Penang Green Activity 2014 - Barter Your Ex 3.0

In conjunction with Penang International Green Carnival 2014 and Earth Day celebration which lies on 22 April, Penang Green Council is organizing the upcoming event - Earth Day Barter Trade, co-organized by Occupy Beach Street (OBS).

It serves as a good platform for the participants to exchange the second-hand items such as household utensils, toys, books, kitchen utensils, decorative items and etc. As long as the items are in fairly good condition, they can be traded. This activity does not involve cash transactions.

The main aim is for participants (registered) to bring in their used item and exchange it with others regardless of its value. We hope that with this program, the items can be reused or be treasured and the public can be aware about the Zero Waste practices.

I hope you all can join the fun!


Date: 20th April 2014 (Sunday)
Time: 8.00 am – 12.00 pm
Venue: Beach Street, Penang

Sources: http://www.pgc.com.my/index.php/earth-day-celebration-2014

Travel From Germany to Prague

I have been really occupied and tired all these days. I have no idea what exactly I'm busy with, probably because I have switched to a new living place which take me longer time to go on and off work. My travel time have never stop though, just got really no time to blog about them.

Been arranged to work in Germany for a week. Decided to extend few days and travel to Prague (Praha), a beautiful city that I thought I should go if I only have one chance to go Europe. Have been searching the cheapest and fastest way to get to Prague from Germany, I was staying in Kassel for work and there was where I departed, at last my decided route: Kassel - Nürnberg - Praha - Nürnberg - Frankfurt

From Kassel to Prague: 39 Euro
From Prague to Frankfurt: 44 Euro 
If you are not traveling across many region, it's not worth to buy the Euro Pass, DB Pass or whatsoever pass. It does provide you the flexibility and you need not worry about missing the train/bus, but the price is much much much higher.

Choose to blog about this because I feel this was the most challenging part in that trip, and I thought that might help some people too.
The reason I choose Nürnberg route over Dresden:
1. There's no direct train from Kassel to Dresden. Need to travel to Frankfurt although I have a free train ticket to Frankfurt.
2. Total journey is shorter.
3. Less stops.

When my colleague in Germany saw the ticket, they were surprise the mode of transport from Nurnberg to Praha is Bus, a real bus. Looks like they have so used to the train usage.

Do not confuse with the different train station name for Nürnberg Hbf and Nürnberg Hbf Vorpl H, the train station and bus station. They are at the same premises for my case.

The confused signboard

I followed the Bus sign, it lead me to upstairs, off the track. it was correct until it lead me across the street and it was for all the public Bus, not the IC Bus to Praha. All you need to know is you need to go up to the main entrance. The IC Bus Stop is just right at the DB bahn station entrance. DO NOT CROSS THE STREET. There are 2 main entrance and it is at the entrance on the left hand side of the building.

Nürnberg DB Deutsche Bahn Station Entrance

If you cannot find it, you can definitely ask the Tourist Information counter. They totally understand you.

IC Bus Stop

This is how the bus stop looks like. Look for the Bus Stop sign - IC Bus. There's a bus schedule notice that you can confirm you are at the correct bus stop.

The schedule

10 minutes is sufficient for walking from the train track to the bus stop, provided that you did not get lost too badly (like me walking across to the main street). I allocated much longer transfer time for going Prague and 10 minutes transfer time when coming back.

The bus is here

There is a huge luggage compartment underneath the bus, we can't and we don't need to bring large piece of luggage to your seat. If you have short transfer time, my advice is to let others put in their luggage first so you don't need to wait too long when unload.

The bus is comfortable, with toilet, although not super clean. It takes quite some time to upload luggage but it arrive sharply or even earlier at the arrival time both to and fro. Obviously they have allocated the time in their schedule.

Get to see some nice view at different perspective from the bus. I hope you enjoy the route too if you are taking the same.

Pulau Aman Mee Udang & Mantis Prawns

Mee Udang and the Mantis Prawns are like the whole point of going Pulau Aman to many people.

To me, it is an unforgettable brand new experience, yet I hope it won’t be happened again... What happened? Curious right? :p

After we get off from the boat, we head straight to the Restaurant Terapung (Floating Restaurant), no chance to get lost by following the crowd. When approaching the restaurant, you will see a dock where people queuing for fresh fishes and prawns. If you are not going alone, get some of you queue at the dock, and others can walk further in to queue for the restaurant’s table. Of course you only need to do that if there are a lot of people (avoid public & school holiday).  They are 2 different merchant, so you have to buy your own freshie, bring it to the restaurant and ask them to cook for you.

I was the one queuing at the dock, and I just wanted to get some mantis prawns. Like most of the famous food in Penang, the person-in-charge is kind of arrogant. The person kept saying, "No more mantis prawns for today." I was really curious and I see the people still queuing, and no movement. After 15 minutes standing there, I finally understand. There are fishing boat sending in supply like every 5 minutes, many of them bring in normal prawns, tiger prawns, fishes and crabs. Mantis prawns? Not much. Maybe because of the timing which is 1pm that time, or demand > supply.

However, people still show low interest on other fishes and prawns, even the big mantis prawns, as it is more expensive. So we just so willing to wait despite the uncertainty.

The Big Mantis Prawns costs RM120 for 4, I bet can just buy one though. Small Mantis Prawns costs RM50 per kg.

Finally, it is my turns, they got me 800g (7 mantis prawns) for RM40, without even asking me how much I want. Boat came, mantis prawns came, throw all in the plastic bag, weight it, hand it to you, take it or leave it. If you don’t want, the next person surely more than happy to take it. So I paid, bring my still jumping mantis prawns, walk towards the restaurant, where my friend still queuing. While waiting, V took a picture with it bravely.

On the other hand, I busy marketing off half of my mantis prawns as we not going to finish all 7 mantis prawns. It just took me open my mouth and in less than 5 mins, they are sold to a person behind the queue.

Finally, V grabs us a table. Despite the restaurant is really really dirty, we had the freshest mantis prawns I ever had. Without any sauce or spice, only cooked by steaming the mantis prawns, you taste its sweetness and freshness (while V actually felt it 'jilak').

We also ordered the Mee Kuah Udang and fried rice, which are really nothing worth mentioning. Wonder how it became so famous. One of the blogger who mentioned the fried rice is better than the mee udang, I really couldn't agree at all. The prawns in mee udang and fried rice are very fresh though. You don’t need to get prawns from the dock unless you need extras. Mee udang and fried rice cost RM5-RM6 respectively.

The meal was completed by a lime juice (malay: limau ais). Totally refreshing on a too much seafood meal in hot afternoon (better ask them to lesser the sugar though).

We have a short walk on the trail and village after mail, check out my another post.

Just a short afternoon, but a long day for me. Looking at too much killing with my bare eyes. 

Check out my other posts:

How To Go Pulau Aman?
Boat Fees & Schedule
Pulau Aman Village