Roadtrip Day 2 (Raia Hotel │ Sri Pumpong │ Padang Besar)

Today we continue with our road trip!

We rose at half past eight and went down to the hotel's coffee house half an hour later. As hotel breakfast buffet goes it was okay.

Breakfast out of the way we went back to the room to start packing and even had a short nap. We checked out at a quarter past eleven and began our drive to Alor Setar. The drive took approximately three hours that included an hour's delay due to a fatal accident near Sungai Petani. You can watch the hyper lapsed footage of the drive in our previous video.

We arrived at Raia Hotel & Convention Centre (a mouthful!) at forty past two in the afternoon and promptly checked in. We again booked a twin room for RM230.00 (approximately USD51/EUR48) which was wholly claimable from my employers.

We went up to the room and deposited our belongings before heading back down to the car in search of lunch. A friend had suggested a "mixed rice" (rice with assortments of side dishes) restaurant nearby. Barely ten minutes away Restoran Sri Pumpong was touted one of the best non Nasi Kandar restaurants in Alor Setar.

We arrived after lunchtime and dishes were scarce but we made do. I had a mix of fresh and dried squid in sambal while Cat had the fish curry. Together with a round of drinks our first lunch in Alor Setar came to RM21.00 (approximately USD5/EUR4). 

We then decided to make the hour's drive to Padang Besar. Here we strolled along the various arcades and bazaars within the Arked Niaga Padang Besar and found ourselves with bagful of Siamese merchandise that included a dozen bar soap, a compact powder, a box of Siamese instant noodles, a bottle of Tom Yum Paste, a Nirvana T-shirt for Brendan and various other snacks and goodies.

We had a drink later at Restoran Nurhasiah nearby and decided to take away food for our dinner as well. We then made the hour-long drive back to the hotel but made a detour to check out the venue for my lecture tomorrow.

We end our blog for today as we spent time reorganising our luggage bags to accommodate the goodies from Padang Besar. Good night!

(Do visit our YouTube Channel Have Perut Will Travel)

📍 Location:
Flemington Hotel - https://goo.gl/maps/ysGHwgfa7nsyZ1876
Raia Hotel & Convention Centre Alor Setar

- https://goo.gl/maps/BprWTkqAq7yXwG5b8
Restoran Sri Pumpong - https://goo.gl/maps/7NCMpWS6TNP59ipQ8
Arked Niaga Padang Besar - https://goo.gl/maps/zAPKvkHGBZcDLcrn8
Restoran Nurhasiah - https://goo.gl/maps/HwSf7XvYRetjbzBe8