Woohoo, i m back from Penang! Though this is sort of a belated entry (because i was too tired last night), i shall devote this entry to the Penang trip. Considering the low spirits i had at the start of the trip, there was a drastic change in my feelings on my way back frm Penang...
Start from Friday 10,June 2005:
Had a whole day's work @ Goodrich then sort of rushed down to Tanah Merah Mrt Station to meeet Yinjie & Yaya to go to Golden Mile Complex or Tower. Till now, I have no idea.. Coach is set to leave at 9pm, so we reached Golden Mile at aprrox 8.30pm. Initial plan was to take mrt to Lavender Mrt then take a cab to Golden Mile since no one knows the way there.. But the taxi uncle wont take us there!. He said was a 5minute walk, so we walked.. Anyhow walked n walked n just reached there... Ok, boarded the bus.. Still wasnt v excited. Perhaps too tired frm a day at work..
On the bus to Penang, i thought i couldnt sleep. It has always been the case whenever to Msia by coach. Surprisely, i slept soundly throughout and so fast, when someone tapped my shoulder, we already reached Penang bridge. So long, well i thought it was nice. Oh ya, not to mention huizhen and esther bought lots of titbits for the ride. Haha, and i only contributed my Yan Yan. 85cents per bottle/cup do u call tt a cup?
11 June,2005
We reached the Penang Bus terminal at about 7.30am. Alighted the coach and went towards the "taxi headquarters". Bargained with the uncle.. who initially wanted to take th 5 of us in 2 taxis at 40RM each. In the end, we settled with all 5 of us squeezing into a cab for 50RM. Off we went to our service apartment at Batu Firringhi. The only route to Batu Firringhi is to pass through a winding road tt made me so dizzy! Our service apt was in a quite ulu area by the beach with no malls but near the hotels. Yah, saw lots of caucasians....
Got to our apt block but couldnt check it cos it isnt time yet and so esther contacted one of the uncles she got to know from church, Uncle David. So he took us for breakfast in some hawker centre. I had hokkien char. Yah, just hokkien char not hokkien char mee.. Its some mee n beehoon is some black sauce. Taste, just alright bah, and had soyabean milk. After a fulfiling breakfast, Uncle David took us back to our apt.
Got quite a surprise when we walked into our apartment because it was bigger than i expected. 3rooms, a kitchen, 2 toilets n a living room and an inaccessible balcony. Wasnt too bad. Just that one of the toilets had a toilet bowl that doesnt flush and other toilet had a sink tt leaked. Haha. So, we went up doing all the brushing n washing up at the kitchen sink. Shifted the mattresses frm all the 3 rooms to the livingroom and we all slept together at night.
At about 1130am, we met up with Esther's friend Sara and her parents. Yah, den we had lunch. Eat again! Sara had to work as a waitress in some German restaurant so we all ate there.. Uncle treated us, so paiseh. I had chicken breast with mushroom sauce ttis served with a great deal of vege. It was such a big serving, bigger than tt at Dan Ryans n is only ast 7.50Rm. Cheap! but i couldnt finish anyway. Sarah had to continue to work so uncle droved us to Gurney Plaza, where we did our shopping. I bought 2 tops n a jackets. There were alot of nice jackets there at not v ex prizes also, everyone bought a jacket of different design except esther though. (Yuxin, u shld go there buy jacket lor!) Then at 4pm, Esther had to go for her Church YP meeting and we continued our shopping and when she is back, we r still shopping@. Win liao lor. Haha.
At about 9.30pm, had our dinner at the Gurney Hawker. Ordered Char Kway Teow, Penang Laksa x 2, rojak, cuttlefish + kangkong, ice kachang, fried bee tai bak.. in the end no space in stomach for the famous chendol. Actually, Sara wanted to drive us back to our apt where she will stayover with us but we felt that we have troubled them too much and so tried to find the way back ourselves. Walked all the way frm Gurney to Island Plaza, and the road is still jammed! Called the taxi hotline and the operator said there are no taxi available. In the end, still have to trouble Sarah to drive us back. So late when we got home...
12 June, 2005 Sunday
Esther and Sarah woke up early morning for church and the rest of us woke up only at 8.30am. Wanted to go beach. So we walked down the road to have our breakfast den walked by again. By then, was already 10++am. When we finally walked by the beach, was already 11am..N thats when i got my tan! Oh, i m so dark now lor. In the end, we changed our itinery from doing sea sports to swimming in the pools. Cus we were too tempted by the hotels' pools! Haha..So we walked back to our apt again to swim. We spent the whole morning walking lor.. By the time swam n bathe finish, it was already 3pm. Woaha.... So we left for Komtar at around 4pm. What a whole day spent walking.
Komtar is a big shopping centre but so sad most of the shops wasnt open perhaps because its Sunday. Weird right? So we went over to Prangi Mall, which is newer and there were so many shops!. There were like 8 shoe shops on a single level! Yah, but i wasnt in the mood to shop by tt time cos had to be more careful with my wallet. HAha.
The Sara drove us to dinner at another hawker place. We had Popiah, grilled stingray, satay, Lormee, Sar HorFun, Prawn Noodle, Soon Kueh, Kuay Teow Soup, Curry Noodle, Yam Cake!. What a feast! No more stomach for chendol again. Wanted to eat Ah Pong but he is on leave! Till now i still dont know what is ah pong cos they say Sg dont sell. Haiz,. what a waste.
On the way back in Sarah's car, we met with a small accident. The car sort of brushed against a motorcyclist who was parked at the side of the lane. He sort of had a little abrasion and demanded compensation for medical fees. We refused to pay cos we knew he was jsut after money. So we went to buy antiseptic for him. So qiao, we were like jsut inf ront of a clinic. Should see how pekchek the guy was when we say we buy medicine instead of giving money.Haha. Then a few minutes later, he complaineds tttt there is a dent at the exhaust pipe and demanded compensation again. After negotiating, we finally settled with him leaving us his contact number and we ll contact him. If not, he will report us since he has got the car plate number. But we were confident he wun go to the police for he told us he is selling illegal vcd. Quite dumb hor. Quite interesting event thought, made me have more things to blog. Oh, and Sarah is a young driver, same age me.. I still dont know how to drive. Make me wanna learn driving. but i have no car to drive lor
13 june 2005, Monday
Woke up at 10am. Which was too late for dimsum. We dint wanna set alarm clock, cos we wanted to wake up "naturally". Haha, so we sort of hurried to dimsum..There werent many variety left. But before that, we checked out and left our luggage at Sara's home. Finished our dim sum and bought out Tau Siah Piah, Beh Tea Sor, Sak Ki Ma frm Him Heang Confectionery which is jsut beside Esther's church. =) Then i had my hair cut for 8RM. My hair is short now.
Then we rushed off to catch a movie. The only suitable movie of our timeslof is Spellbound. A documentary on Spelling Bee. Boring at the start till i dozed off but towards the end, I got v excited..Haha. The words are too difficult to spell lor.. Haha.. After the movie was like 6pm and Sara was going to be late for work. So we said goodbye to her since Huizhen yaya and me will be leaving tt night. Really thanked her for being such a good host. When she comes to Sg nxt week, it shall be our turn to play good hosts =) too bad none of us has a driving licencse yet. Otherwise, we could drive her around like she did.
We proceed to had dinner at some curry fish head restaurant. Curry was Superbb!. Auntie Josephine then drove us to the travel agency where we boarded the van to catch the coach back Singapre...3 of us made a big blunder at Msian customs cos we cant find the lane for Sg Passports and just walked past w/o having our passports stamped. Oh man! Heng we ran back and realised Singaporeans are supposed to go the 2nd floor. So malu!
14th June 2005, Tuesday
Home WSweet Home!. Reacged singapore at about 7am and i took a cab home.. The luggage is too heavy for me to take buses or train liao.. Haha.. n Yep, towards the end of trip i wished i could stay her a few more days cus it would just mean i ll have to work when i get back to Singapore. And i just promised i ll work till 3rd week of july! Oh man. Hha. But ok lar, i have no grumbles about my job. Everyday just pass like every other day lor =)