Hard Rock Hotel @ Penang

The latest place to check out in Penang is Hard Rock Hotel. My family and I decided to visit the newly-opened hotel despite the heavy traffic congestion. On the way to the hotel, we even witnessed an accident between two imported cars drove by out-station drivers.

Once we reached the hotel, we were certain that the long journey is worth it because Hard Rock Hotel is not any ordinary hotel. It portrays a modern and fun environment, no matter you are working there as a janitor or as a public relation officer. The employees are not dressed in suits and black ties, but they wear polo t-shirts and surf pants to give the hotel occupants 'the holiday feel'. Besides that, you will not hear the normal 'Have a nice day' at Hard Rock Hotel because the staff wishes you 'Have a rocking day'. Totally matches the theme and concept of the hotel.

The rooms are nicely furnished with the latest gadgets (flat screen television, DVD player etc), plushy guitar-themed cushions and different portrait of rock stars for each room. The show room I visited has Elvis portrait in the bathroom. My favourite part of the hotel is several rooms which links directly to the swimming pool. You can just jump into the swimming pool from your balcony, isn't that cool? The hotel is right by the beach and they even have a man-made beach (for people who are afraid of jelly fish perhaps?)

Hard Rock Hotel is never complete without Hard Rock Cafe which is situated right beside the hotel. The cafe was decorated the rocking-style and we promise to return to try the food although it's quite pricey. But with great ambiance and music, the money paid is totally worth it. There is also a Rock Shop not far from the cafe. The shop sells an assortment of Hard Rock merchandises like t-shirts, bears, badges, key chains etc. Enough said, lets check out some rocking pictures.

Hard Rock Hotel (view from the main road).
Hard Rock Hotel (view from the pool).
Ceiling lights. It changes colour from blue to green to yellow to red.
Welcome to Hard Rock Hotel (engraved on the floor).
The flower pot tells you that you are at Hard Rock Hotel.
Funky signboard.
Pictures of famous rockers are displayed along the corridor leading to the hotel rooms.
Hotel bed.
They even have a club for kids to hang out while their parents chill at the pool or beach.
My favourite part of the hotel. Rooms' balcony by the pool.
A picture of the pool.
Another picture of the pool.
One more.
More.
Mosaics of The Beatles on the wall.
The Beatles.
Some exhibits at Hard Rock Hotel.
More exhibit.
Costumes worn by iconic rockers.
Joey Allen's guitar.
Cute uniform of the janitor.
Replica of Michael Jackson in front of Hard Rock Cafe.
Hard Rock Cafe's doorknob.
Rock Shop.
The iconic Hard Rock guitar.

Virgin Painter, Bitter Cake & Flood

TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) ! It had been a lazy week, having only work for three days since Monday and Tuesday was a public holiday in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Muslims' new year).

On Monday, I went to my colleague's new house with three others. It is a small, cosy apartment with a balcony overlooking a breathtaking sea view. Since she is on a tight budget, she asked us to paint her apartment in return for a sumptuous seafood dinner. We all agreed. After all that's what friends are for, right? I was not dressed in the proper attire to paint but decided to join in the fun and be extra careful to not stain my clothes. It was my first time holding such a big brush, I was a bit worried that I will smudge the wall. I started with the gate then the walls and find that painting is not so difficult after all. However, at the end of the day, my clothes were stained because I accidentally leaned on the wet-painted gate.

On Sunday night, I baked a cake for Monday's gathering. Well, I did not actually bake it because the cake requires no baking. I was pretty confident with the outcome because it is one of the easiest cake to make. However, the cake turned out to be tasteless and slightly bitter, simply because I put in the wrong milk. As for the bitter taste, it's due to cocoa powder overdose (I am a chocolate addict and thought that the more chocolate the better). In the end, it looks appetizing but taste awful. Fortunately mum was there to save the day. She added some chocolates and icing and the cake was sweeter. Lesson of the day : When everything fails, mummy is always there to make it not so bad.

The lack-of-sugar cake.

I felt the Wednesday morning blues, having to drag myself to work after a long weekend. I managed to sail through the working hours without dozing off. After work, my brother and his girlfriend asked me for dinner together. I obliged and we went to a hawker centre nearby. We decided to have lok lok (hawker-style steamboat). As we were indulging in our four-spicy-sauce lok lok, suddenly it started to rain. We wanted to move indoor to the shaded area but the lok lok peddler set up a gigantic umbrella to shield us from the rain. We did not want his effort of setting up the umbrella to go in vain and decided not to move indoor. Soon, it rained cats and dogs and the place was flooded to the ankle. We were drenched wet but we could not leave because there was no way we can get to the car without further getting wet. It was an experience as it was the first time I experienced flood.

There was a hole in the umbrella and this pail is to collect the rain water that falls through that hole. Without the pail, the rain water splashes into our food.
We were the only one who sat outdoor amidst the heavy rain.
Empty plates of lok lok, noodles and western food.
Look at the amount of rain water. Many places in Penang were flooded thanks to the heavy downpour.

A Great Loss

They are 51 years old...They are well-respected legends...They passed away in year 2009!

Michael Jackson (29/08/1958 - 25/06/2009)
Yasmin Ahmad (01/07/1958 - 25/07/2009)
Yoshito Usui (21/04/1958 - 11/09/2009)

First it was the King of Pop. He succumbed to cardiac arrest and left the world three months ago. His death shocked the world because he was perfectly healthy at that time and was preparing for his 'This Is It' concert.

Then the death of Malaysia's prominent director shocked the nation. She was in the midst of a meeting for her upcoming project when she suffered a stroke and collapsed due to hemorrhaging in the brain. She is not any other director but a very special down to earth lady famous for her thought-provoking, multi-racial commercials and films. She never fails to produce soul touching commercials annually in conjunction with nationals day and her death a month before nationals day is a great loss to the nation.

Recently, the passing of re-kwown manga (japanese comic) artist shocked loyal Crayon Shin Chan fans. I grew up reading Crayon Shin Chan and has been collecting each volume since I was eleven years old. Although I am in my early twenties now, I am still a big fan of the manga. I lost my appetite when I knew that he accidentally fell 120 metres from a cliff while mountain climbing. His unfinished work will be left unfinished and there will never be an ending for the manga.

They are only half a century and a year old, they still have so much to teach and show us. Yet they left us suddenly, leaving us in a state of shock. The three of them are legends in their own way, they touches our heart in different ways and they are simply irreplaceable. Maybe legends are never meant to stay too long here because they are angels there.

(Photographs courtesy of Google images)

Yummy Discovery

As soon as I got back from my Ipoh trip, my dad decided to treat my family dinner. We went to a restaurant called the Tsunami Village. Since I just came back from Ipoh, where I took loads of pictures, the photo-taking bug was still in me. So I took photographs of our dinner too (my blog is becoming a foodies blog. So it's gonna be monologues on food).

Anyway, the seafood is fresh and tasty, not too oily too, but most importantly it's reasonably priced. It is really difficult to get reasonably priced, tasty seafood with sea view in Penang and this is the place where we can get all of the above plus thirty cats. Yes, cats! They actually belong to a fisherman and they are all really tame as well as good poser.



The aftermath of the year 2004 tsunami.

Floating mosque at Batu Ferringhi.

Breathtaking sea view with fishermen sampan.

Yummy seafood :D

Cheers to a great dinner.

Ipoh @ Perak

I am suppose to wake up at 5.45am later. Nope, I am not waking up that early to break fast or to pray (it's Ramadhan month for the Muslims now), but I am going for a holiday with my colleagues. Yay!! I feel great being able to travel out of town every weekend.

Last weekend, I was back at my maternal grandmother's house for a family gathering cum Malaysia Independence Day celebration. Once my mum and I reached Ipoh, my aunt took us for a reasonably priced and yummy set lunch. Then we went for a Buddha relics exhibition. It was an eye opener and even international actress, Michelle Yeoh was there to officiate the event.

This is from Tibet and it seems that if you turn everyone of them, your luck will change.

Later in the evening, my cousins from Kuala Lumpur arrived and we had the must-not-miss Ipoh delicacy ~ Bean sprout chicken.

Yummy but oily (This photo courtesy of my cousin's girlfriend)

After dinner, we had Fruit ice for dessert. I love the dessert very much because it's healthy yet thirst quenching and able to satisfy my sweet tooth.

There are seven types of fruits. Some more got ice-cream :D

On the next day, with the aid of technology (my uncle's GPS), we manage to savour the very famous and must-wait-very-long Ipoh Yong tau fu at a place known as 'Big tree trunk'. Despite the long wait and we were starving since we sort of skip breakfast, it was worth it because it really lift up to it's fame. Then at night, we had our official family gathering dinner at a chinese restaurant. Things started to heat up after dinner. My cousins and I as well as my very sporting aunts played some childish but really fun games.

On the next morning, we woke up at 6am to go Foh San dim sum, a must try if you ever go to Ipoh. The restaurant opens at 6.30am and we were there at 6.35am but there are only three tables left. Since there are only four of us (my cousins and I), we shared a big table with another family. We enjoyed the really delicious dim sum and snap photographs as though we have never seen a chinese restaurant before. Although the four of us only slept for four hours, we had so much fun waking up early for dim sum.

Foh San Restaurant at Ipoh.

The double-storey building.

The crowd at 6.35am at Foh San dim sum restaurant.



Some dim sum that we ordered.

More dim sum.

A claypot of really yummy porridge. My favourite dish for that morning.

Overall, this family gathering is a very different one because we visited all the famous eateries in Ipoh, which is our first time although we have been to Ipoh umpteen times. It was a totally refreshing experience, especially with great companies.