Penang, Back Again.

It has been a while since I last went back to the Pearl of the Orient's land. Spent two days during Iduladha visiting MN's granny and touring the island.

Harvest In Cafe is a nice little diner snuggled at the corner between Irrawaddy Road and Chow Thye Road where I had a lovely birthday luncheon with hubby. I have always love the eateries around the island especially those old government-quarters-turn-cafes. They are all neatly tucked in around the bend, surprising you with a warm and inviting psychedelic look. Now this one gem, has a pretty impressive western line-up that comes with reasonable prices. Main meals start from RM7.90 onwards for lunch, with delicious mushroom soup and ginger bread for RM4.90. 

I had a tasty peach tea with my stir fried spaghetti which was a nice combo for a sunny afternoon. The interior is a crispy white with high ceilings and nicely decorated wall. The only downturn is that there's not much of variety but I leave them with a benefit of a doubt. They are pretty new anyway. The manager is such a sweetheart, checking up on us every 10 minutes or so. It was a hols so we made ourselves cosy outside, away from the (pretty noisy) crowd, enjoying the day. Definitely gonna go back here the next time around, cause a good western treat is kinda hard to come by in Penang.

I have always love Batu Feringghi and life is incomplete without a tour along the night street market. Got a real deal from a few newly opened stalls. MN bought me two beautiful pairs of leather slippers from Jaipur. Pretty good steal considering its real leather. Had a quick dinner at the Long Beach cafe down the road before Golden Sands Resort. Always full of tourists, this place is frikkin' hot and locals often being mistaken as tourists. And what do ya know, I stumbled into two tattoed dude whom I thought were backpackers. As it turned out, Chris and his friend hails from England and have been making Malaysia as their second home by opening up a kebab stall for seven years now. Definitely gonna pop down again for their scrumptious kebab and chips.

One of my favorite thing to do while in Penang is of course, hunting down for vintage findings. This time, got myself two pairs of digital Casio watches that didn't burn any hole in my pocket plus a green, handmade canvas bag at an old shop down the Campbell Street. These two businesses belong to daddy-in-law's old friends so you can say that I got even better deal being around the locals.

I've cut my hair pixie-short after four good years of keeping it shoulder-length. Give me a good, happy vibe everytime.

before the next entry comes.

How long have i not been writing in, again?

Well, life is just too wonderful right now that i spent most of my time savouring it. I dont wanna let any moment slip away not even for a nano second.

My surprise holiday in Penang was absolutely great. MN had been so sweet to plan it purposely to celebrate my new job. The beach, the night flea market, watching sunset at the Tiki Bar, oh just about everything is so nice. I want to write a lot about this place but maybe later.

I've been hopping around from place to place to hunt for food too. I enjoyed beaches a lot nowadays. Thanks to Salmi and Muzzo for inviting me to Bagan Lalang. They had a nice seafood there but i still think Kuala Selangor tops it. The beach is decent, pretty laid back for a quiet stroll. Definitely worth an hour's drive.

*pause*

You see, i have a lot to write about. Places, people i meet, occasions, events, food, clothes or just...ya know...merely crappy rants...but..

...i just sort of lost the urge to write. Writer's block, perhaps?

It is widely thought that writer's block is part of a natural ebb and flow in the creative process, so the Wiki said, and that it could be a chronic problem. But then again, i'm just writing a blog.

A blog that doesnt mean a thing, only exists to update friends on whats going on in my atmosphere. And yea, updates nowadays could cost me a lot of things, i so happen to notice! The next thing i know, people would come to me and say 'so is she and she and she, your best friend now?' Its a weird feeling, when people assumed things outta my blog. Dang, i shouldnt have namedropping from the beginning! Tsk tsk, shame on me.

I told myself that 'Ah, perhaps its because you're no longer sad (that you dont need to pour your sadness on your blog) and that you are no longer single (places to go, parents to visit, movies to watch, friends to meet, work to do etc).' But a blog i stumbled upon on the web made me think otherwise. A mother of two from the state, still blogs whilst taking care of her babies and husband and housechores and boutique and two cute cats. Now i cant see the reason why i couldnt blog.

Perhaps, all of i've been doing (and maybe the rest of you too) was just making excuses to myself :)








this photo of tugu drum circle is a credit of han ghazi

I have quite a handful of things to do before Ramadhan comes (another excuse?) so i better get it all done first before writing my next entry!

ipoh lai la!

My original theory of road trip was to do an economical outing somewhere on weekends to shoot and hunt for food. Eka came up with the idea of going for a photography trip and El suggested ‘Ipoh!’. I jumped up and down waiting for the big Sunday to come.

We planned it two weeks back.
First, it got cancelled.
Secondly, four people out of six bailed out due to work.

Nonetheless, my (now) faithful traveling companion agreed (if not pushed after got pinched miserably) to go ahead with the ipoh trip. We struggled to get out of bed and hit the road mid afternoon. We were terribly late but was too excited to worry about anything. Grabbed some burgers, we had lunch in the car to save time and with magic ball in hand, our concern on getting lost in ipoh suddenly became less. Hehe. The drive was pretty smooth without any traffic so I guess we were fortunate enough this time. We arrived in two hours time without much hassle.

Upon arrival, I nearly shoot myself in the head as I totally forgot about one thing: twas election month! Now now the colorful town of Ipoh was mottled with ugly BN and rocket banners and flags and signages.
I didn’t find it as a good opportunity for photography documentation, however. I don’t like politics, so. Anyhoo, we managed to find our way around for some good photography spots. For two really clueless road tripper with zero navigation, we did pretty well.


sometimes i can be utterly clueless. you know why?

Ipoh is pretty much a quiet town on Sunday with less traffic and people. Its not a popular tourist spot but for those who wanna go for a short trip, even tough I found this place a tad bit boring, I would certainly recommend Ipoh. My second time here, my early memories of this place is the beautiful colorful temples, greeny hills and the edgy looking hospital. I love the main street leading up to places. Could be confusing for a first timer but its totally hypnotic too! There is not much of high rise building around but there’s lots of terrace shoplots with beautiful colors and wooden doors which reminds me of Muar. Finding a place to park would be a breeze if not for MN kept on terbabas for one. We strolled around the street (me in my short and gold flat looking like a tourist bitch) and discovered that most of the shops here looked as if they have not been opened for a few hundred years. Very deadly!

The first big hint was to find interesting places as railways or temples and ipoh has a few great ones. First stop was the DR Senivasagam park but we didn’t last long as the mosquitoes attacked us like a plague. We headed to the Ipoh Railway Station and I found the architectural very cool! A combination of super gothic and Moorish design with a few extra modern superfluities attached to it. The compound compromises of the famous Ipoh tree, very welcoming. Opposite the railway building is a neocolonial style building of the City Hall. It’s a bad-ass white and I totally love it! Of course we managed to get a few snaps but twas only unlucky for us that by the time our lenses started to get the groove, it drizzled and the sky brewed us some heavy downpour.





(more pictures can be found in my flickr)

Ipoh is certainly on the tip of everyone’s tongue when food is the subject concern. We decided to have a quick dinner afterwards. Eateries are just everywhere so you can just picked. But then again, make sure you picked well. Right, my bad that I chose to eat a local malay food stall (because of the lovely chairs?) when I surely know I should find that famous Hor Fun, char kuey tiao and coffee! Warg. Okay lets not write more on that. Ze food is totally out out out!

I would like to go back to Ipoh again someday. I surely wanna stroll down the street yet again for more heritage buildings, the lost world of tambun for the climbing, and churches and temples! MN kept on saying ‘you’re wearing this so we cant really go in the temples’ so I think he was pretty mad about me wearing my spandex short.

Here’s a few things I’ve learnt so far:

Ib's happy tips:

Tip no 1- if you are bad with navigation like *cough* me, don’t be shy to stop at the local gas station to ask for directions.
Tip no 2- one of the best way to find great makan spot is to ask the locals. They sure know better. You can stop by at any local convenient store and ask the people at the counter. Be friendly and they will surely spill you the beans. One of the friendly girl I met told me to go to a place called Boloh where they serve great laksa but we didn’t manage to find it.
Tip no 3- I didn’t tell MN this when he suggested to head up to the museum but I do not know why I don’t fancy ‘em. Here’s what I thought: its better to be out there looking at the real world, chatting up with local folks and listen closely to what the surroundings wants to tell you than to get your education learnt inside a stuffy building. I can google up history and learn Socrates anytime. Okay, maybe I am not THAT intelligently educated so mind me, ya?
Tip no 4- you cant afford to fret your whole journey should there be any major or minor obstacles or else you wont have fun at all. So stay positive! You’ll miss the chance to discover things that might surprise you if you keep on frowning!
Tip no 5- bring along your sketches to doodle, some playing cards or chalks so you wont get bored. Chalks is MN’s fav thing; he wanted to conteng road with it. My fav is of course, my playing cards.
Tip no 6- I hate to say this but its true; always plan ahead and plan well. Unless you’re a crazy stinky mad road tripper like me who just don’t care much about anything.
Tip no 7- don’t go out traveling on an election month.

I’m moving on to either Muar or Penang for my next road trip. FOOOOD! I cant wait! Woooh!

For my travelogue project, I foresee myself not having a home. Well, I don’t have one for the past few years so its not bothering me to not have one right now. A great number of people, including the police who nearly gave me a ticket, had been pointing their fingers to my car in horror and yell a big OMG. Those who knows me personally, knows that I’ve been practically living inside my car. I am totally comfy with the idea that my teddy and luggage bag are my number one companion.

I have a few more little projects in hand to keep myself busy, so I need all the time in the world to get everything done. Travel, as I had mentioned earlier, is my biggest thing for 2008. Finding money comes second and I hope the small little jobs I got each month can help to fund my traveling trips. Helping MN with his photography work, my design jobs, website and what not are up on the list as well.

Travel, so far, has been incidental to lots of creative ideas that came on rolling like a snowball. I guess, fate has forced me out the door to see the world in a bigger perspective. Its easier to find your way out of a strange land then out of your own mind. No, I did not google this quote. Its my own. <--shit this could be a quote too. Hah.

Thursday, a few days back in KL and already I’m driving myself nuts with everyone here plus work. Gah! I realized that Malays love drama a lot, ey? I don’t know. I have a lot of other things to settle than to entertain any stupid messages. The last one came two days ago telling me some shyte to not disturb her life and that I could have his ex back.

I’m sorry but do I look like I give a crap?
God bless you people.

I just want to keep out of fights that is not mine. Not worth my time dealing with it.

Its nearing 2pm and I need to send my ride for service. I seriously need to change the cellophane that secured my side mirror from dangling. It made some happy little noise of late, ticking an indication that its gonna fall off soon. I don’t want to change it. It makes my ride looks so bad-ass and I *giggle* love when people question me about it.

‘Yo! Whats with the black cellophane tape on your side mirror?’

ha ha.

fled.

I have a lot of free time in hand yesterday so I began to contemplate on how to spend it wisely. There happened to be a few tempting choices which were:

a-    do some self-promo design

b-    start working on my photography portfolio

c-    start working on the website project I’ve been holding on for so long

d-    edit photos

e-    design header for my blog

and then I paused and noticed that the list was all about: WORK.

So I said ‘f work. Im going out shopping today.’ I needed some retail theraphy anyway as I had just lost a pitch earlier in the morning.

As I was trying to decide on where to head to, I stumbled upon a few really cool high waisted pinafore dresses online. Have any of you go online shopping? Okay, perhaps all of you is much more advance with this but me being the not-so-updated so-called geek was totally smitten by all those pretty vintage dresses I saw online. These girls with attitude who’ve been setting up what they called ‘blog shop’, whoever they are, is loved by me. Printed T-Shirts and tops, cool structured jackets (I found one cool army green cropped jacket but they were sold already), skirts, mini jumpsuits, oh I can go all night long on this. They just drive me crazy.

However, due to my paranoia, I do not dare to buy things online. If I want to shop for clothes, I have to see it, feel the fabric, look at the price tags, ponder ponder ponder and stare at it for a few hours before buying. I don’t fancy reading a description online and click ‘buy’. Maybe I’m just traditional in some ways :P

Right as the clock hit six; I headed down to Mont Kiara to check out the flea market I’ve been meaning to browse. They are held every Thursday, not too sure about the time though but I know it closes at 10pm. Located by the fountain area, Mont Kiara flea market is somewhat different as to compare to the famous ones at The Curve and Amcorp Mall. They cater more to the high standard of Mont Kiara’s elites. I suppose the people who frequent this place are the residents of this area. You don’t see much of weird things here too, there are some but not as many as The Curve’s. Wares ranging from foods and snacks to jewellery, shoes, clothing of course and other cute little knick knacks that is just splendid to look and splurge at.

The reason why I love this place is because of the first impression I got when I first came here a while ago: nonchalant. It has the laidback feeling that I really love. It’s clean and tidy. There is abundant walking room for me to roam about freely, not as packed as the one at The Curve where you have to stand on your toes to look at things and rub shoulders (and ass and boobs) with smelly strangers. Best of all, I have plenty of space at each stall to maneuver through; which is IMPORTANT. No point of browsing if you cant see anything.

My first visit a few weeks back got me a beautiful, relax dress, which I wore for my Sunday walk at the lake with Naufal. This time around, I brought home with me another cute irresistible dress (RM40) that matches my worn-out sandal, a vintage off-shoulder top (RM25), a blue sexy see through top (RM10) and 5 pairs of earring all under rm100, talking about budget buying.

There will be times when you will go to the flea market to hunt for clothes and shoes but end up going home empty-handed. I suppose it has to do with luck as well. You REALLY have to open your eyes (and good buying senses) to find the gem.

The only downside of this place is perhaps the inaccessible parking and mad traffic. One may go bonkers to go through the hassle over a heavy traffic flow in front of the plaza that is caused by the new road system and highways nearby. Frikkin’ complicated. And as many people already know, the parking charge here is nuts. Luckily though, I arrived a bit late so I just parked inside the plaza itself as the fee is just RM1 after 6pm, so I don’t have to rummage my Viva in between Lexus and Murano by the road.

A dress, two tops and bling-blings, i am perfectly happy!