Penang Trip

This post was supposed to be published a month ago on Christmas day. Procrastinate much?

Poor boy, going through his restless night.
Can't blame him, the seats were uncomfortable as hell.
What a way to start our adventures.

Took a ferry to get to the island. Penang bridge is clearly visible at far back.

Venturing the quiet sunday town,
most shops were closed until we found this morning market.

Not to say we were lost, but we found ourselves got no where to go.
Hotel check-in was not until 2pm.
Walking and carrying almost weigh 10kg of bags, totally exhausted.

Temple.

Museum.

Rockin' the town in our beca.

The uncle overcharged us for cycling 300m across the street to this famous ice kacang stall  
But the chendul was good, as it stated at the right side of the picture.

Muddy beach.

Penang food was very delicious, we came back for second round.

Started our local tour - Thai temple.

 

Here comes the interesting part, while on the way to our visit, our car rear-ended a car in front. It was a Naza Ria crashing into Volkswagen Golf. Took about an hour or so to settle everything, the guide said another tour guide will replace him, he dropped us off at the botanical garden, and the second guide took us to snake temple. Then again, his Mercedes van overheated in the middle of the highway. Total mood spoiler. You should've seen the look of Kok Ming's face. After that, the third guide - Matthew, came with another Naza Ria. We told him about everything, hoping there will not be a forth one to replace him. It was funny.

Monument.

That's how you convince.

Yep, our transportation of the day.

Overlooking the city.

This will be the view from our balcony for our 3 days stay.

Gotta say this is a nice hotel. A bit far from Batu Ferringhi though.

Went for a night walk at our private beach.

Sunrise - beautiful. Morning jogged a little bit.

Matthew again took us to visit for the second day.

Penang Hill.

Batu Ferringhi beach.

Sunset.

This restaurant got me shitting liquid for the next 3 days.

Tryna light up a campfire.

Heading back to the mainland.

Another 7 hours of hell ride in this train.

We were rewarded this sleeping coach
due to some problems occurred in the economy one.

This guy can really sleep.

This trip was really great. We had a lot of fun despite the arguments we had almost all the time and everywhere about everything. Thinking bout it now, ahh, this deserve to be in the memory.

Bullet Train

JR Tokaido - Shinagawa.

So, on the third day, I took a bullet train to Nagoya to meet up with my friends upon my parents permission. The week before, my mom strongly disagreed with the idea of us parting with one going to the west while family is staying in Tokyo. Reasons being because she was worried if I got kidnapped, or lost in the city. And I know I was very naive. The chances of meeting up with them was nearly zero percent.

Little kid looking out at Mt. Fuji.

That means, the meet up I have planned over a year ago failed. Til' the day before, I gathered all my guts and asked my mom again before she makes tour arrangement. 'Okay, go and call your friends' she said. Woohoo, didn't expect that coming. So I called up and the plan was totally on.

JR Tokaido - Nagoya.

The journey took exactly 96 minutes travelling over the distance of 360km. The train I took was Nozomi with least stopovers, fastest and costs as much as domestic flight ticket. One way fare was a hefty amount of 10,070yen equivalent to RM411. The experience was great and also my first time travelling alone. The coach was warm, given the comfortable seats with huge foot space, to the point I thought I was going by airplane. The view outside was beautiful, too bad I couldn't get the window seat because it was a non-reserved ticket.

Erika & Sayaka.

Finally, get to see them again! For those who are wondering, we met during their school came to Malaysia and visited my school two years ago. The students visit my school every year. I tagged along with my friends who joined the group to give them a tour around the school. Since then, we have been keeping in touch.

Hachimaru at Nagoya castle.

Oosu kannon.

Toyota city.

I make cars.

Sayaka drivin us around town.

Toyota Higashi HS.

Bicycles parking.

Classroom.

Corridor.

Swimming pool

Library.

Toyota stadium.

In the mall.

It was a great day, I enjoyed every moment of it. I was over the moon when I met them for the first time again after patiently waited for two years. The sun sets very early, so I had to take a bus back to Nagoya station after taking our dinner, then head back to Tokyo by bullet train.

Toyotashi station.

Something happened here, I reached Nagoya station, found my tracks entrance, but couldn't find my train line. Shit, then I realized I only searched for information on how to get to Nagoya, completely forgetting how to find my way back. Now, I'm lost in the largest freaking train station in the world.

JR Central Tower.

My best bet was to ask a foreigner, I know foreigners in Japan are familiar with the places there, speak English and understand Japanese. So, I asked this European guy who was waiting for his train. Then, he started speaking Japanese to me. Holy shit, I didn't ask a foreigner for no reason. After that, he told me to go down and pass through the second entrance for Shinkansen. And with a little help from a cute staff, I'm back on track!

Tadaima!