Penang 2014 Day 3 – Home Sweet Home

Again waking up was difficult, more so from the exhaustion from the walk the day earlier. Breakfast area was surprisingly less crowded than yesterday but the Al Fresco area was still full. Took some breakfast as we were saving the tummy space for other local food.

Took the same way eastwards but stop short, taking the Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling to get to Khoo Kong Si temple. The buildings got older the closer we got and saw the Kapitan Keling mosque before turning into a small side road. Bought the entrance tickets for 10rm each and was given a postcard and a sticker for entry.

The temple was just around the corner. This was an ancient building so packed with details, both plain and coloured, that came in the form of carvings or wall murals, was amusing to just look at, and take photos. There was also a mini museum that can be entered at the sides of the temple which gave information, history and also a recorded Chinese theatric. Saw a map that showed the various clan temples and there was one with my surname and we decided to just go check it out.

While walking the streets, we saw some of the wall paintings that was mentioned to us by the store owner over at ICT mall, this was one of a cat and mouse. Cute!

It was not long before we saw what we thought was the Yeoh Kong Si. It was closed to public, and frankly not as majestic as the Khoo Kong Si.

As we moved towards our lunch destination, we stopped by Cheong Fatt Tze mansion. Wanted to go in and explore a bit but entry required tour that had a fixed schedule and costed 12rm. Weren’t really interested and left. Had Roti Canai (1rm) and ice milk tea (1.7rm). Roti Canai was just Roti Prata, tasted similar. Left after having rested enough, we walked southwards on Jalan Penang to Kheng Pin cafe looking for chicken rice, ended up having Hokkien Mee (4rm) and Loh Mee(4rm) and 4-in-1 porridge(4.5rm). Hokkien Prawn Mee was delicious though the prawns were only just tiny sweet shrimps. The soup had a great flavour with it. The Loh Mee wasn’t as nice though, though the soup did had a tinge of Chinese medicine flavour but it didn’t had the garlic which we were used to. Fish, egg, chicken slices and fried fritters were the ingredients for the porridge.  The fish tasted sweet but was just very limited slices, I guess it would be best just to order the fish porridge alone.

Walked back to the hotel to pack, bath and rest until the reception called to ask why we haven’t checked out. I thought we asked for late check out but we didn’t confirm our intentions. Fortunately, we were ready to go and we checked out quickly.

Had one more location to visit, for Nyongya Kuek and followed the map to 53 Jalan Muntri but it had changed to another shop selling cat stuff. We just continued towards Cititel hotel where the chances of getting a taxi was higher. We were quite lucky to see an empty taxi parked beside the main road with the driver nearby. Quoted a price of 30rm to Queensbay Mall and we hopped on.

We managed to see more in the day time compared to when we first arrived at night. There was a really long bridge that linked the island to the main island.

Queensbay Mall was the biggest mall in Penang, also another one by Capitalmall. Right at the entrance of the north zone, the bridge can also be seen. Shopped around a little as the strong dollar made shopping here more attractive. Though there were more space here, the variety were somewhat similar, mostly made up of affordable known brand names and local stores. Had some food at Kim Gary restaurant before getting onto a taxi for 25rm to the airport. Tried negotiating for 20rm but was flatly rejected.

The counter for Tiger Airways was long as a snake. Fortunately it didn’t take too long after they opened more counters. The departure hall was small, there were a few shops including a Duty Free and a local food products store but there aren’t any big food store, so fortunately we ate before coming to the airport. Our gate shifted probably due to the delay in the previous planes. Boarding wasn’t implicated and the plane flew off on time. The view from the sky was memorable, having able to see the long bridge linking Penang and main land Malaysia was amazing and with sunset on the right side of the plane.

As there wasn’t any duty free concessions for alcohol for travel between Singapore and Malaysia, we proceeded to pay the necessary duty at the customs and immigrations office. It was straightforward with the receipt and the alcohol percentage, the officer punched in the details into the computer and derived the additional costs. Payment could be made in cash, nets or credit card. For a bottle of 1 liter vodka, it came out to cost another $30+.

This trip to Georgetown wasn’t planned till the last minute but it turned out ok, although there were some confusion over the public transport destinations. The main objectives of pigging out and shopping were achieved from this really short weekend escape.