good and I noticed that the Executive Chef was a Caucasian.

Outside the main dining hall.

A view of the main dining hall.

Another view of the main dining hall.

View of the ocean from the dining hall.

I will keep this hotel in mind and explore it further the next time I am in Colombo.

Until the next time, cheers.

Colombo for the second time this year

I was again in Colombo recently being my second trip this year. In the short time, I can see the city getting busier as well as the the anticipation of an economic boom after the war.

I stayed again at the Cinnamon Grand. It is a lovely hotel and recently refurbished. However, the room rates have been increasing each time I visit. Business is really booming for hotels as there are no new hotels in the city for so long.

The skylight at the main lobby

A view of the lounge area

View of the coffee corner

A dusk view of the swimming pool and city from my room.

View of the ocean from the lift area.

On the first night, I was not feeling well due to gastric. I always get this when coming or to India due to the 2 and the half hour time difference. Missing a meal will cause me to suffer.

I did not want a heavy meal and my business associate insisted to pack me some "kotthu roti" which is prata cut up and cooked in several choices and style. As I had gastric, he got me cheese chicken kotthu so as not to be too spicy from a very popular restaurant. To me, I had a prawn kotthu before and it was much better as the cheese was alien in Indian cooking. Overall, it was not bad.

It was huge portion. Only managed to finish half.

Taste much better than it looks.

What I like about Colombo is the large shady trees which have mostly dissappeared in Malaysia in the name of development. It really provides very nice shades and shelter from the heat. You can still see many large trees around. Hope they don't cut them down soon.

Nice to be under the tree.

See the large shade it provides.

I saw a man selling something at a construction site and he was cutting up something. So, being the curious one, I had to go and look.

What is he selling?

He was selling fish in very small pieces. This is how the poorer half buys their fresh fish.

The fish ebing cut up into small pieces.

I had a vegetarian lunch as one of my business associate was a vegetarian for 9 days. We went to a South Indian restaurant. The food was good and they had many choices. The place was also decorated in a traditional Tamil way.

The city area has been undergoing lots of changes. This is a new road just next to the ocean. However, the railway line is before the ocean. Houses had to make way for this road. This road has much lower traffic and it's nice to drive next to the ocean.

The main road along the esplanade is now also much cleaner and beautified. Lots of people hang out here especially in the evenings and weekends.

Old colonial buildings are also now being restored and is looking good. I always enjoyed looking at these buildings. A similar city with many such building is Yangon, Myanmar.

Sri Lanka currently attracts on 500,000 tourists and therefore have a huge potential for more growth. Most tourists only spends a night in Colombo before heading off to the other bigger attractions in the country. The authorities probably have to think of other attractions to get more people to stay longer in Colombo.

Until the next time, cheers.

A re-energised Central Ladprao in Bangkok

Central Ladprao is an iconic mall located in the Chatuchak/Ladprao area. The mall is actually quite old and in the last few visits there, one can see it's age and was not at all appealing.

There had been a lot of talk about doing a whole new make up and finally it happened. The new look was opened recently. So, we went there to see what had been done.

The new place is now more in line with the newer Central malls and it is much more appealing now. On a Sunday afternoon, it was packed with mostly local young people. As it is not located in a tourist area, the number of tourist is not many.

There was a property promotion in the main concourse, with nice jazzy music.

Another view of the main concourse.

Good response to the property promotion.

There were a number of promotions going on. One thing is Thailand is very good at making promotions. There were lots of live music as well.

An education fair at the secondary concourse.

Another view of the secondary concourse.

With so many young people shopping, one may think it is the holiday season. No signs of any slowdown in economy judging by what I saw.

Many young Bangkokians hanging out.

Krispy Kreeme is the current fad. Long queue whole day.

A view of the foodcourt area.

A Halloween promotion at Central Department store.

A view of the mall

Another view of the mall

There were lots of restaurants and food outlet and most of them were full with queues forming outside. The main restaurant chains were all there.

There was also a large food court in the basement next to the supermarket. Lots of stuff to eat and take away.

 A promotion of all Hello Kitty stuff.