EuCHO0.NET - (^(0o)^) The Pigatory

9am - did not wake up early as i had wanted.. but still ok lah.. no idea where to go for breakfast.. so we rode on our bicycles to Chinatown to search for food.. found a chinese dim sum restaurant along Lebuh Campbell.. looked like a decent place to have our meal.. so we settled down over there..

continued on our way.. the plan was to visit the Burmese Temple then to Midlands Shopping Shopping Centre.. and if time allowed.. cycle to the waterfalls north of Penang Hill followed by a short visit of Batu Feringhi Beach..

one main observation travelling on the roads were the appearance of road signs labeled "Jalan Sehala" at almost every road entry.. i had no idea what it meant.. had always thought of it as a road name.. so was quite baffled by the frequuent occurence of this road sign.. which we later discovered that the meaning of the sign was "One Way Road".. no wonder the road sign kept popping up.. since most of the roads over there were one way streets..

the one-way roads posed quite a problem to our navigation.. had to make detours to avoid traveling against the flow of traffic.. thus there was a constant feeling that we were moving off course.. so we ended up taking a much longer time than expected to reach the Burmese Temple.. it was a Saturday morning and the roads were quite busy.. we presumed it was due to the people knocking off from work and heading towards the ferry terminal to leave the island for the weekend..

11:30am - anyways.. first thing when we reached the temple.. JH was excitedly looking out for vegetarian food stalls that may be present there.. we had trouble crossing the road especially with our bikes.. there were no nearby traffic lights along Jalan Burma.. and the road was very narrow.. someone seemed to have called us "butok" while we were trying to cross the road.. what were two poor cyclists supposed to do..

there were two temples there.. the Dharmikharma Burmese Temple and the Wat Chayamangkalaram Temple.. two buddhists temples located opposite each other along Lorong Burma.. how convenient.. we entered the Burmese Temple first.. pushed our bicycles to the tuckshop inside and the lady there kindly allowed us to park our bicycles outside the shop.. phew.. finally can cool down after the long ride.. we explored the temple.. i had an interesting time looking at the paintings on the walls and reading the story that it was trying to convey.. there was a very tall statue of a Buddha over there.. the tallest Buddha statue in Penang? took some photographs inside the temple..

then we went over to the Thai buddhist temple.. there was a huge sleeping Buddha over there.. took a panorama photograph of it..

1:30pm - JH's phone was running flat by then.. he forgot to replace his battery in the morning.. we were also running out of water.. so decided to return to our rooms for a short rest before we set off for our Penang Hill trip.. was getting late already so we gave up the idea of going to the waterfalls and Batu Feringhi Beach..

went back to the row of shops along Jalan Burma to look for some food.. i wasn't hungry and we settled for some roadside dessert.. got ourselves a warm bowl of bobur chachar.. we quickly got back to our bicycles to return to Love Lane..

the return road was much easier.. the one-way road follows the northern coast along Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah followed by Lebuh Farquhar leading directly to Love Lane.. was cruising along the roads happily.. picking up speed and enjoying the breeze.. appeared to be an easy task traveling back..

*Unfortunate Event 3* - but somewhere along Lebuh Farquhar.. there was a minor turn towards the left going around a building.. i was leading the way and did not notice a pot-hole along the side of the road i was cycling on.. i think i was traveling too fast.. my front wheel sank into the pot-hole.. the momentum caused the bicycle to topple over the pivoting front wheel.. instinctively i jumped off the bicycle towards my left.. away from the path of the tumbling bicycle.. i broke my fall with my left palm and ended up on my bums.. not sure how exactly i fell.. it all happened too fast.. was badly rattled by the fall.. but picked myself up immediately to pull the bicycle and myself off to the side of the road..

JH finally caught up with me.. i was slightly dazed.. but i had the sense to check for injuries.. amazingly there were no major wounds.. my right palm was grazed quite badly.. my legs were unharmed.. i think i fell and rolled quite comfortably over my butt.. my left palm was bruised though and the arm was feeling slightly numb.. no broken bones.. was feeling rather fortunate in this unfortunate accident..

only rested about 5 minutes before deciding was i fine enough to continue riding.. the only concern was the weakness in my left arm.. also realized my seat had been knocked slightly wayward.. but still managed to navigate my way back to Love Lane..

2:15pm - back in our room.. my arm was feeling quite bad.. could not extend or bend it fully.. probably a slight dislocation of my elbow.. so decided to visit a doctor as JH insisted.. Amy's friend pointed us to a chinese physician nearby who could help.. he was rather skillful i think.. after less than 10 minutes of bending and pulling.. and a loud crack of my elbow.. oww.. my arms could finally straighten.. but my elbow ended up sore and swollen the rest of the day.. ouch..

so much for our cycling trip around Georgetown.. so we had to take the bus (number 2-6) from Lebuh Chulia to our next destination.. the largest temple on Penang.. Kek Lok Si Temple.. it was good anyway.. the first time i took a bus in Malaysia.. interestingly they employ bus conductors to collect the bus fares.. back to the old times

it was a rather long trip to Kek Lok Si temple.. luckily we were not able to ride our bicycles.. or else we would have been shacked out by the time we arrived at the temple.. the temple was located high on side of Penang Hill.. so there was a really long way to climb.. was a really big temple.. i took a photograph of one of my favourite chinese historical characters.. General 关羽..

there's also a large Kuan Yin temple further up the hill.. there was a cable car service to bring the visitors up.. but we were extra special of course.. not sure if it was to save the money.. or to show our sincerity and devotion.. we decided to climb our way up on foot.. got some directions.. entered the correct gate.. but seemed to have arrived at a dead-end.. so we continue along the road up the hill.. walked quite a long way.. and felt something was amiss.. asked an elderly couple climbing down the hill.. discovered that we had passed the entrance of the Kuan Yin temple.. and further up was the Air Itam Dam.. arggh.. we were so far up already.. we thought we may as well go up all the way.. supposed to have great scenery up there anyway..

up up up we went.. nearly an hour's climb.. we had almost reached the dam when we bumped into an old indian man.. he appeared to be exhausted by the climb.. JH was kind enough to invite him to climb the rest of the way up with us.. he was a retired old man.. living off his pension already.. how lucky.. nice and friendly he was.. and we learnt a lot more about life on Penang from him.. we also met some monkeys nearer the dam.. i took some photographs of them.. this one almost tried to pounce on me when i wanted to take a close-up..

with our new found friend.. we walked around the dammed up lake.. enjoyed the fresh air.. enjoyed the cool temperature.. enjoyed the scenery.. was a really long walk around the lake.. took us nearly another hour.. probably 3-4 km..

6:30pm - we finally finished the round and returned to the dam.. i managed to take a paranoma view of Georgetown from the Air Itam Dam.. Komtar tower can be seen right in the middle..

our new friend was really tired now.. it was also getting late.. JH still wishes to visit the Kuan Yin Temple down the hill.. but the temple closes by 7pm.. so we hurried down the hill.. and eventually said farewell to our friend.. as he was moving too slowly.. it was ten minutes past seven when we returned to the temple.. all the gates were closed by then.. no hope of visiting the Kuan Yin Temple this time.. so we sat down along the road and waited for our friend to walk down.. he had a car not far down the road from there.. and he drove us to the foot of the hill where we could have our dinner.. we did not get his name.. but farewell..

we walked around the shophouses around there.. and we actually managed to find a vegetarian cookhouse.. the perfect place for JH.. the food there was ok.. we tried their penang laksa and curry noodles.. and JH thinks their soya bean drink they sold were from the roadside vendor just outside.. ahah..

took the same bus service back to Lebuh Chulia.. another friendly lady began chatting with JH on the bus.. found out there there are actually many nice food centres around this area.. too bad we will not be staying long enough to try out the food here..

9pm - phew.. end of the day finally.. we went back.. JH did some internet surfing nearby.. then straight to our room to wash up.. my elbow was still swollen.. but went to sleep early.. exhausted.. wondered how many kilometres we walked and cycled today??

* Places we missed: Waterfalls, Batu Feringhi Beach, Kuan Yin Temple at Kek Lok Si, and Penang Hill.. (some motivation to visit Penang again..) *