It was my 1 day trip to Alor Setar, and without having any idea where to stay, I just drive around and saw T Hotel. From the looks and the lobby, the hotel seems quite nice and clean.

Walk in and ask, RM80 for their normal room with a Queen Size bed. Seems that the price and cleanliness all suits my need, hence I pay and check in.

Security wise it seems OK as you need to use the card to swipe before you can enter the room area. While for the room, normal key is given.

And yeap, the room is with real simple design, but clean.

At RM80, there’s even a plasma TV in the room, with few Astro Channels (including AEC and 1 sports channel), not bad eh! However, the air corn is freaking cold. Even when I set it to 28 degree, I still feel extremely cold. And since the room is windowless, I can’t possibly off the air corn for too long as it will be too stuffy.

Attach toilet with water heater, small but sufficient.

All in all, T hotel is a good budget hotel to stay. Currently they have 3 branch, 1 each in Alor Setar, Kuala Perlis and Changlun. From what I heard from the receptionist, the hotel in Alor Setar opened for few years already, but they always refurbish it and hence the room looks really new and clean to be. KUDOS!

Total Damage: RM80 per night

Contact: 04 – 772 9988

Location: Kawasan Perusahaan Tandop Baru, Alor Setar

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As the name says so, it’s an cafe with a theme of traditional design, antique style table and chair, with air conditioner on the ceiling, resembles the feeling of modern vs traditional.

All these with the quiet environment certainly makes this place a good cafe to hang around, chit chatting with friends and such, but how will the food fares?

Chrysanthemum tea and Dragon fruit juice.

Since it’s a cafe, choices of food is very limited. First dish, Fried Sugar Pea (tou miao) @ RM10. It does taste not bad, nothing special, but OK. 6.5/10

Braised Black Vinegar Pork Knuckles (Too Kar Chor) @ RM10. Again, another average dish with limited meat, as most of them are actually ginger rather than meat. The soup itself is not sour enough though, as well as the meat is not tender enough. 6.0/10

Braised meat rice @ RM7.50. Personally I hate this dish, it’s not interesting at all. The chicken itself is sorta tasteless…..grrr. Besides, the rice is also too sticky to my liking.  5.5/10

Curry chicken @ RM12. So little portion at such price? If it taste good it’s still ok, too bad it’s not. It seems that they cook the chicken and curry separately as the chicken itself doesn’t have any curry taste inside, and actually taste more like steamed chicken. Sigh. 4.0/10

I think you guys will also notice, the price here is quite steep for the serving. Well, it’s a cafe ma, what can you expect? Cafe food is usually priced higher, but taste average.

However, due to it’s environment, it’s still a good place to hang around, just that I won’t come here for my main meal and that’s all.

Total Damage: RM45 for 2 person

Operating Hours: 11 AM to 10 PM

Contact: 04 – 2622 113

Location: Kimberly Street, Penang

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Since both me and LY are extremely thirsty, we order 1 big bottle of fresh sugar cane water to share among. It’s extremely refreshing, and we finish the whole bottle even before our dish came. Hence, 2 person 2 bottle, fair right?

Some vegetables to go with some Thai sambal, which taste very good and spicy. Yummy…I love it.

One of the recommended dish by the boss – Roasted duck sliced. The name is roasted duck, but I find that it taste more like ham instead of duck. Nevertheless, it’s still good as the meat is tender.

The meat itself taste a bit salty, and eat it with their special sour spicy sauce, man this is good! 7.9/10

Tom Yam, Tom Yam, Tom Yam!

We opt for Tom Yam seafood, which is very good. The seafood used is very fresh, and the soup taste great. Sour, spicy, hot, all in perfection, hence appetizing. We basically drank dry the whole bowl of soup! 8.0/10

This dish is definitely great for crab lovers – crab meat with curry powder. When eating crab, I think most people will hate the need to take off the shell right? Well, in this dish, the shell was taken off already! You can enjoy the crab meat with the flavorful curry powder. Just great as I don’t need to have my hands dirty for enjoying it! 8.2/10

Total Damage: RM49 for 2 person (If you using Thai Bath, just times 10)

Operating Hours: Lunch and Dinner

Location: Ban Dan Nok, Songkhla, Thailand

And yea, Bukit Kayu Hitam is the place always being mentioned by folks here. People always say, let’s go to Bukit Kayu Hitam for some little shopping, and have some really authentic Thai food. However, little to be known by folks here, Bukit Kayu Hitam is still under Malaysia, as it is Kedah’s main border town on the Malaysia-Thailand Border.You don’t need to pass the border, or use your passport to visit Bukit Kayu Hitam.

However, since Bukit Kayu Hitam is not their main destination, passport is needed to enter the town of Ban Dan Nok in the district of Sadao, Songkhla province in Southern Thailand.

Like in almost every border, the immigration area is always packed and full with people queuing up. We queue up for more than 30 minutes, and since it’s open air border, there ain’t any air-conditional to cool us down. So once we pass the border, the 1st thing that came to my mind is to have some coconut jelly!

Ice cooled coconut jelly @ RM2.50 is really superbly refreshing for us.

Pork knuckle!!!

And yea, the famous pork knuckle rice @ RM4 which you can find easily in the town of Ban Dan Nok. The pork given is a bit too small for me though, but the meat taste superbly nice, and with the great amount of fat-lean meat proportion, it’s just yummy! Ate it with the spicy Thai chili, orgasm!

Another stall that you can find easily here is these fried chicken stall. However, the one here is a bit more extreme as they even have crabs on their menu! I simply love the fried chicken from these stalls as they are cheap and good. However, for health conscious people it is not a good choice at all. Reason?

First, the oil was being reused for countless of time. After the food was fried, it will be placed on the stall (which is by the road side) without anything to cover it. Imagine the amount of dust flew on it before you consume!

Another version of coconut jelly @ RM1.50 per box.

And finally….Kung Fu Panda! Guess where is this panda at?

Location: Ban Dan Nok, Thailand

The most famous Kedah Laksa is Laksa Teluk Kechai, and Zakaria Laksa is the best according to many people.

According to what I understand, Kedah Laksa is supposed to be very similar to Asam Laksa in Penang, and the only difference is the garnishing used.

However, it doesn’t taste the same to me. Well, yes it taste the same if you were to compare it to those really lousy Asam Laksa in Penang. The soup is sorta tasteless besides salty, and I can’t taste any fish on the soup. It was so bad that I almost want to stop eating it after 1 spoon, but looking at the crowd there, I find that doing it will be too insulting to them.

However, although the laksa soup is very very bad, but the noodle is good. It’s much firmer and also taste nicer, and better to bite it compare to many other places. 2.0/10

The Lai Chee Kang is ok though, although I don’t really like it especially they have peanuts inside it. 3.0/10

This is also the 1st time I saw a laksa stall actually selling laksa based by weight. RM10 per kg! This is madness.

Look at the crowd, it’s 3 PM evening, not during lunch or dinner time. When I pass by them during dinner time later, the road was full of cars parked by people who are dining there, which I totally can’t understand, what so good about it?

Total Damage: RM2.50 per bowl of laksa

Operating Hours: 12 PM to 7 PM

Location: Jalan Kuala Kedah, Alor Setar

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As for my experience, this is by far the tidiest Malay version Char Koay Teow that I ever had.

But who cares? Most important is the taste right? Hm… it actually taste OK la, but also because it seems it was cooked till too careful, until the taste and “wok hei” is not there. Maybe I am used to really really good one already. 6.7/10

Zai Char Koay Teow, citarasa from Pulau Pinag, even Malay version are claiming themselves are from Penang!

Total Damage: RM3.50 for 1 person

Operating Hours: 7 PM to 11 PM

Location: Jalan Lencong Timur, Sungai Petani

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It was held for 3 days, starting from 28th May 2010. Each day it was divide into 2 session, 6.30am to 9am and 5.30pm to 7.30pm. The event was held at Taman Jubli Emas, Alor Setar.

However, the organizer had done a poor poor job. Taman Jubli Emas is a huge park, but we are not allowed to drive our car and park inside, while inside there’s still loads of place for parking. The police told us that only VIP can drive in, and others had to park their car on the road side. We were lucky as we reach early at around 3 PM while others who came late had to park their car as far as 2km from the entrance of the park.

Since we reach early, we got nothing to do so we just walk around doing nothing. However, suddenly we heard that tickets for a chance of ride on the hot air balloon will be sold at the counter at 5 PM. BUT, only 120 tickets available!

Wa fark!!!! They are easily hundreds of people, if not thousands wanted to have a ride on it, but only 120 tickets are for sale??????

As being kia su, I straight went and find the ticket counter and queue up there. It was only 3.45 PM at the point of time when I start queuing, and I am first on the line.

However, this is what happened at 4 PM. Being kia su is good eh?

After queuing up under the hot sun for more than an hour, finally at 5 PM sharp, we got this! YAY!

120 people are waiting patiently inside the camp for their turn of their ride.

Preparing……

and preparing……..

Since just sitting inside is quite boring, I went around and took some pictures on how other country set up their hot air balloon.

The area I enter is actually restricted for normal people. However, it seems having a DSLR hanging on your neck is a good thing. They thought I might be a reporter or something, and I can enter freely inside the area. The same goes to many other photog.

Which one will be the 1st to raise?

Balloon fight!

and FIRE!!!!!!

I believe I can fly,

I believe I can touch the sky,

I think about it every night and day,

Spread my wings and fly away…….

It’s actually quite a great scene to see so many hot air balloons flying high high up. How I wish I can be 1 of those sitting inside the basket?

Eh wait! 1 might ask, didn’t you already get the ticket for the ride? Why are you complaining again?!

Well, this is the hot air balloon we are riding on. Notice the 2 rope tight on it?

Yes, they are tight to 2 big truck, which limit the height of the balloon can fly up to around 3 to 5 story high only. The ride takes around 10 minute from the minute we step inside the basket, until it flew up to it’s maximum height and then back down.

But nevertheless, it’s still a good experience, and RM10 is certainly worth it. However, the waiting time of 1 hour under the hot sun is not worth though.

After the ride, both of us are so damned tired and just head straight back to our car without staying and see how the balloon are being inflated. Now I just hope, next time I got the chance to sit on a real hot air balloon

Total Damage: RM20 for 2 person, and 1 hour++ of queuing under the hot sun

Since it’s Taiwan cuisine, here are the pearl milk tea. From left to right it’s yam, original and champagne, costing RM4.90 each.

Taiwanese style clam @ RM12.90. Not bad la….. 6.7/10

Oyster and pork intestine mee shua @ RM9.90. I personally much much prefer the one from Shilin snacks, which has a stronger vinegar taste, with bigger and fresher oyster compare to the one here. This one is just very average, and definitely not worth the price you paid for it. 5.2/10

3 cup chicken set @ RM18.90. The 3 cups are rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil that were used to cook it. Although the portion is quite small for me, but the gravy is very thick and taste very nice. 7.5/10

Salted pork and fish with white cabbage @ RM18.90. Another average dish. 5.5/10

Braised beef and duck platter @ RM13.90. It may look nice, but actually quite tasteless, utterly disappointed. 4.5/10

Yam cake @ RM7.90, which is quite good, how I wish the yam proportion is a bit more than flour, but nevertheless it still taste great. 7.8/10

Overall, like most franchise Chinese restaurant in shopping mall, Xian Ding Wei do have some signature dish taste good, while others taste either below par or average. So you just have to choose wisely.

Total Damage: RM118.45 for 4 person

Location: 2nd Floor, Queensbay Mall, Penang.

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Being said so, Air Itam wet market is also 1 of the most famous market in Penang, and also 1 of the most crowded one. The crowd here every morning is incredible, and with it located nearby to the entrance of Kek Lok Si temple doesn’t help too.

Many times I had heard about the Koay Chap at Air Itam market, and some had said the Koay Chap here are consider 1 of the best in Penang. Like most other , the ingredients include duck meat, coagulated pork blood, egg and innards. Although the ingredients are good, but I am not a huge fan of dark black soup Koay Chap, as I prefer this and this more. 7.0/10

The Char Kuih Kah stall here is my mum’s childhood favorite food, and till now it maintain it’s standard, spicy, fragrant, nice! 7.5/10

The roti planta here is very very good too, in fact, it had became one of my favorite roti canai stall already! It’s cooked to perfection, taste sweet and very crispy! 8.5/10

The char kuih kah stall is located outside of Wah Meng Coffee shop, but you can eat it inside the coffee shop.

And the reason I will never drive my car to Air Itam in the morning…….

Total Damage: Koay Chap @ RM3, Char Koay Kah @ RM4, Roti Planta @ RM1.50

Operating Hours: Morning

Location: Air Itam Wet Market, Penang

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Although the restaurant was just newly repainted, but it still gives me an old old feeling when I am here.

Since we are in a chicken rice restaurant, ordering chicken is a must right? So here are the chickens, both the roasted and the steamed one.

However, the chicken is sorta disappointment. When you dine in a restaurant named as XXX chicken rice restaurant, you will definitely expect the chicken will be good, as it is definitely their signature dish. However, this does not apply to Tho Yuen here. No, I am not complaining that their chicken is bad, just that it’s too normal and average, nothing special to shout about. Maybe the chicken RICE is good, but we didn’t try it though. 7.0/10

Forget the chicken, this is what I came here for.

Yes, steam fish head with hor fun. This is extremely good, with the wonderful soy sauce used, and the natural sweetness that came from the fresh fish, oh god, this is good. No, this is AWESOME! I absolutely love it! However, this dish must be eaten when it’s just being served and still hot, or else the hor fun will become too sticky and won’t taste nice anymore. 9.0/10

Next up – braised duck and ginger with sang mee. This one was good too as the gravy is very flavorful and tasty. The duck meat itself is very tender too. 7.5/10

The signboard clearly stated “Tho Yuen Chicken Rice”.

Anyway, the food here is good, which explain the crowd too. I will most probably be back soon for their Dim Sum.

Total Damage: RM40 for 2 person

Operating Hours: 6 AM to 3 PM

Location: Campbell Street, Penang

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