Taman Negara Pulau Pinang

In the mood for hiking and ahdik is home. So went for an early breakfast at the fishing village at Teluk Bahang. There weren’t many stalls open but we did find a stall selling nasi lemak. After breakfast, we walked over to Taman Negara Pulau Pinang (Penang’s National Park), registered to walk to Pantai Kerachut (Kerachut Beach, which is situated at the top left tip of the Penang Island) and apply citronella oil to gear ourselves for the mosquitos that we’ll be bumping into.

The hike to Pantai Kerachut was lots of fun! We came across all kinds of funny looking root arrangement, black ants hive, and a large diversity of flora. It took us about 2 hours to get to Pantai Kerachut, stopping every now and then to catch a breath.

The best was when we arrived at Pantai Kerachut. It was definitely worth the 2 hour hike. It feels good to see that we still have pristine beaches in Penang. Ping had lots of fun climbing up the rocks by the beach!!! The one thing that ahdik and Ping missed from Bali is the huge waves. There are barely any exciting waves at Pantai Kerachut but the beach at Pantai Kerachut might be a little dangerous for those who can’t swim because the sediment does not gradually deepens but it deepens in step-wise. If you go too far, you’ll realize that you can no longer reach the bottom.

After spending sometime soaking in the seawater and drying on the rock, we took the boat back to Teluk Bahang. We got a really nice boatman who told us about the Batu Penyu (Turtle Rock) and Batu Buaya (Crocodile Rock) along the way back. It was definitely a fun Sunday morning! We are planning to make another trip there when Mei Ling gets back, this time with maybe with some homemade char bee hoon by gee kim!! *grins*

Around KL

As Ping haven't been back to Kuala Lumpur (that's the capitol city of Malaysia), we stayed in KL for a few days. It also so happened that mum and dad's birthday was on the Saturday that Ping was back. So we also had ahboy came in from Penang to celebrate their birthday with a surprise birthday cake for them...a birthday cake with an incorrect greetings - Ma, ma, macadamia cake.
The next day, we went to Brickfields temple for Puja and then later to meet up with Li Foong and Sze Huey to catch up with all the latest stuff, talked bout the old times and all the good stuff. After temple, we head over to Titiwangsa Lake to see The Eye on Malaysia - huge, tall, but nothing special lah. It is just a ferris-wheel. We didn't even walk near it. Just took photo from a far.
After walking around, we went to the Pavilion for more window shopping and lunch. That's the new shopping center near Bukit Bintang area. Definitely a place for window shopping only as everything is super expensive - a place where credit card is totally acceptable.
For lunch, there is a large food court area that has all kinds of food, from Asian to Western. We had Korean, yup, even after Ping just had Korean in the plane.
Done with KL, we drove to PJ - to makan again!! There is this indian uncle who sells indian rojak at the corner of a playground at SS4. We used to go there on mornings of weekend when we were still staying at SS4, and once in a while when we moved to Sunway. He used to sell it on a motorbike but sometime ago, he started using a lorry. When we got there, it was raining and yet, we still wanted to eat it. So we ta pau and had it inside the car. It is still one of the best indian rojak Ping ever had!
At night was junk food from pasar malam. Ping's favorite - keropok lekur!!!

Back in Malaysia

Ping is back home!! Been back in Penang for 3 days already. Ping flew out of Michigan last Thursday morning via Detroit airport...
Had a 2 hour transit at Atlanta and flew out of US of A to Korea via Korean Airlines. Pretty decent food but there were not much nice movies to watch so end up watching Bourne Ultimatum.
Almost missed Ping's connecting flight in Korea as the flight from Atlanta arrived 20 minutes before departing time but lucky thing, the connecting flight was delayed for 2 hours. Ping was so bored then that Ping slept most of the trip back to Malaysia. Was super excited to see mum and dad and being back home!!!!

Back home....

Ping is currently on Michigan Flyer bus heading towards Detroit to catch her flight to Atlanta and later to KL, M'sia. Will see you all soon!!!

Thanks a bunch to all who helped Ping!!!

Happy 2008!!!

Happy New Year!!! How was everyone's new year celebration? Ping had a very unique celebration this year. One that Ping would not have done before - invited some Malaysians over for steamboat. Yup, not the 'si si man man' style they serve at Omi Sushi or korean restaurant but the 'chong ar!!' style. Hehehe....

Got out from work around 4pm and went to pick Lin Pei up to get the stuff for steamboat. We spent about an hour and half preparing everything, which was super easy since they don't have to be fully cook as we'll be cooking while eating! The last thing was the 'bak uan' (pork balls) where we sat in front of the TV rolling the 'uans' while watching 轉角. 遇到愛. Just as we got everything all set up, Wei Yi, Pei Hwa arrived, bringing along Sabrina, a new Malaysian undergrad who just arrived the day before. While we were preparing drinks and talking about taking photos, our professional photographer - Ming Woei - came by with his video-cam this time!! Although a lot of the 'gang' was away celebrating their NY with friends or families, just the few of us remaining made it possible for Ping to invite them over. But, it would have been much more fun if TT and Jo was around!!

So what is steamboat and why do we like it so much? It is simply a pot of soup (usually made from chicken stock or pork ribs) and a variety of bite size seafood, vegetables and meat. The most common sides is the 'uans' (balls) - 'hu uan' (fish ball), sotong ball, 'hae uan' (shrimp ball) - all kinds of balls you can think of, they are usually there. We missed out on one of the best types of fish ball though - the Fuzhou style fish ball where there is meat and a little bit of sauce in the fish ball. Of course there is fish and shrimp.
To eat, we will dump anything we want into the pot of soup and then sit around and chat until the soup boils, the balls will float up and they are ready to be eaten. Most of the balls are usually partially cook so they cook very fast. However, the meat like chicken and fish, they have to sliced thinly so that they can cook faster. Traditionally, a pot that can be separated into two compartment is used so that one side is the non-spicy soup base and the other is spicy soup base. Since Ping doesn't have that kind of pot, we started out with the non-spicy soup and then after the second round, Ping added some chilli paste to make it spicy. However, knowing us Malaysians where there must always be chilli even when we're eating stuff that are not spicy, it didn't matter if we had spicy soup or not.
Just for the fun of it, Ping also made Blueberry Puff Pastry. Easy stuff but wish it was raspberry instead of blueberry because red would have made the picture look nicer than the blue that blends into the chocolate filling. Anyway, it was tasty though! Hehe!

We were done with dinner by 9pm but sitting in front of the pot for most of the night is not necessarily good because Ping 'zhui yang', keep picking on the food. We sat around and sang lots and lots of '安靜' and them being awesome friends, didn't mind watching Jay's 無與倫比 Concert since majority of Ping's DVDs are Jay's work. We switched between that and ABC channel showing the countdown at New York City.

As we approached midnight, we had Ming Woei playing Auld Lang Syne on the guitar and more Jay after midnight. Thanks a bunch for coming over guys!! Ping had lots of fun!!

Reflecting back, this year is the most social that Ping have ever done! Not just while Ping is in the States but 'THE　ＭＯＳＴ’. Sometimes it takes the right people to just get you out of the shell or maybe it is finding the right 默契. Also thanks to you all, Ping 可以驕傲的說, 我已經不會再給某人讓我傷心了. 因為遇到你們, 我看得到這世界其實還有真實的愛, 還有一種可以讓人感覺到安慰的愛. Happy 2008!!!