How's it goin' people? Finally mid-sem exams are done and I'm left with 2-3 days of boredom before I decide to start hittin' up the books again, so I decided to give to you guys something that's almost a month overdue, i.e. my account of my second trip up north!
Why did I decide to go up a second time you ask? Well that Monday, most of my friends from ALL 1 came back to KTT for an unofficial briefing. During a conversation with Alex, he informed me of his plan of driving home to Baling and then spending a day or two in Penang with Mei Yen and Xi Xing and even tempted me by asking me if I wanted to go when he clearly knew I couldn't! That ol' devil! Though my heart told me to go, logic was working against it as I might have to skip quite a few days worth of classes to join them and so I declined his offer with a heavy heart.
Imagine to my surprise when later that day I heard that Wednesday was an off day due to the graduation day for the diploma students! Plus Thursday was ICS Charity Night, so there wouldn't be any classes due to preparation, and my class, ALU 4 has no classes on Friday (the only class in KTT lol), so what I got was essentially a five day holiday, and I thought to myself, I'd be one f**king idiot to waste this opportunity! What was holding me back was the next day, it could potentially be our turn for our MPW presentation, so I told them I would be joining them a day late and travelling by bus. By the next day however, two more from my presentation group decided to give this whatever the middle finger, figuratively, and go home, to Seremban and Malacca respectively, so the decision wasn't hard! After class ended at 1.00 pm, I rushed immediately to the ERL station, then at KL Sentral I transited to Kelana Jaya LRT station where Alex picked me up, with Mei Yen and Xi Xing already in the car. And so off to Baling we went! (If you wanted to know I sold my ICS ticket to Kok Boon)
After approximately five hours of travel, we reached Pengkalan Hulu, a small town in the northenmost region of Perak, bordering Thailand and Kedah, to have dinner with Alex's family minus his big brother. Found out that Alex's mother, who's a Bidayuh from Kuching, speaks fluent Hokkien and still looks very youthful for someone who's few years from 50. Haha.
After dinner, we all drove to Baling, about 10 minutes away from Pengkalan Hulu. We all headed to a house just outside of town, once owned by Alex's uncle, which was where we stayed the night. We went to Alex's shop in town, where he normally stays to pick up a few items, for our next destination. On the way, I finally got a good look at Baling town, a place which Josh and me made fun of frequently, despite never even knowing the existence of the place before knowing Alex. We even saw the very "famous" Baling KFC, which was a frequent subject of our silly jokes too.
So, our next destination, the hot springs in Baling! We decided to go at night, as no one in their right mind would wanna soak in hot water under the hot sun, am I right? Haha. Price of admission was RM 4 per head. There are three pools there, the first one is close to boiling point, the water level for the second one was only up to our knees, so everyone went to the third one, which was I'd say, was as hot as the maximum level on your shower's heater. It took us a while to get acclimated to the temperature of the water, and feeling comfortable enough to immerse the whole of our bodies into the water. I'd say this was the first time I've experienced dipping in a hot spring (did it last time in Sabah, but feet only), and it was a really soothing experienced. It's really something different to chat the night away while enjoying the occasional breeze and hot water on our bodies. A cold water shower after dipping was simply put, heavenly.
Now, here came the fun part. Sometimes, Alex can be a little absent minded, as evidenced when back in March he lost Josh's and my movie tickets. This time, after storing our belongings in the trunk of the car, he closed it without giving any second thought. Problem is, the car keys were still inside! Thank God that, in just a few minutes, a guy who was a mechanic, saw us and offered a helping hand. It took quite a while, first working on the door, then the trunk, before managing to open the trunk to retrieve the keys, without any extensive cosmetic damage. It was truly an experience that we all laughed at as we looked back. The day ended after a late (almost 3 am) supper at a Malay stall.
Next morning, we all woke up late, and had kueh teow th'ng (kueh teow in soup) for breakfast. After breakfast, we went to a small stream behind the house to just soak our feet in the cold water, and went back to the house where we all played a different version of Big 2, using two stacks of cards instead of one. We headed to Alex's shophouse for lunch prepared by his mother, and shortly after, came my "highlight" of my visit to Baling (so far), a ride with Alex on his trusty ol' motorbike! Originally he was gonna teach me how to ride one but it was scrapped due to time constraints. It certainly wasn't my first time on a bike, but it was the most fun! We went round the countryside, through small lanes, passing by rivers and hills, then going over 100 km/h without helmets on to enjoy the breeze. Now that's life in the fast lane! Haha.
Shortly after, we began our drive to Penang. It takes a little more than an hour to drive from Baling to Penang. I couldn't believe it but it was my second time in three weeks that I've landed here! This time however, we didn't spend anytime in Butterworth but headed straight to the island, using the Penang bridge. We headed to Lorong Selamat, not to have kueh teow, but to meet up with Joo Lee who came from Alor Star to join us, together with Tan and his girlfriend. We all decided to head to Gurney again for a stroll. Our group and Tan's group split during dinner, where we went somewhere (can't recall) to have curry mee.
Next up, we headed to Straits Quay, where we met up with Tan again, to enjoy the breeze, take some pictures, and chat the night away. Then and there, it dawned on me suddenly that, this was probably the last time that I would have such an opportunity to hang out with this group of awesome people, who have made my life so bright and meaningful the past year. My heart instantly weighed as much as a big rock but I kept it to myself, instead focusing on cherishing every moment I have left with them. Our day ended after a supper of Penang Hokkien Mee at the same old place I had it two weeks ago.
Day 3 of my road trip. We all woke up late, so breakfast was out of the plan. Instead, we revisited the same Chinese barbeque shop where I had my final meal in Penang two weeks prior. After lunch, we headed to Chew Jetty, which is actually a floating village or settlement of Chinese from the Chew clan, and FYI it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site! The hit local flick "Ice Kacang Puppy Love" shot a portion of their scenes there. We were able to have a good view of the sea and the bustling port.
The activities that followed (might not be in chronological order) were chendul at Penang Road, buying local pastries at Him Heang and watching Captain America: The First Avenger at Gurney. After the movie, we headed to "Little Red Riding Hood"s joint, i.e Lorong Selamat, for the famous char kueh teow, though this time I'd say it wasn't as good as my first time. After our kueh teow, we dropped Mei Yen at the jetty, as she wanted to attend the annual St. Anne's Festival in Bukit Mertajam, which was on the Mainland. The rest of us headed to Ayer Itam, but we were relatively unlucky this time as the laksa, Kek Lok Si and Bukit Bendera were all closed for the day. Instead, we drove up a narrow and steep road beyond Kek Lok Si, all the way up to the Ayer Itam Dam. The dam is no longer in use, but it is still frequented by visitors, especially cyclists who have come to brave the steep climb all the way up. We were treated with a view of which I'm lost for words to describe, so I'll use pictures instead. Haha.
Went to again, somewhere I forgot, for dinner. We had some delicious, albeit spicy, ikan bakar. After dinner we decided to go back to the apartment for a rest while waiting for Mei Yen to finish over in BM. I decided to catch myself some Z's as I was damn tired by that time. By the time we picked her up, I was well rested, and we decided to head to Batu Ferringhi and the Hard Rock Hotel, but not before stopping by to have some supper. It rained heavily but thank God the rain subsided the time we finished our supper.
Upon reaching the hotel, it was way past midnight already. The hotel's pool and therefore access to the beach was closed, only the Cafe was still bustling with a live band performance. We made ourselves comfortable at the hotel lobby and again took pictures with the big guitar outside the hotel. I think that pretty much wrapped up our day.
Next morning we were so effed up we woke up again after 10 am. Once again, we headed to Ayer Itam, but instead of laksa we had kueh chap, which was something like braised duck, egg and pork intestine in a thick black gravy and rice noodles. The kueh chap stall is run by Alex's distant relative who also happens to be the grandmother of one of my juniors in KTT.
After our brunch we made our way to Bukit Bendera once again and thankfully it was open! We were able to get a discount by presenting our student cards and ICs. We took the new and refurbished tram all the way up to the top of the hill. The weather up there was cool, owing to the breeze and the view of Penang from up there was even more amazing than what we've seen at the Ayer Itam Dam. Worth mentioning was the posh English teahouse, but we didn't try anything there.
After spending close to two hours up there, we took the tram down again. This time we headed to another nearby tourist attraction, Kek Lok Si, where we were denied yesterday due to closing time. However this time, Alex, and I decided not to go round, we sat and chatted with Mei Yen who was experiencing a slight stomach discomfort. We let Xi Xing and Joo Lee go round the temple complex by themselves to pay their respects to their deities.
Once they were done, we drove further up the hill to visit the huge statue of the deity Guan Yin on top of the temple complex. According to them the statue has been in construction for over 10 years and it still hasn't been completed! Once again, a lovely view of Penang could be seen from there as the hill Kek Lok Si sits on is continuous with Bukit Bendera.
Guess where we went after dropping Joo Lee at the jetty? You'd be right if you guessed Baling! Seriously I don't know what attraction does Baling warrant that the two girls would wanna visit again, and to this day it still baffles me. On the way to Baling, Alex was busy making calls to his friends in Baling, hoping to borrow an extra motorbike, but sadly all of his friends were not in that day. Instead, all we got was a bicycle but that sufficed.
Once we reached Baling, we were all quite hungry as we hadn't had anything since our brunch in Ayer Itam. So the consensus on what place to dine in was, which I couldn't fucking believe, Baling's very own, two storied (something Alex takes pride in apparently), KFC, a place made famous by our silly jokes about Baling. I had a Zinger burger to go with some Cheesy Wedges while talking bout random funny shit bout Baling's KFC. Haha.
Then came what could be called the highlight of the day. Now that we all had extra time in Baling, Alex decided to teach me how to ride his motorbike. Yep you got that right. I'm not gonna go through the lengthy process learning to ride a bike, but for sure I was proud of myself, in that I took less than two hours to master what others need by law, at least eight hours of practice plus and exam to drive legally. Just keep this to yourselves alright? Wouldn't want the popo to knock on my door someday, hahaha. Alex and I took the motorbike while the girls rode round on the bicycles borrowed from Alex's friends round the countryside.
Night fall. We all rode to the nearby restaurant (trust me, in a small town like Baling everything is withing a close vicinity of each other) for dinner with Alex's family. Of course, the "why-you-guys-came-back-to-Baling" questions were inevitable. We spent the rest of the night after dinner at home, chatting, playing cards and even trying out some stupid Bali traditional massage with Mei Yen as the masseuse. Feel free to ask how it all went down that night. ;)
Next morning, we had to wake up early (given that we slept extremely late the night before it was early lol) in time to catch the 9.00 a.m. bus to KL. We all went back to the same shop where we had kueh teow th'ng a few days back but this time we had pan mee instead. After breakfast, we headed to the bus station, said our goodbyes to Alex and Baling, and took the agonizing five hours or so bus back to KL, specifically the Jalan Duta bus station. Had lunch with the girls in McD KL Sentral, before parting ways in the ERL, where they left at Bandar Tasik Selatan station in order to board a bus back to Malacca, while I got off at Salak Tinggi station.
So, what would have been my final trip with my friends from ALL 1 has came to an end. I believe for another road trip to happen with them, it would be in Europe in a few years time! Oh well better start saving before we start talkin'. Haha.
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