Sunday, January 4, 2015

Penang Day 1 (27th December 2014)

Planned this Penang year end makan trip way since beginning of last year right after YZ received an invitation to attend his friend's wedding dinner in Eastern & Oriental Hotel, Penang. 

Both being the gluttons that we've always be, we jump right at the opportunity as we couldn't resist the temptation of Penang's food especially the super short trip we've had in year 2013 which brings back the good ol' memories of the Pearl of the Oriental. So, this time around, we made it into a 5 days trip whereby extensive research was done so that more eateries are able to be savior without any regrets of the places we were to miss out. (in which we were so wrong about that! Penang is an island full of good food to the extent we couldn't finish trying out everything before we left!). Not only that, we also brought an additional army (who self proclaims himself as a big eater) to help out with our food journey.

On the first day itself, the three of us woke up in the wee hours of the morning just to rush to Ipoh for our first stop -- Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant. (富山茶楼香港点心). The journey itself from KL to Ipoh took us about 2 1/2 hours to arrive. 


Upon arriving at our destination, we quickly rush to find a table at the second floor of the restaurant since it's already fully packed with not only locals, but also people coming from outstation.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, we managed to get ourselves a table and took turns to go over to the food station to make our food selection. (To side track a bit, on Sat, Sun or public holidays, diners are given a piece of ordering sheet and required to bring along that piece of paper in order for the waiter or waitress to jot down the items ordered)

So, we had quite a feast over there, however, all of us ended with disappointment over the quality of the food that day.

Siu Mai with Prawn
Century Egg with Minced Meat

Prawn Dumpling

Charcoal Pau with Yam filling

Chee Cheong Fun with Char Siew

Chee Cheong Fun with Prawn

Egg Tart (a total disappointment as compared to last trip!)
We ordered many other fried stuff as well, however, no photos were taken as all of them were not worth mentioning given that our anticipation towards the food gone down the drain. Sacrificed our beauty sleep for nothing. 

The bill comes to about RM90. We're definitely not coming back any sooner especially on weekends or public holidays. 

Anyway, for those who are interested in giving it a shot, following are the details pertaining to the restaurant:

Address: 51, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, 30300 Ipoh, Perak Darul Ridzuan
Tel:  +(605) 254 0308
Operating Hours: Monday to Sundays (except Tuesday) 
                             6.30am to 2.30pm


We depart to our next destination-- Funny Mountain Tau Foo Fah 


This place is said to have the best tau foo fah and soya milk in Ipoh. You may choose to dine in or another alternative which is --- drive through!



Bought tau foo fah and soya milk each to share as we are already stuffed at that moment.




Verdict:  Both not up to our expectation. Texture of the tau foo fah is very rough and the soya milk is very watery. Tasted much better versions in KL. 

Address:
Funny Mountain Soya Bean
49, Jalan Theatre,
30300, Ipoh, Perak.
Telephone No: 04-546 9968
Contact No: 012-516 1607 (Cliff Tan)

Business Hours: 
Daily
1030am – finish

Sunday, August 11, 2013

My Fantabulous Taiwan Trip 27/07/2013 Day 2


On the 2nd day, we will be going Qing Jing Farm (清境农场/ 清境農場)from Feng Jia. In order to have an easier journey, we've decided to get a van to pick us up from Feng Jia to Qing Jing Farm.


As for your info, we've took about 1 and a half hour to reach our destination. This is due to the driver was good enough and we've gave him a name of  "拓海" the driver from Initial D. The way the driver drove was fantastic, he can overtake car on a very narrow road and even at a very narrow cornering. All of the passengers were so "excited" until non of us feeling dizzy. LOL..

The place that we were staying were fantastic! It's the Star Villa (清境天星度假山庄).

To be frank, the way to this place is really scary especially with the furious driver, but all this fear had gone away after we reached our destination. This place is awesome and I really love this place a lot and the Villa is great! Thanks for Shu Hui who introduced this special place to us and its really a great place to stay! 

This is the entrance of the Villa

This is the front view of our hotel and this place is where we can see the cloud (云海) below us!
This place is amazing. I swear I will be back again, on winter perhaps.  









 I love Qing Jing Farm (清境农场/ 清境農場

 Pretty View!!!

After meeting up with the owner regarding the room, we've decided to go and reward our tummy after some roller coasters ride. Before going to the town, the owner brief us about the surroundings and tell us what's the activity around there. The owner is really helpful as he guided us whether where to take the bus to the farm and what time is the show. On the other hand, pls don't forget to ask the owner about the ticket to visit the Swiss Garden (瑞士花园) which is located at the town of the place. 

After done planning, we have to walk about 15 minutes from our hotel to the town where the Swiss Garden (瑞士花园) and Starbucks Plaza (星巴克广场)located. This is the town up on the hill and U can look for food stalls, 7-11, Starbucks. There are some food stalls as well as some food stall that located outside of our Villas. 
These are some of the fruits that being sell at the stall, anyway, it's lucky that we went at the season of 水蜜桃 too. The photo below shows that this dog was hired for some advertisement. 

On the other hand, we saw something that we couldn't find in Malaysia too! Look at this!
The 蒜 here is freaking large! The leght of it is as long as half of my body. Its up until my chest. Was wondering how will it taste. Too bad that we didn't have a chance to try it. 
This is the view from Starbucks Plaza 

After all the walking, we've finally decided to eat at M.O.S Burger which we don't really have much chance to try in Malaysia. This stall is located at Starbucks Plaza (星巴克广场).

This is the Roasted Pork Burger from M.O.S Burger. The specialty of the burger was not the pork but the rice burger. The rice had replaced the bread that we used to have and please don't look down at its size. The size could be small but it certainly can fill ur stomach up. The taste of the roasted pork was quite ok too. 


This is the vegetarian burger offered by M.O.S Burger. The taste of the burger is quite nice . 
 
This is the chicken nugget that came together with the combo. Their nugget is superb! Be reminded that, there are no chilli sauce in Taiwan. Please bring your own chilli sauce. The drinks that they served are good too, especially their mango drinks (sorry for not having any photo of the drink). 

After done with our lunch, we have visited the stalls around the Starbucks Plaza 星巴克广场. 1 of the shop that we visited is the Lavender Shop. Below are some of the photo of the shop which I think is quite pretty. 
This is 1 of the best photo spot for couple provide by the Lavender shop

  Those are the products of the shop.

 May me and all my friend can be good friend forever! 

This is for the SINGLES!

After visitng the shop, we went to visit the shop that is located outside of the Swiss Garden (瑞士花园) which is just opposite from the Starbucks Plaza (星巴克广场. This is where the 紙箱王主題餐厅 Carton King located. 




This is a place where they use paper box to create lots of model like animals, buildings and some very creative item. On the other hand, they do have their theme restaurant too.





Its a bit lucky as we are here when they are having the Windmill Festival.
Its a bit funny as the person who help us to take this photo has accidentally snap his own face into our friend's handphone. That really give us a good laugh. 

They do sell good choclate here too and the sample was great too! I found that they love to promote their food by giving sample and as a Malaysia, sample is alwasy the way we get "discount" from the shop. LOL.. 



After done visiting the stalls there, we took the shuttle bus that commence their service from 1pm from the Starbucks Plaza (星巴克广场) to the Qing Jing Farm (清境农场). The bus fare is about NTD30.  
We are finally here, please bring along your youth card as the card gonna give U special discout for visiting the farm. 

May me and my gf can be like the name of the walkway.

 A place that gives me peace of mind. I love this place! 

I believe that you can see it on my face! 

SHEEP, the main actor of the farm!
Michelle and SHEEP!!!

No idea why, Sheep always love YZ no matter its origin from Taiwan or UK and the photo above is from Taiwan while the photo below is from UK. Wakaka...
 

THE SHEEP SHOW which is about similar to THE TIGER SHOW. As you can see, human are all PERVERT. They love to see people go naked and even animals go naked! They even pay for the show!

After the show, its time for some specialty from the farm. 
The GOAT MILK ICE CREAM. Seriously, I don't really like the taste but its really worth trying by paying NTD50. Anyway, look closely at the goat on the wrap. HEHE...
This Honey Vinegar is great! NTD80 per bottle and its really worth it.

Seriously, SHEEP don't really love everyone. Why do I say so? Let's see the picture below.
This girl wanted to take photo with those SHEEP so badly, but too bad. The Sheep keep running here and there and refuse to look at the camera. 
The Sheep even show their ass to her when she wanted to take photo with them! LOL..

After done visiting the farm, we choose to walk back to the Villa instead of taking the bus just to enjoy the cold breeze here. You should really try the walkway here as the scenery is amazing and they did provide lots of decoration with the windmill as its having the windmill festival now. 
Thanks to the camera man! 

 The decoration here is amazing!

 Pretty Girls with Amazing view!

To those that are going to take the walk way, please make sure you are well train before going there. The walk way is pretty amazing but the staircase will makes U..... LOL...

Finally, We've arrived our Villas after walking for more than an hour. The air here is chilling even its already summer but I would be happier if the temperature can be even lower. The Villa do prepare High Tea for us and its quite nice to have some biscuits and a cup of hot tea after a long walk.

The cloudy sky make us unable to enjoy the sun set but the scenery is still amazing.  The view here is really breath taking and the feeling is so great. I almost forget all the problems that I have when I was sitting at the balcony and viewing the sky. 

It's dinner time! The Villas that we stayed do serve Steamboat which cost us NTD250 per person. They provide lots of vegetable, pork, and a bowl of rice. Their soup was superb! 
 Don't know why, the rice here is quite soft and like the rice that we use for Sushi, the taste of the pork is nice too! Anyway, it would be best if we could have our own Chilli Sauce from MALAYSIA!

After dinner, we went to the Swiss Garden (瑞士花园)for their Musical Show. The atmosphere here is good, there are some local artist singing and place for us to sit. The video below is the water show that was presented in the Swiss Garden (瑞士花园)water pool.


Seriously, its a bit disappointing as we had waited for half an hour but the show was just about 1 minute long. Faint...

After done with the show, we have our battery "kong" already. Anyhow, I still managed to grab these at the 7-11. As usual, This is the best thing to end the day. 
Good movie with Good beer at a Fantastic environment equals to HEAVEN!!!

Personally, I think Qing Jing Farm (清境农场/ 清境農場) is a must come place when you come to Taiwan. To be frank, this place really gives me peace of mind as it has good weather, good scene. I think this place will be 1 of the plave that I've shortlisted as the best place to retire and I will spend 3 days 2 nights here if I were to have the chance to come Taiwan again. 

Qing Jing Farm (清境农场/ 清境農場, the best place that I've love the most in Taiwan. 

Anyway, I would like to take this chance to thanks Shu Hui for getting us a very nice hotel and nice place to visit!