The Toy Museum

When my gf first suggest we go check out this place in Penang, I seriously thought it was a bad idea. A toy museum? Sounds like a poorly run tourist rip off to me.

Like many great Malaysian tourist attraction, this place charged different admission rates for locals & foreigners. Is the government subsidising my entrance fee as well? haha

My skepticism quickly fade away upon entering & seeing the size of the collection. The place was lined with rows upon rows of shelfs crammed full of toys. The collection is so huge, they can divide it into different sections.



There is large section dedicated to Star Wars & LOTR action figures. So many in fact the owner probably had trouble fitting them inside the display shelfs. I think those figures alone would cost him a fortune.

Standing room only, okay

Love this scene

The museum even had life size version of the characters. The owner really had an unhealthy obsession with his toys here. I mean, who in their right mind would want a life size Jar Jar Binks? As if the movie version is not irritating enough!

I met the King

This guy here doesn't look too happy at being photographed

Can I borrow your rod to kill Jar Jar?

Look, I found the cutest dustbin ever!!!

Not to mentioned, Mr. Potato Head version of Darth Vader, Storm Trooper & R2D2

I forgot to bring my angry eyes again

Dead celebrities & pro wrestlers had their own toys too. The whole Smackdown thing really brought back memories of the days when I used to rush back from tuition classes to catch the show. We discussed about the plot lines the next day in school, sometimes even trying a few wrestling moves on unsuspecting friends.....Ahh, those were the days.

Bruce Lee immortalised in toy form

Layeth The Smackdown

Aside from all the big boys toys, there are some cute cartoon characters to make the kids & um, adults happy

I like the singing Giant

So cute can die

Can I bring this home?

Three monsters to terrorize you

Lots of Transfor, I mean Gandum, sorry erm...Gundam

But the coolest toys were all reserved for the Chamber of Horror section

Aliens vs Predator

Willie Wonka looks a lot like Michael Jackson. Creepy

Warning : Keep away from water

The psychopath from Saw who loves S & M *shudder*

Hi, I am Chucky. Wanna play?

Very impressive collection I must say. It's the world's largest toy collection according to the brochure so definitely worth a visit. The owner surely need all the money he can get to sustain his hobby hehe

Penang Day 2

We went temple hopping on the 2nd day of our Penang trip. Our 1st stop is the Chinese temple of Kek Lok Si, a famous landmark of the island. We went there by taking the Rapid Penang bus, which is a more reliable than their KL counterpart. On the way, it passed through the Rifle Range flats, one of the major political hot spots prior to the general election.

We reach there just in time for lunch, but the famous asam laksa stall outside the wet market was closed so we had to settled for the one inside the food court instead. Still, it's way better than what we had back here. After our meal, we had a long climb up towards the temple using the stuffy covered walkway.


There are a lot of new additions to the original temple that I visited many many years ago. One of them was the inclined lift that we took to go to see the bronze Kuan Yin statue. They are currently building a giant umbrella to shield it from the elements hence all the scaffoldings.

Definitely not as scary as it look

The statue behind 'bars'

Later on we visited the Burmese temple at Jalan Burma. I make a small contribution to the victims of the cyclone there. Although not much, I hope it can help the victims & won't end up fattening the pockets of the military generals.

Tiger? Lion? Dragon?

Peace

And situated directly opposite the Burmese temple is the Thai Buddhist temple with a huge reclining Buddha. Once inside, you can get your fortune read using this machine. No need to do it manually anymore ^~^


Once dinner approaches, it is makan time again, this time we went to the popular Gurney Drive which is within walking distance from our hotel. With so much good food surrounding us, we easily succumb to the 'dark' side.

We went berserk & ordered ikan bakar, char koay teow, oyster omelet, wantan mee, fried chicken skin, ais kacang & fried lala. Suffice to say, our table drew more than a few stares from the locals hehe

We had a light dinner

The very sinful fried chicken skin

Will post about our visit to the toy museum next.....*wipes drool*

Exploring Penang

I am back blogging, after 3 days of vacation exploring Penang with my gf armed with a trusty tourist map & a smattering of Hokkien. Prior to that, we did pretty much everything online, you know things like looking up bus routes, attractions, hotel bookings etc etc...

We took Plusliner for the journey from KL to Penang & had a surprisingly pleasant trip. The best thing about Plusliner is their buses depart from KL's KTM main terminal, meaning you won't need to jostle with the crowd at the carbon monoxide filled dungeon of Puduraya. Not to mention clean interior and cockroach-free seats.

I think our driver even set a new Malaysian record when the bus departed one minute before the stated time. We were impressed ^~^

5 butt-numbing hours later, we reached Penang or what I like to call it, the DAP state. The taxi ride from Sg.Nibong bus terminal to Berjaya Hotel cost us RM22! Bloody expensive for a 20 minutes journey. Note to self : if mechanical engineering doesn't work out, try taxi driving in Penang.

The view from our hotel room

Penang is a curious mix of old & new with many structures dating back to the colonial era. The island is littered with Western style bungalows, churches, missionary schools and clan houses, especially so in Georgetown.

Speaking of clan houses, we visited three : the Yap, Cheah & Khoo Kongsi at one shot since all of them were situated close to each other. All of them are still beautifully preserved with the most impressive being Khoo Kongsi due to their immense wealth.

But finding these grand buildings can be tricky as all of them are hidden from view & can only be access from small entrances. The purpose was to protect the buildings from being destroyed during clone clan wars in the olden days.

Entrance to Cheah Kongsi

Gigantic lanterns adorned all three of them. Really reminds me of the movie 'Raise The Red Lantern'.





One particular room at Khoo Kongsi were hung full of 'signboards' of Khoos who manage to complete university. If you thought such things were ancient practices, some of the them obtained their degrees as recent as 2006.


The Khoo clan must have been very concern with security, not content with just building small hidden entrances, they even build stone pak guards to scare away troublemakers.


Walking around in search of Sun Yat Sen's Penang base, we saw this Habib Jewels outlet. Must have been the first outlet before they expand into every major shopping complexes in Malaysia.


We failed to find the building though but still saw a statue of the great man at the Penang Philomathic Union.


From the compound, you have a nice view of the Umno building & Komtar. One houses the office of the Chief Minister while another is the headquarters of the opposition party ^~^


Completed Day 1 with a meal at Lorong Selamat. Will post about my second day as soon as I finish adapting myself back to bland KL food hehe