Penang Bridge Marathon 2008

3 and a half year in Penang, i never participate in Penang Bridge Marathon... I guess i will hate myself forever if i continue to ignore it. As in the mid of year 2008, due to some political issues (i believe it is), federal government is not organising this event again. What a disappointment!!! The good news is, the amazing race is coming back, organised by the new state government.



16 November 2008. The day finally came. 3.30am early in the morning, me and Eng woke up reluctantly, walking to Queensbay Mall from our apartment as a warm up. I was running for the Half Marathon (25km) and Eng was participating for the Fun Run (10km). Our racing time was different. Mine is on 4.30am while hers was on 6.30am. So by the time we arrived QB Mall, the time was so tight for me. Desperately i look for the registration counter, which i had ran here and there like a mad man then only i found it. The prelude of the race was already a disaster for me. This was all organiser's fault! Placing their counter at dunno-where-the-hell!

4.30am, the atmosphere was getting so tense... "Gentlemen, start your engine." Bang! The Half Marathon finally started. With slow pace i was running. It's been 2 months ago after my last improper training for the race. By the time i wanted to boost up my stamina by undergoing some intensive training. My boss which is from hell start giving me a "mountain" of works. Great! T_T So i did not expect much in this race. If i can finish half of the journey i consider myself very "man" already.

"Comrades, once you start, there is no return. Don't look back, no matter how many men were down... Our homeland is awaiting!"

Along the way, rations were distributed. Spritzer, 100 plus, Power Bar... This Power Bar was new to me. I never take this type of product before. What i get was a concentrated glucose with electrolyte, flavour: Banana with Strawberry. I decided to keep it later in case i was hungry later. Jogging is a mind game, not just only stamina (for amateur like me). I came out with a strategy - walk when uphill, not to push myself to the limit so earlier. Anyhow, i just want to finish the race.

Things get a little bit out of control later. The water supply seems running low. For some stations, participants dare not drink much or waste much water since there were still many people hadn't had theirs. After passing the middle part of the bridge, we couldn't find any sanitation facilities. The worst is, i cannot tahan already. I WAN TO PEE!!! I saw 1 guy peeing beside the barricade. The sky was still dark, but i did not have the courage. Dawn will come! i believe.

So the later part of the i was busy looking for toilet. My performance was getting worse. I no longer can find any water station along my way passing the toll stations. I started to feel hungry. It's Power Bar time! The gel was so sweet, diabolic sweet! To be very frankly, the gel looks like sperm... T_T Hungry issue settled! Only on the way return to the middle of the bridge, i finally found a toilet. Holy crap! the unflushed toilet make me halt.. Holy crap, the crap was really big! I decided to keep on running (finally settle at the next toilet, but then it is another 10 minutes).

At 7.20am, i could see the end of the bridge. QB mall, i am coming! Alas, my hungry issue came back. This time, i can feel my body was getting cold, my heart was beating at abnormal pace, i felt dizzy. I cannot down now! If i manage to arrive QB Mall at 8am, i was entitled a finisher medal. Thing had gone so far and there was no way i wanted to give up. Some of you may feel that i was so silly, never training but still pushing myself so much, furthermore, i had achieve my earlier target which only need to finish half of the race (12.5km). Guess i was a stubborn man, in my heart, i treat this marathon as a challenge to myself. If i can pass this obstacle, i soon will be invincible. It is the very first step to turn my life into something exciting!

Run Jie wei Run! At the last 5km, i no longer can feel my legs. I no longer can run. My head was so empty. I did not feeling well at all. I might had collapsed at that time. 8am passed, i failed! I tell myself, just get it done.

To my surprise, the finisher medal was still available. Within the 50m to the end point. I ran! Yeah!! I got it! I can do this!



The marathon wasn't perfect. There are still many to improve. If you ask me do i ready for next year? haha, maybe i will pass. Now, my whole body is pain, i cant even walk properly now. I get my very first finisher medal, in return, i was totally wasted. I felt like i was dying.



p/s: karhong, next time don't play DOTA when you go for the marathon. Get some rest! See, i can finish the race without taking Sweeper Bus leh.. haha!

My Sunny T_T

I guess i was too "steam" about Suzuki Swift last few months... Mind was full of its sexy & horny pictures until...

My Sunny was so jealous go and "long" a Kelisa!!!


* My poor Sunny T_T

It all happen 2 weeks ago when i was turning into USM Sungai Dua's gate. I was on my way to Khaleel Restaurant to have my Yummy, Large, Cheap, with Tasty Mayo, Khaleel's Burger. Tired? + Pressure? + probably thinking too much of having a Suzuki Swift, i drift into USM without any hesitation. Great, i should have hesitated as i always do.

With 2 empty stomaches, me and lee eng had to go Balai and made report. I was fined RM300 and i haven't pay yet due to critical financial crisis. So anyone feel sympathy bout me, please spare me some change, or i will end up like Raymond Brothers... T_T

The next day i went to garage, ask them to quote the repairing cost. OMGggg (can't even speak fluently at this moment), at least 3k... The guy even told me buy a new one. Geram... After seeking opinion from "heroes from four directions", i decided to go Mainland to give another try.

Mainland is much much more cheaper, 1.4k a package deal. Nice. But still, my financial crisis even worse now.. So, again, please support me by donating money to this account, CIMB Bank, xxxx-00-xxxx-xxxx. Thank you.

Anyway, the luckiest is Lee Eng is sound and safe. The whole world / Sunny is nothing if she is not sitting beside me again... I will drive extremely careful next time. I promise.

Toh Soon Cafe - Roti Bakar

I always the biggest fans for food blogger. After reading Penang Tuapui and Lingzie , i had decided to try out the infamous roti bakar along Campbell Street last week (the day after 3 people were arrested under ISA), which i always pass by but never notice such a jewel.

This place is so hidden and you will never notice its presence unless you are a local. Basically, it is not a shop. It is more like a storage space which can be extended and transformed into a cafe. I don't know about foreigners, but for Malaysian, we know that only the stall in alley produce the best food in town. Dirty? Dark? Stomachache? Nah, we give no damn.









* Crowded even i went quite early at 830 a.m.

I heard Penang CM is the regular customer here. I did bump into him after having my Roti Bakar and went to the convocation of one of my friends. So next time if you want to meet him, do eat the roti bakar here.



What so special of their roti bakar? Even now people are using oven to make toast, they still follow the traditional ways to make Roti Bakar. Yup, charcoal. They toast bread wit charcoal. Whether Roti Bakar or steamed roti, they come with topping like butter, kaya, jam, and combination of them.

I had ordered 2 set of Roti Bakar with butter and kaya, and most importantly, the half-boiled eggs! You cannot eat Roti Bakar without it, it's like fish and water! Great satisfaction is what you get when u dip Roti Bakar into half-boiled egg! Yummy!





The Roti Bakar is crunchy, it never "kek" on your teeth. Lol! Credits on the bread's quality and the way they toast it. However, the kaya, i am not sure whether it's not thick enough or what, it definitely a let down. Improve on that please. Haha.

In short, it definitely an ideal place for breakfast. Roti Bakar with half-boiled eggs, to me, simply nostalgia! From their insist of using charcoal to toast bread, i can see they are serious in making Roti Bakar, money wise, our satisfaction are their main concern.

Today, i would say a food is delicious not because of its price, its fancy ingredients, but is the attitude of the chef who prepare it.

Super Hokkien Mee

Penangite favourite, Hokkien Mee! This shop is located behind Giant Supermarket along Jalan Burma. Let's say you are coming from the Jetty, Giant will be at your right hand side. But, do not pass Giant. There is a modern food court - New World Park, after the Park, the first junction where you can turn right, TURN! Go straight and turn left. Man, you have arrived one of the famous place for Hokkien Mee in Penang!

The legendary stall in inside One Corner Cafe. It has a funny name, "Super Hokkien Mee". So lame the name. (Photo "curi" from Lingzie's  Tummy Treat blog).

Actually i had come to this cafe twice. Previously i failed to taste on the Hokkien Mee, as the Boss said "Mee bo liao, come next time la". Bloody hell, that time was only 10am. I had been told this stall always want customer to wait at least 45 minutes for their mee (although they are not that busy!).

So, i come back again this time, at 845am. As expected, the Boss ask me to wait 1 hour. "Niama", i said to myself. Ok, fight you till the death! I wait! This time i bring myself newspaper and had ordered western breakfast while waiting for the mee.

After 45 minutes, the mee finally come. It looks normal.

It is spicy, spicy till i can't taste the prawn soup T_T and i was bathed in sweat.

This Hokkien Mee is famous, because of:

1) The boss LC, purposely make you wait.

2) It is dam spicy.

3) The boss put so many Ajinomoto inside, very thirsty after eating.

That's it, i would not come for the second time.

O Chean!!!

O Chean (oyster omelette) is Penang famous delicacy. Although you may get it in many places, but i would say the Penang's has it speciality. Erm, is it their oyster bigger and juicer? Erm... Maybe... I say special then special la, don't push me a!

Ok, this 2 stalls are famous, according to a blog that i read recently online (forgot who the blogger is, paise). The 1st shop is Seng Thor (成都) Coffee Shop at the junction of Carnarvon Road and Kimberly Street. Carnarvon road is also known as "coffin street" and the landmark of Kimberly Street is the biggest "colok" shop i never seen in other states, "Bee Chin Heong".



The next one will be "Bee San Coffee Shop" along Jalan Air Itam, near the "Chung Ling Secondary School" (also very near to Kek Lok Si and Bukit Bendera).



This 2 stalls are actually run by Brothers (Lim's brothers). Their oyster omelette is more to Malacca style, where they put "sambal" to fry along with the egg, but their oyster is far more bigger than Malacca's. Surprisingly their "tepung" (薯粉) are very less, unlike what we have at other stall, you can actually taste the lovely egg and oyster.



So, between this 2 stalls, whose better? I will say "Bee San" at Jalan Air Itam. Thumbs up! For your info, the O Chean stalls in "Seng Thor" start in the afternoon, while "Bee San" at night.

Dim Sum!!!

Ok, now everybody know our convocation is coming, 17 August 2008. It's a big day, your parents are coming, then you start to get panic. Erm, except Penangite.

Panic bout what? What? Are you kidding? Don't ask me such a silly question! Of course where should we bring our parents go to have Penang local famous food! Alright, i know many of you are now in overseas, or no longer in Penang, so for this few weeks, i will review some of the so-call famous "makan" place.

Our first destination, Dim Sum house in Jalan Anson. This place is famous because they have a wide variety of Dim Sum, and most importantly, they are cheap!



The place is damn damn crowded (i went on 10am Sunday). So bear in mind, be an early bird!



I had ordered 8 type of Dim Sum, just for 2 person. Ok, it's too much for 2 people, i just need to "dabao" some of them. Money spent, RM 19.20 nett.



As a conclusion, if your time is tide, you may not want to go Dim Sum House to have your breakfast. The reason is simple, the Dim Sum is average, Pekaka Dim Sum seems better than it.

The Ultimate Mega Mac

Despite i was running out of my money, as i haven't get my monthly pay, i had gone to Mc D to have my very first Mega Mac.

I was quite regret that i had missed out the chance to win a Mega Mac last time, where you just need chanting their stupid slogan within 4 sec and you will get a free 1. It sounds idiotic but you can save up RM 9.90, darn, who cares?

So i had ordered myself a Mega Mac, ala carte, RM 9.90.



With great hope of getting great taste, as great price comes with great food, i take my very first bite... hmmm...



Genius in this world always encounter their famous formula or sciences theory in their routine. So do I.

Mega Mac = Mega Sucks
Therefore, Mac = Sucks
Mac D = Sucks D

For the sake of the mankind, i hope the "D" means Donald, but not Dickinson (Dick). Or else, in future, when you want to invite someone for Mc D, you will have to say, hey bro, wanna go to Sucks Dxxx? My god...

Unexpected Lunch

There is a museum restaurant beside my company. i received a flyer from a Vietnamese during my lunch time. It called The Sire, sounds like it can fulfil all your DESIRE! They were having promotion, you just need to pay for the main course.

So, i went there with my colleague, as the term "museum restaurant" really stir up my curiosity, despite it might make my wallet suffered "internal bleeding".

I am really surprise with the restaurant... Its ID and conservation works really made me impressed!









This old house was previously owned by a Peranakan, tha's why it look like old houses in Malacca (Jonker Street).

The appetiser, a garlic loaf for each of us, and some vege seasoned with cheese powder.





Damn little! Anyway, i shouldn't complain as they are complimentary appetiser.

The curry chicken spaghetti. Taste "mama"..



The seafood spaghetti. An ordinary seafood with spaghetti. Need to put some pepper or it would be a bit tastless.



The cabonara spaghetti (mine). If you are cheese addicted, try this one.


Why all of us ordered spaghetti? It is simple, it is the cheapest main course in the restaurant! lol. Poor people like us can't afford fancy lunch.



Ice cream and coffee on the house. Good.



The spaghetti is always better than many fast food restaurant like Swesen, Pizzahut, etc. And the price is reasonable for dining in such calm and romantic environment.

By the time we finish our lunch, it was already 2pm. Darn, late for work!!!

For fancy version of The Sire, please visit to Lingzie's blog, which is far more better experience than mine.
http://lingzie.com/the-sire-museum-restaurant-king-street-penang/

Dumpling Festival

It's been a long time that i hadn't update my blog. With the great long holiday, my latest gadget - psp, and my family to chat with, i hardly log on to any web account.

Anyway, time flies. Now i am one of them, who work from morning till night, from alive till dead. Whatever.

Cut the story short, finally, the dumpling festival had arrived! (端午节 in google translate is -> Dragon Boat Festival! Is it? Sounds funny to me.)

People always say that at that day, 12pm, the magnetic field of the mother earth is the strongest, so u can make an egg stand at it tip. My gf and i had tried it out... The result? Lol, check this out bro!



Both of the eggs were standing! Serious. With lightning speed i send a mms to my family, simply to show off. Then i received a mms from my brother. OMG!



Ok, i had to admit, i was lost. T_T

做人难

是不是很奇怪，从前很崇拜的人，久而久之就开始被人讨厌了。现世可能就是那么现实吧，人往往只看到白板的一个黑点，而忘了它的白。

人应该多一点宽恕，每个人都有他、她的短或长，当自己在别人面前说别人坏话时，或许该想想自己是不是也有给别人讨厌的地方。身边的人，不由自主的，被灌输了那么多坏话后，突然对那个人也有了坏印象。被讨厌的人是不是会觉得很无辜？煽动别人讨厌你不喜欢的人，毕竟还是不好的。有什么不快，就和当事人，三口六面讲清楚呗。

听着别人说坏话，再想起别人从前的崇拜，真的很刺耳。

20080412 Balik Pulau Day 1

Life never been bored when you are in Penang. Despite of the thesis VIVA on the next monday, we, the hbp team,with 1 pure maths, had departed to Balik Pulau, to explore the unexplored, to discover the mysteries.

The tour start at 4:30pm, 2 cars (Sunny and Waja), with 7 beautiful girls and 2 handsome guys. The road to Balik Pulau is never be easy, the long cum winding cum hilly road, will always give you surprise. So, tenses your nerve when you are driving, or we will see you in hell.

After approximately 30 minutes of drifting, we finally arrived the legendary Balik Pulau. We dared not spin around the town as we were newbies here. We definitely need a tour guide. The first person who came into our mind was Hong Yee, the Balik Pulau "Dai Ka Jie". She has quite some reputation in this area, everybody knows her and whenever you are in deep shit, no money to pay, got people bully you, etc, just split out her name. However, she is more known with her other glamourous name, RS - red shirt.

*Our tour guide - HY

Balik Pulau is an old town, it look exactly the same with the old streets at Bentong, Karak, etc, with all those historical British Colonial time building. Therefore, it gave me a strong feeling of belonging, as i had spend my some of my childhood in a small town like this. Everything seems so familiar to me. Most of the things were miniature, including the road, roundabout, fire bridge, etc. Before we started our first destination, we had a chance to take a glance at HY's former school, Sacred Heart. It has a historical catholic church with a thin long sharp rooftop. It is quite a landmark here. Too bad, we didn't stop for photo session.

Ok, finally, we were on our way to the first place, indian man's mee goreng. Honestly, the mee goreng was quite delicious (dunno is because of my stomach was so hungry at that time or not). Everything was great except for some hygienic issues. The Indian guy had used his hand to take the overflowed mee back to the plate and, tap water was used for making limau ais...

*The mee goreng were finished before i could take a photo, a pack of starving wolves.

After energised ourselves with the food, the next station was an unknown beach at Pulau Betung. Along the kampung road, we noticed that there were some local people fishing there, as the sea is just beside us. Look like we had ran into a fishing sanctuary. Too bad there were only me and lai who had bring our "rod", if u know what i mean... hehehe...

*The Turtle Island according to our guide.

15 minutes passed and we had arrived the beach. There were people taking their wedding album there, not a easy job as the scorching sun still high upon the sky. After some water splashing and sexy posing, we got to watch the sunset... It was so cool! But then, our stomach got hungry, we had to proceed our journey to hunt for our dinner.

*Group photo at the beach.

photographer: Go get your bitch back for the photo!

bridegroom: Sien... Dun want to marry her liao...

*Girls hiding in the rock.

*Ah Long pte. ltd. 2 - this time she is marrying 2 guys... y me?

*I am hunting for crabs, lobsters, shrimps, lala, kappa...

*No! sun please go away!

I always have a small bladder yet i tends to drink a lot... So at that point, i was actually needed a place to "pay my water bill". Luckily, our "Dai Ka Jie" want to bring us to her untold, secretly located HQ -- in short, her home la. Glad to hear that, ^_^.

Again, you will never find the place if you are not leaded by HY. We need to go to a school first (ya, can you guess the gangster head of Balik Pulau is actually live behind the school? haha, just kidding), then u need to turn into a small thin path, and her house was just like popped out in a middle of no where. POP! Here we were, HY's house.

HY house has many dogs as any typical house in the orchard. After HY introduced her parents to us, we had eaten the fried "buah roti" / "so kun". No wonder Khor So Kun cant win during the election la, because Balik Pulau people keep eating "so kun". Haha!!! It's taste like fried yam, except it is a bit tasteless, so chilli sauce will be the best companion. 

*Me and my buah roti.

Guess what were our dinner that night? Satay! It's not any ordinary satay, it is 25 cent each satay! So, what are we waiting for? 

Half way we stopped at a fried chicken stall. It was not because the fried chicken was so delicious, it was mainly because the girls found out the owner was quite "engtao" and want to take a closer look. Anyhow, i still had my fried drumstick, not bad la. 

* I never knew that my gf is opening a fried chicken stall here.

*Free urut, i should had gone for it.

Finally we arrived at the food court beside the bus station to have our satay. Honestly, the satay a bit small where you just need to have one bite to finish it. However, for only 25 cent, the satay tasted really delicious! Thumbs up thumbs up! Within few minutes, we had finished the 100 satays. We asked for more! and more and more! But the stall was closing at 9pm and they had ran out of chicken satay... Too bad! 

*Behind the satay stall (before it got rained).

* We should had ordered 200 satays.

The night was still young which indeed it is, so we continue to climb all the way up to the mountain road, stopped, enjoyed the night view and breeze. It wasn't much light in Balik Pulau, most of them were tiny little light spot from each of the houses. The strongest one was the newly built bus terminal cum market cum food court. I personally think that it was a gift that not much city light in Balik Pulau. In Georgetown, the sky is in orange although night has fallen. It often make me sleepless, too bright for an old men like me.

*Captured by lai. The brightest spot is the terminal.

*Group photo on the way to a hill-top restaurant.

Night getting late. Sigh, due to some circumstances, i, as the humble driver, had to go home without spending some quality time with the others. In a car of 4 people, we were heading home while the others were enjoying their "dua bang" with nice chilled beers... T_T

-end of day 1-