Bits and pieces from Penang Trip

I think I shall be blogging a whole loads from my trip this time... Or I just so happen to have plenty to say now and then nothing else later. Penang and Malacca are places that I have never been before so maybe that's why I have plenty to say.

And so, first thing to talk about is not something from Penang. Hehe... It is my first shopping item of the trip - before I even left Miri - I bought Starbucks keychain. Hehe.... It is a ox year edition pewter keychain which you can get for RM 4.80 if you purchase more than RM18 of Starbucks.

Upon arrival at Penang, we drove past this building that resembles KL Twin Tower.. It even has the aerobridge.

Talking about building, Penang also has the most beautiful KFC building. I am not sure if this building is the one but it sure looks special. We didnt go to eat KFC but we drove past the building a few times and I tried my best to capture the best shot of it each time we drive past.

And since we dont go clubbing, we organised our own co-curiculum activity in the hotel room. Rummy! Erm... had a little bit of supper that we bought from Cold Storage.

By the way, we had two connecting rooms - Aaron and gf shared a room while Laura, Kelvin and I shared a room. We moved the little marble table to be in between of the two single beds and so... we rumm-ied. :p

On the first day of our trip... I have spend nearly half of my budget because i wanted to get a perfume and I saw it on that very night and I bought it. :p

It is Vera Wang's Flower Princess. The word 'Flower' is not written on the bottle... but it is on the packaging. Beautiful bottle, right? The perfume is actually pinkish, not purplish as seen from the picture above.

Apart from that, I have also purchased two books, New Moon and Breaking Dawn. I think I am lucky to have purchased Breaking Dawn because I couldnt find it at all in KL. As for Eclipse, it is totally unavailable. The geng and I basically has combed thru all the bookshops that we saw. Last item is this Chupa-Chups that I saw at the Penang Airport. Giant Chupa-Chups. Hehe... Didnt buy it la... Pointless to buy.

Erm... Shall be continue next time. I still havent arranged the rest of the pics. Ganbatte!!

Penang Trip

18.02.2009
And so, we started our morning with the breakfast buffet that comes with our hotel room. The first morning buffet is really lousy and it improves a bit on the second morning. I actually took pictures of the buffet but decided to just show this.

Both Laura and I took a bowl of porridge each. I prefer to have my porridge quite plain with just seaweed while Laura's is with so many ingredients. Hers certainly looks so much tastier.

We actually all the intention in the world to explore Penang all by ourselves and a print out from wiki-travel but decided to get a day tour package (@RM80 pax). And so, we had a van to take us around a few tourist spots. The must-visit places in Penang. Firstly, the Leaning Thai Buddha Temple. Erm... alright, I remember reading about this temple from a storybook that I have won from a competition I joined in primary school. It does exist. Hehe... And since we cant go to Bangkok, at least we get to visit a Thai temple. :p The Columbarium, which is right behind the Leaning Buddha, is quite creepy. Really, it gives me the creep to walk among the ashes of all of the dead people. No pictures. Dont dare to take pictures of those ash urns.Just opposite of the Thai temple is the Burmese Temple. It has quite a number of ...structures. The sun is pretty strong at that time but the inside of the temple is quite cooling.

As a tourist, the local products shop is another must-go. We went to a white coffee shop, a batik shop (no one attend us since it was lunch time) and a local products shop that sells all sort of products. The white coffee is really nice...the lady let us taste so many different flavours.
Next stop is the Botanical Garden. Seriously, when I think of Botanical Garden, I think of beautiful flowers and loads of colours...cooling winds... and when I see Penang Botanical Garden in the afternoon, it is only VERY GREEN. Guess the weather is not very helpful. Even the tree that is supposed to be the oldest tree is almost completely barren. I wonder why. We left the place in less than half an hour. When we stopped to look at the map of the garden, we realised that the Garden contains nothing of what I have imagined (loads of beautiful flowers) but just... ermm... it has nothing much to talk about. Really. And so, goodbye to Botanical Garden. Hello, Lunch! The driver drove past a small stall and got us to look at the price of the Fried Kuey Tiaw - Wahlau! About RM 8 for a plate. According to him, it is not worth it to spend that amount of money on something that you can actually get elsewhere for cheaper price. Instead we went to the New World Park that offers different arrays of food. It is a huge food court that has really nice facilities. Should be quite new, I guess. I had the Fried Kuey Tiaw and Fried Oyster. After filling our stomachs, it is time to go to Penang Hill and start hiking. Kidding!! We used the tram to go up the hill. The tram took about 15 minutes to get up... or is it half an hour? Not so sure. The view are pretty good from the hill. Not the most magnificent view I have ever seen but it will do. The air is sometimes cooling from the wind... The heat is mostly due to the fact that it is afternoon afterall. Nothing much to do there except enjoying the view and then... down we go.
The next destination and the final destination on our day tour is Kek Lok Si. A temple. A huge temple with several beggars at the entrance pathway. I think all of us are sick of looking at temples for the day. So... just a quick look around and extremely slow walking around and group standing in front of the cooling fan in the temple store - we left the place...
The tour package should ended with a ride back to the hotel but instead, we had the driver dropping us off at the Queensbay Mall since it was still pretty early. Queensbay Mall is quite huge and very new. The stores are also quite nice. The shopping crowd is quite thin so we had a nice time looking around without feeling crowded. The Forever 21 store in Queensbay Mall has an amazingly huge area for its jewellery section. Had a lot of fun looking at the jewellleries... Didnt buy any though.
We had Kim Gary for our dinner. Cheese Baked Rice. A side dish called.... Mushroom something... Totally forgotten the name. :p The Yin Yong drink is yummy... The borsch is really tomato-ish. The rice is tasteless so I had to add some pepper... Ermm... Next post will be to talk little little things on this Penang Trip. Have to select the pictures. 300+ pics to select from. I have improved a bit - I have pictures of myself during the trip. Hehe...

It has been fun

And so, I am back from holidays again. It has been fun and tiring. I heard that there are piles of things for me to do when I go back to office. Ah! I am scared!!

Anyways, I should just proceed on detailing every single aspect of the trip I had. My first time going to Penang and Malacca. Truthfully, I should have been to these places long ago but I missed out on the chance. Nevertheless, now, I can finally say that I have been there.

17.02.2009 The geng departed from Miri on the 10am flight to LCCT. Kueh left the geng for KL City while the rest of us waited to fly to Penang. On the flight, we had 1901 hotdogs. Something we decided to get due to the extra credit we had from the exchange of Bangkok ticket.
Alas, we arrived at Penang, feeling very tired. I kept experiencing popping sounds in my ears. Too much pressure. Possibly due to the fact that I was suffering froma bit of flu.

We stayed at Bayview Hotel - a bit lousy but I heard most hotels, except for those resort hotels, are like this as well.

After a quick refreshing, we headed to Gurney Plaza. It was refreshing there because it is something like the shopping malls in KL but with so much less people and everything is so bright and new.

After a little walk, we walked to the nearby Gurney Walk (?) to find something to eat. Erm... half of the stalls were actually closed while the other half were operating.

The food isn't too bad. I had the Fried Kuey Tiaw and Bubur Chacha. Complaint! My fried kuey tiaw is too expensive. RM3.50 for such a small plate. Consolation - the prawns are quite huge and fresh. Ok lo....

Ah! No more time. Will continue later.

I think I am too

I think I am getting sick too... With so many people getting sick around me, it has been a wonder that I survive till now.

Last night, my throat was a bit dry-ish and then this morning, I had sore throat... Now, still dry throat. I am sure that it will become sore throat again. Must get some medication to drink.

Just saw the commercial on television that the movie adapted from a book by Dan Brown, Angels and Demons, will be out soon. I believe Lynnwei has mentioned to me before about this book. Hmm... I want to read it.

Two more days of work... and then off to West Malaysia. Yes!

BBQ

I just managed to take two pics because my hands are so oily after that... Had BBQ and then gambling session. Normal stuff.

Cant believe that Chinese New Year is almost to the end again. Now we will have to wait for another year before we can have twister fries and Prosperity Burger....

Coming along

The plan is coming along...slowly becoming more solid.

We have some part of the details confirmed already... Yea, we will be flying to Penang. :p

That's the plan for February travelling plan. Bangkok no more. Now it is West Malaysia trip. Anything la...

Something I thought I should blog about is... the fact that I didn't realise that I have been writing the '&' wrong the whole time. I have also written it flipped around and I didnt know until CMF pointed out to me. Erkk... I really didn't realise it. Gosh! The countless 'flipped &' that I have written over the years. Oh gosh.... And so, I am changing my way of writing '&' and still trying to get used to it.

Last night, I fell asleep with the lights on, glasses on, laptop shut down due to lack of battery power... Hehe... I can't stop reading manga. And guess what? I found another online manga archives to get more manga to read. :p

Then, I really have my heart set on getting Vera Wang's Princess EDT... Hmmm.. I want. 'Cause my CK Eternity Summer Limited Edition, which I bought on Dec 2006, is almost finished. Actually, I think it will probably last me for a few more sprays. Aaaaa.... Nooooo~~~!!

Back in the office

Time really flies. It is the 3rd day at work now. I have been... busy.

Then again, Chinese New Year is not Chinese New Year if there is no lion dance. The first day of work - we had only one lion dance. Erm... This is the flat-faced lion.
Erm... Then, the second day of work... I was out for the whole morning and got to see only one lion dance. The red one btw. So pretty~~
I have been a hardworking person every night but I have decided to take the night off tonight. Simply because... I want to. Hehe...

Erm.. Been reading loads of manga... actually one long manga and then now, also watching a few dramas too... But the internet connection is a bit ...just a bit... sucky.

Ah! I actually have loads of things to write but I am hungry again. Darn...