Penang and Pulau Payar

Day 1:
We left KL after having our nasi lemak in Section 17. The drive up was smooth, thought it got a little hot along the way. My car's airconditioner isn't cooperating, but we still managed to get to Penang. Zoe and Rudy were complaining in the backseat. Wan Yee our navigator managed to lead up to an uncompleted highway, heading towards the jetty. We decided to take the ferry as it was closer to the hotel and it was a point where I can rest my legs. We had to double back to Butterworth and headed for the jetty with the old road. We got to Penang at 1.45pm and managed to get to our hotel at 2pm. We checked in, where Zoe and I shared one room, while Rudy and Wan Yee took the other. For a 4-star hotel, the rooms weren't exactly that nice. I've seen better, but for the price that we paid... I can't complain. RM 108 per night after discount. Luckily for us, Wan Yee's parents have go some Berjaya shares.

Headed out for lunch after that. First taste of Penang food, Char Kuey Teow. I was quite shocked at the pricing, RM 3.50 per plate. It's even more expensive than KL! But I guess Pulau Tikus being a tourist spot, this kind of pricing was kinda expected. Went back to the hotel after that, showered and rest for a while before we headed out for Zoe's aunt's place. Now, Rudy had the shock of his life when we got there! He was licked and man-handled by 4 dogs. Two tried to jump on his lap. Now being a Muslim, he is forbidden from touching dogs. He tried hard not to touch them, but the dogs just kept coming. I said to him, "Bet you, when you woke up this morning, this was the last thing you'd expected?"

He replied, "Yes, I was too busy worrying about pork and 'char siew' (BBQ pork) in my food". You see, we told him in advance that we will be eating hawker food, and Penang being majority Chinese stalls, Rudy didn't have much of a choice but to join us, with the exception that his food had no pork. Looks like he'll be joining Azuan at Level 15 (According to some people, there are 49-levels of Hell)

We took Zoe's aunt's advice and made our way to Gurney drive for dinner. It was about 10 minutes walk to the hawker stalls where I had wantoo noodles, fried lo-bak, fried carrot cake and some mua zhi. I would translate it if I could, but those are the few foods that one must try when visiting Penang! Had an early night as we needed to wake up early to catch the speedboat to Pulau Payar the next morning.

Day 2:
Woke up at 6am. Went downstairs for the breakfast buffet. Had nasi lemak again! It was the only thing I could think of with some cocoa puffs. We made our way to the jetty at 7.45am. The boat was scheduled to leave at 8.45am. The ride took an hour and a half, but the excitement was building up. Our first dive in the ocean! The water looked a lot clearer from the platform. When we got down there, it wasn't as clear. Honestly I've seen clearer water from programs on the Discovery channel! We did our first dive at 11.15am. Completed the underwater training exercises and we surfaced after 45 minutes. I had some buoyancy problems because I was wearing Kelvin's full wetsuit. I had to use more weights on the weight belt. Of course I was also trying to stay away from the sea urchins, spiky things. Heard that the spikes are venomous, which makes you itch. Everytime I saw one, I just inflated my BCD and tried to get as high up away from the urchin as possible. Come to think of it, it's very funny!

Now, remember how I said that Rudy is at Level 15 after day 1's incident? During the dive trip, he went to the toilet after lunch. He walked in on this Caucasian chiq, when she was taking a pee. Unfortunate for her, but Rudy was kinda shocked and he apologized for walking in on her. On the other hand, it was her fault for not locking the door properly. Anyway we see it, Rudy's definitely going to Level 16 for that! Azuan, rest assured, you're one level above Rudy!

The second dive was after lunch, at 1pm. This time, I adjusted the weight belt with the proper weights. No more being positively or negatively buoyant. I was paired up with Rudy, who I must add tried to kill me! He turned off my air supply from the cylinder! After realizing that he was turning the air off, he turned it on again when I told him that I had turned on the air supply. I forgot to mention this during my last entry on our second lesson. He did the same thing! He checked my equipment and turned off my air supply! Then Zoe came along and turned it off again! These people are trying to kill me! Choy our instructor came and helped me turned it on again. Luckily I didn't jump into the sea yet, otherwise I'd be screaming for help. While in the water, Rudy, the buddy who tried to kill me liked to dive below. I on the other hand prefer to keep away as far as possible from the bloody urchins. Therefore I was always higher than him. Choy noticing me above asked me where my buddy was, and I pointed below. You see, it says that you should always dive close to your buddy, but since he tried to kill me and liked swimming near the urchins, I stayed as far as possible from him! But to sum it all up, the trip was fun, a little scary and I've completed what I've set out to do. Now, before I forget to mention, Rudy has gone down another level to 17 for trying to kill me in the pool session. Now, he did it again at sea, so that's Level 18 for him!

We left the island at 3.30pm, that's the last boat out. Was kinda tiring, but we all had fun. Dropped Choy off at Komtar and we headed back for the hotel. Did a stop at one of the coffee shops for a drink before going back to shower. As I was tired from all that diving, I told them that I preferred to have dinner at Gurney Drive again. This time, I had Char Kuey Teow plate number 2, some mua zhi, a little bit of carrot cake and tau foo far. I didn't go overboard this time with the food. After dinner, it started to rain, so we ran for it to a nearby shopping complex. Imagine, trying to run with all that food in the stomach! It was lucky that I didn't over-eat!

To celebrate, we had some drinks, hence that explains why I was so red in one of the pictures. Played chor dai dee, where the lossers have to drink. We finished about slightly more than a quarter of the bottle. I also brought a bottle of red wine. I finished two and a half portions on top of mine, as Rudy and Zoe didn't like it. I think the wine was over chilled. It kinda, spoiled the flavor.

Day 3
We woke up at 9 for breakfast and checked out at about 11am. Made our way to the jetty, where we took our ferry out of Penang. Decided to stop at Bidor town, cause they wanted to buy some biscuits for their families. Had a quick lunch there and we got back to KL at about 5pm. It was a tiring day, but I managed to keep awake and avoided falling asleep on the wheel. Amazing!