Me being me, I got up at 4am and wandered the streets. As we were staying in the more 'resort/holiday/tourist' part of town, there wasn't anything much to see. Sitting on the waterfront to welcome in the sunrise was nice, but getting feasted on by mosquitos was not. Grabbed a pre-breakfast breakfast at the prata place close-by (2nd best cup of coffee I've had in my life. 1st being in Vietnam). When dawn broke, we met up with Martin and family and headed down to Fort Cornwallis (btw, breakfast was in the same prata place as everyone wanted to try the coffee. Needless to say, many a cup of coffee was had at that particular prata place.)
Read the wikilink for history and information on Fort Cornwallis. The most interesting thing about the place was the Sri Rambai cannon that supposedly possesses magical powers of inducing fertility in barren women. Well, we didn't try it. We know the Bazylewiches are plenty fertile and I wasn't gonna let the BH try it.
From the Fort, it was on to 'Sams', the listed locale for Batik purchasing in the guide book. Being tourists, we decided to play it safe, follow the tourist maps and find our way towards 'Sams'. Little did we know what we had in store for us. We must have walked 5-6km, in the searing heat, with 2 kids and 2 strollers from the Fort to Sams. Indeed, it was the aptly coined 'Batik Death March'. We did manage to break for some charsiew rice (we had to stop, the place was crowded and busy, and it looked wonderfully good... As in Singapore, long queue means...'must be good').
When we finally got to Sams, we found that though they had plenty of designs, they didn't have Marty's size. So the party trugged on towards Komtah. Scouting the way, I finally found a little shop, located in a little nook with some Batik shirts. Nice designs... check. Good price... check. SIZE???... CHECK! Hooray. Mission completed. Marty had his Batik shirt for the wedding. With that Marty pulled the ole 'The kids are tired' trick, and grabbed the first taxi home. Rickey followed in the next cab, but BH and I elected to continue exploring.
Of course, if the fellows had joined us, they would have managed to snack on the 'famous' Penang Street Teochew Chendol. We found it on the next lane. Cold, sweet dessert. Precious reward for the weary, heat-stricken traveller. After exploring the heritage trail that is Campbell street, we finally made our way to Komtah. Grabbed a bus back to the hotel for a nap before dinner.
We had previously arranged to meet Marv for a stag night at Chillis at 9. So Rickey and I decided to grab some dinner down the street before. We returned to the BBQ chicken place. Poor Rickey and his allergies. He can't eat seafood, and almost 90% of the food in Penang is prawn-based. He finally found his perfect dish at the prata shop (no, they didn't serve Ceasar Salad). It was this massive plate of Naan+Tandoori Chicken...and it only cost 6RM. Totally worth it. No picts though, cos I had planned on getting drunk at the stag party and didn't bring my camera.
Turns out the service in Penang is opposite that of Singapore. Waving the white-hand gets you ignored. Why can't Singaporeans learn from this? We are no longer under the colonial rule of the white man. Why treat them special? Anyway... 2 margeritas and we were done for the night. How sad is that. The strippers didn't show up either.
Sunrise in Penang
Fort Cornwallis
The ammo room.
The famous Sri Rambai cannon. You can see the original colour of the cannon, worn from the thousands of women 'riding' the cannon. The rest of the cannon was green from age. I suggested that they should start a rumour that the tip had more powerful magic. Then it would get polished back to its original gleam.
Yeah, as if anyone pays attention to the sign.
The crest of East India Company.
What were goats doing in the fort? My thoughts, they were reared for food for the soldiers.
Somewhere along the Batik Death March trail, we came across this car. I have to say. Its AWESOME!!!
"Are we there yet?"
The charsiew rice place we stumbled upon. The charsiew and siewbak (roast pork belly) was very good.
My homies
Penang Chendol. I'm not a big fan (I don't eat red bean), but I think I prefer the Melacca version.
Lovely waxed-pork bellies drying in the sun. Salty-Porky goodness
Blast from the past. 15 years ago it was there.
I have no idea what this building is, and I couldn't find it in the guidebooks, but I loved the old building.
Komtah
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