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.

Cuti Cuti Malaysia 3: To The North Again, Melaka-Kulim-Alor Setar-Penang-Ipoh-Tapah Road, Dec 22 – 30, 2005

Dec 27, 2005 (Tuesday, Penang, Penanti, Kulim, Penang, Kulim

I was awakened by the timer and straight away took my bath and said my Suboh prayer. I yelled everyone up and made plan for the day. The plan was to go for breakfast first, entertain ourselves a bit and check out at noon. The night before my niece called and said to us that they were going to Penang and would want us to join them. Since I have an appointment to go to Tok Wan’s place at Penanti we could not just wait for them in Penang. So we took the ferry across and headed for Kulim. Just before the tol on the Kulim Grik highway I stopped to call Tok Wan to confirm that we were coming to his place. He guided us after the Penanti exit and he was there at the entrance to what we jokingly called Ladang Sukun Sri Bainun. Tok Wan was a good host and his wife was caught by surprise by us. It didn’t matter to us as the goal is to visit Tok Wan and his family. As long as I knew Tok Wan was staying there since my sis living in Kulim that was the first time we visited him. On numerous occasions he jokingly complaint that I should report my present before going to my sis’s. We did not stay long there but long enough for me to check my emails using his laptop and wireless network.

After just long enough for us to have a glass of water we left my sis’s place for Penang again. The objective was to take my mum and cousin for a short tour of Penang. I took the cue and followed my brother in law to where ever he went and only took the initiative when we stopped at Padang Kota. Instead of staying at the Padang playing tourist, together with my niece, we went to have a ‘snack’. Snack was actually a big plate of pasembor and few other major dishes. We stayed there enjoying our ‘snack’ until we received a call from my sis to join them. The plan was to find a masjid to pray, go for dinner (a dinner? After that ‘snack?’) and lastly the Pesta Penang. I was not sure where my brother-in-law was taking us for Maghrib we went around and suddenly ended up at one masjid in the town area. When we were there then I realized it was actually a masjid in the middle of ‘woman’s favourite friend’ shopping area. The masjid was surrounded by shops, could be bazaar, selling jewelry – gold and all. Just like the gold souqs in Dubai, well sort of. No wonder the masjid is well taken care off and quite beautiful. After maghrib we took the route to the airport and stop for dinner along the way near the waterfront. The food was just so so to me in fact I did not order anything just a bite or two from the others. W just had a big snack remember? While having dinner we debated whether we should go to the Pesta. My sis and her family was arguing not to and I was not that keen either. Even I have not been there I more or less knew what to expect. But my 17 year old cousin from kampong pleaded to go and for her sake we went. It was at the tail end of the Pesta but there still a big crowd and we instantly made a contribution to make it even worse. We just walked around trying to enjoy the place and most of the time I was a naysayer to Mar’s every requests. At least it was good exercise for me after that heavy meal and I could really felt that I was tired. In the end we depart for Kulim close to midnight. I that was it for the day but as we entered Kulim I felt I need a drink and stopped at the big nasi kandar outlet to have a late supper. Actually I enjoyed teasing and treating my favorite niece, Ain, more than anything else. We came home late and immediately went to sleep.

Cuti Cuti Malaysia 3: To The North Again, Melaka-Kulim-Alor Setar-Penang-Ipoh-Tapah Road, Dec 22 – 30, 2005

Dec 26, 2005 (Monday), Alor Setar, Bukit Kayu Hitam, Penang

We had breakfast at the hotel and really took our time at it. The food were not too bad and my only complaint, I really do not understand this, why on earth did they serve the ‘ hangit’ kacang goring? In plain English hangit kancang goring means an over dry fried, blackened, peanuts. I mean the taste of carbon was so obvious. The only consolation I guess the Mat Sallehs having breakfast there might have thought that it was a local delicacy.

We checked out at 11am and headed for the new Alor Star Mall. You should know by now visiting malls is one of the most important items in our holiday itenery. The Mall was a disappointment but since we have few hours to kill we just walked around. At least my son nailed one t-shirt there. Our plan was to have lunch at the restaurant on top of Alor Star Tower. So at around half past noon we left for the tower and when we got there all we got was a bad news. The restaurant was booked for a birthday party and no place for us. Honestly deep down I was cursing, cursing for not being able to take my family up there for lunch and cursing the management of the place for allowing somebody to book the whole place. Luckily for us there was a quite decent place to eat nearby.

Generally we did not have anything really concrete to do after lunch so we began to check the tourist brochures. There several things and the closest that attracted us was just the Handicraft Centre at Kepala Batas. Two days ago that place was still at least 1 foot deep in water but on that day I was not sure but looking at the nice sunny weather that we had so far I was optimistic so we drove there. The Pusat Karaftangan was a great disappointment to us we left just after less than five minutes there. On the way out I enquired from the pak guard whether the road was clear through Jitra and he gave a good news that it was. There and then I decided to go to Bukit Air Hitam and hit the rubber hard. On the way to the highway I received a a bad news SMS from Buyong, Mede Ribut’s wife just passed away in the morning. I asked him for Mede’s HP and SMSed to him our condolences. Without missing a bit we crossed the checkpoint at approximately 3pm. We were there for about 2 hours shopping and we bought the usual stuff like jeans for Baqir and Kakak, shirts for Kak Cik, office shirts for me and chocolates. We went to the bazaar at the back of the Duty Free Shopping Complex and Baqir got his Billabong. Shopping wise it was a bit disappointment. We were back on the highway soon enough speeding south with no real intention of going anywhere. So at top speed I planned the rest of the holidays. My options were to head back to Kulim or detour to Penang for further R&R. At the very last minutes I turned towards Penang and I was greeted by a long traffic jam at the Penang bridge tol plaza and we were stuck there for about 4 minutes before we managed to squeeze through. It was an accident and the clean up had just finished. After that the traffic was normal all the way into Penang. When we were in Penang I had a decision to make about lodging and followed my instinct. We knew most hotel would be full and we would like to stay within downtown area. So we drove to Gurney Drive first and of course the places there were fully booked. We wanted to try Shangri La but there was no place for me to stop to enquire. After a couple of times driving around I decided to try Northam Towers and they had plenty of rooms and instead of tking two rooms as usual we took the junior suites as it would fit all of us. As soon as we had freshened up we went out for dinner. Dinner meant fulfilling my craving for a good nasi kandar and the only place that could do justice to that was Line Clear Nasi Kandar. I already mastered the route from my previous trip so within few minutes we were already seated. To make my day there was only one big fish head curry left for us. We shamelessly devoured, at least I was, the nasi kandar as if I have not eaten for days. After that I thought if I did not do anything interesting for the rest of the holidays I was satisfied. Everyone was tired and we decided not to do anything else but to head back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel my wife straight away went to sleep and so did most of my children. I stayed awake for a while to watch the EPL and dozed off in the middle of the game. So the TV was the one watching me in the end until morning.