My Penang tour, 2007

See Penang through my eyes

Penang! Oh glorious Penang! The beautiful tropical island of exceptional food, yummy girls, friendly people, pristine beaches and the eternally hot and humid climate. Penang will greet you with a warm kiss in the morning and pour a hot shower over you in the evening. But don't worry, you will be dry... and wet again in no time. This will be the last post of my 2007 Penang adventures. I definitely need to return one day and go on a foodventure. During that time I have tried a lot of awesome food, but I forgot to take photos. Well, I wasn't a blogger yet and taking pics of food was not something I would regularly do. But after being with a passionate Taiwanese blogger such as this cutie, I'm totally into food and blogging and food blogging. In the past, I usually went on long walks and took photos of the things I saw along the way. That's what I did in March 2007, when I decided to walk around Penang, from Gurney to Komtar. Let me show you my best photos:

The muddy waters along Gurney drive. On the other side is Peninsular Malaysia.

Penang is a mix of old houses and new high rise condos.

A colonial house. There are many on the island.

Penang is not really pedestrian friendly, the roads are much better for cars.

The water looked so good that day.

The Eastern & Oriental Hotel. Charlie Chaplin and Sun Yat-sen stayed here.

Not sure, what this building is, but it looks a bit like Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.

This is the Penang Museum and Art Gallery (homepage).

Penang is sometimes spelled as Pinang.

This is Penang Town Hall, a beautiful building.

Another part of the Town hall. Read more about it on this blog.

Old streets in central George Town, which is the biggest city in Penang, the state.

New and old together side by side.

A big roundabout. And in the middle is...

The Jubilee Clock Tower, one of Penang's famous buildings.

The clock tower as seen from afar.

A food stall and locals enjoying their lunch break.

Malaysian construction site safety measures are not so strict.

Penang Customs Department Building or Wisma Kastam is a beautiful building.

I like the clock tower.

Bangunan U.A.B nearby. Not sure, what this is, but looks good.

And then I came to Little India.

The area is really nicely done. I wish I had someone with me to eat something yummy.

A nice Chinese temple close to the Indian Mahamariamman temple.

The Kapitan Keling Mosque, Komtar and another mosque at Acheen Street.

The majestic Kapitan mosque is really breathtaking.

Another smaller Chinese temple in the area. Penang is full of them.

This is only a small part of Penang. The state, the island, the city have so much more to offer. I wish I had a better camera last time, but on the other hand I'm happy I could at least take some decent photos for my own personal memory. I really had a great time in Penag, because I had just graduated and this trip was like a reward for me. Penang is full of precious memory for me and I cherish them. I know I will revisit one day, but as a different and older person. I had my 27th birthday in Penang, how cool is that? Anyway, it was tons of fun. Penang is amazing, visit, if you have the chance.

[My MALAYSIA page][My PENANG page][All photos by MKL, 2007]

Batu Feringghi, Penang's golden coast

Although I spend 3 months in Penang in 2007, I only saw Batu Ferringhi once. The beautiful beach is located in the northern part of the island and you need to take a bus from Gurney for about 20min to reach there. Actually the whole area is huge, I'm not sure where we stepped off the bus, I think not at the most touristy part. The name means "White man's stone", "ferringhi" is akin to Thai "farang" which means foreigner, usually a Caucasian. Not sure, why they named it that way, maybe the British loved to go to the beach here. Well, this was definitely the right place to be for me and not because I'm white, but because I love the tropical sandy beaches with a deep blue ocean and a never ending horizon. I remember the water was very warm, it was a pleasure to swim here. That day the beach was pretty empty and nobody bothered us. Only some Malay guys on horses kept asking, if we want to ride. We declined.

See some photos (I wish I had a better camera):

The sandy beach of Batu Ferringhi.

The neverending Indian ocean.

One of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. And the only good photo I took that day.

The area features many hotels and shops with great food.

We could have certainly explored more beaches and areas, but we didn't have a car. And Penang's buses are not the best way to explore the island. But we still had fun on the beach for few hours, then we had a good meal and returned to Gurney. It was a memorable day.

[My MALAYSIA page][My PENANG page][All photos by MKL, 2007]

Jubilee Clock Tower, Penang

The Jubilee Clock Tower was built in 1897 to commemorate the 60 years of the British Queen Victoria's reign. The structure is 18.5m tall and stands in Georgetown's downtown. For me it looks like a mix of a church tower and a minaret. Penang was at that time under the British rule, where it thrived as one of the cultural centers in Malaya and whole Southeast Asia. This clock tower represents the colonial times, all the bad it brought upon the local people, but also all the good. It's one of my favorite sights in the city.

These are some of my photos:

There's a plant on top. I wonder why.

The inscription dedicated to Queen Victoria.

[My MALAYSIA page][My PENANG page][Info][All photos by MKL, 2007]

Penang Bridge

The 13.5km long cross-sea bridge connects the Penang island with the Malaysian peninsula. It was constructed between 1982 and 1985. Currently a second and longer bridge (23km) is in construction. This bridge is one of Malaysia's famous landmarks, one of national prides. It's certainly an amazing piece of modern engineering. It's a pity that I couldn't make decent photos of the bridge. It's actually not easy, because the days are too bright in Penang, sometimes you can't see the whole bridge at all.

[My MALAYSIA page][My PENANG page][Info][All photos by MKL, 2007]

Taking the bus in Penang

Taking a bus in Penang (in 2007) was really a "Malaysia truly Asia" adventure. The buses seemed to be from the 1950s with sometimes wooden seats, partly open windows and of course no air con. But they were cheap. Usually 1 fare cost 1 RM, sometimes few cents more and you really could save a lot of money that way. If you took a cab from Gurney to Komtar, it cost 12-15RM. Imagine, that was 12 to 15 times more than the bus. And when they saw an orang putih like me, they would usually charge more. So I took the bus many times and didn't mind the shabby condition and the slow ride. Those were some fun times. I've just read that since Aug 2007 new comfortable buses were launched. I missed that by few months, because I left Penang in May that year. I was a little shocked at first to see such buses in Malaysia's second biggest city. But not shocked for too long, because I've seen a lot of odd things in the country. With that said, I still love it.

[My MALAYSIA page][My PENANG page][Info][All photos by MKL, 2007]

Komtar, Penang's landmark

KOMTAR (short for Kompleks Tun Razak) with its 231.7 m (and 65 floors) is currently the tallest building in Penang and one of the tallest structures in Malaysia. It was constructed between 1974 and 1986 (what took them so long?) and upon completion, it was not only the tallest building in Malaysia, but also in all of Asia. It may not be an architectural masterpiece, but for the 1970s it was a pretty decent building. It's become the landmark building of the city and seen from many spots on the island and from the mainland. It does look beautiful at night and makes Penang's nightly skyline very appealing. At the bottom is a shopping mall, which looks pretty old now and some parts were unoccupied and didn't look that good in 2007. No idea how the situation is today. But if you go to Penang, you won't miss this building, it marks the central spot of the city. There's also a bus station nearby.

Komtar taken with a simple cell phone camera.

Komtar as seen from afar.

[My MALAYSIA page][My PENANG page][SKYSCRAPERS][Info][All photos by MKL, 2005]

Kek Lok Si temple, Penang

Unfortunately I haven't been able to make decent photos of this amazing temple. I lost my camera on the first day I visited Penang and these photos were taken by my ex-girlfriend's cell phone camera. More about it next time I visit Penang. If you're curious about the Kek Lok Si temple (極樂寺), read this. For better photos, check this flickr set. All I remember was walking around the whole area with my ex and an old lady asked us to carry some food for the turtles for her. Then we helped her feeding the turtles. That was fun.

[My MALAYSIA page][My PENANG page][All photos by MKL, 2007]