After we have checked in and left our bags at the Ryokan, we head for the Imperial Palace.  This was our first destination, and it was already 10-11am.  We first came out from the Tokyo subway Station.  The Train Station behind it looks like the Train Station in Amsterdam, and if I remember correctly, its a replica of it.  From the Tokyo station, we proceeded straight towards the Imperial Palace.  Along the way, we passed a nice fountain and we first came to the Imperial Plaza, which is a huge empty place with tiny path cutting across gravel stones.  Its like giant Japanese sand garden, nice.  We were greeted with bus loads of tourist and all of them alight at the Imperial Plaza and made their way by foot to the Nijubashi Bridge.  This bridge is on every guidebook and also all web and printed city guides.  This is where you can see the Imperial Palace with a nice angle, with the white building on top of the hill and then a bridge and waters and plenty of greenery.  It was over rated from the guidebooks.  I was expecting much more and when arrived, only the tiny top floor of the imperial palace can be seen, and have to crowd with many tourist to get a photo of the entire scene.

In front of the Nijubashi Bridge is the Hibiya Park.  This park was a stark contrast from the Imperial Plaza.  The Imperial Plaza was all grey with pebles, while the Hibiya park was green with grass and gigantic bonzai trim trees.  Comming from the congested city line of Tokyo, the Palace grounds provide a breath of fresh air and reminds us that we live in a wonderful green nature.  We walked back again towards Higashi Gyoen, the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace.  On the way, to the Otemon Gate, we passed many Swans lingering on the water surrounding the Moat.  Not sure if they are there the entire year round or seasonal, but it was nice and something that we don’t usually see in Malaysia.

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This 2010 Hatyai family trip started out with loads of bumps and ended like the Mango Sticky Rice.  Sweet Sour Mango and tasty sticky rice, leaving us contended for the rest of the year.  About a month back the family decided to go Hatyai for the Raya holiday.  Its been a year since and we had a great time in the previous trip.  But the hotels in Hatyai was fully booked during the Raya holidays and so we decided to spend the Malaysia Day holiday in Hatyai instead.

I bought the Alza so that we can drive there as there were 6 of us, it was an overnight decision as we really needed a MPV once a while and Alza just fit the bill.  So, we were all excited to drive the new car in and have a great time in Hatyai.  The mood started out great till we got onto the car and lock the doors.  The GPS failed.  The Garmin keep crashing and 30 minutes later we departed with a broken GPS.  Fatty tried to get it to work on the entire hour up to Changloon and to our disappointment,  the GPS was as good as a paper weight.

We decided to take the van instead.  The funny thing is once we got onto the van and was well on our way to Hatyai, the GPS starts to work.  Devine intervention? I don’t know.  The problems did not stop there.  Once we got there, the New Season Hotel that we were excited to try turn out to be a huge disappointment.  For THB1000 a night, the hotel put us up on Level 3, next to their air conditioning unit.  They hum the entire night leaving us hadly any sleep.  We check out the next day and went to Mayflower Hotel for THB920 and it was a much better hotel.  At the New Season, we went for the massage at level 2, Fatty had the foot massage, I had the Shoulder and Back Massage and my wife and her sister went for the oil massage.  Fatty and Sister In Law had a good time, I had a sore shoulder, my wife had a back pain from the massage.

Well, it was not all bad, for all the bad things, there is an equal good thing to balance things up.  Fatty bought a cheap Zebra kettle, bought a whole new set of clothes for the family and had Swenson ice cream every day (Yes, it was that cheap) and loads of Mango Sticky Rice.  So, till the next Hatyai trip, its time to trouble shoot the GPS device, wonder what happen..

The Taling Chan Floating Market is located at the Taling Chan District Office.  A relatively small floating market serve fresh foods and open only 3 days a week (8.30am-4pm Weekend).  The market was not that accessible so we took a cab from our hotel at Sukhumvit.  The cab drop us off at the District Office, which is just next to the floating market.  Comming to the floating platform, there were stalls on the left and right side of the road selling a range of items from food to handicrafts.

There were two side to the floating platform, left and right and both have boats on the side selling food of various kinds.  While we were getting to the platform connected by a narrow bridge, we saw some visitors feeding a swamp of fish.  The fish looked huge and they were battling over the bread thrown onto the river.  I notice a lady was selling bread for THB 10 and so I bought one pack and gave to May Lin.  She happily feed the fishes and at occasion, the fishes splash and everyone around turn and have a look.

Finish feeding the fishes, we proceed to the platforms to see what is on sale.  First thing i notice was the tiny little stools and tables on the middle of the platforms.  Almost all the tables were filled, this shows how popular this place is.  There was a range of foods from fry, soup, rice to bake and BBQ.  We just had our breakfast so none looked appetizing.  There was a boat selling BBQ fish, the fish was about 1ft long, a huge fish that was first rub with salt and then BBQ over low charcoal heat.  Many patrons bought the fish and I could see them enjoying it.  I on the other hand just feed some huge looking fishes, and can’t stomach the thought of just feeding the fish and then slaughtering them for a meal.

The Taling Chan floating market was relatively small and there was only a handfull of boats with some of them selling the same items.  After covering the entire platform, we proceeded to have some refreshing coconut water before catching a cab to Chatuchak Market.

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This is one of my favorite breakfast place in Melaka, that I have put off blogging about it too often.  The Yong Tau Fu noodle comes with a bowl of noodle and a bowl of Yong Tau Fu.  The noodle has some kind of special oil that makes it very tasty.  In addition, those who loves chili can douse with the chili provided.  For those who like me, just love the natural taste, the rich fried onion with oil taste makes the noodle appetizing.  On the Yong Tau Fu, they have all the regular stuff, stuff chili, stuff bitter gourd, stuff ladies fingers, stuff tau fu and my favorite, fried fish ball and fried tau kee. 

The restaurant is located very close to Bukit Cina (map below) on Jalan Temenggong.  It is actually a block to the left of the Gurdwara center.  It is actually opposite Seng Heng, you can’t miss it.  They finish serving by 10am. 

Our surprise/disappointment turn excitement when we saw the map to the new Foh San restaurant plastered on the side.  After a couple of wrong turns, we came to this grand restaurant that we did not expect of.  Foh San has turn from a corner kopi tiam to a double storey 5 shops wide restaurant.  It was massive and great, you can witness it in the pictures below. It was already the third day of opening, and the restaurant was still buzzing with patrons as if opening day.  We had to wait for a good 10-15 minutes before we get a seat, and after that another 5-10 minutes before the table were served and our tea was ordered.

After successfully settling down, we just accept the offer of the first cart that came by, some kind of cheong fun with pork and prawn.  It was much better than the regular prawn cheong fun that they served.  We ordered a few more fried and steam stuff before picking up our tab and left.  The food was cold and the service was horrible.  But we understand as there are just too many people.  I don’t think any restaurant can give proper service and food quality in such capacity…

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