Monday, December 28, 2009

Food For Thought

Friends said that I have many funny theory...

=.=" Well, but I think it make sense sometime.

Ok, some of the 'theory' I said, is mean for fun and some are make sense.

I just return from a very meaningful camp which make me think about 'ren shen dao li'
It is an camp under buddist society. So, I do pay attention to the seniors and masters when they were sharing their thoughts and experiences with us.

From there I learn alot of the 'the ways of life'.

Ok, I will touch abit about Buddist which will bored some of you.. but I hope I could share out my understanding about this religion with all.

There is a time, a christian's believer came to an elder monk and ask him.
"What is Buddist believe in" ?

That elder said:
"Buddist belief in nothing".

The christian's believer was confused and demanded an explaination.

The elder said:
"We buddist do not believe in what we heard, but what we learn and experienced it according to Buddha teaching. Buddha never told us to believe in what he said. But to listen, learn and experience it yourself, hence believe in what you gain from it."

So buddist is believe in nothing but from where they learn by themselves through experiences and understanding.

Buddha is the Enlighten One . He is not a god nor the ruler of universe. He is just a great teacher which had understand everything in this world. In short, he is enlightened. He had spend 45 years of his life to guide the peoples around the world to reach the enlightment. And upon his death at 80, he wish no people to over obsessed with his dead (making grand funeral etc), because when he die, the body is nothing but a worn out corpe.

People ask, where did Buddha went when he dead? Nirvana?

Where is it? Heaven?

An old monk replied.. Buddha din went to anyway..
He had understand everything in this world and reached enlightened. He had no need to reborn. Nirvana is a state of mind. But people do not satisfied with the answer and wish to see something concrete like heaven or hell. So, people use to believe nirvana is a place and Buddha had went there after his final rebirth.

Whatever it is, this is not the point buddism is concern about. You do not need to know where Buddha came from and what he is doing right now. Just like, you do not need to know who create electricity. We only need to know how to fully utilized the electricity.

Frankly, I do not understand much about buddism too. In fact I only understand a little. By reading books, few philosophy of life attract my attention. I think it is very true indeed.

I have tried to explained some, but I stuck in middle. Must admit that my understand is still shallow and not suitable to share publicly.

Well, I will list down some philosophy without explaination. It is up to you to understand it by your own. Like Buddha said, do not believe in what I said, but to try it, and understand from what you gained.

Expect nothing , and nothing can dissappoint you


Return evil with Love. It is hard, but at least do not return evil with evil.


No one is blameless in this World.

No one can take away your sin. Only by doing good deeds, it could repent your bad Karma.


Property remain when we die, Friends and family follow us up to our grave, but only bad actions and good actions (Karma) will be follow us beyond that.

Well, that all I can remember from my understanding. It is really a food of thought especially the first theory. I like it very much. In fact I use a lot of times to understand it. It is true that dissappointment is a consequences of our expectation.

Ok la, I will stop this religious talking now. Not everyone like it though. Hahaha. But seriously, Buddism is a very nice religion. It give a lot space of thought.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Penang the Food Paradise

Hey folks, how cha doing ye? Holiday is coming to an end and soon enough we will see each other once more yo.

As title above, this post is about my previous trip to Penang ! Finally I managed to stick my big ass long enough in front of laptop to finish this post. *phew*

As a matter of fact, I went to Penang before my Langkawi trip. Since Penang had soooo much things to write about, I lazy to write it... which is similar to Shin Yeen case. lolx

Anyway, this will be another of my long-winded post with alot of photos. Which might be a good news to some people that bored to dead in their home. At least they got something to occupied them for quite a while.. haha.

I will try to make it sweet and simple as possible. *Aw, shin yeen hate sweet stuffs hor? too bad*

PENANG

If I am not mistaken, we went to penang starting from 24 till 28 th of November. I am driving this time with my mom's MyVi. Tagging along Junyen, Leeyin, and quinn.

It is really fun to experience long distance drive for first time. Running straight highway for hours is quite tiring though. Kenny suggested that we stopped at Bidor to try the local famous

"Duck noodle" .




Seriously, this is not as good as it sound, and it is costly ! rm6.40. Well, don't bother to stop by bidor for this "legend" if you are not starve to death. Just not worth it to purposely pay extra toll to eat this... XD

Apparently, we went to penang to visit our foster family. So, we arrived at Gertak Sanggul in not more than 4 hours of drive.

So, here we are. Staying with our dearest foster family for 3 days and 2 nights. Spending valuable days with them. Kids there is very welcoming too.




don't you think we 'boys' is naturally talented in jumping ?
kelefeh beside quinn had a real hard time.. lmao

Well, nothing much activities had been held since the purpose we came here is to spend time with our family. We played basketball, jungle trekking and celebrating one of our friend birthday too. A surprise one..

The birthday boy

The cakes with extra chocolates, carefully chose by See yee
for some evil purposes

Pity. But Nice XD

Well, we still ate that cake despite that it had been... ermm. haha It is bad to show wastage habit in village k.

On the third day. Which is the day we went out from the village and start our food hunting adventure. I am freaking sick ! (=__+") All because of my greedy appepite. By the time we went to Queens Bay mall, I already knew that my day is going to be wasted. What upset me the most is.. that night, everyone will going to Auto City to eat TAO ! (T___T")

At first, I 'sei ding' . mati mati also wan follow. But when I arrived at my friend house which we will be staying there for few nights. I already can't endure the sickness (headache, bone ache, stomach-bloat + thunderstorm) and when I see a bed, I am pretty sure I am going nowhere, but the bed. Frederick too, is not feeling well, so both of us decide to take a rest and leaving the others to tear TAO apart..

I ate 5 panadols that day. lolx


The next morning, I am very healthy ! and crave for more good foods. Hating myself for being sick and give-up the TAO yesterday, I swear I will eat till the kingdom come from now on. lolx

For our breakfast, we went to nearby restaurant at Butterworth which famous for its

Kueteaw soup

This is really good

Next we went to Georgetown to try out the famous

Cendol

People are crowding that place ! Lining up to grab their turn

This Apek, shud be the boss. He scolded his worker like maniac


For my opinion, this cendol is nice. The ice is soft and it melt when enter your mouth. But it is not that great though. Can't understand why people are insanely crowding his stalls for this so called greatest cendol in Penang ? haha but it is good anyway.

Well, after cooling our throat with cendol, we searched for a shop which is highly recommended by JunYen.. selling

Coconut Tart




The tart is good, I tapao 10 of this delicated tart myself. Must try ya.. haha Hochack !

Well, what is the point going to penang without trying its Fried Kueteaw? haha. We went to a kopitiam beside the famous cendol stall to try out.

Fried Kueteaw
This keuteaw, as you can see, is so small in portion. And it cost us a freaking rm4.40 per plate. WTF right ? In penang, a noodle cost more than rm3 is consider expensive, and this even beyond the border. Anyway, if the food is worth the price, is ok.

But, maybe because of my high expectation, I thought penang keuteaw will be far supreme than KL. BS, this noodle I ate is just the same as Kl.. just that the prawn is big and bouncy.

We move on to the next street which according to Junyen, they sell good
Choo Cheung Fan

haha, I forget what is this place called, it is an old kopitiam. Well, the CCF is tasty.

By the time we done with Georgetown, we head to Air Hitam to taste few local delights. Since Kek Lok Si is located in Air Hitam, of course we are going there too.








My god, we are born for this... lol

Ok la, enough of temple.. let continue our food hunt adventure.. Despite that we had ate so much at Georgetown, we still crave for more !

We saw a stall selling Asam Laksa which is SOOOO obvious with his contrasting signboard. You will never miss that stall. It is so freaking obvious... haha

Asam Laksa


I seldom eat Asam Laksa, and I never found a good laksa in PJ. It is either too sour, or too spicy. But I have to admit that this 'tissue laksa' is awesome.

Straight after we done with this laksa, we seek for 'cha kui ka' in Air Hitam too . Which in Kl we called it 'lobakgou'. In SS2 pasar malam, you will see people lining up to buy this.

'cha kui ka'

After you eat this, you will never go to SS2 pasar malam. This makes other 'lobakgou' taste like porridge. Serious.. but this taukeh is very very lazy. He work when he is in mood. Or when he lose all his money in gambling. Haha. So, my friend said that, if the taukeh is opening his stall tonight, you are sipek lucky la.. 'Gotta get get'

Not done with this, we went to local food stores which sell 'ho chien' / fried oyster which its oyster is bigger than 2ocent ! If you ever ate ho chien at SS2, you will know what is BIG oyster after you taste it in Penang.
FRIED OYSTER / HO CHIEN

Wow, do you notice that we had ate alot ? and hell ya, we ate all of this in one day. The night is still young. So we went to Sunway carnival at Butterworth to watch movie !

Not bad la this movie. But it is very violent with limbs and heads flying around. Lot of bloods. At first we thought wanna go for supper. Butterworth best Tomyam !

But, it closed. Sad, we called it a day and back to house.

Next morning. By right, we should heading back to Kl already. But we decide to stay for another night because we ain't eat enough yet. Haha.

Having Dim sum for breakfast.. my god, the dimsum is freaking cheap ! rm2 per plate ? walan.

Dim Sum


Found empty table ?

Vollaaa this is just first round .. hehe

We headed to nearby temple. This temple is best at its architecture and design.


It is indeed a very hot day. But inside the temple we feel chill and calm. Next we went to a road side stall to wet our throat with famous

Air Mata Kucing


Using metal spoon and bowl, it makes the drink double the chill. From our hand it chill till our stomach.. yummy.

Eye blink blink.. is time for lunch ! So fast...

We head to Kedah. What ? Kedah?
Yea, Kedah, just the border haha.. to taste its famous duck rice recommended by teng haw.

Duck Rice


Duck and porridge. Good combination which could wash away the oily feel in your mouth. By the way, the duck is very nice. Just that the skin is not that crunchy.

And we headed back to house to take a nap.. before dinner. haha

What for dinner?

Seafood At Seaside

Having dinner while witnessing the end of light (sunset) is so 'got feel' . We are dining at seaside of Butterworth and we could view the Penang island across the sea. Well, the foods are.. erm
dissappointing... but, the environment save the day !

Next we went to AutoCity to have a walk.

and before hitting mid night... we went to supper. And at last, The legendary tomyam is on business ! yooohoooo.

TomYam Mee ( google earth Tom Yam cha Kueteaw XD)


Stacks of orders.. that mean line up la, boey tan jou mai jiak

We have wait for freaking one hour ++ for our tom yam mee.. But it is worth it ! totally worth it.. For a tomyam lover like me, my expectation is high.. and this tomyam is live up to its reputation. Goood ar ! Seriously dude, I miss this the most when I back to KL.

And our final night end ! (^^).

Ok, we not planning to extend our stay.. but before we leaving, we had our last breakfast at Penang.

Yam Rice




Finally, going back to Kl.. but jam terribly at highway. Driving for 5.5 hours to reach KL. And that all for my Penang trip. Worth it !

Special thanks to Teng Haw for your care and everything.. (I know u will read my blog^^)

Thanks to Zi Cong and Haw Wooi for accompany us and killing us with laughter and funs..

I had a great time at Penang and I love it . \(^0^)/

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

LangKawi de Tour

Again, went to Langkawi but with my family this time. Before depart to langkawi, we had Bak Kut Teh as our breakfast.. hehe

Seriously, I think this bak kut teh is the best in my home town. I had ate this since I small.
Ps: hey frank and quinn, I always want to bring both of you to taste this geh.. haha

Ok, after a satisfying breakfast, we head to LCC airport and ready to depart.


Langkawi, here we come !


Recall, last time went to this legendary island with my Uni friends.. and we chose to travel at non-peak season. The price of everything is reasonable and is still in the range of my expected budget.

But heck, at this peak season of school holidays, this legendary island had turn into blood-sucking islands. Price for everything is almost increased by 50%. Recalling last time we rent a Toyota Innova for only rm100 pernight.. which could fitted in at least 9 passengers.

Now, a single toyota Vios with capacity of 5, cost a freaking rm200 perday. WTH.. We tried to change different agents for better offer, but it seem that everyone of them had compromise. Anyway, like I said, this is a family trip mah.. So my parents said, nevermind, just take that over-priced Vios.. lol

Who else is the better candidate to helm this baby if non-other than ME ??
With my previous experience as driver, I still recognized the direction and route on this island. And this car is very fuel economic too. For 3days and 2 night of ride, it only cost us rm20 of fuel.

Wao.. cool right. No wonder people said Vios is very fuel economic.

Well, I decided to stay at Langkasuka beach resort AGAIN.. for the third time. Since I love its spacecy room with balcony provided and owned a clean private beach, and most importantly it is damn near the airport. I can't found other reason not to stay at this resort.








Not to my surprise. (-_-") This hotel is infected by blood-sucker disease. rm210 pernight. for one room.

After done our check-in, we head to pantai cenang for lunch. Apparently, there are only few spot in langkawi that provide choices of meals and few of them is pantai cenang and kuah town. So, we chose pantai cenang to dine our lunch instead of crossing half of Langkawi to reach Kuah for our light-lunch.


Cincai makan just to ease our hunger-pain. So we stopped by a particular chinese restaurant which is not worth to mention its name since the foods is so-so-so . We ordered fry-rice, fry-meehoon , fry noodle...... you name it.. haha


After that, we have a rest in our room and wait for dinner at Kuah Town .. hehe

It is hard to find a good restaurant that serve good food with reasonable price. Hey, I did homework before leaving my house. I serve internet to look for recommended restaurant at langkawi. And found out that a restaurant that served seafood called 'wonderland food store' is recommneded by a blogger.

With help from my precious Garmin (gps) .. we found it in Kuah Town.



Fried squid (recommended)

Prawn fried chili

Vege

Kulu-chicken in sweet-n-sour sauce

Dine beside a river
Acompaniment of a steady flow of river and a magnificent architecture of some resort.


*wtf..my face is so round.*

The foods is ok. And the price is reasonable thought we came at peak-season. Frankly speaking, the foods is not great, but it had beat the hell out of COCOMO restaurant 9 streets ! The best seafood restaurant is all located at Kuah Town. For this meal,

I give 6.8/10

After a fine dinner, We head to Kuah Town for a shopping Spree ! Actually we just doing a window shopping. Comparing the price from shop to shop. Tomorrow will be the day my parents sapu barang liao.. haha

And I can't resist the temptation to buy this masterpiece... ^^



What is the meaning to enjoy in langkawi without drinking some alcohol? Because this is a family trip, so must control control la.. haha, Miss the time when enjoying Frank dancing around the room... hahaha

So we bought some alcohol with fruits flavored? Recommended by my yonger bro and sis.


Waiting it to chill.. we have a walk at the beach.


The photo is dark, because of my limited camera's potential.. frankly the night view at the beach is very nice and romantic. And the sky is full of stars.. Guess what

I saw a meteor right after I lift my head up to see the scattering stars. Wow, it only happened in a split seconds. I saw that for the first time in my life. Hehe

Well, we saw a lot of jelly fish at the shore too. It is cute.. but deadly ! Siao, I want to swim ler..
Hope tomorrow the jelly fish will migrate to some where else.. Shoo to port dickson ok ? haha

Tomorrow morning !

Woke up at 7am to take breakfast at hotel's buffet. Well, I had tasted it buffet for so many times. So, I already expect its quality.

Fried rice, fried kuewtiao.. ham and bla bla... boring boring.. By the way, since it is included in our package.. so no need pay = cannot complain so much.. haha

9 am going to island hoping. Hop 3 island for the second time, for me la. Guess that nothing else better to do lo. Expected from this blood-sucker outbreak..

Rm60 per pax ! Woohoooo

A van came to fetch us at hotel.

And to my surprise, there are so many foreigner and locals waiting for hoping too.. haha



Our first stop is of course, pulau dayang bunting.. well, 10 years also wont change.



Well, just like what I did last time, I swam in the super deep lake and feed the 'keli' fish with my hongkong-style legs... haha

By the way, there is a slight different with this island compared to last time. Apparantly, the monkeys had done their matting and now everyone of them is lugging a baby !

So, after hanging and rotting here for one hour.. we moved to next island which is Singa island to see eagles. This is what they called, eagle feeding (-_-").


Well, from far, it look like a bunch of crows scattering all over the sky. But it is indeed eagles.

After that, we hop to the final island. And again, we were given one hour to rot there.

Ya I know.. after back from penang's food paradise and mom feed me like pig at home.. what you expect ? lol

Well, its beach is quite clear.. but full of 'landak laut'


But, we still playing at the shore and swim at the seaside. The sea level is so low that it only reach my hip.. so I wanna go deeper and start to slow-swim away from the seaside...

Thought that I wanna enjoy the scene underneath the swallow ocean, I dunk my head inside while swimming.. and to my horror!

I touched some spiky thingy and get shocked when found out that it is 'landak laut' !
I stopped swimming and land my feet.. Fuck, I stepped on those thorn.. Nice~ar

I warned my sibling not to come over.. I have to swim back to the shore to avoid stepping more of this MINE!

In my mind, I think shit liao.. this time jialat.. I still remember last time, when I travel to Pangkor island, the bot driver told us before the fact behind this sea's thorn. It thorn is so fragile that it break soon after it poke inside our body. And because of it's fragile thorn, it make it more difficult to get it out.

This is what I get (=_=")

Total up, got 9 needles poke in jor.. At first, quite worry about this. My parents seek for others help and advice. According to some locals, they said, sea thorn here is not dangerous. They said use slippers to slap the wound until the surface is red. So, we tried.

The theory behind this is, the needle is very fragile.. by slapping it, it will break up the needles inside and melt into the blood. Hmmm..

Well, the time is up and is time to back to hotel !

According to another locals, they told us to squeeze some lime's juice on it and rub. So I did what they said. Actually there is a hospital at langkawi.. but the wound is pain-less and I still could walk like normal. Weird hor. So I assumed that I will be fine and go on with our scheduled plan.

Back to hotel and rub some lime's juice on it before heading out to Oriental Village !

The lime act like antibiotic and it work like holy-water.. lol

Around 1pm++ we start heading to Oriental village, which is famous for its cable car. We stopped by at KFC to have our lunch.

And arrived at Oriental village ..

and straight to its cable car.. As usual they charged foreigner for rm30 and rm15 for good malaysian like me.. hehe


With a very systematic lining system..




This cable car could go up very high.. till it need two station to reach the top. Wow, my legs is weak when it start to get up really high. lol

Finally we arrived at top.


On the way up to the hill.. I saw this sky bridge which connects two separate hill.

Oyea, I am eager to cross it... hehe

The whether is good and less windy.. good for us, the bridge is sturdy and stable.


This photo is taken with my cold sweated hand and shaky legs. XD


However, there is a price to pay.. to reach this bridge we need to travel a distance of infinity stairs... It is easy to get down . .

But when we return...

I gotta feeling and bom bom pow XD

Hey, though this is tiring, but fun.. my smart parents did not follow us and leaving us gasping for air when we returned.. haha


Ok liao.. everyone is tired and for a moment I forget that I am a temporary OKU.. and should back to hotel to rest my leg... lolx

I gotta feeling.. wohooooo.. that tonight gonna be a good night. hehe

We searching for other restaurant for dinner at Kuah town. And we rounding Kuah town to spot some customers packing scene.. haha

And we found one..

Hey , this restaurant 'Yong Leung' is good ! Double the quality and taste of yesterday dinner. And it beat COCOMO 18 streets.. haha

spicy lala.. good! (7/10)

Signature tofu.. super tasty. (9.5/10)

Kangkung masak belacan.. quite salty (5/10)

Hard to find pork in Langkawi. But it sold here..weee And this is delicious! Thumb up (9.5/10)

Onion omelet.. Ok la, biasa jek (6/10)

Meaty crab cook in sweet-n-sour sauce. Ok, quite good (7/10)

Overall, this restaurant served good foods with slighty higher price..
Overall rating (8.5/10)

And we went to shop by shop to do shopping.. Chocolates and liquors.. Well, and then we back to hotel and call it a day.

Next day went to breakfast buffet again and miss the curry chicken. Aik.. the foods still the same. Well, cannot complain la.

Depart at 12.45pm because of Air Asia delay... well, normal right? haha

and have our lunch on the air ! First time.. I ate nasi lemak for rm9 -.-"


Hey, this nasi lemak I ate, is tasty.. Its chicken is boneless and the sambal + rendang is good.
And it is alot better than MADAM KWAN nasi lemak which cost me rm16+ . Niabeh, really tio kwan..

This time, I get a chance to sit beside the mirror and enjoy the view while eating my lunch.



Woohooooo... is time to indulge myself with chocolate... lol


But .. with my rounder and rounder face + body.. after back from penang and langkawi.. Argh...

Look like I need to join leeyin's diet camp liao... wakaka

Anyway, I have a fun time in Langkawi.. hehe