Breakfast and a morning swim
Another buffet breakfast this morning to fuel the day. We ended up trying the French toast, more kaya toast and Luca went nuts in yoghurt and had 4 tubs!
After breakfast, Luca really wanted a swim, which has become a bit of a routine but it was good timing because it was going to be a rainy day so we got it in early.
Sri Weld Food Court
After spending the morning in the pool, a short walk around the corner was a hawker centre called “Sri Weld Food Court” that sells nasi lemak that Lawrence had seen on YouTube and wanted to try. Between this and the street where we got our ramen yesterday, there are quite a few good food choices choose to our hotel here!
Luca got an apple juice but kept turning down food until he accepted having some charsiew from the dry wonton noodles.
It was getting a bit late for Bella, so I took her back to the hotel for a nap just as it started to rain a little. Not too long later, everyone else arrived and Luca played some games on the tablet while Bella was sleeping, which he’s getting really good at, especially with his numbers!
Lawrence’s mum
Lawrence’s mum passed away in 2005 and her ashes are kept in a temple here in Penang. It was about a 40 minute drive from where we were staying in a more mountainous area, so we booked a couple of Grabs to take us there. We ended up splitting up after lunch but managed to get to the place at roughly the same time.
The area was really nice with dense greenery, misty mountains and manicured gardens.
We met our contact there for our appointment and were led though the building and to the correct floor where we were greeted by a series of contracted rooms, each with pristine white floor to ceiling compartments and ornamental statues in the halls. There was gentle music playing in the background and with the amazing scenery out the windows, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it.
While Lawrence and the family took some time to pray, our kids were running a muck! They were having a ball running around in each room, rearranging the chairs and laughing and screaming the whole way, completing ignoring our attempts to quiet them down. Not only did that feel relatively disrespectful, but then Luca decided to empty his bladder on the spot, soaking through his clothes and leaving a pool at his feet ð so he ended up spending the rest of afternoon in the one spare set of undies we had packed.
Hawker centre for dinner
We decided to go to a hawker centre close by to the temple. Bec got a grab pretty quickly but unfortunately Mark, Bee and Dad couldn’t get one as it was only a short ride and drivers were rejecting their request. So they called us when we were at the hawker centre and said they would go home as they needed to eat and put Azra down let alone get back to the hotel.
So we also had a quick dinner. Luca saw chips and went crazy so we just got him a plate of chips, Bec had traditional Cantonese soups and Bella had some of that too and the soft pork from the soup. I had roast pork and duck with rice. Celia had a soup noodle. Bella accidentally ate something spicy and went a little crazy but she calmed down later. The kids did well and we still had to get back to the hotel and get to bed but they managed the 40 minute drive back well and wanted to sleep straight away when we got home.
Date night
It’s been a pretty busy trip with the kids and we have plans for most of the remaining nights here, so Celia offered to stay in our room while Bec and I went out for some time to ourselves.
Next to the “Kaka Ramen Club”, there is “Buubuu Dessert Club” which looked like they served green tea ice cream, one of Bec’s favourites! So after a walk around the area, admiring some of the very grand buildings and interesting architecture, we headed there for dessert. Considering the streets were pretty quiet (and it’s a Wednesday night), this place was full and we almost didn’t get a spot!
They had a pretty interesting menu but we ended up with trying a green tea ice-cream with toffee bits throughout and chestnut cream strings with azuki and mochi balls. The green tea ice-cream could have been stronger in flavour but all in all with the kinako (chestnut) flavoured cream on top it made for a nice different dessert.
After looking this up, I’m pretty sure this place has only been open for 1 week, which might explain why it was so busy. It was very well decorated, both inside and out and the food was all impressively presented too.
After another little stroll, we headed back and started to prepare for our journey to KL tomorrow!