the great penang getaway: august ’09: day two

We woke up at 9 something in the morning, started packing our stuff then checked out of Hutton Lodge. Left our bags with the friendly receptionist then ventured out for noms. I’d love to say that we wanted to eat everything Penang has to offer and our food itinerary is jam-packed with different places to go to. Unfortunately that was not the case and I only had Lorong Selamat’s char kuey teow on my mind. Shirley was more than accomodating, so we set out to walk to Lorong Selamat.

As we both were so brilliant that we didn’t have/ bring a printed-out map (no matter, I can’t read one anyway),we relied on my Nokia Maps on my N82. Of course it works, unfortunately I didn’t understand how it works. Took a couple of wrong turns, and I spotted a blue wall with a stall selling roti canai next to a mosque. I turned to Shirley and said, “Eh I think this is famous lah. Supposed to be good. I saw a photo of it on someone’s blog.”

Penang Aug 09 - 35 Roti Canai Transfer Road Penang Aug 09 - 36 Roti Canai Transfer Road

Shirley said to give it a try, so we got a place and sat down. Got ourselves a roti kosong each with curry chicken, a teh tarik and a set of roti bakar. The roti bakar came with half-boiled eggs on top. It was the first time I’d seen it served this way, though Horng later told me that it’s common in Penang.

Penang Aug 09 - 37 Transfer Road roti canai, chicken curry, teh tarik Penang Aug 09 - 38  Transfer Road roti bakar with half-boiled eggs

The roti canai was not bad lah. The difference was the curry chicken, very tasty! I don’t remember how much we paid for our breakfast but it wasn’t expensive. I asked a guy sitting at the next table for the name of the stall. He said, it’s just known as kedai roti canai along Transfer Road, and everybody should know it. GPS coordinates: 5.4201, 100.3302.

We walked towards the wrong end of Transfer Road to get to Lorong Selamat. Finally asked a couple of people for directions. Everyone was very surprised that we were going to WALK anywhere. “Wah, very far you know!!” was the common expression whenever we ask for directions. True, I would not walk in KL/ PJ/ Batu Pahat, but it’s normal to walk when you are a tourist. When you come to think of it, the locations are not very far away. Penang is so small what! It’s the heat and humidity that’s killing.

Anyway we got our directions, walked towards the correct end of Transfer Road, got on Burmah Road and walked all the way to Lorong Selamat for…

Penang Aug 09 - 39 Lorong Selamat Char Kuey Teow

Hooray! I got a normal order this time, instead of the extra-spicy I ate yesterday. Could really taste the charcoal fumes, which made it more delicious! 😉 The people working at the shop recognised us, heh. As it was somewhat early and there were few customers, Shirley decided to try to converse with the auntie cooking the char kuey teow. As she passed by our table…

“Auntie, ni de kuo tiao hen hao chi!” (Auntie, your kuey teow is delicious!)
“Hao chi ar? Hmmm.” (Delicious? *Acknowledgement* Hmm.)

So brave, hahah.

On the way back to Hutton Lodge, I couldn’t take the heat any more and bought an umbrella at 7-11. When we reached Hutton Lodge, there was a taxi at the courtyard. We asked if he could help get us a taxi to Parkroyal at Batu Ferringhi. Sure, for RM30! Well, taxis in Penang are not cheap, so suck it up lah. About 5 minutes later, his friend reached Hutton Lodge and off we went to our second accommodation.

Penang Aug 09 - 41 Shirley with welcome drink at Parkroyal Penang Aug 09 - 42 Suanie with welcome drink at Parkroyal

Parkroyal Penang! First time I was there was with Jaime and Janice, and it was cost-free 😉 . I’d wanted to return ever since, unfortunately neither me nor anything I own is made of gold. Since this trip was partly sponsored by MAS, I decided to take the plunge and book a grand deluxe sea-facing room at Parkroyal for one night. Also we were lucky to be someone’s corporate guests, hence we had a good corporate rate!

We got to the hotel earlier than the check-in time, at about 1.40 p.m. Our room was not ready and the receptionist asked if we would like a deluxe sea-facing room instead for a lower price. I thought about it for 3 seconds, then said no, it’s okay we can wait. I already waited a few years to stay there again, I think I can wait a few minutes more 😉

So we walked around the hotel for a bit then plonked our arses down at the lounge. A waiter came to us with welcome drinks. Decided to check out the St Gregory Spa, then the receptionist called the spa to let us know that our room was ready. As we received our room key, the receptionist apologised for the wait (which was not their fault, we arrived early) and nonchalantly added, “By the way, we upgraded you to a suite.”

Penang Aug 09 - 43 Parkroyal Ocean Palm suite living room Penang Aug 09 - 44 Parkroyal Ocean Palm suite bed

Holey mada of all… WE GOT LUCKY OR WHAT?!? 😀 Parkroyal’s Ocean Palm suite has a separate lounge area, a king-size bed, two LCD TVs, bla bla bla, go read the details here. Two balconies, attached to a private garden with sun deck chairs for the suites and deluxe rooms. RM600 (after corporate rate and upgraded to suite), awesome or not??

Penang Aug 09 - 49 Parkroyal suite, garden Penang Aug 09 - 51 Parkroyal suite, garden

As guests at the hotel, we were entitled to a discount at the attached St Gregory spa. Shirley made an appointment for the two of us. After unpacking for a bit, we decided to head to the pool for a quick dip before our (expensive) massages. Of course always got time for a quick beer and ice-cream!

Penang Aug 09 - 54 Suanie with beer by the beach Penang Aug 09 - 55 Shirley with ice-cream by the beach

We got a Balinese full body massage which was packaged with a facial, RM250 each. Thanks Shirley! 😛 The masseurs were very good though it got rather painful at times because my body is quite tensed up. So relaxing that we fell asleep for a bit. Woke up when cold stuff was splattered on our faces for the facial. For the final touch, they served us very nice ginger tea. I like! No wonder they are so expensive 😛

Then we walked back to the beach just to take in the evening sun (though there was no sun) and look see people for a bit.

Penang Aug 09 - 58 Batu Feringghi beach Penang Aug 09 - 60 Horse at the beach

Back at our room, Shirley saw that the staff had laid out a fruit platter for us. After a quick shower, we decided to chill out at the balcony with the fruits, some tea and coffee and bak hu from yesterday. This is the life, I tell ya.

Penang Aug 09 - 63 Bliss at Parkroyal

Decided to go back to Georgetown for dinner. Called up Bryan for strategies on locations and he suggested that we go to New Lane before anywhere else, as the hawker stalls may not be open till late. Off we went to New Lane, GPS coordinates: 5.415, 100.3271.

What’s the #1 food attraction at New Lane? Pig’s intestine porridge, of course!

Penang Aug 09 - 64 New Lane food stalls

Sorry, tidak ditanggung halal. We also got an order of oh-chien (fried egg + starch + oysters) and it was yummy. By the way I would like to state that we ordered one bowl of porridge to be shared — stomachs are not THAT bottomless pits ok. But yes, you must try the pig’s intestines porridge if you are at New Lane, if you haven’t already. There’s only one stall displaying all the innards, can’t miss it.

We asked the customers sitting nearby for directions to Chulia Street. They were aghast that we were planning to walk all the way there from New Lane. Like I said, Penang folks don’t walk one mah 😛 But they gave us good directions and off we went searching for Chulia Street. It was quite a bit to walk but not bad lah. Got lost a couple of times, asked more people for directions, passed by a mosque with banners demanding for Jeff Ooi’s resignation. Interesting…

Anyway there’s a good reason why we wanted to go to Chulia Street, and that’s…

Penang Aug 09 - 68 Chulia Street wantan mee Penang Aug 09 - 70 Kapitan's claypot nasi beryani

Wantan mee! Still delicious as ever, the noodles were springy and had bits of lard. The auntie at the stall had a lot of noodles for sale and it was half gone by the time we finished our bowl of wantan mee. Not bad eh? Except that the dining environment is not altogether appealing, but that’s Malaysian hawker places for you. I saw a damn cute Fluffy by the drain, asked Shirley to see but she refused 😛 GPS coordinates: 5.4182, 100.3365.

Next stop: Kapitan’s at Chulia Street.

By this point, we were a bit stuffed. But Kapitan’s was nearby and it would be a waste to skip their awesomely delicious claypot beryani! Actually I ordered a tandoori chicken on the side, but I think they didn’t hear the order or they sengaja ignored me. It’s okay, I think I was being too ambitious and greedy at that time, heh. GPS coordinates: 5.4162, 100.3386.

Chilled out for a while before hailing a taxi to G Hotel to catch Hot Chick. She was meeting some friends, asked us to join but we were too tired and decided to go back to our hotel. Before getting another cab, we stopped by at Gurney Drive food stalls to buy…

Penang Aug 09 - 71 Sotong Bakar stall at Gurney Drive Penang Aug 09 - 72 Sotong Bakar stall at Gurney Drive

Sotong bakar! Or grilled cuttlefish for those who don’t understand half of what I’ve been typing. Jaime introduced it to me years ago and since then, I’ve never failed to revisit the stall for delicious sotong bakar whenever I’m in Penang. The dark prawn paste just makes it better!

Got back to the hotel (another expensive taxi ride, but what to do), chilled out in front of the TV with our sotong bakar and assorted snacks with a B-grade movie on telly. Nice.

Third day: Cititel and Peter’s wedding dinner. More photos at my Flickr set for Penang, August 2009 here.

*Note: This trip was partly sponsored by Malaysia Airlines. Go check out the best fares at www.malaysiaairlines.com

comments

Comments

  1. ShaolinTiger says

    Transfer road is good, you gotta try the beef or mutton tho awesomesauce.

  2. pork intestine porridge ftw!

    the aunty is abit cool right? “Hao chi ar? Hmmm.” thats all? =P

    when I was there a few months ago, there was a tourist wanted to take a photo too. She was like, “oi aunty! you can lift your head up and smile abit or not?”

    bloody tourist.

  3. ST: we got the beef curry also … post coming soon 😛

    cynthia: HAHHAHA OMG HOW DID THE AUNTIE RESPOND??? HAHHAHAHA

    she wasn’t unfriendly when Shirley told her that lah. Something like, “oh, hao chi ar.. ok” then walked on to the back to talk to someone else

  4. It is very unfortunate that every time I surf over I haven’t had dinner yet, nor do I have the financial means to do so. Gardenia RM 0.80 bun today (and for the rest of the week).

    The CKT looks…fantabulous. 🙁

  5. Dunno why I was giggling and reading your post 😀 Walaueh, you girls really ate alot eh. First2 my tummy rumbling to see all that food, then the more I read, the fuller I became. I swear I almost burped at the end. LOL.

  6. So this was only the 2nd plate of char kueh teow? lol

  7. u are scary

  8. Wah, you walked from New Lane to Chulia Street? Tabik. Told you everything is within walking distance. Haha. Now you have made me want to go back to Penang just to eat. Arrrgh…

  9. crazy. lucky u gals walk alot. but don’t ask me to do that. no way.

  10. HB: it tasted fantabulous 😀

    whimsicaljottings: I know how it must have looked! but we did walk a lot!!

    KY: yah 3rd and 4th coming 😛

    LT: hehehhehe

    hiphog: not very far, except that we got a bit lost a couple of times. not really lost lost, just didn’t know which road to turn to

    horng: cos you penang lang mah

  11. wakakaka. we really ate alot … now i feel full just thinking about it. lol

  12. Old Town got the roti bakar with eggs =D

  13. Have you tried the wanton mee at Jln Terrenganu behind Penang Free School? Only open in the evenings

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