Sweet Love for Taiping & Penang

11 - 14 April 2013

So last weekend, I had the privilege to travel up north to Taiping and Penang with my love muffins from BSI.  Ian was the chauffeur for the trip, of course (seeing as he doesn't trust females behind the wheel. Win-win situation I would say). It was my first time going on a trip with the Edisons (even if there were only 4 of us on the trip) and it was fun as hellz (Amir and everyone else were with us in spirit).

We headed over to Ipoh first to try out this Nasi Kandar place that Ian kept raving about. Freakin' obsessed larh this fella. Haha. Nasi kandar is like house food to me, but regardless of his undying love for it, I admit it was pretty good. I liked the okra. And being the self-proclaimed cafe connoisseur that I am, it was a must to bring them over to Burps & Giggles for a cuppa joe.

The sloth, looking so happy.

We then headed over to Taiping and stayed over at Ian's aunt's place. Ian's aunt has a male Maltese named China. Horny bastard kept stalking us girls while we were there, especially the curry princess. He was particularly fond of Vid and kept raping her leg which was nasty as fuck ew can't get over it.

Anyway, did very tourist-y things in Taiping (not much stuff to do there actually) which included visiting the Zoo and eating. Yeap, that's basically it. Haha.

The photos pretty much sums up the morning we had in Taiping, before heading over to Penang. Haha. Forgot to mention, I tried chicken feet for the first time EVER. Still don't understand why people eat it. Don't think I'll touch it ever again. 

Anyway, headed over to Penang, straight to the backpackers we'd chosen to stay in, Syok@Chulia, and GOSH I FELL IN LOVE. Super love the place man! *fan-girl moment* Lemme go all architecture mode on yo asses! Terracotta tiles everywhere, murals on all the walls, exposed bricks, parquet on the steel staircase (?!?!), brick tiles on the landing of the steel staircase (?!?!), outdoor courtyard on the roof of the corner shophouse (?!?!) ... need I go on?

I was in an architecture porn for realz. I kid you not. My friends didn't understand how excited I was, obviously, and I didn't bother explaining it to them (because I'm lazy and illiterate in that sense) so I kept it to myself and just took like a million photos of the place. Eyes sparkling the whole time.

Here's some porn for you. Look at it. JUST LOOK AT IT. 

Doesn't it give you tingly feelings? Or is it just me? Hahahaha. 

So anyway, the whole trip revolved around food. Seriously. 4 days of constant eating. Breakfast, lunch, tea time, dinner and supper. It was pretty amazing seeing as most of the food I ate on the trip were either new to me or straight up the best I've ever had.

I couldn't not bring them to PIK NIK. It was like one of my all time favourite cafes ever established! My journey of transforming my minions into hipsters shall be successful soon enough. *sheepish grin*

 This was when we went to this seafood place called Sea Pearl Lagoon Cafe. It's apparently is one of Ian's childhood makan places. Seafood there is quite nice. 

First time having crab bbq-ed (is that how it was cooked?) in such a way. And there were still gills in it so I was quite confused. HAHA! The gills were like fucking feathers k so I freaked out. Ian showed me how to eat the crab properly cause I R n00b.

 Beach babies. Our theme for the day = fruits ... ? Hahaha.

 Sunset from the rocks we were climbing all over. It's pretty nice. Never been to this part of Penang before.

Beach day! Didn't really swim since the beach we went to was a little rocky. But we chilled there for a bit and played with the local kitty kats. They were so friendly! one was bunting! Vid called her Duchess. Haha. The floppy one on the top right is called Athirah (I dunno why). 

 Here's us, at Syok's lounge. SO NAICE RIGHT? Free flow of coffee and tea all day err'day. And they have Astro and beanbags to sleep on (I did actually fall asleep on a beanbag like a baby). That was a super lazy day. We took naps before heading out to look for food (life of a fat person).

Top left : Food from this famous hawker makan place at Macalister Road. I tried grilled frog (don't judge me) which I was pretty indifferent to and these snails that are sorta like balitong but no where near as slimey, are bigger and their shells are thorny! Super nice! One of my favs so far. :D

Top right : One of the best kuey teows ever (and I hate kuey teow). If you ignore the angry waitresses who serve you, the angry aunties who cook the Kuey Teow and the amount of time you need to wait to be served, it's pretty damn good. Haha.

Bottom left : The laksa and cendol from the Phua Chu Kang stall. Who could resist? Too good larh. The assam laksa is hands down one of my favourites IN THE WORLD.

Bottom right : Nasi kandar from Line Clear. Of course, Ian couldn't resist, even though it was midnight and we ate so much during the day already. Haha! Once again, I like the ocra and papadom. And also the blinged out uncle that kept blowing his whistle and screaming "LINE CLEAR" every time someone paid. Entertainment at it's best. "PPPEEET PPEEPEEET LINE CLEARH!"

Over all, one of the best trips EVER. It doesn't matter where you go, so long as you have great company with you. *insert cheesy music here #IDREAMEDADREAMANDTIMEGONEBYYYYYYYYYYY*


17th April 2013

Had dinner with the college mates for Chacha's birthday at a place called Kokopelli in Section 14. The restaurant is actually a house and it's kind of inconspicuously situated within the neighbourhood. You wouldn't have realized it was a restaurant at first glance! :) Anyway, haven't seen them crazy people in forever, with everyone working and shit liddat. Was good catching up. Once again, happy belated birthday Chacha! Haha. Love you forever! ♡♡♡

During this time, I was actually experiencing the stomach flu. Bloody fucking hell I haven't gone to the toilet that many times in a day since the food poisoning incident in Bandung (okay larh that was worse, but still). Water out the ass ain't fun man! And I was damn dehydrated. 

Starved myself for 2 straight days and practically lived off water, Gatorade and charcoal pills. To top it off, my period decided to arrive on the same day as my stomach flu, so lets throw Panadol Acti-fast into my diet. DOUBLE SUCKER PUNCH TO THE STOMACH. Felt like the bottom part of my body was ripping apart, slowly. *Cue music ~ killing me softly with his song*

Feeling better nao though! I'm shitting in solids again! Hahaha. Ok too much info.

20 - 21 April 2013

Back to Penang once again but this time, with Yvo. Haha. Went there to properly do my work which is research and data collection of Chew Jetty. This was an entirely different experience in Penang altogether. One thing was that this trip lasted for only 2 days and one night, and another, we had no transport there at all, so whart did we do? Cycle our ass cheeks off. Haha. It was awesome! We also stayed at this really quaint place called Tofu Cafe; Bed & Bikes. It's a really cute and sweet place, not as extravagant as Syok but I still like it a lot.

Our beds come in pods! :D Isn't it kiut?! Reminds me of the Japanese pod hotels! Except of course, these are much nicer (I would assume) seeing as it comes with lights, a fan, a very very comfy bed and tons of space. 

This is the cute communal area in Tofu, where house guests can sit and chill. Kiut right? It's so adorable. I like how they incorporated the skylight into the space to make a semi-courtyard-garden thinggy.

So whart did Yvonne and I do for 2 days straight? Cafe and jetty hopping, yes! Haha. We found some pretty cafes that we haven't been to around that area. GORGEOUS! One of my favourites was the Mugshot Cafe, only because they managed to come up with a pretty new concept for the place, have nice bagels and well, the place is actually pretty gorgeous.

You can figure out whart their concept is right? Hahaha. The Mugshot Cafe at Lebuh Chulia.

When I was in Penang with Jojo and Dex last year, we visited this tiny little cafe called Amelie Cafe situated next to the entrance of Cheah Kongsi at Lebuh Armenian. Well, sad to say that the cafe closed down already. The cute little green facade is no longer there. 

However, the owners decided to move their humble business a few meters down the road, taking up one whole lot at the corner of Lebuh Armenian and Beach Street! Their cafe is nao called Cozy in the Rocket!

I absolutely ADORE this little corner! It's so charming! Greenery on black walls just makes me UMPH.

And then when you turn around, this gorgeousness is in your face. Whart more can you want? So beautiful. So tasteful. It'll look greater once the plants grow. UMPH raw materials.

Here's a view from the other end! So beautiful. I swear to God, I am so sure that cafe owners in Penang have some form of design background! Constantly amazed by the designs of many of the cafes I've been to on this island. BRAVO. Simple and sweet!

 A little taste of the facade and interior. The signage is so adorable! Super love the cursive writing. 

And those window partitions! UMPH. 

Here's a daredevil-ish badassery photo I took of us cycling. Almost killed myself but hey #YOLO.

Here's a little cafe/hostel we went to called Mews Cafe on Lebuh Muntri. 

The food was pretty decent and the ambiance of the place is great! 

Simple cafe though, nothing innovative about the design. But I still liked it. 

We went to the hawker area at Lebuh Chulia and wao. Really not bad. Haha! Of course, typically, there would be screaming aunties and uncles, and in Hokkien too. But the food was really nice. I really like the squid rojak! And the wantan mee there was nice too. 

The next day, we decided to sleep in a lil and chill at Tofu. Try out their food and it was pretty damn good! So was their mocha (which is like the only coffee I ever drink other than Hazelnut Latte). It started raining as it reached noon so we were just chilling at the courtyard til we decided to just cycling in the rain. Haha! 

From the photo, you can see our vehicles for the weekend. The pink Oscar is Yvo's while the grey one was mine. Super love these bicycles! I'm actually considering saving up to buy one. 

Then can probably cycle around Subang (LET'S HOPE FOR THAT TO HAPPEN).

The day before, I collected data at Chew Jetty for a couple of hours. I honestly love the jetty man! So many little things to discover! Hopefully I can capture those little bits of details in my research and booklet. Anyway, on this day, we decided to go explore the other Jetties. 

There are 7 jetties still remaining. Since we'd already explored Chew Jetty, Yvo and I decided to cycle to the other 6! Lim, Tan, Lee, New, Yeoh and the "Mixed Surname" Jetty. It's amazing how even though these jetties are right next to each other, their culture within their own community all vary, from cultural behaviour to architectural arrangements to designs of facade. Really really coohl! 

The photo you see above; on the left is at the "Mixed Surname" Jetty. The houses there are arranged in a way that it's like a maze! We got lost looking for the temple in the photo! The photos on the right is at the Lim Jetty. The houses were arranged in a networking manner, similar to a tree and it's branches except the branches only grew on the right side of the tree. Hahaha!

After the jetties, we decided to cycle around to look for a cafe to stop by. Stumbled upon this place called Flash Back Cafe. It was alright. I think it's still very new so they're still trynna get business going. Had our drinks to freshen up then cycled around again.

We actually stopped by China House and had a late lunch! Bento lunch set for me and Yvo! It was damn good man. So delicious! Didn't expect their Japanese food to be so yummy! ♡♡♡  It satisfied our hunger for that moment. Haha! 

After that we cycled around and then found a flea market!! Was SO excited to see so many things on sale! They had radios, vinyl, really old RayBan sunglasses, watches, clothes, shoes and all kinds of little trinkets. I didn't take any photos cause I was scared of pick pockets, seeing as most of the people there looked super dodgy. The market was nearby Lebuh Armenian, around the Khoo Kongsi area. 

As you can see from the photo above, I nabbed quite a few things from the market! A Konica film camera with 36mm lense for only RM18 and those 3 pairs of sunglasses for less than RM40! Super love! ♡♡♡ We also stopped by Nostalgie Cafe for a drink. That cafe's overrated larh. Looks like a normal baba nyonya shop house. Maybe I'm just too use to seeing that, I dunno.

We ended our cycling weekend with a chilling session at Behind 50 at Lebuh Muntri. We were stoning and I was story telling Yvonne about Studio Ghibli conspiracies. LOL.

Both trips were super SUPER amazing. Two different experiences, two different places of stay, two different modes of transportation and two different forms of company. VUNDERVAR. I have officially fallen deeply in love with Penang Island. :) ♡♡♡