WELCOME TO PENANG, MALAYSIA

Dear Tina and Gabby,

I thank God that I and my other colleagues arrived safely at Kuala Lumpur Airport an hour past midnight yesterday.  From the 3 and a half hour trip, we were ushered to an exclusive deluxe bus provided by the company that took us to 2 bus stops from the airport to our new place in Penang.

This is my first authentic NASI LEMAK experience…

Most of us had this entire plate of their so-called national dish at RM 5 (PhP 65 to 70 or perhaps there are even cheaper Nasi Lemak in other areas); in an instance, it reminded me of  our very own Binalot, less the salted egg and tomatoes.  I didn’t forget to have something to wash down the spice by getting myself a glass of calamansi-iced tea for RM 1.50 (PhP 20).

“Traditionally, this comes as a platter of food wrapped in banana leaf, with cucumber slices, small dried anchovies (ikan bilis), roasted peanuts, hard boiled egg, and hot spicy sauce (sambal) at its core.” Sourced via Wiki

‘ney, although unexpectedly, I liked it, I don’t think you’ll love it the first bite; it’s hot that you might need a liter of fluids to washed it down. The glass of iced tea I had felt short to the requirement.  The chicken looked and tasted curried; was ok but not that tender as I wanted. I liked the slice of cucumber, dilis and peanut combination. It’s just too early to tell if  my digestive would take it easily as I, God forbid, might have this as breakfast on a daily basis. *kidding*

After that 2AM chow, we headed to another bus stop for our much needed bladder-break then we reached our work place’s office at around 7AM and was delighted to a FREE-Malaysian breakfast and some delicacies.

The turon-looking thing at the middle of the platter was actually like Okoy for it has bean sprouts filling but wrapped and coated with sugar and sesame seads. I just failed to get the names of these sweet treats, can anyone identify?  I like the green and white thing; tasted like suman, biko and maja blanco combined! yum!

At around 10AM we’re brought to our villas.

This will be our temporary homes provided by our employer until we get our permanent abodes (parang ang hirap i-type yung salitang “permanent”) soon.

The villa is right across the clubhouse with wonderful swimming pool.

Look, Gabby, there’s a kiddie pool and a playground too! 🙂

A peek at my temporary own room… It’s not that grand, but complete with essentials. Thank God, my first sleep was restful.

After we checked in our villas, we changed into our business attires and attended to the first meeting with the CEO of the company. He warmly welcomed us and brief exchange of smiles were done.

Then our last stop for the day was shopping for our own survival kits. We bought bottles of distilled water, some crackers, hangers for suits etc.

First dinner in Penang was only at a food court of the same department store we went to.

I avoided being adventurous at my plate last night, probably because I was literally tired the whole day and would like to keep everything safe.  Among the many must-try dishes from Malaysia, I only had  SWEET and SOUR CHICKEN which I purchased for RM 5.90 (Php 80).

I know we have more days (and years!) to savor, taste and experience Malaysia.

Today, we’re off to Penang Island before lunch time.

Stay safe there, ‘ney and Gabby.  I’ll try my best to check out the place and everything here first; and in God’s will, I may bring you here soon. I love you and incredibly miss you.