CNY 2013 - 4th day

13 February 2013 (Wed):

Deciding & searching for a place to have breakfast was a chore each morning. Before coming to Penang, I did some research & copied down the add of each individual makan item but when u are in Penang itself & with only less than 2 full days, we did not managed to cover those recommended ones. See, even places like Long Beach or Chowrasta Market, we did not visit.

Instead, we would js drive along & stopped by to whatever place we felt comfortable with for meals. So in the end, we had breakfast this morning at a local neighbourhood housing (kinda like those old flats you see in HKG, where u sit in the compound & when u look up, anything would js fall out of the corridors).

But this place was equally crowded too. Char Kway Teow seems to be the "hot" order & they even serve westernised breakfast ( toast, sunny side up, hotdogs & baked beans). Other than that, they have Chee Cheong Fun, Mee Chiam Kueh, Tim Sum, etc. Either there was a lack of staff or everyone was too busy, no one cleared the empty bowls & plates. We did what the locals do; piled them up along the edge of the sidewalk. :P

Heading on to our next destination - Bukit Merah Laketown Resort; abt an hours' drive from Penang. I was comtemplating on whether this place is worth a visit or not. From the website, the place looked soooo nicely done up. The hotel rooms was super inviting. The themeparks was great.  BUT, this place received many NEGATIVE reviews, mostly on the rooms - cockcroaches, cracked furniture, stained towels & bedsheets, musty smell in the room, poor reception service or no service, tripped power, nosiy air con, etc....

I did not want to believe the comments.

I send an enquiry on one of their rooms promotion in mid Jan but received no reply. I send another thru their reservation email & again no reply. I was half hearted.

In the end, Daddy said we could have a look ard first & if okay, we would js book a room on the spot.

Bukit Merah Laketown Resort. Looks good; CNY atmosphere, warm reception; smiles & greetings..

We bought tickets for the Orang Utan (OU) Island; a very much talk abt place, a very much recommended place to visit. I was WRONG!!

Upon arrival on the island, we had to take a boat ride across, we saw only 4 miserables ones roaming abt. They were more keen on their keepers than on the visitors. We were then taken to the school, the nursery & the ICU - BUT with only a view from outside, which means there is the glass panel between us & the OUs.

NO OUs in the school; we saw only swings & branches, NO OUs in the nursery, where were the babies? People were talking abt seeing them wearing diapers ( on the internet reviews), NO OUs in the ICU; okay, that's gd news!

The whole god damn place did not even seem like an OU Conservation Island to me. Talked abt helping them to get accustomed when they are released back into the wild.

Daddy was irritated; a waste of time. We should have bought the combo tickets for the EcoPark & Waterpark instead.

This is the EcoPark. We saw many animals; rabbits, deers, pocupines, peacocks, hamsters, snakes, etc.. Its looks like a mini zoo. We even caught an animal show but with only parrots performing.

We took a chairlift across the waterpark & I caught some snapshots of it. Kinda small. The Lost World of Tambun in Ipoh would be much worth the visit compared to this.

All in all, I would not want to recommend this place. Luckily, we had no agenda & were free & easy on our time. We left the place at 4pm & head on to KL where the kids would be embarking on a new journey of their lifes - the working society :)

We reached KL & had a late dinner. Reason: The journey from Perak to KL was slow; traffic was heavy  & it was raining heavily. The stretch along Ipoh was filled with fog & all vehicles had to travel very slowly. We saw many traffic police road blocks along the way; we did not want to take any chance. But apparently, it seems they were there for show only.. :P  Oh whatever!

CNY 2013 - 3rd day

12 February 2013 (Tues):

We didnt know where to have breakfast. I remembered my friend told me she had hers along Gurney Drive & so we went over.

Not knowing which ones were good; we based the level of popularity on the crowd shown. This is located at the corner of Jalan Birch but I am not sure the name of the restaurant. Judging from the waiting crowd, the food must be good.

Lots of people ordered noodles but Daddy wanted to try the Bak Kut Teh instead. We ordered a set & another plate of fried bee hoon. And yes, we waited quite some time for our food to come. Boy! Were we hungry.

Our 1st POI for the day: Penang Butterfly Farm. RM27/adt & RM15/chd.

There were many variety of butterflies; colourful ones too. They were everywhere. We joined a guided tour & marvelled at the different types of species. The guide taught us how to spot the camouflage ones, how to peek at those mating (LOL), showed us the actual life cycle of a butterfly; from a caterpillar to a cocoon & then emerge as a butterfly. Lionel told me he learned abt this in class too. Its good to have the kids see the real thing as they learned along :)

One butterfly chose to land on Rachel's nose & stayed there. It got transferred from one child to another. We even got a chance to release butterflies. See below video.

The Escape Adventureplay was just next doors but as we were not in appropriate wear ( sports wear, socks & sports shoes required), we did not enter the grounds.

We passed by the factory outlet & did a little window shopping. Factory outlet but not factory prices...

Passed 2pm, we were again in for a late lunch. We had ours at Magic 1 Restaurant.

We purchased tickets for the Tropical Spice Gardens. While inside the garden, I was casually asking Daddy how is that with so many cars parked outside, it seems very quiet inside here. Daddy can only shrugged.

We ended up in this Tree Monkey cafe & ordered mango with sticky rice, banana splilt & Sunrise Paradise (drink). We enjoyed the atmosphere, the breeze, the view (facing the beach). But the weather is threatening to rain.

While waiting for Daddy to drive over the car; we parked quite a distance away from the Spice Garden, i can now answer my own question I post to Daddy earlier on. Yes, there were many cars but the people were all on the beach. Gosh! There were people on the sands, in the waters, up in the air (parasailing)...

We made our way to Butterworth on the mainland & it was raining heavily along the way. One of Daddy's clients' Dad own a restaurant here - Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat. This is also a heavily recommended place for dinner which opens from 6pm - 11pm only.

But alas, we did not know the restaurant was closed from the 09 Feb ~ 15 Feb so there goes our hope of trying the steamboat. Even the restaurant next to it, Tian Tian Lai was packed as well. The service staff told us due to the number of customers, we have to wait at least 1.5 hrs if we wanna have our food.

Okay, that was not what we expected. We drove on the road again & settled our dinner at the food court again. The same concept as yesterday's dinner place. Notice 2 little pigs? Cute, isnt it? I had to snap a pic of it quickly before they were pinched by two little monkeys. Not the real ones; I mean the 2 kids, Lionel & Rachel. Haha.

Daddy bought dessert @ Tang Bo Fu ( aka Tang Bo Hu). Tasty & cooling.

CNY 2013 - 2nd day

11 February 2013 (Mon):

We had breakfast & were on our way towards.....

Breakfast @ Akoko Noodle House, just beside our hotel. Since it was quite crowded & it was the only nearby eatery that was opened on the 2nd day of CNY, we assumed the noodles must be good. Verdict: Not too bad. :)

We were on the road again.

Penang Bridge. Yes, our destination for the day ~ Penang. The drive took us about 2 hrs.

Our hotel for the next 2 nights.

No particular recommedation, we chose to have our lunch at this restaurant. We wanted to have porridge but only Tze Char style food was available. We were fine with it.

Our 1st POI, the Clan Jetties along Pengkalan Weld. This is where our GPS comes in handy. There were many cars on the road & no parking lot was available. We managed to find one after going round once.

We visited the Chew Jetty ( 姓周桥) which was one of the recommended ones in the travel forums.

We walked along & the kids were fascinated by what they saw along the way. The souvenirs, T-shirts, the surrounding water; they peeked inside the houses, in between the wooden planks, zig-zagging here & there, wondering & guessing what's behind every turns & corners; we saw police posts, salons, shops selling favoured crush ice - oh so cooling on a hot, sunny day.

And because we bought a few street art T-shirts from an old couple, they very kindly allowed us into their house to look around. Penang is very well known for its various street art in & around Georgetown.

Their home reminded me of my kampong days in the old Paya Lebar settlement. Very similar style. :P

They even have newspaper cuttings on the various drawings, its whereabouts & the completion date. All very interesting.

We saw a lion dance performance at the temple inside Chew Jetty & even see fire crackers. Loud deafening sound, making me jump. See video below.

Yup, that's a fire engine u saw in the picture. No doubt abt that. :)

We went towards Khoo Kongsi, another forum recommended POI. Admission: RM10/adt & RM1/chd.

Yup, these are the street art I mentioned earlier. Haha, the kids tried their best to imitate the drawings.

We wanted to visit Dr. SYS's base but it was already closed. It was already after 5pm. So we walked along the streets & came to this Ben's Vintage Toy Museum. The owner was preparing to close too but he allowed us in. Please pay RM10/adt & RM6/chd.

We debated on whether to go up Penang Hill as it was already in the evening. A check with the children & they were not hungry, so we decided to make a trip up. Keying in the destiantion on the GPS, we soon came to the foot of the hill. Penang Hill or as the locals called it, Bukit Bendera.

The rates were a great difference between the tourist & locals. For a standard ticket, it costs RM30/adt for tourist but for only RM8/adt for the locals. As Rachel puts it,  "SO UNFAIR".

Even for a family package for 2A/2C, it costs RM70 for us.

The Owl Museum is another attraction on the top of Penang Hill.

We stupidly believed that the wood carvings tools & unfinished product were left behind by the staff. Daddy tried his dumbest to pick up the carving knife & this was when we realised they were all props; for show; not real. Duh...

It was a long queue for the tram ride downhill. We waited like almost 2 hours & therefore, we had a late dinner at the foot of the hill. Its a food court selling many varieties of food, from char kway teow, tim sum, satay, bak kut teh to noodles, tze char, ice kachang....

Lion Dance Performance @ Chew Jetty.

CNY 2013 - 1st Day

10 February 2013 (Sun):

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Happy New Year!!

This year, no one gave us a morning call. Unlike the past few years, my mil wld come knocking on our door at 8am. We slept till ard 9am & lazed ard before deciding to look for the rest of the family. After a phone call & a shower, we headed off to Serangoon to visit my cousin in law. We met up with the rest there. Then a visit to the temple in the rain... more visiting, more ang baos.... more visiting... Finally, we left Singapore onto the North South Highway, heading towards our much-looked-forward-to vacation up North. Time noted: 5pm.

With the "help" of this GPS Daddy bought the day before, we made our way towards Ipoh for the night. Actually, we didnt need the GPS; travelling on the highway was pretty straight forward. We set our destination for the fun of it. Haha.

Traffic was a breeze. We bought Mac on the go for dinner & arrived into Ipoh at 11pm plus with one toilet stop. Quite a fair bit of travelling but we arrived within 7 hours. How's that for a deal? :)

2013 CNY Eve Reunion Dinner

18 February 2013 (Mon):

Hey folks, sorry to keep you waiting. Just back 2 days ago & need some time to unpack & sort out the photos. Am gonna backdate our holiday happenings starting with the one below, dated 09 February 2013.


09 February 2013 (Sat):

Its CNY Eve. Went out at 230pm in the afternoon & did some really, really last min shopping. Daddy bought more bak kwa & abalone for Granny, settled some bills, purchased a new portable DVD player to keep the kids entertain on our ride up North the next day, bought a GPS system to guide us around our destinations & lastly, tried to buy 1 or 2 pieces of pants for Lionel as he has mostly bermudas but no pants.

This is Rachel, posing for my camera. Was wondering where she learnt all those pose from.. I certainly did not teach her any :)

Our reunion dinner ~ before & after.

Yum Seng ~ 3 cheers to a start of a Prosperous New Year.

Chinese Lanterns

06 February 2013 (Wed):

Last week, Lionel requested Daddy to help him do up some CNY decorations for his class & Daddy decided to make Chinese lanterns. He learned how to make the lanterns during his school days way back but unlike what we usually do, using ang baos & staple, Daddy's materials included cardboards, various sizes & designs of ang baos & even decorative flowers, beads & Chinese knottings.

Daddy needed the cardboards to give the ang baos (red packets) a hard feel so that the shape will stay in place. He cut out the cardboard according to the size of the ang bao & had the kids helped insert all cut cardboards into the ang baos.

Next, they stringed the decorative flowers & beads with a little help from me. Daddy cut another ang bao design into smaller rectangular shapes for us to roll them up as the side decoration for the lantern.

With glue, scissors, pencils, penknife, needles, ang baos & cardboards all over the table & floor, 2 Chinese lanterns were finally completed, ready for Lionel to take them to school the next morning. But Lionel says it is not enough & insisted to buy some other decorations as well. Oh well. :)

Rooster Parade?

31 January 2013 (Thurs):

While having breakfast this morning at the coffee shop...

Rachel: " Mummy, look, rooster parade. "
Me: (Rooster Parade?! Thinking that there was a parade of roosters, I turned towards the direction she was pointing & saw no such rooster she was mentioning.) " Where? "
Rachel: " There " (pointing again)

It was then i realised what she was talking about & nearly fell off the chair, laughing. Rachel was pointing to a signboard that reads ~ Jin Ma Che (H.K) Roasted Porridge & Noodle House. She read the words 'Roasted Porridge' as Rooster Parade!

I corrected her & have her repeat after me the correct pronounciation. :)