It's A Dog's Life

Saturday, 27th June 09.

Our flight was 6.55pm, we had to make a move by 4.30am. I was still tired over my trip the previous day from Singapore, now I had to wake up so early in the morning again.

I forbid Babai from having breakfast at LCCT, forgadesake we were going to Penang, the land of food, food, and food! While on board, our flight was delayed almost 40 mins, and I felt sorry for not having breakfast earlier :p

Penang International Airport. This is my first trip to Penang by air. The flight was about 40 mins, and we touched down at about 8am.

We stayed at Cititel Penang which was located at Georgetown. My original idea was to look for a hotel where we can walk to Gurney Drive. Yeah right, little did I know that I had miscalculated the scale of the map!

Our taxi ride from the Airport to Georgetown is RM38. We didn't know there's a Rapid Bus that cost RM2 per person which stopped exactly in front of Departure Hall on the First Floor. For those who travel light, you can take 401E bus which have 1 hour interval I think. The other 401 bus which is more frequent can be taken from across the road to the airport, about 10mins walk. This bus will take you to Komtar, which is a walking distance to most hotel around Georgetown. I did check-out the rate for a rented car. The cheapest is an old Iswara, cost about RM80 per day. Most of them will say they were out of Kancil.

Cititel Penang rate for a standard room was RM129 without breakfast. I purposely took without one as we want to have Penang authentic food to stomach ourselves. That's our main purpose anyway ;) Since check-in is at 2pm, we decided to look around for breakfast and have a walk around town.

Our first Penang Char Kuey Teow of the day. This coffeeshop is a mere 1 min walk from Cititel. Char Kuey Teow in Penang can't never go wrong!

Mee Bandung. Tasted ok..

Lok lok soup.. I'm never good at anything that I have to choose for myself. I always over-estimated. We were so full by the time we finished that we decided to skip lunch..

Here were the places we dropped by just to snap photos. Didn't bother to go in cos there's so many places to see. We used map that we collected from the airport as our only guide.

Pub just in front of Cititel.

Komtar building seen from Cititel Hotel.

Parkson Komtar.

Odean. Haha.. they still have this old fashion cinema..

Peking Hotel nearby.

Mansion turned into museum.

Mansion entrance.

Ku Din Mansion.

It was so hot at 2pm, and we dropped by Mr Pot, a kopitiam ala Oldtown White Kopitiam which I believe is yet to be in KL. Babai ordered Shandy, and I ordered this;

Fu Chuk Yee Mai. It's Barley with soy skin, and tasted so much better than those I ever had before. I love it, they have a lot of healthy juice selection too! I think I like Mr Pot already!

While lepaking and reading quietly, I was so sleepy and did not realized that I fall asleep on the chair with my mouth gapped open. The noise from the main road did not do anything to deter me from falling asleep, and Babai quickly slapped my arms softly to avoid me from embarrassing myself hehe. We ordered another round of drink, and this time Babai ordered cappucino ice, and I ordered Honey Ice Lemon tea, which was also very nice compared to others. Nearing 2pm, we left and check into our hotel which was only about 5 mins walk.

On our way to hotel. Uptown Bistro near Momo.

The Chocolate Boutique.

I forgot to take pictures of our hotel and the room, but compare to Cititel Midvalley, of course it was not as good. We had 2 single beds, and the room had bathtub yeay!! I didn't mind the single bed because I know how much I needed a sleep at that time, I don't want any disturbance huhu..

Woke up at 6pm. Had to wait for Babai watching MotoGP race on the telly. Had my shower, and off we go to Gurney Drive. Taxi ride cost RM15, but the actual meter shown only RM5.90 grrrr!!!! Penang taxi drive really lazy, they prefer to take the easy way by sitting all day and expect money to come by overcharging their customer mercilessly!

We dropped off at G Hotel, which was very modern and with cosy ambiance. We went out at the back where it's adjoining the Gurney Plaza. Gurney Plaza is a megamall similar to Midvalley, but I didn't bother to go in to see.

Gurney Place, the walkway in between G Hotel and Gurney Plaza.

We walked to Gurney Drive and headed towards the Food Court. It's easy to spot the place as the road heading to the Food Court is always jammed packed with cars and humans alike.

We didn't waste much time and ordered this;

Penang Assam Laksa. What can I say... it's really kaw!

Rojak pasembor. Again, I over-estimated my selection, it was too much for the 2 of us.

Crispy Chicken skin. It was very crunchy and tasty, but the image of eating chicken skin in my mouth was not so appealing. We didn't finish it by the way.

Scenery at Gurney Drive..

We had a walked along the Gurney Drive. I was being challenged if we could make it to our hotel on foot. We followed the trail marked on the map, and ended up walking for almost an hour! Pfft!! Almost dropped dead.. We reached Georgetown at almost 11pm, and the midnight life in that town had just started. There's a row of pubs and disco along the Momo's Walk, and we sat outside just to see people passing by. We went off for a night cap at Mr Pot again, and went back to our hotel to conclude the night..

Coming soon.. Mai Ke Penang Day 2..