After Crazying

Hop-On Hop-Off is a very popular travel idea for travelers nowadays to discover the city in the limited time. The Hop-On, Hop-off bus routes normally cover the most touristic and amazing part of the city, with a tour guide in the bus.

This free and easy concept is very common and you will find it in most of the big city in overseas.

As a Malaysian, we can see the effort of Penang in promoting tourism recent years with the growing numbers of touristic attractions in Penang Island.
Exploring Penang can be exciting by taking the trending double decker open top bus.
The unique part of this bus is
You can feel the wind breezing , the sun shinning and the vibrant of the city.

The Penang Hop-on Hop-off covers 2 routes - city route and beach route, with 33 designated stops including over 60 attractions and hotels for travelers. All the stops have a very clear ,blue logo and some information about the bus.

The free-copy guidebook in the bus provides the map and attractions of city with its designated hop-on hop-off stops. To be honest, I found this guidebook quite useful throughout my whole Penang trip and the map inside the guidebook is quite easy to understand.

With the "Hop-on Hop-off" concept, the ticket holder can board on and get off the bus at their preferred stop.
The crew in the bus will introduce briefly about the attractions in Penang before every stop.
You may ask the crew for the help. The crew are friendly and suggested me on the nearest stop to some of the attractions that I would like to go.

I explored the city with 1 ticket and a guidebook.
Hop-on Hop off-Tour will start daily from 9 am to 8 pm, with around 20 to 30 minutes intervals
There are 2 types of tickets validity 24 hours and 48 hours with unlimited rides and competitive ticket price. ( Prices are vary for Malaysian and foreigner.)
Therefore, a good understanding about all the stops and some planning may need to make the 24 hours or 48 hours ticket worthwhile.
No time to make planning before the trip?? No worry!!! I would recommend you to take a round trip of the route to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Penang.

I took a round trip for both routes and I really enjoyed the nice views and the wind ( haha!!) .
Don't forget you are in open-top buses, you can capture a good scenery photo even in the bus.
Thinking about surfing the internet in the bus? There is Wifi in the bus. You can upload your most epic photo, update your status to the social media in the bus.

Personally I like the sea view in Penang the most... Here is my photo taken from the bus.

There are 2 interchange stops- Gurney Drive(1) and Chowrasta(9) which you can switch between beach route and city route. There is mobile counter with English-literate crews in this 2 interchange stop. You can buy the Hop-on Hop-off tickets either at mobile counter or inside the bus.

Here is the map of Hop-on Hop-off

Long time not updating my blog....
I had been working hard in past few months....
Therefore, I decided to take a short break

My destination this time is not overseas anymore... but in Penang for 5 Days 4 Nights.
Thanks you My Amazing Malaysia 玩疯马来西亚 for organizing the ‪#‎MyFascinatingPenang‬ Blogger Competition. I'm one of the blogger involved in the competition.

I tried Easybook to book my bus ticket to Penang.
It's convenient, like its name " easy"to"book"
Established since the year 2005, easybook.com have been providing online bus booking services of luxurious coaches and express buses tickets from Singapore to and fro Malaysia, within peninsular Malaysia, East Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Not only bus ticket, now you can even find train ticket, ferry ticket, tour deals in Easybook.

All details of the trip is transparent, such as time of departure, types of coaches, prices and seat numbers.

Basically once you know the destination you would like to go, you can go to Easybook website.

Easy steps : SEARCH --> CONFIRM --> PAY

Here is how I book my ticket:
Select your Origin, Destination, Departure Date, Departure Time

Choose your preferable type of coach and departure time, then choose the seat

Lastly, fill in your detail

Select your desire payment option. You can pay by either credit card or internet banking

.
After payment done, Order Summary will be sent to your email within 24 hours. Here is my printed ticket which I have to show to the bus driver while boarding .

* More information about booking the ticket from Easybook:
http://www.easybook.com/pages/how-to-book.aspx

Some tips to those who like to purchase ticket from Easybook

- Not all the journey is direct and non-stop, especially the long hours journey. Some coach companies will display the places they stop on Easybook website. Therefore you can estimate and expect a longer journey as the bus will have few stops before arrive your destination.

- The ticket price shown in the Easybook website is almost the same as the price bought from counter. Sometime with discount code, the price you get will be even lower than the counter price.

- One more benefits on booking the ticket from Easybook will be their transparent, fair ticket price. You can compare the price between the coach company . You can see the seat availability. Therefore, once you confirm and pay, you will get your seat, and no worry on not manage to buy the ticket in the last minute or during the peak season.

- You can book the ticket by using Easybook mobile app. With your smartphone, you can make the deal.... More info about mobile apps : http://www.easybook.com/apps

So, try to book your travel ticket from Easybook, and you will know that to plan a trip is not as difficult as you thought, even during the peak season.

http://www.easybook.com/

Easybook FB page : https://www.facebook.com/easybook

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The Zaanse Schans is one of the highlights of the Netherlands, near to Amsterdam.
It is well known with its collection of well-preserved historic windmills and houses.
Windmill is like an icon for Netherland. The trip to Netherlands will never be completed without visiting windmill in Zaanse Schans.

Tips: I would recommend you to reach Zaanse Schans by train. The nearest station is Koog-Zaandijk. The train from Amsterdam Central Station takes 17 minutes. Zaanse Schans is just a 15-minute walk away.Directions to the location is pretty straight forward and well guided for signboards! To be honest, you will discover more thing if you reach by train, even most people will tell you that bus is the good option and it will bring you directly to Zaanse Schans.

The whole Zaanse Schans is not big, just a small village. Besides the most significant windmills, there are a lot of Dutch wooden architecture style building in whole village.

Here's the windmills. It's big and most of it are still functioning.

The mills are used for sawing wood and grinding oil, flower, spices and colourings.

You can go into them and climb to the top.

In my opinion, there is a lot of windmill replica in the world but none of it can replace the windmills in Zaanse Schans.

Besides the windmills, I spent some time at this wooden shoes workshop. There have the demonstration session to visitor about the making of famous Dutch wooden shoe. The most important thing is the entrance is FREE. The speaker will speak everything about wooden shoes and the talk are interactive and fun. He will make a shoe from a wet wood live during his demonstration. Worth to listen.

There are workshops about dutch cheese, wine, cocoa and traditional crafts.

So, in front of woodenshoe workshop, I did something very touristic pose with the giant shoes. The shoes can be found very frequent in Amsterdam.

The sceneries, windmills, musuems and workshops,are all definitely worth a visit. I just enjoyed myself a lot in this places and took a lot photo with this wonderful beauty village. It's important to come to Zaanse Schans at good weather and timing.

The picturesque scene you shouldn't miss~~~

" We can't control the wind , but we can direct the sail"

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Whether its reunion dinners, or simply a get together with friends,
Steamboat is always the prefer way for everyone to sit together, putting the ingredients that you like and eat together.
This month I would like to introduce this special retro-theme steamboat restaurant in Johor Bahru, which serve the epic 4-tier steamboat-- De Junks Restaurant

Here is the location for De Junks Restaurant
8 Jalan Austin Heights 8/2,
Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru.
(Facing Austin Height Water Theme Park)
Google map: http://goo.gl/gCnmRG

One of the attractions of this restaurant is their retro decoration, which invoking nostalgic feelings among the customers. Besides enjoying your steamboat, I can guarantee that you will look around all the decorations on the wall in the restaurant.

Here come to the most epic 4-tier steamboat. It's my 1st time trying the 4-tier steamboat. To be honest, it's interesting for me.

The first tier is for the soup, and you can have 2 types of soups.

While the second tier is a hot plate. You can fry and grill the food.

The third tier is for keeping warm. This tier can be either warm the food such as chilies chicken or as chocolate fondue.

Finally, the last tier is a steamer for the buns and other foods

Here is the look after putting the food in all tiers.....

The package have more than 25 ingredients. So here's the steamboat ingredients for 2 person. Noodles is included too.

The price also include the buns and breads, with the quail egg and homemade meat platter.

Plus the marinated meat for grill.

and lastly, the biscuits, mashmallow and fruits for chocolate fondue. You can have all the ingredients for steamboat, grill,steam and even the chocolate fondue. No worry about sharing with more friends if you feel the portion are big. You can just order for 2 person steamboat set, and eat with more friends.

So, there are variety sauces and flavoring provided for steamboat.

Besides the steamboat, the restaurant served drinks such as chrysanthemum tea with basil seed, lime juice with sour plum, passion fruit drink, and soursop drink. It's not too sweet, just perfect match with the steamboat.

The restaurant also serve other food such as the signature salted egg fried rice. Overall this fried rice is fragrance, not too oily.

Next, Japanese breadcrumble salmon with fried chips. I would recommend you to have a taste of this snack while waiting for the food to cook in the steamboat.

Giant prawns meehun soup

As this dish name with"giant", I was just amazed with the big bowl of meehun soup served in front of us. The prawns used are fresh, which is the most important ingredients in this meehun soup. The portion is big, so I would suggest to share this meehun soup.

Still wondering how the customers think about De Junks restaurant? It's seem like most customers left a positive comments to them.

So, come and try this 4-tier steamboat in De Junks Restaurant in Johor Bahru, and feel the retro environment and recall all nice memories with your friend and family.

De Junks Restaurant Address:
8 Jalan Austin Heights 8/2,
Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru.
Contact no : 019-7002228

Opening time:
Everyday : 5:00pm till 11:00pm.
Close every alternate Tuesday.

Do check their website and FB page for their updated menu:
Website : http://www.dejunks.com/
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/dejunksrestaurant?pnref=lhc

Ma Chérie - Johor Bloggers FB page: https://www.facebook.com/MaCherieJohorBloggers?fref=ts

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For some of us, spa can be relax and enjoyment , but may not essential.

However, once you understand the benefits of spa, it can be essential, even a must-do routine, especially for the lady.

Going to a spa is a way of getting taken care of that is psychologically and culturally acceptable -- and we can carry that feeling of being cared for with us for a period of time, and very often that can help us cope better with stress.

Few studies by expert had shown the spa can linked to better physical and mental health, including better quality sleep and fewer sick days.

It is very important to find a good therapist and spa service, so that you can get maximal benefits from spa.

It's not my 1st time review about spas and well this time I would like to introduce all my readers this worthwhile spa service in Total Perfection, Tmn Desa Terbau, Johor Bahru.

Total Perfection Face & Body Spa
9A, Jalan Harmonium 23/14,
Taman Desa Tebrau,
81100, Johor Bahru (same row with Restoran Sayed and Petronas petrol station )
Google Map: http://goo.gl/ra53Jy

It located at above a hair salon, a traffic light away from AEON Tebrau City. The shop is just facing the main road.

Total Perfection was started with a passion of providing premier yet affordable Top to Toe services. They adopt a holistic approach towards health and beauty, offering services with a blend of latest technology and skillful human touch. Their services mainly include facial, body spa and slimming.

Facial room

Nice, comfortable waiting room.

Total Perfection was founded by Jojo Ching, who is a certified beautician. She showed her professionalism through our conversation , in both beauty and health. She had arranged a 2-hours spa package for me, which include the full body massage.

Before the treatment began, a simple analysis is done to determine my body weigh, fats, water content and muscle. Then I was instructed by Elynn, one of their professional therapist for my spa session.

The treatment started with body scrub with sea salt and lemon grass essential oil. Exfoliating has always been an important step in all skin-care treatments. A body scrub will actually help to remove all the dead skin off the body and expose a supple layer of younger skin, and feel fresh and rejuvenated.

Massage Room with unique design.

After the scrubbing, I was going into these far infrared sauna box for 15 minutes. Sweating is the body’s safe and natural way to heal & stay healthy. The rise of temperature resulting in a deep, detoxifying sweat at the cellular level, where toxins reside. Heating the muscles with infrared rays improve the circulation , lower the blood pressure and skin purification. To be honest, I'm not the sporty person. This sauna session has made myself sweating for whole body and very refreshing.

After the sauna and bath, the treatment continued with 1-hour full body aromatherapy massage.

The essential oil used in aromatherapy massage is lavender/rose.

Aromatherapy can boost well being, relieve stress and help to refresh our body. Aromatherapy massage not only has powerful physical, emotional and mental effects but it is also described as a great relaxing and rejuvenating experience.

The therapist is friendly and and I have put my total trust to her throughout the massage. The massage has loosen my tight muscles and stimulated the circulation.

In general, it's a nice, enjoyable experience spa treatment from Total Perfection. The therapists here are very skillful, friendly and knowledgeable.

The essential oil used is pleasant to smell, and comfortable to my skin.

The environment is relaxing and tranquil. The rooms are clean and hygiene.

Throughout the session, the therapist has shared a lot of health and beauty information with me. Besides the relaxation after the whole day work, I learned some skin care/beauty knowledge from them.
One of the reasons why I strongly recommend spa treatment in Total Perfection will be their good service with very affordable price. The money you paid is definitely worth with their services given. It's the best choice for you to come here and relax yourself after the tiring shopping or working.

There is promotion now in Total Perfection!!!!!!
In conjunction of woman day this month, any customers who do any services/treatments here will enjoy a free hand spa worth RM30.

So, if you are interested in spa treatment and looking a good service in JB, do come and try their service.

Total Perfection Address:
9A, Jalan Harmonium 23/14,
Taman Desa Tebrau,
81100, Johor Bahru (same row as Restoran Sayed)
Tel: 07-359 5336 / 07-361 1204 / 013 - 7778317
Email: totalperfection@ymail.com / skinelement@hotmail.com

Opening Hours:
Tuesday - Friday: 10.30am - 8.00pm
Saturday - 10.30am - 7.00pm
Sunday & Public Holidays: 10.30am - 6.00pm
Closed on Mondays, please call to make appointment

"The noblest search is the search for excellence.---Lyndon B. Johnson"

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Taiwan, a country that I would definitely say "YES" for revisit.
It's almost 3 years ago since my last visit to Taiwan, as an exchange student.
4+ hours flight from Malaysia to Taiwan, with lots of airline providing direct flight
Taiwan has becoming one of the popular destination for vacation.

Here is my previous posts about my last visit of Taiwan ( Oh, it's mostly about foodssss~~~~)
Night Market in Taiwan: http://mush4crazy.blogspot.com/2013/01/night-market-in-taiwan.html
Food Hunting Guide in Taiwan: http://mush4crazy.blogspot.com/2014/11/collection-of-food-in-taiwan.html

The thing that impress me the most about this relatively small country will be their effort to create and preserve the scenic & attractive sites.
You can find both the modern and traditional in a same place.
I love the retro atmosphere in old streets, and I love the vibrant busy Taipei too...
I still remember the friendliness of local people I met, and their hospitality to the foreigners.

I definitely plan to revisit Taiwan in future, to enjoy the highly regarded Taiwanese cuisine, and their night market.
So I can imagine my itineraries of the trip will be the trip of food.
I will make a checklist of Taiwan food and restaurant that I should go if I revisit Taiwan. Haha~~~
and discover more hidden treasure in Taiwan, especially in countryside and old village.
The best is always waiting us to discover.
I look forward to taste the best street food at the best night market in Taiwan.
In addition, I would like to try cycling in Taiwan, as I never try to see this city by cycling.. ( so no worry about how much I eat, calories burnt immediately after cycling.... Haha)

Bubble tea, sausage, steamboat, mee sua, stinky tohu, papaya milk, oyster omelette, pastry, mochi, coffin bread, beef noodle, minced pork rice, doufuhua, Egg wrap...... etc...... (Ok, I'm hungry while thinking of the food)

I will enjoy my trip with a lots of nice food, hunting the hidden treasure in Taiwan

Roadshow information !!!!!!!!!

Taiwan Tourism Bureau Kuala Lumpur (TTBKL) is organising its first-ever Taiwan Travel Fair in Malaysia. With the theme of “Time to Enjoy Life”, it will be held at 1 Utama Shopping Centre, where the public can get the best deals for Taiwan travel at this one-stop event from 25 to 29 March 2015.
How to go 1 Utama Shopping Centre: http://goo.gl/aslMOQ

With the first Taiwan Travel Fair, TTBKL hopes to present great value travel deals to Malaysian families. They have tied up with top Taiwanese and Malaysian travel agencies to offer a variety of exciting packages and the most attractive travel deals for all destinations in Taiwan. This also includes customised packages or tours specially-catered for Muslim visitors.

For visitors of the fair who purchase any tour package from participating agents, they stand a chance to participate in a lucky draw for every RM500 spent. Prizes include Taipei return flight tickets sponsored by China Airlines and Eva Airways; and East Asia cruise on Star Aquarius, Star Virgo and Aquarius liners sponsored by Star Cruises. So do make a date with us and visit the Taiwan Tourism Fair to bring back these fabulous prizes!