Sunday, October 17, 2010

Penang. EAT.SHOP.RELAX !

One week before I finally say bye bye to my carefree life without job, I decided to go onto a short trip. Oink and myself scouted around Chinatown travel agency to find that all tickets to Bali , Phuket are already fully booked.. Mainly because our decision to go onto this short trip is so sudden.

 In desperation, we asked if there is any place with a beach and the ticket and hotel is still available. The lady behind the counter searched and recommended us to go Penang.

I am too ashamed to say that I only came to know that Penang is actually an island.. *shame* 

Sandwich served onboard

 Some photos from the plane


My 'baby dinosaur' broke when we landed  ...


It took us about 50 minutes from the airport to our hotel. As it is a beachside hotel located at Batu Ferringhi, on the north coast with white sandy beaches, luxurious hotels and restaurants. It is no doubt  far far in. We stayed at Golden Sands , Shangri-la
  Our room



There is so many pillows in the room. Super love the long sofa by the window..
 
The so call “hillview” from our Hillview deluxe room. Actually it is quite nice as you can see the clouds circling the mountains at certain time of the day…

Opposite the hotel are some eatery where ww had chicken & mixed rice for our lunch.
The map provided at the hotel and airport are not very helpful. Luckily for us , there were 2 person gave us a lot of help to get around Penang.

First was this trainee at the concierge who spent about 20 mins talking non-stop about Penang which I find it almost impossible to digest all the information given.  One important information he told us is the bus , 101 , just outside the hotel that we can take go to most of the shopping and eating haven in Penang. This bus also goes to the bus terminal where we can take any bus to almost anywhere in Penang. Without this information, we will most probably end up with taking cab everywhere…

The second person was one kind old ah-ma who we met on bus 101. She stays in Penang all her life and speaks very fluent English.  She saw us looking helplessly at the information scarce map and came forward to introduce us to Penang while the bus took is moving on..

Bus ticket


With her help we managed to get off  correctly at the  our target destination, Komtar.
Komtar itself has nothing. For some reasons , almost all the shops are closed in the building and the viewing tower is closed for renovation…the ah-ma told us we could see the whole Penang from there and it beautiful when u see the sunset from there .. So sad ;(

We then proceed to the shopping mall next door, Prangin Mall . This is where my main shopping takes place. 


My greatest regret is that I should have came to Penang BEFORE my wedding photoshoot … There are so many shoes in Prangin Mall. One blink shoes cost max about RM100 and there is further 20% off which will translate to about less than SGD$40 !!! It much more blink and chio-er than the one I bought in Paragon for a hefty SGD$98…
I could have bought 2 pairs in Penang  :/  

I wanted so much to buy a of blink heels from one of the shop but grudgingly dropped the idea as I have already bought mine in SG and there’s no need for so many wedding shoes for me.


Nevertheless , under the cyco-ing of darling, I ended up buying another 3 pairs of shoes in Prangin Mall. And seriously there are very very comfy. All 3 shoes didn’t give me blister nor “bite” me…

Eating is something you cannot miss in Penang, so if you are on a diet, then dun visit Penang. In order to track the number of food/drinks we tried at Penang , I decide to put a number beside every food we had tried :) 

(1)     Chicken rice we took opposite the hotel ( Forget to take photo)
(2)     Crispy Crepe the crepe @ Pragin Mall is gut  … 

There are so many variety and it cost RM3.90 for a nice , warm and super crispy choco banana crepe. They have wafer as well..

 And the banana they use is the smaller kind, which is usually sweeter. See the amount of banana and choco … It’s one of the best crepe I had ..

 After walking around , we decided to have some coffee
(3)     Penang White Coffee is BEST !



Then we went over to Gurney, took some photos around Gurney before the sky turns dark 


Eating @ Gurney ( and some other places ) is cheap , averaging about RM 3 to RM 8. The portion of the food there is actually quite small, which is good because we will then have more capacity to try out more food.






















(4)   










 (4) Rojak tastes So So. Maybe it because I dun really like rojak


 

(5)     Satay - tastes so so as well. Which I think we forgot to take a photo of it.
(6)     Penang Char Koay Teow (炒馃条)
We spotted a shop with long queue for Chay Koay Teow and decided to join in the queue

8:09 pm






































8:17 pm































Finally 8:25pm , we got our long awaited Chay Koay Teow. Verdict ? Too salty…


We passed by gurney plaza for a little air-con. Personally I wouldn't recommend Gurney Plaza for shopping as has almost identicial shops as what a standard singapore shopping would have. The only thing I would recommend will be the hospital theme cafe in there which we went on the 2nd day for supper

We then walked to further down ( recommended by ah-ma) in search for more food.

saw more seafood , Coffee house , Curry fish head..

 
Feeling tired from walking , we sat down to eat again ..
(7)     Bak Ku Teh . This is the one of the exception. This tiny bowl of bak kut the costs us RM11. Not forgetting a cooling beer !

(8)     BBQ chicken wings


Feeling bloated, we finally decided to go back to the hotel… Taxi back from gurney to out hotel is RM30. We then went to the Outdoor Pasar Malam (Night Market), just outside our hotel. It is open from 8pm to 12 am. The stretch is quite long , but the shops were selling almost the same things. Clothes , lightings , DVDs , photo albums , toys , etc ….

 stole this photo from the internet, cos I forgot to take photo again ... haha

Another seafood restaurant 
 the inside

Finally we came across Sixty9ine Mansion, the pub which Oink is looking for. And we went in for a drink

Took the next photos off the internet cos I dunno how to take good pictures in the dark ..

The entrance looks dull 
 But it is different inside !
 I love the water ..



Sidetrack: For the rest of the photos from this point of this post , it is taken with an iPhone 4, We decided test the quality of the camera . The next few photo is taken by my lousy skills  

(9)     My Burgundy Apple and Oink’s Heineken. Me trying to take something nice again …


 The staffs uniform
 Can watch soccer

Sixty9ine Mansion has a facebook page !
http://www.facebook.com/Sixty9ine?v=photos#!/Sixty9ine?v=photos

We finally decided to walk back to the hotel and rest for the day…

DAY 2

Next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel open-air cafe. It usually at the café you’ll find out what are the people who is staying in the same hotel as you. We realise that our are mainly Eurasian and interestingly a lot of Arabic ( I think so)  and the ladies are all fully dressed in Black abaya.

See ?


After breakfast , we went to the newly built Hard Rock hotel to get their Hard Rock Shirt.
Outside the hotel ...

  
I like the entrance .. Looks like there's a campaign for breast cancer going on

 Rooms with attached swimming pool



Performance ..that even wow the little kids

Outdoor swimming pool

Oink bought this shirt
Around the hotel

At the beach

Our cheeky photo on the long bus ride to Burma Road for late lunch
Used some special effect application on his  iphone

Think we look ghostly

We stopped by Burma Road to take a look ..

(10) Laksa @ Burma road


(11) Lor Mee

(12) Wanton Noodle

Around the corner of the Lor Mee and Laksa shop , we saw a big signage advertising Ah-ma Wanton noodle and decided to try it 

Their Menu 

 

























(13)  Tang Yuan 

A few shops down from the wantion noodle shop , I caught sight of this dessert shop which sells tang yua. Curious , we went in .
There is really a lot of variety to choose from !!

The shop is uniquely designed. I like it!


 Colorful !

and contains chocolate in it ! I want this type of tangyuan for my wedding !

Before we left , I went to the toliet at level 2 and noticed that the level 2 is also very nicely decorated !!


Oink’s stress from eating non-stop

Went to shop around timessquare which has almost nothing inside .. Too new ..
Pls do not book hotel name “paris hotel” if you ever see it on the internet..

We then went to buy some tau sa pia to bring back to SG. This is the famous shop, Ghee Hiang



We then went back to Gurney drive and continue with the food galore

(14)  Or Jian(Oyster Omelette) - GOOD !

(15)  Popiah- Nice !
(16)  Laksa again from Gurney this time, smells better , but the one at Burma road tastes better
(17)  BBQSotong served in cute paper boat 
(18)  Prawn Noodle which I could only find HUGH prawn rice inside. Not recommended

Walked over to Gurney Plaza, which is beside the Gurney Drive Open hawker centre. Spotted this interesting hospital theme based café and we pop in for coffee. 

The surgery room 

 Here comes missy nurse with the menu
 Their menu 


Boy eating from a kidney bowl 
 Entertained ..
 Keeping me entertained with Tom & Jerry cartoon which I find it amusing. 
(I would very much like to watch  Jerry Yan also ... )
 The patient's monitoring card at the side of the chair

 The wall deco. There are no special effects made on these pictures. It's the color and lighting of the place
 The surgeon's prized tools



(19) We ordered Penang Black and White Coffee 

 The evil doc
 the trainee doc
 After the foam is cleared , we can clearly see the difference ..
We wanted to continue eating by walking down the roadside but it was raining snoopies and  garfields, so we took shelter at G Hotel, located beside gurney plaza.

 Where’s g-spot ? 


Seeing that snoopies and garfields are not going off, We have no choice but to go back to the hotel. Then, I was feeling hungry again and decided to order Room service before I fall asleep happily ( I know I am piggy..hahaha ) 
(20) Kids meal


DAY 3

On the last day, We only have half a day and we realise that we are out of the hotel most of the time and did not really utilise the facilities of  the hotel . Hence, decided to stay in the hotel. 

This is how the hotel lobby look like. Open air as well, Sometimes there live piano show.
I bought this hardrock café shirt

Around the hotel

The sheltered swimming pool

  The very classic Shangri-la balcony


Special playground equipped with toys for the little one while the parents enjoy their food. 

The hotel have a ‘cool lounge’ for guest who need to check in out early.

It provides sofa , internet, and access to their bathroom, which fully equipped with everything that is supposed to be in the hotel room bathroom. It is just like a replica of your hotel room  bathroom , but a little grander.  Beside the common washing basin ,each locker contains full set of soap , shampoo, conditioner , showercap, lotion, and towels.

This is how each of the individual bathroom looks like.. 


Quickly changed out of my clothes and went for the Whirl pool  which I *loves max*, you can lock it from inside so that you have PRIVACY.  The Whirl pool also has a on/off button for you to stop the Jacuzzi after use. So environmental friendly wor.

We then had lunch which is expect to be more expensive compared to what we had for the past 2 days ..



There are also hotel staffs who will walk around and give complimentary fruits and cool towel. Great service!!

With that, I left Penang on the plane 3 KG heavier, not on the luggage, but on my stomach...

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