Penang

7 - 11 December 2016

(photos to be added)

Penang Day 1

Firstly, I'd like to thank the Lord for the smooth and safe flight, as well as an enjoyable first day with wonderful weather. I slept through most of the one hour flight to prevent myself from filling up my camera roll with photos of the sky( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ The Penang international airport is small, but cosy, and the taxi ride to George Town was great, fewer high rise buildings so we got to see more of the blue sky, colorful houses that seem quaint, and the first glimpse of graffiti street art. Our boutique hotel was among shophouses and has this London-like city street style. I had an amazing terrible lunch of sizzling tom yum noodles. It was delicious, but everything was on fire. McDonald's here has a lime sundae, which taste just like solero/tropicana, except with nata de coco bits. Then we tried the famous teo chew chendul and a box of pastries that cost like only SGD2 (what). Following that, we had some intense shopping and intense calculating of the exchange rate which made everything too cheap not to buy. We also found the first two street art sculptures! Dinner at a coffee shop (which they call a cafe) was super, fried kuay tiao, oyster omelette, and KL style fu jian noodles! And now we're having a snack party on the shared balcony corridor! Good night for now, can't wait for a wonderful day of museum hopping tomorrow!!!(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

Penang Day 2

Thank God for the good weather! Really hot but at least it didn't rain like what the weather forecast reported. The day started with a nice, huge American breakfast. Then we visited the Upside-down museum where everything was indeed topsy-turvy, even the counter and all the words (all except the fishes in the tank which simply couldn't defy gravity). The staff helped us take the photos and all we had to do was rotate them to see the effect! The 45 degrees pose was done on a really slanted steep slope which had us struggling with not sliding down. The people watching us couldn't contain their laughter(*^◇^) Thereafter, we went to the Glow in the dark museum, which had a 3D trick art section as well. The effects of the fluorescent after the lights are turned off were amazing, a painting of normal flowing water became lava when it turned dark. My shoes, shirt and watch were glowing! After lunch, we took a really long stroll around the neighborhood searching for wall paintings and sculptures. It was scorching hot and our feet hurt from the long walk but it was worth it. There was a sense of accomplishment whenever we turned down a small alley and spotted the sometimes hidden art pieces. We stopped by a roadside inn for some drinks to quench our thirst and guess what, there was free wifi(˘̩̩̩‿˘̩̩̩๑)❤︎ And finally, dinner was fantastic. I had lemon-butter mackerel with mashed sweet potato, small sautéed potatoes, cherry tomatoes and broccoli tossed with garlic. I was so in love with the apple vanilla sparkling drink! Can't wait for another day of museum hopping and art scouring tomorrow!

Penang Day 3

Thank you for God's perfect timing, it was good weather when we were walking out in the streets and it only rained when we went indoors! Today we took the free shuttle bus around George Town towards the pier where we first visited the Amazing World museum. There was a nice virtual reality roller coaster ride and photo opportunities with cardboard structures of traditional 1960s shops. Next, we had lunch at Coffee on the table cafe which specializes in 3D coffee art! I had Norwegian salmon in teriyaki sauce as main and we ordered tiramisu and caramel latte just to be able to take photos of the adorable foam art( ˘▽˘)っ☕︎ Then there we visited the Wonderfood museum, where there were many mega sized sculptures of delicious local food! There was an interesting section about forgotten foods such as cattle brain soup (which made me glad it was forgotten (・_・ )) Moving on, there was a room housing the most expensive foods in the world, which included truffle mushrooms with value of USD160,000!!The whole museum was also filled with quotes about a love relationship with food which yes, I agree. So if you are a food lover, this place is superficial heaven ꒰´•௰•` ꒱ We then took the free shuttle all the way back to our hotel area after walking round and round searching for the the bus stop(also realizing the locals do not queue at all...) We had street food for dinner again - prawn noodles and wanton noodles which cost only like SGD1+ (what) Thank you Lord for such a wonderful day where everything went in our favour, have a blessed night!

Penang Day 4

Great weather again, thank you Lord! Today we took along bus ride to the Penang Hill railway station, weaving through local estates and neighborhoods (and laughing at the odd English used on signboards whoops) Then came the terrible two hour back-breaking, leg-torturing queue to take the tram up the hill. The hill was pretty steep but it was exciting whenever the tram sped up!(๑>ᴗ<๑) It was cooling up on the hill, really soothing compared to 34 degrees down there. We had a light lunch with nice fruit juices - mango, soursop, and passionfruit. We then walked around the various viewing galleries. The view was spectacular, along with the cooling breeze. We could see all the way to mainland Malaysia, and could clearly point out the tallest building which is in the vicinity of our hotel. There are actually two bridges bridging Penang and the mainland, Penang bridge and second Penang bridge (intelligent naming yah) There was also a group of monkeys on a tree that was within reach of the viewing gallery. They had white patches around their eyes and mouth. The little ones were busy fighting each other on the wooden floor while chewing on some tissue. The big ones were nonchalant and minded their own business. After coming back down the hill, we took the bus, missed our stop, and ended up all the way at the ferry terminal where we saw a humongous cruise liner called the diamond princess (I think it's even larger than a few buildings put together!) Finally, we stopped by a small eatery where I had mee goreng (which is actually myojo ramen cha mee instant noodles) Dessert was only SGD0.90 (what) Last full day tomorrow, and I'm beginning to miss having MRT and strong wifi ( ´･ω･`) Thank you Lord once again for watching over us so far!

Penang Day 5

Thank you for watching over us again, Lord! The heavy rain stopped just when we left the hotel! Today after breakfast we went for a stroll around the Chowrasta weekend market and had some fun bargaining. I bought a Batman SnapBack yay. Then we went to Penang Times Square which was connected to M mall. M mall had a level that was a cultural village, with realistic wall paintings and props from all around the world - China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, London. We had so much fun posing and taking photos. And yes, that's me in a London phone booth using my iPhone (*^◇^) We also realised that you didn't have to go to the museum to experience 3D trick art, for it was everywhere, it seems to be the craze over there now. After having beef Kway tiao for lunch, we walked down the street to a departmental store, where I bought a rainbow ice cream cone and couldn't stop taking tumblr photos of it ლ(´ڡ`ლ) Then we went to check out an indoor amusement park at Komtar the Top. So basically we just walked around because free of charge yah. But then my legs got so tired we sat down for a drink, that's where I took photos with Captain America and Spiderman statues (ू•ᴗ•ू❁) We had a neslo (Nescafé + milo) and it was great. Following that, we went shopping and finally stopped for dinner at the classic teddy cafe (which tbh had cute teddies but cmi food) And that was all.

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Penang is a nice place for a family vacation, fantastic street art, museums are a must go, but there's still no place like home (✿◠‿◠) I was so happy when I reached Changi airport and saw the sign 'welcome home'

That's the end of my travelogue, hoped you enjoyed reading it!