The story so far… Part 1 & Part 2

We mapped our route to Penang Hill and when we reached a spot where we had to move forward, we realized we were at the Botanical Gardens and the map had brought us to a part, which technically was the route to Penang Hill, but was the walking path. After wondering what to do, I met a friendly park staff who showed me on the map where to actually go. We had to reach the Lower Station at Bukit Bendera and which was actually close to the Kok Lok Si Temple. One blooper we made was not to carry any water with us
which made life a bit difficult till we found a 7-11 and brought some.

Kek Lok Si Temple

The route from the Botanical gardens to the temple seemed fairly easy, but we missed the entrance to the temple! The day was not getting better for us. We missed not one, but two entrances and had to make a big round around the hill till we came down. This was because the temple name was in Thai and we thought it was some Thai temple. We first went to the top entrance and when we realized it was the wrong one, got into the car to drive down again. The temple is serene and calming and we took some photos and walked around. There were some good luck charms we could tie to the wishing tree there and we did tie some for the children and us – things like Success in Exams, Success in Everything….

Inside the main temple

After spending an hour there, the kids started getting restless, plus the temple was nearing its closing time of 6 pm, so we decided to head to the funicular tram station to get to the top of Penang Hill. The drive from the hotel to the temple was approximately 25 minutes and from the temple to the tram station was approximately 10 minutes. On the way, we stopped at 7-11 and brought water and some drinks.

The funicular tram which took us up Penang Hill – see the angle!

The tram station is at the end of the road and there is a building right next to it where you can park your vehicle. Once we parked the car, we headed into the complex to buy the tickets. In Malaysia, it is usual to have two sets of tickets – one for locals who have to show their Malaysian ID and the other for foreigners. The foreigner ticket is usually twice that what locals pay. The foreigner price for a return trip by the Funicular tram was RM 30 per adult. Since GG & BB turned 12 this year, we had to pay adult prices for them almost everywhere.

Views from the top

Penang Hill is the oldest British hill station in Southeast Asia dating to the late 1700s and the highest peak there stands at 833 meters (2,732 ft) above sea level. The funicular railway to the top of the hill started in October 1923, making it a cool 92 years of running it. The train we went up is the fourth generation one and started operations in 2011. The track stretches almost 2 km with a steepness gradient of about 28 degrees. There are some bungalows in the hill, most privately owned, but some owned by the state government.

Hazy Cityscapes

The haze obscured most things when we were at the top, so we could not see the stunning cityscapes which were promised at the viewing deck. There’s a café at the top along with a food court plus an owl museum. On the top, a bit of a distance away, there is a Muslim mosque as well as a Hindu temple. We spent about an hour there before taking the train down and thinking about dinner. Car park rates were around RM 8 for the almost two hours we spent there.

While driving back to Georgetown and Little India, we spied a Ananda Bahwan restaurant. This was seemingly nowhere! We literally saw it and decided to eat there rather than braving Little India on a Sunday evening. Parking in Georgetown is a real pain and especially in the narrow streets which have little or no parking spaces. Also lots of roads in Georgetown are one-way streets and you can go round and round trying to find a free parking lot.

Kek Lok Si Temple

Penang from the top of the temple

Inside the temple

The various Penang landmarks that you could see from the top of the hill

Dinner over, we went back to the hotel, tired. The kids decided to have some fun in the humongous tub and that ended our first day in Penang!

Part 1: The Planning and the Preparations                                                                         Part 2: The Hotel

While deciding on a hotel to stay, we went back and forth between Georgetown which is the administrative capital of the island and Batu Ferringhi, which is the beach stretch of the island. I used Google Maps and Trip Advisor a lot to check for restaurants in both areas. Since we are vegetarians and can’t eat anywhere, this is a step I take every time we travel, so that we have meal options which are a short walk or drive away. Georgetown offered the most in terms of food options since the city’s Little India district was a short 10 minute walk away. Also we are not big beach and sun worshippers and the beach stretch of Batu Ferringhi didn’t really have much going for it other than the beach. Georgetown is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and had lots of interesting places to sightsee within it, so eventually it became a no brainer to choose to stay in Gorgetown rather than Batu Ferringhi.

Image from booking.com

We stayed at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, which is an old-school luxury hotel, and one of the oldest in Penang. This hotel harks back to a time when travel was a luxury and people lived a gentler, slower life. We booked the hotel through Agoda and got it for a decent price. We stayed in the Victory Annexe, the cheaper part I guess, which is fairly new, having opened only in 2013. All rooms were huge with balconies which had sea views of the Andaman Sea. Every room had a double ensuite bathroom which was probably as big as the room itself. The bathroom was divided into two with the dry and wet areas. The dry areas had his and her sinks on two sides with the gigantic tub, shower in the wet area which was inside.

The room type we stayed in. Image from Asiahotelscheap.com

Both BB & GG loved the hotel, so much that BB at one point commented that he’d love to come back to this hotel again when he is older! Being the usual Asian/Indian parent that I am, I quickly retorted that if he studies hard and does well in life, he will be able to afford to come here and stay at the Heritage Wing, which is more posh one and he can also bring his parents with him the next time he comes here! Both GG & BB had sheepish smiles at this comment.

The rooms were sectioned into two facing rooms, which had a smaller corridor with a door which led to the bigger corridor and the lifts. We thus got very private rooms and we would close the door leading to our rooms at night, which gave us more privacy and we could let the doors between the rooms open while getting ready for the day. GG, BB and my helper shared one room while S and I shared the other. The rate included breakfast daily as well as all day coffee in the lounge. We didn’t visit the pool this time, even though we had our swimming costumes because for some reason both BB & GG ‘didn’t feel like it’. We did visit the pool and it had the same sea views as our rooms and is something I’d love to cuddle up with a book and some hot coffee!

I was quite eager for the sea views but the haze played spoil sport! The views were quite bad due to the haze and we could hardly see a few meters. I love the sea and was looking forward to sitting in the balcony with a book, but didn’t spend much time there! Though the haze was there, we didn’t really feel it as we were either in the room, in the car or at an attraction. Guess if we were in the road more, it would have hit us harder!

Planters Lounge. Image from Hotel’s website

We reached the hotel around 12 noon, after taking a longer route from the airport (we missed a turn and had to take the longer route) and entered from the Heritage wing. We mistakenly thought that was the entrance, but the receptionist there corrected our misconception and took us to the right reception. We checked in, but the room was not yet ready, so we decided to head out for lunch. This was our first look at Penang. I used Google maps again and took a bit of wrong walking plus a long walk plus asking people before we reached our lunch destination. The kids were tired and cranky by the time we reached Woodlands, where we planned to eat. What I didn’t really realise was that I took a long and convoluted route to get there. The return was half the distance and time. I guess we didn’t feel that tired because we were hydrated and had full bellies when we came back. Back at the hotel, our rooms were ready and we quickly went up to the hotel. The time was around 1:30 by then and once settled in our rooms, everyone wanted to nap for a while as we had woken up early that day (think 5 am on a Sunday morning!) to get ready and catch the 9 am flight!

After a good nap, we decided to go to the Planters Lounge which was free for guests to have some coffee and hot chocolate for the kids. There, we decided on where to go next. My initial plan of going to the museums nearby was shot down and we decided to drive to Penang Hill and the Kok Lok Si Temple.

Other posts in this series:

Part 1: The Planning and the Preparations