Heritage House?

The Pahang Road house in Penang had formally changed ownership as of last month. It felt kind of weird not be able to visit the house this Raya. It seemed to be our usual congregation point.

One of my cousins alerted me that the house was being renovated and would be changed into some sort of heritage house. I had to go and check it out if that was for real. And it was.

The old verandahStill, I was not really sure about what the new owner had in mind. But they seemed to be putting a lot of effort and money into the project. And the signs on the wall - quite literally on the wall - was pretty interesting. The sign said "Rumah Kampung Mohamed Hj Md Ariff", which was my late Grandfather.

Should be interesting to find out what would come out of this ....

Visiting the Pusara

After an overnight rest at Sungai Petani, we stopped again at Kepala Batas on the way back to KL. And we stopped again at the mosque to visit my Uncle's grave.

It rained heavily shortly after the visit, and we hang around at the mosque while waiting for the rain to subside. Got to meet some of my old friends there who I haven't met for many years.

The funeral took place the evening beforeClose by was the grave of my grandfatherIdlan went along as well and at the grave, he kept on asking about his Great Grandfather and Mother, Grand Uncles and others. He seemed overwhelmed.

It soon rained right after we got indoorThis used to be my playground ....My Mum decided to visit her orchard - she had plenty of ripe rambutan to bring back to KL - after Kepala Batas. We decided to head straight back to KL. Had to be on call the next morning.

The Durian Trip

It was such a shame that I had to work last weekend. Anita and the boys took a trio back to Kuala Kangsar, to enjoy the fruit season. They spent three nights there and yesterday, brought back durians and rambutans. The durian was actually from our own trees. We had only half a dozen of trees, but the amount of fruits we got was plenty to share around.

The boys also enjoyed their bicycle rides around of the kampung. On Sunday, Anita also went to Penang for some laksa and seafood. Lucky her. So I spent last evening having plenty of durian and was suffering from it all night. It was really warm and I could hardly sleep. Bad move ......

Royal Penang Hotel

All in all, the stay at Royal Penang Hotel during our Penang trip was a pleasant one. This was the second time we been to the place, the first some three years back, when the hotel was known as Dorsett Penang. It was not a bad hotel back then, when my sister Julia and her family also came along during the stay, and Irfan was dipped under water during one of the swim. He was traumatised then and for the following year and a half, refused to enter a swimming pool. He was only two then. He got over it now.

Same as the last time, we had the apartment suite, which was huge. And we also had the partition door to the next room opened, for our maid to stay. This time around, my parents used the next room. And my sister was not with us for this trip. The suite consisted of three separate areas, the living room with a lounge and dining area, plus a small kitchenette with sink, a microwave oven and a full size refrigerator. The second area, the biggest was the bedroom, with a king-sized bed, sofa, another TV and a small study table. The last was the dressing area, with a walk-in closet and the bathroom. There was also a balcony there but the door was locked for security reason. Basically, the room was huge. And with the next room was also opened up, the boys kept running from one end to another.

The main bedroomThe whole length of the room, going into my parents room next door. Irfan was running from one end to the next.The main living area, with a dining table to seat four, and the main lounge.The balcony from the dressing areaWe were there for a three nights. Certainly, room-wise, there was nothing to complain about. Very comfortable and spacious. The only problem we had was the cleaners were a bit slow to clean our room. In fact, we had to call housekeeping on our second day to get the cleaners in. Another issue was the limited parking space that they provide. Although it was free and covered, I counted that there were at most 40 slots. In a 20-storey hotel, I thought that they should provide more.

Food was just average. Breakfast was just OK, nothing special to mention. It was enough for us, although they charged Idlan at children's rate. Apparently, the suite only comes with a couple of breakfast vouchers.

The cute kitchenette with the fridge and microwave oven.And Irfan was still at it .....the pool on the fourth floorNext, the swimming pool. It was pretty basic. There was no life-guard and no drinks served by the pool. The gym located on the same floor was closed for renovation. Surprisingly, there was no spa at the hotel.

The hotel offered discount for government servants, an all it took was for me to show my UM identification card. We got something like 20% off, which made a lot of difference. We hardly sampled any of the hotel meals as this being Penang, there were plenty of food everywhere, not to mention a KFC outlet located right across the street from the hotel. The hotel also has a connecting bridge to Penang Plaza right next door for food and shopping. The TV offered all the terrestrial channels plus Disney, one movie and one sports channel. Our suite had a DVD player should we fancy watching something.

The strategic location of the hotel, being right smack in the middle of Georgetown made it definitely worth considering again when we come back. Our usual place to stay was along Gurney Drive, but this time around, with the change of management, we decided to give this place another go. Compared to when it used to be called Dorsett, there had been hardly any change. Should you want to find out more about the hotel, please click here. And more stories about this trip here.