Penang August 4Days 3Nights
Itinerary
Day 1
Singapore - Penang
Wong Durian House , shopping
Sunset at Ferringhi Beach, Freddy Beach Bar
Dinner - Auntie Gaik Lean Restaurant
Day 2
Pasar Chowrasta Market,
ChengWoh Medical Hall, Campbell Vision
Lunch: Moh Teng Khoew Kuay
Street Art - Kids on Bicycle, Clans Jetty
Shopping, New Lane Food Street, durian
Day 3
Chendol, Penang Bridge, Sungai Udang
Lunch Fishing village
Design Village Mall
Dinner : Chao Xuan Teochew Restaurant
Day 4
Hotel breakfast, afternoon flight
YC, STLT, WS, HP, C, HL, PL (rjc classmates 😙)
Lodging : Jen Hotel ,~S$395, inclusive of breakfast
Transport : Three day private van hire
To do list: Eat, cross the Penang Bridge, buy mosquito patch and local snacks
To keep in mind: no/low expectation, responsive/grateful to collective organisers' 吃力不讨好 tasks/suggestions.
Day 1
A morning flight to Penang, and with the driver AR waiting at the airport, we headed directly to Wong's Durian Farm 😋.
We got a table in the aircon section 😌. LT ordered one durian each of the available varieties (Since it was already afternoon, some were already sold out). Each was served with a label indicating the type (hor lor 胡芦, 163 butter etc); and tissue and disposable gloves were also provided. The durians were of good quality - creamy and bitter sweet. (~S$105)
[Gone were the days of standing by the makeshift durian stalls with flies swarming the discarded durian husk baskets?... perhaps either the durian stalls or we have upgraded our standards? 😬]
First Avenue Mall is beside the hotel, and we started shopping, and had a much-needed coffee and a peanut butter crusty toast at Old Town White Coffee before setting off for the beach.
Ferringhi Beach
The traffic was bad with heavy after-office peak hour congestion. We managed to arrive at the beach bar before the sunset. HP's friends had already gotten a table fronting the beach with unblocked views of the sea and the sunset. The beach bar was crowded with tourists and locals alike. (RM184)
On HP's friend's suggestion, we had made a reservation at Auntie Gaik Lean's Restaurant. [Indeed wise advice, as there was still a long queue when we arrived at 8pm]
Several dishes were served to the table before I realised that we had placed the order [Definitely superb speed - hmmm... so fast - tasty or not?] . The food was flavourful and delicious. Exclaiming, moaning and whispering that we were stuffed, we ordered three types of desserts to round off the the meal [Food trip - alway wear loose, elastic waist band attire 😜] (RM801)
Day 2
It was an overcast and drizzly morning when we started our day at Pasar Chowrasta, walking through the alleys and side roads.
Stopping by a small hawker area with a few push-cart stalls, we had drinks, savoury charkuayteow, hokkien mee and carrot cake(RM6). We added another order of salted duck egg charkuayteow(RM22) ( we suspected our order was without salted duck egg 😛) and lor mee (the stall owners were friendly to provide more chopsticks 😊) [Was it excuses to order more food? no lah - no leftover. Small regret - If only I had ordered the chee cheong fun when we walked by. They sold the last one after we sat down at our table 😑]. (others RM35)
Next stop was ChengWoh medical store that stocks an excellent selection of food ingredients and packaged herbs and titbits. (WS has a shopping list) [Of course, even without a shopping list, I also bought several packs. HP also didn't have a shopping list (?), and even got a FOC carrier bag for her purchases, and I placed some of my purchases in her carrier too - thanks 😌] After which, I enjoyed an aircon break in the optical shop (Campbell Vision - across from ChengWoh) while HP shopped for glasses.
Moh Teng Pheow Nyonya Koay - lunch
Since most proclaimed that they were still too full, we ordered a few types of kueh (to try only) and penang laksa [it is STLT's must try, and I would like too if ordered 😊].
The kueh were cut into small pieces (to try only), and they were soft, delectable and vanished rather swiftly 😯. We then placed the second order for more (not all) items on the menu. After settling the bill (=> no more order), AR came by the table, and placed a plate of kuehs that we did not order, and said that those were the 'Must Try' ones from the shop. [Well then, really need to try lor 😋 - thanks]
(RM139 - 4KuehLapis, 2PuluTatai, 4Karipop, 4PopiahChee, 4RempahUdang, 2NonyaChang, 1 KuehKosui, 2 LohBak, 1 NasiUlam, 1 laksa, 1 JiuHuChar, 1Roti Jala, and 7 drinks)
Afternoon
The famous mural of two children on a bicycle at Armenian Street was our next destination (for repeat tourist STLT to take more photos and first timer HL to be a tourist). Then, we visited the Clan's jetty, Ang Seng Heong and Ghee Hiang stores, and Gurney Paragon Mall.
Dinner - New Lane food street
Before we arrived at New Lane food street, durian was included as part of dinner when we passed by a durian shop. Since we already had durian yesterday, my priority was to have the local food first and insisted [sudden thought in mind - If we had durian first, there's an extremely high chance we would skip the street food 😏].
There are many stalls lined along the streets and adjacent road 😃 but we only had 😐 chee cheong fun [hmmm.. interesting - it is with prawn-paste sauce, not the brown sweet sauce), (not the famous) char kuay teow (the famous charcoal-fried stall had about 30 people in the queue and the durian stall closing time is 8:30pm 😕) , popiah spring roll, fried oyster, ngoh hiang and dessert [Did a durian lover say that we would have drinks and then to proceed to the durian stall?! .... my hearing was bad and getting worse 😳] .
Durian
We ordered one of five types of durian: king of king 皇中皇, tupia king 松鼠王 (season ended in July?) , black thorn 黑刺, old tree musang king 猫山王 and red prawn 红虾. All were great except tupia. We requested for a change but the staff said that there were no good tupia durian left 😏. We had no choice and instead got another large 'king of king' durian in exchange. (S$131)
Kudos to the durian lovers, every piece was consumed.
Day 3
We had breakfast at the hotel before heading to Penang Road Famous Chendol stall for chendol (4 - RM22). (There is even a mural of a boy savouring the chendol which was drawn by Canadian street artist Emmanuel Jarus). I ordered the chee cheong fun again to ascertain that Penang's version uses prawn paste sauce (Yes, it does).
Crossing the bridge
We crossed the Penang Bridge to go to Sungai Udang for seafood lunch.
Sungai Udang
The Malay translation for Sungai Udang is 'Prawn River' and it is a small fishing village about one hour from Penang Island. After the boats unloaded their catches ( of mainly prawns, flower crabs and fishes), they were grouped into clusters on the floor with a price tag. We (three of us with sturdier footwear) walked amongst the catches to select the prawns and crabs (must be big but not too many of them). As we pointed to the clusters of seafood, the owner (eyeing us from wherever) would approach with the pricing. We bought a huge fish (the owner claimed that it's from the sea and not river fish) after the owner offered it at RM$40. Before we left the marketplace, we also bought 1.5kg of clams.
The restaurant on the second floor (recommended by HP's friend) cooked the seafood for a fee, which they either steamed or stir-fried. We also ordered noodles and vegetable. I was totally stuffed and bursting by the end of the meal. (Seafood RM274, restaurant RM151)
After lunch, we went shopping at the Design Outlet Mall before going back to Penang Island.
Chao Xuan Restaurant
We ordered the traditional kuih, braised mix-platters, salted fish, toast and coffee. Both the steam and fried traditional Kuih were delicious and mouth-watering, the braised meat (pork and duck) were tender and savoury, the salted fish was crispy with just-right-saltiness for eating it by itself, and the toast and coffee were robust and rich too.
[Against friendly reminder that salted fish is extremely unhealthy, LT and I placed another order for ourselves 😗]
The kuihs were one of the best that I had eaten [I was probably too busy eating 😲 that I forgot to take photos except for the lonely one piece of salted fish photo at the end of the meal 😐... and the lone salted fish was divided and eaten by the two of us before we left the table 😜]
[Courtesy of YC - photos👇 of the yummy food 😌😋😊]
AR sent us back to the hotel before ending his trip with us . We then walked the shopping malls before heading back to the hotel. ([HL, HP, WS walked to New Land street food again to buy/eat the famous charcoal fried char kuay teow. Much later into the evening, I saw the text to try the noodle in their room - Thanks but so late in the night already - too lazy, maybe no more left as well).
Shopping
Unexpectedly plentiful:
- First Avenue/Paragon Mall: Watson panadol and cute mosquito repellent patches [Already reasonably priced, CY whipped out his Watson card for further discount 😊] , Caring - more panadol and mini tiger balm
- Ang Seng Heong Penang peanut candies Chee Heang tau sar piah
- ChengWoh medical stall - food stuff
- Design Village Mall - pickle ball shoe (RM139), t-shirts (RM83, RM49), ice bubble tea RM12.50 [yum... especially with the hot weather]
Day 4
Had a relaxing morning breakfast, then checked out of the hotel before heading to the airport.
Although we meet and walk regularly on Saturday morning, I have not joined them for an overseas trip before. Thus, I am thankful that the trip was enjoyable [and I learned more about k2, tofe, python, 观夏 , me (the literal one) 😊]. Thank You 😍
?.... unlikely cause of tummy upset - seafood on wet floor, but cooked not raw ?
Learning point (after telling Jen the foodie about the trip) : to bring own utensils (especially when ordering only 1 dish to try amongst 7-8 people)
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Other walk and eat :
Walks 2019 - 2021
2021 - still walking, not bad...
2020 - we are walking , whatelse can we do?
2019 - the start of our walk