Geri's 72 hours in Penang- Part Dua

I have definitely missed this space. My one month since last posting has been taken up by studying for tests, rushing coursework (6.00am bedtimes times four), working, and travelling to see what the world has to offer. I arrived back from Prague yesterday! Freaking loved it. Albeit injuring myself to the point where every single move I make (apart from fingers thankfully) is excruciatingly painful.

So, make to the point of this post, about six months late, but this is my last instalment of my Penang series! :(

Of Penang mural heritage walk, the best Yap noodles, egg tart, local delicacies and chee cheong fun and flying home. 

My favourite picture from my 5-month tour. <3

Cannot sleep, didn't close shop. Overslept, opening shop late

Yap noodles! *Must* have

Walked past a store, evaluated for a second whether we could eat more, concluded that we could, and bought egg tarts. Best.

Bought back for supper. (plus roti john and maggie mee from Jiao sai across the road)

Didn't get to eat my favourite Chee Cheong Fun but Iris (<3) delivered a packet to my hotel room!

Thank you Ah yeng (Iris) for driving us to the airport!!!

Back home (Singapore).

 Meow.

You guys <3. xxx

Geri's 72 hours in Penang- Part satu

Stolen from Geri Pang

So another fairly impromptu decision. Geri Pang visited me in Penang! Best trip to Penang, like ever. So, the very day we drove back from Cameron Highlands (totally mamaged to bribe my way into riding in my uncle's Mercedes.) was also the day Geri arrived! Me and my uncle dropped my grandfather back to his house, and I desperately needed the toilet, so I walked over to the hotel use their toilets cos I was scared of using the ones at my grandfather's. lol. So I used to toilets and stood outside the hotel waiting for my uncle to drive over with my luggage. But low and behold! Geri Pang rode in like royalty. She even had me to open the door for her. (With another of my uncles wondering why I've become a door woman for the hotel). But it was totally weird seeing her ride in in a taxi, it was all like 'oh, fancy seeing you here in my 地盘.' 

But yeah, we walked into the hotel and I asked for a room key to the room specially prepared for us. TOTAL VIP SERVICE FOR HER OKAY. 

We dove straight into the main point of her trip to Penang, the food. The picture above was our first course of our eight course hawker dinner. It was followed by Char kway teow, kway teow teng, peanut pancake, ice kacang (my fav ice kacang btw) (Char kway teow guy also forgot Geri gave him 50RM and she needed change. lolol)  

Putu mayong

Walking back to my room, my uncle stuffed a bag full of this goodness into my hands. Supper= sorted.

Geri's second day in Penang, a.k.a the day we all almost died

Some ghetto tilted menu.

Opening my eyes and seeing Geri in her most unglam and retarded form is always nice no doubt. But what was even nicer was the breakfast we had! The famous Argyll Road's Roti Canai. MY GOSH, I lost count of how many times I went there. Its so worth it waking up early for this goodness. 

And that....

Was followed by this. The famous Penang Road's Chendol. OMG FORGET IT, WHAT IS LIFE. 

Super ghetto Chendol vendor dude. Best in the world no doubt.

This is totally where its at! First time sitting down in an air conditioned area while the owner gets his millions of maids (I swear) to delivered us Chendol. Not quite same as the experience when standing in the scorching sun while downing ten bowls of Chendol. But nvm, STILL SO GOOD. 

And the owner's son, who's taken over the stall now is totally sweet as! If he's not married, HE SHOULD BE MARRIED. 

We spotted aliens trying to invade Penang, probably for Chendol. 

SO ghetto. PENANG IS SO GHETTO. I LOVE IT YO. 

1.20rm for a bag of Kuaci. That's 24PENCE FOR ETERNAL HAPPINESS DUDE. 

So happy to introduce my cousins to Geri, and Geri to my cousins. My cousins definitely now know why I'm so irritatingly crazy. 

When Geri wasn't there, whenever I was crazy (which was almost always) my cousins would laugh along, but I could read their faces saying 'WHAT IS THIS GIRL SMOKING?!'. But once Geri came, looks of understanding started showing up in their faces. My humour, my inappropriateness, my random bouts of laughter with jokes being dragged on waaay too long totally made sense to them. Me and Geri would stopped in the middle of the street screeching with laughter, hugging each other to support ourselves, it allll made sense to them. They laughed along, but probably with thoughts of how to assassinate Geri for making me the person I am. I joke, i joke. 

Stolen from Geri Pang

Another stolen from Geri Pang. 

After Roti Canai, Chendol, and a walk around, we decided it was definitely time for lunch and tea. Lunch and tea involved driving to the other side of Penang Island. Before going on a car expedition remember to check yo tyres! That's what we (minus me and geri the car noobs) were doing in the above picture. Camwhoring while other people work, useless retards.

So we piled into my cousin, Iris' car, all five of us, in this tiny car, older than all of us wah lao. We went trudging along to the other side of, what felt like the world to this old banger. And this is where our near death experience occurred. Driving to Balik Pulau meant HILLS. Actually, it means hills  to normal cars. But with our car, with five people stuff inside this Kancil, it meant HILLS. So driving along, we were happily stuck behind this slow and equally old looking van. Happy because people would be blaming the van for the hold up. Our happiness came to a grand end when the van decided to zoom away out of sight. Now it was our fault for the hold up! But nehmind, we reached the peak of the hill, the downhill will be swift and okay right?! 

But no! THE BRAKES DECIDED TO STOP WORKING. All of us silently freaking out on our own, Iris Chin Tom Yam took matters into her own hands and turned into a parking lot and braked. 

But no! A cliff was fast approaching but still no sign of stopping! (Though I was secretly panicking about the dog which was sat in the parking lot. Scared that it was gonna attack me when I got out) And then bam, we landed in a dip in the ground, bringing this heavy vehicle to a grand halt. (And scaring away the dog). So we were safe.

But no! The car started smoking. DAMMIT RUN AWAY! 

When we were a relatively safe distance away, it was so funny seeing Amanda (another cousin) lumbered with all these random items in her arms! A London 2012 t-shirt, a keychain, someone's handbag. She probably didn't even realise she grabbed everything in the car just in case the car exploded in flames. 

So us, stuck in the middle of no where, started calling various aunties and uncles for mechanic details but to no avail. So we decided to approach the durian cutting uncle in the temple (the parking lot belonged to the temple) (Geri totally eyeing up the durian and praying that he offers us some), we asked him for any mechanics around here. And he said, mid durian cutting, that there's none around here. But he then did something I will never forget! He put on a shirt. Ya, like omg, those Ah peh check shirts with heavy breast pockets stuffed with money. When an Ah Peh puts on his shirts, he means business. He put on his helmet, even more business, and got onto his motorbike. He was actually gonna go and drive to get us a mechanic! 

Like WTH! People got this nice one meh?! Geri and the cousins ridiculed me for almost crying. 

THIS is the temple!

If you're buddhist and ever in Penang, GO THERE AND PRAY. 

But then! My same Mercedes driving uncle called us as the temple uncle was leaving, and said he was on his way to pick us up to bring us where ever we're going. WTH! PEOPLE GOT THIS NICE ONE MEH?! 

DENG DENG! *note Geri's face*

Totally worth it for almost dying! Famous Balik Pulau Penang Laksa! In my opinion the best in Penang! But its a sensitive subject on whether the Ayer Hitam one or the Balik Pulau one is nicer. 

Ghetto menu dude. 

Penang summed up in a picture! 

Laksa was accompanied by a semi-lecture from my uncle asking us why we drove the old banger and not his other car?! 

And it remains a mystery on how the car managed to end up in the mechanics (?!)

After Laksa....

Came this! Introduced by my handsomest cousin. This satay is located in the Balik Pulau bus terminal food court. Where NO other store is opened except this satay store. They totally stole business from everyone else. But one stick is 35sen! 7 PENCE! This became an ongoing joke with my cousin. Because I could divide everything by five to get to pounds, I was supposedly 'rich'. So everytime I spent money, he would go '7 PENCE'. 

But anyway, I never go for satay, the bit of fat they stuff in the middle of meat to make it look 'fuller' really puts me off. BUT NOT THIS. This was a god send! In my opinion top of my best satay in the world list. Deffo. 

Ice Limau, why did I only discover you in my last days in Penang?! 

Back in Georgetown, elated to be alive, and waiting for Iris to finish packing her stuff cos SHE'S SLEEPING OVER AT OUR HOTEL ROOM! Yus. 

G'night y'all! 

Stay around for part dua!

Much love. xxx

Penang Princessing and Cameron Highland Farming

This post is titles Penang Princessing cos I felt like a total princess in Penang. Family members were constantly buying me breakfast and delivering it to my hotel every morning. Some mornings more than one person would buy me breakfast! One day one of my aunts even drove down to my hotel and delivered bobochacha which she'd just finished making! And while she was there, she gave me pocket money. I love my familyyyy. 

But on this day, I woke up with a strong craving for Nasi Lemak. And I casually mentioned to my aunt: omg, I neeed Nasi Lemak today. And BAM! She got right to it, getting pot after pot out, washing rice, cutting the chicken. What I did not know was that I was about to have the best Nasi Lemak in my life. (Okay, it was on par with Changi Village's Nasi Lemak lah). 

My view when I chill on the hotel's rooftop.

The wonderful chef. 

Komtar! 

And the view from the balcony overlooking the strange cloud formations rising from Penang Hill.

There you have it. Our chin-family Nasi Lemak! Sooooooo yummy. Also remembered as the day my stomach (not kidding) felt the fullest EVER. I felt the definition of 幸福 (for non-chinese speakers, this means happiness). As we were eating as a big family chinese style (aunts uncles cousins grandparents etc) on the roof of the hotel, other relatives/workers of the hotel came up to the roof to water the plants etc etc. And whenever someone came up we were like ehhhh! come come and join us! grab a chair for them, I'll go scoop rice for you! Lai lai lai, eat! And after Nasi Lemak, my uncle called down to reception asking someone to go buy the famous Ice Kacang for us, and at the same time buy some for themselves too. Its like one biiiig family! Definitely been out of this kind of environment for way too long. 

Cameron Highlands

Few days later during a long weekend, a huuuuge group of us drove up to Cameron Highlands. My aunty and uncle has a holiday home bungalow up there. So all 27 of us made our way there. But because all of Malaysia was thinking the same thing, a few hour car ride become a many hour car ride. But who's to complain when you're with loved ones?! 

The view from the bungalow. Say whaaaat! 

The night proved an interesting one. Two cousins and their girlfriends and I (yes i know i know, forever alone.) were suffering from lack of internet. So we decided to busy ourselves by going to the local night market. (We were also on the hunt for snacks to munch for our drinking sesh). The traffic jams were still not subsided, so we drove a little, and decided to park the car and walk the rest of the way. 

Not knowing how far it was gonna be, how long it was gonna take, and me really needing to pee (SO BADLY) we took the risk. Wait, I must say this first, there wasnt a foot path, there was the road, and then a forest. So we were walking on the road 50 cm away from the cars. 'Okay! the pasar malam (night market) is just round this bend!' was said like five times. 'Its just infront!' was said about ten. Snakes were crawling out of the forests and everything. lolol. 

I was so close to going into the forest to relieve myself, but we finally got there. Armed with fried chicken fillet (Taiwanese style. omg.), sweet potatoes steamed (Cameron Highland's must try!), Char Kway Teow, and candy floss we made our (long) way back to the car. 

The journey back was so jolly. The distance felt shorter cos we knew where we were going, we spoke about anything under the sun, our paths were well lit by the traffic jam that was still going on. And I felt super looked after (I hope they don't read this). Being the only foreigner, they made sure they spoke in only English albeit it being difficult sometimes. They kept asking me to walk inside while they walk outside, it was loooovely! They kept joking about how rich I am because of the pounds vs ringgit exchange rate, and they were like decks out in scarves and everything cos they were so cold! 

Anyway, everything was jolly, until someone said: Good thing theres a traffic jam, if not it'll be sooo dark. And correct they were, cos as soon as that was said, we saw the end of the jam almost immediately, and then bam. Darkness. If you stretched out your hand, you couldn't see it. You couldn't see anything. Us girls took it in turns freaking out. When both my cousins heroically produced a torch. Switched it now, and it switched off, no battery. Its okay! Still got phones, switched it on, and it switched off, no battery. Cars were zooming past us at craaaazy speeds, I swear we almost died. For the first time I was glad my cousin looked so paikia (gangster), if not, someone would've bothered us. 

Anyway, yes, that was my adventure. 

The two above pictures are classic specimens of the photos I take when I get woken up by the screaming person jumping on me asking me to wake up and take pictures of the sunrise. I extremely promptly flopped back to sleep, hugging my camera as a bolster. 

I remember writing my Cingjing, Taiwan post here. 

Played table tennis, which I was, apparently, very pro at, that this little guy kept begging me to let him win. I found my calling in life! Trashing little kids at table tennis!  

Cousins and I drove down to Starbucks in search for internet and peace. We also went to a temple where everyone joked that its a Sunday, and instead of going to Church, I'm going to a temple. (I was the only Christian one, and going to a temple instead of church on a sunday had happened about 5 times already). 

Just realised Tau Sa Piah is involved in many of my favourite childhood memories. 

Me waiting for STEAM BOAT TO BE READY, HURRY UP! 

An epic steamboat happened. 

The whole group of us! Minus me. I was behind the camera. 

I remember stepping back, and then back, and back some more. And then a few people screaming: Be careful! Don't fall back! And my grandpa saying: BE CAREFUL! DON'T FALL AND KILL THE PLANTS. wahlao 

93 and still chugging it down yo! 

The oldies retired to bed while the youngsters remained outside drinking. And thanks to my white genes, I don't go red when drinking. So the others kept thinking I hadn't drank enough. So they were all like come! let me pour for you! You haven't drank enough! lolol. 

On the way back to Penang, we stopped by a tomato and strawberry farm.

So toot. 

hamsum boi.

93 and still pulling faces yoooo! (He still uses his walking stick to hit me, and when I react to it, he goes what?! not meeeee)

One of my favourite pictures from my five-month tour. <3

hamsum bois.

Me with hamsum bois.

I look like I'm grabbing on to my cousin for dear life. 

Two confessions to make: this was my 100th chatime in Malaysia (okay not really) and I was still wearing my pyjamas. 

Stopped in Ipoh for lunch. 

My grandpa absolutely refuseeeed to eat. So a rule was created that if the oldest person on the table doesn't want to eat, the youngest has to eat their share too. So people were piling food onto my plate while I (pretended to) protest. I walked out feeling extremely high. Food high. 

Hope you managed to feel the epicness of this trip through this post. aaaand stay epic you guys! xxx