Yes, we did the booking and so we went. Everything was smooth and we glad that there is nothing much happen throughout the trip and we hardly feel that there is protest going on but we need to take extra careful and try not to go near places where mob gather like in Chid Lom, Ratchadamri Rd and Silom. This 3 places is the business center having few of the famous hotel and shopping complexes like Central World, Zen, Siam Paragon closed down thus leaving us only to others shopping mall like Platinum Mall (wholesales store)

We @ Bangkok for 5 days 4 nights but only 3 full days in Bangkok as touch down at Suvarnabhumi International Airport around 12 pm Thai local time, Malaysian time is 1 hour ahead so is 1 pm. Getting out from Airport to hotel, check-in already about 3:30 pm including having lunch at Airport. Can’t wait to get food in town as we were very hungry end up having our lunch in Cafe’ Nero by Black Canyon. I like their coffee very much, taste like those coffee bean and star buck but low in sugar where you feel the strong coffee taste.

The hotel we book together with AirAsiaGo package includes flight + hotel and we have choose The Ecotel Hotel, we search the internet review are not bad about this hotel only thing that it does not have much facilities, just plain room and a mini mart at the lobby. Luckily we have printout the location map from the internet provided by The Ecotel Hotel written in Thai language on the direction,as some taxis driver doesn’t know Ecotel hotel so it’s very handy with the location map. The taxi driver from the Airport doesn’t know the location and we show him the map, he look at the map quite sometimes and we started to worried whether the hotel is a hotel or motel ?? The taxi fare cost 400 baht that is  much cheaper than here.

Once we check-in to the hotel, took some rest and head down to find the nearest mall or places to hang around for half day since almost dawn. When we come out from the hotel, there are many tuk-tuk driver will approach you to offer ride. Here you have to bargain and make yourself clear on how much they charge before jumping into tuk-tuk else you are paying more than you should. We consider lucky that get approached by honest and nice tuk-tuk driver manage to bring us go round the town just cost 10 baht with condition that he will drove us to 3 stores in order for him to claim petrol when he bring visitor to their stores.

He bring us to Gems Stone Jewelry, Diamond Jewelry and Fashion Taylor, you doesn’t need to buy but just take a look will do. Gems and Diamond store you still manage to spend more time since there is so many design and you eyes will not stop seeing all those stones.. blink blink!!. The toughest is the Fashion Taylor where you need to spend at least 10 min there in order for tuk-tuk driver claim petrol, we don’t have any intention to make any suite or shirt and we have to pretend like to get one. All the sales guy are from Middle East and i find the guy not really friendly sounds like forcing you to get one on the spot without much thinking.

The tuk-tuk driver name is “Kit” sounds like Chinese and I got to know that 70% of Thailand is Chinese, no wonder we saw many thai’s skin color are very fair especially those leng lui. Saying about leng lui, almost every corner you manage to find one with the model look and my eyes non-stop drooling… it also can gives you energy to walk around . Kit also gave us his mobile contact in-case we need his service and we did call him to drive us few places where we find you charges not expensive compared to others after surveying.

The hotel is not too far from Platinum Mall its about 20 min walk from the hotel and you can enjoy the local food along the road. We did not walk there, we want to save our energy on the shopping mall rather on the road side end up taking Tuk-tuk cost only 20 baht. On the first night, we had McDonald Samurai Pork burger as our dinner where this was not sold in our country. We took 1 burger only and continue to the street for Thai local foods like noodle soup, bbq pork stick, fried oyster, tom yam gong and etc. During the stay we hardly feel hungry, you can get most of the food almost on every street so not so easy to get starves there.

We fly Air Asia as we manage to get the free flight ticket last year, 1 thing about Air Asia that is the flight schedule will changed every now and sometimes you will get the notification about the changes and sometimes you won’t. As for our return flight was re-schedule from 4:30 to 9:05 pm but my uncle was not so lucky when he was in Hanoi where he did not get the notification and cause him stay another night at Hanoi where he only know the return flight was change to tomorrow afternoon as there is no longer night flight, that’s what Air Asia crew said. I re-check my schedule again few days earlier before take-off here see if they have any other changes and you can also use the same link to check your flight info as well.

We reach @ Phuket International Airport around 7:40 am (local time 8:40 am) and head out to look for transportation after getting the luggage. Once out from the arrival hall there are many taxi driver asking whether you need a taxi service and cost around 650 to 750 baht depend on the area you going. So we look around to look for budget alternative that is bus, good thing is their busses is not really a bus but is a van and the price per person 180 baht. It takes about 1 hour drive from Airport to Patong, Karon and Kata Beach as our hotel in Kata Beach. After few min from the Airport the van stopped at their office, said they need to know which hotel we were going to so they will arrange which route to go. But they also showing us the island tour package to Phi Phi, Phang Nga island tour and we got ripped off there as they said the price include full day onboard with lunch, elephant trekking and taxi back to airport when we back. The deal was quite attractive as i’ve check online the price is ranging about 2,800 to 3,000 baht and they offer us about 2,200 baht per pax, so we grab the offer didn’t think off checking few places first that’s our mistake. On the day 3 post will tell you more on the package.

It really took about an hour drive only reach the Peach Hill Resort @ Kata Beach and we check-in around 12 noon while waited the bell boy to bring us to our room. We ask the reception on what is the best place to go and pricing about the taxi service and the hotel staff recommend us to their hotel taxi service to check how much is the price for a full day sight seeing, bring you to see most of the traveler will visit. The initial price was 1,800 baht and we manage to negotiate to 1,000 baht but scarifies a bit on the place to visit. The taxi driver Mr Prasit was very friendly and driving his old Volvo 850 for our tour but who cares as long as we manage to get to the places right. So we plan to get the taxi service for the second day trip as the Phi Phi island tour was on the third day. Mr Prasit also told us that on every sat and sun they will be a night market near the Phuket town as that day was sunday, so we ask him how much is the price to go there and the price was 700 baht that’s the best bargain we can get as for Tuk tuk famous transportation in Thailand also cost 500 baht 1 way trip but we paying 700 baht for return.

Night market is the place you have to go as you can get to see many daily usage item by thai and also some of the local food that is so delicious that we can’t get em hold on too. We had BBQ pork (pork satay although swine flu not yet reach Phuket it should be safe to eat pork), seafood cracker, noodle (serve in Keoy Teow or bihun), thai dim sum and Phad Thai. BBQ port taste like satay in M’sia but it slightly sweeter as they put honey and the meat cut into thin slice and barbeque it to perfection..yummy as for the noodle it had crispy pork, pork intestine (such as liver, stomach, kidney) and meat with the tasty soup smell like Bah Kut Teh in M’sia but it taste just perfect with all the ingredient. Other than food on the night market, you can get to buy local made neglects, shirts, bags and etc…mostly suite for girls and for me food is the best…

Before heading back to hotel, we stop at the local hypermarket BigC to get some mineral water, fruit juice, yogurt and tidbits for our 5 days stay as the tap water here is not safe to drink where hotel only gave 1 bottle of 1.5 liters a day that’s not enough for both of us. After that we head back to hotel and prepare our self for the day 2 schedule.

Stay tune for the rest of the days…

Eye on Malaysia was launch on 6 January 2007 in conjunction of Visit Malaysia Year 2007 Celebration, hope next year will have another attractive event for malaysia.

I went for the ride on October as they said might bring down on December but then they extend the ride till today. The ride was quite enjoying as you hardly notice you have been up to the sky and the spectacular view from the sky seeing the KL city.

If got chances I will go for a ride on London Eye as the ride was different from here, the ride was on a capsule type where you will have to stand inside and the capsule will rotate to balance out the movement and you can see the whole London city.

Wish my dream come true.

This is really worries us when we travel anyone can open your luggage to steal or put something on the bag and you won’t know it. For those who travel a lot, please make sure to find those luggage bag that is safe and reliable. Have a look on the video here.

Source : YouTube

Lorong Bangkok – Seng Lee Cafe Mee Mamak

Batu Feringhhi Goreng Pisang

Lorong Abu Siti – Air Kelapa Pandan & Lorong Selamat – Fried Kuey Teow

Gurney Drive

Foh San Dim Sum

Teochew Cendol

Pulau Tikus Kopitiam

Lorong Baru – Ho chien (Fried Oyster)

Source : Google Earth

The view there is not consider very nice but you can enjoy nice food beside the seaside is consider a very good view right… too bad there is no beach for a walk else will be more good feel. Quite surprise that this restaurant have different stall for different kind of food, although all is seafood. We order 3 dishes that is fried lala, kong po mantis shrimp and vege. I miss understood Boon Tau that he mention is steam crab and I thought is mantis shrimp, so order the wrong one but I find all this food so delicious but a bit pricey.

After dinner not much place to go and we went to Batu Ferringhi again to buy some DVD’s , as it selling dirt cheap so what are you waiting for… right. We walk on that street around 1 and half hours then we went to Lorong Baru at the corner there have a lot of food stalls. For easy to find this place, look for Sunway Hotel as is it same row with it. We like the Ho Chien and Popiah there, we been there for 2 nites just for the fried oyster. We pack the fried oyster and drive back to hotel enjoying while relaxing.

The next morning we pack our thing and prepare to back home. Cheah and Alex is one of my customer was around that area and he bring us to Pulau Tikus for breakfast as he was penang lang quite known the nice place.

I had Prawn Mee and order some pan cake as we seldom see on kopitiam selling those. After breakfast we heading back to KL and that’s our trip to penang and hopefully will travel more place to post more good food places.

Special Thanks to:

1) Boon Tau

2) Cheah Foo Liang

Courtesy : Penang

My wife favourite toy….Doreamon.

One i like most is “Muar Chee”, is a something like dol dol that mix with blend peanut.

 After the dinner at gurney, we went to Batu Feringhi as along the road side infront of the hotels you can see a lot of stalls selling bags, t-shirts, dvds and others. It just like pasar malam but you can’t find stall selling thing to eat.

They next day morning, we went to Wat Chayamangkalaram is it a Siam and Thai temple. Both temple is just across the road and we went in to give some donations for repair works on the buddha statue.

After that we went to Pulau Tikus but its not an island as its just an area they call it Pulau tikus. Not sure why that area is call Pulau Tikus and that’s doesn’t bother us as we just want to find the Mee Mamakat Seng Lee cafe. This mee mamak was introduce by Axian and it caught our eye when it show on tv program so we get the address.

Its not really hard to find this coffee shop as you can see it on the main road of Jalan Burma. Compare with KL mee mamak this one is slightly different on the sauce taste, overall consider tasty. We just order 1 plate to share as we only want to taste it and continue to look for others foods.

Off we go to Kek Lok Si Templebut we didn’t go up to the temple as we been there before. We stop at the pasar for asam laksa as that place is famous for it and we had 2 bowl. The taste is just perfect with the combination of the ingredients that make it delicious.

We walked up to the walkway to the temple as along the walkway there is stalls selling souvenirs, we get some for our friends and we saw one uncle just open for business as we reach there quite early not much people around. Just amazing how long does this uncle takes to take out all the things he sell? see photo below.

I think is a bit small to see here, actually behind Jun is all the things that the uncle going to take out before he can go into the small shop.

to be continue…

It not really high but both of us not keen to go upstair, but if you got chances should walk up and have a beautiful view to the sea. Fort Cornwallis is an old star-shaped fort and was built by Captain Sir Francis Light in 1786.

After that we go to Komtar not for shopping but searching for Cendol  as it recommended by Boon Tau. He is one of my relative best man and he really knows every little ”lubang” in penang for foods. This cendol stall located nearby the pedestrian bridge and look for a hardware shop on your right hand side if you’re coming from komtar building. The cendol stall is behind the hardware shop and you can use the small road beside the hardware shop to access it.

So tasty till my wife does not leave a single drop but if compared to Melaka cendol, I still prefer Melaka one as the Melaka brown sugar taste is very strong and yummy. The price is reasonable as selling at RM 1.60 per bowl and I only notice after I take a photo of the stall that Pua Chu Kang ate there too. We continue after having our starter heading toward the Lorong Selamat via Jalan Burma, in the middle of Lorong Selamat there is a chinese coffee shop and we try the Chow Kuey Teow  credit to Boon Tau.

Although this Kuey Teow abit pricey but is comes with 3 big prawn and it taste good.

to be continues…..

Mostly is elderly enjoying their early tea with a group of friend chatting, we do enjoy seing them so enjoying life with all the laughter and smile among them. Most enjoyment is the food there is tasty and more choice as those dim sum is not commonly saw here.

After breakfast, we depart from Ipoh around 9:45 am heading to Penang our main destination. On our way to Penang, we discuss whether we want to go by ferry as our first time visit is by the Penang Bridge, so we decide to take the ferry instead as i saw on paper few days back that ‘goverment plan to shutdown ferry services when the second bridge build’ not sure if it’s true.

Ferry services is very enjoying as you no need to drive and just wait for the ferry to bring you over plus you can enjoy the beautiful view as the wind breeze through. My dad’s car have chance to abroad ferry for the time..:) it took about 20 min to reach George Town. It just a waste if goverment plan to close down ferry service as it was an historical ferry service, it can be a tourism place or just let our next generation to get a feel it.

to be continue………