Friday, June 19, 2009
Pottering Around Penang
I had time to go for another trip before I've even made a note of the first one! And that is how life ought to be when you've made it (or not quite yet, in my case).
So a few weeks ago, a road trip to Penang came to fruition with David, Kel Li and Nigel. The only reason we could afford to take a long weekend trip down there was because David and I each won a room for a 3-day-2-night stay at the brand new Tune Hotels, Downtown Penang courtesy of a little contest that Nuffnang was running a few months ago.
Hooray for free swag!!
Determined to make the best of it, we all took a Friday off and made the weekend trip down. It was my precious car's first long distance drive, and she did good!! /pats car lovingly
Armed with an FM modulator and various thumbdrives full of music, the trip down couldnt have been easier. Although we were stuck in a traffic jam on the Penang bridge on the way there with the petrol light blinking crazily and us hoping that we wont have to push the car the rest of the way.
The weather was hot hot hot!!! Feeling a wee bit cranky and tired after the 4-hour+ journey, we couldnt be bothered to look for an "authentic" Penang food experience and settled for the first place with airconditioning and Wifi we could find.
KFC!!
Housed in a vintage-themed building, we were busy explaining to our exasperated parents the reason for us eating KFC whilst in Penang.
Blasphemous, some would say.
Hello parents, we made it there safely thank you very much.
With some time to kill before checking in, we made a bicsuit stop at the famous Ghee Hiang house.
Is it just me, or does Penang have alot of old colonial bungalows in excess? Everything is in a huge bungalow.
Biscuits to satiate the folks back home.
Check-in time!! With sheets of trusty printed GoogleMaps (Nigel, you da man), we drove straight to the very distinct red and white building that is Tune Hotels, Downtown Penang.
Home sweet home.
Jom!!
True to its purpose, Tune Hotels is a no-frills budget hotel for those on a.. Budget. But its really decent, clean and quite a pleasant place to spend a cheap weekend in!
The lobby with colourful red and green sofas.
The internet corner where you can go online for free.
We were here!!
Check-in was a breeze!
Stripping your stay down to the bare basics, all extras will have to be paid for. Like toiletries, towels, Wifi connection in the rooms and even airconditioning. I usually bring my own toiletries and towels anyway (and steal the hotel ones back hahahha), so we only paid extra for airconditioning.
There's a pretty powerful ceiling fan in all rooms though, so if you can live with that, its all good!
I love the interior decor of the place! The calm blue-green walls of the lobby and the creamy white trimmings all around adds a quirky touch to it and just turns on the "happy" switch within. Also, the random artsy white and gold swirls and floral patterns along every inch of random wall space are adorable!
On to the rooms!
That's how big it is!
You walk in and the bed takes up about 3/4 of the space. The bathroom is on the left with a swinging frosted glass door, and thats about it. There's a safety deposit box next to the bed, and a drop-down table (like the ones in airplanes) at one corner of the wall. A really basic room, which is just right I think. Clean and minimalist, I felt very comfortable right away.
And they did the mirror trick! There's a large mirror at the head of the bed which gives the illusion of a slightly bigger room. There's also a full-length mirror on the wall behind the door, which is perfect. One can never have enough mirrors.
It could be really cosy or really claustrophobic, depending on how you look at it. I'd go with cosy =)
Apparently, some rooms dont come with a window, so we were lucky to get both rooms with windows for some good ol' sunlight. Free vitamin D!!
A nap or two later, it was down to Gurney Drive for dinner!!
The ikan bakar is the best!! Typical Penang fare we ordered. Char kuey teow, oh jien, asam laksa, apom balik, muachi and more.
Feed me, Penang!!
Them too.
Deep fried chicken skins! Artery clogging goodness on a styrofoam plate.
Walking it off at the seaside walk along Gurney.
Just in time for sunset!
We were still kinda wiped out from the day's journey, so it was off to Gurney Plaza for some gelato dessert, and back to the hotel to call it a night!
Yummy.. Gelato rocks my stinky socks.
Btw, parking at Tune Hotels, Downtown Penang is an absolute nightmare! They do provide parking, but its a measly 30 parking spots for a hotel with over 200 rooms! What were they thinking? That only backpackers who walk and take buses would stay there?
We had to make do with public parking by the side of the road across the street, so if you're there, make sure to lock up good.
Day 2
A not-so-early start with a hearty breakfast at a quaint Nyonya restaurant next door!
Delish!!
Mornings are not our best look.
Our mission for the day was to check out the historic Cheong Fatt Tze mansion. Y'know, coz we like history and all.
Stupid mansion was closed. What's worse is that one can only visit inside via a guided tour, of which there are only 2 a day! Even on weekends! Failed tourist attraction!
The worse bit? The "No photography" sign at the entrance.
Become certified heritage site, lansi already la.
The Cheong Fatt Tze mansion does not warrant a picture of its own. /walks off in a huff
Not wanting to let the great weather we were having go to waste, we then decided to walk around the area for abit and see if we can find anything interesting to explore.
Look! The Vatican library!! Phwoarrrr!!
Hahahhahahha where their most precious artifacts are stored.
We stumbled upon an old church which looked pretty empty, and ripe for some picture taking.
All old buildings come with the standard huge doorways. Tak sah kalau takde!
The church had huge sprawling grounds with neatly trimmed grass and trees leaning lazily in the wind. Very well taken care of.
A stone pavilion in the middle of the grounds.
Which I had to deface.
A church in his memory.
Natural light FTW.
With the sun in our eyes and the wind in our hair.
Conquering.
The caretaker and his hound buddies.
"Eh, your friend ah?"
Poser-ific!
Next item on the list was to go all touristy and visit a Butterfly Farm!!
Panic panic.
I dont think I do well with butterflies. The thought of their creepy crawly legs landing on me and fluttery wings brushing against my face made me want to balk at the ticket counter.
The thought of hundreds of butterflies and me in an enclosed garden was even worse.
Gross gross gross there were hairy and spiky caterpillars on the leaves!!
Distracted and practiced getting close by testing out the macro capabilities of my Canon G10 (which I have been severely under-utilising).
They're butterflies. Really, the caption can't vary much. Looks not bad eh.
Damn nature and their need to move at inappropriate moments.
Many many butterflies.
Kel Li insisted that a jakun picture of me with flowers is a must.
Fish taunting.
Faux backdrop for those who cant take the heat.
I give you my finger.
We still had more time to kill (evidently, this trip was planned with "free and easy" in mind), so we stopped at the next museum we passed by.
A toy museum!
It was filled with thousands of random toys from every cartoon, movie and comic book imaginable! Crazy!
Our fave section was "HORROR".
Where's my glass cutting kit when I need it.
Pure horror.
Fresh horror with 100% pulp.
Ok, you kinda get the idea of this section.
No, I dont want to play with you.
With stealing on my mind.
Backseat driver #3!
For dinner, we met up with Sheon and drove back to the mainland for seafood which was as cheap as it can get!!
Pretty wall art!
After driving through dark, dodgy and bumpy village roads, we wondered how much of a friend were we to Sheon.
He.. Loves us, right? Please dont kill us and blow up our bodies thanks.
Civilisation!!
Seafood at Restoran Batu Kawan.
Where they practice the age-old tradition of throwing a stone at friends you cannot stand.
Sheon, master of orders.
It was a seafood massacre!!!
Spiky helicopter thingies.
Sweet n Sour crabs with fried mantou buns.
Lala!!
Terribly posh.
Horse-shoe crab roe salad!! Omg I never thought I'd see the day where I'd eat from the underside of a prehistoric looking bug, but this was damn good!
Cant remember what these prawns were called, but they looked creepy and tasted even better!
We also had steamed fish and butter prawns. Maximum satisfaction!!
Witness the carnage!!
The damage?? For all the seafood we ate which ought to have cost a bomb for 6 people, the bill came up to RM200-something only!! T______T
Living in civilisation makes you pay the price.
Day 3
Time to go home!! We could have moped around all depressed and grumpy. Instead, we spent our last morning at Kek Lok Si temple for some sights and asam laksa.
Behold, the wonder!
Clear skies = burnt noses.
Spot the geek.
A day where plenty of walking was involved.
Lorong Seratus Pengemis. Make that a heritage site!
In one of the huge temples.
Decisions, decisions.
Took the little tram up to higher ground.
Tip tip.
Me, not looking at the view. Anything but that.
Hullo hullo.
We climbed at least 10 flights of these stairs to get to the top of a pagoda.
Not looking down again.
"Mine's nicer. Biatch."
God knows why I was so happy to find my stone zodiac counterpart. Must be the heat. Hor I just gave away my age hahhaha.
Kinkkkkkyyyyyyy..
Such zen to be had.
Hiding from the sun.
Colourful grandeur.
A rare group picture!
Tortoises! Hundreds of them in the temple pond!
After that, it was back down the hill for lunch with the best asam laksa and char kuey teow and prawn mee evaarrrrrr!!!
Not a small fry.
Asam laksa! And cheap too!!
Gobble
Gobble
Right before we headed back to KL, our last stop was to the Penang War Museum.
I thought it'd be a nice airconditioned building with old war artifacts encased behind bulletproof glass, and a nice little brass plaque with trivia for us to read.
Quite the opposite in fact.
Velkam.
The war museum was in fact, literally the actual base camp in the jungle where British and Japanese soldiers ran their operations! Like where they slept, ate, planned attacks, carried out attacks on ships at sea, kept weapons and ammunition and also where they executed people 0___0
First view.
Looking around nervously, soaking up the sombre atmosphere.
There are clearly marked paths and arrows pointing you in the right direction to follow, so all we had to do was keep walking, explore, learn and generally feel quite amazed that we were walking through an actual historical site where things actually happened.
Like oooh-ing at this stone slab with a date carved onto it to signify that a road block was completed.
Going into the ammunition bunker.
VERY VERY CLAUSTROPHOBIC.
The tunnels were narrow, the walls were a few feet thick (to withstand bombings) and it was quite dark inside with a few lights.
Run!! Run!! They're coming!! (drama abit)
Creepy..
Well we made it into the bunker and basically throughout the entire museum, we had free reign to explore, see and touch. Very cool.
The bunker with a chute where they used to deliver the ammunition up to the huge guns above ground.
There were faded black and white pictures, old newspaper cuttings, wrinkled certificates and medals on the walls of the bunkers. Each one had an interesting and sometimes sad story to tell.
More ammunition bunkers outside.
Me, being ammunition.
One of the rooms where the officer on duty would be found busy at work.
This was the soldiers quarters where they would have slept or spent their free time in army issued bunk beds. Their toilet was a bucket in a hole in the wall. Imagine that. Its so hot and humid in a jungle, and they'd have to battle mosquitoes, snakes and bugs.
A very deep escape chute.
Where a huge gun used to fire at ships once stood.
Another soldier's quarters.
We were sweating buckets by the time we walked the entire place, but it was worth it! Plus, there was hardly anyone around, which made it even creepier =D
It was late evening, so we had to make a move if we wanted to be back in KL early as we had work the next day =(
What a trip, guys.
Next up, Phuket!!
*pics courtesy of moi, David, Kel Li, Nigel*
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