Penang Hill & Road Trip with BFFs

Our initial plan for a day trip to Haatyai and Langkawi were scrapped.
The other plan to hike to Muka Head (Pantai Keracut) was also scrapped due to Cheng Beng season. Don't want to have the encounter with the 3rd kind la.

Instead, we decided to hike up Penang Hill on Sunday, 4/4.

We started our hike inside Botanical Garden and used the steps trail. I has been many donkey years since my last pg hill hike.
I looked up at the endless dirt steps and took a deep breath as I was about to climbed the first step to begin my journey. I secretly thought to myself, what have I got myself into?
I aimed to gain 5 kg this month and I am nowhere close to my target and now this?
Maybe 5 kg lighter after this....

Thanks to Cheryl who brought a bunch of bananas and some muesli bars to snack at the top.

Finally, we made it to no. 84 and coffee is served !! Oh, at No. 46, we had cool Pandan water, super refreshing.
They said that the coffee here taste better and I have got no change to taste it until NOW. It must be the natural spring water from the mountain they used to make the coffee. The coffee tasted SO GOOD here and it's FREE.

We thanked the coffee uncle for his delicious coffee on our way down. Uncle replied in hokkien, please donate if it's nice. We did already dropped a couple of dollars each to the
"coffee foundation" and may the best coffee remain.

Kopi-O face.

Kopi-O cheers !

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The next day after breakfast, me and cheryl decided to head down to Langkawi.
It's gonna be a day trip. If we miss the last ferry, then we could just get a motel for the night and return the next day. Adventure....

Just do it !

This is one of my breakfast in the morning besides a plate of char koay teow.
Roti Taiwan. A thick slice of bangali roti spread with 1 inche of butter, peanut butter and coated with ground peanuts.
Sinfully rich. I like it !

So we started our journey at about 12 pm and reached Kuala Kedah Ferry Terminal at precisely
1.37 pm. As we were walking towards the terminal, I joked "imagine the ferry just left when we reached to terminal, hahaha...."

Cheryl wasn't too amused....think positive, practice 'The Secret' remember ?"

Well, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED when we reached the ticketing counter. We MISSED the ferry by 7 minutes !! and the next one is at 3pm !

Aiya, I thought that if we drove extra 2 km p/hr faster, maybe we could reach on time lor.....

PLAN B.....actually, we don't have plan B. We asked the parking guy what is nice here and
got a blank look in return.

Stupid question.

What is interesting in Kedah or Perlis besides padi fields ? After much thought, the parking guy told us that there's a famous laksa just down the road and suggested we visit Gunung Keriang.

So here we are, at the famous laksa place cam-whoring with a plate of hard boiled eggs. It's a hot and scorching sunny day in the middle of nowhere waiting for our laksa Kedah.

Laksa finally arrived. It was good but not great la. The soup is rather mild for my standard. Maybe I'm used to our Penang Assam Laksa, very intense flavour.

Close-up look at my Laksa Kedah. Looks appetizing, eh ?
So we continue our journey to Gunung Keriang and saw the the Padi Museum signboard on the way. Actually, Gunung Keriang and the museum is just nearby.
The Padi Museum is smack in the middle of hectares and more hectares of padi fields. It's in the middle of nowhere.

Inside the museum. An anatomy of our humble rice grain. Nice !

We headed up to the spiral staircase, excited to see what is up there. Looks like we are inside Gunung Keriang.

At the top, we did not expect to see a MASSIVE 360 degree mural. It's one of the largest in the country. The spiral staircase ends in the middle of the gallery and the scene as if you are standing on top of Gunung Keriang unfolds around you.
Super Happy.
Apart from the mural at Pudu jail painted by the inmates, I have never seen mural this huge before.

Feels good to be on top of the world...looks real or not ?

This is how I would look like if I'm a padi farmer.