Hope…

Hello from Penang…

I’m staying in this hotel – nothing grand but the room is quite big, clean and comfortable….

The family room has a king-size bed and a single – just what I need for a family of three. The rate is RM180 – the same as what I would have to pay at that hotel where I always stay in KL…

The only complaint is the location. It is very near Gurney Drive…

…but at the wrong end. It would take quite a long walk to get to Gurney Plaza and the overrated tourist trap – the Gurney Drive Hawker Centre. There is no coffee shop and the like in the vicinity, just Starbucks and Roadhouse Grill and a very nice nasi kandar shop a stone’s throw away at the Gurney Hotel building. We had roti jala with chicken curry (RM4.00) from the latter for breakfast the first morning in Penang but I did not take any photographs of it. Maybe we’ll go there again…

We spent our first day at Gurney Plaza…

The Christmas decorations were nothing to shout about…

…but they had activities such as colouring competitions for kids…

stage shows…

…and so on to herald in the festive season.

Upon arrival in Penang, I was quite put off by the mess at the arrival level of the international airport owing to the renovations currently going on. They would not allow passengers to push the trolleys beyond a certain point. I wonder how they expect someone to carry the luggage the rest of the way to his/her car should he/she have more than one or two pieces. The place was so badly jammed that we took quite a while to get out of the airport area…and went at a snail’s pace to my niece’s condominium, located somewhere near the Penang Bridge…

There were a cafe, a hair salon and a swimming pool even…

…among other things but I cannot imagine myself being cooped up in that little space. I guess that’s part of life in big cities.

Well, do hang around for more on my Penang trip. Stay tuned…