Penang Trip Oct '08 (Part I)

Penang has been very good to us. Before our trip home, it was raining every day. But while we're there, it didn't rain at all. So we're able to bring the kids to some places as planned. Although the weather is very hot in the day time, it's very cooling at night. The weather's like that on an island. Well, better hot and dry than raining non-stop as it's inconvenient to go out with kids.

Saturday
Went to Botanical Gardens in the evening (without PaPa, since we have enough hands to look after the kids). The last time I went there was 7 years ago and the kids have never been there. So it was one of the places that I've planned to bring them this trip.

When we reached there, the amount of monkeys were lesser compared to other days (according to my brother). Then I saw something very disturbing. Although there was a sign that says not to feed the monkeys and not to bring food into the garden, some people still ate ice-cream or junk food. So when the monkeys saw the food, they went near these people, eyeing on the food. As they were afraid the monkeys will snatch from their hands, they just threw the food on the floor. And the monkeys quickly grabbed and ate them. I think this is really bad for them. Some people purposely provoke the monkeys by teasing them with food or scaring them.

~ monkeys eating human food near the rubbish bin ~

The kids (especially CE) were very excited to see the monkeys. Finally met their own same species, I guess. hahaha We had to carry didi coz he kept wanting to go so near to the monkeys. And these are wild monkeys. They can get very fierce.

~ didn't manage to take a picture with real monkeys in the background ~

We didn't walk the whole round, but went to an even grass area so the kids can play badminton. While XY was playing with WQ (my nephew), CE wanted the racquet too. But since there's only 2, SIL and I distracted him by bringing him to the waterfall. Boy, that was a big mistake. He wanted to go in so SIL stood at the shallow area and carried him in. But he refused to stand on the sandy area or in the shallow water. And he didn't want to come out either. Really don't know what he wanted. I took out my camera but didn't manage to snap any pictures coz he was making such a big fuss.

Then XY and WQ also joined in. XY got her pants all wet. We only allowed the kids to play in the water for a very short while, as we didn't bring anything for them to change. CE refused to get out and I had to forcefully carry him away. He was screaming and crying, kept looking at the waterfall, saying "There... water".

We didn't stay long as we've to go home and prepare to go out for dinner. Remember I said we had a very expensive but not-worth-it-at-all dinner? The place we went to was Bali Hai at Gurney Drive. We didn't really know what to order. Went to look at the live seafood, the guy recommended the spider crab which he said tastes very good if fried with celery. After weighing the crab, it cost RM700+. Woah! I don't think it's worth eating a crab that's so expensive. Moreover, we won't be able to differentiate the taste of an expensive species from the normal ones. So we ordered lobster, meat crab, steamed fish, sea cucumber, vegetables and noodles.


For 7 adults and 3 children, the bill came up to RM1.2K. Hubby said the food is not nice (for that price). I have no comments as I don't have a very sharp tastebud but I have to say 1 of the dishes was really bad. The lobster salad! This dish contributed half the bill but we wouldn't mind spending the money if it was good. Unfortunately, the meat was very rough, probably coz it was very huge. We find the merchant not being very honest as they simply prepared a huge serving (of lobster) for us. Probably because we didn't order any exotic (and very expensive) seafood so that's the only dish they can 'cut our throat'. Anyway, these are my personal opinion. Maybe we didn't order the right food. But we're definitely not going back to that restaurant again. :p

When we're almost done with dinner, I spotted a cute little boy. He was facing us while his mom was carrying him. Instantly I recognised him... baby Ryan! I walked over to say "Hi" to them. I'm sure Doreen was a bit shocked to see a stranger calling her name. What a small world, eh? It was a pleasure meeting you, Doreen. Hope I didn't give you a scare. Or do you get this kind of 'encounters' very often? :D

Coming up next, our Sunday outing. Stay tuned ya!