| Saturday, 31-May-2008 12:00 |
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In-laws' Penang Trip Day 2
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Well, due to the late night chat, we woke up at around 8am. We started off the day at around 9am. We drove by Mingood Hotel, where my in-laws planned to stay about 6 months ago when they booked in their trip to Penang via AirAsia. We actually checked in quite late yesterday evening – we had notified the Hotel about it. I prepared light breakfast for everyone because I know that they won’t fancy having a full heavy breakfast at home. After crossing the Penang Bridge, we headed straight to a shop around the vicinity of Mingood Hotel. There they serve nice Kuey Teow Th’ng (Rice sticks with meat-based soup). We also had a bowl of Curry noodle, fried noodle + rice sticks and fried popiah. Well, it was quite a happening place as everyone came to that stalls for the Kuey Teow Th’ng. We have to wait for about 15 minutes before being seated along the streetside. Now, they really appreciate the light breakfast (2 half-boiled eggs) that I’d prepared for them.
Penang came from the word Pinang a.k.a. betel nut (a palm-like tree with red-coloured fruits).
After breakfast, we visited Fort Cornwallis, built by Captain Sir Francis Light crews when they first landed here and took possession from Sultan Kedah in 1786. It is situated at the north-eastern part of the Penang island. We took this opportunity to take pictures with Sir Francis Light's Statue.
 
Here, we could appreciate the early base of the British in Penang, their tents, camps and even jails where they kept their captives. There was a big displayed cannon at the top of the fort, there are lots of story about it. The most interesting one was the mystical fertility blessing if one touches the muzzle (opening) of the cannon. Wow…. If that’s true, our Obs&Gynae colleagues will go through a rough time in Penang island… ho ho ho… I’m just kidding.
Dr Sun Yat-Sen or Sun Zhong-Shan (1866-1925) was renowned as the Father of Modern China. He was a revolutionist which was one of the main character in the downturn/ending history of Qing Dynasty. In Penang, the Penang Philomatic Union which was founded by Sun in 1908, has embarked on a heritage project to turn its premises at 65 Macalister Road into Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum. It was expected to complete in 2006. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen)
I was there today but unfortunately, it has yet completed. Unfortunately, it was not a very well-organized museum as I could not really grasp the essence of the history of Dr Sun’s life and story of his revolution after I visited there. I hope the museum would be improvised with more exhibition spaces to exhibit the story of his life.
We visited the temple of Sleeping Buddha next which is situated near Gurney Drive food court. Well, it was packed with people. Lots of tourists visited the temple. It was quite an eye opening view of the huge statue of Buddha in sleeping position inside the temple. One has to take off their shoe upon entering the temple for any kind of purposes. I was waiting outside guarding our shoes whilst the rest went in for a visit. Luckily I manage to snap a picture or two outside.
We had our late lunch at around 1300 at one of the hawker stalls at Jalan Dato’ Keramat. I was told by my cousin that they served really nice Yong Tau Fu. Well, she was absolutely right. Its superb for its delicious soup. All the meats are so succulent that you wouldn’t want to stop once you started the first piece. Unfortunately, this stall is strictly non-Halal… he he … you know what I mean, right… We had 2 big servings of Yong Tau Fu to fill our stomach – RM50 in total. We also had popiah there which is really nice too – a thin layer of wrapper with lots of stuffing. Yum…Yum… Yum
We then moved on to the next destination - The Snake Temple. It was supposed to be our first destination on our itinery when MungSeong initially plan the trip. Now, lets see how good your eyes are... Can you actually spot the snakes in the picture below???...
Well, it was an eye opening, seeing so many snakes and even KING COBRA... WoW... I was enlightened too by the displays of the kids - courage overcome their fear OR a pure ignorance of the danger. 
We spent the rest of the evening shopping at Queensbay mall. Good for MungYen, Padini was doing their 50% sales. Both HuaSiang and Lou-Dou had hair cut at Quick-Cut in Penang Queensbay Mall. Here at Queensbay Mall, you'll get a good view of the Penang Bridge too. There are few stone seats around, ideal for those who love the semi-urban view. Such a breath-taking moment. If you're lucky you'll see aeroplanes actually flew across and making their landing at the airport which is not far away from here. If you are hungry, there are always van-stalls that you can buy light tit-bits and fruits.
Before we leave, we had a light meal at Kopi-Tiam Restaurant whilst giving a chance for Lou-Dou to rest his feet.
For Dinner, we had Lok-Lok – a steamboat-like meal but you don’t drink the soup – at a hawker food stalls near B-Suite. It was not a great experience because there wasn’t much choice of the dish for us to choose. Fortunately, there were other foods like the Taiwanese Fried Chicken & Claypot Chicken Rice which were really filling and tasty.
After another day of long shopping and walk, we retired to bed at around 2300 as fatigue took over every inch of our muscles. Rest & Enjoyment assured.
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