Food. Food. Food.

That's the first (three) things that came to my mind when I was told if I would like to go on a one day road trip to Penang. Other than another intention of helping out another Bro, I thought it'll be nice to have a day off and splurging on food to take my mind off of stressing matters.

The day begins at 7. Waking up that early is definitely something I hardly do often, let alone have the discipline to do. After scrambling for the phone where Shalom called to make sure I was getting out of bed, I head on to the showers.

Daniel came to pick me up at about 7.15 or so and we left to Centerpoint's McDonald's, where we all had our breakfast. Daniel parked his car at said place and we hoped on over to Martin's car.

There, the 5 of us - Daniel, Martin, Shalom, Ken and I began our trip to Penang. Not a tight squeeze at first since the 3 skinny dudes are seated at the back. Well, nothing much happened in the car aside from the usual stuff.

We arrived in the shores of Penang island (as in, after the bridge) at about 1 or so, just in time for lunch. We were to meet with Charis, as she would be more familiar with Penang than any of us blokes from PJ would. Though, the only advantage I have in Penang is that I can speak basic Hokkien.

Our first stop after Charis joined us was at a hawker site that was famous for their Char Koay Teow. We all had a serving of it and I must say, it's been a long time since I had the taste of Penang's version of that dish and yes, it's good. Accompanied by drinks, I ordered Nutmeg juice and everyone decided to follow in the notion, since I made the order in Hokkien.

So after our first round of food indulgence, we thought of trying out the other spot where Charis had mentioned to be also a good spot for Char Koay Teow. Yeah, I guess people might be thinking we're crazy for going on a second round but heck, we're the tourist. So we went over to the shop, find ourselves a seat and went to order. It was true to its name for being popular, the attendant told us we had to wait an hour for the dish to be prepared. Whoa!

Decided not to waste our limited time at Penang, I suggested we went to try the famous Cendol over at Lebuh Keng Kwee. I was rather lucky to tell my forgetful self to note the road where my last trip to Penang had taken place about a few months back.

We came and we had our fill of Cendol, though they were missing a few ingredients in it. There was suppose to be leong fun and Sarsaparilla in it, which I'm sure would've been used up or something because I'm very keen on how stuff like these would taste. Semi-disappointed, we left and head to our next destination - the Botanical Gardens in Penang.

It was weird how 5 guys and a girl went all the way to this side of the island just to see monkeys ... beats me either but oh well. After having a stroll in this reserve, we decided to chill out at a Starbucks. Martin asks for suggestions on where we could find one, since it's scarce in Penang. I remembered there was one that was nearby the Gurney Hotel or rather, within Gurney Plaza itself.

We made it there and Starbucks was full, so we took the next best option - Coffee Bean. We sit and chillax for awhile before moving on to our next eatery. Seeing we're all here for the local hawkers and at that time, it was about 4 and most hawkers are either closing up or just starting to setup for dinner and we needed to kill time before having dinner.

While we were chatting and having a cuppa, the wind started to blow violently. It was one of the most windiest experience I've encountered in Penang. We were having coffee al fresco and at that time we thought it was best that we made our way into the mall from having our hair blown into smithereens!

We explored a little in the mall and managed to kill as much time as we could. It was about 7 before we left for an eatery that Charis said to have a numerous amount of choices. It was called the Red Garden, a food court of some kind. Making it our last eatery spot for the day, we decided to order various of dishes such as Ikan Bakar, Hokkien Mee (Prawn Mee), Oh Chien (Fried Egg and Oysters) including Assam Laksa.

It was pure indulgence, though wasn't as good as the usual spots I know in Penang but it would have to do. After we had all stuffed ourselves, we thought about going somewhere before we call it a day. I was thirsty after all that eating and suggested to go somewhere we can go to have a drink and sit down to talk some more.

I was rather amazed at the fact that Penang has a street filled with clubs, pubs and lounges. Night life is booming even in Penang, gotta salute to that. We had a cup of Paulaner, which was another brew that was foreign to me and chatted as we go.

About half passed 10, we decided to take a leave. There was but one more thing I haven't had in Penang along the trip, which was the Chee Cheong Fun. Everyone spotted a Chee Cheong Fun stall but I was rather full from the brew that I couldn't have another bite of anything.

As we bid farewell to Charis and leave the shores, we were on our way back to PJ. It would've been nice if we could have food brought back but we know what would happen if we did ...

Till the day we meet again, Char Koay Teow, Assam Laksa, Hokkien Mee and everything else in between.