So we went to Penang, right. And, in my usual convulated, wordy, lengthy, overly descriptive way, I will most likely bore you guys to tears with words. And, if quite rightly, people do believe in 'a picture says a thousand words', then, well, with THESE pics baby, this post could be taken off the Internet for word abuse and overuse.
Without further ado (with some descriptions at the bottom of each pic, read them or you will see pictures of random people doing random things instead of pictures from the best 3 days of my life), I present to you:
The Day Penang was Invaded by a Whale, a Chocolate Lover, a Bra-man, a Walrus, a Dumbass (but a good, lovable dumbass, and thanks for all the driving!), and a Nikon-ess (hee).
Pre-trip pic 1: Bryan's car parked out front, his vicious dog (he insists it cute, sorry Bra, can't say the same) locked inside, probably pining for its master, and the rest of us somewhere, waiting.
Pre-trip pic 2: J and his Canon Ixus 960 ( I think), damn jealous, and the first of three pics I would take of him with the camera in front of his face. XD
Pre-trip pic 3: LM saying something to Bra-man, they are such a cute couple. XD
Journey pic: Tried to be snap happy (read V's account of it here), but since I was at the back of the car, yakking K's and V's ears off and singing off-key, that kinda limited my pic-taking capabilities. However, this one V dearest took on my camera, so managed to get one of Penang bridge as we were on it. The journey took the best of 4 hours!
Upon finally finding the YMCA Penang (some guy gave us wrong directions, and my nasally voice was no help on the phone, shite-kimase, aren't colds supposed to give you a sexy voice??? I sounded like someone clamped my nose with a bullclip and stood there laughing their asses off)
The rooms were really nice, actually. No frills; so for those who simply can't live without five-star shag carpets and toilet tissues with floral imprints that wipe your ass in style need not apply. It was clean, pleasant and cheap: RM 85 a night.
LM (L) and V (R): LM made a funny face, hahahahaha, while V polishes off the last (probably) of the roll of Cadbury chocolate.
For the first night, we hit the Gurney Hawkers for dinner, where we found food was all-round better than KL (though true blue Penang-ites would scoff at the fact Gurney Hawkers aren't the best at all, but hey, why don't you smug Penang-ites drive down to KL and hit the stalls in TAR college area eh?? EH??)
We also dropped in on Gurney Plaza, where we found the boys in Toys'R'Us, contemplating buying this game called Nerve Attack (which K sez is basically equipment to play real-life CS, but without the blood and actual bullets) and I purchased Panadol, as, as V put it, Mr Cold and his troupe of Fantastic Headaches tagged along with me.
We bumped into our classmates in Gurney: they were on their trip round the Peninsular, this was after we went to Feringhi and wanted to go back to YMCA but LM spotted CM's ( sitting next to me) car. Bryan made a dangerous stop with his trademark tyre-squealing ferocity into a parking lot, while K more sedately parked and was sufficiently puzzled.
After dinner, we hit Batu Feringhi, where I didn't take pics but spent a good 3 hours and a hefty RM 100 there. I am sure I made some of the stall owners there happy. Bought some very tourist-y things, and certain items for my Dino. Ahem. We were all happily walking about, K bought a 100% original fake Omega watch. Which looks a bit like Bra's. V and LM purchased some lovely bags and trinkets, while I made for framed bean-art and shell art. -_-'. I felt like a major tourist.
I swallowed 2 Panadol that night in an attempt to stave off the headache, to my relief it was successful, and we girls proceeded to talk late into the night while the two designated drivers + one Walrus slept, and, according to aforementioned Walrus, snored. Snigger.
The next day, we hit the streets of Little India, where they even still had old-fashioned cobbled streets! Also enjoyed some INCREDIBLE Indian sweets. GAWD. Awesome stuff.
Overview of the street, not a great shot but more on the way anyway
A shot that I particularly liked of a hanging ornament at the entrance of the shop selling Indian traditional clothes in Little India.
Bra-man. In. A. Turban. That should be a comedy routine all by itself.A very nice shot taken by V on my camera, of some mannequins in the same shop.A bit of old and new against each other. And two angmoh looking confused. XD More shots of the streets, this time fiddling much with my Sepia function.A cobbler fixing the shoe of a poor unfortunate angmoh. Welcome to Malaysia. Hee. Look at the bottom right corner and you can see Bra and J talking about something, with the shop at the background apperantly being famous for being under a large tree and for the best char kuey teow in Penang. So my dino sez la. Random shot of Little IndiaI suspect the Sepia spoiled this pic -it was a nice scene of a narrow walkway with LOADS of colourful stuff hanging.We also went to the fascinatingly named Shamrock Beach. A very nice LOL (little old lady ^^,) who showed us the way inside the Lim Kongsi.
Some of the incredible architecture in Lim Kongsi
A very quaint road sign.
Front entrance of Lim Kongsi, with Jee contemplating breaking down the gates with sheer mental willpower. Nah, Joking. Haha.
The three of us girls outside a very cool sculpture of a dragon. Also at Lim Kongsi. Tablets of Lims past. (Thats a LOT of dead Lims) All dead. All reduced to gold tablets collecting dust. .
The front of the Lim Kongsi.Parting shot of the entire area we were in. I also forgot the street name. Haha.
That day, we spent a lot of time driving around and getting lost thanks to my dubious map-reading skills. Okay not dubious so much as just plain horrible. Small emergency due to K's overheated brake pads (sizzling, his tyres!) but we visited Queensbay for lunch (where we also celebrated V's bday with a brownie!
After the day, we headed back to our hostels to chill, ate dinner at the restaurant there (rather pricey) and then we headed out to a mamak to meet up with old theSun colleague + UTAR senior, Bernard C. Nice murtabak there. Great company, had a tonne of laughs.
The boys' remote control cars. And my sandals. *rolls eyes.* BOYS.
On the last night together we gathered in the boys' hostel and proceeded to have the most ridiculous game of Bluff... EVER. We traded J's nuts (erm, the edible kind, not the, uh, other, uh, kind) in several rounds of Poker and then landed upon Bluff. Laughed so hard we all rolled on the floor/beds. We made nuisances of ourselves well into the wee hours of night laughing, eating the nuts, playing card games and having a whole lotta fun.
Thinking back now (tis post is late, btw) I never had such freedom to do as I please, eat as I please and have no responsiblities whatsoever except to have obscene amounts of fun.
And honestly, if I were to do this again, I would do it with no one else.
*happy sigh*
So I leave you now, with tired eyes. Hee. So many pics now that I have camera horrr.
P/S: Next post generally about work. *wiggles eyebrows*