Penang & Ipoh - Food, Food And More Food...

Saturday (1oth June):

• Woke up at 4plus in the morning, some TV channels still showing World Cup replay. I didn't realised the time and trying to go back to sleep when after tossing for 30-45 minutes, my phone alarm start vibrating. Guessed, I was excited to make my first trip to Penang. Did some last minute packing and get myself ready to leave after a quick cup of bitter sweet coffee. Dad dropped me off at Alexis's house at about 6.15 am with my "Little New Camry" and he is going to play his Saturday 18 holes of golf.
• Was waiting for Alexis while feeding some blood-sucker creatures and that's a lot of them, they sure 'em hungry... think should be okie once a while to donate some of my blood to this creatures. Arrived Jaime's place at about 7am and we hit the highway shortly after that. Andrew was speeding away with his Hyundai Elantra 1800cc and I was pretty happy that my all time favourite car : Hyundai has such good performance and interior was pretty nice too. Ahh... when only will I get my favourite Sonata???
• Sometime after Sungai Buloh, I just closed my eyes; trying to get some sleep but the music was on the fast tempo to able me to doze off. As we passed by some really nice hills, if I'm not wrong, that's the Gua Tempurung that my colleague was recommending me to visit somewhere near Alor Gajah in Perak, Alexis(or was it Jaime) spotted a baby lizard clinging on dear life on the window. So, she was taking pictures of it and as the road up is hilly and winding, poor lizard sweft left and right... It was there for quite a while until we went into the "Tunnel" and it dropped off.
• To my much disapointment, not much to see on the way up North to Penang. Once we reached the Penang Bridge, I thought, it was all the whole stretch of "arch" that I usually see in pictures. But, it wasn't and now, they don't allow people to stop unless emercency. And it was a long way, we were all just excited to reach the other end where u can see the "arch" thing. Thus, I just enjoy the ride up and reached Penang at 11am. Penang makes me think of a colleague that I have a crush on whose "kampung" is there. So, was thinking if fate will bring me some lucky charms... hehehe... dream on...
  

• Alexis & Andrew checked into their Evergreen Hotel (in Gurney Road) while we waited for Alan to pick us up. We checked in to our Northam Suite (in Georgetown) soon after and make some plans where to eat for lunch. Alan drove us to Komtar and we had Prawn Maggie Mee at Nam Hong Kopitiam. Jaime has a list of what she wanna eat and we just couldn't be more happy to tag along. I ordered Kickapoo as you don't usually see this drink anymore. And after lunch, Alan brought us to tour round Penang Island. First, Tanjung Bungah and Batu Ferringghi - along this road, there are lots of hotels and private condo and apartments. Breath-taking. And we stopped for "goreng pisang" and since I don't eat in car ride, the rest happily enjoy them except Alan. He claimed that very often his colleagues will get them for him. As usual, Andrew making fun of the "goreng pisang"... We stopped at this jetty called "End of the World" and finally had a taste of "goreng pisang". Yummie!! I had 2 and was about to had my 3rd but the rest already u-turn back towards the car.

• At this moment, my sensed of directions are totally out and I kinda felt lost... we were heading to lots of winding roads and hills. Up and down, left and right... Think, we are at somewhere near Teluk Bahang and Balik Pulau. We saw lots of Durian stalls along the road and we were debating in the car whether to stop by one to had a taste of it. And we came across this Durian Stall that sells Organic Durians. With much of excitement and wondering what does Organic Durian taste like, Alan parked along the hill side and we walked towards the stalls. This place also sell other tourist products and other food like nutmeg and "tambun" biscuits. We only managed to eat 1 durian that cost Rm7 and Alexis enjoyed her salt-water on the durian husk. Its been like a year plus that I last tasted Durian so I'm so satisfied!!

Durian trees Alexis drinking salt-water.

• We continue our journey back to Georgetown and Alan actually stopped us at this area that has good "char kuey teow" and "laksa mee" but none of them was ready for it. On the other hand, I still have rooms for them... but, I can't be the only one going there to eat?? So, we head back to Georgetown and Alan sort of got a bit lost but without much of a problem, we arrived back to Georgetown with lots of numb and aching back-side. What do you expect?? 5 adults cramp into 2-doors Satria... *chuckled*
• We all exhausted and planning to hit the hay... but, I only managed to get about 15 minutes of nap when Jaime open the door and it creaks like mad. And while Jaime trying to get back to her nap, I decided to change into my swim wear and wakes Jaime up and we head down to the pool. Marvelous view... if we don't look down from the pool side because its on 9th floor. I managed to get some exercise in the pool and enjoy some nice view from the pool with all the swallow flying circling the sky. Once a while, the "burung gagak" will stood at the edge of the pool to quench it's thirst.

• I only willing to get out of the pool at about 7pm. As there wasn't any towels available, I had to tip toe back to my suite and shivering a bit. I dashed directly to the Jacuzzi in our bathroom and turn on full tap and wait for it to fill up. Took me like 10 minutes to reach the level where the Jacuzzi can function. While, I'm relaxing in it while watching cartoon. Jaime is taking her shower and getting ready for dinner. Had my quick shower and blow dry my hair and we met the 3-As at the lounge.

• We decided to had dinner across the road from our Suite; Northam Beach Cafe. Had lots of varieties of food and after satisfy our tummy, we decide the next destination as it was still too early to get down to the Pub. I was thinking of visiting the Night Market and Andrew deciding whether to watch Football back at his Hotel or tag along with us. After the decision made, we left our separate ways. As we were walking back to Alan's car, it started to drizzle. And we had no choice but to meet at Evergreen Hotel and try to watch Football instead. On the way there, we dropped by the ATM machine and Alan went rounds and rounds looking for the bank we wanted. Hehehe... he couldn't recall where the ATM machine was. When we finally reached Evergreen Hotel, the Double-A are getting dressed up for clubbing and we decide to wait for a while and we left in a car again to our Suite and get dressed up too. As we were waiting for Alan, I fall asleep on the bed and Jaime woke me up and asked me if I am still thinking of going because my panda eyes are pretty obvious by then... How could I possible miss out on Clubbing?? Hahaha...

Sunday (11th June):

• Glo ~ that's the most happening club in Penang Island as per all the locals. So, we can't stop ourselves from checking them out. Met Andrew's friend; Doreen there and was in line while Andrew sort out the drinks and the charges... Gosh! Its sardine-packed and I got squash and push here and there. Ouch!! My toe got stepped. *sob* When we finally near the bar, I couldn't resist to be a distance further from the rest as there is a vacant spot for me to stand and watch the dancers on stage. They had like 4 sections of dance with their different costumes. Jaime hand me a glass of whisky-coke and I finished it down my thirsty throat in a few minutes. When I handed back to her for my 2nd glass, her face expression was like, "huh?". Once the dance floor is available for dancing, I moved towards the Bar and enjoy myself the whole night and trying to get myself drunk. Hehehe.. Like real... Couldn't belief that I met my Uni friend there and she couldn't recognised me until i mentioned my name to her. So, the next trip to Penang, I need to call all my Penang Uni friends up and keep in touch... This trip was too short to meet up.

• Got back to our Suite at about 2.30am and I had my warm shower and laze at the couch for a while watching some Food Documentary and fell asleep and got up again when Jaime's phone beeps. So, I walked back to the bed and was about to fall asleep again when I heard 2 motorbikes zoom by... and I was thinking, "What time is it?? Is the wall of the Suite to thin?? I'm 26th floor high.... hhhmmm..." and I went into dreamland...
• Woke up at about 7am and managed to had a glimpse of sun-rise before the sun turn bright yellow. And returned back to bed and continue to sleep. About 8-9am, Jaime was awake and I told her to go ahead with breakfast as I'm not hungry. As for me, back to sleep.... only managed to get up at about 11plus am. We couldn't extend our check-out time so we had to leave by 12pm.
• Had lunch in Gurney Plaza and since I was not planning to get any fastfood or any franchise food that I usually see in KL, we head to the Food Court and I ordered Chicken Herbal soup with butter rice. Plain and simple just to satisfy my hunger then... After my lunch, Alan decide to lepak at the Bistro and Jaime and I just walked around window-shopping in Gurney Plaza. Everything seems the same so we weren't that excited. As our legs are tired and my back-bone is almost breaking, we meet up Alan and sat there for drinks. Then, about 4plus, we left to hunt for the Laksa Mee stall behind Sheraton and Jaime had her Laksa Mee while Alan and I stood to watch her eat. And you should see Jaime's face after she finished.... that satisfaction look and that joyful smile. *WoW* Like got lottery!! We stopped by a market area to get some "tambun" biscuits and nutmeg as souvenir before we get to Komtar.
• We head to Komtar to meet up Double-A as Alexis got her Digi event there and got our bags out from Alan's car and transfer our things to Andrew's car. We stopped by for some food and I tried the Laksa Mee. To my much surprised, this Penang trip, I had most of the food that I won't touch in KL. I just go ahead to eat spicy food if I could still stand the spice. Ooohhhh....
• About 7pm, we left Penang and head to Ipoh to meet up Ping and Kok Thye. On our way back to Ipoh, the collections of music Andrew had was light & easy and I easily doze off... Only awake once a while when he hit the breaks and my heart raced extra fast for a few seconds. And start to feel chilly and had to rub my arms several times to keep myself warm. Reached Ipoh and was in Ping's new rented house for the first time. Waited for Kok Thye for a while and we head to Medan Ipoh for supper... Can you belief it, the food taste so much better. Hehehe... cheaper and larger serving size.
• Left Ipoh at about 11pm and reached home after dropping off Jaime at about 1am and hit my comfy bed moments later. Zzzzz... couldn't felt more comfy...