Wandering Fel

SATURDAY - 3PM

On the other side of George Town around Lebuh Kimberley are various museums such as Trick Art Museum and Dark Mansion, a 3D glow in the dark museum. Squeeze in a visit to Dark Mansion for unique picture taking experience under the glowing lights of a tropical forest and fountain/ volcano for the price of RM 35.

                             

Next up to the Lebuh Armenian where most of the popular Penang's street arts are located. Take your time to discover the unique painted walls mimicking life in the city. These street arts describe the lifestyle of the early settlement days which gives memorable impression of the streets and landmarks which are George Town today. 

SATURDAY - 5PM

Grab one of the many bikes available all around George Town to enjoy cycling experience in Penang. If you are just a casual cyclist, you can use one of the bikes provided by Link Bike which only requires online registration and scanning QR code. For those looking for real challenge, rent a mountain bike and cycle your way to Pearl Hill, a 2km road winding up past largely vacant residential lots to a point where you can see delightful views of Tanjong Bungah. 

SUNDAY - 9AM

Stroll back to Lebuh Carnavon at George Town to try out the old school dim sum at Aik Hoe Restaurant. Founded by a humble Cantonese 60 years back, this neighbourhood dim sum place offers various traditional dim sum dishes such as siew mai (re: pork and prawn dumpling) and lo mai kai (re: steamed glutinous rice). On the way to Lebuh Carnavon, don't forget to visit some of the hidden street art at Lebuh Chulia. 

WAY TO GO:

Getting there: Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways will be your best premium flight choices with the price range around SGD 400 and above. Scoot, Jetstar and Tiger Airways are your budget flight choices with the price range starting from SGD 99 (exclusive of all the additions and charges). 

But, I decided to give this dish a second chance and since the shop owner is confident enough to display the word "famous" as part of his shop's name, there must be some goodness about his version of Assam Laksa. The color of the Assam Laksa served at Penang Road Famous Assam Laksa (oh gosh, that's a mouthful) is way lighter than the color of the assam laksa that I tried in Singapore. And guess what, apparently that made a lot of difference because I could tolerate and even enjoy Penang version of Assam Laksa. The amount of the fish given is quite generous too and there is no hint of fishiness at all emanating from the bowl. The shop owner told us that she just moved shop from another road to Penang Road. Well, since we found out about this shop by pure chance, I suppose it must be destiny between me and the Assam Laksa. 

Full stomach and yet, no idea what to do in Penang because soon it's your flight time? Do not worry as there are a lot of alleys with wall murals to check out in Penang. If you think you have checked all of them out, you may be wrong because that's what we thought too initially and yet, we randomly wandered into Lebuh Chulia and guess who we met here!

Celebrities on the wall. Yep, Lebuh Chulia is where you can ride a bike with the famous British dude, Mr Bean (I wonder if Sir Rowan Atkinson earns some commission from Penang. Oh well, maybe not.). 

At Lebuh Chulia, you can also meet a beautiful legend from the past, Marilyn Monroe. It seems that the wall mural is sponsored by Grand Swiss Hotel which is situated at the end of Lebuh Chulia. So if you are looking for this road, just google either "Lebuh Chulia" or "Grand Swiss Hotel" and you will find these people on the wall. 

If you have explored all sides of Georgetown and yet, still have time to kill, you should visit one of the 24 hours mini mart scattered around Georgetown. We visited one which is situated near to our hotel, Merchant Hotel, at Penang Road. Even though it is not a supermarket, I could still find some interesting items to loot from this mini market such as Uncle Saba's Poppadoms (which taste so good, I should have bought more tubes) and Zesty Lime & Chilli flavoured Pringles (which I initially wanted to give to someone but ended up finishing it myself). 

My travelling buddy went crazy for these assorted packaged lava cake from Luva. She sworn that all taste so good and I ended up following her advice and bought a few back to Singapore. I love the purple color the most but the cake taste pretty heavy actually so I ended up eating them as breakfast instead of dessert. Oh right, don't forget to buy the sweet and spicy muruku as it is quite addictive (despite the rather weird logo). The Turkish biscuits, Biscolata, taste so so to my liking but they are freebies as we have hit certain purchasing threshold. We must have been kinda crazy to shop that much at a mini store. 

Our taxi ride back to Penang International Airport only took us less than 30 minutes so we had a lot of time to spare and what better way to chill than trying out Penang's McDonalds. We did not really try anything which is so different from Singapore though apart from the grape slushie. Not adventurous bunch indeed. Oh well, that's a wrap! Until next time, Penang! 

Penang Road Famous Assam Laksa is located at: 

5 Lebuh Keng Kwee, Georgetown

Penang, Malaysia

Opening hours:

Daily 9AM - 5.30PM

Hello! It has been a few days since the last time I blogged. I want to make this update daily but apparently managing time is like one of the most difficult thing to do in life. We have come toward the end of the Penang trip (T_T) but of course there is no trip which ends without buying some goodies for people back home. No matter whether it's family or friends. 

It is a shop specializing in filled round pastries (seems to be Cantonese pastries) named Ming Xiang Tai Pastry Shop. It seems to be a quite popular pastry shop in Penang (and Malaysia, I think) and the name card of the shop shows a list of location throughout Malaysia. The pastries on display look the same in a glance but all of them have different fillings ranging from salted egg, coconut, green tea, pineapple, chicken, pork and everyone's favourite durian. I suppose Ming Xiang Tai Pastry Shop caters for all tastebud from sweet to savoury. 

You can choose to buy either ala carte or by boxes. The packaging seems to be more suitable for souvenir to be given to people at home. You can choose from minimum 6 - 12 pieces of pastries in a box. You can also mix the taste if you want variety in the box. The price is ranging from RM 13 (for 6 pieces) to RM 38 (for 12 pieces). 

The next shop that we visited is just located a few stores away from Ming Xiang Tai Pastry Shop. It is called Ban Heang and it is famous for its tambun biscuit (or also known as tau shar pheah). 

The great thing about shopping at Ban Heang is that the shop provides tester for most of its products including its varieties of tambun biscuits. Tambun biscuits are basically baked flaky pastry biscuits filled with sweet or savoury filling made from grounded mung beans. However, Ban Heang does not sell the tambun biscuits by pieces. You have to buy a minimum of 9 pieces if you want to get the box. It costs around RM 9.50 for each box. 

Otherwise, the smallest size you can get from Ban Heang is in this paper roll packaging and it has 5 small tambun biscuits inside it. It smells good even when I have not opened the packaging. Yumz! 

Ming Xiang Tai Pastry Shop is located at:

475A Jalan Penang, Georgetown

Penang, Malaysia

Opening hours: Daily 8.30AM - 7PM 

Ban Heang is located at:

245 & 247 Jalan Penang, Georgetown

Penang, Malaysia

Opening hours: Daily 9AM - 9PM

Thankfully we did not come to Aik Hoe Restaurant on Monday or Tuesday because the dim sum restaurant is closed on both days. You will have this vibe of eating breakfast at a traditional Chinese house, you can even see a prayer altar right behind the dim sum counter. 

For ordering, you can make your way to the counter and check out the selection of the dim sum offered by Aik Hoe Restaurant. The restaurant owner will display the dim sum on the trays based on its type. Fried, steamed and other specialities. We checked out the fried dim sum and the egg tart selection on the right side. 

Meanwhile, the steamed dim sum is displayed on the left side of the table. The dim sum tray is stacked one upon another so if you could not find what you want, you can ask the restaurant staff if there are more items available underneath this layer. 

Our dim sum order that day (from left to right): Peas dumpling, Siew Mai (pork dumpling), Har Kauw (Prawn Dumpling), another Siew Mai, Lotus Sesame Seeds Ball, Chee Cheong Fun (Rice Noodle Roll) and Lo Mai Gai (Steamed Sticky Rice). 

One would have expected to pay quite a big amount of money for 6 plates of dim sum order in Singapore, but one of the reasons of why Aik Hoe Restaurant is always a local favourite for dim sum in Penang is because of its affordable price. We only ended up paying around 10SGD-ish per person (shared amongst the two of us) for these dim sum feat. The dim sum is not the fancy type (e.g. Those shaped in cute animal form or filled with unusual stuff) so Aik Hoe Restaurant is the place where you can have traditional dim sum inside old Chinese house setting. 

The rice roll served at Aik Hoe Restaurant is the plain version without any additional meat served inside it. Just the good rice roll served with fried shallot, chili and a great deal of seasoning.

My favourite dim sum dish is gotta be the Siew Mai. My all time favourite since childhood no matter served with or without chili sauce. And that's why we ordered two portion of Siew Mai, because it's so good I refused to share with my travelling buddy. Hahaha. 

The Lo Mai Gai taste okay and it's complete with the Chinese Sausage (Lap Cheong) and mushroom at the top of it. The portion of Lo Mai Gai is generally the biggest compared to the other dim sum item so if you don't want to be full easily, you should consider sharing this dish instead of finishing one on your own. 

Aik Hoe Restaurant is located at:

No. 6 & 8 Lebuh Carnavon, Georgetown

Penang, Malaysia

Opening hours:

Wednesday - Sunday 6.30AM to 2PM

Closed on Monday and Tuesday

Khoo Kongsi Temple is situated at Lebuh Cannon in Georgetown. The temple itself is quite special because it is actually an old Chinese clan house which is also functioning as temple and meeting hall. A performance like lion dance and drum show are usually held on a weekend at the temple's square. The performance is free to watch and it was quite fun to see the lion dance and the puppets teasing one visitor to another. 

If you love to check out the history of clan house in Penang, you may want to pay the temple a visit for an admission fee of RM 10. However, if your surname is Khoo, you can visit the temple for free (since this is supposedly your ancestral clan house). Interestingly, the temple cannot be seen from the street as it is blocked by other building in the vicinity. We were kinda amazed by the beautiful clouds forming on top of the temple too that day. But since it's already way past 5PM, we did not manage to go inside the temple. Too bad. The temple opens from 9AM to 5PM everyday if you would like to visit.

The weather has become nicer around this timing and perfect for wandering around. However, the sun will set soon and we were getting tired from our Saturday adventure, so we decided to go back to our hotel, Merchant Hotel, by using a rickshaw. We kinda had a small discussion on what kind of driver should we choose to pedal our rickshaw because after all, we are not as slim as K-Pop idols you see. I was quite skeptical about asking old men to pedal but my friend thinking otherwise. However, at the end we decided to go with the younger guy to pedal our rickshaw. 

The rickshaw driver will quote you a price and ask for your agreement before you can ride the rickshaw. The quoted fee from Lebuh Armenian to Merchant Hotel is around RM 15, which we thought was quite reasonable so we did not bother to bargain. To be honest with you, the rickshaw feels kinda cramped with our two butts sit next to each other. Oh my gawd, are we really that fat? 

Oh right, space issue aside, be prepared with your camera because the route taken by the rickshaw is usually filled with many interesting thing to take picture with. One area that you must be prepared to take picture is definitely the mosque at Lebuh Buckingham. I am not even a Moslem and yet, I could feel the amazing vibe from this beautiful mosque. 

When we are getting nearer to our hotel, we could feel that the rickshaw driver really utilized his brute strength to the max because the rickshaw feels heavier and heavier. At some point, he even coughed pretty badly we kinda prayed he could last and not fainted or vomited blood prior reaching to our hotel. And woots, he made it! I shall repent and eat lesser now that I am back in Singapore, I promise. 

Let's just moving on with our walk shall we. My travel buddy and I had a little debate on this particular wall mural because the cat in the picture looks kinda outworn. I do think that the outworn parts make the wall mural looks kinda vintage but my travel buddy disagreed. Anyway none of us is taking picture with the cat anyway because the lighting was not that nice at that particular timing. Random debate upon our wander, really. We should have our own talk show one day. 

The next wall mural that we chanced upon is quite interesting though. Initially I did not get what the cat's looking at a particular direction and that's when I realise that there's a picture of a mice hanging playfully there. Hahaha nice touch of creativity, I think. 

After we cross the street to check out the nearby market, we stumbled against Chew Jetty which is displayed as UNESCO World Heritage Site. We totally did not have any idea nor that we had plan to visit this particular heritage site and I suppose that's probably one of the quirks of going-with-the-wind kind of travel plan? It seems that there are a lot of restrictions imposed and there is no motorcycle and bicycle allowed inside. Well, not a problem for us since we came here on foot. 

Smiley faces on the house under the blue sky, I see. 

Chew Jetty is apparently a settlement of wooden houses built on silts. It kinda reminds me of a settlement at Tai O Fishing Town in Hong Kong. The houses are now functioning as stores ranging from ice cream, souvenir, hats, sunglasses, and snack stores. Why is this settlement is called "Chew Jetty"? I googled it and found out that "Chew" is the surname of the first residences who stayed in this settlement. Back then, migrant families from China with the same surname (whoa, must have been a big clan) stay together in this area. 

 This was how the jetty harbour looks like back then.  You can see the difference between the nostalgic old Harbour and the modern Penang harbour at the other side of the sea. If you come during the night, the whole place may give a softer ambience because the settlement is lit with yellow lights, if you get what I mean. You can still visit Chew Jetty until 9PM everyday. 

Walk further and you will reach an open area where you can admire the bustling Straits of Malacca. A lot of visitors hanging around here while eating their snacks and ice cream. We did not hang around for too long though because Chew Jetty was pretty much packed with visitors from all ages on Saturday afternoon. 

If you are adventurous enough and feel like spending the night at Chew Jetty, you may want to consider homestay. The descendants of Chew families are operating the homestay.  The details for the homestay is as follows:-

Address of Chew Jetty Home Stay  

59A, Chew Jetty, Weld Quay 

10300 George Town Penang, Malaysia 

E-mail: infor@mychewjetty.com 

Telephone:     

Chew Siew Pheng     +6013-4381217 

Chew Lay Zheng    +6016-4020411 

Chew Yong Seng    +6016-4561884

Located between Lebuh Pantai and Lebuh Victoria (note: lebuh means street), China House is probably one of the longest cafe in Penang (if not the longest already) as you can practically enter the cafe from one street to another. It is functioning as cafe-cum-bar-cum-art gallery-cum-library and it has three storeys oh my gawd. And yet, despite its huge space, we still needed to wait for empty seats as the cafe is fully packed around 5PM on Saturday afternoon. 

While waiting for our names to be called, I used the time efficiently to check out what China House is actually selling. This place is cake heaven my goodness. There are so many types of sliced cakes offered from variety of chocolate cakes to cheese cake to citrusy cakes. 

If the cake selection does not overwhelm you by now, the next shelf show variety of other patisseries like doughnuts, pies, cupcakes, muffin, etc. I feel like trying them all but then again that may not be the best idea. Uh oh, but the glazed cinnamon looks like it's calling my name to eat it... #delusional

The weather was still crazy hot even though it's gonna be sunset in the next two hours, so we should really rehydrate ourselves once we were nicely seated. The drinks menu from China House also have a long list of all kind of beverages from juices, coffee, teas, milkshakes and ciders. 

My travel buddy and I took turn in ordering and here are the things that we ordered at China House: a glass of cider, a slice of lemon cake, a slice of chocolate meringue cake, and a glass of Rainbow juice (pineapple, mango and strawberry). 

When my travel buddy came back with a plate of lemon cake on her hand, both of us were looking at each other in amazement. It's not because we have never seen lemon cake before, it's just the size of the cake is so huge. Like so HUGE with the same price that we usually pay for a slice of cake in Singapore. Suddenly, none of us feel like buying any cake in Singapore anymore because we feel kinda cheated. LOL. (Actually until today, I have not bought any cake in Singapore but not because of I'm being petty, more because I'm fat. :P).

I came back with another kind of cake, a classic chocolate cake but the texture of this cake is slightly odd. The cake looks like it can crumble at any time because there's a mixture of meringue in the cake. I usually do not eat meringue on its own because it looks so damn sweet but turns out it gives a nice addition to a classic chocolate cake. Thankfully, the size of this chocolate meringue cake is not as big as the lemon cake earlier.