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Hi all ! It's Day 2 of the 30 Day Blog Challenge ! 

Although it's a 30 DAY challenge, I've decided to publish a post once a week. I don't want my blog to  be saturated with blog posts, followed by an extremely long hiatus HAHAH. So I guess it'll be a 30 WEEK challenge then ? Oh wells.

"Write something someone told you about yourself that you never forgot"

I like your voice.

Hi there :)

I've decided to take up a 30 Day Blog Challenge that I found while scrolling through Pinterest. Fitness and exercises aren't the only things with 30 Day Challenges you know heheh. I thought I'd give it a try and see how things work out. It helps whenever I get a writing block. 

Wanna blog, but don't know what to blog about.

I'm sure you know how it feels to be in that position.

So here's Day 1 of the 30 Day Challenge, "10 Things That Make Me Happy", in no particular oder.

#1 Being Surrounded by Happy People

No matter the situation that I'm in, being around happy and positive people makes me feel pleasant. Even if they're complete strangers. They say that laughing is contagious, but so is happiness. I'm not kidding. Whenever I'm with happy people I instantly get happier too ! I just love the positive vibes I get. It lasts the entire day ! Extra bonus if those people are my loved ones ♥

#2 Acknowledgement, Compliments, Admiration

I want to be acknowledged for whatever I do. I like getting compliments for the things I do right. I like being told that I'm admired. Why so ? I'm not being vain here. It's these little things that make me feel positive I'm heading in the right direction even if it's just another baby step forward. I still remember the time my junior came up to me and blatantly said "You're so great. I admire you!", and I still remember until now.

#3 Giving to Others

Do you know that feeling of satisfaction you get after helping others ? I like that. It makes me feel accomplished. You don't have to do something great, just buy them a meal, give compliments (honestly!) and do them a favour. It helps both them and myself go through a better day. It's the tiny things in life that makes me happy anyways hehe :D

#4 Looking Back at Old Photos

Nostalgic. I like going through old photographs and pictures. It reminds me of who I was, how far I've come since then, and how much I've changed. Change is good for you. Besides, they bring back memories you've momentarily forgotten because you got too absorbed with social media. So if you're reading this, go and find back your old photographs. You'll smile at one point or another :)

#5 Receiving from Others

This comes hand in hand with #3. It's like the Minun to my Plusle. Okay. Sorry for the terrible Pokemon reference. But I'm not joking. Being the recepient of the kindness and thoughtfulness of others make my day better. Surprises, gifts, random stuff. I still remember when I didn't have RM1 to pay the remainder of my parking ticket, and the person behind offered to pay :)

#8 Retail Therapy

A.K.A. Shopping ! Females duhh. Just girls being girls HEHEHEH. Especially when there are SALES or when the trend has styles which I like. My closet is exploding with clothes, and I still have trouble picking what to wear when I go out, but there's always room for more of these babies !! Don't look at me like I'm insanse please HAHAH :D

#9 Alone Time

At the end of the day, I do need time for myself. I like being with my family, friends and pet dog, but I would still like time for myself. It's time I appreciate because I don't have to put up even the smallest front to show the world. Just being myself. That makes me feel free. Fun fact ? I get mentally drained really fast when it's too crowded with people. :/

#10 Doing What I Love

This HAS to be true for everyone. For me, it's blogging, taking pictures, music, writing, drawing, watching anime and variety shows, and so many more ! I can't feel happy or complete if I go without these things in a week max. Being able to do what I want to do brings me happiness. Even right now as I'm typing this post.

We took the train up there. Probably regret not reading the prices before buying tickets HAHAH. Paid the normal price instead of student price. And boy, was that train fast and packed. So many people and if you want to see the scenery, please stand up. Cause if you're short like me and you're sitting down, you're probably just gonna see people's backs, heads or butts.

Try to find out which lock is ours if you ever visit :D

♥

It's Owlsome ! :D There was an Owl Museum there. To me, it wasn't really worth visiting unless you're an owl lover. However, they spiced things up a little with a quiz form ! You have to find answers to the questions on the paper which is all around the museum, and if you get them all correct, you'd get a prize ! :D

Owl Feather Painting - This caught my eye. It's just spectacular.

There were so many owl things on display. From paintings, to wood carvings, stone carvings, feather paintings, and many more ! You'd be amazed. It's a small sized musuem, but the first of it's kind in Malaysia ! They even won the Guinness World Record for being the first Owl Museum in Malaysia ! Wish I took more pictures but I was too busy finding the answers for the quiz hehe !

Owls Hoot. If you can't guess.

And oh, they have binoculars up there as well ! It's so cute hehehe. I wish I knew where or what I was looking at though. To me, it just seemed like buildings, buildings, sea, and more buildings HAHAHAH. Definately a place worth visiting while you're in Penang. But I'm not sure if I'd go up there again though, maybe just to check on the lock heheh !

memories made,

♥

We got up early and went down to Ayer Itam market for breakfast. And a large one at that. First we had some asam laksa ! :D Boyfie said there was a better one, but this tasted pretty good as well. My mouth is watering just thinking about Penang food again. Weehoo. 

After lunch, we hopped on a bus and headed towards our next destination. The Penang Water Sports Recreation Centre. We told the bus driver the wrong destination so we ended up paying twice as much. But oh well. I guess having a few bumps along the way is normal for a trip heheh. We came here to kayak !! I've never tried it, so doing it for the first time felt really refreshing.

Above photo from PKSA facebook page, which is over HERE . You can go check it out if you want to ! It was almost high tide when we went for kayak. So the waves were a little bit rough. I think an hour would be fine already. We got tired pretty fast just moving here and there, and playing bumper kayak ! HAHAH. We also kayaked to the Floating Mosque located not too far away ! 

Group photo credits to PKSA as well ! hehe ! It was so sunny that it was hard to keep a straight face while taking the picture. Wearing sunglasses and closing eyes until it was done really helped. A LOT. Heheheh. Learnt a few things though.

1. Your arms will die.

2. A kayak boat is so heavy.

3. Let water into your kayak and you're gonna regret it.

4. Getting hit from a paddle hurts.

5. The sun bakes you.

Kay that doesn't help much does it ? HAHAHAH

Definately a place I'd remember in Penang. We spent so long just to come here, but we only kayak for an hour cause we got so tired. Hahah !! Kayaking consumes so muched of my energy I was famished by the time we reached home. I didn't even bother taking pictures of food and I just vacuumed everything. Oopsie. Heh.

Like every other forest, garden or park, this place was just stunning. Breathtaking scenery at every corner, it makes me wonder why they trek so fast. I kept stopping to take pictures until I had to worry about my camera battery lifespan. Not kidding. It's a ridiculously beautiful place. It's not often you get to trek and at the same, be near the beach. Heh. This is one feature unique to Penang I guess.

There was a mixture of paved cement trails, wooden planks, small bridges, ropes to hold and bare earth while trekking. I guess it's more like a walk and trek at the same time. I still feel unsatisfied that I couldn't enjoy the whole trek. I think I got annoyed halfway through. Maybe I'm too used to people knowing how to offer help or give warnings at dangerous or slippery areas. And also knowing how to check if the person behind you is doing fine. 

And I think I need a reminder to not wear my Nike sportshoes for trekking. This would be the second time I kept slipping almost everywhere. Sigh. Branded shoes not meant for treks. I think even my slipper would have been better. (but I'll take that back). And oh, this is one place where I wished my legs weren't so short. I had to climb over a lot of things and slow down cause my legs aren't long enough. Sigh.

On the other hand, the boat ride made everything better ! Maybe not if you have motion sickness. The boat was so worth the money heheh ! And see the coconut above ? We got cheated by the seller. Someone asked them how much it was, and their reply was "Satu lima". And we automatically assumed one coconut was RM1.50, which was too cheap to say NO. 

Jeng jeng jeng !!!

Turns out it was "Satu, Lima". Meaning ONE coconut for RM5. Wow. And it was because of that coconut that we kept the boat man waiting. He was probably pissed at us oops.

I think the most of the day was just spent being immersed with grenery. We dropped by the Botanical Garden in the evening. I got lazy of trying to keep up with the rest of them so I just split from the group. Well at least Jason and I were the only ones who drifted from the group hahaha. There's also a buggy ride for RM2. It just takes you on a short round, if you want to explore further, you'd have to walk.

But beware of monkeys !

This is like a flower haven, a garden haven. We walked past this garden when we first came in. If it wasn't for the buggy ride stopping us directly at the gate, I think I wouldn't have realized it's existence ! It's called the formal garden, but really, I'd call it a fairytale garden. It looked like it just came right out of a Disney movie !

There was a water fountain in the center, and a small building at the very end. I think this would be a marvelous place for an outdoor wedding or occasion. Even Jason agrees that it's a very gorgeous place.

There was supposed to be a Youth Park nearby, but we had no idea where it was so we didn't go for it. It felt incomplete. You can also trek up Penang Hill from Botanical Gardens, but it was too late and some of us (like the lazy me), who would rather call the van and go elsewhere instead of hiking again.

We went around Georgetown to look at the street art ! There was a lot of hype for this last year right I believe. It's great, but maybe not up to my expectations. All the previous hype made me expect so much more than this. There weren't that many murals on the walls. Though the cats were just cute hehehe.

With love ♥ credits to Hsuen :D

And oh. Jason's uncle came and brought some of us who could still eat around for some food ! We had more fried oyster and (finally) nice char kuey teow !! I'm sorry for the lack of food pictures. The day's activities took it's tool on my tummy I ate before I even managed to take pictures AHAHAHHA well the food's gotta go where it's gotta go.

Two more posts on Penang coming soon

:)