beyond toxicity

09 October 2010 –My friends/housemates and I decided to create another weekend adventure.

If you’re a follower of this blog, you probably know our route from Penang Mainland to Island, right?

If not, let me refresh you :  From our penthouse in Butterworth, we’d usually hopped on a public bus called Rapid Penang and take a 5 min-ride to Jetty, ride a 15-minute-ride via ferry to reach the bus station in George Town, Penang Island.

Cost of the trip is cheap (our place in Butterworth to Jetty = RM 2 (PhP 14);  roundtrip ferry ride  RM 1.20 = PhP 16.80 and we’re free on bus rides, well, not actually but we already purchased an RM 80-ride-all-you-want-for-a-month pass few weeks ago).

Another 45 minute ride via Rapid bus and finally we reached our destination. Luckily for us, Rapid buses provide free wifi (don’t you wish to have this in Manila too?) and one of my buddies have access to GPS via google maps on his mobile (make that mobiles, he has 3 smart phones and lotsa other tech gadgets!) so despite the fact that we’re clueless of the place, we’re guided by directions, cool eh?

After checking in at a backpacker’s hotel, we left our bags and trooped to Plaza Gurney again to unwind. We headed directly to the 7th level of the mall to buy movie tickets for the 7:30PM screening before having early dinner at CLINIC CAFE.

To forget all our anxieties, homesickness and whatnot, we opted to watch a comedy that made me laugh so hard from beginning to end.

Have you seen Dinner for Schmucks?  It almost felt I inhaled nitrous oxide (aka laughing gas) the whole time we’re inside the cinema.

It was almost close to midnight when we arrived at our hotel which wasn’t as remarkable and as comfortable as Tune Hotels in George Town where we stayed a couple of weeks ago.

Oh and did I already tell you we slept few meters from BATU FERRINGHI?—>It’s a beach area in Penang Island where a lot of large hotels, restaurants, night market and souvenir stores are located. But did it impress me?  Read on…

Wish this was our hotel but it wasn’t, he  he

Some of our senior colleagues who first visited this beach mentioned only little praises about it. I cannot blame them. I and my friends were also bit disappointed with the shoreline, the waters and practically everything about Batu Ferringhi.

We woke up Sunday morning with eagerness and zest to walk on the beach, watch the sunrise and just stay lazy but we did not even spend more than 20 minutes; expectations failed, sorry.

It was exactly a year after Tina, Gabby and I savored Boracay Island so Batu Ferringhi truly suffered comparison to our local paradise back home.

Just look at the dirty waters on this beach; I’m sorry but Penang authorities have a lot of maintenance to do to at least fair with the crystal turquoise waters and pristine sands of Boracay or relaxing beach resorts in Cavite or Batangas at least…

We didn’t want to spoil the entire Sunday morning, so we rode the bus again and found our way to this restaurant with fascinating name.

We were just early and it was still closed when we arrived there; we failed to sample how it feels like to eat seafoods at the end of the world!

One of my friends suggested for us to continue our joy ride up to Balik Pulau; a small town at the other side of the mountains of Penang Island.

Don’t ask me if we enjoyed our morning trip. I slept through our 3-hour-bus ride en route from Batu Ferringhi to Balik Pulau to Komtar in George Town and back to Batu Ferringhi again to check out from our hotel.

What saved my Sunday morning was the fun of being with friends and the fact that we set aside our worries and stress the past week even for few hours.

See you on our next adventures!

———————-o