Penang Again – Day 4 – I drive 300 km to go to a pasar malam.

So Day 4 fell on a Saturday. Nic knew of a huge pasar malam (night market) that took place opposite the Tesco in the Bukit Gambir area from her last trip, so we had been planning to go there to check it out. I wanted to see how different Penangite pasar malams were from the KL ones. 

So we parked opposite the pasar malam in the Tesco parking lot. As with most good pasar malams, parking is always a headache, so we grabbed an empty lot after a short hunt.

At first glance, it was just like any other pasar malam.

Then I noticed, gosh, it was right outside the houses! Not at main roads or in front of shops like the usual ones here (as far as I've seen anyway). And of course I was too polite to take photos of the old uncles and aunties sitting at their front porches people watching.

Of course, some of those houses had also been converted into interesting looking...erm..cafe's? Home by day, cafe by pasar malam?

And of course we had to buy our favourite rojak buah with the delicious, delicious(!) prawn paste sauce.
 

There were lots of stalls selling the local version of what we had back in KL, but I was so busy walking, munching and looking around that I forgot to take photos most of the time. One thing I can say though, stuff was cheap! And the pasar malam was pretty big, though the layout was rather weird. It was shaped like a huge H, so instead of being able to walk in a continuous circle, we had to stop when the pasar malam petered out and make our way back to the starting point.

After the pasar malam, we made a quick stop at the Tesco because I was feeling guilty about parking there and not buying anything we had some stuff to buy before heading home. I ended up buying several packs of instant noodles to eat in the hotel. That was the first real admission I had made toward how bad most of the food was in Penang. So...I wonder why people keep saying that it's a food-lover's paradise?