Penang - 2009 Good Friday Long Weekend, 10-12 April 2009

This trip has been okt'd by me!

I have organised and booked for this trip to happen, the only reason why i wanted to go for this trip was that approximately 1 year back, i missed this trip due to some unfortunate events that my family were uneasy for me to go alone! I remembered it was a a series of bad luck and crazy events!!

We met at 6am on Friday morning and even had to remind Melvin with a wake up call at 5am. He was already up when i rang.

My wife, Fernie has agreed to join me for this trip, this will be her furthest ride where the furthest before was to Kien Hian's home in KL and then a return leg through Desaru for the day trip last month!!!

I was half worried that it wont be a fun for her as it is for me when it comes to riding. For this trip, she even prepared herself with a Dainese Goretex Swan jacket... so now she is fully geared for a touring ride to anywhere!!

Thank god this ride was completed on the BMW R1200 GS Adventure... i hope it made the ride a lot better for her!!


Here she is on the bike and taking pictures along the way. We only stopped at Ayer Keroh which was 210km there abouts. I am surprised with Fernie's endurance and never complained but instead talked her way throughout and at times sang for me to hear!

These were the stops we made for everyone to rest, recharge and top up.

1) Ayer Keroh RSA (210km) - some of the guys had breakkie there/
2) Tapah RSA
3) Simpang Pulai - We had lunch there.
4) Penang Bridge

Marcus was the lead bike together with Jimmy where they was the front men leading the pack. I was the sweeper, trying to keep the convoy together and making sure Melvin's TMax made the ride safely. But he held out well... though he admitted he nearly nodded off on some stretches..... *tsk* *tsk*....

We got to Penang Bridge and we made an illegal stop to get these pictures. I thought My wife looked great with her gear!! With her smiley face, i knew the ride wasn't so bad afterall. But credits to her to stay with me all the way to Penang and with great spirits!!!

The Classic Pose by the gang.... ULTRAMAN!!! That is Marcus' ST11.....

Beauty and the Beast.....

Wahahha... i look really slim in this picture...that is why i used it in my Faceboook as a profile pic!! Loved the bike... loved the ride more... together with my wife!

This is the sight that greeted us when we entered the hotel's lobby. We stayed at Tanjung Bungah Beach Resort, it was only SGD67 per night with a sea view room!!! Cheap and good!!

All the helmets on the lobby's table.... from right to left...lollypop's, Marcus', Melvin's, Corrine's and Fernie's.

From left to right:- Melvin, Marcus, Me, Lollypop and Wayne.

We checked in slept for an hour and came down for our new challenge - Gurney Drive!!

Its been told by the hotel driver that the place has significantly changed since the tsunami in Jan 2005 where the disaster took around 50++ lives on this island. The beach and shoreline of this island has changed forever. There seems to be land reclamation as well that has led the sea bed around the island to alter drastically.

I remember coming to Penang when i was 10-12yo and my sister and i played on the beaches, the waves were great and huge like the ones on the better beaches around the world, Bondi/Maroubra...etc etc.... now its only a trickle of wave onto the shoreline. The white sand beaches became full of sea shells and walking along the beach is no longer the same.

Back to Gurney Drive - mom came to Penang when she was younger and remembered the the Gurney food place was along the beach and the sstalls were push carts selling the nicest food. From Penang Char Kway Teow, Penang Laksa to Ikan Bakar and Sotong Bakar...... its gone now and its replace by what you see below... a food court of sorts.

It rained after our meal and the place sprouted with umbrellas and people still ate under the umbrellas and rain.... a nice sight!

The highlight of this eating experience was this stall - Pasembor Rojak. The guy selling this... sang and danced while he serves you. Nice fella and he is there to entertain. He did this little extra to great effect... nothing sleazy but i will remember this for a long time to come! Kudos to him!

Fernie took a short video of him... singing and dancing..... wahahahha




Below is the result and product of this gentleman!! It is yummy!! Must try and must see!!

Which is more yummy??

After eating to our fill... Jimmy disappeared and came back with this packet of fried stuff. Upon inspection, i realised that this is a deep fried packet of evil tasting food!

ITS DEEP FRIED CHICKEN SKIN!! Deep Fried Liver...Deep Fried Chicken backside (parsons nose)...deep fried Giblet..... wah...drools.... damn damn nice... simple things like these can be turned into delicacies..... i can still remember the taste as i type this a weekend later!

As mentioned earlier, it was raining/storming after our dinner, together with mom and dad, we headed back to our hotel and rooms respectively and showered..... Fern and i were knocked out and even the lightning show outside our window did not interest us..... (Yes.. lightning and thunder show just right at our window which was facing the sea.

We woke at 9am and went down for the breakfast included with the rooms.... YES.... SGD67 and it came with 2 buffet breakfast!! Food was so so... nothing much to shout about but does its job with filling our tummys.

The guys spent the night late into the morning and with the thunderstorm, they too headed back to the hotel and drank at the bar downstairs! I believed they had fun and were smashed.

We met everyone at the breakfast table and decided to get dressed and ready for a day trip to Penang Hill!! So we got back to our room, grabbed our helmets and decided that all of us to ride in "summer wear"...which is berms and tees..... and slippers..... wahahhaha

We waited for the rest to come down and get ready for the ride. I decided to use the GPS as our guide to get the the places we wanted. Dunno where it'll take us but... let's try out this thing.


While we waited, Fernie took this!! Notice the waves breaking onto the shores are tiny..... they used to be huge!!!! We really need to conserve and protect the earth and environment. Yes Fernie.... i promise to recycle more.... save energy and do as much as i possibly can..... i too believe if everyone does their part... it can make that difference.

Summer wear parade...

Posing while we were at the traffic lights!!! Cameras Whores.....

First stop (after i "hollan'd" and brought everyone to the wrong side of the Penang Hill.... ho ho ho....!!!) was Kek Long Si Temple - this is a majestic temple sitting on the hill. The colors contrasted against the hills in the background. No where in the world we get this combination of colors..... beautiful!!

Beautiful day..... not too bad a shot with a normal digicam.

Look at the art work and colors..... these must have taken a long long time to make/create.

No...... the girls are NOT harassing Marcus and Syafiq!!

A happy family.... i love photos like these.... it just makes me wish Rachel, my younger sister was here as well!!

Again... the colors.......

This place is huge!!! Not as huge as the items in the photos u are going to see later as u scroll down.......

They even had a lift/tram to the top of the temple!!!

That Guanyin statue is HUGE!!!!

That's only a Bust of the Statue....

A photo i took with Fern's digicam while walking along Batu Ferrenghi.

In the evening after the Kek Long Si Temple ride, we met with Melvin's buddy, Lucas and his wife. He spoke with dad, mom and us for a while. Really nice couple and we realised that they lived in the same block here in Clementi as we did.... but they stayed at the other end of the block closer to the petrol station.

Lucas' wife lives and works in Penang and he drives up to Penang every weekend so that they can be together..... and i think that is really sweet! All the way driving 8-9 hours to see his loved one.

Lucas recommended that we head to Batu Ferrenghi for dinner as there are nice food and also a good Pasar Malam to walk.

This is me with Fernie after we spent the afternoon in the sun and beach where we played beach volleyball!! I looked burnt but healthy.... wahahhaha

The meal at Batu Ferrenghi was really good..... the food was good... the company's great... and in top og that.... there was soccer on the telly where Liverpool played Blacburn and won 4-0 (2 goals from Torres!!!!)

Here's Lucas and his wife! Melivin's the one on my right!!

We ended the night with me buying a Authentic Fake U-Boat watch which cost me MYR300...i like it coz it is chunky and big enough for my size and wrist.

Our ride back..... and towards Ipoh!! Nice corners and a tunnel to cap off the journey.

Fernie totally enjoyed this trip and i casually let on that Hatyai ia just another 1hour away........ i think we'll do a 3 Nations Ride with Fernie soon!!

I think she did great and she is truly a great sport for making this trip the best...coz i can share this with her! Really better than the 3 Nation Charity Ride i took last year.

Looking forward to more Adventures and Sweet Memories with you, my love!!! Thank you as always!!!