Hiking: Bukit Jambul Hill

This is definitely not the first time that I went for hiking at Bukit Jambul hill. But recently, I don't know why I am so excited feeling like to take some photos of each and everywhere in Penang. So... not to miss out Bukit Jambul hill too :)

Normally we will use the normal path to hike this hill, but today we used the alternative path to reach the peak. Well, I prefer to use this alternative path, going through the jungle instead of the normal staircase. At least feeling more adventurous.

The main entrance

This is the normal path with man-made staircases

Moreover, this alternative path is not as crowded as the normal one, can enjoy the comfortable rhythm from the birds and insect.

The alternative path through the jungle

Path with more adventure :)

Limited man-made staircases

The wild mushrooms after the rainfall

And also some photos after reaching the peak.. aih.. don't know what to write today... Keep it simple and short :)

Took a rest when reaching the peak. Still need to go down -_-

Penang Bridge view from the peak

My artistic photo of the day :)

Balik Pulau Durian Fest

27 June 2009: This is the 2nd time that I went to Balik Pulau orchard to enjoy the durian buffet, the unofficial dinner of the day.

Met the durian fans at Jln Tun Sardon's view point before we moved on to the orchard. Reached Balik Pulau Petronas and realized that none of us know still remember how to go to the orchard's owner's house. Hahaha.. waited for the orchard's owner to come out and lead us in..

durian trees around the orchard

Durians are on the way out to the folded table pre-located in front of the house. Everybody anticipated for the durian's taukeh to disclose the treasure of the King of fruits.

Taukeh in action... yiiiiaaahhh!

young taukeh also show his professionalism in opening durian

The faces of anticipation

The first type of durian species.. screwdriver (a.k.a chan leh).

The screwdriver - chan leh

Grabbed and ran.. enjoyed alone. wahaha..

Yummy yummy!

Also with the red prawn (a.k.a ang heh), which is the award winner somewhere back in Year 1989 in penang durian competition.

Ang heh on the move

slurrppp! song oh..

The little red (Xiao Hung) and also D600 were also served.

D600 with sweet and bitter taste

The Little Red durian

Too heaty? Don't forget about the rambutan and mangosteen too.

Red rambutan in the bucket

The yellow rambutan pluck direct from trees

The bundle of mangosteen

Tender flesh with sweet and sour aroma

7 person, each headcount for RM20, eat all you can. We only managed to eat around 12-14 fruits of durian if I am not mistaken. But frankly speaking, these type of mixed species durian, with small seed and more flesh, I don't think much people can take a lot. I was over-fulled and having headache right after finishing the durian meal :P

Look at the size. Are you feeling full now?

Honeymoon - Phuket 2009 Day 4

Last day in Phuket. Took a slow stroll at the hotel beach after the breakfast. Looked at the surfers playing stund with their surfing board. Was thinking of going for it also. But.. hmm.. next time lah. Didn't want to get myself wet and pack the wet clothes into the luggage for whole day. It's gonna be stinky later.

The beach view, clean and relaxing

Still wandering whether to go for surfing or not..

Looked at other surfers and can only syiok sendiri

After the "beach activities".. (haha.. just walked around), we got ready to check-out and go for the view points which we missed yesterday.

First visit was the Karon view point. Can see three bays from the view point which are Karon, Kata and Kata Noi beaches.

View from Karon View Point


Proof of visiting :P

After that we continued the journey to Laem Promthep that we missed out yesterday for sunset too. Well, although we can't see the sunset, but at least the scenery did not let us down. Just that the weather is a little bit too hot..

Saw some elephant ready for ride nearby

The long and winding road.. way to Laem Promthep
My favourite photo

View at Laem Promthep 1

View at Laem Promthep 2

View at Laem Promthep 3

Yuu huu...

Another evidence of "we were here"

After that went for lunch in a restaurant near Karon. 50% discount for all food and drinks. Ordered white Tom Yam and green curry. Oh gosh, all 3 days also eating Tom Yam. A bit phobia already. Then we went to Patong for a foot massage before leaving that area towards airport. The massage girl kept showing her colleagues on my feet, saying that my feet and nails are very tidy. Haha.. so embarassed. As if advertising my feet for me.

Extra spicy white tom yam and green curry

foot massage after few days walk

Got to the airport around 7pm. Took the dinner at airport restaurant. Forgot what is its name already. Look at what I ordered. I also didn't know why I ordered this.. chicken curry. Curry again. As if Phuket has no other food already.. tom yam, white tom yam, curry, green curry, kang kong and always kang kong. Haha..

The phobia look when the curry was served

Time to get back.. Let's go! Hi Malaysia, we are back!

Honeymoon - Phuket 2009 Day 3

Third day of honeymoon. We planned to visit at town areas, and some tourist spots around. But then we realized that we have not really walk around in the hotel areas yet. With the beach front location, how could we missed that, right? So, right after the buffet breakfast at hotel's restaurant, we walked around at the hotel and beach areas.

The veranda in front of the restaurant

The restaurant view

The hotel's beach view

Well, before it was getting too hot, we decided to continue our visit to the town area. The first place was the Big Buddha. On the way to Big Buddha temple, we grabbed the chance to take this "Only in Phuket" photo.. hehe.. the professionalism of the garbage collector.

Professional work. Don't try it at home!

Reached Big Buddha temple around 11am. The first thing to do, of course to go for prayers first. We bought a gold painted pendant each from the stall in front of the temple and sent for prayers. The Big Buddha is still in progress of construction, to cover the Buddha with Burmese white jade. Got to know a chinese uncle who works at the temple. "Ah Long" is the name. He said people around always called him "Long ge". Quite a friendly guy. Chatted with him for a while, then we went up to the 45m tall cement Big Buddha statue.

Peace!

The Big Buddha statue

Next visit was the Chalong Temple, or in Thai, it is known as Wat Chalong. As usual, the first thing to do in the temple is for sure to serve the prayers first. We donated some money and got some joss stick and lily for praying.

Folding the water lily

Folded version

Not sure why I like this picture very much. Just feel like very peaceful when looking at it.

Our initial plan was to go for elephant riding for jungle trekking after that. But after asking for the price, 1500 baht per person, fuuhh.. sorry lah. Some more it was raining at that time, not worth to pay for 3k baht and get ourselves wet. So, instead of going for the smelly ride, we decided to go for makan. Found a restaurant nearby that area, and we didn't know that it is a seaview restaurant from its front view. Very nice environment, food also not bad, but a bit too expensive. Tom Yam Kong, crab meat fried egg, vege and drink, guess how much? 900++ baht! But never mind, just treat as paying for its view.

After the lunch, we were planning to go to Laem Promthep for a sunset view. But since it was a cloudy day, so we canceled the plan and went to the shopping complex in Patong. Quite a big complex, known as Jungceylon. Enjoyed the facial spa in there. I fell asleep when doing the spa. And awaken by my own weird sleeping voice for several times. hehe.. pai seh nia.

Went to the Patong street at night to buy some souveniers and also tried the local food stall. The dried squid was so hard to chew. Threw it away after few bites.




Wanted to take the messy wirings for several times, but always missed out. This is not the most messy one, but I bet the wiremen will suffer a lot already.

Honeymoon - Phuket 2009 Day 2

Already booked two seats for island hopping at the local tourist information counter on the first day we reached. Charged for 1600 baht per person. Cheap? Expensive? We didn't really know. The original price offered was 1900 baht per person, and we bargained to have some discount.

Had the buffet breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, didn't take too heavy meal. Well, at least not too heavy for me :P Took the pre-arranged shuttle van to the pier, listened to the briefing done by the speed boat instructor, then got on to the boat. Quite a funny instructor. Bob is the name. He helped us on this picture, and I also took the chance to have a picture with him.

Speed boats waiting at the pier

On the way to Koh Phi Phi, taken by Bob

Bob, the dark macho instructor and me

First destination, was the Maya Bay. We reached there with drizzling rain, and it stopped after a while. Bob kept saying that Leonardo Dicaprio could be there for another shooting of "The Beach" and he is supposed to be under the tree. Hehe.. not sure if there were anyone really went under the tree.

The Maya Bay and its greenish sea

dear helping other tourists to take picture

Then we went for few island seeing trips on the boat. Passed by the Viking Cave, which there is a thriving bird nest soup industry. As we can't stop by, so nothing much special also. Yuu huuu!!! Time for snorkeling! This is the first time of my lifetime to go for snorkeling, so a bit 'zakun'. Haha. Anyway, with the leaking goggles, the sea water kept on washing into our eyes, we had no choice but to come up and flew the water away after some times. I didn't really see any nice corals down the sea anyway. Only few fishes swam by.

The speed boat on island sight seeing

Nice view at Pileh Cove

The viking cave with bird nest

Equipped with snorkeling necessity and ready to jump

dear floating with the help of safety vest

Next destination was the Monkey beach. Hmm, I thought I was the 'zakun', but.. haha.. more 'zakun' were so excited with looking at the monkeys. And I was expecting to see a lot of monkeys, that's why it called itself as Monkey beach right? But then only can see few monkeys around. I was wondering, what is so special about Monkey? How come it seems like every places also famous with Monkey visiting programs. Hehe.. took a picture of the monkey which was seating on top of the speed boat in nobody-business mode, eating the banana given to it.

The 'selamba' monkey sitting on the boat

After the monkey session, we headed for lunch in Koh Phi Phi Don. The buffet is serving cheap food like our local economy rice. Went to the beach for a slow stroll after the break. Slow stroll at 1pm under the sun? We must be crazy.. haha.

relaxing at the beach after lunch

Another snorkeling session at Khai island after the lunch. This was at the beach, with given own free time to stay there for about 1.5 hours. Hmm, only the same kind of fish can be seen. Not much special things to see. But the water is clear and the scenery is quite nice. 15 minutes before the departure, met with heavy rain. All people rushed to the shelter and waited for rain to stop and started to go back to phuket town.

Fish feeding at Khai Island

The blue-green-white combination of sea water looked so peaceful

Heavy rain before departure

Almost arrived at Phuket's pier already

Took a rest in the hotel and then went for dinner. The restaurant was empty without any other customers. As if we've reserved the whole restaurant for our dinner. Keke. Tried the pineapple fried rice, green curry, and kangkong. Hmm? Kangkong again? haha. Don't know what else to eat ma..



Went for the Ah Qua show after the dinner, known as Simon's Cabaret. 500 baht per person at VIP seats. Interesting show with the she-man dance. You can't even believe that some of them were men. Even more pretty than a woman. Really, no kidding. But also with some very 'wat tat' look and still thought they are very pretty lah :P

Can you believe that these girls are male? These female are men! Phewwiiit!

That ended the day 2 program :)

Honeymoon - Phuket 2009 Day 1

12 May 09. Honeymoon, for sure need to find peaceful and relaxing places to go. So those city life places like Hong Kong, Bangkok are definitely out of the choice.

Taiwan? Nice. But too bad, AirAsia hasn't start on that when I pre-booked the tickets. Australia, China will be too expensive at this time. So? Near near enough already lah.. Phuket is the choice.

Not much places to go in Phuket. But the hotel that we booked is kind of nice. With the beachfront rooms, luxurious room, sunset view.. We were staying in Kata Beach Resort & Spa. Expensive hotel. But we were travelling on the low season, so the price was still within our budget.

First arrived in Phuket at 1pm local time, we were approached by a man from car rental company. We got the offer to rent a Vios at 3000 baht, for 4 days 3 nights, and the last day can extend to 6pm for us. Our original plan was to rent a car on the first and last day only as we were planning for islands trip on day 2. And we were expecting about 1500 baht for each day (info from internet). Since it is within our budget and we can have the car for additional days, so we accepted the offer.

The rented Vios with number 2536

First itenary in Phuket: go shopping? go to beach? go to hotel? Nah... of course filling up to stomach first. And what can't be missed in Thailand? Nothing else but Tom Yam. So we just stopped by at one of the restaurant when travelling to the hotel. Somewhere near to Patong. This should be the cheapest food throughout the whole trip in Phuket..

KABKLOAY Restaurant near Patong

Restaurant menu with typo error. Even the restaurant name? Haha..

Restaurant look

Tom Yam, fried squid and thai salad

Got to the hotel around 4pm and snapped some photos of the room. Hmm, as what it is advertised! keke..

Elephants statue at the main entrance

Nice and comfortable King Sized Bed

Glass windows with pool view

Classy washroom

Store room and mini bar near entrance

Sunset view from the room's balcony

Hotel view from the room's balcony

Taken a rest in the hotel and went for seafood dinner in Patong. Kind of expensive. Costs us 900 baht for a plate of 6 big prawns, snapper, and kangkong. I think Malaysia is cheaper than that. Walked around in Patong after the dinner, familiarized with the road and parking rules for the first day. Got to know that drivers cannot park the car at the roadside until 9pm. After 9pm only open for public..

Fresh from the sea seafood

dear squeezing the lemon juice on to the grilled snapper

Expensive food, don't waste. Sapu kilat kilat. Left with beans, garlic, bones and shells only.

Night street view

Free and Easy Outdoor Shootings

Finally got to contact the photographer. Well, missed the ceremony session, at least the outdoor session can still continue. Let's go!

The Wedding Day

10 May 2009: Guess what was the best time of the day to have the wedding ceremony done? It has to be before 7am in the morning! Hahaha.. No time for us to sleep in fact. I was required to leave home around 5am to pick the bride at the rented house. Having said that, I was needed to wake up at around 4am to get myself ready.

My Bride was more pitiful, 3am already started her make-up session to get ready at 5am for me to pick her up.

Mum cooked the mee suah with red eggs for me before I started to leave home. Well, not sure what was that for but mum said it's a compulsory thing to eat. Forgot to take photo for this..

Received call from dear telling me that the photographer still not yet arrived her place. Tried 11 calls but failed to get him. Well, at the odd hours, I can't blame anyone. So, with the help of the semi-pro and quarter-pro photographers, at least we managed to preserve some images.

Started to leave home at 5.20am and faced the challenges :)

Yeah, successfully fetch the bride back.. see? the sun had not even wake up yet.. Haha..

Wedding Dinner at BP

9th May 09, another public holiday - Wesak Day: The Wedding Dinner in Batu Pahat.

A lot of peoples were confused on the dinner's date as we made the dinner a day before the actual day. Most of the couples do it on the same day or day after. But most of our guests were actually from outstation, so in order to spare more times for them for travelling, we planned it in another way round. Well, some asked, then why not on 9th? Simply because 10th is the selected best date instead of 9th. If we were to make the dinner on 10th (Sunday), I bet bunch of people might not be able to attend anymore.

Right after the bridal car setup, I had another 1 hour to get myself prepared and to arrive at the restaurant. Well, back to the story of the wedding slideshow.. this time we managed to get on a trial first on the day before the dinner. Yup, no problem :)

The first thought was that, hmm.. this dinner should be well in controlled. Slideshow pre-played, table arrangement all done earlier, bothers and sisters troop been pre-assigned.. who knows, when the uncles aunties came in and started to change their seats here and there, all the pre-arrangement was messed up again. Haha.. so whatever lah.. situation is not under controlled. Keke.. Bottom line, just sit down and eat :)

Bridal shots

Opps, forgot about the bridal photo taken in Aspial Penang. Well, I will not post all, but only the favourites of mine..

The Making of.. Bridal Cars

Only managed to take some photos during the making of 2nd bridal car, using my own car. Hmm, penang's tradition is to use 2 cars during the wedding day. I think so it is because of during the ancient times, they were using 2 sedan chairs to go to pick up the bride. And so, the culture remains..

Although my wedding was not in penang, but.. whatever lah. Just get it ready at all time :)

Since the main car has not arrived yet, so I started with the second car first..

Tadanggg! Completion..

And the main car arrived 3 hours before the we need to go to the restaurant to standby. Took about 1 hour to setup this car and then rushed home to do the preparation.

The Making of.. Bridal Room

Backdated update.. happened on 8th May 2009.

This is the making of the bridal room. Well, a very small room, which has already been the "unofficial" bridal room of my house. My elder bro and sis were using the same room too. hehe. Anyway, just a traditional kind of things to have a so-called bridal room during the wedding day.

Mum was in the midst of putting on the new bedsheet that we bought.

No one was helping, so I stepped in. Oh! awful clothes at home..

The complete bed setup. Nice?

The bed-jumping ceremony. My 3 nephews playing on the bed, jumping, rolling..

Mum and sis are hoping for a triplet from us.. adui! how to breed?

toink toink toink.. start jumping!

rolling rolling rolling..

Setting up the make up table

A wedding gift from a best friend of mine

and free gifts from the bridal house and Wah Chan

Traditionally designed stickers all over the room

And the wardrobe

Wedding dinner at KL

1st May 2009 Labour day, and also the day for our KL wedding dinner.

It was an extremely rushing day. Firstly on the wedding slide show, which I was trying to burn it into the cd and dvd so that it can be played during the wedding dinner. I've wasted at least 10 cds + dvds just for the sake of making it workable with the dvd player. Tried on different PCs and laptop again and again too, the file is readable and playable, but not in dvd player. So, still ended up without any success eventually. Brought the laptop to the restaurant with the hope that their PA system can support the presentation, but still.. disappointment happened. The whole dinner only played the bridal house's dvd. Well, better than nothing..

Secondly, my parents and brother were travelling all the way from Batu Pahat to KL to attend this dinner. Their bus supposed to reach at 3pm++, but it happened to meet 2 times of delay and they reached at 5pm ++. First delay was the tyre puncture when the bus travelled not far away from the station. It took about 1 hour to resume travelling and then some where near to Malacca, the bus was broke down with engine temperature too high. Adui, I mean, what kind of bus service is this? Some more recently government wanted to increase the local public transport fare to 30%? Ridiculous! Anyway, as long as they are going to have safe journey, I would have thank to God already..

I was supposed to reach the restaurant earlier at 6 something, so ended up with all these delays and was late. The guests were earlier than groom and bride, the tables have not being arranged properly.

Anyway, the dinner still happened to run smoothly until the end, with lots of photos and happy memories recorded.