My bestie**,  messaged me, "Want to go on a day-delivery this Saturday?" She was on an assignment and about to drive roughly 330 km from Kuala Lumpur (KL) to Penang. The 8-hour return drive screamed for company. "3 a.m. pickup!" she said brightly when I agreed.

And that's how I started my Saturday morning dragging myself out of bed at 2 in the morning. "Don't people sleep anymore?" I asked my friend, still bleary-eyed as I looked out on the busy E1 (Malaysia's North-South Expressway) later.

We made the delivery in Georgetown, a UNESCO World Heritage site and capital city of Penang. Besides being a centre steeped in historical and architectural value, Penangites (as citizens of the island refer to themselves) are fiercely proud of their gastronomical heritage and renowned for their street food.

So, we weren't going to leave before breakfast. Our strategy to find the best eats was to look for a crowded food-stop and that's how we ended up at the unassuming New Cathay Coffee Shop on the locale of Pulau Tikus (literal translation, rat island). A pictorial representation here is a good sum-up of our feast.

Satiated, we were homeward bound. But what's a long haul drive without rest stops? Cue Ipoh, capital city of the Perak state, about 160 km and 2-hour drive enroute to KL. Ipoh was once the tin-mining capital of the world. The heydays of the mineral is in the past but Ipoh lies in a natural world of limestone, springs and ... mouth-watering cuisine.  Thus, lunch-stop for us and quick purchases of traditional savouries and sweets of which we couldn't possibly tear ourselves away from empty-handed. It's one of those places where queues are maddeningly long for oven-hot fresh pastries.

Bags and bellies burdened with calories, we made one more stop at Gua Tempurung, a short drive out of Ipoh. Mission: burn calories and marvel at one of the longest limestone cave caverns in Peninsula Malaysia. We weren't equipped to go on a wet spelunking exploration adventure unfortunately but time graced us with the opportunity to take a walk in the limestone caverns. The domes within reminded locals of coconut shells (hence its name, 'tempurung', coconut shell in Malay) but some may even be momentarily transported by the majestic ascending heights into cathedral domes and frescoes.

A most productive Saturday, I got home 16 hours later, rest stops and all!

**bestie - informal term for best friend

Entrance of Gua Tempurung


Note: Main image of a lake outside Gua Tempurung


Postscript added on 8 Oct 2023: Note: Thank you to those who have written to let me know you enjoy reading my column but daren't take a lesson because there are parts you don't really understand. I assure you we'll always speak at a level which suits you so that we can enjoy a casual conversation. Also, we can go through words and sentences that are difficult so that we learn together. Perhaps, they will be easy then and we'll always have something to talk about. No stress!