MIA
Sorry for the lack of updates due to several reasons.
1. I'm too lazy.
2. I had some commitments, ie to help my aunt on one of her 'newly' set-up company website and also on a project paper. She asked me to do it since I came back from Melbourne and yet I havent finish it now. I'm like half way thru the website thingy now and yet to start on the project paper. Gosh...It's like end of January now and I'm going back to Melbourne soon! Gotta get rid of them asap, or else I dont know what'll happen on me la...
3. Nothing special happen recently. My friends had started on their new semester and none of them are in Ipoh for the moment, except Yin Ci. One more thing is that I dont have my car with me, so it's kinda difficult to go out whenever I like. What to do? Mum's car is in the workshop and wont be ready in any time soon. Haih...
Well, gotta work out on my commitments now. Til then...
New Year Eve Gathering
Oh My... I found this post uncompleted and had been sitting in my draft folder for such a long time.
Again, long overdued...
We decided to have this small potluck at my place on New Year Eve at first, but then end up no body prepare any food. Just come my place and cook. *Slap forehead*
So, for those who turn up, Hor Yue, Shih Ling, Shin Jie, Yin Ci, and of couse myself, we 'cook' ourselve a meal. Okay, we didnt cook in the sense of cook. We just 'cook' up some prepared food, like frozen pizza. Yin Ci and Jie both prepare the spagetti while Hoey and Shih Ling prepare the sandwiches. I planned to impress them with Grill Teriyaki Chicken but all my "weight conscious" buddies commented that there's already a lot of food so I didnt grill the chicken wings that I already marinated earlier. Btw, I made some nice Konyaku Jelly that they love so much and 'sapu' them into their stomach very quickily. :D
Here's our table full of food.
The four beauties posing happily with the food :p
In my room, cam-whoring
Shin Jie and Yin Ci stayed over at my place while the rest went home. We didnt countdown for new year and i forgotten what we have done. Probably just chill in my room.
Finally, get rid of this post. And I learned a phrase which I like it very much from a astro ad today.
"Celebration comes and goes, but memories last for a life time."
Xmas Eve Dinner
This is so long overdued...
Well, my uncle, aunt, Dan Qin & Yu-Yang were back in Ipoh for Xmas. We went for Ming Court Dim Sum in the morning. Sorry, no pictures for that, were too busy eating. :p
In the noon, Dan Qin and me and Shin Jie went to Kinta City to do some shopping. I think investor should seriously consider of opening a new shopping complex in Ipoh. Kinta City are so packed + crowded during holidays/festive seasons. Spent a long time in finding a parking space ah...
I brought a fleece jacket from Samuel & Kevin, kinda cheap after the 60% discount. It's a reversible jacket, one side is Maroon colour where the other side is army pattern, Eric commented it's not nice though...
So, let's get into the gist of this entry. We went Tanjung Tualang for dinner. This place is famous for its seafood or shall I say riverfood??? If u visit this place, the river prawn is a must-try, and also the fresh river fish like Nam Kor, it's cheaper here than other restaurants.
I shall let the dishes we ordered that night to tempt u people... Haha...
First, is the Steam River Prawns. This dish remain the original freshness + sweetness of the prawns. The dash of Chinese Wine help to bring out the taste of prawns even better. Yummy!
Secondly, Steam Bak Shu Kong, a kind of river fish, I think it's one of the cat fish family, but not so sure. I like this fish lots. It's fresh plus the sauce used is just nice, not too salty. Steam fish is actually a very hard dishes to prepare, not many restaurants can steam a fish nicely.
Thirdly, is the Fried River Prawns, my all time favourite. I was too excited to see this dish and cant wait to eat it, only realising half way thru that I forgot to take a photo of this. And one more tips for u guys, order a bowl of white rice to add into the sauce after u finish the prawns, it's heavenly delicious. Just forget about your cholestrol level and blood pressure for one moment. :P
Then, it's the chef recommended Taufu. It's more towards Thai style, with sweet & spicy sauce topping the fried cube taufu with some salad. Very appetising too.
I was too happy eating and forgotten to take photo of a few other dishes that we ordered. :D Other dishes that we ordered are Green Vege, Sweet & Sour Crab, and the famous fried rice. The crab is definitely recommended, we even brought over our own bread to dip the sauce, k? Erm...the fried rice used to be very nice and it's a must ordered for every table, but dont know what went wrong that night, it's overcooked, one of the dissapointment la...
The bill came up to be RM250++, I forgotten the exact price, so I would say the pricing is very reasonable for a meal like this, dont think can find any other restaurant that offer this price in KL/PJ. We had 3 kg of river prawns, crab and fish le... I dare not say it's cheap la, but definetely not expensive.
The restaurant is Lian Fong Restaurant in Tanjung Tualang. About 30 mins drive from Ipoh, worth going for the quality of the food.
Penang Trip Part 2
Well, I reckon it's time for me to clear off some long overdue posts...
Here comes the 2nd day in Penang...
Woke up quite early, meet up with Siao Gu & Uncle Richard for breakfast at Song River, just beside our hotel. Yea, they spent us the breakfast, thanks again! This place is famous for its Bat Kut Teh and some other dishes. One thing I dont understand about Penangnites, they have Steam Fish, Fried Teo Chew Beancurd, etc, heavy stuff people normally had for their lunch or dinner as their breakfast. Quite weird lo... But one thing I cannot deny is the tastiness of the food and it's pretty expensive for a breakfast!
After breakfast, we cam-whoring along the beach, just opposite of our hotel. We didnt manage to go to real beach, as in those you can build sand castle on, this time. Lack of time la... Our schedule are pretty packed. LOLZ~~~
I took this photo of old man fishing, kinda artistic huh?
The girls... (I only discovered this photo when I scroll thru Steve's camera, kinda special...)
The guys...
Then, we were off to Kek Lok Si, the usual place that tourists will visit in Penang. We were no exception. It is remarkable that Alfeus spent a long time when parking the car. I dont know how long was it exactly, but I can tell you that the two guys that help us, as in giving us guide when parking the car were quite frustrated. One of the guys even sarcastically congrats us for successfully parking the car. I must say that the space is small for a relatively huge car like CRV, moreover there were cars everywhere, made the situation worst. And the guys 'hentam' us RM5 for the parking, we got no choice but to pay.
I had been to Penang countless time since a very young age. My family told me that I was only few months old when I first visited Penang. And I'm not willing to left! Erm...they said my little head kept staying outside of the car and was unwilling to go into the car. Haha!!! We used to go Penang at least once a year and our schedule were packed with eating, eating, and more eating. Penang is well known for its food, ok? I think this is my very first time going up to the Pagoda of Kek Lok Si, unless I had been there when I was really really young. Really enjoy it, especially with the company I had. And they had this new Guan Yin/Goddess Of Mercy statue, which is worth visiting in my opinion.
I shall let the photos illustrate it...
I like this pic ah...
The front view of the Pagoda...
Taken on the Pagoda, forgotten which floor... We went all the way up to the top floor and snap a photo with all of us inside there, but it's with Kwee Zhi.
The Guan Yin Statue (it's very nice in reality, my photography skills needs to be improve!)
The tiger babies~~~ Thanks to the cow baby who help us to take this photo :D
The group pic at the bottom of Goddess Of Mercy Statue...
We spent hours at this place, end up dont have time to visit Bukit Bendera. Also we wanna go to Red Box, if not can go up the hill, but sing k is relatively more important to us la... Hehe... So after coming down from Kek Lok Si, all of us were hungry and opt to have the famous Assam Laksa. Unfortunately, the Laksa that I normally ordered, ie not the famous one, was closed. The famous stall that was recommended by tourists info is not that nice lo... That's what I feel la... The one inside the market, opposite the famous stall, is better still, and the stall owner is a mute. Next time, if you happen to go there, have a try on his Laksa.
After eating, we rushed to Gurney Plaza, because we booked the room earlier and dont wanna miss it. We sang for 3 hours 45 minutes, the people there forgot to 'cut' so we gotta sing longer. :)
Then, dinner at Gurney Drive, eating almost all the hawker foods we can find there. Yummy! We had Popiah, Pie Tee, Rojak, Bbq Dried Squid, Bbq Taufu, Fried Mee Shua, Muah Chee(My all time favourite!), Apong, Char Keow Teow, Oyster Omelette... Ate to the content of our heart obviously... We were afraid that it might rain while we were eating because there was once when we decided to go and get some more food, it suddenly started to rain. Everybody there got panic and tried to move away, but then it stops. Luckily, we get to finish all of our food.
Back to hotel, chit chat a while before call it for a day.
The next day, we were checking out, shall I say this is the day of disaster? First, I wanted to bring them to Burma Road for breakfast and none shops were open, then decided to go Pulau Tikus, but the place I wanna bring them to, also closed. End up eating at one kopitiam along the shoplots where Baskin Robin is, dont know the road name la. The food not bad la... Then go back to the hotel, wanna check out because it's almost time. Later, went to Him Heang, thinking of buying the famous biscuits, but sold out. Then, wanna lunch at Chang Kee, Nibong Tebal for its Crab Porridge. First, we got to the wrong way, then when we were at the correct place, it was closed. Bad Luck le...
End up, we stop by Taiping for makan. My friends dont seems to like the food a lot, but luckily they like the drinks, save the day a bit. What happen later was a total nightmare la... Alfeus not feeling well at first, then Khai Yinn, Steve, Shawn. The four of them vomit and diarrhea the whole night, only Kwee Zhi and myself safe. They suspected the food in Taiping caused them food poisoning, but I had been eating the food there for a long long time and I'm pretty sure about the cleanliness there, dont know la, perhaps it differs depends on peoples' body.
I'm glad that all of them got home safely regardless of feeling unwell. I feel sorry for them too, for not being a good host. Dont have the chance to bring them to Dim Sum because none of them got appetite, made me feel regret lo...
People, come to Ipoh again this year, and I promise to belanja you all Ming Court Dim Sum, and hopefully be a better host.
That's all for this trip. Thanks to Alfeus, Khai Yinn, Kwee Zhi, Shawn & Steve for being such a good company. Hope we got to meet up again and go for another trip.
Penang Trip 2006
*Please be patient with the length!!!
This is super outdated, I know, but I'll still blog about it given its importance & significance to me. Well, I'm a bit exaggerate sometimes, I know!
So, to start with, this is a trip of mine with my Taylor's friends. On the 18th Dec 2006, Alfeus, Khai Yinn, Shawn & Steve came down from Seremban to Ipoh. Kwee Zhi was here a day earlier than them, so I met up with her earlier and went to fetch them from Medan Gopeng driving a 'problematic' Wira. Seriously, I found it so difficult to drive the car! Despite the fact that I try my very best to step hard on the accelerator, the speed just wont go up. I was like... Of course, I was criticised by the gang for my driving skill. I blame on the car but they just dont listen to me ah!!!
Brought them to Sam Poh Tong straight after picking them from the bus station, but sadly we cant go inside. It was closed! Well, I never knew that they operate like office hours. Haih...
Then, I brought them to Lao Wong for the famous Beansprout Chicken. Kwee Zhi commented that Onn Kee is better though... After that, we went home, they stayed at my place because I wanna help them to save money. Initially, I wanna book the hotel accomodation for them as my house is a bit crowded, somemore that particular day Siao Gu came. I must thank mum & brother here, for them willing to let me use their room. Love u all!
Later, we went to the Dragon Fruit Farm to see the cactus-plant-flower (erm...I dunno how to name this, it's flower of the Dragon Fruit). Yea, at night, we visited the farm which got no lighting, just to see the flowers. Have to bring along torchlights and also keep the cars front lights on, because there's no lighting at the farm. God knows how efficient TNB is!!?? But I must say that this is an eye-opener for me. The flower is magnificient and I shall dedicate a entry for this flower alone in time to come. We got a group photo here but I dont have it with me, gotta ask from Uncle Foo, will update it when I got the pic.
The next day, 19th Dec is the day, we are going to Penang. First, I brought them to Thean Chun aka The House Of Mirrors in Old Town for breakfast. I ordered lots of food for them to try, but the coffee is a total disapointment. The White Coffee here sucks and please go Nam Heong for their Ice Coffee. Dont have the chance to bring my friends there which made me feel a bit regret! But at least they get to try the famous Sar Hor Fun, Chee Cheong Fun, Popiah + Satay. Super full by then....
Then, off to Penang. I drove, my first time driving to Penang wihout having any family members beside me! Woohoo! Erm...I was criticised though for driving at 60km/h at some areas (slope areas of course! what to expect when you have 6 people in a CRV???) But praise me for my skills please! Because I didnt miss any roads and safely drove u all to the hotel.
Checked in at Evergreen Laurel Hotel, then off to satisfy our stomach. Went to Penang Road for Cendol, Char Kaoy Teow + Laksa. Didnt made ourselve missing in Penang as well. But this time Alfeus was driving. The guy was super frustrated by the traffic in Penang with motorists driving recklessly. As we finished our meal, we walked around the area and took photos.
Taken from the bridge, Penang Road.
KOMTAR, once the tallest???
by Alfeus
After some random walk, we went to Tanjung Marina City, which I never been to. Discovered this place from 5xMom blog and found the way to from the map we got from the hotel. This is kinda a newly developed tourist spot. I shall let the photos to talk the story.
Actually, some sorts of drama happened during our stay at this place, but I'll not reveal it. It will remain as a secret among the six of us...
We reluctantly left Tanjung Marina City after tonnes of photo and went back to the hotel.
Dinner at this place near Ayer Itam, called Long Bu-a. Uncle Richard spent us the dinner, which was super delicious. Thanks lots! I still remember the tasty seafood there, typically the Kam Heong Cat Fish. It was so nice!!! I wanna go there again ah....
Then, went to Bukit Bendera, not up the hill la... Just at the bottom lo... It's already late in the night, closed obviously...
After that, went to Siao Gu's condo at Batu Ferringgi, stayed there quite long, left at about 12am I think. As we went back to the hotel, we stopped by Gurney Drive to get some food for supper and also a convenient shop to get some drinks.
So, that's pretty much all the 1st day of our trip.
Stay tune for part 2...
