I am determined to be happy!!! :)

I'm determined to be cheerful and happy quote :)

"Oh no! It's raining again!"

I flipped the book down and hurried myself to the balcony. It's where I hang my clothes dried. One by one I picked the hanger up from the rail into the point finger of my left hand.

"Hurry up!!!" speaking to myself.

Once all was taken, I moved them to where it's supposed to be hung up, on top of my washing machine, at the back of the kitchen.

"Phewwww...." I was released.

It'd been raining almost everyday and I had difficulty to get my clothes dried. The air was just too humid.

With white woven slippers taken from the hotel free of charge, I walked towards the kitchen. I took the empty kettle, filled it up with water, put it into its base, turned the electricity on, and pressed the button down. In a while, the heating sound filled up the whole kitchen area.

I took the coffee mug from the cupboard with a small spoon, tore a packet of Indonesia coffee - Kapal Api special mix - poured it into the empty mug, and placed them on top of the transparent tray.

"Takkk!!!" It's the sign that water had been boiled. Still with the smoke coming up from the edge of the kettle, I poured them into the mug until it was almost full. I stirred the coffee well to ensure the powder mixed equally. I brought the tray to the dining table and chose the bread that I wanted to eat. Only then, I took the book from my room and placed it next to the tray.

Book, coffee and bread - that's perfect! :P

Cool air pierced through the opened balcony door. The hiss rainy sound with some lightnings added the gloomy day. Nevertheless, it was a perfect time to read my favourite novel, drink the steamy hot black sweet coffee (the best one from my hometown), and bite the savory bread slowly. Hhmmmmm..... there was always a perfect day, if we created them to be... 

One of my favourite quotes :) (Pic source: Google.com)

And just like what the above quote was saying, "We can't control what happens on the outside, but we can control what happens on the inside. Don't lose your joy!" That exactly how our approach towards life had to be! Don't you agree?? ;)

Quote by Heather Stillufsen :)

When the weather was the other way around, such as the unbearable hot weather, the above quote would then fit perfectly into the place - "When life gives you pineapple, just add Rum!" Yeah, add on Malibu in it and it's puurrrrffeeccttttttt......!!! Cheers.... ;)

What to do in Penang??

I booked the flight tickets to Penang just a week ago after my mom bought theirs. Four of us met up at the rented residential home that provide a clean fully air-conditioned room with outdoor bathroom in a very convenient area within walking distance to Penang Times Square, New Lane hawker center, Komtar bus station, and so on. With RM50 per night, it was really great place to stay!

We reached quite late in the evening and we were welcomed with heavy rain on our arrival. According to the taxi driver - the Chinese uncle in his 60s who called his son to ask about our location instead of punching on GPS like what Singaporean taxi driver's doing - it'd been long time since it rained. Obviously, the rain season fell  right on the day we reached.

Four of us started our beautiful Sunday with hearty breakfast at De Happy Dim Sum. It's big and crowded. Round tables filled up the places. People walked towards a corner where the food were steamed and fried, while the other corner was a place to fill your tea pot with boiling hot water.

Breakfast at De Happy Dim Sum Restaurant - Penang, Malaysia 

My hubby was very exciting with varieties of food they offered. The taste was delicious too. Most importantly, the price was definitely much cheaper compared with what we paid back here in Singapore.

Penang Adventist Hospital 

After that we took a cab to Penang Adventist Hospital. My parents had their usual check up at this place. I often heard about it but this was my first time stepping into it.

Fyi, there were few things that made Penang a famous place to visit. This was purely based on my observation though. First, they had a good range of hospitals with many experienced doctors in house. The nurses and hospital staffs were helpful and friendly. They were able to speak many languages, such as: English, Malay, Chinese, dialects like Hokkian, some Thai, etc.

I tried their wellness screening package gold there. Check here for detailed information. It was quite complete and made you knowing your health and inner organs better. You should book in advance though as they limited the number of people screening the health each day. And when they knew my stay time was limited, they produced my check up result within the same day. Excellent service!!! :)

Delicious food in Penang

Famous Asam Laksa from Air Itam Market

Second, it's a food paradise!!! You could find any kind of food here from hawker center to restaurant. There were famous local dish like Asam Laksa, curry mee, char Kway Teow, fried oyster, prawn noodles, lo mie, etc. Among the famous hawker to go were New Lane, Gurney Drive, Chulia St night market, and so on.

Pastry from Ming Xiang Tai Confectionery- 26 Lebuh Victoria

There were many local pastry too that you could buy for friends and families back home. Many different brands were available. Instant coffee and teh tarik could be great gifts too.

Mao Shan Wang durian RM75 per kg (including shell)

They had many varieties of durian too! My father had eaten Mao Shan Wang almost everyday there. The seller was even providing vacuum packed bag if you wanted to take it away as the smell was so strong and many places had banned it, including public transport.

Wat Chaiya Mangkalaram (recliningBuddha statue) - Penang, Malaysia 

Dhammikarama (Burmese Buddhist Temple) - Penang, Malaysia 

Third, if you were Buddhist, you'd love to visit their varieties of temples available. From Wat Chaiya Mangkalaram (reclining Buddha statue), Dhammikarama - the Burmese Buddhist temple, the oldest temple in Penang - Kwan Yin temple - built in 1728, to the largest temple in Malaysia - Kek Lok Si Temple. 

Kwan Yin temple - the oldest temple in Penang, Malaysia 

Kek Lok Si Temple - the largest temple in Malaysia 

I first visited Penang back in October 2009 and managed to visit these 4 temples. And this time, I was very grateful for being able to visit four of them again. Thank Buddha for the good karma!

Hubby and I with its iconic street art murals - Little children on a bicycle

Fourth, it's famous for the street art murals. For complete information, click here.

Street art murals - George Town - Penang, Malaysia 

Apart from these four, there were other things too for Penang worth to visit. Just get yourself free maps before you exited from airport door where you could find valuable information there. The city was clean and arranged well. If you were not Buddhist, worry not, they also had variety of churches (one of the eldest Anglican church in southeast Asia - St George's Church), Hindus temples, and mosques. 

Nasi Kandar at Tajuddin Hussain- Penang, Malaysia 

Like Singapore, they also had Little India. We ate the famous Nasi Kandar  (rice with curry) at one of the restaurants there. As a fans of Mark Weins, my hubby went through one of his videos, which you could find in YouTube  (migrationology.com), and both of us tried the famous Nasi Kandar located at 51 Lebuh Queen, called Tajuddin Hussain. We ordered Ayam Ros (red chicken), fish curry, sotong or cuttlefish curry, Ayam Gulai (curry chicken), tomato rice, cabbage, roti canai (prata), complete with two cups of teh tarik. All that for only RM29.25 (after adding 6% GST) - if converted, less than SGD10 for two!!!

Free hop-on bus in Penang

Penang offered a good and affordable public transport, in this case, public bus. They even provided free hop-on bus for tourists (those Rapid Transit bus labelled CAT), which stopped at many places, mostly touristic areas. 

Taxi were everywhere too. They went by meter although many were not. Fare from Hotel Sunway area to Penang Adventist hotel was around RM18, while from the hospital to Kek Lok Si was RM30. From airport to Hotel Sunway was about RM46 - got the ticket fare at the counter and paid it in advance while returning back to airport was slightly cheaper at RM40.

Public bus fares were around RM1.40 to 2 per pax (you just had to tell your destination to the driver and he would tell you the fare. But prepare coins as they wouldn't provide change). You could just ask local who were waiting for the bus for which bus number you should take as there weren't clear bus numbers or routes available from each bus number. Anyway the people there were friendly and helpful so don't worry, you won't get lost!

Padang Kota Lama and Fort Cornwallis - Penang, Malaysia 

At our last day, it was again a heavy rain morning. After fulfilling dim sum breakfast both of us took the bus to pray at Kwan Yin temple and had a morning walk to St George's Church, sightseeing along Padang Kota Lama area to see the Penang city hall, Fort Cornwallis, walked along the seaside and inhaled the sea breeze. We took the free CAT bus back to Komtar and got ready to the PIA - Penang International Airport. 

Penang International Airport 

We reached there 3 hours earlier than departure timing as friend warned us about flooding at the airport the day earlier. Luckily no traffic jam and no sign of flooding or flight delay and cancellation due to the incident. The airport had changed since the last time I went and it had become much better now as there were lots of restaurants and cafés available. So three hours waiting were no sweat anymore! You could enjoy the last sip of good Penang coffee, enjoyed their noodles or western deli or junk food like McDonalds and KFC, opened and read your book, sat down on the massage chairs, and waited for your flight.

Overall it has been a wonderful short trip - 4 days 3 nights in Penang. We got our tickets at less than SGD160 per pax from Singapore using Airasia and you could move your butt in about one and half an hour time!!! If you never visit this place before, then there was no reason on why you shouldn't! With SGD1 equivalent to almost RM3, what else are you waiting for??

Life is but a dream

My motto in life :)

Hi hi.. It's been some time since my last post. Work has been one reason as it occupied lots of my time for the past two weeks. Although my role was to supervise her, it wasn't a relaxing job. I had to make sure that I guided her well and she could do the job by herself for months to come.

Btw, I decided to extend for another month as my Boss requested. She just wanted to make sure the back up was there if anything happened. My dear colleagues had also supported my continuation there, even for just a month. Better than nothing at all, isn't it? :P

Life is all about balance :)
(Photo source: Positive Vibes)

I can't extend further as I've already made some plans on what to do next. Well, since I've been working hard since the beginning of the year, I think I deserve to have time to relax and play hard. In this case, it goes not far from following my passion, which is to travel :) I may not visit new place, but it may be. But the long break is something that not everyone can do, as our view and priority in life may be different, and our choice in life is again, definitely different!

Our grandparent's generation is believed to have longer span of life mainly due to the food they ate, the lifestyle they had, and so on. Therefore, they could live as long as they could. But these days, in the life where uncertainty is obvious, I'd chosen to live my life fully. I couldn't believe that I'd be that kind of person who live one day at a time.

My college used to teach us otherwise. We were trained to make short and long term goals related to personal and professional life, which I didn't follow. "Let nature takes its flow" has instead, been my guide.

Life is but a dream (Photo courtesy: Che Dorji)

At the end, I feel that life is but a dream. Whatever we have is all temporary. Good thing will end, so will the bad one. What we need is a peace of mind. That we have no regret for there won't be tomorrow, to have done what we had dreamt of, to fulfill the wish that our heart was saying and whispering all through our life. And happiness is something that comes within, the feel of being content and grateful with every little thing we had, with every good and bad thing that we encounter in life, and the faith that everything happens only for good reasons. 

Contemplate (Photo source: Google.com)

So, have you contemplated enough about your inner self these days? Are you grateful and content enough with everything that happens to your life? Lets give it a thought and wish you a smooth journey in life with all your positive mindset in life. Have a wonderful week ahead and keep doing what you love doing!!! Take care and have fun! :)

Have you felt gratitude for nature today?

Sunset at Punggol :)

"Have you felt gratitude for nature today?

You would not be alive today or any day if it were not for nature giving to you unceasingly. Nature is giving you an unlimited source of air so you can breathe, it is producing enough water for an entire planet's needs to keep you alive, and without the life-producing forces that the sun gives, none of us could exist. 

Now that is pure giving! How could anyone believe that they are not loved?"

-- Rhonda Byrne day 327 --

Taken this evening at Punggol :)