The Great Outdoors

Penang Kayuh Kayuh Makan Day 2 Part 1

From left, Winson Gan, Chris Ng, Wai Keat, Kok Keong, Larry, Cikgu Chin and Cukgu Li.

We slept at 3.30am, after taking turns cleaning ourselves and still chattering into the morning. At the sound of the alarm, we sat upright, looking like a zombie! Hurriedly, we get ourselves cleaned up and carried the bike down to the lobby.

Larry has already parked his car and was greeting us. Cikgu Chin and Cikgu Li came down right after. Winson arrived a short while later. He purposely took a day's leave to accompany us and I liked to thank him for that. We managed to put 8 bikes and 8 riders into 2 vehicles! Thanks to Larry's ingenuity in stuffing bikes into compact spaces. Also the compactness of the 2 Brommies helped and also Cikgu's 2 16 inch wheelers.

We drove to Balik Pulau and we were passing through Jalan Tun Sardon where me Larry recalled back the ride we had here the previous visit. We arrived first and later Winson rolled in. We took our breakfast here and for me, what else? " Koay Teow Th'ng " or literally, flat rice noodle in clear broth.

Larry saw and gestured, " Koay Teow Th'ng again ". I sheepishly said, " Yes! It's hard to find this in KL ". I paid RM2.80 for a large bowl and guess I was not wrong in choosing my future retirement home. The ringgit really stretches here. Larry and Winson briefed us on what to expect today. We were to ride to Pantai Acheh coastal village and to the nutmeg farm and later on to Pulau Betong and up to Hakka village.

The ride initially was pleasant, riding through village roads, although the main arteries in the eastern part of Penang but not busy. Actually , I have driven along these roads quite often but never before have I ride it on a folding bike. The road was flat but the sun rises early and it was getting a bit stifling. We rode on and finally we came to the Pantai Acheh junction. Schooling here for 8 years and stayed here for many years, Penang I mean, I have never ventured here before.

This little village seems to be a thriving center for garlic! We can smell the garlic when we rode past. The villagers were loading and unloading bags of garlic and also passing through village houses we can see the elderly peeling garlic. We rode till there was  no road ahead but I still didn't see a beach as depicted by it's name. "Pantai" means beach, so I guess there should be a beach! Nope! there was no beach.

On the way out, we spotted a little trail on the right and we explored into it. We came to a local temple with a seafood restaurant beside. There was another smaller trail which runs into the mangrove and experience tells me, it's a fishermen trail. Riding into it confirmed my guess as we rode till the end. We saw the estuary where the local fishermen navigate their boats out to sea. we saw a huge and ugly mud skipper here! 

We rode out and on the way out, we stopped at the ' Pusat Falak Sheikh Tahir '. It's an observatory and this is one of the places in Malaysia where the official spotting of the new moon is done to determine the date of the 'Hari Raya'. Cikgu Chin went up to get permission to enter and he got it. I and Winson stayed back to look after the bikes while the rest went up and try to look at Sumatra over the telescope. The care taker there even invited them over that night as there's a star gazing session.

We rode out and the sun was already on our backs! We passed by a small town that looked familiar. It was the location where we had breakfast when I was riding during the last trip from Teluk Bahang. We rode past and went straight to Larry's favorite nutmeg farm. Just as we were riding in, the owner was driving out but he ushered us to continue.

We spent quite some time here, joking with the owner's daughter (most probably). She was envious of us, free riding all over the place and laughing and enjoying ourselves. She was explaining a lot of queries from KK and a few about nutmegs. Also cold nutmegs juice is free flow here. She even invited us to fill our water bottle with the nutmeg juice but I think that's a bit too much, don't you think so? We bought a few items and said goodbye to her.

We have also decided to cancel our trip to Hakka village and Pulau Betong as the sun is really scorching now. We were all double or triple toned now! So, we decided to head to the famous 'assam laksa' place in Balik Pulau. I really was eager to dig into that, especially the Siamese one.

I had a bowl and also a glass of cold 'Pat Poh' (a herbal concotion only found in Penang). We sat and rested, escaping the heat for the moment. We were not really tired but the heat was really catching on to us. After enjoying it, we rode back to the car park, promising ourselves that we will do the Pulau Betong and Hakka Village at another time.