Dear1 Dear2

Things you might not know about our Penang Trip. :D

1. We decided and put together the trip in 2 weeks.
2. We initially wanted to go on the Royal Caribbean Cruise departing 17 Nov 09, which would have called at Penang, but the cruise had a policy that didn’t allow pregnant women beyond 24 weeks. Dear2 would be 26 weeks by then.
3. We initially wanted a 4D3N trip to Penang and check with the Krisflyer redemption system. There were seats on a Friday departure and Monday arrival, perfect! We decided to get our company leaves approved first before booking. The next day, our leaves were approved and we logged in to Krisflyer again only to discover that the Monday flight was fully booked, so we had to settle for the Tuesday flight instead and needed to apply 1 more day of leave.
4. We had to postpone our gynae appointment from Tuesday to Thursday becos of the flight change.
5. Krisflyer redemption got us free tickets only, we still had to pay for the taxes. The taxes alone were more expensive than if we had travelled entirely on budget airlines. But we wanted to clear off our Miles before they expire.
6. We also checked Tune Hotel’s availability on the night before we applied for leave. The next night, it was about RM20 more expensive, we quickly made our bookings.
7. Dear2 did all the transportation research. ‘Standard’ taxi fares, ferry fares, CAT shuttle buses, etc.
8. Penang roadsides are not luggage friendly, too many ups and downs.
9. We bought 24 hrs of aircon credit at Tune Hotel.
10. We used the aircon timer function to limit ourselves to 8 hrs of aircon per night.
11. We cancelled 2 attractions visits during our trip due to renovations (Komtar Observation Deck and Penang Hill).
12. Penang Hill Tram was opened in 1923, and had a number of breakdowns in recent years.
13. We walked through Lorong Selamat 7 times.
14. Char Koay Teow chilli smoke is very irritating on the eyes.
15. We have a yearly end of the year ‘retreat’ where we would review our performance and set our goals for the coming year. 2007 was in Bintan, 2008 was in Ho Chi Minh City and 2009 was in Penang.
16. Dear1 had a new catchphrase – Tee Nya Kueh!
17. Some bottled water were filled with Reverse Osmosis Water or Treated Pipe Water. Take note!
18. We caught 2 mosquitoes that flew in through our hotel room window.
19. We bought a packet of joss sticks to pray at the Goddess of Mercy Temple. It was the first time we ever prayed together at a chinese temple.
20. We hopped on the CAT buses 3 times.
21. A number of toilets in Penang’s shopping malls require a 20 sens entrance fee. Some require 30 sens. The ones are Penang Times Square and Gurney Plaza were free to use.
22. We requested for cold milk on our flight.
23. The tourism counter at Penang airport had no maps. We only got our Penang travel map at the Komtar information counter.
24. We walked through Jalan Rangoon 4 times.
25. Traffic lights in Penang give pedestrians exactly 12 seconds to cross the road.
26. We ate 16 Tan Boon Biah (half a box) before leaving Penang.
27. We went to St George’s Church to take a rest and visit the toilet on 2 occasions. Both times there were events being held there and the participants gave us some curious looks.
28. Ordering drinks is almost compulsory at every eating place we visited.
29. Old Town White Coffee is the in thing right now, even the taxi driver said so. A glass of Classic White Coffee costs only RM3.80 before taxes.
30. It rained twice while we were there.
31. There are a lot of one-way roads in Penang which made travelling in taxi very confusing.
32. We spent a total of RM157 on taxi.
33. Food portions are about 2/3 the size of those in Singapore.
34. We make an effort to avoid raw/half-cooked food and ice from roadside stalls to reduce the chances of food poisoning.
35. We didn’t have any diarrhea despite eating at lots of roadside stalls.
36. We only had 2 pillows so we hugged our spare clothes to sleep.
37. When we first caught a glimpse of the Penang Bridge, Dear1 told Dear2 that the Penang bridge was 3km long. Later, Dear2 read in a brochure that Penang bridge is in fact 13.5km. So paiseh…
38. There were Halloween celebrations everywhere becos it was Halloween weekend.
39. We actually understood Penang Hokkien.
40. Piping hot Tan Boon Biah straight from the oven is actually crispy! Yummy!
41. We ate a total of 57 plates/bowls/packets of Penang food.
42. At the airport, every tourist departing from Penang carried a bag of Tan Boon Biah to bring home.

-Dear1