I am sure many of you would have heard about this fantastic landmark situated in New York, off Manhattan Island. What a lot of people might not know about is Ellis Island. When I was traveling around in that region, there were many options to choose from and I always planned that I will head back to New York again in the future.

There are a couple of ways to actually see the Statue of Liberty, you can take a helicopter tour where the Statue would be extremely small. Of course that would cost you quite a fair bit but you get to enjoy the view of New York. If money is of a concern of you, then you can also take the Staten Island Ferry which is free! Only thing is that you need a 300mm lens to get a good view of the Statue of Liberty.

The last option, which was the option I took, was that I bought a City Pass (USD$79) that allows me to go to various tourist attractions around New York at a cheaper rate. The pass provided a tour which visits the Statue of Liberty as well as Ellis Island.

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Above were some of the shots that were taken from the ferry before docking on the island. I was amongst everyone else trying to get a view of the Statue and trust me, there were plenty of people pulling out their cameras and video cameras capturing the spectacular sight of a huge statue before us.

The first thing we did after we landed on the island was to get some lunch and walk around the park enjoying the cool New York breeze. It was a tad bit cold that day (I was wearing shorts at the time!) but it was still bearable thanks to my natural insulation ;)



There is also a museum located at the back of the Statue of Liberty but note that the City Pass does not cover the cost of going into the museum nor does it allow you to enter the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately at that time we were there, they hadn't open the entrance or the section which allowed visitors to climb all the way to the torch of the statue.



All we could do was to admire the statue from the base. Of course besides just the statue, there is a gift shop and a restaurant which serves fish and chips.



The park was also filled with mini statues of various guys, I think they were the architects who build the statue. I think.

After debarking from Liberty Island, the ferry wouldn't head back to Manhattan Island but it brings everyone to Ellis Island. Now you might have heard about Ellis Island from one of the popular movies, Hitch, starring Will Smith. In the show, his first date with Sara Melas (played by Eva Mendes) was at Ellis Island. So it was pretty cool to actually walk around the huge museum.



There were many tours about including live shows where actors would act out the reenactment of the people who traveled from around the world to head to New York to find a better life.



Talking about the number of immigrants, it sort of also reminded me of the old show, Gangs of New York where there were plenty of Irish immigrants in New York at that time.

So if you are in the New York area, these are one of the must go to places.

Yup, been totally poisoned by this car lately and I have been doing tonnes of research on the car as well as check out some of the cars that have been offered at some of the dealers nearby. I am actually not even sure why I suddenly got hooked on this car but the fact that I keep seeing it more often on the road (perhaps I am just a little more observant nowadays) reminds me that I really like how sporty it looks as well as the amount of horsepower and crazy widgetry it has.

I guess it can be due to the test drive I went for last month at the FA Wagen outlet at Jalan 222 where I drove the Golf GTI Mk6 (just launched in Nov 2009) around and I fell absolutely in love with the car. The smooth handling and drive as well as the super quick DSG gearbox (the salesman kept on emphasising that the DSG gearbox changes gears faster than a Ferrari Enzo), the car totally blew me away. One of my favourite novelties about this new version (compared to the older Mk5), is the variable suspension setting, and by variable I mean the ability to switch from sports mode to comfort mode or set it in auto mode.



One of the key differences between the Mk5 and the Mk6 is the steering wheel, I prefer the newer more sportier look of the Mk6 steering wheel design compared to the Mk5.

Even with this obsession, I decided to go about and check the current prices of the 2nd hand market of the Golf GTI Mk5 and found quite a fair number of them on the market. Prices are still a little steep especially since when Naza Italia sold quite a bunch of Golf GTI Mk5 previously after the Tour De Langkawi at a lower price but price ranges are around in the RM150k-175k range depending on the year of the car (05, 07 and 08 models) and the mileage. I checked out a couple of our local forums and found several members there selling their cars there as well, prices are a lot more competitive compared to car dealers.

Anyway this car will still be a dream for me, still pretty much have other priorities I have to take care off (mainly paying for my wedding this year and buying furniture before moving into my new place) hence this car will not be a priority yet. At the moment, I heard there will be new models coming in soon from Volkswagen so who knows the price might drop even further.

p.s. I also heard that a couple of guys are waiting till end March for their Mk6 to be delivered as well

If you are looking for a 2nd hand Golf GTI Mk5, do contact me as I have a friend who is selling off his Mk5 (2007 model at 51k milleage) at a good and reasonable price.

Image source: Volkswagen Malaysia Website

I was rather lucky to be able to go on two trips to Langkawi in 2009 and both of them were complementary. This time round, I stayed at the Sheraton and I was quite surprised by how nice it looked. Instead of flying using AirAsia, this time we decided on flying by Firefly which was a bit more convenient for me because it flys off from Subang Airport.





Because they were propeller planes and do not have jet engines, the flight takes longer as compared to Air Asia or MAS flights and the one thing that was quite unbearable for me was that our flight was the very first flight of the day and the airplane was extremely hot and stuffy inside. I was literally sweating bullets throughout the flight and it was the most uncomfortable flight.

Thank God the moment I arrived at Sheraton in Langkawi, the atmosphere was totally different. I was literally blown away by the service we received and the size of the chalet rooms we had.

The chalet's were a little different than usual, it was located a bit of a distant away from the lobby so everytime you needed to go back to the lobby, you can either walk or call a buggy to pick you up. But of course, being a little bit further away from the lobby meant that you get a little bit more privacy and you also get larger rooms.









The view outside the chalet was quite nice as well.





Definitely one of the nicer hotels to be at in Langkawi. If you get the chance, I would definitely recommend staying in Sheraton hotel.

Anyway a quick word here on my blog, I am trying very hard to stick to my new year's resolutions (I said I will blog more often) hence I am quickly sliding in this post here about the Charge Up Conference.



Technically, the conference has already started and I am rather sad that I can't participate in it for today's session as well as tomorrow's session as I am currently stuck in Putrajaya for training at the moment. At the very earliest, I will make it there on Friday afternoon. This year's Charge Up Conference is the largest one ever with the largest group of participants.

This time round it will be in KL, held at DUMC. Check out some of my blog posts from last year's Charge Up which was held in Penang over here, here and here.

For the participants over there, see you all on Friday afternoon!

Here are some of the behind the scenes shots which Mun Tzin took when I photographed Poh Seong and Chiu Yen's portraiture session at Heritage hotel last year. Last year sounds like a long time but then again, its only January :)





She was playing with my other camera whilst I was shooting the couple. She was also quite intrigued with the bath tubs that were located on the roof of Heritage hotel that she was bugging me to take a picture of her in the tub. Of course I obliged but I took a very quick shot of her.

[caption id="attachment_1425" align="aligncenter" width="852" caption="Mun Tzin in a tub"][/caption]

Thanks again @munz for helping me out that day :)

When Chiu Yen contacted me via email about a portrait shoot, I've always been communication with her. The moment when I arrived at the shoot location, I was so surprised that Poh Seong was there as well. What a small world! Poh Seong is my neighbour and I used to go to the same high school as his younger brother.

After a couple of weeks of planning the shoot and finally the location, we met in KL at the Heritage Hotel for our portrait session.

I was really looking forward to this shoot and here are some of the images that I took during the shoot.

























It was one of the fun shoots that I had and it was great to have been able to shoot both Chiu Yen and Poh Seong. I also have to thank @munz for helping me out throughout the day. She took some behind the scenes shots as well but I haven't gotten around to posting them up yet.