Well, we’ve had our first 2 full days in Penang. I haven’t counted the first day because we didn’t arrive till mid arvo and we were all so buggered we needed rest. (It is a killer to get old. See Shane’s pic of me concentrating hard in the plane on the way here. (I wasn’t asleep!))
We got up late on Sunday then by the time we had breakfast and debated about what to do we grabbed the ‘Hop 0n, Hop Off’ bus around Penang. The first of two routes available to us was the ‘Beach route’ which is more scenic than active. The road from Gurney takes you from the upper crust part of town and winds around a narrow twisting road that hugs the coastline. You get continual glimpses of gorgeous tropical beaches with the occasional granite boulders marking each end of the sand. We went past Batu Ferringhi which is Penang’s version of the Gold Coast. It has tourist resorts such as Hilton, Sheraton, Hard Rock and the famous Rasa Sayang all with their own stretch of beachfront. We will return to BF later in the week to go to the night markets here which are an essential on a visit to Penang. When the bus gets to the dam (Malaysia’s largest and only coastal dam) it turns around and retraces it’s route back to Gurney and the flash Gurney Plaza.
As we passed through the Straits Quay on the return journey Jules wasn’t feeling too good so she and Ian carried on homeward while Helen, Colin, Shane & I stopped for lunch at Healy Mac’s Irish bar on the Marina. It was almost exactly a year to the day when Shane & I were here last and it hasn’t lost any of it’s appeal. There was a fantastic trio of entertainers playing as we had a splendid lunch which, as they finished, we managed to convince to do an encore for us. (I think it was Colin’s flirting with the pretty woman singer that convinced them to do a song for us.) By the time we got home we were all too tired to eat tea (besides that we’d had a great feed at Healy Mac’s) so bed was the direction we all took.
(Above two pics – Us at Healy Mac’s)
Up early (OK! Up by 0900) we were back on the HoHo Bus this time to do the city route. This is a much more active trip though I honestly don’t know how we managed to push ourselves so hard. The 1st stop today was the funicular up Penang Hill. Having just done ‘The Peak’ in Hong Kong I don’t think Ian, Jules, Helen & Colin were ready for this tram ride. It is the steepest funicular in the world and it isn’t slow and getting you to an altitude of 720m above sea level. What a ride! Up at the top we had coffee & snacks then looked about. Last year Shane & I didn’t investigate all there was to do up there. This time we saw much, much more and we were pleasantly surprised.
A couple of hours later we were back down the hill and bussing it to the next location. Birch Times Square is where we stopped for lunch. It is also where Shane & I will be living from next Sunday. It is a huge modern complex with much to see there.
By 1530 we were back on the HoHo as we carried on towards the city. Next stop was the Clan Jetties. Following a fire some years ago there are only 6 remaining jetties where local Chinese families live perched upon piers over the water of the Malacca Strait in timber shanties. 5 of the piers are named after the particular clan it belongs to (eg Lim Clan – see pic) while the 6th is ‘Misc Clan names”.
By now my pedometer told me I was approaching 5 km mark (on crutches remember) and we were all pretty well worn out so we grabbed the HoHo again for home glimpsing some of the sights of the UNESCO protected heritage buildings that make up the Georgetown CBD. This area is a beautiful mix of old colonial architecture that features the towns’ maritime heritage from the Portuguese, Chinese, Indian, Malay and British past. So much to see so we’ll just have to come back.
At home Colin flaked out while we all wandered around the corner to our now familiar “Mr Pot” local style restaurant where we ate an assortment of snacks from this area all washed down with a tower of Tiger beer.
As I sit here typing, fighting the need for rest we are all settling down for tonight. I suspect that tomorrow will be a lay day.
Cheers all. Chat again later.
Garry & Shane