Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sharing of EAT.PRAY.LOVE

I spotted this book while spending my time in a bookshop before meeting up a friend for dinner 3 years ago. I was attracted by the book title at first and decided to spend some time to read through the summary. Wow, the book is about EAT, TRAVEL and LOVE, which sounds interesting to me. So, I started to read it chapter by chapter until my friend called me up and said "Hey friend! Where are you, are you coming?" Oops, I'd forgotten the dating and rushed to meet up my friend, and of course with this entertaining and enlightening book.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The author, Elizabeth Gilbert travels to 3 different countries - Italy, India and Indonesia to find back the balance of her life after her divorce. She experiences and explores different cultures, meets different people and learns things she never learn before in New York. [EAT]In Italy, she tries and best yummy Pizza in Italy and experiences the soccer game there, but you can't find soccer game scene in the movie. [PRAY]In India, she learns how to do meditation peacefully, however she start off with frustration because she can't concentrate herself in the room.[LOVE]In Bali(Indonesia), she finds Ketut, the  medicine man she met 2 years ago.I like the old man who act as Ketut in the movie, he is so cute and impressed me the most in entire movie. At the end, Liz falls in love with a Brazilian man in Bali and the story ended here.
Julia Roberts in the movie^^
I wouldn't say there are no differences between book and movie as movie has missed out some of the characters and nice scenes from the book. Most of the book readers would claim to have all the interesting scenes and characters to be shown in the movie. It took almost a year of period for Liz to travel along these 3 countries but I feel like the movie only took 1 months to finish up the story. Anyhow, book and movie are nice to me, Julia Roberts has made the character as lively as the book, and she is one of my favourite actresses.
Guess who is this? Yeah, she is Elizabeth Gilbert.
It is a wonderful book which I would recommend for girls to read. You will discover something from the book which would nourish your life. It's a real story, enjoy reading^^

Ending this blog with my favourite quotes from the book, by Ketut: "To meditate only you must smile. Smile with your face smile, with your mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. Even smile with your liver.
Ketut in the movie, I like him :)

Monday, October 18, 2010

Belgium Part 5: Gent

A beautiful city where preserves a lot of historical architectures as if you are returning back to the "14th century"



 Belfort, one of the splendid belfry on Botermarkt; adjoining with the rectangular hall which is the Cloth hall

 The castle of Gerald the Devil. Why is it called "The devil"? It is actually has a story behind. Free free to google it if you are interested =)

Van Eyck statue and Sint-Baafskathedral

 Silently taking a quick snap in front of someone's (unknown) house... hehe!

I love this garden sooo much...feeling to dance in such a vast flowery garden!

People here cycling alot. Bicycle slots can be found at many places.

Spotted this ship cafe parked at the riverside. Good idea, huh?

So "Winter Sonata" right? =P. How romantic if you are holding your loved one strolling along this path ^^

Initally, we started our tour by walking from this Gent train station but end up taking a tram back to the station. Too Tired after walking too much and too far perhaps @@

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Belgium Part 4: Dinant

 If you are wondering what so attractive of Dinant, I would say it's a place to retreat and to heal your soul.

Immediately intoxicated with this enchanting scenary upon I made my foot steps here. 

Standing on the bridge over Meuse River. I could feel the breeze is singing around me.

Capturing the beauty of Dinant during the sunset. Colourful houses are built along the river.
 
 Peaceful and tranquil
 
River tour is available here

The sun's ray painted the buildings with golden colour

It was such a comfortable trip although it only lasted for an hour plus with another 1.5 hour of journey by train from Brussels = )

Friday, October 1, 2010

Belgium Part 3: Antwerp

I am glad that I still have some leisure time to travel away from Brussels after back from work during weekdays. It's all thanks to the long day time happened during the period of my stay in Belgium. You know, the sky only gets dark from 9.30 p.m. How nice!



From Brussels, if you wish to travel to other cities (within/outside Belgium), the main train station would be the Midi station which serves as the central point. There are 2 types of ticket you may consider according to your need and budget - A single/retun ticket to 1 city or a 10-single-way pass to any city. One of the benefit of the second type of the ticket is that you can share it with your friends. At the end, you might be able to save up some money.

Here is my returned ticket from Brussels to Antwerp
.
 A guy is selling food and beverage inside the train.

Antwerp was the first city I explored in my list =) It's known as a diamond land where you can see many shops selling diamonds around however I was not going there for the sake of diamond. There are still a lot of magnificient, historial and interesting landmarks to see. Due to the time contraint, I only managed to visit 10% of the tourist spots -.-'

Upon arrival at Antwerp Central station.

 The Antwerp central station itself is one of the must-visit-place.

 Look at the interior, it is just like a piece of antique covering by a huge iron and glass vaulted ceiling.

 The view from outside the station

I didn't know Belgium has this, too! It reminds me of my childhood's favourite.

Grote Markt, located at the city square

These beautiful Guild houses are found nearby the city square

 The Antwerp Cathedral of our Lady. A great masterpiece!

 Can I have a hotdog burger? (Sorry, we are closing!)

Or perhaps some fries over here?

Oops, it's late! Gotta go back to Brussel (Yes, with my take away McDonald's burger set meal).

Bye Antwerp!