Something good out of something lousy

 

 

 

 

And it all started with cendol pulut.. what was supposed to be a short drive to Penang took us 10 hours...... well, actually it started when a local budget airline (supposedly the best in the world) messed up our family annual holiday trip. We were booked to go to Manado, Sulawesi for 3 days, but discovered to our shock, only on the way to the airport that the plane had left w/out us, becoz of a reschedule which wasnt informed to us beforehand. So, there we were, with all our bags packed and nowhere to go for the next 3 days..... but i guess God has a way of turning something good out of something lousy... the family council decided finally to head up to Penang instead. (the younger 2 had to be 'bribed' with a promise of shopping tho!) Truth be told i wasn't that eager to go, but no. 1 princess insisted we go somewhere, anywhere... and i m glad she did... coz we all had an unexpectedly grand time... thanks to a handy little thing called GPS....
Which my bro was fiddling with... i was most impressed by the gadget... his was a hi-tech version, got ultra sultry voice to alert which way to go ..plus listings of food and places of interest... so it was that Ms GPS directed us to cendol pulut somewhere in a little kampung called Simpang Pulai off the NS h'way..
It was really littel, and really way out; actually on the road to Camerons. Just a nondescript hut, literally by the road side. Makes you wonder how on earth it got listed on a sophisticated GPS!! But it was gooood. And so started our free-n-easy drive... guided by Ms GPS who directed us next along a bumpy, dusty earth trail to an off-the-track hot springs enclave in the middle of nowhere...
This wasn't the well-known tourist spot which charged a fee for entry. This was absolutely wild, free and all for us only (since it was a week-day).. we had such a fun time dipping alternately in the hot pools and the cold rushing waters of the river... beats any man-made jacuzzi.... and the weather was just perfect even tho it was mid-day, the clouds provided nice shade. Only ting missing was the eggs, we could have had some hard boiled on the spot, if only we had brot them... but then, none of us anticipated a hot springs adventure anyway!
By the time we had enuf of hot/cold waters, our stomachs were ready to receive solids... so since we were near Ipoh, Ipoh it was... this time Ms GPS failed us; but there's always friendly human GPSs at petrol stations to direct us to the famous eating places in Ipoh town. Unfortunately by the time we ronda here and there, it was past lunch time 2 pm. These Ipoh-ites not like KL-ites, got food anytime of the day. At 2 pm, most of the shops tutup already. Still there was enuf to fill empty stomachs... the irony of it is my boy ended up taking Pg asam laksa in Ipoh!!Since we were in no hurry, we turned off at Bkt Merah Laketown to look-see look-see before rolling onto Penang. Nothing impressive, except gawking at ducks on the water!
Finally arriving in Pg late evening, we checked into the hotel. Come dinner time, the rain put a damper on our plans to blitz the open-air hawker-food stalls. So we had to be content to drive out to a nearby mall, and after going round and round in circles arguing over what to eat, instead of good ole Penang food, we had to settle for .... of all things.. Manhattan Fishmarket. Imagine, going all the way to Pg to eat Western food, which can be got in KL... bleh. Not that the fish-meal wasn't good; it was. But as i kept grumbling... I wanted PENANG food! Then it was a drive about at nite downtown... its been so long since i was in Penang; but the memories of my early childhood remained, and so i turned tourist guide for the kids, entertaining (or rather boring) them with grandma stories...
Next morning i insisted rain or no rain, we would hv Pg food..so finally at Pulau Tikus market, i got to indulge in chee cheong fun, assam laksa, char koay teow, curry mee, thick kopi-tiam coffee, etc etc. Quite happy, we decided to take a trip up to Pg Hill, since the kids had never been, and the last time i went was like... gee, umpteen umpteen years ago. So behaving like typical tourists lugging cameras in hand, we went up, gulped some fresh mountain air, ooh and ahh-ed over the views from the top, and came down satisfied we had done 'something' in Pg. Of coz no trip to Pg would be complete w/out a stop-over at Lorong Selamat for food (wat else!!)...more hokkien mee, char koay teow, rojak, ice kacang, to fill the stomach... Final stop was shopping, since we had promised the kids... not that there was much to shop at Bayan Baru centre. So by the time we hit the home road, it was late afternoon. Near dinner time Ms GPS directed us to clay pot chicken rice in Bidor. It wasn't great, but it filled the need. We ordered noodles - ying yeong - expecting the normal KL Cantonese version of wet hor fun. Instead turned out Bidor version consisted of totally different and opposite variety - dry fried mee hoon/ mee. Lesson of the day: Don't assume all things called by 1 name are the same 1 kind!
So ended the great adventure which should have been in Manado, but happened in Pg instead. Considering that this was the 2nd flight re-schedule, we choose to believe we were just not meant to go to Manado - who knows, there are enuf real-life stories out there that sometimes delays, cancellations, changes are forced on us for very good reason, even tho we can't see it then. I rmbr tales of survivors of disasters telling how they were saved becoz of a last minute change of plan. Well, in any case, God more than made up with an unexpectedly nice and easy trip for the family, so we are indeed much blessed...

" And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose "... Romans 8:28

Log into http://picasaweb.google.com/laisaikhoon for peep into the great adventure!