Insignificance

Wednesday, September 6

Got back from penang yesterday morning and woke my roomate from his sleep. Being an East Malaysian having to be blessed with this chance to travel around

Malaysia

and actually a thrill solidifying historical places taught in primary school during geography class was really an experience. Having being "unwillingly dispatched" to Melaka for my university studies isn't that bad after all, I had the chance of a lifetime to truly explore Malaysia.

Departed from Melaka at around 9am on Friday and went through severe butt-suffering ride with 8 hours of constant thumping of tires on the North-South Highway and finally arrived to penang’s Parit Buntar bus station at 5pm where I was being greeted by 3 of my buddies, Alexis, Horng Rong and Kennedy which is my first since I have no recollection of anyone actually greeted me upon any arrivals before.

First stop was alexis' patriotic hostel in USM seberang perai engineering campus where we spent the night.

I can see 6 malaysian flags in just one shot

Took a ferry ride to Penang Island, better known as Pulau Pinang and took a picture of the island during the ride while looking for jellyfish in the sea.

Headed down town to the main bus station for a transit to gurney plaza. I kept hearing bus drivers shouting "komtar!" "komtar!" which I initially thought was a shopping complex but eventually I found out that it was actually this.

"Komtar" was short for "Tunku Abdul Rahman Complex" in Malay.

One more thing is that the cab prices here are pathetically unreasonable. Instead of implementing the usage of meters, the prices are subjected to passengers verbally. Talking about injustice.

I still remembered reading an article about penang cab drivers in penang on a "strike" when the meter usage on taxis were implemented and there were no taxis on duty for a period of time where all the taxi drivers were supposedly said to be sick and unable to work till they've "recovered". Owh well, back to my entry.

No transnational visitations would be complete without a visit to their local shopping malls.

again, typical west malaysian shopping malls, huge!

As were were taking snap shots in front of the gurney plaza main entrance, coincidentally, out of no where, a vehicle stopped right in front of us and two ladies with tiaras and killer-figures stepped out. They were miss malaysia universe 2006 and miss malaysia 2005.

whoa...

their feromones were irresistible...

They were wearing heels! and we couldn't catch up... heck

They were representatives of Wacoal's undergarment for women's breast cancer awareness campaign.

And of course, the renowned Penang food stalls at Gurney drive. The delicacies there was superb and relatively cheap compared to Kuching food.

Yet I still don't know what is so special about their char-kuey-teow. Frankly, it tasted the same as any stalls back in Kuching and Malaysia.

Snapped few great scenic shots of the seaside view from gurney drive.

gurney drive beach view

another angle of gurney drive

reminds me of kuching's damai lagooon beach

beach view during evening hour

For breakfast next morning, we had great delicios penang dim sum to fill up our starving stomachs. When it same to settling the bill, I was struck dumbfounded by the price we had to pay, trust me, u wouldn't wanna know how much it costs.

dim sum for breakfast!

in the temple

on the cable car going up "raised flag" hill

a bird's eye view from the hill top

For me, Penang is a place where great food and historical cultures are fused in perfect balance to be witnessed.

sunset at batu feringgi

Of all the visits around Penang, I still have to say that the highlights was me actually meeting up with my schoolmates after months of separation from our hometown and also getting to meet up with other friends. The get-together was really a relief and those familiar faces were the undisputed antidote for my homesickness while I was in Melaka and hopefully I did the same for them.