Back to Penang again 2011

It was since 2 years ago I had visited Penang. And now I am back to that wonderful island again with stomach craving for good foods.

But this time, I am not with friends but with my siblings of 2. Because this was only a 2 days and 1 night trip, I will heavily concentrate my time to hunt good foods instead wasting it on temples and museum visit.

I borrowed a GPS navigator from my cousin to guide my way to food heaven. But later on, it get me so fucking frustrated and damn piss-off. Later on baru cakap la.

 

I have prepared a list of foods to eat (not place to visit) a night before the trip.  Thanks to 

http://www.vkeong.com/

this fantastic food blogger wrote a super good food blog. So, I was scanning his entries on Penang and on the same time jot down the location on paper. Not to mention that his food photography is very good. 

Before heading out to PLUS highway, we had our dimsum as breakfast at Menjalara

Bandar Sri Menjalara, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur

Restoran Fu Lai

Actually we have planned to eat dimsum at Butterworth the next day at Penang, but erm.... We like Dim Sum so much !!! The dim sum here is not the freshest and most delicious. But it offer an affordable price to local.

Ahoy and here we go ! Drive all the way till Penang. 

After a slight jam in the island, we finally arrived at Chulia Hotel. 

The out look of this hotel is white. Inside also white. When we get our key and heading to our room, it is also white ! I think the theme for this hotel is white

No need to say, the interior in this room was also white. Two queen size bed and a flat screen television.
 

Just one thing, toilets are located outside. Be it bathing, brushing teeth or dumping facets, it have to be performed here. 

Though it sound not that good, but in fact, it is not bad though. The facilities provided in this toilet is way better than those dirty toilet embedded in room at other hotel I visited. seriously, I love the big head shower of that.

and one of the best part was, we got a free parking and security if we are the hotel guest. This is very good because it save our time to hunt safe place to park our car.

After dumping our luggage in room, I start key-in GPS coordinate into GPS navigator before heading out. Thanks to the famous food blog, I got all the coordinate and even their operating time ! and so we headed out to our first eating which was

Mr. Gan Fried Oyster

It is crispy on below, soft and flavorful on top. We ordered the biggest portion which cost MYR 10 and I think it is worth it because the oyster is fresh and big. around 20cent - 50 cent of coin size.

That is Mr.Gan frying oyster.

and a lot of good 'Work Hei'. Place here was quite hard to find a parking so I resorted to park my car illegally but professional without obstructing the traffic. Well, this is what Kl-lite good at.

Lam Ah Coffee Shop (opposite Beach Road fire station)

Lebuh Chulia

The Fried O-chien was delicious, but it was more like a mouth-opening foods to us. So, we headed out for the next hunt.

Ah Hock Wan Tan Mee

This wanton mee was special and a little different from what I ate at KL. Though it was served 'gon lou' / dry, but it was more watery than KL. Don't take it the wrong way, the taste was uniquely awesome in its way. The unique thing was, it can be ate with sambal/ chili paste. So I mix the sambal into the soup and wallop the bowl till the bottom. Ah, the soup is very good.

Stall at intersection of Lebuh Melayu (Malay Street) and Lorong Ikan

One of my objective here was to survey the price of a camera lens that I am so curious of it's rumored sharpness.

Canon Ef 50mm f/1.8 

The price in KL was about RM300-350. So I was heard that Penang will cost lesser and so I headed to the famous camera shop at Komtar called 'Click N Snap' that was recommended by my friend and forum.

So the first thing I done was lens testing ! For so long I had never take off my heavy tamron lens from the body. I put on the 50mm and gave it a first shot at f/2.8

Pow ! to able to produce such a sharp shot , nice bokeh, and fast focusing ability with only MYR 290. I decided to buy that. And I get myself a uv-filter for that at MYR 30.

Anyhow, the 50mm is so plastic-ly and light compare to my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. But of course la, One cost at MYR 1300 and another cost only MYR 290. Can't complain much as long it does the work.

I am a bit paiseh to bored my sibling for following me a long walking distance to find this shop. After that, we went to nearby attraction to eat the famous Penang Cendol

It is sometime a good thing to travel at weekdays and non-public holiday because you get to find your parking easily and need not to queue for too long. Last time I came for this Cendol, gosh... the crowd was so 'crowd', until it take so long to order a nice bowl of cendol during hot day. Not to mention the car had to parked really far far away. Now it is all good. The quality was better than last time as the boss can put more concentrate on our bowl.

Penang Road Cendol

Joo Hooi Cafe, 475, Jalan Penang

 After a big bowl of cendol for each of us, we were quite stuffed. The planned was to visit Siam Road Char Koay Teow after the Cendol, but since we were quite stuffed so we planned to go to Gurney Plaza for a stroll.

Gurney Plaza

The beach was still that dirty and smelly. Hahaha. Like I said, it was weekday and non-holiday. So there were ample of parking on roadside with only MYR 0.30 for every 30 minutes.

So we wondered pointlessly in the plaza while waiting our stomach to cool down. But my brother un-dieing crave for Donut had slowed our cool down time. LOL

And I played with newly bought 50mm. The time was 4.40 PM, and it was about time we should hunt for that Char Koay Teow ! Which was my main objective here in Penang. To eat a very good Char Koay Teow.

Siam Road Char Koay Teow

I swear. This is one of the best Char Koay Teow I ate in my life. The 'Wok Hei' was so strong and with a lot of 'lard' (crunchy fried pig' fat)... man I am in heaven. This will surely promise my return next time.

ooo, I ordered a drink called 8 pou milk.

Hmm, I can't describe how this taste, but it seem like mixing milk with 'leong cha' / herbal drink. and it taste very pleasant and fresh.

I read on that famous food blogger that this uncle who fried this Koay Teow do not like being photograph, and you might get scolded for that. So I have to stand far away and take a pot shot at him real fast while he was busy frying. 

Siam Road (Jalan Siam) Char Koay Teow End of Siam Road

 Stomach filled and it was 5pm already. First thing came in mind... Afternoon nap. Hahaha what a terrible habit. So we headed back to Hotel to bath and rest.

But that GPS bring us rounding and rounding the town with all the screwed up navigation really make me frust !!! It seemed it do not recognized one-way road and insist on I drive against it ! WTF. No matter how I re-route it, it still bring me back to the same road and insist that I FUCK UP the law.

So, I have to rely on my sister phone 'papago' to reach our hotel after a 30 minutes of circling the town like moron.

Anyhow, we reached the hotel and have a good warm bath. And for me, of course I can't resist myself to test further my lens.

The first shot was taken by Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8.

Exif was focal length : 50mm , aperture : f2.8 , iso : 800 , shutter : 1/60 second.


The second shot was taken by newly bought 50mm f/1.8

Exif was focal length : 50mm , aperture : f2.8 , iso : 800 , shutter : 1/60 second.

Notice the sharpness taken by 50mm ? haha. But there was one weakness of 50mm compare to my Tamron. It seem the 50mm can't take a very close-up shot. My Tamron lens on the hand can take a more closer shot by 25% more closer. But, in term of sharpness, 50mm was real sharp.

Okay la, enough with my camera talk. After we rest enough, we decided to hunt for dinner at Bukit Mertajam. The time was 7.15pm and I think the traffic had subsided by then cause it was a working day. Another Char Koay Teow feast incoming !

We took ferry at Pengkalan Weld to cross the sea. My mistake was, I trust that GPS again. And because of that, I had been fooled on the road once more. Imagine my frustration when I am so angry that I actually heed the GPS device to drive against the one-way traffic !

And so, I fucking shut down the moronic GPS and use my phone's garmin instead. Thank god ! my phone garmin was so pin-point precise. And it brought me to the famous Duck Egg Char Koay Teow in Jalan Kulim in no time.

Duck Egg Char Koay Teow

I had drove all the way from Chulia Street at Penang till Bukit Mertajam just to eat this claimed best duck egg Char Koay Teow in Bukit Mertajam.

Taste wise = satisfaction. Fuel wise = Suck it.

We were so hungry that we ordered the largest portion and on top of that, we add-on a fried duck egg for just MYR 4.50 . And we dig in like Barbarian. The Fried duck egg was crunchy on outside but still maintain its juiciest on inside. One poke on the yolk and it flow out to blend with the noodle. Gosh.... saliva keep on dropping.

But, to be honest... it was super oily and the 'Wok Hei' was not that good as the one I ate at Jalan Siam. The jalan Siam Char Koay Teow was still the best I had so far in Penang.

Duck Egg Char Koay Teow
Jalan Kulim.

After such a sumptuous meal, going back to Penang just like that sound stupid. So, we decided to stop by Auto-City for a night stroll. I was feeling sad all the morning because it seem Penang had lost its pretty girls. Oh ! now I knew where the pretty girls had went to. All of em were in Auto-City !! So many of them. Hahaha

I hope KL will have such a big yam cha place to hang out. It was so... got 'feel' either for dating couples or friends gathering.

We went to old town Kopitiam to enjoy the free wi-fi and some drinks.

and we went back to Penang Island to hit the sack. Tomorrow morning we will check-out early to try out the famous dim sum at Butterworth ! Hahahahaha

Dim sum at Chew Chun Butterworth

It was a non-holiday for Penang-lite and it was not a weekend either. But for normal like this, it was already packed with customers. But we were lucky to find a table once we walked in. So we dig in !!!

We eat eat and eat... and end up the bill was just MYR 34. For the amount of dimsum we ate, the price we paying was cheap ! compare to the Dimsum we ate at Kepong yesterday morning, it cost us MYR 49 when we just ate lightly. Not to mention it was a lot fresher and tastier.

Chau Chun
6970, Jalan Ong Yi How
Butterworth, Penang 12300

And we headed back to KL around 9am ++. Initially we still wondering if we want to stop at Ipoh for lunch because we ate too full  for breakfast.

LOL, we still stopped at Ipoh for lunch. We ate 'hor fun'

Ipoh Hor Fun 

Smooth noodle, sweet soup and very succulent chicken. Best. I ate it once a year ago with Yc and Junyen and I was missing this noodle.

Thean Chun Coffee Shop

73, Jalan Market, Ipoh, Perak, 30000

Ahhhh, at last our food journey had ended. With a satisfying and happy stomach we headed back KL.

Will back to Penang anytime soon ? Yesh !! anytime. There are still a lot of foods I want try but was limited by my stomach capability.

Coffee Addiction

Without realizing myself, I think I am officially addicted to coffee.

I have been drinking coffee for 2 out of 3 meals a day. Without it, foods were taste incomplete.

I guess, my family had just add-one another one coffee drinker.

My mom love to drink nescafe with lotsa sugar and Creamer. My Father love to have it bitter. And my granny love non other than Kopi o extra sweet !

For me, I am addicted to just one coffee. Nescafe O that is bitter.

No wonder coffee bean is one of the world largest traded commodity. Everyone just love the adrenaline pump and feel good factor came from it  =)

Cheers, to all the coffee drinker !

Work and Invest ?

I have been procrastinating in my house doing nothing for long enough. I have not socializing with other human being other than my family for months. Even facebook is so dead to me.

So, I decided to answer the invitation to MSLS 2011 

In longer breath, it called 5th Annual Malaysian Leader Student Summit 2011. Initially I have no idea what this summit is about. But it sound pretty cool. Leader student summit

So, lets suit up and went there like a wannabe leader might be a good experience.

In fact, it is interesting. The venue was held in Hilton Hotel ball room. And they provide good foods ! Ahem, that is not the highlight.

A lot of political people and activists were invited to dialogue. It is fun to watch debate among two opposing interest party and seriously breath-taking when students start bombarding tough questions to them.

Anyway, I get this book for free.

Even though I have bad impression toward Mahathir, but this book title do caught my attention. I used to hear about our great Malaysia successfully survive the 1997 Economy Crisis without intervention from IMF (International Monetary Fund). But I never knew how M'sia breakthrough this.

So, I read up the entire book in 4 days.

And my passion into Stock Investment and Forex were increased. Speaking of doing business in the future, I guess it is not my type. People always say, only business can make you rich. But, if I have a good career and pretty good in investment,

Can I make a fortune as well ?

After 1 good year....

Recalling this post that I blogged a year ago.

Pressure, Anxiety and Excitement

To sum up, I was saying that something real big had happened in my life and I have to stop fooling around with my future. But I yet to disclose what with 'big stuff' that was happening.

Haha, who wan to know my untold story anyway ?

Nonetheless, I feel like to share my story here. Maybe some of my concerned friend would love to know.

So here it goes.

Just exactly one year back. My parents did one of the toughest decision in their life. They decided to buy
a house !

"0_o , ahhh cheh.... I thought wat tim. Buy a house nia ? What so bombastic about it? " 

Ish, I do know that everyone buy house nowadays... what so big deal anyway ?

Let put that this way, my scenario was like a small time clerk buying a Lamborghini Gallard o. That very day after my parents secretly hand over the downpayment for that house, my mom can't wait a second longer to tell me about it.

She said they have bought a house.  Frankly, I am not happy with the decision. I am living in a big family. Stay in a double storey terraces which owned by my grandma. Though there are 10 peoples living in there (my father family, my uncle family and grandma) and it get a little congested, but I love the warm and noise of people around.

10 years back, my parents did bought a house too. They bought a small apartment at some place. I was so sad when thinking of leaving this comfortable home. Why should we move to a small apartment when there is a decent house to live ? and one of its side have a great Chinese Cemetery view !

Anyway, the apartment project get a lot of problem and hence it failed to deliver the keys to buyer. It was a bad news for my parents and they resorted to cancel the purchase and sue the contractor.

I am silently happy about it as I wish to stay in this house with my grandma longer. 10 years later... which is now. The history get repeated.

I am expecting a condo at the best. I knew how much my father's earning and my mom was a housewife. So, buying a condo might be my father most stretched limit.

But I am wrong !! They bought a big house. A 3 storey-link house in a highly guarded community at Selayang. And it was cost RM 868,000 back then. (Some might think I am over-reacted as RM 868,000 is not a big money to you. Sadly it is big to me)

I am stunned for moment. Of course I am happy when I fantasizing how fun to stay in such a big house designed with contemporary design



and walking around without fear of criminals in that highly guarded community.

Best of all is that I could enjoy the swimming pool and gym everyday !

But it take just a while to hit me back to reality. How could my father able to pay for this ?

With his current earning left only little saving every month after paying 2 car's installment, daily necessities, insurances, his transport, eatery and all sort of inevitable expenses.. how could my father pay for this ?

And how did my father get loan approval of RM 650,000 in the first place ? Bank ain't stupid, my father was 53 years old a year back which near to retiree. My father own no assets (house, land and etc), my mom is a full time housewife and his 3 kids were still in study.

Mystery unsolved when my mom said, a rubber estate owned by my deceased grandpa get sold with a good price and the money was divided fairly between the sibling. Well, let not disclose the amount. hahaha

And with that, the Bank approved my father's loan. But still, RM 650,000 of loan ain't a small money. So, we need 17 years to repay it back.

This is where, I start being serious on my future. Obviously my father could not work for another 17 years to pay the loan. Soon, it will be me and my younger bro who will take over this burden. When the house was completed, it will cost us RM4,500 per month of loan repay.

What !! given that my father was still working when I come out to corporate world and with my brother still stuck inside university doing his degree, how much could I contribute with my fresh grad salary ?

Hence, my father's early retiree plan flush down the drain. He said he has to work until my brother and me stabilize in our career. But, why my parents wanted to stress themselves this way ?

Why don't just continue to live in this old house and spend their retiree money to travel wherever they want? 

My mom always want to live in a family that only belong to hers. I am not putting this in a bad way, but I believe every women want to have a house that belong to her family. My mom's sacrifice a lot in this old house. She had to give up her job instead of my aunt in order to take care of my ailing grandma. She took care of my aunt's daughter to earn some side income and she cook all the meals everyday to serve the family of 10.

It have been like this for almost 10 years now. My mom said, how she miss the old time when she could work happily with her friends and worry less of house's affair as my grandma was still capable of handling the house that time. Now she is determined, to own a house only belong to her family.

My mom was being a too nice person for too long thus benefiting my aunty and uncle (who was living with us with their two daughter) to worry less about the house agenda because they only need to worry about their work at daylight, and get to eat a sumptuous dinner cooked by my mom when return. Even their daughter homework were monitor by my mom and she will make sure they finish everything right after they return from school.

But I knew my aunt and uncle are not a bad person. They are very nice instead. But sometime people tend to take thing for granted. It is unfair for my mom to stay in the loop for any longer because my mom is getting older. She had serve this big family for 10 good years. And I believe she deserve something better for her remaining years ahead.

Though moving out from this family might cause unthinkable consequences to my aunt and uncle, but enough is enough. My grandma had recovered from her ailing condition thanks to my mom's care. And now I believe it is time for some one to take up the responsibility.

10 years back, I am still stupidly naive. I can't see the hardness that my mom had to endure all this while. I just think about myself. How I dislike small apartment, how I going to miss my grandma, and how I going to miss about everything !

Now, I am all matured. I knew what is the best and to do. And so, I am fully support my parents decision. Though I am tied up to the loan, but I am more than willing to pay for it !

Because this house will make my mom happy =]

How can I mess up with my future anymore ?  

I must quickly come out to working world and excel there ! So that I could earn a decent salary to pay off the house debt and release my father from further burden and responsibility. I guess I will have very little happy hour after work in the future hahaha... money will be very tight.

But again, if this house could make my mom happy, it is freaking worth it !!!!

Hatyai - Thailand 2011

Two weeks back, I went to Hatyai - Thailand with my family. This was my second times having a trip to Thailand.

And both of em gave me a totally different experience and story ! My first Thailand trip was going to Betong - Thailand as covered in

http://holim88.blogspot.com/2010/12/trip-to-betong-thailand-2010-day-1.html

http://holim88.blogspot.com/2010/12/trip-to-betong-thailand-2010-day-2.html

The participant of this trips consist of me, my sister , brother, my mom and

WHOLE BUNCH OF AUNTIESSSSSSSS !!!!

Oh yes, you guess it right. This is a totally aunties trips with 95% of em are female. 87% above are above 50 years ago.

In other word, I have joined a follow a tour group to Thailand. Not my usual backpacker style.

10 hours of bus ride was a real suffer. I always have problem sleeping in bus. Maybe I not use to sleep in sitting position. Nonetheless I survived through the journey.

As a matter of fact. I am anti ala tour-group + tour guide style all the while. Now that I have joined one, it got me assure that my anti-ness feeling is correct.

Hear me say, following a tour group is a BIG NO FUN !

While we (the passenger) so eager to see the uniqueness in Thailand, the tour guide only interested on their fat commission.

3days 1 night trip to Hatyai, is all about shopping shopping and bloody shopping.

I guess those aunties were really enjoying it. But we youngster don't. I myself have went to Betong as backpacker. And I do notice the difference.

We brought 10 thousand Baht to there which is equivalent to RM 1,000. Well, most of the money was spent by mom.. hahahaha

Those place that they brought us to shop, was bloody expensive / not cheap at the least. Given a short time on each stop, we have no choice to travel on our own. Most of the time in Hatyai was going indoor to shop.

Buy biscuits, seaweed, dry cuttle fish and all sort of stuffs which you can find in Malaysia. But those aunties still buy buy and buy in bulk. As it seem it was so cheap. Trust me, it is expensive !

Foods there, was expensive too. Because I think even the tour guide even earn commission from them.

Chicken rice cost RM5 and Tomyam Meehun cost RM4. Erm, actually the price is around like that in Malaysia. But since we were in Thailand. I expect cheaper than that as those foods were really way cheaper in Betong.

Furthermore, the foods were.... meh. What to do, when you follow a tour guide, you have no choice but to eat whatever they bring you to.

At one particular time, they actually being considerate to bring us some place nice for sightseeing. At least there are something I can be looking forward to.

Mermaid Beach. Nothing special particularly except for its famous roasted eggs.

and a mermaid statue

 

and we stay there for 45 minutes. Good also as the sun was really bright that time. From what I see, Thai people are very environment caring. The beach was so clean even though it is a famous picnic spots. Shame to our Malaysian culture. Port Dickson, Melaka and Klang  beachs were a disgrace.

To my surprise, the tour guide brought us to wet market ! I did not expect that because it might bring no commission to them. Well I guess they are still quite considerate sometime. 

Whatnot, I have done some photo-viewing in internet about this Wet market. And found that most of the tourists love to take photo from this spot. I was standing on a bridge. 

Finally the tour guide brought us back to a hotel in Hatyai main city which I forget it name. Very lively indeed. But I did not take any photos on those... hmm wondering why.

Anyway, we rest a while before going out to sight-seeing again. This time we went to the stainless steel tower ! Hope I get it right.

And it cost us RM15 per pax to go there. Nothing special, just a tower with a lot of stainless steel inside and with some monks chanting prayer.

Personally I think there is no entry fees required to visit this place. But the tour guide asked RM15 from us before hence saying that she will arrange a van to us. So in total we paying RM165 because got 11 people per van for the driver to bring us there which cost less than 15minutes.

Hmm, nothing fun to say more. So we back to Malaysia the next morning. Speaking of passing through kastam, it is another funny aunties story. They were so nervous that their shopping goods will somehow get confiscated. All their faces were green and nervous. The tour-guide keep on calming them down. I was like ... 0_o in the bus. 

"Auntiesss, you buy vegetables, fruits and foods nia ma... you think you buy gun and bomb meh" I think like that. I have no idea why they were this nervous.

Another funny stuffs was. Those aunties insist to show-hand their money before going back. As my brother said, those aunties see the Thai Bath like a voucher.. have expiry date one... cannot change back to MYR one. So must finish it !!!

And stop by Alor Setar to visit a muzium.

Auntiess.... auntiess.... auntiess.....

Photos above were so fascinating. It were all drawing ! Masterpiece by 60 great artists. 

Journey back to Malaysia was even a greater suffering when aunties decided to sing karaoke in bus. 

Imagine.... Speakers directly above and beside you with volume turn so loud... and aunties start to sing all their lung out

You know how oldie songs can be so high pitch and semangat. now imagine the sound of lorry honking directly into your ear for 2-3 hours like that.

There was a bloody hell aunty whose profession is a tai-kam-cheh. She sang most of the songs... and I bloody hate her. Her voice is so high pitch and with her run-out-of-tune buffalo voice, it almost got me crazy.

I was thinking to grab her mike and break it. Apparently I did not. And long story short... after long endurance... finally I get to home.

To sum up my story.. I do not hate Hatyai even though I sound like I hate it. I hate tour-guided trip. It is suck for us the free soul teenagers who are eager to explore a totally new worlds.

I guess that is what we called age gaps. Apparently my mom enjoy it. But I don't. Nonetheless, I having precious time with my family at Thailand.

So, I am not satisfy with my trip to Hatyai and looking forward to come back some other day. Of course, with a big bagpack on my back and with fellow good buddies we will conqured every interesting spot of Hatyai can offer.

BERSIH 2.0

What else should I say more ?

None =)

Most of my friends in social network society have said it all.

To my amaze, out of sudden everyone becoming so concern with our country. News sharing were everywhere !

So, I will skip the summary part of Bersih 2.0 because I am pretty sure you got it cover ;-)

Anyway, Kudos to Rakyat as they are the real winner for this and let wait with further anxiety for the upcoming results.

This is the best video of BERSIH 2.0 in my opinion.

Ah ! One more things... it is good that many of us finally awaken from slumber and realize how ugly our government can be.

But complaining and bitching ain't solve shits... So

Meanwhile Ambiga fight for a clean election, YOU 

go register as voter !!!! MOVE IT