The cultural performance at the Little Penang Street Market

I simply love this stall selling various beautiful crystal jewellry and yes, I bought something from this stall

The uncle who uses all sorts of paper to recycle and fold into aeroplanes

My son is terrified of lion dance but he seemed intriqued by this small puppet version

There are now quite a few food stalls there

There is a stall selling plants too

My son wondering why these two little boys are sitting inside the small enclosure of the display board (and yes, they are all holding the recycled-paper aeroplanes)

This is what I bought at the Little Penang Street Market

Those pretty bags contained earrings!

I bought two pairs of earrings from the stall I showed earlier

I may go again next month to check out more of the stalls there for Christmas gifts.

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So, recently, we went up to the Batu Ferringhi Night Market which is famous for all the illegal chio’ng ciplak things. We need to restock our…errr…movie collections…You know la, Heroes season two is already in, House season four already in and seems like Supernatural season three is on the way. These are my favourite series la and I don’t have time to wait for stupid Astro.

Also, we have missed so many movies such The Water Horse, Alvin and The Chipmunks and even Transformers. Ever since having my toddler, it is difficult to find time to go pakthor and watch movies….so we go for cheaper, easier option of home theatre la.

Of course, the Batu Ferringhi Night Market offers a lot of other things and not only the…errr..entertainment stuff. They have trinkets, decor items, chio’ng branded handbags, chio’ng branded clothes and more decor items.

It was not easy trying to take pictures of the stalls there because the stall operators are mostly very hostile. Perhaps they are worried about being caught ‘red-handed’ with pictures of them selling chio’ng things…

As you can see, we stick to taking pictures of things that are not chio’ng at all….Just no-brand things, some local, some made in Thailand and some Made in China.

Now, along that stretch, there is Long Beach Cafe which offers local hawker fare. It is also quite near my favourite..err..chio’ng entertainment stall. Eh, the stall sell very cheap you know! Only RM4 each and the quality, VERY GOOD. Always no problem with the err…things.

Choices: 8/10

Quality: 8/10

Price: 9/10

Here’s Long Beach Cafe along the Batu Feringghi Night Market. See the Spring Roll stall? That’s my favourite! Their spring roll is very good.

Review of Spring Roll: Crunchy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. The vegetables inside are nicely cooked and tasty. It goes very well with the sauce consisting of cut chillies and Lea & Perrins sauce.

Price: A bit pricey for a single spring roll, RM3 each.

Rating: 7/10

There are a lot of other stalls there selling a variety of hawker fare. Some are good, some are not. I have not tried all so can’t give any ratings on that. The prices are quite reasonable considering it being a tourist spot. A plate of food could be priced from between RM3 and RM5 depending on what you order.

Oh, there is also a stall selling presumably Haagen Daaz ice cream at RM7 a scoop. Well, trust me, it is ice cream but it is definitely NOT Haagen Daaz! It taste nothing like Haagen Daaz! It is either they use some other higher quality ice cream to pass it off as Haagen Daaz or it old stock taken at a cheaper price from Haagen Daaz, thus the taste a bit out.

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Firstly, the stalls are all so crammed together that the walkways are narrow and with the huge crowd there, it isn’t very easy to get around.

Secondly, they have this REALLY STUPID idea to have one entrance and one exit. That’s not the worse of it, they partitioned off the entrance so if you are on the other side of the concourse, you will have to walk ALL AROUND to the entrance if ever you need to get out in a hurry. The exit is on the lower ground so those who had walked around the concourse, go downstairs to the indoor stadium to check out the stalls and came up to the concourse again, will find that they have no way out but to go back down.

I do not see the point of this at all as there was no entrance fees. Since each and every single stall has so many staff to push their items at you, I would hardly think it is that easy for thieves to steal expensive stuffs like, say, a notebook (which are all locked, anyway).

As for the fair itself, if you are looking for cheap DVDs, CDs, thumb drives, memory sticks, memory cards and other techie accessories, then, going to the Pikom PC Fair is a good idea. Some of these items are being sold quite cheap and much lower than market rate.

A word of advice, though, go early as the crowds there are truly unbelievable and you may not get a good parking spot!

Other than that, well, it is not so great la. Most of the more expensive stuffs such as notebooks and some cameras are being sold at normal market prices…maybe with discounts of RM50 or so or worse, stupid free gifts that you do not need.

To prove my point, I went and checked out the prices of HTC Touch, my PDA phone, and found that there were no special discounts, no special packages and no special free gifts. It is the same as going to the shops on normal days to buy it. I also checked out wireless modems and the discounts were only between RM20 to RM50 or some of it the prices are the same but it includes unwanted free gifts.

The only good thing about the Pikom PC Fair is that all of the techie shops are concentrated in one place and it makes surveying and scouting for the best prices the shops can offer for certain items easier.

The Pikom PC Fair at Pisa is until Sunday and open from 11am to 9pm.

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Here are the details:

On the mainland:

Date: April 11 – 13

Time: 11am – 9pm

Venue: Dewan Millenium, Kepala Batas

On the island:

Date: April 18 – 20

Time: 11am – 9pm

Venue: Pisa, Relau

Based on my previous experiences of going to the Pikom PC Fair, be prepared to find:

1. Great bargains for items that are fast becoming obsolete..like old models of computers, notebooks, printers, cameras, etc.

2. Reasonable bargains for accessories such as thumb drive, memory sticks, CD-ROM, pen drive, etc.

3. Little or no good discounts for newly released products such as new laptops, printers, computer, etc.

4. Often, newly released products are offered in a package with free this or that, usually items that are cheap and not needed.

5. Only certain items, due to promotions by the brand, are being sold at great bargains with good packages.

6. Many local companies selling their own brand of computers really cheap which may or may not be reliable so if you are tempted, check on the company background and their after-sales service.

Therefore, if you are looking for great bargains, check around other computer /tech shops first to get a feel of the pricing before going to the Pikom PC Fair. Often, you will find that there are not much difference in prices for certain items, especially the ones that are high in demand.

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Ok, ok, all you updated, high tech fellas out there must be laughing now, thinking I must be crazy to think a PDA phone is some new fangled thing. Well, it may not be all that new in the market, it is new to me la. So, please bear with me here. I have more to write about it.

Anyway, just like most kiamsiap ku (that’s kedekut in Hokkien, also another affliction, but this is quite a common affliction amongst Penangites…), I went around looking at different brands and comparing prices and specifications. And I found out one frustrating thing, well, actually a few frustrating things.

The first one is this: blardy hell, why Nokia here, Nokia there, Nokia everywhere? I am looking for PDA phone la, not just a phone pretending to be a PDA phone, okay? Sure, there are a lot of handphone shops, handphone stalls, handphone shacks, handphone whatever everywhere but PDA phone???? Well, susah la want to cari.

First I went to Gurney Plaza and immediately realised I made a huge mistake. The handphone shops there are more like handphone boutiques. I am looking for bargain prices but there is no such thing there. Besides, the PDA specialist shop which I bought my ancient PPC (that’s Pocket PC, for the less gadget inclined) from sudah tutup kedai. The few handphone boutiques there aren’t that well stocked either, not to mention a tad ‘high fallutin’ with hidungs in the air and the sales people looking down at me from their blue, sharp pointed noses in the air. Woi, I may be wearing slippers and shorts but it doesn’t mean I can’t afford one okay? Only Charlie Communications offered a friendly service but no less cheaper. Choices were also very limited in the mall. The only PDA phone brands to be found were Asus and HTC (formerly Dopod) and one or two O2.

From there, I went to Prangin Mall and browsed through the many handphone stalls on the ground floor. Hmmm…there must not be a market for PDA phones cause most of the stalls don’t have any! The only PDA phones they have is Nokia N-something or other. Look, Nokia-pretending-to-be-PDA-phone is over-priced and over-rated okay? I don’t intend to spend that huge amount of money on a tiny so-called-computer-but-not-really-a-computer when the same amount can be used to buy a brand new laptop from Dell. Or better still, can buy one of those ultraportable tiny notebooks, Fujitsu Lifebook. There was one stall who tried to push the O2 XDA on me at a very low price. It was so low, I was suspicious. But still, due to the great service, I gave it great consideration before walking away. Hey, I’m a Penangite la. I don’t buy things, especially expensive ones, without comparing the prices and other brands till I am satisfied it is the best I could get!

Then on to Bukit Jambul Complex where I was told there is practically a handphone street within the mall. Well, it is true. There are about 20 (or more?) handphone stalls along the walkways of the mall. I went from stall to stall and guess what? Cehhh…only about two or three stalls has PDA phones while the rest all sell only handphones. The brands available? HTC, Eten Glofiish and again, handphone brands pretending to be PDA phones.

Sigh…that’s not much comparison to go on right? In the meantime, I surfed around on the net and found that the few reliable brands are HTC, O2, Palm and iPhone. Palm and iPhone is definitely out for me coz I use a PC, not an Mac/ Apple and those are more Mac/ Apple compatible. Those are also quite expensive.

So, I went to Queensbay Mall. My gawd. The digital section is practically a ghost town (it is very near the toilet bowl restaurant with the toilet food which I wrote about here) It has only a few shops. Discouraged by the lack of choices, I only asked two of the shops there though the salesmen were not much help.

Why most of the people jaga-ing the counters in all four places don’t know the specs or even the basic functions of the gadgets they were selling? Err, hello?? Aren’t you the salesman? Hey, if you don’t know this, don’t know that, you expect a newbie gadget-gal like me to know ah?

Finally, I went to Prangin Mall again and this time, I went to the tech section on level four (or is it five?). Here, I found several shops selling PDA phones and realised I should have checked here in the first place! I finally bought a HTC PDA phone at the shop called Gadza due to the sterling service, great bargain and me becoming tired of going around looking for a PDA phone!

So, what did I learn from this whole experience?

- the PDA phone market in Penang is a small one with very limited shops selling a variety of PDA phones
- salesmen selling handphones are not always well-versed with the products they are selling
- there is no such thing as a cheap PDA phone, all are above RM1k and most are around RM2k.
- buying a PDA phone means extensive research on the reliable brands and some knowledge on what specs I needed it to have to suit my..er..needs
- when buying a PDA phone must get it from an established shop for after-sales service because PDA phones are all about software updates, applications updates and proper usage!
- it is important to check the whereabouts of service centres for the brands as it is not that easy to repair a PDA phone as compared to a regular handphone
- the reliable/well-known PDA phones on the market are HTC / Dopod, O2, Palm, Asus, HP to be followed by the handphones pretending to be PDA phones such as Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Nokia.

I finally decided on HTC Touch because of the price (RM1688) and the colour (burgundy) and the design (slim and small) and the specs suit my needs. I was seriously considering HTC Touch Dual (at RM1999 by SenQ which is a steal considering all other shops sells it at RM2,399) but decided that I don’t have to splurge so much on a PDA phone.

Hey, I’m the person who buys RM300 basic handphone and only change handphone when old phone rosak, so getting a RM1,688 PDA phone is considered VERY unusual especially when my handphone is still in good working conditions, okay?

This is a video of my brand new gadget which I found in YouTube when I was researching on it:

So, now that I got my brand new gadget, anyone any idea what I should do with my old PPC/PDA? Its an old HP iPaq without camera or phone. The shop I bought from don’t even want me to trade it in. Yep, it is practically valueless (thus my hesitation to splurge too much on a PDA phone since it will be obsolete and unwanted by the time I decided to change it!) and err..obsolete.

Sigh, want to go put it into the recycling box but feel its a waste, want to trade in nobody wants it, want to sell even worse nobody interested, so now, it is gathering dust and taking up space in my drawer.

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Anyway, it was a fun one hour browsing through the stalls selling mostly pretty baubles and sparkly trinkets…err…okay, there were more but these are the ones that caught my attention. Had a couple of unpleasant experiences when I was clicking away on my camera. Luckily I bump into my photographer friend (Adpix Studio) who didn’t mind giving me some pictures to be put up here as long as I give the credit to him. So, the credit of the below pictures (most of it, anyway) goes to Adpix Studio.

When I was there, the Cosplay competition was going on with some young fellas dressed up in…err…weird / cute / funny / colourful costumes going up to the makeshift stage to parade. I didn’t take any pictures of that because of the huge crowd standing around there and I wasn’t in the mood to jostle with them.

To the lady who rudely told me ‘No camera’ after I had clicked a few of the beautiful colourful magnets on her stall: Well, excuse me! I’m not taking pictures of your ugly face so buzz off. Besides, I had the intention to buy some of the magnets but since you are so rude and totally unfriendly, TOO BAD I decided to buy magnets from other stalls instead!

To the guy who loudly told his father that this photographer is taking pictures of only the products on sale and not the people behind the stalls: Go look in the mirror! You think you are the exact image of Tom Cruise izzit?

And finally to the few nice ladies whom I bought stuffs from, thanks for the friendly and warm service. Be sure that I will be back to waste…err…spend…more money on your stuffs.

A red Darth Vader? One of the displays for the Cosplay theme.

Metal stuffs

Stained glassware..pretty and handpainted too!

The uncle making these is very friendly so I bought a helicopter from him for RM6 which is total waste of money because my toddler immediately tore it apart the moment we got home.

An overview of the stalls

Colourful beaded accessories!

The few things I bought: 3 animal fridge magnets (3 for RM10) not from the rude lady, the helicopter and beaded dragonfly hairpins (RM5 each) from the Rumah Nur stall.

Fancy a portrait? Try this artist who will do it on the spot. And no, that’s not me,
just some accidental model..heheheh

More shiny trinkets. These are coral-motif sterling silver jewellery.
Most of his designs are really nice but I can’t afford any of it (hint, hint to hubs..).

These nice little packages contains soap / potpourri.
Makes really nice gifts (look below for a closer look)

Artsy stuff…glass artwork by Fuan and next to
this stall is the stall selling the coral-motif silver jewellery.

More artsy stuff…

Antiques for those keen on collecting ancient things

Finally, I also bought a pair of Swa-watucallit crystal earrings and a handphone strap with a star crystal from the ‘Colourful gifts’ stall. These two costs me RM36! Unfortunately, my picture of the stall & the stuff I bought didn’t turn out properly so I’m not posting it. Anyway, the stall owner is a very nice and friendly person.

They even have an online store so check it out here if you have a hankering for Swa-watucallit costume jewellery and stuffs. Another reason I like this stall so much is because they put the earrings and handphone strap inside a nice pretty muslin pouch each instead of an ugly plastic jewellery box. Really perfect if it’s meant as a gift!

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I don’t know about you but I am thinking of dropping by at the monthly Little Penang Street Market at UPR (that’s Upper Penang Road for those not from around here). The theme for this month is Cosplay, manga and anime. You know, Japanese animation and costume role-playing.
So, manga and anime fans should drop by to see what’s there.

I have been to the arts and crafts bazaar several times since they started in July 2006. In the beginning, I was sceptical that it would last. After all, Penangites are known for their sin jamban attitude. You know, we just love the novelty of anything new but once it gets old, it is chucked aside and quickly forgotten.

Well, not surprisingly, the Little Penang Street Market survived! The organisers have done a superb job in keeping the little bazaar interesting every month. They have different themes each month, though most are based on our festivals. They also brought in great entertainment in the form of bands and performances to draw in the crowds.

Most importantly, the arts and crafts stalls are really arts and crafts stalls. Not some stall selling stuffs that are ‘Made in China’ or worse, ‘Made in Thailand’. It is indeed a local arts and crafts place with many of the artists behind the masterpieces on sale doubling as stall keepers and sellers.

Handicrafts and masterpieces you can find includes handmade accessories like earring and bags, handmade clothes, artsy stuffs like vases and framed pictures made of beans. As for pricing, well, some are dirt cheap (at least for handicrafts) while some are so expensive most of us probably can’t even afford to stare at it for too long.

There are also a few local food stalls so you can grab a bite as you browse. Alternatively, there’s Beach Blanket Babylon and Segafredo there too. If you want some entertainment, they also schedule some sort of performances at certain times of the day.

The market / bazaar opens at 10am and closes by 6pm or so. So, go early if you want to spend some time browsing around. It is fun and entertaining, if you don’t mind the heat. It is open air with canopies to block out the direct sunlight or possible rain but it doesn’t help with the heat. Definitely no air cond there.

I will be posting pictures of my visit there this Sunday and report on its success.

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The sale is being held at the Popular’s former shop at Level 5 and books are being sold really, really cheap! It started on Friday and is until April 28.

I went there on Friday and it was so crowded, I had to wait in line for almost an hour to pay for the books! Needless to say, I bought quite a lot of books. Most of it costs between RM10 to RM30 each, even for hardcover books and certain bestsellers.

The discounts are from 10% up to 90% so the prices are a real bargain.

The books on sale are on all subjects, fiction and non-fiction, school revision books and academic books. So, even if you are not much of a reader, it is a good time to get some school books for your kids / some recipe books / some how-to books or even some CDs / DVDs. Oh, I forgot to mention that the original CDs and DVDs are also on sale.

A warning though. Be prepared to be faced with jumbled up books being strewn practically on every surface haphazardly and the titles all mixed up. The same goes for the CDs and DVDs. Also, they have cleverly placed new bestsellers near the front portion where the rest of the ‘No discount’ items are.

So, be careful. Not all books in there are on sale. To be sure, you just need to check the price tags. The discounted items all have yellow tags to show the numbers 30 or 70 which indicated the percentage of discounts.

If it is a new bestseller and there are no other tags next to its price tag, then it most probably isn’t on discount.

Go early in the day before the crowds on weekends, otherwise go during weekdays. You don’t want to get stuck at the long snaking Qs at the cashiers!

Have fun shopping!

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It’s been awhile since I took a leisurely early dinner with plenty of time to walk around and browse so over the weekends we decided to have dinner at New World Park in Swatow Lane/ Hutton Lane/ Burmah Road.

I’ve heard that there’s a Ladies Street sort of bazaar going on over the weekends there so I thought, maybe I could pick up some really nice stuff or browse around for birthday present ideas.

Pictures courtesy of Adpix Studio

So, what I found there was pretty disappointing although it was pleasant walking around the beautiful hang-out place. There’s no other name to call it since it is so very conducive for friends to simply hang around there at any of its ‘coffee’ shops and chat for hours…

Picture courtesy of Adpix Studio

The Ladies Street is just an array of about 20 stalls selling pasar malam stuffs like handbags, earrings, dresses and knick-knacks. There are a few arts and crafts stalls, a charity stall and more stalls selling accessories. The things sold there are not in any way exceptionally different. Just plain normal accessories and clothes you can get at any pasar malam anytime, anywhere. Even the pricing aren’t something to shout about, certain dresses for RM45 each, tops for RM25 each and RM10 for three pairs of colourful, plastic earrings.

Pictures courtesy of Adpix Studio

As a hang-out place, the two popular tea time places there would be the western-style Starbucks or our local Old Town Cafe. Coincidentally (or carefully planned), these two outlets are opposite each other so you can stand there and make your decision between western or local!

Well, in conclusion, though it is not exactly a great shopping place, it is great for meeting up with friends, great place to spend a lazy weekend afternoon (did I mention free wifi internet thanks to Starbucks?) and most of all, it is pleasingly landscaped and decorated. Very comfy to window shop around what little shops there are and ultra comfy to spend hours chatting (online or real-life).

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Drats!

I do love to shop for groceries at Tesco mainly because it is convenient and the parking is free! So, I could practically spend hours there to stock up on my groceries and at the same time have a meal there at one of the restaurants and makan shops there. There are also many other interesting shops to browse around especially when I have time to kill. Basically, it is a great hang out and shopping place without having to pay parking fees on a per hour basis.

Then recently I noticed they have installed the electronic gates at the entrance. And they have also placed the ‘paying’ machine for the carpark coupon. WTF? Sigh…there goes the leisurely pace which I usually adopt when shopping at Tesco.

I guess the reason for this is because many unscrupulous people have this genius idea to park their cars there and then carpool with someone else to go elsewhere. Thus, they take up parking lots and leave fewer lots to loyal customers like moi. How very inconsiderate! Well, to all of you out there guilty of doing this, thanks to you parking at Tesco is no longer free!

Hummppphhh…

They have yet to implement the parking rates but I do hope that when they do so, it won’t be too expensive (e.g. RM3 for first hour, RM1 for the next hour…). If they keep to the RM1 per entry rate, it should be fair enough but if it is an hourly rate, my only hope is that they give customers, with receipts as proof, a rebate.

Sigh…there goes one of the last few shopping places in Penang with free and spacious parking lots. Wait a minute…it is the only shopping place in Penang island with free and spacious parking lots!

Oh well, parking rate or not, I will still continue to shop there for the affordable prices and quite a complete variety of food stuff.

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