A much awaited weekend getaway to Penang, as it has been delayed several times due to our work schedule. The weekend started after work on Friday for me and Rai. We went to the pasar malam in Taman Segar and bought lots of food for dinner. Rai was practically drooling just by looking at the food and wanted to buy the whole pasar malam back…
The next morning, we started our journey at about 6am. Stressful morning, as we got lost even before hitting the highway. We were supposed to pick up Mei Leng at KL Sentral and it was no easy feat. The sign boards and routes at KL Sentral is confusing.
After much twists and turns, we finally hit the highway and head towards Bidor, our first stopover. It’s a ritual for any trips up north. As usual, I had duck mee and coffee at Pun Chun kopitiam. Their food quality is not as good anymore. We bought some local snacks- ‘kai chai’ biscuit, ‘sat kei ma’, ‘kacang tumbuk’ biscuits, etc…
Next up in the itinerary is Foh San Dim Sum in Ipoh. The last time I went there was about 5 years back. At that time, the place is a shabby restaurant with very limited seats. After a facelift, it is now a big, two-storey building. And still, people were lining up to be seated. The dim sum here are good. Huge, tasty and up to standard. It’s a bit pricey but worth every penny paid. We got a summon here for parking illegally. Mental note: DO NOT TRUST those parking touts.
We continued our journey to Penang. Weather was really good that day. Cloudy with a bit of sunshine, so it was not too hot. Upon reaching, we headed towards Gurney to check-in to Gurney hotel. My second time staying at this hotel. I like the friendly staff despite the hotel being a bit old. We had a sea-view room.
After a bit of rest, we headed out for food again. We drove around town, walked down some historical buildings and finally, reached this corner kopitiam in near Lorong Selamat which serves excellent ABC and rojak. I forgot the name of the kopitiam. We went back to buy the rojak sauce the next day. However, the Penang chee cheong is not good. Tasted weird. I miss the chee cheong fun in Batu Lanchang market.
A short distance away is the famous char kuey teow- Kafe Heng Huat in Lorong Selamat. The lady owner is quite arrogant. She told us to wait 1 hour if we want to eat her CKT. To be honest, aside from the big prawns, the CKT is not the best I’ve tasted. And it costs RM7 per plate. We ordered also some o’chien from across the road. It was good.
After walking around and cam-whored a bit, we headed back to the hotel for a rest. Went down to the pool and spotted some Korean guys swimming. Sadly, they are errmmm...not as good looking as we hoped. For dinner, we walked from the hotel to the infamous Gurney Drive. Crowded as usual, we had rojak pasembur, ikan bakar, a lot of fried stuff , etc. Detoured to Gurney plaza on the way back and I spotted a really nice shirt from Dorothy Perkins and couple pairs of nice shoes from C&K. I didn’t realise that we had Jacuzzi in the bathtub previously. It was fun soaking in it but it makes some very noisy and loud sound.
It was raining heavily the next morning. We braved the rain and headed for breakfast in Jalan Mc Calister. I really like the prawn mee and we ordered another bowl after finishing the first one. Next up, we went to the sleeping Buddha temple and Siamese temple. We were kind of stranded there for a while as it was raining cats and dogs again. Luckily the rain subsided and we headed to Khoo Kongsi. I really like the building structures around that place. A good place for some artistic photography. Mental note: MUST visit the place at night as the lightings they set up looks amazing in the bochures.
After Khoo Kongsi, we drove to Kek Lok Si. Not surprising, the place was crowded. Saw some turtles making out in the pond on the way up. LOL. The shelter for the big Kuan Yin statue is still not completed. Doing what most tourists will do, we took photos here and there. Mr Sunshine was beginning to peek from behind the clouds.
A visit to Kek Lok Si is not complete without eating the infamous asam laksa at the foot of Kek Lok Si. It’s not really the best asam laksa to me but it’s well known...so what the heck. Seating are scarce and the place is not really hygienic to me. I love the fried popiah stall and the muar chee stall nearby though. With the asam laksa swimming in our stomach, we began our journey back to KL.
We had dinner at Ipoh’s famous ‘nga choi kai’. This time we tried Lou Wong. I had the dried Hor Fun. It’s just simply delicious eaten together with the steamed chicken and bean sprout aka nga choi. The meat balls were great too. I wanted to try a tau foo fah stall nearby but unfortunately it has been sold out. Mental note: MUST try the soya and tau foo fah next time. With this detour to Ipoh for dinner, we proceeded to head back to KL.
It was a overall a great trip for us after our Langkawi trip couple of years back. More to come, guys?
