Working Weekend in Penang

I had a slightly longer-than-usual weekend in Penang last week due to a road show that we had in Gurney Plaza. We left for Penang last Thursday before the break of dawn and got back to KL earlier this week on Monday afternoon. I was alright stepping into the office on Tuesday but the bugs had to prove that they owned me. And owned me they did. I'm only well enough to be back at my desk today after a two-day sick leave. I still feel sick if another bastard/bitch turns on the air-conditioner (I've just switched one of them off right after I got back from lunch). Why do Malaysians love to freeze themselves in the office? Is this another one of life's mysteries that we'll never be able to solve?

I've always had a soft spot for Penang, since 2007. My love story with Bun kinda started from there but I'll leave that for another time. Maybe during my wedding? Since this was a work trip and we had to stay in a shopping mall the whole time, we barely had a chance to go around to sample Penang's famed local delicacies. Thank goodness we had a one-hour window while we had to wait for our hotel room to be ready and off we went to the streets of Georgetown, in search of some yummy grub.

The view while we passed the Penang Bridge. I think this was sometime before 10.00am.

We had char kuey teow with big, fresh, juicy prawns. But they don't come cheap at RM8 per plate.

It's already hard enough to find a stalls that sells orh chien here in KL, and they make me regret ordering every single time. Why can't they be even half as good as those in Penang??!

Here's the signboard if you're ever curious enough to find the stall. I may be mistaken but this should be Jalan Anson.

I bunked in a room with my colleague. This is our city view. Check out the rainstorm on the far end of the left. Pretty cool stuff.

What I would like is a sea view like this but who cares since we're not on a holiday. This was taken from the lift lobby on our level.

Check out this mansion that is sandwiched between two hotels. I'm not sure if it's a private residence but the pool is surely one to envy!

We tried walking from the hotel to Gurney Plaza on the second day. The distance wasn't too bad, just a little over 1km. But the hot sun in the morning and our sore feet at the end of the day resulted in us driving for the rest of the days.

You'll find lone fishermen like this uncle in the photograph, or a group of uncles hanging out on the sidewalk of Gurney Drive in the daytime. Tourists are mostly visible after the weather is less punishing.

I managed to meet up with a few friends over dinner and post-dinner as well. Tze Chin and his wife is the lovely couple behind www.tasteiest.com and they took me to Mizi Bistro for dinner. I have no photographs from the place, so feel free to read up on their reviews of the place. I will ask to be taken back there the next time I'm in town to try out the steak selection. Their food portions are humongous!! The set meal is only RM25 and you can take a pick out of a selection of mains, comes with a soup and free flow of ice cream. The soups were thick (yummy!) and I would've had more yam ice cream if I hadn't been hearing my Chinese physician's voice nagging in my head. They recommended me to go to a quaint little cafe in Gurney Plaza, it's called Winter Warmers. I was told to try their rose cheese cake, waffles and flower tea.

This was my colleague's tuna waffle.

My chicken waffle. The waffles here are soft and moist, absolutely putting the waffles I've been having at the hotel's buffet breakfast to shame. I would've loved to try the green tea ice cream waffle but I suspect my Chinese physician was spying on me because I started hearing her voice again *shivers*

We shared a pot of tea. I couldn't remember what it was but it was nice. Check out the heart-shaped thingymajingy below the pot. So cute!!!

Check out the matchy matchy chinaware and tablecloth. They even have a display cabinet at the side with the rosiest chinaware collection - for sale, if you're wondering.

It's not everyday you stumble upon a rose cheese cake on a menu. This is certainly a piece of cheese cake that I wouldn't mind having more than a slice.

We had originally planned for a dimsum stop in Ipoh before heading back, but we figured that we'd run really late if we tried to venture into unknown territory. So we settled for Restoran Zim Sum instead. Again, you may head over to Tasteiest for their review.

We shared all of these, including a fish head meehon that didn't come to our table before the photo was taken. I had to take it fast before my colleague finishes half of everything. See, one of the fishballs behind the fried yam ball was already gone? Too bad I only got Tze Chin's message about their char siew pao being a 'must-try' after I left. It's okay, there's always next time!

I'll leave you with an amusing shot of this one booth that was opposite ours. I'm not quite sure of what services they provide, but I do hope they serve those lambs on a plate if I sign up.

A trip to meet the king

Yesterday we took a drive to Raub, Pahang to one of Mr Bun's colleague's hometown. The guy's family owns an orchard so we were treated to a durian feast. We had the opportunity to sample one of the most popular and expensive species, the Musang King. There were only a few, as they were mostly kept for the selling market. The rest of the durian weren't bad - they were either of the D24 or D101 species.

Scenic drive into the villages of Raub.

What we came for... after driving for more than three hours.

Cracking open the prickly shell to reveal its tender flesh.

Nomming on some Musang King.

Here's a photo of Mr Bun looking a lot like Crayon Shin Chan :p

Took a look at the bunch of bananas lying around and thought I would never eat that much even in a year.

After all that durian, we made a stop at Bukit Tinggi for some sightseeing. I know this place well from my previous job, but some of Mr Bun's colleagues have never been here so we decided to come along. I must say, the place looks more decent now that the incompetent dog walker has left (insider's language).

Medieval warrior greeted our arrival.

Stupid goose that kept bopping its head up and down, not letting me take a photo.

Fat fishies.

Wish I'd have more time to take off on short holidays. Right now I miss being at a beach :(

Travel to the future

I don't want to miss out on the annual list-making but I have absolutely no clue of what I'm looking forward to achieve next year... although I really do have to work harder on controlling my bad temper. I tried looking back at what I've achieved so far in 2010, but too much of it was a blur so I'm not going to strain my brain to think hard about it.

However, I do know clearly that someday I would like to travel to a few amazing places. It doesn't have to be within 2011, it's not as if I'm rich enough to travel frequently anyways, but it will have to be within my lifetime.

I would love to spend time visiting Tokyo and Hokkaido. It might sound really silly that I'm nowhere near to visiting Japan at this point but I'm already stuck between having to choose which place to go first. I'd like get lost in the exciting pace of Tokyo before chilling out maximum in Hokkaido, stuffing myself with some of the best quality seafood in the world. One problem, it's going to be hard lugging all the shopping haul from Tokyo to Hokkaido but at the same time, I don't want to chill out in Hokkaido first and then jump into a frenzy in Tokyo. The voice of reason in me is yelling out that I'll have to let that one pass and decide when I actually get to go to Japan.

Working in an international school with many different nationalities around me does have its side effects. I'm intrigued to go visit some of the the places where all these people come from and one of it is New Zealand. My boss is from New Zealand and recently one of my best friends has travelled to New Zealand for a working trip. There are a couple of old friends who were married off to New Zealand and I would like to pay a visit someday.

Greece was just another rich man's playground to me until I watched Mamma Mia the movie. It may still be a rich man's playground but I'd like to disguise into that crowd and bask in the beautiful country and culture :D

I blame Mamma Mia for making me lust for the beaches of Greece and now I point my finger at MTV's now-cancelled show, TRL for making me feel like I should be a part of the fast and furious crowd in New York City. A small part of the blame goes to Deb and Alicia Keys too. I'll have to wait till I have friends who live in the US before I jet off. The thing is, so many people are so eager to travel to the US for innocent reasons but the US government is making it so damn difficult. I don't see myself welcomed as a Malaysian passport holder so I'll have to think really hard about travelling to the US. Not to mention NYC is infested with bed bugs. This will have to wait for a while.

E haere rā, Danny

A good friend of mine will be travelling 8,730 kilometres to Christchurch, New Zealand in two days. By the time I'm done typing this entry, it'll be just one day left. He's going carrying one of those holiday-working visas, leaving Bolehland for at least six months. But if fate has its way, he might be going further away and not come back for good. At least that's what I think he'll do... judging from his keen interest in backpacking across Europe.

Abby and I had dinner with Danny last night to bid him farewell and to be honest, I wish him all the best but with a slightly heavy heart. It's just the not-so-nice feeling of knowing someone really close to you is leaving to a place far away and is no longer reachable by an hour's drive or something like that. I know some people who are in NZ or travelling across other continents but they're not close friends so I don't get nostalgic about them. It's not like I knew before they left anyway. Poor dude's travelling all the way (with connecting flight) alone and I would be sobbing like mad if I had to travel that far all alone. But I guess if he's already made the choice then I as a friend might as well wish him all the luck in the world. Let's just hope immigration doesn't kick his skinny ass back to the KL airport *fingers crossed*

We chatted during dinner and it just hit us there and then that the three of us have known each other for seven years. Danny and I spent a short period of that time being housemates and that's the major reason to why he's one of my closest and dearest friends. He can call me a bitch but I still love him to bits. So this post is dedicated to you, my dear friend. Don't be a stranger when you are not near. Keep in touch xoxo















We were 20 and clueless about style. Walkin' around thinkin' we were the hottest bitches in town















Our pseuso karaoke pose



















This was during one of our group assignments and we kicked all the other groups' behinds















Getting ready to have our graduation photo taken















Messing around backstage before we walked out on stage for our convocation















On a tuk-tuk in Bangkok where we both fell in love... with a hot male stripper. Well, at least in awe















Fast forward seven years to last night. Thank god our hair look good now















I'll miss you heaps, darling. Take care

101 memories in Taipei

The boyfriend and I just came home last night from our virgin trip to Taiwan. Since we only had a week to travel, we decided to just stay in Taipei city to get to know the place better. We spent the sixth and final night in Jiufen (about an hour's drive away from Taipei city) and then realised when it was too late that we needed more than one night to really discover the beauty of that place. The first six days in Taipei city was extremely hot. Growing up as a Malaysian, I always thought that we had 365 days of summer but Taipei decided to show me what summer truly meant. I didn't remember summer was this hot when I visited Hong Kong a few years back. Being in Jiufen was a nice break from the wicked city pace. The air was fresh and the mountains were beyond magnificent. Not to mention we stayed at a really nice and cosy bed & breakfast. Now that we're home and as I look through the pictures from our trip, I'm missing a whole lot of delicious food that we absolutely cannot find here. The best thing about Taiwanese and their food is the price ain't skyhigh and the portions are impressive. You'll definitely get what you paid for and leave as a satisfied customer. It's not like in KL where you pay RM15 for a seafood broth and have to dive into the ocean to find your seafood bits.

This was the first trip that I invested more effort into my style compared to my previous ones. My hair was beginning to look funky in a not-so-nice way so I hauled my butt to my stylist in KLCC about a week before leaving to Taipei. I don't think I could live with having to keep pictures of me in Taiwan with bad hair. I even took time to plan my outfits so I'd have nicer pictures to keep. What I've done in the past was just count how many outfits I'd need for a trip and chuck them all into the luggage the night before departure. At first I thought we didn't take capture enough pictures to preserve all the memories but we ended up with over a thousand shots. Not too shabby, I guess.

We spent our first night in a 4-bed room because the room we booked wasn't available yet. The hostel's owner, Magos met us at the Taipei Main Station and led us to the hostel. She did apologise and was very helpful with questions about where to go and eat. The place is very small and basic - everything you'd expect when you're travelling on a budget but also very convenient and clean. We had a clean room, comfy bed, clean shower, hot water, free Internet access, free filtered water, free use of washing machine, access to the MRT right across the street - all the simple works but good enough when all we needed was a place to sleep for a few hours after roaming around Taipei city for a whole day. Check out www.taiwanmex.com if you are considering to travel to Taipei city.




































Day 1 wearing: Black & white striped top with shoulder accents, black short shorts, black flats, sling bag in tan
































This handsome little guy actually posed when I was trying to take its picture. It returned to its normal people watching pose when I stopped pointing my camera towards it.


















Day 2 wearing: Gaga tank top, black skinny jeans, black flats, sling bag in tan, vintage camera chain, Miu Miu inspired headband



















Day 3 wearing: Girl with tiger head tee, black bubble skirt, studded gladiator flats, sling bag in tan, vintage camera chain



















Day 4 wearing: Leopard zipper dress, black flats, sling bag in tan, vintage camera chain



















Day 5 wearing: Blue cardigan, baby blue striped tank top, khaki short shorts, sling bag in tan, vintage camera chain, sneakers



















Day 6 (Day) wearing: White ruffled dress, weaved leather belt, sling bag in tan, cutout sandals, white leather and chain bracelets



















Day 6 (Night) wearing: White silk shirt, black tank top, black short shorts, sling bag in tan, sneakers















Day 7 wearing: Deck cards tee, long strechy pants in black with pink waistband, sneakers


My airport outfit going home wasn't too exciting. I recycled my first day outfit and only wore flip flops because I desperately needed comfort over style after days of long distance walking. We had to go for feet massages on the fourth night simply because our feet couldn't bear with us anymore. The blind massage centres at the MRT stations have miracle workers. I had this sharp pain on my heels as soon as my feet touched the ground and they took it all away. On my next trip to Taiwan, I'll try not to walk so much. Need to leave the computer now or else Bun will either die from starvation, eat without me or strangle me to death. You can choose one.