Penang Trip

Day 1
Went to Penang from 8th April to 10th April 2011. i met with my friends @ Changi Airport T1 for check-in and our lunch. We went by Air Asia flight, they had changed the flight time to 2 plus instead of 1.50 pm. (delayed, -_-"). Anyway we reached at Penang @ around 3 plus, then we went to book a taxi from the airport. The charge from airport to our hotel is $44.70RM and we were wondering how come it was so exp...Then we saw on the receipt, it was stated 'Limo Service'. We thought that the cab was reali a limo car, but when we went outside to broad the cab. To our horror, it was a normal old taxi...(faintz.... Later then we know from another cab driver that the taxi company at the airport there is stopping the taxis from outside to pick up customers from the airport. Other cabs from outside are not allowed to pick up customers from the airport, they can only drop customers off. Only cabs from the taxi booking counter are allowed to pick up customer from airport, so they have charged it around this rate.) After we checked in our hotel, the room was soooo 'heritage' until we don't know what to say. The floor was not reali cleaned and the TV......is a 12 or 14" size with no much programme. And there are ants around....(Hairs not cleared in the shower everyday, got xiao qiang outside, heng ah..and lizard making noise at night). Luckily there was no insects crawling ard while we were sleeping..Anyway we left our bags in the room and went for the Toys Museum. We took a cab from our hotel to the museum...It was a disappointment there. 1st, we were charged $20RM for the entrance fee and 2nd, there was no maintenance on the toys. The toys are not displayed properly, some already fell inside the shelves and the toys look so cramped inside the shelves.There are different types of toys from Disney, Kungfu Panda, Batman, Ultraman, Xiao Ding Dang, Aliens, Voltron, Gundam and many more.

After half an hour, we left the museum and walked down to Paradise Beach Resort, to walk down to the beach. There are water skiing service and the hotel guests are suntanning. After that, we left and crossed the road to buy some drinks. We decided not to take cab down to Gurney Drive Hawker Centre, and the next bus is like 30 mins later. So we decided to try walk down from the toys museum to the Hawker Centre.We started to walk from 5 plus, and we walked until 7pm, where we stopped at a hawker centre (Viva Local Food Haven) to eat something. We had Satay, Char Kway Teow, Fried Chicken and Gan Cao He Fen (Yum yum...). After that, we continued our journey (by walking) down to Gurney Drive Hawker Drive for our 2nd round of dinner. We walked until 8.30 pm and we still haven't reached the hawker centre, so we gave up and waited patiently for the bus to come. Finally the bus came and we boarded the bus, the bus fare is only $1.40Rm per pax (super cheap than cab). But the funny part was the Gurney Drive Hawker Centre is just 1 bus stop away, we got off at the next stop..lol. We found a table and starting to order food... we had asam laksa, rojak,and ma chee. Next, we went down to Gurney Plaza for shopping, where i saw waffles with ice cream...(I wanted to eat...but my friends are too full to eat..) After that, we are just too lazy to take bus back to the hotel and we just took cab back to the hotel.

Day 2
Woke up at 7 plus, we got ready and went for our breakfast. We had nasi lemark for breakfast provided by the hotel (Not tat good.....faintz). After that, we crossed over the road outside the hotel and went and bought tao sai piah (Him Heang brand). Then we returned to hotel to put down the piah, we went to take a cab to the blue mansion (Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion). But we had reached 1 hr early for the 11pm tour, so we just walked around the streets to pass time 1st. We passed by Hainan Temple, Love lane, Goddess of Mercy Temple, St George's Church. Then we walked back to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion again for the 11 pm tour. The entrance fee is $2RM and there are 3 guided tours, 11am, 1.30pm and 3.00pm and the tour lasted for an hour. The mansion is built in 1890s and the outside of the mansion is blue color and there are 38 rooms inside (16 of which are let out as hotel stay). The The lanterns in the main hall are hanging upstairs, from what the guide had told us is that before Cheong Fatt Tze left home to start out his fortune, his uncle made a bet with him. If he was to make a fortune, his uncle will hang the lanterns upstairs (which Cheong Fatt Tze reali did made his fortune). When the mansion was first taken over by Laurence Loh Architects, the mansion was in a very bad shape as it was rented out and there were more than 100 people. They took 7 years to restore the mansion back to the original stage. All the furniture are being sold away and the current furniture placed inside the mansion are not originally from the mansion.Cheong Fatt Tze had 8 wives and only 3 of the wives (forget which no) live in the mansion. The guide had told us the feng shui of the mansion. The mansion was built in the way that it is sitting off the 'back of the dragon'. And in front of the mansion, it is facing the sea and it is facing a mountain (Penang Hill) at the back of the mansion. (It is very interesting to learn on the feng shui on how the mansion was built). Cheong Fatt Tze had built windows of western (vernacular timber louvre windows) and chinese style (Butterfly-shaped on the walls). There are 7 staircases, each with 28 steps around the house.In the center courtyard,there are 8 pillars instead of the normal 4 pillars. Under each of the pillars,cheong fatt tze had placed gold chinese coin for feng shui purpose. And in the center of the courtyard,the guide told us that it was the heart of feng shui of the mansion.There is 'chi' coming out of below of the mansion if we are to stand there and do tai chi early in the morning (hohoho....).After the guide introduced to the lower floor of the mansion,then we went to the upper level.Up there, we were shown the bedroom.There are Decorative Mosaic Porcelain Works (Chien Nien) in the balcony on the upper level. It was done by putting the glass pieces from rice bowls and they are done beautifully.After that,we are brought to the gift shop there (there was a fluffy cat lying lazily at the mansion, very ke ai...). Anyway after the tour,we took a bus down to Penang Hill but we were told by the bus driver that funicular train service is not ready yet (soo sad.....). So we just took the bus down to Ke Lok Si Temple,which it took like...2 hours? hahahaa...got traffic jam along the road.....Finally we reached the temple,by then we were hungry.We ate laska and wanton noodles at the coffeeshop there before climbing up to the temple.After that,we walked up the temple,along the way,there are alot of stalls selling souvenirs and t-shirts.

We reached the temple and we walked around the temple, There was a gaint Guan Yin status standing on top,we needed to pay to take the lift up to see the status and admission fee is also required to go up the pavilion.My 2 friends paid to go to the pavilion but didn't manage to climb up cos they are too lazy to climb (Kekeke....).I climbed up myself but i didn't climb to the top (damn,i thought it was the last floor when i reached on a level that doesn't have anything inside...actually there are 1 or 2 more floors).After that, we went down to Gurney Plaza again to walk around the mall. My friend bought clothes and i had curly fries from A&W for before dinner snack.By 7pm,we are all hungry and made our way down to Gurney Drive Hawker Centre.We ordered Sotong with kang kong,Char Kway Teow,Otak,Fried Oyster,pancakes and fruit juices.After finishing the food,we took our drinks and moved to the stalls in front. But when we were to put down our drinks on the table,the assistant from the drink stall chased us away,saying we cannot bring drinks from other stalls and drink there.So we went abit further down the tables,the same man chased us away...pek chey...spolit our mood,caused me cannot eat satay and indian rojak.Anyway i bought a popiah and finished it.
After that, we walked back to the mall and we saw Lin Fan (Penang Singer) having new album signature session outside Gurney Plaza. We watched abit,then we went inside the mall again to buy mineral water.But we bought waffles with chocolate,yum yum.....

After that,we went back to the hotel.On the way back,the cab driver told us the green house coffeeshop sells good hokkien mee and it only opens during the night.So we decided to eat for supper later.We went back to hotel 1st and use the wi-fi for chatting.Then my friend asked mi to go buy supper back but in the end we went over to the coffeeshop.We ordered a bowl of prawns noodles and white chicken,i wanted to try the bak kut teh 1 but my friends are too full. (hohoho.....).Then we went back to hotel to zzzz...but i was woken up by the noise of lizard,made mi wake up every hour...so noisy..didnt't get much sleep in the end.

Day 3
Woke up for breakfast, and after that,we went back to our hotel room to bath and packed our stuffs.We checked out at 10am and headed to the airport for our flight back to Singapore.Then we just hand around at the airport and waited for our flight.The flight timing was changed too from 12pm to 12.30pm.Anyway we boarded our plane and went to Singapore.That's the end of our Penang Trip.


Hotel Stayed: 1926 Heritage Hotel

Places visited:
1. Toys Musuem
2. Paradise Beach Resort
3. Bypass by Island Plaza
4. Gurney Plaza
5. Gurney Road Hawker Centre