Vacation in Langkawi

We boarded the 8am ferry from Penang and arrived at 11am, had our lunch, then headed back to my place to put our luggage. Our first destination was the Telaga Harbour. In Langkawi, there are 2 places where you can see a lot of yachts. One is here, another is near the Kuah Jetty. You'll see that in the later photos.

At Telaga Harbour, one can find several shops facing the sea. Most of them are restaurants which are very romantic especially at night. Also located here is 'The Loaf Bakery and Bistro' owned by Tun Mahathir.

From Telaga Harbour, we went to Tanjung Rhu. Tanjung Rhu has the best beach in Langkawi. The water is clean, the sand is white and fine and the scenery is breathtaking. At this point, you are nearest to Thailand!

This photo is taken at Tanjung Rhu Resort. If you plan to have a quiet holiday, this is the place.

We had our dinner at Palm View Seafood Restaurant. In my earlier posts, I did mention that the price of seafood here is reasonable. Most of the seafood here are fresh and swimming, unlike the other shops that sell dead seafood displayed on ice cubes. If you are unlucky, you'll get those that are not so fresh.

Our second day started with an island hopping trip. First, we went to Pulau Dayang Bunting. It's an island that looks like a pregnant maiden. There's a fresh water lake in this island.

Our second destination is somewhere near a group of islands where we saw our boat commander fed the eagles. There were about 30 eagles flying above us waiting to be fed.

After that, we were taken to another island, Pulau Beras Basah. Nothing great here, but you can go for a parachute ride and play the banana boat. If you come with the snorkelling goggles, then you snorkel with the colourful fishes.

After the island hopping trip, we paid a visit to 2 temples, Loung Phor Khun Temple and another Wat Tham Kisap.

Our 3rd day was spent shopping. You know la....girls like shopping. Even when they are on vacation. We managed to finish shopping in about 3 hours because the shopping mall here IS not as huge as those in KL (Thank God!). Soon, we found ourselves at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, another destination for the yachts.

Since we still have time before the sun sets, we went to The Westin Resort for a stroll on the beach. Aiya, who says only unmarried couples can walk hand in hand on the beach? My personal opinion, this is the best resort in Langkawi.

Our day ended with a takeaway pizza with a bottle of champagne by the sea. Well, sounds simple but she did love it. So do I. An advice to married couples, try something different every now and then. You'll be surprised by how your spouse react to it. That's what that keeps the affection going on and on....

You may wonder why we did not go to those tourist destinations as promoted on websites and brochures. Well, this is her 2nd time in Langkawi. The first time, we managed to cover almost everything on the brochures but we were quite dissapointed with the outcome. I'm sorry to say this but they are all a waste of time and money. Who would want to visit the Mahsuri Mousoleum or Beras Terbakar? A vacation on an island means you should be under the sun, in the water and playing with sand with your loved ones, ain't it?

CNY @ Penang

We travelled back to my in-laws place on the 2nd day of CNY. As usual, we got stucked in jams at Seremban.

On the 4th day, we left for Penang. If I'm not mistaken, my last visit to Penang was 4 years ago.

We decided to use the ferry to get into the island. We arrived at noon. We hang out at Taman Kota & Fort Cornwallis before heading to Lorong Selamat for it's famous Char Kuey Teow. At the shop, there are varieties of food, including Prawn Noodles, Popiah, Soup Noodles, Lobak and Muar Chee. I did not notice that the Char Kuey Teow wasn't the once famous Sisters Char Kuey Teow. The Sisters CKT has moved to another shop all by themselves, selling nothing but their CKT. Nevertheless, the CKT that we had tasted good as well.

After lunch, we headed to buy some Tau Sar Pneah. The famous one is made by Him Heang. It's a white building, opposite Hotel 1926. There are many copycats with the same 'Heang' at the back....eg. Gee Heang, or some other 'Heang's but Him Heang's is still the best.

After that, we headed to the famous temples. I never knew that there are 2 temples opposite one another. One is a Burmese Temple with a Standing Buddha, while the other is a Thai Temple with a Sleeping Buddha.

Since we still have time, we went to the Khoo Kongsi. I used to be quite familiar with Penang roads, but I have to admit that this Khoo Kongsi is very difficult to find. We were rounding inside Georgetown for about half an hour. We almost gave up until we met a traffic police who showed us directions to the Khoo Kongsi. Luckily, we managed to arrive before 5pm as the ticketing counter closes at 5pm sharp. The entrance fee is RM4 for adults and RM2 for children. After looking at the architecture, the design of the main hall and all the wall paintings, I was so impressed.

As we exited the Khoo Kongsi, there was another temple nearby. This temple is called the Yap Kongsi. I believe during the earlier times, there were many families or clans who tried to make a name for themselves. But not many prospered like the Khoo family.

That night, we had seafood at Teluk Kumbar. It's a restaurant by the sea, called Hau You (Good Friend). Unlike it's name, this place isn't so good to us after all. We were slaughtered horribly! A steamed grouper the size of my palm cost RM65. A kilo of meat crab (small size - half my palm size) costs RM60. We didn't mind paying a bit more as it's CNY, but the price is really too much.

The next morning, we went to Penang Hill. It's quite warm up there due to the crowd that gathered since as early as 7.30am. Nothing much to see, except for a view of Georgetown from the hilltop.

After Penang Hill, we went to Kek Lok Si. At the foot of Kek Lok Si, we had our lunch. We had Asam Laksa. Although it looked the same, the taste has changed. It doesn't taste that good anymore.

From the foot of Kek Lok Si, I can see that there is construction of pillars and roof to cover the Bronze Statue of Kuan Yin. The pagoda remains the same.

Along the stairs up the hill, there are many small traders doing their trade. After some bargaining, I got myself some colourful T-shirts for RM10 each. Cheap isn't it?

It's hard to believe how commercialise Kek Lok Si has become. Going up to the Kuan Yin Statue, one need to use the cable car. It's RM4. Going up the pagoda, one has to also pay the same amount. According to the temple authorities, all profit goes to the temple. It also surprised me to see a monk standing behind the cash machine as cashier. I do not mind giving donations or some token of appreciation but seeing them imposing fee for this and that, it made me shake my head in disbelief. It's supposed to be a place of worship but now it has become a tourist attraction. There are also monks on loudspeakers asking devotees to donate by writing their names on tiles which will be used to cover the Kuan Yin Statue. Apart from that, one has to also pay to write their names on colourful sheet of tiny paper to hang on the wishing tree. Sigh....

At night, we had our dinner at Gurney Drive. It has changed a lot too. There are more stalls and are more clean and organized.

As we passed by Gurney Plaze, we noticed there were some drums along the main entrance. I guess it's for the celebration of the Jade Emperor. Hence, we took some photos. The drums were really nice.

Our visit to Penang ended on the 6th day of CNY. Instead of heading home, my wife and I went up North. Check out where we went in the next post. Tata.

CNY 1st Day Brunch & Dinner

It's been a tradition that we have brunch (breakfast/lunch) for the 1st day of the new year. This year we had steamboat. It's a rather easy way of getting food ready on the table. Okay, I don't deny that I'm too lazy to cook...Hehe. Anyway, I forgot to snap pictures of the steamboat. Never mind. It's just like any steamboat that you guys prepare. The soup is boiled with chicken bone and lots of anchovies for 2 hours. If you want tomyam, all you need to do is to get the tomyam cubes from Tesco of Giant. Of course it's made of AJINOMOTO, but what choice do you have?

For dinner, we had quite similar food. I have to admit that I'm not a Shangri-la chef, but I'll be experimenting more of the recipes from cookbooks. Hopefully we'll have more varieties of food next year.

The easiest to prepare is definitely the 'yau mak' in oyster sauce. In English, 'yau mak' is Romainne. Just steam the Romainne in boiling water for 1 minute, then pour in some oyster sauce and add shallot oil. Caution : don't cook the Romainne too long, otherwise the leaves will be too soft and you won't get the crunchy bites.


We had steam pomfret in teochew style because my wife loves this dish. It's also quite easy to prepare.


We also had lemon chicken. Deep fry the pre-marinated chicken and then add the lemon sauce. Where to get the lemon sauce? Bingo! I got it from Tesco... It comes in a packet for one serving. However, the lemon sauce is too sour, so you have to add some water and other ingredients to dilute it eg. honey, sugar, etc.

Next is butter prawns. This is my favourite. Although it didn't turn out to be what I expected, it still tasted good.

Another prawn. This time it's prawn in bread crumbs. Prepare the prawns (peel the head and shells), dip in egg and add to the bread crumbs. Deep fry until golden in colour.

If you do cook yourself, you'd notice that most food that I cooked are deep-fried. Why? It's easier to prepare, definitely. But it takes up too much time. Unless if you use more oil. But then again, after deep frying, what are you gonna do with the oil? It goes down the sink.... So, why waste?

CNY - Reunion Dinner

We were supposed to depart from KL in the afternoon, but my wife's Cina-man boss ruined it all. They were forced to work up to 6pm, despite their normal half day Saturday, 2 days before CNY. How inconsiderate!



We end up having dinner in KL, and started our journey at 9pm. Reached Melaka at 11.30pm. We chit chatted a bit with my dad, and my dad suggested to go to the Batu Berendam Wet Market at midnight to get some fresh seafood, so that we can sleep a bit longer in the morning. However, most of the stalls weren't open yet. We had no choice but to go again the next morning. We woke up at 6.30am. We managed to get some small pomfrets(I guess the bigger ones were already pre-booked by restaurants), prawns, cuttlefish and some vege. We detoured to the Sentral Wet Market to get some pork and chicken.



It's a tradition for all Chinese to have a reunion dinner one day before CNY. Since my mom is no longer here with us, I have decided to be the one preparing food this year. I always think that I have the cooking talent within me! One of the reasons why I'd volunteer to cook is that I will have a choice of my favourite dishes.



Yee Sang is a must! It's a combination of fresh raw salmon with a whole lot of vege. All the ingredients are tossed in the air, the higher the better, in belief of achieving greater heights in the year ahead.

Other dishes that I prepared are the Oats Prawn, Kailan Combo (Fried stems and deep-fried leaves), Mixed Mushroom, Steamed Chicken (A Must!), Anchovies & Kailan, Guinness Pork Ribs, Steamed Fish Teowchew Style and Lotus Roots Soup.

Oats Prawn

Fried Kailan Stems & Deep-fried Kailan Leaves

Mixed Mushroom

Steamed Chicken

Kailan & Anchovies

Guinness Pork Ribs

It was a satisfying dinner, really... I've never thought that I'd cook such nice food. Haha.

More food pix coming in my next post... By the way, Happy 'Bai Ti Kong' to all Hokkien friends.

Happy Chinese 'Niu' Year

It's the year of the Ox. Will this year be bullish or bearish? It seems like the world economy is heading downwards, but there is still hope that the bull will fight it's way up again.

I'll be heading to KL today, instead of tomorow as planned, due to work commitment. After work, I'll do some light shopping. Tomorrow, I'll do more shopping, especially for groceries and food. You know, after my mom passed away, living in a house of 6 guys who depended so much on home cooked food is so taxing. Luckily I enjoy all the shopping, washing, cutting, slicing, steaming, frying and decorating....The end result, you get some delicious, saliva-dripping food on the table. It really satisfy me to see my XL size brothers gobble down every bit of these food.

I'll make this post short 'cos I gotta shower and leave for the airport.

To all who will be driving home, drive safe.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy Chinese 'Niu' Year.