Penang trip part 2

Day two in Penang was a bit gloomy....it rained the night before and the sun didn't come up, which is just the way BH likes it...perfect weather to explore.Met up with Crazy Attack Fella and GF ...first thing we did was scrap the hiking plan and go look for food. Crazy Attack Fella had planned a hike from some beach or other but I guess they were too tired and we just too lazy. So,we ended up eating CKT and Laksa. After that, must makan cendol at the stall where PCK and Rosie also makan...then off to another place for ice kacang and rojak.

Quite a lunch right? But apparently we weren't impressed la by the prawn mee, so met up with Ben, an old friend of mine for a jejak mee udang, after a brief tour of Kek Lok Si.

Crouching rabbit....................

.................hidden dragon?

Jejak mee udang brought us to Lorong Selamat, 4-ish in the afternoon, as everything else everywhere else already closed or hasn't opened up for dinner yet...found ok HM and CKT. Still unimpressed with that HM, had supper, 10-ish at 3rd lane with BH's friends who came all the way from Seberang Jaya...makan apa? HM and Wan Than Mee...bolehla, better than Lorong Selamat. See the obvious main agenda in our tour itinerary? We ended the night with me taking way too many drinks too quickly at Slippery Senoritas. Needless to say this senorita ended up pretty slippery herself. Thank goodness for Penang hospitality. BH's friends were kind enough to walk us back to the hotel to make sure we were ok...they then returned to SS for more drinks.

When day 3 dawned, we knew we had to look for that elusive HM....in McAllister, this stall that only opens in the morning, Toptaste HM. This stall had got newspaper review and Ben also said it was good so we just had to try la.This guy can rent the whole stall the whole day, but only operate in the morning...terror leh? The HM was good la, with crab meat and such. Definitely worth the 3.50 I think it was. Tried the CKT here as well...boleh tahan, but the night one better.

After that, we decided to drive around the island. It's Penang, not that big right? So there we were, in town, stumbling about to find our way to Ferringhi and Teluk Bahang. We found the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion instead and decided we'd see what the hoo-ha was about. Ben had told us there were only 2 tours a day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. We reached at 10.55, went in and saw that the next tour was 11 am...must have been birthday luck So we caught the tour and it really is a cool house, built 108 years ago, with a 300 year old design, feng shui perfect at the time. A very unique house and a very unique man who built it...a man who had 8 wives, in many countries, from China to Indonesia, with the 7th, his favourite staying in this mansion. Go look this place up the next time you're in Penang, its very unique and worth the 12 bucks for the tour...only downside is no photo's in the mansion allowed.

Here's one of us outside the mansion. Originally white in colour, somehow it ended up indigo...apparently cos Cheong Fatt Tze did a lot of trade with India, where the colour comes from...love the man's taste in colour....hehehe
Above is BH, looking very much like a professional trishawman..just love the contrast of his shorts and that indigo wall.

Finally we ventured round the island and found the famous Laksa Penang, all the way in Balik Pulau....good stuff it was! Ben had tried to drag us at 9 in the aye-am to Balik Pulau for CKT but there was no way in hell we were gonna get our well proportioned behinds up THAT early. Especially after the night we had. Anyway, this stall is pretty famous for its Laksa and BH caught a Mat Salleh trying the stuff with his hands. He just couldn't get the hang of the chopsticks...but he enjoyed it!

That day we also moved from Cititel to Jerejak for a spa retreat...so on the way to the jetty, we stopped at Queensbay Mall to check out the Jusco there and shop for some groceries. I felt like I was back home in MV, until it was time to pay at the cashier. He was soooooo slow. And the que was soooooo long. After almost missing the ferry, we finally made it to the island which used to house prisoners..but that's another story.