A not-so-boring trip afterall... *56K BEWARE!!!*

Hrm yesterday morning slept at 2am den woke up at 6am for a trip to Alor Setar/Penang. Bugger ah slept for 4 hours only... Journey started at 7am from a mom's friend's house. Had breakfast on the bus la, some nasi lemak... Reached Alor Setar (?) around 2.30pm. In the middle got stop for piss and lunch la, which is why it took 7 hours to get to the first tourist spot.

First stop was the rice factory, or so it was called.

The paddy samples outside the 'factory'.

Yea like all 'visits' to factories, we're brought to a room and shown a video clip on the process of rice making. In the end she did a demo on rice processing using a mini version of the machines used to process rice. After that also got complimentary tasting of unpolished rice (糙米), which is said to be high in fibre and all sorts of vitamin B. I dunno how true is this but it seemed that a lot of them believed it, including my parents who bought 10kgs of it. They had this 'promo' price at the 'factory' ma... And thank god it's vacuum sealed to save space (and keep it fresh?), but it's still heavy nonetheless... Why am I saying that all these factories that we went are 'factories'? Tell you later.

The paddy fields around the factory.

Next stop is Gunung Keriang to see some sort of 'thing'. Tell you later. See the pics.

Hrmm... Nice scenary huh?

The paddy fields...

Ooo... Cloudy...

Does it look anything like a big piece of painting? Click to enlarge the images. Coz ppl say it looked damn real, but I dun really think so loh... The skies look real, but the other stuff... Hrmm... Human limits? Hahaha... They say it's drawn by a few Korean artists and utilises helicopters to get a clear view of wut they were to draw on the ceilings of this centre. The mural is drawn on the inside of a dome, so it's something like a 360 view of the area la. The details in the mural is superb la. But to say it's 'real', maybe I dun have the eye for it...

CCTV at the top of the dome.

The reason why I took a pic of the surveillance cam is coz you have to buy an extra ticket to take pictures in the mural area. Stupid huh? Initially everyone had to pay for the extra ticket one. Den I suggested to my mom that maybe we can pass the ticket around when we wanna take pictures. After listening to my 'advice', the tickets reduced to only one per family. LOL. Mana tau reached the dome there full of ppl. Dun care la I still snap pics even w/o the ticket, juz held to the normal ticket as though it's the one for photographing. The dude there stand there only, also didn't check one... I think he can't do anything about 'unauthorised' photographing there la coz everyone's taking pictures of the mural as well... LOL

Next stop is a crystal factory, or so they called it. Again, it's more of a marketing gimmick la... This time no clip also, straight to the shop one.

Hrmm... Are factory visits only driven by profit? If that's the case, what's the point of even visiting a factory located miles from the nearest suburban area? To watch a clip? I can download it or watch it from the documentary channels on my satelite TV also la... Buy stuff? Dei I can buy it at any supermarket also la...


Gimmicks... And I realised that almost every trip I go will always pay a visit to the 'local product store'. And everytime we go there it'll be full of product testing and running away ASAP. Damn... Sien la...

At night went to Gurney Drive to have dinner. It's a stretch of relocated hawker stalls. I've been to the old Gurney Drive hawker centre too. They say the relocated to this current place coz the old one is too near to the beach area, and they were worried that if the tsunami ever happens again it'll ruin their rice bowl. This new one is located quite a distance from the beach, but the sea is still visible. It's less spacious compared to the old one though. The foodstuff there are repetitive. Laksa, rojak, ABC, laksa, rojak, ABC, occasionally fried oyster, ikan bakar and char kuey tiew. After makan went to the nearby Gurney Plaza to walk around.

The christmas decor outside the mall. Beats IOI anytime.

Around 11 checked into the hotel and sleep la... Not bad la the hotel...

Was a lil bored while waiting for my turn to take a shower. That's the kicks I always wear to nice places. To this penang trip was a whole accident. See at the very morning we were supposed to go to the trip, and while I was looking for the adidas bball shoes I wear to long distance trips, I noticed that it was either lost or I left it somewhere that's not my house. Damn the pair of kicks I bought wit my savings! One of the comfy-est shoes I've ever wore! Now gone! I dun even have a chance to take a pic of it... FCK YOU ASS-NO-HOLE BURGLARS!

Next morning roll call at 7. Aiks...

View from the window at the room.

Breakfast was buffet at the hotel. Hrmm got some scrambled eggs. LOL wanted to see if it's really as good as those as seen on TV. Biasa la... I dun see him taking it off the heat and repeating the steps... Tsk tsk tsk...

First stop was the Khoo Kongsi. It's some place about the surname of Khoo. Not really clear wut's it about in detail though...

On the way to it, some vintage houses.

Tryin to be artistic wit my shots... Ada effect ka?

I saw this type of water hydrant all around the vintage sites in penang. I wonder wut it signifies... (I dedicate this pic to my close friend, classmates should noe who this guy is, no offense yea...)

Outside of the place. Hrmm...

Drawings on the wall. Tour guide said the drawings are all drawn with pencil.

Sculptures around the building.

You can see quite clearly the influences of the english governance. Here you see the sculpture of a sikh guard. Immigrated to Malaya ma... And this is a chinese cultural building. Not bad huh...

Next stop was the Kek Lok Si Temple. I came to this temple 2 years ago in my last penang trip and it was not with a tour. This time it is. The driver parked the bus far away from the actual temple. So we had to go thru this narrow alley of street vendors all the way to the temple.

Reached there, can't find a way to walk up to the 2nd level of the temple, so bought tickets for the cable car.

Look up! Pic of ceiling of the section in front of one of the praying halls.

Sien sien dei den go back to the 1st level den walk up the pagoda. Before and after walking up the pagoda, we knocked the big bell near there. Juz for the fun of it.

Not bad huh?

The view at the 2nd highest floor of the pagoda. Any higher levels are closed for tourists for an obvious reason. Notice how the landscape changes suddenly from the undeveloped at the left to the highly populated area at the right?

After that had lunch in a rush coz late liao. On way back to KL stopped at a local product store. This particular product got my attention:

You should be able to understand wut's wrong wit the label if you can read chinese.

That raps up my overnight update on my not-so-boring trip to penang/alor setar. Well mom's friends brought their children along ma, which happens to include my friends and a few other girls. Hah some eye candy to savour at when i'm bored...

Oh yea I bought 2 DVDs at Gurney Drive. Haiz... DVD vendors that we'll miss forever here in central bolehland...

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