Boycott the Lorong Selamat char kuey teow auntie, yeay! Only when I’m not in Penang lah…

I was rolling about in laughter as I read Eleen’s forwarded e-mail about a call to boycott the famous Lorong Selamat char kuey teow lady seller. You know, the one that Penang folks dislike as she is notoriously rude and unfriendly. All the bad service at a premium price for her char kuey teow, ohhh trust me, I feel their disgust every time I propose lunch at said hawker stall 😛

Apparently some customers witnessed an unpleasant incident which you can read in detail at The Star report here. Someone then drew up a caricature and it went its rounds and finally arrived at my Inbox courtesy of Eleen, who knows how much I adore the stall’s char kuey teow.

Lorong Selamat char kuey teow caricature
Click here to view the larger version.

Yeah, very rude I agree. Actually don’t talk about that incident lah. Before she moved to her own corner shop lot, she was renting a stall at the middle part of Lorong Selamat. Also very rude what. Remember when customers had to line up for their own plate of char kuey teow because she was too busy and she was short-handed and refused to serve? Or the 3 hours of waiting for your food because of the simple equation of her cooking each plate individually and there were just way too many orders? Or the many alleged incidents of “cannot wait then don’t eat lah” or “too expensive don’t eat lah” uttered from her red beret, goggles-wearing down turned mouth?

Yes I know all the stories. It’s terrible, I admit. But I don’t go to Penang often. When I get the chance to, I only want to eat her char kuey teow. You can’t tell me that there are other nicer char kuey teow around. I tried all the others and they don’t compare to this one:

Penang Aug 09 - 39 Lorong Selamat Char Kuey Teow

Sorry I tourist. Tell me if you want me to help boycott other things and I will! Just not this one 😀

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

the great penang getaway: august ’09: day one

Penang Aug 09 - 01 MAS plane *Note: This trip was partly sponsored by Malaysia Airlines. Go check out the best fares at www.malaysiaairlines.com

I was in Penang last month for a short holiday + attend Peter Tan‘s wedding dinner. I asked my dear Shirley to come along with me because we were in Penang the same time last year and it could be an annual thing! Provided she doesn’t do something like migrate to somewhere really far away lah. Who knows, women… hearts very far away one 😛

My flight to Penang was at 10 something in the morning. As usual I took my own sweet time getting ready. Sis sent me to a nearby LRT station, I stopped at KL Sentral and went on the KLIA Express to get to the airport. The line at the MAS counter was pretty long and I panicked for a bit. Out of time mah. Then I heard an announcement for my flight’s final call which led me to an empty desk, and wahey! I made it on time! Go me 😛

(But okay, next time I’ll start getting ready earlier.)

Penang Aug 09 - 02 Inside the plane Penang Aug 09 - 03 Going Places magazine

I’ve not been on a MAS aircraft for a while. So when I stepped into the plane, I was a bit surprised by the colourful seat covers. Quite nice lah, makes the atmosphere happier. My sister went to Bangkok not long ago and she also commented on the covers. She also took a photo of herself camwhoring with the seats but I don’t have her permission to post it here. If you ask her nicely, maybe she’d show you. Just maybe.

It was a short flight, drinks were served, reached Penang International Airport in less than an hour. Waited around for Shirley’s flight from Singapore to arrive. Called Hot Chick to let her know I’m in her state, and the woman swung her car around (she was nearby the area) to pick us up. That was so nice and generous, thank you so much!

Called Cheesie who was in Penang that day with Taka, but leaving for KL in the afternoon. Still had time for one last meal, so we went to Padang Kota Lama for…

Penang Aug 09 - 04 Hameed's stall  at Padang Kota Lama Penang Aug 09 - 05 Hameed's mee sotong at Padang Kota Lama

Mee sotong!!! Oh man, Hameed’s mee sotong at Padang Kota Lama was the first thing Shirley and I craved for when we returned to our respective homes last year. Took us one whole year to be able to eat it again, and it still tasted GREAT! Slightly spicy with a generous serving of cuttlefish. Super delicious, RM3.50 a plate. Goes down well with our coconut shake from the drinks stall nearby.

Padang Kota Lama’s food court is just next to Fort Cornwallis. The place looks a little run-down, but then that’s where you get the most yummy food! 😉 GPS coordinates: 5.4206, 100.3429.

After our (first) lunch, Hot Chick dropped Cheesie and Taka off somewhere because they needed to catch their flight home. We then went to Jalan Hutton because I’d booked a room at Hutton Lodge for the night. Why? Because I rely a lot on Trip Advisor, that’s why. A restored heritage building in the middle of Hutton Road, Hutton Lodge is clean, minimalistic and inexpensive. A twin room with an attached bathroom costs RM90 and dorm beds go for RM28 a night. Cheap or what? GPS coordinates: 5.4196, 100.3308.

Penang Aug 09 - 08 Hutton Lodge Penang Aug 09 - 12 Hutton Lodge, twin beds room

While Hot Chick was finishing up some work, Shirley and I walked along Hutton Road to check out the neighbourhood. By the way, I can safely say that Hutton Lodge is pretty much in the middle of town and it’s a good place to stay, location-wise.

Bought some drinking water at a 7-11 and spotted loaves of Gardenia Butterscotch bread. Shirley never had it before and wanted to try, so we got a loaf. Don’t think she was all too impressed, heh.

Penang Aug 09 - 16 Shirley with Gardenia Butterscotch bread Penang Aug 09 - 17 Shirley trying a Gardenia Butterscotch bread

After Hot Chick was done with her work, she took us to Lorong Selamat for… what else? Penang char kuey teow lah!

Penang Aug 09 - 19 Lorong Selamat, Heng Huat Char Kuey Teow stall Penang Aug 09 - 21 Extra spicy Char Kuey Teow, Lorong Selamat

The famous unfriendly auntie was still there, now operating next to an open car park. Apparently she is less unfriendly now (note the difference between friendlier and less unfriendly) because it’s her own shop and she can’t go around offending people, can she?? RM8 per plate, I think it’s worth it for a tourist like me. I know many Penang-nites would shake their head and refuse to pay that kind of price, but we don’t have the luxury of living in Penang okay! Of course the char kuey teow was super delicious! But I suppose most of you who have been to Penang have eaten there. GPS coordinates: 5.4171, 100.3247.

Hot Chick ordered a bowl of laksa lemak from the opposite stall, a mix of assam laksa and curry mee. It was superb! The gravy was super addictive and they were generous with the fish. RM4.50 per bowl, very worth it! Of course cannot eat this everyday lah, it’s akin to inviting a heart attack.

Penang Aug 09 - 23 Laksa Lemak, Lorong Selamat Penang Aug 09 - 24 Auntie selling meat floss, Lorong Selamat

An auntie came around our table to sell her goods, pork floss. She was really funny: went into songs and rhymes of how delicious her pork floss is, how you would be beautiful and wonderful after eating her ‘bak hu’, that she went to school and didn’t study so cannot be ‘cikgu’ (teacher) hence have to sell ‘bak hu’… It was quite delicious so we bought some from her. Of course her charms and saleswomanship were the more influencing factors, heh. She also readily posed for photos and told us to catch her on TV.

More food? Yes please. Shirley wanted some fehmes Penang cendol, so Hot Chick took us to Penang Road for THE famous cendol. GPS coordinates: 5.4171, 100.3306.

Penang Aug 09 - 25 Penang Road cendol Penang Aug 09 - 26 Suanie and Shirley eating cendol at Penang Road

It was nice, but I prefer Melaka-style cendol along Jonker’s Street. If you’d notice, they have a photo of Gurmit Singh as Phua Chu Kang eating a bowl of cendul at their stall. Think Shirley took a photo of that to show her dad.

Went back to Hutton Lodge for a short rest before dinner. I think we were knocked out for a bit. A couple of hours later, Hot Chick and Aaron came to pick us up for MORE food. We went to Zealand Seafood restaurant along Gurney Drive, which is owned by a friend of Aaron’s. Next door was also a restaurant with a stage for people to display their… uh, limited vocal abilities. Surprisingly they got a lot of customers that way. Anyway, check out our dinner!

Penang Aug 09 - 27 Seafood along Gurney Drive

Balitong, mantis prawns, kum heong lala, frog’s legs (which I didn’t touch), vermicelli, drunken prawns and grilled crabs. Fresh, delicious and inexpensive, though I suspect our bill was discounted because of Aaron. Check out the sign at the female toilet!

Bloody bottomless pits for stomachs we have, right? Here’s dessert! 😉

Penang Aug 09 - 33 Mango crepe with mango ice cream, Crepe Cottage Penang Aug 09 - 34 Strawberry crepe with strawberry ice cream, Crepe Cottage

We walked down Gurney Drive to The Crepe Cottage, kononnya want to walk off dinner so we’d have space for dessert. Don’t think it worked very well, but we downed everything at The Crepe Cottage because it was very yummy! Also had a lot of fun photographing the resident fat cat.

Penang Aug 09 - 32 Satanic cat

Can you eat as much as we did in one day? Heh. Second day in Penang: Parkroyal Penang and more food, of course.

More photos at my Flickr set for Penang, August 2009 here.

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: more food!

Just realised that Pinky took a photo of the Air Itam assam laksa. You can view it here.

I’d made plans to meet up with Bryan, Peter, Wuan and ReallyBites for dinner. Unfortunately HPC was not able to join us as she had work to do. So she dropped us off at our hotel, not before getting Pinky a crispy Chinese pancake with peanuts and bananas inside, and fried bananas for snacks. By the way, I am still in amazement at how much food we ate when we were in Penang…

We chilled out and slept for a bit, and I took a couple of photos of the sunset.

Penang Aug 08 - 44 View from hotel balcony at 7 pm
7 p.m. : I was there!

At about 7.30 pm, Bryan picked us up at our hotel and drove us to Chulia Street. He said that the two things famous there are the curry mee and the wantan mee. So Pinky chose the former, I had the latter.

Penang Aug 08 - 47 Close up of curry mee at Chulia Street
Pinky’s curry mee. She said it was a bit too oily for her taste

The wantan mee was the BEST I’ve ever had! The noodles tasted so fresh, light and springy! it was too delicious for words! Well, if I had to, here’s my Chulia Street wantan mee poem:

I went to Chulia Street
I had wantan mee
And now I’m fucked
Because
I’ll never be able to look
at wantan mee the same way again.

Penang Aug 08 - 48 Wantan mee at Chulia Street
Wantan mee at Chulia Street

By the time we had our food, Peter was still nowhere in sight. So Bryan called him up and suggested that we go someplace else for food (our second round, heheh). We reached New Lane and Peter, Wuan and ReallyBites were already there. We passed by this:

Penang Aug 08 - 49 Pigs' intestines for porridge at New Lane
It didn’t look all that great until they chop it up to little pieces and add it to porridge

Bryan helped us to order oh jien. He also got us a bowl of pork porridge to share. It had pieces of char siew, and boiled and deep-fried pig’s intestines in it. It was THE MOST AWESOME THING I’D EVER HAD! Have another poem:

I went to New Lane
I had porridge with pig’s intestines
It was too damn good
So I had another bowl
All by myself
And I want more
And more
And more and more and more!

Penang Aug 08 - 50 Porridge with pig intestines at New Lane
This bowl of porridge is more precious than new-born babies

I really, really miss Penang 🙁

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

the great penang getaway: august ’08: day two: being tourists

I don’t remember why but we ended up at Khoo Kongsi in Cannon Square. The RM 5 entrance fee includes a couple of postcards of the famous clanhouse. I suppose you can read up its Wikipedia entry or go to the official website for more information.

Penang Aug 08 - 26 Khoo Kongsi
Pinky and HPC in front of the main Khoo Kongsi structure

It was interesting and quite pretty lah; the detailed carvings and ancient paintings all over. But being Chinese, I suppose I’m unable to appreciate it *that* much, having been exposed to these type of… uhm, cultural-ish stuff since young. The only thing that fascinated me was the structure of the clanhouse; the main temple in the middle surrounded by houses and courtyards. Then my mind began to create mental images of the people who used to live there, their daily lives etc. I suppose they are still restoring the houses closest to the main temple. Maybe they should put up mini museums in the currently-deserted houses… I don’t know, to make the place more lively and worth visiting?

Penang Aug 08 - 28 Khoo Kongsi
Pinky and I say, welcome to our humble abode 😛

Don’t get me wrong; I suppose it’s fine as it is. But it could be more! Imagine one house showcasing ancient Chinese attire, one house showcasing this and that Chinese handicraft from the past, one house showcasing paintings from past and current painters, one house filled with books and what-not on Chinese history and culture… There are so many houses there! Heh. I’m sure they have their own problems, so moving on…

Penang Aug 08 - 31 Kek Lok Si temple
Random photo of Kek Lok Si temple

Next up: the famous Kek Lok Si temple. Because Pinky and I are so fit and healthy, we decided that we did not require the exercise where we’d have to walk uphill past souvenir shops etc to get to the temple. So HPC drove us to the very top instead 😛

Before heading to Kek Lok Si, we stopped by Bukit Bendera / Penang Hill to see if we could take the tram up the hill. Turns out, the tram service is not available till next year! Just our luck eh 😉

Penang Aug 08 - 33 Kek Lok Si temple
Look ma, I’m about to jump!

It was hot, but the breeze at the top of the temple was really nice. Uhm… what else? It’s a Buddhist temple lah. You’ve seen one or two, you’ve seen them all 😛

The famous Air Itam assam laksa is just at the foot of the hill, so we had post-lunch pre-dinner there. Again, I found out that I was not the bottomless pit as I thought I was. So when you mencapai kepuasan tahap maksima, there’s no way you can enjoy anything after that.

I’ve heard of Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion many times, but I’d never been there until this trip. KY and Rachel, both Penangites don’t even know what or where it is, heh. When we reached the place (which is along Leith Street), we were told that the afternoon tour (which costs RM 12 per person) would only begin at 3 p.m. Since that was only about 45 minutes away, we decided to hang around and wait.

Penang Aug 08 - 36 Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
Pretending to be old skool

An older lady appeared. She turned out to be the tour guide. She seemed nice, though she was very particular about us (around 15 people including a few kids) sticking together as a group, not touching anything, not wandering anywhere without permission because it’s a private property (it came off as if we should be really grateful to be able to view this place, never mind that we paid RM 12 each), else she’d make a face and tsk with displeasure. Sometimes even muttering not so nice things about the offenders.

She spent a good part of the one hour tour talking about Cheong Fatt Tze’s history, basically his rags to riches to rags story. A small group of tourists, most likely from China flaunted flouted almost all of the tour guide’s rules and after being incessantly clucked by her, left the tour. Don’t think they understand English at all, or could even hear the tour guide from where they were standing.

Then a skinny, middle-age man with a backpack joined the tour. Rather creepy, because he was overly friendly and touchy-feely with the kids in the group. Close to the end of the tour, one of the parents told him off sternly, “Don’t touch other people’s kids.” I didn’t catch that because I was somewhere up front but Pinky and HPC heard it loud and clear.

Penang Aug 08 - 39 Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
HPC, Pinky and Suanie at the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion

We were not allowed to take photos inside the mansion. That privilege is reserved for paying guests — the mansion doubles as a boutique hotel, where you could spend a night with some antiques in your room (comes with air-conditioning and a modern bathroom) for just RM 320 a night. I don’t think I’d ever do that — staying overnight in really old buildings creep me out.

On the day we were there, the mansion was being used as a movie set. There was no shooting that day but we saw plenty of props laying around. Can’t wait to see Patrick in ‘The Funeral Parlour’ 😉

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