Pilgrimage Special: A Beautiful Day at India Gate

From afar, one could perhaps mistaken India Gate for the The Arc de Triomphe. But India Gate is not in the middle of a busy street in Paris. I would say the war memorial which houses the Indian dead of the First World War is in the middle of an idyllic park in Rajpath. The first time I visited it; it was on a misty morning and the place was deserted as it was cordoned off by police who feared attack on it by terrorists. In the early evening when I was there on my second trip, there were many vendors around, selling food and quaint toys and many families were having a good time. It was indeed a beautiful day at India Gate!

At India Gate...

Pilgrimage Special: From a Distance

The Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi is popularly known as the Lotus Temple. It looks like a lotus and no doubt, was inspired by one. An Iranian, Fariborz designed it and Ardishír Rustampúr of Hyderabad gave his entire life savings for its construction. Since its completion in 1986, it has become a prominent attraction. Besides winning numerous architectural awards and being featured in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, it has become one of the most visited buildings in the world, its numbers of visitors in certain years even surpassing those of Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal. In my second visit to India, I got to visit the temple but since we went on a Monday, we had to make do with just admiring it from a distance. The temple was closed on a Monday and that goes to say: Make sure the place you are visiting is open on the day you visit!

Vendors outside the gates of the Lotus Temple...

The Lotus Temple... From a Distance...





Travel Tip: Check the schedule!

Pilgrimage Special: Advice on Stone

King Asoka, the third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty was a cruel and ruthless king. He conquered Kalingas, a republic in central eastern India around 264 BCE, but the death of one hundred thousand people or more during the war left him remorseful. He thereafter converted to Buddhism and established a reign of virtue. In the nineteenth century, there came to light a large number of edicts, in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan inscribed in rocks and pillars, that proclaim Asoka's reforms and policies and promulgate his advice to his subjects. In New Delhi, I got to see a faded Asoka's edict on a rock...

Somewhere in New Delhi...






...stands an old rock with inscriptions... Asoka's Edict...

Pilgrimage Special: Loony tales

From Agra, we took a bus to New Delhi. It was a long journey and as usual, we made several stop for the loo. The cold weather in India and the constant consumption of water for fear of dehydration rendered most of us vulnerable to this constant urge of wanting to ease ourselves. The journey from Agra to New Delhi was not so bad since we could easily stop at petrol stations and other suitable places to find a toilet but throughout most of our trip when we were traveling from one Buddhist site to another, the roads we passed through were long lonely stretches of agriculture land, forest or little hamlets and almost always, there would be someone calling out to the driver to pull over so that he or she could ease himself or herself by the roadside. Of course, only one of us would ask the driver to stop but many others, in fact all of us, would take the opportunity to go down too to ease ourselves since we would not know when the next stop would be. For the men, we would just look for some bushes or a tree to do our business which was quite convenient but the ladies were very particular. They would make their own instant loo. They brought along their sarongs and held four of them up like walls so that one of them could answer to nature calls far from any watching eyes! Traveling by train is therefore the prefer mode of transport in India since one could find a clean toilet there and then you could walk here and there to stretch your legs...

A petrol kiosk in India...


Streets of India...




Goods on sale...

Shilin Street Snacks Shop @ City Square, Johor Bahru

I heard about this place - "Shilin Stall" quite sometimes ago....it's just only try it recently. It's located at the lower ground floor of City Square Shopping Complex, Johor Bahru.

The oyster vermicelli (mee sua) was good! But you can't compare the original I had before....
We also order the "Tien-Pu Rak", but seem like totally different from Taipei??

Oyster Vermicelli

"Tien-Pu-Rak"

Anyway, the prices are reasonable in the shopping complex. The only problem I see is the traffic and the parking. It will be crowd during the weekend......

Related post :-
ran Queen ran King Taiwan Foods Cafe, Tmn Molek Johor Bahru
Taiwan Beef Noodle (Malacca Trip 11-12th Nov 2007)
Taipei Trip 2007, 25th - 30th June

MY TRIPS - Home

Foods of Bukit Gambir, Muar Johor.

There are some foods I'm going to highlight here. I will not say they are superb delicious, but I say they are "Special"! That's mean you can't find the same recipe elsewhere.

Every morning (especially weekend), peoples love to have a Kopi-O (black coffee) with toasted bread in this famous coffee shop (N2°12.937' E102°39.496') located at Tmn Mulia, Bkt. Gambir.

At the same roll, but corner coffee shop (N2°12.963' E102°39.531') located at Taman Mulia, Bkt. Gambir has various hawker foods. I am the regular customer of the Bak Kut Teh & Wantan noodle.

The Bak Kut Teh serves in claypot with thick herbal soup. Worth a try! Within the same shop, the Wantan mee (noodle) is special of the noodle. I can't find elsewhere with this type of noodle. Both are resonable prices because of this small town.

There's a shop (N2°12.800' E102°39.317') ONLY selling Bak Kut Teh along the main road (just after the Police station). I rated it : Above average.

If you fell hungry during the midnight, you can try this Yap Kee Prawn mee (noodle). The shop (N2°12.688' E102°39.231') located at the back of the 7-Eleven convenience stall of Bkt Gambir. They open 6pm and close at 2 or 3 in the morning. Special recipe.


That's all I tasted before. Please let me know if there’s any other good food around this area.

Related post :-
* Bkt Gambir - 100 Years old village at Muar, Johor
* Village Life at Bkt. Gambir, Muar Johor
* Restaurant Double Lim (Assam Fish), Muar.
* Leng Kee Bak Kut Teh, Muar, Johor
* Salty Shrimp at Panchor, Muar - Johor.

MY TRIPS - Home

Pilgrimage Special: In Search for an Arahant

The haggling in the bus had resulted in the group splitting into two. One group opted to spend more time in Taj Mahal and the Red Fort; which were must see spots in Agra. As I had been to both places in a previous visit, I opted to join the group to Mathura in search of King Asoka's teacher who was believed to be an arahant. Of course, since some members in this group were first timer to India and had never yet set sight on the famous tomb, Taj Mahal, we decided to visit that place first thing after lunch for a quickie. Then, it was off to Mathura in a van. Mathura, which I often confused with Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Mathura is approximataely 50 km north of Agra but it seems such a long journey. We reached there a little bit over five and the museum which we intended to visit was closed. It is a shame though because the Mathura Museum has the largest collection of Redstone sculptures in Asia, depicting many famous Buddha figurines. Fa Hien had mentioned the city, as a centre of Buddhism about A.D. 400; while his successor Hsuan Tsang, who visited the city in 634 AD wrote that it contained twenty Buddhist monasteries. Today, the ancient city is more re known as a birthplace for Lord Krishna, a Hindu deity and as such there were a few interesting Hindu temples here which unfortunately, we did not get to visit because of the approaching darkness. On the way back to Agra though, a nun in our group pointed to us a little Hindu temple which she said, in ancient time could be a Buddhist temple. We stopped the van to have a quick look at the archway to the temple. The nun said its design was typical of that from King Asoka's era,,,

At Mathura...

At the museum...

An archway from King Asoka's time...