Travel Penang

When you think of heritage in Malaysia or if you want to get the real feel of Malaysia, two places come in mind; Penang and Malacca. Both are famous historical states of Malaysia.

Penang is one of the artistic places I have ever been. We (8 friends) booked a car for 3 days tour to Penang. Must say the journey was very tiring because it took 9 hours for us to reach there including few stops we made while driving. That was a long weekend and for that reason we faced terrible traffic till IPOH. So, while returning back we took toll free road which was indeed very nice and no traffic at all. In fact, the whole road was full of greenery.

We booked Hutton Lodge in Georgetown. It was a tough decision to decide where to stay in Penang, Batu Feringhi vs Georgetown. Then at last we finalised on Georgetown. You must be careful if you go by car because there are many one ways in Georgetown. The lodge was really better-quality than what we expected in such a budget hotel. The rooms were very well maintained and the shared toilets were very clean and every necessary things were available. Free Wifi was accessible from lobby and even from the room. Complimentary breakfast was also provided by them and unlimited times of tea or coffee.

Next morning, after breakfast, we went to one of the famous attractions in Penang, the Penang Hill. The train ride to reach there was very amazing and you will get the best view if you sit at last while going up. That day, fog covered the place entirely. The view was very beautiful from top.

From there we went to the famous Buddhist temple, Kek Lok Si in Air Itam which has the very impressive Pagoda of Rama VI (opened in 1930). The Pagoda is one of the largest of its kind in whole Malaysia. It also contains attractive garden and a sacred turtle pond. We stayed there for some time and enjoyed the peaceful environment.

Then while coming down from the temple we found a good Chinese restaurant to have lunch. I tried Penang Asam Laksa for the first time and it’s good. After lunch, we roamed around the place and all of us shopped a lot. You can buy the Penang’s well-known Tambun biscuit from there. You can also get the handicrafts at cheaper price than KL Central Market. The shopkeepers are very well behaved and one can negotiate a lot on the items. The best buy was the street art magnets (10RM for 10).

After that, we went back to Georgetown and parked our car. Our next target was to walk and view all the street arts. While we started walking we found beautiful rickshaws. So, we booked rickshaw (1hr 40 RM) and I must say it was worth the value. You can take a walk also. I personally experienced the best street arts ever and all the arts were so very beautiful and alive. Then the rickshaw driver took us to the watch tower and then the town hall.  We had some snacks near the sea side area and then headed to find the best sea food restaurant in Penang. Finally, we found the Restaurant Teluk Kumber but a huge crowd was there. It was around 7pm. We waited for around 15-20 minutes and then we had lovely fishes (Tilapia, Pomfret, Shells) with rice and Chinese Tea. After food, we spent some time in the beach and then came back to the hotel.

We did not feel too sleepy and decided to go for a long drive. So, we went to Batu Feringgi and it was 10pm almost, very dark. We did not get down in the beach there and just drove. We were passing by a hill area and forest on a side. It was very exciting and adventurous. We thought we could find some animals but didn’t find any. After around 30km we found that we reached Georgetown. We didn’t have to take a u-turn and come back. We all liked the trip very much. We said enough for today and went to sleep.

Next day morning we again had our wonderful breakfast and started our journey to Gurney drive. The beach was good. Then we went to view the largest Sleeping Buddha nearby. There was also a very nice temple on the other side. We went to Batu Firinggi again and relaxed for some time in the beach. We found many monitor lizards of different sizes in one place. We had our lunch there.