Thursday, March 1, 2012

Penang

PENANG

This was my first visit to Penang! But while sorting the pictures I realise I took very little pictures of myself! Aiya, should have taken more!

The tour guide that brought us around was a very interesting guide but he sounded more like a property agent because he kept telling us about condominiums around Penang. Lol. He would point out a condominium and say "Jackie Chan bought a unit here" and "Andy Lau bought a unit there".... Then he would say "this condominium very expensive, targeting the expats....", "That condominium is the most expensive one, one unit costs blah blah blah"... All that talk made me notice that the condominiums in Penang really quite nice! But I realise I didn't take any photos of the condominiums! Plus he is quite forgetful. Cos when we pass by some of the roads again, he would repeat the same thing! Lol. He must have been repeating the same script for years.










I would totally get lost around here without a tour guide!






Our first tour stop was Tropical Fruit Farm. It is located on the Northwestern part of the island and the journey there was approximately 45 minutes. It gave us time to catch a quick nap on the coach. The farm is on a mountain and the roads leading up was steep and narrow. Very dangerous! Our coach climbed halfway and nearing the farm, the road was even more narrow so we had to change to a van to get there. Luckily I sat in the middle of the van. Mum was super frightened because she sat at the window side and she could see that the wheels were just a few inches away from the edge!!




I was initially very excited about this farm visit but I must say that I was quite disappointed. Let me go into the details later on. I shall tell you what I enjoyed first :D

45 minutes on the coach and all of us needed to use the washroom. The tour guide said "this washroom is 5 stars one"..... 5 stars standard indeed. GOT VIEW ONE LEH. Felt so exposed! What if monkeys hop in??? Did they ran out of brick while building this, or was it on purpose? What's the point??? Why not don't build that half wall also? Lol.


Time for lunchie!!!


BBQ buffet. Omg, why don't they have this in Singapore??


It looks very dirty with all the burnt bits but it is OH SO YUMMY. Everything was marinated tastefully.


We had fresh fruit juices. Just request for whatever combination of fruits you want.


I'm a very boring person. I got myself papaya juice. My initial choice was more boring. I wanted Orange. But they didn't have oranges.


Look at the spread of cut fruits for dessert!!!! Aren't the colors so vivid?! I'm actually not an adventurous person when it comes to fruits. I always stick to apples, oranges, papaya, watermelon, etc. But the spread made me want to try everything!


Mum's platter.


My platter. I guess compared to my mum, I'm still making boring choices. Haha.




A soursop plant!


This was the guide from the farm. His focus was mostly about the nutrients and health benefits of different plants.


Now let me tell you why I'm quite disappointed by this farm. I thought FRUIT farm should look like a lively garden with plenty of colorful fruits for us to pluck and explore. But I felt like I was going on a botanical gardens tour right here. All I see were similar looking fruitless green trees. I think I went on the wrong season.


We are high up on the mountains!




Me & Mummy!!





The seas looked so beautiful!














Guess what's next? We went to a Cocoa Boutique!




Lots of chocolate.... samples! Weehee. As we walk down the aisles, several promoters gave us different flavors to eat. First, milk chocolate, then tiramisu chocolate, then dark chocolate, then sesame chocolate, then suddenly, as if to trick us, Durian chocolate! I like durian but durian and chocolate seem to be abit OVER!



After that even worse. We saw these.... HOT CHILLI CHOCOLATE and HOT CURRY CHOCOLATE -_____________-



There was an open concept kitchen for us to view how they do their chocolate! It was melted chocolate in a hot pot, then they put in the almond and mix!


After that, they poured the mixture into the chocolate mould and put into the fridge! So cool! It sounds like a very fun job! Anyway, the mould had 4 bars but the person didn't distribute the almonds fairly!



Afterwards, we went to Wat Chayamankalaram, which houses the world's third largest reclining Buddha. It measures 33 meters in length!






Opposite that was a Burmese Buddhist Temple and we visited it too.




Time for souvenirs!




They say White coffee and Tau Sar Piah are the local food to buy from Penang. The white coffee was nice but Mum didn't buy. And then, I don't like Tau Sar Piah. So we ended up getting Bak Kut Teh instead.








That's the end of my trip in Penang!

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