Pesta Durian & Makanan @ Anjung Indah (1-30 JUN 2010)

Musim durian dah mai balik ke Balik Pulau!

Pesta Durian di Anjung Indah sedang berlangsung hingga 30 JUN 2010!

Selain daripada jualan di tepi-tepi jalan sekitar Balik Pulau dan bandar-bandar berdekatan, sebuah pesta durian juga sedang dianjurkan bermula 1hb hingga 30hb Jun 2010, di pusat pemandangan Anjung Indah yang terletak di puncak Bukit Relau di Jalan Tun Sardon.

Pusat pemandangan panorama Balik Pulau ini terletak lebih kurang empat kilometer dari pekan Kongsi di Balik Pulau, atau dari pekan Relau di Bayan Lepas. Perjalanan dari Jambatan Pulau Pinang (keluar ke arah Bayan Baru) atau Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Bayan Lepas mengambil masa dalam 30 minit sahaja, dan dari Terminal Feri Weld Quay, lebih kurang 45 minit.

Bas Rapid Penang bernombor #502 ada juga melalui lokasi ini sama ada dari Pekan Genting/Balik Pulau atau KOMTAR/Terminal Feri Weld Quay (melalui Air Itam) setiap 30 minit bermula seawal jam 6 pagi hingga 8:20 malam (dari Balik Pulau) atau 9:45 malam (dari KOMTAR), dengan caj tambang hanya sekitar RM2 (atau RM1 utk harga konsesi warga emas, OKU atau pelajar sekolah berpakaian seragam). Perjalanan bas mengambil masa lebih kurang 15-20 minit dari pekan Balik Pulau atau sekitar 60 minit dari KOMTAR/Terminal Feri.

Sebaik saja anda melalui jalan menaiki bukit di Jalan Tun Sardon (P14), anda akan nampak beberapa sepanduk promosi Pesta Durian ini membuatkan anda tak sabar-sabar lagi untuk tiba di puncaknya...

Tunggu apa lagi, jom pi belasah puas-puas...

City of Balik Pulau!

Now tell me... is this Los Angeles or is this Balik Pulau? ;)

Actual scene observable during maghrib (sunset) hours from the Tun Sardon Road that connects Kongsi (Balik Pulau Road) and Relau (Paya Terubong Road). You can also stop while halfway through this 8 Km hill stretch, at the peak of Relau Hill Reserve Forest (gazetted in early 1900s) at an observatory area called Anjung Indah (beautiful verandah) to enjoy Malay-Thai and Chinese delicacies plus a local "icy" desert named "ais kacang" (or ABC).

Photo from flickr user hugolim.com (wklim).

Balik Pulau in Pictures (intermission)

The popular spot for taking photos of Balik Pulau has got to be the Anjung Indah, a nice recently renovated observatory park situated at the road peak at Jalan Tun Sardon in the middle of the long 'touge' connecting Relau and the Kongsi Town. And here's one more from a blogger of "Blase Ramblings":


The next one impresses me much. Who would thought you'd find a river that looks as fine as in the photo by imejmakr as posted on Flickr? With this river along Jalan Balik Pulau made to look just as a big, dirty drainage system, I'd wouldn't have the slightest idea that Sg Burong would flow up to the sea looking this good...

Hi-speed Wireless Broadband in Balik Pulau

I've just returned from Asia Pacific Wireless Broadband Forum (AP-WBF) 2008, held at Kuala Lumpur last Friday where fellow Japanese researchers and Malaysian technologists shared their findings and vision on the road ahead for hi-speed connectivity, and throughout the trip, I only manage to crawl at 200Kbps or less with DiGi Edge, while our Japanese counterparts are getting several Mbps to 10s of Mbps with their wireless broadband, which are poised to go up several Gbps soon! Even our minister, the selamba-man, never-follow-written-speech man, Dato Seri Dr Lim Kheng Yaik on the other hand, instead of being optimistic or making boastful visions only took the opportunity of addressing the crowd by slamming wireless local broadband technologists and vendors for continuously breaking promises on the big BET for WiMAX, year after year.

Suppose I was ranting on how real broadband connectivity for mobility might take a long time to arrive in our remote town of Balik Pulau, but a fellow BP-ite from Sg Rusa has just confirmed that HSDPA (3.5G) might have actually been brought by Celcom already, according to Subset Stars. No wonder Celcom has been plastering the entire Jalan Bukit Gambir from Jalan Masjid Negeri (Georgetown) all the way to Jalan Tun Dr Awang (Bukit Jambul/Bayan Baru) and a portion of Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah near Batu Uban & Gelugor with its night-bright light-post ads...


Hmm, maybe it's finally time to ditch DiGi for good for only being capable to get me about 50Kbps of 'broadband' at Anjung Indah -- my favorite lepak place for the past five years (since before its renovation last year). Though, I still hope that DiGi would roll out its new 3G license off its recent acquisition from Time Dotcom real soon, so I may keep my current phone number, or until mobile number portability arrive in Malaysia, whichever comes first...

Should I or should I not sign up for TM Celcom Data now? Could it actually be better than TM Streamyx?

(I have actually visited its center in Bayan Baru last week by the staff there as well as Celcom reseller would not offer me a guarantee for HSDPA in Balik Pulau -- or they simply have no knowledge about the service at all!)

Honda Civic lined up, on the midway of Jalan Tun Sardon's (four miles away from Relau junction and four more miles to go to Balik Pulau 'midvalley'), with engines revving and preparing for invasion, prior to speeding up through the treacherous & sloppy hills of Balik Pulau. They demanded Durian & Laksa...

Eh, Mat Salleh or what this guy in yellow shirt (I know this true BP guy btw -- He goes to school with me!)?? See more pictures at Bernard Chan's -- blogged his trip to Anjung Indah (observatory point at the peak of Bkt Relau) and Kongsi town (heart of Balik Pulau).