A weekend in Penang

Even though I have been living in KL for the last three and a half years, my heart lies on the island of Penang - my home state. I always look forward to my infrequent weekends back home, chilling on the island. Penang offers many things that KL cannot, such as smoother traffic, less smog, the familiarity of home and of course – the food!! Oh man, the food! KL food sucks compared to what is on offer in Penang. I don’t care if people say it’s not as good as it was, it’s still bloody good to me! I have yet to taste a char kuey teow in KL that comes close to the kuey teow I’ve had in Penang. Ok I'll stop here. I get very emotional about food, you see.

So it was that after my final year project presentation last Thursday I decided to take a weekend sojourn back home to de-stress before hitting the books for the upcoming exams. I had a ticket for the 11.30 Konsortium bus to Butterworth. My house is actually on the mainland, yes.


I left KL on a morning with clear blue skies. “Ah”, I thought to myself, “God wants me to have fun this weekend”. A perfect start to what I hoped would be a perfect weekend.

The bus ride was smooth. I was lucky as the bus traveling back was a new one, which made it quiet and comfortable. About 45 minutes from my destination, around Bukit Merah, I was half asleep dozing to the sound of Sean Paul promoting the benefits of some chick called Mary J (Sean Paul – We Be Burnin’). Suddenly….

“BOOM!!! KEDEBONG KEDEBONG KEDEBONG KEDEBONG KEDEBONG…….”

There was a loud exploding sound followed by what appeared to be a train under the bus. All the passengers were shocked out of their slumber. A lady passenger even flew out of her seat and almost landed on the floor, although it was only noise and there was no impact whatsoever.

My perfect weekend had started well enough, but God decided to throw a spanner in the workings of my weekend. One of the bus tyres had punctured, so the bus was stopped on the side of the highway as the driver made some calls.

A few minutes later, the bus was roaring along the emergency lane at the hilariously fast speed of 5 kilometres per hour. Fortunately, we had just passed Taiping, where there was a Konsortium bus depot. The bus crawled to the Bukit Gantang rest stop where we were to wait for a new bus to be sent. This is why it’s safer to stick to established bus companies, people.



Well, at least it gave me a chance to have lunch. The new bus would take 25 minutes to arrive, according to the driver. All in all the delay was about 45 minutes. Not too bad.

The food selection was, well, non-existent. But I was hungry as hell, so I settled for a simple nasi lemak with Milo ais.



All I can say is, the Milo ais was fantastic.

Reached the Butterworth bus station at 5 pm, a little later than expected. I was home. This was my land, I was with my people! Most importantly, my fooooood.
Spent a few hours lepaking at home before the call of the night jungle became too strong.

At 9 pm, I get a call on my handphone. It was my brother just off work on the island.

Bro: What time you got back?
Me: 5
Bro: Why so late?
Me: Bus punctured la, what to do?
Bro: Hahahhahahahahahahahahahah…………..hahahahaha. Sooo, what’s your plan now?
Me: I don’t know. What’s your plan?
Bro: Come over la. We go SS.
Me: Set la macha!

So it was that I ended up on a ferry at 10 pm heading towards the island.



It’s pretty cool taking the ferry at night. The sea breeze is cool and fresh, the ferry is for the most part empty, and the view is magnificent. Don’t expect a pic tho, I was too lazy to haul my ass off the seat to grab one.

After waiting 40 minutes for my always punctual brother, there we were:



Slippery Senoritas’. The only club in Penang that is known beyond the little state’s borders and has somehow managed to stay in business for over 5 years. This place is still doing very well mind you. I don’t get it. The music is the same every single weekend, the podium is always deserted, they have a crappy house band even on weekends, and 90% of the people dancing look like they’ve been hit by a taser gun. On the positive side, it is a safe and strict clubbing environment with a cool interior and friendly staff. There was even a bartender dancing on the island bar!



Pictured above is the island bar downstairs viewed from upstairs. Looks pretty cool eh? If you look closely you can see how packed the downstairs area is. The podium is located behind the two plasma TVs. As usual, it was empty.

What’s clubbing in Penang without a fantastic after-party meal? Some of the usual selections include Tari Café burgers, Penang Road sup kambing, nasi kandar Line Clear, nasi kandar Sahuban, and nasi ganja. Interesting names for interesting food. This night however, we headed to Kassim Mustafa, which is quite well-known around the country.



Kassim Mustafa is famous for two things, ayam negro and coconut sambal. The ayam negro is named so because of the dark colour of the chicken gravy. The coconut sambal is bloody marvelous. Adds a lovely kick to your food. Kassim Mustafa at 4 in the morning, only one word does it justice – heaven.

Somehow the picture I took above is the clearest of the lot. Coincidentally, the above pic was also taken while I was – naturally - in a somewhat inebriated state. Is there a connection? Guess I’ll have to try again next time for confirmation! All photos were taken with my 1.2 megapixel camera phone.

The next night, more clubbing!! Well, actually it started off as catching the Man U vs Man City game at Soho’s English pub. As the game ended at 12, well, we stayed on la!!
This time I took the Penang bridge to get to the island.



Sunday was spent at home with my family. While reading the
Sunday papers, I came across a picture which I thought was hilarious. It was taken off a Sky news broadcast about hurricane Katrina.



See if you can spot the mistake. Ironically, it is a mistake that is absolutely correct and true.

In the evening my relatives came over. There are 3 families in my extended family in Penang (including mine) and every weekend there’s always a gathering of some sort is somebody’s house. Family power!!! This time it as in my place in Butterworth. Just chilling in the garden.



It wasn’t a barbeque but there were some birds being marinated - kingfishers,.



Kingfisher beer, to be exact ;-)

The next morning I returned to KL feeling refreshed and ready to face the world. So it is that this week I’ve been stuck at home preparing for my exams next week. Last weekend was great, and as my final paper is next Friday I expect next weekend to be even better! This weekend though, there’s only Liverfool vs Man U to look forward to. Till then…