------------------ An article published on Ismaweb, the official site of Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) today, has launched a vitriolic attack of the sexual kind against DAP lawmaker Tony Pua.
The writer had accused him of attempting to "vilify and mock Islam" at every available opportunity.
"His wide smile is merely cosmetics to hide a trait common to the individuals suffering from acute Islamophobia...
"For all you know, this might also be a dominating characteristic of these DAP politicians, the majority of whom are staunch and zombie-like Christian evangelists," penned Mohd Luttfi Abdul Khalid.
The writer was responding to responses surrounding Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria, who said the concept of marital rape does not exist in Islam.
"Even the Prophet Muhammad says even when they're riding on the back of the camel, when the husband asks her, she must give," he was reported as saying.
'Cunning smiling politician'
Harussani clarified that a wife could refuse sex if she is menstruating, sick, or has just given birth.
This was in relation to DAP lawmaker Yeo Bee Yin launching a joint rape awareness campaign, which covers marital rape, with the All Women's Action Society (Awam) last week.
Apart from posting the article quoting the mufti with the caption, "According to this Islamic scholar, Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria (left), 'Once she got married, the dowry is paid, she can’t refuse unless when she's [on her] period'", Pua has not commented on the matter.
Nevertheless, Mohd Luttfi singled him out in his scathing comment.
"One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to discover the true intention of this cunning smiling politician whenever he writes, comments or speaks about Islam.
"There is always something religiously and racially sensitive about the manner and mode of mocking and vilifying the faith embraced by the majority of Malaysians.
"A single sentence on the keyboard is all that he needs to strike at the sensitivities of the Muslims, without any regard to what the consequences might be," he wrote.
Conjugal bliss
However, the writer said Muslims should sympathise with Pua since perhaps he has never experienced the "peak of marital and conjugal bliss" on top of a camel's back.
In order for the DAP MP to indulge in such pleasures, Mohd Luttfi suggested that he be invited to embrace Islam.
"To complement his understanding of sex in Islam better, the Muslims can also inform him (Pua) that he can enjoy sex with his wife on top of any Unser, Kancil, Rusa or Kelisa too.
"As unta (camel) is not available in our country, the above alternatives would do fine. But he needs to be reminded to turn on the aircond. That is something one simply cannot do on top of the unta’s back," he added.
One highlight for the kids was the Shrekfast, a Dreamworkz themed breakfast, available at Holiday Inn, Cotai Strip.
We didn't really know what to expect, but since this room rate came with 2 Shrekfast tickets, we bought two more for the kids and tried it out on the morning of our departure.
The buffet spread, laid out at the sides of a ballroom, was decent. There was a mixture of standard Western (egg station) and Asian cuisine (including porridge, noodles and some Dim Sum selection). Definitely enough to eat for a good breakfast.
Of course, the highlight of Shrekfast was NOT the breakfast. It was a chance to see the Dreamworkz characters and take photos with them. The good thing was that we saw a lot more than Shrek and gang. We also got 'Move It, Move It' (Alex, Penguins), Po the Panda and Dragon. There were more than 10 characters to take photos with. The place was usually very crowded during the weekends. Fortunately we were there during a weekday and it was almost three-quarters empty.
Check out the video below.
After breakfast, it was time to pack up, check out and make our way back to Hong Kong. Yeah, our trip was really short, and we didn't even make it to the old town, Macau. Anyway, that's fine. This was just to get a taste of Macau and we had spent all our time in the Cotai Strip as well as Macau Galaxy.
To get back to Hong Kong, we took the complimentary shuttle from outside the Holiday Inn to the Taipa Ferry Terminal (different ferry terminal from the one we arrived), and took the Cotai Waterjet (Blue in colour) back to Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal (which is on Hong Kong island). See the video.
So, from Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal, we found our way to the Airport and stayed at the Regal Airport Hotel for a night, as we were going to catch a flight early next morning. Here is a video of our experience at the Regal Airport Hotel Family Room.
We had a very interesting experience flying home on Scoot, because the flight was severely delayed. Check out my blog post of that experience.
While walking around the Venetian Shoppes, we came across the famous Lord Stow's Portugese Egg Tarts. I had read about these egg tarts and was happy to find an outlet so that I could try one.
The outlet wasn't too difficult to find, tucked away at a corner. It was crowded! There were lines and people also bought coffee. Egg Tarts were 10 MOP per piece. I took a video of the staff preparing egg tarts. The egg tarts were freshly prepared and served piping hot. Taste-wise, they were good, but I don't think they were that fantastic. The quality of Portugese egg tarts in Singapore is pretty good too.
After a while, the kids didn't want to walk around any more. They wanted to camp in the hotel room to play with their toys (fake Lego figurines). Neither did they want to go to the old Macau city center. So we had to bring them back to the Holiday Inn first. It was late afternoon and looking outside, there was a bit of fog. So, we decided to leave the city center for another time.
The adults went to explore some more. We found our way to the complimentary shuttle that would bring us to Macau Galaxy and later, we would bring our kids there for dinner at Tsui Wah. This video shows you what we had for dinner. Prices were definitely higher here than in Hong Kong.
At Macau Galaxy, there were these street performances which I thought were cool. The dancers must have done this hundreds or thousands of times by now, but still fun for me to watch. They would appear unannounced and start dancing.
After 2 nights in Hong Kong (staying at the Eaton Hotel), we headed to Macau. In the morning, we caught a taxi from the Eaton Hotel to get to Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal, which is on the Kowloon side. The journey was quite short and taxi fare less than HK$50.
We did not pre-book ferry tickets, so we had to go look for the ticket counters. There were many ticket touts but we did not dare to buy from them. We bought our ferry tickets from a legitimate TurboJet Ferry counter, as you can see in the video @0:15 mark.
Clearing immigration was smooth and we were soon on board the ferry. It was full, but there were assigned seats so there was no need to rush, thankfully. The ferry ride was 1 hour long. Rather boring, but that is a ferry ride for you.
Once we reached Macau, again you have to clear immigration, and then exit the ferry terminal. Follow the signs to the complimentary shuttle buses. We crossed the road using an underpass. It is well sign-posted. Plenty of passengers heading to the complimentary buses as those are the most common way to get around in Macau. We found the bus that would take us to Holiday Inn, Cotai Strip and boarded it. The ride was about 20 minutes. Check out the video below for the trip journey, including ferry boarding, on board the ferry and bus ride at Macau.
We chose to stay at the Holiday Inn since the place was well reviewed and the rates were quite attractive. This video shows you the hotel lobby, the room as well as the pool area.
As we did not have much time in Macau, once we got to our room, we put down our things and started exploring. On foot, we could walk to the Shoppes at Venetian Macau. To get there, you first have to get to the Shoppes at Cotai Central and find the overhead bridge to the other side of the road. Follow the signs, it is easy, however, it is not that near. Good place to walk (in air-conditioned comfort). There is a Koufu Food Court on the third floor of the Cotai Shoppes.
Over at the Venetian, there is also a fairly large food court area. Take note that the food isn't that cheap, since these eateries are within the resort. Be prepared to pay resort prices, like 78 MOP for a dish.
Currency in Macau
They use the MOP (Macanese Pataca) in Macau. However, they accept $HK. The HK dollar is slightly stronger than the MOP, about 1.03 MOP to 1HK. We did not change any MOP and paid for our food in $HK or using credit card.
There was still a lot of construction going on next to the Venetian. More properties were being built. I saw an Eiffel Tower in the making @ 2:07. Overall, the Venetian property was very nicely done and fun to walk around for a bit. The kids got hungry so we had a bite at McDonald's, see 4:52. Overall, the place wasn't too crowded when we were there, because this was a weekday.
Move on to Part 2 of this review.
(Lord Stow's Portugese Egg Tart, Macau Galaxy Tsui Wah and Performance)
Now, for the flight back from Hong Kong to Singapore. This flight was most eventful because of the 8 hour delay. But first, let me tell you the plan.
TZ 221 (HK to Singapore) was scheduled for 0705hrs. Since we did not want to rush to the airport early in the morning, we decided to stay for one night at the Hong Kong Regal Airport hotel. It helped that there was a Citygate Outlet Mall quite near by and the Regal Airport hotel provided a convenient complimentary shuttle service. Or we could just take a taxi. So we decided to stay at the airport hotel. Earlier that morning, we were in Macau. So we would take a ferry from Macau to Hong Kong and then take a CityBus to the Airport.
We had arrived at the Regal Airport Hotel the day before the flight, checked into the hotel, and took the free shuttle from the Airport Hotel to the nearby CityGate outlets.
Here is a video of the hotel room as well as how you walk to the hotel from Hong Kong Airport Terminal 1. A very easy walk indeed.
Citygate outlets is a fairly large outlet mall located at Tung Chung MTR station, which is currently the western most station on the MTR network. We have been here before, on previous trips. We had planned to do some outlet shopping, so this visit was fruitful. I managed to get a heavily discounted pair of Timberland walking shoes.
Citygate has a good number of eateries. However, we chose to walk over to a smaller local mall called Fu Tung Plaza. It is directly connected via a pedestrian food bridge.
We had a light dinner at Cafe de Coral, a local eatery. I had the pork chop bun, which came with a red bean type of drink as well as a corn on a cob. Here is a short video of what we ate, as well as the menus.
Later in the evening, feeling hungry, I had another round of food at the Cafe de Coral in Hong Kong airport Terminal 1. Being the airport, the prices were more expensive, however, they had roasted goose which I wanted to try. Prices were still not too bad, given the size of the serving and quality of food. In this video, I show you the Cafe de Coral at Hong Kong international airport, the food and the overall surroundings.
Now onward to the delay. The flight was scheduled for 0705hrs. The plan was to wake up early, check out of the hotel and check in for the Scoot flight. All this changed when we received this SMS. Very bad delay!!
Was this for real? The flight was delayed to 1440hrs? Everything about this SMS looked real and the email came about 30 minutes later. Still, we didn't want to risk it and called the Singapore Scoot call center. Their staff confirmed that the delay was indeed genuine.
This episode reinforced the need to check your mobile/email in case there were changes to the flights that you were on. I would have been very unhappy to turn up at the Scoot check-in counter at 5am, only to be told that the flight was now delayed to 1440hrs!
So, we could sleep a bit later that morning. At around 9am, we went to the check-in counter at Terminal 1, to be greeted by 3 staff who were looking most tired. Anyway, they could check us in, give us our boarding passes, as well as four breakfast vouchers. As the vouchers were for breakfast only, we had to consume them by 11am, which was fine with us.
With check-in complete, we headed off to look at the various eateries where we could use the vouchers and settled with Tsui Wah. We ordered some breakfast and we liked such food. Here was the video I made of the breakfast experience.
We checked out of the hotel at 1pm. I asked for a delay in the check-out timing from noon to 1pm and the hotel kindly agreed, which was nice. We cleared immigration (the lines were quite long!) and headed off to the restricted area. It would be a long stroll to Gate 44, for our gate. We were early at the Gate. There were already many passengers there, some sleeping. Anyway, since I had nothing to do, I did some plane watching from the gate and made this video.
By 1430hrs, the plane hadn't arrived and the flight was supposed to depart at 1440hrs. The staff at the gate said that the plane was on the way and should be arriving soon.
Well, the passengers were all very patient. Maybe we were all too tired! Fortunately, the plane did arrive, close to 1500hrs. I made a video of the plane landing and taxi-ing to Gate 44, Hong Kong International. When we flew to Hong Kong, the plane was called 'Dream Start' This time round, the plane was named 'Barry'.
Flight back
Passengers on the plane had to disembark before we could get on! Regardless, a long line quickly formed even though boarding hadn't commenced. By this time, we all wanted to get on board and make our way back to Singapore. We were now onboard. I took this photo of the window. Yes, this is the B787 - windows were bigger than usual.
Boarding started quite soon and we got to our seats quickly. I made this flight review video of the trip back. In the video, I look at the window (which could block out a lot of light). I also look at the light and call buttons on the seat. The buttons are put in a position where many there are many accidental calls. Watch the video to see why.
This feature of the Scoot inflight magazine had a neat set of infographics called Scoot Secrets. I enjoyed reading.
1. Scoot has passed the 4 million pax milestone
2. Cabin crew are called Scootees, pilots are called Scooters.
3. Scoot has acquired 20 B-787 Aircraft.
4. 117 pilots from 26 countries
5. By 2018, Scoot will be the first low-cost carrier to have an all B-787 fleet.
6. Rolls Royce Trent 1,000 engines power Scoot planes, the engines are made in Singapore!
7. Scoot has 900,000 fans on Facebook.
8. 582 Scootees hail from 32 different countries
We made it back to Singapore safely The landing at Singapore Changi by Captain Jesper was very smooth and gentle. Glad to be home. Thanks for reading!
Before we could see the pandas, we had to get ourselves back down to the entrance area. The Panda Exhibit was located just beside the Cable Car station, at the Entrance area and not the Summit.
Since the cable car queues were not too long, we decided to take the cable car back down. While the Ocean Express (People Mover) would be faster, the views from the cable car were unbeatable. The following video shows you why.
We headed for the Panda Exhibit as this was the highlight. The two pandas were called Le Le and Ying Ying. Thankfully, we managed to catch a glimpse of one panda as you can see in this video. The rest of the time, the pandas were hiding. The exhibit was pretty cool.
They had a Panda Cafe, selling food to go, but we didn't buy anything to eat.
After the Panda exhibit, we were pretty tired already as it had been a long day. But we still found energy to take a walk around the Emerald Trail (supposed to see birds, but didn't see much), a kiddy area as well as a very large aquarium. The large aquarium was pretty neat, with a lot to see (huge fish tanks), but by now we had seen so many aquariums that it wasn't that special anymore.
Some snippets from the large aquarium, which was the last attraction we visited before we left the park.
So, after a long day, it was time to head back to Hong Kong and get some food. We got to Ocean Park slightly after 10am. We left at around 5pm. We took the CityBus and found our way to Central, to have a well deserved meal of Tim Ho Wan!
After the Mine Train ride, we took the many escalators back up to where we came from. Passed a place called Pacific Pier, which I didn't really know what this was about.
Near this Pacific Pier sign, I spotted a Hong Kong style take-away eatery. Here is a photo of the prices, if you are interested. You can get BBQ Pork Buns for HK$32.
We made our way to the Ocean Theatre for the 3pm show. It was easy to find. When we got there, it was rather full, but we still managed to get seats that were sheltered, though a bit far away. Suited us fine.
This is the video I made of the Ocean Theatre show. Worth watching. The show lasted about 30 minutes. The Dolphin jumps were fun to watch.
After the show, we visited some Shark exhibit as well as a Sturgeon Fish exhibit. All of them were pretty near the Ocean theatre. The Shark exhibit was definitely worth visiting. A huge indoor exhibit with many sharks in a huge fish tank. Good stuff. Check out this video for a short clip.
This was taken outside the Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium. I remember seeing very huge sturgeons. Interesting.
After the amusement rides, we headed into the South Pole Spectacular. I wasn't entirely sure what we would be seeing, but the exhibit looked large from the outside.
There were no lines and we headed straight in. This was to be an Antartica exhibit. The air-conditioning was a welcome change to the hot weather outside.
Pretty neat. The penguins were all very playful, much to the appreciation of the human visitors.
This exhibit was well worth a visit. In fact, it was one of the highlights of our visit to Ocean Park. We got to see Penguins, pretty up close. What else did we see? These huge creatures in the video below, I think they were Walruses! Better still, the Walruses were putting up a performance for us to watch. I think they must be very playful creatures. And looking at their enormous size, they must be very well fed!
After the cool respite, it was time to move on. Before we had lunch, we tried the Ocean Express. It looked like a ride but it turned out to be a people-mover with two stops, one at the Summit and the other at the Entrance. We sat the Ocean Express to the Entrance and then took it back up to the Summit against. If the cable cars are full, you should consider using the People Mover. Much faster.
Here is a video from the cabin. Almost empty.
Lunch
It was time for some food. We headed to the Bayview Cafe, which was next to the Cable Car station at the Summit. The food prices here were rather expensive, but we needed some food for the kids. We ended up getting two kids' combos. See the video.
Thankfully, we went to the restaurant early. It quickly filled up. Given the cost of the meals, I didn't feel like eating! (Seriously). We had some buns with us (brought them in with plain water) so the adults ate those instead. Anyway, the plan was to head to Central for a Dim Sum dinner at Tim Ho Wan, so we could go without food for a while.
After lunch, our next ride was to take this Ocean Park Tower. This is a safe, easy-to-do, very comfortable ride that brought you high up into the sky and you could get very good views of the Park, in air-conditioned comfort. Check out the video, which also shows us taking a long flight of escalators down to another part of the theme park, where there was some roller coaster which my kids took.
Along the way to the escalators, we found a Boardwalk cafe. The food looked a bit cheaper compared to the Bayview Cafe. Example, Roasted Pork with rice combo was HK $108. However, the place was not air-conditioned, so it could get rather warm. We saw many school kids eating there, probably as part of a school excursion.
The roller coaster in the video above was called Mine Train. The kids enjoyed it but the adults refrained.
Our day out to Ocean Park, Hong Kong. Ocean Park is a famous amusement park cum conservation park in Hong Kong. Opened in 1977, the site is built on two sides of a mountain.
This is a 4 part blog post. Here are links to Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 (See the pandas).
We decided to take the MTR and Citybus to Ocean Park. This seemed to be the most common way. From Eaton Hotel, we walked to Jordan MTR and took the Tsuen Wan line to Admiralty, just two stops. At Admiralty MTR, there were clear signposts (Exit B). The fare was $10.6 per adult and half price for kids under 12. Check out the following video for the journey.
Video - Citybus 629 from Admiralty MTR to Ocean Park Entrance
The bus journey was very smooth, 25 minutes. Once we entered Ocean Park, which didn't look too crowded, the plan was to take the cable car to the Summit. So, we decided to look for the cable car station, which was not difficult to find. The queues for the cable car were not long, which was great. The cable car system wasn't very new (built in 1977, I think), and there was some noticeable vibrations. Thank God everything was safe. Check out the next video for our cable car ride up to the summit.
When we reached the Summit, we did not know where to go. There were many signs to different segments of the park. We had a park map, however, the descriptions on the map weren't great. So we decided to work our way downwards, i.e. go to the top most part of the park first. This brought us to this set of escalators which said Thrill Mountain. So we went up.
We took a couple of rides (the not so scary ones). The most exciting ride we took was Whirly Bird. The Whirly Bird ride looked like this. Looks safe? Yeah, let's try. The kids could take it too. Minimum height was 122cm.
It turns out that the ride was very whirly indeed. My kids sat together and I sat with my wife. The ride brought us rather high up, with wonderful views. But I got a bit giddy after that. Thankfully, I had my breakfast some hours ago. Here is a video of our Whirly Bird experience.
After finding our feet, we managed a couple more 'safe' rides. One of them was the bumper car, which was very safe indeed. There was a line but the wait wasn't too long. Not more than 10 minutes. We were fortunate today that the park didn't seem very crowded. The crowds at Ocean Park are supposedly legendary.
Here is a video of the bumper car ride. They squeezed many bumper cars in a small space and they tried to make it 'One Way Only'. Also, the electricity for the bumper cars came from the floor and not overhead cables. This meant that when the ride started, the entire floor would have strong electric currents flowing through. STAY IN YOUR CAR until the ride is over.
Next, we took this blue roller coaster, that was directly opposite the entrance to the South Pole Spectacular. This ride was suitable for kids. Worth taking, even if you do not like roller coasters too much.
Tim Ho Wan is a rather famous Hong Kong Dim Sum eatery. They have a few outlets in Hong Kong, and the outlet at Sham Shui Po won a Michelin Star in 2010. The owner, Mak Kwai Pui, was the ex-head of Dim Sum at Four Season's Hotel Lung Keen Hin restaurant. Thanks to him, Hong Kong people now have high quality Dim Sum at a reasonable price.
On our arrival in Hong Kong (via FlyScoot), we took the City Bus A21 from Hong Kong International Airport to Eaton Hotel (380 Nathan Road). We could check in but our rooms were not ready. So we left our bags at the Concierge and took a taxi to Tim Ho Wan at Sham Shui Po. They are on Fuk Wing Street. The cab fare was less than HK$50.
Here is a video of our Tim Ho Wan experience at Fuk Wing.
Some of the food we had at the Fuk Wing Branch (which is the branch with the Michelin Star)
The famous Char Siew Bun with a crispy crust. Tasted very good indeed. This is arguably their most famous dish.
This was also very good. Char Siew Cheong Fun. Very yummy.
Do not underestimate the crowds at this place. Thankfully, we arrived early and got a seat quickly. On our way out, this was the queue.
On another trip to Hong Kong, we flew via Tiger Airways (see blog post for flight review). This time, we went to Tim Ho Wan at Sham Shui Po without the kids, for dinner rather than brunch. Here is the video of our dining experience.
This video shows you how to walk to Tim Ho Wan 添好運 Sham Shui Po branch from the Hong Kong MTR Sham Shui Po station.
Tim Ho Wan - Central
A day later, after visiting Ocean Park Hong Kong, we ate at Tim Ho Wan, Central. This is a video of our experience.
The outlet at Central was not easy to find. My wife had to ask around and we got a bit lost, but ultimately we found it. The address said IFC mall, but it wasn't in the mall. Rather, it was on the way to the Airport Express. You have go down a set of escalators, which point you to Airport Express.
These are the lines outside the outlet. You have to register and take a queue number. Meanwhile, you can decide what to order.
Tried the Glutonious Rice. Very large serving and very filling.
Overall, we had high quality and relatively inexpensive Dim Sum at Tim Ho Wan. Having tried 2 outlets, I think the quality is about the same, though the outlet at Sham Shui Po felt a bit more authentic. We would definitely dine at Tim Ho Wan again when we go to Hong Kong.
Thanks for reading!
Coffee Nowhere. A word play on Now Here. The staff call the place Coffee Now Here instead of Nowhere. Oh well.
We came here because the menu looked interested and my wife got some Groupons to use, making the meal not too expensive.
We had Eggs Benedict (X2), a Burger (very good), Baked Rice (not great), Mexican roll and some coffee, all to share. Overall, not bad. Check out my video.
This was in relation to DAP lawmaker Yeo Bee Yin launching a joint rape awareness campaign, which covers marital rape, with the All Women's Action Society (Awam) last week.
