New Year in Chiang Mai - part 1

I am here in Chiang Mai solely for the New Year, thanks to the very encouraging write up by https://www.ensquaredaired.com/chiang-mai-new-years-eve/.

I've always been curious with the mass lantern release experience. Whenever I heard anyone mentioning a personal experience of being in the middle of it I'd tend to lose my cool, get one step excited and insisted them on narrating their feelings on it. Well now I'm here, and we're about to find out in three days' time. Meanwhile, let's narrate a little bit on my journey to Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand.

Being Charming

     If you've been to China House in George Town, Penang, you'll notice how narrow the corridor of this cafè is; and somewhere along this corridor, we were sitting minding our desserts when the usual happened quite unusually.

Final Part: KL - Central Market

My travelling partner and I unanimously chose the Central Market as one of the places of attraction to visit in KL. It wasn’t because we have never been here, it was more to us being what I would like to call, the tourist-have-beens.

Who has not been to the Central Market back in its glory days in the 80s and 90s?

It was even part of the essential place to visit in any school trips to the capital city of Malaysia. The real reason we chose to make a couple of hours stop at Central Market is for reminiscing sake – of the times we were here with our parents, barely the height of their chests, still holding on to their hands. Recalling the times spent with friends when we were still in school uniforms for after school extra classes, or just a spot for meet up before the high-end shopping malls, Starbucks and the “20-Cool-Cafes in KL” trends began.

Back then, Central Market was the place.

Hotel Putra, Jalan Tun Razak, KL

Despite having been here close to the fifth of time, I have only realized that this hotel is situated amongst these buildings last weekend.

Venice's Menace

The man took our picture leaning against the ponte and his partner did not seem very amused. Reason why at times I prefer to be exploring a certain new places by myself or in the company of other photography junkies. That way, we can possibly take all the time in the world, keeping completely to ourselves during the journey.

This is not the best picture I took of Venice from my trip 5 years ago, but this shot relates too very well with what I've come to learn today.

Part 3: Little India, Kuala Lumpur - what's there?

Little India is a town filled with lively colours. We’ve picked the month of Deepavali to visit this part of the city to witness the livelihood in the highlight of its vibrance. Allow me to share some of the pictures from the stroll we had in the midday sun.

Part 2: Little India, Kuala Lumpur - Lunch

We arrived at the hotel around 11am. Although the check-in time is 2pm/3pm (displayed as 2pm but confirmed over the phone at 3pm), there was already a room available for an early check-in for RM50. Thinking that the money should be better spent on food instead so we asked the ever helpful receptionist to help store our bags first, until we came back for check in.

After a simple refreshment of ourselves in the privacy of an early morning deserted hotel lobby washroom, we head back towards the LRT to our first target of destination: Lunch at Little India!

banana leaf mutton curry yellow rice

Part 1: ETS Train to KL

Now this time around, I had a 2-night hotel stay at my disposal in October. Well, it was actually prepaid by yours truly for making the rookie mistake of accidentally booking a non-refundable hotel stay.

It was supposed to be for my Standard Chartered run weekend, but as it turned out, my knee pains had developed into an arthritis upon having them checked up in May. Thus, with a heavy heart, I had to forego the half marathon event I registered in February. Lucky for me tho', the hotel management was kind enough to reschedule my hotel stay and we've picked the recently passed weekend to plan a quick excursion to the city center, KL.

We took an early train at 6.15am from Bukit Mertajam train station in Penang (mainland). If you're travelling from Penang Island, you can take the ferry to Butterworth train station to board the same ETS (Electric Train Service) train from Penang to KL Sentral (Kuala Lumpur). 

Hatyai Trip - Part 2: Foodies in Hatyai

We arrived in Hatyai at 1pm. Aloha Hotel was just about 4 minutes away from the Hatyai Junction train station. I turned on my offline map and we made our walk towards the Hotel (50% on my hunch..shhh don't tell my travelling partner).

We passed by a KFC restaurant along the way and they had a big banner of cheesy chicken on display, the one that was discontinued in Malaysia some time ago, the same one that is dearly missed. Hunger immediately made a nasty nudge on our tummies, considering our body clock was way passed 2pm Malaysia time. Lucky for us, the hotel room was ready and check-in process was a breeze. Dropped our bags, refreshed for a bit and made our way for the first food stop in our list.

Centara Hotel's PadThai - well, I don't know if this was the best PadThai in Hatyai but it served us well. It wasn't complicated, the place was nice, proper and it got us recharged for our next quest.

Hatyai Trip - Part 1: Train to Hatyai

We had an extra Public Holiday at our disposal on Tuesday of 30th July 2019. We thought, let's excite what would be a normal weekend of eating, shopping-malling, be on the road, with something not so different but not entirely predictable either. What we had in mind was basically, let's do 'Penang' but with an extra zest.

So we took Monday off for a trip out of town, which eventually became out of the country, to another food haven, shopping paradise, massage treatment, cheaper hotel rates but with the same crisp bedsheets, that is Hatyai.

We measured our options, booked a hotel with a location between the train station and the town, and yes, we ditched the car and chose to play a little backpacking by riding the trains.

A Picnic for Two

A throwback to July to that time when we accidentally outdone ourselves in the kitchen for a picnic for two.

So extra

- buttered rice

- sweet and sour ikan bawal

- ikan goreng and fried trout

- banana choc muffin with a touch of cinnamon 😍😍

- keropok ikan and keropok lekor

- karipap

- papaya and cavendish

- nasik goreng from last night

Typhoon's Tail

This post is a bit lengthy, recalling the typhoon that hit the northern region on the eve of the long Hari Raya Aidil Adha weekend, 9th August 2019. Though the impact was not as bad as how Langkawi received, the 100km/h typhoon tail was still terrifying to a certain extent over in Penang.

At the time this post was written (15th Aug 2019 in Facebook), news websites reported some 300 trees were uprooted, softening the impact of the typhoon for the residence. Dubbed the costliest typhoon, the recorded total damage exceeded RM60 million.

Meteorology department circulated warning did not reach most of us in time. Thus, how me and my partner in crime ended up caught in the middle, along with thousands of other road users en route home for their Raya holidays over the weekend.