A 3D2N short trip to Penang with the family to celebrate dad's 20th Birthday. 

I always wanted to go Penang because of how peers around me rave about the good food there, as well as the mural wall arts in their old heritage site. Thus, I got super excited for this trip. 

We booked our flights via silkair, and booked our accoms in Hotel Jen. 

Since it was so impromptu, the tickets were... not. cheap. But anyways, dad's happy and everything's cool. 

Before the trip started, we have our baggage checked and went for lunch at swensens. Dad have to show them his date of birth on his passport to confirm his order as they said they had "limited" servings. But ohwells, since it was his actual day, he got his ice cream! 

After an hour of window shopping in the duty free shops, we went to our departure gates to get ready for boarding. It was rather sudden that the SIA engineers found some missing security parts on the plane while they've already seated all guests in the cabin. For a service recovery, we were served juice and we waited for more than an hour before the plane departs.

What a 1 hr 15 mins plane ride food consist of. 

Soon after we reached Penang, we took a taxi to our hotel. One glance at the hotel corridor and rooms, I totally fell in love with this place. It was newly renovated, so relevant with the culture in Penang, so clean, and bed so fluffy. :D 

I took a snap of this bin because... I LOVE it. It was so cute!! 

Tho the hotel encourages separating recycle and non-recycle trash, my parents just throw them anyhow anyway. 

Then, we settled for the night at some random shopping mall, and went to the UNESCO - George Town Heritage the next day.

Did some touristy stuff like going to the Upside Down museum, which the photos didn't turn up well. HAHA they hired part time teenagers who made the ambience lively tho.

Dad haz got much feels in this photo.

I was really excited to try their Penang Assam Laksa which first originated at a stall near the Penang  Hill. Butttttttttttt... the one at Malacca Jonker walk was so much nicer :(

On the other hand, I love Penang's kway teow t'ng!! The soup tasted much like.... Bedok 85's bar chor mee?

We headed down to Chou's Jetty Walk, just right at a corner of the George Town Heritage area. 

The jetty was pretty interesting, with a mix of shops and residents living together. Because the residents open their doors everyday, we're able to look into how their living space look like. (of course, they have to put a "no photography" sign outside of their homes. 

A really pretty view at the end of the Jetty. 

So one of the days when we cross over to JB for a friend's wedding, Y wanted to do something different apart from the usual shopping and cafe hopping, as he came across this zoo as one of the listed JB attraction. Though the sky was gloomy, Y and I took a trip down to the zoo for a little peek. 

JB Zoo is located just behind the streets of cafe that we usually patronize. We took a bus down from where our friend's wedding was and alight in the middle of the streets where we walked a fair bit into the entrance of the zoo. 

Although reviews in the various websites scored this zoo as 1 out of 5, we were greeted by so many local families queuing up to pay for the entrance fee. And guess what, 

The entrance fee was only 2RM!! 

Johor zoo is perhaps one of the oldest zoo in Malaysia, opened in 1928 by Sultan Ibrahim.  There were more than 100 species of animals living in this 12.5 ha sized zoo. Although this zoo was not highly marketed for tourists, it was highly catered for the locals there. 

More than just speculating, there are also simple activities spread out for the patrons, ranging from photo taking to animal feeding, and also pony riding for the children. 

The children were filled with excitement as they dash across the pavement, pulling the hands of their parents towards the direction where they wanted to go to. 

But because safety was highly compromised in this place, we get have a really close up contact with the animals. As we stroll past enclosures after enclosures, the animals were all mingling in close views of the patrons. This experience was totally different from my experience in the Singapore Zoological Gardens as we could only catch a glimpse of the animals there in a bird's eye view. 

Here are some of the animals in a really close up view: 

Enclosures for the lions, tigers and bears. 

As run down as it seems, this was perhaps one of the reason why it was only rated 1/5. The living conditions of the animals were really sad as they were poorly maintained. Rusty gates, wilted grass and muddy grounds were homes to these animals. It looked more like an animal shelter, a place where the animals sought refuge. I went to do a research about this zoo and found out that it was even being labelled as the "most dangerous zoo in Malaysia"! But I guess it will not be so bad if you protect your kids well and don't tryna act to some weird stunt for your social media, it is still in a safe proximity. 

However, if you want to catch this rare opportunity to have close contact with the animals, yet with a safe proximity, do drop by Johor Zoo after your cafe hopping and do something different with your friends and family! 

Address: Jalan Gertak Merah, Taman Istana, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Things to bring: umbrella, shades and lots of insect repellent 

So when friends and family members talk about Taiwan, most of the things I've heard about what amazes them was the beauty in their mountainous and nature scenery accompanied by their vivacious night markets. 

I've personally been to Taiwan during my poly school trip, and managed to seize another opportunity to fly back with my family this time round. So here we go, traveling down from Kaoshiung to Taipei together with a local driver who drove us around places throughout the whole trip. 

After the first day in Kaoshiung, we travelled down to Chia Yi where the famous turkey rice is known to be. 

The rice portions were small, and it was easy to eat without feeling too full. The meat was tender and flavorful. We also ordered a plate of blanched veggies, seaweed soup and braised meat rice. 

Verdict: 4/5 

Next, we drove up to Alishan. 

Because there were many steep turns and u turns, the whole journey up to Alishan was painful... most of us ended up with motion sickness and have to gather around mom to get motion sickness pills. 

But to be honest, I wouldn't think Alishan would worth the 2.5 hour journey up. However, if you're the kind that loves trekking with the cold breeze, then you're up for it. 

After Alishan, we headed to the Sun Moon Lake where we settled there for a night. 

Morning view from our Hotel balcony. 

Queued up for the legendary Ah ma herbal eggs. I remember eating like 5 of them when I came here for my school trip. LOL. But well, the taste is still as good :') 

We made our way down to Taichung after spending the whole morning at the Sun Moon Lake. 

Settling down at Taichung for 2 nights, our driver took us to some of the attractions around Chang Hua. 

Taichung Gaomei Wetlands: 

The most gorgeous view of the sunset. We literally ran from our car just to catch a glimpse of this beautiful sunset. It was so amazing, although it was really crowded. 

Yep, and mom wanted to experience the bullet train in Taiwan, hence we bought tickets to Miaoli, where our driver picked us up again there. 

Our next destination, Jiufen. 

View from our Jiufen's accommodation: Orange Pig Inn. 

It was a really great place to stay, where we get to experience the night view and the morning view of this mountainous scenery. The place was clean, bed is soft and we got the whole inn to ourselves as we were the only guests that night. 

Raohe Night Market 

I really love Taiwan for their gorgeous nature and scenery, accompanied by their night market and street foods. 

To be able to travel around Taiwan, you have to either choose the route from the city side, vs the route from the mountainous area. Both routes brings you to different attractions. 

Take for example:

For this trip, we took the route from Kaoshiung -> Tainan -> Chiayu -> Changhua -> Taichung -> Taipei. 

While others might choose to go from Kaoshiung -> Taitung -> Hualien -> Yi Lan -> Taipei. 

Of course you can choose to mix and match your itinerary to cover all areas, but that would take more driving time, hence a couple more days to cover. 

All in all, Taiwan is a great place to go if you haven't. :)