Thursday, April 18, 2013

My trip with my buddies to Penang

Sorry for the inconsistent blogging nowadays. I have been busy with work, holidays, etc. Carried away with life that I don't really get to have time for myself anymore. Anyway, Let's just start with my next blog post.

Woke up early in the morning at 7, got dressed and checked on the tyres before heading out to pick Kar Hing, Habby and her sister. As we arrived Hoe's house, everyone was already waiting there. There were 9 of us, therefore having to sit in 2 cars. They had their toilet breaks, then we headed out to old town for the original white coffee and also some breakfast. 

Before heading straight to Penang, we dropped by the post office because Colby wanted to collect Miao's cover which came in yesterday. We also popped by Chanelle's house on the way to say Hi. 

It was 10am when we finally got onto the highway. We were shocked as only 10 minutes into the highway, we came up with a massive jam. Waze sais that there was an accident but nobody saw any accident along the way. Instead, there were loads of road closures due to maintainence. It's really dangerous to fix the highways, as everyone is driving super fast. I sometimes don't understand why they need to fix it all the time. They could at least put a board 500 metres before it so people would be aware of it ahead. Instead, it is always last minute and it is really hard to avoid braking with such force to try not to bang into the lorries and trucks on the left! I hate Malaysia's highway...

Finally after driving 140km/hour, we arrived at our destination slightly before 12pm. Our first destination was the Morning Flea Market at Lorong Kulit, Georgetown. It is operated by Malays and you would be amazed at the stuff they sell there. I was stunned as I saw stuff from old antiques, old bags, even 2nd hand shoes!
We saw some guys squatting on the floor with a mat in front of them, with new Android moniles displayed on it. I saw on Foursquare that you have to be careful with the stuff you buy there as some of the items there may be stolen goods. We didn't buy anything in the end but took a stroll around. We were just too hungry to focus on window shopping. No pictures for this stop. Sorry.

Next up was Kek Seng Coffeeshop at Jalan Penang. As Hoe's car and mine separated in different directions, we ended up heading there ourselves. I got there first but realized it was not opened. It is the same shop I went to last year with Kar Hing, Endo and Waikin. The Laksa there wasn't as good but I remember the delicious Durian flavoured Ice Cream. You can get a glimpse of it at this blog post HERE.

Hoe ended up lost and I had to go get him. He chose a good place to wait for me as there was parking. We just parked there and walked opposite to Joo Hooi Restaurant, which was also a very short distance from Kek Seng.
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We ate the Char Koay Teow there previously because the Cendol outside and Laksa wasn't open. This time, we were finally lucky enough to try them both! 
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The Laksa was good. Appetizing and not too spicy. Just the way I would like it. I was so hungry that my hands were shaking. After gulping down the Laksa, I opened a packet of Nasi Lemak which was placed on every table. It was the typical Nasi Lemak but it was good enough for me. Not too spicy.
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After the main meal, we went for our dessert. Cendol at the stall outside Joo Hooi. Apparently if you want to have the Cendol in Joo Hooi, there will be a surcharge. No wonder all the people are standing around waiting for their order and also eating on the road. It's quite dangerous as cars do go past that little lane too.
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The next stop was to take pictures of the famous Penang Wall Art that everyone was posting online. Little did I know that there were sculptures too. I only found that out after we walked on so many streets without murals but sculptures. Blame it on the google map which showed us all sculptures AND murals. At first, I drove around the area and searched for some of them so we wouldn't need to walk endlessly which we still did in the end
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The first stop was at Chew Jetty. I took some pretty nice shots there which every photographer would go crazy at. Here's some unprofessional shots of mine. 
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The first Mural we saw at Chew Jetty was a pair of old folks. It was stated on the map that there was a mural of people on the boat but it was taken down.
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Next, we walked out the Jetty and into the area where all Sculptures and Murals were at. Here's some pictures.

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We were exhausted from the walk and the heat, so they suggested we take a walk at the nearby mall, which was 1st Avenue, which we have been last year. It now has so many more shops opened compared to last year!
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We sat at Chatime for an hour or so. We have no idea how long we were there for. We just had to find somewhere cool to sit in with our drinks. We then took a picture at Chatime with my polaroid.

As the sky was getting dark, we left 1st Avenue without taking a stroll. It was just like a rest stop for us. We headed to Ghee Hiang in the rain after. We all wanted to buy some local biscuits before heading back to Ipoh.
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Next stop? MORE FOOD!!! We Wazed our way to Bee Hooi and through the small jams here and there, we got there in 1 piece. The food there was awesome! Place was fully packed too! it took us a while to get a seat for such a big group.
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Delicious food right? If you think we had too much to eat, you got us wrong. We went for food again at the next destination! It was so hidden that we had to look so closely to Waze coz we got lost once. We headed to this place which my bestie and her boyfriend recommended. It's called "Sea Pearl Lagoon" which we had to go through a temple entrance.
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We ordered only some dishes as we were quite filled up. We ordered Ho Chien, which was very delicious.
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And some LALAs, which was quite fresh.
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There's some barbecued crabs which were well known there too. However, Fu ordered the crab with not much flesh in it which I'm not very keen on. But in the end we finished them.
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Lastly, it was the salted prawns which was not my favor. I guess you have to eat it with rice.
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For me, this place is just ok. Not worth it to get lost for. I would rather head to Bukit Tambun for dinner. 

We then left back to Ipoh after this last meal and arrived only at about midnight. My first trip with the gang after years of planning has finally been achieved. Yayy to me.