the end of report on penang

our second morning in penang was spent at the national park in teluk bahang. it was not advisable to go to kekloksi as the way there would be congested due to the thaipusam celebration. hence, the concierge of the hotel suggested teluk bahang. it was on my plan as well, and off we headed there.
yeelin cursed the trip because i think it was the first time she had walked that much in her entire life and she had to do it in sandals. hahaa.....wei was doing it in his birkenstock. the rest of us were equipped with our shoes but no backpack. we had our handbags. hahaa..

this national park is the smallest in the country but it is good for day trip. you can trek from one side of the island to the other side for the beach.
some ppl who dun wanna trek can hire a boat to bring them to the beach on the other side of the island. you don't have to pay to enter the park, but make sure you register yourself and come out by 5p.m.
we paid rm5 each for the canopy walk at the entrance. it was my first canopy walk. it was fun.

some of the trails we took. all in all we walked more than 4 km, it was fun. we really had a good workout. those sweats were pouring out from every gland in our bodies.

we then decided to go to kekloksi via the balik pulau way. it was winding drive and we actually lost our way.
nevertheless, we still got there but maybe 15 mins off the supposed arrival time.
lunch lunch lunch. we needed food. so there was a row of stalls at the foot of the way to kekloksi and the once famous laksa was there. a friend actually recommended me to try the laksa at the foot of the way to bukit bendera, but i din find it. so we just parked ourselves here and ate whatever we could find. i like the harmchimpeng! very very nice!!!
the laksa is not good at all. so dun ever try it ok....it is a thing of the past!


view of penang from the top of the temple.
the highest kuan yin statue in the world? the tallest pillar? not quite sure but it was majestic.
you can make a prayer for your family by donating rm30 and write them on a piece of roof tile which will be used in the renovation of the temple.

after kekloksi we were deciding whether to go to bukit bendera or not...and in the end we called it off.
went back to the hotel and rested.
at night went to ferringhi to check out the stalls selling knick-knacks along the road and had dinner at one of the food courts there. bad choice. none of the food we ordered was good. well they cater mostly to foreigners i guess. no one bought anything.
back at the hotel, they played chi kam while i finished reading 2 days' newspapers. arrrghh...the workout at teluk bahang was great. but still, i think everyone put on weight.
and that was the end of our short trip to penang on a weekend. a lot of walking and exploring and bonding but unfortunately no good food. what a trip.

sights of penang

well, this is kinda waaaayyy belated...but why waste the photos i took. those of you who have chance to go to penang should explore georgetown on foot....well with an umbrella and good sneakers of course. you get to see so much.

cathedral of the assumption


st george's church

haha..i dun even know what this is

pinang peranakan mansion, home of one of the kapitan's of penang. rm10 per entry. only my sis and aunt went


fort conwallis. it was closed when we went at 6p.m. not sure if you have to pay

a trishaw ride on the esplanade. the fleet of trishaws we saw were ferrying a group of photographers from different countries in asia.

war monument
city hall
town hall
high court


the goddess of mercy temple

inside the pinang peranakan mansion


we had dinner in one of the restaurants near komtar. wei been there before and he told us about the charcoal fire steamboat. it was good.





our adventure on lebuh utama where the thaipusam celebration was held.

ice lolly and rojak anyone??

new year countdown

in just a few hours time, everyone will be sitting down at the dining table having reunion dinner with their family members and relatives. there will be 11 of us at the table this year and i still have no idea how many dishes they are cooking. the table will be full i am sure despite everyone talking about not eating so much nowadays because of the fear of putting on more weight. sis has already put on 3 kg since she came back from australia...but i am sure she will lose them once she gets back this friday.

and i finally see my second sis whom i have not seen for 4 years (she left for australia) at noon today. sob sob...i could feel tears in my eyes...i am so emo. will be spending more time with her this week since they already require my service to drive them to kl to do shopping. see, i am the designated driver. third day of cny to aunt friend's house in subang for her open house and friday driver for siew. yee is also leaving for australia that friday morning, so maybe we will just go down early and hang around for a long long breakfast.
siew also did some spring cleaning in her wardrobe here. very easy- put all the pants and shirts in plastic bags only because she could not wear them at all now. oh i can gloat too because my brother-in-law said that i am the slimmest in the house now. muahaha...gloatttttt

the house is kinda quiet now but the heat makes you not wanna do anything. it is freaking hot! mom, cousin and aunt have gone out to the pasar malam. yee is ironing and altering wei's long pants. wei is reading. dad is watching tv in his room. grandpa is reading newspaper. grandma is washing her clothes after her shower.

i have not peeled prawn shells for ages...and i have almost forgotten how to do it. am i spoilt or what?? i did all the peeling as shown above ok. so many shells and yet so few prawns that came out.

the countdown for cny always starts with offering prayers to ancestors in the noon. the prawns i peeled were used in the plate of fried noodles.

i wonder how much we are going to eat tonight in this kind of weather? i don't feel like eating. i have drunk so much water but it never seems enuf. going to hang out with my friends after dinner...no choice, i have to settle my debt. it is not good to owe ppl money and all debt has to be settled before the new year.

pre-cny and valentine's ramblings

this morning i went to work with 2 big springs on my steps. i felt so light and chatty and felt like sharing my broad smile and happy spirit with everyone.
aah....the new year spirit is finally attacking at its full force. there was not a worry at that moment.
however, the plan to just switch on the notebook and start typing as soon as i put down the bag on the chair did not materialise. there were just so many last minute things to settle. you can call it pecutan terakhir. i was not the only one, everyone else was too....finishing the week's report, etc.

i thought i was going to be dead tired today because of the outing to ipoh to watch percy jackson and the lightning thief the previous night. but luckily i wasn't. i was so glad that i finally got a dreamless sleep last night....the only one of the week. i was actually looking forward to watching valentine's day....but lousy ipoh cinema is not showing that. bah! percy jackson was not bad....in fact some said better than harry potter. well i have read the book so watching the movie was a natural thing to do. the movie did not disappoint and it got favourable review in the star today. teens would love this one.
i also found a pair of knee length shorts for cny. yeah....no need to wear old one. hhaa...i am making everything new to welcome the year of the tiger. albeit in my dark glory....i am so tanned!!! arms and legs and neck. the face is fairer thanks to my cap.

since it is cny, the giving spirit is also filling up the air. i have received 2 red packets now- one from my neighbour and another from granma's friend who visited her last week. kids too gave me some stuff.


this hamper was sent to my house yesterday. she sends me one hamper every year. luckily i have a packet of dried duck meat for her. so i dun only take lah. pai seh ah.

yes yes yes, this packet of pretzel is really bursting with everything cheeeesssseeee. it is sooo cheesy but grandma called it salty. sent from america but made in germany. given to me by carmen who happens to hate cheese very much. so lucky me....everything cheese sent to her by her mom is coming my way. muahahaha...

how am i going to lose that 1 or 2 kg i put on these few days? been going out for late dinner 3 days in a row and the weight can really pile on so fast! was so proud of my flat tummy but that was so last week already. well, i can still be proud of my toned arms. so hide the tummy and show those arms.

i was so touched by this- a container full of nuts. you name them and they are there....and oh, raisins too. the ultimate healthy food. i am not sharing this one with anyone because karen gave this to me. in her note, she wrote down the benefits of nuts, etc. she even decorated the container with a hello kitty paper cutout. who would have thought such a tomboy could so such touching thing? tqtqtqtqtq

anyone tasted dried duck meat before? it is cheaper than chicken and pork. i got it for rm30 for 500g. if you buy chicken, it is rm35 for 500g. since the meat is already marinated, it tastes the same as any other meat. eating too much of this is not good, but since it is once in a year affair, my cny week breakfast will be 2 pieces of bread and dried duck meat. quack quack...

ok...not every packet is ours lah. mom and aunt are going to give some to friends and relatives when they bring us stuff this cny too.

new fridge for the new year too. sis bought this for the house. and now we have 2 fridges. gosh. we only collect and never throw away old things in this house. it feels so stuffy to be in the kitchen. i can't stand it.

any coca-cola collector? aunt got this from her friend. it was bought in kl. i think this is imported from korea. i know someone who collects and if i know which part of kl, i will definitely get it for him.

so the balik kampung exodus has started today. cars heading north were aplenty when i came back in the afternoon. good luck to you guys....including my brother and cousin en who will be making their way to tm from kl tonight.

the radio were talking about wedding proposals in the breakfast show this morning on my way to work. i heard a few and it all included wine and dine before getting down on the knee to propose. sigh...what is so special about wine and dine? you eat everyday. ok i better shut up on this topic right since i am not wined and dined nor am i getting a proposal. but why must dinner be in the plan? can't guys think of more special ways? i know a friend was blindfolded and led all the way to the airport to board a flight to another state before getting her proposal. now that is what i call a proposal. anyone wanna share their special proposal story here and prove that the art of romancing someone is still very much alive? blame those mills and boons (my english teacher called it modern bible wakakaka) for making me a helpless romantic.

cny is finally around the corner

roar! roar! roar! chinese new year is really around the corner. you can feel the festive air especially in our local malls where they play cny songs non-stop and red decorations hanging everywhere.

this is what you will see ifyou go to pavilion. was there on friday before yeelin and jet flew back to australia on saturday. aunt, sis, brothers and cousins went down to kl to have dinner with sis liling. we reached klcc at 4.30pm and yee and i walked (more like dashed) to pavilion. yee wanted to see pavilion. the walk was quite fast and in no time, we reached pavilion. i passed the side of the building before reaching the front and noticed all the sidewalk restaurants, bistros and cafes for the first time. i guess that is the new place to be seen. i saw the controversial malaysian singer namewee at one of the tables there with a video camera on the table. well, he was in his signature beanie, so it was not difficult to identify him.
we were only there for 1 hour but yee still got some shopping done. zara still had final clearance and she got a shirt and a bag. i went to have my toywatch's strap shortened.
we met liling at 6p.m. dinner was at chilli's. waited for a while. it looks like most of the office workers chose chilli's to chill on friday as well. the food is definitely better than tgif.
after some window shopping, there was a second round for dinner at madam kwan's. i think sis liling did not enjoy western food that much and she was craving for rice. the latecomers (wei and en) also did not have much. liling ordered fish head curry (rm90) and the bowl was really huge! unfortunately, the food that day was not satisfactory at all. i think the quality has dropped. the fish head curry is just plain coconut curry and cendol and ais kacang were bland. i ordered a banana junk...the mango ice-cream was refreshingly fragrant.

new year air is in the house as well. today we did some spring cleaning in the store room...and it felt therapeutic to get rid of stuff. cookie jars are filling up fast in the kitchen and space is running out. will post photo next week when all is almost done.
i'm still looking for a pair of new shorts to wear. new year kan....so new shorts lah. it is the coolest and most comfy in our hot weather. one more week of work and then one whole week of cny holidays. can't wait.

breakfast from birthday girl

can you figure out what this is??
i started my day with this hearty breakfast and now i am so full and satisfied and touched and overwhelmed at the same time.
karen made me this...well not the cheong fun. we bought it in teluk intan yesterday, rm3.60 a pack. expensive huh?
this morning, she steamed the cheong fun, and added tuna fish with extra virgin olive oil, carrot and beaten egg. i personally do not like the cheong fun from teluk intan but today, this cheong fun tasted like the best i have tasted ever!
it is her birthday today, so coming from her on this day makes it extra special!

our thaipusam experience

can't collage my photos from penang because can't install picasa on this notebook (what kind of lousy notebook are they giving us?), so i post these clips instead.
my brothers and sister's first thaipusam experience. i went once to batu cave on the eve and saw how the kavadi bearers got into trance and pierced those skewers into their bodies. what an eye-opening experience it was. i would say that thaipusam is one of the most interesting festivals celebrated in malaysia.
my siblings and i made our way to lebuh utama where the thaipusam festivities were. aunt and cousin stayed in the hotel. ...actually luckily they did not go. i doubt they could stand the crowd and the heat.
my sister said she had never seen so many indians before in her life. haha....we were pushing and inching along the street, we were some of the few fair faces there.
the coconut throwing scene left us mesmerised for a long time. it was kinda theraupetic seeing it. anyone can just get hold of the coconut to break on the ground. i think it is to get rid of evil and bad luck. the mppp was very efficient in cleaning the smashed coconuts. the mini bulldozers were on standby as soon as the coconuts in one particular area were all smashed.
our night ended before midnight and we were all drained.