Florence is my last stop in Italy.

Unlike Rome, this is a peaceful yet quiet town which fill with heavy scent of art... Almost every corner, you can find the trail of art.

The Duomo is the symbol of Florence. Beside that, you can find a lot of museums and art gallery in Florence! Honestly, I do not enjoy art very much although I am so called an amateur photographer… The art do not seems so interesting to me, apologies to all readers who worship arts…

Having said that, the attraction that I am interested is the world renown – one is the seven wonders, the Leaning Tower!

After seeing it, I am depressed because I thought the tower is really close to the ground unlike the “over-whelming” news saying it could collapse in any seconds… Going up to the tower, it cost you money which is not a small bucks for the poor backpackers like us …

It is over-rated and I find the coliseum is far more interesting then this. At least the historical values worth the price…

As you can see in the photo… the weather were not good at all. During my entire Italy trip, the dark cloud followed me to every spot that I visit… The rain is my guardian who protected (stopped) me to do dangerous photoshooting stunt. But the weather did not give me another reason to visit Italy again…

Back to the story, Florence is not as busy as Rome but a lot of tourist! Also stalls that sell –genuine- products! A lot of serious buyers but not me! :)

Herewith some photos which I taken during with -good sky- . I liked the river view although the water looks dirty but it doesn’t smell! :P

Another thing which I am puzzled… Why they have to do naked statues… I know this is art but can someone give me an answer? I wish I know how to enjoy the art too…

The only thing that really satisfied me was the tea-break in Mc Cafe. What is the best thing to do during rainy days?

That is to enjoy a cup of hot coffee, cup cake, and cheese cake with my love one. Although not everything went well during the Italy trip but this is the moment that I truly enjoyed, although not spending big bucks but I’ve got the satisfaction of being there! :)

Until the next post, I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy my Italy trip!

Happy viewing!     

I found an interesting website, http://www.ilovelabels.my/

The concept of this website is great. Compare to those similar auction websites that I’ve seen… This is simply awesome because unlike the other website which needed you to pay in their currency yet suffer the currency exchange losses. But this accept most local bank payment which means you are say BYEBYE to the currency exchange losses!

Furthermore, the auction items are brand new in the box with standard manufacturer’s warranty!

You stand a chance to win an IPAD by register an account with them! The registration process is fast and easy too. It takes me about 68 seconds to completely activate my account!

It is so friendly that has a page that tell you how it works. Even a father like me can understand, it poses no challenge to the internet savvy like yourself!

It has a facebook fans page to share their latest updates and news too. Already having 2700+ fans, LIKE if you haven’t. At least it helps to spread the word to your friends who might be interested! Also, you can follow them on twitter too.

Consider to join this program if you are a blogger. It definitely worth your 5 minutes to write an entry for them! :)

Let me know if you win any item and receive it safely!

Happy bidding @

Rome is one of world's most photogenic cities. Ancient buildings with amazing architecture are all around Rome. Most attractions located at the heart of the city.

My first impression on Italian – they are extremely not helpful. They are not tourist-friendly at all. I understand that most of the Italian might not know how to speak English but they even do not bother to answer your question or shake their head… That’s really no good at all. So, be prepared for the worst, if you are going to travel Italy without basic Italian language course.

As a free and easy traveler or backpacking couple. We chosen to stay in guest house which offer a cheaper rate than hotel and also very near the train station. It all seems fine and good deal until...

Nothing more than a surprise “note” after you checked in the guest house… The picture below explains it all…

Apparently someone from Malaysia had rated this guesthouse as a “black shop”. So, at the point of time, we really thought being cheated. It is because during the check-in, the person in charge told us that the guesthouse is full and he had to move us to another building which the location is not as strategic as the one we booked. So… what else we can do? We can only accept it because we do not have any luxury time to search for another guesthouse with the same rate…

But once we settle down, it is actually not too bad. At least, it offer clean bath room, free wifi, kitchen with cooking facility and a big room. :)
Although it started with not too good impression but it ended with a comfortable stay.

Two days for Rome seems a little bit short because they are too many spots to cover. If you are going there, I’d recommend you to at least spend some time to walk around in order to experience the street feel.

If you are rushing or want to cover more tourist spots, you can take the train. It cost 4 Euro for a 24 hours ticket -very affordable price.

The spots that I visited as show in the photo namely Colosseum,  Vatican city, Spanish Steps and the Trevi fountain!

Last but not least, I tried the Coca-cola too. Also bought a red vine to drink too. One important shopping/drinker note, Red vine is really cheap in Italy!

Ping me or leave a message if you need any traveling tips to Rome. I will be gladly to share more with you. :)

Full album photos can be view in my Picasa.

I still arranging the photo for Florence and Holland.

Happy reading!

趁我还没有老到连打字都忘记， 还是生活让我变得沉默寡言之前，将以下的一番话写给我的子女。

有很多事情，如果没有人对你们说，很可能会让你们浪费太多的时间去寻找答案。。。

你们不需要珍惜太多的事物，毕竟有太多的东西让你太过的珍惜，反而使你失去对新事物的兴趣或者不愿面对放弃。可是最重要的，你们一定要珍惜时间和家人。因为这都是你们已来到这个世界上就开始拥有的，要明白这都是一逝不返的。

求学时，不必为考不到第一名而颓丧。因为求学是为了求知识，不是争名夺次。爸爸很明白第一名也只会有一位，你们只要好好的学习如何将知识活用在以后的生活里就已经可以了。

做每一件事，不一定会有结果， 也不必太在乎输赢。只要尽力完成了，享受当中的过程，就算没有想要的结果，也会获得宝贵的经验！

遇到挫折时，不要把自己当成悲剧里的主角。每个人都会有不顺意和失败的时候。爸爸也遇过挫折，也曾失败。可是人生的剧本就是这样的。。。里面写满了高潮迭起和悲欢离合的情节。

世上没有免费的午餐，唯独在家，这句话是错的。父母会无条件的照顾你，一直到你有能力照顾自己。我们不奢望你会照顾我们的下半辈子，只希望你们会关心我们。

爸爸可能会很唠叨的对你们说教，你们会不想和爸爸说话。。。 可是这就是爸爸的责任，有义务的教导你们处世待人的道理和规矩。

当你们都长大了，爸爸和妈妈就会从监护人变成你们各自生活里的旁观者。。。 但是，你们有什么困难，爸妈一定帮助的。

还有这一定要说。。。。。。。。

如果讨厌爸爸，不可以开部落格来发泄。。。 要和爸爸好好的谈哦~  （笑）~~

短讯对大家来说应该不陌生。很多时候短讯真的让我们的时间过得更快，就像在上课，开会，上班等等。。。

有些时候也会有人发错短讯给你， 就像这样。。。

对这样的无名氏与莫名其妙的文句短讯，当然没有人会说自己在哪里。可是我也不敢怠慢，毕竟我相识满天下，可能手机电话簿像facebook一样满了，所以才没有显示是谁发来的短讯。

我回复”Who are you?” 。 然后他又问了一个问题。。。

说真的，如果我知道，那我就不会问啦。

我回短讯说 ：“If I know who are you, I would not ask the first question. But to be polite, I am Kok Ming. And you are?”。他的回答依然没有说他是谁。。。

我有点不耐烦了，因为这个人真的一点都不明白我的短讯。。。所以我会了以下的句子。

“I have been using this number for over 10 years and I don’t remember that I see your number before this… Good bye and good luck!”。

过了一个小时多，他又回短讯了。。。

我开始可怜他了。他很可能被甩了。。。所以我回了短讯给他。

“No… I am not your girl friend. But I understand something unhappy had happened on you. Having say that, I am unable to help you to find your girl. Take care!”。

他立刻回讯了。。。

我。。。我。。。我。。。 无话可说了，如果要说话，不是应该你打来吗？你的人还真奇怪哦。。。

我没有回复。可是在三小时后，他又发短讯来了。。。

我依然坚决地不回复。毕竟短讯也是要钱的。。。更何况我对男生没有兴趣啦！

就这样，再没有收到他的短讯了。

------- 以下的短讯和以上的完全无关， 可是你一定想看！---------

第二天的早上，我收到了这个短讯。我看了，没有回复，可是我大声笑了！

现在，轮到我想知道这则短讯后，到底那个晚上女的有没有收到电话~哈哈！

Venice is my first stop in Italy. It also known as the Water City. One of the most beautiful city in the world. This is a must-stop point for you if you are visiting or going to visit Italy.

I stayed in Venice for 2 days 1 night. We departed from Skavsta (Sweden) airport. Upon the arrival to the airport, we took bus by ATVO to Venice . It costs 5 Euro / passenger. It is very reasonable price and the bus is comfortable enough too.

The tourist information center is very near to be bus station. It has a machine which sells Venice’s map. My advise is forget about the map. It will not be enough to guide you because it is a maze inside Venice… If you want to go to the tourists spot… rules of thumb -  Follow The Crowd! Also, the road / floor also has small arrow that point you to the San Marco square.

Venice is well-known by its buildings with amazing architecture on top of the water. Also, it is a car-less city! You don’t see vehicle with engines except boats… which is very good for tourists! Having said that, it is really cost us a lot of moves to take our baggage over the bridges before we found our hostel…
(* Reminder… there is a BIG HUGE bridge right at the city entrance which lead to the train station, don’t climb it with your baggage…)

Souvenir can be found almost every where with almost the same price… be sure you buy the mask once you found the right one. It is because after you leave Venice, it is rarely any more choices for you in the other cities …

Very lucky that is an friendly old man approaches us and offer himself to point us the direction to our hostel. It really save us a lot of time to walk through the maze with our baggage. The hostel is just 7 minutes walk from the bus station and not bad at all! Private double room with queen size bed, air-con and windows! Clean and tidy! Free breakfast + flow free coffee!!

We leave our baggage and hunt for lunch… Guess what you would try during for the first meal in Italy?! Of course pizza!

In Venice, you can find almost every restaurant sells pizza in different flavor. Also, a lot of kebab too!

We had our lunch and continue our hunt for cheap Gelato (1 Euro)!  We found it and the seller also know how to great us in Chinese.

After we had the gelato, we found the cheapest combo meals in Venice too. But we never buy anything because we were full… wrong timing

Venice has a lot of bridges connection each piece of small island. In between each small island, it forms really cool view canal! Although the weather is not too nice but the picture turns out without much regret too

Not wasting anymore time from you. Here I present to you the most wanted San Marco square’s photo!

** Due to loading speed… full album is ready in my facebook or picasa.

The view of Venice from top. Not much people have this view tho, at least for the website I been into :hehehe:

Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy my stay in Venice!

Happy viewing!

My Euro-trip started in Stockholm city. Discard the work days, had extended two days – one night to stay in Stockholm to enjoy the city.

Right after my wife arrived, we head to meet a net friend of mine! Yes, you see it right. NET friend

I get to know her because of a Swedish friend… yes, another net friend. At that time, they were still together but not now. (that’s quite a disappointment because I did not get to meet the Swedish… anyway, there’s always chance!)

I met her once, like 5 years ago… She travel around Asia and when she stop at Malaysia, we (me and  my wife) picked her up for some bak kut teh and roti canai! Time flies… 5 years gone and it is my luck to meet her again in Stockholm! We had some chat about life and how’s things had changed… It was a great start for my trip!

We rented a small cabin inside a boathouse. It is really small… but enough for 2. It has sufficient spaces for you to have your dinner and a clean restaurant. Overall, it is not bad.

This is the view from the boat restaurant windows.

Our day definitely started with not too good weather… It is because the weather is not good… the sun was hidden behind the clouds and very windy.

The first stop for the day is the Royal Palace. The timing was perfect! We had the chance to witness the The Royal Guard exchange which is a old tradition of Sweden. It happens every sunday at 12:00 PM near the Royal Palace in Stockholm. (Hopefully I am correct :P) . A lot of visitors were queued up for the performance!

Herewith some photos of the guard exchange. Live performances presented as well. (I believe we shoot a movie of it… will dig it out and post it later )

For the two days in Stockholm, we had walked through the old town (Gamla Stan) and also the city centre… Nothing notable but everything looks so new to us!

This is the landmark in front of my company office.

Some building and scenery shots… from various places such as on top of the bridge that connecting city centre with Gamla Stan, the city hall and etc…

Of course some night view…

To be honest, the weather is really cold which caused me really hesitated to move my hand out from pocket to take photo… (definitely not a reason for not producing high quality shots…)

I hope you enjoy the photo as much as I enjoy Stockholm!

As most of you know, I just got back after travelling around these 3 countries – Sweden, Italy and Netherlands.

I only able to cover Stockholm for Sweden and Amsterdam in Netherlands. Italy is my primary focus, been into Venice, Rome, Florence and Pisa.

Taken a lot of photo but before I start posting it. I would like to share this with you while it is still fresh in my memory…

It could be very useful if you are planning a Europe trip especially to the 3 countries that I visited.

These are my gains on the trip, of course, with some painful cost too.

Let’s start it now.

1. If you want cheap flight, go for Ryanair, but it is not cheap if you do not book with discounted price… You have to check it daily, it will change the price and you only book it when it reaches your price. Normally the flight can go as cheap as 10 Euros… It could save you hundred of Euros if you book 2-3 return flights.

2. Get a weekly pass on train or buses if you going to stay longer in a city. It will usually cheaper if you factor in the time you saved from walking. However, if you are hardcore backpacker who want to walk and has plenty of time to experience the atmosphere… then forget this. LoL.

3. Always plan your itinerary and book necessary accommodation and transportation in advance. It will save you a lot!

3. This is painful lesson… The City Terminal in Stockholm is not backpacker friendly. It close on 12AM and open on 3AM. If you have early buses or train… You better find a place to stay for the night, for example, go to the airport because it usually don’t close… If you really want to stay around the city, you can choose to spend your midnight in the Mc Donald nearby the terminal. It is 24/7…

4. When you are at Venice… No need to spend 2 euro to buy the map… It is a maze. Just follow the crowd… You should be able to reach the tourist spot… How you can get back to your hostel… That is up to your memory :P

5.  In Italy, street food are cheap! Home cook cheapest! Restaurant are evil.

6. If you travelling around Italy by inter-city train. Be sure you reach the terminal an hour earlier than the schedule because some terminals are really huge, it will take some times to walk to your train…

7. English does not work for Italy. Prepare for the worst!

8. Mc Donald offer the cheapest fast food (burgers)! 1 euro 1 burger.

9. Train in Netherlands has different type namely, intercity, sneltrein and sprinter… I could be wrong but this is a hard-learnt experience where all the sign board are not written in English…

Intercity – Stop every city (Note: not every station or terminal but only those marked “IC”)
Sneltrein – Slight more stopping point (Note: only stop at terminal with those marked “IC” and “S”)
Sprinter – Stop every station / terminal.

10. Most toilet costs money… some are free on major tourist spots. If paying for pee is not cost-effective for you. You can either find a tree to cover up or always empty it when you sees free toilet.

11. Generally, the people in hostel are very approachable. Spend time to introduce yourself and talk to them. Perhaps you can add a few more friends to your FB

I have more to write but this is getting very lengthy. If you are about to go to these countries. Drop me a mail or leave me a message, I will be gladly to share my itinerary with you.

Last but not least, I am kind of surprise because I met 2 foreigners that speak Mandarin with me… First is an Swedish old lady in Stockholm, and a handsome father from United States who I met in Ventican.

Hope you find this useful!