Photos: AIMST University
Place: AIMST University
Date: 8th July 2010
Photos:
~Front shot of the library building~
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~Side shot of the dentistry building~
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~The dental institute~
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~The library building ceiling~
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~Main building gardens~
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~Main building gardens~
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~Stairs heading up the main buiding~
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~Side shot of the library building~
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~View of the main building from the back~
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~Stairs going up in the library building~
June, July and August 2010 and a bit of updates
Will be quite packed throughout these three months. A list of things to do. Be ‘amazed’ 
June
1st Weekend: Li Hong wedding at JB (went- photos editing still on till now)
2nd Weekend: NowiSee concert in Ipoh (didn’t go) / Flow cytometer workshop in faculty (went)/ Shirley’s birthday in The Gardens KL (went).
3rd Weekend: GSC bowling tournament in Mines (went and done ^^)
4th Week + Weekend: Proteomics workshop in USM, Penang and going to wander around Penang for a few days after that, intending to take photos 
(currently attending). And then attending SJ workshop at Serdang ICM centre.
July:
1st Weekend: Going to Taiping and then to Pangkor (for holiday and photography).
2nd Week: Going to Kedah, meeting up with family, sister entering AIMST university. Might meet up Miss Agnes in Kedah (her food blog is on hiatus BTW). Scientific writing workshop in Faculty (going to miss this)
2nd Weekend: Possibly helping out bazaar (CSSUPMmers, do you need me to kacau? help?)
3rd Weekend: Scientific writing workshop. Intending to attend Bon Odori festival in Shah Alam (take photos). ICM SJ graduation day (photography and joining in the fun) and CSSUPM Junior’s day (photography and in charge of transportation)
4th Weekend: I can’t remember if I have anything on this week or weekend.
5th Week: Scientific writing workshop in faculty (attending)
August:
1st Weekend: NowiSee KL station (photography) and supposingly ChaiTeng photoshoot (Looking forward to this)
The rest of August: Chinese opera (taking photos), and National’s Day fireworks competition (taking photos).
T.T
I need to spend some more time on my research.
Fang Wen’s photoshoot (Malacca 7th-9th May 2010)
Thanks to the lovely Fang Wen for helping me out with my photography training. Definitely a good experience for me since my first one didn’t work out too well. I learnt a bit more during this shoot.
Here are some photos:
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Some of the night shots:
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And the best shots overall (I’m really loving these few)
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A few more things which I noticed was that
- Its better to have the person interact with something else. Eg: at the beach perhaps playing with the sand etc. This gives the picture more of a story rather than the simple ‘pose and smile’
- Don’t be worry to try out all sorts of different angles.
- Remember to set the correct white balance. I played around with the wireless flash for a bit and forgot that my white balance was on auto. And the results was horrible. Luckily I tinkered around with the white balance and got white balance correct for the night shots.
- Give your subject distance, take more than the face if possible. The body and its movement shows a lot of things.
- It might be good to have someone distract the subject to get more natural shots.
Good luck in your shoots
Malacca Trip 7th-9th May 2010
Went for a simple trip to Malacca last weekend, purpose was to have a simple break and to take some photos. Managed to talk a friend of mine to model for me and also to provide transportation and accommodation for me and another friend during the 2 nights we were there.
All in all it was a short trip with loads of nice food and loads of photos. But the recovery rate (amount of acceptable photos over total photos taken) for my photography skills are still low (around a 20% I guess)
Here’s some of the photos of the historical sites that we’ve visited. Its funny that during my past 2 trips to Malacca back in 2008 and early 2010 (not blogged), I didnt really visited these sites before.
Someone sort of spoilt the photo here. Oh well. (HDR attempts btw). This is a photo of the A Famosa fort.
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The Christ Church Square in Malacca (HDR)
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Inside the old church above the hill (HDR)
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A few more photos of the cannons on display. I tend to take too much shots of a single subject while doing a HDR.
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The Christ Church building
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Attempted to do a 9-stop ND filter long exposure shot but it sort of failed. I need more chance to use it. We went quite far from the town for the beach.
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The red clock tower (HDR)
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A big tree behind the A Famosa fort (HDR)
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Trishaws. These trishaws are mounted with loud speakers which plays disco music (of all music) which sort of spoils the mood of touring the historical site. It is also sort of funny when you hear ‘Boom boom pow’ while a trishaw goes by.
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Water fountain in the Christ Church square (HDR)
Will upload some of the model shoot photos soon.
Fireworks at Putrajaya Balloon Fiesta 2010. [and some tips for fireworks photography]
I thought that I was very much prepared for photographing fireworks during the fiesta. I had done my homework, brought along a tripod, a wireless remote trigger, set my ISO to the lowest I can find, use bulb mode in shutter settings and still one very unfortunate change of plans caused me the nicer photos which I should be able to get, which was positioning.
I’ve asked the organizers where they are going to let off the fireworks at, and went to set up too close to the action. In the end the fireworks went off and flew directly above me. And I had to change my angle and shoot directly upwards. Should have stuck to my previous planning to shooting from a further away location.
Another problem which suddenly came was that the wireless remote didn’t trigger at all. I think it might be because I used live-view on the camera and with all the fireworks going on, it was unable to focus at a particular point so it didn’t trigger. Tried the remote trigger in a fixed place and it worked though. Perhaps should consider using manual [infinity focus] next time. Or I might want to get a cable shutter release instead.
Will definitely redeem myself in the next fireworks display [most probably in August during the International Fireworks Competition in Putrajaya]
Anyway here are the [very few] shots I took
A lot of people commented that this last shot looks like coconut trees @.@
Anyway some tips on photographing fireworks
- Use a tripod. Fireworks happen at night and if you won’t want to use hand held camera unless you can be static and not move even a bit during a period of 5-10 seconds. Place your camera on a sturdy tripod.
- For simple digital camera, turn setting to fireworks predetermined settings. If you don’t have that settings or if you want to be adventurous, use manual settings and do the following. Set your ISO to the lowest setting possible [this is important to make your photos sharp and noiseless, you won’t like to see grainy fireworks photos], set your shutter speed to around 5-10 seconds [this is very dependent upon the type of photos you would want. If you want the trials of the fireworks to seemed long then a longer shutter speed will take in details over a longer period of time. But do remember that increasing shutter speed will cause more light to enter and possibly cause overexposure as well. The photo below shows a very overexposed fireworks photo.]
- Use timer. This might be a bit tricky but if you can use set the timer to take the photo in around 2 seconds and then predetermine the moment the fireworks will be release and later take the photo, it will minimize the chances of shakes caused by pressing the shutter button.
- No flash. It won’t help. Really.
- And perhaps the hardest thing to do is to know how to frame the fireworks. It might be hard to actually predetermine where the fireworks will fly once they are up in the air so it may be a good idea to scout the location beforehand for a good vantage point [I fail at this in the above shoot]. A good vantage point will be a place where you can take the whole fireworks action. Perhaps from that point you can try to zoom [even though not recommended] to select out bits of fireworks which you want to take.
- Use a remote release [only apply to those with DSLR]. Press once for the camera to take the photo, especially when the fireworks starts to fly in the air. And press the second time to end the shot, preferably after you seen the streaks of light disappearing or after you are satisfied with your shot.
- Take loads of shots. You don’t really have to pay to keep clicking and snapping away. Keep taking photos. Even if most of them turn out bad, there will still be a few which are acceptable.
For more information on fireworks photography, do visit this site
Cheers and hope you enjoy taking photos as much as I do
Febrianna and Elaine’s Portrait shots
Attempted a HDR with people in the photo. Color was very hard to get right though.
Anyway, the photo shoot was done very in a very impromptu condition during the Putrajaya Balloon Fiesta 2010. Still thanks to Febrianna and Elaine for being the 2 main models and Kai Leng and Sui Sien as backup models.
Putrajaya Hotair Balloon Fiesta 2010
Some photos of the event.
This photo is dedicated to the couple who was posing for another friend of theirs. I just thought it was a nice pose.
Overall it wasn’t what I anticipated also. Only part I really like about it was the shooting photos part. Its kind of sad though cause some of my juniors were really hoping to go on the balloon [and perhaps fly away somewhere]
Hmmm perhaps they can learn from Carl Fredricksen from UP. Tie balloons to the hostel and fly to wherever they want to fly to.
I wonder if I can fulfill some people wishes by sending them up on a balloon. It will be fun to be able to do something like that. Anyone knows of any competition to send people up in balloons?
Happy Chinese New Year :)
Just wanting to wish you all a Happy Chinese New Year 2010. Happy Year of the Tiger
I’m currently back in Labuan for my CNY holidays. It’s like a short break for me from lab work which I hadn’t really been doing much lately. After this break really have to work hard already.
Arrived in Labuan on Friday morning. Thanks to Juliana for bringing me to the ERL station at Putrajaya Central. We even saw a comet on our way to the airport. Refer to this post.
Barely managed to make it on the 9am flight. Imagine I was still on the train at 8 a.m. but thanks to ERL, the ONLY public transportation which is NOT overcrowded and LATE, I managed to make it with minutes to spare
Flight’s on board of the plane was good. The sambal udang with the nasi lemak is something I really enjoyed. Too bad the landing wasn’t so smooth though. Had me thinking that we might crash for a moment there.
Worst thing about my return to Labuan thus far? I’m having a toothache. Shoot. I can’t really enjoy myself. Feeling tired almost everytime and find myself having to take a nap every now and then. Lousy toothache seem to be draining my vitality. (It could be a wisdom tooth since I feel some swelling)
First day of CNY and second day of CNY pass by just like that. Didn’t do much visiting since I seemed to have gotten past that habit quite some time ago. Been to two open houses thus far and its kinda hard to enjoy the food with the toothache. Brought ‘Esme (my camera)’ along and tried her out a bit. Here are some photos
From left to right (My sisters, Eileen and Juliana; my mum holding my cousin, Madeline and Jason, my cousins.)
Some bamboo decorations.
A bamboo boat.
The Western style lamp in my uncle’s house.
Lion dancers
Madeline and Matthew, both are my cousins.
My favorite CNY biscuits.
Some ornaments lying around.
Connie visited as well. She can be a good model. Haha. (Shot was taken by Cindy)
Me and Connie.
So far, what I’m liking the most about Labuan is my bed and not having to do much things except to relax
Going to go out with some friends tomorrow so I do hope it’s going to be a nice day ahead
Happy CNY everyone.
Leslie and Jennifer’s Wedding
I managed to attend Leslie and Jennifer’s wedding in Penang 2 weeks back. For those of you who might not have known them, Leslie and Jennifer are both from UPM and was once very active within CSSUPM. It was indeed a very special moment for them and also for us seeing two CSSUPMers tying the knot. Some photos of the wedding mass and the wedding dinner can be found below.
The wedding mass.
The I dos’
The exchange of the rings
The prelude to the kiss
They exit as husband and wife
CSS family with the newlyweds
The cute couple
The wedding dinner.
The cutting of the cake
The Yam Seng bros (Who each took the mic and yelled yam seng!!!!)
Dora, doing what she does best
Wine pouring
Dr Kenny giving Leslie a big hug
Fr Chris
Past Presidents of CSSUPM (From right to left : Audrey 2000/2001, Sabrina 2002/2003, Greg 2003/2004, Janice 2006/2007, Alan 2007/2008 and Dominic 2008)
Past Presidents and Vice President of CSSUPM (inclusive of Leslie and Iris)
Leslie and Jennifer, we wish you to have a Blessed Married Life together
P/s: I wonder who is next on the list.
Taiwan Trip (Day 3)
Kenting sunrise
We left Kenting early in the morning and headed off to this Buddhist temple with this large Buddha statue overlooking the city.
There was a lot of bronze statue scatter all over the temple.
The temple was a temple/university where the monks are studying at. The campus also includes hostels for the monks to stay in.
We could take photos of these statues but not videos of them. I wonder why.
The temple corridors looks very antique.
Everything was well kept here, notice the red flowers brightening the temple.
One of the entrances of the temple.
We spent most of the morning on temple grounds before making out way to the Meinung Hakka Village.
The grand entrance.
One of the house cum shops there.
The things they sell.
Very old time feeling about the village. As if I’m back in ancient Taiwan/China.
The village walkway
The water wheel of the village. I finally managed to blur out the water, thanks to Esme.
We eventually reach back in Kaoshiung and had a steamboat buffet lunch there. Ate to the fullest and then the afternoon was spent visiting some other temples/pagodas in Kaoshiung.
Some of the statues here. I think its a Taoist temple.
View of the city from the top of the pagoda.
A lot of seagulls flying about over here.
Some of the other pagodas along this stretch of road.
Pagodas with a dragon head entrance and also a tiger head entrance.
After that we visited something a bit less Asian, a British fort on the top of the hill overlooking a cape.
Beautiful sunset
The British fort.
Notice the amount of people down there. The cape was so large that I can’t really take the whole thing in with one shot.
We also saw some fishing boats heading out to the ocean.
We spent around half an hour in the fort and later headed to the ferry which ferry us across the river to a nearby night market.
A very artistic over-the-river walkway bridge.
And the ferry is finally off. The ride wasn’t smooth so most of the photos I took after this was blurred out. Zzz.
The night market we visited.
Little dog watching/sleeping over its owner’s bike. The dogs here are so obedient. I’ve even seen a dog riding a bike with its owner on the road.
Didn’t buy much in the night market because I don’t understand most of the things written on the boards. Haha. Except for a Pearl Milk Tea.
We went back to the ‘mainland’ on ferry and headed to another night market in central Kaoshiung.
Yay, Finally seen a Christian Chruch.
The more ‘modern’ night market in central Kaoshiung.
We went back to the same hotel we stayed during our first night there. By now I can say that I’m really tired and hit the bed almost immediately after entering the room.
9 things for 2009
1. Learnt the keyboard. Can you believe it? I’ve been wanting to learn for quite some time but hadn’t really the passion for it until…Well something happened. Lets just say that I no longer know what I can do. And I started learning the song because it has all my feelings in it. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Alan’s first simplified song. River flows in you by Yiruma.
It was late one September night when I was having insomnia because of the problems I was facing that I heard this song. I remember how it calms me. And how it gives me resolve in holding on even till today. And I knew I just had to learn it. And one month, a keyboard and a lot of hard practice later, I finally got it. My dear problem, this shall always be our song.
2. Trips. I’ve had a number of trips lately. Genting, Kelantan, Limbang, Brunei, Ipoh, KK and ultimately Taiwan. I hadn’t been to Genting for a long long time. I can’t even remember my last trip there. It should be when I was still a baby :p. The same goes for Brunei. I hadn’t been there since I left 12 years ago. I was studying there until Primary 4. Now when I went back for a day trip, I can hardly remember the places there. First time trips will be to Kelantan (where I attended my first conference and stayed alone in a 2 beds five class hotel), Ipoh (visited here with Shirley and gang early this year) and Taiwan (visit this link for full trip details).
KK-Harbor side
Limbang harborside
Labuan harborside
I’ve not been back to KK for around 5 years. Last I remember being back there was when I met up with Stephanie and gang whom I met while studying A levels back during Matriculation. A lot of things had changed there. I have-ot been back to my hometown as well for the last 2 years. A lot have changed most notably the cousins look so grown up now. All handsome guys and pretty girls. I had to try to resist falling in love with them (the girls I mean) Ha ha. Looking forward to more trips next year.
3. Project progress. Now I’ll sum this up in a graph. My progress this year:
Frankly speaking, I’m having loads of troubles this year that it seem to make of think twice about whether I should quit or not. Sigh. I think its always cause I’m not hardworking enough.
4. Accidents accidents. Since I started driving in KL, I had been involved in 2 minor accidents with both happening in the span of 2 weeks. First off, a miscalculation on turning angle on my side caused my to dent the right side of my car. And a few days later, a mistake by both parties caused both car’s buttocks to become blue black. But I am thankful though that none are serious incidents. And I pray that my driving will continue to be safe throughout 2010. In addition to that, there’s that time when my car rear glass got smashed (Most probably by those cutting the grass). Pain to look at it you know. But lucky everything is okay now (I hope).
5. I’ve gotten a new girlfriend. Say hello to Esme. She’s very high-class and also made me have a huge hole in my wallet. What to do. I fell in love with her. Haha. Here’s a picture of me caressing her.
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I do love her, really.
6. I’ve went to my first out of KL conference and it was at Kelantan. Stayed in a 5 star hotel with 2 queen size bed to sleep on. Slept in different bed every night some more. Ah… The life… Hahaha… And just paid RM50 per night for the 2 beds. Really a blissful life
Alan was here… on both beds.
7. Suffered emotional breakdowns a few times this year. It was from bad to worst I guess. Sometimes it makes me wonder if what I’m doing is correct. Can’t a kind person treat another person kindly without hidden intentions. If it’s possible then why are there conflict among us?
8. Enjoyed photography and ventured into the world of HDR. Gives off the best in photos but then haven’t really do very well in it. But nevertheless still loving it. Hope to be able to venture into portraits soon. With real pretty models this time. Hahaha
Genting cable car (HDR)
Faculty at Sunset (HDR)
Labuan Sea Sports complex at night (HDR)
I’m loving HDR.
9. Broke the 20k visits barrier earlier this year. Thanks to you all for visiting. I know I hadn’t been updating much lately. But still really thank you for tuning in.
I know that this year really hasn’t been an interesting year for me. But I do look forward to a more fruitful 2010. With a lot of hopes of things that may happen.
Taiwan Trip (Day 1 and 2)
Day 1:
Beautiful sunset taken from the plane.
We arrived at Kaoshiung at around 7pm at night. Our tour group of over 20 persons are made of mostly of kids (Thanks to my aunt, Lol) and 2 tour guides (one from Malaysia and one local to Taiwan). Straight off the plane, we boarded a bus to the first destination of the night which is Kaoshiung night market. My camera was still sound asleep in my backpack so there wasn’t any notable photos of this place. Another problem which I faced was the language barrier. Being a banana, I wasn’t able to read anything written on the stall boards and ended up wondering what those things were. One particular funny moment was during dinner when my parents ordered something from the selection on displayed. I thought it looked like silkworms and told everyone about it. Noone knew what it was and in the end that dish was the less eaten dish of the night. It wasn’t until when we left that I ask the waitress what it was. Turns out it was one of my favorite dish, crab meat. Lol. ROTFLMAO. We checked in into on nice hotel somewhere in Kaoshiung city. Everyone was tired after the plane flight and slept quite early as we had an early morning bus the next day.
Day 2:
We had one of the best vegetarian breakfast ever in the hotel restaurant. I fell in love with the egg buns. It was just so tasty till I took almost 5 in one go. Anyway, the other food was good as well. We then boarded the bus and headed off to Kenting. Kenting is found in the southern most part of Taiwan. And it was freaking hot.
The first destination is Kenting Marine Museum. I had a great time knowing that the Great white whales are actually land animals before this, which given the harsh environment of living, went into the sea and gradually evolve into the Whales. Amazing right. Perhaps human were also like that once. Perhaps we were once birds which gave away their wings for hands and became the monkeys and eventually learned to stand up and become humans.
Family photo in front of the museum.
How the land animals become sea animals
Taking photos of fishes through the glass was quite challenging, first time use of a polarizer.
I love watching the penguins in action here.
The marlin fish in front of the museum (Someone said it looked so real as if it just jumped out of the water)
View outside the museum
After the museum, we had lunch and later on went to the southern-most tip of Taiwan, called cat-whiskers cause it looks like the whiskers of the cat. A scenic location just perfect for photography and I just snapped my heart out.
The scenic view from cliffs
The cat’s whiskers
We then made a trip to the local bird observatory which unfortunately was closed for renovations. –.-‘’’ After that we visited this building which was used in the filming of one series I think.
The ancient looking building. It was said that in the older days people tried to climb this building from the poles and those who succeeded will gain fame and prosperity or something of that sort.
After that we visited a place where fire seem to come out from the ground, literally. It was amusing cause tourist come to look at stuff like this. The tour guide even bought a pack of popcorn for us to cook.
My cousin popping the popcorn.
What’s more amusing is that some locals actually set up stalls on the site to sell baked potatoes.
The lady is running her own business here.
My sister with the sign of the site
After that we managed to check into the hotel and I managed to take a few shots of the sunset from the hotel corridor.
Amazing sunset.
At night, after dinner, we didn’t really have much activity beside visiting the local night market. Again bought quite a number of local delicacies. I started to wonder how much weight I would gain by the time the trip is over.
Ipoh trip 2009
Managed to go to Ipoh last weekend with a bunch of girls (I went because I found myself more and more to be like a travelling freak)
It was more of a food trip… Since we were literally stuffing food down our throats for the whole one half day there.
And so there was 5 of us going up to Ipoh in a 3 hours or so bus ride… And we had our host ready in Ipoh to bring us on a food spree once we reached there…
And half and hour after arriving and we are already having our first meal…
This is the Ipoh’s Asam Laksa… Hot and Spicy and with a variety of fried add-on for you to choose… The stall was located beneath a huge tree and thus the name of the stall/food court is ‘Beneath the Tree’ or something in Chinese…
~The Asam Laksa~
~The Fried Add-ons~
After having that heavenly (and oily) asam laksa, we went for some desert and settled for this roadside soya bean stall… Apparently the soya bean stall was quite famous as it had made the newspapers a few times… We went to have Tau Fu Far in Soya Bean which was warm and took the spiciness of the asam laksa away. I noticed that most of the customers just drove in front of the stall and the waiter will take the order and later deliver the drinks to the customers in the car. Talk about the lack of self service… But apparently this was how things happen in Ipoh (Noticed the same for a salted chicken shop… Just drive and stop in front of it and the boss will bring a box out… Ask you if thats enough and then collect the payment.
~The tau fu far~
~The stall~
~The map on the name card of the stall… Impressive right? Since when do soya bean sellers have their own name card~
After having quite a filled beginning to the food trip, we finally checked into the hotel where we were to stay for that night…
Its called Fresh hotel… And like the name implies… It’s really fresh…
~The Fresh Hotel~
~So fresh that the lobby apparently have nothing else other than a water cooler and also a few chairs~
~But the rooms were perfect if not close to perfect… This is my room… I paid RM48 for the night but after seeing how clean and white the sheets are… It was worth it~
~The room wasn’t really big but since its only for me… It was okay… There was air conditioning…~
~And the toilets were clean too.. The doors are actually see through sliding door… So those girls who were peeping in could gaze upon my hunky body get a shock of their lives…~
~There was also an LCD TV in the room but it wasn’t really filled with any Astro channels other than the AEC or something… But local TV channels were there.~
~The phone number for those who would like to make reservations or something~
For that night, we had some of the best food court dish ever for dinner… We went to a food court near Jusco shopping mall… I forgot the name.. And ordered all sorts of different dishes ranging from Ikan Bakar, Sotong, Bak Ku Teh to snails (Yup… Snails… How I just love them)… There were also crab on sales… But then… We had quite a variety already and it was also a wonder none of us ordered any crabs… But we were really stuffed by the time that ended… (There are no photos of the night because Alan was too busy… stuffing food down again…)
Later that night, we went to Breeze… A western cafe somewhere in town also where it is really very breezy due to the bulk of fans blowing everywhere… We had too much for dinner so we just settled down for drinks…
I was so tired that night (Thanks to preparing for my Journal Club presentation a few nights before that once I reached my room… I slumped into bed and started snoring )
The next morning… I found something in my room that adds to the worthiness of staying in this hotel… But I am not saying it here… PM me to know what it was…
Anyway… After checking out of the hotel… We went to this place…
~The Perak Chinese Amateur Dramatic Association… Where everything is dramatic… NOT!!! Its the Restaurant err… The tree is blocking the name… –.-‘’’~
But it really is a famous restaurant… Why?? Because people are queuing once more next to the table trying to rush you to eat faster so they can sit down after you leave…
But what’s so good till the people take their sweet time staying at the table…?
This…
~Honestly it has been a long long time since the last time I had dim sum and hot tea for breakfast… And to imagine I have to travel to Ipoh to have some…~
After a really heavy breakfast… We visited a temple nearby… A bit of sightseeing to digest what we had…
~Acting as if I could pedal~
~I have no idea what those words mean..~
After the short trip… We went off to eat again… (Amazing bunch of girls right.. Just eat eat and eat…)
This time it was ice-cream…
~Just in case you didn’t know what I had… It was the last one~
20 minutes later…
And emerged a very very stuffed Alan…
~This was the ice cream shop we went to~
And after a bit of shopping for Ipoh delicacies… We went for our last food destination… Whoever that visits Ipoh will have to try this… Cause its their famous… Noodles with steam chicken and tauge…
And all of us went back a few kg heavier… Even the train seemed to buckle under our weight…
Last but not least… Some photo moments in front of the train station…
~Everyone is looking fatter than they were…~
Malacca Trip 2008
I managed to go to Malacca during the Christmas holidays… Went on Christmas morning and back at night the next day… Quite a short trip but still a trip is a trip…
So gotta enjoy it
Anyway… It was only me and CharYong visiting Mitsuki-cyan at Malacca… (Note that I’m not using the phrase Chibi-cyan anymore… Even though she’s still a chibi size… But her looks is really very matured already… Can electrify guys )
Straight after arriving at Malacca after a 2 hours bus ride, the first thing we did… Was to have lunch…
And so Mitsuki brought us to this road side mamak stall… I think its nearby a chinese temple with a book fair…
And we ordered two dishes… The… Mee Rojak and also Mee Rebus…
and
I’m not sure which dish is which though… I just remembered it was the tastiest Mee Rebus and Mee Rojak I had in a very very long time… Absolutely delicious..
It was also spicy too… Making me feel so filled with my sweats dripping off my head… But then… This sort of sensation is the best while eating
And then we went to eat something else… Satay…
~Xiang Ji as in… Nice scent chicken???~
The stall we went to was near Jonkers Walk and honestly speaking the satay wasn’t the best I’d before… But Mitsuki thought differently…
While me and CharYong had just a few… Mitsuki literally cleaned the plate up…
~The satays CharYong had…~
and then
~The satay I had…~
is really incomparable to the ones Mitsuki gobbled up…
~She had twice or three times more the amount we had~
~Mitsuki enjoying her satay~
And we proceeded to Jonkers Walk… To see Malaysia’s largest pineapple tart…
I’m a fan of pineapple tarts but the size of this one really creeps me out…
Instead the ones they were making inside looks a lot better … The pineapples are lining up to get into my mouth
Malacca is also a World Heritage site…
Why??
Because we have uncles singing KTV in restaurants… Surely you don’t see something like this everyday… Just a joke ya:P
~Got pose somemore…~
Apparently you can also join in the KTV session…
But you will have to pay…
We also had one of the best ABC I had in a while… Its in a shop along the walk… Sorry… Didn’t really get down the name…
After the trip to Jonkers, I finally had a chance to see where I was staying at… As much as I would like to stay at Mitsuki cyan’s house… She didn’t allow me to stay a night because she wanted to prevent unwanted incidents she didn’t want a guy over… Haha…
So I ended up checking into Fairway Hotel…
A look at the outside… It really looks quite old…
Inside was still quite acceptable..
The only bad thing I could think about was that….
Mitsuki told them to keep a standard one bed room for me… But when I checked in they mentioned that the standard rooms are full… Come on lar… Whats the point of booking and paying deposit beforehand only to find out that your room has been taken when you arrived… So in the end I had to settle with a room RM10 more expensive… But with a deluxe size bed…
~The bed… And I’m not naked while taking this photo if that’s what you are wondering~
The beds was nice… Comfy and didn’t really had any stains or bad scent… I even spend half a night sleeping without a shirt on (Because it rained and my shirt got too soaked to sleep in…)
~There was also a TV with some Astro channels on it… Not bad… I managed to watch a movie also~
and then there was the bathroom…
~Not shiny and too clean but acceptable… Got hot shower some more…~
Its actually not that bad…
RM60 for a night… For a two-person’s bed…. But since I’m staying alone, I had to make full payment…
After resting quite a bit, we went out for dinner… Makan again…
This time to the famous Malacca satay celup…
It’s really famous ler… People lining up next to your table to make sure you eat after and drink faster and then hope you leave faster so they can sit down and have their turn…
~But we took our time savoring the food~
Later on, while the girls go on a shopping trip by a roadside boutique, I wondered off alone and stumbled upon St Theresa church…
It was really decorated nicely… The only bad thing was that the lights were not fully on and there was no mass… Make me feel a bit emo… Visiting a church on Christmas night on my own…
I didn’t know what I was feeling lar… Just really feeling quite emo at that moment… Christmas time… And me… I guess its usual for me to be sentimental during Christmas season
After the girls finally finish their shopping, Mitsuki bring us to the Portuguese settlement… Which was really crowded with people and decorations during the Christmas season…
The houses are decorated with all sorts of decorations
It would have been a very nice walk down the settlement areas… Except is was really too crowded… Not my way of spending Christmas… And it made me wonder some more… Why do people decorate their houses to such extent during Christmas season… And this is some more the Portuguese settlement… Made me wonder how Christmas seemed to have been commercialize nowadays… What does Christmas mean to each and everyone of us? Is it the decorations…?
And I thought again… About how different celebrating Christmas would be like during the real settlement times back in the 18th century…
And it got me emo some more… I haven’t the slightest idea why I was feeling in such a way…
But it really was crowded… Sort of made me think that the Christmas mood was quite dampened.
The next destination for the night is The Jetty…
The Jetty is a newly opened multi purpose area where family, couples and teenagers could gather at… There were snooker centers, pubs, cyber cafes, clubs etc along the structure which was built leading out to the sea… There was even a small transportation car to bring you from one end to the other… And the other end was where we went… It was a small cafe at the end of the Jetty, and there sitting under the open sky and looking at the lights of the city… I felt really calm and relax.. Every breeze from the sea seems to be blowing my worries and troubles away and I felt I could stay there forever talking with the two friends of mine…
The place is simply… Amazing…
And I felt emo again which listening to the other two talking about what had happened so far after we graduated… It seems that after graduation, times like these are really hard to come by… Maybe that was why I told them I felt that everything happened too fast… Perhaps… I just felt that we all graduated too fast… We should have more time to enjoy our lives as coursemates…
How I wish we got more moments like these…
And we talked at the cafe till about 2am before going back and have a rest…
Mitsuki-cyan have to work the next day so me and CharYong had time to our own to go shopping and do what we wanna do… And this was what I did… Haha…
~I’ma chi-wah-wah~
The shops opened quite late so I really wasted some time doing senseless stuffs… Hahaha…
Nothing much to note about for the rest of the day except that I bought quite a number of CNY shirts and also a book which I was looking for… (Might update about it after I finish it) … Once I’m done with the shopping it got even more boring since we had to wait for Mitsuki to finish working and bring us to makan… So I ended up reading another book at MPH…
The book was called ‘An hour to live, an hour to love’
There was a phrase in the book… If you only have an hour to live and can only make one phone call… Who would you call… and what would you say??… And what are you waiting for???
Perhaps if I really wasn’ t that uncertain I would have already made the call by now…Got me thinking again…
Finally after work… Mitsuki brought us to eat at a baba-nyonya stall called Ole Sayang at Melaka Raya
It looks really old from the outside but the inside is a different story
The shop was pretty much filled halfway through our dinner…
And we had a few dishes…
~This is the Chicalok fried egg… Which taste really quite nice but there wasn’t really anything special about it though~
~And then we had the sambal sotong which was also a normal sights at every other place… It tasted quite ok also…~
~Some belacan’s fried vegetable… Which I ate more since I wanna get rid of my oily diet…~
~And this was the best dish of the night… Its suppose to be Asam Fish… Which we gobbled up once it arrived and leave not even the bones left in the bowl… It had a strong sour taste which really opened up our appetite…Delicious~
And that happened to be our last dinner in Malacca…
After that, Mitsuki bring us to the bus station where we boarded our bus back to KL…
~Really would like to thank this girl for the hospitality she gave us in Malacca~
So I played around with her photos a bit after I got back and walah…
~A nicer photo of you ~
And we have some more black and white photos of the two girls…
~This is Mitsuki… The working lady~
and
~This is CharYong.. The hip-hop girl… Hahaha…~
Will be missing you girls
Cameron Trip (Nov ‘08)
I visited Cameron once more last weekend. This time to visit the places I missed out during my first visit there during the CSSUPM Annual Camp back in September.
I went with a few of my lab-mates this time and the trip was a 3 days,2 night trip.
Introducing: my lab-mates
~Left to right: PeyYee, CheeHong, Cystale, Darren, JinPing (not my lab-mate)~
Day 1:
We used the Sg Pulai way up the Highlands which was a far better journey uphill if compared with the first trip up using the Tapah road. We sang to the music in CheeHong’s car while travelling up the hills. I guessed it must have been that which helped me to prevent my dizziness on the journey up-hill.
The weather wasn’t really good though during the journey up-hill as drizzling rain seemed to come and go.
~Rain rain… Go away~
~This may happen to you if you speed on the highlands…Lucky the car didn’t skid on the other side of the mountain… by which the fall will certainly be a long… And possibly fatal one…~
~One of the better hotels there – Equatorial hotel~
But since it was the holiday season and most of the hotels were full, we only to manage to find room at a small hotel in Brinchang town…
~The view from the hotel~
And by small I really mean that its small
~This is Chua Gin Hotel in Brinchang town~
~Its so small that the T.V. is small~
It was amazing that all 6 of us could fit into this room…
We arrived late in the evening and the first thing to find was dinner… There was quite a number of steamboat stalls just below where we stayed at… And we opt for a newly opened one… Called Restaurant Mountain House.
Apparently it was too newly opened that it didn’t really have enough staff and we ended up have to self service on certain chores which include topping up the soup base and also to get new plates from the nearby shelves.
The steamboat there also seemed to be so-so only…
~The usual eggs and noodles~
~The bulk of vegetables~
~Even more vegetables~
~The double soup base~
~The plate of meat and seafood was quite ‘small’ IMHO~
I didn’t managed to go and did a survey on the better areas to eat at before going there so we ended up in this place… Do read up on the other reviews which could be found online to find better food.
We went for a short walk around the hotel area after dinner and spotted this signboard… Apparently the show sells ‘organs’
We also managed to visit the Friday and Saturday pasar malam which was just a stone throw away… There were loads of fried food for sales which was ‘ok’… What really got my attention was the strawberry ice-cream on sale there… RM1 for a stick but it was really worth the price…
Along side those items, many of the hawkers also sells fresh vegetables from the highlands at super cheap price…
Another amusing thing I came upon was this…
We were buying food from one of the stalls who accepts the money and keep it in this container box…
~Look closer… It doesn’t really look like a container if you have a closer look… Yup… Its a printer~
There isn’t really any nightlife in Cameron and most of us were tired so we just stayed in the room for the rest of the night, playing…
~Jutawan… The Malaysian version of Monopoly~
Day 2
Following the planning on the first day, we woke up at around 5am
The misty look in the morning…
It was really foggy…
Our destination: The tip of Brinchang mountain…
The height: 6666m above sea level
The reason: To see the sunrise
The things we know beforehand: It will be a tough ride uphill
Before going on the trip, I’ve read about the tough ride uphill… Even though the mountain is one of the few accessible by cars… But going uphill isn’t easy at all… Braving slopes as steep as 45 degrees and moving for 9km along a one way road where a mistake could easily bring you tumbling down the mountain…And we were braving this stunt in the dark some more… This challenge is really not for the inexperienced.
Our journey uphill… And the dark photos I took
~This looks a bit like we were speeding at the mountainside ala Need For Speed style… The road was really only large enough for a car to pass thru at a time at some points~
We had to stop quite a number a time to: Remove large branches from the middle of the road… And to check which road was it to go… There was two fork along the road uphill which we stopped to and got down to look at the signs clearly…
And eventually and thank God at that, we arrived at the peak… A station or some sort… Which we thought was the peak… It wasn’t until a while after arriving that we noticed the symbolic iron tower which many other reviews noted on their hilltop experience.
~The station on the peak of the mountain~
We climbed up the tower, with every step the temperature seemed to have gotten lower… I was really shivering in my sweater…
But once we saw what was awaiting us at the top of the tower… All our chills seemed to have melted away…
Dawn is arriving…
I took a lot of photos here… But most of the photos aren’t really nice… Since after a while the chills came back and I was shivering once more… Couldn’t really hold the camera properly… Can’t even feel what’s in my bag with my bare hands… Note to others… It may be a good idea to bring gloves up with you…
~This looks like where the Monkey King will have reside at~
It was truly mystical being up at the mountain top… Truly amazing… The only downside may be that there was quite a lot of clouds about and that really kinda spoil the sunrise… After a while all we could see was clouds… And the surroundings became misty…
~There was no editing in this photo… This was how misty it was up there… Or is it foggy???~
~The fog/mist made it look kinda scary at times ~
~Really look like somewhere outside Malaysia~
~We could finally see how the roads look like…. We could see how it look like while we were going up since it was dark~
~One particular sign which we missed up on our way uphill was the ‘hon’ sign… Its a good idea to honk before turning a turn where you can’t see the other side… So if there are cars on the other side… They can hear you coming~
~Seems like a scene out of the movies… I felt like Frodo Baggins on his journey to destroy the ONE RING… It won’t surprise me if the Ringwraiths suddenly jump out of the trees or a headless horseman suddenly rode by~
~The sights that we couldn’t see on your journey up~
~Its tea plantation everywhere~
~At times 2 cars can pass side by side~
~Photos of the nearby Sg. Palas tea plantation~
On our way downhill, we stopped by the tea plantation at Sg Palas. The plantation only open at 9am so we lingered at the entrance… Taking shots of almost everything that we can shoot at
~Notice that the plantation does not open on Monday~
~In the dark you might not know which way is which but when you arrived at this fork, to get to the peak, turn left… The right road leads to the plantation.~
~Its so green everywhere~
~Really big and green… And I’m fat…~
~Paparazzi shot from far far away~
~Are those clouds, mist or fog???~
~The mansions up here look like haunted mansions hidden behind the mist/clouds/fog~
~We passed by this Primary School on our way towards the observation point at Sg. Palas~
~The observation point~
~The entrance… Boh Tea Center, Sg Palas~
~When I take the photo it will look like this~
~When I’m not taking the photo it looks like this… Zzz… I guess I better stick with being the photographer and not the model~
~There was a cafe the the observation point… Where you can sit down and enjoy a cup of tea which looking down at the vast tea plantation at the vast Sg Palas Boh tea plantation…~
~The scones here was not that satisfying though~
There was a tour into the factory which process the tea leaves… But there wasn’t really anything to note in there…
~Going downhill~
On the way back to the small hotel… We stopped by the Butterfly farm nearby Equatorial Hotel. There wasn’t really much to be awed at this farm… But we do noticed certain unique organisms…
~The ‘Raja Brooke’… On the hand ya… Not the guy~
~This is NOT a leaf…~
~And this IS a frog~
There are snakes, scorpions, some farm animals, so beetles etc on display… But the farm really wasn’t worth it… And it charges RM5 for entry some more…
After lunch and a short rest at the hotel… We left for the Cactus farm and the Big Strawberry Farm… (The one which I visited before this)
There was really a lot of flowers for me to take shots at..
~Love taking photos of these babies~
There really isn’t any night life in Cameron so we revisited the night market once more after dinner… There was a shop which sells really sweet strawberries so be sure to try to strawberries on display if they allow you to…
We also had dinner at one of the more famous restaurant… I forgot the name though… All I know that its in the town area in front of the Multipurpose hall…
The food there was great… But I love the chili paste the most… Hot and spicy and enough ‘oomph’…
The night passed by with another monopoly game… By which I lost really really unfairly…
Day 3
Everyone woke quite late this morning… Possibly due to the tiredness the night before… Last few stops for this trip will be to have breakfast, then proceed to Kimanis Strawberry farm and then Kea Farm and finally the Ee Fen Gu bee farm.
We had breakfast at a small food stall behind our hotel… Food was so and so… Nothing much different compared with other stalls…
~The view in front of the stall~
We went to Kimanis farm because someone recommended the strawberries there… But it must have been quite a lousy season for the strawberries there since most of the ones I tasted there was sour…
Kea farm is one big farm… With a lot of stalls to visit… Albeit like the pasar malam… Apparently it was too much of a tourist attraction that the road there was jammed up for quite a while… Therefore, if you are interested in visiting Cameron… Don’t visit during the weekends or you’ll find yourself trapped in all sorts of traffic jam…
Ee Fen Gu bee farm was our last stop… We stopped by here to help a senior buy the honey here… Do be aware though, there aren’t really any large sign boards showing where this farm is… But it is a bit further down Kea farm…
I spent quite some time trying to capture the photo of a bee doing its work and followed a particular one for a few minutes before I lost sight of it… And without any photo… Darn…
Another note is that the bee farm is currently undergoing renovations…
My 2nd trip to Cameron doesn’t really have the excitement of my 1st visit but I finally managed to visit some of the popular areas… But still even after my 2nd trip here… Fact remains the same… Cameron is only suitable for those who like to travel around to look at nature etc… And not for those who like to shop… Cuz apart from vegetables, strawberries and a few other items… You can hardly find anything else to buy….
Still… I love the mystical look of the Highlands…
Cyberjaya’s Old Town Coffee and Secret Recipe.
I managed to visit the Old Town Coffee Shop and Secret Recipe shop in Cyberjaya recently.
Old Town Coffee shop can be found nearby the HBSC and Fujitsu company. The exact location should be in Prima Avenue.
I’ve been an avid visitor to Old Town shops all over KL. Sometimes having my breakfast there (My fav: Toasted bread with half boiled egg, topping it off with a glass of Iced Enriched Chocolate and I’ll be feeling in heaven.
~The settings is still the same~
But the same could not be said regarding the Old Town Coffee Shop in Prima Avenue. I ordered a bowl of Prawn Mee while my friend ordered the recently on promotion Hainan Chicken Chop rice. We were halfway through our meals when she decided that she wanted to have my meal instead. So we exchanged what we are eating and luckily we did.
It wasn’t long before I found something in the rice.
~Yup… Something sharp and something which look metal…~
And straight off I stopped eating… Lost my appetite to finish the meal… Not sure the sharp metal thing is fell accidentally there or what… But I complaint regarding it the to the waiters… They are good enough to allow me to have a new plate, by which I changed my mind after a while, a bit worried over what other surprises that may be expecting me with the new plate… (I just lost confidence with eating there)… Imagine if I wasn’t looking at what I was eating and swallowed it… I won’t be something I wanna think about…
In another way, it was lucky that my friend and I did changed what we are eating because I would have doubt that she will noticed it before eating. Thank God everything was ok in the end.
I’m not saying that Old Town ain’t a good shop but… precautions really have to be done towards making sure that incidents like these do not happen again.
On the other hand, since we didn’t really enjoyed the meal we had there, I brought us to the Secret Recipe shop a bit further away. And we really didn’t regret going.
The place was a heaven… I really fell in love with it upon entering the door. The sofas there are so soft and the place is just so relaxed… It was so calm and peaceful there when we arrived (There wasn’t any customers at the moment)… And I felt that I could really sink in my seat and not leave at all… The setting is just great… Truly a place to go to get out from the rushed and busy world outside… It felt like a getaway to someplace out of this world. Bravo Secret Recipe…
~Its just so beautiful :teary eye:… Now I’m being a bit too expressive~
~Indulging in Chocolate Indulgence~
~Fantastic Almond Brownies~
I really enjoyed the place… It help me to relax and think through a lot of things… Eventually helping me to arrived at the answer I was looking for… I wasn’t really feeling too good due to certain things that happened but a few hours of pondering there got me back into shape once more… And the decision I came upon will be hurtful but I guess being hurt is another part of growing up and become stronger…
Now… Perhaps I should bring a date next time with me to the Secret Recipe here
Address to Secret Recipe:
Secret Recipe
Suite 0-7
CBD Perdana
Jalan Perdana
Cyberjaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia
Thanks LiPeng for bringing me out
Penang Trip- Sights, Tasty, Rainy and Closing…
Just got back from a 3 days 2 nights trip to Penang. And the title could very well be summarize the whole trip…
ay 1:
First off, 3 of us, Clarice, Clement and Me boarded Transnational bus (I have faith in this company) and after 5 hours of sitting in the bus, we arrived at Penang Island…
~Clement~
~Clarice~
We stayed at a fine hotel located in the more desolated area of Penang Town, the Regal Hotel, Penang. However, despite its location, the price is really quite low compared to other more classy hotels. We spent RM 115 for a deluxe room which has 2 big beds and could easily fit 6 people if used efficiently, a really budget hotel for people like us who wants luxury but don’t wanna pay too much for it. The RM 115 is inclusive of complementary breakfast for 4 persons every morning. The breakfast wasn’t anything special to look out for though.
~Regal Hotel, really not a bad place…~
~The lobby~
~The deluxe room with 2 beds… Clarice got the pleasure of getting a big big bed for herself~
~View from our room~
We managed to get really nice guides for the 3 days that we were there… We got my sweet direct buddy (junior) Olivia and JJ, another junior for the first day…
~Olivia, really knows her food~
Olivia is the type of guide who really knows what to eat and not to eat… She could very well have her own food show on TV about Penang if she has one… The other thing I was amazed at was her level of planning for us… It was simple but it made me really appreciate her…
~The plan she prepared for us… On PAPER… Normally I won’t even write down all the details of where to go and what to do~
When she was bringing us about in her car, she will keep recommending different types of food at different food shops that we passed by… So much so that after checking into the hotel, she straight away bring us to buy banana pancake and yam kuih at the nearby Burma Road…
There are many stalls beside the road which sells these pancakes or better known as Apom… But she knew which was the nicest… Look out for an uncle and an auntie, both in their elder ages, selling these pancakes by the roadside…
~The pancake stall by Burma street~
You may be thinking, roadside, pancakes, uncle auntie… How good could it really be… There wasn’t much people lining up for the pancakes when we arrived… And I have my doubts on whether its that good… My doubts cleared when I was placing my order… I ordered 10 pieces (He sells one for 30cents… Very cheap only) and he told me to wait… Cuz there was an order for 50 pieces before me… I was like… Wow… Penang people feed their kids pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner is it?? And the 50 pieces are actually ordered by someone who lived in Ipoh, Perak which must be.. what… 50km away?? Now, this must be some pancake stall to be that famous… Till even Perak people know about it… And yup… The pancakes really live up to their name… It might be small but its really tasty… Pancakes on Burma road… The pancakes worth trying if you’re at Penang…
Olivia suddenly realized that the stall on the opposite site and a little down the road sells tasty yam kuih as well… Which she went to buy for us in the end… And yes… It’s even better than the pancakes… Arrived in Penang for not more than an hour and I felt I’m already in Food Heaven…
~The yam kuih served with bits of nuts and possibly bits of small prawns~
The original plan Olivia got for us is to buy the popular Tao Sa Piah, another kuih in Penang… But we arrived there too late… It was already 5pm. The shop was found further down Burma road as well… But with the preparations she made (She even wrote on the paper… Taste taste first)… We found a box of the kuih in the car… along with a box of preserved nutmeg which she bought for us taste… Apparently, she visited the shop earlier that day to get a box for us to taste…
~The Tau Sa Piah and the Nutmeg she bought for us to taste… Olivia… If you keep doing these stuff… I’ll really fall for you… Haha… ~
~The shop which sell the nice nice Tau Sa Piah… Taken when we revisited the place the next day… They bake the kuih here fresh every morning and you can see many people queuing up to buy it every day…~
And then… Stomachs full and all… We went onto the ferry to head for the mainland… And it was a long wait (Cuz of the rush hour at the time)
~The three of us on the ferry… Ya, I know… I’m chubby~
~Penang Island, taken from the ferry~
We are on our way to St. Anne’s Santuary at Bukit Mentarjam and after around half an hour after getting off the ferry… We reach there and saw this…
~It was closed… Cuz it was already after 7pm… :sweats:~
So what can we do… We just lingered around and take more photos… Percy ‘The Twister’ even came to join us…
~The few of us… JJ’s taking the photo~
Since it was closed, we thought of continuing what was on the plan… Eating steamboat… Before we heard that the place was closed as well… :sweats: And so… We made our way following Percival to a nearby hawker center for dinner… It is nearby the OldTown Coffee Shop at the Mainland… (No photos on this place… Sorry)
And I found a pearl in this hawker center… Make it two pearls… The first being an extra spicy Nasi Lemak with Sotong which has gotta be the best Sotong Nasi Lemak I ate till today… It was so spicy that even Clement (who grew up eating peppers) said it’s spicy… And I absolutely love it…
The second pearl will have to be… this..
~Ikan Pari bakar… RM 9… With hot sauce… I felt that I went to heaven again…~
The food there was cheap and really damn tasty… rools looking at the pictures:
And with that… We returned to the hotel with filled stomachs and the jeans felt tighter on the waist…
We even had a bible sharing session before bed… Weird right??? All thanks to Clement bringing his Bible along~~~
~
ay 2:
JJ and Vi (her friend) were our full time guide for today since Olivia was off to somewhere else…
~JJ… I think she’s quite confused about the roads in Penang~
Plans for today was to go and visit the Penang Botanical Garden and the Butterfly Farm in the morning… Have lunch in a restaurant at Little India and then shop till drop at Queensbay Mall before having dinner…
The botanical gardens is filled with people jogging when we arrived which I found quite strange since it’s a weekday… I was more amazed to see some of the mother’s bringing their baby along to jog with them… :salutes:
~A big big tree in the garden~
~We were attempting to pose~
~The wooden thing behind us looks like a Japanese bird stand… Taken with self timer~
Nothing much happened which we are on the gardens except the incident with Clement and the monkey… Apparently one of the monkeys got quite annoyed with Clement and wanted to jump onto him… And we quickly retreated…
~He looks really annoyed…~
It is advisable to not bring any noticable food or plastic bags to the gardens as the monkeys may attack you for it…
~Another type of monkey~
~Us and self timer~
And then we went off to the butterfly farm… Along the way… This happened…
~And it was heavy~
And so we took one hour to go up the hill and then down again… Since it was raining… :sweats:
Lunch’s up next and I’ll really have to recommend this place for you…
Its called Karaikudi restaurant and is found somewhere in Little India in Penang… (The place where there are a lot of Indian Shops)
It looks something like this from the outside but don’t let looks fool you…
Because the insides are like this…
~Very high class look…~
And the food was great…
~From the left: Calliflower Masala, Prawn Pepper, Chicken 65 and Briyani Rice…~
The servings here aren’t much and one dish may be suitable for 2 person or so… But the Briyani rice is really a lot and can fill you up… The dishes felt like side dishes in the end… But very delicious side dishes… If you’re up for some Indian food… Give this place a thought…
~
JJ took us to her church next… The Church of the Holy Spirit… Since we didn’t managed to visit St Anne’s the day before…
~The church and me…~
And then we went to Queensbay Mall to shop…
~Taken fron Queensbay Mall~
On the way back… We passed by this overhead advertisement…
~They are showing me their behinds ~
JJ took us to dinner after that… There is a small hawker center which gets more and more crowded the longer we were there… Its located in front of Sunway hotel and the food there is also really tasty… I tried the Ikan Pari Bakar here as well… And it was on PAR with the one at mainland…
The only downside to the Ikan Pari here is that it costs RM 14… Apparently, the food here are tasty… But really quite expensive…
~The hawker stalls~
~The nearby Sunway Hotel~
I tried out the Chee Cheong Fun here as well… Not bad also…
And I went back to the hotel feeling that I’ve gained a few more pounds…
And feeling so tired that I was practically sleeping when Clement was doing the Bible Sharing…
~
ay 3:
Another different guide for today… Another food expert of Penang… Dominic…
~Dominic… Food expert extraordinair~
He wanted to bring us to eat till we drop again… And so he brought us to try out the best Penang Hokkein Mee… And we saw this… again…
~Closed… Whats with Penang and stores closing ya???~
The stall is located in front of Lorong Bangkok… Closeby there is another stall which sells delicious Mee Goreng…
~It looks spicy but its not… Wonders what is their secret~
~They cook the Mee Goreng here… Don’t look really clean… But then… One should be brave to discover new tasty food… But please make sure you have had your shots before…~
We also visited Kek Lok Si temple… A great sight for tourist and those who wanna take photos of Buddist statues and temples…
~The gate guardians I think…~
~Me and my animal, the Rabbit~
~Also took a photo with the pig…~
~The temples~
~The Guan Yin statue was being renovated~
~The Pagoda~
~Group photo with self timer~
Along the way back from the temple, we managed to stop by a stall selling Penang Laksa, as recommended by Dominic again as one of the nicest in Penang…
The uncle open his shop quite late in the mornings… At around 11am plus the time we visited… So do take note if you’re interested… Its located along the road to the temple…
Aside from the temple… We also managed to visited the beach… Because the other two keep wanting to go to the beach… And we ended up running to the car when we noticed it was raining nearby the beach again… (Raining again… Haiyoooo~~~)
And we also did make a trip to Dominic’s apartment… (Don’t play play… Very high apartment) before having another food trip to this place…
The Lobak and Char Kuey Teow here is really damn delicious as well (I’m starting to think whether Penang has something which is not delicious)
The Lobak uncle actually export his Lobak to KL to be sold… Thats how good it is… I heard he’ll also be going to the Hawkers fair in Singapore this coming few months to cook there…
~Lobak and Char Kuey Teow~
The Kuey Teow here gives a whole different meaning to the Kuey Teow I normally eat… Its totally on a different league…
And with that, we made our way to the Nibong bus station to board our bus back to KL (PlusLiner buses aren’t too bad too)…
We left Penang after tasting some of the nicest food Penang has to offer… And still missing out a lot of other tasty food which we didn’t have the chance to try out… Lets just hope that the next few times I visit… The stalls will be open and it’ll be less rainy… Haha…
Penang… Haven for tasty food… (I’m really going to get very fat if I stay there)
~Alan… Weight gained and exhausted…~
P.S: The total spent for this trip is around RM 200 for the food, the transportation and the accomodations… Not too bad for another budget trip… And now… I can finally go to sleep
Langkawi – Day 2 and 3
We spent most of our mornings in bed… I even remembered waking up at around 9 plus… Half a morning gone… After having breakfast, we left for the next stop on the list… The Langkawi Cable Car and Cultural Village which is located north-west of the island… Its about a half an hour drive away… And along the way, heavy rain dampens our mood again…
~Rain rain go away… Come again another day~
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Luckily when we arrived at the cultural village area… The rain had already subside into a small drizzle.
The cultural village is more of a ‘tourist-please-buy-all-these-souveniers’ place. I got myself a wind chime here… One of the few things that fascinates me here is the toilet… I went into the toilet and the first thing I did was to take a picture…
~You might find yourself taking a photo in the toilet if this is the first thing you see upon entering it~
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Moving on… The cable car up to the mountain is also found here in the ‘village’
~Its goes up really really high ya’ know~
The cable car takes us up Mount Machinchang, 708 metres above sea level… And its certainly not for the faint hearted… Being inside a cable car, with only a rope holding you up, you’ll start to wish that you hadn’t gotten off solid ground… Especially when you see something like this from the cable car…
~Its a long long drop down~
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~I think this is the seven wells waterfall… Taken from the cable car~
But once you got to the top, you’ll find that the cable car ride was all worth it…
~You can see almost the whole of Langkawi from up here… You can even see those distant islands…~
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~Group photo… Without me… Cuz I was taking the photo… And Annie… Cuz she was too busy drinking her mineral water~
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One could choose to take photos up the the peak of the mount or take another cable car to a nearby peak and journey down onto a platform in between the peaks
~It makes you wonder how they manage to put this platform the whole way up there~
And you could even walk onto the suspended walkway (Its quite solid) and take photos… (Yup… This is a place to take photos only…)
~The platform~
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~Me, on the walkway with some rock formations behind me~
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~Taken from the walkway~
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Getting down was nicer than going up… Cuz you know that you’re returning to solid ground… As much as I love the place… I’m happy to be back on the ground…
The next stop here would be the Seven Wells waterfall… Its just a few minutes drive away from the cultural village and you must hike a few minutes up to the base of the waterfall… And the waterfall was simply mesmerizing…
~Someone had to be in the photo while I was taking it :p~
A word of advise here before taking any photos is that you may want to wipe your lens everytime you take a photo because after a while you’ll see a lot of water droplets on your pictures… And it can really spoil a nice photo…
Unfortunately for me… I got droplets on most of my photos… Lousy…
~This is the best photo among all the other photos without anyone in it… (But you could still see the droplets)~
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The water was cooling and so refreshing… I could hardly stop myself from going into the river… And felt it hard to leave the mesmerizing place
~Only photos left of me and the waterfall… I wanna go back there (Someone else in the picture again…zzz…)~
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You could even see the cable cars from here
~See how high we were at??~
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Finally and relunctantly… We left the waterfall… And visited two other beaches before calling it a day…
The first beach visited was the Black Sands beach… And as you guessed it… The sands are black here…
~My hairy leg and the black sands…~
Why is it black?? I haven’t the slightest idea…
But there wasn’t much to do here as the shores are really very short and there wasn’t really anyone around… Kinda sad for a tourist attraction site… There was some shops selling very tasty keropok nearby though… And I have fallen in love with their sotong keropok… Its a must try if you have a chance…
~
Last but not least… We visited Tanjung Rhu beach… Which is called the best beach in Langkawi by our Mama tour guide (Dunno if its true or not)… The beach is about 20 minutes drive away from the Black Sands beach and has very nice sands… One could have a picnic here or even play frisbee or some beach games here… But being the unprepared people that we are… We just stop and run around and took photos and got our feet wet…
~The beach~
I even managed to take this photo of the sun behind the clouds
~Dazzling…~
And that was our final destination for the day… I arrived back at the Kondo with wet jeans (too much time in the water), 2 packets of sotong keropoks (couldn’t resist getting more than one) and a whole plastic bag of chocolates and wine chocolates (Langkawi is duty free so stuff like these tend to be cheaper)…
And so end our Day 2 at Langkawi… Some of us slept early that night being exhausted while others chit chatted till morning… I had to spend a night on the sofa cuz someone someone took control of the pillows and blackets in my room… -.-”’
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The next day… Most of us were like this…
~We didnt wanna wake up…~
But we had to since our ferry leave quite early…
And so came an end to our Langkawi trip… Miraculously… The total amount spent on this trip (excluding chocolates and other self expenses) only total up to around RM 250 (Talk about a budget trip).
And after arriving back at Kuala Perlis… We had to part ways since others are going to Kedah for a prolonged trip and I’m going back to KL…
~Waiting for the bus to arrive..~
Another tip from this trip is that if you have the money to spare and if you’re staying far away from the island (in KL), do take a flight to Langkawi instead (find cheap tickets from AirAsia) cuz its really uncomfortable seating in the bus for 7-9 hours for the journey… And you’ll feel nauseatic faster if you’re sitting in the back row somemore… And you’ll save a lot more time to look around and visit places…
All in all… I really did enjoy the trip there… And I am awaiting the day when I can go back to see the enchanting waterfall once more…
~Goodbye Langkawi…~
Langkawi Trip -Day 1
The trip to Langkawi must have been the wildest I had so far. It wasn’t only that… It was thrilling, and even scary at some point. All 9 of us made through the whole 3 days without much of a problem besides SHiung who was looking kinda sick on the way back…
The participants:
Tingting
YHui
’Mitsuki cyan’ KMSin
‘Killer look’ SHiung
LCYong
- CXin (Individual photo at McD not available)
- CTeng (Individual photo at McD not available)
- Annie (Individual photo at McD not available)
- Alan (thats me)
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We boarded a bus to Kuala Perlis and then made our way to Langkawi via the ferry there.
The bus ride was 7 hours long… So eventually when we reach Langkawi after spending hours and hours trying tossing and turning trying to get good sleep, you’ll see us looking like this
~Exhausted~
~Having breakfast~
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The ferry to Langkawi took at least one hour… Since we’re taking the 7am ferry there, I thought we would be able to see some nice enchanting sunrise or something only to find that… It was rainy and cloudy…
~Quite discouraging.. eh~
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~This made it even more discouraging…~
Eventually we arrived at Langkawi in the midst of a storm… 
~The eagle of Langkawi didn’t have any shelther… So pity…~
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We checked into the ‘haunted’ Kondo Istana which I have mentioned about in the last post… And for the 3 days there… We didn’t experienced anything out of the ordinary… (Lousy haunted web reviews). The place was really very comfortable… Clean and very well equipped… There are maids coming in to make up the room everyday so you dont have to worry about being messy… There is even a toaster and a stove in our unit which we can use to cook and make toast bread (but we didn’t though). The rooms are clean with air-conditioning and its quite amazing to say that we only spent RM 56 for our accomodation for those 3 days and 2 nights
~Clean rooms~
~The living room… There is even ASTRO to watch~
~Taken from the 7th floor of Kondo Istana~
~Langkawi Island (Taken from the 7th floor of Kondo Istana~
One bad part about the place is the windows… Some of the windows in our unit couldn’t be lock… But when you’re staying at the 7th floor, I don’t think thats a problem
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We rented a van for a sum of RM 180 for the 3 days there for 9 persons which cost RM 20 per person ( Not bad either eh~~)… But it may be a good idea to make sure the van is working fine before filling in petrol… We had to change the van to another one cuz the first one wasn’t working really good… And we had already filled in petrol… So bye bye petrol money…
~The ‘not-working-well’ van… They look as if they are PTI caught by the police… ~
And this is our ‘Mama’ tour guide and ‘Papa’ driver
~They are not yet engaged though…:P~
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We visited the Langkawi Book Village only to find it close.. :sweats:… And ended up taking a hike on the nearby grounds… The river there wasn’t really clean… But the sights is still something to look at…
Further down the hiking path… The stairs into the forest got sealed off… :sweats again:… Whats with all this sealed off places…
~The stairs that are sealed off~
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And so the whole morning was filled with sealed offs… Kinda like a waste of time there… The afternoon was a different story…
We went island hopping… And by that I don’t mean this…
~Some ‘crazy’ people hopping on the islands … with some ‘crazy’ photographer taking photos of them hopping (Not to mention a few bellybuttons shown)~
Island hopping here means visiting some of the islands located nearby to Langkawi… And to get there… We used a speed boat…
~The ride on the speedboat…~
One of the islands visited was Pulau something beras… The shores here are just terrific…
~Taken from the island~
~Me~
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There are even monkeys all over the place to welcome you here
~My good friend… The monkey…~
These two girls welcome you to Langkawi…
~Welcome to Langkawi… (Can be used as an advertisement for Visit Langkawi Year, don’t you think so?)~
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We also went to see some rock formations of some sleeping pregnant woman… (No nice photos of this) and took photos of the eagle feeding…
~I’m kinda disappointed cuz these two photos didn’t turn out too well~
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After that we went to another island… The island with the the Dayang Bunting lake (I think)… Its where you could go kayaking, swimming and even play with those cycling boats…
~The lake… With those cycling boats~
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Now so far… The trip hasn’t been too thrilling with the exception of the speedboat making sharp turns and the occasional waves hitting the boat…
Everything was fine until we saw this…
~It wasn’t really that dark yet.. But for the dramatic feeling… I played with the lighting a little and got this…~
We were stuck out at sea with a storm… The waves got really big and the winds got very strong… It became scary… Soon it rained heavily… And we couldn’t even see the island anymore… The man steering the boat even had problems navigating through the storm… It was cold and we were all wet… Needless to say… Some of us got scared that we may not make it back…
Luckily the man steering was an experienced one… And managed to get us through the storm… And we finally managed to return to Langkawi island in one piece… Thank God…
But needless to say… All of us were wet… Luckily the phones and camera are still working…
~Wet!!…~
~SHiung tired and wet!!…~
~Still camwhoring even though we are wet!!…~
~Hungry and wet!!…~
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Later at night, after dinner, we went to visit the poor helang who didn’t have any shelther…
~Ya.. I know… This is a terrible photo… Lousy lighting… And the eagle still looks kinda sad…~
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There isn’t anything much to do in Langkawi at night… And since we were all exhausted after our very very thrilling island hopping trip in the afternoon… We just stayed in the Kondo and rest…
And also to celebrate someone’s birthday… (It was suppose to be a surprise but someone found out about it when she opened the fridge… Spoilt surprise)
~And here it is… Papa SHiung giving Mama LCYong a present… Where did the kiss go??? Why no kiss ?? ~
~~ :End of day 1: ~~
