Holiday in Penang - Day 3

Ming's back in Penang in the early morning! hehe.... mummy's "kai toi" (i.e. naughty boy in our dialect). We went to Ayer Itam for dim sum breakfast, then to Batu Lanchang to buy Nasi Kunyit & angku for prayers. We the crossed the bridge to Sungai Petani to pray at Datuk's worshiping place. Not tht we're very holy lar... go to 2 worshiping place in 1 holiday to Penang, but just thought of praying for my father-in-law's health, mummy & daddy continued good health & hopefully hubby & I can have a child for them to play with soon.

After prayers, we adjourned to a local banana leave rice stall for lunch. We had chicken vareval (dunno if it's spelled so, but it does sound so...), mango lassi & lime with mint! I must say, the best part of the lunch was the lime with mint.... It's so yummy & you don't feel so jelak after the heavy lunch. Most importantly, thanks to the mint, we had fresh breath as well (or so we thought)! :-)

We came back to Penang Island by around 3-4pm cos' we wanted to catch a Cantonese movie at the Cinema - "On His Majesty's Secret Service". I'll provide the review to this movie separately. Anyway, so we went to Queensbay again to have dinner (Japanese food) & then adjourned for movie at 9.30pm. Before dinner, we managed to go shopping for Ming's stuff at Padini's. He actually only wanted a long sleeved shirt for presentation, but we found a really nice & cheap coat on 70% off! Can't resist it, so insisted tht I buy it for him.... See... this che che so nice.... :-p but then... like tht easy to take advantage also.... ;-)

Before leaving for home, we again found a live stage performance for you-know-who/what near Sunshine Square (Bayan Baru). hehe... we stayed there till they finish at 12midnight, had supper at a nearby mamak place & back home to zzzzzzzzzzzzz.............

Sadly, the next day is time to leave.... so fast! I thought 3.5days is long enough.... sigh.... Oh but wait.... the story did not end with just a simple drive home.... wait for my next post to find out....

Holiday in Penang - Day 2

It's Saturday, day 2 of our trip. It was 1 of those days in Penang where we do nothing but eat! We started our feasting with Hockien Mee (Penang term... KL-ites will call it Prawn Mee aka Har Meen). Then we went to pray at the oldest Kun Yam temple in Penang. Felt an itty-bitty guilty cos' we had beef last night & Kun Yam preaches against taking beef. Oh well, the deed is done... I'm sure being the forgiving goddess she is, she'll be merciful on the slight errr... :-)

Oh... By the way, this is where I got my ears pierced... cried buckets then, but not because of pain... more because of the fear of it... hehe. Can you imagine the scare I got when I saw some stalls using fish-hook-like needles 'stabbed' into pieces of ginger & these hooks are then used to pierce some poor kids' ears?! Horrors! Although my parent finally brought me to the stall using more modern equipments - a 'gun' loaded with earring studs - & due to the accumulated fear from walking the "Green Mile", seeing the gruesome sights along the way... I was so scared tht the fella suggested to have 2 guns piercing my ears at once (I guess he's afraid tht I'll balk for the 2nd piercing & left with only 1 ear pierced). So imagine a small kid of 9 or so (tht's me), having 2 'guns' pointing to her ear lobes & BANG! Waterworks lar... :-p (my mum always said, how to have baby lar like tht... pain threshold so low...)

As usual I digress & now back to present. We then went around the Indian streets, where most of the spices, silks, saris, bangles, food, sweets - everything of Indian culture is there. It's just walking distance from the temple. The spices there's so cheap! 1 big bag of cinnamon sticks is just RM5! Naturally we bought tht. Then, there's my favourite Indian sweets - bought some of tht too... We had a good time exploring the streets with mum & dad - if only the continuous drizzle & occasional downpour would just cease! sigh...

We then drove to Chowrasta on Penang road to check on the favourite 'Tau Sar Peah' shop (Ping Kuan), but it was closed. So we adjourned to our favourite old establishment - Cintra Street Bachang! We've been going there since my childhood & grandpa's still around. Unfortunately the Chu Chap Chok stall is not open (another old establishment known only by locals).

My parent by always obliging their precious beloved daughter's every request ( :-p yeah... am quite spoiled I know...), we went to Penang Ayer Itam dam. I love this place. It's always cooling, breezy & I always loved walking around the dam (not running... just strolling... ahhh....). It's the best place to bring a book & just read (which I did! while the rest of the family napped in a small 'hut' / pegola) beside the dam.

As usual, my dad gets restless after a short period of inactivity (speed up by the flies & mosquitoes - Note to Self: remember to bring insect repellent in future). We then adjourned to Ayer Itam market area (at the foot of the hill Penang dam is located) to see if there are good Tau Sa Pea shop around. Unfortunately because it's so near Kek Lok Si, it's at touristy price. So we ended up....? Eating again! This time Char Kway Teow, Curry Mee & good thick Hainanese coffee. Wah... really no rest in food leh....

After resting for a bit, we went out for dinner at Relau. Funny thing was, we didn't plan to stay back late, but a nearby temple is hosting a live performance (singing) stage show & the music was blaring really-really loud, so we went & take a look. The performance is actually staged for the spirits, but I think there are just as many people as there are spirits watching tht show. The singers are surprisingly good. We ended up staying there till about 11pm! hehe... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Holiday in Penang - Day 1

Took Friday off to go back to Penang during the Merdeka w/end (was there from Friday till Monday). As usual, a trip to Penang means eat-eat-eat & eat.... We practically didn't have the chance to have an empty stomach for even a short hour in a day! :-p

Day 1: Didn't do much on Friday.... We started around 7+am in the morning. Stopped at Simpang Pulai (I think....) to refill petrol - we tried Ron95 on Camry for the first time!... (che..... a bit of advertising... Camry oso can use Shell Ron95 wooo.... no problemo....). Oh... forgot to mention... It rained the whole time we travelled from South to North tht we were amazed the Peninsular did not "drown" from the amount of rainfall it's getting! Choi!....

Stopped at another rest area right before Ipoh cos' hubby is getting sleepy & finally entered into Ipoh town for dim sum b/fast. Whenever we cross Ipoh early in the morning, hubby will definitely make it a point to visit Foo Shan (an apparently famous & long time establishment) to have dim sum... Took us a while to find though, cos' they've moved to a new building. When we found it (thanks to the help of a local uncle & auntie), wahliao! The crowd! It was drizzling on a weekday & yet it was so packed, we can't find a seat in the 2 storey, 3-4 shoplot space area! You know me... I'm always the type who just hates it when I have to stand/walk around hunting for place to seat & the waiters / waitress are just too busy (or too good business to bother... you-don't-wait-it's-your-loss-I-have-100-lining-up-outside-attitude) to assist. I mean, I'm paying good money & yet need to go through the stress of "fighting" stares with other ppl who are equally trying to get seats? No way... So despite hubby's fixation of having Foo Shan & the mentality tht the neighbouring dim sum shops (long tht street alone, I think there are 3-4 other dim sum shops) will never beat Foo Shan, we left. I can't remember the name of the restaurant we went to, but the dim sum is delish! The "wu-kok" (fried yam pastry filled with savoury "chasiew" pork) is the size of our fist! eh wait... to be more accurate, hubby's fist... mine is small in comparison! :-p

Wow... Can't belief I used 1 whole paragraph writing up just on my 1st day b/fast! Oh well... The rest of the journey was uneventful & we reached Penang around 1pm & had lunch with mum & dad at a local economy rice stall. The day is then spent on doing banking work & renew our Touch & Go card (we just found out tht the card has 10-yrs expiry & ours will be expiring in Oct'09 - better change now) since it's a working day.

After dinner of Beef Kway Teow, we went to Queensbay Mall just to walk off the dinner... :-) Did more window shopping than serious buying. Oh! found Judith McNaught book at a bargain in Borders, so I bought it for my collection. Also bought a pair of knee-length shorts cos' I didn't pack extra shorts for travelling on hot days - just in case...

Wah, very long oledi... I think I better break my updates on my trip into several 'bite-size' portions... Otherwise would be too long. Day 2 coming up...

Penang Trip & Mum's Progress

I was back in Penang from 1st-3rd Jul for training held at Evergreen Laurel. It was the hotel we had our graduation dinner....

Anyway, we started our journey by car after work at 6.30pm & arrived Penang around midnight - stopped at Tapah for dinner & strong tea to keep us awake. Struggled to wake up the following morning because I thought I was told that the training starts at 8am. Rushed through breakfast & sit myself in the training room only to find out at 8.30am, that the training is actually at 9am - sigh.... How come the communication so bad wan.... I could have slept an additional hour.

Fortunately the training ended on time at 5.30pm & I rushed home to have dinner with mum & dad. Mum just got discharged on 1st Jul & is still feeling the pain on her elbow despite the pain-killers. We also had to be cautious on the food we order so tht she doesn't take food that can aggravate wounds (the Chinese said - food tht got "poison"...) such as duck (#1 in the list), yam, chicken, eggs etc...

Day 2 & Day 3 is the same with the day starting with training followed by dinner with parent. Day 3 dinner we however had durian feast along Macalister road. We were so stuffed by durian & was so "heaty" that I got a headache.

Saturday, we went to the Balik Pulau stall tht my dad was talking about since the day he found out I'm coming to Penang. For RM15, we can eat all we want.... & all of them good quality.... D24 lar... Pig fat lar (sorry I didn't coin tht name, the seller says it's named so cos' the durian is so white like pig fat, but taste fantastic)... Red flesh... bitter sweet, sweet only etc etc.... Wah! By the time we finish I felt the heat up to my head again. Fortunately we walked to a coffee shop nearby & had "Ambla Somboi" - ahhhh..... It cooled me down & surprisingly elliminated my headache.

After stuffing so much durian & food in the past few days, I left Penang feeling a few pounds heavier & not craving for any durians at all (at least for this year)!

Sadly, had to leave on Saturday itself because we want some time to rest from the travel. Mum was naturally not happy & poor hubby got most of the "blame" for not wanting to stay longer, although I stressed tht it was both our decisions to rest before work on Monday. I guess it's the pain from her elbow making her crave for company. Fortunately Shen is going back to Penang the following w/end, so at least she has something to look fwd to.