One night…

I arrived in Penang after 4.00 p.m. on Thursday and it was rather cloudy that day, with rain at certain places along the way from Sungai Petani. There wasn’t any jam on the bridge, thank goodness but there were a few police road blocks along the way, probably because of the Pematang Pauh by-election. I stayed at the Cititel Penang along Penang Road…  

One thing that I noticed instantly was that the road was not as congested as during my previous trips. That could be due to the increase in oil prices, so unlike before, people are now no longer as reckless in zooming here and there at any time of day like there is no tomorrow. I also found  out that some of the shops have closed down, like one cake shop/bakery right across the road and also a shop selling clothes and souvenir Penang t-shirts.

I have been staying at the Cititel Penang all this while…

…and I am quite used to the place already. This is the hotel lobby…

…and as you can see, it is a lot nicer than the one at Mid Valley in KL. For RM140.00, I would get a much bigger room like this…

…with a view of the sea.

I had a better picture in one of my earlier posts, taken on a nice sunny day with blue skies and everything nice. One peculiar feature of Cititel hotels is that there is a ceiling fan in the room and the security is very good. You would need to use your room card to go up in the lifts to your floor. But what I like best about this hotel is the hawker stalls across the road at this place called Red Garden… 

There are so many stalls there that one would be really spoilt for choice. I had this plate of char hor fun (RM4.00) which is something like kway teow except that it is not cut into thin long strips…

…and this plate of ikan bakar (grilled fish)…

The last time, with my family, we had ikan bawal hitam (black pomfret) and it was really delicious…but that evening, they only had very big ones, so I opted for this piece of stingray instead. It was very nice too and cost RM12.00. It appeared to me that they just marinated the fish with curry powder and grilled it on a banana leaf on a hot plate…but what made it absolutely tasty was the sambal that came with it! I loved it!!!

No sooner had I had my fill than I saw the lok lok satay stall just opening for business. Gee! I haven’t had that for ages but I was already too full from the feast I had. Guess that will have to wait till my next visit as this time around, I was just staying for only…one night!