road trip to johor bahru -- adhwa kahwin apek

after traveling in penang and perak, i stayed at my sister's place in kuala lumpur (kl) for about one week. while waiting for mummy to come and join me for the second part of my trip, i did some catching up with my friends and explored new places. 

two days after i reached kl, i made a road trip to johor bahru (jb) with amani and pipah to attend adhwa's wedding. it took us about 4 hours to reach our destination. of course we got sesat on the way there. the gps brought us into kawasan hutan that has rumah warga emas. how weird is that? haha. luckily a kind pak cik led us to the right place. thanks pak cik!

adhwa and apek.

btw, i was terkezut beruk when i tet-tet my touch n go card (with rm30 balance) at jb's toll and found out that we actually had to pay rm41.30! so pergi balik dah rm82.60. mahal nak mampus! cost for minyak kereta pulak almost rm90. panik jugak lah masa tu cos i couldn't undur my car cos ada kereta kat belakang. plus i already tet-tet my touch n go. last sekali, terpaksalah sorang pekerja tol ni datang to the booth to get the baki amaun yang tak cukup. nasib baik abang tu baik tak marah2 iolls. hehe. 

at the event, we met our friends (ida, mus, lala, nafis, anis nadiah and mawar) who came one day earlier than us (cos they wanted to attend the nikah ceremony). adhwa's wedding was small yet quite fancy. the main course was delicious too. after taking some shameless selfies, we terus made our way back to kl (this time mawar tumpang my car). even though the driving was long and tiring, i had a pleasant time catching up with my friends. 

sweet kan weolls. hikhik.

#selfieberjemaah

more selfie berjemaah!

lagipun who knows when we can meet each other like this again, kan? 

kuikuikui!

perak (part 2) -- kinta riverwalk, khizanat & hospital bahagia

after having a dinner at his place, aus and his younger sister took me to sungai kinta's riverwalk. it used to be a historic tin mining site turned into a colourful led park (macam i-city kat shah alam tu la tapi versi kecik). there were restaurants at the riverside and you can sewa and kayuh basikal keliling sungai if you want. but nothing much to see or do actually. 

mini i-city.

we also singgah at khizanat cafe (founded by projek rabak) in bandar ipoh which supports local talents such as musicians, writers, penyair, you name it. it was already late so there was nobody around except staffs khizanat. plus, they only have gigs during weekends. i had kopi istimewa khizanat (rm3.50) which looked like kopi warung tapi rasa dia kawww! they also have meatballs, burger and maggi goreng but i didn't try them cos i was still kenyang.

check out the cool mural.

they also sell merchandises.

the next morning, aus drove me around his former tempat tinggal -- the very well-known hospital bahagia at tanjung rambutan. i was really intrigued and curious about the place and its residents. i could actually see some of the patients from far and then secretly imagined what their stories would be and wondered who they were before coming here. fyi, this place is huge! besides the hospital, it also has ponds, farms and parks which i kinda think resembles a resort. maybe it wasn't a terrible place to stay after all?

very resort-like kan? (gambar dari internet).

what a peculiar way to end my stay in perak, kan? i know stalking pesakit hospital bahagia is a weird thing to do but i really enjoyed it. now i sound like a psycho. hihihi (gelak creepy). thanks aus for giving me an exclusive tour! i then made my way to kuala lumpur by taking a 2-hour train which cost me rm35. mahal kan? 

bye, perak!

alhamdulillah. the first half of my trip went quite well. i'll write about the other half of my trip in johor and singapore soon. insyaAllah. 

perak (part 1) -- mee rebus tapah, gua tempurung & plan b

it's my last day in penang and it's the day i headed to perak. pagi2 lagi we walked to weld quay jetty. we took a ferry to cross the laut to get to butterworth bus terminal. it's a good way to enjoy the sea breeze and see penang from a different view. fyi, you have to pay some pengeras to enter the island but to go out of the island (by ferry/car) is free. 

farewell, penang. see you again.

we took the 8.30 am bus to amanjaya, ipoh which should only cost rm15/ person but we kena tipu by this akak cina who charged us rm20. so keji! it took only 2 hours from butterworth to ipoh. my good friend (mustika) drove 1.5 hours all the way from manjung and picked me up at amanjaya to take me jalan2 in perak. so sweeeet! 

we wanted to go to gua tempurung in gopeng which should only took us 30 minutes. but being us the direction-bimbos, we (of course) got sesat and ended up in tapah which is way far from gopeng (like 30 minutes away). no surprise! but little did we know that it was (somehow) a blessing in disguise. we discovered a restaurant which serves tapah's famous mee rebus which is so delicious! 

the super yummy mee rebus tapah.

we turned our way back to gopeng and alhamdulillah we got it right this time! we reached gua tempurung! we were so excited! we wanted to do the extreme tour which involves getting merangkak in gua, meredah sungai and all that tomb raider shit. unfortunately, we didn't dress properly (must wear sport shoes and bring torchlight) and they have limited morning sessions on weekdays. so we could only do the dry tour (number 2: top of the world) for rm9/person. 

gua tempurung people! where you at, where you at?

tow = 'top of the world' tour.

the majestic gua tempurung.

tanggungjawab berselfie jangan dilupakan.

the 1 hour and 40 minutes tour was soooo overwhelmingly surreal! i was blown away by the cave's majestic interior and our sempoi tour guide (abang zaki) made the experience even better! but i tak puas hati tak dapat buat the wet tour so i'm planning to come here again soon for that one. i must!

so surreal!

pembentukan awal kristal.

modern day cavemen.

our sempoi tour guide, abang zaki.

then mus drove us to pekan ipoh because we wanted to chill out at some cool cafe. anehnya banyak kedai tutup. luckily 'plan b' was open. it was an old gudang turned into a minimalist cafe which celebrates yasminism (of yasmin ahmad, my inspiration). the service was a bit slow but my iced mocha (rm13.50) and mustika's iced chocolate was great.

behind me is j.w.w. birch clock tower.

pekan ipoh.

when plan a fails, proceed with plan b.

with my bro, mus.

sedapppp!

pastu mus wanted me to try funny mountain's famous tau fu fa but too bad it was closed :( it was getting dark so mus sent us to aus's place. i stayed at aus's place for a night. before i went to kl the next day, aus took me to some unique places.

to be continued...

penang day 3 (part 2) -- cendol legend, colourful burgers & ernest zacharevic

around 3 pm, we're already back in george town. i wanted to try the famous 70's ice ball at armenian street but the kedai tutup :( so i walked alone to gerai penang road famous cendol at keng kwee street that i planned to visit previously. the gerai is literally in front of the original gerai cendol teochew. unlike teochew which has many branches now, this gerai remains as the one and only gerai ever since it started. since i've tried teochew's cendol before, i had to try this gerai's cendol too. it was soooo good especially after a long motorbike ride under the hot sun. murah pulak tu, only rm2.30 a bowl.

the gerai i visited, penang road famous chendol.

opposite of the gerai i visited is the original gerai teochew chendul.

the real deal.

as promised, meksha, min and jiji (i made another new friend) took us to gerai 'cowboy burger' in jelutong. the burgers were made by real abang bomba in front of a fire station. haha. it's only a small gerai burger but they served their grilled beef/chicken burgers with their signature coloured and (mildly) flavoured buns! they had buns in pink (strawberry), green (pandan), purple (blueberry) and black (charcoal). how unique and exciting! my burger was sooooo tasty! plus for burger bakar, they're so cheap too (price starts at rm 4.50). 

mine was pink (strawberry). hihi.

blueberry and charcoal burgers.

pastu, they drove us to straits quay where there was this big luxurious mall and a port where all the yachts and bot mewah parking. damn, i wish i have a yacht too! we noticed there was a group of people painting some poles at the port. at first we buat dunno but one of them looked familiar. after stalking and staring at them (like orang jakun), i finally gathered my courage, tebalkan muka and asked him, 

"excuse me. are you ernest, that famous painter?"

"errr... which one of us are you talking to?" (smiles)

"you! i'm talking to you!"

"errr... yeah." (senyum malu2)

ernest zacharevic in his element.

yesss! i knew it! that was the best part of the night, meeting and talking to ernest zacharevic (seriously, if you don't know him, just google him)! i have so much admiration and respect for what he's doing. we were staring at him and it got pretty awkward. so we decided to leave. but before doing so, i (for one more time) tried to act cool and shouted,

"bye, ernest!" (waves)

"bye!" (smiles and waves)

i'm such a weido. hahaha. btw, that's pretty much the end of my penang trip. my next destination was perak where i had so much fun exploring a cave! more details soon ;)

p/s: please put on sunblock when in penang to avoid getting sunburned like me!

penang day 3 (part 1) -- bukit bendera & batu feringgi

my third day in penang was the day i became a mat rempit. ahaks.  

i memang planned to spend my 1st and 2nd day in george town and go outside of george town on the 3rd day. so we rent a motorbike and merempit to bukit bendera and batu feringgi. now, this was quite a scary thing to do. i was told that penang road users are as brutal as the ones in KL. i was also super not confident to bawak a motor especially dekat jalan besar. my friends know how terrible my sense of direction is. pastu our phones takdak internet pulak, so we were gps-less. regardless, i saw this as an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone, be adventurous and all that deep 'carpe diem' stuffs. 

being frugal, i had to be extra rajin to survey harga sewa motor. there are a lot of kedai motor sewa at chulia street. they also have basikal and kereta sewa. after menyiasat, the cheapest sewa for motor manual biasa was rm25/day. kalau motor auto or scooter lagi mahal la of course. sadly the rm25 ones dah fully booked so we rented motor yang rm30/day. the deposit was rm200. 

lu pehal tengok2 gua? (gaya mat rempit)

despite the possibility of getting hit by larger vehicles, i think riding a motorbike in penang is a great idea. you can save a lot of time riding through busy traffics and you don't need a lot of fuel (kitorang isi minyak rm5 tapi guna tak sampai separuh pun). fyi, basikal sewa pun dah rm15/day. so paying rm15 for a motorbike is definitely a better deal. plus bicycles can't get you very far. pusing2 dalam george town boleh lah (but i recommend you to walk instead, unless you rasa bergaya naik basikal). 

first, we merempit to bukit bendera/penang hill, only 8 km from george town. on the way, you can singgah at lorong kulit flea market if you want. we didn't cos kitorang terlepas lorong tu. lol. the students entrance fee was rm4 (must show mykad and student card). we rode a funicular train to reach the top of the hill. another option is by hiking, but no thanks. the breeze was slightly cooler at the hilltop and i could see george town, penang bridge and even selat melaka. there were also an auditorium, an owl museum, restaurants, a mosque, a hindu temple and some heritage houses. you can buy a photoshopped picture of yourself konon2 kat atas bukit bendera waktu malam for rm30. but i don't like to waste my money on stuffs like that. 

main entrance to penang hill.

very the curam gilos.

amen, sister!

hoyeahhh!

the teropongs.

the view from the top of the hill.

one of the heritage houses.

next, we vroom-vroomed our way to batu feringgi, 19km from penang hill. on the way, we singgah at gurney drive sekejap. there were big shopping complexes, hotels, condos and restaurants at the beach side. from what i heard, gurney drive ni popular dengan tempat makan dia. but most of them macam non-halal je. so kitorang sightseeing je kat situ. 

this is gurney drive yo!

at batu feringgi, we went to a beach with a lot of batu. i just had to singsing my kaki jeans and celup my kaki in the water. so nice! i felt like dipping in my whole body in the water but luckily i didn't as i later found out the water might be polluted with e.coli bacteria.

baru feringgi beach.

feeling2 tugu negara.

as far as i know, e.coli ni from najis. now siapa yang tak senonoh sangat gi berak kat dalam air pantai ni? meh cheq gonyoh cili kat bontot dia!

to be continued...

penang day 2 (part 2) -- interactive museum, padang kota lama & moustache houze

i wanted to try penang's famous teochew cendol at its original gerai at keng kwee street. but when i asked this pakcik cina for its direction, another pakcik cina (out of nowhere) approached us and offered to walk us to a nearby franchise.

"buat apa jalan jauh2. kat sini pun ada jugak. sama saja. mari ikut uncle."

i terkezut and felt suspicious at first but later found this pakcik was so kind to help us. tochey pakcik! akhirnya i ended up at one of teochew's kiosk in a mall dekat area komtar. i was a bit tak puas hati sebab tak dapat experience the authenticity of eating cendol kat gerai tepi jalan :( anywho, i had its original cendol (rm3.90) and laksa penang (rm6.90). cendol dia sedap biasa2 lah but laksa penang dia very the sedap gilos!

must try in penang. so yummeh!

then we took a hop-on-hop-off bus to get to 'made in penang: interactive museum' nearby weld quay. the students entrance fee was rm10. there were miniatures, multimedia stations and the main attraction, "3D" paintings. basically, you can take photos of yourselves looking like you're a part of the paintings. so cool! but i was kinda exhausted and turned off with the crowd, so i only posed with several artworks. 

a part of the museum's old building miniature.

spidermannnn, tolong cheq sattt!

teh tarik satu!

cheq hempuk jugak dengan buah kelapa ni kang (tetiba emo).

fire!!!

ada cili kat celah gigi hang la dinosaur. tadi makan nasi lemak lettewww.

round 1! fight!

helpppp!!! (over kan aku).

ketuk kepala dia dengan terompah. muahahaha.

piu, piu, piu (bunyi pistol).

hantu2, cheq berangkat dulu naaaa.

comey tak kak ton?

tarikkkk!

afterwards, we walked to padang kota lama a.k.a. the esplanade to jalan2 around the historic fort cornwallis area and enjoy the beach view. ramai jugak orang melepak kat sini. when it's getting dark, we walked to padang kota's medan selera to try its famous pasembur for dinner. cheq lupa nama kedai pasembuq tu (hussein pasembur kot) tapi kedai tu ramai orang serbu. harga dia pricey jugak la. rasa dia sedap tapi takde lah sedap gila. okay2 je. 

sunset.

padang kota's beach.

rehat kaki tepi pantai satttt.

tu diaaa, pasembuqqq!

kaki cheq sakit gila sebab jalan kaki to so many places. walaupun begitu, on our way walking back to hotel, cheq masih lagi gigih singgah kat sebuah kafe bertajuk moustache houze. from my penyiasatan, this cafe doesn't have pork and alcohol in its menu. ini sungguh rare! and i just love its cozy ambience and unique decoration. 

rumah misai.

a place for people with and without moustache.

please order here.

a book shelf made from pipes.

rifleksyionnnn.

it has 3 floors; ground floor is where people order drinks/desserts and where most of them lepak (got buaian too). first floor has small themed rooms for more privacy. and the top floor is a spacious room with an access to the balcony. 

the "buaians" on the ground floor.

a mural in one of the themed rooms on the first floor.

the top floor.

i tried its signature fruity ice cubes served with soda (rm11.90). its presentation and taste were nice however i still think it's too pricey. but i'd totally come here again when i'm in george town next time. 

soda and kiwi ice cubes.

that's the end of my second day in penang. it was very exhausting but soooo exciting! on our third day, we rented a motorbike and explored places outside of george town. it was a thrilling adventure (especially for someone with a shitty sense of direction like me). i'll write about it soon!

good night, george town!