Penang Roadtrip!!

I seem to have acquired a writer's block upon starting this blog entry. The recent trip to Penang is certainly hard to describe. So many things had happened over the course of the 3 days spent there. Honestly though, the trip was planned on short notice. Given that, there were bumps in the program such as improper allocation of time and lack of site seeing activities. But what is a trip without imperfections? Still, there were sufficient positive points about the trip that overshadowed some of the negative ones.

In any case this is an account of the whole trip, bear with me if some of you fall asleep halfway through this post.

Day One:

Started the day early at around 7.30. A quick breakfast and I was set to go to the Perhentian Duta bus terminal at 8.20am. Reached there at about 8.45, first bunch of people I came across at the terminal was Grace, Kai Fung, Mun Yin and Yuan Chuan. Kat was there too with her dad and sis, but there were a little further down the terminal cafeteria that I didn't see them.

Sue Ann and Ivy were the last to arrive. Good thing they came in the nick of time, as they were holding on to some very important tickets. We boarded the bus a little later than the intended 9.15 time frame stipulated on our tickets, but we got off to a slow start none the less.



We spent most of the journey sleeping as any would be traveler would do. Its an awfully boring ride save for the few moments when we passed through these gigantic mountains and under a tunnel. But even those weren't enough to fuel my attention. There was just one sole rest stop during the course of the trip, couldn't have come a moment sooner as my bladder was waiting to burst. Was there for about half an hour so some of us took the opportunity to grab some treats to eat.

We only got to Penang at around 2pm at best, crossing the famous Penang bridge. As we approached Penang, rain drops grew heavier as we closed in. It was raining heavily when we got to the bus terminal. We retreated to the shelter of the terminal's resident mamak stall, which did not provide us with options of lunch. So we settled for some junk food and drinks.

The van finally arrived at 3pm, made our way to a drier part of town to grab some choy at a coffee shop. I later learned by my parents that there was a supposed famous char keow teow (CKT) stall manned by 2 old sisters. I guessing that we ate there as there were 2 sisters cooking and by the fact that we were charged RM5 for one plate of normal CKT. Worse still, we waited for a long while not realising that we were suppose to line up to get the food. What a rip and even worse, stuck up way of running a shop!

Once lunch was taken care of, we checked in at the hotel (Bayview Beach Resort) which was located rather far from the city. After trashing the room, some of us went out for a short excursion to a near by portion of the beach. Ivy, Kat and myself managed to climb up a rock to get a better view of the place, though I got my pants abit wet during the course of the journey.


In the evening we drove into town to sample of taste of Gurney Drive. I must say though, I was worried that I might contract some stomach problems over the course of the trip due to the cleanliness of the restaurants and Gurney Drive was reported to have a reputation among rodents. But in any case, the food was good. Fried oysters, noodles and fried rice all were good. Must have the been the zhi yuk oil. A little bit too much though.


As we were driving back to the hotel we decided to pay the local pasar malam a visit, it was a little too late as by 11pm the stalls started closing. Never the less the girls did managed to find some things to buy admist the rush.

Upon returning to the hotel, it seemed only Kat and myself had intentions of turning in for the night. The rest were more intent on spending the whole night awake. And so closed the first day of the trip.

Day Two:

Woke up rather early, seemed that the crazy lunatics last night had left for some other place while we were sleeping. Kat and myself were just about to have some cup noodles for breakfast when Carmen called in to let us know that we were entitled to have the complimentary buffet breakfast downstairs along with Ivy and Sue Ann. The buffet was good, with plenty of stuff to choose from. Surprisingly I managed to control my intake so I wasn't too full for the beach activities later that morning.

The beach was full of activity by 10am. Lots of people with a bunch of tourist leaving for a scuba diving excursion. Horses with riders offering rides to ppl on the beach. Wave riders and boats looking for passengers. Ivy, Sue Ann, Kat and myself were mostly content with writing/drawing stuff in the sand and taking pictures at the beach.



Funny thing happened on the beach, as we were taking photos in the beach, Wan Jin appeared out of nowhere, riding a horse. It was only then that we started taking up stuff like horse riding and riding a banana boat.

Was really a fun filled morning at the beach, never would have partaken in any of the stuff that was set out on the beach had we not met Wan Jin at the beach. Stayed until 12pm before we decided to call it quits for the morning.

Originally, the group had decided to head over to some famous temple in Penang while savouring some Penang Laksa. We savoured the laksa but didn't go to the temple. Instead, we bought some Heong Peng to take back home. Wonder how they taste.......

Ending up back at the hotel, most of us decided to laze around not doing much. It was only later that we set out for the beach once again. This time we walked along the shore beyond the bounds of the hotel, collecting sea shells along the way. At first it was just Kat and myself, later the rest joined up. The only unfortunate event during this outing was that Kat had lost her glasses while we were at the beach....we couldn't find it in the end as the sun was setting by then.


Dinner was later at a place called Tai Tong sea food restaurant, the major complaint (and I'm sure everyone on the trip would recall) was that the crab wasn't fresh. So ppl, don't go to Tai Tong in Penang!!

Day Three:

Woke up early in the morning to search for Kat's glasses, hoping that we could find it washed ashore. Unfortunately our search turned up fruitless. At least I managed to snap some good pics along the beach side while we were at it. Explored more of the beach too.

Pretty soon it was time to pack up and head over to the bus terminal. Most of us were tired and probably hungry from the lack of a proper breakfast.

Waited at the bus terminal for an agonizing 3 hours. Playing Cho Tai Tee all the way and eating. We were complete slobs really... On top of that we almost got on the wrong bus to KL!! Haha...good thing Yuan Chuan pointed that out to us and we made our way to the same bus that brought us to Penang. The journey back was shorter than the one up to Penang. Before we knew it, we were back in KL by 8pm. Sent Kat back to her place later (finally know how to get to her place!).

Well thats the whole trip in a nut shell. I hope the pics speak better than my accounts of the trip. Overall, the trip was fun albiet some minor, some major events that caused it to be less enjoyable. But nonetheless, it was good to get to see the beach with friends!!