Penang Through The Eyes Of The Rockstars – Roadtrip At Hari Raya

7.30am on Sunday, Kings leaves the house for the airport, to pick up our rental car. This will be the first time we’ve ever driven along the highway during the Raya season.

Rockstar Roadtrip!

(He would later tell me he tore his hair out waiting because the car was late, had breakfast while waiting, then filled out a complaint form. I mention because this is like when he went nuts at a KFC in Seremban last time we came back after waiting 17 minutes for a burger without the mayo. We actually left sans burger and after Kings had spoken to the wide-eyed manager. Felt bit bad, the way I occasionally do back here if it seems we’re too impatient from being spoiled by HK life. On the other hand, when I repeated 17 Minute KFC Burger Story to a Korean mum friend whose son used to be classmates with Rockstar, her response was OMG I Would Go Nuts. Uh, yeah she lives in HK.)

We leave very shortly after Kings gets back, having slowly started packing since the previous afternoon. Throwing stuff in the bags is easy enough, I’ve started reaching a little higher – let’s see if we can open just one or two bags first couple days, instead of well, everything.

At the “famous” Mc Donald’s drive-in that has been along Green Lane since I was in secondary school next to it, Kings and I are tickled when the young man on the intercom (who speaks fluent English) immediately switches to Hokkien at the first sign of miscommunication on our order. (There is certainly no problem with our order, it appears efficiently on the screen by the driver’s window – the kid is so fast he could come work at a dealing room in HK). “First Hokkien McDonald’s,” Kings laughs. Our order is ready before we have even reached the pickup window. We are duly impressed – the speed and efficiency more than rivals what we are “spoiled” by in HK.

Driving from Canberra to Sydney, we pass many yellow and black wombat and kangaroo signs. Here, it’s:

Lembu! 😀 Took me 3 tries to get this as we drove past…

We initially plan to stop at Ipoh for lunch, but upon learning that we have to drive a way off the highway, we decide to stop at anything more convenient along the way that doesn’t have a traffic jam leading in to it…

Traffic is heavy throughout, and we pass 3 either stalled cars or accidents (one at least is definitely an accident involving 4 cars) along the way. We are also passed repeatedly by super fast bikes weaving in and out of the lanes at what feels like warp speed to our 4WD, as we feel the shudder and rush of air. Idly, it occurs to me that in all our driving around in the States and Australia, we have never seen that many stalled cars/accidents, or been passed by all these bikes – a group of which lean on their horns real hard when they find us in the bike lane. We get a good glaring at too.

Eventually we settle on…..

Bidor!

And the best wantan noodles we’ve had in a very long time

Rockstar shows off his awesome chopsticking skills

Except for a brief lull, every table ing this place is almost always occupied; we had to wait awhile for a seat too… At around 2pm.

Little Miss has a water break in the heat….

And then we’re on the road again. After a brief stop in PJ to visit my old nanny and drop my mum off to hang out with her for a few days, we move onward to my inlaws’.

That night, we arrive in Seremban around 8pm, and another 20 minutes to find the restaurant where we’ve called ahead to meet them at. As we a late dinner, they indicate the next table who also have a couple small kids, telling us they’ve also only just arrived from Penang. 

ps: Sorry ah, bit shy to ask for permission to put pics of my visit to my nanny’s place, though I took some on my hp for remembrance; we couldn’t stay long and even with trying to get to my inlaws’ as soon as, we still ended up arriving late for dinner… But will share with you that among others I took a picture of….. the alleyway at the back of my nanny’s house. It’s just a backdoor alley but it’s one of 2-3 fairly vivid memories I have of the time with my nanny – at the time I must have been about 2 years old. The most vivid is of…… the floor! Cos I was a toddler and on the floor a lot. 😀  I remember the backdoor alley because once I woke from a nap and went to look for my nanny back there – somewhere across this door was another door and a neighbor who chatted with me that day.