[Penang] Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip 槟城年尾之旅 Day 6.1 Departure from Penang International Airport●Sunway Hotel Georgetown Review

Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip 槟城年尾之旅

December 24, 2016 (Saturday)

Departure from Penang International Airport (PEN)

We woke up early in the morning and set out to Penang International Airport to avoid traffic jam. Well, it's Saturday morning after all, it isn't much traffic on the road, so we reached the airport in about 20 minutes.

Today we are taking AirAsia flight back to Kota Kinabalu (BKI). Flight time is 10:20AM. As we about to check-in our luggage at the counter, we found there was a super-long queue where about 60~70 people are waiting on the line! This was because now AirAsia flight passengers have to self check-in their luggage at the counter, and most of the passengers are still new to this procedure, whom took a much longer time to check-in their luggage. I see no difference compared to checking-in luggage with the land-staffs' assistance, but rather more annoyed standing in the line, helpless.

Fortunately, with the help of a lady, a total stranger, we proceeded to a "fast lane" and got our luggage checked-in. Many thanks to the lady!

Now then we saw both KFC and McDonald's are fully occupied, we have no choice but to proceed to the departure hall and wait for the time.

Our departure gate is B5, and apparently we are one of the earliest flight passengers there.

Finally, it's boarding time! Our seats are at Row 20 and 21. So we lined up at Zone 2.

When it seemed all passengers are on-board, we were curious why isn't the plane moving. For about 20 minutes all of us were just sitting there, without a clue. Then an announcement was made, saying there was a passenger who had left his/her identification card at home, and because of that, he/she and his/her luggage were not allowed to get on-board. The lane-staffs had to go-thru the checked-in bags, one by one, and return it to the passenger. Naww, poor thing.

By the time the plane is moving, it was already passed 11AM! We are so due from ETD... And I was starving...

Finally, time to serve in-flight meals. I had Pasta with Vegetable, which was pre-ordered online.

It was "my thing" actually. It looks super healthy - broccoli, chicken breast meat, olives, cucumber, no cheese. Hmm, but surprisingly, it was good. I just hope they could serve a larger portion instead.

When the plane touched down at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI), it was fast-passed 2PM. It's so glad to be back at home 'cause we are much exhausted after the trip.

And this is it. The end of our Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip. 'Til the next time! :)

~Special~ Sunway Hotel Georgetown Review

- Address : 33, Lorong Baru, George Town, 10400 George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
- Phone: +60 4-229 9988
- Website : http://georgetown.sunwayhotels.com

As promised, this is my humble review on my 5-night stay in Sunway Hotel Georgetown - a 4-star hotel.

Location wise, it is quite a strategic one - which is located beside Penang Times Square. However, it is quite a distance from Carnevon Street and Muntri Street where you could find most of the street arts. By taking taxi, GrabCar or Uber, it shouldn't be a problem.

We checked-in on Monday night.  Hotel guests are entitled for free parking inside the building, which was very convenient for us. Our room, a Deluxe Super King room, has an extra large king-sized bed which can fit 3 adults. Sharing bed with my siblings, it wasn't crampy as I thought. Quite spacious, actually.

Out of 10, I would say it's bathroom gets a score 6. I don't really feel comfortable to be inside nor I like the design, but at least it is clean and tidy.

To our surprise, we received free-treats everyday in our mini-bar - cookies, premium instant coffee and can drinks.

As most of our time we are touring around the town, we didn't fully-utilize the hotel facilities, other than its restaurant, Sun Cafe - where we had our buffet breakfasts every morning. Out of 10, I would say Sun Cafe gets a score 7, in overall - taking consideration of its food variety, taste, cleanliness and service.

Overall, it was a pleasant stay in Sunway Hotel Georgetown. Thank you.

---stay tuned---

[Penang] Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip 槟城年尾之旅 Day 5.6 Purrfect Cat Cafe●Last night in Penang

Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip 槟城年尾之旅

December 23, 2016 (Friday)

After dinner, just as we were walking on Lebuh Muntri towards Purrfect Cat Cafe, we happened to find a street art which we missed in the morning. Well, not to mentioned, the Camera Museum is just a few shoplots away.


(23) The ninja girl (by Ernest Zacharevic)

**Check out previous 22 street arts hunting here.**

Purrfect Cat Cafe

- Address: 53, Lebuh Muntri, George Town, 10200 George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
- Phone: +60 4-261 1197
- Operating Hours : 10AM–9:30PM

As you can see, the ground floor are where they sell all sorts of cat-related merchandizes. And on the second floor, it is where the cat babies are. Soon then we found out that there is an entrance fee required. RM13 per person per entry (ouch). You still have to pay the entrance fee whether or not you're buying drinks or cakes from the cafe. There is when we decided not to go inside since not all of us are interested.

Instead, we just toured around at ground floor and looking for some souvenirs.

Yeah, the interior design and decoration are lovely and cute.

Check out these fun facts about cats:

1. On average, cats spend 2/3 of everyday sleeping. That means a 9 year old cat awake for only 3 years of it's life.
2. A female car is called a queen or a molly.
3. Cats spend 1/3 of their waking time cleaning themselves.

At the end, mom bought us cat postcards as souvenirs. Thanks, ma! Meow :3 Oh ya, instead of plastic bags, they are giving out brown paper bags with hand-drawings. Each is different from one another. So cute.

Last night in Penang

As we were driving back to our hotel, our eyes caught a building-tall female soldier street art, which is enormous! (see below)

I just can't believe. A whole week we have spent in Penang is coming to an end. And we also can't believe we haven't have Penang Char Kuey Teow yet! (say whut?) Yes, seriously. When we returned to our hotel, we also dropped by New Lane Hawker Centre and grabbed two servings of Penang Char Kuey Teow.

A side note. The tau-ge (boss) simply gave us seafood char kuey teow and made us paid RM9 for per serving. In fact, we ordered char kuey teow, it's just we didn't emphasis that we want the normal one only, which is RM7 per serving. Yes, the prices are clearly stated on the price list, but mister, could you maybe at least reconfirm with your customers whether they want seafood or normal? Hmm. What a disappointment. :/

So yeah, that's how we spent our last night in Penang. It's been a long day and we are catching an early flight tomorrow. Let's get some rest.

---stay tuned---

[Penang] Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip 槟城年尾之旅 Day 5.5 TekSen Restaurant

Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip 槟城年尾之旅

December 23, 2016 (Friday)

TekSen Restaurant (德盛飯店)

- Address : 18 & 20, Lebuh Carnarvon, George Town, 10100 George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
- Operating Hours : 12–3PM, 6–9PM (close on Tuesdays)
- Phone : +60 12-981 5117

Time for dinner!!! We found this restaurant online from a blogger's recommendation. This wasn't in our original itinerary actually. At first, we were thinking of having a fine-dining, but at last we thought it would be a waste to not try out local restaurants which are Penang's "hidden gems"! Not only it is especially well-known to locals, but even foreign tourists too swam in to taste the goodness. Established in 1965, the restaurant business has now passed on to the 2nd generation and counting.

With fear of limited parking spaces, we parked our car a few streets away and walked over to the restaurant. To our surprise, the restaurant was indeed fully-packed with people, and we spotted some are lining-up to in order to get tables!

Fortunately, it was all under-controlled and organized. A staff is stationed to attend to waiting customers, assigning them to empty tables and taking orders in advance. Soon we got ourselves a table and our orders were sent into the kitchen (find the menu attached at the end of this post).

In less than 30 minutes, our foods are all served on the table. They smell really really good! Maybe I was very hungry then? Yes, most probably. But I gotta feeling that I'm gonna like this meal very much. Bon appetite! :9

Steamed white rice (large), one serving - RM1

Assam stingray fish | 咖喱时鱼 - RM45

Deep-fried homemade tofu with cut prawns, dried scallop and egg white topping | 招牌豆腐 - RM18

Fish Maw Soup - RM20

Steamed egg with salted duck egg and century egg | 三皇蛋 - RM8

Stir-fried five-spice marinated sliced pork with garlic | 五香煎肉 - RM26

Are you drooling already while seeing these photos? Well, undoubtedly, there was none of of them I didn't like it. Yes, I shouldn't deny that I actually enjoy Chinese cuisine very much. (I am a Chinese after all! :D)

Well, if I am to recommend to you, I would stir-fried five-spice marinated sliced pork and Assam stingray are highly recommended. The stir-friend pork is full of flavours. The stingray is cooked perfectly nice and tender. Mix the spicy and sour assam sauce with rice and fish meat, and it just goes into your mouth one after another scoop... One thing I like about stingray is because it doesn't have small pointy fish bones. Much easier to eat.

The total bill costs RM114.30, which is considerably worth-the-price for a 5-person dinner. It was truly an enjoyable dinner. The online recommendation was a reliable one (thumbs up!). Check out the recommendation link here.

So if you are interested to try out some good local restaurants, I suggest you shouldn't miss this one :)

---stay tuned---

[Penang] Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip 槟城年尾之旅 Day 5.4 Penang Hill

Penang 6D5N Year-End Trip 槟城年尾之旅

December 23, 2016 (Friday)

Penang Hill / Bukit Bendera, Penang

- Address : Perbadanan Bukit Bendera, Jalan Stesen Bukit Bendera, Air Itam, 11500 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
- Phone : +60 4-828 8880, +60 4-828 8839, +60 4-828 8861, +60 4-828 8862
- Train Operating Hours : 6:30AM–11PM (ticketing counter closes at 10:30PM)
- Website : www.penanghill.gov.my

There are public transports available to get to Penang Hill. Since we rented a car, we drove ourselves to the Penang Hill/Stesen Bukit Bendera. The journey took less than 40 minutes from our hotel located at Georgetown. We parked our car inside a private parking building right beside the train station (see below).

Soon as we got there, we lined-up at the ticketing counter to purchase tram ticket. Of course, the tram isn’t the only way up the hill. Suppose there is a jeep service which departs from the Botanical Gardens and takes approximately 20 minutes to reach the top. If you are feeling adventurous, there are also a number of jungle trails up the hill.

It's already 5PM when we got there, and we are taking the tram. The ticket looks this (see below). If you purchase two-way ticket, please make sure you keep the ticket upon first exit. You only return the ticket upon your second exit.

There was a long queue. We almost waited for 45 mins for us to get on the tram. At normal hours, the tram departs at half hourly intervals; at peak hours, it departs at 15 minutes intervals.

And finally... The design of the tram is quite an unique one. The body of the tram is purposely designed in slant shape (see below).

Penang Hill is 830 meter high (2,750 foot), and the whole journey up the hill only takes less than 5 minutes, by tram.

It is much cooler when you are up on the hill than on land. Plus, it just rained not long ago.

From here, you are able to enjoy the magnificent panoramic view of Georgetown, the mainland and Penang Bridge.

At the top of the hill, you will find cafe, restaurants, souvenir stalls and many other interest spots. As you can see and/or imagine, the place was crowded with people.

One of famous attractions on Penang Hill is The Owl Museum, which is also South-East Asia's first museum dedicated to owl-themed art and craft. It has a wide range of over 1,000 exotic and unique arts and craft artifacts collected from various countries, including Japan, South Korea, Uruguay, China, Vietnam, Thailand, England, Indonesia and France (reference link here).

Over the years, there are more and more attractions being included on Penang Hill, such as Mini Toy Museum and Typhoon Experience Park. Since we didn't intended to spend more than an hour here, so we just have leisure walk on the hill.

Instead, it became my new habit to take photos of flowers since visiting South Korea last year. Beautiful and colourful flowers are eye-catchy, and I can't hold back to not capture photos for them. At the end, it turned up much like a botanic experience for me here. (heh)

As we are afraid that we will be late for dinner, we came down from the hill at around 6PM. Return your ticket by dropping it into the slot upon exiting (see below).

The private parking building turns up to be a bus station where you can see public or tourist buses drop their passengers (see below).

---stay tuned---