I was wanting to go somewhere for the long Malaysia day weekend, without taking an extra day off. Not somewhere new. And somewhere I didn't have to do lots of touristy stuff. So I decided to go Penang. I've been wanting to go back to Escape Penang eversince they added not one, but two world's longest rides - the zip coaster and the waterslide. What I found out, they also have the world's longest queues :P. More on this later.
Day 1: Friday Sept 16
As always, I chose to fly there. Saved me the stress of being in a traffic jam, especially on the way home. It was a 10:40 o'clock flight, so I left to catch the 7:40am ERL. The things you do when it's not working day :D. An hour later with a stop in Putrajaya, I arrived at KLIA2. That's ample of time to have breakfast and not having to drop off any luggage.
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| The plane, the plane |
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| Selamat Hari Malaysia! |
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| Oh I didn't know AA didn't want to pay for the skybridge |
My Penang buddy volunteered to pick me up at the airport. He said that he wanted to take me to lunch at Canning Dimsum. I haven't been to the one in Ipoh, but they were really good. Every single dish.
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| So colourful |
As we were reaching Georgetown, the sky opened up. It was kinda heavy that we couldn't even see the hills. Komtar was barely visible. I was dropped off at the hotel to check in and settled down.
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| The rain stopped |
Later in the evening, I went to Chinahouse for dessert and Tajuddin Hassan for briyani.
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| The line for Hameediyah spanned across several shops. Crazy |
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| The shop was just opening at 6:30pm |
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| Beriyani |
Day 2: Saturday Sept 17
Escape wouldn't be open until 10, we decided to leave a bit later. We stopped to have breakfast at Belimbing Cafe in Teluk Bahang. My friend said that they're famous for their big-sized roti jala. Since it was rather a long wait, we ordered roti canai, one piece each. Big mistake! I was already full when I was 3 quarters into my roti jala :D.
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| Teluk Bahang area |
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| It is big |
We arrived at 11, an hour after they opened. That was considered by Escape standards. The carpark was already full, but on the bright side, we got to park by the entrance :D.
Our main plan from the getgo was to tackle the zipcoaster and the waterslide. I've been to Escape when the waterpark was still in construction in 2017. (Huh how come there wasn't a blogpost on this I wonder?).
As expected it was a long queue for the zipcoaster since we had to wait for people to complete their rides, put on the harness and then get to the starting point. Our number was 666 and it was only in the early 400s. Gosh!
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| My oh my |
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| 👹 |
While waiting, we headed to the waterslide. These were the steps that we had to go through:
- Took bridge to the other side where the slide ended
- Got in line
- When it was our turn, we grabbed the tubes. You can opt for a single or double tubes.
- Carried the tubes across the bridge to the chairlift
- Due to the long queue for the chairlift, we decided to walk up instead. It probably took us a good 5-7 minutes
- Queued again for the waterslide and waited for our turn.
The length of the video showed the duration of the ride, which was roughly 4 minutes. It was fun and worth the wait. In the video you could see that we caught up with the girls in front of us. They were gingerly sliding their way down the slide before it quickly changed to white water rapids. Haha, sorry girls!
After we played at the pool, tried the slides and had A&W for lunch, we headed back to the zipcoaster. After one hour, the number only budged from 603 to 626. Whattheheck!
While waiting, there were people who missed their numbers rejoined the queue. The crew still entertained these people but they alternated between the running numbers and them. We even saw people with the number 546! What did these people do until they were missing for so long? Did they go out and had nasi kandar in Georgetown or something? It was unfair because we kept on coming back to check on our numbers.
It was unfortunate that my friend was above the maximum weight limit. I had to find a replacement. There was this group of girls, who were waiting in line, had an odd number of members. So one of the girls was game to join me on the zipcoaster. Their number was in the early 700s. Again, we skipped the line by walking up the hill after putting on our harnesses. The lines for the chairlift, tubby racer and water slide were insane. There were probably 10 people ahead of us. Not too bad. We all needed to wait for the gears to be brought up by the chairlift.
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| Prepping for the ride |
The zipcoaster was amazing! It definitely made up for the long wait. However the price for the park was steep if you take into account the number of rides that you could muster during the day especially during the weekend or public holidays. People were saying there is lesser crowd on weekdays. Instead of making Mondays as their off day, they ought to consider changing it to the middle of the week. I am from out of town, so I want to make use of the weekend to make my holiday in Penang longer.
I had gone on the other rides in the drypark before so I didn't feel terkilan (upset). Flying Lemur, the obstacle courses, Kite Flyer to name a few. I couldn't say so for my friend. He was saying that Escape is like AirAsia for themeparks. You need to do stuff on your own, like bringing your own tube across the parks. I'm not sure how it is now, but I remembered for the Kite Flyer, we needed to winch the people into their position before they took the swing.
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| 2018:Tubby racer - You need to drag your tube up the hill yourself |
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| 2018: Tubby racer |
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| 2018: Flying lemur. The best! Even better than Skytrex |
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| 2018: Kite Flyer - the other group had an odd number of people so I filled in the blank. Yang sebelah tu pasrah :D |
Before calling it a day, we had dinner at Port Seafood, Penaga - on the mainland. Hehe we had to end the day with a bang. The food especially the shellout was marvellous. I was surprised that they had this kind of restaurant in this area. If the food is great, people will definitely come.
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| Shellout. The gravy was goooood |
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| Tomyam |
Day 3: Sunday Sept 18
It was the final day in Penang. Nothing much in the itinerary except for breakfast, packing, lunch and catch my flight home.
I went to have char kuey teow at Dim Sum Valet for breakfast and tapau the Teochew Chendul.
And since I had time for my flight, I took Grab to Nasi Kandar Beratur 786 in Bayan Lepas. Our friends nicknamed it Nasi Kandar aircond, because it's an airconditioned shop :).
The flight was slightly delayed and we landed in KLIA2 a quarter after 5. Had the same stop in Putrajaya before continuing on to KL Sentral on the ERL. By 8, I reached my house. A bit longer than expecteed because I had a prayer break at KLIA2 and did some fruit-shopping at Nu Sentral.
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