Penang Again – Day 1 – The Scenic Route

Well, here we are, back in Penang again. This time, since I brought my laptop with me, and knowing my totally crappy memory, I decided to try and blog about our trip while we were still on our trip so I wouldn’t forget anything.

So anyway, we were supposed to leave at 10am, which we then postponed to 12pm, which we again postponed…you get the idea. By the time we finally left the house, it was nearing 6pm.

Because the last time we drove to Penang we went via the toll nearby Bandar Utama Centrepoint, we decided to try taking the Hartamas exit this time to see if we could shave a few dollars off the amount of money we’d have to pay for the toll.

Well, we definitely succeeded in doing that…with several unexpected ‘difficulties’ in the process. Firstly, we took the exit to Kuantan. I mean, hey, Kuantan’s up North too, right? So we continued following the road signs to Kuantan until we found ourselves on the Karak Highway on the way up to Genting. Then we panicked.

So we had to pull out my phone’s trusty GPS a heckuvalot earlier than we expected to. The instructions it provided…weren’t exactly what we had expected.

The Googlemaps program I use actually instructed us to drive almost all the way up to Genting Hotel itself. Fortunately, it then told us to turn off towards Gohtong Jaya. So while we were still stressed out (at least I was) that we were lost and had to navigate a narrow, single lane road in the middle of nowhere, we were also presented with a beautiful view of like a million trees and quaint little kampungs.

It almost felt like we were lost in time. If I hadn’t been so worried we wouldn’t reach Penang before midnight, I probably would’ve enjoyed it alot more.

As you can see, Nic’s hand wasn’t exactly the steadiest because the road was so bumpy. In addition, I was also driving as fast as I could because I wanted to hit the highway before full dark hit. 

After navigating what I call, ‘the back lanes’ with the help of Googlemaps for approximately 2 hours, we finally rejoined civilization at what we think was the Tanjung Malim highway exit.

We made it out alive!

After being hunched over the steering wheel for so long without even realizing it, we decided to stop for a stretch at the Tapah Rest Stop…where we promptly headed straight for the Baskin Robbins outlet.

Where we finally managed to take advantage of their BR Pink Day promotion by flashing them Nic’s pink phone!

Every Wednesday is Pink day, where everyone who shows them something pink will get a double junior scoop of ice cream for the price of a single regular scoop of ice cream. Which basically works out to a discount of RM2.

*Sings Baaaaskin Robbins, Baskin Robbins, Baskin Robbins, Baskin Roooobins!* to the tune of Hallelujah!

My Rum Raisin and Orange Sherbet. 

Nic’s Very Berry Strawberry and…some chocolate flavoured thing. 

They had a very nice setup too. 

And then, it was back on the road again.

This tunnel always provides photos with the prettiest effects. 

And so did the rain that followed later. I also managed to enjoy the effects of the ‘rain repellent’ which I’d just purchased and applied the day before. It really works! 

After several hours of driving, we finally arrived!


And discovered that we’d actually managed to achieve our initial goal and save about RM8-10 on our toll…but had used up about an extra quarter tank of petrol.


Oh well, at least we managed to get 1 usable photo of the Penang Bridge.

Wow. *rolls eyes* 

And we also remembered to take photos of our room too.

Thank god it wasn’t Room 1408 like the movie. :P 

The room wasn’t too bad, but it was slightly smaller than the previous one that we stayed in. 

After chilling for awhile because I was dead tired from all the stress of getting lost and the long distance driving, we went out to get something to eat.

And promptly proceeded to Gurney Drive because we weren’t sure where else was open at that late hour. 

It wasn’t the best asam laksa in the world, and had hardly any fish in it, but as hungry as we were, it tasted delicious at the time.  

We also had Lin Chee Kang, which was totally not what I expected as well. It’s different from what we have in KL, but was actually very nice. It had several types and colours of jelly, the large type of red beans, barley and sweet potatoes. Yum!

My favourite was the green colour beady thingies. It was kinda like the black colour ‘pearls’ we get in bubble tea. 

After that, we were still hungry (the asam laksa didn’t do very much to satisfy us), and since most of the stalls were already closed due to the late hour, we bought some fried fishballs and crispy chicken skin to tide us over from a stall called McTucky’s. *snicker*

Mmmm…I can feel my arteries clogging just from looking at all the oil. 

Then, it was back to our temporary pad to crash for the night.