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Saturday, May 15, 2004
PENANG:
On Wednesday, me, Mom and Ayesha (this 30-yr-old who's a prof. at NUS) headed to JB. We took some domestic flight from there to Penang. It took almost an hour to get from the airport to our hotel, but the cab driver was really nice and he took us through all these nice spots and answered our many questions about Penang and gave us a lot of helpful information. Our hotel room (#1314) was alright, though not what's expected of a 5-star hotel) but we later realised that when you're on vacation, all you need in a hotel room is just a toilet and a bed, 'cause you're out all day anyway. (We did get more than a toilet and a bed, though. Like, a TV with, like, 3 channels, and a closet.) Anyway, after a BAD lunch at the hotel cafe, Mom took a break from travelling (walking + car-ride + bus-ride + plane-trip = 4 hours total) and me and Ayesha decided to walk around aimlessly. We walked down the street TOWARDS Batu Ferringhi (it was too far to walk TO) and finally noticed that there was nothing much in that direction. So we got on a random bus and headed the other way, where we had started walking from. We got off at some place (which we found out the next day was KOMTAR, the city-centre) and started walking down the street, past the many motorcycle and Chinese herb and souvenir shops, and decided that we didn't like the place much. So we headed the other way, towards a big shopping mall (we didn't go in, though) and got on a bus and headed back to the hotel. On the way to the bus bay, we got directions from this Australian Air Force guy. I found out that Australians get as offended when mistaken for New Zealanders as when Canadians (lie Ayesha) are mistaken for Americans. Haha. Anyway, we met this old English couple on the bus and the guy told us that the Anglican Church, which was the first Anglican Church to be built in SEA, was very nice, and so were the Botanical gardens which were beside it. We got back to the hotel, grabbed Mom, and headed out again, this time to Batu Ferringhi for the night market. It was pretty cool. I got a visor ('cause I realised that day how much I needed one) and Mom got sunglasses. I wanted to get a little hand drum, and now I regret not getting one. The first place I saw one, the woman asked for Rm.40 and as I walked away, she lowered it to Rm.38, then Rm.34 but I wasn't really interested then. Then I saw a couple more places where they had it, but they were asking for Rm.70 and Rm.75 and by then I had forgotten where I'd seen the Rm.40 woman. Anyway, whatever. We had dinner at this Eden restaurant place. Then we walked by the beach but it was really dark and creepy so we got a cab and went back to the hotel. (Mom openly pointed to two prositutes sitting at a bar and said, "Aliya, you know what?? Those girls are there for men!!" Sheesh.) I woke up at 3 in the morning with a migraine and, after squirming around for about an hour, I threw up (in the toilet, of course) and my migraine was gone! It's amazing how throwing up can help. Anyway, then I slept like a baby.
On Thursday, we waited for Baba to get there (he had a conference) and then we all went to the Butterfly Farm. It was pretty cool. This butterfly landed on my finger but it flew off before I got a picture. Anyway, we saw all these butterflies and geckos and tarantulas and scorpions and stuff. Then I bought turqoise feather earrings. On impulse. Then we walked to some Nasi Kandar place and had a nice lunch of prata and stuff. Then we took a bus and went to Island Plaza. It was like, we did all this nice villagey stuff like walking a mile in the sun by a road from the Butterfly Farm to the Nasi Kandar hawker place and taking a bus in the heat and bladibla, and then we went straight for this shopping mall and it was like, Starbucks and Coffee Bean and "Ahhhh. Home..." After having a nice latte and a crappy chocolate cake, we took a cab to Gurney Plaza. There, we bought Baba new sneakers (he couldn't walk around in his conference-shoes) and Ayesha got me a jacket. Later we had dinner at the Gurney hawker place. The food was SO good! Oh my god... It was great. Well, then we took a cab back and Mou's dad came from KL (also for the conference).
On Friday, Mom, Baba and Mou's dad went to USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) and me and Ayesha walked down the street to another branch of the same Nasi Kandar place and had prata for breakfast (yum!), then we took a private bus to a water sports place in Batu Ferringhi but they had everything other than kayaking, so the driver (who was really really nice) took us to the Golden Sands place and they didn't have kayaking either, but they told us of a place where they did, so we went and they had kayaks! So we each got a single kayak and kayaked around for an hour. It was great! I think I got a shade or two darker (but how can you tell?). We went back to the hotel and had a milkshake by the pool and swam around a bit. Then I went to the gym and worked my legs and Ayesha came after a while and did some weights for fun, then we went up and waited for Mom to get back. She and Baba got back, which was a shock 'cause he was supposed to meet us for dinner at Gurney Plaza 'cause he had a session in the afternoon. But he came back 'cause he was sick and stuff. So while he rested, me, Mom and Ayesha got on a bus and went to random places and stuff. We went to the KOMTAR mall place and it was CRAP. Then we ended up at Gurney Plaza and bumped into James (a Malaysian ex-NUS prof. now living in Colorado) there. We sat around and were waiting for Baba and Mou's dad to come meet us, when I bumped into Jennifer (a Canadian prof. now at NUS). Then Baba and stuff came and we all went for dinner at some tea-house. Not bad, except they were out of tea. Really! How stupid is that?! Anyway, then we took some photos and parted. When we got back to the hotel, it was about 10.30 and my mom went straight upstairs to pack. Me, Baba, Ayesha and Mou's dad went to the hotel bar and played pool. Now, how awesome is that?? I was in a bar with my dad!! Haha. Anyway, it turned out that Baba's a pretty good pool player, as is Ayesha. Even Mou's dad was pretty good! I was the only sucky one. But my excuse is that I was the youngest one. Heh. Anyway, Ayesha+Mou's dad won one game and Baba+me won the other. Then we went upstairs and told my mom to change and meet us at the cafe downstairs. We had some snacks and I went back upstairs and watched Survivor and packed till they got back.
This morning, we left Penang for JB, then to here. Once we got into Singapore, I called Tima (who was in Bangla class) and asked her to ask the teacher if I should bother showing up at class, 'cause it was 4 then (and class starts at 3). She said I could come if I wasn't tired, or I could just rest. So I went. And I came back and wrote this.
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