Interesting Places in the rather Uninteresting town

Pulau Betong fish market. Sometimes a lot of fish, sometimes no fish eventhough at the same time same day. I myself am not too sure how to know if it's a good day. Anyhow the 3 photos below were taken on a good day with lotsa fresh seafood and the gigantic stingray.

If you're coming out from Palmyra, at the traffic light, turn right towards Pulau Betong (left is towards Sunday pasar malam). Go until almost the end and you will see an old faded signboard "Pasar Nelayan Pulau Betong"

We just discovered there's a huge Thai food restaurant at the Anjung Indah peak (the view point at Jln Tun Sardon). We went on a weekday so there was only 2 tables. The food is so-so only, but the view is good and the price, you judge for yourself. I still prefer Khun Thai, good food, ok prixce.

And lastly, the Sunday Pasar Tani. It doesn't have the greatest fresh produces but at least it's some type of activity in the sleepy town.

Now I still have problem looking for decent breakfast venue which can meet the FTZ food standard.



Latest Additions

Our latest additions to the house. This should be our last renovation works before embarking to phase 2 of beautification of the house.



If only electricity is free so that I can turn on the air-con 24x7 coz it's really really humid in Balik Pulau.

Thanks to my neighbour behind (smile if you are reading this), we found out that we can get really fresh fish from the Pasar Nelayan at the end of the road towards Pulau Betong. The price is reasonable, only disadvantage is that you need to clean the fish yourself.

By the way, we saw a dead tiny snake at the junction at our housing area. Not sure if this is a one-off occurence, else we need to start doing something about it. My car door just had a tiny hornet nest which luckily the eggs did not hatch. Living amidst nature?

 

Staying here

We have gotten used to the distance and not having a shopping mall nearby. However there are few things that really annoys us:
1) There are a lot of mosquitoes eventhough we keep all windows and doors closed, switch on the Ridsect Good Night liquid, turn on the UV zapper or apply minyak serai. The kids get bitten all over and we can't keep the windows opened for ventilation.
2) After/ before rain, there are a lot of winged ants (and I really mean a lot). It is a big headache cleaning them up and sweeping is not the most effective way. Vacumm doesn't work well too.
3) I expected quite cooling air from this area. However it is really hot and humid. Maybe it's not confined to Balik Pulau alone.

And some of the other complaints
- A lot of non-resident kids driving motorbikes and taking over the playground.
- The water in the drain is stagnant, and water doesn't flow at the curb in front (where you put the rubbish bin). It gives me the impression that belleview only cares for viewable aesthetics (e.g. using branded WC, switches) but doesn't care much about the structures.

Green dream to come true soon

Quote from the Star, 24th April 2012

BALIK Pulau folk can look forward to enjoying some leisure activities on a 0.0734 ha plot in front of the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) market complex which will be converted into a mini park.
State Local Government and Traffic Ma­­nagement Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the mini park would be unique as it would have a nutmeg tree sculpture and various trees.
“There will also be a mini stage for people to conduct recreational activities such as aerobics and dancing.
“Apart from the beautification project, I also urge MPPP to consider setting up a recycling centre in the council’s complex to encourage better recycling practices,” he said before officiating at the recent groundbreaking ceremony.
Also present at the ceremony were MPPP president Patahiyah Ismail and Penang State Assembly Speaker Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain.
MPPP Recreation, Tourism and International Affairs Department inquiry board member Mohamed Akbar Mustapha said the park would have seven nutmeg trees, 10 weeping willow trees, and 15 Bucida Molineti.
“Other attractions will include a water fountain, pergola, lounging deck chairs and a pedestrian walkway,” he said.
“This is the first mini recreational and educational park in Balik Pulau,” he added.
The construction began on April 2 and is expected to wrap up by May 13 next year.

Updates

We have been travelling back and forth from Palmyra to Bayan Baru area quite frequently nowadays, finalizing stuffs in Palmyra before we move in. The travelling time is around 30 mins using Teluk Kumbar way (without jam). It can be quite tiring travelling there twice a day, that's 2 hours out of 24 in a day.

We are quite worried about the security at Palmyra since very few have moved in, and we have seen a weird person walking at the back lane and easing himself in the drain. Furthermore with the way the car porch roof is designed, one can easily climb over to your house. Let's just hope that safety will not be such a major concern.

The drains at the backlane is still stuck eventhough MPPP said that they have cleared it. Same goes to the front drain, Belleview didn't do a good job ensuring good drainage system. During the evenings, there are a lot of kids "lepak-ing" at the taman entrance and the playground. It is also sad to see that the playground not being maintained well.

It seems like an impossible task to get the house squeaky from the renovation dust. The hourly maids spent total 8 hours to clean up the house (that's RM140), and I have mopped the floor like a gazillion times but it still feels dusty.

Hourly maid: I have only so far managed to get one agent who comes to Balik Pulau. Due to low demand in Balik Pulau, they only come on certain days and minimum you need to get a full day maid OR 2 maids for 4 hours. Thats minimum RM100 every visit - looks lik it's DIY for some time until more cleaning services cover Balik Pulau.

Food, we have tried the restaurant called "Yeh Lin" but it is below expectation and not child-friendly, lotsa smoking people. We got to know there are 2 food court/ restaurant at the back of the old market. Will give them a try when we move there.

Meanwhile, it's off to packing and packing, anticipating the day moving into our new house. The curtains had arrived, cost us around 1.5k complete with railing installation & kitchen blinds, from Kamdar.

For those who have moved in...

Can you share with us
1) Whom did you engage to clean your just renovated house? Seems like a lot of agencies do not cover Balik Pulau
2) Any child-friendly eateries around Palmyra?
3) Where do you buy your groceries (hopefully Sunshine of Tesco comes soon)
4) If you are working in Bayan Lepas, which road do you use and why (Batu Maung or Relau)
5) Do you think it is a generally safe area especially at night?
6) Any park around for jogging/ strolling with the kids?

Belleview's Responsibility

I recently filed an online complaint to MPPP regarding the condition of Palmyra's playground:

Taman permainan di kawasan perumahan baru ini seakan tidak diurus dan dijaga. Banyak alat permainan yang rosak dan berkarat. Rumput juga panjang. Saya juga ingin member cadangan untuk meletakkan notis bahawan hanya kanak-kanak di bawah x umur boleh menggunakan peralatan permainan di situ.

And here's their response:

Kawasan aduan masih di dalam seliaan pihak Pemaju Belleview Group. Dirujuk kepada pihak pemaju untuk kerja-kerja penyelenggaraan. Harap maklum.terima kasih.MPPP

By the way, we had to spent around 2k installing aircond in the living room, master bedroom and the 2 bedroom. It turned out that the workmanship of Belleview on the air-con copper pipes is bad, a lot of them are dented and we need to reinstall new ones.

We got the site supervisor to talk to the air-con guy on this:

Air-con guy: Why so many houses like that one?

Site sup: Our role as developer ends here.

Full stop.

Meanwhile, we are glad that our renovation is progressing well. Looks like we can move in soon. Bye to convenience of 5 mins drive to workplace, Hi to quality life with kids around.

Renovation in Progress

We started our renovation works around 2 weeks ago and things are progressing pretty well.
Contractor told us that his mosaic cutter was stolen one night, not sure true or not..

There were some minor things which kept increasing our reno costs, e.g.:

1) Add on water piping above the ceiling to enable those individual water heater to be fixed (those Alpha brand type); instead of using the common heater placed above the ceiling. Initially site supervisor mentioned that it was just a small add on but plumber mentioned otherwise. We got 2 of them to inspect and discuss with us, and indeed it's quite a large amount of add-on, and cost: RM650

2) Installing air cons, relocating the master bedroom aircon pipe to above the toilet and adding conceal piping for the 2 bedrooms: ~RM1500

3) Installing all the taps: RM400 (sigh, should have just let Belleview install them - at least they won't get stolen and we get to save on all these additional cost)

The house beside and behind mine are having reno work in progress. Hopefully all complete around the same time so that we don't have to endure renovation noise/ dust when we move in.

Here's my wet/dry kitchen in progress...



2nd bedroom extended

Creating a new door for downstair's room. Now we enter from the kitchen instead of the back.

And the downstairs room's original door position converted to a window.



At least the kids can use the room as a playroom now.

Buying a new house ain't cheap!

Now, the next problem is not much children friendly makan place around...

Tamper Marks

We observed some weird tamper marks on the windows in the living room. I certainly hope nobody's trying to be funny and break into the house. I don't think it was here when we did the house inspection. So everyone, be extra careful as well. Happy Chinese New Year!

One of the rivet was missing.

Ideas and More Ideas

Snapshots of some real houses with renovation done.



Changed the grill of the 3rd bedroom:





Look at how a ramp was done from the back gate:






Some houses extended the front door. My personal opinion, not much additional space gained.





This balcony caught my attention. The entrance was a glass door, which looked like a window.

Stairs from the master room to the balcony (another house).

I have tabulated the details I got from the site supervisor. Refer to it at your own risk ya :)


Not many people have moved in. Maybe around 6-7 houses..

There are a lot of Malay food around, not too bad coz we love Nasi Goreng Kampung & Tom Yam. Need to scout around for nice Chinese food, and the nearest place to get fresh vege & fish since the market is quite some distance away.

Renovation

This is the quotation from our renovator. Will not be translating it to English as I'm not very good in reading Chinese myself.
Any comments? Expensive? It's almost 18% of our house price. Sweat.

Tiles

Any of the readers have the code for Palmyra tiles? Living Room, Kitchen, Maid's room, Upstairs? If yes, pls share. Thanks.

15th Dec 2011:
Thanks to reader "WW":
1) Kitchen wall tiles - 300x300mm ceramic tiles Guocerra K926A
2) Porch - 300x300mm Homo. tiles Guocerra DRF01
3) Bedroom - 600x600mm Guocerra YMP6305

Frustrated with Hong Leong

When we bought Palmyra last time, I told hubby to get the EON Bank loan coz I was lazy to check out the other option - AmBank. It is one of the worst decision I've made regarding $$ so far.

We do not know how to read/ interpret the monthly statement sent (that with hubby being a finance buff and myself, oklah, A1 in Prinsip Akaun). The way the debit & credit are tabulated, it shows a forever increasing or stagnant loan amount! The online banking transaction summary is worst, and even the bank's personnel himself acknowledging that.

We paid 2 visits to Hong Leong Bayan Baru, there was no one knowleadgeble to advice us and the branch manager was not in for me to vent my frustration. We went again today, and what the customer service managed to help us was to call a loan officer and we spent 15 mins talking on the phone. Talking about numbers over the phone is not effective! At the end of the conversation, the loan officer said she will call us back to clarify (which luckily they did call!). Apparently the Bayan Baru branch is focused on business banking now, and all home loans are handled in Auto City branch!

Next regarding the Hong Leong MSiG Insurance which the bank bought insurance on behalf of us. The insurance cert had hubby's name wrong, and when we told the branch that this is their problem as the submitted the name wrongly (we did not fill in any form), the officer said he will follow up and call us back. 3 weeks has passed, no call. We enquired on this again today and we were told to write official letter to ask for ammendment.

I never had any problem with my current OCBC homeloan.

Frustrated frustrated frustrated. Is this just the beginning?

Using the new highway

We've been trying out the new highway to Pekan Genting twice. Some of the highway stretches are not completed yet. Going there from Bayan Lepas seemed so far, I guess it takes too long to see civilisation compared to the Relau way. The journey back seemed much shorter.

Since the highway ends in Pekan Genting where Palmyra is, it looks like this will be the preffered road in the future for us. There are several bottlenecks before reaching the highway where we most probably have to endure the jams during rush hour. The highway looks pretty scary too, so don't look down, just look at the road.

We're getting the renovation guy to provide quotation for us. Here are some plan in mind for our DST intermediate but we have no idea how much it will cost us.
- Repaint the house
- Install CCTV & alarm system
- Install autogate, since the gate is not designed for manual open/ close. Notice there's no latches like normal gates?
- Knock down the balcony in the 2nd room for extension
- Do nothing to the "pseudo balcony" in the 3rd room coz there's a toilet window sticking out
- Knock down the maid's room coz it's too small and there's no window
- Replace the windows in the toilets with frosted glass; no peeping toms allowed.
- Build a balcony to hang our clothes there, install a door from the master room (which may mean removing windows?)
- Knock down the wall between kitchen and laundry area to make way for wet kitchen

That should be about it coz cost of living is real high nowadays but salaries are not increasing proportionately :)

OC Obtained

The much awaited OC has been obtained. You should have received a letter asking you to collect application forms for the electricity and water supply from Belleview sales gallery. The next thing to do is to call the site supervisor to confirmed if touch up has been done, and hopefully to get the keys. Remember to bring extra padlocks for the new house! Meanwhile, I wonder anyone has started renovation? Too lazy to drive up to have a look. Next time have to drive everyday, how?

House Inspection; No Keys Yet

After paying the quit rent at the Farlim Sales Gallery, we made an appoinment for house inspection expecting to get the keys. The house inspection was accompanied by the site supervisor and 2 sales guy. Being newbie on buying a new house, we relied on what the site supervisor advised us, check the door, signs of leakages, if the window can open and close well, the number of electrical points etc. Some friends told us to knock every tile to check if there's hollow sound but there were just too many tiles.

Basically, there were some peeled paint on the door frame, minor leakage at the 2nd room "balcony" and the paint work of the house was barely satisfactory. We were told that we will only receive the keys after the developer has touched up the paint work and attend to our complaints. We were also cautioned not to perform any renovation else the developer will not be responsible for any defects; do not install any fittings else it may get stolen. The developer so kindly gave FOC a huge mirror each in each toilet upstairs, perhaps they could have be kinder providing more freebie? While the promotion brochure looked great with lotsa nice trees, the actual site had several malnourished trees but we're glad that there's a playground and a nice garden at the entrance of the housing area.

OC is expected within this month and we shall wait for the day when we get the keys.

Here's a snapshot of the 20X62 terrace:



And the view of what's opposite one stretch of the double storey terrace.

Vacant Possession

Received mail via pos laju regarding the delivery of vacant possession. The letter was dated 25th July, and it only arrived today, 2nd august. We need to notify the developer on the premise defect within 2weeks from the date on the letter. That's pretty short notice right?
By the way, I wonder how many visitors here will be my future neighbours, who plan to move in to the land far far away?

Bank says: Pls start paying

We received an account statement from EON Bank stating the interest at RM500 plus. I guess that means the house is completed and it's time to start paying. Strangely, should there be some notification from Belleview or the Bank stating the completion status and asking you to start paying?

Almost Done?

Called up Belleview last week. The lady mentioned that Vacant Possession is this month end (but it's month end tomorrow!) and OC will be ready in a month or 2. So everybody, start to allocate some budget to pay for your homeloan!

6th March 2011 Visit

Finally we had some time to drive to Balik Pulau to see the latest updates on Palmyra. Our Proton Exora did pretty well going up and down the winding road, but that would mean the fuel expenses will increase 3 fold once we move to Balik Pulau.

There are not many lots left. The guys there said the project will be completed this June. That would means ka ching ka ching ka ching get ready for $$$$ reno, furnitures, home loan, moving cost etc etc. In my memory, the rooms were much bigger but looks like they have shrunk during this visit :)

Need to start thinking how to renovate the house since it's getting nearer:

- to setup a balcony, where to put the door? One side will block your location of the dressing table and the other side will block your bed.

- should we hack the wall between the kitchen and the "laundry" area so that there's bigger space?

- can we move the location of the "maid's room" door to the dining area and make it into kid's playroom (though it's pretty small)

- the upstairs 2nd & 3rd room, there are some pathetic space outside. It is currently placed with the aircond condensor. Can we hack the room to get a few inches more of space?

Any good ideas???