Five Days, Five States, One Thousand Kilometres, and Massive Dose of Fun: Part 1 - KL, Penang

Old Clock Tower near the jetty, Penang

Holiday is always the time to go around the places you wanted to visit. I had chance to travel up north to Penang and Langkawi during this summer holiday with couple of my friends. Initially, there were 7 people, but the company shrink into 5 people due to some unavoidable reasons. Anyway, we set out on a fine morning to our destination - Langkawi.

Day 1:

To meet up with the company, I had drove from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur the day before. Before daybreak, I drove to Seng Fai's House in Pandan Indah. A total of 4 person including me, Seng Fai, Ming Huei and Kok Chong started our journey from here. It was Monday Morning and the famous "KL Jam" just started. We spent half an hour from his house to get to Jalan Loke Yew. There, we had our breakfast in 亨记 Restaurant. The shop is famous for its wanton mee (云吞面). That morning, I had some bread before departure, so I ordered a small sized mee just to taste. The waiter looked at me and ask me again: "You want double mee or big mee?" "Just a small one will do." I said. Later, when the food was served, I ended up with biggest plate! What to do? I spread out mine to Kok Chong and Seng Fai, who already ordered a double mee. Kok Chong gave me a killer look that morning.

Our host and guide, Shui Wei with her F1 driving skills in Penang

We reached Penang about 1 pm. Luckily, our accomodation was arranged by Shui Wei. She spared out 2 rooms for us in her house in Bukit Mertajam. It was lunch time then, and the traffic congestion was at its peak. So we decided to call up Prai friends to meet up and have fun together. Lunch was at Chun Siong's father shop, which is also famous for the wanton mee. So we had the second helpings of wanton mee for the day and that was not the last. After gathering up Ling Shie and Chun Siong, we decided to cross over to Penang Island.

The first stop, Kek Lok Si (极乐寺). It is a well known Buddhist temple with a huge figurine of Guan Yin that stood up for few storeys high. Personally, I had been there about 10 years ago. Renovation was under progres to build a huge shade. There is a saying that nowadays all Penangite worships Guan Yin (since Guan Eng been installed and the CM of Penang). Other attraction of this place is a tortoise pond and the temples around.

The most priced figurine of Guan Yin - under renovation

Me and Kok Chong posing under the shadow of the Pagoda, also under renovation

After that, we went down to Farlim to look for Apple (not the type that grows on a tree, but a person). and we had a nice bowl of Laksa with 清補涼. The laksa served in Penang is garnished with slices of fish, lots of big onion, mint leaves and pineapples. Spicy and mouth-watering. Some will add the prawn paste just to sweetened the soup but I preferred not to. Meanwhile waiting for the Penang bridge jam to pass over, we went to Batu Feringgi. The sky was cloudy then and thunderstorm was building up. Without warning, the rain falls and we ran for shelter in Gurney Plaza. The rain won't stop until about 8 pm. Then we left the shopping complex to cross over to Butterworth.

We had our dinner in Da Wei which is a hawker centre with some of the very nice local delicacies you can find in Penang. We ordered Lo Bak, fried egg with oyster, fried kuey teow, curry mee, and popiah. The price were reasonable. Funny thing is that most of the company ordered iced Ambla with sour plum, a highly recommended drink in Penang.

It was a long first day, and we need a rest for a long day ahead, as we are crossing Penang to Langkawi.
Day 2:

At the break of dawn, drove from Bukit Mertajam to Butterworth and took my ride for her first time to cross the straits of Penang by using ferry. Then we took the boat transfer from Penang to Langkawi. Most of the boat company charges the same rate at RM 55 per single ride and you can get a little bit of discount (RM 5 only) if you purchase the return ticket immediately. Tips: Do specify your return time properly for there is a chance that you might not be able to catch a boat ride back to Penang if the boat is full. The boat ticket only valid for 24 hours.

To be continued in Part 2: Langkawi