Penang again!

I *heart* Penang! Am seriously wondering when will I ever get bored going to Penang ha-ha. Okay, before this my friends and I were actually planning to go Langkawi with Jing Xuan aaaaaaaand at the same time, to, erm, meet her friend *eherm* *wicked grin* But anyway, cut long story short, plans changed and yeah, we went Penang instead haha! You guys wouldn't imagine how many photos we took. It's like everywhere we go, then... *whips camera out*. Girls! Haha!

Us on the ferry

We took a cab at 6.00 a.m from our hostel and reached Shahab bus station in Alor Setar around 6.30 a.m. Then we took a one and a half hour journey bus to Butterworth. We slept like logs throughout the journey cuz all of us slept around 2a.m the night before (what with all the church evangelical outreach event and assignments).  From Butterworth we took the ferry across into Penang island. Basically, we travel on foot or take CAT (Central Area Transit) all around Georgetown. So it's really A LOT of walking, walking and walking. Walking isn't always ideal for Malaysia weather though, it's like we're walking inside an oven. But! Walking with friends, a backpack over your shoulder, and looking at all the other backpackers from various countries walking together with us is so nice! I really really really really love the feeling of walking anywhere I want and talking local public transports. LOL. 

Chew Jetty

We visited Chew Jetty, again. Haha! This time 'round we saw lots of tourist walking all along the jetty, most of them Singaporeans speaking loud English. Chew Jetty is actually a whole settlement of wooden houses built on stilts on the shore. It is said to be one of the homes of the Chew Clan community for more than a century. And now, it has turned into a tourist hot spot. You can see lots of souveneir shops all along the jetty. There are still residences living on the jetty too.

Durian puffs! 

Yieng Sing introduced us this small stall selling really nice durian puffs and all kinds of fruit ice-creams. It's just right at the end of Chew Jetty.  The uncle was really friendly and nice too. He offered to help us take photos and even gave us a map of Georgetown.

Of cuz, we had to take a picture of us eating them durian puffs hehe.

After that, we started our long walk to Queen's Hostel, which is located on Lebuh Queen. I had never been on this street before so it took us quite some time to find it. Queen's Hostel is the only girl's hostel in Georgetown, if I'm not mistaken. Per night per person is RM 59. And we were really lucky because we got a 10% off! *grins* All toiletries like shampoos, shower gels and conditioners, including hair dryers were provided. There's even a full length mirror, much to our excitement haha! And and and and, most importantly, we were provided with free filtered water anytime we want. Zoe, the staff who welcomed us, was really really nice. We arrived around 11a.m although check-in time was at 2pm. But she still allowed us to place our bags and pick the beds that we like. Did you know that all the beds have different colours? Also, she gave us a thorough tour of the whole hostel and even recommended us nice places to visit or nice food to eat. Nice right!

Canopy beds!

This is the girl's dorm. It's like a princess bedroom! *screams* Each bed has a lamp and an electrical socket. Very convenient, isn't it? Every night before you sleep, you can let down the curtains if you need privacy, or else you can just keep it button up. There's also a small living room at the end of the hostel, equipped with plushy sofas, table stands, books, magazines and a whole row of nail polish (which we can use to our heart's content) LOL. 

After checking in, we went shopping at Prangin Mall and First Avenue. So we shopped the entire day, much to Yieng Sing and Angela's utmost horror (they just hate shopping ;P). We also hunted down the all-famous Char Kuey Teow at Jalan Siam. It's a roadside hawker stall selling the one and only dish--char kuey teow.  The unique thing about this char kuey teow is that it uses charcoal as the main fire source. The level of the fire is controlled by the uncle (seen in the pic) using a fan.The queue was horribly long, but nice food deserves to be waited upon~ HAHA. 

THE famous kuey teow that kept us waiting for an hour! I took this photo online because the kuey teow was immediately gobbled up upon serving. We did not even stop to take pictures because we were so so hungry. Highly recommend this stall's char kuey teow! It was really delicious!  *thumbs up* Just in case you're interested, the stall opens at 3p.m and will sell until finish baru tutup. Pack some for me if you're going hehe ;P

Penang is also famous for all the quaint cafes which are getting highly popular. So we looked up a few of the recommended cafes in Penang.

Sugar honey cafe. Located on Campbell Street.

Sugar honey waffle.

We ordered the cafe's signature sugar honey waffle. It comes with a whole glass of ice-cream and fruits. The waffle was drizzled with honey and chocolate, and had a really crusty top. We ate it together with the ice-cream. And and and and the waffle was really thick! Almost like a cake. It's not at all like the normal waffle that we used to eat. The cafe owner even served each of us a glass of mineral water FOC. *Big grin* Very nice hospitality right? (: The cafe also serves a variety of waffles, pastries and desserts, all of which sounds very delicious ahahaha. 

Welcome to The Safe Room! Also on Campbell street, just doors away from Sugar Honey and Moustache Houze.

I googled this cafe online before setting off to Penang and found out that it was among the top must-visit cafes, so yeah, we dropped by~ A safe room is originally a panic room or a fortified room that is installed to provide shelter and safety during home invasions, terror attacks or other threats. And so the cafe uses this idea of a safe room to store love and vows in the so-called safest place.  There's a "love tree" erected in the center of the safe room of the cafe, where you can see lots of handwritten, scribbled, lovey-dovey comments hung on the tree with locks. It's something like those trendy love-lock thingy that you get to see on bridges.

DD inside the safe room. *Laughs*

Liquid nitrogen cocounut ice-cream

This cafe is also famous for liquid nitrogen ice-cream. The secret of this ice-cream is the rapid freezing of natural fruit juices. The liquid nitrogen causes the fruit juices and and the water particles to stay very small. Goal is to avoid ice crystals-similar to what you get when you make ice milk. So according to food science experts, rapid freezing preserves the nutrients in food. The cocounut is their signature ice-cream  (it's like we only order signature food wherever we go haha!)and it was really really really very nice *drools*. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED HIGHLY RECOMMENDED HIGHLY RECOMMENDED I REPEAT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

And of course, we took lots of pictures! ^_^

The perfect group photo~ *wink*

四连拍. Meet Winnie the Pooh and her Tiger roommie!

Photo taken at Kaffa cafe, a cafe situated directly opposite Queen's Hostel. We entered this cafe randomly out of boredom *hehe*. Turns out, the atmosphere of the cafe was really nice, with musics and artificial lighting. There were two guys playing guitar and singing on the stage too. Now and then, people will applause and ask for another round of song. All of us ordered a mug of hot chocolate each and just sat there chit-chatting, idling away~ haha! I just love the idea of sitting at cafes and doing nothing LOL, something my parents still fail to comprehend until now *laughs*. It would be really nice too if I have a storybook and a notebook by my side to jot things down. Cafes and books. Awww. The perfect match. Teehee.

20 Chulia Lane Cafe.

So just like the name, this cafe is located on Chulia Lane. How did I come to know this cafe? Well, the owner of the cafe commented on our instagram photo, telling us to feel free to visit his cafe. Haha! This cafe was just opened like, a month ago, very new! When we entered the cafe, the cafe owner, Daniel, excitedly introduced us all the varieties of nice+ best-selling food. We really had a hard time deciding because all the food really does sound delicious, and and aaaaaaannd, to add in guiltily, we ate a very big breakfast before that. In the end, we ordered a chocolate moist cake and his signature dish-baked salmon pasta.

Say hi to baked salmon pasta! 

That's the first pasta with cheese that I've eaten in almost a century (keep in mind that I really hate cheese). So yeah, can you imagine how delicious it was? I mean, words can't describe the awsome-ness of this pasta. What are the other words you can use to describe food, besides delicious? Appetizing. Mouthwatering. Tasty. Heavenly. Exquisite. Scrumptious. Now that I'm blogging about this, I'm kinda missing this pasta awwwwwwwww. So yeah, if you're in Penang, it's-a-must to drop by this awesome cafe. *Big grin* I really love this cafe what to do what to do what to do *yodels*. Did I mention that it has a really nice toilet? I mean, clean and beautiful toilets are really important. Some impression of beautiful cafes that I've been to are just ruined because the toilets are awful.  LOL what am I talking about. *smacks own head*

3D Art Museum.

This is the latest 3D art museum. It's just located right next to the old 3D interactive art museum haha. And of course, the main aim in going to art museum is to take lotsa nice photos. *grins*

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Last day last day!

*laughs* Photos with our beds is-a-must. Even our bedrooms back at home didn't look that nice. Another of our perfect Penang trip with a perfect closure. Big thanks to Kah Heng who met us in Penang just because he saw our photos on facebook and drove us around for breakfast and for midnight nasi kandar and and aaaand accompany us on our shopping craze with the full patience of a gentleman. (; It's really nice to meet a friend from your hometown all the way up north. I'm kinda looking forward to my next trip to Penang. It's one of my goals to try out all the nice homey inns and cottages haha! Till then!

*Randomness*

Finished the book Paper Towns by John Green. Brought this book merely because I love "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green too. Turns out, the book was just okay. But! Emphasize on the word but. But I really really really LOVE the central idea of the book--of paper towns and paper people living inside their paper houses.  In the author's note, John Green writes about how paper towns were not real places, but names of places on maps created to protect copyright infringement. Mapmakers make fictional entries on their maps as a way to tell if others are copying them. I love the idea of paper towns so much so that I even looked up the study guide of this book.

"It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined."

"Maybe its like what you said before, all of us being cracked open. Like each o us starts out as a watertight vessel. And then things happen-these people leave us, or don't love us, or don't get us, or we don't get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack in places. And I mean, yeah, once the vessel cracks open, the end becomes inevitable. Once it starts to rain inside the Osprey, it will never be remodeled. But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And its only that time that we see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs. When did we see each other face to face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade, but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out."

And I'm

Just a paper girl

living in my paper town