Penang-KL 11-14 Dec 2009

My last trip to Penang was about 5 years ago. This time I was passing by for a factory visit. We took an 8hour drive to reach Penang. The GPS took the guess work out of our minds and worked great.

Its funny, when we reached, I had no memory of the roads, having been to Penang a number of times it was an unusual feeling. I came to a conclusion later on that it was because there had been many changes to the roads and Architecture. There are now Big Jusco malls and many high rise condominiums everywhere. Penang is rapidly modernising.

The old town feel was somewhat lost, it was only when I reached the inner recesses of the island that everything I was so familiar with came reeling back.

I dropped by my distant auntie's place for a visit, even her place has changed. The roads outside were packed with cars and was jammed. Apparently, the Kek Lok Si temple was having its unveiling of the new Guan Yin rooftop. We took a short climb to view the temple which always look majestic to me no matter how many times I've seen it. We left quickly as it was getting hot and crowded. I said good bye to my aunt and we left to find the Chendol!!

We had Cha kway tiao, Chendol, lor bak, nutmeg, tau sa pia....etc on our list. We reached Penang Rd and found the infamous roadside chendol, the place was really crowded. The chendol too seems to have lost its usual flavour from my memory. Well, thats what happens when you get well known, you lose quality. Still it was better than most Chendol in Singapore.

Next was Cha kway tiao, unfortunately it was sold out and it was only 1pm!!! Luckily the Lor Bak was available, the retro looking coffee shop helped made the food taste better!!

                                                      

                            

                                                   

Then we grab some pickled Nutmeg and Tau Sa Pia and left Penang. We had to reach KL by evening if we are hoping to grab some more great food.

KL was the same as usual, we went to Petaling St and booked the Malayan hotel which was quite old, later on while walking around I found better hotels at lower prices, next time maybe.

After checking in I went straight to the food!! Glutton!!

First stop, corner of Chinatown black Hokkien Mee, what can I say, it tastes amazing. I was on a mission.
Next Zainal's satay just round the corner, I've had Jakarta's famous satay and Singapore's best satay, but KL Zainal's satay is the best 3pieces of meat I have ever put into my mouth.
By now, 2 large drinks, 1 Medium Hokkien Mee and 12sticks of satay later, my stomach was going to explode. I headed back to the hotel after walking it off a bit at the Pasar malam.

We checked out the next day morning and Mike used the GPS to locate a friends recommendation of Roast Duck and Pork. It was at a street selling power tools, I guess roast pork and hard labour go hand in hand. It did'nt fail to disappoint, the roast pork was really crunchy and crispy and the aroma was to die for!!

We filled our stomachs and left for Kluang.

It was a very rushed trip but we managed to squeezed in lots of eating in between. Not a good thing these days due to my way overweight mass. Still, whats a trip up North without great food.

                                                               

Mutton soup at Kitchener road

28 Nov '09

Today Eddie, Jimmy, Boon Chong and I went for a makan session at Kitchener road juction coffee shop(opposite scissors cut rice). The main draw was the mutton soup. Which I find delicious!! The soup tastes so good but I can't help wondering how much salt and msg was in it! I will definietly come back for the mutton soup.

We had cha kway tiao too but that was very disappointing and I would not recommend it. The fried oyster pancake was much better but because its deep fried in oil that I don't know when was the last time its changed, I would not recommend to weight watchers and health conscious foodies.

I took some shots of the coffee shop and it looks like we are having a meal in a Malaysian coffee shop!! Its one of the last remaining old school coffee shops around and I have the feeling its not going to stay like that for long. Sad.

So if you feel light having mutton soup with the atmosphere of the seventies, please try this place before it disappears!

Project Single Speed : Part 2

I have completed my single speed build and its now displayed in the showroom.
It looks alright I guess, I will be putting the decals on it next week.

Rare Owl Sighting : 27 Nov '09

Last night while walking to a bus stop, I spotted an Owl perched on a high fence. The bird of prey was probably out hunting as there was an open field infront of the fence.

It was very dark but thanks to the backlight of some road lamps some distance away, I managed to see a silhuotte on the fence. I managed to creep below it slowly and just before it spotted me I snapped a picture of it. Its not clear at all as my mobile phone camera was practically useless at such low light. I managed to set it at night scene mode before shooting and that helped sightly. Even at such low light and the grainy cast of the picture, you can see the signature big eyes of the owl's distinct look. It was beautiful and probably the closest I ever got to an owl outside a cage. I estimate it to be about 50cm in size from where I was standing.

The last time I sghted an owl was many years back at Kallang river park, and it swooped down to catch something I did'nt noticed at all.

I am glad that such a magnificent Bird of Prey still exist in our urban landscape. If only more trees are planted and more bird santuaries are planned in little pockets of our ever "urbanising" country. 

Give nature a chance.

Project Single Speed : Part 1

Started my project to rebuild my 27" single speed to look like a fixie.
Its to be displayed in my showroom.

I selected RJ London spray paints Cerulean Blue as the basic frame colour. The rest of the parts are going to be matt black.

Just finished spraying the frame, so far so good.

Next will be the parts, so far the rust removing has been a pain in the ass!

To be continued......

Xu Jia Ying LaLa in town

Went down to bugis to see Xu Jia Ying aka LaLa perform. I hardly listen to any chinese music but she really caught my attention with her performances on the Taiwan Million Star variety show.

She writes most of her own songs and their melodies sounds so good to me 'Live'. But unfortunately her CD album did not managed to capture the sounds of her raw vocals and folk guitars she did during the 'live' shows of the contest. Most unfortunate for her. This is probably due to the producer producing her album. Many times I have attended concerts where the Artist sounds so much better 'live' than the CD. We call it over designed in my field.

Anyway it was great to be able to hear and see her 'live', such a charismatic girl, no wonder she is such a good composer.

F1 Rocks Singapore!!!!

F1 night race Sept 25-27th Sept 2009.
I love the atmosphere F1 brings to our island, its like the whole city suddenly comes alive!!

The weather was hot and hazy and by the second day I was really burnt out. High decibels, fumes, babes, $10 hot dogs, Aston Martins, Porsches, Formula BMW, what more can you ask?

Hamilton won and Alonso managed a third. Looks like Jenson Button is going to take the championship this year(Boring).

Alonso has been confirm with Ferrari for the next three years, Alright!!!!, I am not a fan of his but he is the most deserving driver from my view to take the Ferrari seat, he is the best driver out there anyday. Raikkonen should just go back to Finland and do farming. . Looks like we are going to be getting lots of win by Ferrari next year, watch out the rest!!!!

F1 Fernando Alonso in town

Fernando Alonso was in town for the F1 night race. I was invited to the STILE launching of their Alonso inspired Silestone range of products.

Fernando arrived late and sporting a bad mood, apparently he had just woken up as his body was still running Euro clock. It has been a week filled with rumours and accusations of his move to Ferrari next year and the Renault crash inccident at last years night race.

He was not very tall, I think approx. 1.65m. Quite surprised.

The place was packed with people and it was obvious that most of the people there were not invited as they were fans.

They hogged the double F1 world champion and I had to throw my cap given at the door to let him sign. It never came back. Crap!!

Before I left I saw the staff at Builder's shop carrying like 20 caps away to hide!!! WTF!!! Very disappointed with the organising and staff involved. I left feeling cheated!!

Mountain Biking Bukit Timah 19 Sept 2009

Finally, after riding most of the mountain bike tracks in Singapore for the past few weeks, we will be riding Bukit Timah Trail(BT). Its my favourite bike trail here on our island as I find it to be the best balance of fun and agonising pain.

Randy, small V, Foong & I had arranged to meet at 10:30am at BT carpark. Foong picked me up at around 9am and we had breakfast first. Upon reaching the BT carpark it started to rain heavily. It was really pouring and Randy & Small V was nowhere in sight. After a telephone conversation with Randy, we decided to "hang out" at Beauty World Plaza while waiting for Randy & Small V to arrive and wait for the rain to subside. By the time they arrived it was already noon time and the rain had just stopped. We made our way to BT quickly for fear that it might rain again.

After gearing up and some photo taking, we started the trail. From the first spin of the cranks, we know that its going to be a wet and dirty ride. I had borrowed a friends K2 bike for this ride as mine was dead. It climbed very well as it was a cross country full susser but going downhill on a wet and slippery BT was pretty hairy!! 

It was Small V's first time at BT and he was cursing at all the climbs although I know he secretly enjoyed it!! I rode behind Randy on some of the trail and I notice him struggling with his SPDs and negotiating the downhill sections. BT's more suited for platform pedals as the terrain is very unpredictable and theres zero trail maintenance.

It seems like my stamina has built up from the last few rides as we finished BT in shorter time compared to my previous ride there. We went straight home after the ride as we were dirty and tired.

Pulau Ubin Mountain Biking 15th Sept 2009

Randy, Small V and me had planned for this trip for a week before finally actually doing it.

It got off to a bad start in the morning when Foong did'nt pick up my repeated calls despite sounding enthusiatic the night before. Later on he called me when I had already began biking on Ubin that he had over slept!!!!

Small V had to make a detour and pick me up instead. We manage to squeeze 3 bikes and people into his Honda Fit and left for Changi. We met up with Andrew and Eddie at the hawker, they had already finished breakfast so I suggested that they go first. After breakfast, small V needed some gear from the bike shop and had his rear and front deraileur adjusted.

We purchased the tickets at the jetty, $2.50 per person and $2 for each bike. We took the boat with a few expats who were going cycling too. It was a short ride to Ubin and we made our way to the Bike park from the jetty in very short time.

The bike park was about 10-15mins ride from the jetty. The leading road in turned from tar to granite gravel so I was begining to grumble as I thought it was going to be like Tampines all the way. WRONG!!!!!

The start was a long climb up a grassy hill overlooking the mainland and it was quite a sight. Unfortunately we were too shacked out to enjoy the scenery. Next we were deciding which route to take and Randy suggested back to the jetty!! Hahahaha!!!! I strongly suggested the double black diamond trail and was met with some resistant. We just rolled forward and the next thing we knew was we had already entered the nightmare start of the "Xiong" trail.

At first I was delighted as it was dirt trails instead of gravel but it reminded me of Kent Ridge park so much. It was all technical climbs and hairpin turns. It took us lots of pushing and cursing to clear the knoll. Just when I thought I could enjoy some downhill it all came to an ubrupt end with an endless series of short sharp climbs followed by sharp drops. It was very agonizing as we were not familiar with the trail. We managed to stop for a breather and chatted with some fellow bikers.

At this point, my chain was starting to show signs of wear as it keeps skipping the casette. Three quarters through, it could'nt take anymore abuse and broke. Just when I took out my chain tool it started to rain!!!! Great!

I struggled through the chain connection but with Randy's third hand tool I finally managed to fix it. By then all of us were drenched and the trail was really hazardous, any miscalculation meant a painful fall on the rocks and wet mud!

Small V did'nt disappoint the rain gods and took a tumble at a steep hairpin corner going downhill. Luckily he was'nt hurt bad and we managed to make it out of the trail.

We took a short refuge at the chalet and then made our way to the town. We chose the most traditional looking coffee shop and ordered  lunch. Randy had sambal fried rice, Small V had bee hoon and I ordered salted fish fried rice. We also shared sambal kang kong $8, deepfried oatmeal prawn $18 and fried calamari $10. I must say the food was pretty good and I will definitel eat there again. 

After the overeating, we went for a ride along the roads of Ubin, passing some really cool kampung houses in their original state. It really reminded me of my grandmas house which I really enjoyed the best times of my childhood.

We finished the ride with a drink at the first coffee shop that was beside the jetty. It was run by an

old malay couple in their 70s or 80s. A plaque on the wall says that they have provided free electrical power to the Ubin jetty for 14years for the safety of boatman and passengers. Thats really hard to find on the mainland nowadays. Most people are preoccupied with hoarding materail gains rather than giving. I took some goofy shots of Randy and we left the island.

          It was a pretty long day spent on Ubin and we were really burnt out so we headed home. I will try Ubin again but with a better bike and fitness.