Penang - Pearl of the Orient - Through My Eyes.
Saturday, November 13, 2010 //
1 comment(s)
Penang that is.
Well I had a 5 days weekend last week due to Deepavali and weekends,
so I couldn't bear to waste that 5 days weekend doing assignments at home.
Thus, comes the random plan of going to Penang ,
along with my cousin and Mary,
we didn't plan anything but everything just happened so fast - it felt like a dream.
I would say its a fruitful trip, considering its just 2 days and 1 night but we did so so much.
so much than what I've expected we will do due to time factor. Needed to come back earlier due to me having an interview for my marketing research on Saturday.
Nevertheless, I'm glad we made it there :)
First stop at Penang was to check in the hotel. A kind man saw us at the bus station and decided to guide us on which place to stay is the best. Initially our plan was to stay at Old Penang Guestshouse situated at Love Lane,
But the man told us that it was a "red light" area, thus we ended up at Oriental Hotel.
We were lucky, situated nearby was the famous Kheng Khee Street, so following the map..
we found the Penang Most Famous TeoChew Chendul !
There were so many people lining up at that time, and we had to eat it by the road side- standing!
I dislike kidney beans, but heck , I wanted to try the best - so I ate it :) haha
As it was drizzling, thank god it didn't rain heavily!
We roamed a bit more, in search of Little India.
On our way, we happened to saw this shop which sells Zhung Zhi or also known as Guo Zhung :D
It instantly attracts me because I have not eaten one for a long long time.
What was surprising is that, this shop was also visited by Jason before.
So it must be good right, even though it was situated at the back lane and there wasn't anyone there.
We decided to order their famous Guo Zhung and Yam Cake - it was pure, heaven..
I reckon, this is what I miss most in Penang :D
Definately, A must try!
Moving on, we headed to Little India since it was Deepavali,
so we expect to see a lot of little indians knick-knacks around.
Saree sold there was at really, really low price - about RM20 and above.
Old buildings, burnt buildings , vintage looking buildings,
reminds me of Melacca and Ipoh.
Then, we visited the Kapitan Keling Mosque which was located nearby.
and we saw this advertisement in front of a pharmacy advertising red wine , seriously.
It's so scary.
there was a shop selling fresh butchered meat.
As I was taking this picture, the butcher smiled at me :D
Indian opened it :/
Saw this really antique style parking ticket machine.
and it still works! Digitally.
Further down the road, as it was getting late, while heading back to our hotel,
this caught our attention.
It's like flour made noodle , tasteless and must be eaten with brown sugar.
Sweet but a bit plain too.
It's okay to try it though , something different :)
At night, we headed to Gurney Drive Hawker Stalls for dinner.
The selections was a lot , but nothing much that caught our attention.
Decided to try their grill fish, my must eat in penang food - oyster omelette and the Penang Char Kuey Teow. The Penang Char Kuey Teow stall had a really long queue to it, and apparently,
it was reviewed by magazines before so we decided to try it.
I find it rather dissapointing though, not as nice as I thought it would be.
After dinner, we headed to Gurney Plaza,
supposedly for dessert because we saw a theme cafe from outside window.
Clinic Cafe - whereby everything, especially the interior of the shop was designed like a clinic,
the hospital beds as the chair and etcs.
Interested to try it out, but it was disappointing as they don't serve any desserts so we move along to search for what Mary recommended as saying the famous, Penang Chicken Wing.
Grilled Chicken Wing,
situated like 15 minutes walk away from the mall.
The chicken wing was RM1.80 each, and the Thigh was RM5 but it was very tender, huge and meaty.
At this point I'm already feeling hungry! AHH.
We headed to Batu Ferringhi after that, for their famous night market.
There were not many stalls as I thought a night market would be,
just a stretch of stalls selling almost the same things, exceptions for the ones nearby Tarbush and The Ship restaurant.
Some of the stalls there have really unique things,
Mary and I end up with really nice decorating lights for only RM20 each.
Whilst the one I bought last time, was RM50 in KK.
Bought a new tee too , cheap cheap tee :)
On the way there, we saw this really nice place, so we decided to visit it again after the night market walk but we didn't know how to tell the cab driver where and what shop was it.
Just remembered the location, since its nearby our hotel, located at Jalan Burma,
so we kinda like guide the cab driver and here we are
Jemputree!
A tree house concept restaurant,
with good and reasonably priced food and beverages ,
love the ambiance.
Upon paying the bill, we discovered that this shop was reviewed by a magazine before too.
Lucky us :D
We all slept at 2am that night and woke up at 6.30am to go for Dim Sum at Dim Sum Food Restaurant!
My cousin's friend, whom I just met that morning,
took us here after we told her we heard that this is where we can get the cheapest Dim Sum in town,
We ordered so so much, and in the end,
she paid the bill :/ but I bet what we ordered here maximum is only about RM70
had shark fin soup here too :D
Anyways, after breakfast , we went to the famous Penang Biscuit Factory,
Him Heang to get our supply of this famous biscuit and it was really fresh.
We went around 10am and lucky us its not sold out yet, because we heard that its limited each day and
once its sold out the shop will close right away, especially it was a public holidays too.
but the shop was opened for us ;D real lucky.
Next, we visited the Fort Cornwallis and met up with Francis Light.
the entrance fee here is RM2..
founder of Penang :D
this is actually a church, looks more like a prison to me
They used to store their weapons and make powder weapons here
Nearby was the Clock Tower..
Isabella Santo and I :D
Next we went to Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion , or Blue Mansion
entrance fee was RM12 and we had to follow tours to explore this place, and tour are only available at 11am and 1.30pm,
again lucky us we got there in time because we didn't know we must follow tour to visit this place.
The tour took about approximately an hour .
It was a historical mansion , everything inside is about FengShui.
Too bad we can't take any pictures, but everything inside was really antique.
includes the late people's clothings , bed and etcs.
Next up, we headed to the Reclining Buddha Temple.
The name of the temple, Wat Chayamangkalaram was built in 1845 by a Thai Buddhist monk.
We all used the wheel of fortune machine by paying 50 cents and we each got our "readings".
Mine is kinda true, at some point la.
the 33-meter gold plated buddha at Pulau Tikus
Since it was Deepavali, they have this special event where you purchase this thing,
and then write your name on it or special wishes,
then light it with candles.
After that, Isabella recommended us to try out this famous coconut ice cream, thai style.
It's like a sorbet kinda coconut ice- cream, served with crushed peanuts and nata de coco.
Awesome ;)
Then, since we have extra time to spare,
we continued our journey to the newly opened Hard Rock Hotel!
Saw Micheal Jackson in front of the cafe! :P
After roaming around, we decided to go to Kek Lok Si temple at Air Itam.
also known as Temple of Supreme Bliss.
The largest buddhist temple in Malaysia,
there were a lot of people there as usual,
but we didn't take much pictures though.
I am not a buddhist myself,
but its fun to explore the temples once in a while.
We got there by walking up through a whole street of flea markets,
a definitely different experience than driving right up to the top.
For our late lunch, I had the Penang asam laksa from the nearby market around.
the soup was really asam, and they used sardines and blended it along with the soup.
Something I've not seen before.
Well there's a stall opposite which apparently,
supposed to be more famous but Isabella said it came out in newspaper before they put tissues inside their noodle, eww!
The one that I had tastes just as good, according to her :D
Lastly,
we headed to Penang's largest shopping mall,
Queensbay Mall before heading back to KL.
Till Then !
Labels: Authentic Flavour, Chinese, Holidays, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian, Penang, Places to Eat, Places to Visit, Vacation
said on
January 31, 2011 at 2:06:00 PM GMT+8
Thought I would comment and say neat theme, did you make it for yourself? It’s really awesome!.
