Back to strengthen family bond

25th November 2009 Wednesday.

   Josephine’s eldest brother’s daughter Pei Woon, getting married and therefore we were cordially invited. Well in order to remain as a true ‘brother-in-law’ and not ‘outlaw’ I have no choice but to make this trip even in my physically handicap condition to strengthen the family bond. Josephine and I arrived at Changi Airport, Budget Terminal, a low cost, no frills with only basic amenities; even no aero-bridge and have to walk to the aircraft at the parking bay. We checked in at  Tiger Air ways counter and were allowed first preference owing to my physical deficiency ( leg-brace). We boarded the two jet-engine Airbus aircraft and were ushered to be seated at the first row. I had settled down comfortably when a stewardess came up and informed me that according to emergency regulation I could not be seated at the first row as I am a disable person. At first I refused to budge and fully intended to  exercise my consumer’s right; I had paid extra for sufficient leg-room to enable myself to stretch comfortably. And now being told to give up my seat to shift elsewhere. We were really upset because how is that the ticketing is not aware of such a ruling and went ahead to accept payment and issuing of electronic tickets. The stewardess went to the cockpit I supposed to check with the captain and returned to inform us that I had no alternative but to move. To avoid further undue attention I got up and went to the third row in exchange with Jo’s nephew Deryx. It was quite an embarrassment as I limped slowly out of the first row to hobble behind; all eyes zeroing on to me as the centre of attraction.

   1830 hrs: Our flight No. TR426 departed slightly behind schedule and arrived at  Penang after a smooth uneventful flight that took about an hour. According to history Capt. Francis Light landed in Penang on 11th August 1786 and named it as the ‘Prince of Wales Island’. It became a colonial outpost for the British East India Company to protect their sphere of influence in this region.

Jo’s fifth sister Bee Kim and her hubby Ah Hwah were there to meet us and fetched straight to Mount Erskine for dinner. We enjoyed our first delicious dinner and it consisted of oyster mee, horfan, spring rolls and roasted red fermented pork.

   After that we were driven to their two storey terrace house located at a quiet residential area. It has four bed-rooms up-stairs; downstairs a large sitting-room with an antique  grandfather clock, a computer/study-room and kitchen. We used the upstairs back room which was spacious, long and air-conditioned. 

   Standing outside the house, before me appear a view of Penang Hill rising up to the peak; high mountains has a pull of fascination.  Our hills in Singapore are just small moulds and Mount Faber where the cable car is connected to Sentosa is lesser than Bukit Timah which is 166m high. Therefore it is misleading in using of the word ‘Mount’ meaning mountain. In most religion or culture, mountains are revered as sacred places. In Biblical text just to mention some places like where Moses received the 10 commandments at Mount Sinai. Noah’s Ark rested on Mount Ararat after the flood subsided. King Solomon built his Temple on Mount Moriah. Jesus encounter with Satan at Mount Temptation, his preaching at the Mount of Beatitudes, his transfiguration at Mount Tabor, his ascension at Mount of Olives and his crucifixion at Calvary (Golgatha, hill of skull in the Aramaic language).

 

No.1 is the shop-house but we stayed at No.5

Josephine in front of No.5

 

Part view of Penang Hill

 

26th November, Thursday

   Penang is without doubt a food paradise especially for the glutton, those who live to eat and not eat to live. I read that the famous “Penang Char Kway Teow” received top nomination by the Penang State Tourism website; followed by Penang Laksa. The others like hokkien mee, oyster omelet also enjoy top ranking. In the morning I did a blood-test to check my sugar level and had a shock when it registered 15.9 which is very high. So to console myself I assume that my monitor gadget is not working and reading shown in error. Ah Hwah brought us to have duck kway teow soup and char kway teow for breakfast at Carnavon Street. That evening Jo’s fourth brother Ah Pang gave us a dinner treat at the Dragon Gate Restaurant. After an absence of 3 years since I last came in February 2006 for my son’s wedding reception held in Penang. There is so much to talk to make up for lost time and the food was delicious. We had fish curry that was their specialty, fried pork, Bangkok chicken, torfu in clay-pot and vegetable. Anyway I got carried away by the event and forgot to take pictures even though I had a digital camera with me. What a silly waste missing to capture the event in camera.

 

27th November, Friday

   With Bee Kim we went for breakfast and had the famous hokkien prawn noodle  soup (hay mee) at Swatow Lane. It was a festive day ‘Hari Raya Haji’ and saw many Malay families visiting the cemetery to pay homage to their loved ones that had gone before them. Since it was on our way we stopped at the heritage site ‘rumah P. Ramlee’, the famous Malay actor, singer, song-writer and film producer who made his fortune in film industry in Singapore.

 

Heritage site:  Rumah P. Ramli

   For lunch Ah Hwah took us to a popular beef stall at the junction of Chulia x Carnavon Streets and we had steaming hot bowls of delicious beef noodles. Jo had wanton mee. Talking of wanton mee made me recollect an incident I had when flying with my pilot colleagues to an airfield called Jendarata. On landing in the afternoon, we got a ride to the town for lunch and there nothing left except wanton mee. So myself and this pilot colleague, a Swiss guy we called ‘Monty’ settled down to eat. Half way through I tasted the char siew and felt that it was bad so I set it aside. My fellow pilot Monty gobbled down everything and upon finishing we returned to the airfield. On reaching the airfield, Monty complained of acute stomach-ache and had to practically run to the nearest toilet. After a while he reappeared in cold sweat and with a sad look. He remarked, ‘Wow! terrible, I eat wanton and  discharged two tons’  We all had a good laugh, luckily it was on the ground, imagine what will happen if  he was airborne. Our training aircraft are two-seaters and no toilet; therefore it could be very, very messy and smelly business!  

 

 

A bowl of Beef noodles

Yu Fang is Jo’s niece and she took us to new food court called the “New World” where I tried the “ice-kachang”.

The New World, the food court.

New World, the shops

New World, the shops, outlets.

Ice kachang

In the evening Ah Hwah went to buy back the popular Penang dish Char Kway Teow for us to enjoy.

Char Kway Teow

   For our dinner Jo’s second brother Hai Thean arranged ‘Tambuan’ seafood restaurant located by the beach at Telok Kumbar. At first the weather seemed threatening with black clouds building up and we were afraid that it might rain but fortunately it held out. We had chilly crab, black pepper crab, big prawns, fish, taufu, for vegetable dow miao, cauliflower and also satay

 

Ah Hwah, Bee Kim and Jo.

 

2nd sister-in-law with son and his wife

Ah Khoon with his elder son.

 

Ah Khoon’s cute youngest boy.

28th Novenber, Saturday

Since I lavish for beef noodles, Ah Hwah went to buy it from the famous Chulia and Carnavon Street and Jo had pork knuckles for breakfast.

Beef noodles

Pork knuckles

   This time Jo’s nephew Chok Hao doing the driving and went to fetch his sister Yu Fang at her in-law’s place. We went to Tanjung Bungah to see Yu Fang’s new condominium from the outside since she has not collected her keys yet. Since Yu Fang have not eaten breakfast we went to Hai Onn coffee-shop at Burmah Road to eat. Yu Fung ate chee cheong fun while we sampled fried carrot cake and delicious otah. The woman tried to promote her otak and distribute small slip printed ‘Mummy otak, very top otak in Penang. Nyonya, authentic. Advance booking with h/p: 016-47130. Super best.

 

Carrot cake pushcart.

Fried carrot cake and otah

Chee Cheong Fun

   Chok Hao took us to the United Hokkien Cemetery to pay respect to Jo’s father the late Lim Chin Wah. We had to search for the tomb as the grass had overgrown and obscured some of the tombs. The grass was stone dried and a simple spark can set the whole cemetery ablaze. So they had to exercise extra care in burning paper and joss sticks which was done at lower level by the road. In the Old Testament we are called in Exodus 20: 12  ‘Honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that Yahweh your God has given you” In my heart I am saying ‘Hi! father-in-law, your ‘pai-ka son-in-law has come  a long way to pay respect.’ We also visited the niche of 3rd brother Hai Ghee and 1st sister Lian Heow.

 

The gateway United Hokkien Cemetary

Paying respect to Jo’s father

3rd brother niche top left.

1st sister niche.

   For lunch we were at Farlim to sample the island’s most popular dish “Penang Laksa”; it was a long queue and we did not mind waiting. The stall employing high technology by installation of CCTV to monitor on the progress. The gravy has already been prepared by the boss and the Indonesian workers does the dishing out.

 

Front view Penang laksa stall at Farlin

Inside the coffee shop view

The popular delicious Penang Laksa.

We went to pay a short visit Jo’s 3rd sister at Burmah Road

Jo, Chok Hao, Yu Fang and 3rd sister.

   Jo had contracted a bout of influenza; her throat pain and had a lot of flam. That night we had to attend Pei Woon wedding dinner held at the Jade Restaurant in town. Even though Jo had lost her voice and had to use sign language to communicate, we had to fulfill our obligation.  As usual Chinese dinner everywhere started late around 2100hrs. The newly wed couple walked in to the tune of music to take their place at the table of honour, seated together were both parents. It was followed by announcements, the cutting of the cake and pouring of champagne upon the pyramid of glasses. The shouts of ‘yam seng’ ringing loudly throughout the hall as the guests raise their glasses to toast. There were no shortage of singers going on stage to sing. The ragging on the stage I personally felt was a bit overdoing, somebody showing off by taking off his shirt in a public display of his masculine form. I think it is not amusing nor appealing or pleasing to the older generation which should be shown more respect. It is more  to offending and disgusting, fortunately everything ended up smoothly without any unruly incident.

 

The couple pouring Champagne over the pyramid of glass

The couple cutting the wedding cake

Why so late? we are starving

 

It’s time for ‘yam seng’

 

Brothers and sisters, Lims’ family.

The SUV that took us to the wedding dinner

29th November, Sunday

   By 0900hrs we left for the house of 1st brother for the Chinese traditional tea ceremony. Tables were laid outside in the corridors of the flat and filled with nyonya cakes, drinks. When the groom arrived there was much teasing before the groom was finally allowed in. Then the tea ceremony commenced according seniority. Later  adjourned to the groom’s house for the final tea ceremony. There were buffet lunch served at both places, with traditional local laksa, chicken curry, sweet and sour fish, pineapple rice, horfun etc…

 

 

Waiting for the pouring of tea

Posing with the newly weds

   In the evening we went to attend 6.00pm Mass at the Church of the ‘Immaculate Conception’ at Burmah Road. This traditional Catholic Church was built in 1810 that means the church already existed 9 years before Sir Stamford Raffles discovered the island of Singapore. Within the compound there is a statue of St. James Chastan, a French Missionary priest who was martyred for his faith in 1839.

 

The Church of Immaculate Conception.

The statue of St. Chastan.

The Memorial plague

After church service we returned to the house for a short rest before going for dinner arranged by Ah Hwah.  We left before 8.00pm for Chin Bee Tea Restaurant at No. 124 Noordin Street. A small restaurant with about 7 or 8 tables but have to place booking in advance owing to it’s popularity. Ah Hwah knows the chef and they have been together on China tour. The food was sumptuous, we had pork-ribs with green pepper, pig trotters, steamed fish, steamed eggs, a dish of mussels, crabs-meat, scallops and vegetables. Washed down constantly by continuous flow of Chinese tea.

 

Bee Kim, Ah Hwah and Yu Hang

Self and wife Josephine

Michael and wife Yu Fang

Chok Hao, his girl friend and cousin

 

Pork-ribs with green pepper

Pig trotters

 A seafood dish

 

Steamed fish

 Mixed vegetable dish

Steamed egg

 

30th November Monday

   For breakfast I had just plain ‘roti jala’ and Jo had Chee Cheong Fun brought over by Jo’s sister Nancy. I drank my favourite Old Town white coffee and I love it. For lunch Ah Hwah whom we accept as a full-fledged chef for his culinary skill (kung hu) as he prepared home-cooked food. Our self-claimed Service Apartment “Raja Gopal No.5” is the best and most of all free of charge. Believe it or not, where else can you get?  We had a wonderful stay,treated like a VIP housed in air-conditioned comfort and driven around everywhere. In the meantime while waiting for our food we were being entertained by a 7 year old girl named Miss Tan (Jo Jo). She was keying away on the electric organ like a celebrity. However we admit that we had been unfair to her by teasing her with a nick-name of ‘Pang Jiak Khoon’ (shit, eat, sleep) but she took it sportingly without any outcry.

   Meantime Ah Hwah produced some delicious dishes like the sweet-sour pork, mango-flavour chicken, fish with ginger, chicken fried with salted egg and steamed egg with century and salted egg. By then my blood sugar had shot up to extremely high reading of 17.0 way beyond accepted level. If in Singapore I should report to a hospital and maybe detained for observation. I had to take drastic corrective measures by abstaining which is not easy as delicious food is so hard to resists.

 

Sweet and sour pork

 

Mango- flavour pork

 

 Fried chicken with salted egg

Mixed vegetable dish

 Steamed egg with salted and century egg

 

Jo Jo like a celebrity on the organ

   Later in the afternoon, we had the opportunity to watch some cooking lessons by Ah Hwah working on chicken, frying in sambal or shrimp-paste. By 1700hrs we had to leave for airport, a mixed feeling befell upon us; sad to be leaving behind relatives but at the same time glad to be heading back home. Ah Hwah drove us to the airport to catch our Tiger Airways flight No. TR427 departing at 2015hrs. We passed through the initial security check-point for baggage and proceeded to the counter for our boarding pass.

   We stopped for a snack at the Airport Coffee Bean before entering departure hall. There was another baggage-check and this time the woman customs officer asked to open my bag. In it we had about 10 packages of rempah curry-powder. We were told that it was prohibited as hand carried item; we tried to reason out that we are within our 7 kg allowance but were unsuccessful. I do not really understand such a ruling; we are not bringing the item into the country but instead bringing it out.  It is mere curry-powder for self consumption; what is it dutiable or presenting a security risk?  I am in search of answers, anyway no reasonable explanation given, just an abrupt no and was told that I could re-check in as luggage or face confiscation. In the end all was duly confiscated, so we walk off with bitterness inside. Sad to say that I had encountered un-pleasant experience both at Singapore departure with the Tiger aircrew  and the departure from Penang with that woman customs officer. So it had a sour ending.