Getaway in Penang

Took the night bus on 19th March to Penang. Managed to complete a simple experiment for a senior before I ran off with my luggage and backpack at 4pm. Reached JB City square at about 6.30pm. Enjoyed my Irish lamb stew at Secret Recipe while browsing through an outdated magazine I bought earlier till 8.15pm. The waiter failed to serve me my carrot slice. Arghh, forget about it. I paid my bill and made my to the ticket booth to get my ticket. The receptionist requested me to be there by 8.30pm as the bus will be there to ferry us. Waited till 9pm, the bus was not in sight. Instead, I will need to take a van to the Larkin terminal bus station to board the bus. Damn Malaysian Rubber Time (MRT), the bus departed from JB only at 10pm. While waiting for the bus, I had to endure with some discourteous douche bag who long to contract lung cancer. Nonetheless, I felt glad that I am going through all these instead of my baby.

Okay, so I was on the super coach, spacious and comfortable. I immediately dozed off and when I opened my eyes, the coach was on its way to Butterworth. I dropped off at the junction turning in to Megamall and Chiew Mei was minutes away to fetch me. Back at my sis place, we rested for a while before we went to Sungai Puyu to savor the delicious little chicken (which is known as burung puyuh in Malay), steam fish, he pia and lala:) Which after, we went to Sunway Carnival Mall to watch "An Empress & The Warrior". Strangely, when we went home that evening we slept from 6pm till the next day - Good Friday.

We woke up fresh and fully rested. There were numerous plans we contrived weeks before and decided to accomplish all of them within one day. First was to go to BP Lab as Chiew Mei wanted to complete her medical report. Too bad, the BP Lab at Butterworth is poorly operated where we had to wait for half and hour just to see the doctor, and then we need to wait for the technician who was supposed to perform the X-Ray. In the end, we gave up and decided to postpone the health screen and to fill our stomach instead. Who has the American time to wait from 8.30am to 10am for a checkup? We went for the normal coffee+toast bread+half-boiled egg, nothing like the one back in Kluang.

Then off we went to the isle. Needed to convert some SD to MYR (heard that Penang offered the best rate = 2.29) and deposit the cash into the bank. Next, we went to Public Mutual to print out some statements, change my corresponding address. The weather is so hot that we decided to drop by Abu Siti Lane for some coconut juice.

By the time we were done, our stomach were growling for food again. We went to Salsas at upper Penang Road (recommended by Soo). We had a sumptuous but not over-filling set lunch. Chiew Mei chose the seafood platter while I took the grilled salmon with butter rice. The bun with butter were simply a wonderful combination, in fact any western restaurant that I have patronized before (of course not those western food stall in the usual hawker centre la, duh!), I have no complaints on the bread and butter. Next up on the table was the pumpkin soup, served just at the right time after we spread the butter on the bun, so that we can tear bits of the bread and dip in the soup:) The portion of the main course was just nice. For the seafood platter, there were two king prawns and mussels each, a slice of grilled salmon and a huge scallop. As for mine, it was a slice of salmon with butter rice and ratatouille. Last on the menu was the yummy-licious tiramisu topped with strawberry. All together, it was only RM40++.

After a fulfilling lunch, we went to Gurney Plaza for a movie. Chiew Mei practically booked every session of the day for 10,000 BC, we took the 3.20pm show. We expected to see more than just manaks and sabre tooth tiger. I will leave out the plot with one advice, buy DVD or download la:)

Feet reflexology for an hour...aahhh...shue fok sai. My second time and Chiew Mei's first.

Dinner at Jurin - the quality of the sashimi has plunged tremendously and we could observed that the business is bad. So it's sort of like karma: food quality dorp -> less people patronize -> circulation of fish stock is slow -> stale shashimi -> even less customer...so on so forth. Last chance given, and we decided to stick with Sakae Sushi.

Raining, nearly spoil my plan. Hang around at Midlands. Then head to Batu Ferringhi. Too bad, Casuarina Beach Resort was closed for renovation. We had to sneak in to the beach through the Bank Negara rest house and it is there I made my proposal:) Revealed my little booklet - 私達の物語. We sat on the beach together, browse through our story and I presented the coconut band and popped the question. Alas, I didn't get a green light to my dismay...Well, guess I need to try harder next time...

On the way home, Chiew Mei was too exhausted after the long day and slept while I drove home.