C'est LA viE

Time flies, today marked the last day of our short getaway, actually there is kinda no schedule today because dad planned to go Matang for lunch so we had to leave Penang before noon.

Yet, before our departure, we need to fetch my brother and his friend too. Both of them came to Penang at the same time with us but they were having their trip by their own until today we gather again.

However, the guys were a bit slow, so we headed to the Occupy beach street event first. this special event is held on every Sunday morning at Beach Street Penang.

On Sunday, Beach Street would be closing temporarily for family friendly and community activities that public can access. 

There would be various stalls selling difftent stuffs, sometimes also would have special theme event going on. 

Today, there was an organization hosting a special event, but i really had no idea what was it about. Just happened that they have this mural art which was purposed moved to Beach Street due to this event. 

Thanks to the approach of the friendly staff, I was hesitate to take a photo with it in the begining, but she kept encouraged me to do so and here I did.

It was a good shot, thank you =) 

The stalls over here are like art market, selling some cool stuffs. 

I ended up also could not resist open up my wallet, this stall is selling mainly puzzle, but it was not normal puzzle board only, look at this!

This is what I got for myself, it's aint cheap, RM78 for this, but it is a notebook cover! It comes with a notebook, and a plastic cover which is used to protect the puzzle cover.

But of course I had to put all the pieces together first, and I think the last time I playing this kind of puzzle was during childhood. 

I never interested on puzzle, but this time I think I was attracted by the creativity of using puzzle to make a book cover. 

Actually there is also other puzzles products, all imported directly from Taiwan , see here

There's also a huge snake board, too bad dad and mum would not had interested to take photo with it. 

Besides these, there's also pet society here to sell stray dogs and raised fund for the homeless animals. 

So fluffy!! and HUGE! 

We did not have enough time at here, cause we had to meet my brother at the hotel. Then we directly heading to Matang for lunch. 

Spent some times finding the right restaurant, but dad's instinct was great, we went into the right place. 

The seafood here is cheap, and fresh. But in terms of taste, i think they were just ok only. 

After lunch we got back into the car, and all the way back home. 

That's the sum up of my Penang trip, really happy to visit the island again. Will looking forward to revisit in the future. 

Today we mainly do like what tourists do,went to Bukit Bendera and Armenian street.

Actually I woke up quite early this morning, at 7am, just like last time, accompany my dad to get the famous Apom at Burma Street. 

I still recalled I did the same thing during my last family trip in Penang 3 years ago, but it was more earlier that time. 

Here we go, we actually bought too much food this morning, beside the apom, dad topped up with char kuey kar (粿角）,then i discovered another alley behind the kopitiam that sell vege and other foods, and i just couldnt resist myself to get the nyonya kuih. 

The apom taste actually had turned bad, no longer crispy, the content also no longer fluffy =( Dad was too greedy, he bought 20 pieces! and 1 piece actually is turning so pricy now, RM1 for such a small piece =( 

Ended up, we were like forcing ourselves to finish everything ==/

For the nyonya kuih, the "cup kuih" （碗仔糕）was great, but not the sweet potato kuih and seri muka. Especially with the price of RM0.80 for 1 kuih was really ridiculous....thought we might go to the locals eateries which did not cheat tourists, but ended up we also got bluffed. 

After the heavy breakfast, we planned to go visit kek lok si temple, but since it was early and also the route to Bukit Bendera, we decided to try to go there. 

Why i say try to go because i actually would like to visit again as my last visit was during childhood, but dad opposed the idea by giving reason that it would be crowded and no parkings.

Guess we forgot that was in the past, now there's a building lot mainly just for parking. We actually parked at the 3rd storey while there is actually level 3A, 2A as well, there were so many people regardless we considered early (reaching around 10am). 

Even though we got the parking, we also need to face the long queue no matter at the ticket counter or the line waiting for boarding the cable car. 

Dad couldnt not stand for the line and bought the fast lane ticket~ Quite cool that they are doing this kind of concept, at least for people who have no patience, this is ideal~

The fast lane ticket is a card type, and is faded ==/ 

We were quite lucky, not many people buying the fast lane ticket. we got to the first row after a wee while. At least we could pick the seat for sure~

The cable car was refurbished, and quite comfortable as I was sitting at the front row but at the end so that I could see the Penang view...

I still could recall the cable car was so packed and humid when I was a kid, but now feeling better, because they are controlling the amount of people in the compact space. 

Apparently there were some landslides accidents happening because of the heavy flood, and the workers were trying to improve the stability of the land.

View was not bad~ I think took around 15mins and we reached at the top, at 712 meter above sea level.

The air is so cool at the top, I felt so relaxed with the breeze and fresh air~ 

can clearly see the Penang bridge tho.

Too bad the weather was quite foggy due to the heavy rains in the past few days, but it was good that the sun was hiding and we could chill out. 

I guess since Penang changed the state government as well as gaining the UNESCO world heritage recognisition, all the tourism spots were revamped, so do for Bukit Bendera.

Look at this! The LOVE sign, along with the love padlock for the couples, definitely mimicking the other countries tourist spot such as Taipei 101, Seoul N tower etc, but indeed it's work! 

The LOVE sign and paddlelock is on top of a 3 storeys long house, with the basement composed of an owl museum, ground floor with some eateries and souvenir shops and top floor where a food court located. 

I did some OTTD too~ when i saw the grassy wall, i knew it would be a good background hehe and I was right. =) 

We climbed up to another small peak too, and dad was trying real hard, cz nowadays his leg suffered from long distance walk especially with the stairs is even tough. 

But well done, he did it, and unfortunately there's nothing excited at the peak, is just a small playground, a mosque and a hindu temple. 

After that, we just walked around and back to the cable car entrance again. 

We straight away went to air hitam for the famous curry mee as lunch. Food was just alright, again, over-rated ==

Actually, most of the ingredients had gone and we only got the rest of the squid and broth, but still charged us for RM5 per bowl which was quite unreasonable. 

Taste was not bad, but i dont think was good enough for receiving such popularity., maybe really need more ingredients to pair with then, but it is unlikely for me to come back for the 2nd attempt. 

Then, we continued our tourist activity at the Armenian Lane, mainly to visit the Teochew puppet and opera house. 

Personally, i have no interest with the puppet or opera culture, come here because it is related to my ancient and my dad will love to explore.

I thought they have tour like the nyonya house in Malacca, or the Hainanese centre at Ipoh, but then they actually had no any tour organized. The only people who could explain was a worker in this place and he explained so detailed until discussing all the history in the past or somewhere which is unrelated at all. 

Well, i still thankful for his passion, and he must be having a hard time, because his tear fall when he telling us the stories of his family related with the culture.

I guess he must be very heartful and ardent, we spent almost an hour here, I am not really understanding the history, but dad was really happy with the visit =) 

Then, we also spent sometimes at the Armenian Lane, here is really artisitic and full of some cool shops. 

These were sold at a shop where selling lots of owl items, the boss was making it using the tiny seeds such as red bean, green bean etc, so cute but too bad it was too pricy. But i did buy an owl bracelet in this shop. 

Mural art also everywhere along Armenian Street.

Since mum did not have lunch (cause she disliked the environment of the curry mee stall at air hitam), she chose a tiny cafe kind of place for assam laksa.

Supprisingly, the assam laksa was good! Yummy, only thing i think it was slightly sweet, but overall is good. I thought i would miss out assam laksa this time, but really grateful that still encountered a good one by chance =D 

Also saw this foreign europe artist performance, all of his art pieces are free price, meaning you can pay as you wish! 

I did not buy any, i do think their artwork is good just i am not that into paintings. 

But i did get mochi~ yummy and cheap!! The mochi is so chewy but fluffy and soft, and good thing is it is not too sweet. 

After mochi, is cendol, lol! I actually did not have the famous Penang teochew cendol this trip, but i think this no name cendol was tasty enough. 

There's nothing much we could do at this short lane, i should have done more homework at least we could visit somewhere else. 

We decided to leave earlier, meaning we actually also missed out the Armenian street got talent which hold every Saturday night. Well, cz we had spent too long time at here, so might as well go somewhere else.

Thought to buy some souvenirs but ended up we could not locate the souvenir shop, so we went for dinner instead hehe XD

I brought my parents to the Gurney drive hawker centre as there have a wide range of food, I lined up for char kuey teow and oyster omelette while dad also bought chee chong fun (penang style), and lok bak. I am quite surprise dad and mum actually order coconut drink too =D Yippee! 

Dinner tonight was kinda feast~

However, there's a small dissapointment tonight, because I couldnt visit the Penang Secret Avatar Park because there were no parkings ==

Well, blame myself not doing enough homework again, i should have checked the location and parking accessibility because there are plenty of info and reviews online but i didnt take a look ==

If i noticed earlier, i would have plan for that yesterday instead. Oh well, it would be next time then, hopefully by then it is still available (well maintained especially) and also FOC. 

That's all for today, let's get a selfie =P

Woohoo, is long weekend again! Haha just apply to myself because i took annual leave as we are going to PENANG!!

It was 2013, right after I back Malaysia, when I travelled to Penang with my family, meaning that parents havent visited Penang for almost 4 years. 

But, as for myself, I had visited almost the same time last year to Penang with the secret lunch society gang. 

Actually we were very worried this morning as we heard about the news of Penang is facing the most serious flood in the history this morning due to the continuous rain over the midnight. 

Apparently, the rain volume of one night is equavillant to the usual monthly rain volume of Penang, I was thinking if we need to play safe to cancel the trip.

However, dad and mum did not say anything, so we just stick with the plan, deep down my heart, i kept telling myself everything should be alright.

Meanwhile, I also kept keeping my eye on the official MBPP facebook page to make sure I received the latest news about the flood situation. 

We actually stucked in a heavy jam for almost an hour at Ipoh tunnel area due to some car accidents, but i guess thanks to this jam, it allowed more time for us to avoid the flood clearance in Penang.

Around 6pm, we arrived safely at Penang island, with minor jam before crossing the Penang bridge but smooth traffic and clear route, we neither encountered any flood hazard nor falling train caused by the heavy thunderstorm. 

I was quite surprised that Penang seems like did not have heavy flood in the morning, everyone we met just calmly describing the heavy flood, but no complaints.

Actually, Penang government had done a good job in the clean-up of the disaster, in such an efficient way that did not really leave lots of mess to the public. 

After all, it was an unpredictable and unavoidable natural disaster, no one wished for it, so I still really felt those politians who kept blaming the Penang government was really insane. Well, no politic talk over here. 

Back to our trip, we walked to the kopitiam (local chinese coffee shop) for dinner after the late check-in at our hotel. 

The rain had stopped, and left the air in a cool breeze, it was slightly chilly and relaxed to walked at this hour, and we enjoyed the breeze so much.

Penang road is also well maintained with zebra crossing and the press button for pedestrian. 

My dad always want to come to this kopitiam at Pulau Tikus, but actually we just like the convenience of the location as it was real closed to our hotel. The hotel we living in Penang is Berjaya Penang hotel, as my dad is the member of the Berjaya Vacation Club, and we always stay here when we come to Penang. 

Penang food had been shouting at me, we had the famous char kuey teow~

I think a bit salty, taste was just alright, but very expensive~

Yam cake was also ok, but mum like it. 

The best i think for tonight is the Penang lok bak, this kopitiam lok bak store is good, never dissapooint us everytime we come. 

After the dinner, i suggested to go Gurney Paragon as the night is still young =D, well, main reason was I want to visit Penang on 6. I discovered it on a blog, but only realized actually this place had been shut down for sometime. Oh well, no wonder there was not much information about this place.

So we decided just do some shopping instead, I actually bought a dress at H&M =) , lol, solved my first piece of dress for CNY 2018. 

Poor dad, his leg was in pain because there is no seats around the mall and he was just by himself, as my brother actually come to Penang same time too but he was with his friend for another event. 

Thanks dad for waiting, i really admire his patience. After buying a dress, we saw some sort of Japanese snacks fair and i just couldnt stop myself to grab them.

Ended up, i did grab some chewy candies, while mum also grab some chocolate snacks and seaweed. After i made the payment only found out actually it was not a japanese fair, we actually were shopping at Shojikiy. == 

I bought this famous candy, really very nice, the fragance was so strong, actually i am well aware it is all about flavoring and coloring ==

Then I also bought a range of ume (plum) candy~ somehow i really love ume candy just like how i love plum wine =) Meiji chocolate was the last snack i grabbed, just thought might as well get a chocolate bar lol

Alright, that was my first night at Penang. I will definitely have a good sleep in this nice room =D 

We actually had booked 2 rooms for 3 of us, thought that my elder brother family would wanna join us, oh well. Therefore, we requested for connected room and thankful that the connected rooms are available for our 2 nights stay at Penang. 

Room is spacious enough, with clean linen and tidy room. Below in the view from my room in day, is facing the sea! Nice =D We are living at 24th floor, high enough to view everything~ Too bad i forgot to took the photo of the night view, actually was good too. 

Definitely have a relaxed weekend =)

I really salute to Stephen King, such an amazing writer, <IT> is another movie that made me want to read the original novel.

Honestly, i dislike clowns, they are really disturbing to me, but i am always interested to watch horror movie. 

So when Siti, my colleague asked me if i wanna watch <IT>, without hesitation, i said yes. 

We actually nearly late for the movie, I rushed to finish my work and quickly drove to USJ, experienced jam for sure, but thankful that we arrived very soon too.

Elsa and I went to meet Poi Yee and Siti at Sushi King, I had not visited sushi king for some time, good to know that they have mix 2 dishes for RM14 set now.

I had a karagae don plus a beef agedashi tofu set. We watched the movie at Summit USJ, i just knew they have movie theater over there, but we were lost to find it, and got into the hall around 715pm, but good that the advertisement was long enough, we did not miss out any scene.

As what I expected, <IT> is really scary, i was partially covering my eyes with my hand almost 3/4 of the movie. 

It is almost until the last 1/4 of the movie only i started to let go my fear, because this movie actually this passed on a message that we should not fear of what we scared of. And the movie itself is also strongly deliver the message to me, therefore at the end, i kinda shared the same feeling as the main kid - Bill, i could watch the movie without covering my eyes. 

The moment the clown appeared is very scary, with the red balloon is even worst, i could feel the tension of the audience, everyone was actually scared. 

There were no shouting, but truly can tell people is scared, especially the two beside me == 

Anyways, back to the movie. I actually was hoping if Georgie was still alive,  he so cute and so sad that his scene is so little =( 

The scene between him and his brother, Bill was very touching, can tell the sadness of the whole family when losing Georgie. So with the minor hope, Bill had been trying real hard to approach a way to find Georgie. It was such a fortune that there are a bunch of good friends around Bill, they were afraid too, but the pure and hard bound of friendship lead their braveness to the unknown world.

They were loving with each other, the friendship was such a relief in this movie, especially thanks to Richie, he always came out with the lame jokes, and his talkative personality could be annoying, but in this movie became a happy seed because it kinda ease up the tension and fear from the clown. He is also the one who always stand by Bill side, though he actually fed up in the middle, but he also chose to support Bill at the end. 

Although at the end IT was not really killed, i still have no idea what is IT. According to some of the viewers on Youtube, IT actually is from the galaxy, and IT arrive earth way earlier than human born. IT take human's fear as food, some said, human with fear had a yummy flesh, and children's fear is more easily to be controlled. 

Sounds really scary, and IT actually is a mixture of lights, it chose to present itself with a shape of clown because that's IT favourite identity. 

I am happy that there will be chapter 2 for this movie, because it really was well made. It was not only fear, <IT> contains humour, love of the friendship, and positive message of being brave to encounter the fear. 

I escpecially really like how the kids stay still with their fear, admit what they scared of, and also fight with their fear, that's why the clown could not able to hurt them anymore after they no longer scared of IT. 

This movie not just focus on the scary scene of the clown or how IT hurt the people, <IT> actually also showed the darkness of some family. Like how Bev's dad was sexually abusing her, that's Bev's fear, Eddie's mum over protecting him from the illness, that's why the illness and sick is Eddie most afraid of, Mike witnessed his parents death in the fire during his childhood, the scream of help from the fire was always a night mare for Mike, Henry's dad who is a police officer actually teased his child with violence in front of his friend, ended up Henry killed his father with his own hand.

 <IT> clearly shown how the raising of the child and family education could affect a child's growth. 

Moreover, the school bully incident which lead by Henry as the bower gang, is also a typical scene that likely happening around the world. 

<IT> was actually the first long film movie for  the director, Andy Muschietti, and he really success in making this movie terrifying yet entertaining. Thank you.

I really enjoyed this 2 hrs plus movie, and looking forward for the next chapter. Of course, must thanks to Stephen King too, such a brilliant author. =) 

I posted a similar post last year, after 1 year, i still receiving souvenirs on and off =D Thank you~

Here you go for the part 2, those presents i was gifted in the past year. 

First, is the post card from Sze Ying, i guess now Sze Ying and Karen are the only frieds who will send me postcard. =) 

This card is posted by Sze when she still working in Germany. So happy to receive it =D

I personally really love to receive postcard, is like expecting something good coming in life =) 

However, I cant expect everyone to post me postcard, that's why i just send myself postcard, especially in this case, i could have the postcard i liked =) 

But, to me, able to receive postcard from others is a surprise =) 

Next, is the omamori that gifted by Kok Chin actually in 2015. But that time i did not take the photo, so post this time. 

This year i also received another one from Kok Chin during his trip to tokyo =)

Next, is the bag i received from my sister in law, actually is more on my request lol.

She bought me this bag during her honeymoon trip with my brother in Korea, she actually also helped me bought lots of facial care products but I did pay for those products while not for this bag.

I quite like this bag, blue in color, matched me so well =) I actually treat it as my travel bag, had brought it with me during my Kansai trip last year, Chiang Mai 2 months ago and will bring it to Korea this year too ^^

Then, these are from Ing Bean, she gifted me last year while she travelled to Korea and Taiwan in the same year! 

Korea is mainly masks, but there is one special gift which only i had while others did not =) 

This one: 

This is a lip balm, in banana shape, so cute =) Actually i did not use lip balm, but somehow lately realized i actually need to take care my lips. 

Then, for the taiwan part, is the famous Gudetama, actually i do not understand why it so famous, and also not really a fan, but i know bean like it very much~

Thank god that Gudetama is a mask, at least i still can use, kok chin gave me a Gudetama model which i really don't know what to do with it except placing it in my room. ==

The other two is a bookmark and a sticker. This bookmark is actually the same as the postcard Bean sent to me as below, so detailed =) 

Actually Bean bought me a similar bookmark during high school when she travelled Taiwan. 

Next, mostly is the souvenirs i received from colleagues. 

The one on the left are from Poi Yee while she had business trip with Ms Foong in UK, while Ms Foong's one is on the right. 

The middle one is from Hui Bee, she also returned to UK  for trip. Hmmm, i wonder when i could back NZ for trip.....

Next, the left with my name on the keychain is gifted by Ching Yee when she travelled to Boracay, the middle is from Yen, my ex-colleague of current company while he gone to Japan. While on the right, it had been a while, it was from Karen when she travelled to HK for business trip, actually was like maybe 2 years ago. 

Next I guess is from Tristan, my current GM, while he back home, NZ. Whittakers chocolate and honey lozenges, not sure if is manuka honey though.

The Whittakers easter chocolate was so gooood!! Arh, i really miss NZ! 

Next, i posted this last time, Karen bought me this when she travelled to Kansai after me last year. 

The sake version kit kat was not bad, but i still prefer the red bean version =) 

This is given by my sister law this year while she travelled to Taiwan with my brother and my cute niece. I love it so much, such a cute present. 

Next is the gift from Kok chin last month, after tasting them lol. All are doraemon selection snacks~

Actually taste is just so so, i think is more about the packaging. 

This cookies is also very normal, nothing special except for the packaging.

Another one~

Similarly, nothing really need to be shout about. 

Next, is the recent gift by Nancy while she travelled to Hat Yai, Thailand, another pouch for me. 

At the same time, my boss also travelled to Bangkok, and I picked this from her range of souvenirs.

It is a clip but with little girl on it. 

Then this Gudetama is from Kok Chin, i was kinda speechless when receive this because i really not a fan of Gudetama. Oh well, thanks anyway

But i like this Taiwan souvenir from Catherine. Is a cute taipei 101 magnet.

I now pin it on my little board place beside my bed. 

Then, this was received from Pek Shan, it is actually a sample she received when she travelled korea for business trip.

I havent tried out yet, but i picked this instead of masks or other facial care sample because foot spray seems more rarely find. 

These were received way earlier, maybe 2 years ago from Yimei when she travelled to Korea and Bali. 

This is also from Korea, by Ching Yee. 

Then this is given by Karen, she knew how i love totoro XD

I had been thinking to buy myself a totoro luggage tag, and she kinda hear me lol. 

Then, this is from Hui Bee which is also 2 years ago i think, she bought from Taiwan.

The other gifts from Taiwan, from top is a magnet/bookmark by Siew Teng, while the rest is by Kok Chin. 

Then another souvenir from Taiwan, by my brother, which is also few years ago. But the eiffel tower keychain is from Yimei when she travelled to France long time ago. 

That's all for now, i think there will be more souvenirs in the future, keep it up for part 3 =)