Deliciously Me

On the 8th day of CNY, my family and I decided to head over to Penang island for the Jade Emperor Day festival at Chew Jetty. Before that we went over to Kek Lok Si first, after being persuaded by our neighbour on how beautiful the temple is with all the lanterns lit up at night.

At about 11pm, we descended from Kek Lok Si and made our way to Chew Jetty. We passed by the Komtar Walk.

By the time we reached Chew Jetty, that place was already crowded and we couldn’t find proper place to park our car! Since everyone did illegal parking and the polizisten were nowhere to be seen, so yeah. Hehe.

We then walked to the main area since we parked quite far away and along the way we could hear firecrackers loudly and big thick smokes came over to blanket us.

We stopped for a while to let the firecracker explode and when it stopped, we scurried over to the other side after realising that the firecracker didn’t finish exploding yet! It was super duper long!

Finally we reached the main area. It was super duper packed with human beings! I didn’t know that Penang could host that much of people! Haha.

We tried squeezing our way to the temple in Chew Jetty; but halfway walking, we were asked to stop moving to give way to the lion dancers who were coming out from the temple.

Slowly we made our way in and we reached the main temple. Initially we wanted to pray, but seeing the amount of people standing there made us walked straight to the Chew Jetty.

It was so packed that one could easily feel the body heat and the sweaty skin of the strangers around you. But once got into the Chew Jetty, we no longer have to brush shoulder with strangers. It was a breezy walk then.

Along the way, I spotted a very cute looking doggy – who barked at strangers but stop when I was snapping its photo.

There’s another temple at the end of Chew Jetty – but this temple wasn’t that crowded. Didn’t know why. Hmm.

We then walked into this homestay kampung unit; and the place looks nice and comfy. I myself felt like sleeping in one of the rooms there.

Then we walked out of the Chew Jetty to see the Ti Kong Seh celebration. While walking out, we noticed this very very long firecrackers going around and coming out of the temple at the entrance of Chew Jetty. Very the ganas.

Worried that they might ignite the firecracker anytime soon, we quickly walk to considerably safe place.

I was absolutely shocked to see the amount of offerings on the very the long table at the back of the alters. The amount of lotus candles, fruits, kuihs, cakes, liquors, offerings papers, flowers, and many more!

Even though the economy was just about to start recovering from bad crisis, but the Penangites are very generous in offerings to please the Jade Emperor. Probably by doing so, the Jade Emperor would be happy and grant tonnes of wealth to the devotees. Money not enough mah. Haha.

My tummy began to feel hungry after looking at all those delicious offerings. But they were still praying at that time and didn’t even start burning the papers yet. Huuhuu.

At the end of the table was where the devotees kneed and prayed. I guess most of the brought their own joss sticks to pray – instead of buying from a booth as I didn’t see any booth selling joss sticks there.

I spotted lots DSLR users lo. All took opportunities to snap great pics there. Me on the other hand, keen to process the picture into the ‘stylo mylo’ picture. Lol.

The very very long firecracker finally exploded and the place looked hazy because of that.

Feeling tired and with nothing else to see there, we started walking back to our car. I walked past the alter and found 3 big bottles of Chivas among the many offerings on the table.

We left for home at about 1 something in the morning. The entire island was super hazy because of the fireworks and firecrackers from various part of the island. Ti Kong Seh (Jade Emperor’s Birthday) is the highly celebrated festival in Penang. Even more grander than the Chinese New Year itself.