Travelling

I am sure that everyone out there, well maybe not  loves travelling. When you travel, you experience different the culture and lifestyle, food, scenery and all of the people speaking with weird accents. It opens up your mind, your soul, nourishes your life not to mention giving you the moment of a lifetime. Some may say travelling is tiring and a waste of money but what is better than the sense of fulfilment that you will gain and the eye-opening experience that you will never forget?? 

I had always wanted to pack my things and travel around the globe. To see cheery blossoms during spring, feel the saltiness of the vast ocean during summer, witness the barren trees during autumn and go skiing and build snowman's during winter. All of these are what we Malaysians do not have a chance to experience. I would like to mingle among different people, find my way through historical and ancient buildings, try out different kinds of food, hunt for the next destination and stare in awe at breathtaking sceneries. Not to mention shop till I drop. SHHHH!!!

I created a bucket-list of places I would definitely love to leave my footprints on and hopefully those places will gift me with unforgettable memories.

1. KOREA

If you ask me which part of Korea attracts me the most, I will definitely tell you KPOP!! So mainstream, LOL!! Just a typical KPOP fan. So apart from loving their fashion and music!! OMG!!! You should really check out how they dress, fashionable to the max!! I got to know about STELENANDA which is a Korean based brand and it's freaking popular. But the downside is the sizes may run small cos you know, Korean idols and models are stick thin. Somebody feed them please!!! Not to mention their amazing range of cosmetics, from The Face Shop to Nature Republic, Tony Moly, Etude House, Laneige, 3ce.... The list goes on and on..... KPOP is really popular now worlwide so who doesn't wanna stop by, in hope that you will spot your favourite idol oppas and unnis or maybe attending their concerts. LOL. Super junior, Girl's Generation and EXO, I love them to the max. For your info, Super Junior members do own cafes or eateries, SQUEALS in excitement!! Yeah, and from blogs I saw there are many shopping places too, you got it right, shopping heaven!! Be ready to shop with your might! And there are some places such as Namsam Tower, Trick Eye Musuem which caught my attention. 

Kona Beans Cafe - Super Junior

This place may only be of interest to fans of Super Junior. It is a coffee shop managed by the mothers of three Super Junior members: Leeteuk, Sungmin and Kyuhyun. Being close to the SM Building, the sons sometimes drop by and help helm the cash register. Other members and other SM Entertainment's artists are also known to come and visit the mothers. The cafe is decorated with Super Junior decorations and always has fans of Super Junior enjoying their coffees and snacks. Come and make new friends and if you are lucky you may get a Super Junior member taking your orders ;)

Lotte World

Lotte World is a family theme park located inside of Seoul in the district of Songpa-gu. This is the theme park that was featured extensively in the Korean drama "Stairway to Heaven". Fans of variety show "Running Man" may also recognize the park as the filming location of episode 9. Considered as world's largest indoor theme park, visitors to the park can enjoy themselves without worrying of bad weather affecting their visit. In addition to rides, the park also have frequent parades and festivals with actors wearing colourful costumes and clothes greeting visitors in the park.

Cheongdamdong Fashion Street

Cheongdamdong Fashion Street is a very high scale shopping district. Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Gucci, Giorgio Armani and many others all have their flagship stores in this district. There is also the Galleria Department Store that is directly connected with the Apgujeongrodeo Station. This street is dubbed the luxury mecca of Seoul. And for K-Pop fans, it might interest you to know that SM Entertainment building (OMG!!! ALL OF MY FAVOURITE ARTISTS ARE FROM SM) is also on the same street, and you might stumble into your favourite artists here. 

So here are some places of interest that I happen to stubble upon credits of http://www.muslimbackpackerseoul.com. Do check them out, they have great tips on places to go in Seoul!!! They also do provide travel services!! 

For me I would like to try on hanbok, experience their culture, shop at Myeongdong, Hongdae those places, try their food and hopefully meet my idols. Don't judge!!!  Hope that my ultimate wish will come true. Money come to mama please!!! Hopefully I will make it there one day either during winter or spring, cherry blossoms please!!

Ok so stay tuned to the second place on my list. Till then

Penang Day 2 (16/2/2014 Sunday)

If you haven't read my Part 1, read it here. And Ok I'm going to start part 2 of my amazing journey. Ok so I just had a simple buffet breakfast at my hotel's outdoor restaurant.YEAH, IT'S OUTDOORS!! 

Not that I was not hungry, I was just saving lots of space in my tummy for some greater food later on. So after lazing around and catching up with my family for a while, we packed our essentials and set off to our next destination, The Clan Jetty. Actually it is accessible by foot, but we opted for the rapid bus which carries tourists throughout Georgetown. It only costed us RM 1 per person to get us to our destination. 

This is The Chew Jetty. Although there are still inhabitants living there, they decided to open up the place for tourists to visit. They sell souvenirs, gift and food like bak zhang(chinese dumpling) and porridge to make a living. There is also a stall towards the end that sells very nice durian puffs!! You can have a great view of the costal area of Penang island although there are no ports there. It is more like a row of wooden houses and a restaurant there. But no doubt it was eye-opening.

Next, we decided to walk back to our hotel as we need to prepare to board our cruise, which was the Superstar Libra at Swettenham Pier before 12 noon. As we still have sufficient time left, we decided to visit Khoo Kongsi.

OK, so I had to pay like RM10 to visit the mansion or what-so-ever-thing so i just took a few pictures outside the place.

So yeah, it was just a short morning therefore we could only manage these few places and I lost a lot of my photos(long story) so here's a short post. Enjoy!!

Penang Day 1 (15/2/2014 Saturday)

Although i know that this was way overdue, I still wanna share the highlights of this trip. Yeah, Penang it was!! My stay in Penang was 2 days 1 night and the amount of food i consumed was unimaginable. HAHA.

I reached Penang around 2 something and used a cab to go to my hotel, which was Banana Boutique Hotel located at Chulia Street. I decided on Banana Boutique Hotel because of its strategic location in Georgetown, which is a very popular tourist spot and it is only a few minutes walk from murals and most importantly STREET FOOD!!
The hotel's website:
http://www.bananaboutiquepenang.com
   

Exterior of hotel

The hotel gave an ancient vibe, decorated with exquisite antiques. The hotel was formerly a mansion which explain its house like design. After checking in, I was in a hurry to hit the street and hunt for street food. First i hopped off to look for the famous Penang Chendol and asam laksa at Kimberley Street. YES!! MY STREET!! 

Just look at the amount of people lining up!!! OMG!!! Just at the coffee shop beside this stall I had Penang fried kway teow and asam laksa. The asam laksa was the best of what I had come across!!

1st row: Duck Kueh Cap, Shaved ice, some kueh with cabbage

                            2nd row: Asam laksa, teochew chendol, fried kway teow

After filling up my stomach, I proceeded to Armenian Street to start my street art hunting. 

I was only able to find about 10 street art or murals due to lack of time. As it was a weekend, I was forced to line up among enthusiastic tourists and fight for my turn to snap a picture at these places. I did not have a map or anything, I just hunted the whole street and follow the crowd. Just join in when you see people swarming to one place! I could say that I was impressed by all of the murals as they are found at the most unpredictable places. There was so many FOOD all along the streets so you can eat while you hunt for street arts so no worries. A lot of unique shops could be found too such as The Owl shops, some random souvenir shop to shops that sell hand-drawn tees. 

If you got tired of walking, you can always opt for trishaws or bikes. Trishaws and bikes are counted at an hourly rate and the prices are quite reasonable.

To sum up what i did on this day, it's basically just eat and eat and eat and eat plus searching for street arts! Stay tuned for part 2.