Cookie travels

I visited the beautiful country of Malaysia last year in one of my travels. It was a seminar and study visit with a group of delegates from Bangladesh. Incorporated in this trip was a chance to see the scenic wonders of this country. Genting Highlands was among the places we visited.

Genting Highlands is located on a mountain peak at 1700 meters above sea level. Our hired bus took us about an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur to reach this place. Genting Highlands is also known as the “Las Vegas of Malaysia” or the “City of Entertainment” where you can find the officially authorized land-based casino in this country, in other words this casino is legal.

Me and my colleague didn’t want to miss the chance to see what’s inside this so called Las Vegas of Malaysia, so we made this Las vegas our first stop when we arrived Genting Highlands. At the entrance you can see that the security was tight and you should be properly dressed. There were some tourists who were not allowed inside but we passed security check and happily walked in. Just think, we were properly dressed .

A lot of visitors were playing inside. You can see customers playing slot machines and other casino games like poker, blackjack. I observed that the Poker Tables were definitely of good quality. I wonder where they were ordered.

Our trip inside the casino was short. We didn’t even walk further down the room. We went in halfway, looked around and decided to leave. We didn’t play. We would rather spend our few hours in Genting Highlands for sightseeing.

Finally, the photos… After uninstalling and removing some programs in my overcrowded hard disk, hubby eagerly installed the bundled utility software that came with our newly purchased digital camera. I happily downloaded the photos only to find out that the pictures taken at the Satakunta Museum (or Satakunnan Museo) were from the old camera. I felt bad. All the while I thought I need to address some technical matters before I can post some photos, ugh!

The photos I took were not a big deal. They were taken outside of the museum as we left coz we were not allowed to take snapshots inside the exhibition room. The building architecture is simple as you can see.

the Satakunta Museum in Pori, Finland

this logo symbolizes the Satakunta Museum

the Satakunta Museum from across the street

Yyteri sand beach, one of the popular beaches in Southern Finland, is a place to visit if you are in Pori, Finland. My parents and sisters who were recently on vacation in Finland were amazed by the sand dunes and wide coastal area of this beach. As we moved around the beach taking photos and enjoying the scenery, we noticed the kids having fun in the cold water while most adults can be seen bathing under the hot sun probably for hours. Sunbathing is not only done at the beach. I observed as we toured Tampere, another city in Finland which is about three hours drive from our place, people were sunbathing on the green grassy park. As what my Finnish friend told me, summer is quite short so they better enjoy it.

Beach or park, it doesn’t matter as long as there’s sun. Summer is a time to wear bikinis, swimsuits, swimming trunks and enjoy the hot sunny weather. There are others though who might find it awkward wearing scanty swim suits especially if they have flabby bellies. People who are figure conscious must have thought of ways to slim down before summer arrived. They must have tried sit-ups, jogging, aerobics, going to the gym, and other forms of physical exercise. There are also diet supplements available for weight loss.

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We reached Satakunta Museum a few minutes after 5PM and it closes at 6PM during summer. So we had an hour to explore what’s inside the Satakunta Museum. The entrance fee for adults cost 4 Euros while for children 7-17 years old it costs 1.5 Euros. After purchasing our tickets, we were given a guide (manual not a human guide) in English. It was helpful coz we found out that the captions inside the exhibition room are in Finnish.

There were two exhibition rooms we had to visit. One room with three floors contained the permanent exhibition Satakunta - ‘Born in the Embrace of Water’. The other room is located at the ground floor and focuses more on the history of Pori since 1558. Frankly, even with the English guide or booklet, we were sometimes caught in a time consuming situation where we had to figure out which artifact and display it was referring to.

To be continued…

You may be aware that I was away from my blog for some time. Naturally, I have a lot of back logs in my posts. Well, those trips I had will be published sooner or later. I choose later to be safe.. . But at the moment, I and young sis are preparing to go the Satakunta Museum here in Pori, Finland. So for now I bid my blog a short ‘nakemiin’ (bye in Finnish), then I’ll be right back to echo what’s inside the museum.

This post will be more on my travel photos at Jazz Street, selected ones, coz some photos have already been posted in my previous 43rd Pori Jazz Festival articles.

I previously mentioned that I visited Jazz Street three times. Although it was more on souvenir shopping but I did walk around Jazz Street and took some photos. The scenes were almost the same scene everyday except for a pouring of more visitors as the day got closer towards the end of Pori Jazz Festival (with the changes in musicians and bands, for sure). The most number of people I think was during Carlos Santana’s concert last 18th July, Friday and perhaps the weekend that followed.

Here are some of Jazz Street scenes at 43rd Pori Jazz Festival:

entrance to 43rd Pori Jazz Festival venue, less people the night before opening week

Jazz Street hours: opens daily, 11am to 12 pm

unwinding at a bar and coffee shop

bar and coffee shop overlooking Kokemaenjoki River

a pose with restaurant boat behind, great ambiance for dining

there were portable toilets distributed around the area
so no pee problem at all

We have been searching the city center for items our visitors wanted to carry back home as souvenirs of their trip in Finland. They already bought some but as we visited the shops at the 43rd Pori Jazz Festival venue, we found nice usable stuffs with Finland name on it. So those three times I visited the festival venue they were mostly for souvenir shopping with a bit of watching free open concerts at Jazzstreet Stage and walking along Jazz Street. There were a lot of items to shop here but our eyes were fixed on souvenir items.

- The first time our family walked at Jazz Street was with dad, young sis and baby Caite after a heavy Pizza buffet. It was a bright night time, a nice evening for walking. There was one shop selling Finland souvenirs so we bought some cap, t-shirt and moose magnets. There was also a shop selling Pori Jazz souvenirs but there was no Finland embedded on it so we didn’t purchase any. Had it included the name Finland we could have brought some small stuff…hehe.

- The second time I went to Jazz Street was to buy additional Finland cap my dad requested.

- And the third trip was with mom and two sisters. We went to the same shop we have been coming back for souvenirs. Obviously, the lady selling those items already recognized us so as we left her shop, she bade us goodbye with: ‘see you tomorrow!’ After visiting Jazz Street three times, no more tomorrow for me…

Finland caps and other souvenirs for sale

crocs can be purchased at 43rd Pori Jazz Festival, too

The recently concluded 43rd Pori Jazz Festival organized during 12-20 July 2008 included 110 full concerts with 70 of them open to public for free. Pori Jazz is not an event for grown-ups only. Kids were encouraged to take part in this event. In fact, Pori Jazz Kids concerts and workshops were free. Pori Jazz 2008 sold a total of 66,000 tickets compared to last year’s 58,000 tickets. This might be due to the fact that among the many invited performers, the legendary Carlos Santana is present. His concert alone at Kirjurinluoto Arena held last Friday, 18th of July sold 34,000 tickets with all tickets sold out.

Here are some photos taken during this event and more coming up:

band performing at 43rd Pori Jazz Festival

people walking at Jazz Street lined with shops selling food, candies,
souvenirs, shoes, bags, and other items

Okay so here are a sample of dad and mom’s memorable snapshots in their last week tour of Europe. Which do you think would be their best snapshot???

at the Senate Square, one of the main tourist attractions of Helsinki with
the bronze monument of Emperor Alexander II of Russia located at the center of
the square and the Lutheran Cathedral of Helsinki behind the monument

a snapshot of dad and mom in Vienna with the Naturhistorisches Museum
or Museum of Natural History at the background, one of the important museums
of the world containing the earliest collections of artifacts of over 250 years old

at Brandenburg Gate, a former city gate separating West and East Berlin,
one of the main symbols of Berlin, Germany and considered as one of Europe’s
most famous landmarks

Photo credits: rainydazeee.com

The other day I was anxious of buying the express bus tickets before the weekend coz of the Midsummer holiday. So yesterday despite my ‘not so perfect’ condition, I decided to go to the bus station. I was finally able to purchase the bus tickets needed for my family’s visit here. There will be four adults and an infant traveling from Helsinki airport (Helsinki-Vantaa lentoasema) to Pori and return.

In order for us to enjoy a maximum amount of discount, the lady selling the bus tickets suggested that 3 adults will follow the 25% discount for persons traveling in a group of three. By the way, in order to enjoy this discount at least one adult is present in the group and this group ticket must be purchased in advance from a bus station and not on buses. Then she pointed out that for pensioners, those over 65 yrs old they also get a discount. So we placed dad in this category. As for me, I have to enjoy 10% discount for a round trip journey. A passenger is allowed only one type of discount so better choose the best discount applicable in order to get great savings. Bus tickets are valid for 30 days, the lady added, so we can enjoy many bus trips from Pori to Helsinki and vice versa. The total amount paid for four adults (infant is free) was 99 Euros from Helsinki to Pori and another 99 Euros for their return journey to airport, while mine alone costs 70 Euros for a return trip. Just imagine the discount when traveling in a group of three.

I think, you can also buy these tickets online but with the questions I have to ask before purchasing the tickets, a personal visit is better for me. Besides, the bus station is just a few minutes walk from our flat. For more information about timetables, tickets and prices, routes and bus stops, or contacting customer service, you can visit www.expressbus.fi. On the other hand, if you want more information regarding different kinds of bus ticket products or travel cards, you can visit www.matkahuolto.fi. These websites have English version.