Not trying to bore anyone, but a little background story first? Haha. The idea for this trip came into conception as early as February, back when all of my housemates and friends from ALL 1 were still in KTT. Planning the trip was easy but finalizing the date was hard, as I had to prepare for my IELTS exam after I got back from my semester break in June.
The very week after my IELTS exam, I decided that it was the right time to get movin'. So I decided to begin my trip out of KTT first on that very Wednesday, to Cheras. Why? Cause I wanted to visit the Connaught night market, which is heralded as the longest night market in Malaysia, and poor old Howe has been waiting for me to crash his pad since last year. Haha.
So right after reaching Angkasa condo on a RM 19 taxi ride (which normally costs RM 5, FML), I barely had enough time to shake the dust off my body before being whisked to the night market, as we wanted to avoid the late crowd. The night market is just a stone's throw away from Howe's condo and UCSI. I was at lost about what food to try there, but most stalls just sold the same types of food, some which you can get at just any other night market here. I just remembered I tried some sort of Chinese burger, Taiwanese chicken nuggets, some really weird tasting sugar cane juice and cendol, the highlight of the night. Haha.
Then, of course, came the obligatory college tour! Howe brought me round his campus, UCSI's south wing. We went round almost the entire campus, which is located on a hillside, just like KTT. Hahaha. We retreated back to his condo quite early, where I spent the rest of the night going online, doing hardly anything.
The very next day, I woke up early, and took a taxi + ERL to KLIA (no buses to the North in BTS terminal, FML again) in order to take the bus to Sitiawan, where I would meet Tim. The journey up to Sitiawan was long and tedious, as what was supposed to be a 3 hour journey turned out to become a 5 hour long journey, enough time for me to reach Penang! I reached at around 2 pm, then Tim brought me to have lunch with his family, excluding his dad who was away, at Lido. Sitiawan is a town where the Chinese population is predominantly Foochow, just like Sibu, so listening to the conversation between Tim's mother and the restaurant staff makes me feel like I'm with people of my own kind. Haha.
Few hours after lunch, I was brought on an intensive eating spree by Tim, where I had some Sitiawan laksa, famous cendol pulut, rojak, mee rebus, and their kompia, which was way different than what we have in Sibu. At night, we all went out to have seafood for dinner, where I still failed miserably in trying to attempt to crack open the shell of a crab. Haha. After a nap, I was brought round Sitiawan by Tim, where I found out that Sitiawan is actually very much like a much older version of Sibu. We even went all the way to Lumut, where you can board a ferry to Pangkor island, for a brief stroll on the beach. At midnight, we went to Big Cinemas to watch Transformers: Dark of the Moon, again (for me)! This was because Tim's busy housework schedule held him back from watching any movies and the only breather he had was when he was my tour guide.
Next morning, I had the Sitiawan kampua for breakfast. I was like, "Finally!", but all I can say is, it's very very different than what we Sibu people are accustomed to. Haha. After another drive round Sitiawan, and lunch with Tim and the family, I headed on to Ipoh! *cues Ipoh Mali* Sad to say the bus to Ipoh sucked ass (Perak Roadways), comparable to the standards of the mini bus operating round Sunway. The journey to Ipoh lasted little more than an hour but it was one tough hour to go through especially in a bus like that. SMH.
I was picked up by Josh at the very place in the picture. We went home straight after sending his aunt and grandmother to another bus station where I bought my bus ticket to Penang (Butterworth actually). Driving round Ipoh, I saw many huge limestone hills, especially near Josh's house, which looked amazing! At home, we played one round of DotA before I took a short nap. For dinner, we had something which resembles yong tau foo and hor fun, and the chilli sauce they used complemented the food well, just that I ended up with a stinking breath the whole night. Haha. We did have dinner with Lik Hoe, who has already started his medical degree (!) in RCMP. After dinner we strolled round Ipoh Parade but did nothing productive. Then we sent Hoe back to his (rented) house near RCMP. Having seen his house, both Josh and I pitied Hoe for staying in a house as run down as that. Suddenly, KTT does not look like a bad place to live after all! Hope Hoe and his housemates (two other ex-KTT-ians as well) can get a more decent looking place to live in someday.Now, comes the so-called "highlight" of the night, partying (trying to avoid the "C" word haha) at Barroom. Me, Josh and couple of Josh's friends partied all the way till after 3 am. By then, my head was pounding, I could barely walk properly, and I was really fucked up after three beers. When all was said and done I got to go to bed, finally at about 4. Talk about getting drunk! (Josh if somehow you stumble over this I'm really sorry... Haha)
Next morning, woke up at about 11. Thank goodness I didn't wake up with a hangover. Loitered around the house, then we had some really nice Indian food for lunch prepared by Josh's mother. After that, it was all a matter of waiting for the time to head to the bus station to board the bus to Butterworth. Josh and I did a lot of catching up in the mean time, filling me up bout almost everything that happened during my sem break, when they had their graduation dinner and BTN camp. At 2.45 pm I boarded the bus to Butterworth, thus ending my time in Ipoh.
The bus to Butterworth was quite comfy at a reasonable price. The journey from Ipoh to Butterworth took approximately two hours. I was greeted by the very cute Tan as soon as I arrived. Alex even decided to join in just because I was coming, driving all the way from Baling in his dad's Merz, so I had two tour guides to take me round each side of Penang (both Butterworth and the island) and a comfy car to go round in, what more could I ask for? Hahaha. We all headed to Tan's house, where we would stay for one night, after having a light meal which consisted of porridge, wantan mee, kueh teow and laksa.
After freshening ourselves, Tan brought Alex and I, along with his girlfriend, Jing Yi, to have dinner at a steamboat restaurant. We were considered lucky as Tan does not drive very often and it's mostly Jing Yi who brings him out on dates. Hahaha. The steamboat was something new as the soup base was cooked with yam. As always, there's the "come-eat- more-you-sure-you-had-enough" invitation by Tan's parents which I find to be very amusing at times. We went to Sunway Carnival Mall to catch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 after dinner. I didn't enjoy the movie very much, not because the film sucked, but because I've read the entire book and thus there's no more suspense to be found. When we finished the film it was past midnight, so we went to some hawker stall, and chatted over some drinks and kueh.
We all woke up quite late the next morning, but fortunately for us, Chaw Choon Restaurant, the place where we had breakfast, was still operating and was still packed with people. Still it didn't take us very long to find a seat. We all helped ourselves to a sumptuous dim sum breakfast, where we had siew mai, prawn dumplings, char siew pao etc. After breakfast, Alex brought us to Penang island by using the Penang bridge. As far as I could recall it was my first time taking the bridge to the island, as last year my parents and I used the ferry instead.
Our first stop on the Island, Penang Road chendul (it's not a typo, in Penang they call it chendul instead of cendol)! There wasn't much to be found in the chendul, only shaved ice, red beans and the green jelly, but it was the creamy santan taste that made it so delightable. Definitely would (and did XD) go back for some more! Next up, Gurney Plaza (situated at Gurney Drive, just by the seaside), which was a shopping mall, as the weather was damn hot and we wanted to cool ourselves down. There we met up with Tet Xun (Chongy ^^), who joined us the rest of the way.
After meeting up with TX, we decided to have kueh teow. Problem is, finding good kueh teow in Penang is as hard as finding good kampua in Sibu! Luckily we had Alex, who brought us to a coffee shop in Lorong Selamat. The kueh teow costs RM 7.50 per small plate, and the lady who cooks it wears a big red chef's hat (Tan calls her Little Red Riding Hood haha). She was notorious for having scolded a customer who complained her kueh teow was a tad bit too expensive, and this incident even made it on the news! However all of that negative impressions were forgotten after taking my first bite. My, that kueh teow was easily the best I've ever had! The big and succulent prawns were an extra too.
After the kueh teow we headed to Alex's uncle's apartment in Penang, where we would stay for the night. The apartment is situated at Macallum road, and locals refer to it as "The Fifth Street". After resting a while and placing our belongings, we all headed to Ayer Itam, where we had the famous Penang laksa (recently just ranked the 7th best food in the WORLD for Pete's sake by CNN XD) and also nutmeg drink, which became my favourite Penang drink. The Ayer Itam laksa totally changed my perception about Penang laksa, and I regretted for having written Penang laksa off. Haha. After laksa, we walked up to Kek Lok Si, which was just around. Having to climb uphill was exhausting, but the temple was quite a wonder of its own.
After Kek Lok Si, we decided to head to Gurney drive to look for our dinner but to no avail as all the parking lots were occupied, so we decided to go on to Straits Quay. Straits Quay is a high end shopping mall, condo and jetty all mashed into one. Straits Quay provides a nice view of the sea and the architecture itself has an European feel to it. We took quite a lot of photos there.
Straight after stopping by Straits Quay, we all headed down to Batu Ferringhi for a car ride. Batu Ferringhi has an extensive network of beaches, so it's no surprise that various hotels and tourists (especially Middle Easterners) are seen there. However, our main destination was the Hard Rock Hotel. Inside the hotel memorabilia from different artists, especially the rock and roll genre, e.g Bon Jovi and Motley Crue, were put on display. We took a stroll around the pool area and on the beach at the back of the hotel, but not barefooted, sadly. We all took a picture with the big guitar statue in front of the hotel, and left without buying any Hard Rock Cafe Penang t-shirts. Haha.
Next up was Gurney Drive again, where we finally had our dinner. We just had whatever we could find at the hawker centre, but worth mentioning was the orh chien, or oyster omelette. Then we took a leisure stroll down Gurney Drive by foot, which looked so beautiful at night. We even stopped by G Hotel, a funky looking hotel next to Gurney Plaza for a leak. Haha. Before finally settling down to rest, we went to Soho and had a Kilkenny each, and had Penang Hokkien mee (also known as har mee, prawn noodles elsewhere) at a shop near Tune Hotel. Man, I had one hell of a day in Penang right? Haha.
Next morning, we all woke up after 10 am. Plans to have curry mee at Ayer Itam were scrapped as it would've been sold out by then. Instead, we proceeded to have lunch, somewhere I just can't really recall. Haha. We had Chinese barbecue for lunch, which included three layered pork, char siew, and lap cheong or Chinese sausage. After lunch, we all sent TX back, and next up we went straight to the airport, where I boarded the 2.55 pm flight back to KL.
My wild road trip ended as soon as I reached KL. Looking back, though I wished I could've spent more time with all of my buddies, I couldn't have asked for more, as I considered myself to be very fortunate to have known friends like these who would spend their time taking me round and making sure I have as much fun as possible. So thanks to all of you who brought me all the fun and enjoyment during those few days!
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