Occupy Beach Street Penang Every Sunday

It had been quite sometimes for Penang State Government to declare Beach Street as No Car Street on every Sunday from 7am to 1pm. Initially the street is cleared out to encourage and provide location for people especially bicycle lovers to cycle safely without exposing themselves to the risk of accident. This is always my impression towards this No Car Day until two weeks ago, when we were be there unintentionally. 

Initially we thought to go for praying in temple at Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling. But due to the Light Street was closed for bicycle tournament, we forced to pass by the Beach Street. The row of stalls and also the crowd making us so curious and would like to check it out what is the activity being carried out. Due to many people, it was quite hard to find the parking space. After looking around, finally we got a space.

After checking here and there, a poster on the stalls finally gave us an answer. The function held in Beach Street is named as Occupy Beach Street, which scheduled to have activities on every Sunday from 7am to 1pm. The street is allowed to be occupied by eco-friendly, sports and cultural ideas.

Occupy Beach Street Poster

We were there at 10.30am, but the street was already being occupied by many people, included those with bicycle. We were so amazed by some of the bicycle design, especially those for family used.

Penang Beach Street

The booths were located at both of the road sides, majority was selling handmade items or cultural related products.

Origami by Cherry Art Studio

The first booth we visited was on the origami by Cherry Art Studio. This paper art is so fantastic because the earring, necklace and other small items were so unique and not really could be detected it is made by paper. According to the boss, they do provide training lesson on this origami to those interested. Of course, it is a paid lesson.

Calligraphy

The booth next to the origami was about the calligraphy. The calligraphy related-items were sold here. The calligraphy displayed was really nice!

Traditional Woodcarving

There was another booth managed by a pair of senior couple on the wood carving. They not only selling the wood carved products but also provide training on the wood craft technique. Those who interested could contact them ya.

My Craft

See, here is another booth selling the wood craft items. Don't look down on these wood earrings, key chain or necklace, it is applying the laser technology to carve the small piece of wood. Since the craft is so unique, we bought 3 pairs of earring at only RM15. Let's see how good is the craftsmanship.

My Craft - Wood Earring

After a while, we noticed that there was a stall selling the 'Candy Cloud'. What is it? It is a fluffy candy. Normally it is sold in pink colour cylinder shape but the Candy Cloud had been patterned it out to have special designs, such as flower. The price at RM8 is bit high for the fluffy candy but could not deny it is special.

Candy Cloud

While looking around, we noticed that there was a crowd where some music was played. Hence, we did joint in to see what actually happened.

In fact it was a group of teenagers showing their performance such as singing. But the songs were unique where it is telling out the cultural of Penang. They were so energetic and active in their performance. I was so impressed when seeing the teenagers from different races were grouped up and deliver the unique culture of each race to all the visitors. This is a typical 'One Malaysia' spirit.

In case you bring along your small kids, let them to make new friends here by playing the games together. Over there they have the fishing pond and also the giant snake chess.

Fishing Pond

Giant Snake Chess

In overall, I wish to give a big LIKE to the organizer where I believe the effort not only could strengthen the understanding of young generation on our own culture but also could make it as another attraction for our tourism.

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Pesta Pulau Pinang 2013 (Penang Festival)

In month of December every year, Sungai Nibong Penang is always crowded and having traffic jam from evening till the late night. During this year end long school holiday, the annual Pesta Pulau Pinang is open to public and it is so attractive and gained amazing response from locals and visitors around Malaysia. 

Welcome to Tapak Pesta Pulau Pinang

Pesta Pulau Pinang is located at Tapak Pesta Sungai Nibong (next to Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal). For year 2013, this annual state function is held everyday from 25 Nov 2013 to 31 Dec 2013, from 6pm to 11.30pm. Pesta is a Malay word that refer to Festival. Hence Pesta Pulau Pinang could be read as Penang Festival. So what are the activities held in this festival? Commonly there are shops or stalls selling products at cheaper or whole sale price, Euro Fun Park consists of various exciting games, food stalls offering various local cuisines and snacks, artist performance, etc.

Although there are plenty of parking spaces provided but it still could not meet to the visitor volume every year. Hence, you could notice that certain visitors parked their car at the road side, or even on the walkways. To ensure you are not wasting time in looking for car park, try to be there as earlier as you can. The car park rate is at RM3/entrance.

To enter this festival park, an entrance ticket is required. RM3 per adult while RM1 per children. This is one of the reason why it attracts so many visitors who come by group of families.  

Ticket Price

Before start sight seeing, lets take dinner to charge up the energy. By following the location map, we finally came to the food court. Although there are various food for preference, but all are cooked in Malay style.

Pesta Pulau Pinang Food Court

Anyway, the Nasi Lemak Rempah Ayam (Coconut Milk Rice with Spice Chicken)  and Mee Goreng (fried mee) that we ordered are quite tasty. The rice costed us RM5 while the fried mee at RM4, price quite reasonable. However, the milk tea ice was bit costly at RM2/glass while it was tasteless.

Nasi Lemak Rempah Ayam and Mee Goreng

If your stomach is full, no problem, there are many snacks waiting for you...

Snacks

One of the exciting factor of the Pesta is the colourful lighting. Compare to my last visit few years ago, this time we were attracted by the Taman Mini (Mini Garden) that decorated with colourful lighting. Lets give it a LIKE!

Taman Mini Pesta Pulau Pinang

For those love the excitement, lets move to the Euro Fun Park. Here gather different kind of the rides that for sure would earn your screaming along the way.

Euro Fun Park Pesta Pulau Pinang

There are also games that designed to cater for children's need.

If you are expert in playing games, then don't miss out the game stalls that would have chance to let you bring back the soft toys. One set of game required 3 tokens which cost you RM6. Although the games look simple but it required techniques too.

In terms of products offered, there are too many items sold here, included clothes, bag, shoes, phone casing, carpet, books & stationary, toys, car accessories, power bank, etc.

Initially we just planed to walking around so we didn't bring much cash. However, we were so regret when we saw the things were sold at low price, such as RM10 for a shirt or even for a shoe. Among all the items, we got ourselves a souvenir which is the 128G pendrive at only RM20. The stall owner wonder we not believe him, hence he tested it and showed us using his laptop. Just couldn't believe it...

Besides, there was also artist performance which delivered a nice song to make the environment joyful.

After all, we spent total 3 hours in Pesta Pulau Pinang. It is a wonderful experience to revisit it since last trip few years ago. For those who interested to visit this annual festival, please don't miss it as Pesta Pulau Pinang going to be ended by 31 December 2013.

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Chatuchak Weekend Market-Bangkok 2013

Before I travel, whenever I informed my friends that I'm going to Bangkok and asking where are places that I should not missed, most of the replies was including the Chatuchak Weekend Market. However, there is another statement followed by the recommendation which is 'the Chatuchak is very hot'..haha..

Chatuchak Weekend Market Signboard

Chatuchak Weekend Market is running the business on every Saturday and Sunday from 6am to 6pm. To be there, we could choose all sort of public transport, from BTS, MRT, buses, taxi and tuk-tuk. Of course, I took the most convenience way which is BTS and stopped at Mo Chit station. 

Mo Chit BTS Station

When we reached, not even need to see the signboard yet we already know the direction. This is because all people was moving towards the same direction. 

Mo Chit BTS Station to Chatuchak Weekend Market

To avoid the crowd, we made ourselves to be there around 9.30am. According to my friends, sometimes there would be pickpocket especially during peak hour where it is too crowded. Hence, it would be better to visit this weekend market early in the morning, not too hot and crowded.

Before step into this Chatuchak market, I really could not imagine how wide is the area, even though keep on told by friends that there is chance to be lost within the market. Anyway, all the information given is absolutely true, the Chatuchak market is really big and we really lost in it. When I checked online then only I discovered that the market covered area of 27 acres, mainly divided into 27 sections that consisted of 15,000 booths.

Way to Chatuchak Market

In this weekend market, almost what you could expect would be appeared there. I wish to share a tip with you here: while you walking around and see something you would like to buy, please purchase it immediately. Don't try to postpone it and decide to come back later. If you are not really good in memorize the location, I guarantee that you won't be able to find the booth later.

Below are some booths or items I managed to snap shot. Of course there are many more.

Surprisingly there is also pest and its food selling in the market.

In terms of the price, I would say it depends on the items and also the booth owner. Anyway it is still within the acceptable price range. If you want to buy small items as souvenir, then you should get it here.

In terms of food and beverages, there are various choices here. I read from someone's blog that recommended about the grilled seafood but I can't find it.

After walk for a while, we found the traditional ice stick with several carbonated drinks as flavour. If I'm not mistaken, it is sold at 10 Baht.

The taste was not surprising but at least it could help to cool us down a bit under the hot sun.

But there is a coconut ice cream that you should not miss. It is not the coconut flavor ice cream but ice cream in coconut. The taste is really good and special. But there is more than one stall, so please look for the right one ya..

After surveyed, look like this stall having the most fans, so we decided to try its ice cream. Beside the coconut and ice cream, you are entitle to have another two types of topping which include corn, peanut, attap seed, purple rice, etc. The 40 Baht selling price is including a cup of fresh coconut water. We like it very much.

Here are some other food stalls, we didn't try but they look delicious too.

We spent almost 3 hours in this Chatuchak Weekend Market. As mentioned above, we lost in the market and couldn't find the way we got in. But luckily we noticed the BTS railway, so we followed the railway direction and finally got back to Mo Chit station.

Although we got sweated during our visit to this market, but we still think that it worth to visit. Enjoy!

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Terminal 21 Shopping Mall - Bangkok 2013 Part II

Time to continue with the Part II. Since we are not the 'shopping kaki' (means people who likes shopping), I found bit difficult to share out the shopping experience. However, I still try to describe a bit, especially on the decoration and interior design that making us to revisit it again and again.

After having our dinner at the food court (as described in Part I), we started to explore this shopping mall. As you might be aware, the name 'Terminal 21' is hinting us that this shopping mall is using airport terminal as their theme. 

The Departure Terminal

The Arrival Terminal

Beside Istanbul and Paris, other 'Terminals' do include Rome, London and etc. Hence, without spend even 1 cent, you could fly around the world! haha..

At each floor, there is a theme where the unique culture or landmark for certain country is adopted as the mall design and decoration. Below are some snapshot taken during our visit..

See, we reached London already. haha..But for the next minute, we travel again...and our next destination is....

Japan! We came to Japan. Although UK is in Europe and Japan in Asia, but we moving between these two countries within a minute's time, wonderful right? The rest of  the 'attracted areas' just leave for your own exploration.

I'm not really know about the branded shops, but just randomly took few photos for memory.

At ground floor, there were many dessert counters, mainly selling different flavour of cakes. It is having a nice look and very unique. Perhaps it could serve as your snack whenever you are tired and hungry after a full fight shopping. Hehe!

Another exciting area that I would like to highlight is at Lower Ground floor.There was a supermarket named Gourmet Market. Of course the grocery is same as others, but I really amazed by the creativeness of promotional method by Thai people. Egg is a normal item in the market, you may not even have a look on it if you don't need it; but when it is sold in this way, at least it draw your attention and reminding you that you might need it too.

After all, Terminal 21 Shopping Mall was attracting me who not really like shopping, but the mall design and decoration really made me excited because I can't find this creativeness in my home town here.

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