CNY 2013 - 3rd day

12 February 2013 (Tues):

We didnt know where to have breakfast. I remembered my friend told me she had hers along Gurney Drive & so we went over.

Not knowing which ones were good; we based the level of popularity on the crowd shown. This is located at the corner of Jalan Birch but I am not sure the name of the restaurant. Judging from the waiting crowd, the food must be good.

Lots of people ordered noodles but Daddy wanted to try the Bak Kut Teh instead. We ordered a set & another plate of fried bee hoon. And yes, we waited quite some time for our food to come. Boy! Were we hungry.

Our 1st POI for the day: Penang Butterfly Farm. RM27/adt & RM15/chd.

There were many variety of butterflies; colourful ones too. They were everywhere. We joined a guided tour & marvelled at the different types of species. The guide taught us how to spot the camouflage ones, how to peek at those mating (LOL), showed us the actual life cycle of a butterfly; from a caterpillar to a cocoon & then emerge as a butterfly. Lionel told me he learned abt this in class too. Its good to have the kids see the real thing as they learned along :)

One butterfly chose to land on Rachel's nose & stayed there. It got transferred from one child to another. We even got a chance to release butterflies. See below video.

The Escape Adventureplay was just next doors but as we were not in appropriate wear ( sports wear, socks & sports shoes required), we did not enter the grounds.

We passed by the factory outlet & did a little window shopping. Factory outlet but not factory prices...

Passed 2pm, we were again in for a late lunch. We had ours at Magic 1 Restaurant.

We purchased tickets for the Tropical Spice Gardens. While inside the garden, I was casually asking Daddy how is that with so many cars parked outside, it seems very quiet inside here. Daddy can only shrugged.

We ended up in this Tree Monkey cafe & ordered mango with sticky rice, banana splilt & Sunrise Paradise (drink). We enjoyed the atmosphere, the breeze, the view (facing the beach). But the weather is threatening to rain.

While waiting for Daddy to drive over the car; we parked quite a distance away from the Spice Garden, i can now answer my own question I post to Daddy earlier on. Yes, there were many cars but the people were all on the beach. Gosh! There were people on the sands, in the waters, up in the air (parasailing)...

We made our way to Butterworth on the mainland & it was raining heavily along the way. One of Daddy's clients' Dad own a restaurant here - Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat. This is also a heavily recommended place for dinner which opens from 6pm - 11pm only.

But alas, we did not know the restaurant was closed from the 09 Feb ~ 15 Feb so there goes our hope of trying the steamboat. Even the restaurant next to it, Tian Tian Lai was packed as well. The service staff told us due to the number of customers, we have to wait at least 1.5 hrs if we wanna have our food.

Okay, that was not what we expected. We drove on the road again & settled our dinner at the food court again. The same concept as yesterday's dinner place. Notice 2 little pigs? Cute, isnt it? I had to snap a pic of it quickly before they were pinched by two little monkeys. Not the real ones; I mean the 2 kids, Lionel & Rachel. Haha.

Daddy bought dessert @ Tang Bo Fu ( aka Tang Bo Hu). Tasty & cooling.

CNY 2013 - 2nd day

11 February 2013 (Mon):

We had breakfast & were on our way towards.....

Breakfast @ Akoko Noodle House, just beside our hotel. Since it was quite crowded & it was the only nearby eatery that was opened on the 2nd day of CNY, we assumed the noodles must be good. Verdict: Not too bad. :)

We were on the road again.

Penang Bridge. Yes, our destination for the day ~ Penang. The drive took us about 2 hrs.

Our hotel for the next 2 nights.

No particular recommedation, we chose to have our lunch at this restaurant. We wanted to have porridge but only Tze Char style food was available. We were fine with it.

Our 1st POI, the Clan Jetties along Pengkalan Weld. This is where our GPS comes in handy. There were many cars on the road & no parking lot was available. We managed to find one after going round once.

We visited the Chew Jetty ( 姓周桥) which was one of the recommended ones in the travel forums.

We walked along & the kids were fascinated by what they saw along the way. The souvenirs, T-shirts, the surrounding water; they peeked inside the houses, in between the wooden planks, zig-zagging here & there, wondering & guessing what's behind every turns & corners; we saw police posts, salons, shops selling favoured crush ice - oh so cooling on a hot, sunny day.

And because we bought a few street art T-shirts from an old couple, they very kindly allowed us into their house to look around. Penang is very well known for its various street art in & around Georgetown.

Their home reminded me of my kampong days in the old Paya Lebar settlement. Very similar style. :P

They even have newspaper cuttings on the various drawings, its whereabouts & the completion date. All very interesting.

We saw a lion dance performance at the temple inside Chew Jetty & even see fire crackers. Loud deafening sound, making me jump. See video below.

Yup, that's a fire engine u saw in the picture. No doubt abt that. :)

We went towards Khoo Kongsi, another forum recommended POI. Admission: RM10/adt & RM1/chd.

Yup, these are the street art I mentioned earlier. Haha, the kids tried their best to imitate the drawings.

We wanted to visit Dr. SYS's base but it was already closed. It was already after 5pm. So we walked along the streets & came to this Ben's Vintage Toy Museum. The owner was preparing to close too but he allowed us in. Please pay RM10/adt & RM6/chd.

We debated on whether to go up Penang Hill as it was already in the evening. A check with the children & they were not hungry, so we decided to make a trip up. Keying in the destiantion on the GPS, we soon came to the foot of the hill. Penang Hill or as the locals called it, Bukit Bendera.

The rates were a great difference between the tourist & locals. For a standard ticket, it costs RM30/adt for tourist but for only RM8/adt for the locals. As Rachel puts it,  "SO UNFAIR".

Even for a family package for 2A/2C, it costs RM70 for us.

The Owl Museum is another attraction on the top of Penang Hill.

We stupidly believed that the wood carvings tools & unfinished product were left behind by the staff. Daddy tried his dumbest to pick up the carving knife & this was when we realised they were all props; for show; not real. Duh...

It was a long queue for the tram ride downhill. We waited like almost 2 hours & therefore, we had a late dinner at the foot of the hill. Its a food court selling many varieties of food, from char kway teow, tim sum, satay, bak kut teh to noodles, tze char, ice kachang....

Lion Dance Performance @ Chew Jetty.