Day 1: Trip to Hatyai (Part 1)

Second trip to Hatyai. Overall, the trip had been really satisfying. It's a 2 Day 1 Nite trip. Depart from Penang to Hatyai by using a van that cost a RM52 per person (return tickets). It took roughly about 4 hrs to reach Hatyai main attraction area including the time that you need to spend at the border for passport checking.

Van I took to HatYai from Penang Island

Entrance to Grand Plaza Hotel

Booked to stay in Grand Plaza Hotel. Just directly next to Lee Garden Plaza. The hotel itself is quite old but overall it is clean and the staffs over there were very helpful. We managed to delay the room check out time from 12 p.m to 2 p.m. However, the room price is a little pricey than what I expected, about 100 Baht per nite including breakfast. After checking into the room, I went to Lee Garden Plaza for a stroll.

Entrance to Lee Garden Plaza

Inside Lee Garden Plaza, you can find McDonald, Pizza Hut, Swensen, Boots Pharmacy, Cinema, Food court etc. Highly recommended to try the McDonald's Samurai Pork Burger. Yummy! Can't find it anywhere else.

Lotsa cheap stuffs!!

Bookstore inside the plaza

Karaoke

Had Thai Chicken Rice..highly recommended!

After the meal, I proceed to visiting areas outside the plaza itself including the floating market. Will blog on this further. Stay Tune!

Favourite: Fried Noodle with Roasted Pork

Yes, I like this particular dish so much.. Sorry for the photo's quality as it was taken through iphone. There is a similar dish in Sarawak, fried tomato noodle is what we called there with tomatoes tasted sauce. In Sarawak, they used the yellow noodle but here in Penang, egg noodles is used and the sauce is mainly light soy sauce. I like the fried noodle, always crispy and with the light tasted sauce, it's heaven!!. The roasted pork is just nice, tender and the skin is cripsy enought. I ordered this meal from Max Restaurent in Penang. Price at RM6.90 before tax. It's a single person portion but enoough to fill you up. Together with some green veges, it's definitely a star ++ meal to order.

Ko Phi Phi Don

Phi Phi Don is definitely one of the prettiest island that I've went to in Asia. The water is crystal clear, can see the bottom from the top. I went to this island with a 40 mins speedboat ride through the jetty in Phuket. The speedboat roughly took about 30 passengers on it. Quite comfy at least for the price that I paid for. I bought a tour package from the booth in Phuket for a price of 100 baht a person including hotel pickup, several islands visit, snorkelling and lunch. It's a whole day tour from 8 a.m to 4.30p.m. Remember to bargain with them before you actually buying the tour packages. By the time I reached the island, it was quite pack with tourists. There's nothing much you can do here besides sun tanning and swimming around. Can't do much of snorkelling here as there aren't any fishes or corals to see. Basically I spend 30mins strolling around the beach here and took photos. I still like it..a very relaxing moment with a stunning view.

On way to Phi-Phi Don

SpeedBoat I ride on..

The beach

Toilet available for light usage 20 baht

Packed with tourists

I'll definitely be visiting again some years later. Hope by then it's still as stunning as it is right now. I'll be blogging about Khai island soon. Catch up with me.

Rice Writing Art

I first learn of rice art when I watch it from the television. During my past visit to Kek Lok Si, Penang, I've seen it myself the art of writing on a rice. Yes writing on a rice. It's not something easy as you need skills and proper tools to write on such a small rice. For many, rice art is considered to be bringing good luck and wishes to somebody. Rice art mostly be displayed in a form of pendants, bracelets as well as key chains. Personally I prefer it to be in pendant form. It makes a good gift for people. You may request the writer to write your wishes, your name or anything as long as it can be fit into a rice. The overall process only took 3 minutes..so fast.

After the writing, you can read the words/sentences through a magnifying glass and it is readable in such a small rice. Stunning art work.

Do you enjoy Fish Spa?

Finally, I decided to do it since the spa I found is pretty cheap, Rm15 for 25 minutes or more actually. The girl will first clean my feet with warm water before I was to soak my feet into the aquarium full of fishes (not sure what sort of fishes). Woo..the first feeling is very itchy haha but getting used to it after a while. The first 10-15mins, all the fishes come to suck my deadskin but after a while, not much of them do so. I reckon that the deadskin are lesser?

The GOOD :

• Exfoliation of dead skin
• Lightening the skin tone
• Soften the skin on my feet!
• Release stress as it's kind of enjoying to see the fishes

The BAD :

• Pricey for such a short treatment
• Might not suitable for those who has low pain tolerance
• Will I got any infection if the water is not clean?
• Definitely need to continue treatment if I wish to have lighter skin tone on my feet.

Buffet Lunch at E&O Hotel, Penang

Eastern & Oriental Hotel has been established in Penang since the year of 1885. I'd heard many good reviews on the both the buffet lunch and dinner from this hotel. Finally, I got chance to taste it myself during my company's team building lunch. Yay!. The price for the buffet lunch during weekdays is roughly about RM50-Rm55++ per person. Make sure you book in advance as it's quite packed during the weekdays too.

The grill section will serve seafood on the fly to you. You'll just have to wait for a couple of minutes for grilled salmon, prawn,scallop, squid, cod fish etc.

Chef is preparing the spagetthi and pasta ..yummy!

Fresh Sashimi...& Oysters

Peking duck...high demand as the Q is very long

Salad Bar

Favourite Corner :: Dessert...

Cendol

You may also visit the hotel's compound. It has a stunning view towards the sea and very relaxing. Thumbs up for the buffet lunch here.

Visit to Tao Cuisine Autocity, Penang

This is my 3rd visit to Tao Cuisine during my stay in Penang. This restaurant serve all you can eat japanese buffet at a price of about RM55+ a person for dinner. It's a 3 hours session buffet in which you can order as much as you can. The sushi and salad bar are available for you to take. The rest such as sashimi, scallop, lamb shoulder, salmon, tempura etc will have to be ordered and they will serve to you. Usually, I'll order their top 10 menus which include their most popular dishes. I especially like the baked scallope with cheese, yummy! Fat i know hehe...

Plate full of sushi...

Baked scallop with cheez...

Japanese Tempura

Grilled Lamb Shoulder

Sashimi....yummy

Unagi Don..I know I shouldn't order this, but I cant resist

Enjoy my every meal in Tao Cuisine, will definitely be visiting again :). Just hoping that they can improve on their dessert wise to serve more that just ice-cream.

Rasa Sayang International Buffet

Finally manage to book the buffet dinner for 2 person during the Buy 1 Free 1 International Buffet at Spice Garden in Rasa Sayang Shangrila Hotel, Penang. Reached around 6pm lurking around the hotel before starting the buffet dinner. Spice Garden restaurent serve the buffet according to specific theme on different days. This time, it is the Internation buffet which include Indian, Local, Western, Chinese and Japanese food. I booked during the promotional period in which it is a Buy 1 Free 1 buffet. I paid only RM104++ for 2 persons. What a great deal!. But make sure you book earlier as I'd made a 2 weeks advance booking.

Started the dinner with Indian food, I like the Tandoori chicken/lamb the most!!..It's very delicious. There's the chicken satay and lamb satay too. Chicken satay is not so tender but the lamb satay is just yummy! I ate alot of this :P. Together with the peanut sauce as well as the ketupat (sticky rice).

There's a variety of Chinese food available too especially the Herbal Chicken Soup. Seafood corner, not much to my attention as I dint really like seafood :). Dessert corner, prettiest corner ever and fattening too :P



Gonna diet after this buffet...