Continue from My Spirit Of Penang - Part I…

Another 40 minutes to 11.30AM and the marshall would blow the whistle air horn to signify the end of the elimination round. Whichever teams that clocked in later than 11.30AM would be auto disqualified and ended their journey for Spirit Of Penang. Thinking that Turtle Rocks Evolution would have clocked in by then, I walked back to the flag off point (Esplanade).

Upon reaching, I couldn’t see them (Ivan, Clement, Chia Hur and Pelf Yeen.) I found a shade and waited for them.

10 minutes…
20 minutes…
30 minutes…
39 minutes…

10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1!

“HHHOOONNNKKK!” (The marshall sounded the air horn.)

The sound of the air horn also implied that Turtle Rocks Evolution didn’t make it. Hence, my presence in the team and Spirit Of Penang was useless insignificant. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. Nonetheless, I believed Turtle Rocks Evolution had tried their best.

It was another 30 minutes later when Chia Hur spotted me standing under a shade. I walked towards them and all I could see was exhausted turtles. I knew how it felt like after running for 3 hours, it was painfully tired.

“Very slow lah you all.”
“We got lost while finding the stations.”
“……”
“We only completed 2 out of the 5 tasks given.”
“……”
“At the last station, the marshalls fetched us back here with a van.”
“……”

-smacks forehead-

Nevermind. Better luck next time.

We left the place and found ourselves a place to sit down and catch our breath. We had to discuss whether we would like to stay for another night in Penang or head back to KL right away by catching the next earliest bus. After discussing for like 30 minutes, we decided to stay for another night.

The problem of staying another night was that all the rooms in Continental Hotel were fully booked for the weekend. We had to find another place to stay. We called a few hotels but all were fully booked. We decided to try our luck with City Bayview and there was a standard room (2 single beds) available. We paid for it but we could only check into our rooms after 3PM and it was only 1.30PM.

Hence, we sat at the hotel’s lobby cam whoring while drinking the free orange juice provided by the lounge.

After resting for an hour, we walked back to upper Penang Road to have our lunch - Asam Laksa and Penang Road’s Chendol. Someone once told me the coffee shop next to the Penang Road’s Chendol serves good Asam Laksa. Hence, I sent a SMS to Domestic Goddess for verification, but she wasn’t too sure either.

The coffee shop is called Joo Hooi Cafe and they charged you RM0.40 if you sit in their shop but don’t order their drinks. Cunning, I know. True enough, the coffee shop was packed to the brim and we had to wait for 15 minutes before we got ourselves a small table. Not only it was packed, the coffee shop is quite a small shop lot yet they tried to stuff in as many table as possible for maximum profit. It was warm inside as well due to the lousy ventilation. I was sweating and I wasn’t eating my meal comfortably.

The Asam Laksa, although it didn’t taste as good as the one that I had near Kek Lok Si Temple, it wasn’t that bad either. The soup is thick and fragrant due to the various herbs and spices used to boil the soup. Not to forget, the amount of fish meats are 10 times more than the one I had in Gurney Drive. We also ordered a plate of Char Kuey Teow which was totally disappointing.

We ordered Chendol and Ice Kacang from the outside stall, which later the coffee shop owner charged us RM0.40 for just sitting in the shop.

We walked back to Continental Hotel, collected our langguage and then checked into City Bayview Hotel, room 1137. Our room’s view was splendid. We could see Komtar and Penang Bridge.

We took turn to bath while I helped myself with a box of Tambun Biscuit that I bought while walking down Penang Road. After all, a Penang trip will never be complete without a box of Penang’s Tambun Biscuit, right?

Pelf Yeen, Clement and Chia Hur took their nap in the room while Ivan went out to meet his friend and I went to the nearby beach to take some photos. (I will post the miscellaneous pictures later in another post.) 7.30PM, we (without Ivan) hopped into a cab and headed to Gurney Drive for our dinner. The first thing my friends and I will go for whenever we are in Gurney Drive is the “Mua Chi 麻芝”. Finely chrushed toasted peanuts, with a dash of fried onions to go along with the soft glutinous rice. Heavenly.

Honestly, food in gurney drive is over rated. Enough said. By the way, the table picture was our second table / round.

Another round of cam whoring before lights off. Every picture also got Pelf Yeen. Cam whore kaw kaw.

Woke up 8 o’clock in the morning for our breakfast before we took a cab to Penang’s bus station.

Ivan and his Kit Kat chocolate ice cream.

We boarded the bus around 10AM, to my surprise, which was very punctual. Throughout the journey, they all went to sleep while I played with my camera. The bus driver was pumping this Cantonese song that made me nearly laughed out loud. The whole song was about “你收皮啦! (Lei Shao Pei Lah!) 你吃蕉啦! (Lei Ngak Jiu Lah!)”. -lol-

It was about 2.30PM when we reached Puduraya Bus Station. I bought my bus ticket (4PM) back to Malacca before we walked to Petaling Street for a quick lunch before we bid each other farewell. Pelf Yeen suggested to have Wan Tan Mee for lunch at Koon Kee Wan Tan Mee, in Petaling Street.

It tasted quite good actually, minus the rubbery Char Siew and tasteless chicken meat though. The meat dumpling (Shui Gao 水绞) was good, but I forgot to take a picture. I know, its so not me that I actually forgot to take picture of the food.

“Sssllluuurrrppp…”

After a rather late lunch, we bid farewell to each other as all of us had to go different directions. I boarded my 4PM bus back to Malacca and by 6PM, I was back in my room already. Home sweet home.

Thanks to Turtle Rocks Evolution, I made a rather impromptu trip to Penang, which was very fun indeed. Although the team didn’t qualify for the top 20 and thus, cost me RM200 for nothing, I sure had lots of fun walking around Penang and savouring the delicacies. Not too bad for a 3 days 2 nights trip. -wink-

Once again, introducing the Turtle Rocks Evolution team of Spirit Of Penang…

Ivan Cheong,

Clement,

Chia Hur,

and Pelf Yeen.

Thanks peeps!

I was asked by the team “Turtle Rocks Evolution” to be their research member for Spirit Of Penang. I didn’t have to run with them, but I would have to do research (online) and supply information to them if and only they managed to qualify for the top 20. Therefore, regardless they qualified for the top 20 or not, I had to be in Penang.

Turtle Rocks Evolution consisted of

Ivan Cheong,

Chia Hur,

Pelf Yeen,

Clement (Pelf Yeen’s boy friend.),

And myself.

I boarded the 11.30AM bus from Malacca and reached Puduraya Bus Station at 2:15PM.

“Please gather at the bus station at 2.30PM sharp. Don’t be late.” - Pelf Yeen.

“The bus is at 3PM. Please come before 2.30PM and don’t be late.” - Ivan Cheong.

Ironic, Ivan and Chia Hur came around 2:45PM while Pelf Yeen and her boy friend came at 2:50PM. I had to wait for them for almost 40 minutes before they arrived. -shrugs- Our bus was supposed to arrive and depart at 3PM, but it was delayed by almost an hour. 4PM, the bus finally decided to start its journey. It was about 9PM when the bus reached the Penang Bridge’s toll and another 20 minutes to reach Penang’s bus terminal.

Since most taxis were reluctant to fetch us to our hotel due to the massive jam, the taxis drivers suggested us to grab something to eat and come back 30 minutes later. Ivan suggested to have a drink at the food court at the top of the bus terminal.

My first meal of the day was this tasteless fried rice. Splendid! -sarcastic-

By then, the traffic wasn’t as bad as before and the taxis drivers fetched us to our hotel, Continental Hotel at Penang Road. We checked in into our rooms (RM162 for a room with 2 double beds.) and headed out for another round of dinner.

The mamak stall serves a huge varieties of roti canai, that come with special names such as roti England, roti Argentina, roti Singapura, roti Hong Kong, roti Japan, roti Tajmahal and etc. Clement ordered roti Hong Kong, which is basically roti John with 2 sunny side up on it. It tasted quite good actually.

From this point onwards, Chia Hur has been bugging Pelf Yeen and the rest on the issue of love, why he couldn’t get a girl friend, why girls are like this or that, and etc. for the next 3 days. I pity Pelf Yeen. -shrugs-

We chilled ourselves while waiting for the other to finish his / her bath before calling it a day.

“Why no girls like me one?” exclaimed the soon-to-be-desperate Chia Hur.

Moments before lights out, Pelf Yeen greeted me good night.

“Good night, Jason kor.”
“Har?” -surprised-

5 seconds later…

“Oh, good night.”

Nothing wrong with that, but I just felt weird and a little funny. Very polite lah you, Mei Mei. -Pats Mei Mei’s head-

3AM, I was still wide awake and I asked Ivan.

“Eh, the mamak stall opposite the hotel got damn chun sup kambing. (Verified by dSaint.) Want to go and try or not?”
“……”
“How?”
“You not full meh?”
“Fine.”

We woke up at 6AM and got ourselves ready for Spirit Of Penang. We walked to Jalan Padang Kota Lama (Esplanade), about 20 minutes from our hotel, the flag off point for the race. We took photos while Ivan went to register themselves.

The Turtle Rocks Evolution team - Ivan, Chia Hur, Clement and Pelf Yeen.

Before.

During.

After.

While waiting for the VIPs to arrive, someone came up to me.

“Are you Jason from jasonmumbles.com?”
“Yes.”
“I am Teddy, the one that added you in MSN?”
“Err…”
“teddy_skool?”
“Oh. The aviation one.”

The fella who took this picture for me ought to be shot dead. Your photo taking skill totally sucks. My only photo with a Radio DJ got wasted because of you. That’s me and Terry from Red FM.

Turtle Rocks Evolution in action.

To read more about Spirit Of Penang, and what they did throughout the race, please click here to view the photos. Exclusive report by Jason Lioh, who had nothing better to do but tagged along and snapped pictures of other participants.

While TRE ran throughout the race, I took my own sweet time by walking behind them, taking pictures of other participants too. At one point of the race, they were too far ahead for me to catch up and I lost them. It didn’t really bother me as I continued walking myself.

One of the station required the participants to eat ice kacang, the traditional type. One giant ice ball with fillings in it. It is fun eating it this way which you have to suck the big ice ball before it melts and dirties your hand and shirt. However, it is kind of messy though. First, make a half ice ball. Put the red beans inside the ice ball and cover it with another half ice ball. Pour red syrup over it and suck the ice ball. Being tam jiak, I asked the Indian guy who was making the ice ball made one for me to try. -lol-

Walking further down, I reached Prangin Mall and Komtar.

I knew Penang Road is somewhere nearby already. I asked the local to point me to the direction of Penang Road when I was at the roundabout. I wanted to go Penang Road because of one reason - Penang Road’s famous “Teow Cheow” Chendol.

Don’t play play, even Phua Chu Kang was here before.

It’s been quite some time since I last tasted their chendol. Compare to Malacca’s chendol, both are different in terms of style, taste and colour. However, both taste equally good.

While slurping on my chendol, I SMS-ed Domestic Goddess (self proclaimed) to ask her about Asam Laksa.

Walking further down Penang Road, there were this bunch of old men playing checkers right in front of a hotel. What a sight. Do that in KL, and you might be swept up into DBKL’s truck or die of air pollution. -lol-

What happened to Turtle Rocks Evolution?
Did they qualify for the top 20?

Stay tune for Part II.

You will be reading about the event of Spirit Of Penang, with full details, in The Star / R.age for the next few days. However, you won’t get to see all the photos / events / actions on that day because most probably, they would be focusing on the top 20 rather than the elimination round. So, since I wasn’t required to run with my team mates in the elimination round, I walked along and took my own photos as well.

Therefore, this will be a picture only (with minimum text) posts. I will blog about my experience about Spirit Of Penang cum holiday trip after I am done with my studies. You can read about my Spirit Of Melaka by clicking here though.

Spirit Of Penang is similar to Spirit Of Melaka / Spirit Of Kuala Lumpur, which is something like amazing race where you have to run accross the town and various location and complete certain tasks to advance to the next station. Spirit Of Penang is the biggest race of all 3 towns, with 200 teams in the qualifying round and 20 teams in the final round; competing a cash prize of RM10,000.

The flag off point was at Jalan Padang Kota Lama (Esplanade), Penang.

200 teams. 4 members per team. A total of 800 people gathering at the registration counter before the race.

One of the 800 participants. Ha!

One of the professional photographers on duty.

Spirit Of Penang’s marshalls.

John, the chief marshall.

Terry from Red FM.

The Red FM cruisers.

Tan Ju Eng, chief editorial for Star Metro.

Team leaders lying down, preparing for the flag canon off.

Flag Canon off!

“Hello? Do you know how to read a map?”

First you look right, then left, then right again before you cross a road. Screw it, just cross the damn road lah.

“Are we lost?”

Shouldn’t you all be running instead of walking and posing at the same time?

I wonder what Singapore Clinic is doing in Penang.

“What’s for lunch, dude?”
“I have no idea, but its definitely something not good.”
“Hell yeah.”

Girl, why did you eat rojak with that such sour-y face?

Eating ice kacang, the traditional way.

Peeling corns with hands.

Making apom balik.

Eating sugar cane.

Make a tower of 3 feet high using little sticks.

Making fishballs of the same shape and size. By the way, the fishball paste was very smelly.

Kolam making. Kolam is an indian art, using coloured rice to make a pattern on the floor.

That guy (first from left) is a 100% poser.

Heck, they even got to eat durians! Not fair!

They had to open the already-opened durians with a metal spoon and finish it as soon as possible.

“Err… Guys, which way?”

One of the stations - St Xavier’s Institution.

The school band was having their weekly practises.

They have to use their head to carry a pan of water, pour it into another pan, collect the palm oil seeds, move to another station and repeat the steps.

I think this is the same team that used walkie-talkie in Spirit Of Melaka as well.

Milking the cow?

Catch 10 little fishes, blind folded. With the help from other teammates, of course.

Make a claypot fire.

There were many more stations / tasks that I didn’t manage to take picture of. Anyway, you still can see them on the papers tomorrow. If anyone of you saw your or your friends’ photo in my blog, don’t hesitate to contact me by email for the original size. We can discuss the price later.

As for my own experience, stay tune.

Note : Helloooo! This is Jolene Lai and it is my first guest blogging post at THE jasonmumbles.com. I think my contract with Ah Jason Kor should be about half a year… or 4 more posts or something. Aiyah, until he terminates my contract lah. Hahaha.

You may come to my blog to look see look see if you wish. :)

-End-

Sometimes when I sit down, my mind drifts away to the topic of death. I look at myself now, four limbs, one head, working lungs and a beating heart. All these will definitely stop one day and exactly when would that be?

Trying to imagine an end to myself is like trying to picture what if the universe does not exist? What colour would emptiness be? Black? White?

You see, you just can’t picture it.

This topic has been done to death and it was first popularized by a Singapore blogger back in 2005. It was quite a hit with the blogosphere back then and I’ve been meaning to do a post on this myself. It seems interesting to come up with various fantasies to amuse myself.

Groom Me

In the event of my death, I wish for a good make up artist. Dress me up in the finest gown and sprinkle glitter on my bare skin.

I must have glitter even on my dying day.

When I say gown, I mean a nice tube dress. Crimpled-crinkly satin, if you please. Purplish white or purplish blue. The colours made infamous by Disney princesses.

Do remember to blow dry my hair so that it won’t look so messy when you lay me down in my glass coffin. Oh did I not mention anything about the coffin? I want it to be made of glass. :) Not those cheap aquarium plastic ones, but the ‘Once broken, considered sold” type of glass, okay? Can remember or not? Write down lah!

Adorn my ears with the finest amethyst chandelier earrings. I’ve always loved amethyst earrings but they are always out of my budget. I want the pale purple ones, not the royal purple type.

Leave my neck as bare as the day I was born. I do not sleep with necklaces. I will definitely not sleep for eternity with necklaces strangling my neck.

My lips must be the sweetest of pink and my cheeks a shy coral-orange glow. My eyes a myriad of pastel colours enhanced by my trademark glitter. I want my eye make up to look like the setting sun. A mix of blue, pink, purple and a hint of orange for that slight hope of a new life.

I was never the definition of perfect beauty in my life so please try your best to make me look beautiful during my final days on Earth.

Sprinkle pink, red, white and champagne rose petals over me before they seal the glass casing. I hope the preservatives from the embalming can help the petals to stay alive for a few more days.

Calm Me

Please get rid of those namo oli tou fu type of chants. I don’t want my love ones to be mourning me and having the namo oli tou fu song stuck in their heads. I know that song means well, but the last time I heard it for a week(two funerals, both grandparents within a week.), whenever I was alone, bathing or in the car, I would hear the song out of no where. It is that freaky.

Play a constant string of love songs from the late 90s-early 2000s because those were the best. Here are a few songs to start you off when you get working on my playlist.

1. Goodbye - Spice Girls
2. I’ll Be There For You - BSB
3. If Life Is So Short - The Moffatts
4. God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You - N-Sync
5. Flying Without Wings - Westlife
6. I do - 98 degrees.

Yes, yes. If you don’t already know, I was a boyband freak. I was a young girl during that era. Just your average teeny bopper from the late 90s. :)

Bring on the corsages should there be any. Line them in a nice walk way where friends and family can walk towards my coffin to pay their last respects.

Every two hours, I want a choir group to sing hymns. As I’m a buddhist, I want them to sing other songs, nothing religion-ey.

At my wake, I want balloons all over the place. :) Helium balloons. I can never get enough of it. Everybody who comes for my funeral will get a balloon each. The colours of the balloons must match the colour of my eye make up. :)

Humour Me

Everybody who pay their last respects to me must camwhore with me one last time. No tears. A bright smile would be nice.

My old school friends must teach those at my funeral the Jolene Boob song.

Let’s sing together now: (to the tune of For He Is A Jolly Good Fellow)

My boobs are banging against the table,
my boobs are banging against the table,
My boobs are banging against the table~~~
I hope they won’t get flat.

I hope they won’t get flat, I hope they won’t get flat,
My boobs are banging against the table (x2),
My boobs are banging against the table~~~~
I hope they won’t get flat.

I’m getting boob implants,
I’m getting boob implants,
I’m getting boob implants~~~~
I hope they will get big.

I hope they will get big! I hope they will get big!
I’m getting boob implants(x2)
I’m getting boob implants~~~~
I hope they will get big.

My boobs are getting bigger,
My boobs are getting bigger,
My boobs are getting bigger~~~
I hope they won’t just burst.

I hope they won’t just burst! I hope they won’t just burst!
My boobs are getting bigger(x2)
My boobs are getting bigger~~~~
I hope they won’t just burst.

Don’t bring that needle near,
Don’t bring that needle near,
Don’t bring that needle near~~~
OH SHIT you burst my tits.

*bows* thank you, thank you.

Dispose Me

I’ve heard of that Star Trek actor who died and had his remains blasted into space.

So when they strap my coffin onto the rocket-thingamajig(since there is no name for it yet, I shall create a temporary one), everybody should stand around the rocket-thingamajig and hold a balloon in their hand.

When the rocket-thingamajig blasts me and my glass coffin off to space, release your balloons.

Then turn your attention to the big screen television behind you.

There will be a video camera launched at the exact same time on a smaller rocket-thingamajig. You will be witnessing my journey out to space.

Please don’t be too surprised when the coffin and I explode into smithereens. Enjoy the pretty glittering bits that will float in space peacefully for all eternity.

:)

Now THAT’S a cool funeral.

I was walking in Mahkota alone, trying to find a shoe shop that sell school shoe (Jazz - The one that 98% of all secondary school students wear.). Why I always can’t find the things I want when I want to buy grocery, just like when I wanted to buy my towel?

I called my mum for help.

“妈, Mahkota 哪里有卖校鞋? 我找不到的.”
“Ma, where can I buy school shoe in Mahkota? I can’t find it.”

“买校鞋做么?”
“Why do you want to buy school shoe?”

“我的包鞋坏了, 没有钱买新的 sport shoe.”
“My sport shoe spoilt already and I got no money to buy new one.”

“你这个礼拜有回没有?”
“Are you coming back this weekend?”

“有.”
“Got.”

“去买一双新的 sport shoe, 回来才给回你钱.”
“Go buy a pair of new sport shoe, will pay you back when you come back.”

“Ok.” -暗爽-
“Ok.” -evil grins-

I walked into this shop and started to look around. Since my mum was paying, I only looked at Power’s (Buatan Malaysia). I found a pair that I was fond of and asked the shop assistant to help me out.

“Ada saiz 11 tak?”
“Do you have size 11?”

“Ada. Tunggu.”
“Got. Wait.”

She scrambled off.
She came back.
She opened the box.
She passed me the shoe.
I loosen the shoe lace.
I put my foot into the shoe.

“Ketat lah! Ada saiz 12 tak?”
“A bit tight. Do you have size 12?”

“Tak ada. Saiz terbesar ialah 11.”
“Nope. The biggest size for Power is 11.”

“……”
“……”

“You kena tengok brand lain seperti Nike, Reebok atau Adidas. Mereka ada saiz 12 atau 13.”
“You have to check out other brands like Nike, Reebok or Adidas. They have up to saiz 12 or 13.”

“Tak apa. Saya pergi jalan-jalan dulu. Terima kasih.”
“Never mind. I will walk around first. Thank you.”

After walking around Mahkota, most of the sport shoes cost more than RM200. I only have RM176 in my wallet. When I was about to give up, I saw this box printed with 30% discount. Actual price was RM249, after 30% discount was RM174.30.

I tried my luck and opend the box. The design was not too bad. It is comfortable when I put it on. I had just enough cash to pay it. It is Reebok. Hence, I brought them home with me.

Thanks mum!

P/S : My mum blackmailed me. She said she would only pay me in exchange for the password for the previous post. In the end, she gave in after I bugged her for like 20 minutes. Ha!