Situated nearby to a hostel cafe in USM itself, this little quirky cafe serves cakes, Western cuisine like lasagna and spaghetti, pie, coffee and other variety of drinks. By the way, the brownies are to die for :-) This cafe was recommended to me by a colleague.

Finding this little cafe was not easy cause if you're not local, you might have difficulty in finding it. The first thing we noticed when we entered was the deco. Old school yet rustic. Seats are quite limited as most of their customers prefer to take away their food. Sit in customers were a few and I noticed they were mostly staffs or students from the uni itself.

Their signature drink is the 'Kopi Balak'. Your typical black coffee with sugar serve in a glass bottle. Unique and creative although it's not my type of coffee. Prices were okay but I'm not sure if the prices are affordable for students. Judging from its portion, they're quite fulfilling to your stomach. Small but mighty.

The cosy feeling of this cafe makes it suitable to have assignment discussion or a place to hang out with your friends. The menu has many selection of food but most of them were not available. We had spaghetti bolognese, aglio olio, choc brownies and beef lasagna.

One thing I love about this little haven is that, you find much needed comfort and privacy when there are times you just want to be alone because it is less crowded. The whole cafe is just photography friendly. Every corner has different element and little figurines you can capture with your camera or mobile phones.

Photo courtesy of Google:

To get there, find USM in your Waze and once you're there, you can ask around for the direction. Here is the landmark. The Kapits is situated on the ground floor of Desa Cahaya Gemilang hostel

For more info on their latest cakes, pies, drinks and other promotions, visit their official Facebook here or call 013-499 9507

Operations hours:

Monday - Friday 11.00am to 12 midnight
Saturday and Sunday 4.00pm to 12 midnight

Syawal is in a few days time and I'm very sure that some of you are busy making and preparing kuih, or rushing to buy your Aidilfitri outfit too.  Well, I have settled mine months ago except Juan have not found his baju Melayu yet. 

For this year, I have prepared myself a maxi dress and as usual from Poplook. It's never easy to find clothes with my size, petite. Let alone shoes *I wear size 3*. For shoes, I shop at the kid section *kid you not*. To avoid embarrassment, I normally asked Juan to ask the shopkeeper what's their smallest shoe size. It's easier if I were to shop in Vincci, I'll just get the staff to hand me any size 3 shoes or sandal, lay them in a line in front of me, then from there I choose the ones that I like most *fefeeling chauffeur gitu kan* I think because of my petite size, people hardly take me seriously *sigh*

Syawal preparation are as usual *not that I started baking*. The first Raya morning will be at the in-laws, then we'll be leaving to my hometown the same afternoon. Traffic will not be as bad as the night before *you'll cling to your steering wheel and cry*. I bet that happen all over Malaysia as everyone are rushing back to their hometown.

That WAS the initially plan. But changes has to be made. Working with others is not the same like having your own company. It's not that flexible. A colleague of mine had asked me to cover the 1st Raya as she and her husband with their kid will be spending the Raya holiday in KL. She's a non-Muslim and I will not reveal her race *don't want this to be a controversial thing*.

Ok, I'm trying to keep my cool here. I'm not trying to rant but I was REALLY looking forward to spend the holiday with my parents. I rarely have 4 days of holiday and I rarely take the time off from work. So I'd thought that I could take the Raya holiday as opportunity to spend my time with both parents. So when I knew I had to come back to the office on first day of raya, what do you think?

I keep my mind on the positive side. Taking my father's word 'You do good, you get good things'. So that was the first news I receive pre-Aidilfitri :-(

Wearing Kipling sling bag, By Alexa Blue printed cotton shawl (coming soon)

How do I describe Tree Monkey?

Delicious.Dark.Windy.Amazing view.

It was a nice evening on Tuesday last week when my colleague decided that we should have dinner in Tree Monkey just before the Ramadhan kick start. This has been planned ages but never executed. Our initial outing was that, we go for hiking to Monkey Beach. Knowing me and Tasha, food lover, I know that the hiking plan will never happen. So we substitute with makan. Tell me, who doesn't like food?

So since the 3 of us had no plans on that particular day, we drove there. Tree Monkey is situated in the lush greenery of Teluk Bahang, facing the Andaman sea. A great place to watch the sunset. Situated beside Tree Monkey is the Tropical Spice Garden.

Although the place is nice, avoid wearing dark color clothing or shorts because you'll invite mosquitoes. However they provide guest with mosquito repellent oil spray. It smells like citronella.

Service overall?
Superb and super friendly.
Food was super delicious especially the Darling crab and tomyam. The otak-otak was not bad too.

Imagine eating good food while watching sunset, facing the Andaman sea. The sea view was so beautiful. However, I suggest that you call Tree Monkey to make reservation because the restaurant is not big and seats are limited.

Sorry the photo qualities aren't good because my camera decided to die on me, so had to use mobile phone.

Photo courtesy of : Tasha.

Perhaps a newly opened cafe by a fan of Penang football club. I assumed

It was on Monday night that me and Juan couldn't bothered to cook dinner. Plus I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat.

Juan googled interesting halal places to eat so we bumped into Haria Cafe. Their major dish was the nasi lemak kukus and ayam goreng berempah.

Presentation wise? Plating looks good. 

Sambal wise? Reddish but a bit watery. 

Ikan bilis? Crunchy and not too salty. 

Rice? Smells nice but lacked of coconut milk

Ayam goreng berempah? A bit of dissapoinment. Tasted like a normal fried chicken. Perhaps the marination process did not complete whereby it would be good if the chicken can be marinated a few hours or better still, overnight.

I couldn't taste any of the grinned lemongrass. The chicken was hard. Maybe because it was fried longer than it should. The meat was dry and not moist. 

However, if you don't fancy ayam goreng. You can try their sotong sambal and daging redang. The rendang tasted so good. I believe it would go well with the rice. Total price for 3 plate of nasi lemak including drinks were RM20. Quite reasonable. I wouldn't say it was cheap because nothing comes cheap nowadays.

I've never been a coffee lover but Juan is. It started off after we got married that I became so hook up with coffee. In fact now I drink coffee every single day. Even on some weekends. Juan buys packets of coffee for him to bring them to office and some to stock up at home.

I love coffee with more sweetness and milk froth and ever since I have been changing all kinds of brand but none that suits me. Just to find 'the-one'. Until..........I found the new Nescafe Blend and Brew. It was recommended by a colleague of mine. Since then, I'm sooo hooked up with this every morning.

Nescafe Blend and Brew is freshly brewed coffee with milk and natural sugar. It doesn't taste very strong but it sure give you the addiction that one cup is never enough. The taste is slightly different from the old Nescafe 3-in-1. The new Blend and Brew also comes in 3 different flavor ; Original, Mild and Rich. I prefer mine Original. How about you?

You can follow their pages for more exciting updates ; Facebook, Twitter, Homepage and YouTube.

Disclaimer : There was no animal harmed in the making of this post. Only a little terrapine forced into becoming a model :-). Meet Leo.

Wearing Poplook Cleo Drawstring Viscose Pants - Deep Red and Milktee DEMI BLUE GRAY STRIPED TEE (it is superrr comfy, kid you not).

Our first stop during our trip to India was Jaipur.

Jaipur is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan in Northern India. It was founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, after whom the city is named. The city today has a population of 3.1 million. Jaipur is also known as the Pink City of India.

We started our journey on 21st March, midnight, with Air Asia bound to Kolkata (RM 690, 3 hours of flight). From Kolkata, we boarded India's budget airline, IndiGo( Rs 13,726). All flight tickets are purchased before hand.

Our flight from Kolkata to Jaipur took about 1 hour and 30 minutes and it was a smooth flight. The sun rises very early in India. Around 6.15am and we managed to capture the sunrise during our Jaipur bound flight. The time different is 2 1/2 hours behind Malaysia.

On roaming:
Purchasing a local sim card is not easy in India. Some require a lot of documents for verification. Fret not, because internet is available at most hotel/hostels. Check with your network provider if your sim card is equip with roaming service before flying. It's more convenient that way.

On weather:
The temperature in Jaipur is around 33 degree Celsius in the day and could go down to 29 degree Celsius at night. The weather is not as hot as in Malaysia. Wear cotton clothing and something light. If you plan to go for backpacking, bring clothes with light materials where they could be washed and dry easily.

 As we arrived earlier than expected, we called the hotel to inquire if we could check in and they said the room is available for us. We stayed at Laxmi Palace Hotel. The hotel is situated near to the City Palace and other local attractions. You can check out their rates here. The price is affordable and the room and shower are spacious. What I like about this hotel is the bed is big enough to fit 3 to 4 person (with my size). You should also try their food in the hotel. They serve breakfast from 7am to 11am, lunch from 2pm to 5pm and dinner from 7pm till 11pm.

A day that we were supposed to check out from our hotel, we asked the hotel reception if we could have a shower before we check out. Just reserve a room for us to clean up after our trip to Amber Fort. The thing about budget hotels in India is, most of them are flexible enough to cater to some of your needs, like ours. You can inquire from them should you have any specific request a day before your check-out or perhaps the day when you check-in into the hotel.

The total cost was  around Rs 3,600 (Rm 220) including the hotel food we had for 3 nights. Although it is cheap, it would be nice if you could give some tips. The locals are mostly humble and helpful and they're happy if their effort are being appreciated. Like one of the hotel staff who had our needs fulfill throughout our stay (photo below). He helped us arrange tuk-tuk to bring us to our destinations, give us tips on being smart on the streets of Jaipur and we also had the chance of having a casual conversation with him. Oohhh, we gave him some tips too and I can see that he was happy and delighted.

He has been working with Laxmi Palace hotel for the past 7 years. He came all the way from Calcutta (24 hours of train ride) and only goes back to his home town once a year for a month. Interesting part is he only sleeps around 5 hours a day. His work schedule starts from 5am till 2 am with 2 hours of sleeps between 2pm to 4pm, and 2am to 5am. We had a pleasant stay in Laxmi Palace and recommend you to stay here and say hi to him if you do see him :-)