Anne

Our roadtrip from last Sunday morning. After we dropped Piper and Dom off to the boarding house, we went on our way to Penang. Penang and Malacca are both my favourite towns in Malaysia. I can never be bored of both places. There's always so much to see, so much to eat and so much to be photographed in both places. If you are a first-time tourist to Malaysia, don't forget to visit both towns. They still have the old town charm. Both towns whispers stories to you when you weave in and out through the alleys. There's always something to discover there.

St Anne at Bukit Mertajam

Before we get to Penang, we stopped over to see Anne. Anne as in St Anne's Church in Bukit Mertajam. The St. Anne's Annual Novena & Feast Day Celebration starts on the 23 July - 1 August 2010. We are usually a week earlier.

The old church which is now the chapel

Shrine at the top of the hill

We have been coming to St Anne even when my mom was around. It was always happier when she was with us. But as the years wear on, the final years of her life, she was not able to go up the hill to pray at the shrine anymore. It is quite a steep hill. She sits at the foot of the hill and wait for us to come down. I am sure my mom was with us last Sunday.

This is where my mom used to sit while waiting for us to come down from the hill.
This lady is waiting for her kids to come down from the hill too.

Both my sister and i will usually come home from Kuala Lumpur, do a pitstop in Ipoh to pick my parents and Boy to go straight to St Anne. I am usually quite clueless with strange roads. I get lost all the time. My sister however is very smart with roads. We depend on her to get us there each year. Strangely each year we seem to take a different route to St Anne. The roads keep changing. But if you head for the hill, you will always reach the St Anne's Church. There's only one hill in Bukit Mertajam.

St Anne has granted many prayers. Especially for couples that pray for children. On one of our visits there, i saw a couple holding a very small baby and running up the stairs to the chapel. Both grinning and very happy. Their prayers were answered. Its is a very holy and peaceful place.

New church of St Anne. Minangkabau roof and lots of natural light flowing in. 

If you want to visit St Anne's one day, here's the link to their official site. http://stannebm.org
It is a very beautiful sanctuary for prayers.

And off we went to Penang after visiting Anne :) Tomorrow hopefully.. to be continued.

Each year i take photographs of this same place. Here are some of our old pictures of St Anne. Boy is home. Goodnight people. Have a great weekend ahead.

Baywatch Miami

Baywatch Miami in Malaysia :)

In Penang, we have Miami Beach too. I am not sure how Miami Beach landed in Malaysia but we sure didn't find Pamela Anderson in her tiny red swimming suit manning this tower below.

Its a very nice bay... and quite popular with picnickers. I remember swimming here when i was a kid. I come to Penang quite often with my parents and siblings long time ago. We ate laksa after a swim too. Laksa is always extra doubly delicious after u swim. They have the hawkers beside the road. But we saw less hawkers this time.

Ahh... i love the beach. It calls to me and it brings back many happy memories.

I am wondering why the signboard points Batu Feringgi skywards... hehehehehehee

Isn't it beeeeeeeeeeeyoootiful? and serene? Still no lifeguards or lifeguard babes in tiny red swimming suits. *LOL*

Corn... steamed or barbequed... is delicious at the beach :)

An Encounter At Fort Cornwallis

Fort Cornwallis is an old star-shaped fort located on the northeastern coast of Penang, Malaysia. It is named after the late 18th century Governor-General of Bengal, India, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis. Fort Cornwallis is the largest standing fort in Malaysia. (info from Wikipedia)

Entrance to Fort Cornwallis... ooo.. eerie looking too

Or so we thought.. hahahhahaa.. the entrance was on the other side... We were both melting and poofed after walking quite a distance to find that we are at the wrong entrance *LOL*

But this gateway was pretty cool looking :)

We decided its too hot at 3pm to walk to the other entrance.. :p so we left it and return to the car which was quite a distance when its super hot and hazey... hehhehehehe In our heads, we were screaming for cold super cold coconut water :D

This looks like a cell. When a tourist suddenly came into the window on the other side, both of us kinda got spooked. *LOL*

Ahh... and this was my special encounter at Fort Cornwallis :) Nice lil doggie basking in the sun on a bed of grass... he/she looked contented. The great guardian of Fort Cornwallis.

Once Upon A Yum Yumeee

Penang is basically a foodie haven. You see food here food there.. and food is delicious everywhere. Food is also quite affordable and you get quite a good deal.

My memories of Penang has always been laksa, beach, rojak buah, beach, nasi kandar, beach, sotong goreng, beach, fried kuey teow, beach, popiah, beach, coconut, beach *LOL* The beach is a big draw.

Let us share with you what we've achieved on this trip.

We stopped by the pier to buy some coconut juice and i chatted up a local and asked her about nasi kandar. She mentioned Pelita at Market Street. But with our navigating skills, we both ended up here.

Kassim Mustafa for nasi kandar. Nasi Kandar was very delicious here. We were famished. When i looked at the rows of dishes.. i wanted to take everything. The glutton that is me. But i settled for fried chicken and crabs. Yummieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Sorry. Forgot to take pics of the food as my fingers dug into the plate of rice and both of us never stopped eating till we burped. I can still recall the scent from my fingers of the nasi kandar... bliss. I was smelling my fingers all the way back to the hotel :D

We had the yumyums below for dinner at the food court in Tanjong Bungah. Its not a hoity toity place and the food was great. Even the drinks and juices were nice.

This is prawn mee or "mee udang" as the locals call it. The sauce is berry berry delicious. Stormy tells me that there's a stall in Sungai Dua in Butterworth. Its famous for mee udang. And the prawns are very fresh.

This was delicious too. And the prawns are cooked just right. Not overcooked and hard.

This is fried mee udang. Just as delicious... Aiyaa.. now my tummy is growling like a bear.

Satay. We took this a bit too late. Already finished half of it.. hehehhehee

Sotong Kangkong with rojak sauce.

Rojak with lotta fruits and a thick thick sauce...

dejavuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.. hehhehehehehe

here we go again... hahhahahahahaha

If Stormy didn't take pictures of the food, i won't have any pictures of food to show you. *LOL* I am such a glutton. The minute i see food, i dug in.

And we had fried kuey teow too. Delicious too and three :)

In the morning i ran across the road to buy nasi lemak from the stall in front of Holiday Inn. The stalls sells a very delicious prepacked nasi lemak for RM1.20 a pack. It has a big prawn inside the pack of nasi lemak. Only in Penang will you get a big mother of a prawn in a RM1.20 pack of nasi lemak. And some fresh fried hot chicken :) We just couldn't stop eating.. hahaha

I hope i have maybe minutely tantalize you with all this food to go to Penang :) I am sure one of my sisters will kick me soon for posting all this food pictures and make her salivate and miss Malaysian food more. Its my diabolical plan to pester her home soon with my godson.

This trip is a bit short because i didn't find the Blue House yet. Let's go again Stormy :) Soon ya!

Holiday Inn and GPS

When we go for holidays, we always do our hotel bookings online in advance. Usually we get better deals if we book online. But this trip was kind of unplanned. Sometimes when we plan too much, Murphy's Law will step in. *LOL*

We wanted to stay at Lone Pine but it was under refurbishment till 2010. And so we thought... its Thursday... there's so many hotels in Penang... we should be able to get rooms easily. With the stopover in Kuala Kangsar to eat and click click click of pictures... we rolled into Penang when it was almost dusk. Both of us are clueless of Penang roads but the road signs were not all that bad.

Stormy decided to test out the GPS on his blackberry to find Tanjong Bungah.. hehehhehehe.. After a long while, we got an image on the GPS that says... "You Are Here" with a dot... and the rest of the screen was white. We were both laughing like idiots... and kept asking the blackberry.. so where are we?? But it never answered us.

We took a wrong turn and ended up in town. While catching some sights, we ended up at Komtar and said hi to Lim Guan Eng. We even thought about calling Lim Guan Eng and ask him how to reach Tanjong Bungah.. *LOL* Not that we know Lim Guan Eng personally.

The GPS was still a white screen... and with the "You Are Here".. hehhehehehee

We finally found the road to Batu Feringgi and was going uphill and i suddenly recalled some places i've been to before when i was a kid. We used to go to Penang quite often for holidays when i was little. We always go for the laksa. It is delicious.

While on Batu Feringgi the GPS suddenly picked up the map and now we are in business. I was driving while Stormy was navigating.. hehehhee.. with the clueless GPS. We were kind of looking for hotels in the dark... and suddenly Stormy said.. Holiday Inn.. let's stay at Holiday Inn. The GPS states that we've already passed Holiday Inn... and the road is quite windy and going uphill to turn around. So we said.. nevermind... we'll find another hotel. Then he said.. hey.. we passed Holiday Inn again. And we were both stumped. hehehhehe

We moved on... and reached a row of hotels. We tried Shangri-La but it was wayyyyyyy over our budget.. hahhahahahaa... we quietly came out. Then we passed The Ship and Eden... and then i saw Park Royal's signboard. So we stopped and asked. We finally booked a room for a night. We thought maybe we'll find another hotel tomorrow. The room faces the road but it was okay. The beachfront rooms were all pre-booked (always book you rooms online). And so we went into the room... and open the curtains to check out the sights. Guess what greeted us.

Holiday Inn blinking and grinning at us from across the road... *LOL* Both of us were wondering how many Holiday Inn's are there in Penang. We had a good laugh over the blinking Holiday Inn from across the road. It was like mocking us. Dang!

We decided to run across and check if they have any rooms available for the next night. And so.. after dinner... we walked across to Holiday Inn and asked at the reception. The girl said they are fully booked for tomorrow and so we said thank you and left. When we were walking out, i was telling Stormy... how come the girl is wearing the same uniform as the hotel we were staying in.

When we walked out and looked at the hotel we were staying at... we have Holiday Inn blinking and mocking us again. We felt like total idiots.. hahhahahahaha.. we didn't even know we were staying at Holiday Inn. All along i thought that we drove into Park Royal. Park Royal is beside Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn have 2 wings. One is on the other side of the road and is connected by an overhead bridge. *phew*

What a day. But it was hilariously funny. Guess we were destined to stay at Holiday Inn. So we booked another night... but the reception told us that they MIGHT be fully booked tomorrow and asked us to check again tomorrow.. *LOL*

We did get another night at Holiday Inn the next day (they even send us a big platter of fruits)... but we had to move to another room... which was nicer.. and we have another extra 2 kiddies bed... with a playstation too. Too bad the kids were not with us.

Moral of the story is... Always book in advance... and find out where the hotel is. Secondly, don't trust GPS.. *LOL* But all said and done, it was fun and funny and no one got angry. That is the thing with Stormy. Stormy hardly gets mad in situations like this. He just laughs it all off. These are my very precious memories with Stormy. Just in case i lose my memory one day, i can still find it all here.