On Saturday evening, the guilty parents decided to bring the kiddies out to the beach... a compensation for leaving them alone for 2.5 hours in the cinema watching "The Dark Knight"... heh...
anyways... we initially thought of going further north to Balok Beach... but stopped at the nearer Pantai Batu Hitam... partly due to time and also the gloomy looking sky... Thank God... the weather prevailed whilst we were there... and we had nice wind in a non-sunny beach! Woo Hoo!
The beach is a definite Children friendly beach... the beach tapers out so mildly that u can have vast pools of very shallow water for kids to just play around... plus u do get lots of sea creatures...
This time round I was very surprised to see quite a number of grey-blue starfishes all in the shallow waters... 
Phoebe as usual... just dunked herself down and started playing with sand and water... not bothered how messy she got... well! it was a nice quiet evening... it later poured like mad during dinner...
The next day we went to the Club Pool which Julie just joined as a member. It a company thing, where u pay rm5 per month to join a club which allows u to use certain facilities in several places around kuantan... 
We went to Astana Golf Club... swimming pool... the place is a bit run down... but we just headed straight to the pool. We also recently just signed up Hannah for some swimming lessons, for her to try and learn to at least float before we head to sea next week for our Redang Trip... alas... her fear of water was still very prevaliant... she also doesn't want to continue her lessons... even for the past 2 lessons she has been... was more like forced... :(
But i did manage to test out my new underwater pack for the compact digital camera... it's basically just a plastic thing (literally a thick plastic bag) to put the camera in, so u can shoot underwater... rated to 5M depth... it worked as it say it would... but u loose quite a bit of controls... and not as handy as i would have liked it to be... but at rm90, i couldn't complain much... all this for the Redang Trip... woo... totally all geared up...
When we thought we had exhausted any possibility of finding a new place to try... this turns up... heh.
Julie had asked around her co-workers if there was any interesting places to go to this weekend when the topic of food came around... normal lah! for malaysians... So, the question of why there was no particularly good "pau" place in Kuantan.
The reply was this funny restaurant along the main Berserah Road! So near, yet we had no idea... which only has pau's sold on Saturdays... and only after 2.30pm... and they start taking orders from morning itself...! 
Restaurant Zen Zen, mostly serves mixed rice and typical drinks on most times... but i think they specially make their own "pau"s to cater to some requests from patrons and had proven popular... so its a permanent Saturday fixture.
We tried 3 of their 4 limited choices, missing out on their "Chai Pau" (Vegetable pau) which we will come back later to try...
We had their "Loh Mai Kai" which proved to be their best offering... yummy glutenous rice with lots of "lieu"... really good!
Their "Char siew pau" was ok... Julie loved it... but it was not my kind of pastry... they used the non fluffy dough... it was the more traditional kind of pau...
The next offering was more unique... a mix of butter and kaya... aptly named "Yin-Yong pau" it smelled heavenly... and tasted really nice... Julie was more interested in the "char siew" one... 
After the yummy meal... we went to see "The Dark Knight"... what more can i say about the film... go watch it... and be dazzled for the next 2.5 hours.
My mom has just gone back to ipoh... via bus... it took her almost 9 hours by bus! Fooh... long... thankfully the next time my parents will be coming will be when we are in KL... cuts the Bus journey by a third.
anyways... since we didn't plan anything this weekend... it tends to default to a lazy one... heh... saturday was just grocery shopping and lazing at home, plus eating free durians from one of our neighbours... not bad... all milky and thick...
today was better during lunch in a new place, there was a van selling some durians... He said it was D2 variation... anyways at RM6 per KG, 2 durians came to RM20... woo... it was good.... the best so far...
in the evening we went to Teluk Cempedak again... our usual convenient beach... lots of people playing kites today... and very windy... Hannah and Phoebe enjoyed the sand... digging and creating pseoudo "cement" with sand and sea water... 
and after an hour relaxing by the beach... to dinner! a new western place... hopefully this is good... we shall see... if it doesn't turn out well we can always console ourselves with the other durian we haven't open yet... heh!
Last weekend Hannah had a ballet concert, put up by her Dance Academy & Lion's Club Kuantan Chapter. It was a charity event raising up cash for an eye clinic...
anyways... they managed to sell out all their tickets at RM25 each... most prolly to parents wanting to see their kids... and raised rm10k for their effort.
Hannah trully enjoyed herself dancing and prancing here and there on the stage... she was one of the best kiddie dancers on stage... due to her high interest in dancing (i kid u not! not self praising dad or anything) The other kids were just blur or something...
She also enjoyed the part where she could put on lipstick and eye shadow... duh! of course too-toos and fairy wings headset helped with the gear!... heh... a little gals dream!
Enjoy the pics!
Well one of the main reasons to go up Penang Hill was also to try out this cool restaurant, David Brown's Restaurant. We saw this ad in a Visit Penang Map picked up at the airport...
It had scones!... woo... and other english foods...
we later came to know... it's the same group of fellas who also manage the Ye Olde Cottage in Cameron Highlands too... we had a lovely experience drinking english tea and scones there too the last time we were there, so we were totally physched up to go and have a meal up there in Penang Hill
Well u can read about Penang Hill on the other post... but my oh my... they really did up the place... a little bangalow on a hill on a hill... yeah... its situated on strawberry hill on Penang hill... wierd...they had a nicely done garden with a small pond with reeds and frogs! lots of flowers and a super nice view...
but as all the reviews of this place has said... yeah... service is kinda bad... more like inexperienced fellas without any proper training... maybe they don't stress it... but a shortcoming in my opinion.
the food... big portioned and not bad... not great... but well done... the scones are a definate must... lovely with fresh cream, butter and strawberry jam (RM6.00 each though)... if u take their tea set... 2 scones with a pot of tea and a slice of cake... is around RM20+
I had mix grill... a whole lot of meat topped with a bullseye egg..
Julie's dad, who paid for the meal had a super big grilled lamb, hannah had some and said she chewed till her mough was tired... but it was honestly done nicely.
Julie had stuffed roast chicken... interesting stuffing... 
We had our meal in the garden... from dusk till night! a nice cooling time too... since it's quite high on the hill... overall... it was an enjoyable time... a bit on the ex side... of course if u visit Penang Hill, come up for the tea & scones lah at the least... 
We had initially planned to go to Penang National Park... but we reconsidered seeing that phoebe and hannah wouldnt enjoy it yet and prolly couldnt hike all the way through... we opted for the next nearest thing to the entrance of the national park... Penang Butterfly Farm...
believe it or not... its the worlds first tropical butterfly farm! established since 1986, right there in one corner of the island... and yes... it's my first time there too...
Malaysians do get a hefty discount if u show your mykad, to buy your entrance tickets.
The place is quite well maintained for its age... u can see they do keep up and add more attractions to spruce up the place and also add value added services... so as a malaysian thing... not bad...
Housing over an average of 4000 butterflies of 120 species is no mean feat... and yeah... u get to see lots and lots of butterflies all around... a lot of similar species though imho. Unlike the one in KL where u got to look for them... u get them flying all over u the minute u step in to the enclosure... plus they have many feeding stations for the hordes of butterflies to rest and gorge themselves.
of course they got lots of other stuff... like turtles, scorpions, beetles, ducks, fish... and a "skink" pictured below... a kind of lizard roaming freely in the farm.
Phoebe and Hannah of course enjoyed it... thankfully, since the butterflies dont like extreme heat... the place is constantly under a mist of water particles... and the roof covered to give shade. It still did get hot... so we ducked into their super cooled aircond video room to cool down.
They also had a massive retail shop at the exit to cater to souvenior buyers aka. foreigners... plus a small makan shop outside... for drinks and snacks...
Go visit this place when u drop by Penang! A fun & informative time awaits!
Woo hoo... my very first trip up Penang Hill! Over Thirty years staying in Malaysia... and almost every-other year in Penang during Chinese New Year and i have not ventured up this hill... sad huh...
Having already been up Hong Kong's Victoria Peak via tram, i didn't have any high hopes at Penang Hill's version... BUT i was pleasantly surprised when i reached the foot of the hill. Whoa! it's quite steep and tall hoh! wow... can see the tracks going up in a straight line... and what i see is only halfway... wow... this is going to be good.
Thankfully, we were going in the evening, on a weekday... and no crowd was around. According to Julie's dad... it can get very crowded during weekends and more so during school holidays...
The trip up in the tram... was nice... very nice, due to a totally uncramped seating... we were the only ones in our booths! With nice big windows to see out... plus some modified fans inside... the ride was a pleasant one abeit a steep one. We had to switch trams at the half-way point... donno how come... must have been a construction hurdle from long ago. Hannah had a fun time looking back at the tracks and out into the forest on both sides of the tram. 
lots of stops dot the way up... most prolly for the people who are actually staying on the hill and if u do request before the tram moves... they will stop for u too... most of the stops are also part of the 2nd way u can get up to penang hill... via hiking!
Once we reached up... the view and climate change was certainly welcoming... since we went in the evening... u could feel some cool breeze blowing... the view was nice... but alas for the horibble smog around... u get a blured view of penang. As Julie's dad pointed out... most of the east facing side of penang was already developed... with no empty parcels of land. There is also a small garden for u to see the flora and fauna... some shops also serve ice kacang and snacks, a worthy rest stop for those brave enough to hike all the way up.
We did go eat at David Browns Restaurant up Strawberry Hill (that's for another post)... after dinner we quicky headed down as Phoebe was showing signs of getting sick...
But overall... Penang Hill is a must visit place when u do visit Penang! Oh.. Ya! they call it Bukit Bendera... not Penang Hill... donno why...
Julie's sister was back from the US for her term holidays... so we decided to go back to Penang for few days.
We had planned to fly months ago... so we bought our Fireflyz tickets way in advance... at RM0.... after taxes for 4, it came to RM500. With the recent petrol hike... it would have cost us the same if we had drove! 
Well since we were going to be in Penang for a couple of days, we had initially planned to try going to the Penang National Park... but alas... the kiddos are still kinda too young to enjoy it.
But we did... PIG out! ATE like tons of Penang food! Of course Hannah ate lots of her favourite "Char Kweh Teau", also daddys favourite. We also managed to find "Hor Chean" (Oyster in Eggs) YUM!... we also had lots of restaurant food... with interesting dishes too... 
Other then just food... we did get to go to the Butterfly Farm, the first time for me! and we also managed to go up Penang Hill, also the first time for me... so overall it was certainly an exploratory trip for me and kiddos...plus Hannah & Phoebe also had a blast of time playing with their cousins... but ultimately... of course... we certainly consumed lots of food...
we did take a family photo... since it's rare to get everyone together... heh! SMILE!
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