Two Guys, A Girl and A Roadtrip

Judging by the endless prose dedicated to it, the near legendary roadtrip seems almost fundamental to the longevity of a relationship. From the wild antics of a Thelma & Louise to the more sedate journeys of Phineas & Passerpartout, getting on that roadtrip together either strengthens the bonds of breaks it ultimately.

So one weekend Charming Calvin, Shameless Shalom and I decided to test out that theory. At the very last second, Statuesque Sarah was called away to serve the Médecins Sans Frontières leaving us a bereft threesome instead of a fourgy.


Shalom : We're driving? Like eeeew.
Paul : The private jet's in the shop.
But it was fine. Shalom's antics throughout the entire slow morning drive all the way up north served to beguile the tedium of the journey. Topics bantered about ranged from the unstable political situation in the state of Perak to the weepy women on Calvin's iPod playlist.

Being an amateur foodie herself, Shalom couldn't just shoot by the town of Ipoh without sampling some of its local delicacies. And since I had no complaints, we made our way into the colonial city to look for dimsum, pork satay and chicken hor fun. There was even talk of looking for the Tree of Democracy ( linked to the unstable politics in Perak I mentioned earlier ) so to speak though the scent of steamed chicken soon distracted us.

Serendipitously an uncle of mine happened to be in town so we got the deals on the cheap. As in free. Doctors are damned freeloaders, I tell ya!

Of course fate took its sweet revenge on us when we arrived in Penang.

Although I feared that I'd get hopelessly lost driving around, turns out my natural instinct ( and implanted memory! ) was quite enough to get me around the narrow bylanes of the inner city.

Mother Nature wasn't similarly impressed. Not only did it seem as if a tropical storm had hit the island, we were practically buffeted by winds approaching 50 mph. Seriously. Umbrellas were flipped around. Skirts were flying. Empty tables were drifting down New Lane and for a while it looked as if our friedkuayteow/friedoyster/currymee/muachee/hokkienmee laden table would soon follow.

Then a flying plate full of belacan decides to land on an unsuspecting Shalom. Think Three Stooges with a plate of cream pie.

And then the detoxifying effects of her dubious buah kedondong drink followed. Which didn't help when I took the both of them on a death-defying whirlwind spin up the winding cliffside of Batu Ferringhi at midnight for a view of the clubs and the pubs.

Needless to say, the afterparty consisted of the both of them - Calvin and Shalom - taking turns cleansing themselves of the detoxifying evils of kedondong while I walked the quiet beach at midnight with paperback in hand.