my journey

I was in Penang over the last weekend.

I went up north with my grandma, because she goes there every week to babysit my little cousin whom parents are away working. My visit there is on various purposes - visiting my aunts and cousin, as well as going around the island. However, on the first night, I was made to play congkak with Sonia. When I'm not around, she usually play with grandma, although grandma tells me that Sonia will always come out with her own rules to make sure she wins haha. If she feels that she is losing, she will make it a timed-game lol.

Congkak game.

Carom game also got.

Look at her soft toys. I think she can open a museum already haha.

We played a drawing game, in which we would model to each other. I purposely drew her to look like an alien haha.

Taken in her room, with the rest of her soft toys. That Barney behind there can talk when we press its stomach. Damn scary especially at night-lor haha.

On the next day, I went out for breakfast with them, and helped my grandma who cooked Thai laksa for lunch. Immediately after that, Sonia asked me to play congkak with her again. It's not that I didn't wanna play with her; but the holes were too small for my huge fingers, so I ended up teaching her some Japanese instead haha.

After that, I felt like wandering the island a little bit. Sonia didn't let me go, because she would not have company anymore if I leave. However, I told her it would be just a while, although I took hours to come back in the end lol. As we all know, Georgetown was enlisted at UNESCO World Cultural Heritage City not so long ago and I have never really gone to these places. Since I was small, all the places my parents took us were to shopping mall, shopping mall and shopping mall. Damn boring you know. So, I decided to visit these places this time.

I went out without a plan to be honest. I took a bus and got down at the jetty, went to some tourist information centre to grab some brochures and roughly plan my route for the day.

#1 Malayan Railway Building - Pengkalan Weld

#2 Clock Tower - Lebuh Light

#3 Fort Cornwallis - Lebuh Light

Rows of canons at the fort.

#4 Fort Cornwallis Lighthouse - Lebuh Light

As someone who is afraid of height, I have no idea why I climbed up the steel staircase all the way until the highest point of the lighthouse, only to curse myself when I was up there because I didn't know how would I go down after that lol. It was only 21 meters high but every time I looked down, I felt like my heart was gonna drop down haha. In fact, I gripped both of my hands so tight on the handle all the time, fearing that I would slip.

There was an girl from UK right in front of me and she looked so calm, unlike me who was almost struggling all the way up there haha.

The visitors' book at the entrance to the lighthouse.

Super steep ladder before we reach the viewing deck.

This hole was so tiny (pun unintended), I had to bend down to get through this hole.

Had that girl to take this picture for me, and you would notice the Penang Bridge just above the yellow building.

After my crazy adventure at the lighthouse, I continue my walk to the next few destinations.

#5 War Memorial - Jalan Padang Kota Lama

#6 Padang Kota Lama

#7 City Hall - Jalan Padang Kota Lama

#8 Town Hall - Lebuh Light

#9 Court Building - Lebuh Farquhar

#10 St George's Church - Lebuh Farquhar

Lets take a break from the pictures of buildings, shall we? Here are a couple of candid shots I took along my walk at Georgetown.

I thought this ang moh lady was showing me a peace sign, but when I looked again at the picture, it was something else actually haha.

"Ello uncle, you're selling durians or sleeping?"

Okay, lets continue with my walk.

#11 King Street Temples - 30-40, Lebuh King

#12 The Pinang Peranakan Mansion - 29 Lebuh Gereja

The side entrance to the mansion.

Look at the red telephone booth. Macam London haha.

Oh hi! Too bad my Nyonya isn't around =\

I have been to the Baba Museum in Malacca last year and I suppose it wouldn't be anything too different here. Besides, I was in a hurry as it was getting late and the sky was beginning to get cloudy and dark that evening.

When I was busy taking shots at this mansion, a group of girls who were competing in some treasure hunt competition approached me and asked me to take pictures for them. At first one of them thought I was a worker at the mansion haha. Only after a while that another friend told this blur girl that I was a tourist =.=

I continue my walk along the most muhibbah road in the country - Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling. Why I said muhibbah is because there are a mosque, a Kuan Yin temple, an Indian temple and a church along this road. When I was walking along this road, I was approached by a group of ang moh. I dunno why I get approaced so many times in just a day. Maybe I'm just too famous haha wtf.

Anyway, they were asking me if I had any idea how to get to the jetty. They told me how some people (whom I supposed to be thrisaw riders) were demanding for some fees when they asked them for directions. Not a local myself, I looked into their map and told them the directions, which is just about 10-minute walk from where we were standing that time. No wonder I found their slang a bit weird, something like kangaroo sound, because they came from Australia haha.

#13 Goodness Of Mercy Temple - Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling

There were opera performance later that night as there was a stage set up already.

Opera performers putting up their make-ups.

#14 Mahamariamman Temple - Lebuh Queen

#15 Kaptian Keling Mosque - Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling

#16 Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Penang Base - 120, Lebuh Armenian

#17 Masjid Melayu Lebuh Acheh - Lebuh Acheh

#18 Yap Kongsi Temple - Lebuh Armenian

I cancelled my plan to visit Khoo Kongsi because it I reached there five minutes before its closing time. Perhaps I will visit it at the next trip. While I was walking along Lebuh Acheh, I noticed there were a group of people gathering under an open space. Out of my curiosity, I went to have a closer look and apparently, these people were selling second-hand stuff. Some traders were so simple that they only used a piece of old newspaper to display their items on the floor.

What's interesting about their stuff is that all the items are limited editions ones because they all come in one unit each only haha.

Initially, I thought they were selling pirated VCDs haha.

#19 Clan Jetties - Pengkalan Weld

These jetties are nothing much different from the one I went with Michelle at Kuala Sepetang.

In fact, newly wed couples were there for their photo shooting session.

I ended my day by taking the Rapid Penang Hop-On free shuttle bus to the city to have my routine dose of Penang Road cendol and grab some nutmeg at Chowrasta Market.

Don't call yourself a Malaysian if you ask me what is this. Answer - this is my old Lego set.

And finally, I managed to take a picture of my old shop that I have passed by since I was a toddler. It is located along Jalan Burma, near the roundabout at Komtar. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you my old shop.

Welcome to Calvin Trading.

But nowadays economy is so bad, I had no choice but to close shop-lor.

Short note: All pictures taken with Sony DSC-T100.

Here comes the fireworks shots.

This is a sequel from the previous entry about Nagaoka Fireworks Festival 2009. Official statistics stated that there were 880,000 people who watched the fireworks in two days this year. Crazy, I know, but Japanese take this as one of the main festival come every summer.

Pictures will do all the talking in this entry. Besides, I don't think there is anything much for me to caption these fireworks pictures. These pictures were selected from almost 2,000 shots I took in two days. I would like to know which one is your pick by telling me your choice in the comments' box. Thank you.

#9 三尺玉 (Sanjakutama) - the biggest fireworks on display - diameter 90cm, weight 300kg, height 600m and diameter 650m wide. It was full moon this year.