Book Review 2: Make You Happy by Jessamy Hibberd & Jo Usmar

I am not a book expert nor even a consistent book reader, but I intend to start reading more books from now on. I would like to start giving my two-cents on the books I have read to share my views and opinion on them with others just like me, the infrequent reader, to overview the perspective I gained after reading a book. I am hoping to receive critical feedbacks on the points I may have been missing out or even wronged about. Recommendations on books that you all think might be helpful and useful to me would be certainly appreciated.

Personally, the year 2016 was all mixed up with ups and downs. Initially, I began 2016 with such a promising start and I was grateful and in another word, HAPPY. However, as weeks passed by, a lot of things started to change. I slipped at a couple of areas, nothing major at first, but I began to dwell on my mistakes, torturing myself convincing they were huge, and it surely affected my mood and confidence. This unhealthy behaviour, in the end, had a major impact on my judgements and overall behaviour, that eventually leaded me to create some major setbacks in my life and obviously, I was pretty frustrated and beat. Pessimist? – The answer is “YES”. I had constantly been asking myself, “How could have I made something big out of nothing, in the first place?” and “Why do I have to always think negatively?” Knowing this could only lead me to no good, I decided to change this (still am) and wanted to manage how I deal with certain bad news or issues, differently and more positive.

This book was surely a light read and I find it very straightforward. Even though most of the things highlighted in the book was in fact no rocket science, but they are something that a pessimist like me always tend to ignore, worse; constantly deny. The author generally emphasises, in handling unpleasant situations, we should never assume things such as assuming what others think or what he or she will react or do in a particular circumstances. I instantly remembered what a friend once told me (please pardon my language) - “Assumption is the mother of all f*ck ups, so don’t assume things!”

Yet again I would like to state here - we know this. But I kept on repeating making assumptions and caused me to think badly of a situation. The flow is fairly routine; I faced with an issue, I deeply think the worst of the outcome, avoid interactions and keep the issues all to myself unresolved, feel terrible and frustrated with myself and finally will end me making other bad decisions and not believing myself.

The author stressed that, this feeling is not unique. A lot are going through the same thing and I am not alone. The solution to this, made by the author was fairly simple and to be frank, had made me feel a little bit sceptical about it. Throughout the book, the author recommended to truly analyse each unpleasant situation through some logical steps or guide by listing down these points;

     1. What happened?

- Without exaggerating, note done what honestly happened.

     2. The NATs

- What thoughts went through your mind about yourself and your future? What are you thinking about others? What type of NATs is this?

    3. Feelings

- What are your main feelings and emotions?

    4. Evidence against NAT

-    What is the evidence against this thought? What alternatives might there be? What is the evidence against this view? How would you see this if you were not feeling low? What would you say to a friend?

    5. How I feel now?

-  Write down any degree or change in the feelings you now feel. This of course requires a lot of practice and positive attitude. I’ve lightly initiated this process and to be honest, it does help a little. I am able to be more calm and patient in assessing the situation, think of all possible views rather than jumping to negative conclusions.

Apart from that, the book encouraged us to focus and really think of what are the things that make us happy and repeat that things that we do that make us feel happy. Rather than constantly obsess about the terrible things and mistake that happen, we need to reward ourselves by remembering the things and reasons that make us smile and become cheerful. Doing this will distract our minds from negative thoughts that may cause us to make bad judgements and decisions.

To be fair to the author, there are other points made in this book, but I picked the ones I mentioned as they were the ones that I find most helpful (to me).

Even though the points highlighted in this book are simple, straightforward and nothing innovative I know with discipline and consistency in applying the recommendations made, it will eventually turn them into something natural and a good habit that I hope will stick with me forever, I sincerely believe that.

Finally, to keep me positive and take charge on my attitude, I will always keep hold to two of the sentences extracted from this book;

    1. Behaving badly or in ways that are out of character will only maintain the problem or make it worse.

     2. Thoughts are not facts.

Book pages: 154

Price: RM 12

Store the book was bought: The Mines - during the Big Bad Wolf Sale

Easy To Make, Healthy, Delicious, Budget Chicken Wrap Recipe

It’s healthy, fulfilling, easy to make and most importantly, delicious. With a few basic easy – to – get ingredients, you’ll be able to make your very own chicken wrap!

Most of us have the regular 9 to 5 working hours and spend most of the hours sitting at our desks. We are always occupied with all the paperwork, spreadsheets, returning emails and so on and so forth. 

When it comes to our lunch break, we tend to settle on having our lunch at the restaurant nearby or worse – at a fast food chain. The appetite we build from the hectic morning will highly lead us to choose meals that are unhealthy and costly as well – you could easily spend RM20 per meal in KL.

If you keep record of the unhealthy meals you devoured and its costs in a month, you’d be shocked of how unhealthy they are and how costly they add up to your monthly expenses. Unhealthy and expensive, definitely a lose – lose!

There are many recipes out there that offer wide selection of healthy and budget meals and yes, these healthy and budget meals can be tasty and very simple and quick to prepare too! One of them is the chicken wrap!  

With around RM25/week and 30 - 45 minutes of your time a day, you can enjoy these amazing healthy wraps throughout your entire work week without any guilt.

Here’s how you make them;

Ingredients (to make one chicken wrap)

 A. For the marinade:

·         1/3 of a medium chicken breast – cut to strips or pieces

·         1 tsp of cumin

·         ½ tsp of garlic salt

·         ½ tsp of salt

·         ½ tsp of pepper

·         ½ tsp of paprika

       

 B. Vegetables:

·         Few leaves of Romaine lettuce

·         4-5 cherry tomatoes

·         Half of medium-sized onion

 C. Others:

·         Flatbread– for homemade healthy, simple recipe, get recipe at http://faezwriteshere.blogspot.my/2017/01/cheap-simple-healthy-and-delicious.html

·         Dressings or condiments of your choice (preferably low calorie, low salt, low fat)

·         Olive oil for cooking

Steps

1.    Mix all of the ingredients from A and let them marinade in the fridge for at least 20 minutes - I usually do it overnight for maximum flavour. Also, make sure the chicken is dry. You could also add in a little bit of olive oil to help the spices to coat evenly.

Cover with plastic wrap!

2.     While the chicken is marinating, slice some onions and cherry tomatoes.

3.     Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat and add in about a table spoon of olive oil. Once hot, toss in the sliced onions and cherry tomatoes in the pan. Wait for about 3-5 minutes or till they are all soft.

Wait until they have soften

4.     While waiting for the vegetables to soften up, place a flatbread on an aluminium foil (shiny side faced up). Roughly tear some romaine lettuce and place it on the centre of the flatbread.

Leave some gaps at the two sides of the bread

5.     Remove the onions and cherry tomatoes aside and place in the chicken marinade on the pan – you may need to add a little bit more olive oil to the pan. Cook the chicken around 3 minutes on each side.

Make sure they are cooked through

6.     Once the chicken is cooked all the way through, add the onions and cherry tomatoes in with the chicken and give it a quick mix. I roughly mash everything up the to smaller pieces simply to better infuse the flavours of the vegetables with the chicken.

Mash and mix!

7.    Then place every-single-bit that is in the pan onto the flatbread.

8.    Add in your choice of dressings/condiments/sauce.

The fun part: assembling this bad boy!

9.    Fold two opposite sides of the bread over the filling. Then, as best as you can, carefully wrap the bread (with the foil) and make sure you get all the filling inside the wrap. Finally, tuck in the two end of the foil to secure the wrap.

Fold both sides in

Roll them over

10.  Done! So all you need to do, is put it in the fridge before taking it to work the next day!

One amazing wrap, rich with flavour, done!

As you can see, it’s a pretty straightforward and simple recipe. But the flavours that you get is amazing! One of the best things about the wrap is that you can totally experiment it with muchly any spices you like – coriander, curry powder, turmeric powder etc. and top it with any other vegetables you love - bell pepper, chilli, herbs etc. You can even use different kinds of protein sources – beef, eggs etc., heck, you can even make a vegetarian wrap with humus spread! The alternatives are limitless. Adjust them to your taste but just make sure you stick to the healthy side!

Give this recipe a try! With under 45 minutes and minimum effort, you’ll get a decent, delicious, healthy and budget meal!

Cheap, Simple, Healthy and Delicious Flatbreads - The easiest flatbread recipe on earth!

Cheap, Simple, Healthy and Delicious Flatbreads

The easiest flatbread recipe on earth!

Large Healthy Flatbread :)

Chapati, roti, tortilla, call them whatever you like, the flatbreads have been around for so many years and can be found in many different cultures all across the globe. The main and basic ingredients needed for these flatbreads are relatively very simple – flour, salt and water. That’s it! And they are so easy to make at home!

You can also be very creative in making your own flatbreads. You can use different kinds of flour such as regular plain white flour or wholemeal flour and adding in optional ingredients as well, to alter the taste according to your desire such as sugar, curry powder, black pepper, yoghurt, milk, oil and loads more.

However, in order to make flatbreads that are healthy, I personally believe it is safe and best to just stick with the basics – flour, salt and water. So, here’s how I make my healthy flatbreads.

The main dry ingredients

Ingredients (to make 5 large flat breads)       

  ü  2 cups of atta flour

  ü  1 cup of warm water

  ü  1 teaspoon of salt

  ü  1 ½ teaspoon of baking powder

         I use the atta flour which is the Indian wheat flour that is low in fat and very high in protein content. It is the healthier choice compared to the regular plain white flour. 

   Check out the nutrition facts of atta flour; http://www.strfri.com/foods/view/Atta.jsp

Utensils

  ü  Dough roller

  ü  Spatula

  ü  Flat Pan

Steps

      1.     In a bowl, add in two cups of atta flour, a teaspoon of salt and one and a half teaspoon of baking powder. Give it all a quick mix.

      2.       Then pour in one cup of warm water – a little bit at a time! I do this by;

a)     Add ¼ cup of warm water

b)     Mix the water and flour with a spoon/fork

c)     Repeat step a and b till all the warm water and flour are mixed together and start to form a  dough.

      

Add water a little bit a a time!



Trust me, this will make the dough formation process a lot easier and less messy compared to adding the whole cup of water on one go.

Till you got to this point, you can use your hands. Get in there!

     3.       Knead the dough for 5 – 10 minutes. You may need to add a little bit more water or flour until you get a smooth, soft and not too sticky dough.

This is what you want

     4.       Divide the dough to 5 little balls of dough. Then cover the bowl with a plastic wrap/damp cloth -this is to avoid loss of moisture of the dough that will result in your bread to be less soft. Leave them to rest for 15 – 30 minutes.

Size - a little big bigger than a golf ball

    

      5.       After leaving the dough to rest, sprinkle some flour on a dry and clean surface - make sure your hands are completely dry as well.

     6.       Take one small dough (leave the rest covered) and gently flattened it out a bit. Then cover the flattened dough with some flour and place them on the lightly floured surface.

Flatten it just like this

     7.       Using a roller, gently roll the dough into a thin round shape. Sprinkle some more flour on the surface and dough if the dough starts to stick to the surface. Don’t be demotivated if you can’t shape the dough to a perfectly round shape. You will get better with practice. Just make sure they are flat and have no holes on them.

I'm still struggling to get the perfect round shape myself :(

     8.       Then heat your flat pan on a medium heat. Once hot, carefully place the rolled dough on the pan.

Make sure the heat is not too high!

See those bubbles?

     9.       Patiently wait for 30 – 40 seconds and keep your eye on it. Once you see the colour of the dough has started to change and small bubbles have started to form, flip it over. Lightly press the bubbles   formed on the bread - making sure it is cooked evenly and releasing the air trapped in the bread.

Gently press the bubbles

     10.   Then take it off the pan and repeat step 5 – 9 till you finish cooking all the 5 flatbreads. They are now ready to be eaten! You can also put them in an airtight bag, store them in the fridge and reheat them before having them – best up to 4-5 days.

Save them for later ;)

So there you go; the recipe for healthy flatbreads. What I love most about this recipe is that it is so cheap and simple to make, plus, they are indeed healthy as I know what the ingredients are (no added preservatives, fat, sugar, etc.) and the exact amount of each ingredient I put in. Oh and yeah, they taste amazing! You can have them with curry or dhal, whatever you like, but my personal favourite, to make chicken wraps with these!

Perfect to make any sort of wraps!

Hope you find this this recipe useful! Have fun making your own healthy flatbreads!

Our Last-Minute Penang Trip

The year 2016 was reaching to an end and I had to finish off my annual leave which began from 19^th December. I was kind of excited to get the 2 weeks off from work and was hoping to get some rest and most importantly, reminisce on my 2016 journey. However, I somehow found myself done with all of that by the end of the third day and got a little bit bored.

Luckily, a buddy of mine, Kamil, had plans for a short getaway to Penang and invited me to come along. Prior to the invite, he had roughly drafted the logistics with a personal ‘amateur’ tour guide, who also happens to be our dear friend, Zi. Zi is a PhD candidate at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and has been living in Nibong Tebal, Penang for a couple of years, so she pretty much knows her way around Penang (both mainland and island).

We had decided for trip to be from 27^th till 29^th December. Yes, it seemed like a brief period of time but we were not really fixed on planning to visit specific places or to cover a lot of ground. In fact, we didn’t really know where we actually wanted to go, heck, Kamil and I even bought our ETS train tickets for our return journey, days before the trip began. To top things off, our married friends Yan and Ezad also decided to join us, two days before our travel date.

Tuesday, 27^th December 2016

I met with Kamil, Yan and Ezad at KL Sentral around 9 am and the four of us took the train to Sungai Buloh. Then, Zi (who was from Kuala Selangor) fetched us up and we drove to Nibong Tebal. Before we got ourselves checked in at our accommodation, we rushed our starving selves to a popular local lunch spot in Permatang Tok Mahat called Restoran Mak Su.

Restoran Mak Su

Plenty to choose

Our lunch

The food was great and they had a wide selection of gravies and sides. However, according to Zi, the price was considered to be a bit pricey compared to other restaurants nearby. But hey, we enjoyed the food, so no complaints from us! Plus, we were truly touched (actually surprised) as Yan voluntarily said she wanted to treat us to it!

We then headed to our accommodation at the USM hostel – Desasiswa Jaya Utama. The hostel was comfy and very cheap! One room cost us only RM53/night (inclusive GST). Each room is equipped with two single beds, an air-conditioner, a ceiling fan (in case the AC is not suffice as if you are a polar bear), toilet, a study table and a wardrobe. The only downside for me is that the toilet does not come with a water heater. The hostel also provides a tele, iron, refrigerator and small dining table in shared the living room.

Our room

The shared living room

After a quick rest and freshen up, we headed to Design Village to have a look around. I did not intend of buying anything, so I just took a stroll and went in a few shops. I noticed there were not a lot of discounts and offers at the time and there were still other outlets that have not yet opened.

Design Village: http://designvillage.today/

Cool area for the kids to play at

Christmas season at Design Village

Afterwards, we went to get dinner. The decision on what to eat and where to eat has always been something that my friends and I struggle with. But this time, it was different as we had put full trust on Zi and followed her recommendations. We had dinner at Omaq, located in the food court opposite of the iconic old clock tower of Parit Buntar, where we had Char Kuey Teow and satay as our ‘side dish’ (don’t judge us, we’re on holiday). Okay I know some would say “Why on earth did you go there for a Char Kuey Teow? You should go here and there for the best ones, instead!” But hey, we weren’t keeping scores of eating out at all those famous stalls or whatsoever, we just wanted something decent enough and enjoy ourselves without having to be in any hassle.

Parit Buntar Clock Tower

Our dinner 

Delish!

We got 5 Special Char Kuey Teow plus drinks that cost us RM40 and the satay was RM0.70 per stick. Not bad at all. The Char Kuey Teow for me was delicious, though I wish they would come in bigger portions. The satay was just okay I guess, as they were a little bit under seasoned. All in all, it was a good dinner! Then we called it a night and turned in.

Wednesday, 28^th November 2016

This day was mainly dedicated to be spent on Penang island. All of us agreed to start the day by visiting Penang Hill. So, after Zi had given us a very convincing speech on the importance of getting there early (to avoid the long dreadful queue), we all got up early, had breakfast and headed off to Penang Hill. Our strategy was to leave as soon as office hours started so we wouldn’t have to deal with the heavy traffic especially on the Penang Bridge – and it worked! We arrived at Penang Hill at around 9 am.

Penang Hill: http://www.penanghill.gov.my/index.php/en/ 

The time we arrived, the queue for the funicular train not particularly that long. We only had to wait 3 times (30-45 minutes) for our turn to get on it. Funny thing, we were so determined to secure the best spot on the train – at one point we were like 100 meters Olympics sprinters at the gate. Yan really wanted to record a video with the very best view going uphill and fortunately she managed to do so!

Getting ready for our turn

Looks like the comrades were here #SelamanyaHarimauMalaya

Our view from the train

So, once we reached the top, we all decided to go on a walk at The Habitat. To enter, we had to pay RM20 (RM10 for students) and walked roughly around 1.2 kilometres till the exit. Along the route, we enjoyed the light walk and got sunk in with nature for a while. We also got to view the lush green scenery. We spent a lot of time taking photos using Kamil’s GoPro and Yan really had it her way by recording videos and capturing ‘slow motion’ and ‘boomerang’ videos. All fun to look back at our silly selves! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to spot the wild animals that were indicated on the information board along the path. But according to Yan, she did see a squirrel (Really Yan? Really?) We were understood that The Habitat was only recently opened and still expanding/developing new facilities/attraction sites in the area, so there weren’t much to do yet. It was a decent walk, but to be frank, for RM20, we kind of expected more.

The Habitat: http://thehabitat.my/home/ 

Our tickets

Lush greens!

The Giant Swing

There were a few of these there

Do recycle! 

In case you forgot your drink

After exiting The Habitat, we got a ride on a buggy! It cost RM30 (per buggy) for a 15 to 20-minute ride around the hill. Even though the ride was quite brief, we really did enjoy it and felt calm as the wind ran through our hair (unfortunately I just shaved my head so the pleasure was minimum LOL). We even stopped at a couple of sites and took some photos. Worth the RM30 or for our case, RM6 each.

Kamil's checking out the buggy

Taken at one of our stops during the buggy ride

It was a very hot day, so desperately determined to share some cold icy treats! We got a bowl of ais batu campur and a bowl of Mango Ice (RM15 total IINM) – and goodness me, both of them, especially the mango treat was an absolute delish. I even considered to add one more just to myself.

As we were walking out of the entrance of Penang Hill (around noon), the place had already packed with visitors and the queue was insanely long! I was so relieved we got there early. So if you guys are planning to visit Penang Hill, do come early!

It was then noon and we decided to get lunch. The walk and laughs made us really hungry. So we drove to the city centre and planned to eat at Kapitan Restaurant. As we were on our way to the restaurant, we got cranky (mainly due to accumulating hunger) and to make things worse, we were trapped in terrible traffic. We had to patiently search and wait until we could finally spot a parking space (about 500 meters away from the restaurant), after about an hour circulating the area that is.

Restoran Kapitan

So here we heard they are famous for their Claypot Beryanis so we all ordered the ones with tandoori chicken and lamb except for Ezad as he asked for the chicken Milano Beryani.

Food!

Mine!

The food was superb! The hungry belly might be a factor of me stating that but the be honest, I think the tandoori chicken was definitely one of the best tandooris I have ever had. It was perfect, not too salty, not too spicy – but not too mild and tasteless, and pretty juicy as well. Yummmsss!

The heavy lunch made us felt like lazy bumps for a moment but we had to get going and we went to the Kapitan Keling Mosque (steps away from the famous Line Clear Nasi Kandar) to perform our prayers. We were blessed and grateful to have the chance to be there and the spiritual tranquillity was felt the entire moment we were there.

Kapitan Keling Mosque

Next, we took a stroll along Armenian Street. It was burning hot and had lured Yan and I to get ourselves a couple of ‘ais kepal’, each cost us RM2.50. You could choose to have them with a combination of three flavours such as laichi, rose, mango, to name a few. It was okay I guess it and helped a little on a hot day like that, albeit the rose flavour did turn my lips to whorish red.

Ais kepal

Later in the afternoon, we all decided to get out of the city centre and headed towards the Batu Ferringhi beach. We spent more than an hour there, just to enjoy the view and breeze, chit chat and just relax. In case you were wondering, yes, it didn’t seem like a thorough exploration of the city, but we didn’t want to go through all the hassle and rush.

Ferringhi Beach

We then headed to Masjid Terapung nearby to perform our prayers. As soon as we were done, we started to feel hungry again – I think the ‘No Diet’ rule that I enforced on the gang during this trip really made us take it as an obligation to eat like there’s no tomorrow. We wanted to try Nasi Kandar, so Zi took us to Nasi Kandar Ali Restaurant at Parit Buntar for takeaways. Why there? Basically the same reason as regarding to our choice to have Char Kuey Teow stated above – plus it was already late and we wanted to be close to our accommodation.

Look at that line

Gravies!

More gravies!

It was quite cheap (I can’t remember the exact price). I had my regular ordering style every time I go and eat Nasi Kandar; “Nasi lebih, kuah lebih dan ayam seketul” which is Malay for “Extra rice, extra gravy and a piece of chicken.” I saw begedil (Malay version potato fritters) which was quite odd to be found selling at a Nasi Kandar joint and I decided to grab one.

*Personal preference – I always have my Nasi Kandar to go rather than dining in. I find it a thousand times better that way. I don’t know why but maybe because if we give some time to let the rice, meat and gravy to be wrapped and infused together, it will create a MAGICAL taste.

The RIGHT way eating Nasi Kandar

It was pretty nice and worth it. However, it’s difficult for me to say more about it – not because they weren’t that good, they were! But for me it would always be a biased review as I am a fan of Nasi Lemak Royale in Alor Setar. Some might say “Hey dude, that’s not Nasi Kandar laaaa!” or “Of course you’d think that way because you’ve never tried all the other famous Nasi Kandar.” Well, you probably have a valid point, but I fell in love with Nasi Lemak Royale since I was 13 and I even had the thought of having it as my last meal before I get executed on a death sentence. Anyway, after dinner, we took our bloated and knackered selves to our hostels and got into bed.

Thursday, 29^th November 2016

It was the last day of our trip and we didn’t have to leave to the train station till 6 pm. So we were in no rush. Zi took us to the USM campus food court where we would ‘supposedly’ have some light breakfast. Well, everything changed when Kamil willingly said that he’d pay for our breakfast. We are good friends, so we had no shame of taking the advantage over the offer. We had some Nasi Lemak and Nasi Goreng all with sides - chicken pieces and hash browns (yeah we wanted to make our Asian breakfast a wee bit Western, JK). The total was only RM15! Note: As an alumni of UPM, I really envy the USM students because of this!

After breakfast, we drove to the jetty and took a small boat to get us to Pulau Aman. The 5 to 10 – minute boat ride cost RM7 for a return ticket. I personally enjoyed the boat ride and nothing beats that feeling when the wind ran through your hair (again, I regretted going bald before the trip LOL). We were pretty early to have arrived at the island so there weren’t so many visitors.

The boat to take us to Pulau Aman

I wish I didn't shave my head

We then took a walk in the village and ran into some friendly faces of the community living there. We didn’t do anything adventurous like tracking around the island or anything. After about a 15 – minute walk we stumbled upon a spot that we thought good enough to take some photos at. Then, at one point I gave stone skipping a try, and somehow I succeeded! So the rest of the gang gave it a go as well, except for Yan as she was on her ‘video recording duty.’ We spent a lot of time and energy at that – yes, it drained a lot of our energy. So, we got hungry again!

We then headed to Terapung Restaurant. As we were approaching the restaurant, from far, I saw one of the restaurant workers threw garbage out into the sea. Such an irresponsible act! Anyway, the selections of fresh seafood were unfortunately not that wide and varied. We bought 3 Kilograms of clams (RM6/kg) and 1 Kilogram of prawns (RM60/kg) and asked the chef to have them steamed. While waiting for the clams and prawns to be cooked, we all ordered a variety of noodle dishes except for Zi who had Nasi Goreng – at RM6 per plate.

Restoran Terapung

Our 'appetizers' 

The dishes were nice and all but we were actually more looking forward to indulge in the feast of seafood that was being prepared. Then, the moment we all had been waiting for had arrived – the steamed clams and prawns were served, with some spicy side sauces.

The main meal

Oh yeah :)

We immediately attacked them. I don’t eat clams so I was full - heartedly committed in stuffing my face with the prawns. I kept on eating until I stopped at my tenth prawn (maybe more) when I was truly full and satisfied. Zi and Yan really amused me with the amount of seafood they consumed – A LOT. It was a great meal. Eating fresh seafood by the water was kind of perfect- plus it was Ezad’s treat!

Just making sure there were no left overs

After we devoured the meal, we headed back to the mainland. We then picked up a few packages of Jeruk Pak Ali (picklings) for some friends and family back home, got back to our hostels, rested a for a little while, packed our things and checked out. Zi was then nice enough to treat us to some rojak, cendol and ais batu campur before sending us off to the Parit Buntar train station for us to head back to KL.

To end…

Penang is a great place to visit with friends and family. If we had spent more time there and had a more detailed itinerary, we would gotten more fun for sure. But in the end the trip served its purpose. 

We had a good time together, enjoyed a lot of good food and well prepared to head back to KL with our busy work piled up on our desks.

I would like to thank Zi, for being our super duper tour guide by letting us to use her car, showing us around here and there and also put up with our endless requests.

Thanks to Kamil who had initially planned out the trip along with Zi and invited Ezad, Yan and I. Thanks for sharing all of the great photos with us.

Finally, thanks to Ezad and Yan who could join us on this trip and made it more awesome! Thanks for all the hilarious short videos taken of us.