Weekend Plan // Penang

I went to Penang on the 3rd of April, I know...it was eons ago. But I just can't find any extra time to blog and edit the pictures! I have been really busy at work T_T

But it's a good thing though, having lots of things to do at work is better than rotting in the office until I had to come to the point of joining forums like fashion and even ghosts! Eeeekk!!!!

The initial plan was to celebrate my sister's birthday. I purposely bought 2 executive coach bus ticket for me and Alvin to endure the 4.5 hours ride from KL to Penang. But my sister and her clan decided to go back Ipoh to visit my grandma in the last minute because she fell down and broke the bone underneath her pelvis bone.

My grandma is a very strong person, she never complain and never whine. But according to my aunt that night, my grandma couldn't move at all after falling down and was complaining excruciating pain. Ambulance was called to take her to the hospital and after some scanning and checking, it was confirmed that her bone was broken into 2 parts and need to undergo surgery. I was heartbroken and dead worry. I was torn apart by 2 options: either I cancel the trip (that include hotel and bus tickets) and go back Ipoh to see my grandma...or carry on with the trip.

I didn't want to be labeled as the bad daughter for neglecting the family, yet I didn't want to disappoint Alvin because I know he had been looking forward to this trip.

At last after some discussion with my mom and sister, I decided to carry on since the money have been paid for the bus and hotel. My sister was there to take care of the house while my mom took care of my grandma in the hospital, so my mom asked me to continue to Penang. I kept myself updated about my grandma's condition and promised my mom that I would be back the following week.

It was heart wrenching to see the grandma that used to take care of me while I was a child have became so old and still need to endure such pain at this old age. She could hardly move on the first two weeks. But now coming to the third week, she finally have the strength to move and stand, though she still can't walk yet. But I'm sure that she will manage to walk again in no time =)

Back to the happier side of the post. Here are some pictures I took during the trip.

We decided on a budget trip so everything had to be withing the budget. Therefore we stayed in a budget hotel at the famous Gurney. At first my mind was clustered with many "what if's" since it's a budget hotel.

What if the place is for people to do "bed activities"?
What if the bathroom is the breeding ground for cockroaches?!
What if the bedsheets still have the previous tenant's DNA leftovers?
And the what if goes on....

But to my surprise, the room was very spacious, neat and clean! Not to the standard of any high class hotel but it still meets the standard of an average 3 stars hotel! And the best part was the hotel is situated right in the middle of Gurney and just only a minute walk from the beach =)

Carrying the name of "Good Hope Inn" (I know...it sounds lame) But I think the owner must have wanted the people to come to their hotel with hopes and leave with a good impression=GOOD HOPE *ding!*

Oh! Superior Deluxe Room is just RM90! What a steal!

Pictures courtesy of Good Hope Inn official website.

As the tide went low, the beach looked very muddy and dirty with rubbish everywhere. But I was shocked to see storks searching for food! Food in the Penang ocean?! There were probably baby diapers, oil and even char kuey teow in the water! Eewwww!!!!!

It was raining the whole day. We got to stroll along the Gurney Drive for an hour plus for pictures and food, but it started to pour like the end of the world after that. We had to stop twice because of the heavy rain, first in the luxurious G Hotel and next in the mamak stall (which nearly got blown away by the strong wind!

The following day we took taxi to Kek Lok Si temple (budget trip konon, took taxi some more =_=) and the place was rather different from the very last time I went there, which was 5 years ago. I think we walked every inches and corners of the temple, under the hot sun! It poured like dog shit on the day before and hot like bowling oil on the following day, the earth is getting crazier! End of the world is drawing near!

In the inclined lift going up to the newly built Guan Yin statue.
I thought temple should be holy, as in people should walk all the way up. But temples are catching up with the technology, now they have INCLINED LIFT!

HEIGHT!!!! *faints*

The gigantic Guan Yin statue, the place was closed forbidding admittance, cis! Kek Lok Si must be receiving lots of money and donations, they are building lots of new stuff! And I'm not talking about small ponds or buy new tortoises, but huge ass statues and big ass roofs!

In front of the Guan Yin statue was a tent selling roof tiles for donation. Every RM30 you will get to doodle anything you like on a piece of roof tile that will soon be installed on another new temple. But on the way up in the inclined lift, I saw pieces of roof tiles stacked up somewhere in the corner of the temple with faded writings and doodlings on it. So don't expect to have your masterpiece on the roof after the new temple is done thanks to the rain and sun that washes off all the ink. But I guess people giving out money is just for the sake of donating to the temple and not solely because they want the roof to have their writings on it.

And speaking about donation, there were lots of bowls with labels on them, stating "luck", "wealth", "health", etc. So I put a cent in each of the bowl hoping to have all the charms in my pocket! =)

And so it did! Halfway walking around the temple, I picked up RM20 on the floor! WAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Make more donations and you will get back your repay!!! (Such pure evil intention, not sincere in making donations at all!)

Make a wish and ring the bell =)

We intended to conquer the pagoda. It was said that we need to round the pagoda clockwise level by level in attempt to have good luck. And so we did...but look what happened.

Hahahaha!!! Alvin stopped halfway and gave up!

I love taking panaroma pictures lately! It's so beautiful to see things in a wider angle =)

And there goes another weekend plan. I ♥ road trips. It happened that Alvin and I like to take pictures and love to spend quality time together. And by quality time I mean just the 2 of us without intruders. So both of us plan for road trip or outing at least once a month. So far, we have been to:

01) Bukit Tinggi
02) Tanjung Sepat
03) Bali (does it considered as road trip?)
04) Cameron Highlands
05) Taiwan (kinda too far to be considered as road trip right?)
06) Genting Highlands
07) Malacca
08) Cherating
09) Batu Caves
10) i-City
11) Ipoh (my hometown, we go once a month)
12) Penang

Where is the next stop? =)