Penang

after three days of holidays ... that's at least 15 hours of driving to our destination, around the island & back ... i am totally beaten. i fell asleep watching 'Scary Movie 4' last night. yes, ive finally seen it which, (surprise, surprise) turns out to be sucky.

the trip was not as relaxing as Perhentian, or Tioman but it was nice cos we got to eat some of the best local food; namely, Char Kway Teow, iced kacang w/ fruits of your choice, rojak & .... i think that was it!!! hahaha....pathetic, i know. we spent most of the time driving, getting lost, & bitching about how difficult to get around in Penang (on the first and second day) and...shopping! yes, we did quite a bit of shopping in Penang. ad opted to shop and checked out Fitness First (roll eyes) instead of going to Kek Lok Si, Bukit Bendera, Snake Temple etc eventhough it was his first time in penang. i reckon it was an easy choice since the weather was hazy (1st day), scorching hot (2nd day and CLEAR skies!) and hazy again (last day). so, if you were to ask me where to makan-makan in penang, i can direct you to Swatow Lane in the city, that's it. :p and paul, we did eat quite a bit! lotsa crappy food before we found swatow lane, that is.

anyways, penang has changed quite a bit since the last time i was there three years ago. lotsa condominium projects in the city and by the beach side, and there are more cars. people are more affluent that is slowly becoming like KL. i hope the implementation of public transport which includes LRT will improve the traffic. and i am unsure if they could do anything to the sea water ie murky, brownish... we were mostly sun bathing and swimming by the poolside - thank God the heavy rain on the first night cleared the haze completely which allowed us to chill out by the poolside the following day. our definition of chill out is either playing scrabbles, mahjong cards (not tiles) or simply sun bathe. we did #3 only.

the other thing we liked about penang is the blardy cheap DVDs, and CDs. oh and mineral water. RM4.00 for a good copy of DVD is quite a steal, i'd say! so viv 'sapu-ed' quite a bit whilst i was more interested to go back to the hotel to sleep :P

on the second nite, we were treated to a blardy lively and superb performance by some drag queens and "queens" from Thailand for a dinner that we were attending at the ballroom which happened to be the only highlight of the evening. we were initially told that we do not need to attend the dinner, therefore, we did not pack any jeans. but last minute changes were made and reluctantly we made our ways to the ballroom in ahem, shorts. yes, shorts shorts. there were all sorts of VIPs that were present incl. the Chief Minister of Penang who serenaded us to sleep with his rendition of 'The Moon represents my Heart' (Teresa Teng) during dinner.

too bad i did not take his picture when he sang to us. it was a pretty fun trip. i have posted the pictures of our 'adventure' on my multiply. meantime, here are some snapshots taken from Madonna's latest and coolest video, 'Jump'. im pleased she did release this as a single cos it is one of my fav. tracks in the album. and, she looks hot in platinum blonde wig.