This was the most precious moment of my life. Finally our Geng Lahar managed to go on a trip for the very first time together. We chose Penang this time because I heard that Penang is a food heaven for tourists (yeaa right! *roll eyes*). Since all of us have dragon stomachs, Penang sounds so tempting.
Day 1
We started our journey from Vista Komanwel, Bukit Jalil. We took LRT to Bandar Tasik Selatan and continued our journey to LCCT by using ERL & bus. Oh yea, we started our journey on Friday afternoon after everyone got back from their classes. I didn't have afternoon class that day, but Ida, Bella, Lukman & Azery had.
The flight journey was short. Less than one hour. Iyela, domestik je pun.. We checked-in our budget hotel (Broadway Budget Hotel) at Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, Georgetown. After we settled down a bit, we went out to hunt down restaurant nearby because we were so effing hungry at that time. So we found this Restoran Kapitan. The tandoori chicken is so delicious! Please try it! Memang mencanak2 makan malam tu, siap order dua kali! We were so pelahap at that time because of the kesedapan. The tandoori was served with naan (but need to order separately).
Back in our hotel, we planned for our activities tomorrow before we blacked out on a nice comfy beds.
Day 2
We were planning to rent a car in the morning, but the hotel receptionist said that we better rent it in the afternoon because if we calculated it on a 24-hour basis, we could return the car next day noon as well. So it rounds very reliable. In the morning, we had a walking tour around Georgetown visiting a lot of temples and mosque. Snapped some photos here and there and the weather was kinda warm. The places that we visited today were Masjid Kapitan Keling, Cheah Kongsi, Masjid Melayu Lebuh Acheh and many others. By the way, we learned about this places from many brochures that we took from the airport yesterday. They were really helpful!
Fort Cornwallis is a fort obviously. Like A'Famosa in Malacca. There are a lot of cannons placed here and at that time, there was some sort of event there. Maybe a family day of a company or whatnot. There's a lame magic show performed by a lad. It's very lame you know, the tricks are ridiculously stupid. The weather was extremely challenging today, we were drowned in our own sweat.
We went to a lot of Kongsi. It's a historical place for Chinese I think. The designs are quite the same for each kongsi. Kongsi kongsi kong sini~ *tetiba nyanyi kan, nanti kena sepak baru tau*
We really walked a lot in the town. From the town centre up till the seaside at Tanjong City Marina. We were looking for a place to have lunch actually, but mostly the restaurants didn't serve halal food. =.=
Then we walked back to Padang Kota Lama and had Rojak Pasembur and Cendol there. OMG, today was the most f****d up day of my life! We were charged RM100+ for a tray of pasembur! What the hell?? About RM20 for each person. This was utterly rubbish! I already knew about this story when I read newspaper few weeks before but I wasn't sure that it was too real. By the way mamak, your rojak taklah sedap mana pun! We didn't really finished it and plus we messed up the table with the sauce. Serve you right! Mencarot2 kitorang dibuatnya! So the lesson for today is "please ask the price first before taking the food".
Still emo-ing with the rojak incidence, we drove to Kek Lok Si Temple. It was hard to find a parking here but finally we managed to find one. Kek Lok Si is the biggest Buddhism Temple in Penang I think. Because it is really huge and is located up the hill. We had to climbed hundreds of stairs to reach the temple with a lot of tempting souvenir shops along the way up.
On our back downhill, we bought several souvenirs. I bought a few fridge magnets for myself and my family. The price was okay la, RM10 for 3 or 4 like that. Wanna buy I ♥ PG t-shirts but in the end didn't buy one.
Our next agenda, Lukman drove to Wat Chayamangkalaram which is located in the city itself. *eh, kejap pakai city, kejap pakai town*. It is obviously a Thai Buddhism temple and we could simply know it from the name of the temple. We entered the wat shoeless, and took photes here and there. A lot of candles were provided at a price to worship the God. Not our God, so we didn't care.
After mangkalaram around, we headed to my favourite spot,
Toy Museum which is located at Tanjung Bungah. The entrance fee is RM10 and it was quite worthy. I tell you, there are A LOT OF TOYS here! Suits me well with my childish heart. LOL.
Not just toys, this museum also exhibits 1:1 scale of figure such as Prince Caspian, Spiderman, Batman, Ninja Turtles and many more. The toys include Pokemon, Harry Potter, Gundam, Transformers, Barbie, Disney cartoons, Marvel cartoons and a lot more. If I list down everything, you will be bored.
Since Tanjung Bungah is located just beside Batu Ferringhi, we decided to find a place for dinner. It's very difficult to find seafood restaurant served by Malays here because mostly the restaurants are belong to foreigners. I think we had fried kuetiau as our dinner as a small restaurant there. Then we had a walk along the beach, dirtying our shoes. We enjoyed watching sunset here. There were horses around in case you wanna ride them but I'm sure it's expensive.
Next stop, Queensbay! We came here to enjoy the night life here. Not a wild nightlife okay, but sopan-santun one. I called Jah to ask her which place is good for dinner *dinner again! yeayyy!*, and she suggested Hammer Bay. So we went there and had our seafood heaven. After making our belly buncit, we went back to Queensbay area and bought some fruit rojak and more souvenirs from the many stalls opened there. Pedas wooo rojak buah dia! We sat on the rocks while enjoyed the cold breeze came from the sea. Bayu laut ke bayu darat? Siapa terer geografi mesti reti jawab...
Day 3
Today was my turn to drive. Our theme for today was 'love the nature'. Ewaahh, gedik pulak, nak kena tumbuk? By the way, the car was not a manual car, it's an auto. So officially, today was the 2nd time I drive an auto car becase I rarely drive an auto. At home, I drive manual only okay.. The first time I drove an auto was at Langkawi with Lukman and Azery somewhere in April.
After having roti as breakfast, I drove to Taman Negara Pulau Pinang (Penang National Park). It is located somewhere further upper than Batu Feringghi, and I had to drove on the long and winding roads. Sangat mencabar okay!
We bought the tickets for canopy walk. Entrance to the national park is free, but you have to write down your name before hiking inside. Hiking ke? Jalan sudehhh...
We spent few hours inside the park enjoying the beautiful nature created by Allah. Subhanallah, the nature are indeed very cooling and beautiful. We had our canopy walk and rested a bit near the small stream came from a waterfall. There's a lot of mosquito as well. And then the rain fall down.
Tokong Ular was our last stop before we headed to the airport. The road to the temple was quite confusing, I kept on changing directions to reach here. Snake Temple is a temple filled with snakes. I also don't know the reasons behind the snake existence. But you could take photos with the large python inside the temple.
I really enjoyed this trip very very much. I really appreciated you guys especially in making this trip a dream come true. Your co-operations are highly appreciated as well.
Next trip together, any idea??