vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Travel
Penang National Park
Jul 3rd
Seriously, I didn’t know there was a [tag]National Park[/tag] in [tag]Penang[/tag]. If you are unaware of this too, it is located in [tag]Teluk Bahang[/tag], further down [tag]Batu Ferringhi[/tag] beach. Take the 12 o’clock turn at the roundabout and you will reach this place eventually.
I only found out this place because I wanted to go to [tag]Pantai Kerachut[/tag]. The only 2 ways to reach this beach are either by boat or on foot. Walking through the dense and rocky jungle is free while renting a boat taking you back and forth costs RM160, it can ferry 15 people.
I didn’t know we had to go through a jungle in order to reach the beach, from what I read in the forums, I only expected to register in the office lol. Anyway the road to reach the beach was just too exhausting and the weather was really hot. We only managed to reach half of the path, and decided to turn back as the day was getting late.
I still want to get to Pantai Kerachut, but next time I will be more prepared (I wore slipper -_- this time) and will start the trip in the morning.
Penang Butterfly Farm
Jul 1st
This is a photoblog entry. It is about the visit I had to [tag]Penang[/tag] [tag]Butterfly Farm[/tag] in [tag]Teluk Bahang[/tag]. A lot of information about this place of interest can be found in their main website. I am very impressed with this place as it is really beautiful, with plenty of butterflies flying around you. Feel free to comment on the photos I took, and if you haven’t visited this place yet, it is highly recommended for a trip. The entrance fee is a killer though, at RM10 per adult.. but it will surely give you a memorable trip. First, let’s look at the butterflies upclose
Now let’s proceed to the flora and fauna..
Scenery within the farm
And the featured museum displaying various dried insects, shown here is only 1/3 of the whole museum, it’s quite huge!
Butterfly Farm is really nice to visit, one can easily spend hours walking in the park, taking photos and looking at beautiful insects, live or dried. It also features a worm pit, live scorpion pit, turtle and duck pond, an antique shop, reptile displays, hide and seek garden(to find hiding praying mantis) and an interesting gift shop. I had a wonderful time there myself 
Batu Ferringhi and Park Royal Hotel
Jun 25th
Last Sunday was a rare sunny and hot day. Rare because it rained every single day before that for the past week. Siang Leng and I went to Batu Ferringi to spend the afternoon there. It was our second visit in a year, nothing much changed in that area.
The skyline that day.. taken around 5.30pm. Before that the sun was so scorching hot, until we couldn’t even open our eyes completely!
Quite a lot of people thronged the beach that day, tourists(mostly from Middle East) were seen along the beach. Most of them were waiting for their turns to horse ride, jet ski, parachute and ride the banana boat.
The watersport’s owner must be smiling for the entire afternoon, the business was good! Look at the number of people riding the jet skis. The fishing boat shown is used to ferry people for fishing tours.
Walking along the beach we noticed this funny looking log. We found out that it was actually a broken steel pipe that was probably washed ashore by the waves.
Taking a closer look, there were mussels @ lala living on this thing, and there were plenty of them! They were alive and kept sticking their “tongue” out, very cute lol. We even took a video of them.
We have always entered the beach via Park Royal hotel. The staff does not really bother whether you are a hotel guest or not. They let you explore the hotel and use the facilities as you like such as the toilet, pool and ping pong table(with bats and ball) I think they do not mind too even if you swim in their swimming pool! So nice hor?
The pool view from the hotel lobby, right in front of the bar.
This is a very nice looking restaurant. I saw there was a small band that sings to dining guests, just like those shown in TV. They will bring along a big violin, guitar and sing those Mexican kind of songs lol.
Next week we will be back again! But this time we will travel to Pantai Kerachut instead, heard people say the beach is sandy white, less polluted and much less crowded
Cherok Tok Kun
Jun 18th
Last Sunday Siang Leng and I went to Cherok Tok Kun for jungle trekking. We also wanted to take some photos using our new camera hehe. Anyway, Googling up “Cherok Tok Kun” only gives this answer
Cherok Tok Kun is a small village in Province Wellesley, Penang, Malaysia. It is the hometown and birthplace of Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia.
But whenever one mentions Tok Kun, they are referring to the Bukit Mertajam Recreational Forest.
The Bukit Mertajam Recreational Forest is suitable for camping and other recreational activities like jungle trekking and picnicking. There is also a small waterfall passing through the area where one can take a dip in the cool refreshing water.
The recreational forest has become very popular among the locals especially from the Seberang Perai Tengah district and neighbouring Kedah and Perak districts.
To get there, follow Jalan Kulim past St.Anne’s Church and the traffic light. You will see a BP petrol station on your left, drive further down until you spot a mosque on your right. Directly opposite the mosque is a small road with a big road sign indicating Jalan Kolam. Drive along the small road for about 1 KM and you will reach the gate to the forest. I have only been to Tok Kun 2 times before. The first time was with my family while second was 9 years ago on a Tae Kwon Do physical training session at Form 2 or 3. My mom said she dragged us up to the hill top lol.
The car park is not too big, many cars are double parking. It was quite funny to see some cars actually had to reverse all the way down from the slope because of insufficient parking. Beside the car park are a row of hawkers selling pisang goreng and lots of fruits.
Me enjoying pisang goreng. RM1 for five pieces, very worth 
I am not sure whether this even qualifies as a small waterfall. Small red sign on the left saying “AWAS Batu Licin”
A close up of the waterfall, “Hutan Lipur Bukit Mertajam” We spent 45 minutes trying to walk up to the hill but we were just too tired to continue. We were wondering if there is any waterfall on the hilltop, anyone who knows mind to tell? 
A lot of children playing and swimming in the water. I played in the water during the physical training, an unforgettable experience but I won’t do it again lol.
This tea house is quite new, it only opened last November. Quite a lot of customers as you can see from this photo. The structure of this tea house also reminded me of those in TVB dramas haha. Those swordsman like to yam cha, eat pao and then will kena ambush haha.
“Tea Spa Taman Rimba” offers many variety of tea leaves to choose from, costing from RM4.00 to RM7.00. Besides tea they also serve some snack dishes like “Char Yip Dan”, TeoChew fried mee, peanuts and tea boiled potato. I think Boon Siang will enjoy this place very much
Saw some ex-JSHS people(right side, 3 people in a table) drinking tea there, but I don’t think they know me. In this photo you can see some small chalets in the background. They are newly built too, and the committee is going to celebrate the completion by holding a buffet dinner and karaoke session for the completion.
Our snack that afternoon, “Char Yip Dan”, costs RM0.70 per egg. They were so fragrant that we couldn’t resist tasting them before we went home. We initially thought it was Bak Kut Teh, because they really smell alike. By the way, the photo qualities are very good right? So much better than my previous Konica Minolta Dimage X50
