penang DAY1 [24/10/08]

penang is a simple town. my first visit was in 95/96 period with vincent low and alvin how.

a return some 10 years later with my wife on a budget trip, away from the flamboyant modern life, we embarked on a daredevil journey. 

some parts of this state has changed. more shopping malls. but down-to earth people, mothers in conservative swimming costumes, the roadside hawker, remains stagnant.

just below our hotel is the toy museum, surprisingly. RM20 per entry, to this toy haven of action figures.

aisles of toy displays, tho i'm out of this action figure craze, was a great eye-opener. life size statues, actions figures, barbies, kotos, props, except blythe and medicom products, were aplenty. i'm greeted by snake .... ahem.

this is for shaun, the singapore's great blogger who's a great supe fan.

i'm pretty surprise there's a toy museum nestled in this part of the world, i wont be surprised if it's KL, but it's cool.

guess my fave is the star wars section .... 

the hotel has 18floors. but it starts at 7. u gotta take nother life to the beach. we could have chosen batu ferringhi, the ang-moh's fave spot in penang, a bali/phuket zone. but we chose copthrone, nearer to the main george town ....

the beach .... serene .... no life ....

we visited the scary pragin mall, KOMTAR was still as boring .... until we met Gurney Plaza, where life is closer to home. below the cafe was the Gurney Hawker .... they started to lay the seats while the sky threatens ....

clouds gets pretty low near the hills .... we rented a little kancil for RM90 per 24hr block .... braved the rain and bends and drove to the ship for dinner.

the ship? the ship restaurant. back then i saw the ship by the pasar malam .... 10years later .... my with succeeded my dream of having dinner in the ship.

my driving stablized after dinner, head down south to island mall and discovered cody for sale at metrojaya. cody "3 3/4inch" figure from the wave2 of the clone wars. in toys 'r us at gurney plaza, there were plenty of comic packs, each at RM59.90 .... think the penangrians dont really bother much about star wars, which is great for me. there was also a oddball which i already picked up in singapore.