Penang Island - Pearl of the Orient, Part 1

21st September 2014

It was quite a last minute planning to visit Penang although Andrew has been telling me that he wished to visit his grand-uncle for quite some time.  My parents in law are from Penang.  Andrew used to visit this beautiful island every CNY when he was young.  But his memory of this place wasn’t very pleasant.   

Well, what do you expect?  Sitting in a car for hours due to the huge crowd flooding into that 295 km² (114 sq mi) of land; enduring the heat and meeting with strangers whom he only met once a year.  No doubt those ‘strangers’ are his relatives, but let’s be honest: Distance and time have rendered relationship non-existent.

Andrew hasn’t met his grand-uncle for almost 15 years.  My parents in law and even Andrew’s sister who is now residing in Australia visited him a couple of times but not him.  Remember, he is a busy guy.  Time is not in favour of him.  The last time I went to Penang with Andrew and his parents (which is also the first time I stepped foot on that island) was around 11-12 years ago.  We visited a few tourist attractions such as Botanical Garden, Penang Hill and Fort Cornwarllis.

The idea came about when there was one Sunday he had an invited speaker to take over the pulpit.  Realising that the trip was long overdue, Andrew made the decision to set out for this Penang trip.  So, his dearly beloved began her web search for hotel, places of interests for the children and etc.  The one thing that is not in her job scope is FOOD.  After all, my father in law is a local there and finding all the famous stall should be a piece of cake.

We drove back to Subang on Saturday evening and put a night there.  The journey continued on Sunday early morning.  I love the mountain scenery along the highway.  We reached Butterworth around 9am, waited for about 5 minutes to board the ferry.   The children were excited.  Their very first experience of a car in a ferry.  

Penang Ferry Service is the oldest ferry service in Malaysia.   The ferries are designed for vehicles to roll-on/roll-off. Some board pedestrian passengers on the upper deck and small vehicles (cars) on the lower deck, whereas some board vehicles on both decks.  (Information taken from Wikipedia)

Beautiful scenery of Penang island

The Penang Bridge

After boarding the ferry, we went to the upper deck for a better view.  But be careful!  The stairs are rather steep.

I read about Project Occupy Beach Street sometime ago in a friend’s blog.  Was glad that I can bring my children over for some fun!  I was a bit disappointed as some of the stalls mentioned in the blog were not there anymore.  Nevertheless, the children were happy after 4 hours of drive!

Every Sunday, Project Occupy Beach Street will temporarily barricade major streets adjacent to Lebuh Pantai for family-friendly, community activities that the public can be a part of. This is in conjunction to the state government's initiative for Penang Car Free Day, where everyone can utilize the six-hour, traffic-free space for brisk walking, jogging, biking, dancing and social activities - yes, busking is officially legit.   (Information derived from timeout.com)

The Giant Snake and Ladder

There were 2 of these Giant Snake and Ladder on the floor with huge dice.  FOC and is opened to public.  When we arrived, there were some children playing with it.  We stood there for a couple of minutes but the other children seemed to ignore our presence, holding on to the huge dice without giving a thought of sharing with other kids.  I was so disappointed with the Malaysian culture showned here.  Though the parents were standing nearby, they too, did not speak a word.

So, I brought the kids to another stall - bubbles!  We paid a mininum fee for this.

Now you see the little girl unleashed!

After "bubbling", we went back to the Giant Snake and Ladder Game and this time, there was no one there.  We played for awhile and another boy joined in.  But the kids soon got bored of it and we moved on.

Hmm, what a creative idea!  Perhaps the next time churches can use Milo tin, pots and etc for a complete drumset instead of spending thousands of dollar.

There were various booths selling handicrafts, plants, food & drinks and other miscellaneous stuff.  

But none of those were as eye-opening as this... Chinese Knife Massage!  They actually used real kitchen choppers to massage the back.  Should have taken a close-up pic but I was already far behind from the children and hubby. 

Our next stop is Fort Cornwarllis though it is not in my list of things to see and play.  The reason is we parked our car nearby and we had some spare time to kill before we went for lunch and checked into our hotel.

Queen Victoria Memorial Clocktower

The Victoria Memorial Clocktower at King Edward Place, Penang, was built by local Penang millionaire Cheah Chen Eok in 1897 to commemorate the sixtieth year of the Queen's reign. The tower was sixty feet tall, with each foot for each year of the Queen's reign. Unfortunately, she never visited Penang, nor did she ever live long enough to see her clocktower completed. By the time it was completed in 1902, the Queen had died.  Do you realise that the clocktower leans to one side? That's the legacy of all the bombs dropped around it during the Second World War that destroyed the Government Building nearby.  (Informations derived from www.penang-traveltips.com)

Since all of us were drenched with sweat and dying of thirst, we decided to visit a mall (yes, air-cond please?!) which is only 5 minutes distance from our hotel.  Again, this was not in my list.  Well, I doubt anyone will include shopping mall in their list for places of interest unless you are talking about Klang Valley.

We had lunch at the food court but it was nothing to shout about.  Then we headed to our hotel and unpacked our stuff.  Chill out a little and out we went – our next destination: The beach!  My purpose is to bring Elyse for parasailing.  Look at our brave girl, she was a bit concerned at first but after some assurance, she gladly accepted the challenge!  Bravo, darling!

Daddy accompanied our little girl since she is too young to do it by herself.  It was Daddy’s first time, too!  I’d love to do it again but it was a bit pricey so…   :p  Yup, did parasailing years ago when I went to Langkawi.  Missing the cool breeze and the awesome view.

How I wished I have that kind of long range camera lens that could capture this moment.

After the adrenaline rush, we took a leisure drive to and fro the Penang Bridge.   

The total length of the bridge is 13.5 km (8.4 mi), making it the second longest bridge in Malaysia as and the fifth-longest in Southeast Asia.  (Information taken from Wikipedia)

Initially our plan is to take the ferry when we enter the island and then drive back to the mainland by Penang Bridge on our way home.  Our two little rascals (named given by Daddy when they are fighting) had some argument on that.  One wanted to sit the ferry again, the other wanted to see the bridge.  So, to satisfy both of them, we just drove along the bridge and back again.  Now, we were getting late for our appointment with grand-uncle. 

What a pleasure to meet Andrew's grand-uncle and grand-aunt.  Lovely people!

We had dinner at a nearby hawker centre.  Is this one of the famous ones?  I’m not too sure.  But Andrew’s craving for chee cheong fun with har kor was satisfied and he looked forward for more yummy food the following days.

 That's the end of our first day...