Penang Raya Jamming Trip


Intended to write about the BWF Championship thingy, but considering I’m not a famed commentator and practically no one gives a damn about what I write, so, passed! Anyway, I’m kinda glad that China no longer dominates all the categories hehe… and, yeah, LCW is still not LD’s league…

Let’s get back to the main agenda. It was initially a trip planned between Hon and his sister, it just so happened that we ‘met’ along the way, so he asked me along. Literally, this trip was all about eat, hugs and kisses, sleep, eat, hugs and kisses, sleep, eat, hugs and kisses, sleep, eat, hugs and kisses, sleep…


Accommodation:

The sister and family stayed at Sunway Hotel, and because back then he was single and didn’t want to spend so much on accommodation, he booked a room at Pedal Inn.

Pedal Inn (I pronounced it as ‘Per-Dial’ Inn, Malay way of saying LOL) is located at Macalister Lane, the first junction at the right of Jalan Macalister from Komtar. The concept of the inn is backpacker guesthouse style and it is run by Steven and Newton. Pedal as the inn’s name is no coincident at all. It is for tourists, backpackers and BIKEpackers!

We were greeted by Steven when we arrived at the door step, and had the expression I’d already expected he would give as in their emails Hon stated 1 pax yada yada... We were asked to fill in personal details and Steven showed us our room while bringing the extra blanket. All the rooms are on the second floor, 3 dorm style rooms and a private suite. As the upstairs is strictly bare-foot zone, we were given locker next to the stairs to keep our shoes. We had a simple tour around the dorm rooms and Steven told us the hard work planning and making the wooden double deck beds as they are elevated for the convenience of the occupants. 

Since the inn is still new (Official opening on Nov 2012), the room is spotless and comfy! The TV in the private suite is synced to the decoder from downstairs, so we watched what they are watching. The pillows are a bit flat though so we stacked two pillows and share them.

The washrooms are located on the ground floor with water heater. I find taking my sandals in and out of the locker pretty troublesome, and my Nike Air Deschutz sandals aren't really water-friendly, so most of the time I'd use Hon's slipper or just went tiptoe-ing. Another problem is, I would prefer to wrap myself in towel for a bath, but having the room on upstairs and washrooms at downstairs (plus the stairs are pretty steep so towel-wrapping thing is totally no-no), I had to bring everything up and down. I thought I am a casual traveler, but come to think about it, I would prefer an attached bathroom in my room thank you very much :p

Although the lobby lounge and café is not as spacious, it serves well as a get-together place. Hon is a better chattybox traveler than I am, so he had his good times at the lounge chatting with Steven, Newton and some of the inn’s guests. I had my good time too, when we watched the BWF championships with few of the uncles from next door, Steven’s and Newton’s friends. Although there is a TV in our room, but, it was really fun watching games with enthusiasts! During the semi final matches at around 11pm, Newton turned the volume down so that it didn’t disturb the other guests upstairs, but I immediately voiced out “I don’t think the TV is making any noises, WE ARE!”

The strategic location of the inn makes me very happy. We walked hand in hand to the New Lane, Penang Road, Heritage Zone, KOMTAR, Times Square (very boring wor!), and took a bus to Queensbay Mall from KOMTAR for food!!! (…which will be covered at the following subtopics.)

Pedal Inn
93 Macalister Lane, Georgetown, 10400 Penang.
+604-226 1626 (O); +6012-425 3186 (Steven); +6016-400 7779 (New Ton)


FOOD:

As a self-claimed-‘qualified’ 吃货 ‘the eater’, food food and FOOD can never miss its spot in this blog. However, you can never trust my mouth and taste bud, because, for me, everything is nice!! The comments on the food would be 'not bad ar', 'quite nice ar', 'ok ar' blah blah -- BORING!

The tourist traps in food category like New Lane, Penang Road etc are well-known enough, so I’m gonna talk about places less spoken about. 

First, I must talk about Steven’s ‘Egg Nest’! On our first morning in Penang, we woke up to see Steven was busy in the kitchen area and the display of toast like thingy on the tray on top of the table.
Unlike the usual egg-in-a-nest/hole, the toast is thicker, the egg is ‘fuller’ and it looked very unique. We shared one. I wouldn’t go on with 入口即化BS about the taste, let me just say, it’s yummeh! We had only one to save some tummy space for more food.

Egg Nest by Steven, Pedal Inn
Steven recommended us a coffee shop at the Macalister Lane, ‘Kedai Kopi Seow Fong Lye’, where it has few stalls with great food! On the first morning, we tried the chee cheong fun, har mee and fried keow kak. There was (is always) a long queue at the chee cheong fun stall who seems to be run by a brother-sister pair, so we had to wait. Luckily the sister is very good in taking and remembering whose order is when. I am not a big fan of local chee cheong fun but Hon does, so he had the bigger share of the dish. Lucky him hehe! The har mee is chopstick licking good!



Chee cheong fun
Har mee
I had beef noodle soup at New Lane that night and it was superb! 

We went to the kopitiam next door the next morning, where Steven highly recommended the duck meat kuey teow soup. The stall is run by a hunchback uncle preparing the duck meat, very significant and easy to spot. I have to admit I can’t taste the difference of duck meat, but it is very very nice! Steven came later as he had the craving too after telling us about it haha!


Duck meat kuey teow soup
His sister went back on Saturday, Hon stayed back for some couple-y moment. He brought me to the other lanes for dinner. We had a very nice koay chiap in Kimberley Street, took a stroll to the happening Lebuh Chulia only to realize we were still full for heavy food, so we had Apom and Umbra juice, and on our way back I bought corn on Penang road. No pictures taken as we indulged ourselves with the mouth-watering food.

When we arrived at the inn, the uncles were watching the BWF semi final matches so I stuck around, nearly choked on the corn due to the intense games! LOL...

As Theresa had to go back to Perlis early, we walked to 1st Avenue Mall at 10am and had an early dessert - Baskin-Robbins!

Oh yeah, if you like pineapple tart and want to get a nice one in Penang, Gartien in Macalister Lane would be a great idea. We saw the advert on the map and Hon wanted to get one, just to realize that the shop is actually Pedal Inn's neighbor! LOLz so convenient :)  In my humble opinion, the tart is oh-so-yummeh! The pastry is not thick and buttery, and it melts in the mouth (and get a little nasty as it shattered while I tore it apart), and the pineapple is delicious! A box of ten pieces is selling at RM38. The box and packing is nice and suitable for souvenir.
In my case, I would buy one box and swallow all ten pieces by myself muahahaha!

FYI, this was the first trip after Hon and I are together, and we're not even one month into our relationship! Anyway, the compatibility with each other intensifies our love so much, it made me cry literally! It's still a long way to go, but, until now, I'm happy ^^
OK lah I shall stop now to spare you goosebumps attack...

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