Whole Week of Surprises and Whirlwind Tour! (Part 1)

Oh what a week it was. Sorry for my prolonged absence from my humble blog but it has been one exhilarating week last week choke full with surprises! Now, where should we start?

-Monday 10 January 2010. Night.-

It all started with this SMS from my tauke YangLip:

"Dinner tomoro night?"

Bemused, I asked him. "What? Are you in Penang now?" (something along the line)

"Ya. I now in Penang. Ha ha. Contact u again for tomoro"

OMGWTFBBQ!

Just about a week before, he did asked about whether he can stay over my room if he ever come to Penang but I totally didn't expect that he will come over up north that soon! He came along with yet another tauke, SzeJia and He called me not too long later asking about my plan for tomorrow and I, still in shock, agreed that I will join him for a trip around Penang. They're totally unbelievable!

-11 January 2010. Tuesday-

They asked me to meet them over Komtar because they stayed at Cititel Penang Road and it will be convenient for them to find me instead of going all the way down to USM. So I went there, waited in front of Traders Hotel (after their initial confusion with the maze of roads around KOMTAR area) and a blue Viva pulled in.

Tauke AhJia, taking pictures of the tantalizingly delicious Air Itam Laksa!

...and TaukeLip, who decided against ordering any food here because of it's appaling hygiene. I wonder why the best street foods around are always has abysmal hygiene. Whenever they actually settled down in a proper shop, their quality went down instead. Is eating right besides a dirty ditch besides a market makes the whole experience?

Went to Kek Lok Si because both Taukes wanted to give prayer for blessing. Felt a lilbit guilty for not doing it myself. We took the climbing lift (round trip: RM4) upwards...

...to visit the largest GuanYin Statue in South East Asia. The sheer size of the statue and the towering pagoda roof has to be seen to believe. The dragon pillars supporting the roof are decorated with scriptures and intricate design and the whole structure is actually still in construction. This time while we're over the KuanYin Temple, I finally left my selfish atheist self and join both of them for prayers...and paid RM10 for incense stick. Contributing towards the construction fund is a good cause I guess and at least I did tried to up my Karma points for myself and my family.

Initially we wanted to visit Penang Hill but the Hill Train is still under renovation. Being stuck going no where, we went to the mall instead, firstly 1st Avenue Mall over Komtar and went over Penang Road to eat cendol. And then I suggested to go Straits Quay just to hop around the island. Still pretty much empty and still waiting for the affluent to fill up the luxurious gated property there.

Continued our journey and end up taking a short pitstop over Teluk Bahang.

Go further along the winding road of Balik Pulau and drop by Tropical Fruit Farm for a little rest and fruits.

...before wrapping up the day with local hawker food from pasar malam at MacAllister Road. For more photo, go visit my Facebook's photo album.

And oh, while we're going around Penang, both of them popped the question to me:

"Do you want to go down to KL with us? Wanna go and surprise Tauke Owen?" After much deliberation and peer pressure...I said YES. Up until now, I still can't believe that I actually said YES to this outrageous suggestion.

-12 January 2010 Wednesday-

They came over to my campus to pick me up before crossing the Penang Bridge (remember, USM's very close with Penang Bridge!) and head down south to our eventual destination, Kuala Lumpur. If it wasn't because them driving and my gut telling me to spent time with them, I won't even leave my campus let alone Pearl Island!

Leaving Pearl Island and heading towards the main land!

Lunch pitstop: Ipoh! Huge Ipoh billboard sign, perched atop of the lime stone cliff ubiquitous of Ipoh.

Entering the old quarter of Ipoh...

...where the best Nga Choi Kai (芽菜鸡 in Cantonese) or Beansprouts and Steamed Chicken is! We went to Onn Kee, the current reigning champion among locals in Ipoh (as per suggestion from AhJia's coursemate) for the best Nga Choi Kai in town!

Just look at how fat and juicy the beansprouts are! Apparently the fresh mountainous air and slightly alkaline spring water emerging from the limestone cliffs around the vicinity is the reason why the beansprouts here are so fat and juicy and crunchy!

As for the steamed chicken, apparently Onn Kee used free range farm chicken which means the meat are tender and juicy without being too dry.

To accompany the meal, we ordered Horfun (河粉) or thin flat rice noodle. It has to be one of the best plain rice noodle that I ever had. Must be the alkaline spring water again. And oh there's another thing famous in Ipoh because of its fresh water spring: their GIRLS. Not sure how much it holds the truth but that's what the saying goes!

We went around the old quarter to find yet another old establishment in Ipoh: Funny Mountain (which I think it's a weird translation of 奇峰!) Soymilk! It's just a small stand located right behind a shoplot and yet it's so famous that it's signboard is bigger than the shop itself!

A glass of soymilk for RM1.60 (if my memories serves me correctly). Must be the spring water again that it becomes so famous. Besides selling soymilk, they also sell taufufah (豆腐花) and herbal tea as well.

As a testament of how famous it is, there are two rows of car lining up right beside the soymilk stall and the stallkeepers (two brothers) went around to take their order and deliver their order directly to their car! It's like an ad-hoc drive through! At one point even a police patrol car joined in the crowd to quench their thirst with cold soymilk!

Walk further down the road to Sim Eng Heong, a local bakery shop and yet another old establishment around here...

...to savour it's famous kaya puff! It's taste so sweet and nice that we went back to buy another small box after we finished the first one!

Went to Aun Kheng Lim to buy Salted Steam Chicken to tapao back to KL as a surprise present for Owen.

Last but not least of the delicacies in Ipoh, Ipoh White Coffee from Sun Yuan Loong Kopitiam, the actual origin of the now famous Ipoh White Coffee. We bought Kaya Toast as well for tea time in our car and both tasted so nice and original in hot evening sun! I will never go to the usual OldTown White Coffee Chain again now that I had the original white coffee in it's plastic bag glory! After the teatime, we continue our journey down to KL...

Went pass this rare sight: a ultra heavy payload trailer, crawling slowly along North-South Highway.

The Selangor State Border! Oh dear I am approaching the destination already!

Welcome to KL!

Signs of urbanism!

Metropolitan area in sight!

We reached at our destination, Owen's apartment at Setapak and we're are ready for surprises. We went over his apartment, knock on his apartment door...

"EH? What are you doing here? Where's AhJia and AhLip?"

While his emotion wasn't as what I hope for (not like ZOMG!!! type but still) but he's in shock too when he see me at the door. AhJia and AhLip has been pulling this kind of surprise on Owen all too often so maybe he got immuned to it. Anyway, I settled down my bag and all over his house, all of us sit down to eat the Salted Chicken before we took our bath and relax a while. As the night falls and all of us feeling bored, we went to Pavillion.

Pavillion, now decorated in Red.

We went to ate Taiwanese Shaved Ice located at the Lower Ground Floor.

Taukelip and TaukeAhJia, the pranksters in chief.

Yours truly and Owen, the pranked.

Spotted a Bentley over the carpark!

A rainy night in KL. For more photos, please refer to this photo album!

As the day come to an end, one important question remains: how long will I be in KL? Stay tuned for the next part of the Whirlwind Tour Down Under! Full 24 hours day in KL!