GemWing takes over Saviour-V's consciousness...

Lately, Saviour-V's been undergoing a bit of stress. Money issues, apparently.

Good thing that he's got something planned....although he needs to refine his plan to a certain degree.

GemWing leaves Saviour-V's consciousness..

It's moderately tough thinking for oneself, much less for two, or more, at times.

Anyway, I ended up in Penang a few days back. Distant cousin got married.

Left on Friday night (7-3-2003), and got back home on Sunday night. Here's a run-through:

21:00 Friday night - 01:00 Saturday morning:

Barely managed to sleep throughout the trip.

Father's driving nearly drove me mad. A few near-misses, but thankfully, no casualties.

I hope I manage to stay awake if I EVER have to drive anywhere in the dead of night myself.

We finally arrived at an uncle's house (hereafter referred to as Uncle S) in Penang, but I hardly slept well enough; I think my nerves were still frazzled then.

08:00 Saturday morning:

Having rested sufficiently (or NOT, in my case), our uncle led us to another uncle's restaurant.

Pure Penangite buffet. Excellent bread and chicken curry, if I say so myself.

11:00 Saturday morning - 01:15 Sunday morning:

We checked into the Agora Hotel, which was moderately close to Penang's Komtar and Prangin Mall shopping complexes.

Ironically, this same hotel was directly in front of our previous haunt from last year - the Midtowne Hotel.

Not too bad, but the place was QUITE old. But sometimes, age can be a good thing.

Around mid-day, my parents left to attend someone's funeral, leaving me in charge of my two youngest brothers. Plus a sizable sum of money (RM 50 - around 13 USD, but who's complaining? ^_^;;) as well, some of which ended up in Prangin Mall's arcades.

Met a girl round there, and gave her a bit of help with L.A. Machineguns. Quite satisfying, since I'm usually on my own in most arcades. Shidah, if, by some stroke of fortune, you're reading this, thanks.

Returned back to the hotel at 15:00, just to drop off the kids, then went to a few nearby cybercafes. Finally found out that Kotaro Makaritooru is OUT, so here's the place: MangaDownloads.

You've got until Wednesday. (CURRENT UPDATE: you DON'T have much time left...this blog entry's old)

For Malaysian readers of this series (known as "Pakar Judo" there), leave a nicely worded comment in my comment-box or Tag-Board, and I might tell you about what got censored in our copies. Or just pick 'em up and appreciate.

Sometime around 19:00, we went out for dinner, and I must admit that NOTHING ever comes close to Penang-style cooking. Even Penang-style burgers are different.

Take it from someone who had 2 such burgers in that very same night...^_^;; Masala Steaks are hard to find in Selangor, but easy to find along the Penang Esplanade. They're great!

After stuffing ourselves, we took a short walk. Mum gave us a minor history lesson, mentioning her favourite haunts when she was younger...quite informative, I might add.

By 23:00 we returned to our room. I left for the cybercafes again. Got back around 1 in the morning, and slept like a log.

10:00 Sunday morning - 23:00 Sunday night:

Went for breakfast, and Prangin Mall as well. Picked up a few good books there.

Around 12:00, we checked out of our hotel, and drove to our cousin's wedding banquet, which, to our surprise, took place in a wet market! Now, I do believe that you're shocked to hear about that, but let me explain.

The wet market merely occupied the ground floor of a 3-storey community hall, while the banquet took place on the 1st floor above it, fortunately.

We would've left sooner, but several relatives noticed our parents, and a long conversation took place.

We finally left the place at 16:30 and made our way back to Uncle S's place. Stayed for a few hours, then left for home at 19:45.

Got back at 23:00.

Overall, not a bad experience. Hope that we can visit Penang again, later on, this year.