The Night View Of Georgetown, Penang

We had a walk on the Hill after our dinner. After all, that was the purpose staying on this hill! :) It was good to feel the Fresh air and also good for digestion.

When we stepped out the hotel, the time was 9.30pm. That means all the peoples who work on the hill have gone down hill with the last train which left on 9.15pm. The Penang Hill at that moment was very quiet and Peaceful! There were less than 20 peoples hanging around on the hill....
NO wonder, not many visitor like to stay on the hill, because I can't even enjoy a cup of Teh Tarik after 9.15pm! My goodness!!

I just pulled out my tripod somewhere close to the station where I can get very nice view of Georgetown, Penang. It was really a good time for practicing the night shoot cause less distraction. I was trying with my kit lens and the 55-250mm IS Telephoto lens.

Georgetown and Butterworth night view from Penang Hill

I'm using the kit lens mounted on the cheap tripod for the photo above. Personally, quite like it!

Komtar night view from Penang Hill

I was quite disappointed the photo above, because of the blur focus. Even the lens was on manual focus! I found out the reason lately from the DCM magazine, said...normal or cheap tripod is not good enough to handle Telephoto Lens. OH! I miss the perfect moment! Should I go back again with another better tripod?!

 Penang Bridge night view from Penang Hill - captured by kit lens

Twisted, turning and snapping for more than an hour, till my eyes are getting blur from the 'viewfinder'...we lazily walked back to the hotel. We were smart enough to bought few cans of Tuborg beer to keep us company for the night...but...the lights were off at the hotel except the corridor, I felt a bit down cause seems like the situation force us to sleep as early as 10pm?! Oh! We were on holiday!

Luckily, the guy who stand-by night shift was very kind to on the lights for us at the garden area and let us enjoy our beer! We were happy with the arrangement and satisfied with their services. At that moment, we were the only group and felt like Own that area temporary! Haha!

The garden area with all the spot-light on

We chatting at the hut at the most right of the garden (if you notice it from my previous post) for the whole night with the company of this (below) and the beautiful night view of Penang....

Our bucket of Tuborg beer

The temperature getting cold & colder after midnight, it started to drop from 22°C to18°C. We finished our beers in a minute and jump into the blanket! That's cold weather end our Day 1 at Penang Hill.

Penang Hill 2010 related post :-
* Experience the Bellevue Hotel at Penang Hill, Penang
* Bellevue Aviary Garden at Penang Hill, Penang
* Dinner at Bellevue Hotel of Penang Hill, Penang.
* Penang Hill 2010, Penang
 

Dinner at Bellevue Hotel of Penang Hill, Penang.

We were having our (day 1) dinner at Restaurant of Bellevue The Penang Hill Hotel. Took us a while to decide what to eat...

The order below :-

1)  Chicken Chop with french fries.

2)  Set dinner with fried chicken and dolly fish.

3)  Set dinner with vegetables, chicken and dolly fish.

4)  Fired Rice with fried egg (Chef special)

5)  Spring roll.

Chicken Chop with french fries

Set dinner A - Fried chicken, Dolly Fish with rice

Set Dinner B - Chicken, vegetables and Dolly Fish with rice

Fried Rice (Chef Special)

Spring roll

Overall the foods were just ok, average. Nothing to shout about it, expected. But the Spring roll was unexpectedly delicious! Honestly, the environment is much more comfort compare the foods serve by the restaurant...and also we didn't put a high expectation on the foods, but just to enjoy the dinner on 720 meter above sea level! That's Great!

The damage of the dinner : MYR129.00 included drink for 4 adults 1 child.

Despite the poor quality foods, we still enjoy having our dinner at the restaurant especially the night view of Georgetown, Penang.

Penang Hill 2010 related post :-
* Experience the Bellevue Hotel at Penang Hill, Penang 
* Bellevue Aviary Garden at Penang Hill, Penang 
* The Night View Of Georgetown, Penang 
* Penang Hill 2010, Penang

London -- More on New Jewish Museum (by someone who's actually seen it)

The Times of London reports on the new Jewish museum in London -- writer David Aaronovich has actually seen it.

Five years ago I first went to an exhibition at the small Jewish Museum in North London. I suppose I saw it as a rather charming bijou museum, mostly about Jews showing things to other Jews. On March 17, however, it will be relaunched as a much bigger enterprise: the museum I was taken round last week by its director, Rickie Burman, was altogether a different proposition.

The Jews are the nation’s oldest minority, and the first Jewish Museum, mostly of objects from the practice of Judaism in Britain, was opened in 1932. Much later a second museum, devoted to the distinctive history of the Jews of the East End of London, started up in Finchley. In 1995 these two institutions merged into one museum located in two terraced houses in a street not far from Camden market. The museum had already bought the premises backing on to the terrace — a piano factory — for some £4 million. Two major benefactors helped to raise nearly £6 million, to set alongside £4.2 million granted by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The museum closed in 2008 to be reshaped under the old skin of the building. Now it’s ready to emerge. 

[...]

You enter the museum through a series of moving images projected onto five screens, depicting the life and words of a variety of modern British Jews. They include an Edward Lear-bearded, accented Hasidic rabbi; a young gay Jew; an ex-army Jewish princess; the concentration-camp survivor and former British weightlifting champion Ben Helfgott; a London cabbie who had fought in the Yom Kippur war of 1973; a woman Chinese convert to Judaism; a smoked-salmon magnate; and a Guardian journalist. The films are beautifully made and the idea of representing “different ways of being Jewish” is, I think, realised.

Then, right in front of you, is the museum’s “scoop” item. In 2001, excavators in Milk Street in the City of London uncovered a sunken bath made out of green sandstone, 4ft wide and 4ft deep, reached by seven steps. Its location, on the site of a house owned by a Jewish family in the late 13th century, identified it as a mikveh, or ritual bath, typically used by women after menstruation or before attendance at synagogue.

[...]

 There is an interactive “ask the rabbi” feature, in which those who enjoyed A Serious Man can put questions to four rabbis of different denominations (Jews like to argue), and an electronic Ten Commandments. The largest gallery tells the tale of the Jews of Britain through history: the 18th-century Jewish pedlars, the Jewish bare-knuckled boxers, the Jew Bill of 1753 which had to be repealed because of public outcry over naturalisation rights given to Jews, the first Jewish public men, and so on.

Part of the display is in “street” form, representing life in the Jewish East End, and allows visitors to follow members of a Jewish family circa 1900 in their daily lives. There’s even a pot, where you lift the lid and it smells of chicken soup. Very poignant is the small collection of items left and never reclaimed from the deposit boxes in the Poor Jews’ Temporary Shelter. For children and exhibitionists there’s a chance to dress up like characters from the old, lost Yiddish theatre.

Egypt -- Restored Synagogue to be Dedicated

 

 Video of work on the synagogue

 By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This is a bit off geographic topic, but (as Rabbi Andrew Baker notes in an op-ed today) after an 18-month restoration project by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, this historic Maimonides (or Rambam, or "Rav Moshe") synagogue and yeshiva in Cairo is to be reopened and rededicated next week.

Sam Gruber has reported that

This is the first major restoration of Jewish site in Egypt since the much-heralded restoration Cairo's Ben Ezra Synagogue in the 1980s and early 1990s, a project put in motion during the euphoria following the Camp David Accords. [...] The Synagogue is actually a 19th century construction that replaces older buildings, but is adjacent to  an historic and venerated yeshiva associated with Maimonides. - which itself has had a recent history of disasters - recurring flooding from underground water and 1992 earthquake damage. The Yeshiva rooms have niches where, until recently, sick Jews, Muslim and Christians would spend the night praying for their recovery, or for women especially, fertility.

Baker, the director of international Jewish affairs for the American Jewish Committee, has an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune/NYTimes web site about the synagogues, the restoration and the politics around the project.  For the past five years Bakes has met regularly on behalf of the American Jewish Committee with Egyptian officials to press for the preservation of Jewish heritage, which, in addition to Rav Moshe, includes a dozen synagogues and several cemeteries in Cairo and Alexandria, most of them in poor repair.

The nearly $2 million restoration involved a team of Egyptian experts. Few people were aware of it until last September when Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s antiquities czar, brought reporters to the site and declared: “It’s part of our history. It’s part of our heritage,” Dr. Hawas proudly declared. Some cynics suggested that the project was initiated to shore up the candidacy of Egypt’s culture minister, Farouk Hosny, in his unsuccessful bid to head Unesco.

But, write Baker: this was not just any synagogue. Rav Moshe was considered to have special healing powers. One elderly Egyptian Jew now living in Europe told me how his childhood stuttering disappeared after his mother made him spend the night there. His miracle cure was a commonplace experience for many of Cairo’s Jews who sometimes called it the “Jewish Lourdes.”  [...]

In Maimonides’ day, Cairo’s Jewish community was a center of scholarship and commerce, a hub of Jewish life for the entire Middle East. When[ King] Fuad ruled Egypt, more than 80,000 Jews were among his subjects. They were an active, integral presence in the business and cultural life of the country. But that all changed after Israel’s creation in 1948, and especially after Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power in 1953, prompting a mass exodus of Jews. Today’s Jewish population in Egypt is a mere few dozen. [...]

Both Farouk Hosny and Zahi Hawass came to accept the argument that the preservation of Egypt’s rich Jewish heritage was also their obligation. Slowly but quietly — always quietly — they drew up plans for restoring most Jewish religious sites. They even endorsed our proposal that one of the restored synagogues should serve as a Museum of Egyptian Jewish Heritage, a place that would tell of the long, rich history of Jewish life in Egypt. Only a few knew. Every meeting I had with these Egyptian officials ended with the same admonition — “Please, do not tell anyone.”

Why the secrecy when most governments would want the world to know of such commendable preservation work? In Egypt, the history of living alongside Jewish neighbors has been replaced with the demonizing of Israel, and often of Jews as well. The historic 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty has for too long been ignored by Egypt’s cultural elites who have steadfastly rejected any normalization in relations. Minister Hosny and his colleagues have had reason to fear that Egyptians would react with anger when told of the restoration work.

But the word is out now. And Zahi Hawass, an archeological legend known around the world for touting pyramids and the treasures of King Tut, is now reading up on the deeds of a medieval rabbi. Dr. Hawass promises that six more synagogue buildings in Cairo will be restored within two years. Egypt’s Jewish artifacts will never rival those of the Pharaohs. But reminding today’s Egyptians and others in this troubled region of a time when Jews were a natural part of Egyptian society is important. It may even be a ray of hope when hope is so hard to find in this region. Maybe there will emerge one more miracle to credit to Rav Moshe.

Read full article at the web site

Bellevue Aviary Garden at Penang Hill, Penang

Most of the staffs at Bellevue Hotel were continue invited us to the Bellevue Aviary Garden located just another 100 meter away from the hotel. So I decided to have some excitement for my daughter since she love small animal.

The entrance fee for this bird park are MYR5.00 for adult and MYR3.00 for children. Open daily from 9am - 6pm. Hotel guests will have free entrance.

My daughter curiously asking the name of the snake from the uncle.

Once you stepped in, the area was Full of Green! I love it very much!

Many birds are available here, of course you don't compare with the size of Bird Park around Malaysia. I noticed they really well taking care of the birds here because of the colour...or partly because of the weather too? :)

Parrots and some un-known birds

But I was wondering, why they didn't put a signage of the name for the birds and their type? It's good to let the visitors know more about the birds around...

The Hornbill

There were many type of parrots available here, and they are colourful too! One of the parrots continue greets us with the word :"HELLO!". So my daughter was anxiously looking for the bird who can speak....end up, we found a huge blue parrot which was in the last cage in the row...

Big Blue Parrot

The claws

Surprisingly, it wanted to shake-hand with us!! But it's not advisable because of the sharp claws.

We were hang around the park for more than an hour, walking around and enjoy the birds singing...there's also a small hall within the bird park for meeting and conference purpose.

Please do not pick the flowers in the park!

We had our evening walk along the area after came out from the park...once it getting dark, we were back to the hotel to enjoy our dinner at the elevation of 720 meters above sea levels...

Penang Hill 2010 related post :-
* Experience the Bellevue Hotel at Penang Hill, Penang  
* Dinner at Bellevue Hotel of Penang Hill, Penang. 
* The Night View Of Georgetown, Penang
* Penang Hill 2010, Penang

Experience the Bellevue Hotel at Penang Hill, Penang

We visited this hotel last year during Chinese New Year, and we came and stayed one night in this hotel during this year Chinese New Year 2010. We made the reservation through phone before the Chinese New Year, and realize about this Bellevue Hotel is seldom fully book even during the peak season.
This building was built in the year of 1950's, the age now is more than 60 years. So it makes you feel like walking in a Time Machine! Most of the furniture and decorations will let you feel like back to 1950's...and this building it's belong to Datuk Lim Chong Keat.

There are total of 12 rooms only in the Bellevue Hotel at Penang Hill. It was only 3 rooms occupied during our stayed. My brother took a twin sharing room and I took the family room which is cost us MYR150.00 (Twin sharing) and MYR180.00 (Family room) + 10% tax. The rates was really reasonable during the Super Peak season and the rooms were spacious!

You can see the photos below for the two type of room...

The Standard Room (1 double bed) :-

 

 Small living hall just opposite the queen bed

The Family room ( 3 single beds):-

 

 The Third bed was located in another small room between the family room.

Both rooms have the same setup of the bathroom. Both are equipped with bath tub. The ONLY comment I have is the stains in the bathroom. I understand because of Old building but hopefully the management will clean it to let others hotel guest feel more comfort.

The bathroom

The plain water which serve in both hotel rooms was filled in wine bottle! This is something really unique! I like it very much!

Unique switch from the room

Both rooms also decorated with this type of pictures. Even at the corridor...

Follow the corridor (below), it will lead you to the restaurant and relax area.

The Corridor

 The restaurant is separated into two session, indoor and outdoor. The photo below is the indoor session, and I will show you the outdoor session on our dinner post later...

Relax corner where you can order some soft drink and enjoy the TV show

I was attracted by some of the antiques which were display at the restaurant area...and I believe all these are belong to the British Era...

The Charcoal Bread Toaster (correct me if I'm wrong)

Some kind of Chair for the British VIP

Containers for food or drink

Follow by the outdoor session for the restaurant. Most of the guest will like the outdoor area more. Because of the Fresh air and the Magnificent view of Georgetown, Penang.

Suddenly, I was shocked by the notice on the table! "SNAKE ABOVE" "Beware and Keep Clear" !! Oh NO! I recall what foongpc told me before on my previous post of Bellevue Hotel. And there was One green snake Exactly on top of us!!

Snake at the Outdoor Session of the Restaurant

According to the staff from the hotel, the snake won't disturb the customers and customers also shouldn't disturb the snake! So we let it rest on top of us and we just continue enjoy the scenic view of Georgetown - Penang.

We were really LOVE this small field area and also one of the attraction from the Hotel.

View of Georgetown and Butterworth at Mainland

Tanjung Tokong area also visible from the hotel

After the row of Green Chair (from the pic above), there is another session for event.

Beside the small field, I discovered this hidden session which looks like a canteen. Maybe it's a dining area for the staffs...

And the hidden kitchen of the restaurant is located on the right of the outdoor session...

Overall, we were satisfied with the hotel environment, the friendly staffs and their attitude. It's worth it to put a night or two on the Penang Hill, or you may wanna escape from the hot temperature of Penang Island!

Rated : 4/5

After we settle everything in the hotel, we began to walk around Penang Hill (day 1), and so our stories continue...

Penang Hill 2010 related post :-

* Bellevue Aviary Garden at Penang Hill, Penang 
* Dinner at Bellevue Hotel of Penang Hill, Penang.
* The Night View Of Georgetown, Penang
* Penang Hill 2010, Penang

London -- Jewish Museum to Reopen after Major Transformation and Redevelopment

 By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Jewish Museum in London reopens March 17 after a 10 million pound ($15 million) redevelopment. The new museum places Jewish history and culture in the U.K. in the wider context of British history.

The museum is located in Camden Town, at 129-131 Albert Street, London NW1 7NB.

The exhibits are divided into new galleries including

• Ground floor displays
• History: A British Story
• Judaism: A Living Faith
• The Holocaust Gallery
• Changing Exhibitions

There is also

• Education Space
• Foyle Research Library
• Café
• Museum shop

A press release last fall described the new museum  and its concept as follows:

Its new displays and exhibitions will tell the story of Jewish history, culture and religion in an innovative and compelling way and engage with people of all backgrounds and faiths to explore Jewish heritage and identity as part of the wider story of Britain. The only museum in London dedicated to a minority group, the museum’s expansion and redevelopment was made possible following a £4.2m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

One of Britain’s oldest minority groups, the Jewish community has made a vital contribution to British life. From banking and business to fashion, entertainment and food, many sectors have benefited from the energy and talents of the Jewish community who have come here from all over the world. At the same time, the story of the Jewish people reflects the experiences of other immigrant groups settling in a new country, seeking to make a new life while retaining their identity and traditions. The new museum brings this experience of immigration to life through internationally important collections of artworks, artefacts and photography, as well as ground-breaking interactive displays.

Displayed across four permanent galleries, the huge variety of objects, films, photography, hands-on exhibits and personal stories on display will paint a rich and nuanced picture of British Jewish life and religion as well as exploring contemporary social issues around immigration and settlement. The new museum will also house a Changing Exhibitions Gallery, a 100-seat auditorium, an Education Space and a café and shop.
Highlights from the four permanent galleries include:

• A highly evocative recreation of an East End street and tailor’s workshop brought to life with different characters talking about their lives at home and at work.
• A map showing where Jews have come from around the world, embedded with highly personal objects that they brought with them to their new country, for example a doll brought by a child refugee on the Kindertransport and a bible which was the only object an anti-apartheid activist was allowed to take with him into solitary confinement in prison in South Africa.
• Rare and precious ceremonial objects including a 17th century Italian Ark and the oldest English silver Hanukah lamp.
• A Yiddish theatre karaoke presented by comedian David Schneider, whose grandparents were performers in London’s Yiddish theatre, displayed with costumes, posters, programmes from the museum’s extensive collection.
• A medieval mikveh (ritual bath) from the 13th century, on display for the first time since its discovery in 2001 in the City of London.

The four permanent galleries are:

• Welcome Gallery – This innovative multimedia exhibit is the first you encounter as you enter the museum. It introduces visitors to a diverse range of Jewish people including a third generation smoked salmon manufacturer, an Indian-born marathon-running grandmother, a taxi-driver and an ex-army engineer who was commended for her action during the London bombings of 2005.
• History: A British Story – Visitors can play the Great Migration board game, or smell the chicken soup in an immigrant home. The Same Old Story? interactive display allows visitors to explore attitudes to immigration over the past two centuries. This gallery explores how and why Jewish people have come to the UK from around the world and the challenges of making a new home in a new country.
• Judaism: A Living Faith – Newly commissioned films in this gallery will reveal a range of contemporary Jewish families celebrating festivals and Jewish lifecycle events such as a wedding and bar mitzvah. These are shown alongside rare and beautiful ceremonial objects including silver Torah scrolls made by George III’s silversmith and religious textiles, such as a fabulous Torah mantle commissioned by the Mocatta family, one of the oldest Jewish families in Britain. Interactive displays enable visitors to design their own synagogue and to hear the chanting of the Ten Commandments from a Torah scroll.
• The Holocaust Gallery ­ this unique space explores the impact of Nazism through the experiences and poignant personal items of London-born Auschwitz survivor Leon Greenman OBE and other survivors who have made their home in Britain.

The first temporary exhibition, Changing Cultures, will explore cultural exchange, migration and identity through the work of contemporary artists from immigrant backgrounds living in Britain including Noa Lidor, Yara El-Sherbini, Mona Hatoum and Sonya Boyce amongst others. Planned future exhibitions will cover themes from Jews in Entertainment to Jewish food and comic book superheroes.

The new museum has been designed by Long & Kentish Architects, an award-winning practice who have a long history of developing museums and galleries including the British Library Centre for Conservation, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (Museum of the Year 2007) and the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth. The new museum triples the space at its Camden Town site, combining its premises in Albert Street with an adjacent former piano factory.

Rickie Burman, Director of the Jewish Museum said: “What it means to be British and the issue of cultural identity has never been more hotly debated. At the new Jewish Museum we explore these issues in the context of one of Britain’s oldest immigrant communities. We hope our ground-breaking new displays will inspire people to take a stand against racism and build interfaith understanding and connection."

The Jewish Museum London brings together two distinguished museums with complementary collections - the Jewish Museum and the former London Museum of Jewish Life. For the first time these important collections will be brought together on a single site.

The Jewish Museum was founded in 1932 and merged in 1995 with the London Museum of Jewish Life, which was created to preserve the disappearing heritage of London’s East End. While the East End has remained an important focus, the museum expanded to reflect the diverse roots and social history of Jewish people across London. It has also developed an acclaimed programme of Holocaust and anti-racist education.
Between 1995 and 2007 the combined Jewish Museum ran on two sites, but with a long-term aim to find the means to combine the two collections, activities and displays within a single site. In 2005 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £4.2 million towards the museum’s development project and following years of planning and fundraising, building work started in January 2008.

The Jewish Museum’s collections of ceremonial art are among the finest in the world. In recognition of the outstanding importance of the museum’s collections as part of Britain’s national heritage, the Jewish Museum has been awarded Designated status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, one of only 14 museums in London to be awarded this special status.

Long & Kentish The partnership of MJ Long and Rolfe Kentish was formed in 1994, but the experience of the partners goes back many years before, when they were with Colin St John Wilson, working on the new British Library. The practice’s current projects include the Durlston World Heritage Gateway Centre, The University of Essex Centre for Latin American Art and an apartment building in Falmouth. MJ Long was born in the USA and studied at Yale. She has lived in England since 1965, and worked with Sandy Wilson from 1965 to 1996. MJ also ran a separate practice, mostly designing studios for artists, from 1974 to 1996. In 2009 she was awarded an OBE for her services to architecture and architectural education. http://www.longkentish.com/
Event Communications is responsible for exhibition design of the new galleries at the Jewish Museum. Event is Europe’s leading exhibition design group, recognised as a pacesetter for pushing the boundaries of existing practice and constantly exploring new ways to interpret, present and connect with audiences.