Christina and Stephen in Penang--1 (New Year's Eve Crawl)

After Chris and Stephen arrived, we went to a food court opposite their hotel (Glow) just to see what it had to offer.

The food made Stephen very excited, and he was genuinely thrilled when I told him the food he just had was not bad, but simply mediocre compared to what can be had in the city... so we strolled towards the downtown towards the infamous Kimberley Street--a scene I knew about but never made time to explore until now.

Boat noodle for just RM1 a tasting bowl. Not bad at all, but laced with MSG

Further on, we discovered a Chendol Stall. As we waited in like to get a slushy of coconut milk, palm sugar, sweetened beans and vanilla noodles, I spotted something across the street behind us...

It was a Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun stall. Eager to pit it against our neighborhood stall run by Uncle Robert, I went over to check it out. It was pretty legit... but some elements we liked, others we preferred by U. Robert.

We sat down to rest our feet as we ate up dessert and snack in whatever order we desired.

Our last stop on our food crawl, with Ian, Aria and I competing over a bowl of Kimberley Street Kway Chap... It was simply awesome.

We stayed up to ring in the New Year, and Stephen introduced the kids to: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". Yes, it is painfully stupid, but Ian thought it was hilarious!

We spent the night in a family room--thank you Chris and Stephen! And joined them at the lackluster breakfast buffet the next morning. Yawn!

Then it is off on a small tour of the island. It was Stephen's very first trip to Penang and he was truly skeptical about what the place had to offer after hearing the rants. The pressure was on me to impress! We brought him to the waterfall in Batu Ferringhi

We were having loads of fun here, especially when we spotted a few iridescent green Treefrogs. Aria moved to try and catch one when she slipped and slid down a 10 foot rock face and plopped into the stream below! Fortunately, she did not hurt herself--not even a sprained ankle!

We were not alone at the falls, but we did not have to compete with many others.

Sometimes, these roadside stalls have good product. Not today...

~ Shien

Port Weld (Kuala Sepatang) Seafood Lunch and Charcoal Factory

Benny had been promising a road-trip to Kuala Sepatang. He insisted that the prices and freshness of the food there was unparalleled by anything available in Penang.

After sampling it, I dare say Kuala Sepatang trumped pretty much all of Malaysia and Singapore in quality and price performance...

There was a boat dock receiving arriving fishing boats that offloaded the catch directly into the warehouse below. Some of it was retained by the kitchen, but most of it was wholesaled.

Therefore, the seafood was superlatively fresh and inexpensive.

Fried mantis shrimp in 5spice.

There were these tiny seacrabs deepfried until crispy like potato chips. He kept stating that he does not see them there every time. True. They did not have any on our return outing with dad

Deep fried tiny shrimp

Glorious teochew style steamed red snapper.

Ian claimed a fish platter to himself towards the end of the meal to pick off each bone meticulously. He made me and KongKong proud!

Food coma...

Peering down at the catch brought in by each boat that docked.

Not a looker, but it's all about the food!

Negotiating the price of sundried shrimp.

We took a stroll around the town area and noticed a lot of mopeds going by with umbrellas open for shade.

Houses on stilts at the waterfront.

Covered walkway to cross the river.

On the way back to the car, the mopeds tore through like there was no tomorrow.

Playing atop a large diesel storage tank.

"What?!! What did you DO to the car?!!"

Our next stop was a venerable charcoal factory.

This man was passionate about charcoal... really passionate.

He invited us to pick up the very dense mangrove stock.

And showed us how it is fired for 2 months before cooling for a month.

These logs were MUCH heavier.

And this man single-handedly loads each kiln manually using a strap on his hip to share the load on his body.

He stacks the logs against the wall propped on a single rock to ensure hot air flows all around it.

Finally, we made our way to the Sparkletts Water bottling facility.

And saw these curious animal crossing signs.

Sadly, we were turned away when we arrived--appointments required. Yet, they refused to schedule a visit when we called them for a future visit...

So we went to the coffee roasting factory as an alternative.

Very cool to see the original equipment still being used in a venerable process.

We certainly enjoyed tasting the free coffee samples.

And looking at their museum.

Quite a lovely antique screen door!

We finished our long day with dinner at Crab Claypot Rice. It was almost seafood overkill but so good.

Battered and fried calamari rings, stirfried vegetables and tofu in saltfish accompanied our meal.

We completed our run back home running on the 21km long second link bridge to Penang, struggling to stay awake after a long day sightseeing and with full bellies.

~ Shien