I came across this little notebook in Tesco Malaysia and was intrigue to get one to try out. I have been using the Unicorn Colors notebook and found this to be a cheaper version of the Colors. Priced at RM12, it comes in Black and White. It has a hard cover and leathery feel and the size is smaller and thinner than Unicorn Colors A5. There is no back pocket to this Unicorn Privilege and it comes with Memoranda in the front and Telephone & Addresses in the back. The paper is cream in color and a little smooth to the touch. The right side of the notebook is ruled, while the left is blank.  My fountain pen ink sits well without smearing and writes smoothly. The smear through was also less than the Stabilo OHPen and Sharpie Permanent Pen. For the price, the book meets my cosmetic and functionality requirements. My only complaint is that the book is a little small compare to other A5 size books and was a little thinner, means less pages to write on. For RM12, what more can I expect.

The weather was excellent today, after yesterday’s rain, the haze was gone and the sun was blazing all day long. By 5.30pm, I started to pack my stuff and head for my bike.  The guard keep asking, “You Cycle hari ini ka?”, Ya, I said, and he ask again, and Ya I said, and he ask again, and then he finish off by saying “Bagus la, kurang jam, jika semua orang macam kau, memang tak ada jam”. I smiled and head towards the evening.  I started the Runkeeper and my music library fires up.  Started strong, but careful as the traffic right in FIZ were as heavy as it gets.  The sun was still shining, but the breeze from cycling balances it off.  Comfortably leaving the FIZ 1 area, I pick up my speed. A little ambitious and my tie started to hurt. 

I keep on pushing and without realizing, I am more than half way through to my destination.  I decided to take the longer route and soon regrets it as the pain started to take toll. Almost reaching my destination, my phone rang, damm, office number. Nothing tomorrow can’t settle. Reaching my wife’s office, it was 22 minutes after.  To my surprise, runkeeper reports only 3.9km, and I took 22 minutes for this short distance, I could not compute. I thought I pushes hard and cover a lot of ground. Later when I plot the route on Google Map, I found that the actual distance is 8.2km, and at 22 minutes, I have been traveling at 22.4km/hr, highest average speed so far, and this is more like it.  Must have been my colleague call that screws up runkeeper. My iPhone 3GS could not answer call and run GPS app at the same time, this must be the reason.

I receive the GUB Classic helmet that I bought from bicyclehelmet (by Thomas Hon).  Thomas was very responsive on queries and after a quick negotiation, I paid him and he ships me the helmet on Tuesday.  I received it today, 2 days later.  Great service, affordable, satisfied.

This is one Thai Restaurant in Penang that is worth some mention.  This restaurant is located at the housing estate area of Sg. Ara.  It can be a little hard to get to if this is your first time.  Its a house turn into a restaurant.  The interior decorations as well as outside were a little dated.  The first impression that I had was that this is another restaurant wannabe, low budget conversion of a house to restaurant.  The food turns out to be much better than their taste of decorations.

We ordered the Tom Yum, Pandan Chicken, Krabu Kacang Botol and Onion Fried Egg.  The Tom Yum was spicy and sour, the way that we like it.  We could drink the soup dry, by then, we would have drank to stomach discomfort, yes, it was that good.  The Pandan Chicken was fragrant and was well done, it complements the Spicy and Sour Tom Yum with sweet pandan fragrance.  The Kraby Kacang botol was a good starter, however, I felt that after towards the end of the meal, the source of the krabu was a little too spicy and was also sour, it did not go well with Tom Yum.  This dish may have been better with Green Curry instead of Tom Yum. 

The restaurant received 4 star out of 5 from us.

Photos taken with iPhone 3GS.

During my Round Island trip yesterday, we arrived at the Spice Garden around lunch time and decided to have lunch there.  Thai food was their base offerings and we decided to give it a shot on this nice breezy afternoon.  When we first arrive, there was not that many people around, and we choose a spot that under a nice shade.  We seated ourselves facing the sea and the first thing we notice was the tranquility of the surrounding and the sound of the waves hitting the beach.  It was romantic. 

We ordered a Seafood Tom Yum (RM9.80), Chicken Green Curry (RM14.80), Omellete Onion (RM12.80), Steamed Rice (RM2.00 each), Lemongrass Soda (RM7.00) and Nutmeg Soda (RM7.00).  The lunch came up to RM60.95 after service charge and it was exorbitant. 

The Tom Yum was small, but enough for two people, the sour taste of Tom Yum overpower the entire dish, however it was passable.  The Green Curry was very good, it taste and look like the ones we had in Bangkok.  The Omellete Onion was good, you cannot go wrong with Eggs, if Eggs also dont know how to fry, then the chef is not fit to cook.  The Lemongrass and Nutmeg Soda was refreshing.  This is our first time having it and was taken aback by the strong taste.  The sweet soda made it likable. 

It was a pleasant lunch, the ambiance and food scores highly, however, the price could be a little too expensive.  I would definitely come back to this restaurant, not for the food, but for the ambiance.  Its a great place to get lost into a book on a lazy afternoon. 

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The restaurant received 3 star out of 5 from us.

Photos taken with iPhone 3GS.

Khunthai received raved reviews and was very popular among Penang folks.  You just need to Google for Khuntai and will find loads of review and almost all ends with praise.  We decided to try out this restaurant for lunch today and made our way over.  We navigated through the busy Raja Uda road and arrived at the fame restaurant almost an hour after leaving Penang Island.  There were not that many people, in fact when we arrived, there were only 3 tables occupied.  But when we left the restaurant was running close to 40% occupancy.  The restaurant had a high ceiling and fans at every table.  The cooling environment was very relaxing and couple with Thai pop music, the mood was lively.

We ordered our favourite Coconuts and went through the menu.  The menu was extensive, though was Thai based, I could not help to observe the vast Chinese influence in the dishes.  Its also a Seafood restaurant with tanks of fishes and edible Sea Creatures.  We ordered Seafood Tom Yum, Deep Fried Kang Kong, Deep Fried Prawn Balls and White Rice.  We did not had to wait long for the food, looking at the lack of patrons, it would be un-natural otherwise.

Tom Yum was the first dish that came.  The sour taste was overpowering and was not spicy.  After a few sip, it grew on us and we enjoyed it much.  It was not the best we had, it was ok.  The Seafood was fresh and the ingredients was abundant.  The soup was also thick and was not water down.  The little burning charcoal kept the soup warm through out our gastronomical adventure.

Next came the deep fried kang kong and the deep fried prawn balls.  Yes, they do not look like balls, infact, they were actually strip prawns covered with flour to shape like a full prawn and deep fried.  The deep fried kang kong was quite oily and taste of oil after a few mouth full.  We left the dish 3/4 full when we paid the bill.  We finish the prawn, but we dig out the prawn meat as after a few pieces, the flour was over powering.

All in all, the Tom Yum was the only dish we enjoyed.  The dishes did not taste that authentic to us as suggested by the logo, in fact, it was more of a Chinese Thai rather than Thai Thai, if you know what I mean.  Also, the Chinese characters on the logo is already a strong indication.  Khunthai is a lively Thai-Chinese Seafood restaurant.  Unfortunate for us, we did not enjoyed the food that much and did not feel that the dishes were Authentic Thai.

The restaurant received 2 star out of 5 from us.

Photos taken with iPhone 3GS.

The menu was limited, with just a handful dishes for each category. The pictures were of help, but the food turns out to be 360′ different from the pictures. There were quite a few signature and we tried one, which is the Tuk Tuk Fish.  The fish was nicely presented, but it taste like Chinese steam fish. The fish cakes were the one that did not look like the ones in the photos. It was deep fried with breadcrumbs instead of being fried in paste form. The deep fried kang kong were also a let down, we taste the flour more than the crispiness of the vege.  The Basil chicken were not spicy, and the dish was drench with the source, and the basil taste were not strong.

We left with a sour taste and rated the restaurant 1 out of 5 star.

Blog from iPhone

I have always been fascinated by different kinds of pop drinks.  When I saw this clip about soda pop obsession at Chow, I was thinking that only in US can find independent soda pop bottlers.  I was surprise when I came across this Melaka made soda pop from Long Chan.  There were 5 flavors, and all are not bad.  It does not have that much gas (carbonation) in it and was rather sweet.  My wife told me that this company have been around since she was small, and for this independent soda pop company to survive so long is amazing.  However, this drink cannot be found at restaurants, nor can it be found at hypermarket.  To get this drink, you will have to go to the local coffee shop (ah pek style and not Old Town style) or the local roti canai shop here in Melaka. 

The new Aeon Melaka Mall house the first Papa Johns Pizza outlet in this state.  With so many pizza shops in Malaysia, and having Pizza Hut, Dominoes and Shakey’s concurring almost every city in the country, I wonder how does Papa John’s fare in this crowded market.  My first impression was that this is another Pizza Hut like restaurant.  The restaurant feel and menu are also similar.  However, after tasting the fresh baked pizza, it is far from similar, infact, it rank 1 among  it’s competitors. 

Value for Money – Average

The prices of Pizza, sides and drinks are comparable with the other Pizza outlets in Malaysia.  During my visit, there were two promotion going on, first is Citibank Card 50% off for 9” pizza and Jusco Card RM5 for second 9” pizza.  With these promo, a party of 5 only spent RM80 for 4 9” pizza. 

Taste – Excellent

The pizza was great.  The dough was not oil soak like Pizza Hut, nor it powdery like Dominoes.  It taste fresh, and with the free fresh tomato paste, garlic butter & marinated chilli, eating the crust of the pizza was not as painful as the other pizza outlets.  I could taste the fresh abundance toppings, putting Papa John’s Pizza #1 among the competitors in Malaysia. 

Overall – Great

In comparison with Pizza Hut, Dominoes and Shakey’s Pizza, no doubt Papa John’s rank #1 in taste.  In term of value, it still trail Dominoes which has the royalty card that gives buy 1 free 1 large pizza.  To-date, nothing can beat this value. 

We were at Jusco supermarket shopping for Lamy abc that was on sale when I came across this new range of Unicorn Colors Notebook.  It first caught my attention with the range of attractive colors mini notebook.  Ranging from Bright Pink to Refreshing Green, all imaginable attractive colors are available.  I spotted the Black Large notebook that looked like a Moleskine.  Picked it up and the hard cover felt like a mole.

Currently I could only find this notebook at Jusco, despite my numerous attempt to contact the company Unicorn for more details, I dont seam to find this notebook being sold elsewhere.  The notebook came with an Expandable Inner Pocket like a typical style moleskine and it has an Elastic band holding the entire book tight.  The book has 96 plan 80gm paper and it responded quite well with my Lamy Safari.  There were no smear through at the reverse side, nor were they any bleed through to the bottom sheet. The notebook was priced at RM19.90, much cheaper than some of the competitions.

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The Komtar Tower viewing platform was previously the Tower Restaurant.  Only in recent years, when the restaurant closes, this place was open up for public.  Sad to say, the place was poorly maintain with a few chairs and tables close to the windows, and the rest of the floor was empty.  This is far from KL tower nor those tower view abroad.  The good thing was that we were the only visitor there, we got the entire floor to our selves, unlike we have to fight for view in KL Tower or in Japan.  I believe the RM15 entrance fee may have contributed to the lack of traffic. 

Once arrive at the 60th floor, we were greeted by a friendly lady which sold us the tickets and gave us a bottle of water and two postcards each.  I guess this is the management’s lame way of making up for RM15 entrance fee.  The place looked liken an abandon empty building and it display the management’s lack of commitment to truly turn this into a tourist destination.  There is a vast potential for such a place, look at KL Tower for one, constant flow of tourist from abroad and locals as well.  When I was in Tokyo, their viewing tower was located at their City Council building as well and was also packed with local and foreign tourist.  If the management lack the will to make this tower a tourist destination with complete facility, maybe the building management should look into tendering this out to other companies that has interest, if not, at least run it as a state own non profit org. 

The place certainly lacks a few fundamental items that are a must have in such viewing facility.

1. A map of what you are looking at, with names of the famous buildings (located at each window plane)
2. A free view finder to get a closer look at the city
3. A few souvenir shops to remember Penang by. 
4. A restaurant for tourist to chill and get lost in time. 

Nevertheless, the view from up the tower was breath taking and provided plenty of opportunity for tilt shift photography or post processing tilt shift.