Since the post will be a long one, will be splitting it into 2 parts.
Riders :
Jason & Jean, Busa w Touring Project
Charlie & Avril Busa w Touring Project
Alan & Carine Fazer 1k
Driver :
Damian and Sarah
Total Mileage for entire Penang trip: 1570.1km
From GP Petronas to last day of Penang : 846.2km
From Penang to GP Petronas : 723.9km
Few months back, Charlie and Damian was thinking of organizing a trip to Penang and stay in Damian's Parent's apartment. Since that, all of us had been looking at the calender to find an appropriate dates to take leave for the trip.
With the our touring project completed, its easier to pack our stuffs for the trip, jean has her box and I had mine, an additional tank bag for extra shopping stuff ;)
The move off time from GP Petronas is 0630hrs, hence everyone woke up very early. Jean and I set our alarm at 4am and by 6am, we were waiting at Petronas. Without any breakfast, we had milo to keep our stomach from groaning.....
Arriving early at start point and had milo....
With my Touring project completed, its time to test it out at full throttle....
Alan & Carine were the second bike to arrive, followed by Charlie & Avril in their busa and Damian & Sarah in their "little red car" :) All geared up and set off, bikes and car on different pace. Thats because the little red car could hit 400km none stop be4 gassing up but our 2-wheels could only hit 200km.
We make a quick stops to top-up petrol, Later we arrive at a major R&R to have our breakfast, a short brief on the trips ahead to decide on the next topping up point and meeting point with the red car.
Well, big bikes had to park in big lots....
The fried rice is great and coffee is thick... i love it...
Driver briefing with rider while passenger briefing with the pillion....
Once eating & briefing is done, geared up and move off......
The next few hundred kilometers is a bit of a disturbance, the dark clouds formed and dissappeared, rain came and left, got heavier, blurring our vision and sometimes light to a drizzle. In the end it seems like the rain was chasing us. In the beginning, we had to stop to put on additional rain gears as our touring suits were partially waterproof.
If u think the rain was bad enough, we had Mini Cooper Sports chasing us in their own convoy, somecame close and looked as if to challenge us on pick-ups, but 4-wheeled vs 2 wheeled.... the heavier one is almost always on the loosing end. Anyway, we were all mature enuff to know its some kinda fun and later thumbs up to each other after the thrills.... No hard feelings at all....
If u think the ugly side of mother nature and being chased by coopers were even worst than all the others we encountered, we then we had a major jam with almost 2-4 km long in 2 lane highway moving and stopping as if going thru a car park barrier. We bikes had to squeeze in between lanes of cars making sure not to hit any car's mirror so we could move ahead if others. The worst part in this situation is the pain of the clutch control.....
Riders will know what i mean.... shakie left hands later....
The rain was so heavy we had to stop at a petrol station to take shelter,
at the same time gassing up and had small bites and drinks...
The sun begin to shine once more, put on our gears and head for the highway again. The rain didnt bother us anymore. We stopped at 2 more station be4 finally hitting the Penang Island Bridge.
On the second station, we met the drivers of those the cooper on the chase previously, their sport were super charged, and their engine tuned up.... a man spoke to me, his cooper S could hit a top speed of approx 240km/hr. wah! No idea how fast the other coopers S were, Busa could hit 340+km/hr ever recorded , mine could only hit 300km/hr stock as shown on my dial visually. We bid our good byes and continue with our trip.
Upon crossing the Penang Bridge, there were more jam due to holiday. We had to squeeze our way into the island and find our way to Damian's apartment at "Teban Leader", i think it meant Leader Garden in Malay.
With to many turns on the roads ahead, Charlie made a wrong turn, we ended up going in circles until we stop at Shell petrol station to get our bearings right. Will looking at the map, an old lady in her late 50s dressed like a begger holding on to her worn off bicycle approach us and asked if we were lost, she wanted to provide some directions. And all the time, she was speaking in very fluent English... I was like, speechless starting at her, her appearance doesnt fit the way she speaks...... OMG lol...
With the help of the old lady, we've finally arrive near Damian's apartment. Damian hasen't reach and he is going to be late as he was caught in the same jams earlier that we had faced. Everyone's getting hungry and decided to eat at a nearby coffee shop while waiting for the little red car.
We were so tired and hungry that we quickly took off our gears and immediately order some food, While waiting for food, we sat tiredly staring in mid air.... just like zombies haha...
Alan finding his tou-fu had a fishy smell.
Jean and I had fish & chips and pork chop.
The food were rather tasty, or were we too hungry?
The moment Damian arrive, it started to rain heavily again, was the rain chasing us quietly or Damian brought the rain along lol... Well its December, cant expect a sunny trip.....
After our meal, we let the ladies in the car while we man sacrifice ourselves by riding in the rain to the nearby apartment.
At the apartment, we were so busy handing our suits to dry and boots to air, all took turns to bath and later gather at the living room to talked about the trip earlier.
With nothing much to do and no idea what's in Penang island, Charlie called up a friend staying in Penang to ask if he could help in showing us around. His friend, Kuma, agree and even took the effort to come to the apartment to discuss on tomorrow's plans. After plans were made, stomach got empty again.... Everyone agree on ordering Pizza as nobody wanted to leave the comfy apartment.
Suits on the celling, Gloves on the windows, helmet on the tables and shoes and boxes on the floor... thats about all in gearing down.
Jean had brough assignment while Avril had homework, they had much work but wanted to come along for the fun, so they decided on playing and studying at the same time....
Once the pizza arrived, everyone dig into the cheesy triangles, the boxes were emptied within 20 minutes or so...
Jean with her full stomach love the cheesy topping so much that she stuff the toppings and left the bread uneaten... BAD GIRL!!!! u know in south America how many hungry people....blah...blah...blah....
Everyone turn-in early after the meal so we could wake up around 8am for breakfast tomorrow. When I woke up, I heard some water gushing sound and rush to the windows to see where was that sound coming from. There was a mini waterfall just behind the apartment. What a nice view, so I took charlie's camera to take some close shots.... I found more of those nice scenery from other bed room windows and had capture them too.
Nice scenery at the back of the apartment.
Some nice view of the sea side...
We took a lift down and found ourselves a beautiful swimming pool, since all the ladies were smartly dressed for the morning, they deserve some nice snap by the pool.
Sweet ladies.... they sure know how to dress to make known their are friends...
see their shirts.... gifts from Avril...
We left the apartment and took a walk to the market to have our breakfast, on the way,spotted some school bus in Penang Island, they were parked outside a school. Further out, I could see a clearer view of our apartment, it has a shape of a thick pencil because of its pointed roof.
It says "BAS SE-Ko Lah"
A View of the thick pencil apartment
Upon reaching the market place, I could smell some foul odor of dead chicken, damn stinko, worst than those in Singapore market. We went inside the hawker, more than half of the stalls were closed, maybe because its their holiday.
The nearby market from our apartment.
After scouting around, Jean decide to have pork mee soup while I ordered fried wan ton mee dry. The coffee here is nice too, Malaysian make good coffee c.
We were having a good time chatting and eating
Some of the tasty breakfast..... everything taste nice...
While walking back to our apartment, we came across a cake shop. Everyone seems so eager to get in to buy something, just like some kids stumbling across a cake shop. The X'mas decoration inside the shop was beautiful, the variety of cakes, cookies and ice-creams sent the ladies browsing shelf after shelf, trays after trays..... everyone bought something for themselves.
HAPPY KIDS...
Kids's Ice creams, Kids's cookies, Kids's cakes, Kids's pastries, Kids's everywhere!!!
Once the kids were contented, we head back to our apartment. On the way, we make sure our bikes were locked up properly, then head up to take a rest, the next plan was to shop at Plaza Gurney.
We make sure our bikes we damn bloody well locked, see this busa... lock to a drain grill and then to a "big" tree.... "super double safety"... hahahhahahaha
Suffering aches from the previous day's long ride, Avril decided to give Charlie and back step, not "not back stab" lol. While Alan need 2 ladies to do his traditional Thai back grip. Everyone was doing something while waiting for 2pm, the shopping trip.
Good massage!! ladies.
Was doing some make up while chatting and got caught in the act...
It was time to set off. I notice a play ground beside the apartment, it was empty and somehow, I felt like going over to just play a little. While walking out to catch a taxi, there is a push cart stall selling fried stuff. It sure smell nice and we all bought something to eat.
Sure bring back some old memories
Ohh!! Ohh, this stall selling fried stuff taste real good!!
I love the fried tapioca and banana ball.
Yum yum... Some idiot told us here got bus, but we waited so long and end up taking taxi.
The taxis in Malaysia are famous for "Meter spoil" and charging by a fixed amount of fare. Anyway, the trip to Plaza Gurney is RM$15. Every couple split at the shopping center to do their own shopping. Jean was enjoying herself and she was hopping to get some shoes in this trip, later, she got a pair. I was happy but no so happy as my pockets were burning slowly.....
Nice deco at the Shopping centre.
Her window shopping and her shoes
Will continue the rest of the trip in the next post, I will arrange the next post of this Penang trip to be below this post.
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