I
spent Merdeka weekend in Penang. I had actually purchased ticket for the Labour
Day weekend; however, I decided to burn my ticket and made arrangements to travel
to Taiwan instead. As I couldn’t book Berjaya’s Georgetown City Hotel and didn’t
want to spend too much on accommodation which I couldn’t claim for (I plan to
bring my nieces and nephew on a local trip in December), I booked TheOffice’s
residence in Georgetown. I booked the two-bedroom unit but it was also booked
by another staff who would be checking in a day earlier so in the end, I booked
both units (and not surprisingly was awarded the three-bedroom unit).
I
flew on Friday afternoon, 28 August 2015, and landed at 17:05. We took the bus
to Georgetown at a fare of RM2.70 (you must pay the exact amount as change is
not given and Rapid Penang doesn’t accept Touch ‘n Go card). We hit the peak
hour traffic and it took us more than an hour before reaching Georgetown. We
alighted at Lebuh King and made our way to the residence. We checked in at the
same time as the call for evening prayers.
It
was my first time there and I was amazed at the size of the three-bedroom unit.
It was huge! Gigantic! Spacious! You can fit six adults in there and still won’t
feel like you’ll be bumping into each other all the time unless you’re all in
the kitchen at the same time. The dining table can fit 8 people and the living
room is huge too with comfortable sofas. You have to walk along a long corridor
when you enter to get to the living room and the dining hall and kitchen are on
the right (the other side of the corridor). Up ahead is the living room with
sliding doors leading to the balcony while on the right is another corridor
leading to the three rooms. The first room was the master bedroom (king bed) with
its own living room while the two other rooms have twin beds. They are all
en-suite.
We
walked out to find dinner but would you believe it, we had such problems
finding dinner! We walked all the way to Jalan Penang and Lebuh Campbell but
most eateries were already closed. The few that were open were stalls and I wasn’t
comfortable with their hygiene level. We finally headed back to Lebuh King and
had our late dinner (supper, more like) at an Indian restaurant.
On
Saturday, 29 August 2015, we went out at 07:30 and went for a morning walk. We covered
6.9 km, not bad as it was my first morning walk/jog even before my LASIK surgery. We returned
to the residence and after showering, we took the CAT bus to Jalan Penang. We walked
to Seow Fong Lye Kopitiam at Lorong Macalister to have chee cheong fun before
returning to Jalan Penang for a browse around the bazaar and Chowrasta Market
(ugh). The chee cheong fun was supposed to be great but I found it just OK. Passable
and not all that spectacular. 90 minutes after chee cheong fun, we went to Joo Hooi
Café (I read about it in the inflight magazine the day before!) and had assam
laksa and cendol for lunch. The café was packed to the rafters and we had to
stand around before we could find a table but it was good. It proved that the
food was good. After all that, we walked to Komtar. I wanted to buy some books
but the Popular store at Komtar couldn’t help me so we took the bus to Gurney
Plaza. I bought 6 novels there, deciding I’d worry about transporting them back to KL later.
We
then walked over to Jalan Burma to catch the bus back to Komtar. From Komtar,
we walked to buy some putu mayam at Jalan Dato Keramat then back to Jalan
Penang to catch the bus back. Rested for the rest of the afternoon before
heading out at 18:30 to find early dinner. We crossed over to the food court at
Taman Kota Lama and queued 45 minutes at Hameed Pata Special Mee, no kidding.
45 minutes! I was a bit apprehensive about the noodle colour but any doubt was
buried after my first bite of fried noodles. It was good! I reckoned I deserved
another plate of noodles after all that wait and had mee rebus too. We returned
back around 8 p.m. The residence didn’t subscribe to the Asstro channel showing
the Newcastle-Arsenal match so I didn’t see our new signing, Mr Owen Gole,
scored another goal for us. I went to bed just after 11. Today, I covered > 16 km on foot!
On
Sunday, we went for another morning walk but turned in the opposite direction
to that we took the day before. We also stopped at the weekend market at Jalan Kuala Kangsar and bought 3 kg of mangosteens. We also had vegetarian wan tan noodle soup for
breakfast. It was a bit bland though. And in Georgetown (not sure about the
rest of Penang), you must order drinks with your food or you’ll be charged
30-40 sen.
We
walked back to the residence and finished up the mangosteens. Yes, I can eat
them all right. I love mangosteens!
It
started raining at noon so we waited out the rain and left after prayers. We took
the CAT bus and walked to Penang Plaza as I wanted to check out some shop. Then
we walked to Penang Times Square, stopping en route at Kek Seng Cafe for durian ice cream, before making our way back. The putu mayam stall wasn’t
operating today so we returned empty-handed. Dinner was had indoors as we didn’t
feel like venturing out again.
We
woke up early on Independence Day and left at 07:30 after breakfast. We took
the CAT bus to Komtar and then waited for the first bus to the airport. Bus
401E turned up so we boarded it. It took a while before we finally reached the
airport.
We
took off on time and landed at 20 minutes to noon. I took the bus back to KL
Sentral and made my way back from there. Not sure when the next trip to Penang
will take place but it’ll be Georgetown again for me instead of Batu Feringghi
etc. I love the old buildings!
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