Traveloguette: Penang-Phuket Cruise, part 1

We didn't bother to check prior to boarding on Sunday. So it came as a bit of a surprise that the cruise itinerary was to include Phuket and not Langkawi. Meaning Thailand as well as Malaysia.

I literally scrambled to call and correct my MINDEF trip notification details. It's moderately annoying that they require a breakdown of the trip by country and duration. Couldn't they just settle for "overseas"?

Anyway. Virgo departed in fairly good weather. Decent sunshine with a smattering of clouds.


Keeping a lookout


Enjoying the weather

There would be a gala dinner event on the ship on Tuesday night, after the Phuket stopover. That translates to a free dinner in one of the ship's paid restaurants. Mum wanted to book a seat at the Chinese restaurant, Noble House, which according to her is the best of the available restaurants. Booking for Balcony Class passengers would begin shortly at 4:15pm, or so we were told. However, when we got there, we discovered that reservations had started earlier at 3:45pm, and Noble House was already fully booked. Between the remaining restaurants, we reluctantly picked Japanese - the Samurai Restaurant.

J and I explored the ship but didn't find anything much to do at all. The pool was already crowded, the jacuzzis and deck chairs mostly occupied. Decided not to hit the casino. Passed an uneventful afternoon taking random photos, then headed up to the buffet for dinner.


To infinity?

Penang
The liner approached Penang in the late morning of the next day. Overcast sky with intermittent showers seemed to be the order of the day. Nevertheless, most of the guests were eager to get on dry(?) land.


Waiting to go ashore


Ah, transport


Bye for now

At the docks, we boarded a taxi and started going around, first to find the infamous Penang char kway teow (not bad but pricey), laksa (not my forte), lor mee (good), hay mee (also good) and kon lou mee (didn't come in the end). Funny place, served iced coffee but not hot coffee.

It started raining pretty heavily just as we finished eating, so getting to the taxi proved to be a challenge. But we managed, thanks to one of the hawkers who loaned us an umbrella.


Wet wet wet!

The driver kept promoting a place that sold bak kut teh powder, so we acquiesced and headed there. Mum and J didn't like the taste of their bak kut teh, so we left fairly quickly. The place was called "Wah Thai", I suspect they had some kickback arrangement with the drivers for bringing tourists there.


Shop signboard. Rain incoming!

Went to have durian (not my forte either), then to buy dried foodstuff. And then we headed for our most important stop in Penang - Ghee Hiang. Stocked up on tau sar pneah (red bean biscuit), phong pneah (sweet biscuit?), and my favourite beh teh saw (molasses biscuit).
Edit: Apparently the bakery that we were actually supposed to go to was Him Heang - J misheard the recommendation. But it turned out all right - the Ghee Hiang stuff wasn't too shabby either. Next time we'll go to Him Heang.


Up the road from Ghee Hiang

Headed back to the ship early, avoiding the queue that would form up later at the docks - and the rain.


Escape from Penang!

Packed up some of the goodies that we'd bought this day, and prepared for dinner at Noble House, the only good meal that we'd have on the ship. Next stop, Phuket!