Happy Birthday Malaysia!

Watching this clip reminds me of what it was like living in Malaysia and how much I miss the essence of pure fun! Happy Birthday Malaysia!

Penang National Park - Part 3

We made some friends along our hiking trip. Along our path, we meet a few families of ants who were moving house. There is an old saying that ants will move house when it's about to rain cause they don't want their eggs to get wet by the water and wash it away. How true! After crossing a few ant path, it actually rain! TWICE!


But the sight after the rain at the beach was lovely! A whole beach full of crabs popping out from the hole in the sand! They were running all over the beach! If you stand still enough, they will probably run all over you! The shy ones will hide in their holes and peep at you! And the naughty ones will be out hunting for food. One crab we saw hunted a clam, and the clam lock up it's shell with the crab craw still inside! Poor crab was dragging the clam everywhere it went!


We also saw some fascinating birds in the forest, and also out at sea. But what was most amazing where the photos of the creature below. We encounter it while on our way back. At first it was just a snake like creature swimming in the sea water. But as it slowly reaches the shore, legs started to appear and it walk straight up to the beach and into the bushes where it lives.

All in all, it had been a great trip back home :) I'm glad I made the journey to the Penang National Park. And I'm pretty sure I'll be back there real soon to reach my final destination - the lighthouse of Muka Head :)

Penang National Park - Part 2

So what is there to see at the Penang National Park??? LOTS! The walk towards Muka Head is the nicest as you are constantly hiking along the beach line. From time to time a clearing comes up and you can walk yourself right into a deserted beach! You can also see some 'kelong' just outside the water. If you hear lots of dog barking and get your overly worried, you will be happy to hear that all the dogs are on the 'kelong' itself, and you're absolutely safe from them :)

Small streams of clear water running into the sea can also be seen. The stream water was crystal clear, but as it was so near the sea, we didn't want to risk tasting it. It was a pretty sight all the same, and one can't help but dip one's hand into it to feel the chill cold water against your skin :)



When we reach USM CEMAC beach, it started to rain! We took shelter there for about half an hour. It was a nice moment just standing there under the shelter with nothing to do but watch the rain. Suddenly, you feel like you have a lot of time in the world :) Here are some photos of the rain, and on the right, the blurry photo of a boat in heavy rain is one of my favorite shot :)



Once the rain stopped. We walk out to the beach again. The sea water started to change, and we walk right out to the CEMAC Jetty for a look. It was absolutely beautiful. I felt like I was in a Mild Seven Advertisement :P This jetty is used by the USM research centre's staff. They come to walk every morning by boat, and goes back in the evening by boat! How cool is that?! If you're lazy to hike back, you can flag a boat from here that will take you to Teluk Bahang jetty. It will cost you around RM5 to RM10 per person. If you call for a boat, it will cost you around RM50.



Ref
Kelong

Penang National Park - Part 1

Here are some photos taken from our hike to Muka Head from Teluk Bahang Village. We didn't achieve our target as it started raining quite heavily about 30 minutes from reaching our destination. But as the hike was over slippery rocks and uneven ground, we decided to turn back after reaching USM Marine Centre.

Visiting the Penang National Park is absolutely FREE! Take Bus 105 towards Teluk Bahang and alight at the very end of the journey. The first thing that you will see are the jetties that goes all the way out to the sea.


Next, register yourself at the guard house before entering the park. This is to ensure that at least if you get lost inside, people can verified that yes, indeed you enter the park and got lost :) After that, just follow the path into the park. But although the start of the journey looks easy enough, with clear pathway and signs and seats for you to sit down, don't be fooled! This is after all Malaysia! And about 15 minutes into the hike, the path get muddy, and you'll find your self climbing over rocks, and navigating yourself down rocks with a help of a rope tied to some trees! I don't recommend you hike here alone.


Getting lost should not be much of a problem here. For us, we only saw one clear sign along the way, as shown in the photo on the right. We turn left at the sign, hoping to reach the beautiful lake we read about. 20 minutes walk in, we hit a river, and stopped. We didn't know whether to cross the river, and there was no sign beyond the small river. Bummer 1. After reaching USM CEMAC beach, again, we couldn't find the path to continue on to Monkey Beach. Some of the hikers ask for direction from the USM guard. Bummer 2. So now you get the picture. But in case you didn't, the photo on the left should give you some idea. That's what most of the 'easier' path look like. We didn't manage to photograph the 'harder' path cause we were all trying very hard not to fall down!


But the sights are very much worth the hike. I'll share more on my next blog entry.

Ref:
Penang National Park Official Site

Room with a View

Btw, this is the view from our room at Rasa Sayang. Lovely isn't it?

And the skyline as the sun sets over the calm sea water.....


And last but not least, the sunset it self....


Now imagine all these photo could have been taken with a D5000 instead!
But sadly, all photos are taken with a Canon Powershot SX10, and a Nikon Coolpix 4200 :(

Rasa Sayang Hotel Penang

We stayed at the Rasa Sayang the last three days in Penang. It was kind of a anniversary getaway for us. Rasa Sayang is one of the nicest hotels in Penang, and the facilities and service sure did not disappoint. Wonderful pool with bubbles to massage your aching body, lazy deck chairs all over the grass just along the beach with coconut trees really makes an ideal holiday on an island.


The room was wonderfully spacious, and so was the bath room. Room cleaning is twice a day, AM to clean up after you, and PM when they prepare your room for bedtime. Each time they come in, they will refill your drinks and toiletries. They serve a complimentary 6 types of tea in the room! I absolutely adore the tea! And the toiletries all smell simply lovely! So I got quite a lot of souvenirs from my stay there :P And the day before you check out, the management drop you a letter thanking you for staying at the Rasa Sayang. I thought that was a nice touch.

Sadly, the food serve was not that great. We had our breakfast at the Spice Market, and the selection there was sadly un-appetizing, and un-hygienic. Fruits were covered in fruit flies, and some of the food had flies in them. I was totally gross out. But on the last morning, we had our breakfast sent up to us as we were checking out pretty early. The breakfast basket was not that bad. The food lasted all the way back to Singapore. I'll give a thumb up for a hotel that lets you bring the memory of staying there back with you! (eg wonderful toiletries and tea! plus half my breakfast!)

Will I stay there again? Of course! (if I can afford it!) But I think I'll skip the food there :P Penang has too much good food outdoor! Don't waste it eating in a fancy hotel!

Ref:
Rasa Sayang Hotel Penang

Old Hair Salon in Penang

Here's a place that will take you back in time. This is also one of my husband's favorite hang out in Penang, an old fashion hair salon for men. It was introduced to him by my dad (who is seen here in the photo with me). I don't know the name of the place, but it's somewhere in Penang Road, just opposite Komtar. There is an old rundown hotel there with an entrance that leads into total darkness. If you dare venture past the darkness, you'll first encounter an old fashion hotel reception (wish I have a photo to show you, it looks damn classic, but the uncle there also look damn fierce so I didn't take any photos). And right at the end of the path, is a small door of the hair salon.

Sadly, it only serves male customer. And at this place, you can get your hair wash or cut, ear dig, face shave clean, and a massage. All for maybe less then RM50!!! That's less then S$25! And of course, you get Chinese Tea serve to you. And as there weren't many people around on a weekday afternoon, we took advantage of the situation and took some great photos :P

I'll share with you the name and the address of the place if I ever found out.

Tanjung Bungah Crab Village

Back from my 5 days trip back home to Penang, and am now ready to upload all those wonderful photos of Penang to share with everyone! First stop, Crab Village Restaurant!
This is one of my husband's favorite place in Penang, and it's mine too! Located at Tanjung Bungah, just opposite the road turning into Chee Seng Garden. (My parents live in Chee Seng Garden, so it's just a short walk from where we stay!).

Anyway, this place serves one of the best seafood I've ever tasted. And true to it's name, it's famous for BBQ crab. And as many times as we've ever been there, we have never gotten around to taking a photo of the crab before cause we're too excited when the crab arrives on our table! That's how good the food is! But not to worry, I found a great link at the ref section where someone actually took some nice photo of the food serve here. But to be frank, we hardly order anything else but the crab, cockles, and noodles. We tried the fried oyster this time, and boy was it delicious!

Besides the great food, one of reason I highly recommend this place is because it has a very lay back setting. It's just by the beach, and you can walk along the beach while waiting for your food. And one of the most beautiful sights there is the Floating Mosque of Penang. So here are some of the wonderful shots we got at sunset while waiting for our dinner :)

If you ever visit Penang. Do drop by this place!
What's the damage it might do to your pocket? Well, 4 adults ordering 1kg of BBQ crab, a plate of cockles, a plate to fried oyster, and a plate of noodles, with 4 drinks cost us around RM90, which is like S$40???

Related Blog Entries
MyCrabVillage 2010

Ref:
Crab Village Review
Floating Mosque

Penang National Park Trail

I've lived a good 20 years in Penang, and have never visited the Penang National Park Trail before. Well on this trip, my husband has been doing some research on it, and hopefully, we'll be able to complete the hike this Thursday (13-Aug-2009). I wasn't allowed to hike on this trail when I was younger as it was deemed too dangerous as there weren't proper path and bridges build in. But now it seems, everything is very tourist friendly! Woohoo!

Starting from the "End of the World Restaurant" at Teluk Bahang, and hoping that the trails are clearly marked, it's a 5km hike to Muka Head Lighthouse. After which, we plan to back track, and track down to Pantai Kerachut which is 3km South West direction. We'll pass by Meromictic Lake on the way there, and the view from the photos on some of the website looks stunning! I hope I don't get lost in the jungles while I am there :P

Ref:
To view the trail in details, click here.

My Happy Song!

Hearing this song always cheers me up! And I need to be all strawberry and cheesecake cause I'm headed home(Penang) next week! So here's to share, one of my favorite song!
Cheers! Cordy will be back in a week's time!

Nikon D5000

I've been trying to purchase the Nikon D5000 for the last 2 week, but in vain :( Have finally decided to upgrade from my Nikon Coolpix to my very first DSLR camera, and the irony of it is, there is no decent stock in Singapore! Ugh! In case you don't know, there is a service advisory on faulty part for the first batch of the D5000 release in Singapore. You can read about the advisory here. So if you have bough an earlier D5000, do go to the link given to verified that your product is not faulty.

So in my journey to own a Nikon D5000, I have sold one Canon IXUS, one Backpacker Guitar, one S$15 Border voucher, and work a few overtime over the weekend to get the fund for it. I have even downloaded the User Manual, and watch the Tutorial on how to use the camera. The only thing I need right now is the BLOODY CAMERA! I'm leaving for Penang in a week's time and am really really hoping to get the camera by then so that I can take some kampung life photography, but that looks pretty grim right now. I've left my handphone number with the camera shop, asking them to call me when the next batch of D5000 shipment comes in :( Uncle say I need to wait one to three weeks :(

Related Blog Entries (Photos from my D5000)
Photography

Ref:
A good comparison of the D90, D5000 and D60
Nikon D5000 User Manual
Nikon Digitutor
Photo taken from this site.