Chua Chu Kang scouting trip...

Ok, it doesn't mean we always have to go abroad... today, we will attempt to look for some old kampong trails in Chua Chu Kang... will post LIVE on Facebook and here (if possible)

Cheers!

Have MD. Will Travel. To Desaru, Malaysia 马来西亚迪沙鲁探宝之旅 (Part 1)

28th December - Originally, we had planned a trip to a Kelong Resort on Batam Island. However, just a day before the trip, a friend who's already there called to inform that the roof was leaking and that we should be taking it in stride since I have a toddler with me.
Being an extremely flexible, we decided to make some last minute changes to our plans.

12月28日 - 原本全家兴致勃勃准备去巴淡岛度假，哪儿知道出发前两天的一场暴风雨把我们要去的度假村的屋顶轰破了一个大洞！使我们不得不更改行程！

Fortunately, we found a really cool deal after a quick search on Booking.com. It was a 4D3N resort stay at Lotus Resort Desaru for a mere S$589 (not including taxes), with a unit which has 3 bedrooms. (Just nice for 4 adults, 2 kids and a toddler!)

很幸运的，我找到了一个特别优惠价的套房！莲花迪沙鲁海滩度假村的3房大套房，4天3夜，只需新币$589元！

A quick call to my father-in-law, he was just as happy to make the switch and we turned our traveling compass 180 degrees toward the Malaysia Peninsula instead! (Batam will be postponed to a couple of months later at no extra costs!)

一通简短的电话，岳父大人的应肯，我们便把旅行的矛头180度的转向马来西亚半岛！

With the itinerary confirmed with the reservations done online, we split into 2 cars and started our holidays to Desaru, Malaysia!

目标既然已定，隔天一早，我们便一队人马分两辆车往迪沙鲁出发!

 

Right after the immigration customs, we brought the whole family to our favourite Wanton Noodle stall at Jalan Keris. (Pictures above were from a different trip)

一过关卡，我便带领岳父岳母来到我们平时最喜欢吃的“许记手工云吞面”，大快朵颐！（应该看得出我的小宝贝吃得有多开心吧！）

After having our fill, we made sure our cars have their fill of RON97 petrol before we continued our journey towards Desaru.

吃饱喝足，我们便让汽车也吃了饱饱的一餐97级的燃油，然后就往迪沙鲁冲去！

In the past, we would have needed a cool 1.5-2 hours to get to Desaru using the old route. Now, with the new Desaru-Senai highway, we cut down the travel time by 30-45 minutes. We made good time and were soon at our stay for the next 4 days.

以前，要到迪沙鲁必得花上1.5-2个小时的车程才能抵达目的地。但是，现在有了迪沙鲁高架桥，行程缩短了将近30-45分钟。很快地，我们便到达了度假村。

As we had arrived before their standard check-in time, both men (me and my father-in-law of cos) decided to pop over to the beach bar for some BEER! Nothing like a nice cold beer after a long drive for the masculine drivers! LoL

因为抵达时间太早，我们没能取得房间钥匙。索性便叫了岳父一起到沙滩上的吧台喝上一杯！OK不只一杯啦! 超爽！

After checking in...

登记之后...

This blog is supposed to be about metal detecting while travelling... as you can guess... I was at the beach the following morning while the family went for their nice breakfast buffet (included free)

 第二天一早，我便往沙滩去探宝了。而我的宝贝们都去吃早餐！

As the weather forecast was 3 days of storm, we decided that we will do a little sightseeing while the weather is fair and not pouring.

天气预报指出接下来的3天里都会是暴风雨，所以，我们便乘天气还好时，就赶紧出去“游车河”！

 

 

Since we are in Desaru, it only made sense that we pay the Desaru Ostrich Farm a visit. We were here 4 years ago, all of us except Baby Belle, and she's already a beautiful 3 year old now.

我们赶去哪儿观光呢？
答案：鸵鸟农场！4年前我们来时，还没有小宝贝。现在，她都已经3岁了！

 

 

Since the weather was still fair and kind to us, we decided to continue to Pengerang for some shopping of local delights..

逛完鸵鸟农场后，看天气还好，我们便一鼓作气，继续往边佳兰前进！(新加坡人俗称为：泗湾岛 - 其实，根本就不是岛！)

After the shopping and beer (me and my father-in-law again), the gloomy clouds towered over us... we decided better to head back to the resort before it really pours.

And while on the way back, I took a detour to the old abandoned houses we saw on our way to Pengerang for some metal detecting..

疯狂购物后，看看天色，乌云又像将至... 打道回府！我更是借此机会在之前沿途所经过的老旧的弃屋旁... 探宝！

To be continued...

待续...

A Bilingual Blog 双语博客日志：And the journey begins! 探宝之旅-启程！

Hello!

Welcome to my Conservation MD Travel Blog!

Some of you who may have read my other blog on MDFanatic.com will know that blog chronicles mainly my Metal Detecting finds and tips and whatnots.
http://www.mdfanatic.com/forums/blogs/journey-of-a-singaporean-metal-detectorist

So why did I choose to write a new blog here?

The reason I am writing this blog... is... *drum roll*

Ok ok ok... Cut the crap...

I am dedicating this blog to Travelling and Metal Detecting (and what I personally call Conservation Metal Detecting). << Please mark this down, I coined this earlier but I officially published this on this day of 27th December of 2014! hahaha!

I am hoping that with my travelling, I will be able to meet up with people, show them what metal detecting can unearth from their grounds and what history they can discover in their surroundings.
Hopefully, this will spur interests in both history, history conservation as well as metal detecting as a hobby.
Truth is, many historical items (especially in Asia, Singapore included) are lost to urban development and may never ever see light again.
To top it off, governments are more interested in development than to preserve history... in most cases, when making a choice between economical value and historical value, the latter will lose...

I hope with a new generation of educated metal detectorists, we will be able to not only unearth history and bring it to light, we can also preserve the history via social media and other archival means to archive our finds and their locations, allowing for better historical data mining in future.
(You may want to keep locations confidential in your personal records to safeguard the locations from historical thieves)

For the record, I am not against keeping finds, but I do hope that historical finds will be surrendered to the national museums for them to chronicle the history of the find and the significance of the find however insignificant they may be. And where such authorities are not available at the moment of your find, please do make your own records for possible future submission to the relevant authorities for their archaeological research and archival works.

I will be making some short entries soon. And although I may not be a good writer (as yet), but I will only get better as I go. (okok, I hope)

Anyway, I will be making this a bilingual blog. Hence, for every entry that I make in English, I will be writing one in Chinese. (Ok... this is going to be a real challenge... I need to translate this! Anyone willing to help?)

Please do support this little effort that I have done for "Conservation Metal Detecting" (there! I used it again!) and I hope you will spread the word and help in this same cause.

For those who hunts, happy hunting and good luck!
For those who are yet to start hunting, do hope to see you start soon and help us in our quest for Conservation Metal Detecting!

And hopefully, in future, we will see more people who will join me as part of the "Have MD. Will Travel" journey or better yet, create one of your own!

Bye for now!

The (Conservation) Metal Detecting Traveller


=======================================

嗨！

欢迎来到我的探宝旅游博客日志！

你们当中有些人可能已经阅过我在MDFanatic.com的博客日志，其博客记载的主要是我在金属探测时所找到的物品和我这两年来的探宝心得。
http://www.mdfanatic.com/forums/blogs/journey-of-a-singaporean-metal-detectorist

因此，你也许会问我为什么选择在这里又设了一个新的博客日志呢？

这个综合旅行与金属探测/探宝的博客日志，将会是我致力于旅游时探宝的实况记录（以及我个人称之为“护史金属探测”或是“护史探宝”的日志）。 <<这可是我在2014年12月27日，创造的词汇！哈哈哈！说不定有一天这会是一个通用的词汇呢！

我希望随着我的“周游列国”，我将能够让更多人认识到金属探测（这个在亚洲区的新兴嗜好），并让他们意识到可以从他们的周围发现长埋土里的历史文物及遗失了很久的饰物，等等。

我希望，这将刺激人们对历史文物保护以及金属探测/探宝的兴趣。

事实上，许多历史的文物与饰品（特别是在亚洲，包括新加坡在内）都因为城市的发展而再也不能从见天日，从此长埋在我们脚下的土壤里。

更糟糕的是，当政府需要取决于城市发展或保留历史文物及古迹时，往往都会选择放弃历史而选择发展。

我希望能尽一点绵力，与新一代的金属探测爱好者，一起发掘并保护历史。
然后，我们也可以通过社交媒体记载所有被发现的历史文物，从而更好把历史数据储存起来。

希望将来这些数据都可以提交到考古研究和其档案工作者的存库中。

这个日志将以双语的形式编写。如果有写得不好的地方，还请大家间量与包涵。

请支持我的这一点点绵力！谢谢！

再见！

（护史）金属探测旅行者