Penang

I have lost count of the number of times I've stepped foot on this island, but I was certainly a fairly frequent visitor. Only that, I haven't done it in the last... say, 10 years possibly? So this year, I've decided that the lovely island deserves some of my attention, and the main attraction? The food of course!!!

Penang has always been well-known for it's not only wide variety of food - but of good quality food with extremely affordable price. *though I beg to differ on the latter*.

We started our trip in the late hours of a Thursday afternoon, after the rest have attended work. I forgot how it was like to actually take a road trip, so that was pretty fun. Somehow, it just differs from taking the bus/train/plane, even if you are going with the same people. In the car, there seems to be more personal space, being able to be goofy without being judged or stared upon - man, I love them to bits!

Getting on bridge

We stayed at the G Hotel, a modern contemporary hotel located along the Gurney Drive which was wonderful. That's where all the food is! :)

Hotel lobby

I was pretty impressed with the hotel, especially it's pool. The designs were of minimalist style, especially in the washroom. Just different from all the other places I've been to locally.

Our room

Bathroom

We made our way down the road later that night for some food. The food although wasn't bad, it wasn't the greatest. Definitely not how I remembered it. But oh well - I had better luck the next day :).

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We (or more correctly, yours truly), have decided to actually see Penang as an actual tourist, we hired the service of a local cab driver for the day to take us around to historical & tourist sites plus the secret places of good food! (Okay, maybe they weren't secrets to the locals - but places that we wouldn't have known).

We started the day fairly late, sleeping in until almost 9 odd and even that, was because one of us had to work. Otherwise, we would have probably slept in for a while longer. Anyway, first destination of the day - Brunch. Our driver brought us to the famous 'Char Kuoy Teow Sisters' - it wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't call it chopstick-licking good. The ones we had in the afternoon were muchhhhh better!!! :)

First tourist stop : Khoo Kongsi Clan House

Surrounding buildings

The Khoo Kongsi Temple/Clanhouse is the grandest clan house in Malaysia, built in the 19th century by the Khoo ancestors who came from South China.

Quote:

"Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi and it's sub-clans, Boon San Tong and Khoo Si Toon Keng Tong, have their ancestral origin in Sin Kang Seah, Sin Aun village, Sam Toh District, Hai Teng County, Chiang Chew prefecture, Hokkien province, China presently known as the Sin Aun village, Hai Chiang distrct, Xiamen city, Fujian province, China."

The grand Clan House

How do I say this... The temple carried a lot of the traditional architecture work and had many ancient chinese influences. But the location of it was quite ..... distinct. It's located in something like a square, but with fairly modern, mixed 20th and 21st century buildings. It reminded me of the Rome, where it too, was in a square and all it's surrounding structures were modern buildings.

Such fine details

The whole place wasn't that big, but we spent quite a while here. Partially because I was just staring in the artworks such as the ones above. They were just too pretty to walk on by without any appreciation.

The Clan House wasn't always like how it looks today. During World War II, the clan house was partially destroyed when the Japanese bombed Georgetown. It former glorious state was only returned in 1957 after much repair work.

Just underneath the worship area is a little museum/information centre that elaborates more on the history of the Khoo Kongsi Clan as well as the history of the clan house.

:)

On the other side was some wax models that depicts the lifestyles of the ancient days.

Traditional clothings, and utensils

The olden days version of a stove

The brilliant artwork aren't just limited to the walls and pillars of the clan house, but also at the roofs. One wouldn't really notice it if they aren't paying any attention.

:)

After that, we tried making out way to another house, the Cheong Fatt Tze Blue Mansion, but it was unfortunately closed at that time. There are only 2 visiting tours for that clan house, and we arrived in between them. And they weren't exactly close together. But I suppose it is fairly reasonable... as the clan house also functions as a retreat/guesthouse nowadays.

Guess it would help it I could read Chinese :S

Not much that I can say for the place, since I was only allowed to walk till that archway. But one's able to make tour reservations if you're really keen. Otherwise, tour times are 11 a.m and 3 p.m. Entry fees are Rm 10.

Since we weren't able to visit that place, our driver brought us to a chocolate shop to get some of the local sweets, but what gem I found there wasn't the chocolates. It was the coffee! The 3-in-1 coffees. And man, they were good! :)

Chocolate/coffee place

As it was still quite early, and we were still quite stuffed from brunch, we headed towards another famous site, the Thai Buddhist Temple : Wat Chaiyamangalaram.

Also more commonly known to us locals as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, the temple and shrine was built in 1900. " It was built in 1900 after the land was granted on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Victoria of UK on the 30th of May 1845. The main shrine of Chinese influence structure stood serving for 88 years until renovations became necessary. "

:)

I remember that I was literally skipping on my feet here. We were meant to be barefooted. That plus the bright scorching sun on the tiles = recipe for burnt feet.

Although the shrine has undergone renovations, the pagoda has retained it's original design.

The famous sleeping Buddha

The reclining Buddha was built in 1845, by a Buddhist monk. It is 33 metres long and is gold-plated. Surrounding it, including behind the structure, are more statues of Buddha in different postures. And also some memorial boxes of those who has passed on.

Directly opposite the temple (both along Lorong Burma) is another temple,the Dhammikarma, which is the only Burmese Temple in Penang. Originally known as the Nandy Molah Burmese Temple, it was the first Buddhist Temple in Penang.

Entrance

Chinthes

Although not striking different from other Buddhist temples that I have seen, the temple was a pretty one. It suprisingly (to me anyway), has many other mythical looking statues surrounding the prayer hall. Of note, is the pair of Chintes guarding the entrance to the main prayer hall.

Buddha in Main Prayer Hall

The Hall was basically very simple, but that's just how Buddhist temples generally are. To maximise the amount of places for people to sit and perform their prayers, I suppose.

Right behind the main Buddha statue, is a row of more statues. Each one with a slightly different decoration on the base.

We then wandered around the temple, and there's another little shrine area on the side. There were also smaller little 'houses' for the Gods on the sides.

Little worship areas

:)
*the smaller shrine is behind this*

There is apparently a little pond filled with carp from a website that I saw before going, but somehow we weren't able to see it... My memory is failing me already, but I think there might have been some construction that was ongoing while we were there.. hhmm...

Next stop : Kek Lok Si Temple

The pleasures of having a designated taxi driver for the day is being able to get to anywhere you want without the hassle of trying to hail a cab under the unforgiving sun each time you want to get somewhere. Not to mention, he planned the sequence of things to visit as well :). Saved the lazy me heaps of headache!

The iconic symbol of Kek Lok Si

Known as the "Temple of Supreme Bliss" in Hokkien, the construction of this building was started in 1890 and only completed in 1910. It is also the largest Buddhist temple in South East Asia.

And now, just random photos - coz I can't remember what's what anymore :(

7-tier Pagoda along the corridor

Pavilion of the seated Buddhas

The pavilion is made up of a main shrine, where most prayers are made and is surrounded by a large number of standing Buddha statues, as above. And from here, we could also see the main pagoda against the clear blue sky - which made it looked really quite pretty.

One of the main worship sites

Wall carvings

It wasn't the best time to visit the temple when we were there as the area of the famous bronze Guan Yin statue was closed to visitors for construction or something. So, we spent the time just walking around the place and taking random photos. It was still enjoyable, nevertheless.

Inside another main worship area

In this particular area, there was 5 statues of Buddha - each with a slightly different posture, some very subtle between the two. It took us a while to actually noticed the difference.

One of the statues

In case you can't read :)

From here, we made our way towards the main pagoda.

Main attraction of Kek Lok Si - Pagoda of 10,000 Buddhas

From there, we went on to lunch, which was a fabulous idea! I was a little disappointed with the Char Kuey Teow we had in the morning so I was more than keen to try out another famous stall!
Furthermore, our driver told us that they also had a really good Assam Laksa stall too! Double treat!!

Char Kuey Teow - definitely the best I've ever had!
At RM 5.50 it's pretty pricey by M'sian standard , but it definitely worth every single cent!

Yummylicious Assam Laksa

I was never a big fan of ''Orh Chien", which means fried oyster with eggs, but the one sold here - it was mind blowing! This is definitely one place I am going to drop by each time I visit Penang. There's no doubt about it.

After being fed, with all that COH in the bloodstream, we were too lazy to go around any further and opt to return to our hotel for some rest.

Hotel pool

Poolside chillout

:)

For the rest of the day, we didn't do anything else touristy but chilled out in the hotel. The massage in the hotel was pretty good for me, although not the best. He definitely found it pretty average, but I suppose it's operator dependent as Janie found hers average too. Or maybe, I'm just easily satisfied :).

Didn't take any much more photos of food although we did head out for dinner and lunch the next day. But here's a couple to finish off :

Don't know what it's called - but pretty good

His braised duck noodle soup

Geiranger & Sogndal, Norway

Gonna be a photo-overloaded post - there's nothing more fascinating than the sceneries in Norway, more often than not, breathtaking.

We continued from Helsinki towards the famous Fjords of Norway. First night stay - Hamar, a municipality in Hedmark county. There's actually quite a few things to look at in Hamar, but I was so exhausted, plus no tourist information given by the tour company - we didn't do much at all in the town.

Loving the scenery :)

Haven't seen such houses before - but cute, aren't they?

More photo stops
*Not that I minded this time, the views were gorgeous!*

We stayed at Scandic Hamar, which is part of a hotel chain. It wasn't located in the city or anything like that, but the rooms were comfortable and there were computers in the lounge for free usage. Not only that, free wifi in the lounge, and like the previous hotel we stayed in - free wifi docket for a local provider is provided by the hotel for wifi use in the room :).

Next morning - journey to Geiranger! First stop : Lillehammer.

Located in Oppland, Lillehammer is famous for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It also bidded to host the 2012 Youth Olympics but was unsuccessful, losing to Austria. What a waste though - the place is beautiful!!

@ Lillehammer

More of Lillehammer :)

Leaving the wonderful views of Lillehammer, we made our way towards Lom, located in the municipalityof Gudbrandsdal for lunch, and also the famous Lom stave church. Lunch was extremely welcomed, especially the hot soup in the cold cold weather!!

Lunch stop :)

Check out the wooden skis! :)

That caught my eye more than anything else! Wooden skis!!*Just to the right of the cafe's entrance* Not that much different looking from the ones that are currently used, in terms of shapes and length - but interesting nevertheless. I can't remember where it was that I saw the older skis - the ski bits looked a little like baseball gloves. That was even more amusing!

Lom stave Church

The Lom Stave Church was possibly built in the 12th century but was rebuilt,redecorated and extended in the 17th century. It is a really small church compared to what I've seen but the architecture is really unique. There is a small entrance fees for the church, but I can't remember how much it was. It's worth it though :).

A stave church is wooden church built with timber framings, and are generally built in the medieval times. All of them are located in Norway, except for one, which is located in Sweden. The timbers in the church were really obvious, and the insides of the church were really quite chilly. The entrance to Lom's stave church isn't particularly tall, but once inside, it no longer is. Although small, it certainly made an impression :).

We spent a bit of time in Lom, near the church doing tourist-y things - taking more photos of the sceneries, spending some time in the souvenir shop and and , there's a waterfall nearby! It's quite hidden, but if time permits, one should really make their way towards it. It isn't that far away from the church - it's near the bridge and a short walk downwards will bring you to the waterfall - for photos - the waterfall isn't directly accessible. Actually, come to think of it.... I don't know if you can even call it a waterfall.. *Oh well, whatever - it's still worth a short walk*

Waterfall?

More houses with grass rooftops!! :)
*they must really work*

Here's the next fascinating bit of Norway - It felt as if we drove past 4 seasons in a day. See how green and the sun in the pictures before? Compare it to the next set of pictures.

On our way again....

Check out the sun and snow!
*see the water? Compare it to later*

More snow, less greens

Check it out! No more water - just ice!!!! :)
*all within hours of journey*
It must be ski-able all year round! I definitely saw ski tracks :)

Btw, it's meant to be summer :P

:)

From there, we then drove past 'autumn'
and back into summer.

First glimpse of Geiranger Fjord

Absolutely loving the views! :)

We stayed the night in Geiranger Hotel, which is definitely a tour group tourist hotel. It's not that it's bad or anything, but it definitely lacked the local feel. There were multiple groups from Asia, and also the Trafalgar tour group. The meals were buffets and slot times... there wasn't really much to enjoy from, but at least the views were great! There's a souvenir shop just below the hotel, close to the waters. Great for photos, although it started raining while we were there :(. Hence, my lack of photos.

My bit of complaining - our tour provider was obviously trying to maximize profits, so none of us had an even room number. The even numbered rooms are the ones that faces the fjord, while the odd numbered ones faces the road. On the other hand, tour groups like Trafalgar place their keys on a tray and for their patrons to pick their luck. Much fairer!! *As you can tell, I am still quite sore with the services provided by my tour provider*. Hence, tip : If you get to choose the rooms, pick an even number one :).

Next day highlight : Briksdalsbreen Glacier. More scenic photos on the journey.

Just can't get enough of the sceneries :)

Isn't it just amazing?
Within an hour apart - Summer in one, winter in the other

There's a tradition in the mountains of stacking up rocks/stones and making wishes.The higher your stack is, the closer and higher chance of making your wish come true. There was plenty of stacked rocks in the area, even in random places.

This person's wish should be coming true....
Look at how tall it is! :)

:)

Briksdalsbreen!!

One of the most accessible glacier of the Jostedalsbreen glacier (which is the largest glacier in Norway), the Briksdalsbreen glacier has become one of the most frequented place in Sogn og Fjordane.

We were spoiled here by the tour provider, as we were treated to the troll cars to head up towards the glacier. The hike would have otherwise been a little uphill, which wasn't ideal for a lot of the tour group members, so the troll cars were a nice touch. Not exactly sure how much it costs though - it was all included in our trip :).

At the Glacier entrance.
*Info board to L), and souvenir/info centre to R)*

Getting onto the troll cars
*Oh, it was drizzling btw - hence, the trip was more than welcomed!*

Once we got to the top, there's still a little short hike to actually reach the glacier. Mum and I walked fairly quickly to get there so that we could get more photos with less people in it *evil laugh* LOL.

Briksdalsbreen Glacier

The glacier terminates into a small glacial lake, the Briksdalsbrevatnet, which is about 350 metres above sea level. The glacier is expected to move more foward in 2010, after an increase in glacier mass between 2007-2008. Years ago, people were allowed to actually walk up towards and touch the glaciers, but due to the possible increment in melting from that, the glacier is now sealed off to public. Not that I minded anyway - I wouldn't want it to disappear any faster!

Closer shot

There is a board near the main entrance to the glacier which shows pictures of the different times of the glacier. How big it was initially, and how much smaller it is now.

Someone was obviously bored
*cute isn't it?*

Waterfall on our way down

We then had lunch at the cafe, which was also of buffet style.. I was getting quite sick of buffet meals by now. But at least there was more pretty views to take the pain away.

Check the waterfall out!! :)

The rest of the day was spent in the bus, making our way towards Sogndal. I didn't really mind that - I spent the whole journey taking random pictures of views. It was absolutely too good to pass on!

Stopping by at Gryta Camping site :

Opened in 1993, the campsite was awarded to be the best campsite in Norway in 1996. Located next to the Oldevatn Lake, it is not hard to believe why. The views were great, not only taking in the lake, but also the snow-capped surrounding mountains. It is also only about 10 km from Briksdalsbreen.

:)

Lake Oldevatn
*see what I mean? How can one resist this?!?!*

Cute toilet signages :)

Continuing our way to Sogndal :

:)

At another fjord in Sogndal

Check out the bright houses below :)

By the time we arrived in Sogndal, it was pretty late. We only had time to drop by the local supermarket to grab a couple of things before dinner. We stayed in Quality Sogndal Hotel, who's service was a little below par for Quality hotels. While it was semi new, there was no internet service, no wifi, no business centre and the staff barely spoke English. A little disappointing for an international chain hotel really...

Food though, was pretty good :).

At hotel's restaurant

Finally, no more buffet dinners!!! :)

Yums! :)