S24O - Penang 27-28 April 2013 (Part 2)

2.20 pm - The room was better than what I had expected. It was spacious. Each of the two single beds was big enough to accommodate two medium built persons. At one corner of the room was a luggage rack. Next to it was a small dresser drawers that also doubled as television table, next was a steel chair. The television was a flat LCD, probably 32". Unfortunately the TV was connected to neither an antenna nor cable. It was, however, connected to a DVD player. Since we didn't have any disk to watch, there was nothing else to do but rest.

Our room in Red Inn Heritage

4.00 pm - When my stomach growled, I realized that we hadn't had lunch. AJ offered the "kuih keria" that she had bought at Teluk Bahang. We decided to follow the Street Art trail and stop to eat along the way.

We didn't have to walk far to spot our first sculpture, "Five foot way". We had passed it earlier but didn't see it probably because we were bent on getting to our guest house as soon as possible.

At the opposite corner was another sculpture. Here we met three Chines ladies (they are Malaysian, actually). They didn't know that there are more of this Street Art around Georgetown. Thanks to the invention of bluetooth technology, we "beamed" our map to one of their phone. We wished them good luck and parted ways as they studied the map.

AJ and I plodded on, eager to see our first mural. We walked and looked around. Without this Street Art, we wouldn't have walked and appreciated the little things that Penang has to offer. 48 Muntri Street for example, was where Hainaneses founded Aik Chee Reading Club to promote the revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat Sen. When we reach another sculpture toward the end of Lebuh Leith, we knew we had missed the mural. We were studying our map and trying to decide wether the mural had been painted over, when the Chinese ladies arrived. The informed us that the mural was indeed there.

Hence, we tracked back to find it. It was AJ exclamation "How did we not see it?" that grabbed my attention. The cute "Little girl in blue" in the map isn't really little nor cute in real. The mural was probably 2 storey high. With her two hands seemingly holding two of the building's window, she was monstrously scary!

The illusive "Little girl"

We continued up Muntri Street and found another sculpture, "Jimmy Choo", before turning right at Penang Street. Having seen how huge was the first mural, we were on the look out for another huge wall.

5.00 pm - Across the road from us was a row of trishaw peddlers resting on their trishaws. However, the peaceful scene was broken the minute one of the guys saw my DSLR. He got up and called the price for a ride on his trishaw. I smiled and politely declined. I was a little disappointed; I didn't get the photo I wanted.

AJ and I continued walking till we reached a parking lot. Overlooking the spacious parking lot was a huge mural. We had found "The awaiting trishaw". My stomach growled again. We studied the map for any possible eateries nearby. We decided not to take any chance. We crossed the road and headed to a "mamak" stall.

The stall specialized in selling soup. I would have prefer to order vegetable soup. Unfortunately they only have beef soup, mutton soup, and chicken soup on their menu. I ordered a bowl of beef soup while AJ ordered a bowl of chicken soup. The soup was served with two slices of bread. Dipping the bread into the rich broth, I finished my two slices of bread in no time.

After the refueling, we walked along Penang Street. At the end of the road, we turned right into Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah. We soon reached a building that we had spotted from the parking lot earlier. It was Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. Unfortunately the visiting hour had just ended. We continued down Lebuh Leith. We made a stop at The Chocolate Boutique.

AJ had fulfilled her coffee fix at the soup stall. It was my turn for hot chocolate. However, before I could buy the drink from the counter near the entrance, a staff invited us in for a guided tour. I had thought we were going to see the chocolate making process. Instead, we were shown and given sample of various types of chocolates sold there. By the end of the guided tour, AJ and I were some what "confused" with the many flavors that we hat sampled. I didn't feel like drinking any hot chocolate anymore. It was almost 7pm when we finally returned to our Red Inn Heritage.

8.00 pm - We got ready and went out for dinner. We stopped by a craft shop along the Love Lane. For a fee, the shop provide the things needed for customers to do painting stuff including batik. To our surprise, the Eurasian lady that we met earlier at Jalan Chowrasta, was there. Jesse, her name, is from Germany. She had thought AJ and I are tourists from Indonesia.

I had expected that we would pass another sculpture along the route. What I didn't expect was there would be enough light for us to spot it. It the last sculpture we spotted for this trip. We continued down Lebuh Chulia. Near the Kapitan Keling Mosque, was a small art gallery. We went in the dimly lit gallery and enjoyed the art work on display. Then a guy from the back of the gallery greeted us. He switched on more lights. On our way out, we donated some money to the box labeled Persatuan Pelukis.

9.00 pm - We finally reached our destination: "Nasi Kandar Beratur" at Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling. We ate our dinner and made our way back to the inn. We wanted to sleep early as we had to catch our early morning flight. On our way back to the inn, we stopped by a 7-11. I bought a pack of instant noodle. It was suppose to be my lunch at work on the following day.  

Day 2 - Sunday 28 April 2013
4.00 am - After a restless night, I finally got up. On my way to the shower, I filled my steel mug with hot water from the water dispenser and 'cook' my instant noodle. Not wanting to leave the room unlocked and unattended, AJ waited for me to return. Then while she showered, I got dressed, and packed. By the time AJ returned to the room, I was sitting on the bed, enjoying my breakfast of instant noodle.

5.15 am - We boarded our taxi and left the guesthouse. We had expected that the taxi would take at least 30 minutes to get to the airport. The taxi sped through the early morning traffic. The drive took about 15 minutes to get to the airport. Still full from the instant noodle, I just sat and chatted while AJ ate breakfast at McD. We boarded the plane soon after that.

By 7.41 am, we were already driving out of LCCT parking lot!

Our checklist