Herbie's in Town

Remember the movie where the car have his own opinion and feeling. And the can move and even race...?

No I am not talking about Transformer... but maybe older...

The car bearing number 53...

Yes Herbie... we found it yesterday night!

I am amused when I saw this car... surprise how people like it so much! Well, its entertaining but I don't really like Lindsay Lohan though...

Anyway, we saw this car parked at the Tesco Kajang....

Penang Botanical Garden

One of Penang best kept place is this germ, Botanical Garden. Located near the Youth Park at the end of Western Road, this botanic garden is one of the oldest in Malaysia.

I remember visiting this place in my childhood days and picnic and swimming in one of the river flowing through it. Though, now the river has nearly dries up, this place still draws visitors and joggers alike.
Botanical Garden or more commonly known as monkey’s park, because of the amount of monkeys one can find here, is a beauty to stroll in.
I took the opportunity to visit this place again when I went back to Penang during the last trip.
They have various types of trees, and some I find to be quite amusing.
The shape is funny.
Some have big tree trunks and they are said to be few hundred years old.
They have some bridges too and this one looks like the Penang Bridge.
And they also have a big heart too...
I remember the stage where I used to play at and also during my secondary school days, where we have our marching drill.
Here, they also house some cactus collection
Apart from that, they also have fern house, orchid house among others.
This is a good place to visit if want to jog or just simply enjoy the beauty of trees and flowers. Any time is a good time to visit, as there are plenty of trees for shade.

But if you planning for a picnic, do be careful of the monkeys. They will rush towards food when they caught an eye of it.

And if you are jogging alone, do take a stick with you in case the monkey chase after you.

Myanmar Cyclone Victims: How to Help

Cyclone Nargis has inundated Burma's densely populated rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta, destroying entire towns and villages. Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the storm and as many as a million survivors are homeless. The storm has also destroyed infrastructure in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, its "satellite towns" and other areas. This disaster has been compounded by the regime's deliberate delay of international emergency assistance.


Myanmar Cyclone Appeal AG from leonalim on Vimeo.
Souce: Leonalim

Last weekend, we in our church also raise fund for this country during our service. We get our people to donate so that relief works can be carried out in this country. Aids can be in form of cash or kinds such as medicines, food, blankets, beds, etc. The little that we give can make a whole different to the people there. we are chanelling the fund to the WAGRA (World AG Relief Agency).

You too may help by donate securely online at http://www.agrelief.org/donate.cfm to make a donation with your credit card.

Alternatively, you can also donate to World Vision Malaysia. They have people in Myanmar who are doing relief work and you can visit their website for more information.

I received an e-mail from one of my friend whom have travelled extensively across Asia in particular Indo-China. She has ask for help so that aids can pour in to this Junta rules country. Below is her email.

Dear friends,

As the world is now aware, Cyclone Nargis has inundated Burma's densely populated Irrawaddy Delta, destroying entire towns and villages. Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the storm and as many as a million survivors are homeless. The storm has also destroyed infrastructure in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, its "satellite towns"
and other areas. Emergency shortages of drinking water, food and shelter are being suffered and there is an imminent danger of diseases such as cholera. This disaster has been compounded by the regime's deliberate delay of international emergency assistance. Burma's deforestation also made the cyclone's damage worse. The cyclone will have long-ranging effects, as the Delta area was Burma's primary rice growing region.

Links for ongoing information and disaster relief donations are below.
The groups listed appreciate and will make good use of any contribution, even very small amounts. As one way to deal personally with this immense human tragedy, I recommend organizing a small benefit event such as a concert, reading, art sale, dinner or film show, inviting your own friends, family, co-workers, neighborhood or community and sending the proceeds to a relief aid group. Children often have excellent ideas for such events.

I personally was in the cyclone which took 139,000 lives in Bangladesh in 1991, and I know how extremely important a concerted, well-organized, and well-funded ongoing relief effort is for survival and recovery in such an enormous disaster situation. Even though these are hard economic times everywhere, I hope that you will consider making some contribution to the relief effort, either on your own or by making others aware of the effective donation options available.

best wishes,
Edith Mirante
Project Maje
www.projectmaje.org

DONATIONS for disaster relief can be made via these organizations:

Medecins Sans Frontiers (already distributing emergency aid in affected areas)
http://www.msf.org/

Medical Emergency Relief International (already bringing aid to the Delta)
http://www.merlin.org.uk/

Thirst-Aid (water purification is an urgent priority)

http://www.thirst-aid.org/Poster.html

Avaaz.org (special fund via Burma's Buddhist monks) https://secure.avaaz.org/en/burma_cyclone/

MercyCorps (experienced disaster relief experts with local partners) http://www.mercycorps.org/

For constantly updated information, see these news sources:

BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/asia_pacific/2008/burma_cyclone

The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org/

Mizzima News
http://www.mizzima.com/

US Campaign for Burma (also accepting disaster relief donations) http://uscampaignforburma.org/

Act now to save life!

Penang: Food Havens.

Penang has always been known for its good food and also the beach. Well, for now, the beach is nothing to be proud of because it’s dirty. However, there are lots of people from around the world who spends their summer in Penang and eventually choose Penang as their second home.

I took the opportunity to go back to Penang during the Labour Day holiday break, taking advantage of the long weekend.

As usual, every time, I will go for food hunting. One of the hawker stalls that I missed during the last trip back was this Prawn Mee (or as its known as Hokkien Mee in Penang) stall over in Macalister’s Road. This stall was voted the best Hokkien Mee stall.

I must say that the taste of this noodle is a bit different after the owner passed away couple of years ago, but it still taste good. What I like about this Hokkien Mee is the noodle’s thick soup and taste sweet. On top of that, the serving comes with mantis prawn and not the usual prawn.
To top up to that, a nice cold white coffee is great! Ipoh is famous for its white coffee, and I must say, the white coffee here matches it!

At night, I went to the famous Gurney Drive.
I never recommend friends or anybody to dine at this hawker center. This place is expensive and only caters for the tourist. Furthermore, the food here is not that nice. However, this time, I decided to go there for old time sake. So, we visited this place on Saturday night, after church service, with my family.

It has been so long since I eat at this place. Reaching there about 10.30pm and we found the place to be packed with people, tourist to the local who just want to hang out by the seaside.

Once there, I spotted this guy who is doing street performance. He was dancing with fire and trying to throw flame with his mouth!

We watched for a while and I snap some pictures.

Then, we went over the hawker center and have our dinner at about 11pm…

I remember when I am young, I love the smoke cuttlefish but now it’s so expensive. I end up ordering snack from quite a number of stalls.

I was craving for Indian’s rojak or Pasembur as its’ known in Penang. I went over to a stall and this guy was dancing to the beat of the song and singing rojak to promote the stall.

As he was pouring the sauce, he was dancing as well. I didn’t manage to snap photo of him dancing but I spotted a clip of him appearing in the paper because of his trademark of dancing when serving.

We love the fried lok lok too. Sadly, I was enjoying the food so much that I forget to take any picture. lok lok comes in sticks like the satay, but this we have a variety of dish to choose from. we can have taiwanese sausage, meat ball, fish ball, oyster, cuttlefish, beancurd, beef, pork...you name it, chances is, they have it. all will be deep fried and you dip into chilli sauce or peanust sauce before eating it.

After dinner, to walk around Gurney Drive for while, enjoying the crowd and the activities that are going around. At 12am, this place seems to be bustling with activities and seems not going to sleeps.

Ahh... I love Penang.