A Day in Penang

Everyone got up earlier on the Saturday after having a nice rest at the hotel the night before. We were up in plenty of time for breakfast before joining my Mum and Aunt again at her place. Then came the plan to head to Penang Island to visit more relatives. My Aunt tagged along as well.

We arrived at my other Aunt's place well before lunch - there was hardly any traffic getting there. We decided to have lunch at one of the nasi kandar shop near my Aunt's apartment and it was a delight. Irfan especially felt sleepy after the curry and ended up on the sofa while we were waiting for Zohor prayers.

Irfan contemplating what to eat next ...

I think that's a thumb up

Making acquintance with the local wildlife

Next stop .... Padang Kota. As per custom, we would order pasembor, laksa, sotong bakar, sotong kangkung and ais kacang; not necessarily in that order. It was gorgeous although the laksa could have been better - it didn't come with shrimp paste.

We just sat at the esplanade after the meal with the boys playing with bubbles and running around the place.

Nah! We stick to bubbles ...

That's Butterworth at the far end ....

Let's start ...

The wind blowing heavily ...

Next stop was at another Aunt's place in Kepala Batas. They had recently moved there from Butterworth and this was the first time I came over to visit them at their new place. More food and by this time, the boys were already getting grumpy. When we finally dropped my Mum and Aunt, it was already past sunset. Another early for the long journey tomorrow ...

The Preparations

When Anita got her mind set for something, she would obsessively pursue it. And the family open house the other was no exception. She was planning it for some time and got all the logistics organised well ahead.

For her part, she cooked her famous soto. She ordered a few items from her Instagram contacts as well as getting one of her friends to bake the cake for us.

Her Mum helped with the decorating and she got one of our maid's friend to stay over as well.

Certainly all her effort came into fruition as things started to fall into place. Luckily since our apartment was recently renovated and one of the leaked bathroom had been fixed. A few days before, she went to Sungai Buloh with her friend to get some fresh flower pots for the balcony. Therefore decorations was rather straight-forward.

The Lone Droner

The weather on the two afternoons we were in PD was great. And the tides were high before sunset when we went to the beach. That made for some nice strong waves and great condition to hit the sea. The boys certainly enjoyed it.

The warm sun contrasted well with the cool sea water - sunscreen needed of course. Once you got in, you felt like staying in all day since to was really nice and refreshing in the water. The great breeze also was an added bonus.

But somebody had to fly the drone. Despite the heavy breeze, the drone held its position well and flying was not a problem at all.

I managed to get some great 4K footage and the customary photographs as well. Unfortunately there were clouds on the horizon, hence I was not able to get the red sunset as the sun kiss the horizon. I was happy enough however.

I brought the drone out on both afternoons and managed to fill up my memory card. Good thing I brought the charger along, otherwise I would be out of juice by the end of the first afternoon.

Now came the part of doing editing on those huge 4K files ..... That could wait I supposed ....

Awal Muharram Outing

After the series of public holidays and weekends spoilt by having to be on call, Awal Muharram couldn't come early enough for me. As soon as I finished my morning rounds, I had an early lunch and took an afternoon nap until around three. Form the last four days, I hardly had any uninterrupted sleep due ton phone calls and emergency.

As soon as I woke up, I got the boys packed up, and we headed out to Tasik Perdana for a walk in the park. Boy, how much I needed that!

First stop was the Lake Garden itself. Got then car parked, and we strolled ton the playground, running on the grass before again, it got dark! Afternoon rain again in KL. The heaven held for another 20 minutes or so, enough for the boys to burn some sugar.

You rock!

Let's stroll

When it finally rained, we were already inside then car, headed to Hornbill Restaurant - at Bird Park - where both Idlan and Irfan had their birthday parties before. We had some tea there while waiting for the rain to pass by. It was just around 5.30 when we left the restaurant and bought the ticket to enter the park.

We didn't venture far, but spent most of the time feeding the birds and fishes. A couple of years ago, part of the park was closed for renovation. They were building a pavilion with a koi pond in the middle of it. I was there before but, minus the boys, so they were excited when they had the chance to feed the fishes. It helped that it was late on the afternoon and there were hardly that many people inside the park at the time. No need to jostle to buy the animal feed and to stroll around.

Feeding time

And the fish kept on coming

Time to go now. All well fed!

By the time we were done, it was almost closing time. The animal food were sold on vending machines but that day, none of the machine were in order. This was mainly due to the coin slot getting stuck with small change. Luckily, there were kiosk selling the food instead, but certainly for a premier park, they should look into the maintenance side a bit more closely. Not to mention that bit cost a bomb to get in, especially for foreigners. Luckily, we did not bring our maid along. Her entrance fee might be more than the four of us combined!

Great day out I thought. By then time we left Task Perdana, we were starving and had to look around for food. Luckily we were staying at the apartment, and there were plenty of eatery around Bangsar. 

Pavilion Again

​Idlan has his Quran class today, so I returned to Gombak for Iftar today to join the rest of the family. As I was on call yesterday and due to lack of sleep, I ended up sleeping in front of the TV as soon as I reached home. I was woken up in time for Maghrib, and groggily I went upstairs for food. It was one of those meal where you couldn't remember exactly what you've eaten. I was better after the shower.

The famous fountain at night​

So, on the way back to the apartment, we decided to take a tour to Pavilion as I had to settle my credit card bills. Peckish since I hardly eaten during iftar, I gobbled down some sandwich, and then with the boys had a nightcap at Godiva. Nice rich, fattening chocolate!

After the meal, Anita did some shopping, and I was left with my camera to explore the Raya decorations around Pavilion. The theme was not very clear, but the had plenty of way - traditional Malay kite - hanging around. Plenty of stalls around the main foyer, selling cookies mainly, but nothing much else to talk about. 

The area around Bukit Bintang and the fountain was still buzzing at that hour. There were plenty of foreigners, quite sizeable from the Middle East. And the traffic was still packed even close to 10 pm.

The place was still buzzing at this hour​