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Tag: Penang

斗母宫 Raja Uda Tow Boo Kong / Nine Emperor Gods Temple

Last Tuesday was fun because I went to Butterworth for a little road trip and visits to holy places, the St. Anne’s Sanctuary and now the Raja Uda famous Tow Boo Kong or simply known as the Nine Emperor Gods Temple. If you are curious about my religion, I am not really sure what am I, I guess I am Taoist which believe in Buddhism too.

Paddy field. =D

From Bukit Mertajam to Raja Uda in Butterworth is not near! I always thought they are close to each other but not already after this trip. Google Maps was our guide and it sucks because it brought us into Kampung and using those little road instead of the high way.

Very kampung.

Which eventually made us a little bit scared because for 20-30 minutes along the road, we saw paddy field, old houses, Malay village and it’s very rural. Scared there we were lost and in the end decided to look for sign and turn into highway and forget about the maps. We agak-agak know it’s somewhere on Raja Uda Rd, so we didn’t bother the maps in the end and went there on our own.

After driving for like 45 minutes, turning in and out from the rural and unfamiliar roads, forgetting about the GPS, we have reach the Tow Boo Kong safely. So happy to see the gate and the temple. I am not a very superstitious person but I know a little bit of Nine Emporor God. I know there’s Nine Emperor God Festival which happens during September of Chinese calendar every year and it’s very happenings in Penang or place with Nine Emperor Gods Temple. It’s also season when devotees become vegetarian during the festival.

Penang is famous for this event at Carnavon Street and here at Raja Uda. It’s a little bit like Indian’s Thaipusam with poking on human flesh. Woo.

The temple was long and has a super pretty gate on the outside. The whole compound is huge but the temple is not super huge as I thought. It’s not like the St Anne or Kek Lok Si in Penang so big. But the place is nice.

They have good design, good engraving, modernish mixed with Chinese temple feel.

Although I am not a superstitious person, but since visited to the temple, might as well do some prayers for myself and family. =)

Guess what, it was late afternoon, sunset time and it was only us praying in the temple. =D It’s super quiet! One interesting about the temple is that when doing prayers, putting the joss stick, there’s actually numbering sequence for which pot and which god and goddess to pray first, so there’s like 1, 2, 3 so you wouldn’t be confuse which to start first and which to end. Damn cool for people like me who don’t really know the “protocol” of a temple. Hehe.

Tow Boo Kong rocks.

July 4, 2010
Hard Rock Hotel And Beach With NS Friends

This is part of my Penang trip with Hornet (the squadron I was in during National Service) NS friends. Many of them were not from Penang island so I was so glad to bring them around and this Hard Rock Hotel visit was during the last day of our 3 days Penang trip.

Very surprise that Chuan, Khang and Weng who was from the mainland Penang didn’t know about Hard Rock, the name. They were pretty excited of visiting the hotel for the first time. This was not my first time, 2nd or 3rd already, but this should be my first proper visit with friends of that many people, and during the day time.

No idea what event or gathering was there. There were so many BMW cars with Singapore’s plate at the hotel.

It’s just like a museum or galleria full or artwork, artist’s costume, guitars and many many more. I like going there although I have already been there before, inside is really pretty and cool.

For the first time, I went to the swimming pool area because normally it’s close during night time and there’s a saying that this is the longest swimming pool in Penang. And swimming in the pool need to have a tag on the wrist just like going to a theme park.

So nice seeing the kids playing water, there’s slide too, which reminds me back when I was small and I so wish I could get into the pool at there. Before getting into the pool, I need to get a room there! You see, there’s room right in front of the swimming pool, damn cool man. It’s like can get into the pool anytime you want.

It was almost sunset, but it’s very hot and I was sweating like crazy.

Out of the pool is the beach. The beach is for everyone and it’s so happenings and so many people playing by the beach. Water sports, sand castle, swimming, horse riding, para sailing and so much more to play!

I wanna try para sailing so badly, it seems like so fun to be in the air!

We thought, why not our Penang trip’s accommodation be at Hard Rock Hotel? The simple reason, $! It’s expensive, and hopefully someone would sponsor me to stay at there, for a night or two. One night should be cool already. Hehe.

Took many photos and Hard Rock Hotel rocks. I am still looking for Hard Rock’s t-shirt with Batu Ferringhi or Penang printed on it. Have anyone seen it at the night market already? I am so not going into the Hard Rock gift shop. Hehe.

July 4, 2010
St Anne’s Church At Bukit Mertajam Is Cool

It’s a 20 minutes drive from Penang Bridge to reach St Anne’s Sanctuary or simply known as the St Anne’s Church. I have been hearing from people saying that this church is nice, this church is cool, this church is huge, this church is old and I only saw it from photos and finally I got a chance to visit it.

Actually I have nothing to do in Penang, no school, no work, and so went visiting church. Haha. But I have a thing for holy places one because they are beautiful!

The afternoon was quiet. Probably there’s no service on that day and church is always open for prayers. Apologize first if I write something wrong because I don’t really know about Christian and church. =)

At first glance, the place is huge! The little church standing above is not the main one, there’s even a bigger one at the other side and there’s like a place where we can up, like a little park on foot hill. I have no idea how to describe it. Haha.

When I saw the place, I was like “Wow, there’s actually something like this.” Pretty cool, I never see churches that big before, it’s not like those western one with very awesome design, it’s pretty but not very complicated, but the whole place is huge, with trees and super mini hiking trail which I called.

It gave me a feeling of peacefulness and nature. Rocks.

There’s the St. Anne’s Water. I want to ask what’s that? Is it holy water?

The church is huge! Next stop, we went to the Nine Emperor God Temple at Raja Uda, we almost lost while going there, so do come back and check it out soon. =) One more thing, they say it’s very happenings during St. Anne’s Annual Novena & Feast Day Celebration, from 23 July 2010 to 01 August 2010, it’s a day before I leave Penang, so maybe I could go check it out? =)

June 30, 2010
We Went to Bukit Mertajam

We went to Province Wellesley on Tuesday’s afternoon. Where’s Province Wellesley? It’s Seberang Perai, the mainland of Penang. =D It’s the English name, but to most Penang island people, I guess they would just call it Butterworth. My days in Penang still left not many days only and I am very free everyday, have nothing to do, it’s either spending time sleeping at home or going out to explore things that haven’t been explored.

Was on the phone with Sean last night and she talked about St. Anne’s Church which then gave me an idea where to go. =D I have wanted to go check it out a long time already as people told me it’s a very nice place and feel curious. I also have a thing for holy place, like temples, churches, they have nice architecture. =)

Chien Chern.

Tee Jin.

Yiphing. All was like so busy.

It was on a road trip, there’s me, Chien Chern who was the driver, Yiphing and Tee Jin. Four of us only, many friends were in school or already leaved Penang. So sad.

We didn’t really know the place and how to go. I only checked it and mark it on Google Maps and the Google Maps brought us there. Sometimes must say hate Google Maps a bit because it will bring us to a rural place just to get away from toll and shortcut. But this trip to St Anne’s Church was safe. I’ll talk about it in another post as we eventually went into same kampung and paddy field while going to Nine Emperor God temple.

Alright, Bukit Mertajam is where St Anne’s Church is and I always thought BM is near to Butterworth or Seberang Jaya or anywhere in Province Wellesley but actually they are not, they are far!

This building is like so creepy and fugly!

First time coming here, there’s no high rise building, it’s all shop houses, bungalows, or the highest is like 3-4 floors. It’s a suburb and not a big town like us in Penang, and the road are small too.

Reached St Anne’s Church safely. Stay tune for next post! =)

June 30, 2010
Crazy In The Lift 2

Last year.

Last year, December, there’s Crazy In The Lift. We were just making fun and a fool around, kidding kidding and yesterday, it’s Crazy In The Lift, Part 2. The same person, same place.

This year, yesterday.

Just playing people. Chien Chern is my good friend and he is a good person. ^.^

June 27, 2010
Wesak Day Parade 2010 With Foyi In Penang

It had been 2 years that I last joined the Wesak Day parade in Penang. Every year, during Wesak Day there will be floats parade and procession. Devotees walked around the city, with floats of flower and also many people came by to see. I went there once when I was Form 3, it was 3 years ago, last two years was really busy with study and now I am out of school, I get to join them again.

Have to be grateful that I was out from National Service (PLKN). I was expecting to meet my NS friends at the parade because they actually would be out to join the walk too but Deputy Komanden last minute didn’t allow them to go. Sigh. No idea why, I just know it sucks.

I like the hair and camera.

I drove Kenny there. He came to my place to car pool with me because he was lazy to find parking. The place was Burma Road, somewhere near to Chinese Recreation Club. The whole road was closed on that day because of Wesak Day parade. When I was there, the parade was almost ready to start. I quickly went to the meeting place at CRC field to meet up with the Foyi friends.

Geared up my stuff and I am ready to walk and shoot. ^.^ I was really excited for that because it’s really fun walking a long way and walking together.

There were ang mo in the group too. Joining us to walk together. The group were separated into different Buddhist association, eg. Malaysia Buddhist Association, Tzu Chi, Foyi (that’s what I was in) and so on. There’s lots of group.

Kok Sheng.

Jocelyn.

Kenny.

Photographer!

Frank Ooi.

There’s us walking together with the float and a lot of people standing by the road side to see what’s going on. There’s also kind people giving out free water to those on the road.

At some point, I walked very fast to catch up with the front group to meet Frank, he was there too but with different group and was ahead of us. After saying hi, we stopped and waited for Foyi to pass by and joined in again. Tired but fun.

Camera phone!

They walked pretty slow because of traffic lights and turning and I could walk faster. I even stopped down to let other group passed by and then only catch up with my group. The line was really really long.

Flag girls.

Chin Lai.

Min Xiang.

Sammy.

Alice who was at National Service too, but took a leave out for the Wesak Day.

Going to finish soon. Enjoy photos because there’s nothing much to write as basically, we just walk walk, talk talk and shoot shoot for me. That’s all.

So many people, got police somemore.

Traffic light ahead.

Passed by Burma Rd’s Kuan Yin Temple.

Got orchestra somemore!

Finally the journey ended. It was, 3 hours walk, from 6 till 9pm, no idea how many kilometre walked. Feet were of course tired but enjoyed the journey all, I’ll take it as an exercise and sweat a lot too.

June 24, 2010
Free Photo At Switch World, Gurney Plaza

Switch World is a yearly event held by Switch, an Apple Premium Reseller here in Penang. Last time I always go check it out but now I don’t already because it’s just taking the whole Apple store out into a big place to show people what Apple has. I am an Apple fanboy and I think I know quite a lot about Apple already.

I was at Gurney Plaza during Switch World few weeks ago so I dropped by to check it out anything special. End out, I found an external battery pack for my Google Nexus One, and I bought it up. =D Upon buying anything there, we got a free photoshoot and photo printout. Pretty cool.

Every year, there will be a Mini Cooper, no idea why. But it’s cool.

Many people don’t know Mac being brain washed at there too. There’s a way to tell people that Mac doesn’t lag, that is they will open a lot of folder and tell you, “see, no lag”, actually opening folder will not lag a computer. Haha.

I bought something and there’s 5 of us, me, Qonstance, Sumay, Hueisean and Tzou Xiong, and we went to free shoot at there. Free edit, free soft copy and a free print out. =D

So fun, but the person who edit our photo talked a lot, a little bit too much because I knew quite a lot about the software and he assumed we didn’t know. OMG. Nevermind, still we get free printout! =)

Qonstance keep saying “Aiyerrr, so sweeeeeetttttt.” =D Really sweet. Nice one, people.

June 23, 2010
Found A Beach Near Queensbay

We as in Wei Jun, Sumay and me were going back home already from Queensbay, but decided to take a longer route to go home and accidentally, I found a beach near Queensbay. The shore is not very long, there’s still little bit of sand, with Penang Bridge view, it’s pretty cool. So I decided to go down and take a walk, for fun!

It was 7pm, the sky was getting dark already and the weather was warm! So we didn’t stay long at there.

Shoot shoot, be crazy, then we went home and I jammed in the traffic for almost one hour! Now I only know Penang also can be so jam, the jammed place was Bayan Lepas area.

June 23, 2010
Queensbay Mall With Sumay, Mei Yen and Wei Jun

Two days ago, Thursday, I was bored and I went to watch movie at Queensbay Mall and walk walk. I didn’t feel like going to Gurney which is near to my place so I went to Queensbay Mall. Called a few people out but in the end it was 2 girls with me, Mei Yen and Sumay, then Wei Jun came to join us after the movie.

We watched The Haunting Lover, it was a Hong Kong horror romance film but somehow seems boring to us and it’s not scary and sweet to me. Though the cinema was full! I wanted to watch Karate Kid, but Wei Jun and Mei Yen has already watched it already. Forgot to mention, Wei Jun, Sumay and Mei Yen were friends I made in NS. =)

Because we were pretty late, the queue was long, and we didn’t get a nice seat in the cinema. Though, it’s still a lot better than to be on the first row. You know, sitting on the first row closest to the screen sucks a lot.

After movie, Mei Yen went back. Then it was me, Sumay and Wei Jun came to find us. Walked around the mall and met Ker Ying at there. Wanted to buy a 480ml tall water bottle at Muji-liked store, Material at RM29, but it’s out of stock. Too bad, I safe back my money. Material does sells nice stuff but I don’t like them copying Muji. >.<

Then we saw some cool stuff at the centre atrium of Queensbay Mall. There’s the Toy’s Story 3 roadshow and 3D LED TV demo. We went in the 3D TV thing to check it out, it was by Samsung. After wearing a 3D glasses, wow, the cartoon became 3D, pretty cool. 3D maybe the next big thing, but we need to have a lot of glasses if we have a lot of family members at home and it will look a little bit LOL when it’s TV time, glasses must be on, that’s the future high tech stuff.

After demo-ing, there’s the Toy’s Story character around the place for people to take photo with. You know, they’re very funny because the toy soldier were really good, they really didn’t move or smile to let people to take pictures with. I tried to make them smile, but they were strong, trying hard not to laugh or smile. Haha.

Sumay, me, Wei Jun.

Photo finish, we went back. No, we stopped by the beach for a while. =D Why no Mei Yen’s photo? Because she came here for movie then went back straight away already, no chance.

=========WORLD CUP FEVER=========

Check out the English and Chinese official FIFA World Cup song. =D

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmrsh66SrJo&hl=en_US&fs=1&hd=1]

Oh man, do you feel that this few day’s match are a little bit weird. Draw or nil. Especially the England match, feeling very weird! Faster wake up England because I support you. Watching World Cup in HD at home is fun but then it’s alone, now is looking for good mamak or place with Wifi, best with aircon and cheap drinks to watch World Cup with friends, any idea? I know McDonald’s only, any alternative?

[adv] Here’s a goodies promotion for you, don’t
feel weird about the promotion because now is World Cup, Celcom very good, bring us a lot of good promotion and the big promotion is this limited edition Celcom Blue Bears that Celcom is giving away.

There’s 8 Celcom Blue Bears representing team of your favourite to be collected and it’s all limited edition and CUTE!

So how you can collect? Easy only. Just sign up with Celcom Exec Savers and save up to over 40% on calls and SMS to ANY NETWORK between 17 May to 11 July 2010. Follow the 3 simple steps below and the bear are yours! =D

The two Celcom Exec Savers are:

Very cheap right? Cheap and get free collectible Celcom Blue Bears! Rocks! Go here for more.

One more thing, by receiving the mobile voucher after signing up for the Celcom Exec Save, it will also entitle you to be in the running for the RM10,000 giveaway in the date that is stipulated on the voucher. Get shortlisted, and answer a simple question then it maybe yours.

June 20, 2010
Famous Pitt St. Koay Teow Th’ng at Carnavon Street

The famous Koay Teow Th’ng originally from Pitt Street is now at Carnavon Street. Actually it had been quite some times already but I am sharing with unknowns and this Koay Teow Th’ng place is where I often go there for brunch. Dad loves it here, so do I and mom.

Do you know Carnavon Street has various calling in local Penang Hokkien dialect? Some called it lam chan na (I have no idea what’s that means), some called kua cha keh 棺材街 (Coffin Street because there’s shops selling casket/coffin at there last time).

The koay teow th’ng shop is very easy to find because they have a big signboard outside with a big photo of the koay teow th’ng. So no worry of being lost.

The aunty there is the one who operate the stall and cook the koay teow th’ng. She’s a very friendly person.

I like the fish ball, it’s nice. There’s duck meat and also pork. The big slices of meat are pork, chopped. Kinda special and they koay teow submerged under the soup. Very nice.

Besides just ordering koay teow, we ordered only just the meat in the soup as extra one and eat for fun. Yummy. Koay teow although is similar to Ipoh’s Hor Fun, but the feeling and texture is definitely different. Personally like koay teow more.
[googlemaps https://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100073510666181549549.000469feb8850ec72b675&ll=5.416083,100.334626&spn=0.003471,0.005354&z=17&iwloc=000489d69fe2aa5b40a73&output=embed&w=500&h=325]

June 18, 2010

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