Cuti Cuti Malaysia 5: Dec 25, 06, 3rd Day, Monday, Penang, Alor Setar

I woke up early, as usual, and spent sitting alone in the dark after I’ve said my Suboh. Looking out I regretted not having my jogging shoe with me. At least with it I could have walked the entire stretch of Gurney Drive

I actually left the day’s plan opened for Tariq and Intan if they would want to explore Penang still, there were still a lot to cover, but they decided to hit the road home with the idea of stopping at a waterfall somewhere. I had no issue with that as we could hit for Alor Setar immediately ourselves. But we had to have breakfast first and I took them to the Khaleel Nasi Kandar on the Gurney Drive's waterfront. We took our own sweet time eating and then took the ferry out to the mainland.

We were in Alor Setar in no time. Now it was three years in a row we were in Alor Setar at the end of the year already and I could not see myself doing the same next year. We had no plan of staying for the night there but as we walked around shopping for school clothes and the like, yes we did this three years in a row as well, I felt very tired. My children’s friends would not be surprise to hear this kind of conversation about their school attire anymore. ‘Hei! what did you do during the holidays?’ ‘Ah, we went up North again and I bought this shirt and shoe in Alor Setar; and this pant, as always, in Bagan Serai.’

I was really tired, I guessed the food that I took beginning to have an effect of my system, and I just concluded we need to stay a night. Seri Malaysia had connecting rooms and we settled for that. The Seri Malaysia was next to the Stadium. We checked in and I rested my tired body for a while before we went out again.

I have not discovered Alor Setar enough to make the night a bit more interesting for us. We ended up at the same shopping strip and eventually had our dinner at the Char Kue Teow stall opposite the Maybank. It was a simple dinner for everyone as we did not want o eat any elaborate. We were just enjoying the moment and the togetherness. After dinner we just drove around town to check out if there were anything worth stopping for. It was the tower again and I had the pleasure of witnessing ugly Malaysian there. My main purpose there was to take a shot or two of the tower at night using my new Nikon. Whereas my family to sample another rojak buah and to answer the call of the nature. On the way back from my photography session to my car I came across two couples, my guess around early 20’s, were animatedly talking at the edge of the park but what pissed me off was when I saw ‘kulit kauci’ scattered around them on the ground and bench. Come on!!!! They were surely big enough to have an inkling of civic conscience. I mean the place is a tourist attraction and it was a tourist season and ‘tong sampah’ were available there. Didn’t they have even an inch of brain!!!!! . I was really that pissed and writing about it now makes me even more pissed off. With that I just quickly gathered my family and left the place with me complaining aloud to my family.