Overnight in Penang

After clinic on Saturday, I took a drive - a long one - up North to Penang. There is a conference session I plan to attend there on Sunday morning, hence a quick drive up, attend the sessions then drive back home the next afternoon after lunch. Luckily I cancelled my Monday clinic, so as to have some recovery time before beginning the week in full swing.

But the sessions were great. I had the chance to explore the hotel after breakfast, before the talks begin. The hotel was built in the 80s and it was obviously so. It reminded me of Equatorial Penang where I stayed when I was sending my Aunt off to Mecca last year. It was from the same era. The architecture was also almost similar. A central covered courtyard with the hotel rooms going up in a tubular structure. It was popular those days I was sure.

After the talks were done, I drove to Sungai Petani to visit my Aunt but she did not answer the door. I then drove back to KL, stopping at a couple of places for quick drinks and prayers.

A short and tiring trip, but worth it.

Morning Walk Part 2

Halfway down the street, I took a right turn at Love Street, seeing the many colourful hotels and hostels there. A backpacker's paradise, and more snaps. Next was Lebuh Muntri. A misspelling of the Malay word Menteri, it used to host dignitaries from out of town. Many old building still stood, some being turned into museums and some into guest houses. A few nice modern cafes as well had mushroomed up, balancing the old and the new.

There were street markets and vendor but at that time, the number of cars were already building up. I wished that the whole place was turned into a car-free zone ....

I also noticed that there were plenty of bicycles and moppet for hire available at the area. Expensive and they mainly targeted the tourists. If you knew the route, you could cover the town centre and experience the charm in double quick time.

After I was done with Lebuh Muntri, another turn took me back to my hotel within 10 minutes. Which was just as well since the boys were already up and they were ready for their breakfast. I stayed back to have a shower before joining them.

The walk lasted almost a couple of hours, and my GPS recorded the distance I covered to be just below 5 kilometres. A nice morning work-out. And an enjoyable one as well. And the photos? I just uploaded 210 snaps onto Flickr just then. Not bad .....

More stories from this trip here.

Gurney Paragon Mall

On the way to Batu Feringghi, we drove past a new mall sat right next to Gurney Plaza. A bigger one, and on the wall, the Debenhams caught Anita's eyes.

After a quick snack at the hotel after the drive from Batu Feringghi, Anita decided to have a look at the mall - against Irfan's protest! Since both myself and Idlan also wanted to go, the majority won ....

Now, one of the common theme among the malls in Penang was the confusing car park lay out. And oh boy, this mall topped them all! The spacing were awkward and some of the slot were slanted on an angle, and to get in and out of the spot, you have to back into the main traffic flow! I guessed they didn't think about the car park area when they designed the malls.

Once we settled in - parked on the fifth floor none the less - Anita went straight to Debenhams. I went to another floor with the boys to check out the Tumi outlet. There was also Victoria's Secret, and Idlan's favourite, Godiva! Sugar rush!!

It was clear that the place still needed to be filled tenant-wise. Some of the spaces on the top floors - I counted eight floors - were either still empty or quiet. I could finished the shops in under an hour. They might struggle to hold onto those shops in the coming years I think. There were appreciably more people at Gurney Plaza compared to here, although it was obviously more upmarket.

More entries from this trip can be seen here.

Overnight at Equatorial

Located right at the top of Bukit Jambul, I heard of the hotel before, but never actually stayed there. Looked like one of those classic 80s hotels, it was much classier than I thought. And a lot bigger.

The hotel had a unique design. It was four wings spreading from a central roofed hollow area creating an atrium feel, nine story high. My room was at the end of one of the winged corridor, a nice little suite which I shared with my Mum. My Dad was planned to come along but decided against traveling at the last minute since he had a cold. I ordered an extra bed, sleeping at the living area.

The inner layout of the hotel was pretty unit, with a central hollow design.Looking down onto the main lobbyI could see the second bridge from the room's balconyAll we did there was sleep and had shower, plus the breakfast the next morning. I did not have the chance to sample any of the facilities, or room services.

The room was nice and comfortable. It felt new, which I was sure due to a recent upgrade. It had a balcony, which was not cleaned. It had no seating - which I thought could have been made into a feature. It came with free broadband - which I did not bother to sample as the LTE signal was pretty good in the room.

The room with my extra bed at the living area

It had all the sports and movie channels, plus 24 hour room service should you need some food. The gym and pool was located on the ground floor, and the hotel had a total of seven restaurant, including the famous Kampachi Japanese restaurant.

The breakfast the next morning was not included for standard room, which was part of the reason that I went for the suite. It was a pretty standard fare. Could have been better.

Would definitely call in again should I need a room near the airport area. Otherwise, Eastern and Oriental would still be our favourite ....

The Ferry Ride

Back when I was a young boy, a trip to Penang from Kepala Batas would mean a trip on the ferry. The First Penang Bridge was only opened in 1985, and since then the ferry was reserved for those who prefer to take a motorcycle or cross by foot. But a tragedy in 1989 when a section of the old Butterworth Jetty fell down due to overcrowding made the ferry ride less popular.

Nowadays, almost everyone - unless you're making the journey on foot - would be using the bridge. We now have two bridges, but traffic was still a problem especially getting on and off the bridge.

When I was in primary school, my parents tended to take us across to Penang on foot as he was not keen to find parking spot and wading through the heavy traffic. We would take either the bus or a taxi from Kepala Batas - still a tiny town then - to Butterworth Jetty. Walk across into the ferry, enjoy the 20 minutes ride before alighting in Georgetown and took another bus to the shopping malls.

On our last trip to Penang, I took my boys on the ferry again. I suspect that there was only a small number of ferry still in service at the wait at the jetty was quite long. The ride took about 15 minutes, and all of us actually got out from our van to enjoy the crossing. It was nice to feel the wind brushing our space, and not to mention the smell of diesel ..... memories ....

Definitely worth a ride if you were not on a rush. Since we took the trip from Georgetown to Butterworth, I was not sure how much the cost of the crossing. You'd have to pay for a single way from the mainland. Not sure how patient I would be if I was short for time.