Update on **18-21 November 2016**

First meal in Ipoh was Nasi Vanggey aka Nasi Ganja at Restaurant Nasi Vanggey as suggested by travel companion.

A plate of white rice with flavorful curry sauces, chicken cubes, long beans and sambal (RM 6.60).

Yes, It’s nasi kandar but different with I had in UUM. It’s more “lemak “and spicy. Fortunately, a cold lemon drink was by my side.

I liked sambal the most, a perfect combination with few slices of cucumbers.

Then, I checked-in at Chariton Hotel, a quiet and deserted budget hotel. Therefore, it’s not advisable if you didn’t have transport.

However, there were few points I liked this hotel:

1. The guest room was very clean with adequate towels and other amenities

2. Free, safe and ample parking spaces

3. Friendly and helpful staff

AEON Kinta City Mall.

“Wow, this shopping mall in Ipoh quite big”

Without hesitation, I grabbed 1 once I saw Hokkaido baked cheese tart outlets. Japanese foods should not too bad, right?

It's beyond my expectations. The cheese tart so crispy, fragrance, creamy and melt in mouth

Moreover, all the buns and cakes in the AEON bakery were very attractive and interesting.

This one, tom yam chicken donut (I never had that before)

And this too, chicken toasts and egg

Travel companion’s car.

There’s pro and cons while travelling with our own car! The good side was more convenient and comfortable.

Yay, I didn’t have to walk. I could listen to the radio during the journey. It’s the prettiest and enjoyable thing in this world for me.

I enjoyed Lite Fm very much throughout the journey. All the English really 听出耳油

But the negative side was necessary to consider hotel’s parking issue. Well, lower ground parking spaces which symbolized darkness were strictly prohibited by the travel companion.

And not to forget the parking spaces that must pay should thought twice and carefully.

Simple and satisfying breakfast-black coffee and tom yam chicken donut. This overnight tom yam chicken donut extremely soft and fluffy.

Lunch at Heritage Hotel, Ipoh has Chinese, Malay and western cuisines combinations. Honestly, I had wonderful lunch times at there.

My favorite was Vermicelli salads. It's very appetizing

Every spoonful of this sweet corn soups reminds Mama, 100% similarity like Mama's version

The dinner venue was STG Tea House. Almost full house while we reached there. Surprisingly, all the patrons were Chinese.

My travel companion didn’t feel disgusting at all.

This time I successfully met the “modern” type of Malay-more open minded in selecting the restaurant. So, I could tried more foods that I wished.

I ordered Hainan Chicken Rice (RM 24).

On the other hand, travel companion had grilled duck with spaghetti

Spritzer Pop water could be found here. Each RM 4

Take nothing but picture, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but times, keep nothing but memories #stgteahouseipoh #travelinipoh #ipohtravels

Overall, I'm satisfied with the good services of STG Tea House. The waiters demonstrated quick services in clearing the tables and plates. Also, the foods are served within 5 minutes.

Besides that, they remain cheerful when serving the customers. One of the waiter that served us even answered my questions and further explained with patiently.

This was mainly due to I was so curious when seeing Sabah Tea widely displayed in this restaurant. So I wondered the owner could be Sabahans. In fact, STG Tea House was belong to Red Eagle Oil company. Sabah Tea and Spritzer were another subsidiaries of the Red Eagle Oil company.

The environment or ambiances of STG Tea House also very peaceful, serene, cozy and warm.

Taking photo in the toilet happily. Sound so crazy with the travel companion!

It's unbelievable that Christmas just around the corner. Year 2016 will end very soon!

After that, I passed by MacDonald and tapau for tomorrow’s breakfast-New McChicken.

How lucky am I able to step foot in this first, oldest and unique colonial style building McDonald in Perak before it closes down at the end of November. #luckyme #ipohfood #ipoholdtown #ipohmcdonald

A photo posted by Tay Lee Chin (@tayleechin) on Nov 19, 2016 at 6:26am PST

The night views that near to our hotel

I ended this entry with our final group photo. Hopefully this wouldn't be the last.

"1 & 2 November 2016"

Went to SmartPLS 3 workshop. I wished to clarify some doubts but caused confusion that lead to resistance to change. Honestly, I lacked of basic statistic knowledge.

At the end, I chose to stick to what I had been learnt as I remember the main key of doing research was “defend your own works”. Hopefully I able to justify my own analysis decision and reflect the analysis outcomes during ViVa.

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"3 November 2016"

Came across this meaningful wisdom of quotes:

The people with goals are running,

The people with no goals are sleeping because they don’t know where they can go.

The people with goals are grateful

The people with no goals are complaining because the entire world owe him or her

The people with goals can’t sleep

The people with no goals can’t wakeup because they don’t know what they should do

Absolutely agree.

In the Phd journey, I often heard the Phd friends can’t study in their rooms as the bed seduced them. They then slept for whole day without doing anything. Later, they blamed some events, person and things whenever bad things happened on them.

The faults always not came from them. The terrible thing was they never think on how to solve the problems and also make their life better. The only thing they discussed was what happened to them. They rarely talk about the amazing things. I did advise them but they always had reason behind their particular actions.

Their every reason that told me why they can’t solve the problems and also make their life better sound so reasonable. They in fact had masked their laziness. It’s so hard to change their mindset as their beliefs were firmly ingrained.

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"4 November 2016"

Two steps from heaven, episode 7:

当我放下面子去赚钱，就代我表懂事，(when I could put down my egoism for earning the money, it referred I had been grown up)

当我可以用钱买回面子，就是成功了，(when I could use money to but the egoism, it referred I had power )

当我可以用面子去赚钱的时候，我已经是一个人物了，(when I could utilize the egoism for earning the money, I had become figurehead)

如果我还停留在不懂装懂，凡是都讲面子，我这辈子也不过如是。(when I pretended knowing everything, always talked about egoism. My whole life can’t improve at all)

I want to remember this!

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"7 November 2016"

Second supervisor finally contacted me for discussion after busy for several weeks.

To my shock, she apologized when seeing me at the first sight. She felt sorry for not checking my writings.

I felt touched at that time. She realized her action brought significant inconvenience for me and willing offer apology even though she had the high position.

Will I one day say sorry for the students if I truly hurt them?

Moral lesson of the day: apologizing seemed so hardest, but offered sincere apology to the people that deserved it can gain the forgiveness and alleviate the guilt.

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"8 November 2016"

Quite a long time not had this side dish, Somalia’s stir fried potatoes. Not only stir fried potatoes, Somalia’s spaghetti was the first that I thought when I craved for spaghetti compared other Malay food stalls. It’s less oily and price was reasonable.

Recently, I discovered food prices were increasing. A plate of mixed rice with chicken and vegetables costs RM 5.00. Sometimes, I just have several types of vegetables like tofu, fried mushroom and fried eggs also charged RM 4.50.

Alamak, surviving in university also not an easy task nowadays.

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"10 November 2016"

Receiving messages from the first supervisor in oversea in order to request my help in writing the few pages of her research proposal’s literature reviews.

At the end, I agreed to help her. Honestly, it was not about kiss her ass. It was mainly due to “give and take” principle. It was a good nature exchange whereby I learned a lot of knowledge from her and in turn I helped her while she suffered.

Apparently, “give and take” principle was one of the best ways to practice happiness, life satisfaction and decrease depression and anger. Instead of thinking how people treat you negatively, but thinking on how much he or she had helped you!

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"11 November 2016"

Seeing one of my Iban friends at Sarawak posted her well-prepared dinner to welcome her husband that back from outstation.

Wow, all the dishes really seemed like cooked by Chinese chefs. It’s unbelievable they were cooked by Iban people.

At that moment, I also missed these dishes cooked by Mama.

Kari manuk, sapi masak kicap, manuk masak halia, daun cangkuk goreng telur- I wanted Mama to cook for me when I’m in home.

FYI, Manuk=chicken. Manuk was Iban language.

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"12 November 2016"

Watching this motivational video shared by one of the favorite blogger, Becky from Taiwan

This Olympic runner really demonstrated “Never ever Give Up”

I belief that’s all we needed to practice in life, isn’t it?

I hope whoever faced any difficulties remember keep on moving forward to achieve the goals no matter how pain it was throughout the life journey.

I also constantly told myself “I can do this”

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"13 & 14 November 2016"

Went to Expo, which is graduation ceremony’s food and garment stalls.

It’s quite grand this year and so happening. Everywhere in university was damn crowded. Parking spaces very limited. Cafeterias were filled with people.

Here’s some food and garment stalls that I managed to capture:

I was their faithful customers. Their drinks so "kaw" and really worth the money!

Long queue in this Somtam (mango salads) and kerabu ayam (Thai style chicken feets) stall. Authentic of Thailand's style could be found here

Popcorn chickens. It was perfect if served with chili sauces and mayonnaise

Another Thailand's dish, which is Kerabu Maggi are widely seen here too.

First in my life time get to know this food was "fish sate". But I was being told that it's awfully taste because the fish paste were in small portions compared to flour proportions.

Recent football match's trophy was inside

I captured it silently as it was charged if you wished to take photo with the trophy

sushi van

current bags trends, Tote bags

Batik

love this pieces

It's not surprisingly to find that most of the fashions are Malay styles as here majority were Muslims.

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"15 November 2016"

One of the Tripzilla’s travel articles titled “travellers are flocking to Iran-and this why you should too” caught my attention and decided to read it.

Couples days ago, I told one of my travel addict friends about Iran was a nice place to visit. However, her instant reply was it was not safe for travelling as war and bombing issues.

I just remained silent as I was not sure about the safety levels in Iran. Today after reading read this article, it changed my mind.

The writer had clarified and cleared all the Iran’s negative views such as Iran is a desert country, Iran has wars throughout the years, Iran did not respect people’s freedom….the list went on. Therefore, the writer narrow down five top reasons should visit Iran.

Also, the writer had shared the great pictures of Iran’s attraction places. In order to confirm the validity of the attractions, I googled found the Iran attractions.