Penang - Day One

Not a good start, the tiger flight was delayed due to late come in of the plane. It was supposed to be 1015 but became 1130, still okay. We arrived at Penang Airport around 1 pm, then went to get the rented Vios, took a while. After verifying the car, off we go. Plan was to go to Komtar first to get some penang info, we have 2 GPS software on hand, Sygic on my iPhone and Garmin on tks's nokia.

Since tks was the volunteered driver, wil try to get the garmin to plot the route, seems easy, was smooth till we make a wrong left turn into Jusco. So the garmin will say "re-calcuting", off we go again but still horlan a few times so we decided to check in hotel first. We sense something not right when wil keep saying we are 250 KM away. tks found out he may have chosen the wrong KOMTAR which is in JB, that explained .. kaoz .. why need 250 KM ? To verify against the garmin, I used my Sygic to plot as well. Finally, it seems we are on the right road, hitting Jalan Kelawi then Persiaran Gurney. The Gurney is along the coastal, seeming a 4 star 36 storey hotel.

Our room is 2902, a 2 bedroom suite at 340 RM per night. Checked in was smooth, gave the guy 5 RM who brought up the bags. Though 2 bedrooms, one is slightly bigger and with also a bigger bathroom. The living room has sofa and dining table. This area is good to hang around, rest and wait. The TV is crap, only 20" CRT but there is also one in one of the bedroom. There is also a small kitchen with a cabinet, sink, washing machine, fridge and cutleries.

We head out to Komtar around 3+. But horlan a few times again, so we settled for KFC along Jalan Hutton, housed in some old colonial like building. After food, to Komtar, the 3rd attempt. Traffic getting heavy and the trick in driving there is you must hiong with them but also with some controlled safety. The local drivers there rarely think twice, not to "merge" with you. Esp the motosikalist aka 闪电骑士, they drift like ESPN extreme sports and squeezed into the thinnest space. And also must mention, the roads has alot of y-junctions splits, the left lane merged as and when, driver rarely signal or horn, etc.

Anyway, we finally reached. Parked in some dark dungeon like carpark. Bad start continued as the 55th flr viewing deck has shutdown, together with the so called tourism office. Since there, we dropped by the neighbouring Pranglin Mall to get some food stuff. Then when we decide to head off to somewhere, the traffic turned real bad, jam and horning everywhere, so we just put back our stuff then take a walk along Jalan Macallister.

We went to search for Ghee Hiang, famous for its 马蹄酥 at 216 Macallister. It was quite a walk from where we parked, since we found it so we bought the stuff first. Drizzling still when we left and head back to our car. Traffic had ease so we head for dinner, at Gurney Walk Hawker. Drizzle had stopped when we reach there. It was quite crowded but still managed to get a seat. We had BBQ stingray, sotong, char kway teoh, oyster omelette and rojak. The sotong was good because it has some curry taste, made it savoury. So was the char kway teoh, dry type, no dark sauce but very good. The apom was also good, it is like ultra thin pancake wrap like a tube.

After food, drizzle came back so we head back to hotel.