Persiaran

Actually I hate driving. That is why I don’t like to travel. I don’t like to drive on roads I am not familiar with. I feel so tensed up and tired looking at the traffic and signboards when I am driving on unfamiliar roads. Luckily, with technology, now we have the GPS device. So I gave it a try to drive way up to Penang during this holidays.

My first stop was the Mines Convention Centre, KL. There was an international Chinese book fair going on.

I needed to be there on Sunday by 4.00pm because there was a prize giving ceremony for my daughter. She won runner-up in the national essay writing competition.

The next day, I roamed KL.  First I brought my family to the National Museum.

The next destination was the National Monument (Tugu Kebangsaan). But the weather was too hot. So we changed the destination to Kuala Lumpur Tower.

Was I at the highest point of KL?

I wanted to try the F1 Simulation at the foot of the tower but too bad it was under maintenance.

The next day, I drove up to the north. I stopped at Tapah to visit my ex-colleague, Ustaz Shukri. But he was in a meeting and couldn’t meet me. So I drove up to Ipoh. At Ipoh, I didn’t know where to go. Maybe The Lost World of Tambun should be interesting but I decided not to spend too much time in Ipoh. So I proceeded to Taiping.

After I checked into the hotel at Taiping, immediately I brought my family to Taiping Lake Garden.

Taiping Lake is indeed a very beautiful lake.

We took a ferry ride across the lake.

Taiping is a very nice place. Traffic is not heavy. The food is nice and not expensive. People are friendly too. Everyone is talking Cantonese. I spoke in Mandarin, they thought I was a Singaporean.

At night we went to the Night Safari but it rained heavily. We only saw a few animals but saw a lot of rain water pouring down. We were all wet but it was a happy experience.

The next morning, we spent some hours hunting for the houses of my wife’s grandparents (my wife’s parents are from Taiping). We found the houses and visited some relatives there. Then we proceeded to the north.

Our next stop was Bukit Merah. We went to the waterpark but we did not swim. We didn’t spend much time there before we proceed to my ex-colleague, Hafazlizie’s house.

Hafazlizie’s parents are so friendly. We finished two jugs of iced drinks there. Malu aje, saya tak bawa buah tangan pun.

In the evening, we reached Penang and checked into the hotel.

In Penang, I contacted my ex-roommate, Goh Seng Kar but too bad he needed to go to Butterworth to submit the MUET scripts. So we didn’t have a chance to meet up.

The next morning, we roamed Penang.

We went to the Kek Lok Si Temple. Weird, there were so few people there. I remember it was such a crowded place that we cannot avoid banging into people in the crowd. But the day we went, it was so empty.

A trip to Penang is not completed if you haven’t try Penang Laksa at the market by the foot of Kek Lok Si Temple, right? The cendol is very nice too.

We intended to go to Bukit Bendera but we were told that the train is not in service. So we canceled the plan and went to the Toy Museum instead.

There are indeed a lot of toys there but they are not arranged nicely.

In the evening, we spent some time at Gurney Drive.

At night, I drove out of Penang and straight to KL.

When I was in KL, my ex-college mate, Yeng Fong contacted me. So we arranged a meet up.

So glad to meet Yeng Fong and her husband, Mr Foo. We talked and collected back many memories left in MPTI.

The next day I drove back to Kluang. Home sweet home.