Purple's Diary

Kaohsiung & PengHu, Taiwan - May 2018 (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 04:39:00 +0000

Apr 26, 2020 - Just noticed this post was in draft mode for exactly a year. Travel date was exactly 2 years ago :)
Beware - This page may be picture intense!

Second Island - PengHu (澎湖)
It's the exact place from a famous 民謠 by 潘安邦【外婆的澎湖灣】
The island is quite large, and the main city namely MaGong (馬公) is huge too.
I love the streets, it has a feel which is out from urbanisation, but stays with the era of 1980s. Their street mural arts are just beautiful.

Here was where we stay. The hotel was new and in fact was quite nice.

平湖窝行旅住宿 Ph Hostel

Our stay

Daily snacks in the room

Lunch - Found that was many locals here. 燒肉飯 - nice!

馬路益

Sun was extremely sunny that day. Typical island weather, sunblock became essential.

Did some walking around, made it to some tourist spot. Chang Yu Sheng 張雨生紀念館 & 潘安邦紀念館 where they are next to each other. Interesting building architecture, which they had kept it as protected area.

Yu-Sheng Memorial Museum

Tea time - Taiwan cincau and bubble tea

玉冠嫩仙草

Sunset - View was super stunning. I love this beach and bridge. The real Penghu-Wan.

澎湖灣

Following day, we had a planned trip to JiBei Island (吉貝島).

As taxi driver recommended, we are most likely not suitable to go snorkeling, as it is expected based on their APP, it was expected strong wind that afternoon.... and was true enough. As a tourism island, they take tourist safety very seriously. In fact, we almost could not board our ferry towards the island.

Nevertheless, we still board the ferry and find other things to do in the island. In fact, my bag was carrying 2 snorkel masks and swim wear. It became totally useless that day.

Ferry terminal

Our ticket

Strong wind

Upon arrival of JiBei island, we rented a motorcyles and went round and round the island. Started our journey to the sandtail, it was really not-sandy and full of dead corals.

吉貝沙尾 Jibei Sandtail

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The island is famous of its trapped stones at the beach. It was beautiful, unfortunately the weather is turning stormy.

Dessert by the sea. Felt so good and relax.

香香冰店

Our lunch, by the road side. Full of authentic seafoods. 烘螺，金錢鰻，水煮生蠔

福哥紅姊現煮熱炒

By the time we ended the short and dry island try, upon returned to MaGong, weather has turned well and it was just in time for the annual fireworks concert show. It was an outdoor show and we had got our spot as early as 5pm. Ready with snacks and beers. Facing the bridge where fireworks displayed.

We were very very lucky to have visited the island during this annual fireworks competition season. The night was extremely cold, somewhere around 15-20C and we need had squatted outside, so that no one could have taken our beautiful seat.

The firework show lasted close to 1 hour!

Concert before the fireworks show

Happily drink by the roadside

Beautiful fireworks show

Purple!!

The rain

Very next day, we executed our plan to tour round Penghu island... with a motorcycle. Those days when I was still rode on a road bike, really wish I could tour the island with a bicycle, as the road are wide and well maintained. Unfortunately, I don't think I am fit enough to concur the hilly roads. :)

Outside a temple - multi years tree

Tourist stop

Dried puffer fishes

It was very windy here

Boiled 螺

Squid bihun

Prawn fritter

Xiaomen Geology Gallery

Scenic beach

A small town with dock. fishing village too.

Tea time - This was the highlight as I still miss the food till now.

回家炸粿

Soft Red bean in sticky rice fritter

We waited almost 30min for the fritter. Packed and went to the tourist beach before it closes for public. There was 2 islands, and will be separated when tide is up in the evening. That was why it was properly guarded. We became some of the last visitors before they closed.

摩西分海

Following day, we took a plan back to KaoShiung. Before leaving the hotel, we packed our breakfast from a nearby market. I love exploring market, especially wet which usually comes with food market next door.

packed yiutiao and soya milk from the market

Magong Airport (MZG)

PengHu Airport

Board on an ATR back. Much cheaper than taking ferry :)

Kind of last tourist stop at KaoShiung. We visited the main temple Fuo-Guang Shan. It was a nice walk in there. Not too huge but was hilly climb.

佛光山

In the evening, it was a re-visit of some places we had visited 2 years ago.

Liouhe Night Market

美麗島地鐵站

Their ba-chang served with grinded peanut.

Taiwan dumpling

Tapao breakfast

Dine in hotel

Our view from Kaoshiung hotel room

Taiwan... till we meet again.

Kaohsiung, Taiwan - May 2018 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 16:08:00 +0000

I almost forgot I have a blog! Guess we have been busy with Instagram and its stories... made us forgot to compile all those nice pictures and information to share. I keep my blog as my diary, perhaps till blogger discontinued it service one day.

The trip to KHH (KaohSiung) was rather eventful one. We were late to the gate, we were all delayed close to an hour because there were some medical rescue in the plane.

Checked in 85 Sky Tower, one of the tallest building. Apparently the building has it rooms/apartments managed by a few homestay company. Nevertheless, the stay was great with spacious room and nice view.

85 Ctree 家莉莉主題旅館

View from Hotel

Shop and Ikea

nice Ikea ice cream

新崛江商圈 Shinkuchan (New Juejiang Shopping Area)

Cuttlefish ball

7-11 I missed them all!

Our main theme for the trip to Taiwan this year was all about island. We targeted 2 main attraction islands to explore. There were nothing to do with cycling this year. I was geared up all the way with snorkelling mask and rash guard to the islands. Unfortunately, storm strikes and we were all stuck!

First Island - LiuLi (琉璃島)

In order to get to LiuLi (琉璃島) island, we have to board the boat from DongGang (東港). We stopped by this place during our cycling trip last year. We rented a motorcycle to hit some tourist spot within the island.

We did a day trip while still staying at KaohSiung. Took a taxi to DongGang in the morning.

東港快艇碼頭

fried cuttlefish balls 花枝丸

Tasty twist snacks

Local beer 琉璃啤酒

剉冰女王

cooling mixed ice - yam and balls

The vase

Clear water

Starfishes

小琉球白沙漁港碼頭 Baisha Port Pier

Returning ferry

Explored DongGang (東港) food market.

Looks like keropok lekor

fish cracker

Lots of fresh sashimi

prawns

Next stop - TaiNan (台南)
It was expected to be a foodie stop. So much food to explore, so little time! haha... Our hotel was located strategically around some food centre. Yet, need some working and exploration.

Though, we wrongly explored a place during dinner time. In which, all shops and walking streets closes at 5PM. We caught nothing else to do except had a bowl of beef noodle at 阿財牛肉湯.

Took a train to TaiNan

老鄭牛肉麵館

Beef noodle is a must!

控肉飯

牛肉麵

正興咖啡館 Zhengxing Cafe

Coffee time - Mojito iced coffee

FX Hotel Tainan

Strategic yet simple hotel

Every snack and beer - try a type a day

Sliced bread for breakfast

Fushenghao Bowled Rice Cakes

What's this black stuff? 米粿

滷肉飯！！

永樂市場

TaiNan streets are full of motorcycle

修安扁擔豆花黑糖刨冰

Beancurd drinks

Next Stop - BuDaiGang (布袋港)
It's a place that not many overseas tourist will stop by. It's a small town with its jetty to PengHu (澎湖) island. We took a train ride from TaiNan (台南) to XinYing (新營), then transfer to a bus to BuDaiGang.

Bus Stop

布袋港觀光漁市

Snacks here are rather special!

fried Yam sandwich with bread biscuit

namely 芋泥餅

So yummy

Our stay 光影民宿

Homestay

布袋港 Budai Port

The glass high heel shoe's church is very famous. Very nice for sunsetting view too.

The church and the shoe

Sunset overlooking oyster farm

布袋港觀光漁市

We walked into the fish market and found some food stalls in there. Serving dinner time too.

A simple meal with fresh sashimi cost not more than NTD1,000.

Simple fresh seafood meal

布袋港 Budai Port

Ready to board to MaGong (馬公市)，main city of PengHu (澎湖). I was rather surprise with the scale of passenger ferry and its advances.

Ferry to MaGong

Old shop/house lot in PengHu

Will continue Part 2 - more on PengHu island.

p.s. apparently I didn't edit the remaining pictures since Aug 2018 :)
good nite

Curitiba, Brazil - April 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 10:32:00 +0000

South America, a continent I am pretty unfamiliar with. Glad to have such opportunity, though it was tiring to stay on a 30 hours door to door travel journey. It was Autumn, getting into Winter. Was glad to get both the gloomy chill and blue skies warm over the week's trip.

Not just the journey, I even had an opportunity to explore another airline - Turkish Airline. I was skeptical or rather placed very minimal expectation to the service. Even after hearing several positive comments. Glad I had that very low expectation, and I could sleep well throughout the journey. Nothing to WoW upon on the plane and service. Certain food (that I could understand from its English menu) tasted not bad, or rather I am not very particular with food.

Candle night on the plane

Istanbul's Airport Lounge

Fritter taste like fried popiah, zuccini wrapped cheese

Rilakkuma and Muji travel pillow were my companion

Learned some Portuguese language. "Bom Dia" as "Good Morning".
Downloaded Google Translate app (thanks to a friend whom introduced it after her solo trip to Japan). The app saved me a few times, especially during a conversation with Havaianas sales assistant.

Breakfast in hotel

Entrada = Entrance?

We were all blessed with good company and great local host (and family) on the Sunday.

Sight seeing

Pretty architecture

Mural too

Feirinha do Largo da Ordem

A local tourist spot selling handcraft items. We tried some local street foods here too. Pastel a.k.a fried pancake and Caldo de Cana a.k.a pressed sugar cane served with assam

Sunday tourist market

Pastel store

Pastel choices and menu

Banana, Corned beef and Plain Pastels

Banana filled

I love Corned Beef pastel, and the drink

We walked into a church. Nice architecture, and I am sure it has a few decades (or century) old.

Church view

Art and performance stage

Foods and drinks were what we explored.

Bar do Victor

Seafood lunch served.

Caipirinha - one of the must try drink in Brazil. It's a refreshing alchohol drink served with juice, just like a cocktail. Unfortunately, mine was served with extra ingredient - Several flies or insects.

My Caipirinha with insect

We had a short walk after our lunch.

Caramelodrama Confeitaria

Coffee is also an essential drink to taste. Most coffee beans in the world comes from Brazil, they have wide rage of good coffees, and cakes were good too.

Cakes were nice

We walked back to our hotel, wondered around the streets.

Japanese garden

Hotel usually drop us a personalised card and candy, informing us the following day's weather. It's conventional, yet the thought counts.

Weather forecast

Tropilha Grill

Foods exploration were on going each day. We experienced how the local have their lunch. Weighing machines on a buffet serving style. Each and pay the amount you pick. Just like our local mixed rice, a.k.a. chap-fun.

Grilled lamb and ribs

Mixed food - lunch

Guarana - It's a popular soft drink in Brazil. High in caffeine and sugar. Taste good too. I love it, it's tasted like apple drink with coke's ingredient, caffeine. Understand the fruit is wold red berried native to the Amazon.

Guarana drink

Pao De Queijo a.k.a. Cheese bread, we loved it very much. Had a few bites every morning.

Pao de Queijo a.k.a. Cheese bread

A Japanese lunch buffet, which I forgot its name. Very localised Japanese dishes, and they are weighing meal too..

Japanese weighing lunch

Another type of snacks we were introduced. Somewhat filled like curry puff, but fried with bread crump. Will update when I recalled the next time.

Another hotel's weather report and introduction of local snacks. Peanut sweet.

Madero Steak House

This burger was so much more decent than the fast food burger we had the night before

Nice burger

Nice weather came buy, 2 days before I left.

Nice weather

Coco Bambu

I remembered the potato gratin. It was a nice shared meal.

Dom Parma Trattoria

Another weighing lunch and it was a group lunch. Nice grill everywhere.

Sight seeing from the top view

Liquori Caffè Gourmet

The liquor coffee was nice. I think I had the mint choco.

Liquor coffee

Château de Gazon

The entire meal was served as either cheese dip or choco dipped. It was interesting!

Cheese dipped vegetable

Fruits went with choco

Hard Rock Cafe Curitiba

Standard hard rock cafe meal. Nothing to shout out, except the strawberry basil leaves soda. Will make this on my own one day.

Strawverry basil soda

The streets - pebble everywhere

Turkish Airline Lounge - sesame bread, country butter and local coffee

Turkish pizza

On my way home!

End of report~

Chiang Mai, Thailand - Jan 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 10:58:00 +0000

Yearly trip begun with the land of smile, up north at the city of Chiang Mai. There are so many things to explore, be it food, coffee, arts, massage, shopping and even do nothing.

It was unfortunate, our flight was delayed at least two hours that afternoon. It wasn't comfortable to wait at KLIA2. It's a budget/low cost airport, yes I acknowledge. It was our first trip with little nephew too. Pleased that he behave well.

While waiting...

Late afternoon sun

After placing our luggage and check in. We headed out immediately, for dinner as well as night market trip.

Dinner - Mr. Kai Restaurant

KhaoSoi - it's a must

Shopping and Wondering - Wualai Saturday Nightmarket

Pork rice - Packed for supper

Our stay of 2 nights - BB Mantra Boutique and Budget

Breakfast (included with stay) by the pool

Street art near our stay

Coffee pit stop #1 - Art Cafe

Nice Piccolo - just beside our stay

Tourist place - Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep

Not our first visit here. Be a tourist once more.

Coffee pit stop #2 - Graph Café

Famous for cold brew, but I grabbed a latte to go instead. Pricey.

Lunch after 1/2 day tour with Yoyo - Huen Phen

Nice local patron restaurant. Though it may need a wait. We ordered our standard checklist dish - Khao Soi (curry noodle, two styled noodle). Tried the local pork sausage, blends well with a mug of local beer, especially on a hot afternoon. Yummy

KhaoSoi

Wait

Kitchen

Pork Sausage

On the way... spelling mistake?

Massage, is a must - Lila Thai Massage 5th

It wasn't a good timing for me. Yet, I still enjoyed my foot massage.

Massage center's deco

Street foods, before we head to another hotel - Wat Phan-Ohn

It's on Sunday night market. We had KhaoSoi (again, but no picture). On the day, we grabbed out lunch with any available food we could get there. Pork noodle was awesome.

pork noodle

Stay #2 - The Loft Room Hotel

We had a double king sized bed room. The kid enjoyed. Nice budget hotel with setup, it was spacious too.

Common area outside our room

Included breakfast of our stay

Coffee pit stop #3 - Ristr8to Lab

Very nice alchoholic coffee served here.

Love the alchohol coffee

Coffee pit stop #4 - Nine One Coffee

Another nice cafe just 1 street away from our stay. But we took almost 1KM walk because google map went crazy.

Coffee

Last Khao Soi - Khao Soy Nimman

This wasn't too good. The sausage and noodle seems machine made.

Bye Chiang Mai

Till we meet again.

My 2017 - An "Exciting" Year Indeed

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 14:31:00 +0000

The word "exciting" could have lead to positivity. For me, it was rather an excitement with ups and downs. I pretty know that many guardian angels surrounded me, thanks all for the kind support and encouragement helping me going through the year.

Work - Much busy and lots to learn. The year ended with well, though some emotion was caught off guard.

Baking @ Home - Panasonic Bread maker is my good friend. With very minimised failure rate, I will have my bread ready by Monday. To share with my colleague as Monday breakfast, a good start of the week.

I didn't explore many recipe this year. Continue making my bread loaf. Contributed a few recipe to the facebook community too.

corn bread

Assorted bread with my black coffee

Avocado Chia Seed bread

Cooking @ Home - Experimented some recipe, but I seldom cook these days. Partly due to less carbo meal we adapted. I would rather experience cook time and calculate efficiency.

Phillips Pressure Cooker has been my best companion. As well Cosway's Magic Cooker. Both serve well for slow and long soup cooking, and porridge meal.

I have even experimented baking a cake in my pressure cooker. Joined their facebook community of Phillips Pressure Cooking and contributed too.

Porridge with Magic Cooker

Sphagetti with Phillips Pressure Cooker

Pandan cake

Marble Butter Cake

Chocolate Cake

Gardening @ Home - Pretty happy with the return of many fruits harvested from the garden. Banana, Jambu Air, fig, Jackfruit (Nangka), chilli...

Our jackfuit was rather a disappointment, as the soil had been too wet. Causing the fruit wasn't able to sustain long on the tree. It cracked open even before it ripe.

Banana

Jackfruit

Black sesame plant

Figs pruning

Custard apple harvested

Exercises - Reduced outdoor cycling significantly this year. Signed up 2 events this year, neither one I attended. What a failure. Mood and feel has quite been disturbed this year, due to an unhappy incident in Taiwan earlier the year. Disappointment continued with a group of so called friends (past tensed).

Signed up gym with passport entry with Fitness First. Indoor cycling (RPM), Zumba and Yoga classes had been my recent companion.

My new show from Taiwan

Tried Ariel Flow Yoga

I chicken out from CFAL this year

New Gadget - Got myself an Underwater Camera. It's time to say Bye-bye to my GoPro ;)

New camera

Travel - One and only dive trip. Several local road trips. Two business trip cum visiting trip. An unfortunate overseas trip.... that's all for the year!

Gift from a dive master

Street Art Roaming in Singapore

Very colorful

Malacca - backyard hawker which full of mouse

errrrr...

Nice baked sotong

Ahhh... Lucky to attend Emil Chow's concert in Singapore

Singapore Indoor Station

A visit to Raub

Health - Hurt my left elbow, it was diagnosed as Tennis Elbow. On top of that, I twisted my left ankle too. :(

My Tennis Elbow

Friends - Not many gathering this year. Thanks to someone's wedding, that allowed us to have a mini-gathering.

Cheers for a newly wed couple

Greatest personal achievement of the year! - Turned my unnecessary stuffs into cash! With Carousell. Frankly, I have been procrastinating this for many years. Always wanted to sell or donate my stuffs to the "needy". I have been doubtful for some recycling event, if they are able to give away my pre-loved item to someone needy.

Thanks for the launch and hit of Carousell app. I was influenced by a friend who were able to turned her very old handbags into cash. I finally took a step to clear away some of my pre-loved items at home. It was indeed great experience, the accomplishment felt when I was able to clear out stuffs, and turn it to someone's excitement instead.

Happy in Selling stuffs

I would greatly hope to gain a smooth sailing year in 2018. All the best to myself and other readers who have been following my writings.

My 2017 One & Only Dive Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 15:11:00 +0000

Since this was the one and only Annual trip of mine. Nothing less, our visit was still Perhentian Island's Bubbles Resort.

As our trip was during fasting a.k.a. Puasa month. We discovered new food during the night. Colek-colek, something similar to fruit rojak.

Colek-colek

Me & wall arts around Kuala Besut

It was colorful

Calmly waiting for our boat ride into the island

Beautiful Bubbles

One thing exciting about the trip was with our 6 sets of Dive camera. All set with the same Canon PowerShot D30 (Blue) Underwater No-Housing Compact Camera.

I ain't satisfied with the results from my first virgin UW camera shooting underwater. Well, practice makes perfect. Wonder when will I use it more with more dive trip?

Bat fishes

Better close up

This is clear

Nemo has been always our best friend UW

Which direction they went?

Turtle!!!

My dive buddies

But was hard getting them into the camera

Big Nudi was my friend this time

And it's egg??

Assorted pictures of the trip... (Picture by Huawei P9+)

Clear water with lots of ikan-bilis

I climed up the stone alone that morning!

Playing around with my pancake

I took this pic almost every year

Till next year....

Taiwan Annual Cycling Trip Down South - March 2017 (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 11:12:00 +0000

Second half of the trip, life goes on... despite many the major unpleasant moment plus other emotional circumstances I have to tolerate.

We continued our journey from Part 1.

Went into Man-Zhou (滿洲) for early lunch and longer break.

港口吊橋(情人橋)

had Kong-Ba (控肉飯）lunch

阿水衝浪

and a cuppa

海角七號-友子阿嬤的家

After lunch was a climb, up up to a hilly and windy area.

風吹沙 Fongchuisha

風吹砂 super windy area

Then headed to the most Southern of Taiwan. A must stop spot for cyclist, especially those doing Taiwan round island. It's near Kenting town.

臺灣最南點 Taiwan Southern Most Point

Most Southern spot of Taiwan

Here we were!

墾丁 Kenting

, the famous summer place and beach spot. It was low peak season, as the wind was still chilling cold. I walked towards the beach with shorts and singlet! OMG, freaking freezing. :)

Kenting Police Station

Dinner along the famous Kenting main street.

何家食堂

Local dishes dinner - sorry, forgot the shop name (nice)

Our stay - Oops.. I forgot to check in! and forgot the name. The stay was super clean and nice.

Along the street to our stay

That's how we spend our Yoyo card

Family mart selling coffee with Bailey

Local breakfast (even though hotel provided one) , we just like to explore. 肉鬆蛋餅

Good Morning cafe - 早安美

egg with floss crepe - local breakfast

Wonder around the hotel

Off we went... off from Kenting towards next destination. It was hot and sunny.

Towards SouthWest of Kenting

Found my favourite fresh dates 蜜棗

恒春古城南門 South Gate of Hengchun Ancient City

fresh dates 蜜棗 at historical gate

Checked out another local dessert - peeled green bean with garlic powder ? (direct translation)
Not bad. Though I don't like green bean. I guess their sago is into strip based, 粉條

黃家綠豆蒜粉條冰

Local dessert

豆蒜

Then a short visit to a local temple. Where they usually host some TV game show. Also called 城隍廟 if not mistaken.

車城福安宮

Temple visit

Local lunch. It was unexpected good, though it was at a small tiny township. A member left his jacket at the hotel in Kenting, our guide drove back 20-30KM to collect, we enjoyed our long lunch.

旭功飯店

Nice simple lunch

Our destination of the day. A local harbour.

枋寮漁港 | Fangliao Port

Evening walk at the port

Dinner treat by our homestay owner

觀海樓海鮮店

Huge bowl of seafood noodle! It was good

Our stay

Next day & our final leg. Towards KaoShiung.

Stopped by and relax by the sea side... before a last and heavy meal

東港鎮海公園

I rode alone along the sea

佳珍海產

Super seafood lunch

Arrived KaoShiung that evening. Summary of our cycling route.

Cycling trip route - Yuli to KaoShiung

Night market was just 2 blocks away from our stay. Had dinner there.

六合夜市 Liouhe Night Market

Frequent visit - papaya milk drink

Our stay - super like this hotel, very convenient and room was uniquely setup.

高雄佳適旅舍六合館 Jia's Inn

I like the furniture

Love KaoShiung

Next and last day... left behind for shopping.
First & most important stop... Giant Boutique flagship store. Got what I wanted, and spent quite a bit.

捷安特高雄旗艦店

Shopping

KaoShiung port... walking around under hot sun.

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Found this local duck shop... it was good.

鴨肉珍

Duck dishes

Roam around

Walked towards the nearby MRT station, towards the port.
Had cooling ice shaved with fruits! Another Taiwan dessert.

海之冰

Love chilling dessert

Walked to a shopping mall nearby. Bumped into a local artist on the open stage... not sure who he is.. LOL

Mall - Forgot the name

Visited a cool MRT station

Formosa Blvd. Station (O5/R10)

Cool Station

Our taxi to High Speed Train (HSR) station. Off we go from KaoShiung to
Taoyuan Taipei Airport.

Cute Taxi of ours

Collectible item exchanged by coffee stamps

HSR

Travelling at 200++KM/h speed

Last leg on HSR - We literally toured the island with multi mode transport

Our 2018 trip to Taiwan will be a different experience. Stay tune for my update... in 2018!

Taiwan Annual Cycling Trip Down South - March 2017 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 10:32:00 +0000

I have been procrastinated, yes! A long waited until I thought of arranging my pictures and memories back on it once again. It was a yearly event and long awaited for our selves own type of vacation. Life been a little hectic when I discovered I will need to get onto a business trip half cross the globe prior to this trip.

Glad that I was able to meet the group at Taipei airport, even though I needed to wait for half a day. Toured around both Termina 1 and 2, up and downs, discovered many places I won't usually hangout when arriving to a country's airport.

We managed to ride on the brand new MRT from TaoYuan airport to Taipei main station. It was pre-launch free ride, but it was kind of rush as it ended its service by 4pm.

Hello Kitty heaven

First destination upon arrival. Food hunting at

Raohe St. Night Market

It was raining :(

Favoured bun

proper sit down dinner

I couldn't recall where did we stay for one night in Taipei, or we didn't?

Following day, we took the train from Taipei all the way to YuLi (玉里) where we started our cycling journey. Arrived around early noon time. We headed for the noodle we tasted last year. YuLi noodle at 張媽媽美食

Journey begun with gloomy and rainy track. We cycled passed this track before, but it was at a different direction, we went South this time.

YuLi Cycling track

Pit stop for coffee

Beautiful paddy field

Our day 1 ended at GuanShan (關山). A very small town and I was exhausted that night, didn't join the group for 7-11 convenient store exploring. GuanShan is famous for bento, we had bento for dinner! 關山便當

bento

Our stay at 東籬緣民宿

Nothing great, as the township is extremely small. Cant expect more.

We continued our day 2 cycling journey, towards TaiTung (台東).

Fruits and food exploration become and point of exploration.

Huge custard apple

This lunch place was the highlighted of the trip. Super like their local dishes, plus the lards topped plain rice served.

田媽媽傅姐風味餐

--- Trip became unpleasant --- :(

Nevertheless, we moved on and continued with food. When things get unpleasant, most situation could had turned sourish. I was glad, I did handled them all with patience.

The following dinner was a treat by our returning host. The bike company owner and our trip organiser. We finally had a chance to meet him in person (as he was away the last trip).

海靖甕仔雞

Chicken was their specialties

Day 3 begun. Nice weather and beach where we supposed to go the previous day evening. We made it right the morning, as the blue sky was extremely nice. ... and my bike was on the car track instead... I skipped the day journey.

Lovely

First stop for the day, ice cream stall. All kinds of local ice cream were sold here.

東糖冰品

Yummy

Had lunch somewhere around, LuRouFan (滷肉飯) is something that will not go wrong!

T’ai-ma-li

Luroufan

Day 3 stay was at a hot spring resort at JinLun (金崙) stay It was a family run private resort. Room was so-so, but the weather and hot spring facilities was alright. Breakfast served in brown bag.

一田屋溫泉

Brown bag breakfast

Did I resumed cycling on Day 4? Couldn't remember, but there was some climb towards XuHai (旭海).... but I remember I didn't made it up to SouKa, it was No.9 road's tip climb.

壽卡鐵馬驛站

Our Day 4 accommodation was at a place even remote than the previous places.

旭海左岸民舍

Homestay

Lovely stone beach

In fact all dishes we had this fern as vegetable, namely 山蘇

Simple seafood dishes. No other choice, no other restaurant around.

紅牌活海鮮店

seafood dinner

On the way walking back to our homestay, no 7-11 nor Family mart. We went straight into a village convenient store manned by an old couple. Start exploring local junk food!

Local mamee

That's all for part 1... stay tune.

Chiang Mai, Thailand, An extraordinary trip - Jan 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 13:41:00 +0000

My posts are usually delayed about 6 months. Save me!! Thought I would have resume blogging after having my new iMac since last December.. time had just passed the way it flipped faster every year.

Anyway, back to the end of 2016 and very beginning of 2017. We spent our count down and New Year 'overseas' this time. We had chosen a quiet yet peaceful place to end the year in a unique way. Though it's no longer a new place for us, yet there are lots of nature to explore.

We were expecting a cool weather. Unfortunately, we made it only between 18-25C.

Highly recommended by a colleague - upside down ice cream

Accommodation 1:

Sleep guesthouse

Located nearby the city center, where locals and tourists wonder
Extremely simple yet nice guest house, friendly owner
Room was minimalist and clean

Sleep Guest House

Activities :-

Street wondering, majority by walking, one of the days we even achieved 20k steps!
Local markets around been interesting to-go place, fresh fruits available and there are lots of visitors attending cooking class around the corner

Local market

Beautiful sunset @ river

Nearby temple

Pork Knuckle Rice

Anusarn Night Market

Activities 2 :

Cycling package with Araiwah Bicycling
Very classic bicycle we had, no complain as it was the fun and exploring part that enjoyed us, we made new friends with tourist all around the world too, it was when I met a Japanese lady resides in the States

My classic bicycle

Mueang Mai Market

Our guide brought us to taste local foods in the market, i.e. fried pork intestine, siewmai, red glutinous rice, and many more

Fresh vege

Tom Yum fresh ingredient

Taste good red glutinous rice

fried pork intestine

siewmai

Wat Muean Sarn

Craftman of the silver plated temple

Patiently crafting

Beautiful silver temple

Craft even at the door

On the wall

Wat Muern Sarn

7 ยอดพลาซ่า Jet Yod Plaza

Lunch place, though wasn't our guide choice (since his recommended place was off that day)
Nice basil pork rice

Fried basil pork with egg

Smile Coffee 2

Had a coffee after lunch

Huay Kaew Waterfall

Was a difficult climb, think I pushed the bike up
Scenery at the waterfall was nice

Climb up the hill for waterfall

วัดแสนเมืองมาหลวง (วัดหัวข่วง) Wat Saen Muang Ma Luang (Wat Hua Kuang)

Another temple (Wat) before we end the trip
Quiet but nice place to hang around

Quiet Temple

Khun Kae Juice Bar

Nice smoothie place, which located just infront of our Sleep Guest House :)
We had the drink almost everyday after that

Several photos of my back...

In and within the market

Local houses

University campus

Temple

After a long day, we head for body massage at Lila Thai Massage 5th

Foods along the night, all night long we won't be sleeping... waiting for the count down
Heard there will not have grand ceremony, i.e. fireworks in respect for their late King
Unexpectedly, we saw lots of lanterns from ThaePae Gate

Coconut dessert

Khao Soi and dunno wat

Lovely Neon Light

Tourist and locals releasing their lanterns since 8pm

All over the skies

We had drink and count down here, nice place

Jan 1, 2017 - Greeted New Year with a nice breakfast by the guest house owners.

Breakfast included

Brunch with braised pork rice and Thai Iced Tea

Roaming around some art streets nearby

Tourtist

At noon, we were picked up by another Resort stay's driver.

Accommodation 2 :

The Pavana Chiang Mai Resort

We were on a 1 Day detox program, will all day long fruit juices included in the package, meditation, and colema
http://thepavanachiangmairesort.com/
One day magic detox - http://thepavanachiangmairesort.com/activities/one_day_pass_detox/
Missed the fresh air and almost nothing-to-do life style, walked up the pagoda every morning for 60min meditation... blissful
Fresh vegetable were planted by the resort
We had a loan bicycle and made our own ride with a given map, we couldn't made the loop and almost got lost...

Our meal before the Detox Fasting program starts

Village view

Evening sun

Meditation place

Lovely morning 7am

Our meals of the day

Nicely decorated resort

Our stay

Till the next trip, may be next year...

Chennai, Delhi & Noida, India Trip - Nov 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 05:37:00 +0000

As I don't usually blog on my work trip, this is exceptional. Out of the blue, opportunity came by for me to make a short trip to India. A country that I had never thought of going in my life. Though, my photography teacher and his group would certainly love in making a trip there at least once a year.

My trip made me thought and observe lots of things. Obviously, the influence from my photography teacher made me "feel" the life of the people in India. It was "touching", if I am able to use a word to describe. Imagining the situation of living in the past 50 years + air pollution + poor infrastructure + other hard to describe situation.

The advanced and poor, it's just a border apart.

Perhaps my pictures could tell the stories.

A layer of polluted air

The sun and day consider good, API lower

Managed to get a shot, while day was still fine

Horse ride sharing the road

Tuk Tuk too

Delhi Gate

Bicycle too

Welcome to Noida

All kinds of transport and people heading to earn their livings

Poor holly cows surviving life with trash

MGO - What's the green dot for -> It's vegetarian safe

The journey...

I had a transit flight to Chennai before heading to Delhi. Glad I didn't had a check in luggage, and was just pulling a light weight cabin luggage. The transit to domestic (Jet Airways) needed me to walk across the building, which is parallel but was under renovation.
The feeling of those renovating buildings caught the feeling of 1970s airport.
It's not recommended to travel as lone lady in India, glad I had another local lady came along, we took the tuk-tuk shuttle just 2min away
I was told Delhi airport wasn't that safe, and I was blessed to have other male colleagues waited for me at the arrival hall
Throughout the trip, all male colleagues were my body guards
The street could be scary, hence I didn't at all walk around over the weekend... I spent time reading, day dreaming, watching Cartoon Network and nap all day long :)
Overall experience... hmm [unexplainable]

Shanghai, China Trip - Sep 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 14:58:00 +0000

I called it 探親記 a.k.a. visiting relatives! LOL. Well, it had been the best reason for us to re-visit China, after several years of break. Honestly, the country and its people had improved tremendously, over the last 8 years. Evolution, and of course, further improvement still acquire for the best of all, particularly on air pollution, and street cleanliness. Public transport and public manner had further improved, though we couldn't get away from the ever crowded population in the city or metropolitan.

Nice greenery view from Pudong

I had never stay opposite the Bund, namely Pudong. The district is much cleaner and neat, it was new township perhaps for the last 10+ years.

Here are some street roaming pictures, as we touched down on day one.

Day 1 - street roaming, i.e. buy local SIM (apparently its cheaper getting outside from airport)

Native broom, environment friendly

Full of textile... I was shopping for CheongSum. LOL

Gotcha! Couple posing at Bund area

Joy City - MI Flagship Store

Visited the only MI flagship store

Ever curious on how Durian pizza taste

Yang's Fried Dumplings

Fried dumpling.. nice

Hai Di Lao 海底撈

Very nice steamboat, accompanied by many types of sauces (self fill from buffet counter) - personally like those with sesame based
Starter was served with pop corns and nuts, all the way from the waiting corner outside the restaurant
Pampered with their serving, as well as variety of sliced meat served (thank to my hosts!)
Lastly, one will come demonstrate "pulling" fresh noodle (拉麵) at your table before serve

Tasty sauces

Just when it started...

Day 2 - Main station heading to SuZhou 蘇州

Train to SuZhou

Packed breakfast in the train

It's high speed at affordable price

Traveling free & easy, with public transport has always been our type of holiday
Of course, lots of "homework" require prior to the trip.. (thanks to my partner)
Plus... walking from A to Z, nothing special
We took the bus from train station to the historical/tourist main locations
We hopped on local busses, could really figure out the right direction especially when it was raining cum traffic jam around the tourist area

Local bus

苏州园林博物馆 Suzhou Garden Museum

It was free - refurbished or new architechture

Humble Administrator's Garden

Need entrance fees, pricey but worth the penny

Touriust spot

Rain... oh... I had to buy a pair of shoe rain coat

Scenic

蘇州過後唔艇搭

Scenic

桂花樹

Local fruits - 烏梅

兰州牛肉拉面 Lanzhou Beef Stretched Noodles

清真 Halal beef noodle

We could grab a taxi, since it was having heavy traffic jam
Thought of using Uber, but account didn't set up properly
We walked and walked... discovered direction wasn't right, as we are heading to our hotel which is quite a distance away
Apple Map came into play (apparently the Chinese are heavy Apple users)

Apple map guided us using the correct bus and correct lane

As we walked along the river, some familiar shop caught our attention

Rotiboy?

Finally in the bus heading to the hotel

Hyatt Regency Suzhou

Checked into the hotel, as we were partially wet
Nice room, view and hotel, I wouldn't regret staying away from the crowded town
This is a new township, built by Taiwanese, 新光天地

Evening view

Room - Looking through the bath room

Room - simple architecture

We roam the surrounding area after shower, hunting for food.. but we didn't had our proper dinner, instead settled with Burger King for supper
The surrounding night view was spectacular, made it nice especially with the not so cold weather ~21C
Too bad, it was still drizzling

Scenic night view

At the pier

Cultural center

Hotel Check out view

蘇州國際博覽中心

Florian @Shin Kong

I shopped quite a lot at 新光, up till we were entitled for a free espresso and macaron!

SuZhou train station - Do you notice the locals are queing up?

Tsui Wah Restaurant

Reconnect with our host and headed straight for dinner
We thought of having XinJiang food for dinner, but the restaurant was fully occupied
In the end, we settled in a Hong Kong restaurant.. not bad

TsuiWah for dinner

Day 4 - Holiday (it was Mid-Autumn holiday) with our hosts\

Tian Zi Fang

Did a semi-tourist wandering...
Visited a nearby local wet market, looked around their vegetables, it's about the same as our market

Nice souvenir, but I didn't get one

Wet day again

Market

Bought local tea

韩国八色烤肉

Lunch in Korean - yummy meaty meal

Yummy

花季花鸟市场

Nursery - Shop for plant??
Partner was looking for a tree!

Indoor nursery.. multi storey, interesting

Found a MoBike outside (Mobile Apps enabled city bicycle)

Décathlon | 迪卡侬

Shopping day continued
Found affordable florescent Tee which i like most... more choices than Malaysia's branch

Sports shop

耶里夏丽新疆餐厅 | يەر شارى

Finally! We managed to settle down with the XinJiang food and its performance show
Very nice skewed lamb stick though, it's halal and very nice
Interesting and special food I had never tried before

Great performance during dinner

Special dish

Bought some Lays

Day... (lost count) - Our second last day

Set nearby Pudong airport
Visited the new Premier Outlet, next to Shanghai Disneyland
Spent quite a sum here too :)

Pudong airport

Shanghai Village

The place is very nice and clean, nice weather for pretty shots too
Typical outlet mall, with lots of branded like in US
Unfortunately, food court or restaurants are just too minimal.. couldn't settle down for a meal, as the crowd has drawn the place

Cutie mascot - the rabbit

China's toilet a nay? Absolutely wrong!

Nice art marble even on the floor

Yu Garden

Sort of China town of Shanghai
I was starving since that noon, had to get dumpling there to cure my stomach
Soup Dumpling, a.k.a. pao was nice, they even supply a straw for one to sip the soup in the dumpling

Soup Dumpling

Other snacks

From Yu Garden walked towards the Bund
Local tourist on MoBike, heard its onl RMB1 or so per hour? One could just stop the bike anyway upon arriving at destination, or it will locked after the timing ends - pretty interesting

Tourist on MoBike

Nice weather for nice shot

Old building

Last Day - Pudong street roaming

We walked and walked and walked the whole day long, until our flight out around dinner time

3 giants

Super Brand Mall

Missed the lamb sticks, had some again!

Lamb sticks

UNCLE'S FRIENDS CAFE & STORE | 同道大叔的星座咖啡店

Soft launched cafe, featuring LINE store and friends
Sat outside the cafe and enjoy the last chance for chill weather
Drinks were just alright... service (at that time) seriously need improvement

LINE feature store

Our drinks - based on star sign

广东煲仔饭

Cantonese styled claypot rice as we walked back home

Nice simple dinner

End of trip report. Bye Shanghai.

My 2016 Cycling Diary

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 14:24:00 +0000

Am I still blogging my last years blog list? Haha, indeed! Despite having an abroad cycling and sight seeing trip earlier last year, I did 3 more state trips and event. Did signed up some in town event, but many I didn't turn up. *shy*

1. Campaign for a Lane (CFAL-8) - Round Penang Island 80+KM

All trips must be accompanied by food trips, a local village or new discovered place to visit
Along the way, we stopped breakfast at Gopeng Market food court, stopped by Ipoh for biscuit and muruku shopping
Detoured to Kuala Kurau, continued shopping for salted eggs

瓜拉古樓對面港西亞煎

Kinda missed the fried prawn cake a.k.a 煎餅, ice kacang

Kedai Kopi Kean Seng Lee（建成利茶室）

Then we discovered some nice and fresh chilli assam fried crab 蟹爪, right behind this coffee shop where we sat
Though it was spicy (for me), it was really good and tasty!! Finger licking good!

Fried prawn cake

Ice Kacang

Chilli Crab

CFAL8 - the ride... I was slightly prepared this time (did I mentioned I gave up the ride last year even though I am a registered rider) haha!
Yeah, I was more prepared this time as I've got my new bike... just a month before this event
I was rather nervous, as I had never rode on a road bike before.... [if you can imagine how nervous I am... I couldn't start pedal for the first 30min when I was on it]
I was glad to chose a KOM bike, plus this experience with CFAL8.. guess I will continue to choose a KOM bike [if I have a choice again next time]
I almost cried when I completed the ride!
We started pretty late that morning, as the flag off location wasn't clear to most participants, by the time we passed through the flag off banner, most official were off... made the road pretty empty... it was nice, until the very last part at Batu Ferringgi, the sun was extremely hot and traffic were bad, anyway... I managed to finish the whole journey, arrived back with my participation medal
Weather that morning - drizzle rain and heavy rain right after we arrived at the finisher
To do list - checked!!
My legs were badly hurt, due to my badly design cycling pants .. with blisters and scar up till today [that was sad] :(

CFAL 8 Route

My blister

Medan Selera Taman Free School (大英义园小贩中心)

We stayed near Taman Free School, hence our late lunch was nearby
Quite a good variety of food, and it was easy to get seat that Sunday, as compared to other famous food center
Fried Chicken, Lobak and a fat noodle dish

Late lunch

Thean Sean Food Court

Dinner we rejoined the group
Good variety but nothing to shout for the food

Dinner

We walked back to Taman Free School market the next morning, had breakfast at their market stalls instead
very nice discovery.... Apam Balik with corn and peanut crush was really nice, local said a good apam must have "honey comb" view from the side profile
Penang Hokkien Mee a.k.a. prawn mee and duck noodle was good too

Breakfast

Kedai Makanan Lidiana

Lastly, before we leave the island, a local friend introduced us Malay chap-fun (mixed rice)
Very special and nice to have a different food variety [reminded me of those lunch days with my colleagues at BSN ikan bakar at least 15 years ago]

Tasty mixed rice

Scenic Penang island - Balik Pulau

2. Melaka International Century Ride (MiCR) - ever famous event where the organiser went missing 5 days before the event :D

Our car journey began 7am, straight till Muar for breakfast
Hang around the small town, for coffee, food street, spices shopping and famous otak-otak [a.k.a. steamed fish paste] shopping, before heading to another small town of Johor, namely Tangkak
We stayed there for a night... even though the century ride was not on... we headed the smaller route on our own, all till the 'supposed' race kit collection location and return

Sai Kee Kopi 434

Yes! Breakfast with Muar local coffee
Supposed to eat light, but we all ordered just too much
Tried their otak-otak nasi lemak - nothing to shout actually

Muar Coffee

Otak - Otak Nasi Lemak

Glutton Street

Since we were all stuffed, we walked around and ended up at a food street
Lots of food, where some hawkers had their stall along the road
We bought some street foods to share - O-chien [a.k.a Egg Oysters], duck meat, Chinese cup cake

Many eggs

O-Chien

麻坡阿梅乌打 Cheng Boi Otak - Otak

It was the highlight of Muar - Otak-Otak
We packed some for our tea time, and got those frozen type for our 'food souvenir' back home

Otak otak shop

Tangkak Beef Noodles (Kuang Fei)

Upon checking in our 4 rooms homestay (right above shop lot), we walked just across the street for tea-time
Famous Tangkak beef noodle, main a.k.a. HQ shop manned by the owner (or family) himself
Indeed very tasty but the price can be at a high side

Tangkak Beef noodle

Full of beef than noodle

yi long bakery & confectionary

Right next to the beef noodle shop, there was a very famous biscuit shop... in which we initially tried to queue up for their biscuit, but gave up after 20min
Went to another competitor shop next door, tried their famous winter melon biscuit, apparently it wasn't bad too
The freshly baked biscuit taste like pineapple tart.. crust filled with not-too-sweet winter melon

Winter melon biscuit

上海滩海鲜酒楼

With google's help, apparently there was only 2 decent Chinese restaurants in Tangkak
We choose the one which is further, and best part was - we decided to walk all the way about 1KM for our dinner; as we were unprepared for the ever busy main road of Tangkak (apparently was only on a Saturday)
Small town foods always taste good... we all like the dishes, as they were quite special [but I can't remember the taste now :)]

Our dinner

Vietnam Delight

As we cycled from Tangkak, Johor to Jasin, Melaka... our destination was the race kit collection point
Upon reaching the destination, we stumbled around for breakfast, found this Vietnamese noodle place just 100m away from the community hall
Curry laksa was superb! Vietnamese coffee was nice too

Gunung Ledang

A place which I had heard a lot since school days - puteri Gunung Ledang
We passed by a sight overlooking the hill
The place was scenic, and due to Sunday, traffic was extremely good, we met only 1 lorry and handful of cars
We made a loop from Tangkak to Jasin and return, it was a short 36KM ride

My ride

Tangka - Jasin

Autumn Homestay

I found this place from AirBnB, to be exact - we rented the whole house consist of 6 rooms a bangalow; it was a blessing that the owner has a smaller unit with 4 rooms, since half the group gave a pass for our scenic and food lover trip after the cancellation announcement for MiCR
4 couples, just nice for 4 rooms and a huge common area, nice and clean complete kitchen; particularly like the stay except for the inconvenient of carrying our bikes up to the stay, and having to wear slippers around the house [open aired home = dusty floor]

Nice stay

东海海鲜酒楼

Last before we left home, a friend met his old school friend for lunch, invited us all too
Such a nice man and his daughter.. allowed us to try both Chinese restaurant in Tangkak
Dishes were nice too

Lunch

3. Active Cycle Penang Ride (APCR) - Penang InLand round trip 80+KM

The trip was just 2 of us, no other friends signed up
I booked a room just near Juru [via airBnB], near Auto City which was the flag off point
The stay was just alright, we had the home by ourselves and another Thai gal housemate; unfortunately the room and house wasn't tidy and clean, anyway, it was just a short night stay
As usual, our journey will bring us stopped somewhere, we choose Ipoh for lunch

Icy watering dessert

Design Village

Visited newly opened an outdoor Outlet Mall, Design Village about 20KM away from Juru
Shopping was alright, I was happy to get myself a SuperDry Tee

Nice tutu train

Met snow man

Scenic night

佳香饭店

We drove another 30min inclusive traffic for this crab rice
The wait was extremely long for this dish... though it was good, but we almost gave up considering our tiredness and plan to call the day slightly earlier that night
Nevertheless, we still completed the meal, those we noticed the crab + rice doesn't really cooked in the claypot itself :P

Crab rice

Auto-City Concept Hall

Collected this medal as the closing event ride for 2016
Overall Howei organise had done good job, we liked both Penang events organised by them
We almost gave up the ride, as it was raining since that very early morning... till 630 we decided to make it for flag off, geee :D [lazy butt]
I didn't expect any elevation climb, but there was!! and was around the grave yards
Along the way, we saw lots of paddy fields

My finisher medal

The concept Hall

My RideSync capture

Limau Tambun Niu Kee

On the way home, we decided to stop by Tambun, which is near the highway instead of heading in Ipoh town city
At the same time hunt for fresh and cheaper pamelo - ta da!! discovered a new place which served good coffee and taufufa

Shopping

Pasar Awam Ampang Baru

Before heading out to the highway, we discovered another place where local goes for afternoon tea or late lunch
An auntie started business around 3pm, at the market hawker stall selling fried rice cake Kueh-Kak, it was exceptionally tasty.. [the taste of char-wok]

Delicious Kueh-Kak

End of trips report.. I wonder if I will have any different town to visit in coming year 2017.
Looking forward for a fruitful year ahead...

My 2016 Dive Diary

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 08:26:00 +0000

Nothing special for the year. I still couldn't achieve more than 2 dive trips for a year. The same usual group we had, except there was one impromptu trip we went off Tenggol island along with a wedding we attended in Kerteh.

April 2016 - Tenggol Island

4 pax trip. Small yet enjoyable company. Our intention was to attend a colleague's daughter wedding in Kerteh. It was my very first Malay wedding ceremony I have attended in my life. It was meaningful, and we enjoyed the food and journey to the East.

Malay wedding ceremony

Tasty food served

After the ceremony, we drove to Dungun for our 1 night homestay before heading into Tenggol island the very next day. Upon checked in our stay, which is situated above shoplots, we headed off for tea time.

Dungun Homestay : HOTEL PEN'U COTTAGE

Homestay room

Homestay common area

Street roaming & photography

Traditional kopitiam

We brought along picnic mat for our beach stay. We had a spectacular afternoon over at Pantai Teluk Lipat The sky were blue and there was huge kites and balloons seller at the beach.

That's me and angry birds

Our 2D1N dive trip at Tenggol Coral Beach Resort. Stay and dive was pleasant, we had much fun except for the fact we had got salty drinking water served. Quad shared room was not bad, except for the compressor sound over the afternoon. At night was alright.

Dive Center

Dive center contacts

Hermit crab found

I didn't bring my GoPro underwater over this trip. Since it was just a 2 dives trip. It was leisure, diving was pleasant as we didn't hit to those strong current sites.

Our journey off Dungun while on the way returning home, we needed detour Kuantan for another friend's flight down to Kiasuland. With such opportunity (which was rare), we had our food exploration in Kuantan itself. I brought them to otak-otak and Satar place at Tg. Lumpur, as well as Hai Peng (Kuantan) Kopitiam for iced coffee!

Warung Pok Su & Mok Su & Hai Peng Kopitiam

Finished Satar and otak2

Hai Peng Spagetti Assam laksa

May 2016 - Perhentian Island Bubbles Annual Trip

Bubbles Dive Resort

Being an annual trip means we have been to the resort for than 2 times! It's now in our annual group trip with new discovery! We are all certified as PADI Nitrox Diver! yay! I couldn't remember our maximum dive altitude, but definitely more than 25Meters. It was a great experience, couldn't believe it affected one of our friend most, who went super "energetic" after the last dive!

Believe the group may have another "enhancement" in dive experience this year, 2017! *finger crossed*

A friend who loves Lego so much

My GoPro didn't do well in low visibility scene

Sad but true, GoPro can't serve well here

Simple yet yummilicious meal

My Olivia posting with other Lego friends

Our instructor "saved" a friend's fin during Nitox wreck dive

Growth on mineral water bottle

Simple diary for 2016. I am running super duper late in submitting my 2016 "homework". Yeah.. so much more excitement and personal achievement in 2016, I have yet to tell.. stay tuned.

Taiwan TaiTung - HuaLien Bicycle Trip (Part 3) March 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 12:53:00 +0000

Guess what? I'd totally forgot there's another final section of my 1Q2016 trip to Taiwan. Believe 2016 had came till the end, while it has carried on my life fairly quickly. At a glance, year has came to its end. [yet I have 1 more week to complete my pending blog]

Grabbed my headphone and there I go... continue writing..

Day 3 of our cycling tour brought us from Guang Fu 光復 to Hualian 花蓮.

花蓮光復糖廠 Hualien Sugar Refinery

Since we missed the ice cream store due to the rain a night before, we headed to the ice cream factory immediately after breakfast, and before our journey up North. It's typical a local tourist spot, surrounded with some Japanese styled building and their typical tourist i station.

Brandy and Wasabi ice cream - early in the morning

We continued our journey, till some midway we stopped for a decent photo shooting at a grass land. Somewhere out there, while I couldn't hit the exact location in 4sq and Instagram.

Lovely grass land for photo shooting

The last day was being quite a least excitement ride, as the road was flat without much difficult pedal. As we approached noon, we were guided to a nice tourist cum fishery pond place for lunch. As lunch and dinner wasn't included in our tour trip, we didn't expect such a proper dining place didn't cost us a bomb. Thanks to our guide, as we would believe "they" all have a good deal to start with.

Lunch at 五餅二魚

Ops, rain was approaching

Local drink - assam and sarsi

Heavy meal - mainly seafood

We continued our journey after the rain... cycled cycled and finally we reached the entrance of Hualian. Stopped by the beach side 南濱公園 around 4pm, which was supposed to be our final stop. We requested for additional challenge to ride all our way to 七星潭 Chihsingtan Beach which in our old memory about 7 years ago, it was a nice beach side. Unfortunately, the expectation was ruined. The place has been a bit run down with very lease maintenance. The ride wasn't too pleasant too, having to ride through the narrow streets, up hills and some slopes towards the beach. Nevertheless, I managed to concur the final elevation [wasn't that bad though].

Concluded the 3 days adventure to Hualien

We concluded our guided cycle tour journey when our tour guide brought us to the homestay. Some glitch in the arrangement for homestay, as our group were booked at 2 different B&B, while good thing was it was next to each other. I was slide disappointed the night, but was satisfied with our breakfast served the next morning.

Night was on our own, free easy. We headed to the famous Hualien night market. 福町夜市 Fuding Night Market

Nothing much to expect here. Quite huge for walk, proper meal and snacks area.. nice weather to walk around. But since we were all tired, we didn't shop much though. Had some food to snack on, particular the local / aboriginal traditional dumplings. Tasted good though.

Hualien night market

Traditional dumpling

The group still stayed up late, while the guys went for foot massage, the ladies hung up outside with a cup of coffee. Chilled weather was always good to stay outdoor.

Coffee while waiting for those went for massage

Our stay in Hualien 美麗家民宿 Which I can't recall which was my stay vs. the other group stay. They both equally good, but I personally prefer my breakfast served below. It was home cooked, and refillable all morning long. Served with nice soybean drink too.

Hearty breakfast

Owner's Corgi breed doggie

The view from mini garden

Hualien Homestay

Upon check out, it became our long day long journey back to Taipei. We missed the intended train from Hualien to RuiFang, because there was a large crowd of mainland visitors clogged the queuing area. We had to wait 3 hours for the next train. There goes the plan! It was an unplanned stay at the surrounding of Hualien. But good thing was, we shopped at Giant shop, after storing our luggage at the lockers.

Luggage lockers

Some of us rented a bike each at Giant shop near the station, off we went to hunt for food and another larger Giant store nearby. It was a pleasant shopping, I have got myself 2 sets of Liv cap which I very much liked it.

We found some good dumpling too 公正街包子店 Gongzheng Street Baozi
and fresh mochi 曾記麻糬站前門市

Rush rush off we went on the train and hit RuiFang 瑞芳 station. That brought us to further tourist spot of ShiFen 十分, QingTong 青銅. Timing was bad, from our delay... by the time we reached the spot it was almost evening and night. We were quite tired in fact.

Train to RuiFang

Luggage storage at RuiFamg

QingTong

Old display

Had our early dinner at a place which used to serve "workers meal" 紅寶礦工食堂

Workers meal

十分天燈廣場 Shifen Sky Lantern Square

I don't fancy this at all, because its so not environmental friendly.

Lantern wish

We return to our Taipei hotel close to 10pm. And yet, some still continue hanging out at 7-11 below the hotel. Weather has turned chilled and cold that night.

Great recycling program at 7-11

7-11 Suntory beer

The very next morning, we woke up early as usual. Walk over to XiMenDing for breakfast. Sad to learned that some of our members turned sick. Probably due to the sudden change of weather, plus over tiredness throughout the day. Before heading to XiMenDing, I grabbed a bit from the kiosk next to 7-11 優兒咖啡 Your Coffee nice sandwich they had. Was meant for office workers' quick bite.

Had our breakfast at 蜂大咖啡 Fong Da Coffee. Personally thinks it was an overrated cafe. Anyway, it was concluded my curiosity from some tourist write up.

Fong Da local brewed coffee and almond biscuit

Our bus ride from the station to airport was just right opposite our hotel stay.

Bus station - noticed the ad?

Here's our great cycling tour group contact. They provided really good and personalized service to us. Yet, they are not so commercialized in such, so much personalized and customized free and easy trips we could get from them. Excellent choice!

Bike tour

Looking forward for our next adventure in 2017!... which is very soon :)

Taiwan TaiTung - HuaLien Bicycle Trip (Part 2) March 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 14:13:00 +0000

Day 2 cycling journey, started after a healthy and hearty breakfast. It was a sunny day in the morning. We did our group stretchecise, there we off. It was a hard ride with 7KM uphill road, some with significant climb. Our mind was all blogged with how hard the climb will be, many forgot to appreciate the nature and scenic scene at the 1st KM (Wushibi 烏石鼻 township - flat and downhill route). A shame! Except for a friend of mine, whom did stopped down and took a snap.

(after note: its just about the same as a journey in life, start-stop, hard-easy, with the will and mindset, we will get it through... enjoy every moment in life! - it's my self reminder, BE THANKFUL & HAPPY with who you are and what you have)

Photo credit to a friend <3 td="">

I love the sun & sea, plus the blue skies!

Wushibi

Junction towards the uphill climb

I tried on the 1KM+ climb, but had to give up after some pestering due to the need of conserving energy for our remaining 60+KM ride to our next destination of the day. Our guide picked us up anytime along the way... though it wasn't just me. :) but I was quite sad... :( In fact, we have a total of 2 hours to complete this 7KM climb. Anyway, self note : there will be another time.

Location : 玉長公路

Guide dropped me and my bike at the peak of hill

Next was an easy ride in the tunnel 玉長隧道, for about 2KM before hitting a straight 7KM downhill ride.
We stopped by a native stall after getting out from the tunnel. Observing lots of local vegetables, fruits, etc which we hadn't seen before. A friend tried chewing on Pinang 檳郎, but ended up dizzy, instead had to omit the downhill ride. Tips : Never try chewing Pinang if you are a non-smoker, the "kick" could cause dizziness.

Local convenient stall

Pumpkin, preserved chilli, banana, etc

7KM downhil was fun, road was slightly narrow. Glad that our guide did gave us some tips before the ride, and proper techniques when pressing the breaks. My speedometer wasn't working during that ride, because the guide had placed the front wheel at its opposite angle. Too had, wasn't able to observe the speed.

Location : An Tong 安東

Right at the foot of hill, An Tong was a small township famous with its hot spring. Too bad, it's not our stop to relax our feet. In fact, it was our arms and wrists that need exercise, after the long downhill pressure. 安通溫泉飯店 An-Tong Hot Springs Resort

Journey continued, where we hit to the very own bicycle lane of An Tong. The place was an old train station and tracks were converted to dedicated bicycle lanes. It was too scenic that day, emptied bicycle lane, except us on it. We was in fact over our riding time for lunch.

Old An Tong station, now bicycle society

Close mid-day, yet riding effortless

Paddy field

Dedicated bike lane

It's ME

Crops

Along that bicycle lane, we were honored to the statue where 2 earthquakes plates meet. The Eurasian and Philippine sea's plate. Of course, that became a pit stop for picture taking.

Earthquake plates meet

Lunch : Yu Li township's 玉里麵－ 張媽媽美食

Our guide's recommended lunch place wasn't open that day. So, we had to make our own judgement and hop in whichever shop we feel like it. We tried all noodle and dumpling they offered. It tasted good!

YiLi Noodle

Yam Dumpling, served with Coriander and sauce

After lunch, I quickly ~~ran~~ ride over to the opposite train station to collect my tourist stamp! :)
The ride after lunch as slightly bored. Long, cruise and ride with cross wind. Our pit stop was either 7-11 or now we had a small police station, they called 春日派出所

Quick stop with coffee

Another bicycle lane we went by, can't recall the name. Along the train track. It started to rain drizzling by 3pm. We stopped by a park entrance, if it didn't rain, we would surely do photos bomb.

Another bicycle lane track

Quick stop at a park entrance

Travelled close to 76KM that day! It was the longest route of the 3day expedition. We arrived at GuangFu 光復 township. There's where we had our stay - 砝溙岸。

Homestay at GuangFu

Dinner : Farm in 光復 - 欣綠農園
As it was raining that evening, we were all wet like the 1st day. No chance for us to change our cloths as it was too late in the evening, we had to just drop our bags and head straight to the dinner place. Transport was arranged by our guide. Had our 12 course dinner, all ranging from farm fish, fresh farm chicken, and lots more. We had a whole bucket of purple/red rice, no limit added rice.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my phone a long that night. Hence, no picture for this meal. :)

Breakfast : Our homestay's breakfast was extremely simple. Even Americano coffee needs additional charges. No matter how simple the meal was, it's still the local styled plain porridge plus many times of little dishes.

Simple Breakfast

Paid Americano

Stay tune for Part 3. Till then.

Recipe - Crispy Cranberries Nuts（干果脆片饼）

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 14:21:00 +0000

A procrastinated cookie making post (it wasn't only the post, while I was supposed to test out this recipe since 2016 CNY)... see how procrastinating I am recently. I could not resist from posting this recipe, particularly necessary for future reference. Brought this to a family party last month, and it brought to my surprise that when it was finished up within hour.

Ingredients :-

Pumpkin Seeds 南瓜籽 250g

Almond Flakes 杏仁片 250g

Dried Cranberries 蔓月莓干 (diced) 50g

Florentina Caramel Mix 焦糖预拌粉 200g

Method :-

1) Get ready with 2 layers of baking sheets, one at the bottom of tray another on top of cookie batter

2) Mix all above ingredients in the bowl (except cranberries)

3) Scoop a spoon of mixed ingredient on the baking sheet

4) Place diced cranberries ontop

5) Preheat oven, bake for 8-10min at 170 degree Celcius

6) Upon reaching out from oven, allow 1min for cookies to cool down, before scooping them off the tracy

7) Cool them on wired rack, before storing them into bottle

Florentino Mix

Got this from bakering shop

Mix them well

Scoop them up

Cooling down

Lovely & tasty end product

Taiwan TaiTung - HuaLien Bicycle Trip (Part 1) March 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 06:12:00 +0000

This has been one of my wish list, we planned for the trip so much earlier (bought with zero fare air tickets). Intended to go with a handful of my close buddies. Plan then changed later, where the group went on with 2 hands full!

My 4th visit to this lovely place brought us with more adventurous self DIY local trip his time. Pre-trips homework was challenging, lots to plan, lots to read, lots to coordinate and communicate with the bicycle tour agent... all these been much taken care by my other half. Google's 'yellowman' had brought him virtually to the sites and routes a lot.

Internet broadband was a must for me. Learned my lesson from my last trip, although free Wifi wasn't that difficult to get. We both signed up for Taiwan Mobile's 台灣大哥大 package from the airport arrival terminal, right before entering the immigration gates. Deal was good, 1) unlimited broadband for 7 days, 2) immediate activation. After note remark, its superb especially when we were in suburb area throughout the bicycle trip, it's always close to 100Mb download speed! In case if you are on U Mobile subscription plan for more than 6 months, you are entitle to their free daily broadband of 1Mb, also with local carrier Taiwan Mobile. My friend was lucky!

Broadband service

As usual, we took a bus from airport to downtown. Grab our next day ticket to next destinations for the next day at Taipei Main station. Our night stay is just nearby with underground walking distance. To be exact, it was opposite the bus station.

My lovely bear at Taipei mainstation

Accommodation : Just Inn 正．旅館

Operate by a very young couple, one of them is from Hong Kong
Some rooms can be small, no windows, it was alright for a night stay
We left out bigger luggage with them for the next 5 days, though their store room can be pretty narrow, yet they still accommodated the 10 of us

Add caption

Foods :
1) Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle

2) 天天利美食坊

Since our hotel was walking distance, ~1km to XiMenDing (西門町), hunting for food wasn't a problem at all. In fact, there are some good shops around the hotel, serving good beef noodle. We passed by a local market and grabbed some local fruits, my ever favorite 蜜棗
Ah Chung rice flour noodle (阿綜麵線 been ~~my partner~~ someone's favorite, but not mine :( I prefer minced pork rice (滷肉飯) topped with egg, accompanied with O-chien (蛤煎) and fried radish cake.. so similar to our local food
After dinner, we simply walked and shop around

simple dinner

Journey :
1) Short bicycle trip at FuLong (福隆)

We underestimated our expedition here, it was supposed to be a warm up ride before we started our 3D2N full biking journey from Taitung (台東) to Hualien (花蓮)
The scenery and weather was just too good, our group spent too much time taking photos, in the end we couldn't finish our planned route of 20km around the place, including a scenic place called DongBeiJiao (東北角). Not to worry, I will be back!
Main attraction was the cooling tunnel of 2km 舊草嶺隧道石城端（白雲飛處）
We had simple bento lunch just in front of FuLong station

Bicycle rental outside FuLong station

Biking tunnel

FuLong Tourist i-building

Bento set rice

Bento shop, view from the station

Journey :
2) Hooped on the 5 hours train from FuLong (福隆) to Taitung (台東)

Though the journey was long, all of us enjoyed the comfortable train ride, especially on the super scenic view
In fact, those view that we saw along the train ride, was our bicycle trip view too
We took a train down south, and cycled up north. In fact, that was a slightly tiring ride as most of the time we ride against the north south wind :D

Our train tickets

Little Olivia accompanied me too

Met a reptile in our train cabin

Scenic paddy field view

Another wet paddy view

Journey :

3) Here's our destiny in Taitung (台東), our engaged bicycle tour and rental shop 花蓮單車出租台東單車出租甲租乙還阿勝單車

We were earlier skeptical about another bike touring shop outside of the branded brand's touring service. Once we stepped into this humble shop and the hospitality given by our guide, we all became satisfied customers
Pick up and return of their bicycle can be at 2 different locations, we hired the guided car service, hence all our luggages were well taken care of
Best part was, our guide could service puncture tire in seconds, buy us drinks, transport anyone and their bike if one can't make it through some steep route
Upon picking up our bicycle (all ready tagged with our names, as they took our height and setup the closest fit size bicycle), our guide made us rode on the bike to our hotel, at least 10KM on a late evening

Bike touring shop

Accommodation : 蘋果商務旅店 Apple Hotel

Riders favorite hotel, the owner has a Bicycle Club to start with, they will ride in a group on a specific days
Spacious and most important was clean

Journey :
4) 台東觀光夜市
5) 鐵花村 Tie Hua Music Village

Upon checking in, it was closed to 8pm, it was time for dinner
We walked about 1km that evening, headed to their night market for food
My experience, nothing much of the night market, food was so-so. If one would like to have decent restaurant foods, they have good beef noodle house nearby
On our way back, we dropped by a nicely lid full of lanterns park... view was awesomely lovely

Love the lanterns

Journey :
6) 加路蘭遊憩區 Jialulan Recreation Area

7) 馬利諾廚房

8) 金樽

Our bicycle tour journeys started Day 1, all from Taitung, getting into several nice rest area long the beaches
We stopped on an average every 10km for the start, our guide will usually stopped us at 7-11 or tourist rest area, almost all 7-11 mart has toilet. It was so convenient, plus we could refill our water or energy drinks anytime
Our first and second rest area were super scenic, thanks to the blue skies with ~25C
Dulan (都蘭) was a smaller township, where we stopped for a bread shop

Bread @ Dulan

All kinds of bread

JinJun 金樽 rest area

Foods : 甯記東河包子

We stopped here for simple lunch
It was a Pao shop with many kinds of famous Pao, meat balls and soybean drink

TongHe Pao

Journey :

10) 三仙台 Sanxiantai

Weather didn't do good after 3pm that day, upon checking in another tourist center, it rained
We did a quick tour in which lasted only 30min
The place would be very scenic if it didn't rain, there's a bridge to cross over to another smaller island opposite

Foods : 烏石鼻 Wushibi

Dinner or meals are not inclusive in our bicycle tour package, no fear... as our guide will usually ask for our wish before planning our dinner
Dinner will usually cost us only RM30/pax, served will close to 8-10 dishes of food
1st night's dinner was mainly seafood, since it's a fishing village. i.e. fresh sashimi, octopus, jelly fishes, etc... all were yummy!!

Wushibi Seafood Restaurant

Accommodation : 宜人海灣

Located at a small village called YiWan 宜灣
Our homestay along the way was all booked by our bicycle tour agent. First night of our biking journey, was an apartment styled homestay. We took the highest floor. The entire building was managed for homestay purposes
There was a nice common area in front, we had our foods and snacks that night, overlooking the beach
I would say our breakfast the next morning was the highlight of all in the stay, we were all served with healthy Genki breakfast and home brewed coffee! Check out the picture, love it to the max!

Lighted up homestay

Our room - wooden furniture

Bread, ham, egg, steamed pumpkin, bean sproud, homecook soy milk

Beautiful mug + home brewed coffee

End of Day 1 expedition... tired, but was worth the effort with the beautiful scenic view.

Day 1 Biking TaiTung - YiWan

2016 New Year - Food Trip around Perak

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 01 May 2016 14:10:00 +0000

Looks like I have not start anything on 2016 in my blog space! Time flies and it is now May 1st... oh dear, how can life be that busy?

Ipoh and its surrounding food trip is a yearly event for us. That's the best time to shop for CNY goodies and fresh local made sausages.

Journey to the North started with this simple food mission -- hawkers and local market foodie trip! I super like simple food, and most importantly the feel of humanitarian a.k.a. 人情味.

1. Kampar Market - Medan Selera Kampar

I personally like this lo-mai-kai, filled with char-siew and fried ground nuts, flooded with curry. I couldn't find the stall in the food court, it was actually selling outside the main building, by an aunty.

yummy lo mai kai

Chee Cheong Fun, it was nice too. But the problem is there are many stalls in the food court selling this. Watch out for the longest queue stall or check upon from famous foodie sites like FourSquare.

Chee Cheong Fun

2. Sight Seeing - Gaharu Tea Valley Gopeng

On the way up north, there's this tourist place which could worth a visit. Nothing much, but a quick 20min trip. We didn't join the guided tour to their plantation area. The selling point here was some useful tree or plant that has good benefit. They produced side products such as tea bag, instant noodle, etc..

Gaharu Tea Valley

3. Gopeng Market - Pasar Gopeng Food Court

Another highlight on market foodie - Gopeng food court. The moment we reached, the famous noodle stall has wrap up for their day. No worries, the fu-chuk yi-mai was a recommended tong sui too.

We went ahead and tried another stall that's long queue. Steam chicken porridge. It was unexpectedly good. The porridge was smooth and chicken was well cooked. Oh dear, I am hungry while writing now...

3. Gunung Rapat for afternoon tea - Roadside Penang laksa

We stumble into this road side Laksa stall while heading to our shopping destination. Sounds interesting, but the weather was hot. Many drop by eating at the shop side... again, it was yummy. The laksa comes with fish paste and other yong-tau-fu stuffs.

Roadside laksa stall

4. Shopping for Rattan - Kedai Rotan Ken

This was the shopping destination. Gems were hidden in this mess.. lol. We searched on and on, and finally spent some money here with a pair of large rattan chair, and another pair of smaller ones. It was made fresh from oven, and the owner needed us to pick up only the next morning, as he needed to finish the final bit of waxing.

Kedai Ratan Ken

5. Our stay in Ipoh - Weil Hotel

Very nice hotel, which situated at the central Ipoh, right next to Ipoh Parade. We had a good deal at agoda and it was a worth experience. Nice room,, nice room view, modern and clean. Room's comes with complimentary Pagoda nuts. And the highlight is at its infinity pool. Had a evening swim and hang out early in the morning, should had the swim in the quiet morning instead.

Room view

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Hotel lobby

Infinity Pool

6. Dinner - Buntong Taugeh Ayam

It was a bad idea to hit this place at 7pm. We waited 2 hours for this simple dish, or should we say supper? The chef and service indeed having some kind of processes issue, serious revamp required. Advice is to hit this place by 6pm, as we did the last time. No doubt, the food is still good compared to the tourist place hor-fun chicken.

Hor-fun Chicken

7. Supper, or kinda chill session - 新元华饮食阁雪花啤酒

It was such a traditional hangout place, just next to Ipoh Concubine street. From the name of the street, one would imagine what kind of night life area would it be 40-50 years ago. We passed by the place many time years were I still had my second home here, but no intention to stop by.

Very unique and traditional serving and table cloth. That's all I recalled, plus the chilled glass, once pour with beer, it turned into icy snow float.

Snowy Beer

8. Next foodie on the next day... - 新汉商酒楼 Restoran Sun Hon Siong

On our next destination, Sitiawan, we stopped by Ayer Tawar for lunch. Our usual dining place, which my late grandma may occasionally stop here for meal. According to my uncle, the family had patron this shop for 40 over years.

Love their red wine chicken mee sua and O-Chien. Our typical pick for meal of two.

9. Chill afternoon - James Cendol

We were slightly aimless while in Sitiawan. In fact, nothing much to achieve except chilling around and spend another day before off we back home. Decided to stay a night in this small town. Afternoon coffee was supposed to be our next destination, but the famous pao and bread place only start business at 3pm. Hence, we had a bowl of cendol to share. This famous guy served the king before, and his cendol's highlight is always the gula melaka. The sweet dark brown sugar syrup.

10. New try, afternoon coffee - Yee Si Restaurant 依西茶室

The multi layer peanut crunch bread was a highlight. Luckily we ordered before headed for Cendol. By the time we came slightly before 3pm, it was all sold out! Phew.. the owner did take our order ( I think we paid ahead, kiasu ) and reserved for us. The sang-yuk pao was highlight too. They sold out pretty fast.

Pao and peanut layered bread

Headed few steps from the back of the shop, there's another local treasure of bake biscuits. This type of bread/biscuit filled either with onion or minced pork. Taste good, and it could keep for months in freezer.

Kom Piang

11. Evening sunset - Teluk Senangin Beach

Googled for some to-do recommendation around. Since we were aimless, heading for sunset for nature hunting was the only solution. I was placing quite high hope for a nice beach, since it was a proper build public recreation place.

It was unfortunate, the facilities were nicely built but mentality of users were not. I saw lots of food waste and rubbish were left behind nearby trees. It must be left over from a picnic or so. Sad.

Rubbish left behind

My Lego followed me

12. Dinner at Pantai Remis - Restoran Makanan Laut Ng Chin Boon

Honestly, my tummy could not fit any more food that evening. Since our very last visit to this shop many years ago, we didn't return due to various reasons. This time, we had some finger specialty foods - fried squid and fried sugar coated yam. The yam was special.

Fried squid and sugar coated yam

13. Place we stayed - Mornington Hotel Sitiawan

Nice budget hotel. Overall experience wasn't bad, compared to once we 4 cramped into a room above shop house.. lol

14. We left Sitiawan earlier, to avoid traffic jam - 海产茶室

Nothing much we can find in Sg Besar for brunch. We stumble this hawker place and grab some food. The char kuey teaw with egg was good, pretty traditionally fried with lots of dark soy sauce.

Hawker center in Sg Besar

And what we had

15. Last stop before heading home - 新乐茶餐室

A place named Jeram. A coffee shop famous for their pao and yam puff. We had some and packed some home. That was end of the foodie journey.

Nice yam puff and pao

I wish to visit more market and hawker place for good food. Thanks to some reviews in foursquare, else wouldn't had know much of what to aim for over those common market place. Perhaps follow where the local goes.

YE 2015 - Last ride of the year, with AirBnB experience and foodie trip

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 15:31:00 +0000

Hello Purpledee! It has been a while since I last wrote. While I thought my only pending trip write up was for early 2016, just realized I was wrong! There was another good trip we had, went alongside with Penang Second Bridge ride event, on Dec 20th, 2015.

Our 1st food stop would naturally be Ipoh. A nice old town with so much of food to explore.

Ipoh - 新源峰茶餐室 SunYinFong @ Ipoh Old Town

Local CheeCheongFun and Poached egg was nice

Kuala Sepetang - Quick stopover to check out the Charcoal factory. Apparently, it had been very commercially flooded with tour buses compared to 4 years ago. No picture.

Taiping - Larut Matang Hawker Centre
Simple meal. We decided to eat tiny with great quantity. Lol.

Tall ice & Indian Mee

Taiping - Restaurant Ansari Famous Cendol
Since I don't fancy ice stuff, this wasn't my bowl of cendol.

Cendol for cooling down

Kuala Kurau - No picture taken. It was just a quick de-tour to pick up fresh salted duck eggs. We bought at least 3 boxes! Kiasu.

Nibong Tebal - Night Owl Homestay
A place we don't usually stop by, but this time we stayed over this small township. Thanks to AirBnB, I am very pleased to have a homey place to stay over, especially when we have have a little baby came along accompanying, home with basic/almost full facilities like kitchen, TV, utensils and lots more certainly helpful for the mom.

As we took up the whole house, 3 rooms. We only occupied 2. It was a themed owl setup, the owner stayed just next door, it was a single story traditional terrace house.

Our mission was to have less than 20min drive to Batu Kawan stadium.

Neat & clean homestay

The owner, available direct or via AirBnB

Nibong Tebal - Swee Garden 瑞園海鮮飯店

Good choice of seafood meal by the local, our warm host where the other gang put up with. I didn't take any other dishes photo that night, as they all turned out yellowish due to the street lighting. Yes, we were sitting in the middle of the road.

Overall, food was good, but slightly long wait. Price was not extremely cheap, comparable to some inland Penang restaurants.

steamed octopus

Batu Kawan Stadium - Towards Penang Second Bridge Toll Plaza

This fun ride bicycle event was not crowded, as compared to the Penang round island, CFAL. Ride was easy tipsy except towards the U-turn when a little upwards and yet needed to go anti-wind direction.

Penang 2nd Bridge Ride

Yes, this I finished

Bagan Lalang, Butterworth - Ong Cheng Huat Seafood (王清发海鲜 - 椰脚)
Had our lunch before heading into the island. This restaurant had lost their authentic under-the-coconut tree feel, as compared my last visit. They have renovated. All dishes are standards with no special varieties. Honestly, its tasty especially the soury steamed fish. The spring chicken (童子鸡) was nice too.

Georgetown, Karpal Singh Drive - Maritime Suite
Checked in another AirBnB stay, it's a converted SoHo suite. 6 pax unit, 2 rooms with another set of beds at the living room (it sounded wrong). I wasn't impress with this. First of all, the mailbox method of getting house key and getting to their car park has been ever confusing. Though, the owner made a youtube guided tour for their guest, if only the pace can be a little slower.. haha.

Uncivilized residence

Coffee Time - Bricklin Bar Cafe
I chose this place, as it was an old bus depot, namely Hin Bus Depot. It was a challenging place to hit into, especially when Penang day parade was just on the same street. Parking was challenge too, though we were lucky enough to get one.

Red latte - I will never order this anymore, unless I crave for Teh Boh. Oh dear, it has been a teh tarik with milk foam art on it. Surrounding of the cafe has some other corner to explore, great art street, another cafe, as well as art exhibition corner.

Tavern in the Park - Another corner of Hin Bus Depot. Very nice glass house. I was rather attracted by the 2-in-1 fish pond with recycled watering system for the herb plants. Very "green" concept. Obviously, I dream to own one!

Dinner - Everyday Supreme Seafood 天天魚翅海鮮大酒樓
Meeting with the sis-in-law and little niece for dinner. Nice restaurant with somewhat Chinese and local Nyonya delicacies. Pork wrapped and Assam Fish lai-fun a.k.a. rice noodle was special.

Assam Fish laifun

Breakfast - Air Itam Market Annex Food Court
Exploring hawker food in Penang is a must. Ever corner they would have established hawker center. If unsure, head to the wet market corner, you won't go wrong.

Prawn Mee a.k.a. Hokkien Mee

Coffee Again, before heading home - ChinaHouse
Look at the variety of cakes! You will go crazy and wish you have a huge appetite. It was hard to choose, had to go according to the recommendations.

Lots of cakes

Nice deco

Ipoh, late lunch - Restoran Ong Kee (安记芽菜鸡沙河粉 Tauge Ayam)

A mix of lunch + tea.. over for Chicken hor fun. The noodle was good, but I don't fancy the chicken. Still prefer the night long waiting Buntong Chicken place.

Ipoh.. will be coming up next. As we returned to the town exactly 2 weeks later. :)

2015 in review

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 07:57:00 +0000

It's the usual me to make a quick review in wrapping up the year. Especially on the last day of my year end vacation. 2015 was rather a rough year, particularly at work and some emotion at home.

Nevertheless, I had great company, family and friends who always with me getting through the unpleasant moment, and safely.

What's gone for 2015?...

1. Travel - Didn't have many overseas trip, probably due to the unpleasant news carried over from 2014. Only had one trip to Osaka Japan, while the other two was business trips to Singapore and the States. 2 dive trips, and a few local road trips with friends and families.

2. Collection - Lego, 1st heart shaped Lego was my own souvenir bought from Lego store @ Rinku Premium Outlet, Osaka. Later in the year, I had several other boxes of Friends and X'mas collection as gift. :)

3. Kitchen Gadget - Kuvings slow juicer, Krups Coffee grinder

4. Stress Relieve tools - Essential Oils, coloring book

5. Exercise - Upgraded my ride from a foldie to MTB, continued my regular Yoga and Zumba classes

6. Eat Healthy - My lunch pack routine has became regular, ate raw foods, especially those cooked on the same morning. It's easy, and I enjoy planning my meals in advance. Overnight rolled oat has been a regular twice weekly breakfast, combination of some fresh fruits and cereal.

7. Edible Garden - New crops successfully planted and harvested, i.e. red long bean, sweet potato leaves (both red and common green), English spearmint, edame beans & asparagus (seeds bought from Daiso Japan), delima (local pomegranate)

8. Family - The arrival of a niece and a nephew, both were born just 1 day apart

What's coming for 2016?....

1. Health is the most important asset among others, besides myself, I am hoping all my family members and friends will be blessed with good health.

2. Reduces stress at work

3. Improve on certain posture in Yoga (I still can't do sit-up, shy me)

4. Enjoy my life to the fullest! More dive trips and overseas travel retreats?

Wishing everyone all the best for 2016! May the force be with all of us.... Happy new year!

The addiction of Essential Oil

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:36:00 +0000

Essential oil was first introduced to me through my regular spa and beauty center, Bio Jourdeness. At that particular time, I didn't quite understand why such herbs and plants extract could fetch a sky high value, a.k.a. expansive in common term. Therefore, I started some reading on them, and started to value its usage and differentiate the quality one versus those sold in some Thai night markets. They make huge difference.

Simply, essential oils are not only for spa & relaxation use. They could cure or prevent certain sickness, if we use them correctly. The pureness of each oil is the key. It can also be used as sanitizing.

Quick reference guide is available everywhere in the internet.
Example, http://draxe.com/essential-oil-uses-benefits/

I even have them installed on my smartphone, for handy references http://oilsprimer.com/
Some common oils, such as lavender, lemongrass, rosemary and peppermint are my favorite. Especially peppermint, which is handy for respiration or throat irritation due to dust and unpleasant air quality.

However, it is especially crucial to understand the basic oils do's and don'ts. As an example, lemongrass should be set away from pregnant women as much as possible. Read and understand the use of each oil, its important!

Young Living, a MLM such seller is my regular source of essential oil for the time being. I would wish to see more 'pure' and trusted oil in the market. As such, I am very much interested in learning the usage and details on how-to extract such pure oil. It's the trend for now, but it is important to use it correctly and wisely.

Part of my collection from Young Living

I have basic oils, which can be natural extract of vegetable oil, or any specialties like cranberries. With addition of certain drops of essential oil (I have it with marjoram for the time being), it's pretty much my must-have massage oil to end my day.

Basic and natural hair and body shampoo, without any scent and flavor is my favorite these days, as I could place drops of different essential oil to my liking.

Pine oil from Prague & Bio Jourdeness basic cranberries oil

Over my previous trips to Taiwan, I do like to shop for some basic massage oils, roll-ons and even sunblock lotion.

Taiwanese brand

My 1st reference book

Diffuser for air purification

Interested to understand more on essential oil? Do read and understand more...

What is Life? Some reflection needed over an usual year end...

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 16:48:00 +0000

I gobbled up this booked over my recent short vacation back home. The book was bought over a charity cause, through a friend. This simple 50+ pages book was written by an unfortunate teenager, whom able to reflect his own life since diagnose with disease almost a decade ago. He appreciate life more than others... which made me reflect on how fortunate we should be, and appreciate life more.

Many lessons one can absorb if one make an effort to understand on each simple sentences written in the book. We should not take things for granted. My take, each consequences happen for a reason. We just need to accept that's a fact of life, while understand why those could happen to us, but not others.

There was also one interesting quote which captured my attention, from the book.

"Whenever you hear someone, even if it's a voice in your head saying
'No, you can't do it', it means nothing except a test in your faith. Strengthen your resolve.
Faith make things possible... not easy "

Another important word - Faith. Having faith in life is as important as having food each day. Without faith, life can be meaningless.

I intentionally left behind the book at home, hoping that some other could benefit from the writings. Have a good 2015 year end, looking forward for a better 2016.

My 2015 Dive Diary

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 13:37:00 +0000

As usual, I didn't clock more than 2 dives in a year. Our dive resorts were exactly the same of last year, it was just at a different order. Thus, I wouldn't blog them in any detail. It's just marking our memories here - cool friends always make our life more meaningful.

Bubbles Dive Resort - Pulau Perhentian - Sometime in May 2015

Extremely fun trip with just the 6 of us
It's a relax, quiet and back-to-nature trip, be it on shore or underwater
Flew with firefly, stayed one night in Kuala Besut, all in 1 room
It was a LEGO trip, each of us has a character represented
Dives were leisure, no rush and ever relax during interval.. hammock waits for us
Woke up with the turtle, it was turtles eggs laying season, they made their way to Bubbles.. almost every night
A place to find dark yet starry sky, met my 1st comet in life.. but I forgot to make a wish :P
Foods were good, nothing fancy except home cooked styled and yet no MSG
Certainly hope the business and service maintains, it will be out annual get a way place

Fresh food served

Yummy puff served during tea time

LEGO diver getting geared up too

Dive center

Turtle Hatchery

Mini turtles are in under

It's ME

Joyful kids

Clear water

Lunch at Besut Sakura

Laguna Resort - Pulau Redang - Some time in July 2015

This was a trip, with non-divers.. marked our 8th year anniversary (from an overseas trip) of an ever 8xx group
1st ever back-to-back trip after touched down from a 26 hours long haul business trip, was glad I made it without any unforeseen delay
Nothing much to shout for the resort and dive trips, it feels like a city in an island.. crowded and concrete
Dives were not great with the large boat, but visibility and sites were alright
Did some post of my UW picture from the GoPro.. (I was previously lazy viewing my videos)
Fun with the group

Dinner when we arrived K. Terrenganu

Breakfast at KT

Walk at the Turtle Alley

Hey buddies!

Blue sky was the best!

My buddy

Sunrise

Sun rises with moon still around

Burning sun rising

Nyonya lunch @ Mdm Bee's before heading home

Dinner at Summer Park, Bkt Tinggi

Short and sweets report... nothing fancy to share. It's more of my fond memories captured here. Till then.. awaiting for another great diving year ahead.

My bread making journey...

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 13:32:00 +0000

I could see most mommy will bake for kids, I would say mine is bake for colleagues. Glad that I have a bread lover colleague, no matter rainy or sunshine, she won't hesitate bread or flour to be precise.

Marking the close-to-1 year journey of bread making. I had fun with this kitchen gadget, good buy, in particularly its yeast separation function. My success rate is close to 95% thus far. Despite at once, silly me who missed out the yeast entirely.

Panasonic Breadmaker SD-P104. It cater for smaller volume, between 250g-300g of bread. Perfect size for me, as I could get it finish daily, eat freshly. With the ready "pao" flour, I made steamed bun too, aka "pao". My preference is always wheatmeal bread, with a ratio of 250g High Protein and 30g wheatmeal flour. I didn't quite like the recommended recipe, as it would harden the texture of bread.

I didn't take my picture when I did loaf of breads. Until I joined a FB group where we need to submit our so called "homework"... there goes my creativity and eagerness to try on various variety of breads. I started to make buns with Dough Mode. Perfectly well for a person like me who hates kneading flour. With the breadmaker, I wouldn't need to stress my wrist and its just effortless.

I don't mind taking out the ready dough, flatted them on a table mat, release the excess air in the dough, then let it proof for another hour.

My breadmaking journey thus far...

Otak-Otak bun

Black pepper cheese bun

The inner cheese

Green tea loaf

Pork belly steamed bun

Read bean akuzi swirl loaf

Wholemeal fluffy bun

Wholemeal long loaf

Pan baked Mozarella cheese bun

2014 Dec - Year End Villages Hopping Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Purpledee) — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 13:22:00 +0000

It's a super dated blog post. Seems the effort should not be wasted, with the pictures all ready for posting... plus there was great food exploration around Perak, a place consider half or quarter of hometown. Guess it was the most fruitful year end food and cycle expedition.

Taiping
Food : Keling Mee & traditional black soya sauce Char Kuey Teaw @ Larut Matang Hawker Centre
Stay : Taiping Tune Hotel

Keling Mee & Black CKT

Kuala Kurau
About 45min drive away from Taiping.

Visited place : Salted Duck Egg factory @ Joo Hong Chan Telur Masin
Activity : Cycle with my foldie into the fishing village to hunt for foods

Duck eggs size separation

All packed

Food : Traditional fried prawn cake & local coffee @ 建成利

(The fried prawn cake is a few doors away from the coffee shop and temple)

Fried prawn cake

Back to Taiping in the evening, unfortunately it was raining. We hoped the following morning will be sunny.. too bad, it wasn't and we couldn't cycle around Taiping Lake.

Dinner in Taiping : We wanted to taste the small packeted nasi lemak udang, but Siang Malam food court was closed on a Sunday. Instead, we landed on a Hainanese coffee shop that served their famous chicken chop and CKT. What a combination, it was @ Yew Lee 有利茶餐室

Taiping Lake

Ayer Tawar
A small town between Sitiawan and my dad's hometown. We stopped by for late lunch, because we found the place for lunch in Sitiawan was close that day. Craved for red wine chicken noodle. Instead, we settled here, an old place we use to patron for the past years, @ Sin Han Siong Restaurant

They serve pretty good home cooked dishes too. I like their simple and yet old fashioned setup. From the opposite road, I always think the building is leaning side way.

Red wine rice noodle

Bruas
Following stop... my dad's hometown. Had a night stay over, enjoyed the cool weather and nature. Too bad, some plantation road was too muddy for my little bike to cross over. We had to turn away and return home, as it was slightly drizzling that morning. Nevertheless, air was fresh.

Pantai Remis
Food : We had our dinner with uncle @ Ling Song Kee Restaurant
(Felt a little nostalgic, cos the last time we were there was with my late grandmom)

Main street - Jalan Laksamana

Ipoh
Before returning home, we stopped by Ipoh. Our last stop. Another must-stop town with lots of good food.

Accomodation : MH Hotel, at the new township opposite Ipoh Parade.

Little pantry in the room

Foods hunt :
1. Choy Kee Bakery - Famous for their egg tart. Packed for tea time.

2. Biscuit QunKee - Right oppostite Choy Kee, I personally like this egg tart more, as they had pork floss on it. Salty taste egg tarts, its exactly a nicely blended taste. Probably its just me, one with a weird taste bud. :D This place famous for their kaya puff.

My favourite - pork floss egg tart

3. Seng Kee Food Trading 成记香饼 - Right within Gunung Rapat itself, there are many home made cookies, as comparable with the ever famous and tourist type of Yee Hup. Simple village home where they bake those cookies with old coconut shells.

4. The Happy 8 Retreat @ Old Town - I could not remember what we had for dinner.. but obviously we had gone for a hangout place.. just with a glass of non-alchohol mojito. A place with nice natural wood furniture, stream within the restaurant, unfortunately the design of its gents and ladies were not strategically built, was pretty near to one of the stream-sounded dining area. This place has its own backpacker or boutique hotel upstairs. Well design.

5. Nam Heong Food Court - We settled for lunch after check out from the nearby hotel. High end food court, and I called it a food court for lazy butt. You can find most Ipoh famous food here, decent quality for some (since I didn't taste all), but expect to pay premium. Why did I called lazy butt, because you don't need to queue up to grab your own foods. You need to place your order via the online tool, waiter will come fetch your payment and there goes your food will be served to your table.

Food court setup

6. 189 香饼行 - Tried another recommended biscuit stall before departing Ipoh, this one with sesame. Quite nice and tasty too.

Ended the year well... Bye 2014.