Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Road Trip Series: Penang Island

Date: 28th July 2010
Location: Penang Island
Event: Road Trip

There you go! Mamenez comes back! For the year of 2010 and almost closing the year, there's a road trip and believed as the longest journey so far. Organized by Jimmy Ong, who loves his car so much, this trip covered few different places in Malaysia.

Total journey of 6 days, the places covered including Penang Island, Cameron Highland, Genting Highland, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and also Johore Bahru. Two cars and two drivers, it was tiring but fun. Day by day journey, and im going to start with Penang.

Drive from Singapore to Penang, the first move was the longest drive. Reaching about 700km via Malaysian North-South Highway, the journey has to be stop for couple of times along the highway for toilet break and food! =) Good thing that the highway not as busy as festive season, the drive was smooth till the end. Tire check! Petrol check! Food check! Drinks check! and as early as 5.30am, the journey begin, from Singapore.
8 people altogether: Jimmy, Roslee, Rahmat (me), Rosalie, Valentine, Adie, Jill and Vadhel, they are all well prepared for the trip! (Prepared to sleep in the car I guess). Anyway, as what they say, my car is designed for people to sleep in it.. Hmm thats sound a nice excuse but, my mom even sleep in the car. So probably they are right!.. But the journey continues...
Passing through several states of Malaysia, including Johore, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Perak, and Kedah, the drive was smooth except Jimmy's group who accidentally drive out of the main highway and entering Kuala Lumpur city area. But, they are lucky to have GPS, and managed to drive back to the main highway and rushing up to Penang. Without stopping, they reached the hotel that we are going to stay first. Amazing!
*More about the Gurney Hotel, the hotel that we stayed in the next chapter*
For us, we decided to stop at the Tapah R&R for lunch break, assuming that Jimmy's group is still behind us.
Lunch is over! the drive continues and a call from Jimmy telling us that he is reaching the hotel. What?! and that makes us rushing up as well.
Entering the Penang Island, there are two ways, either drive via the Penang Bridge or by taking ferry. The ferry can accomodate the car, bike and even van into it. But for arrival, we choose the bridge as the traffic look smooth.
For the bridge, make sure you look to signage or otherwise, you will definitely spend time driving around to find the brigde. Its very straight forward, you may find the signage quite easy during your drive reaching to Penang Island.
Entering Penang, the traffic and road signage may not as easy as expected. Driving from the bridge to the Gurney Hotel, which is located in Gurney Drive may take around 30 minutes, but along the way, the are more stuff to see.
In Penang, we have limited time to spend. We reached the hotel about noon time, and decided just to park the car and spend time walking around and go for a swim. Jimmy's group decided for a spa massage, and me, i need a cool and nice swim.
At night, as the time is running out, we chose to go to the famous Penang Night Market, located at the Batu Feringgi area, it takes about 30 minutes to reach there. And be careful, the traffic might be dangerous at night. And again, the ladies slept in the car, proving that my car is well designed to sleep. =(
Yup, as you can see, Penang Night Market at Batu Feringgi believed as the biggest and never close at any day. Equipped with a hawker centre, we decided to try out the local food here. Awesome!

There are thousand of stuff you may find here. From souvenier to clothes, CD and DVD, watches and accessories, the ladies definitely love this and spend time longer than guy. Can see some of them did shopping actually! =)

Once done with shopping and dinner, we drove back to the hotel for rest. And the journey tomorrow has to continue to Cameron Highland.
29th July 2010, Thursday:
Everybody wake up early for breakfast and packing up for the next move.
Not far from the hotel, there are 2 Buddhists temple named as Dhammikarama Burmese Temple and Wat Chaiyamangalaram. These 2 temples are just located opposite each other.
The first 2 pictures below are the Wat Chaiyamangalaram Temple;

...and the next 5 pictures below are the Dhammikarama Burmese Temple;



Located outside the Temple, there is a little souvenier stall where you can get some item for quite a cheap price.


Next, after the Temple visits, we all visited the famous Eastern & Oriental Hotel Penang. The oldest hotel in Penang, the building still stand proudly facing the sea view of Penang.
*More review on the E&O Hotel in the next chapter*
Rushing to our next destination, on the departure we chose to take the ferry ride. Exiting Penang, the fare is free but to enter Penang, there is a fare that you have to pay.
Due to the time limitation, we did not managed to cover other place of interest in Penang, of which it has more such as the Snake Temple, Zoo, Bukit Bendera and lots more. As what Jimmy say, "...I want to go back to Penang for a couple of days...", so maybe next time.
Our next destination, Cameron Highland! Check it out on the next chapter...