Malaysia National Science Centre (Pusat Sains Negara, PSN)

First of all, strongly, I bet most of you have not heard, or even know of this place.
This is not the Petrosains in KLCC, but the National Science Centre.
Located in Mont Kiara, it is about 20 minutes of travelling by carfrom the city centre of Kuala Lumpur (only if you're fortunate enough to not be caught in a traffic jam).
Well let's start the journey, shall we? (Yeah, Science. I'll try to make it as interesting as possible, no matter how dry and bored it is. And trust me, it's gonna be a long long post)

Once you step into the entrance, you'll be greeted by a nice aquarium, not too big, just nice.

Well just a little tunnel, but, it'll be interesting enough for first timers and young children.
Next, you'll see an 'entrance' to a mini forest. I wonder why things here are quite miniature in size, though.
While in the forest, you can see a 'mini' variety of animals, such asa monkey,a crocodile (with some crocodile eggs in the background), some snakes and even tiger! I assure you that all these are fake, or if you like, they look quite like plush toys.

Turning to the left, you can surely smell something fishy. There are fishes swimming on the floor!

The fishes are projected from the ceiling, but it responses to footsteps. The water wiggles when you step on it, while the fish will swim away. Don't worry, you wont hurt any of the fish even you step on them. Hard. Tried. Kinda fun playing with it, perhaps, it is the most fun I've had in the Science Centre.

The exit of this part discloses a big, bright hall, or better seen as a dome. The dome roof is made of glass or semi transparent plastic, which effectively illuminates the hall.
Now see the roof of the Shrine of Science!!
This is, perhaps, the most attractive feature in the Science Centre.
Under the great dome, there are dozens of things which I, frankly, am lazy to post the photos. So it's left for you to visit them!
However, to name a few, I have
a kaleidoscope, a few Fun House Mirrors (I swear that's not me), some optical illusion stuffs, such as the 'Confusing House',and a cute funny sculpture.

There are two floors in the Science Centre.
The second floor is a little more attractive, seperating a few parts for exhibition.
Once you got up to the second floor, you'll see a Prius smiling at you (I don't know if it smiles, but if I say it is ugly here, just as what I thought, I might get into some trouble).
Well you judge it, I presume that this is the Science Centre but not the Science and Art Exhibition, we should not expect many beautiful or artistic things around here, but some technological advanced machines, such as the Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, by Toyota.
For sure, there is another piece of metal that looks somehow similar with the Prius, with four wheels too. Well I think they call it Proton Waja.
It should be a pride of our nation, isn't it? Powerful, fast, stable, and comparably attractive.
There are quite some interesting exhibits on the second floor, for example, a Robotic Zoo which features a few robotic animals, aerospace technology, a view of the future, a very nice Rube Goldberg Machine (if you don't know what is that, watch Tom and Jerry), and even the Solar System.

The Solar System, and

a 3D projection of the Moon.

There are more to discover in the National Science Centre, I would say that you can pay it a visit if you have children. It would be fun for the kids.
The entrance fee is RM4, and it wouldn't be crowded.
For more information, visit http://www.psn.gov.my

Oh wait, it hasn't end here yet.
What is Science without

Albert Einstein?
However, I've also found something rather funny.

On the door of the toilet for handicappeds, there sticked an ant genius that says "Hello! Welcome to Antstein's washroom, please keep it clean."
Is it an insult or something to one of the greatest scientists of all time?

Well, in conclusion, to rate this place, I'd only give it a mere pass, which is 2.5 out of 5. This is obvious when you see this frequent enough!

Bukit Genting Hill, Penang

Genting. A big name that almost everyone in Malaysia knows. White clouds, cool weather, fun theme parks, nice scenary, heaven.

But, this is a different Genting. Located in Balik Pulau, Penang, Bukit Genting Hill is a hill top restaurant and tourism spot, although, not that hot, yet. It's gaining fame and customers with time, which can be observed since my last and recent visit. Another heaven that you can find in Penang.

Introducing: Bukit Genting Hill, Penang.

The restaurant mainly serves Thai food, which is, I consider, one of the best Thai food you can get. However, if you're here just for the food, and, paying only for the food, I would say it's not worth the money.

What you're paying for is what you can't buy with money. Nature beauty. Located strategically on the hill top in the middle of Balik Pulau, you can see the amazing sea view from the restaurant, as well as the wide, peaceful paddy fields. On the other side of the hill, you can see the towns in Balik Pulau, which brings a different kind of experience. Here are some of the panaromic views shot by me (oh the real thing is surely much better, as I was alone with my not-so-cool camera, well, too bad).

These are the sea and sun and clouds and paddy fields, in short, pure breath taking beauty.

While this, is the other side of the hill. For Penang is an island (I'm amazed that many do not know this, for example, my dear friend thought it was beside Johor, which is located about 800km from Penang), you can easily see beaches and sea. Photo shown is the developing town of Balik Pulau, 30 minutes from Georgetown, the main province of Penang island.

For sure, if you're up on the right time, you can have the chance to watch sunrise and sunset, which is, again, beautiful (sorry for the recycling of adjectives, for I don't have the thesaurus with me).

Now turn into the food. If I'm not mistaken*, the food here is prepared by real Thai chefs, and the owner himself is either a Thai, or related. Allow me to drag more things in. As far as I know, again, if I'm not mistaken, the owner owns the whole hill, and developed the road, electricity connections and water supply himself. (*this is not proven information, just, as what normal Penangites do, I 'heard')

Back to the food. Nice food, but the portion is small. For hungry people like me, it's never enough.

Some food I ordered. On my previous trips, I remember ordering the steamed fish, seafood tomyam, otak-otak, green curry and some other side orders. All of them satisfied my taste buds.

While these are the pricelists, as of 13th April 2009.

And for the business hours:

And it will be opened on public holidays too, even my birthday.

And it's a sin not to share some night views:

Oh yeah, the...... 'atap house' setting:

There are a lot more (really, I mean a lot) to discover in Bukit Genting Hill. The night scene (not all posted, I'm sorry that you're reading a blog with lazy editor and limited bandwidth), flora, fauna, chalet and much much more! It's a place definitely worth your visit, but beware, you'll need a not-so-big car to get up to the hill, as it is quite steep, but narrow on the way up.

See you soon!

Welcome to Uncompassed Footsteps - Editor's Note

Ok, let's start with something ordinary.

Hi, welcome to Uncompassed Footsteps, a blog where you can go any places (that I went) by just sitting on your comfortable couch (or lying on your bed, 'cause this is what I do usually).
I will, in this blog, introduce to you places that I went, things that I ate, and sights that I saw. Well they might not all be popular places or tourism hotspots, but places that I pass by by chance, places that I found interesting that you may not know.
This is not a 'professional' tourism or travelling introduction site, but merely a place where I'd like to share about places. I still have sub-professional English and grammar (as you can/will see very soon), which, I can't describe things as wonderful as it is; but, the good side is, I won't be able to make something less-than-wonderful become heavenly created treasure.

Why Uncompassed Footsteps?
Frankly, oh wait, HEY, it's not even an English word! What, 'Uncompassed'?
Neither do I know why I put 'Uncompassed Footsteps', well, 'Footsteps' is easily explainable, but 'Uncompassed'?
Back to the first word. Frankly, I know what was I writing. Compass, I like compass. I have one since I was......young (forgot how many years ago). I still have it with me, and it's the one on the banner. Since we're in Malaysia, we (or at least me) like to create new words from assigning, by force, some prefix to a word, thus, creating a new word. This is how 'Uncompassed' was born.
un-Compass-ed actually.
It brings me a sensation of losing directions. Travellers would not like that, but that's what I'm looking for. Get lost, get into a place where nobody knows, discover the wonderfulness, and then, present it to the world (or at least in my blog). Compass brings direction, so 'un-compass'......take away directions. Let me add this cute little emoticon here. =.=

Who am I?
Oh hi : ) You can call me Yan (pronounced as "Yen", the Japanese currency).
I'm just an ordinary student studying in an ordinary university living an ordinary life.
Well maybe not so ordinary, but if you get me......? XD
I'm currently equipped with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 prosumers digital camera (sure as hell it doesn't look cooler than dSLRs, but it served and still serving me very well), a Konica Minolta three section tripod (and yes, it is a free gift from the camera), and a piece of flat steel pounded into not-so-aerodynamic shape, comes with four doors, four wheels, and a combination of complicated machenism machine mounted in front of it (I think they call it a car).
I may be to long winded for you, please bear with me, I'm born like this.

Uncompassed Footsteps
This blog is dedicated to the people I loved, loving, and will love, also to the people who care and love me.
And sorry if my English is poor, Blogger doesn't provide a dictionary just right beside the typing pane, instead, leaving it blank, and I'm lazy to move my hands for one and a half feet to grab my dictionary.
Thirdly, if you have any enquiries or suggestion, feel free to leave a comment, or email me at yan5619 at gmail dot com or yan5619 at hotmail dot com. Oh yeah, if you wonder, 'at' should be replaced by '@', and 'dot' should be replaced by '.'.
Finally, enjoy yourself in Uncompassed Footsteps. Thank you. : )

Yours sincerely,
Yan,
Editor