The Grand Place, the geographical, historical and commercial heart of the city.
Hotel de Ville, built in the 14th century as the town hall.
The main entrance and the belfry, I keep thinking why the entrance wasn't center aligned with the belfry...
Courtyard of the hotel with nice pavement design.
Entrace to the reception lobby.
The statue and landscape at the courtyard.
Le Renard and Le Cornet.
The Maison Du Roi, built in 1536, now home to the Musee de la Ville. Too many museums in Europe and I decided to skip this one. I went in almost every museum when I visited Paris and lesson learned - just visit the highlight and not to waste the precious time and money.
View of Maison Du Roi from entrance of Hotel De Ville.
With the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle, I can now take pictures of myself without others help or tripod! La Maison Des Ducs De Brabant at the middle of the background and Everard 't Serclaes on the right. Touching the bronze arm of Everard 't Serclaes is said to bring luck but too bad the place is closed for refurbishment during the period.
Godiva chocolatier outlet at the Grand Place, the premium chocolate manufacturer among the uncountable numbers of chocolate shops in Brussels.
I'm still recovering from the 6 days trip in West Europe. Weather were terrible and my skin are badly dry out and cracking. Brought too many lens this trip and I didn't use the Tamron 90mm SP and Jupiter 9 at all. Taken nearly 1,000 pictures this trip and it's gonna take some time to edit all.
On the way in Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels Midi on Thursday morning. Managed to grab pair of return tickets from lastminute.com for GBP55, it's always a good source for last minute deal as I couldn't find tickets from Eurostar website.
The bi-lingual city is often confusing with its French Dutch names for places and roads. Initially I thought Brussel Zuid and Bruxelles Midi are two different stations and apparently it's the name of the station in two languages.
The adventure begins with a Belgian cappuccino and pain au chocolat. I had not done much study before the trip, no booking on any accommodation nor intercity train tickets.
The Flying Ceiling (1976) by Pol Bury in Bourse station. Public transport in Europe is relatively cheap when comparing with UK. A day travel card cost 4 euros to be used on all metro, tram and buses. Actually there are no barriers or check on the metro and tram so you can try a few free rides.
La Bourse, Brussels' stock exchange, the stairs is a meeting point for people and also serve as speaker's corner for protests.
Arrived in Brussels Midi Station this morning. Things went smooth and managed to grab the return tickets to Amsterdam tomorrow on a cheaper rate than the one I checked on internet. Had a nice Belgian cappucino and pain chocolat and started the journey in the city, with my 20kg backpack.
Just hang around the central area, the Grand Place and few other tourist spots and it started raining, in fact it's still raining, and it was quite heavy, worst than London! Can't afford the risk my camera under the rain so I started to look for accommodation, the one I plan to stay initially was fully booked.
Luckily found a 3-beds shared private room in another hostel. In fact it's quite crap, no towels, no hangers, no water, nothnig is provided and even have to pay for the internet. There's only another Korean guy there and he's quite friendly. We might head to Amsterdam together tomorrow.
Anyway, weather are not looking good over the weekend. Forecast says it's gonna rain through the weekend :(
2 cameras, 6 lens, a tripod, few travel guides, few clothes.. I'm going to explore few more cities in Europe for 6 days stretch through Easter holiday.
What's in my hand now is only the return Eurostar train tickets to Brussel. I think I'm brave enough this round, didn't book any accommodation nor connecting trains to other cities, could end up sleeping in the train station.
Brussel and Amsterdam are the two main destination and probably will visit Bruge or Antwerp along the way.
Weather forecast over the weekend will be cloudy and rainy.. wish me luck!
An article received in a forwarded e-mail written in Chinese recently, which I think worth sharing.
Despite losing 2/3 majority and 5 states to the opposition in the election, leaders from BN - Badawi of UMNO, Ong Ka Ting of MCA and Semi Value of MIC decided to stay in a thick face manner despite calls for them to resign from the top post. Their reputation to the people has dropped to the lowest point and it doesn't do any good to their party so they have to go.
The only BN leader who admitted defeat and resigned from the top post is Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon. He even attended the swearing ceremony of the newly elected Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng from DAP. He deserved some respects.
There are rumours saying Koh purposely lost Penang in order to let DAP take charge of the state, to avoid being controlled by UMNO Youth - which link directly to Khairy the son-in-law.
Equine owned by businessman Patrick Lim, aka Patrick Badawi who won the project because of his close ties to the son-in-law and the first family.
Such mega projects of course had to be approved by the Chief Minister which Koh wasn't quite agreed as there are too many issues involved. Badawi stepped on Koh to launch the project even before Koh approved it. Koh still didn't approve the project and UMNO decided to play their usual trick - the racial card by accusing Penang is marginalising the Malays who live there. The motive is to pull Koh down the CM chair and to put its own people who will be willing to 'cooperate'.
The issue was finally resolved, Koh kept the CM chair but was badly hurted and had to approve PGCC.
8/3/08 - BN lost Penang to BA
10/3/08 - KLSE was suspended because KLCI dropped more than 10%, many stocks were suspended twice including Equine.
11/3/08 New CM Lim Guan Eng announced to review project PGCC.
Many will doubt how Koh influenced the voters. He made some surprises relocating PGRM candidates in the states which created some mess in the party before the election.
I heard Equine was the first to send bouquet to congratulate Lim Guan Eng, I hope Lim will do something to justify Koh's sacrifice, if it's true.
Good news to the people, bad news to the Badawi's family.
Had enough from Badawi and his son-in-law? If so sign the petition to support Mukhriz Mahathir's urge for Badawi to step down as Prime Minister, my signature is No. 391.
A Malaysian made reality show, Malaysian Dreamgirl. The title is actually a bit misleading, I thought it's some kind of competition to find what men are looking for but it's a model search.
The production is done quite professionally, the show is broadcasted on internet only. However, looking at the 12 finalists... I think you can pick one easily on the street in KL who are better than the 12. Sorry to say but one of them even look like transvestite.
I don't know how many turned up for the audition, but most certainly the choices were limited. In any case, I couldn't agree with the judges' taste, especially Kenny Sia on all his 'favourite'.
The Taiwan Top Model search 2007, that's how it should be...
It's a big day for all the Malaysians, BN although won the GE2008 but lost the 2/3 majority and 5 states to the opposition. A victory and a new hope for the people who have risen and spoken of their will.
Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the Barisan Rakyat has played a major role in the victory. Although I am still not very sure whether he can be trusted or not (he could be one of 'them' if he wasn't framed in 1998) but no doubt he is a more respectable figure comparing to Badawi. Dr Mahathir can't be trusted as well but at least he managed to keep things under control during his leadership of the country.
Lim Kit Siang and the DAP members are the people whom I really respected. They have fight for the Malaysian people for decades without any datukship, tunship or personal benefits. I believe under the DAP government, Penang will develop better, the state fund will be spent more carefully and of course less or zero corruption.
Lim's son Guan Eng is taking over the role of Chief Minister for Penang. In the press conference. Asking how's his feeling, he didn't forget to tease the Malaysian press sarcastically: "I think the only difference is I find more press attending our conference than before the election". Shame on the major media who are all pro BN.
This is something we won't be able to listen from local media, covered by Al-Jazeera. In Jalan Pandan Indah, KL, 500+ voters have registered on the street, 20-30 registered on one address. If not because of these phantom voters, BN could even had lost more than that. Check out the explanation by the EC Kamarazuman, what a joke in front of the international media.
Dr Mahathir has launched his new attack on Badawi and his son-in-law in an interview with Malaysiakini, urging Badawi to resign as Prime Minister. I think Dr. M is a smart old fox, praising Najib to succeed Badawi as new PM, to create some wave in UMNO since virtually he can't do much anymore without power.
On the son-in-law: "I think his son-in-law played a big role (in the defeat). This young man who has no achievements before but apparently the PM listens to him"
On Zam, mis-information minister: "He won or lost? Oh, he lost. Well, the way he was campaigning was really funny, telling people to look at his face and how it doesn't change. But I think that a face that doesn't change can be very boring. Sometimes you must laugh, sometimes you must cry.
He was telling everybody "Ini muka tak bertukar, tak bertukar". Who is interested in his ‘wajar’? If he was Britney Spears, then…"
On Samy Vellu: "I think that Samy Vellu played a big part in the defeat. When he was in BN, he doesn't allow any of the MIC people to come up to his level. If they come up (to be) deputy or vice-president, he will knock them down and even expel them from the party"
It's a pity Rafidah Aziz won her seat if not I can expect Dr Mahathir to make more interesting comments.
"Goodbye Sam", another masterpiece by comedycourt: "and this result has been welcomed by mixed feelings, some are shocked and some are very shiok" hahaha...
There will be a protest on Monday morning at Istana Negara when Badawi meets the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong to form the new government. The thick face said he won't resign despite of the biggest defeat in the history, the son-in-law and the cronies certainly won't want him to go. Let's see what happen in the next few weeks.
8th of March is approaching, the Malaysia general election day. Enough is enough and it's time to change. Although it's quite unlikely that the opposition will win the majority but I believe it's possible to deny a 2/3 majority win by the BN, provided it's clean and fair.
Wake up fellow Malaysians. I love the country but hate the government, wish I will return to a real democratic Malaysia one day.
London | Kuala Lumpur | Batu Pahat, United Kingdom
MU supporter; love sports, traveling, coffee and photography. I will be a full time photographer and coffee shop taukeh, have a few dogs, when I strike lottery jackpot.
Eglise St-Nicolas, processed in HDR.
The Grand Place, the geographical, historical and commercial heart of the city.
Hotel de Ville, built in the 14th century as the town hall.
The main entrance and the belfry, I keep thinking why the entrance wasn't center aligned with the belfry...
Courtyard of the hotel with nice pavement design.
Entrace to the reception lobby.
The statue and landscape at the courtyard.
Le Renard and Le Cornet.
The Maison Du Roi, built in 1536, now home to the Musee de la Ville. Too many museums in Europe and I decided to skip this one. I went in almost every museum when I visited Paris and lesson learned - just visit the highlight and not to waste the precious time and money.
View of Maison Du Roi from entrance of Hotel De Ville.
With the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle, I can now take pictures of myself without others help or tripod! La Maison Des Ducs De Brabant at the middle of the background and Everard 't Serclaes on the right. Touching the bronze arm of Everard 't Serclaes is said to bring luck but too bad the place is closed for refurbishment during the period.
Godiva chocolatier outlet at the Grand Place, the premium chocolate manufacturer among the uncountable numbers of chocolate shops in Brussels.
Posts
