Road Trip

I just finished my road trip with Chui Yan and her family to Genting, Ipoh and Penang Island. We drove up in 3 seperate cars. We headed up to Genting on Thursday and spend the night at Theme Park Hotel. The room was okay, but I've stayed in the Deluxe Room in First World before and it's much better. I bunked with Chui Yan's grandfather. The guy wakes up really early without and an alarm, good thing neither of us snored hehe.

We when to visit the casino and Chui Yan's father gave us some cash to play the slots. If you haven't played the digital slot machines in Genting before, here's how they work in a nutshell. In the old classic slot machine, you try to match all three tumble in a line to win, for example 3 cherries wins you the jackpot. However, the digital slot machines allows you to bet up to ten lines. The lines come in a different combination, top line, bottom line, criss-cross... you get the idea. They have 2 cent, 5 cent and 20 cent machines. So each line you bet is 1 credit.

Chui Yan and her grandfather kept betting the maximum lines, so obviously after awhile, you'll lose out. I told her to stagger her bet, to bet only 1 line out of every 10 times... that's roughly the ratio she was winning at the machine she was sitting. At first, she won about 20 ringgit, but she didn't wanted to quit and ended up losing about 40 ringgit in the end.

Anyway, the next day, we walked around a bit and ended up at the Galleria. It's basically a tribute to Lim Goh Tong and how he build Genting. He's got an amazing story to tell, everyone wants to his grandson/daughter.

He's got a huge picture of him smiling at the Galleria entrance. I think he's smiling and thinking of all the money people are giving him in the casino.

I took a picture of a model of Genting. Most of the resort you see in this picture is in Pahang, lower down the hill where Gotong Jaya is (not in picture) is in the Selangor side. Not sure of this, but this is what the Galleria guide told me.

After that, me and Chui Yan drove to Ipoh on our own instead of going in a convoy with her family. I stopped by the police station to ask for directions and the nice punjabi police officer gave very good directions. We headed to Batang Kali, then passed Kubu Bahru and then to the highway all the way to Ipoh.

Chui Yan wanted to eat Chicken Rice in town and we both didn't remember the shop we ate at once so we spend about 30 minutes driving around in circles until I called my aunt for directions. It was already 3PM by the time we reached the chicken rice shop and there wasn't much left. Anyway, after that we when to visit my grandmother and aunt.

Took a picture of my aunt and my cousin's daugther. My niece (my brother's daughter) and my cousin's kid both have the same smile. Look at their eyes.


After the short time in Ipoh, we drove straight to Penang. We used the new Jelutong Highway and I must say it was a really nice drive though I have to admit I'm not used to people driving at 80 km/ph on it. Maybe Penang people don't drive as fast as Klang valley people.

We stayed at Sunway hotel. Lots of hawker food outside. Most of the time in Penang was spend eating. We visited the Khoo Kongsi and also the Snake temple. I liked the Khoo Kongsi, took some really nice pictures with Chui Yan's camera. Will upload them soon. The Snake Temple wasn't as great as it used to be anymore. Less snakes now. I guess it's because all the land around it is industrial now, so no more snakes coming to the temple for shelter.

Man, I ate so much I put on about 5Kg's. New few days, I'm gonna eat less (I hope). On the way back from Penang, we stopped in Ipoh again and my aunt took us to buy Pomelo's in Penang. if you ever wanted to buy Pomelo's in Penang, head towards Tambun town and about 2-3 kilometers before Tambun town, you'll see this stall on your left with an old chinese man selling Pomelo's. His orchard is right next to the stall. My aunt knows him well because she always buys from him and he's pretty honest in telling you if his pomelo's are good or not.



By the time we drove back, it was getting dark and raining heavily. We were listening to the music CD's we bought in Penang. She bought Korean TV Series soundtrack compilation. I bought chinese oldies song and a Johnny Cash CD. We spend the next 2-3 hours driving back listening to her Korean CD. Didn't understand a single word (except for bits of English in the songs) they were singing. At least it helped me focus on driving.