A draft long overdue: decided to publish it now only because I have embarked in enough trips in the Summer 2017 trips itself.
Date: November 18-21, 2015 (20 months ago!)
The idea of post-graduation class trip is phenomenal, especially when we heard of other classes doing the same. To start things with, a representative of Sunway July 2014 group 12 (my class) created a group on WhatsApp for discussion. But dissents here and there hindered us from reaching a single decision even though the graduation date drew near in November.
Only until the day before our last A-Level paper did Mei Yan and Jean went resolute on their gavels to go for Penang-Ipoh trip, and invited us to join them. Qi Yao and I followed. Never did I know, though, that they meant it when they booked all necessary tickets for the trip the night after, with date one week away.
Departure (18/11/2015)
The first stop was the Upside Down museum, with we walking for 1km under the hot sun with Penang Famous Teowchew cendol as the sole energy replenishment (sigh! can you see me gasping?) The greatest thing was the professional photographers who even guided us how to position ourselves. (There’s actually rotation by 90 degree along with that of 180 degree, just in case you have curiosity thirst to be quenched).
Kek Lok Si was the spot in the afternoon (which, however, necessitated us to take a ride on Rapid Penang), but that’s not so much of appreciating of bird-eye’s view of Penang compared to the random photography in the middle of the pond.
Rounding up the day was the food adventure, which was disappointing with Air Itam laksa and New Lane food court closing on that day (we learned some time later that these eateries closes on Wednesdays). Desperate, and we had to resort to Presgrave hawker center which (thankfully) offered great food overall (prawn noodles and fried oyster, to name a few), before moving to the food court near Gurney drive to late night.
Day 2
It’s never a good idea to meander around in Love Lane and settle ourselves in a cafe when we should be exploring the island. Luckily, the street art exploration in the afternoon successfully compensated that. Again, it’s the excruciating times with us walking under the hot sun, so Qi Yao left us another classical quote for us to laugh on: “You guys please enjoy yourselves, and I’ll wait for you in a cafe nearby.”
We eventually capitulated to the erratic changes of the weather. It was drizzling, so it’s a fair bid to wait at a bus stop for the rain to subside before moving on to the Chew Jetty. We rushed to that final destination after we saw good linings on the sky, only to find ourselves in downpour (with my umbrella broken) later on. Luckily that misfortune was transient enough for us to settle at a food court before moving to Butterworth, with everyone staying at my place.
Day 3
The goal was clear: pure food trip. And we’re lucky to have Ernni, another classmate living in Ipoh as our tour guide.
We started off this section by stopping by at several eateries (breakfast-style dessert at Sin Yuen Loong, Funny Mountain beancurd and beansprout chicken rice), interspersed by a few walking stints and photographic stops at murals. It’s pleasing to see how the murals were well-maintained, unlike its dilapidated counterparts in Penang.
We reached our appetite limit in the afternoon, though, so we decided to stay in a mall for a movie, preparing for a grand secret project before moving to dinner and then hotel. The night was hardly occupied; we played poker cards and wait for the right time to execute the secret project.
It’s Mei Yan’s birthday celebration.
She and Qi Yao was with me after the movie for my “makeover” when the other two sneakily rushed to a bakery shop. But the big elephant in front of us could hardly be hidden so we had to break the news to the birthday girl during dinner. We’re glad that she enjoyed it though!
Day 4
Our wishlists went dry by 10am, having had the Cantonese Dim Sum and a curry noodle (one plate shared among five of us). That’s how we returned to the mall again to opt for a food court while waiting for the time to pass, and ultimately get to our residence in Sunway…again.
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As the adage goes, it’s not about where we had the trip; it’s all about who we were with. We had been together for most class outings back in college, with innumerable common movie and dessert sessions (not forgetting the ones with Ms. Amy as well). This explains our emphasis on the second objective after food: to talk as much as we could.
The topics were pretty candid, like my bringing up of the story of me being offended (I rarely had that) and implore them to reveal any incident of me offending them, Mei Yan and Qi Yao raising some past conflict that sounded funny retrospectively, etc.
Trip planning is another avenue for growth, and that’s how I value this opportunity. It sounded glamorous to be the host of the trip (for Penang part), but ironically I was almost as ignorant as foreign tourists on Georgetown except the scant knowledge on what we eateries we had there. It’s painstaking to learn that one week for planning was barely sufficient, but we forced our best to partition our wishlists into clusters according to regions and use Waze to locate directions. Eventually I learned the bits and bytes of travelling near the area, really.
anzoteh96 