Fun travels: Trip to Penang

Trip to Penang July 2013

It had been over 30 years since I was in Penang so when gf talked about going to Penang and visiting her friend, I was all for it!

At Changi Airport, Terminal 2.
I really like the Orchid garden, looks very fresh to have a beautiful garden of colourful flowers inside a terminal.

From Singapore, we took Silk Air MI 348 to Penang, about a 1.5 hour flight.
Silk Air only has a silent, yes silent, overhead screen for IFE which shows comedies and such.
Popular selections are Mr. Bean and those hidden candid camera shows which do not need sound.
On such a short flight, lack of IFE was ok.
We were given a sandwich and drinks after takeoff.

Off the coast of Penang

We took a cab to the hotel, which was Traders Hotel.
The rooms at this Traders was very old and badly needed an update.
The tv set was quite nostalgic.
Everything seemed frozen in the 1980s, which might have its charm for some.
Gf was given a pretty flower on check-in, which was a really nice touch!

We met up with gf's childhood friend, JC, from Penang and went about seeing the local sights.
Good thing she had a car so she was able to drive us around.
Really like the iced mocha served in a glass bottle! Very cute.
Penang has a lot of individually owned cafes with their own decorations.
Much much better than seeing a generic chain coffee shop yet again.

Penang has retained its colonial and peranakan culture and architecture.
Peranakan culture is a mix of Chinese and Malay culture.
It formed when the Chinese from China came down to South East Asia to work and settle down.
A large section of the town, Georgetown, was designated as a World Heritage Site.
Looks a lot like Singapore back in the old days before everything got torn down.

Penang also has lots of street art where people and famous artists paint or place sculptures on the walls.

We stopped by a popular street food to sample the offerings!
Place an order, tell them where you are seated and they will the food to you.
The brown drink is nutmeg juice drink, local to Penang and it tastes... not to my liking.
Well it is kind of an acquired taste I suppose.
I dont even remember how it tastes like now, memory has blocked it out!

Fried kway teow noodles is really good as are the sugar cane juice and wonton noodles.
The cost was of course, much cheaper than in Singapore, about half the price.

The next morning, we had breakfast at Traders Hotel, which was included in the room cost.
It was actually a very good breakfast buffet!
The quality was definitely there, we totally enjoyed our meal.
There were western and asian options and the noodles were made to order.

Met JC again and more food !
Wish I had not eaten so much earlier.
This time, we went to a local coffee shop for a traditional Penang breakfast.

This is the first time I have seen half boiled eggs over bread.
In Singapore, the half boiled eggs are eaten by themselves in a bowl.

The picture below shows a guy deep frying you tiao or dough fritters.
A popular morning or anytime snack in SE Asia and southern China.

Very good iced coffee for a hot day!

This is a different take on the popular kaya bread.
Instead of toasted bread, the bread was steamed, making it really soft instead of hard.

This is Assam Laksa, a fish broth based laksa noodle dish.
I prefer the curry base laksa noodles.

Onwards to Penang Hill!
It is a small hill and people take a cable car up.

There wasnt actually much to do on Penang Hill other than seeing the views.

Little Melody enjoying a pina colada at the seaside.

For dinner, we went to this place called Gurney Street market
It is like an outdoor food court with many vendors.
Thanks for showing us around, JC!

The next day, after breakfast, we set off for Hard Rock hotel at Batu Ferringhi.
We took a complimentary shuttle bus from Traders to their sister hotel at Batu Ferringhi and then switched to a taxi. It was about an hour's drive.

Hard Rock Hotel was very nice!
Staff were friendly and it had a great pool with a big slide as well as lots of pool floats.

There was also a beach behind the hotel which stretched for a long distance.
Plenty of jellyfish warnings though for those who plan on swimming in the ocean.

Tasty corn based snacks.
We got the butter corn in a cup and it was very good.
Sweet and buttery.

This man made us fried kway teow and a local coconut to wash it down.

Dinner time, we ate in a food court along the main road.
Black pepper prawns, prawn noodle soup

BBQ chicken wings and Chicken Satay

Like in Malacca, Penang has these colourful trishaws that run up and down the main street.
There is a night market at Batu Ferringhi which sells batik clothes, cloth, bags etc.