Port Dickson Trip (12.12.09 – 13.12.09)

after a long thought on where to go to celebrate GF’s new job (or more like finding an excuse to go out), we had settled for Port Dickson since it’s near and cheap.

plus, this time will be a little bit different as:

1. My sister and son will be tagging along

2. we will be cooking there

 

after my sister’s recommendation, we chose to rent an apartment in Corus Paradise Resort.

from the website given, it seems grand. but of course, photos can be deceiving, right? this is the apartment that we rented:

  looks quite old don’t you think? for me, it’s good enough! more photos of the interior below.

we thought that there will be less people since there’s no public holidays and all that. but boy, how wrong were we. we forgot that it is scholl holiday AND Selangor Sultan’s birthday the day before. so, it is considered a looooong holiday.

 

  see all the parked cars? when we arrived at 3 something, we had to park in the middle. if you look carefully at the upper right of this photo, you can see that the cars are parked at the side of the main road (both sides, fyi)

and oh, it was so packed with people that day, that our apartment was not cleaned at that time. and we had to wait for almost an hour to get it cleaned. by that time, it was almost 5pm. phew~~~

this is the interior of the room once it is cleaned:

the facilities provided are very much complete. stove, kettle, fridge, mini bar, utensils, cups and even down to detergent are all provided. i did not see any pots and pans though.

but that is not a problem since we brought our own as we had cooked the soup base for our steamboat later that night.

and oh, it’s best to bring your own utensils too, in case there are a lot of people as utensils given are for 4 or 5 people.

Below are the rest of the photos…

  Astro is provided for some of the units. but then again, who needs astro when you are on a trip. oh wait!!! i do need as tro coz there’s BPL Match at night!!! arghhh~~~

 

  this is the view from the balcony. nice huh? i loved it! and it’s quite windy too.

 

  the unit that we rented comes with 1 bedroom (2 beds – 1 single and 1 queen sized bed). and also an attached bathroom with hot shower. bathroom is big. at least it’s bigger than the one in my house. haha!

 

  and yes, you will also get a nice view of the the balcony and of course the sea view once you open the window.

what next? it’s time to hit the water of course!!!

 

  for those who are too lazy to walk to the beach there is a swimming pool facility there. but there’s a lot of people there and the seats and tables are inadequate.

who needs to swim in the swimming pool when the beach is just a few hundred metres away? plus, the annoying kid keep bugging us to go to the beach. haha!

 

  back view of the apartment

 

  contrary to what others think, the beach in PD is quite clean (i would give 8/10) and the sands are not coarse either (forgot to take photo of it). but maybe it was sort of a personal beach, that must explain the cleanliness of it.

 

Does a trip to the breach has any meaning without eating the old-skool cheap ice cream?

  taking a photo of the ice cream man posing coz my sister and i have nothing better to do. haha!

just remember to to throw the rubbish into the rubbish bin (but there isn’t any) or give it to the ice cream man like we did. he is more than willing to do it. do not litter!

‘ran away’ from the beach by 6.30pm as the sun was damn hot at that time. plus, we were hungry at that time. so, it’s back to the kitchen, women!!!

 

sunset from the balcony

 

  the women cooking. actually it's more like washing the ingredients for steamboat as the soup base has been prepared earlier back in KL.

 

  voila!!! the end result. yummy!

 

   passed out after a hearty dinner.

woke up a bit early the next morning to take a stroll near our apartment. took a few photos too. enjoy~~~

 

for those who are unable to wake up early, fret not. coz you will be awakened by the company team building thingy. huargh~~~

   

left at noon to avoid the jam that day. remember to stop buy Seremban to buy Seremban siew pow ya~~~

what next...

yes... we had received the new house keys. so many things to consider.

where to renovate, where not to renovate.

type of plaster ceiling.

how many light points.

how many electric points.

what is the price, who to seek, where to find contractor, the list goes on...

of course, if i opt to rent it out 1st, i will not have much headache (for the time being). but still, i will have to put on the lighting point and all that.

it all goes to one main reason - money.

it seems that 30 years of debt is not the only thing that gives us headache after all. haha...

Trip to the dentist (Part 2)

isn't that bad actually. but it is still a scary affair for me.

purposely took leave for D-day. and got two of my teeth filled in half an hours time. not sure of the real reason though - it's either the dentist is very skillful or she is rushing for her next patient (she has a patient every half an hour).

getting the suction pipe unattended in my mouth a a few minutes, some metal thingy clamping my tooth, the cold and numb feeling... just scare the hell out of me.

no amount her breast shoving into my head will alleviate my fear. i only hope it end soon.

and the damage? RM120++.

ouch!!! i better go and claim from my company tomorrow!

Ipoh – Penang – Ipoh trip (10.10.09 – 12.10.09) Part 3

this will be the final part of my trip to Penang. couldn’t believed that it took me almost a month to post this crap…

as usual, the final part would be the most boring part as there will be less pictures coz at the end of the trip, we were already exhausted. not to mentioned there were quite a number of disappointments too. read on…

by the time you read part 3, you would have noticed we had missed out two important food that i should’ve tried.

yes, i had missed out Hokkien mee (or prawn mee) and Loh Bak.

not that i missed it intentionally, but due to lots of reasons (ie, not knowing which is the best place, closed shop, too full, etc etc), we did not have the chance to had the best Hokkien ,mee/Loh Bak.

but we did tried the lousiest Hokien mee in Gurney though… haha!

something that is not related to the food here…

do you know what’s this?

for the uninitiated, there used to be electric tram services in the island. but i guess it has been discontinued long ago.

left for Ipoh after having our breakfast after that. and so, it’s time to say good bye…

to Komtar. although i don’t really missed it

to the iconic Penang Bridge…

i loved this photo the most. cropped some of the ugly sides and made in Black & White.

there are to missions to be done once we are in Ipoh.

the 1st one – to have dinner at our favourite Chicken Rice shop, Lou Wong.

we failed miserably…

we never failed at going the shop whenever we were at Ipoh. but that day, we were lost!!! i couldn’t believed that we had been going round and round for almost and hour.

only to find the shop was closed on that day…

ended eating at the shop beside it. tasted ok, but not as smooth and portion a bit small. really felt disappointed.

and oh, i should’ve posted this on the 1st part. do you know how do i get the directions places of good food in Penang although we’ve never drive there before?

two things : Google Map & PSP.

by incorporating these two, i’ve managed to created an Al-Cheapo version of PSP. or more like a map. and the result? voila!!!

it served us quite well except where there’s a few occasion where the map were not updated. causing a great trouble for us and making us go round and round…

i guess it’s time to get a REAL GPS then. haha!

ok. back to the 2nd mission in Ipoh – Go to Kellie’s Castle.

which we failed miserably too…

he time wasted earlier had sapped most of our energy. so we decided to give it a miss.

BUT, we will definitely go there again next time!!! mark my words.

and off to home we go. but not without posting this:

yes… it rained for 3 consecutive days. have to drive real slow…

~fin~

The "Perfect" Neighbour!

In this blog, i would like to introduce you a "good" neighbour of mine. A very "good" neighbour... This incident actually happened on the eve of Deepavali.

This lady stay at the 2nd house left side from my house.. When i was on my way driving back from my BF house, my sis called & inform me that the lady actually parked right in front on my house entrance. The reason was that my brother has parked his car at my left side's neighbour's house (mind you tat he did not take any of the space that belong to the lady's house).

When i reached home i was so pissed off because i noticed at the opposite of our house, there were so many empty places and she chose my house entrance to park her car?!!

I parked my car at the opposite road and went to the lady's house to ask her to remove her car. This is when i got o pissed off... she not just did not apologize & remove her car immediately. Instead, she ask me to remove my brother's car which did not parked at her place!! Haha.. FUNNY!!! Then again i asked her to remove her car which is parked at my house ENTRANCE, and explained to her that my brother did not block her house entrance nor use any spaces belong to her house. this time she gave me a very funny answer. She said " Y do i have to take the trouble to park properly in front of my house?.." Haha!! meaning if there is a car near the spot that she needs to park, she is not able to park?? No parking skill!! Wahaha!! No wonder!!

this is the best part: She asked me 1 question," How many times did i parked at your entrance?"

i was like, "WAT?!!" What question is that? she din even feel that it's wrong to block other people's entrance! Walau eh!! iI had to waste my salive to keep telling her it is nothing to do with how many times did she park at in front of my house entrance, it's that it's blocking other people's entrance and it's immoral! oh.. 1 more thing, she is an Indian lady which is well educated!. And i get this type of question coming out from her mouth?? Suddenly i doubt that she has a brain!! wahaha.. and mind you,, this is not the first time she park right in front of my house.

Then i had to repeat n repeat to ask her to remove her car but she pulak keep repeating that stupid question.. haha...

I told her that my brother will not remove his car because he did not park at her "territory".. so after 5 minutes of talking crap with her.. Finaly her mom could not take it and asked her to remove.... At least the mom knows this simple "neighbourhood" rules... In a nutshell, neighbours can be cranky depending on your luck! wahaha!!

Below will be a pic that i took where she parked her car right in front of my house..

Ipoh – Penang – Ipoh trip (10.10.09 – 12.10.09) Part 2

after procrastinating for quite some time, i think it’s time for me to continue with the 2nd part of the trip. haha!

morning view from my budget hotel

feeling hungry in the morning, we proceed to eat char koay teow for breakfast.

again, it’s down to making decisions again. it’s either the one in Lorong Selamat or the one in Jalan Macalister.

in the end we chose the famous sister’s char koay teow in Jalan Macalister.

the reason? because we heard that the one in Lorong Selamat is arrogant. food won’t taste good if the service is lousy.

i will try that one next time i’m in Penang again though.

anyway, after going round and round the place, we found the place. and for what?

this:

the whitish thingy on top of it are crab meat. Penangites love to put it on top of CKT. i think it’s just a lame excuse for them to charge us more. haha!

GF having the first mouth of the legendary CKT.

and how does it fair?

i would say that if you have got used to KL’s CKT, you will find it a bit bland. but it still taste good to me, with right amount of spiciness.

and oh, it is less oily too~~~ unlike the ones in KL.

so, if you are intrested, please remember to look at this banner. with such a big banner, it will be hard to miss. haha!

of course with such a measly sized CKT, how can we feel full at all?

next stop, Curry Mee at Lorong 100 Tahun.

but wait!!! before that, we have to stop over at Ghee Hiang. i’m not really a big fan of it. but since GF wanted to buy it for family and friends, i just tag along and take some pictures. just in case anyone here is interested.

for something that has been selling biscuits (and sauces) since 1856 AND still survived, it should be good, right? haha!

ok, back to curry mee in Lorong 100 Tahun. we wasted no time in getting back on the track.

this guy makes great Curry Mee but not very good at taking orders…

this bowl of treasure makes me salivate…

with generous amount of prawns, cuttlefish, tofupok and cockles, i know this is one hell of a curry mee. i decided to omit pig blood on that day coz i don’t feel like eating it on that day though.

and do you know the biggest difference between the ones here and in other places (other than the taste and price)?

this…

this is the deciding factor. you decide how much you want to put it. even the whole bowl (crazy!!!) coz the bowl of belacan is yours anyway, even if you only order 1 bowl. nice~~~

this is how it looks like once the belacan is mixed. looks oily but trust me, it is one of the best curry mee i have tasted. this stall will be my all time ‘must-eat’ place when i’m in Penang in the future.

later in the afternoon, i craved for nasi kandar.

i’m sure most people will mention Nasi Kandar Line Clear when we talk about Nasi Kandar.

but i think i will never go there again. after what i experienced two years ago. i’m not going to go into details what happened then, but let’s just say that it is not very hygienic. nothing nasty happened to me actually, it’s just the physiological after effects that makes me wants to avoid this stall.

so, with Line Clear Off my list, i’m lost to where to get a nice nasi kandar. in a haste, i just go to (of all places) the shop next to Line Clear and take-away a simple masak hitam chicken with mixed gravy to fill in my stomach.

doesn’t look so appetising? get used to it, k? this is nasi kandar. it’s supposed to be messy anyway. don’t let the look turn you off though.

but unfortunately the list of good food ends here…

later at the day, we went to New World Park to have a light dinner.

to sum up my experience there, i can only say that it is just a fancy food court with pricey lousy food with the main intention to con unsuspecting tourist, and hell the parking fees are not cheap too!!!

the same can be said for the following place too:

apologize for the crappy photos…

yup. it’s Gurney. the food had gone from bad to worse over the years. period.

all of these failed badly…

i think we went to Gurney is just for the sake of going to Gurney. i haz a sad~~~

later at night, it’s supper time!!!

where else to end our glutton trip for the day other than the oh-so-popular Sup Hameed?

GF getting the soup from the staff.

the soups are not cheap either. and the charge extra 30sen if you take away.

too bad, our expectations were too high. the soup were too watery, the taste are a bit bland (not enough herbs, maybe?) and the portion are too small. but then again, who cares about the portion when the food sucks?

and with it, we end the night with grumbles after having a great breakfast and lunch earlier in the day.

to be continued. Part 3 will come soon!!!