Thai Green Curry Laksa (Taman Free School)

        I passed by this stall many times wanted to order something from it but always got disappointed because it's not open.

        It's a beautiful Sunday today and while we were discussing where to have our breakfast, I decided to visit here for breakfast (but never have any specific thought about this stall).

        So to my surprise, it's open today!

        We ordered thai green curry and this is how it looks...

        First of all, before really digging into the taste of spiciness, we're impressed by:-
        (1) The portion
        (2) The very nice serving dishes, and
        (3) The friendliness of the seller

        Oh come on every now and then we tend to see the lousiest manners hawker or ones always reflecting how hard to earn a living being a hawker by serving lesser portion but higher price. But this one is totally different!

        And the seller would come by to give us extra soup, sat down to chat with us about Kathina in different places, and offer us nice desert without extra charge (of course we were receiving these offerings with gratefulness and not here to spread the idea so people can go there with an expectation to get free stuff).

         He serves other Thai food too, such as Maeng-Kam, Thai Fried Rice and so on. He highlighted all the spices and fresh ingredients are imported from Thailand (supposing he's serving with a group of people who help to provide him the supply).

         I told him about my experience that always found his stall not open and he told me that was because he went to places for charity work. And the receiving of selling these food will go to charity.

         One thing I must highlight - the taste of the food very not local. With all the spices and chillies (ah, it's hot-and-spicy from tongue to tummy, mind you), I could almost feel like I am in Thailand.

         Wanna know where is the location? Here's the pointer:

       If you come from Green Lane McD:
       (1) Take your 12 o'clock when you come to the round-a-bout.
       (2) Immediately turn left and then right after you passed a small car park.
       (3) Go straight until you come to a junction on your left where there's a no entry sign.
       (4) Walk in and it's the first stall on your right.

       What's better when you enjoy good food, great manner and the proceeding goes to charity?

       I am very grateful for this wonderful morning, to have eaten such filling meal both body, mind and soul, and to have met such inspiring person.

       Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu! (*with Wai - palms pressed together in a prayer-like gesture)

What else can you do in Penang?

For those who know where Penang is and what Penang is all about, this question will sound more intriguing. Because Penang is generally known as "Food Haven" and also a World Heritage Site (the capital city, George Town), thus besides filling your tummy and enjoying the heritage mood, you may want to ask, "what else?"

Unlike busy like a bee big cities Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia's capital city) or Singapore, Penang is unique in such a way that her pace is always focusing on "enjoyment". It doesn't mean Penang isn't as well developed rather she has the personality of "busy when you should, but never forget to enjoy life".

So I spent my Sunday, waking up early just to explore this experience - know, learn, understand, taste (including drink and eat), and feel coffee.

The trail is a carefully planned thing. Every stop is carefully arranged so we get to walk the trail like walking a path - from traditional to modern, starting with a cup of coffee that will bring you go down memory lane.

This is the typical local breakfast, especially for the Chinese (since the olden days). A cup of local black coffee (or you may choose the one with condensed milk) + 2 slices of toast (with butter and sugar/coconut milk jam) + 2 half-boiled eggs.

Most of the traditional coffee shops in Penang do serve this breakfast but my secret to you is, "find ones that serve Hainanese Bread because it is thicker, fluffier, and smells perfectly right after toasted with charcoal". Add a touch of pepper powder and some light soya sauce to the eggs and finish it while still warm (because it will taste bad when got cold), and sip the coffee to let the aroma quietly slipped down your throat.

It is always the best time to learn something after a fresh and energetic start.


According to Victor, coffee drinking is a culture.

Well of course. From types and nature of different beans, the roasting knowledge, brewing technique and sharing the passion with customers is definitely no easy job.

Knowing more about what you eat and drink helps a lot in appreciating food, especially the good ones. Although my weak stomach was feeling a little upset after sipping the syphon prepared coffee (Ethiopia & Sumatra Mandehling), I did feel good knowing there is a place in Penang where the focus of setting up such a place is more on cultivating a culture than solely making money.

Besides, it is a Car-Free day in the vicinity on Sunday so strolling on the street enjoying the historical buildings is another enjoyment.

Next stop, we visited (to me) a very strange but interesting place - a cafe named "Satorini" but serves nothing related to the original place neither decorated like one, for aspecially catered lunch - Chicken Chop in Coffee Sauce/Fried Rice with Coffee Chicken Bites and Ice-Cream in Coffee Syrup.

Our journey continued to spa at Danai Spa in G-Hotel. Yes of course, the spa is definitely related to coffee. I can't explain about this part because our group was too big and so I agreed to come back another day with a voucher. Anyway, it is a Coffee Body Scrub and Coffee Back Massage treatment. Imagine yourself soaked in the goodness of coffee and got your cellulite smoothen as well dead skin removed. How good is that?

Just when I thought I've seen enough and know all about coffee, our last stop was to get indulged in the sea of coffee souvenir - flavors and flavors of coffee powder individually packed in sachets for the convenience of giving to friends or for yourself in the office. To name a few (that I still remember) they have ginger coffee, durian coffee, power root coffee, local Penang white coffee and many more.

The place is called Coffee Tree. If you are a coffee lover and would love to challenge the versatility of coffee, do come here and enjoy the varieties of free coffee tasting!

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My heartiest gratitude to Ministry of Tourism (Penang office) and Project Penang for such wonderful experience (burp!). Of course, I (keenly) look forward to more interesting exploration in near future!

A time to count the blessings

On this day two years ago, we tied the knot and started our journey together.

We are grateful that every step of the way has enriched our lives in all possible ways. And too our gratitude goes to all the available support given to our growth.

Penang, a Tropical Island of Heritage

Never have I really done any visit to the places of interest of my own hometown taking public transport. Everyone is so used to taking their own vehicle. It's called "convenient" because one has the freedom to follow own schedule and pace. Most of all, I guess it is all about avoiding the hassle of squeezing with others.

However, thanks to the courtesy of Ministry of Tourism (MOTOUR) and Project Penang, a trip on a very comfortable Rapid Penang Coach to one of the many specially designed routes has given me an opportunity to experience my lovely little Penang in a very special way.

It is Route number 101 where the journey starts from Jetty Penang and ends at Teluk Bahang (and return). We started the trip at 9am, given 45min to make visit respectively, enjoyed a one hour very delicious lunch and reached Jetty around 6pm. Along the way we stopped by KwanYin Temple, Penang State Museum, and the bus terminal at KOMTAR.

KwanYin Temple is one of the renown temple in town. It's located along Pitt Street, next to Penang Chinese Town Hall. Being the oldest temple in Penang, it attracts many people throughout the year.Every 1st and 15th day of Chinese Lunar Month, people (mostly Taoist) will come for prayers and make their wishes. During then, all of the architecture including stone crafting and wall painting were done by masters from China. They are still well-kept until today (after more than two hundred years). I am always fascinated by the look of the sincere faces as they hold up high the jossticks in their hands when praying. It is as if I could see/hear their whispers wishing for good health, luck and abundance in their life endeavors.

Penang State Museum stores the stories of how this almost invisible land on world map was notice and how it has prospered since Sir Francis Light back in 1886. This old premise that host artifacts and witnesses of development is reaching it's limit and will soon be extended to another building in Macalister Road.

For those who wishes to jump on different buses to their target destinations, you can either look for what you need at the Jetty or KOMTAR because these are the only places where all the buses meet.

Next stop, the 33-meter Reclining Buddha (at Wat Chayamangalaram) and Standing Budda (at the Burmist Temple) in Pulau Tikus. I don't want to tell you how incredible it is to see such a big statue lying there peacefully listening to visitors. What I do want to tell is this temple is open daily from 6am-5pm and it is free entrance. And another thing I do want to tell you is drop a 50cents into the box and ask your question in your heart. You will be amazed how Buddha can actually answer you without miss.

After some serious thoughts seeing the power that faith could possibly provide, it's time for some fun - The Toy Museum. Situated in Tanjung Bunga, it comprises countless number of toys under one roof. Too bad the limited space that houses so many innocent dreams was less organized and the ventilation was not very pleasant otherwise it would be the best place for parents and kids to hangout together sharing one common language - TOY!

Before our journey ends, we came to the floating mosque as well as Tropical Spice Garden.

This place of worship were built not very long ago. Watching this solemn building standing high over the water, a tranquil and peaceful feeling arouse. It is important that people of different belief have the compassion and tolerance when it comes to the topic of human race and mankind. No division should come in between because the fundamental of a prosperous world is love and respect.

Everyone knows at least one thing for sure: Penang is popular for its existence since centuries ago, being the platform for east and west to meet for barter system in exchanging what they want with what they have. And the most popular of trade during then was SPICES! Today, some of the wonderful aroma ingredients for cooking as well as herbs for medicine can be found here. Tropical Spice Garden has become the place of study for scholars and this very common looking garden actually contains endless discoveries waiting to be realized! Under these shades, I can really feel how unselfishly the humility and generosity of mother earth providing us the ground to learn and grow!

Penang is a beautiful place.

I have always tell my friends, "if there is one reason I cannot leave this place it would be it's beauty". It has greens, sea, sunshine, rain, and most of all, a lot of mouth watering food.

Feel it with your heart when you set your foot on this island. You will agree with me and many foreigners who finally decided to spend their lives here after visiting.

Many thanks to the invitation to this trip. It has been a very valuable journey.

Dance Day for Earth

Being responsible and care for nature does not mean only not littering or not wasting natural resources, although both means so much in keeping the planet cleaner and healthier. There is another thing that is still lacking - love, that includes make connection with mother earth. It is like taking care of our house, or more personally, our body. You not only keeping it clean (hygiene) but also maintaining your body in a tip-top condition at your best and at the same time paying attention to feelings and level of esteem.

In conjunction with World Dance Day, this year Penang is holding it with the title as "Dance Day for Earth"  emphasizing on soul connection - human to human, human to earth, and earth to human - from children to teenagers and adults, caressing the soft grass that is rooted to the soil.

 
Held at Fort Conwallis Penang in small groups, all workshops maintained the learning process effective by limiting the number of participants.The weather was not too good, big sun all the while and came dark clouds followed by down pouring, but it eventually helped to keep the number of patrons small.

Aida said, "although we received many students last year but it was too crowded and we end up not knowing whether the students benefited or what have they learned".

Different workshops including expressive dance for children & adult, contemporary dance, hip-hop, traditional Chinese dance, traditional Malay dance and improvisation session.

 

 

 

"This year we might not have such overwhelming response but we can monitor the progress and it will help us to do better next".


Sometimes it really isn't about the scale we do things, rather the effectiveness make the difference. To cultivate that awareness of allowing our body to listen to the whisper of mother earth is awakening our natural born instinct to connect with our source.

Before wrapping up the day, the showcase session consisting modern Japanese dance (performed by Ms. Hitomi), contemporary dance (performed by Phor Tay Private and Han Jiang Private), traditional Borneo dance, hip-hop and finally a part of River Project, delivered one very important message - connection happens when we pay attention.

One thing I like very much about the night: the rain put everyone, performers and audience, under one roof on the stage (because that's the only place with shelter) - we all perform and watch at the same time in our lives, thus play that role with people around us and most of all live up to the fullest!

A journey down to confronting life's events

A trip to JiuZhaiGou is arranged since end of last year. The best time to see that place is October and John had fought with others over the bandwidth to get into the everyone can fly airline's server to make that purchase. 5 of us going on backpacking waiting to explore the scenery that we have long heard. Both me and Joie are so excited about it.

But it seems thing has decided not to happen the way we thought it would be.

We learned that his brother is getting married right in the middle of our trip 2 months after everything is set. I can recall vividly it was an evening when we were driving my monther-in-law and our future sister-in-law to a relative's wedding dinner. I asked whether the date for the wedding is confirmed since we were told it'll fall in August. Kym quickly answered, "ya, it's October 23rd for the reception and 24th for the ceremony".

"But I thought you both said it'd be in August?" I said. "Oh no, we have decided to choose October instead" she replied.

The tickets purchased on special offer have no way to change date except paying much more than buying new tickets. The only way is to change the wedding date, for as long as there is restaurant to accommodate the guests for reception.

Time flies, nothing fruitful has come about yet.

Everyone thinks the same: it's just a trip, you can always go other time. Unlike getting married, it's once a lifetime thing.

Little did they even know: it is a backpack trip which means all members go as a team. We can't simply back off from everyone else being such a irresponsible person.

So what outcome is awaiting ahead?

I wonder..........