Back From Penang

11-14^th Dec 2006

I expected this trip to be more productive than it was. But it’s ok. Many of us (hehe, including me) got tired pretty easily so even it was super productive, many wouldn’t be able to take it. This trip did give me a chance to play with my nephews and nieces. Playing with them makes me happy somehow even though I just faced the rejection. It was pure...joy.

Being splashed by my nieces at the swimming pool =p

And to my mum, sis, and cousin who did their best to cheer me up, thank you so much. I’ll be ok.

With my uncle's Naza Ria. One of its tire punctured on our 2nd day because of a tiny flat metal. He paid RM6 to get it fixed.

The worker trying to find the exact location of the puncture. He then pulled out the tiny square metal and stuffed a fairly large piece of rubber into the tire to cover the hole. This cost my uncle RM 6. Quite cheap to get a punctured tire fixed I would say.

Among the places that we’ve visited were:

Mount Erskine – The place looked better the last time we visited it. Now, it seemed kind of rundown cause of poor maintenance I assumed. Oh ya, beware of dogs if you want to pay this place a visit.

Clockwise from top left: Xan xan, Khey Khey, Lay See (cousin's wife/mother to the kids), Hsing Ling, Yee Yee, Ah Choong, Kar Ting/Junior, Ken Jin, Ken Yang

With my family

One of the cool thing about Mount Erskine is this small and shallow well. Everyone's free to drink its water. It is super refreshing. It's self-service though.

Queensbay Mall – It is the newest mall in Penang. It was opened about 2 or 3 weeks ago according to my sister. Haha, wonder whether Penangites like Maha, Victor, Azhar, Terence, Chao Tung, Wen Ter, and Audrey Quah have visited this place. Like a typical new mall, the floor was shining, the building was big, and many shops weren’t opened yet at that time. In fact, the space was too large to the extent that my dad said, “What a waste of space!” The bad thing about this mall is the fact that it doesn’t have a cinema and bowling alley. =( So, what shoppers can do here is merely shopping. And guess who I met in Queensbay Mall. It was (Teng) Jing Kai. Haha, what a coincidence. He was there with his family and we bumped into each other while entering Jusco =)

Bukit Jambul – Like Mount Erskine, this place is also more rundown than the last time I visited it. There was a significant decrease in the number of customers. I put the blame on Queensbay Mall =p Haha..besides that, many shops were closed and I couldn’t find any shops selling pirated dvds. Gosh, what a surprise! Looks like I’ll have to buy ‘The Prestige’ back in Taiping. However, the plus point about Bukit Jambul is that it has a bowling alley and cinema. Well, neither GSC nor TGV. It is Cathay Cineplex. Well, better than nothing right. With this plus point, Bukit Jambul was still kind of empty. Hm.. strange isn’t it? Could it be that Penangites are bored of Bukit Jambul or they just don’t have the interest to bowl and watch movie anymore?

Me bowling in BJ (Bukit Jambul) Bowl. Scored my personal best: 135

Clockwise from top left: Me, mum, Joyce(cousin), Ken Yang(cousin), sis, first aunt (also my nanny)

Gurney Plaza – Now, this is the best shopping place I’ve visited during this Penang trip. Might not be the newest but this plaza has a cinema and many shops which appealed to me. The Popular in Gurney Plaza is super big, the biggest I’ve seen so far. I met 4 of my secondary school juniors there. Haha, what a pleasant surprise =) Coincidently, Kenji Wu (a Chinese singer) was scheduled to promote his latest album there at 8pm. Sadly, many of us were already tired by 6 something. Hence, we’ve decided to head back to Leisure Cove. Moreover, only my sis and I seemed to be interested in that singer…So near, yet so far..

We didn’t get to stroll along Gurney Drive as it was raining. There were also many places which we didn’t get to visit like Toy Museum, Botanic Garden, Perangin Mall (I love shopping btw) etc. Well, perhaps some other time =)

Oh ya, there was a funny incident which occurred on our way back from Queensbay Mall. There was a black Proton Wira (no offence to all the Proton Wira users) which mati enjin-ed at the middle. Coincidently, my uncle’s, cousin’s, and parents’ car were in the middle lane, tailing the black car. Hence, we tried to reverse, given the limited space we had behind each of the cars and wanted to switch to the right lane. As expected, horns could be heard from behind as motorists wondered what the hell happened. Surprisingly, as we were trying and trying to get out of the middle lane, the black car managed to be started again and moved ahead as soon as possible. Hence, the traffic flowed smoothly again. Not wanting to take any risk, we overtook the car and drove ahead in case the Proton Wira suddenly pengsan again. Somehow, after five minutes (or less), the similar thing happened on the middle lane. Again, it was the same car. All of us wondered when and how did the driver overtake us, given such busy traffic and short period of time. Soon, the driver managed to revive the car and moved forward. Uh, what a coincidence! Haha, my uncle noted the number plate of the car and bought 4 D with it. Unfortunately, it didn’t strike. Oh, well…

I was lucky enough during this trip to have detected a wireless connection in one of the hotel rooms. The connection was good; 11mbps which is equivalent to the GE Wireless. But at least, they really meant 11mbps and surfing the net was smooth throughout my stay, unlike the miserable wireless in Cemara Akasia which its 11mbps was of no meaning at all. This automatically explains how I was able to post an entry and reply comments during this Penang trip.

With that, I end my entry. Hope this is considered a happier post for you, Sze Huey =p

Thanks for reading!