Penang Trip 2009 (Part 1)

Day 1 (18/07/2009) We started our journey around 8.30am and reached Pun Chun @ Bidor for our breakfast. Ordered their famous herbal duck soup and the swee bao. Yummy as usual! We then continued our journey to Taiping and reached my sister house around 12.30pm. Thanks to the GPS, we found our way to my sister house easily. We took our lunch at Kedai Kopi Prima where we ordered curry mee, popiah, seafood porridge and the famous 'amocana' aka buah kedondong juice. We then continued our journey to Butterworth ferry terminal and reached Georgetown around 4.20pm. Day 1 (18th July 2009) This is the second time I took a ferry to Penang Island. The first time was many years ago with my colleague. The ferry price ticket cost us Rm7.70 and duration is about 15min. Gps then navigate us with ease and we reached Tune Hotel in Georgetown at 5.00pm. We took a bath and rest for a while. Surprisingly Tune Hotel is really a great, clean and nice hotel. The only downside is it’s a little cramp. Air cond calculation was like 12H and 24H credit. We bought a 24H credit and a 12H credit. A total hour that the air cond can be use is 36H. We estimated 12H per night use. There is other adds on such as toilette and tower that cost Rm5 but we didn't take it. We only add on hair dryer which cost Rm1 per stay. With the total price of Rm60 per night, it’s a steal. Overall, I would like to give thumbs up for Tune Hotel for the superb strategic location. It’s in center of Georgetown and only about 600m walk to Komtar. Then we walk to New Lane hawker center for our dinner. New Lane hawker center (outside Sunway hotel) 1. Pork Intestine porridge (Crispy part are nice) 2. Oh Chien (Overkilled price @ Rm10 small plate) 3. Hokkien Mee (So so only) 4. Chicken Wing (Not really nice) 5. Char Kuey Teow (Very good!!) After our makan makan, we head to Komtar which is only a few meter from New Lane. Komtar, an iconic landmark in Penang but is a very run down building. The place doesn’t look safe during night time. Maybe an upgrading or renovation should be carry out around Komtar. The shop outside Komtar looks like in the 70's. Then we continued walking to Penang Timesquare which is a new shopping complex. It hasn’t been fully open yet. Daph spend me a cone of Swensen mint choco ice cream which tastes very good. When walking back to Tune hotel, we ta pau (take away) Char Kuey Teow (CKT) at New Lane. We waited for about 30 minutes and had our supper in Tune hotel. All I could say is this New Lane CKT is worth the wait! We slept around 11.30pm as we need to wake up early for our tomorrow full packed schedule.