Our great escape started on the 2nd last day of Ramadhan (Friday). After her postcall at 6 p.m., I fetched her from Taiping and we spontaneously decided to go to Penang. We decided there and then to go through any traffic jams and gamble with our accomodation. We set off with half a tank of fuel, some Tesco chips and RM20 of Touch n Go. Halfway along the journey we 'berbuka' with our packet of chips. Surprisingly, half a pack was already enough for us. I was already full with the sight of my beautiful wife :) The wheather wasn't good at all. It was raining cats and dogs...maybe lions and hyenas! But the traffic was smooth. Heavy but smooth. Due to the rain, we decided to take the Penang bridge instead of the ferry.
Our first destination in Penang is Tune Hotel, located somewhere near Komtar (Jalan Bhurma). For RM79.50 we got ourselves a decent room. However this is a BUDGET hotel ala Air Asia, so no TV, no toiletries, no room service, NO PARKING etc. (toiletries are an option). It would be RM12 cheaper if we unticked the 12 hours air con option. It might sound horrible but the room was very chic and modern. We were impressed by the design of the room. We highly recommend this hotel for budget concious travellers WITHOUT CHILDREN (you might have to stuff kids in the bathroom!)
After solat we decided to take a drive around Penang and get some real food. It was still raining heavily and Penang was hell to drive in. The roads and junctions were a whole lot of crap. The signs heading to major tourist spots were disastrous. However the lights and buildings, especially around the heritage site were a sight to behold. The old buildings look marvellous. The E&O hotel looked majestic at night. As for the food, we picked the wrong night to be looking for great food. We went to Padang Kota Lama to get a taste of Pasembur but there were only a few stalls open. The Pasembur we had was 'OK je'. Nothing special. We decided we have to come to Penang another day.
The next day, we checked out just before 10 a.m. (Tune Hotels check out time is at 10 a.m. for some reason). My wife wanted to do abit of shopping and we decided to go to Queensbay Mall, on the way to Bayan Lepas. It's a huge shopping complex facing Jerejak Island. Although it was drizzling the beach side view was still amazing. We could see the Penang bridge, Komtar and Jerejak Island in the distance. We spent ONLY a couple of hours at Queensbay to avoid the expected weekend crowd...for those who know my wife, 2 hours is KEJAP JE by her standards :P But she still managed to get a Momoe bag and a Scholl sandal. I didn't get anything materialistic...what I did get was a wonderful time with my wife, something that is hard to come by. After all that, we rushed back to Kuala Kangsar for the last buka puasa with my wife's family via ferry (after 1/2 hour lost in Penang).
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