Mini-Penang-Roadtrip

Phew! I had a whirlwind weekend.

Penang Roadtrip Mini-Holiday! Woooooo!

I'm in Penang B*tch! (that song line actually did play!)

At the extreme last minute on Friday, we decided to embark on a brief getaway Saturday to Penang to help give B a birthday celebration he'd never remember forget.

I love Penang, well I just love any rare chance to get out of KL (Melb doesn't count!). But damm 17 hours is not enough! It was rush rush rush, coz of work commitments we couldn't have time to do or see any of the cool things Penang has to offer (besides the food). As a bunch of clueless KL kids we have no idea what to do, see or go in Penang (not that we'd have had time to) so I know there was so much we missed out on, but next time right!

My last trip to Penang was just as brief, 1 year ago, posted >HERE<. And just the same; arrived at night, left in the morning.

I'm not exaggerating, the trip went a lil somethin like this: Reached Pulau Pinang at 10pm Saturday night, changed at hotel, went to birthday celebration, hotel to sleep, wake, go for breakfast, leave!

But it was heaps of fun anyway, as it always is when you travel with a bunch of close friends. 

The Family Portrait

The Hat Family Portrait

So the trip consisted of 3 things: the sights, the nightlife, and the food!

The Sights

Well, since we didn't have time to actually go anywhere or do anything, all the sights were experienced from the hotel balcony. But they were nice anyway! Wes was the only one who even stepped foot on the beach; on his random, unexpected morning run.

There are soooo many high rise apartment buildings and hotels along the coast, I really wanna buy one and keep it as a holiday house (erm.. when I win the lottery haha). I can totally see why so many foreigners go and work in Penang, it's just got a whole different, cool feeling compared to KL which is just like... congested. Makes your mind feel clearer. Even though it's by no means a quiet city, there is heaps of traffic jams and crazy drivers just like here, there's just something chill about it...

The Nightlife

The whole purpose of our visit was the nightlife, to celebrate B's (<- see very discreet!) birthday with him. Happy Birthday btw! We joined the crowd in Mois to have one hellova celebration. And there is really only one way to celebrate properly; with champagne duhh. Don't worry, imma sneaky-smarty pants, I drank lots of that blue bottle there instead; water!

We responsible girls all remained sensible though, someone needs to look after those clowns!

The DJ at Mois was great too, almost heard some of my fave hard-style hits till he morphed them into Top30 pop tunes... yeh Justin Beiber Penang loves you. 

The Food

Every region of Malaysia has it's own famous foods, and Penang is home to some of the country's favourite. But not my favourite... I must be the only person in the world who doesn't love Penang's Food Delights (with the exception of Alvin). Coz they're all SEAFOOD. And not the normal seafood like fish, but the super freaky alien-ish ones. People look forward to holidaying in Penang for great seafood, I look forward to returning to KL for delicious not-seafood. But at least all the other guys were super delighted, and I'm sure you all would be too. For the other 99% of the normal, sane population, you will love Penang for their fresh, varied and creative seafood! So these descriptions are meant with humour, not offence OK!

Even for a seafood-hater like myself, I must admit the food from the hawker place we had lunch was awesome (the non-seafoody bits). Some of the breakfast favourites included:

• Penang Char Kueh Teow
  Everyone knows Penang is famous for their Char Kueh Teow, and the one I had for breakfast really was great; spicy & flavoursome (cept for the seafood bits that I picked out, don't know why we just can't order it without...). 
• Cendol
  Well I always love cendol anyway (but the ones in KL & Melaka are better!). I was relieved in the rare comfort of knowing it couldn't have any seafood in it.

On the smorgasbord of things which fascinated, shocked and made me shudder:

• Penangs famous oyster omelette
• Asam laksa (blended fish laksa)
• This plate of random tentacle-leggy-engine looking things. It is the culmination of every food I've ever been scared of, all on one fascinating plate.

• Popiah, I was excited about it till I realised it was all seafoody too...
• And lots of seafoody steamboat sticks

Ahh, all this makes me glad and thankful for my breakfast today of lovely, normal KL chicken rice. I'm sure there are many nice non-seafoody things in Penang too, but the whole point of going there is to try their famous specialities. I do like fish and lobster though, so next time I go there I'd like to find some good ones of those :-). As long as Alvin is there too to mediate and take my side.

I hope I can go back to Penang soon, and this time for a few days so I can see all the cool things I know are there. But I really doubt I'll be travelling anywhere else aside from Melbourne any time in the next few years, so I'll just remain content with my KL bak-kut-teh loving life.