Oops, wrong one…

A little teaser perhaps? Like all car manufacturers always do?

Ok, that’s more like it!! This is actually the first and only clear picture of her that I can get, it’s really difficult to get one for this very big bird.

Her full name is SQ317 A380-800, SQ indicates it’s a Singapore Airlines’ fleet. 3XX is reserved for A380s in their fleet. A380 is… well, this…

Click for larger view

And the 800 is the total maximum passengers it carry if it is configured to all-economy seats. Which it isn’t. This is Singapore Airline we’re talking about, so you might expect it to allow their fleets to have more than ‘all-economy’ configuration. With the business class being the most spacious provided by any airliner, and even more spacious higher-than-first suite class, it has 471 seats in total. So the suite and business class eats up almost double space per economy seat, but to be fair, I do believe they pay far more than double for the price ticket…

My flight to London was in MAS’ MH002 B747-400, so having experienced both planes, I can compare, and I must say, it is very easy to pick the winner. The A380 is quieter, experience less air turbulence (which makes flying feels like a very violent roller coaster ride), is more spacious even in economy class, it is an amazing engineering feat.

Yeap, that’s my seat!!

I guess I have been watching uncountable number of A380 documentaries at Discovery Channel and National Geographic. I remember the endless droning of superlative figures the narrator spits out (“it is enough to stretch over two football fields” kinda line), the delays of its launching date, the problems it faced, one being ensuring the German and French counterparts to be able to share documents, as they use different software thus different formats. I even remember an episode on Singapore Airline’s maiden flight from Changi to Melbourne where the most expensive ticket goes to $100,000. The result, is that you’d get a sense of admiration for all the kind of difficulties it had to go to be able to fly at all…

… and land safely. Unknowingly that it burns 20% less fuel had I been flying in a Boeing 747. It is just magnificent, magnificent… and magnificent.

A side profile view at last… but still obscured =.=

In the mean time, I suppose I will organise another teh tarik session for The Junk Car Club (TJCC). Hell, it’s about time to catch up with si-fu, hopefully Paul Tan, KickingDust and the rest. Details will be known next week perhaps, when Paul Tan returns from Japan.

I’ve been to Penang a few times before, but the latest one is different. There was definitely more freedom, as I went there with my friends, and my, how different Penang, or any place, can be when you’re given more freedom to explore. That is definitely absent if I were to go to such places with families or schoolmates/collegemates/unimates cuz there’s usually less say and that I’ll have to behave ie kinda feel restraint.

Day 1

We arrived just before noon, checked in the hotel at Batu Ferringhi and then we had lunch. Sadly, when we arrived, the rain delayed our plan to do much. The one place we visited was the world’s biggest toy museum, or so it claimed.

First Blood!! This is how Penangitis park their car. Malaysia boleh.

The entrance to the museum. From the outside, it looks smaller than FTZ.Net, so how can it be the biggest toy museum?

Indiana Jones: Hey Snake, you’re ready to kill Bodowi?
Snake: Lock and loaded, though I still feel like killing Kera Jahanam first.
Indiana Jones: Polis kata jangan…

Storm Trooper: U sure u can use The Force to lower the fuel price?
Darth Vader: Honey, if it don’t, we’ll be an endangered species!! This fuel and rice price increase will mean even the most hardcore of ‘perut nasi’ will eat us for breakfast!! And lunch and dinner as well when the next increase happen this August!!
R2D2: ti to to te tot (May The Force be with you!!)

I gotta say, this hanging Jango Fett is very cool!! As I walk below it, it says stuff like…..I forgot, hehehe. But it’s cool, hehehe

To YB Big Foot, if YB Big Monkey goes missing, he’ll be here posing for RM5/hr trying to earn more to cope up with rising cost of living.

The museum is more “cramped” than “biggest” actually, and the lighting is very, very bad. I can hardly snap a satisfyingly good photo in the museum. Nevertheless, for RM10, it was value for money, and the collection of figurines were just massive. You name any iconic American fiction, it’ll have it. However, the only anime figurines that I saw were from Bleach and Fate/Stay Night, so otakus, prepare to be disappointed. For the rest of people who have no life, go for it. It’s worth it.

Day 2

The first stop was the Penang State Museum. There were a number of antique stuffs, which gets kinda boring rather quickly, plus the fact that no pictures can be taken. When we’re done, we walked around the state museum to kill some time until we can go tour around Cheong Fatt Tze’s mansion at 3pm.

This mosque is the oldest mosque in Penang.

The Temple of the Goddess of Mercy.

Asia Cafe in Penang? Lol, very, veeery different than Subang Jaya’s.

Next up, the Islamic museum. There was a room which displayed about Bodohwi’s dad and granddad and their contribution which were…significant I suppose, during those time, that is. So that explains why Bodohwi decided to continue their legacy with his Islam Hadhari crap. Unfortunately, it ends there. To suggest Kera Jahanam able to continue their legacy is like suggesting Pope Benedict XVI to give Friday sermon at the National Mosque….. No, the legacy had ALREADY ended with Bodohwi, zehehehahahahaha!!

This is Cheong Fatt Tze’s mansion. He was known as “Rockefeller of the East”, he had 8 wives, and his mansion is awesome. The unique indigo paint, is water soluble and organic, therefore the walls can breathe and there was not a single crack on the wall after all these years. Somebody from the 19th Century was able to build solid walls, while here we are, in the Iphone era, can’t even prevent leakages in the Parliament even after a RM100 million++ repair work was done. Pakatan Rakyat, take cue of this man’s mansion when researching how to make really, really solid, timeless buildings with minimal cost (I mean, surely this mansion couldn’t have cost anywhere above RM300,000 in the 19th century, right?). The most astonishing feature has got to be the central part of the mansion. I was sweating before I entered the mansion, yet, when I get to the open air central part of the mansion, it was very, very cooling and relaxing. The guide said it’s due to the Feng Shui blabla, so that’s why it’s possible even without air-cond. Brilliant.

By the time the tour ended, it was 4pm++ and I was very, very drained, because I haven’t eaten at all the whole day. Imagine the relief I felt when we finally reached here after getting lost for heading to Penang Street instead of Penang Road. Nasi Kandar Line Clear, a very popular nasi kandar spot, a must-visit spot I suppose given the hype.

The place itself looks really simple, but the food…is legendary. This plate of nasi kandar here, makes Kayu USJ Taipan’s nasi kandar taste like coal. There’s the chicken too, it was humongous!! A very, very satisfying nasi kandar, emmm.

When we’re done, we stopped by to taste this man’s famous cendol, located at a lorong near the overhead bridge near the Komtar tower. It doesn’t come with pulut, but it was god-sent delicious nevertheless. It has to be the coconut milk that made it some of the greater cendol I’ve ever tasted, very fresh, very smooth and very flavourful. If only it comes with pulut, I’d definitely rate it above SS15’s cendol.

By the time we’re done eating, it was 6pm, and we went to the beach for a swim at the beach nearby our hotel. Dangerous? Not from the wave which was rather calm, but there were giant rough rocks everywhere and God, it was painful when I scratched the surface! Until today, my legs have yet to heal back from the scratches fully. Thankfully, none of them are severe enough to leave permanent scars…I think.

That night, we had a walk around the night market, and I got myself a new slipper because it was raining and my current slippers were too slippery to wear anymore even when it’s dry. I also got myself a 3/4 pant for RM15, but the thread used to sew it was rubbish. It torn just after my first usage, I had to sew it back at home. Heh, talk about hidden cost when things get suspiciously cheap.

Day 3

We arrived here first after we checked out from the hotel: the Fort Cornwallis at Padang Kota. It is said to be where Sir Francis Light first landed on the island.

That’s right, I had to climb that light house that high.

From the top of the light house. Nice view, eh? I can view most part of Penang, even the Penang Bridge.

We stopped by Bukit Bendera, which is the tallest hill in Penang, after that, and were looking forward to ride the train up (almost) to its peak, but the train service is just atrocious. When we arrived there around noon, the next train scheduled to go up is at 3pm. That ’s a very long gap, it makes KTM Komuter look more efficient than London’s Underground Tube. As we were planning to head back home AT 3pm, we had to cancel our wish to visit the peak.

We headed to the ferry port as our last stop in Penang, and had our last meal here. Hai Nan Town serves typical Penangite foods Hainanese style, albeit in a more upmarket appeal rather than a hawker style. Here’s what we ordered:

Top left: Mixed vegetable
Bottom Left: Chicken Curry Kapitan
Right: Stingray Assam Pedas

These have gotta be the best food in its class!! Never have I tried a better Assam Pedas and Kapitan evar!! They’ve flavourful, they’re not served with 6 gallons of oil, and they’re so fresh like it’s made to order!!

This white coffee is very, very delicious!! Even though I’m more of a tea enthusiast (especially green tea), I am a big fan of white coffee, and this particular cup tasted better than what you get at any typical Old Town or Uncle Lim’s!!

Bee Koh Moy, which is black glutinous rice with coconut milk. It’s served hot, which surprised me cuz it definitely looks like cendol to me in the picture and before it touched my lips, lol. It also has bits of crunchy ikan bilis (anchovy) inside it, which made it all the more pleasureful to chew.

And so the short 2-night-trip came to an end. Thank you so much for everything, Penang!! The motorists may be mad, but we’ve survived!! Maybe, we really should paste a sticker on Hasnol’s car “WE’VE SURVIVED PENANG. HAVE YOU?” wakakakaka.

For the full image galleries, click here.

Yohohoho, Kevin has just posted an Audi Myvito image, and then I remembered I snapped a greater Myvito than his a while back:

KUSAHKENNA!!!!!!!! Can’t afford to buy a real BMW, then just get the pig nose-grille?!?!?! Oh right, BMW = chick magnet, and Myvito is a girly car, so that makes this Perodua M5 a super duper ultra omega magnificent chick magnet?!?!

Heh, “change your lifestyle” advice taken a bit too far.

On another note, I snapped a Myvi offender a looong time ago:

Hazard light is for emergency only, for God’s sake!! Why are there people who’s still ignorant to this rule?!?!
Seriously, it’s annoying to see people using it for heavy rains, just turn on the lights, goddamit!! After all, Myvi has LED rear lights, it’s definitely brighter than the conventional light bulb on most budget cars nowadays.

Which should be translated as “The beautiful sky”……right?

Yohohoho, I guess watching Sola influences me a bit to snap a couple of beautiful shots of the sky, courtesy of my Sony-E w810i. Click on the image for full size viewing.