Penang Holiday with Kids - Part III

Day Three

We called back the same taxi driver that took us to Penang Hill and book him for 3 hours, it cost RM$30/hr.  He brought us to some places of interest in George Town like the Reclining Buddha, Fort Cornwallis, Clock Tower.  He also recommended us some street hawker food, we had Chendol at the side walk of a street, it was really really tasty...yum yum...We also bought some biscuits from their famous biscuit shop Ghee Hiang and tabao Penang Fried Kway Teow and Hokkein Mee back to the hotel to eat.  The Penang Fried Kway Teow tasted quite good, so is the Hokkien Mee although it tasted more like our Prawn Noodle here.

 Reclining Buddha

 

Fort Cornwallis

Clock Tower

Chinatown















Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion















Ghee Hiang

After a nice lunch at the hotel and a dip in the swimming pool again.  We took a taxi to the Batu Ferringhi night market and see if we can find a place for dinner.  We decided to eat dinner at The Ship restaurant before making our way back to the hotel by foot so that we can that a look at the different stalls along the street.

Night Market at Batu Ferringhi

Day Four

Took the afternoon flight back to the hotel after another dip in the pool as we headed back to home sweet home.

All in all, a great maiden trip for us.  Not too taxing but I think we do miss out a lot of places of interest like the Spice Garden, National Park, the various places of worships as we don't think the kids will appreciate it at such a small age.  For those of you planning to go Penang for a holidays, here are some great websites to help in your planning.  Enjoy!

• Penang Tourism
• Penang Hotels
• Penang Vacations 
• Penang Hotels
• Visit Penang
  

Penang Holiday with Kids - Part II

Day Two

Took a 45 minutes taxi ride to Penang Hill, cost us about RM$45.  The taxi driver drop us off at the foot of the hill so that we can purchase the ticket for the Funicular Train up to the hill top, he also gave us his name card so that we can call him when we want to go back to the hotel.  It was a slow journey up the hill and the train was rather crowded.  Baby FAN can't seems to keep still for the entire journey, luckily we have made the necessary prep.  I took out my LG phone which is loaded with kids videos, this kept her entertained for a while.  We were quite disappointed with the Penang Hill as the place was not properly maintained, the flowers, fountain, mosque and temple are all in a bad shape.  Also, as the whether was quite hot that day, it wasn't the cooling effect that we expected from a high ground area.  Basically, nothing much to view at the top except to look down at the town area.  SMALL FAN started whining to go back to the hotel after a while.

The ticketing area.

View from the top

The Indian Temple

The one and only hotel at the Hilltop.

We also visited the Bird Sanctuary at the hilltop, cost us RM$5/adult.  Nothing really much to see i think we were out of the sanctuary in 15 minutes.

We wanted to take a break at the David Brown's restaurant but the garden didn't turn out as nice as those in the website and the meals provided doesn't seems to suit my kids.  So we went downstairs to the foodcourt and tried mee goreng and ice kacang instead...We asked the hawker to cook the mee goreng without chilli, it tasted like our wanton noodle without the wanton...hi hi...

David Brown's Restaurant

After lunch we took a taxi back to the hotel for a rest before heading to the beach for a walk and a dip in the pool again.  We didn't went into the sea water as I read that there are a lot of jelly fish there.

Beside the usual water sport like banana boat, parachuting etc...they also have buggy ride and horse riding on the beach.



























At night, we took a taxi to Gurney Drive, cost about RM$30. Had Penang Fried Kway Teow, Chendol, Niang Dou Fu and Wanton Noodle for dinner at the Gurney Drive Hawker Fare.  The food was quite tasty although the price was quite ex for a hawker centre.  We had a bowl of Niang Dou Fu (about 7 items) for RM$8 and the Fried Kway Teow cost RM$3.50 for a really really small plate.  After that, we went for a walk at Gurney Plaza.  It's quite a big plaza, looks very much like the style of Vivio City. We didn't really walk around much as Baby FAN was getting tire and cranky.  So we just take a taxi outside the plaza back to the hotel, cost us RM$28.

Penang Holiday with Kids - Part I

I know I haven't been updating this blog as I have been in this lazy mode recently, got addicted to the games in facebook.  Sigh.... Well, went a trip to Penang lately.  Our first maiden trip with the kids without any help from mom or mom-in-law. Here's an account of our trip.

Day One
Took MAS from Changi Airport to Penang Airport.  The kids have a great time playing at the playground in the Changi Airport Transit while waiting for our flight. It's the first plane ride for the kids, we thought we went there earlier so that can get prepared.  We also took some light snacks before boarding as I was worried that Baby FAN will be hungry on the plane.  Boy I was right, the plane served ask spicy food for lunch, either sambal prawn or nasi brayani. So both kids ended up eating biscuits and drinking fruit juice for their lunch.

Pic at the Koi Pond at Changi Airport.

 

 

Kids passing their time at the playground.

Baby FAN taking her mid-morning snack












As we went there on a Thursday morning, the plane wasn't very crowded and boarding was a breeze. I was worried that the air pressure of the plane taking off and landing might hurt the kids, so I kept stuffing them with sweets when the plane take off.  It's seems to work and they did not cry or complain about ear pain.  However, Baby FAN fell asleep on the plane and wake up crying when the plane was landing, complaining about ear pain. Luckily, she stop crying after we fed her some sweets to appease her... SMALL FAN also started complaining about ear pain.  Luckily, he was quite brave and didn't whine much.  I think he was too excited about the plane ride to be bothered by ear pain.

We reached the Penang airport after an hour's ride on MAS.  Then as suggested by many of the internet forum website, we went straight to the taxi ticketing booth and bought a taxi voucher,it cost RM$67 to get from the airport to our hotel at Batu Ferringhi.  The whole journey took about 45 minutes and we reached Hard Rock Hotel, saved and sound.  The checking in was a breeze too since it's a weekday and the hotel wasn't very crowded (Overheard a lady during one of the afternoon swim at the pool that she has to wait 2 hours to check in on a Saturday).

Some pictures of the hotel room we stayed in, it's a seaview deluxe.

We got a king size bed.

A little disappointed with the toilet as there is no bath tub.















Views from our room

After checking in, we rest for a while before going for a dip in the huge inviting pool.  Thereafter, we had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe.  Tried the macaroni cheese and fish n chips yum yum....

 



Kids playing at the shallow sand pool.

The pool has 3 water slides and a water play area.  Baby FAN loves the slides and the water play while SMALL FAN prefer to dip in the sand pool.

Our mac n cheese dinner...yum yum...













After the dinner, we decided to just take a walk around the hotel before retiring for the night...What a day...

Hotel lobby

The lounge at our floor.

Baby FAN was so tire at the end of the day that she just get onto the bed and make herself comfortable instead of roaming around the room....hi hi...