Italy In General

We’ve been planning for our Italy trip for months now and yes, while it was a tough one to plan for, it was a very rewarding trip! We flew by Emirates which was such a change from budget airlines we've been travelling on for some time.

In our short 10 full days in Italy, we covered Rome, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence and Venice. And as mentioned before, we had to cut one day from Rome and extended one day in Venice due to the General Elections. Otherwise, three days in Rome would have been better and 2 days in Venice sufficient. Still, we managed to pack in quite a fair bit into Rome and took a relaxing time in Venice to wander around. 

Let me start off with the general things in Italy.

Food
Food was generally good as we enjoyed the Nutella croissants, pasta, pizza, focaccia breads and antipasti with melon. And the gelato every day of course! We budgeted about €15 per person per meal so while breakfast could be as cheap as €3, we could then splurge a little for dinner that day.

All sorts of pasta: spaghetti, ravioli, lasagne, gnocchi (I didn't take a photo of our risotto)

Melon with parma ham (our favourite!), anchovies (a little weird but still okay), focaccia  with some ham and rocket and osso bucco. I absolutely love their tomatoes!

Sweet stuff : chocolate/Nutella croissant, tiramisu and gelato. I had the choc croissant and gelato almost every day.

Weather in May
The days took turns from sunny hot to nagging rain the next day. This also means I wasn’t very happy with my photos from this trip with the grey skies. Thankfully I brought my umbrella, a rain-proof coat and sun block. Temperatures were beautiful between 17 – 20s. As we moved north, the nights were slightly chillier. Dawn was at about 6am and sun set was around 8pm so we had good long days to move about.

People
There were tourists EVERYWHERE! They were mainly Americans and groups of Japanese. I could hardly take photos without having people in it. Aside from the tourists, the Italians are generally warm and friendly. We encountered two unfriendly people in Venice on our first day there though. And I used to hear friends saying Italian men were very good looking, I can now say I have seen them with my own eyes! A lot of them looked like George Michael with a stubble and sunglasses. Swoon!

We were also told to watch out for gypsies but we found many Bangladeshis who were peddling their wares at every point of interest. They didn't really come up to us though (maybe they knew we were cheapo tourists who won't buy their goods!).

Italian trains
Since I bought my tickets online earlier, getting around Italy was a breeze. I must say one of our initial achievements of our trip was to get to the train station at the Rome Airport, use the machines to print our ticket, time stamp it and get into the train within a few minutes. Only when the train shut its doors and started moving did I ask the person beside me if the train was headed to Roma Termini! LOL

Another achievement for us was our train trip to Manarola from Rome. We had to switch trains in La Spezia with a 10 minute gap. We needed to print our ticket, time stamp it and find the correct train all within that 10 minutes. Worse, our train from Rome was slightly delayed by 3-5 minutes. Thankfully, I pre-printed our tickets at Roma Termini, rushed down from the train at La Spezia to time stamp it, followed the general crowd into the train and hoped it was right train before it moved (as there were two trains on the same platform).

One thing to note though, when we got to Roma Termini to take this trip to Manarola, this guy came up to me (rather forcefully) and brought me to the correct platform and then demanded for money for his help and scolded us for giving him too little. It was rather frightening and KS was worried he would grab my bag. On hindsight, this guy did help me understand how to read the Italian train schedule, as it would have taken me some time as I was looking for the train to La Spezia on the screen when the displayed name would be the last station the train would stop.

For example:

Train Schedule: Our train name on the screen follows the name of the last station it would stop at. So ours was called Pisa Centrale even though we were getting out at Pisa S.Rossore. This schedule shows the stops this train makes.

So on the screens, you would need to refer to the train for Pisa Centrale for the correct platform. I learnt this from the guy at Roma Termini. My train from Roma Termini to La Spezia was Genova P.P. and I would have taken some time to figure that out if it weren't for him.

Validation Machine. Insert your ticket in the middle slot to have it time stamped before boarding. 

Touristy Stuff
I used to think people normally backpack in Europe but KS and I were the rare ones carrying backpacks. Still, it was quite helpful when we had to climb stairs, steep slopes in Manarola or bridges in Venice. We bought a Skip the Line Tour of Vatican from Viator and were glad we did as there were hordes of people lining up to go in! Plus there were so many touts trying to get you to sign up for a Skip the Line Vatican Tour right outside the gates.

Unfortunately, we weren’t careful when we got to Colosseum and was made to pay for a tour at €13 per pax (the official tour inside was only €5) after we asked someone outside who looked like he was wearing an official tag where to queue for the tour.

Still, there was a silver lining to this because it led us to the most interesting tour thereafter which made Rome my favourite place of all! I'll explain this in a location by location blogpost later.

Planning for Italy

After many months of putting off visiting Italy, we finally bought our flight tickets in mid March to travel in early May. I didn't think it would be a problem getting rooms since we have 1.5 months before we travelled. But boy was I wrong!

We spent many weekends and weekday nights trying to secure rooms all over Rome, Cinque Terre, Florence and Venice with a budget and some pre-requisites such as an attached bathroom but was quite challenging. Many places have about 3-4 rooms and they're all pretty snapped up especially if we wanted to stay somewhere for like 4 nights.

My usual favourite sites like hotels.com or bookings.com don't quite have the choices I was looking for. I found TripAdvisor to be quite a help and there are quite a lot of B&B that have their own sites so it's quite hard to find them in a collective site.

Here are, so far, the most useful sites other than TripAdvisor for finding the perfect rooms:
airbnb.com
cross-pollinate.com

We've spoilt ourselves with renting a whole loft in Rome, a room overlooking the gorgeous sea in Cinque Terre which left my budget of RM400 per night in tatters. So it had to be cheaper accommodation for Florence and Venice.

One thing I've discovered is that some rooms may have just a shower tucked in the corner of the room, no toilet, just the shower. Very strange! And the toilets mainly would have bidets! This is going to be interesting as I've never tried using one before. Also, most places accept only cash so I need to start looking for my body pouches to avoid pick pockets.

So that was just the room bookings. I then spent another two weekends figuring out the trains and buying them online. Thanks to this site called italylogue, I found italiarail.com where I could buy my tickets with ease.

There are two types of tickets which I bought, one is a ticket with reservation (time and seats allocated) and the other is an open ticket whereby it is valid 2 months from the date of purchase.

Thankfully (somewhat), most of my tickets are open tickets so when we had to change our flights to enable us to vote in the next Malaysian General Elections, I only forfeit one day of Rome from my schedule and not my train tickets too.

Anyway, this holiday was one of the most researched of all our trips. So much information on the net! So many decisions to make! Yes it has been stressful but I'm enjoying the process (I can't say the same for KS who has to plan what to do, which tour to take, if we need to get a phone card etc).

Blog posts coming up on our trip.

Malaysia's 13th General Election

Malaysians have been heaving speculating when the next General Election (GE) would be held since November last year. The 5 year mark from the last GE (8 March) came and went, the only other time this has happened was in 1969.

KS and I had planned to go for our Italy holiday in either April or May. We waited for the news but there were no forthcoming announcements. We couldn't wait so we booked our air tickets on 5th May, avoiding as many Saturdays as we could since previous GEs were held on Saturdays.

Finally, when the Prime Minister announced the dissolution of Parliament on 3 April, I eagerly waited for the announcement of the GE date. People speculated it would be at the end of April so I felt somewhat assured I wouldn't miss it. Then the Election Commission took their own sweet time and only announced it a week later. And the date they selected? 5th of May. Our flight is at 1030am, we have to be at the airport by 0830 latest. Polling stations open at 0800. KS votes in Melaka.

Different permutations came into mind:
1. We check in the day before. KS goes back to Melaka to vote as soon as the doors open while I vote in PJ. We both then speed our way separately to the airport to make it for our flight.
2. I vote and grab the ERL which takes 28 minutes to reach the airport while KS checks in earlier.
3. KS votes while I check in earlier.
4. We just don't vote.
5. We shift our flight one day and pay the forfeit of RM860. Thankfully this is Emirates so we only need to pay the fine for changing our details and fare increase.

I checked with the travel agent and neither one of the first three options were viable. Then I thought, what's our votes worth anyway? But I've been advocating and encouraging everyone else to vote and here I am, not even voting. I cannot imagine not voting when I've been so passionate for the last many years.

Then I remembered that there are potential phantom voters waiting to vote on your behalf. That's when I called my travel agent and made the change. So what if I have only 2 days instead of 3 in Rome if I am going to regret for the rest of my life of not being a part of a historical event in my own country?

There are stories out there of many Malaysians coming back to vote. I heard someone flying back all the way from Finland. Jan says most of her Malaysian colleagues in Singapore are coming back to vote. Those who can't are few due to fully booked tickets. Maybe they should ask around to hop on with those who are driving back.

Ini kalilah.

Bra Strap Solution

For some time now, I've been irritated with my bra straps falling off my droopy shoulders, especially when I wear a sleeveless top. I was constantly adjusting, my hands diving into my shirts to shift it back onto my shoulder until I considered tying some string across my back between the straps.

So one day while browsing through a group buying site called stardeal.my, I came across the perfect solution to my problem. It was called the Ultimate Bra Strap Solution and it had a video on how one uses it. It seemed perfect! Price was a little bit steep for some plastic thing but hey, the description said: "1 set is 6 pieces. You will get 2 sets". There was also another description which said "The Bra Clip Set Perfect includes 12 pieces" which I simply couldn't understand.

Anyway, I ordered it and after a couple of weeks, KS told me something had arrived for me in the mail. I came home and opened my pack:

This is the bra clip

This was the box it came in. Now each box had 9 pieces (where are my 12 pieces??)

And they sent me 12 boxes, each with 9 clips in it.

So there you go. I now have 108 bra clips. I tried giving a box to my mum who simply said, "Put it on all your bras". I don't have 108 bras and neither does this require me to attach to the bra except when I'm wearing one. So far I've been using one for over 3 weeks now and it hasn't snapped in two or hasn't been destroyed. Looks like I have enough to cover several lifetime of uses.

I've successfully given away six boxes now to various friends and colleagues. So let me know if you need one (or three, or a dozen).

International Specialist Eye Centre (ISEC), Penang

This post is a shout out to my best friend who, after staying in UK since graduating from high school for 20 years, has finally returned to Malaysia. For many years, I would be in contact with Tsiang and she was always mentioning about her next exam as she studied medicine and then later on continued with her specialization there.

If you aren't already aware, there has been a severe brain drain from Malaysia but my friend and her husband Alan decided to do the opposite and come back home. Even though they are both Malaysian to the core, I’m sure this wasn’t an easy decision for them and it took years in preparation to migrate their young family back. I’m sure most Malaysians they meet now will ask them a bewildered, “Why come back to Malaysia??!“

So what are they doing back in Malaysia?

Tsiang and Alan are both eye specialists who were practicing in UK for years and have now set up the International Specialist Eye Centre (ISEC) branch in Penang. Yes, the branch of the famous ISEC that is operating in Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur.

See, I always thought that if you had problems with your eye, you just go and see an eye doctor. From what I understand, there are at least seven specializations just for the eye alone (wow!). So if I ever had any problems with my eye, I wouldn’t be comfortable going to a doctor who hasn’t been trained to look at that particular type of ailment in my eye. The doctor may know about it but I’d place my trust in a specialist anytime!

Tsiang and Alan specialize in different areas with some overlapping functions like cataract. (Okay, I know readers with medical background are cringing at my lack of proper jargons.) Their official titles are:
Alan: Consultant Ophthalmologist & Eye Surgeon, Vitreoretinal Surgeon
Tsiang: Consultant Ophthalmologist & Oculoplastic Surgeon, Paediatric Ophthalmologist & Strabismologist

All I know is that Tsiang looks at kids, corrects squints, droopy eyelids (yes, there is such a thing whereby you have to prop your eyelids open in order to see properly, usually for older folk) while Alan takes on retinal disorders. (Yes, their many hours of patiently explaining to me what they do has been whittled down to a short paragraph)

See Tsiang and Alan’s official profiles with proper descriptions of what they actually do.

International Specialist Eye Centre @ Penang
229G Jalan Burma, Georgetown, 10050 Pulau Pinang.
Tel: +6 04 228 8802      Fax: +6 04 228 8803
Official site: www.isec.my/locate_us_penang.htm
Facebook

It’s opposite the Him Heang main outlet in Jalan Burma, the refurbished Oh Eye clinic if you’re familiar with Penang landmarks.

So here’s wishing them well in their new clinic and new chapter of their lives!

Psy was in Penang!

So the famous internet sensation of 2012 appeared in Penang for a Chinese New Year (CNY) open house held by the Malaysian ruling party to perform his hit song Gangnam Style.

Now, Penang is now under the Opposition party since the last election and generally the Penangites are happy with the new administration. Why the ruling party planned a massive CNY party in Penang instead of one of the states they rule is clear enough indication of their reasons. They probably thought that by having a superstar, crowds would be drawn to them, which they did, for there were reportedly 60,000 people who turned up.

Instead of boosting the popularity of the political party as they had hoped, the Penangites stayed true to themselves and had responded without giving “face”. They were there to see Psy perform!

Prior to his arrival in Penang, Psy’s Facebook was flooded with Malaysian fans telling him not to come to Malaysia due to the fear of him being used as a political tool. So with that, I’m quite sure he was well aware he was only there to perform. He even declined participating in the Yee Sang toss with the leaders.

It was very funny/embarrassing (for them) to see all the YouTube videos circulating immediately after the event that day. Even CNBC had coverage on it:

Notice how there were no translations needed for the answer to "Are you ready for BN?"

What was incredible thereafter was that the local newspapers completely ignored this part of the event. There’s even a denial from Psy’s manager to say that the government did not pay for their fee. If that’s the case, then who was the generous sponsor? I don’t know about you but if I had to fork out millions, I’d like to shout my brand name and plaster the whole place with “ABC is Proud to Sponsor Psy!” and make him wear my brand across his shirt, pants, shoes and sunglasses! Hahahaha!

Oh, unless I have been promised some other millions in other businesses to shut up and not reveal who I was. Now that would be a good business decision, yes? So I wonder what’s in it for the sponsor?

Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary

A bunch of friends wanted to take KS on a surprise day trip for his birthday this year and after much discussion, they decided to take him to Kuala Gantah Elephant Sanctuary located in Lanchang, near Bentong, Pahang.

It's a 1.5 hour drive from PJ so it's not very far. Entrance is free while bathing with a baby elephant in the river is priced at only RM10 per person. If you're planning to go, do bring a change of clothes and shampoo, towels and plastic bag to keep your soggy clothes.

We stopped by a really nice place to eat off the Karak highway at Bukit Tinggi called Foon Lock. Food was really good and fairly reasonable at about RM15 per head with 6 dishes for 7 people. We had fried bacon, yam pork, two veg, chilli sotong and a tofu. So good, I'm tempted to see if KS would ever make that trip back just to eat there again!

Anyway, with filled bellies, we headed to Kuala Gandah and found it easily with clear road signs (and a pre-printed Google Maps instructions as connection was a problem).

Cut out boards comparing how large a mammoth, an Asian elephant and a pygmy elephant is.

After registering, we waited to be shown a video on what this sanctuary does. There were some informational boards for you to read up.

The video is educational, showing their efforts in relocating Malaysian elephants whose habitat has shrunk and that they are destroying plantations due to their invaded home. They also showed how they use the elephants in this sanctuary to help calm the captured elephant while transportation.

We were assigned a tour guide, a young man who explained that this sanctuary was set up in 1998. It's very well maintained, I must say! We were shown to where the baby elephants were kept, waiting for us to feed them with snacks which we purchased from a nearby stall.

Shortly after that, at about 2:30, the adult elephants were brought in for their daily bath and show.

The adults arriving and heading straight to the river

Aaaahhhh!

We were lucky to have favourable water levels to enjoy this activity. I've read other reviews who said the water was too high and dangerous for them to participate in the elephant bathing.

The adult elephants gave a little show, lying down, pulling chains etc and then were brought to the edges for us to interact and feed them.

After that, was the highlight of our trip, the bathing of the elephant!

In high spirits! Since only 4 were allowed per elephant, I decided to stay back and let the boys go in one group.

Here they are busy bathing the elephant...

And here they are, busy showering each other. It didn't matter that the elephant just defecated  in the water seconds before. Yums. See, this was why I decided not to join them.

My group consisted of a father and his two kids, a 7 year old and a toddler, and a mother with her toddler. No splashing! I was dry waist up! #win

After a quick shower, we then made our way back to KL, stopping by for a quick snack at McD's along the way. Did we have fun? Loads!

Bandung, the City of Factory Outlets

It was almost 9 months ago when my friend texted me and asked if I were keen to go on an all-girls trip to Bandung for a spot of shopping and sightseeing. I have always heard from other friends that Bandung is quite a nice place to go with really cheap clothes shopping so I said YES!

Our 5 days 4 nights trip spanned over the weekday, which meant there was less crowd and less traffic. We stayed at this place called Amaris Cimanuk solely for the reason that it was close to several Factory Outlets (FO). Amaris is very basic, fairly clean and suited our needs for sleeping, showering and breakfast to fuel our days.

Rather than just shopping, we tried to fit in some sight seeing. With two active volcanoes nearby, we decided to go to the nearer one, Gunung Tangkuban Parahu, which is about a 45 min drive from the city. Unfortunately for us, we were smack in the middle of the rainy season and it was pouring when we arrived.

The signboard taken from inside the car.

The greenish pool which looks a lot greyer through the curtain of rain. It's huge!

The trees were a brown black from the volcanic activity around the area.

An enterprising vendor was valiantly frying tofu in the rain, occasionally repositioning his large umbrella.

They were also selling volcanic ash. "Good for your face skin!"

Interestingly, many vendors chased after us and were selling... Naruto figurines. I have no idea why they are selling Naruto up here in this volcano.

Since it was raining so heavily, we could only go into the visitors centre to find out more about the volcano. There is an option for a tour guide to take you down to some parts of the volcano. We met a guide who was most friendly and helpful. He was urging us to go on the tour, claiming that it wouldn't be raining down where he would take us.

(Later, my colleague told me she and her husband was fleeced by being led into a fairly secluded area where they were surrounded by vendors selling pencils and other souvenirs and they bought over RM200 worth of souvenirs as they were scared. Oh and they had to pay the guide more money for exceeding the 1 hour allocated for the tour. She said she paid RM500 in total for that trek.) I guess if you go in a larger group and don't feel like you should be obligated to buy anything, you should be fine.

Right after the volcano, we headed to the Hot Springs nearby. It was a pretty well maintained place and the water was hot! With the lovely cool Bandung weather, the warm pools would be delightful to soak into. We only soaked our feet though.

Guess you can stand under the streams to shower.

Soaked happy feet.

The first pool we came across had the hottest water and you're only allowed to soak your feet in.

As two of my friend had never plucked strawberries, we then went to this small farm along the way to lunch to pluck them.

The other touristy thing we did was to visit this Angklung afternoon show. Angklung is a traditional instrument made out of bamboo. The ticket price was a bit steep at 100,000 rp but after being entertained for over 90 minutes, it would definitely be an activity I'd recommend my friends.

The stage

The audience was given an Angklung to play and this was really fun!

The correct way to hold an Angklung, with the smaller bamboo piece to your left.

Each had a number and we'd play the instrument according to the numbers as directed by the emcees. There were 8 numbers, for all notes in an octave.

The audience was also invited to dance along with the performers at the end of the show. No pressure, you don't have to go down if you don't want to.

As for the food, one of the most memorable meals we had was at this place called Kampung Daun. It's a lovely restaurant, sprawled across the foot of a hill with a stream running through it. 

Diners ate in little huts dotted along the stream. The afternoon was cool with a sprinkle of rain, the lights dim, sound of rushing water, comfy pillows and a stomach full of good food, we wanted so badly just to fall asleep there! Definitely not to be missed.

We had bakso for dinner one night. I thought it came with noodles so I only took 5 pieces. Still, it filled my stomach for the night and it was really quite good! 

We had Nasi Padang too. See how this guy balanced a dozen plates on one hand? 

Our driver took us to this place to have beef ribs. That's spicy chilli sauce on it. It comes with beef soup and white rice. So yummy!

And of course, to wash it all down, we had Teh Botol!

And of course, we went shopping and shopping and shopping! FO after FO although I still felt we didn't cover them all. Perhaps for another trip back?

And oh, if you're looking for souvenirs to share with family and friends back home, do try bringing back Mollen/Bollen from Kartika Sari and steamed brownie from Amanda (they're everywhere!). Both were priced at about 32,000 rp. However, they cannot last long and need to be eaten within 3-4 days of purchase. Layer cake is too common (especially since I just went to three different parts of Indonesia in less than a year!).

Great Reunion of My Alor Setar Gang

Right after I landed from Medan, I had a few hours to eat lunch, unpack, repack, rest, eat dinner and fly off to Penang. My greatest girlfriends (since we were 15 years old) from Alor Setar gathered in Penang for this rare reunion. One came from Sydney, another from Singapore, two from KL and one from Alor Setar. 

We met up and chatted and chatted for at least 6 hours that day but the hours felt like they just flew by.

I think we were 16 when this was taken.

Us now.

Really glad to have such good girlfriends even after years of being in different parts of the world. Love you gals!