the great penang getaway: august ’08: day three: beach, food, ludo

After breakfast at the hotel, we decided to walk across the road (there’s a connecting pedestrian bridge from the hotel to the other side of the road) to the beach.

Penang Aug 08 - 54 View of swimming pool from bridge
Photo of the hotel swimming pool area taken from the pedestrian bridge

We passed by a flight of steep and uneven stairs, and an aquarium with a couple of hideous looking eels. I hate eels.

Penang Aug 08 - 56 American eel in a tank
Unagi? Not for me

It was early-ish and there were not many people around. Was lovely to just walk a bit and play with the water and sand. You can view the rest of the beach photos at my Flickr set.

Penang Aug 08 - 63 Leave nothing but footprints
Leave nothing but footprints

We went back to our hotel room, packed and checked out. HPC came to get us and took us for lunch at an open-air food stall next to Fort Cornwallis (Padang Kota Lama). She said that they have the best mee sotong ever, never mind that I never had mee sotong before. There were a lot of people so we waited a while for our food.

Penang Aug 08 - 66 Mee sotong
The most fanfuckingtastic mee ever, sotong or what not!

The mee sotong was ridiculously delicious! It was also the one and only thing I craved for after coming back to KL. I was on MSN with Pinky the other night, and we both went, “I really want to eat the mee sotong now…” You must have it when you go to Penang. Like I said, it’s just next to Fort Cornwallis, you can’t miss it!

After lunch, we had nothing much to do so we headed over to Starbucks at Gurney Hotel. They had board games, so we played snakes and ladders and Ludo. Couldn’t really remember the rules for Ludo (or how to play it, even) so the instruction leaflet came in handy…

Penang Aug 08 - 68 Reading rules for Ludo
I have not touched one of these things since I was a child

HPC won the game. I was the first runner-up. Guess who was second 😛

Then HPC decided that we’d rested on our laurels long enough, and took us to eat char kuey teow at Macalister Road. I first had it when I was in Penang with KY many moons ago. Maybe we overate earlier, but the char kuey teow didn’t seem to be as fantastic as I’d remembered it to be.

Penang Aug 08 - 72 Sisters' Char Kuey Teow
Sisters’ char kuey teow

After our second lunch, HPC took us to the bus station for our ride back to KL. There ends our great Penang getaway. Thank you so much, HPC for everything you’ve done and more! We had a FANTASTIC time, and your company made it even better. Cheers!

*Click here to view the entire Flickr set for ‘Penang, August 2008’, which includes photos not published here. No. of photos in the set: 73.

the great penang getaway: august ’08: day two: beach & beef noodles

After breakfast at the hotel cafe, Pinky and I got on the hotel’s free shuttle van to the happening part of Feringghi Beach. That would be somewhere near the Golden Sands Resort and Shangri La’s Rasa Sayang Resort. Well, that was where the van driver dropped us off anyway. It was drizzling as we walked to the beach but luckily the rain clouds went away, and the sun shone as if it couldn’t wait to make roast meat out of me.

Penang Aug 08 - 16 Suanie at the Feringghi Beach
Suanie at the beach

As it was still quite early in the morning, there weren’t too many people, except for the water sports handlers inviting you to get rent their sports equipment. We had fun watching some tourists fucking up at the jet ski and the handlers screaming at them to get away from the buoys.

Penang Aug 08 - 19 Shadows at the Feringghi Beach
Hot Hot Hot!

After mucking about with sand and sea for a bit, we walked to the Golden Sands Resort to wash our feet. Luckily they weren’t too fussed about non-guests using their water pipes and stuff 😛 Actually it was just a matter of casually walking about, acting as we belonged there.

Penang Aug 08 - 23 Sky and coconut trees at the Golden Sands resort
This feels like a holiday

We took a taxi to Gurney Plaza (RM28) and HPC picked us up to go for lunch in town. She claimed that it was the best beef noodles she’d ever had, and she and her boyfriend would not fail to eat there at least once a week. After yesterday’s tandoori chicken, I was inclined to believe anything she says.

Penang Aug 08 - 24 Beef noodles, soup version
Most fantastic beef noodles, ever!

And boy was she right…

I am so in love with Penang…

*Click here to view the entire Flickr set for ‘Penang, August 2008’, which includes photos not published here.