Belated Post: Weekend in Penang

i was browsing through a friend's blog and found a post about our weekend in penang. reading it and viewing her photos reminded me that i hadn't blogged about our roadtrip to penang!

so, when was this? 9-11 jan '09
who are 'we'? becca, solomon and i
what's the occasion? just for the heck of it... no, we went there to be force-fed! hahaha

we rushed home from work, met up and started off from shah alam at around 8pm with solomon behind the wheel. we had dinner at mcD along the nkve. the drive was long and the night didn't help matters, but i managed to finally see how cute becca and solomon are together! haha (to keep records, i've witnessed rachel & chris, and becca & solomon together in reasonably long periods of time... and both couples are so sweet together!)

we got a little bit lost in the mainland when trying finding the penang bridge. but in no time we were back on track and crossing the penang bridge. with vikki's incredibly detailed sms directions, we found our way to her apartment near the turf club.

it was already past 12 midnight but vikki insisted we go for supper. so she and her "friend" took us to gurney drive. the food court place was in the midst of closing up but we managed to sample the famous fruit rojak whilst basking in the sea breeze. one thing i must note here is that everytime i see the sea at night, i have this feeling of dangerous calmness with a tinge of melancholy... i felt the same in port dickson during new year (that warrants for another blog post!) and in chagar hutang during my seatru stint.

after supper we headed back to vikki's place, washed up and attempted to sleep. however, solomon's interrogation session (by vikki) commenced and well, no one can actually tell how long that lasted! we also found out that vikki's "friend" was actually her bf!!! shocking! but according to her, she has emailed us about him before... that shows how attentive we are! ahaha

anyway, the next day (saturday), we had breakfast and then went to kek lok si, climbed and climbed many steps and saw many many many tortoises. some looked pretty deformed to me. oldage mutant wrestling tortoises (= teenage mutant ninja turtles)! we were pretty sure that some of the tortoises at the bottom of the pond were in fact dead and as for those that were floating with their heads and limbs gone limp, they were definitely in tortoise heaven - no doubt there. we saw an uncle (presumably one of the caretakers) climb into the enclave and stashed a couple of tortoises into plastic bags.

oldage mutant wrestling tortoises

testudines sun-bathing

we saw two giant tortoises swimming in the "mote-like" thing around the temple. these large testudines had coins on its back... some were embedded in the moss growing on its shell. i'm guessing that if you're able to deposit a coin on its back, you'll have good luck.

lucky giant tortoise with coins on its back

when we actually entered the temple, we took quite a number of photos, marvelling at the gaudy intricate chinese architecture. since we weren't buddhists, there was nothing much for us to do and so we descended and had a drink while waiting for vikki to meet us.

kek lok si temple

she then took us to eat the RM2.50 assam laksa outside the air itam market (i think that's the name of the place... may be wrong info though). it was good and the evidence was pronounced int the form of a fat sleeping cat with a delicious smile on his face! he was quietly snoozing in a corner near the stall - with an apparent full belly of ikan kembung.

cat taking a siesta after a feast

RM2.50 assam laksa

to cut things short, vikki then took us to eat sisters char kuey teow, yam cake and ABC (near the new food court CY took me to in 2007, the one near the bakery) and some more yam cake. after that, we had to hunt for a frisbee in toys 'R' us in gurney plaza. to clarify things, here's what happened:

- vikki sees black frisbee price tag (RM14.95), she pulls off the upper tag to find out the old price (RM12.95)
- becca says that the shop will honour the lower price
- vikki says she wants a red frisbee
- i look for a red frisbee with 2 price tags
- i hold red frisbee packet while vikki peels off the upper tag
- vikki pays for frisbee (cashier punches in RM12.95) and quickly shuffles off before someone notices anything fishy

therefore, as opposed to becca's account of the incident, all three of us are to be implicated in this crime! naughtay naughtay - as vikki puts it! hahaha

next on the agenda was watersports at feringghi beach! vikki introduced us to more than 10 of her friends. i'm so sorry but i can't remember all of their names (i don't think they can remember my name too! haha)

vikki accompanied me for the parasailing and jetski (she drove). parasailing was thrilling on the way up, but once you're in the air it's abit boring... and omg we nearly landed in the sea... had to start tugging at the straps (front person isn't supposed to tug)... but finally we landed on the sandy beach... and i slipped and fell on vikki, squashing her!!! i feel so bad about it... but i can't stop laughing everytime i recollect it! saddist!!! the parasailing was RM30 per person.

vikki and i landing after parasailing

view from up above (while parasailing)

vikki's friends taking off

then we went jetskiing. vikki drove (because honestly, i don't trust myself to drive it!). we fell into the sea when the beach guy was teaching us how to use the jetski... he rocked us till we fell in! it wasn't our fault! no fair!! and we were privately telling each other not to get wet (for personal reasons)! so much for our aspirations... so, the whole ride i was grabbing onto vikki trying to wipe away the salty sea water constantly splashing into my eyes, screaming (and apparently laughing hysterically - according to vikki) while we literally bounced on the waves!

becca and solomon jetskiing

watersports was really fun. the whole group spent around RM600 plus which was quite cheap. we almost lost 2 of vikki's friends but they turned up later on a horse! hahaha that was funny! anyway, with salt-caked hair and sandy slippered feet, we ate dinner at a place they called "hong kong". we had ikan bakar, prawn mee, oyster omelette... we were too tired to take photos of the food.


then we retired to vikki's place, taking turns to bathe. and later her friends came over for a hot chocolate party where there were 7 sins, each with a different flavour of hot choc. vikki was sinless - she got the sprinkles! let me see whether i can remember the 7 sins: gluttony (this was yummy... white choc!), greed, lust, anger, pride, sloth and envy. the flavours ranged from mint to cinnamon, chili and caramel (can't remember which is which or whether it's the right spice). then there was a round of charades, where i made a fool of myself trying to act like an oompa loompa but failing miserably. however they managed to guess what i was trying to act out: charlie and the chocolate factory!

sunday was our last day, vikki and her bf, sze yong took us for dim sum breakfast. there were so many people eating there and all was self-service! but the dim sum was nice... especially the "wu kok" (yam thing that looks like a birds' nest with char siew filling) ... come to think of it, i really ate alot of yam this trip! just noticed this as i'm typing now!! later they brought us to buy "tau sar pniah" at ghee hiang (CY brought me there too last time... however this time the him heang was closed... i really wanted to buy the hup loong cook's flour and vegetable curry mix from the him heang shop, but it was closed). then we ate more... interesting wan tan mee (nice! although some people may not like it), chendol (famous stall, pck and other hk stars visited it before) and "chee chap chook", in other words, porridge with pig intestines. surprisingly, the deep fried intestines were nice - abit like "chee yau char"... but the boiled intestines were abit too spongy for my liking (actually it was more to a psychological barrier rather than the taste of it). the mind is a powerful thing!

after all the eating, we went back to pack and head back home. vikki complained that she had abandonement syndrome/issues... but she led the way for us to go back to the penang bridge, and we waved like maniacs that the uncles in surrounding cars were looking at us strangely... solomon drove all the way back, although i think he was already "out-of-his-mind" tired... i really put my hat off to him!

and so our weekend in penang ends! back to work the next morning...