Viva la Penang or Penang and all my friends – Day One

Tags

Aeroline, An Honest Mistake, G-Hotel, Penang, Vogue for Virtue

The Penang-awesome-music play-list:
1) Dimmer – Bishop Allen
2) Zero – The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3) Another Way In – The Rosebuds
4) Flume – Bon Iver
…etc…

Wait, the Penang trip was just too awesome that I did not even need Zooey the Music Fairy (that in fact is my trusty iPod’s name) throughout the two-day event, not even during the 5 hour to-and-fro journeys with Aeroline or the van. Yes, it was THAT awesome.

Heck, Aeroline was so grand that I had a Subway sandwich and a bottomless supply of hot milo, coffee and tea to pig on while reading my book! Riding on that comfortably bus was like going on a plane on the road; there is even a bus steward (is that what they are called?) who complies to your every whim! And motion-sickness prone me managed to finish a book in a moving object, woot!

I reached Queensbay Mall at about 1 p.m. and met up with Leonard, Adeline, Sam, Evie, Leong, Sandra, Eu Veng and Selena a few moments later.

While Leonard went for his band’s sound-check, the rest of us sans Leong and Sandra *hint hint nudge nudge* went to get some supplies at Guardian, Watson’s, and Jusco. Jusco was a lot of laughs as we sampled food and drinks ranging from bak ku teh to Livita along the aisles; who knew being kampung would be so much fun?

After that, we rushed over to Sandra’s apartment for a quick change before attending a H-Factor meeting at T.G.I.F. where I was acting as a third-party observer. Serious times!

At 6.30 p.m., we glided our way through the Queensbay Mall shopping crowd to the main concourse area for An Honest Mistake’s Vogue for Virtue gig.

The band treated the crowd with five original tracks from their upcoming debut album. Their signature blend of fun pop-rock harmonies were enough to get us on our feet.

After a hard day’s traveling and work, our stomachs ordered us to head over to Gurney Drive for our customary Penang feast. A feast for them, but for me, I was a slave to my sore throat and fever, and with Evie in hawkish mode, I could only have a few dabs of fried kuey tiew and fried oyster with eggs.

What was my meal you might ask? Kuey tiew soup. At least it was delicious in a non-oily healthy sorta way.

After that, we chilled and hung out at G-Hotel which has a dark and mysterious setting with a classically stylish ambiance to boot.

Sam and Adeline had a staring contest.

Evie was busy taking photos.

But all of us were definitely cam-whoring.

After what seemed like an eternity, Adeline and I finally got a picture flawless.

And we crashed.

For more misadventures of hang-overs and tired limbs and beach bodies, Day Two will be coming up shortly.

For signs of things to come, here is a photo of us from Batu Ferringhi, taken from Eu Veng’s blog.

Till then, cheers.

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Almost Famous

Tags

Almost Famous, Penang

The ever-revolving conundrum of the last 24 hours: Will he or will he not go to Penang?

Forget his fever, forget his sore throat.

The record of sick-free since January was no longer in play, but he does not keep records, he breaks them.

And the answer: He will be on that bus tomorrow to Penang.

Why is he going to Penang, one might ask?

He is gonna have his Almost Famous moment, being a groupie for An Honest Mistake at their Vogue for Virtue charity event gig at Queensbay Mall on Saturday evening.

And after that, who knows? Penang is just the beginning – food, drinks, the beach, the people.

Nirvana awaits.

PS: Speaking of Almost Famous, Zooey Deschanel was in that movie! I feel like such a rotten fan for not knowing that piece of trivia.

If you have not watched this cult classic yet, where have you been all these years?

PPS: If any of my Reporting for Print (RFP) group is reading this post, don’t worry, I will be back by Monday for our presentation. Cheers!

List of things to do before 5 hour bus journey:
1) Charge PSP
2) Buy a book
3) Buy snacks

Viva La Penang!

Holiday Postmortem

Tags

cable cars, Chong Yi Xiang, Chow Zhen Long, holidays, Langkawi, Lee Sze Shee, Penang, Su Yintse

Through this trip to Penang and Langkawi, we learned never to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at 12.30 a.m. ever again. One, wrapping your head around aliens and the fact that Harrison Ford and his alias Indiana Jones will never ever die in this franchise even though the rest of the earth was blown to smithereens at 2.30 a.m. takes a lot of work.

Two, if you do not know the way back home, and a couple of your friends have been asleep since the movie began, you are liable to be lost for up to 1.5 hours on the deserted streets of Penang and meet a host of Mat Rempits who look like they eat skinny Chinese boys for breakfast at 4 a.m.

Third, there may be a chance of being nocturnal as when you return to the hotel room, everyone suddenly becomes all energetic even though you have to wake up a couple of hours later to meet your friend’s aunt for a scrumptious McAllister Road breakfast.

I’m just saying…

We also learned that if you laugh hard enough and move fast enough, the photo taken makes you look like an over-sized baby needing a bottle pronto.

We also learned that we are messy and disorganized, just look at our hotel room. It only gets worse when we refuse to let room service come in.

We also found out that even though they did put that sign on the locked-for-good window, we still wanted to smash it open and look at the view without glass in our vision’s way.

I personally realized that when the cable car comes, and the doors open, but you feel the fear of heights engulf you, and you just wanna stay on the ground.

That is when your friends make you buy a ticket, push you into the car whether you like it or not, and make fun of you on the way up and down. Who knows, you might just reach 710 m or more with a little shove from your friends!

I also learned that when you are about to go on a speed boat, there is no use waking up earlier to wax your hair. It just does not work, period.

Your hair just gets blown everywhere, and at the end of the day, blown hair beats waxed hair roots down!

I also had no idea Yi Xiang was THAT tall.

Last but not least, is there a budding romance between two of my friends?

The million dollar photo deserves the million answer.

Finally, I had zero knowledge that there were still beautiful locales that could take all the crap in the world and make it all good in Malaysia. I mean, look at the view.

Why can’t the whole Malaysia be all sandy beaches and coconut trees?

For those who missed my holiday blog posts, the two parter is below.

Part Two, and We Were Just Getting Warmed Up for Penang!

Tags

10000 BC, Batu Ferringhi, Bayview City Hotel Penang, Chong Yi Xiang, Chow Zhen Long, Feist, ferry, Gurney Drive, Gurney Plaza, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, John Rambo, Keh Lok Si, Langkawi, Lee Sze Shee, Penang, Su Yintse, Teluk Bahang, Teochew Cendul, Tropical Fruit Farm

To cut an inhumanly long story short, we managed to locate the car rental company, buy the ferry tickets as well as some buns before we embarked on an even more inhumanly cruel 3 hour journey to Penang from Langkawi.

If the ride was not excruciatingly slow enough, they decided to show pirated versions of John Rambo and half of 10,000 BC with crappy subtitles. The volume of the TV set was woefully low, so I watched the lean mean violent killing machine known to us as Rambo blast his way through a wall of poor souls while listening to Feist.

By the time we landed on the Penang jetty, we were beat. Bayview Hotel refused to let us check in as we were under the age of 21, so we had a little time to burn while Yintse’s aunt settled matters. Enter Penang Road.

Cendul was the name of the game, but I was not impressed as I am definitely not a cendul sorta fella.

Zhen Long and Yi Xiang were obviously enjoying the famous cendul.

Apparently, Phua Chu Kang was a big fan as well.

Following much needed showers, we headed toward McAlister Road, arguably home of some of Penang’s best dishes.

Suffice to say, the food was magnificent.

If I had to choose, the fried oyster with egg and the mushroom chicken legs stole the proverbial food show.

The very next day, with our rented white Kancil, we moved toward the Keh Lok Si area in search of more camwhoring opportunities which were proving few and far between in Penang in comparison to Langkawi. We succeeded of course. Nothing can keep a good camwhorer down, that’s for certain.

Nothing can keep a good photographer from performing his customary stance as well.

And nothing can keep candle princesses from hiding from the sun.

Conversely, nothing can stop me from well, being me.

The place was really tranquil and beautiful. The view was immaculate.

But below was where all the real fun was at as we stumbled upon the famous Penang Laksa stall, and just in time for lunch too!

The old guy with the white hair is the mastermind behind this laksa goodness. Kudos for making totally awesome laksa!

We were all visibly satisfied. The laksa and sugar cane combination was nothing short of sensational.

Our next destination was Batu Ferringhi or the Tropical Fruit Farm to be exact. It took us ages due to the winding roads, but we finally arrived at the fruit haven at around two plus in the afternoon.

We opted against going on the fruit tour which included a fruit buffet cause well, it would set us back RM25 per person plus the buffet only consisted on local fruit, total bummer. Instead, we took a peek at the fruit juice menu which contained fruits which I have never heard before in my life.

After much deliberation, we went for acerola plus pineapple, pink guava, and hog plum as well as a medium mix fruit basket.

And it was mouth openingly good!

We stopped by Teluk Bahang on our way back to Batu Feringghi. It has a killer view, but that apart, it was pretty much deserted.

And the candle princesses strike back albeit with some wind resistance!

But the spooky thing was, in the middle of nowhere, they put this sign up.

As if driving alone in this Godforsaken place was not bad enough, there was a possibility of “anything unusual” happening!?

After stopping by Gurney Plaza to purchase tickets for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we headed back to Penang Road to try out the best Nasi Kandar in town, and we were not to be disappointed as the “kuah” for the rice was scrumptiously phenomenal even though it was overpriced.

After bumming around our overcrowded hotel room, we headed towards the revolving restaurant in our hotel for the RM20 ice-cream buffet courtesy of Berkeley Farms. And yes, I have never heard of that brand before, but the ice-cream was not bad.

But did we reach Gurney Drive in time for the good food? Did we take too long enjoying the ice-cream that we missed Indiana Jones? Did anyone doze off during that aforementioned movie?

That and more when the Good, the Bad, and the Plain Old Lazy returns in a few days.
For those who would like to see more photos of the trip, here is the photo album link.

The Unplanned Trip of Penang/Langkawi 2008: Langkawi

Tags

Air Asia, cable car, Chong Yi Xiang, Chow Zhen Long, Langkasuka Hotel Penang, Langkawi, Langkawi Oriental Village, LCCT, Lee Sze Shee, Penang, rented car, road trip, Su Yintse

For the sanity of my readers (yes, the few of you) and myself, I am pondering breaking up my recent holiday to Penang and Langkawi into a few parts, but if I am feeling up to it, I may just mix everything together into a blog post of gigantic proportions. Anyway, I just returned to Seremban late yesterday afternoon after a grueling 6 hour bus ride from Penang.

To sum it all up, it was absolutely fun from the get go!

We took a Air Asia flight from LCCT to Langkawi on Thursday morning, right after Manchester United won the Champions League, so a) I was ecstatic and b) I was a walking zombie with a luggage and bag pack. I was really expecting Air Asia to announce that they were the official low cost airline for the Champions of Europe, but alas, as they want business from Chelsea fans as well, they were smart to not rub the Moscow defeat in their blue from heartache faces.

And yes, that is our mode of transportation!

If you know my friends and I well enough, you’ll know that we can camwhore anywhere, whether in the LCCT McDonalds or even up in the sky! It was a really short journey though, as it took us under an hour of babies wailing and screaming to reach our destination.

We managed to obtain some kick-ass window seats. This is the view from where we were seated; breathtaking to the core.

Welcome to Langkawi, readers of the Good, the Bad, and the Plain Old Lazy!

The first order of business was to rent a car. I have no idea why Yi Xiang was so deliriously happy at the prospect of acquiring a beat-up looking Proton Wira. I mean, you see one beat-up looking Wira and you have seen it all.

A short while later, and we were checked into our room at Langkasuka.

With the formalities out the window, we were now ready for our unplanned road trip of Langkawi Day ONE! And what would be an unplanned road trip like without a driver, a map, and a navigator?

First stop was the Langkawi Oriental Village Cable Car!

I am petrified of heights among other scary non-paranormal related stuff, so I was really reluctant to follow my friends up the cable car, but in the end, I took one for the team!

Despite my fear and obvious anxiety, the view was impeccable from the top.

None of these photos were taken using my camera, thanks to my other fear of things falling from a high place.

I could not wait to kiss the ground an hour later. Hallelujah!

Next up, we went to Telaga Tujuh or the Seven Wells Waterfall which was just a few minutes away from the Oriental Village.

Everything was fine and dandy, but we really did not expect to walk THAT far to see the sights.

The water was cool, and the view was great.

I even managed to take a photo of Zhen Long taking a photo of Yi Xiang’s ass while Yi Xiang was taking a photo for the girls. Totally perverted behavior! Caught in the act!

Next up, we took a rather long trip towards the Black Sand beach after some wrong turns here and there which were totally not my fault if only partially!

Pasir Hitam was black alright, but presently it is really hard to distinguish between whether it is dirty dirty or naturally dirty-looking black. You be the judge.

We were there for quite a bit, admiring the scenery of an otherwise deserted beach.

Yeah I know, my penmanship may not be the most exquisite, but I blame it on the black sand running out at the crucial moment.

After more camwhoring, we headed for Kuah where we had a totally overpriced dinner and some duty-free shopping where we got some really yummy chocolates and some beer which I still cannot bear to consume due to my recent drunken experience which included some hangover pain.

We also managed to stop by the jetty and the Langkawi Eagle.

This might look like an ordinary photo of the Langkawi Eagle, but look closely, we are actually in the photo albeit miniature sized!

Not convinced, here is the close-up.

After limited rest, island hopping was the name of the game the next day.

The tour would take us to the likes of the Pregnant Lady Island, eagle feeding, and an unknown sandy beach.

Ok fine, it does look like a pregnant lady, but gosh, it really sucks when your only claim to fame is the mountains on an island looking like a lady in full baby-bearing mode. Well, we Malaysians really know how to milk it.

Next up, we went to the island where catfishes bite your feet.

I do not know if they bring anything healthy onto the table, but hey, it was part of the deal, so hell be damned if I don’t let those fish bite my feet off. And before anybody says anything, those feet do not belong to me.

The islands we visited were infested with monkeys. No, not those monkeys from the Balinese Monkey Forests which are friendly and cute; these monkeys if we can call them that are a cross between a miniature King Kong and a pissed off Chucky! One monkey stole our water bottle while some other tourists were forced to give up their food.

There were some tourists who were man enough to oppose the iron fists of the monkeys. Did he succeed. Let’s just say that guy will have nightmare of monkeys in the foreseeable future.

The biggest bummer was eagle feeding. The boat driver fed the eagles. We just watched and tried not to get sea sick. False advertising!

We went to an unknown sandy beach as our last destination. It was really scintillating!

Not for our two resident candle princesses though as they took refuge under a tree.

After that, we fled back to the hotel at around 1 pm in hopes of catching the 2.30 pm ferry to Penang. There was also the small issue of returning our rented car as well as buying the ferry tickets. Would we reach in time? Would we miss the ferry? Would we ever get some lunch?

The answers to those age-old questions and more when the Good, the Bad, and the Plain Old Lazy returns with the sights and sounds of Penang as the Unplanned Trip of Penang/Langkawi 2008 returns in a few days.

Till then, anyone who is interested in seeing the full extent of fun we had in Langkawi, here is the link from my Facebook album.