Here are a few tilt shift photos that I’ve made from my recent trip up to Komtar Tower.  The view from the 60th floor was breath taking and provided a totally different perspective of Penang.  The day was also very cooperative with very little haze.  We could see as far as Butterworth BORR, Tg. Bungah, Penang Hill and Bayan Lepas.  Georgetown is still mostly covered by pre-war buildings.  High rise buildings are mostly found at the seafront like Gurney and the new Jelutong Expressway.  There is a sense of calmness viewing the city from the 60th floor, its the feeling that you get viewing a landscape or city from a mountain or a high location.  One can get lost in time dwelling at such locations. 

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. 

Over the weekend, there will be chopsticks delivery, wedding receptions, gold exchanges, and a little shopping in KL. All this leaves no time and no room to bring the laptop along, which means, no web access, no checking of news through reader, no email, no blogging and no facebook.

Maybe one year from now, I can get a WiMax Netbook, so that I can all of the above while delivering chopsticks, attending wedding receptions and exchanging gold during the Chinese Wedding Ceremony.  Yea, I know… lame… 

So, switch off the net when you are busy…

I was fortunate enough to have a team building over at Rasa Sayang Shangri-la hotel in Penang last friday, and to end the wonderful evening we were treated with a sumptuous Seafood Buffet dinner at the Spice Garden. I have heard quite a lot about the seafood buffet, especially the price.nbsp; A lot of my friends and colleagues have tried them. The buffet was around RM155 per person. Only the weekend they have the seafood buffet with all you can eat baby lobster and a hefty price tag. In a nutshell, the buffet was excellent and the lobster was the item that I enjoyed the most. We were there as early as 6.30pm, the time the Spice Garden Cafe open. Within 15-20 minutes, the cold baby lobster was all finish, and was promptly replaced with giant prawns. Seams like no refill on this item. The ‘hot’ baby lobster which are being fried by the restaurant chef are being served free flow. However, there are usually a queue on this item. I find the cold baby lobster taste richer than those cooked with spices, and so I was not that much of a fan of the spice fried baby lobsters. The lamb satay was nice, and so was the Japanese food selection.nbsp; Sashimi was of course a hot item. I did not pay much attention to the Chinese section, very few actually took the offered noodles. The only items worth mentioning were the shark fin soup and soft shell crab. For dessert, the Cheese Cake was great, again, was not refilled when it was finish. I got a tip from one of my colleague when I question her why she went for cheese cake a few minutes after we started. Indeed, when finish, it was replaced with some other cakes, not that interesting. There was crepe, and a good selection of chocolate fondue. In Summary, recommended under company expense, if you were to pay your own, better go to the Feringgi Grill, for better food and ambiance.

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The one interesting impression when I first got to Bangkok was pink taxis.  Its not just one or two, but a whole fleet of Toyota Corolla/Altis painted in bright pink.  They have a few Taxi companies, and pink was my favourite.  The second thing that left my an impression on my first day in Bangkok was the Bus Kilang.  In Malaysia (in Penang at lease), the bus kilang (factory bus) are mostly painted Blue, dull blue.  The Bus Kilang in Bangkok, has airbrush cartoons on them.  I tell you, they come in so many variations, every bus is a masterpiece.  The next time you drop into Bangkok, dont forget to take a pink taxi and look out for air brush factory busses. 

After our favourite noodle breakfast at Bukit Cina, we were already thinking of lunch.  It was already 10am after all.  Muar came from my brother in law.  Muar? isn’t that like Johor = far? Its only an hour away max he exclaim.  Well, why not, since we have nothing much to do.  Coming from Penang, I would love to check out the food scene in Muar, especially the hawker fare.  So, we set out to Muar from Malacca just after noon.  To my surprise, it was not that far, there was this one road that we took, direct and looks like a highway, but it is free.  Muar was only less than 50km, and it didn’t take the hour mention by my brother in-law. 

The fist thing I notice in the drive in was the 30ft TV Antenna.  Almost every home has it, watching Singapore programs for free.  The city was decent, clean and was well kept.  It has the rustic feel of an old Malaysian city, but with fresh coat of paint.  Honestly, this city looks like more well kept than Penang, even though I love Penang much.  So, after some left, right, right turn, we came to this hawker section of the town.  My brother in law recommends the wantan mee, I like the ones in Penang better.  The pork satay was good, it was tender and tasty.  Otak Otak was spicy.  Liang Teh was nice.  The Ham Chim Peng was also very nice, it was soft and sweet.  The Muar Chee was ok, like any other muar chee. 

After filling our stomach, we went to the riverside.  I realize that Muar has quite a number of colonial buildings.  I was wondering what were the colonials doing here back in the days? Was muar a port for them to go Singapore and Penang? Nevertheless, the riverside was well kept and nice.  The scenery was also nice and cooling to rest under the huge trees that lines up along the river.  After a few minutes there we went to the famous Muar 434 coffee shop.  The Sai Kee White Coffee Espresso Special was great.  Rich like all other Malaysian home brew, and you can feel the caffeine effect for a while.  The coffee was great with the Ham Chim Peng.  The ambiance of the restaurant was also unique.  You have loads of pictures on the wall, one with Mona Lisa holding the 434 coffee packet on her hand.  Marble tables and wooden floors.  Softly air conditioned with ceiling fan giving the feeling of a cool afternoon breeze.  After having our fix, we head back, and that was our escapade of driving interstate for lunch. 

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