Tourguiding in Penang - Day 2

After the somewhat tiring first day in Penang, we started the next day a little later. Waking up next to the sea was liberating, especially when the sound of waves seemed so near. All of us took a walk at the beach which was just within walking distance from the hotel. Of course, being me, my walk lasted barely 15 minutes under the hot sun. *LOL*

Our first destination for the day was to hunt for durians in Balik Pulau. Along the way, we had breakfast at some coffee shop in Teluk Bahang, since we were too hungry. Fate had it though, that when we almost finished our breakfast, a man on a motorbike stopped by the same coffee shop, bearing lots and lots of durians in his basket! All of us were staring at his basket when he parked his bike to have his breakfast. In the end, Joanne who couldn't withhold her cravings went to the man who was eating his hokkien mee and asked him whether he would sell us some of his durians. He was shocked! But who would say no to business right? :) So instead of hunting for durian stalls in Balik Pulau, we ended up eating durians at the coffee shop instead.

Our next agenda was to visit the popular Penang Tropical Fruit Farm, also located in Balik Pulau. I had never been there too, but thanks to Stan's directions, I managed to find the fruit farm easily. We even saw some durian trees along the winding road in Balik Pulau. The visitors from Beijing who had never seen durian trees before asked me to stop by for them to take pictures. They were really excited to see durians hanging on trees, and kept asking what would happen if someone was standing below when the durian dropped!

Durian trees at Balik Pulau

We reached the Fruit Farm soon and the view above was really green. This part of Penang is still not developed, probably the only part, and is a favourite of people who are looking for nature.

View from Fruit Farm

When we reached the fruit farm, we were greeted by the owner there and he mentioned to us about this fruit buffet and tour available. It was priced at RM25/person, and it included a tour to the fruit farm further up the hill, unlimited fruits in the buffet and a glass of fruit juice. All of us agreed to take the package and a van came to pick us up in no time.

The ride was just a short one uphill, probably a 2 minutes drive. We saw this pond filled with lotus leaves upon disembarking from the van.

Lotus leaves on pond

The fruit farm was filled with all kinds of tropical fruit trees local to the country including banana, coconut, pineapple, papaya, ciku, etc. It was the first time I saw a ciku tree. *LOL* There was also a kind guide who was around to show us different types of trees and gave us a brief description.

Fruit farm

Another part of fruit farm

After the tour, it was time to feast! Nearby the farm was this cafeteria for the fruit buffet. We were greeted by the display of fruits at the entrance.

Tropical fruits of Malaysia

We were among the first group to reach there, hence the place looked empty. Perhaps it's always empty since it's quite out of the way from the city centre.

Fruit cafe

There was a counter where you could order your complimentary glass of juice, and you could choose a combination of more than 1 type of fruit. Bear in mind that the juice here was purely from the fruit itself, no addition of water at all. So you can have all the goodness of fruits in a glass, very concentrated. Also, if you would like to have an additional glass, it was sold at RM4/glass.

Fruit juice counter

For those who want to be closer to the environment, there were also a couple of tables set outdoors.

Outdoor seats

The fruits for the buffet were all nicely washed and cut for convenience. All we needed to do was to pick up a plate and fork and munch away! :) I ate so much fruits that day than what I ate in a week! *LOL* Eating fruits could really make you full, so much so that I had a hard time finishing my juice.

Fruit buffet

More fruits

Most of the fruits here were of the sweet type, such as water melon, honeydew, jackfruit and papaya. Being a person with a sweet tooth, I gladly took many portions of those. :) Eating can be an enjoyable and guilt-free activity. *LOL*

Fruit variety

Halfway eating our fruits, one of the workers/owners (not sure) came over and brought a jug of blended green papaya juice. "Green" means young papayas that still have green skin. Apparently, this type of papaya is not sold in the market because they're too young. But the juice, however, has plenty of vitamins and it's surprisingly sweet! All of us were given a sample of the drink free of charge. :)

Complimentary green papaya juice

Finally, before we left, I went to claim my free juice, where I chose the combination of green papaya and pineapple. The juice was so concentrated but absolutely delicious! There was no addition of water or sugar, just purely fruit juice. If I weren't so full after the fruits, I would have ordered an extra glass. ;)

Green Papaya + Pineapple juice

Some pictures were taken before we left:

The Zhao couple

witch and Zhao Jie

Overall, I really enjoyed the trip to the fruit farm. I didn't know the existence of the fruit farm buffet until that time. I would highly recommend this place to be included in the must-visit list for any tourist to Penang.

Farm Address:
Batu 18, Jalan Teluk Bahang, Penang
Tel: 604-8665168
Fax: 604-8665170

Tourguiding in Penang - Day 1

A couple of weeks before I moved to KL, my good friends from Beijing Joanne, Zhao Jie and Zhao Lei came to Penang for a short trip. They were actually in KL for a business visit, but extended their trip to have a few days of leisure. Since they were interested in visiting Penang, I offered to be their tourguide for the weekend, with pleasure. :)

The group of them with my mom arrived Penang at about 11am, and our first destination was none other than the famous Kek Lok Si temple, which is well-known even to the foreigners. Luckily for us, the temple was not that crowded that day, and we found a nice parking place easily too. The first view that greeted us at the bottom of the hill was this pond full of tortoises. I believe tortoises are considered as spiritual animals symbolizing longevity in the Chinese community, and I see them almost in all Chinese temples around. There were also peddlers around selling vegetables to the visitors to feed the tortoises.

Tortoises in the pond

The hike up to the temple was filled with stalls on the left and right, selling goods from Penang and clothings. Surprisingly, the clothes and dresses found here were pretty cheap! You'd think that they would charge a higher price since it's a tourist destination, but I actually managed to get a dress here for RM12! Can you believe that? I'll show you the dress later on. ;) After about 15 minutes and lots of perspiration, we reached the main temple of Kek Lok Si and started praying. As usual, places like this are always filled with smoke, due to the burning of joss sticks.

Main temple at Kek Lok Si

Joanne who's a very spiritual person, told us that she wanted to spend more time praying in the temple. In the mean time, I brought Zhao Jie and Zhao Lei (they're married, by the way) to look around.

Zhao Jie and witch at Kek Lok Si

I asked them whether they're interested in climbing up the pagoda and they were enthusiastic about it. So the three of us ventured to the pagoda entrance and paid RM2/person for the entrance free.

Our targeted destination

The pagoda is synonymous to the Kek Lok Si fame and also a signature place of Penang. One look at this pagoda and everyone would know that you've been to Penang before. :)

Pagoda at Kek Lok Si

At the bottom of the pagoda, we took some pictures of the view surrounding the temple.

View of Kek Lok Si

Then we started climbing up the pseudo-spiral staircase up the pagoda. There were 9 storeys in all, and we reached the top greeted by breath-taking view of the Penang island. One side of the view was facing the mountains, while another side of it was facing the city.

View from top of pagoda - mountain view

I prefer the city view in this case, since you're able to have a clear view all the way to Georgetown.

View from top of pagoda - city view

Zhao Jie and witch

Outside pagoda

After we descended from the pagoda, I showed them what the LX3 wide angle could do. *LOL* They tried to take a full-length picture of the pagoda using their digital camera but failed. Hence, my LX3 came to the rescue and we managed to take several shots of the pagoda at the entrance.

Zhao Jie and witch at Kek Lok Si pagoda

After the visit to the temple, we had a short late lunch at the laksa stalls in Air Itam. I didn't take any pictures there as I was already too hungry from all the climbing and walking! Plus I didn't have breakfast before that! *gasp* Anyway, we left to the hotel to check in later on, which was Copthorne Orchid in Tanjung Bungah. I chose that hotel because it was reasonably priced (~RM170/night) and it was next to the sea! This is the view from our room, complete with the sound of waves. :) The beach was just within walking distance from our hotel.

View from hotel room

When night fell, we had a quick dinner at one of the nearby food court in Gurney. A quick dinner because we had to send one friend to the airport to catch a flight. Guess where we went after sending her to the airport? QEII or Queen Elizabeth II! It's this waterfront club/pub/restaurant just by the seaside next to the pier. Very romantic and very nice view. If you're lucky, it would be windy and cooling too. It was my first time there and I'd always wanted to visit this place since I heard a lot of good comments from my friends. Since none of my close friends were 'clubbing kakis', I never had a chance to go there, until now. We found the perfect parking spot just in front of the entrance! Parking fee was RM5 flat.

Church Street Pier

The signature QEII logo, brightly lit and distinct at night.

QEII by the sea

You're about to see the RM12 dress that I bought from the stalls at Kek Lok Si! I bought it because it had unique batik design that was local to Malaysian culture. Also, my friend Zhao Jie was attracted to the design and bought an exact one in a different colour.

witch at QEII entrance

Look at our identical dresses. :) Which colour is nicer?

witch and Zhao Jie

We also took a picture with her husband Zhao Lei, who was a really shy but friendly guy.

witch, Zhao Lei and Zhao Jie at QEII entrance

We found a table just by the sea, and the breeze was extremely strong that night so it was pretty comforting. We chose to sit outside in the open air just for this reason. Plus, the smell of smoke was also minimal with the cooling wind. I was happily enjoying the ambience and chatting with Zhao Jie when suddenly, rain started to fall. :( No wonder the wind was so strong prior to that. A storm was brewing indeed. We had to move indoors, which was much louder and hence deterred us from chatting. However, I would say the overall environment of QEII was much better than most other clubs in Penang that I visited before. I would recommend this place (outdoors) if you hate the smell of cigarette smoke and stuffy air in most other indoor clubs. :)

That concludes my first day of tourguiding in Penang. We reached the hotel after midnight and slept like pigs to the next morning! *LOL*

I was awarded!

Thanks to foongpc, I was given my first ever blog award! :) I was reading his blog as usual, until I stumbled upon this post, and I saw my name there! What a very pleasant surprise. Thank you foong. :) He gave out 6 awards and I was one of the proud recipients of The Uber Amazing Blog Award. According to him:

Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:
inspires you

• makes you smile and laugh
• or maybe gives amazing information
• a great read
• has an amazing design
• and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing!

I'm so extremely touched! :)

The Uber Amazing Blog Award

The rules of this award are:

• Put the logo on your blog or post.
• Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing!
• Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.
• Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.

It is now my turn to pass this award to the 5 blogs that are uber amazing! :) *Drum rolls*

• Kimong
• MisSmall
• Chiaoju
• Zewt
• Bamboo

I really enjoy reading your blog! Keep up the good work! :)

Pretty cup cakes

It was my second week at work, and we were all at this training, trying to learn how to operate a freakingly expensive machine. Halfway through the training, during tea break, one of my colleagues brought in a box of cakes. At first, I thought it was the breakfast provided for the training, but then I found out that she made those cupcakes herself! And guess what? They were all customized with names and faces! So adorably cute!!!

Cupcakes galore

To my surprise, even my name was inside, though I didn't even know the birthday girl. *shy* In my defense, I was still a newbie.

Cute cupcake

And mine was pink! Wonderful! We ended up picking our own cupcakes and eating ourselves (literally). *LOL* The cupcake was made from butter so it was rather oily, but it's the thought that counts, isn't it? Happy Birthday girl!

I am addicted!

Oh my gosh! Lately, I've been playing this game on Facebook almost all day long! It's called Restaurant City, and it's fun! Many of my friends are playing it as well and we're getting competitive baby! If you haven't played Restaurant City before, you should!

Restaurant City game

It actually starts with you having 2 employees and a few tables and chairs in a small restaurant. Once you start playing, people will visit your restaurant and your cook and waiter would serve them. Each plate food costs $2 and 1.0 gourmet point. The gourmet point actually defines when you can get a level up. I don't remember the exact levels, but with each level up, you get to have either a larger restaurant space (to serve more customers) or an extra employee. Both are actually very useful in gaining popularity because if you serve more customers, you will get more thumbs-up, and eventually more money and gourmet points.

However, the trick here is that the employees will only have a certain level of energy to operate your restaurant. Apparently, 100% energy would last up to 3 hours. With lower energy level, their speed becomes slower and you will get more customers' complaints. There are a few types of complaints that you could get from a customer:

• No available seats
• Table is not cleared
• Service too slow

When any of the three items above occurs, you will get a thumbs-down, which reduces the popularity points, resulting in less customers to frequent your restaurant. Therefore, it is very important to strike the perfect balance between serving the most number of customers without delaying the speed of service. After a while, you start to get a hang of it and experience with various layout plans. Oh, did I mention that you can even go to the streets and visit your friends' restaurants? Whenever you visit a new friend, you get a free ingredient, which can be used for your menu.

Speaking of ingredients, there are three category of food that you can serve namely Starters, Main and Desserts. Each category has a long list of dishes available such as Mushroom soup or Chicken and Leek soup for starters, Simple Mango Pudding or Sundae for desserts and so on.

Ingredients for Simple Mango Pudding

But, in order to cook these dishes, you need specific ingredients. Once you successfully collect all the ingredients required (such as Milk, Mango and Lime for Mango pudding - gosh, I can memorize the ingredients!), you will gain Level 1 for that particular dish. Even the dishes have levels! So in order go get to Level 2 for that dish, you need to collect another round of the same ingredients. Of course, collecting ingredients is not really that easy. There are a few ways to do this:

• Free new ingredient with daily login
• Bonus free ingredient if you can answer a food quiz correctly daily
• Free ingredient with every visit to a new restaurant owner
• Trade ingredients with other owners to get what you want

With higher level of dishes, you get higher gourmet points. For example, a Level 1 dish would gain 1.0 gourmet point, whereas a Level 2 dish would gain 1.2 gourmet point and so on. Higher gourmet points, as I mentioned earlier, would get us to the next level at a faster speed.

Finally, what do you do with the money, you ask? Well there are plenty of ways to spend the money, so much so that I'm always left broke! I did something wrong in the beginning of the game actually. It is advisable to keep the money at first to buy chairs and tables to fit more customers. However, the silly and noob me bought a new door, new signboard and new windows in the beginning of the game that I was left with no money to buy furniture. Tables and chairs are very important if you want to serve more customers to get to the next level!

When you still have extra money, you could decorate your restaurant with different floor tiles, wallpaper, tables, chairs, stoves as well as decorative items like jukebox or fountains. Externally, you could also change the outlook of the restaurant by changing the roof, the walls, the doors or the windows. Those with more money could even buy decorative items or plants to decorate the exterior. Some of my friends have really grand restaurants that make my restaurant look like plain Jane. Fear not! I shall chase them soon. *evil laugh*

I am currently only at Level 7. :( Very slow progress, but steady. Try this game. It's really addictive! :)

How I won Sakae Sushi voucher

It was the weekend, and I was staying at home in Kampar doing nothing except for reading blogs. It was then that I saw Foong giving away a KFC voucher in one of this blog post. I am not a big fan of KFC, but since I was bored, I decided to give it a try. The contest required the readers to guess a piano rendition by Foong himself by naming the song title and artist correctly.

Foongpc's KFC Giveaway

After listening to the song, I thought it was very familiar and it sounded very much like a Korean song. You know what I did? I actually went to youtube and searched for all Korean dramas' soundtracks. And I listened to all of them! *LOL* Needless to say, I was wrong. After a while, I just gave up. The next morning, when I looked at the blog again to see if anyone got the guess right, I realized that Foong gave some new clues. And within minutes, I was able to guess the song title and artist. Since no one else was giving the answer yet, I thought I was going to be the sure winner and commented in the post.

Then I waited and waited anxiously, only to find out one day later that my comment disappeared! :(( And worst of all, someone else managed to guess the answer already and claimed the prize. Well, it's not that I cared too much about the prize, it's about winning. :P Anyway, I just told Foong about this and we're both surprised at how a comment could go missing.

Well, luckily for me, Foong managed to discover my missing comment a few days later, on a totally different post! That's so funny!

My comment on another blog post

But it's really a blessing in disguise, because now instead of getting the unhealthy KFC voucher, Foong would give me Sakae Sushi voucher instead! *claps hands in glee* I am more than happy with this new arrangement. And kind Foong actually took the time to write me a short note as well. :)

Note from Foong

Sakae Sushi voucher

Here is my Sakae Sushi voucher. Yes, I can go and eat my favourite Chicken Teriyaki rice again. *grinning from ear to ear* Thank you again Foong, for being so kind and for recognizing my entry even though it miraculously appeared in the wrong post. :)

Steamboat and Grandpa's Birthday

Every year after the Chinese New Year, all of us in my family would travel down to KL to visit my maternal grandparents. Coincidentally, my maternal grandfather's birthday also falls around the same time. Hence, we took it as an opportunity for CNY visiting and birthday celebration and gambling session all in one. *LOL* Usually, the birthday dinner would be held in some swanky, high-class restaurant that cost at least RM1K per table. Mind you, our extended family is huge so it would be at least 2 tables every year. Due to the economy slowdown, however, my uncles and aunties decided to do something different this year, and organized a steamboat gathering.

We reached KL around 3pm in the afternoon, which was way too early for any steamboat event. My uncle from KL decided to show us this new place that he likes to hang out at currently, called Desa Parkcity. It was really near the place he stays, and we reached there in just 10 minutes. I fell in love with that area immediately! It was slightly out of the city, which means tranquility, with a nice lake and jogging track, and lots of quaint cafes and restaurants, not to mention a supermarket! I mean, those people living in Desa Parkcity practically have everything within their fingertips. And I mean within walking distance. It was peaceful and quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. It was really a perfect place to grow old in, or for children to grow up in. :)

Lake at Desa Parkcity

Since we were there during CNY, there were many nice fake cherry blossom trees around to brighten the area.

Cherry blossoms

After visiting the area, we ended up in a cafe for our tea time. It was this coffee place called Kluang Station. Apparently, the coffee was second to none, and the chicken chop was marvellous. Without much ado, we ordered the following dishes to be shared:

Hot coffee and iced Nescafe

The coffee received thumbs up from Saucer. It was apparently much better than those in the Old Town Kopitiam shops. As for the Nescafe, nothing special about it really.

Nasi lemak

Fried chicken

Oh the nasi lemak was pretty good! It came with a piece of fried chicken which was crispy and well-marinated. I loved the chicken to bits! I wish there was a Kluang Station in Penang. It would beat the over-priced Old Town Kopitiam hands down.

Butter and kaya toast

The toast was nothing to shout about, as you can see from the picture. It was definitely thicker bread compared to the barely-there bread in Old Town.

And the star of the day was the chicken chop, which was ordered by my dad. He is a big fan of chicken chops! Wherever he goes, if there's chicken chop in the menu, he would order it. Unfortunately, he has a very sensitive and picky tongue, so more often than not, the chicken chops would get criticisms instead of praises. For the case of Kluang Station, however, I was surprised that he praised the chicken chop there, and said that it was good. (Not GREAT yet, but good is very rarely mouthed by my dad). I immediately took a bite and agreed with him. There was this fragrant smell from the chicken chop which indicated that it was well-marinated, and the meat was juicy without being dry from the frying. I would love to order it again next time. And for the price of RM12.90, it was definitely reasonable!

Chicken chop

Fast-forward a couple of hours down the road, it was dinner time! The steamboat was held in this gorgeous huge house of my uncle and auntie's in Sg Buloh. It was the first time I visited their new place and it was fabulous! The interior was floored with granite and first floor was solid timber. Granite flooring in the house! That's a first for me (pardon my ignorance).

Awesome giant house

There were lots of food prepared that day, and one of my uncles bought these satays for us. I wonder where he got them because the satays were so meaty and delicious! And for only 60cents a piece! I have to say it was the most popular dish that night, considering that it finished the first. (Thanks to my help, too, I must say *LOL*)

My love

My brother was also crazy with the satays!

When gluttony rules...

Look at how they posed when I asked them to take a picture.

Brothers who are posers

Some of the food for the steamboat: Lots of fresh vegetables, raw meat, yong tau foo, noodles, eggs, dumplings and the like.

Steamboat ingredients

The only gripe that night was the warm weather. There was no wind and the air was stuffy. Couple that with the hot steam coming from the pots, it was recipe for a sauna experience.

Cousins having a good time

My brothers, Saucer and Angie

Before the night was out, we went into the house to sing birthday song to my grandpa.

Cake-cutting ceremony

The Tiramisu from Secret Recipe scored well among us, especially the young ones, who went for seconds. After that, it was a whole night of gambling, ala CNY style. It was the perfect end for the CNY. I miss it already! I guess I'll have to wait for another 12 months for this festival again.