Travel

Walk Walk Eat Eat in Penang (Again) – Day 1

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! It’s a long holiday as it was the Merdeka Day on Monday. Packed our bags and drove back Penang for a short vacation. This time around, ma, May and Yin joined us. Started our journey from home at 5am and reached Penang at an early 9am! Really great timing. Got loads of time to ‘jalan jalan cari makan’.
  
After dropping our bags at Mein’s house, we headed towards Padang Kota Lama. Wanted to enter the Fort Cornwallis BUT didn’t as it’s not free. Been there before, so just took some photos outside.
  
 
  
Look at the rusty parking meter stand. Eroded due to salt water. Don’t believe? Look at the “tsunami-like” waves flushed out from the sea to the road.
* MPPP = Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang
 
 
 
 
Tsunami in the making…
 
 
 
After Cornwallis, drove to Gurney Drive for a short walk… Since it’s so hot under the sun, we went in to Gurney Plaza for some air-conditiong… Good timing – Camera fair was on there at the concourse area. Bought an air blower for my baby EOS. She needs some cleaning once in awhile.
  
I love this picture taken from Gurney Plaza… (Old men + Menu as the focused points)
 
Hungry… and it’s almost time to check-in to hotel (for the girls…)… Headed to Jalan Burma and found the hotel. It’s not a fancy hotel but just an economical one. However, we found that the stay there was good! You’ll know which hotel later… Ok, had lunch in the New World Park Food Court, which is right beside the hotel… Great location!
 
Mango Ice Kacang… Nice!
 
Mixed Fruits Ice Kacang…
 
My lunch – duck rice… so-so only lah…
 
New World Park Food Court…
 
Ei… such a small world… it’s Wei Ching and Tuck Chin (from KL)… *smile!* Hey guys! Don’t forget our Sepang Gold Coast trip soon…
 
Our favourite stall, the fruit stall!!! Attack!!! Actually, we dropped by this stall every time we passed by.
 
Ee Nya Kuih – A local delicacy made of rice flour and alkaline water (“kan shui”) served with gula melaka… Taste great! We had FOUR bowls of this in our 3-days trip!
A sneak preview of the hotel… Red + white = Air Asia ???
It’s Tune Hotel (by the same Company of Air Asia)…
Price = StarStarStarStar
Comfort = StarStarStar
Location = StarStarStarStar
Convenience = StarStarStarStar
 
  
Small but compact!
 
 
The view outside… Look! It’s Komtar!
 
My reflection…
 
 
 
They use Kong Koil mattress!!!
 
 
After the girls freshen up, we started back out journey. This round, we went to Queensbay Mall. Nothing much to do, but just ‘jalan jalan’… As usual, bought a box of suchi from Jusco… but not as good as those from Jusco Mid Valley… They are always my favourite… Kudos! Jusco Mid Valley…
 
Saw this restaurant called T-Bowl, all decorated with items in toilets such as toilet bowl, bath tub, sinki and etc…
 
In the evening, we went for dinner with Mein’s parents and her brother. Her brother brought us to this food court called Bali-bali in Jelutong.
 
The big grilled seafood stall…
 
 
Fried oyster… This one not so good. Too much corn flour…
 
Our drinks…
 
Grilled corns… very sweet! Worth a try…
 
Fried ‘balitong’ (siput sedut)…
 
Grilled sting ray…
 
After the dinner, I drove the girls back to hotel. Not willing to sleep yet, we walked about the surrounding area, hoping to find something new… (to eat…!) Good enough, we found out that the stretch of steamboat restaurants in Jalan Nagore are just around the corner and there were so many people there! Good enough, we found a restaurant selling ‘tong shui’ (desserts) nearby. Not everyone from our group likes them. However I liked the one that ma ordered. I didn’t want to say much about this restaurant as I find it disturbing as I was stopped (in a harsh voice tone) from taking photographs of their food and menu… I wanted to take a snap of their menu as I wanted to note down the names of their dishes but the owner stopped me… (There you go! You’ve missed a chance of free publicity, woman!)
 
Travel

A Flora Paradise

It’s like a paradise of flora here… Our eyes got captured by the 3 huge hot air balloons, floating in the air. It’s also my first expedition with my Canon EOS1000D. Once we got out from the car, we were too excited but to dash to the field where the big balloons were. Looking around, we realised that there were a lot more photographers, professionals or amateurs, handling their own gadgets, trying to get the best angle for their pictures. I got intimidated a bit as mine is just a "beginner" set. But I think I’m good enough to have my own DSLR. So… whatever!
 
We then walked around and reached the indoor area. Walked in and were welcomed by a breeze of cold air. So cooling in the closed tent. There, stood tall was the flower tower and a cute little flower tapir. There was also an area with the underwater world theme. Paradise of birds was just next to the underwater area. I don’t get it quite well. Why was the kuaci seeds rhino got fixed together with the birds? Maybe a kuaci rhino can fly kot…?! 😛
 
After that, it’s the burning outdoor again. We didn’t bring any umbrella. So, we walked around under the hot sun. There were numerous stalls of art and painting demos. The area I liked most was the orchid farm area. The orchids were extremely beautiful and of all species and varieties.
 
After walking around for quite some time, we reached the 1Malaysia theme park, with a huge number "1" and replica of KLCC Twin Tower as well as a fish (dunno what it represents)… Next to it, we found my favourite flower – HIBISCUS! But those there were not as eye-catching as those in Cameron Highlands… Oops! So, where were we actually? With all those flora and flowers I mentioned, I bet some of you might think that we were in Camerons but we were actually in Putrajaya! Yes! It’s the FLORIA’09. The Flora Festival held in Waterfront, Precinct 2, Putrajaya.
 
Those interested, you guys can drop by anytime ’til 9 August 09. So, be quick!
 
IMG_0207 IMG_0255  
IMG_0222  My breakfast… 
IMG_0272  Look at those photographers below the balloons… 
IMG_0329 Flower Tower! So high!!! 
IMG_0342  Little flower tapir… Cute kan? 
IMG_0363 IMG_0383 IMG_0537
IMG_0410 Painting demo… 
IMG_0419 Beautiful painting! So colourful… 
IMG_0477 花… Orchid lah… 
IMG_0638 Bunga raya aka hibiscus… 
IMG_0649 Orkid hutan?! Looks like a crab to me…
IMG_0601 Walking flora… aka flower boys?!
IMG_0555 The loving couple… Jangan jealous…! Hehehe…
IMG_0685 The photographer… aka Dixon Thum… Muahaha!!!
Travel

Think Travel, Love Travel, PYO Travel

 
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I’ll be one of the contributors there too starting from next week onwards. See you guys there!
 
Think Travel, Love Travel, Plan Your Own Travel~!
Travel

Day 3 @ Penang

The last day is always the hardest day to go through… I always feel sad leaving Penang and Mein’s parents. And mostly on our last days in Penang, it would be raining… Not sure if this is a sign of "crying" in our heart…
 
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I stayed at Chee Fah’s hotel for a night and in the morning while walking back to the car, after checking out, we saw this Nasi Kandar Line Clear which is really famous Penang located along Jalan Pinang. It’s opened 24 hours daily and you will never got a chance to see no queues in the stall.
 
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Later in the day, while Mein went to visit her grandmother, Chee Fah and I went for a short walk around the area. Went to take some photos in Sun Yat-sen Centre. They were closed as it’s a Sunday but we just walked to the statue to snap snap!
 
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For the first time while driving back to KL, we dropped by Ipoh for dinner. We had "Kai See Hor Fun" (Shreded Chicken with Rice Noodle) and beansprout. While looking for souvenirs, I saw these cute green bean paste biscuits and bought four pieces (RM2 each) – a puppy, a cow, a mouse and a rabbit. This was the  stall which was featured in "Ho Chiak" TV programme lately.
Travel

Day 2 @ Penang

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Started the day with some Nyonya kuihs, my favourite!
 
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Headed to Bukit Mertajam for Sarah and Mahathir’s wedding ceremony… They are my best friends from JPPK YAB when I studied in UUM. No one ever predicted that they are actually destined together… I wish them all the very best in life and semoga bahagia sehingga ke anak cucu!
 
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Mein and I in front of the pelamin…
 
In the late afternoon, we went to the Museum and Art Gallery of Penang which is situated along Jalan Farquhar. To our surprise, Mein’s mother saw her grandmother’s photo in one part of the museum! Quickly took some photos with the ancestor.
 
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Her grandmother
 
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Her great grandmother
 
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It’s actually prohibited to take photos in the museum but you can never stop a blogger from snapping his way all day long! 🙂 There was a section where they displayed Kokeshi dolls from Japan. They were cute but I’m not sure why were they brought in and exhibited in this museum…
 
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No photos please! 😛
 
It was quite a short visit at the museum and they were closing. They people there kept on repeating themselves reminding us that they were closing in 5-10 minutes… Chasing us away! Bad bad bad! Muey mal! (Spanish)
 
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Note : Museum and Art Gallery of Penang is opened from Saturday to Thursday (9.00am to 5.00pm) and closed on Friday.
Entrance fee : RM1.00 only.
 
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Then we drove all the way to Batu Ferringhi and managed to sight see for awhile… before being hit by heavy rain!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!! There were all sorts of water sports akin water ski, boat riding, banana boat and etc, but we were there not for these…
 
We had dinner at the food court in Padang Kota Lama and to our surprise, we found the best fried oyster and siput sedut ever which were cheap! So cheap that you would believe it…! Will definitely come back for more…