Penang Trip – Flashback Post

Posted by azuan on Apr 2, 2006 in :: All Posts ::, TRAVEL | 1 comment

The idea of traveling alone came into the picture for me after talking to 2 of my american buddies, who had wonderful experience touring malaysia and other countries alone and encouraged me to try it. So i went online and searched for a cheap flight and got lucky to get a RM3.98 return ticket to Penang from KL (RM63.98 incl. taxes)

So i went online again a few days before the trip and got myself another promo rate hotel room at Ferringhi Beach Resort thanks to the off-peak season. I got myself a superior double bed room for RM108++. Not that cheap but not bad since its a 3star resort.

So the day arrived, with my backpack, notepad and shades, i went to the airport at 530 (thanks to my SIFE friend who acted as my ‘airport limo’ so early in the morning). My flight was at 705 and i mistook it to be 715am. So i arrived real late, went on to cut Q and got a nice warning about Air Asia 45 minutes policy by the check-in officer. What the hell, as long as i make the flight. The aiport was surprisingly full at 7am on a sunday morning with people coming home from Hajj so again i cut the Q at the security checkpoint .I finally made it to the second last gate after my morning sprint and at that point i saw a few passengers still waiting to embark the plane, so i knew that im not that late. I went into the plane….the new Air Asia A320…lucky me!

The A320 is a beauty. With me feeling all sweaty after the airport sprint, i was welcomed into a nice ambience of the new plane. The smell, the lighting, the smile of the cute stewardess….it was a good start for the trip…. The only drawback is the seat rows are really closed to each other and ur knees actually touch the seats in front of you. and there is no reclining seats. and they have around 30 rows of seats on an A320…WOW, talk about no frills….!! Luckily it was only 60% full so i got three seats to myself…after take-off i had a nice can of soya bean and enjoy the view of straits of malacca at 30000 feet…

Penang Intl Airport 0830am

Arrived at the airport. The airport is quite small but really modern with full air-con, clean toilets and clear signanges. I checked out the airport taxi and a journey to the town cost RM38 which is quite high. So i decided to grab my breakfast at the airport before trying to find the public bus. After walking about 15 minutes trying to find the bus stop, a taxi who just dropped passengers at the airport stopped me offering me a ride for only RM20, i asked for a lower price and we settled at RM15. Not bad for a 30 minutes drive!!

Mr Singh, the cab driver is a nice man. He shared lots of his stories of bringing tourist around the city from crazy and drunk white men to sexy-crazy arab ladies. Interesting conversation that makes the journey worthwhile…

KOMTAR / PRANGIN Mall 0930am

The mall doesnt open until 10am. So i can’t check in at the hotel and its too early to hit the beach. so i went around KOMTAR and checked out some small stalls selling breakfasts, newspapers and some unidentified stuff around the area while waiting for KOMTAR to open. The day was quite hot so i settled down at starbucks for a choco frape. Then i saw a trishaw and negotiated for an hour ride on the trishaw for RM30. Not bad considering its a hot day and the guy is a 70-yrd old guy…

So the one hour ride turned out to be awesome and exciting. All the nice old buildings, famous landmarks, mosques, fort and other places. Mr Ho, my trishaw guy is an extremely friendly guy, he just went non-stop chatting with me bout history of the places, stories u wont find in tour book. This guy is old and has been cycling trishaw for 30 years and now got 7 grandchild but still he cycles for the fun of it!

After the hour ride, i went up to KOMTAR only to be dissapointed by the viewing terrace that actually is a restaurant and charged me for RM6. Not worth the money and the view is not that great.

After lunch in KOMTAR i went for some groceries shopping to get some juice and snakcks and took a cab to Feringghi. It was quite expensive with cab drivers asking for RM30-35. I managed to get a malay cab driver who are willing tosend me to my hotel for only RM20 so i took his offer. Later i found out bus ride are quite frequent and quite cheap but really unconfortable. Maybe next time. Mr Jasni, the cab driver is a cool guy. He’s quite young and told me some stories bout how Ferringhi has changed into a tourist centre and during the arab tourist season, the restauraunts were all using signboards in arabic and even hired students who can speak arabic as translator. Interesting.

FERRINGHI 0230Pm

SO i checked into my hotel room. Quite old with 2 single bed. Had a short shower, change cloth and went straight to the beach. Thank God the hotel provides free shuttle to the beach but everyone got to book in advance. Luckily that day the shuttle is not full so i got the free ride and for record i was the only local in the shuttle.

THE FERINGGHI BEACH IS AWESOME!!!!

I ended up spending 5 hours at the beach doing parasailing, horse riding and just chatting with some of the tourist and local who runs the water sport busienss. They were nice to me as again i was the only local at that side of the ebach. Later i even took a nice 2 hour nap by the beach. It was so great that at one point there was a guy who said that the beach was the one where there were people died in the tsunami disaster, but i just dont care, it was that good!!!

Parasailing was quite scary at first but after i took off, it was FUN FUN FUN for 10-15 minutes….i even made a nice smooth landing

As the sun ready to sets, i went to check out the Ferringhi town and its true its a tourist area. You see more foreigner than local and the night market is kind of geared towards the tourist with fake “original copy” watch, bags, DVDs and stuff. It was quite cheap. but i did saw many tourist got tricked into buying fake rolex for RM80…come on its way cheaper in KL!

I had dinenr in KFC and went on touring the area until the sun sets..

Later at night, i was tired of walking all day. I went down to the hotel Reef Lounge with the intention of watching the live badminton game on the giant screen while having some drinks but i got frustrated to see the place full with foreigners watching an EPL game…so i went back up to my room and watched the game on TV. I jsut relax and relax…

The second day arrived and i woke up quite late around 9 and had a light breakfast in my room. Then i went to the pool and relax there for a while and finished reading my book. Later i went back to the hotel room and enjoyed my balcony, bath tub and vision 4 movies.

Later of the day i went for food fest with my Penangnite frien, Lina. She picked me up after i checked out and we went crazy with the food. Nasi KAndar is a must if you;re visiting Penang. Forget about the hotel food. Go for Nasi Kandar Line Clear. Its near KOMTAR and the physical appearance is really bad, old and dirty but the food is AWESOME!!! Also we went for Padang Kota LAma and had a nice Ais Kacang, Coconut Drink and Mee Sotong for a very reasonable price. Seriously the food is great….

I later went on with Lina to check out the Ferry ride from the mainland to the island. Its still the same old ferry service and it does brings back some old memories when i last visited penang years back then. The view from the ferry is quite nice and you can even see the Penang Bridge.

After the ferry ride, i went to get some local delights for friends and then visited Lina’s family, took a shower and went straight to the airport. Air Asia smsed me about the flight being delayed for an hour but what the hell. I spent my time at the nice airport calling my friends until the plane arrived.

Overall, it was a trip to remember and im definitely planning to travel alone again in the futre, maybe overseas after this…

Next stop…Eagle Ranch – www.eagleranch.com.my