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...

And so it is like this

Chinese New Year long holidays are almost over. Tomorrow, I have to start working already. Ah~~ I dont want~~

Anyways, I didnt do much during this long holidays. Really. Erm.. This year, all three houses have open house. Err... Yea.

Then, as usual, we, our huge family, went to our Grandaunt's place. Ah! the delicious cheesecakes. Yummy... Then, this year, we also had a bit of gambling session.
Erm... I am beginning to think that staying at home till my brain has become completely rusty. I cant think of what to write.

Had the Green Tea Latte at Starbucks the other day. Not bad..not bad...
Erk... I am dreading going to work tomorrow. How~~~~!!?!?!

Happy Chinese New Year

Ah! It is time of the year again. It is Chinese New Year again!

Oh ya! I suddenly remember something I can blog about. Hold on...ok, taken pictures. Shall blog about it in the future. Hehe... Wait! Maybe not. Might as well blurt it out now. I currently has 7 bruises on my right arm and both legs. I have no idea how I got them though. The end. :p


And so, this year the new year eve's dinner is held at Lynns'. Erm... bad lighting. I just haven't gotten to the point of learning how to properly handle my handphone's camera. :p
I thought that we will probably eat, talk and then say good bye. But this year, we have something different. Before the makan, we were playing the homemade Taboo cards and also Monopoly. Err... a bit weird but it is good fun. Then, because the homemade Taboo becomes too easy, Yuanz sponsored to buy a Taboo set and so... I was appointed as the chauffeur. Drove to Bintang Megamall (errmmhmmm... Megamall. Hehe...), bought Taboo, drove back to lynns and start the game.
It was fun... Not sure when can we play again. Yuanz mentioned that he will take the game back to Brunei after Chinese New Year. Hmm...I am slow at this game btw.

First day was ok... Spent the afternoon lazing at home. Second day... open house. Erm... Ok lor... I must be getting old and lazy... I just want to laze around.

Something new

I knew it is going to happen. The sinking feeling of not doing good enough. Damn.

Anyways, for this Chinese New Year, the house finally got a new piece of furniture. Tada!
A non-wood coffee table - I dont know if the table should be called glass or steel or whatever. So, non-wood it is. Hehe...

Now, we have to start worrying about the possible scratches on the glass. Gasp!

Ah! Did quite a few things today. Kind of tired because of lack of sleep.

Maybe I should consider sleeping early tonight. Maybe...

Twilight moment

And so, Mum came and gone back to Brunei. I could tell that she was horrified when I told her that I have not mopped the floor (her question was "Have I mopped the floor?"). My answer is no, but I have cleaned the windows and the chandelier and I am cleaning bits by bits each day. I sensed a small relief but... She did mop the floor this afternoon. Guess it is too dirty. :p

Anyways, when I was waiting for JWei to purchase Toto after work and dinner, I suddenly had a Twilight moment. The constant cloudy and raining today reminds me of the Twilight. I suddenly felt like as if I am in Forks...

Ah! Where is my Edward? Hehehe....

It doesnt fit

Ah! I need to take nicer pictures of my shopping items...but then I realised that what I bought ... well, actually the one that Carol want to look at is not that interesting. Hehe... So, I guess I will not be blogging about that. Instead... I shall blog about something else which is also PINK!

Presenting my newest handphone crystal case ~~

Ok... The truth is that when I got my new handphone, the guy gave me a crystal case for free but I haven't gotten to use it yet because of several reasons. Then, I thought of bling-ing the case so that I can use a bling-ed handphone without actually bling-ing the handphone itself. And so, I invested in a piece of swirling crystals sticker and one strip of crystals sticker. The top part of the case is without the crystals because the sticker is too short. Nevertheless, it looks good...

Now for the sad part, after the bling-ing is done, I tried it on the handphone and... one corner of the case just wouldnt close. Darn! Now I am still thinking of how to salvage this situation.

Now, about something else. I went to jog walk up the little hill nearby my place with Lynnx and Lynna on Sunday. Erm... Just a very short session. I felt as if the effect from too much shopping has yet to recover. Can feel slight pain at the legs but otherwise, I was doing ok.

Ermm... Apart from that, I have also been hanging quite a lot with my grandaunt's daughter aka my auntie. That little girl is my grandaunt's grand-daughter aka my cousin who was actually in the progress of torturing an insect that she trapped with a small round container. Hehe... Then the other pic is of my grandaunt preparing the pineapple cookies, my favourite, for Chinese New Year.Ah! Been cleaning bits by bits... in preparation of Chinese New Year...also dont want Mum to kill me for not cleaning the house. I am really just doing bit by bit. Then, JWei gave me an info that nearly gave me a heart attack.

My Mum Is Coming To Miri Tomorrow!

Aaaaa~~~!!! Still so much to do! How? How? How?

Bah!

KL Shopping Trip 2009

Friday (09.10.2009) in KL - Continuing from the previous post, we started our craze at Sungei Wang Plaza. Going from one floor to another floor. There were quite a number of shops that offers one-price-for-all-items. Unfortunately, we didn't managed to 'sapu' a lot of items... 'cause we can't see anything that we like. With Laura's suggestion in mind, I did buy one dress which I think can also become a top if I dont want to reveal too much legs. Shall post about this soon in wgtgfashion. LS's friend, Dorcas, came with her husband and daughter to find us in the evening. We shopped around Times Square and then went to somewhere to have a very late dinner. Erm... can consider supper lor...

Saturday (10.01.2009) in KL - We woke up without the help of an alarm clock - we want to get as much rest as possible. Another thing that we must do every morning is to down a glass of orange juice before brushing our teeth.
According to LS, drinking one glass of orange juice every morning can help to reduce the body heat so that we will not become sick. For me, I think it is the vitamin C boost. Ah! I just realised something. As a Blood A, I am not supposed to consume orange. Is this why I dont feel well starting from the 4th day of the trip?!?!

Anyways... LS's friend, Dorcas, had arranged to meet us at Midvalley to accompany us shopping. And... In our attempt to save a bit on the transportation, LS and I decided to travel by Monorail and KTM. A bit confused at first but we managed to reach Midvalley. Before any shopping, we started with our breakfast - Yoshinoya!

Chicken Teppanyaki Udon and that's... Enoki Mushroom wrapped with Beef Strip (I forgot the exact name)

LS and I had a plan to eat Japanese buffet while we are in KL but we just can't resist the temptation to eat Japanese food so Yoshinoya it is...

I managed to get two tops - both for work. One of them will be my 1st day of Chinese New Year's top. Yes! No need to worry about not having any red colour - the top is pink, btw.

Dorcas had something up her sleeves - she got a friend, A-Wei (according to LS, the name is A-Wei but I thought that the name is A-Weng. Both of us have no idea who is correct) to join us for lunch (which is about two hours after we had our breakfast) at Chopstick Noodle House.

The poor guy, I shall call him A-Wei, followed us around, waited for us while we shopped and helped us to carry our shopping bags. Erm... It was embarrassing. I didn't buy anything after he followed us around. I have no idea why.

For dinner, we went to the food court and LS and I immediately agreed on Korean food. I ordered Kimchi Jiggae value meal and Bibimbap value meal. The Kimchi Jiggae is a disappointment - I think that it tasted more like Tom Yam than Kimchi... The Bibimbap was alright.

However, by eating the Korean food that has a lot of sourness, LS and I were hungry when we were back to our room. So, we did the next logical thing - go downstairs, buy cup noodle from 7-11, cooked the noodle and eat.
Sunday (11.01.2009) in KL

It is sort of customary for LS and I to go to hair salon to get our hair wash during our trip. There are a few reasons that contribute to this activity. One is because we didn't bring any shampoo for this trip - save the luggage weight. Two is because we always get back to our apartment late - it is a bother to wash and blow dry hair. Three is because LS has a permed hair and it is hard to maintain - looking at her maintaining her hair makes me so tired.

Dennis joined us for the day and 1 Utama is the destination. The first thing we do when we arrived there was to find Shogun to eat Japanese buffet. Tada!

Erm... I am a bit disappointed that I didnt managed to try the teppanyaki as recommended by JWei but I did swallow a large amount of salmon slices. Hehe...

After the super full meal, we started the day's shopping. I bought quite a few things including a black dress for formal dinner - this is something that I don't have. I found the skirt that I wanted to get - I got the same style skirt from the same brand shop last year. So happy that I found the skirt. We then shopped at Ikea and The Curve. Ah! At The Curve, I went into Borders and saw Twilight and then suddenly remembered that I wanted to get the saga. And so, I bought the book, Twilight. I didnt see the rest of the saga - I am kind of disappointed because I wanted to get the complete series but also kind of relieved because I can save a bit of my cash for other stuff.

After a long day out, LS and I had dinner at McD - I had the Beef Prosperity Burger. Ermm... ok lor...

Monday (12.01.2009) in KL - LS and I only has a plan till Saturday so we were kind of wondering where to go on Monday. We decided to go to Midvalley for another round 'cause we think that during the first trip, we were put off by the large crowd and so we might have missed a lot of stuff. Somemore, we had a few items that we have thought of getting. We ended having a really nice and quiet time looking at things and even managed to get some good bargains.

I forgot to mention that we had breakfast at Nyonya Something in The Gardens. The Chee Cheong Fun is different than what we have in Miri and I dont really like it. But I really enjoyed the porridge - maybe because I wasn't feeling well at that time. For lunch, we had Penang something and Fried Kuey Tiaw at Little Penang Kafe. LS said that the fried kuey tiaw is really nice - but it is just ok to me la... Btw, I had the Red Ruby as my drink. At The Gardens, we saw a Japanese product shop - I was excited to find some KitKats but there was none. Instead, we bought one pack of Hokkaido Milk... I heard that Hokkaido Milk is really nice o~ True enough, the milk is really milk-y. Very thick taste of milk. Hehe...

We continued our shopping in Sungei Wang as well... I finally found a pair of shoes. Let's just say that I didn't have any particular shoes style in mind when I was looking around at the shoes for that past few days. So, it is really great that I am able to find one... Jac joined us as her friend wanted to go to Pavilion. Somehow, we managed to walk around a lot - as in making a lot of unnecessary walking.

Teppanyaki Chicken - LS and I went to this place during our trip last year. Since we didnt know what else to eat at Sungei Wang, we decided to have the same thing again.

To tell you the truth, both LS and I were pretty tired at that time so... we went for foot massage. Hehe... Another un-necessary spending. Bleh...

That night, we actually went back to our apartment early and suddenly realised that we would be leaving the next day and we should start packing our stuff. LS and I had been putting all of our shopping items in the cupboard. So, we unloaded the whole stuff onto the bed. And started to pack... My luggage bag is quite full lor~~

Tuesday (13.01.2009) in KL - We went to Jalan Alor to have breakfast and decided to shop at the Lot 10 and Pavilion for our final shopping destinations before flying off...

It is, again, customary for us to have a little dessert at Haagen Dazs. We had Waffle with one scoop of Chocolate ice cream and one scoop of Strawberry ice cream. Please excuse the waffle - I forgot to take picture of it and has massacred it... Hehe... It is very yummy, btw.

Ah! Before ending this post, I have got to comment about the decorations... I love the ones at Midvalley (bottom right) and The Gardens (top centre)... I dont think I captured the one at The Gardens well. Too dark. Oh well...

It is finally time to get back to reality. We bid good bye to KL and flew back to Miri. Ah! I will be there again next month. Haha...