Penang, the World's Heritage City in Malaysia (Part 1)

I visited Penang two months ago. To be exact, April 2012. It was a quite fun and interesting trip. Got a good bargain for my plane tickets. It costed me IDR458,000.- for return trip (Jakarta - Penang). Of course, the airline was AirAsia Indonesia. What's else :)

Before I booked Penang, I almost never heard of this city. What I knew was its fame for cheap yet delicious ranges of food. Many friends and relatives said that travelling to Penang was not  that worth it since nothing you could do except medical check-up. But...internet showed many interesting things about Penang, especially old and historical buildings. Yessss! Wow, I thought that it might not be a wrong decision to travel there. Alright, I confess. I loveeeee historical buildings and museum.

Penang city view from Penang Hill (Bukit Bendera)

In short, April 20, 2012 finally came. The flight was great, no significant turbulences. We arrived at Bayan Lepas International Airport, Penang at around 8.20 a.m. (I forgot the exact minutes :P). The airport underwent a face lift work so mess was around. Immigration was fast. I decided to use Rapid Penang bus no. 401 to go to Georgetown. FYI, Bayan Lepas Airport is located almost 30 minutes from Georgetown. Georgetown is the area where most of the tourist attractions and Indonesian favourite hospitals are located. Bus is the cheapest transportation to Georgetown. Pay only RM2.70 per person. Compare it with RM40 for taxi riding. Better save some ringgits for having fun downtown rather for riding taxi. The bus will stop at Komtar. Komtar is like Blok M Terminal in Jakarta. You can find any bus rides to any parts of Penang here. So, remember the look of Komtar. If you get lost, better find this building.

The tallest building in the photo is KOMTAR (Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak).

I booked a room in Tune Hotel. Got RM63.8 net per room per night. I admit this is not a great bargain for Tune since I booked it one month prior to my departure. Bear in mind that book Tune Hotel rooms as early as possible. One year to six month booking prior your departure will land you in a very very great bargain. You can even get RM1 for a room/night. The room is great. The usual of Tune Hotel. Small yet quite comfortable. It provides King Koil for its bed. So, not bad, huh.

After a not too smooth check in due to congested traffic of people's checking in and checking out, I got into my room and put my luggage there. Ready for wandering around the Georgetown city. I decided to eat first because my flight was an early morning flight  and I hadn't taken my breakfast (GMT+7, 5.30 a.m.!). Ate a hainanese chicken rice near the hotel. Not too good and not that cheap. After my brunch, I thought I would visit St. Francis Xavier's Church and Residence of Ku Dia Kua Moh first since those two places were not too far from the hotel. But, disappointment was I got when I saw the Church. Described as a historical and quite pretty church in Penang tourism map, the church turned to be a small and plain church. Really disappointed! The weather that day was so damn hot so I dropped my plan to see Residence Ku Dia Kua Moh and directly went to Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (the Blue Mansion).

The information I gathered from the interest states that I must pay RM10 to enter the Mansion. However, various sites fail to mention that we can only enter the Mansion if we visit it in a group of minimum 30 persons. The guard at its entrance did not allow me to come inside and said that daily visit is only at 11.00 a.m. and I must come in a large group. So, anyone ever visit Penang and enter this Mansion, please tell me whether the guard is true or only tries to cheat some extra money from me. Really a nuisance :(

A lovely stunning Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

So, I went to Cocoa Boutique to get some shelter from Penang midday heat. Here, you can find wide varieties of chocolate, from exotic fruit filled chocolate to tongkat ali chocolate. But, of course, shop here will burn a hole in your pocket. The prices are quite high (actually worth the quality). After that, my parents wanted to go back to hotel because we all felt sleepy. No wonder considering we woke up at 2.30 a.m. to catch our flight.

In our walking back to hotel, we found a market selling wide ranges of foods and souvenirs. It was a Chowrasta Market. But, we did not shop as we intended to shop on our last day. We also found the famous Teo Chew ice cendhol. Costed RM2 per bowl for eat in. You must add RM0.30 for take away. Not that superb for my taste buds. Indonesian ice cendhol is way more delicious.

I closed the day by eating one plate of Char Kuey Teow. Yes, this is the correct spelling. We, Indonesian, always have it wrong as kwetiaw or kuetiow. A nice yet spicy one. This was the most delicious plate I had for that day.