After completing my A-Levels programme, I travelled to Penang with my college friends for a couple of days. We attempted to go on budget throughout the trip in order to splurge on a one-night stay at Hard Rock Penang, and this is how it went:
On the first day, we went to Penang Hill. From there, we got an amazingly extensive view of Penang, it was breathtaking. We chilled at a bar there to have some booze. In fact, we boozed every night because we managed to some good alcohol in Penang selling at a low price. To our surprise, Dharshan was such a good drinker and he knew how to make drinks. We played Cards Against Humanity every night while drinking the beverages specially made by him.
The second day, I recommended that we go to the Escape Theme Park because I've been there and I knew they would love it. And they did! ( No pictures taken there tho )
The next day, we also went to seek for murals. I was like a tour guide bringing them around to search for murals and I felt proud of myself. We had our lunch at a famous Indian Restaurant at Little India and it was my first foray into eating with my hands!
Later, we hurriedly took a bus all the way to Bukit Ferringhi to check into Hard Rock Hotel. It was probably our best decision to stay there. You have no idea how bad we wanted to stay there for another night. We all felt like a rock star for a day.
We had a really romantic dinner in dim light by the beach, thanks to Dharshan for the recommendation of that restaurant.
Actually, I want to thank Dharshan who brought all of us together and suggested this trip, because we managed to strengthen our bonds and even got to know everyone's dirty little secrets and some bad habits, especially Zhun Keat's one. I shall not reveal it. Frankly speaking, before this Penang trip, I barely knew Dih Shuen. However, ever since the trip we became sort of partners in crime. I put "sort of" there because I'm still not quite sure whether I would willingly involve myself in any crime with her. She's crazy enough to do funny things and embarrass herself in the public,which somehow has the potential to become a crime. Personally, I would be the first one to extricate myself from the scene.
Back to the point. Even though I've been to Penang several times already, the experience with them was totally different, in a good way of course. Probably because we are all already 18 or 19 years old, and the perception we have was much more mature than before. We want to live in the moment more, which is why we stayed at each spot longer and absorbed the culture as much as we could before leaving that place. It's like we just threw away every single problematic college drama and savoured each moment in Penang. I realized that the older you are, the more you tend to pay rapt attention at little, intricate things, or things people normally would overlook. Dih Shuen, for example, collected a lot of copies of old posters in Penang.
Penang is a lovely state. We had the best time there. The locals were amiable and enthusiastic when recommending us where to go. It was also our last trip before everyone else left to study abroad. Dharshan is in Canada whilst Dih Shuen is in the UK, and soon I am going to Australia and Zhun Keat to USA. We promised to go on a trip whenever we can. Till then, my friends.
Love,
Lim Thong Jean
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