Penang
(Inspired by Wen’s marvelous effort to try to blog at least once a week for a year, I’m embarking on my own Project 52 too! Here we go!)
I’m now blogging from Starbucks at Genting Highlands. Thank goodness it operates 24 hours and has free wifi, which means as long as you have a cup on your table you have the right to hog the power socket and stay “busy” typing away on your laptop for as long as you want.
Yesterday I had a 1 day tour of Penang.
This place, like what many would describe, is like Singapore. Except that it’s Singapore in the 70’s.
A “successful” coffeeshop with a roadside hawker stall in front of it. Pushcart stalls that used to be so common in Singapore can now only be found here in Penang.
Beggars are also seen at places with lots of crowds, especially tourists. There are two types of beggars: those who sit there with a cup in front of them and those who approach you to ask for money.
By the way, I got approached by two ladies in 1 day.
They were beggars. -_-
One of them was an old lady, probably about 60 to 70 years old.
“Ah pek, wu lui bo?” (”Senior elderly man, do you have money?”) she asked.
SHE CALLED ME AH PEK.
A 60+ year old lady called me AH PEK.
FML
At that time I didn’t have small change so I didn’t give her anything. Totally felt like throwing my used tissue at her face.
Anyway I also visited the “Largest Toy Museum in the World” (more on this place in a future post, promise!),
(the largest stitch soft toy I have ever seen)
Kek Lok Si Temple (very holy place),
Wat Chaiyamangkalaram Temple (it houses a 33 metre long Reclining Buddha, and I saw an old man who could stand while sleeping just outside the temple),
(see!),
and there were various food stalls offering some of the best food I have ever tasted in my life (is it a case of ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ syndrome?),
seriously, they were so good I nearly cried (slight exaggeration but they pwn most of the food stalls in my neighbourhood).
The night bazaar at Batu Ferringhi was a major disappointment IMO.
The products in this roughly 3km stretch of stalls were just repetitions of each other and ranged from very bad to not bad. It’s as if they were selling rejecting goods from the pasar malam in Singapore.
[Digression, I spotted this shop selling cheap clothes that looked plain bad.
They were like, as I mentioned earlier on, rejected goods.
Guess what's the shop name?
See, they said so!]
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Movie Reviews!
2012
Someone discovers something terrible about the Earth. He tells someone important. Others refuse to believe or take it seriously. Shit happens. Everyone runs, most people die. A handful of people manage to survive in the end. Throw in a love story, a family falling apart and a moral message.
Sounds familiar? It’s neither Deep Impact nor The Day After Tomorrow. It’s 2012, showcasing the latest visual effects and even greater mass destruction of Mother Earth. It’s the Noah’s Ark story of the 21st century, but this time the arks are made in China. Really.
Throughout the whole movie, the lead characters were soooo close to dying (soooo damn lucky) I felt like laughing.
6.5 / 10
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Coraline
Totally reminding me of Alice in the Wonderland, I love this movie for its soundtrack, wonderful animation and art direction. For some reason it just lacked a certain magic that made Tim Burton’s movies so memorable and heartwarming. The Nightmare Before Christmas has it, Corpse Bride has it, but this show doesn’t. Is it just me or the movie lacks the mojo?
7.5 / 10
