A fascinating fusion of the East and West, Penang embraces modernity while retaining its traditions and old world charm from the Bristish era. 

These are reflected in its harmonious multiracial populace and well-preserved heritage buildings which led to George Town being accorded a listing as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. You could see the influence of the English carved on buildings.

Long regarded as the food capital of Malaysia, Penang also entices visitors with its beautiful coasts and scrumptious cuisines.

The easy going lifestyle on Penang is a result of the melting pot of cultures, religions and food. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of George Town in particular, is a total fusion of Chinese, Malay, Indian and other races, evidence of which is apparent everywhere, from cuisine to architecture.

With the basis of this, me and Juan decided to learn more about Penang. I have been living in Penang for the past 10 years and yet there are so much things that I do not know. We visited the old Penang over last weekend and find it interesting. Things that we couldn't find anywhere else. The food, the people, the architecture. 

The weather was just nice, not too hot nor it was raining. Just perfect. We walked every inch of the alley and watching tourist in awe of what Penang has to offer. It was also a good workout for both of us. 

Ever since Juan and me got married, I've been eyeing on going for a backpacking trip. A halal relationship makes it even easier for us to travel. No limitations.

My dad travel for work purpose all the time, now that he is retired, he's been my inspiration to continue his legacy but not just for work but instead, it's for experience and exploring other culture.

My sister travels too previously for the AFS exchange program and now she's in India pursuing her studies , I believe that country has so much to offer. I've been to India once myself and I love it. There are so many historical sites and stories you can learn and explore. India has a very unique and rich culture despite of the bad side of the country that you have read on the Internet. With the currency exchange, there are whole lot of things you can do.

Inspired by so many travelers I have seen and read about online, it actually fire up the passion of traveling in me.I travel a lot too during my younger days. Visiting my dad in whichever country he was stationed in. It was very exciting and interesting. Having to walk from one end to another end of the airport, just to get to your boarding gate, meeting some friendly and unfriendly immigration officers, making new friends with people you met at the airport, riding the worst taxi ride, feeling the snow flakes dropping on your hands, carrying a 10kg of bags on your shoulders (facts: the heaviest bag my mum ever carried on her hand was her handbag -__-'). The experience was just amazing.

Those are the things I would like to share with my partner. Let him see and experience the joy of traveling. Many things you can incorporate what you have seen during your travel into your personal life. Like what I have seen in China when I was there. You'll feel the sense of appreciation, gratefulness, thankfulness.

Juan's colleague treated us for lunch last week. It was in Bella Marino. Situated along Leandros Lane (behind Burmah Road house where Astro is). They also have another branch in Straits Quay.

The interior deco of the restaurants will make you feel as if you're in Italy. A lot of Italian deco inspired, including the wallpaper. The portion was very generous. Just nice for a 1 person meal. The pizza was thin crust and cooked to perfection. However the dessert that we ordered, panna cotta was not bad except the raspberry sauce overpowered the panna cotta taste itself. The gelato were home made and comes in many flavors. But then again, it was not as smooth as it supposed to be for a gelato. It tasted home made but was not smooth. Just like a normal ice cream.

Price is definitely a little bit pricey compare to a normal restaurants like TGI where you can get the same dish. But I believed it's because of the ambiance that you're paying. We managed to get it cheaper as Juan's colleague bought the coupon from Groupon.

The restaurants especially the restrooms were very clean. Squeaky clean to be exact.

I wore a mini dress and skinny jeans from Brands Outlet, H&M kid's sneakers. 

Both of us have this similarity where we love to eat home cooked dish. Juan make the effort of cooking dinner everyday as he finishes his work earlier than I am. So our fridge is stocked with 1 week of supplies like fish, chicken, beef and vegetables. We're trying to cut down red meat intake and consume more of protein based food like fish.

He cooks simple dishes that is quick and easy and does not take up too much of his time. The more challenging recipe, we will normally do it over the weekend.

Juan cooked something simple few days a go, stir fry beef mixed with long beans. Therefore you do not need to cook your vegetable separately. You can just throw everything into the wok.

Here's the recipe. good luck:

Beef (minced them). Do not get the ready-minced beef

Onions (we loved onions, so we sliced them more)

Long beans (depending on how much you want them)

Ginger (minced them, just for flavor)

Cili padi (depending on how spicy you want the dish to be)

2 cloves of garlic

For the sauce:

Black soy sauce(for coloring)

soy sauce(the salty one)

1 teaspoon of fish sauce

sweet soy sauce

white pepper powder

salt and sugar to taste (not much because you've added the soy sauce and sweet soy sauce)

I got my Face Soap And Clarity from Sephora many weeks ago. Didn't had the chance to try it on. The reason being, the breakouts on my face are blooming like mushrooms. I guess because 'grandma' is coming anytime soon.

Face Soap And Clarity is a 3-in-1 daily face wash with ultra-soft scrub-beads, plus vitamins, amino acids and Soap & Glory’s exclusive SUPERFRUIT™ YUZU complex. It cleans and purifies skin. It is also said that it can removes make-up, and gently exfoliates. This is definitely all in one cleanser.

• SUPERFRUIT™ YUZU - a skin energising, toning and brightening antioxidant complex pressed from natural Chinese citrus fruits.

• a super-tasking VITAMIN AND AMINO ACIDS - to help refresh improve radiance and appearance of blemishes.

• GLYCERIN - to help skin feel soft and supple.

• gentle polishing MICROBEADS - to exfoliate and resurface the skin.

You don't know what was going on behind the scene when this photo was taken. Juan blamed the settings of the camera, resulting in a shaky picture. I told him that the setting was the same as yesterday but he kept blaming the camera. I took a sample of his photo and showed to him, it was good but when it was his turn, the pictures turn out miserably. This is the closest towards the best shot I can take.

Wearing chunky necklace from F21, horse T from Cotton On (was on sale), skinny from Brands Outlet.

This is what he looked like while walking to the car. He didn't stop mumbling, trust me.

'Hello horsy, can I dig into your nose?'

I just love this picture. It looked like I was grossed out by the horse's . It's actually a mummified horse, FYI. I thought it was a fake one too but when I looked into the horse's nose, I could see some strains of nose hair.. eewww.

Indian cuisine has been my major like for years. During my trip to India many years back, I was amazed at how much of Indian dishes I have yet to try. Even their vegetarian food were so delicious, not to mention their masala tea, just heaven.

So after years of having to eat my chicken varuwal at different Indian restaurants in Penang, I thought of cooking them myself, Juan cooked to be exact.

It was easy but the only ingredient that was not available was the tandoori powder.

To marinade:

1 whole chicken, cleaned and cut into medium/small pieces

4 Tbsp ginger-garlic paste

2 stalks lemongrass, blend into paste

3 Tbsp chilli powder, reduce if you prefer less spicy

1 tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp garam masala

1 tsp tandoori powder

Salt

To fry:

½ tsp cumin seeds

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

3 cardamoms

3 large onions, thinly sliced

5 – 7 dried chillies, cut each into halves

5 stalks lemongrass, shredded length-wise

2 sprigs curry leaves

Cooking oil

Method:

1. Mix ingredients required to marinade, marinade for 1 hour. But I marinated overnight.

2. Heat oil in wok.

3. Deep-fry chicken pieces in batches until cooked. Transfer to a place, with paper towel on.

4. Mix ingredients to fry in the leftover marinade mixture.

5. Reduce oil in wok.

6. Stir-fry these ingredients in oil for 10 – 15 minutes under low flame.

7. Sprinkle a little salt and add the fried chicken pieces.

8. Mix thoroughly until the chicken pieces are well-coated with the spices.

9. Keep stirring for 5 minutes.

10. Check for salt and it’s ready to be served with rice.

Good luck

As 3 months has passed, now it's time for me to collect all of our wedding pictures and arrange them together as one big canvas. I have bought a few pieces of wooden frames with different colors. There'll be alot of DIY projects involve. They're a bit of a hassle but the outcome will satisfy you as the hard work comes from yourself. The time you put into making these memories.

I am also in the mid of picking out the best photos to be printed. Photos from our pre wedding pictures took from a professional photographer. We were given limited choices of photos to be printed for the wedding album. The balance were given back to us in the form of soft copies. 

I have more pictures to come. Photos from the nikah and wedding reception on my side. These are live photos as well as candid.