Out And About In Penang

Our 2 Days and One night to Penang is too short of a time to explore much of the island so we just stick to the area nearby the hotel we were staying in at Jalan Magazine.

After getting amply rested in our hotel room, we went to enjoy the evening sea breeze walking along the Esplanade and also visiting Padang Kota Lama and Fort Cornwallis. 

Fort Cornwallis being the biggest and the most intact fort in Malaysia, is considered as an important monument and landmark in the historical development of Malaysia, particularly the island of Penang.

It is open until 7.00pm daily and there is a cultural performance and chingay performance being held at 6.00pm on Saturday and Sunday respectively there. With an entrance fee of just RM2.00, do visit the Fort if you come to Penang, I say. ;-) 

My excursion on Day Two started at Lebuh Pantai. Zaini went to work and it was a Mom and Son day out that day. One pleasant thing that I experienced walking around was how friendly the people were to us. We were greeted with a Hello and Good Morning a lot while walking through Little India. But as we were always greeted in English, I can't help but think that the locals there mistakenly though us as foreign tourists.  XD

Plenty of sights to see, and many places of worship standing harmoniuosly nearby each other. I wanted to enter a Chinese Temple to take some photos, but Raimie was scared of the place!

After walking somewhat rather aimlessly, walking towards any interesting buildings I see and going in the back-alleys, both Raimie and I finally made a beeline towards Pasar Chow Rasta. The reason? I wanted to buy some pickled fruits and was recommended by friends to head to this market along with instructions on which stall to buy the fruits too.

Colorful fruit pickles, waiting to be bought. It looks so scrumptious, the bees wanted some too! My choice for the day: pickled mango, kedondong, papaya, kelubi and pala (nutmeg). By the time I bought these pickles, we had been wandering about for almost two hours.  I also went on a "tourist mode" and bought some fridge magnets and had wanted to buy some t-shirts for Raimie but he flat-out rejected the idea.

Raimie was a good boy and followed me around without too much of a complaint and had waited patiently while I snap around so as a treat, we made our way to KOMTAR.

KOMTAR building.

I promised Raimie that we can have a bit R&R at Starbucks before we meet up with Zaini afterwards and the only Starbucks I know in Penang was located nearby KOMTAR. But the wi-fi connection at Starbucks was rather iffy, so a change of venue was in order.

We finally decided to go to Georgetown White Coffee for a bit of rest and an early lunch.

I had Char Koay Teow along with a glass of white coffee. It was good, with fresh prawns and plenty cockles thrown in.

Raimie only wanted to eat toast, so I ordered for him wholemeal toast with kaya and butter and a glass of ice lemon tea. Raimie can't finish his drinks and the staff kindly packed it for us. At RM3.50 a glass, I wouldn't let the drink go to waste! XD

This boy is pretty much happy when he gets the chance to play with his Nintendo DSi and likes every chance he gets to be online with it. See his concentration?

Our walk back to the agreed spot to meet Zaini took longer than I anticipated because I kinda got lost finding my way back. It didn't help that I din't have a handphone that day, because I lost my handphone the day before at the bank and have yet purchased a new one. Zaini and I agreed to meet up at 1.00pm but Raimie and I finally found our car (and Zaini) at half-past one.

It was a really short trip but I had fun. The Penangites we met were friendly and I would love to make more visits to this Island in the future.

From Penang, off we went to Cameron Highlands!