Madam Kwan

Madam Kwan is a local restaurant serving Malaysia cuisines. They have many branches all over KL and Selangor. Their famous dish is nasi lemak (direct translation is “fat rice). My personal recommendations are nasi bojari, satay and banana fritters with ice-cream.

P/s: Dedicated to Calvin so that he can at least have a look of their food :p

Cendol - not recommended because the syrup is not fragrant.

The George & Dragon

The George & Dragon @ Bangsar Shopping Complex (BSC) is a non-halal and extremely porky German restaurant loved by Shum Lik and many other people. The portion there is huge and almost all of their food is delicious. Nice environment and overall the price is reasonable.

According to Jac, this is a bit dry.

Victor's favourite pork burger - huge!

Done - Yummy pork knuckle with mashed potatoes & vegetables

May 5

May 5 marked my 3 years of service in HDS. On the first year of anniversary, there were around 20 of us. Pavilion was just within walking distance and we had Tony Roma’s there. It was really a celebration with laughter and good food. On the second year of anniversary, the number of people who joined reduced to 12 pax (this number had just reduced to 10 pax). It was a little bit sad as many of our close friends have left. This year, the number of the people joined reduced to 10 pax. I can feel that everyone is going on their own ways. It is a part and parcel of life but I still find it hard to accept. Looking back at the emails once written by us and the laugher we had, I miss everyone!

Yut Kee

Yut Kee @ Dang Wangi is a pork-oriented Hainanese kopitiam. Haha… just kidding. They serve roasted pork, pork chop, roti babi and also other things such as chicken chop and pandan rolls. For an old kopitiam, the environment is quite clean and they have a considerably wide selection for food.

I went there with Jason and CJ for breakfast and the place is full. But we did not have to wait long before getting a seat. We ordered pork chop, chicken chop, roti babi, pandan roll and coffee. All of us were full and satisfied. The roti babi cost RM8 but the taste is fantastic. The total bill came out to around RM20 per pax which we find it acceptable for the amount of food ordered and the quality.

Heard that they will be moving but I am not sure of when and where to. Shall revisit this kopitiam again soon and hopefully they are still there :)

Roti Babi

Pork Chop

Roasted Pork

Convocation & Vacation in Oz

In conjunction with my MBA convocation on March 29 (Tuesday), I spent my vacation in Oz with my brother. I spent around a week there, around 4 days in Melbourne and 3 days in Adelaide. My KL-Melbourne return flight cost around RM1.5K (inclusive of insurance, 15kg baggage and onboard meals) while the Melbourne-Adelaide return flight cost around RM400 per pax (inclusive of one 15kg baggage shared by both my bro and I). The exchange rate was around 3.07 and rates for HSBC credit card was higher by around 0.1. So, things in general are really expensive after conversion to MYR.

Convocation in Adelaide is very different from the one in Malaysia. The event was well organized and ended according to schedule. We met some HK friends during the ceremony and Matryna, our friend from ESSAM during our own celebration dinner at River Restaurant. Nice place beside the river, the food and service are splendid.

The Cities
My first trip to Australia was in 2002. It was also my first overseas trip on a flight so I was really excited. I revisited Australia after around 9 years. In my opinion, city wise, cities Australia is like a mini version of London. A lot of roads and places in Melbourne and Adelaide have names which are similar to that of London. E.g Bourke Street, Collins Street. Both the cities are square-ish and not that huge so it is relatively easy to move around on your own.

In Melbourne, you can see a lot of Asians, especially China people. It is true that the locals said that you can experience 4 seasons in a day in Melbourne. The weather is very unpredictable. In the morning it can very cold, then summer-like weather after sun rise and extremely cold at night. Transportation in Melbourne is very expensive but convenient.

Due to energy saving, the locals do not keep their lights on. Well, as a result, there not many lights around the city and hardly any lights in the housing area. The locals feel comfortable with it but for me, something is not in place and I do not feel secure.

Shopping
For me, Australia is not a nice place to shop for clothes. If you want to get something cheap in Melbourne, Victoria Market is the place. There is a stall there selling hand made nougat for AUD 48, less than a kg (for the factory made ones, you can it at AUD 28 per kg). Though expensive, it is really delicious! With a strong taste, lots of nuts and non-sticky to your teeth. My favourite will be the chocolate favour.

Food
Australia is a nice place to spend for food and leisure. I love the pastries, chocolates, dairy products, Italian food and wine there. There are so many of varieties of pastries that I unable to try all of them. Their lamb and beef pies are highly recommended. You can get a huge lamb pie for only AUD 4.90! Cakes are around AUD 4-5.

Chocolates are easily available in supermarkets such as Coles for around AUD 2. Dark Chocolate Mint Tim Tams is simply delicious. The Dark Chocolate Rum Raisin is just so-so. Note: The dark chocolate there is not bitter at all. The taste is just nice.
Surprisingly fish and chips are easily available in Australia. I personally like their chips because it is “fat”. Sauces need to be purchased separately at the price of around AUD 1 each.

There a lot of small cafes around and all the coffees served is fresh brew! Of course some shops are nicer and some tasted normal. Highly recommend Brother Baba Buban's coffee. Overall the coffee are all creamy~

You can find a number of Italian restaurants at Lygon Street. The pizza and pasta are simply delicious. They are very generous for the ingredients and its fresh! For the pizza, it cost around AUD 10-20 while the main pasta cost around AUD 25. For the portion and quality, it is quite worth the price.

Hungry Jacks is the Australian version of Burger King. Fast food is considered as cheap there. The Angus beef burger is very delicious. A double beef set meal cost around AUD 10.

Sightseeing

Melbourne
Trams in Melbourne are interesting. But after some time, you will find them normal. In Melbourne there are a number of museums but we do not have the time to have a detailed tour. Admission is quite expensive as well. I heard from Uncle Low that Melbourne Aquarium is almost similar to the one in Singapore so we did not make a tour there.

For Melbourne, we purchased 2 day trips for the price of RM406 via Air Asia Go, namely the Great Ocean Road and Penguin Parade. Meals were at own expense. These 2 places are a few hours from the city. Therefore the journey is tiring and we only manage to have a glimpse of everything. The Great Ocean Road is beautiful. I love the moment as the waves hit against the rocks. Penguin Parade is a bit disappointing. Churchill Island is beautiful but there is nothing much there to see. The Koala Reservoir is a total waste of money and time. There are hardly any Koalas and we looking high and low for them. The Wallaby (mini kangaroos) are cute. The little penguins are cute too but there are not many of them.

Raymond rented a car and drove from Melbourne to Adelaide. According to him, he enjoyed the long drive, picking up lots of apples and chasing the kangaroos away with the apples. Maybe in the future should try driving around Australia if we have a huge group.

Adelaide
Personally I prefer Adelaide over Melbourne. Adelaide is more quiet and with more greeneries. It is known as the “city of churches”. You can find a number of churches and old buildings around the city, which reminded me of Sheffield. Runder Mall is not a mall, but a shopping street. You can say something like the Bintang Walk in KL.

I highly recommend Hahndorf, Glenegl and Cleland Wildlife Park for visit in Adelaide. Hahndorf is an old German village now dominated by retirees. The environment is very relaxing and we enjoyed the food there. The “Bee Sting” recommended by Michelle is very delicious. AUD 10 for the whole piece (which can be further divided into 5 pieces). Glenegl is very beautiful. Seagulls there are huge and fat. They are not afraid of strangers and approaching us for food, very different from the pigeons and crows in Malaysia. I heard from Desmond that during summer the beach will be packed. Around the area, you can find Bracegirdle’s House of Fine Chocolate Café. Their hot dark chocolate drink and Belgium waffle are extremely delicious! Only in Adelaide. For Copenhagen Ice-Cream, the add-ons are FOC! They chocolate syrup, M&M, chocolate chips and so on. Cleland Wildlife Park is recommended as you can have a close up of the animals, including patting the Koalas!

Last but not least, I would like to thank Uncle Low & family & Harvey, Michelle & Desmond for the hospitality during our stay in Australia. Thanks to Sri & wife as well for the delicious dinner. Not forgetting Shili & Robin, Amos & Uncle Wai Yen for the meal :)

P/s: Please see my FB for pics.

Fong Lye Restaurant

Fony Lye is a Taiwanese restaurant in the Gardens, just opposite Sushi Zanmai. I have tried their fried chicken, potato balls, spring rolls, fried rice and spicy noodle. They are all very delicious. The portion is quite good. The fried rice can be shared by 2 pax. On the top of my list are their fried chicken and potato balls.

* Cash terms only. Go there early as the waiting time can be really long.

Papaya milk - I still prefer the one in Taiwan
La Men - Very nice, especially the soft tofu slices in there

Rolls - Very tasty

Potato balls - Crunchy outside, soft inside. Recommended to eat while hot.

Fried chicken - Very frgrant and crunchy. The best I have eaten so far.

Fried rice - the rice is a bit spongy and it blends well with the other ingredients.

Hui Shan & Khai’s Wedding @ Kuantan

It has been a long time since I had a road trip to people’s wedding. Hui Shan and Khai’s wedding was held in Kuantan on a Saturday. Danny, Ai Chin and I departed from Damansara on Friday afternoon. The journey there took around 3.5 hours due to the hilly roads.

Hui Shan and Khai rented a few home stays and we stayed in one of the houses. The whole double storey with 5 rooms cost RM300 per night with beds, blankets, heater, towel, soap and television. There is a water machine in every house. The environment is quick clean. The rooms reminded me of Dragon Hostel in Hong Kong. It is a good place to consider for team building.

Our beautiful bride and bridegroom

There is a lot of land in Kuantan and everything seems to be “big”. The buildings and town structure reminded me of Penang in the 80s. Even though Kuantan is a small city, there are a lot of cars on the road and the roads are very confusing. One of the most happening malls is East Coast Mall. You can find Starbucks, Big Apple, Sushi King etc there.

Food to recommend:
- Ikan bakar
- Curry mee

The journey back to Damansara took only around 3 hours.

CNY 2011

This year I was home around 5 days before CNY. Not much spring cleaning has been done as my room seems to be a second store room now. Many areas are not accessible and almost all spaces have been stuffed with something. I just tidy up areas which are more accessible. I would say that my only achievement is cleaning up my wardrobe and photo albums.

Some of my other achievements include:
- Karaoke at Neway Queensbay Mall
- Sugar cane juice at Batu Lanchang market
- Pandan jelly cake at Sunshine Square
- Tau fu fa at Kampung Pisang

As usual, Penang is very hot around CNY. Cold drinks and ice-cream were going off quickly. Not to mention, it was extremely hard to sleep without an air condition.

It was the first time we had a reunion dinner in the hotel and the experience was not really good. We had it in a Chinese restaurant in Cititel Hotel, Penang. It cost around RM500 for a table. The food was not excellent and the service was not good. We spent much time complaining about the slow service. Atmosphere wise it was quite noisy as there were many other customers. I would personally prefer a small and quiet dinner, enjoying the television programs after that.

There was a lot of meet up and gatherings this year, especially on the third day of CNY. There was a grand high school gathering in Heritage Club after 10 years of graduation. When I saw my teachers aging, I realized how fast time has passed. Many of my friends are getting married or planning to get married. It was then I realize that I do not have such “achievement” in life.

It seems to be a family tradition that we held barbeque in our house, inviting relatives over. It is something good and enjoyable though the preparation and cleaning was a hassle. My mum is getting good in the marinating sauce, my bro is getting good in setting up the fire and barbequing, and my dad as usual is good at the PR portion.

The journey back to KL was terrible. Everywhere was jam. The rest houses were packed with people and cars.

Overall it was rushed but fulfilling.

Air Asia Tips

1.If a flight ticket contains multiple people, it is possible to pool for the luggage. For instance, the luggage allowance for person A is 15kg. A only has 10kg luggage. If B is in the same flight ticket as A, B can utilized the remaining 5kg.

2.If a flight ticket contains multiple people and one of the people is not boarding, the other people will not be able to utilize the person’s luggage allowance and meal.

Korea '10/11: Day 6-7

Day 6: Namsan Park, Teddy Bear Museum, N Tower, Namsangol Hanok Village and Myeong-dong

On the same day, I realized that N Tower is just next to Myeong-dong. We walked from Myeong-dong Guest House to Namsan cable car station. The slopes were slippery due to the snow. Along the way, there are plenty of restaurants selling dongkatsu. We took dongkatsu at one of the restaurants as our breakfast and it was not bad.

We continued with our journey to Namsan cable car station after our breakfast. It was just a short way from the restaurant. One way is 6,000 won and the return fare is 7,500 won. The scenery at Namsan Park and the N Tower was very beautiful. There are a lot of decorations there due to Christmas and New Year. I was very excited when I saw two huge polar bears with Santa hats in front of N Tower. They were cute but not nice to hug.

There is a Teddy Bear Museum in N Tower so we bought the observatory package consisting of the admission to Teddy Bear Museum and the N Tower observatory at 12,000 won. If purchase separately, it will be 8,000 won each.


Teddy Bear Museum was amazing and the bears in costumes were extremely cute. If you are a fan of a 2005 Korean drama called Gung or Princess Hours, you will be thrilled to see the teddy bears in the museum. The museum is separated into two sessions and be sure that you visited both. View at the observatory was not spectacular. At least I was not impressed.


Namsan Park is also reachable by bus. From the N Tower, turn right and walk all the way down till you see some buses. We took bus no. 2 to the Korean traditional village at 800 won.

We had lunch in one of the restaurants beside the bus stop near the Korean traditional village (Namsangol Hanok Village) and it was the worst Korean meal I ever had. It was tasteless and Korean dishes are not meant to be like that. Strictly not recommended!

Admission to the Korean traditional village is free. On New Year’s day, there was a ice sculptures exhibition. It is rabbit year and there were some rabbit sculptures. In the village, there are free games and Koreans dressing up in traditional costumes. It is an interesting place to visit for those who have not seen Korean traditional houses before.

Our last destination on New Year’s day was Myeong-dong. Myeong-dong is a huge shopping area with lots of shops, restaurants and people. Here, you can find a lot of street performers. We had dinner at a hidden restaurant near Uniqlo in Myeong-dong. This shop is recommended by Dr Andrew for its bibimbap. It costed 9,000 won each. We ordered a Korean style steamboat for 35,000 won (2 pax worth of portion). The side dishes consisted of seafood such as mini crabs. Although expensive, it was very delicious and we enjoyed it.

After dinner, we went for a major shopping and bought lots of cosmetic and souvenirs. There are many local brands for cosmetic here and they have a wide range of products, from lipstick to cleaner. Masks can be easily bought at around 1,000 won. I bought an eye shadow (two colours) for about RM10 and a lip gloss at around RM12. I bought a purple down jacket from Uniqlo for 79,900 won (around RM240) and like it very much.

P/s: Please note that in some tourism brochures, you can find some discount vouchers. For the Facebook, we manage to get a 5% off for purchase of 50,000 won and above. My bro got a 10% off as he purchased more than 100,000 won. Free colourful calendars were available as it was around New Year!

We had some soju and aloe vera after the long day. It was not that bad.


Day 7: Nami Island Lotte Mart

How to go to Nami Island?
Take a subway to Cheongyangni. From there, take a bus or train to Gapyong. The journey by train or bus (1330-3) from Cheongyangni is about 1.5 hour. At Cheongyangni bus station, there is a display for the waiting time. To take a train, go to a building with Lotte Mart near Cheongyangni bus station. Once reaching Gapyong, take a taxi to Nami Island jetty. The taxi costs around 4,000 won. Admission to Nami Island including the return ferry is 8,000 won.

Nami Island is a small and relaxing island. It was one of the filming locations of Winter Sonata and became famous after that. Along the walkways, you can see lots of tall, slim and straight trees. In the island, there are no electric poles. You can also find lots of fire place around. Food there is not very expensive as well. We ordered a bibimbap at 6,000 won each. (Okay, I know we have taken lots of bibimbap for the whole journey).

Bibimbap ingredients

Korean Pancake

The decorations around the island were special. Overall, I had this country side feel. I still remember that evil white rabbit with wet paint, causing my gloves, camera, glasses and new down jacket to be coated with some paint!

Due to the traffic jam, we got back to Cheongyangni really late. It is recommended to the train instead. We had dinner at a food court near Lotte Mart and went for a quick shopping after that. This food mart consists of 3 levels! We bought some food at the first level and ran all with our might back to the hostel.

Cheongyangni Nightview

P/s: The food in Korea is comparatively not so expensive. They have more variety for biscuits and tea.

Throughout the whole journey, I would say that we were considerably lucky. We do not have to wait too long for buses and just-in-time for most of them. I dropped a lot of things due to the bulky and multi layer clothing. You tend to drop or loose something, which is quite frustrating.
See FB for more pics.

[THE END]