Penang Invasion (Part 4)

I am supposed to be studying Bioactive Chemistry right now. Reserved last 4 days for the protein sequencing, DSP, protein design and engineering. Today, tomorrow and the day after were, according to the timeline I scribbled in a piece of rubbish paper, booked for CYL's part.

Very oddly, I actually finished all his topics today. All in one day alone. Think I'm going too fast. Maybe I'm fast because I went through all his topics a month back. So maybe it's the revising mode now. Good for me. I hope. But will have to practice nucleophilic attack more to familiarize myself so that I won't get lost during the exam. and to save time as well.

Anyway!!! Back to Penang. Yes, I'm not done with pictures just yet. Looking at the rate I'm going, there's gonna be at least one more Penang post after this one too. After Fort Cornwallis, we walked to nearby hawker centre at Padang Kota Lama to eat. Not many eateries in Penang are open during the day though.


This is mee soto penang mamak-style fried mee (correction by Adillah.. hehe). Of course it was about 10% eaten when this was taken. We did have every intention to snap photos of what we ate while we were in Penang. After all, Penang is supposed to be the food haven right? But of course, being the hungry active and energetic young girls women that we were (and since we walked all day), we only think of eating when the food is set in front of us and remember about the camera after they've gone down to our stomachs. So these are the only pictures of food. Don't they look good?

And they taste just as good!


Penang and their variety of ABCs! Hehee. I must have ate at least 3-4 different kinds of ABCs while I was there. Some gave more red beans, some gave more corn, and some gave ice-cream! Yum. Happy.

Fourth Stop: Baba Mansion


Via trishaw. Courtesy of two really friendly uncles who was really nice to send us all the way to the mansion from Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (we missed the tour time for that one), OFFERED to wait for us while we tour the mansion and sent us back to YMCA for only 20 bucks per trishaw. Despite what we heard about Penang being dangerous and all, we were pretty blessed I would say because all of the people we met there were a really, really friendly and nice bunch. Maybe like Adillah said, we probably have muka kesian (pitiful face) that everyone feel compelled to help the pitiful us.

Aha! Senget pictures.. guess who took them?


This is the Baba's bilik pengantin (newly-wed's room?? or bridal suite? tak tau). Apparently the Peranakan in Penang spoke Hokkien, not Malay like Malacca's. So that was the difference, according to our guide. This mansion once belonged to a Kapitan who controlled tin mining in Taiping back in those days. He had not one, not two, not three but eight wives. EIGHT WIVES!!!

And if it wasn't for the tour guide who told us, I would have thought "Man.. these Babas need to eat so much har?" due to the dozens of dining rooms and thousands of eating utensils we saw on display there.





Before that, I thought that this family actually had these many dining rooms. After all the Kapitan had eight wives and goodness-knows how many children all living under one roof. One wife per dining room perhaps. So that cat fight and food fight can be minimized. Hahaa. Our guide said that they were all merely exhibitions of different dining rooms among Penang Peranakan. Thank goodness. If they really had these many plates, they don't need to wash their plates for a year!

Now that's just plain gross.


Baru aje makan, so fast nak cari food. Heheheh. The only reason why I'm not posting pictures with me in it is because I had become a giant red lobster due to hours boiling under the mercilessly-scorching sun. And the redness, my goodness, was bad. Really really bad.


But I'll entertain you with one - and just one - picture that has me in it where the redness was not apparent. Hahaa. Taken at the sanctuary built at the side of the house for family ancestral worship. Even with my wearing jeans, I have to awkwardly take a big step over the wooden panel at the bottom of the door... imagine the nyonyas with their nyonya kebaya. How ah?

Us: How do the ladies come in here with their nyonya kebaya?
Guide: Don't know. Just walk in, I guess.
Us: Har? But it's so high wor. Won't the skirt rip or something?
Guide: Hmmm. Then the men carry the women in lor.
Us: HAARRR??
Guide: *mischievous grin*
Us: ....... Baba men very strong hor.