To those who knows me, and the GF, you would know that she is already in Australia.  Before she left for Australia, we decided that we would enjoy some of the delicacies that Malaysia has to offer before she headed off to the State of Victoria.

More precisely, she is currently in Melbourne, the city where we once were during our final year of university in 2007.  It was a great year for both of us especially in terms of improving our relationship.  But that’s another whole story on its own.

Now lets get back to the Penang trip.

This would be our 2nd trip together to Penang within a 1 year period and the sole purpose of heading up to Penang is to eat some seriously good food.  I did some homework on where to eat before we headed off to Penang, finding out about places with good food.  Unfortunately we did not travel to all those places to enjoy the food.  But we did have good food, good company, and a good time together.

The trip lasted 3 days 2 nights.  The first night, we decided to stay in Tune Hotel, Penang as we wanted to try it out.  It was cheap and conveniently close to the hawker place that we were planning to head to.

From afar, we were able to catch a glimpse of the hotel.

The room was not only clean, but gave an impression of a comfy environments despite the size of the room.  The bed was extremely comfortable and big (king queen size mattress – as corrected by the PR, Marketing & Communications Manager from Tune Hotels.com).  The only thing to complain would be the lack of walking space around the room, or rather around the bed.

I would say that Tune Hotel Penang is a very comfortable hotel for such a good price (less than RM100).  I was even informed by my cousin that the price of the room is normally less than half of what I had paid if it wasn’t for the school holidays.  The room rates of the other hotels were also on the rise due to the school holidays.

And as they had promised on their website, their showers has strong water pressure, making showering an enjoyable time.  The last time I was in Penang, I had to suffer from poor water pressure during my showers, making showering a real drag~!

As Tune Hotel, like its airline counterpart is a no frills hotel, meaning they do not provide, toiletries, air con, hair dryer, and internet.  All the above are additional products and services which can be bought together with the booking of the room.  So, the GF and myself added on 12 hours of air cond, and 24 hours wifi for our room (done during the online booking of the room).

Before we arrived, we were not sure how they were going to account for the time we use the air con until we saw this.

It seems that the card contains the information such the number of hours of air con we have and it knows when the air con is on or off.  It also contains information of whether we had requested for the hair dryer or not, and allows the hair dryer to function or not.  This piece of equipment is a piece of advance technology unlike the old hotels which allows any card other than the key card to activate the electricity.

I am simply amazed~!

The GF and myself never gave up the chance of camwhoring during our stay in the room.  It was certainly a nice and comfortable room to be in.  Though it was a little more limited in size, we did enjoy ourselves thoroughly during the camwhoring.

The ultimate goal of heading to Penang is to eat the famous Char Kuey Teow.  But there are too many hawkers that are busy promoting their own Char Kuey Teow, but thanks to some Penangite friends during our last trip here, we knew just where to find the good Char Kuey Teow.

We had Timmak of Penang to thank for our last trip here for introducing to us to an awesome Char Kuey Teow that taste super good~!

Other than the Char Kuey Teow, the GF also ordered a bowl of Curry Mee, which actually tasted quite nice, after the chilli has been mixed into the soup, leaving an awesome spicy curry that goes very nicely with the noodles.

This is the Char Kuey Teow we had been craving for some time.  It certainly left an awesome impression the last time we were here.

If you ever head to Penang, do try out the New Lane Hawkers.  To find for this elusive Char Kuey Teow, you gotta find the old lady who fries her Char Kuey Teow using charcoal.  But be prepared to wait for the Char Kuey Teow, because I remember that the GF and I waited for a good 20 mins to 25 mins before the Char Kuey Teow was served.  But it was certainly worth the wait~!

After dinner, we drove off to Gurney Drive to have a stroll along the Gurney Drive.  The roads were packed with cars, which goes to show that people of Malaysia do come to Penang for holidays during the school holidays.  The GF and I were lucky to get a parking spot as we arrived and we were able to take a nice long stroll along Gurney Drive.

During our stroll, a signboard caught my attention.

It was surprising enough to call the restaurant “BALI HAI”, as I always thought in Cantonese there is another meaning to the word “HAI”.  Correct me if I am wrong, my command of the Chinese language is quite poor~!

Not only that, take a look at the tagline.

“IF IT SWIMS, WE HAVE IT”

I truly wonder whether that is really the case.  If I were to take it literally, then it would include from the range of whales, dolphins, turtles, seals, sea lions, killer whales, and the list goes on.  The tagline sure comes under scrutiny, and I wonder if there would be someone who would go in and order the animals that I had just mentioned above.  I would love to see that happen.

It was a nice stroll along Gurney Drive with the GF.  We also took a snapshot of Gurney Drive from afar, which looked pretty good.

We took a few shots, but this particular 1 turned out to be the best of the lot.  We were experimenting on how to use the camera.

The first night was an awesome night.

On the 2nd day, we checked out by 10am (the check out time for Tune Hotel).  After checking out from Tune Hotel, we lepak for awhile at the hotel’s lobby while using the remaining time we had from the internet services we added onto the room.  It wasn’t long before we headed off to our next “makan” destination.

The next “makan” destination was something for the GF to enjoy.  I brought her to enjoy some Malay food.  Surprisingly, I also enjoyed the food, though I myself rarely eat Malay food, the GF certainly enjoyed it.  It was not as spicy as I had expected it to be.  Maybe it is to cater the tongue of the foreigners who comes to patronize this food joint.

Unfortunately there were no pictures taken as the stomach was growling in hunger, and the hunger got the best of me, and before I know it, the plate was empty.  I was amazed at myself for finishing the Malay food, even though I have never been a fan of Malay food.

After the satisfying lunch, the GF and myself decided to head to the Fitness First gym over in Island Plaza to workout the additional weight we had planned to put on during our trip.  We spent a few hours in the gym.

After the good workout, we had a little tea at Island Plaza before heading off to our next destination, which was Park Royal Penang, Batu Ferringhi.  We checked in quite late into Park Royal as we had spent quite a number of hours not only working out, but reading newspapers, as well as having tea.  So when we checked in, it was pretty late, and by the look of things, the hotel was quite full (again thanks to the school holidays).

So when we headed off to our room, we were very surprised to find a much larger room than our previous stay in the same hotel.  Again, the Park Royal stay was courtesy of the GF’s mother who won a free night stay in Park Royal Penang.

We took pictures of the room as it was way different from the rest of the rooms, and I forgotten to take a picture of the plan layout to show that this room has larger space than the other rooms on the floor.

After taking a rest and taking pictures of the room.  We decided to get our welcome drink and take a stroll on the beach.

Unfortunately my camera was set to charge, so we had taken the GF’s camera during our stroll on Batu Ferringhi beach.  It was nice strolling around, and the GF was even eager to swim in the ocean, until we saw a pool of black murky water on the beach, a short distance away from the sea waters.  It was to our horror to find out that it was sewage waters filled with rubbish and other unholy concoctions.

After seeing that eerie sight, we decided to put off swimming in the sea indefinitely.  After strolling to one end, we decided to head back and take a stroll to the other end of the beac.  Of course we took a break at the hotel’s poolside.  After a short rest we continued on our stroll to the other end of the beach.

During the stroll however, we were constantly harassed by the touts who were offering various activities such as horse back riding, ATVs, jet skis, and para-sailing.  We refused every single one of them.

There were those who took their offer and thanks to them, both the GF and myself were able to take a look at how people went para-sailing (its more like how they took off and how they landed).  We also took some nice pictures together.  The pictures however are not with me, but with the GF as we used her camera during our stroll along the beach.

That night, as we wanted to get dinner, we were not sure what we wanted to eat. The idea of heading all the way into Georgetown became a pain, so we decided to eat somewhere close by.

I was still unsure of what to eat but I was very certain that I was famished.  So the GF suggested pasta.  And off I went looking on the internet for a place to head to within the vicinity.

Not long after, I found a place which received quite a few good reviews.

Off we went to this place.  It was certainly a place catered to the foreigners who enjoy a cozy environment with great tasting food.

The restaurant is called “Mario Ristorante”.  It is located opposite the Shangri-La Hotel car park.

At first glance, it looked like a pretty nice classy place.  Giving out the impression that it would cost a lot of money to eat in there.  Hunger certainly got the better of us, so  we decided we shall eat at Mario’s, but we decided that we shall share.

Flipping through the menu, gave us insight to the prices of the food.  The prices are definitely steeper than those restaurants I head to in the Klang Valley, but the foreigners doesn’t seem to mind.

We ordered a mocktail for us both (knowing that the GF is allergic to alcohol).  It had a nice taste to it, though nothing really special about it.

That is the both of us, posing with our food (thankfully the waiter offered to take a picture of us).  We certainly enjoyed ourselves, and definitely enjoyed the food~!

The Bruschetta was quite a delight (maybe because the stomach was hungry beyond belief), but I find the bread a little too hard to my liking, nonetheless it was good.

This place serves one of the best cabonara ever~! Though they only served Fettucini Cabonara, it was mouth watering good~! The cabonara served at Mario’s tasted better than any other cabonara I had ever tasted in my entire life~!  I am not exaggerating~!

I could not believe how good it tasted.  Even the GF agreed that it was awesome~!

After dinner we decided to resign to our room, and play a number of rounds of Monopoly Deal.  Hehehe.

The game is certainly different when played with more than 2 people.  But it was fun as we played it fast.  We played until late night (it is quite addictive, but now I don’t have my beloved GF to play with, so I am not too active in it myself).

The following day, we were not able to wake up on time to do what we had planned and ended up having breakfast quite late, and quite close to the closing time.  We had decided to give Mario’s another try for lunch on the previous night, but to our dismay, they were close for lunch, despite the fact that the gave us a menu for lunch.  It was sad moment for me, as I felt that I missed out on the best cabonara ever~!

The GF and myself did however tapau a couple of packet of Char Kuey Teow before heading back home.

I would say it was a good trip for us, and I hope that our future trips to a few other destinations would be as good, or even better~!

To my dear GF, I miss you very much~!  Hope to see you soon~!