Eat till you can roll off Penang hill!

But no, that's not what we did seeing as none of us are actual Penangites that know all the backalley roads where delicious non-commercialised food lurks. *sob* However! Thanks to Bryan who is a kaki makan and has great sense of direction (and even complimentary Penangite driving skills), we still managed to find yummy relatively cheap food (KL you money sucking fiend!). And although I'm sure we could've done better with more than three days, the last three days we spent there in each others' company eating, gaming (in some people's cases), shopping (wah the DVDs!) and doing whatever other nonsense post-graduates do was good fun and made me wish I had more siblings like these. But now I'm back and have thought it over, maybe not la..haha.

Besides, his bag is even bigger!
said P-chan, pointing at Jee-sama's bag, in defence of her big red duffel bag. And so began our journey. We separated into two little cars since no one in our families who has nice big family cars will trust us to take one away for three days. Eheh. Here's the people in the same car with me!

As you can see from K's raised-eyebrow half smile, we make for very strange passengers. But I assure you that no driver will fall asleep on our watch! P-chan went on a click-happy spree trying to get photos of almost everything on our journey (limestone hills, palm oil groves, that Hollywood Ipoh sign, you name it! lol). My camera, unfortunately, seems to have given out after constant use over the past three years *pouts* so for now, I'm relying on my trusty camera phone.And over the bridge we go! Upon reaching George town, we were pleasantly surprised to note that the sun over Penang is more forgiving than what we have here in KL. And here began our search for the YMCA where we were supposed to stay for the two nights. Now, only understanding a smattering of Mandarin is ultimately troublesome if you plan to ask for directions in a city where the language mainly spoken is either Hokkien or Mandarin. Having lost sight of Bryan's car after he escaped a red light and we didn't, we were forced to ask for directions or drive in circles, wasting precious petrol. The old man we asked gave me directions in Mandarin except for the all-important words 'left' and 'right' which I believe he got mixed up seeing as we went in the opposite direction. -_-" But all's well, we found the place after a phone call to the YMCA themselves (who misheard P-chan's husky voice, causing her much aggravation).
And then we reunited at the YMCA! There's Li Mei flinging open the curtains in the girls' room first thing in a "very early morning". Ekhem. Of course, if one does not take into account that it takes at least 4 hours to get to Penang and we left at about 10.30am, it would still be morning when we arrived. :)

Haha, so cute, she gets up so quickly when she's told.
said Li Mei of P-chan cause the both of us were excited/dowan-and-cannot-sit-still in the hostel room anymore and were itching to go out and photograph those quaint colonial houses (and even the gothic graveyard but we never got to in the end). P-chan had to lie back down though, to sleep off Mr. Cold who tagged along with her. Grr. So we dragged the gentlemanly boys out instead. Hee.

This is the first creepy house we chanced upon around the corner from the hostel. Strange things were dangling from the eaves of this olden style abandoned house like the bunch of children's toys in the picture I took above. Jee-sama and Li Mei immediately launched into snap-happy mode while the other two boys stood on the side and cautioned us to wash our feet when we got back to the hostel. Eheh. It is true that there were various talismans put up around the place though.
And if photographing creepy old houses wasn't enough, we discovered that our two friends also have a penchant for turning paparazzi!But this is what they were photographing.A gorgeous, sprawling old mansion even Bi said he'd like to refurbish into its original splendor again. I must admit, I'd like to see that. Even in its current state, one can see the beauty it was in its heyday. And I do wonder what made the owners abandon it. One can only hope a ruthless money-breathing developer isn't eyeing this plot of land greedily. *gulp* There are many more of these fine architectural pieces dotted all over Penang although we didn't get to see too many in our pursuit of the good food. After dropping by Ghee Hiang for a while and taking photographic advantage of their lovely interior, we turned back to the hostel for a short break and to collect P-chan for an early dinner.
I suppose this is the bit everyone really wants to see when one mentions one is going up to Penang....
Gurney Drive proved to be as fruitful as ever even if many say the quality of the food has gone down over the years.
The usual staples, char kuey teow, laksa and oh chien. Food like these just can't be found elsewhere. As you can see, the cockles are arranged neatly on one side of the plate. I don't like cockles so anyone sitting on either side of me is usually welcome to have them. :)

Oh, this stall wasn't open though:
If anyone should deign to try, do let me know how it is. As it is, we all got a good laugh out of the blatant use of commercial icons. :D

I didn't get a picture of the mua chee, nor did I have much of it, seeing as it can be gotten from pasar malams in KL as well. P-chan was absolutely gone over them, however. ^^;

Being the Malaysians we are, we picked food off of each others' plates just to see which is best and which we'd like to order another plate of. Almost everyone ordered a plate of char kuey teow with duck egg of their own each but that's because the other stall that Bryan recommended wasn't open. I couldn't help it though. Upon reaching Penang, it was a single-minded goal of mine to have at least one plate of char kuey teow. :) Ah, the oh chien, however...now that's divine. I'd forgotten how good oh chien is and quite often turn it down. There is NO.turning.down.Penang oh chien!Needless to say, we had two plates and would've had more if not for the fact that we'd all like to live long enough to have another plate on another trip here. Ah, the fresh oysters that so many stalls in KL can't seem to emulate (the only thing they can copy is the price, and that they do very well indeed -_-").

That's day one in a small smattering of pictures and long wordy descriptions. Just thought I'd better get started before I put it off too long and the memories are stale and the pictures never put to use. Since moments last as long as we remember them, I'm putting this one down so I'll hopefully have it forever. Good friends, good food, good fun. What more could one want on a holiday? ^^