the great penang getaway: august ’09: day 03 & 04

We woke up rather early in the morning (by our standards) for breakfast. Parkroyal Penang’s breakfast buffet spread was quite decent. The only item that really stood out was the porridge where you can add your own condiments. I am not sure if it’s really that good or we just really like porridge.

Went back to our room to wait for Hot Chick and Aaron as they were coming by to swim in the pool a bit. Had time on our hands, what to do, camwhore lah.

Penang Aug 09 - 73 Suanie at Parkroyal Penang Aug 09 - 74 Shirley at Parkroyal

Penang Aug 09 - 75 Suanie and Shirley at Parkroyal

After about an hour of frolicking in the pool, Horng and Putri came by to check out our suite. Then checked out of the hotel, then went for lunch at… you guessed it, Lorong Selamat’s char kuey teow. Sorry but I just love it okay. The auntie selling drinks at the shop recognised us again, and the ‘bak hu’ auntie came around and sang more songs for us. We also ordered a plate of oh-chien there and I think it’s better than the one we had at New Lane the evening before.

For our 3rd night in Penang, I’d booked a standard room in Cititel because I thought it would be convenient for our friends who were ferrying us around the island. Worst. Mistake. Ever. It’s not TOTALLY horrendous but almost there lor. For the RM 250 that I paid for our room at Cititel, I could have booked 2 rooms and 2 dorm beds at Hutton Lodge and made it my palace. The whole situation was just miserable and depressing lah. You go look at the photos, I don’t want to talk about it any more.

Penang Aug 09 - 76 Cititel, standard room Penang Aug 09 - 77 Cititel, mega TV..

Rested for a while before getting ready to go to Peter and Wuan’s wedding dinner. Taxi driver was a bit blur with the venue, but we managed to get to the restaurant just fine. Then found out that the groom was late, hah! 😛 I’d told Peter that we could help him at the dinner, so we duly sat down at the reception table to do our jobs 😉 The funniest thing was when the auntie selling drinks at Lorong Selamat char kuey teow was one of the guests, and she got a shock when she saw me, again. Heh.

I don’t know why, but even the food at the wedding dinner was delicious. Is it the Penang water or what?? Anyway it was quite a fun wedding dinner with plenty of hilarious moments. It was great seeing Peter and Wuan tie the knot… well, the Chinese way. They are lovely people and a wonderful couple, and I am so glad and happy that things worked out the way they did 🙂

Penang Aug 09 - 83 Peter and Wuan and cake

Group photo of us below: Me, Shirley, Horng, Putri, Angeline, Cheng Leong, Dale, Erna, Wuan, Peter, Bryan and Angeline.

Penang Aug 09 - 84 Group photo at Peter and Wuan's wedding dinner

I’d told some of them not to gorge themselves too much as I’d planned for us to go to Kapitan’s after the dinner. So we did, Hot Chick and Aaron joined us for a while before they had to go elsewhere. I think we wiped out Kapitan’s supply of tandoori chicken for that night, heh. It was a great night out indeed.

Nothing much to report on the 4th day in Penang. Woke up, checked out, walked to Transfer Road for roti canai and beef curry (yummy!), walked to Lorong Selamat for char kuey teow (again) then got into a taxi and went to Hot Chick’s place. Hung out for a while before she sent us to the airport.

It was a short flight back to KL. Unfortunately I’d drank too much water and by the time the plane landed at KLIA, I was almost bursting out. As everyone got their luggage down from the compartments, I squeezed my way through (it was a full flight), asked the MAS stewardess if she could let me go out first to save my kidneys. She kindly did and I must have shocked the business class passengers 😛 One of them giggled at me, obviously comprehending my situation. Bleh to you too.

84 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

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