Penang 5D4N Getaway: Part 2 - Spice Garden, Helena's Cafe, Living Room Cafe Bar & Gallery

Kicked start our 2nd day bright and early! Since we didn't took breakfast in the hotel, we went out searching for some food first. Stopped for roti prata along one of the shop houses, about 3 minutes walk away. 

Mr Lin with his roti prata :)

Started raining heavily so we went back to the hotel to hide awhile from the rain.

First plan of the day was Tropical Spice Garden (which was listed #1 attraction on TripAdvisor). It's quite a distance from Georgetown, so we need to take Bus 101 from Komtar Bus Terminal (10 minutes walk from Hotel). The whole journey will take about an hour half to reach so you can enjoy the scenery along the way (or sleep).

You will be able to recognize the garden as many cars will park outside. You can just ask the bus driver to drop you right in front of the entrance.

At the Tropical Spice Garden

Each person cost RM35 (inclusive of entrance fee & guided tour). I strongly recommend guided tour as the guides are knowledgeable and you really can learn a few new things. 

The Tropical Spice Garden
Lone Crag Villa, Lot 595 Mukim 2, 
Jalan Teluk Bahang, 
11100 Penang, Malaysia

It's about 1 hour tour and after that we make our way back to Batu Ferringhi for lunch. Initial plan was to eat at The Living Room Cafe and Gallery. However, they're closed for the day so we dropped by Helena's Cafe (right beside only). 

They served mainly Indian cuisine, of course satay and penang food are also available. 

 

Our lunch, satay, Tandoori chicken and fries. 

The curry for the Tandoori chicken is homemade and awesome! I super like. Thick and fragrant. The satay comes with big chunks of chicken, unlike those in Singapore. Small pieces of meat with lots of fats. Ohh, it's actually ranked #5 on TripAdvisor. :) Not too bad, reasonably priced, will be back for other food too! :)

Helena's Cafe
43B Jalan Batu Ferrenghi | opp Yahong Gallery, 
Batu Ferringhi, 
Penang Island, Malaysia 

Took Bus 101 back to Georgetown as the rain keeps coming. Took a break before we leave for the Living Room Cafe again. Do take note that the traffic is quite bad in the evening time, so our bus ride was longer as compared to morning. 

We were quite lucky that we do not need to wait too long for a seat. That's the good thing about traveling as couples! *YAY!* 

Cosy atmosphere, and the furniture used are some old sewing machines and tables are craved straight from the wood. There's a live band that night, but I'm not too sure whether they're always there or happened to be performing that night. 

 Satay again! :) The sauce is slightly more watery.

Our sumptuous dinner :)

We ordered a stirred fried mixed vegetables and a thai-styled fried dory fish. The fish is quite similar to the normal Fish 'N' Chips, but it's the sauce that really make it very appetizing! :) We spent about RM49.90 for this meal. I would say it's slightly more expensive compared to the street food, and rest assured that freshness is guaranteed! 

Just so you know, The Living Room cafe is ranked #1 on TripAdvisor! :):):)

This is definitely my favorite shot at the cafe. 

The lighting just blend nicely with our smiles! *LOVE!*

The Living Room Cafe & Gallery

43 C Batu Ferringhi, 

Batu Ferringhi, 

Penang Island 11100, Malaysia

After dinner, you can continue walking towards the Holiday Inn Hotel, and right in front is the Batu Ferringhi Night Market. It's similar to our Singapore Pasar Malum, selling clothes and "branded" bags, etc.

Bus-ed back to our hotel, and we called it a day. Slow day, but it was definitely interesting because we sort of asked our way through the bus route and also getting all confused because the arrival time on the bus app is not quite accurate. *LOL!*

I guess that's what make budget traveling so adventurous.You don't know whether this bus you're taking is correct until maybe the bus driver make a turn and went into some wulu place. Of course, safety is number one, so make sure you're traveling with someone you can trust. 

I know I can count on my boy to bring me back safely. :):):)

Penang 5D4N Getaway: Part 1 - Arrival

:) This was a last minute trip as Mr. Lin needs to clear his leave before embarking on another new job. Initial plan was to drive up to Port Dickson and laze around at the beach side. But we decided to change to Penang as we heard lots of good feedback from friends. 

We got our air tickets from Jetstar Asia during their Friday Frenzy Sale. Return trip cost us $226.44 for 2 pax with checked in baggage. Definitely cheap cheap! :)

It was an evening flight, departing 6:55pm and arriving around 8:20pm. So we can't plan much for the 1st night. 

 On board flight, waiting for the plane to take off! :) 

PS: It's been a long time since we our last trip together, just the both of us. So we're very excited!

Upon arrival, we found an airport taxi which cost us RM44.70 to get to Georgetown. It's about 20 minutes drive from the airport (depending on traffic) to our hotel stay at Sunway Hotel Georgetown, which was just newly renovated

I definitely recommend this hotel because of it's location and also there's a night market just outside the hotel. The night market has one of the best street food there. :)

After settling in with our stomach crumbling, we made our way down to the street market. 

Lots of local food there, Chee Cheong Fan, Wan Tan Mee, Poh Piah, Fried Carrot Cake, etc

 Something light first, egg pancake. Nothing fancy, taste so-so

The poh piah has different fillings as compared to Singapore's. Here the auntie add mashed tofu together with the normal poh piah must haves. The overall taste is good, soft tofu and crunchy peanuts together!

Most of the shops and malls are closing so we didn't explore much. Right after the supper, we turned in for the night as we wanted to kick start early the next day! 

Spice Garden on the list! :)

Taiwan Escapade 2012: Part 5 - Taichung Day 2 (日月潭 1-day tour)

4th day in Taiwan! :)

Woke up early even though had a late night. Need to kick start our Sun Moon Lake (SML) 1-day trip early because we are going to find our own way there! ^^

Did some research online and found that there's an express bus 南投汽車客運 that specially served return trips to SML at interval schedules daily.

Bus ticket to SML, and the 1-day pass from SML information counter

:) Took us quite some time before we managed to find the shuttle bus company to get our tickets. We got to find our own directions to the bus stop and it wasn't easy cause the information I found online wasn't that direct. In the end, we had to ask directions along the way, and we had to pass through a wet market (which was quite an eye opener, because there's live chickens everywhere!).

Lucky we did find the bus stop and was in time for the next bus (which was leaving in about 10 minutes time). :) Journey was spent sleeping on off and watching some Taiwanese variety show. It's about an hour plus trip, and along the way the bus stopped to fetch more passengers. :) 

:) Here at Sun Moon Lake! *Pictures' color are slightly enhanced.*

Weather was quite sunny but at comfortable temperature. Beautiful view of the hills and clear water when we reached the pier. The most convenient way of traveling around SML is by the boat, which is unlimited rides if you purchase any tickets from the "tour agency" at the Shuishe pier (main pier). Of course there are the taxi and bus but the total distance covered will be much longer since you have to make a big round around the hills.

 Hotels located around SML :)

There's lots of small hotels around SML, thus you can choose to stayover for a night and enjoy the scenery and maybe catch the sunrise in the morning?

:) On the boat towards our first destination - I Ta Thao (伊达邵)

At  伊达邵, you will see more of the tribal group heritage, and there's a cable car ride to the other side of the Island where there's an outdoor theme park. Can't say much about this park though since we didn't purchase the admission ticket. Unless you're planning to stay for the night, if not you might not have enough time to play all the rides.

 A short walk to the cable car station :)

The whole ride takes about 15 minutes and you'll get a bird eye view of almost the whole lake. It's really pretty up there! :) And the good thing is when we were there, there wasn't much crowd and thus we could have the whole cable car to ourselves! :):):)

 The famous 阿婆茶叶蛋! :)

Spent almost an hour plus at  I Ta Thao, and we moved on to the 玄光寺, which is famous for the 阿婆茶叶蛋! :) The tour guide told us that the record number of eggs sold in 1 day was 15k, and each egg cost NT$10, meaning that she made NT$150000 in 1 day! Ok, if you can't imagine how much that it, well it's about SGD$6.5K! O.O!!! 

That's about 2 months of my salary! -____-"

HAHAHAHA! So yeah, she makes really good tea egg. Her secret? 

Well, I guess she uses the best tea leaves from the mountains and also the additional ingredients - mushrooms which I don't see it in Singapore! 

Too bad I didn't get to see her in person, most probably resting at home (she's quite old actually) or maybe up in the mountains plucking tea leaves. :):):)

Well, this sort of summarize the 1-day tour at SML! I strongly encourage you guys to visit this when you're in Taichung. It's BEAUTIFUL! :):):)

More coming up, and now we're back to Taipei! *WHEEE!* :):):) 

Super ON friends I have! :):):)

Started Tuesday with a heavy heart because of S.P.C Meeting in the afternoon! *ewwwww!* 

But then something really brighten up my day! Guess what....!

I JUST BOUGHT AIR TICKETS TO PHUKET! :):):)

That was me, 2 years ago, counting down to 2012! ^_^!!!

Yeah, I know, it's Phuket again! >.<"" HAHAHAHA! My 4th trip there since 2 years ago! ^_^!!! 

Well, it's a totally random because QL just sent a message over during my morning passdown and said that return tickets only $152/pax to Phuket, and I totally couldn't concentrate on the meeting. *bleah!* Though the dates are still quite far away, and I might have not be able to commit, thinking about the white sandy beaches just can't stop me from buying! *WINK!* 

Immediately we start to whatsapp the rest of the Dearies and also I wanted to ask BFF along since she haven't been there before. ^_^!!!

Side note: BFF, shall promise to bring you on the Taiwan trip next year! Only us! :):):)

Great response from the Dearies and before lunch time is over, 8 of us already bought our tickets! *WOW!* This is by far the fastest response and attendance we had in a long time! And it's overseas trip!

*LOVE YOU GUYS!* 

Would appreciate if you guys have any recommendation for villa style accommodation in Phuket, preferably in Patong area. :):):)

Can't wait to see the beautiful Kai Island again, with all the colorful umbrellas!

2天1夜马六甲之旅

Weekends are indeed precious nowadays. Especially when you have to face your boss' angry tone everyday at work! Shall not complain about it, cause this is supposed to be a happy post! ^_^!!!

Early March, the Dearies' planned a 2D1N Meleka trip just for a short getaway (from W.O.R.K!).

Plan for the trip: EAT. SLEEP. PLAY. RELAX. NO-WORK!!!

Since there are 9 of us, we decided to coach down instead of driving there. We booked our coach tickets from 5 Stars, $50/pax return tickets. Our 1-night stay is at Hatten Hotel, which is besides the Mahkota Parade Square. Very easily accessible to different parts of Melaka. :) 

We booked a 2-bedroom suite for RM$715.40 (all inclusive for 4 breakfasts, service and hotel tax). Quite worth it as each of us only pay about RM$80 for it. The room is quite big and can fit us all in and sleep comfortably!

The Living Room - Spacious 

The Master bedroom & twin bedroom

The splendid view of Melaka with the sea in front of us :)

By the time we are settled in, our stomachs are growling like mad. It's like 3 pm in the afternoon so it's too early for Jonker Walk to open, thus we decided to settle our lunch nearby. Directly across our hotel is a Korean Restaurant: Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant.

The place looks quite like a authentic Korean shop, with people sitting on the floor like the tatami style. They have this huge exhaust thing about the table to suck all the smoke from the BBQ-ing.

BBQ-ing all the meat! *SINFUL!* The usual side dishes from any Korean restaurant.

Dearies looking happy after going hungry for so long! ^_^!

We ordered the typical Korean food like BBQ pork slices, marinated beef, tteokbokki, kimchi stew, stir-fried glass noodles (on the house from the manager ^^). Initially thought we ordered just nice for everyone, but turn out that the food portion is super big that we couldn't finished all the food.

After lunch, we went back to Mahkota Parade to shop around and digest our food. We found the famous Nadeje Crepe! HAHAHA! I missed it on my last trip so was really glad to finally giving it a try! :)There's so many flavors to choose and we just couldn't decide on it. ^_^! In the end, we bought 7 slices and the rest were giving me a O.O!! look! HAHAHA! Anyway, those for meant for our desserts cause we were too full! :):):)

Before our trip, we  saw on TV about this rotating  observation tower that offers the bird eye view of Melaka. It's just across the road from Mahkota and because the weather is super hot, we bought our tickets to relax up there. It costs RM$20/pax.

Bird eye view of Melaka, from different views.

It only took about 5 minutes and we're up at the top. :) 

Christchurch is next on the list! :) That's also another iconic feature in Melaka and it's just about 10 minutes walk from the Observation Tower. Notice that we walked around rather than cabbing. :):):)

It was still quite early for Jonker Walk. Only some stalls are setting up, so we went to the 三叔公 to hide away from the HEAT! A cold drink for everyone and also candy-crushing! ^^ It's really funny cause everyone is holding their own phone and starts asking for requests.

Lots of interesting stuff along the street, food, bags, some local products, etc. Just spent a while to take a look at some of the stalls and you'll see some of the really old school things.

Ate some street food and we went on for our dinner: Satay Celup! It was a mad queue so we decided to forgo it and went ahead for desserts! We're still full from the afternoon lunch too! -_-" 

Our 1st dessert cum dinner for the night! :) 

This dessert shop is just a few shops away from the satay celup and since we're still feeling hot from the weather, a big bowl of ice sounds good to us! We ordered a 6-pax mixed fruits ice and managed to finish everything! ^_^!!!

More food from the second day, woke up early to queue for the chicken rice balls! :) And of course before leaving Melaka, a bowl of Chendol is a MUST! :)

Dearies' 1st overseas trip after graduation! (Or maybe after everyone starts to work?) :)

Looking forward to our next trip: Phuket? My all-time favorite beach getaway! :)