22 September 2023, Friday

(Exchange rate: S$1 = RM3.40)

Rise and shine! It was finally time for our short family getaway to Penang, a former British colony located on the northwestern coast of Peninsular Malaysia. I have been to Penang twice as a child, in 1987 and 1991, when I was 5 and 9 years old respectively. Naturally, I have no recollection of those trips. So we thought it was about time we revisited Penang island. We also roped in my cousin, FL, to join us on this trip.

For our flights on AirAsia, we decided to go with only 7kg carry-on baggage for the outbound flight, and buy 20kg checked baggage for just one person for the return flight. We figured we might need the additional weight for our shopping. For the three of us (FL booked her air ticket separately), our Air Asia tickets cost S$619.42 in total, or S$206.47 per person.

For our accommodation, we decided to stay at the Gurney area because it is near the shopping malls and hawker centre, and also not far away from Georgetown, the UNESCO-listed historic city centre. However, hotels were expensive so I searched for apartments on booking.com. I found one that was a duplex unit and had two bedrooms with two double beds on the upper floor. There were two additional double beds on the lower floor, so the whole apartment could actually accommodate eight persons in total. For our three-night stay, we paid RM1,784.58 (S$535.27), or about S$45 per person per night.

On the morning of our departure, I booked a Grab Car to take us to the airport. The fare was S$26.90. At 8:35am, our Grab car arrived. However, things did not get off a good start as our driver was grouchy and unfriendly. When I suggested taking TPE (instead of the GPS-suggested route of CTE/PIE) to avoid the hefty $8 morning ERP charges, he said TPE was very far and he would follow the GPS. I had already stated my intentions so I just let him be.

As we were nearing the CTE, I asked him once again if we would be going by CTE. He then said “as I told you earlier we will not go by CTE”, and would go by Paya Lebar Road instead. He added that he also did not like to pay ERP charges because it was inconvenient for him to have to top up his Cashcard. I replied that this was not what he said earlier. If he had just told me from the start that he would go by an alternative route that avoided the ERP charges, I would have been happy with it, since that was the objective all along. But his poor attitude and choice of route (Paya Lebar Road was slower compared to TPE because of all the traffic lights) left a bad taste in the mouth. Nevertheless, we were determined not to let a bad Grab driver ruin our vacation.

We arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 4 at 9:13am, where we met up with FL. After clearing immigration in a breeze, we went to Heavenly Wang for our second round of breakfast of kaya toast, eggs and coffee (as usual). Our AirAsia flight AK1720 departed Singapore at 11:25am and touched down at Penang International Airport at 1pm sharp, 15 minutes later than scheduled. We were a little surprised when we were told to disembark from the back of the aircraft using a mobile staircase instead of an aerobridge. The airport was simple but immigration clearance was very fast.   

I booked a Grab Car to take us to our apartment. The fare was RM26 (S$7.65). When our Honda BRV car arrived, the driver saw that we had 4 luggages and remarked that we should have booked a GrabCar 6 instead of the regular Grab Car, which seats 4 passengers. If we were travelling with large suitcases, I would have booked a bigger car for sure. But our 4 small, cabin-sized suitcases fit into his car boot nicely so I didn’t see why there was an issue.

After we got into the car, he tried to explain further by showing us a graphic from his mobile phone. It displayed the “guidelines” about the number of suitcases and the corresponding type of car to book. The graphic stated that for 4 persons with 4 luggages, they should book a GrabCar 6 instead of the regular GrabCar. I told him that there was no such graphic on the Grab app when I was making the booking earlier, and we also did not have such guidelines in Singapore.

His Honda BRV was a larger car that could also be used for GrabCar 6, but in this case, it was accepted as a regular GrabCar booking. He said that he was not trying to charge us more for a GrabCar 6 booking, but wanted to explain that if some other driver who had a smaller, regular Grab Car took our booking instead, the car boot might not be able to fit our 4 suitcases. He added that he once encountered a family of 6 who had 6 large suitcases. They couldn’t all fit into his car and there was some unhappiness arising from it, so he wanted to avoid such a situation.

I admit I was initially a bit short-tempered because it felt like it was just our luck to have two bad Grab drivers in one morning. But this Malaysian Grab driver was friendlier and he genuinely tried to explain his position instead of being defensive, which always helps. I understood his point of view and made a note to book a bigger car for our return trip to the airport three days later.

The drive from the airport to our apartment at Sunrise @ Gurney took 50 minutes, and we arrived at 2:25pm. Check-in is usually at 3pm but they were able to accommodate to my early check-in request. A staff member was already there waiting for us so the whole check-in process was smooth.

The apartment was large and clean. The two bedrooms were spacious and nicely furnished. Perhaps only the bathrooms were a little disappointing as they were rather small and not very well-equipped. The windows in the living room were two storeys high so plenty of daylight poured into the apartment.

From our apartment, we had a good view of Gurney Drive below and the sea beyond. Mum and dad were astonished at the amount of land reclamation that had been done. During their last visit to Penang more than a decade ago, the shoreline was right beside Gurney Drive and they could walk along the waterfront and enjoy the sea breeze.

The land reclamation is part of the Gurney Bay project, formerly called Gurney Wharf. The RM200 million project started in 2016, with 24.28 hectares of land being reclaimed. Due to Covid-19 and construction delays, it is expected to be fully completed only in 2025. The seafront project aims to bring back the glory days of Gurney Drive, pulling in the crowds and bringing back the popular open-air hawker centre that used to line the promenade. It also hopes to attract families to come enjoy the children’s play area, skate park, garden and other recreational facilities. Will be interesting to see how it turns out post-2025.

At 3:05pm, we headed out and our first order of business was lunch. We walked along Gurney Drive and saw a few eating houses but they were mostly closed at that hour. About 20 minutes later, we reached Gurney Paragon. It is a mixed development with a shopping mall, office tower and two high-end residential towers, which fronted Gurney Drive so that its residents could enjoy the sea view. The mall entrance is at Jalan Kelawai so we had to walk along the side of the residences to access the mall.

The mall was rather large but it was very quiet. We tried to find a mall directory but there wasn’t one, so I went to their website to search for the list of F&B outlets. Options were rather limited and unappealing so we settled for something safe and reliable, Putien. The restaurant was empty save for another small group. Granted, it was mid-afternoon so we didn’t expect many people eating a proper meal at that time.

We ordered five dishes to share – sambal kangkong, stir-fried yam cubes, cereal prawn, sweet & sour pork with lychees, and shredded pork with sesame buns. We also ordered rice and drinks. The total bill came up to RM221 (S$65), which was very reasonable. I estimate the same meal in Singapore would have cost at least S$30 more.

After the satisfying lunch, we were ready for shopping. We first went to the huge BookXcess store, which occupied two levels at the top of the mall. The hundreds of books displayed on the shelves were an impressive sight and it was nice just to browse through the shop. When I asked a staff member if they carried the paperback release of Robert Galbraith’s latest book, she initially thought I wanted a paper bag. When I clarified that I meant the paperback version of the Robert Galbraith’s latest book, she said that BookXcess’s concept was to sell excess stocks of old titles, not the latest releases. They buy these remainder stock at discounted prices from publishers, and pass on the savings to the customers.

Besides Decathlon, the other retail shops at Gurney Paragon were not very interesting or appealing to our tastes. The emptiness and neglected feel made it worse so we gave it up as a bad job and left around 5pm. We continued walking along Jalan Kelawai and passed by G Hotel Kelawai and the Sri Sakthi Durgai Amman Hindu temple before reaching Gurney Plaza shortly after.

Gurney Plaza is the premier shopping mall in Penang and the second largest mall on the island after Queensbay Mall. Both malls are managed by CapitaMalls Asia, a subsidiary of the Singapore-based CapitaLand. Among the three big malls, Gurney Plaza is the oldest (opened in 2001), followed by Queensbay Mall (2006) and Gurney Paragon (2013). We didn’t get to check out Queensbay Mall on this trip because it is located on the southeastern coast much further away, about 15km from our apartment.

Gurney Plaza was much livelier and crowded than Gurney Paragon. The anchor tenant here was Parkson Elite department store. All the other popular brands like Sports Direct, Uniqlo, Padini, Brands Outlet, F.O.S., Popular were also here. There were also plenty of restaurants and snack shops. It was more like what we expected. We decided to go free-and-easy for an hour to do our own shopping. Since it was the first day, we didn’t really shop but it was mainly just to recce. At 6:30pm, we regrouped and walked over to the Gurney Drive hawker centre, a stone’s throw away.

Perhaps calling this a “hawker centre” is a little inaccurate because it is quite different from the ones we have in Singapore, where the hawkers occupy individual units and they are permanently housed within a sheltered building. Here, it was more like a collection of hawkers operating mobile stalls, gathered in an open-air space, with tables and seats provided in the common area. What it lacked for hygiene, sanitation and comfort, it made up for it with the atmosphere. As a tourist, the atmosphere here was definitely better and more special than eating at a hawker centre in Singapore. But only when it is not raining, of course.

As we walked around Gurney Drive hawker centre, we saw at least 40 stalls and everything looked good. All the food we wanted to eat was available here – char kway teow, cuttlefish with kangkong, rojak, chendol, rojak, fried oyster, satay and more. As we were still feeling full from our late lunch, we decided to adjourn to another place first, before deciding if we should come back here for our dinner later. We walked back to Gurney Plaza and booked a Grab car to take us to the Pasar Malam at Van Praagh. The fare was quite high due to peak hour surge (RM25/S$7.35) and the ride took about 22 minutes. We arrived at 7:14pm.

I learned about this pasar malam from my friend, and also from the first Grab driver earlier. Pasar malam means “night market” in Malay, and this one operates at Jalan Van Praagh only once a week, on Friday nights. That was why we made a trip specially to see it since it happened to be Friday. I didn’t really know what to expect. Our Grab driver dropped us by the side of the road and said that this was it, so we quickly got out of the car and hobbled onto the busy sidewalk.

It was a throwback to the pasar malams of the old days. When I was growing up, pasar malams used to be quite common all around Singapore. Dozens of stallholders would line the pavements, usually around the town centre, and they would sell all sorts of street food and household items. Some would also offer simple carnival games with prizes to be won. Gradually, the pasar malams evolved to become more commercialised. They occupied grass fields or open areas, with large tents set up to house all the stalls under one roof.

The pasar malam at Van Praagh was as old school as it got. True to its nature of being held only one night of the week, all the stalls were mobile and temporary. Some had large umbrellas over their stalls while others were food trucks. The stalls lined both sides of the pavement while the food trucks parked by the side of the road. The pavement was cramped and hard to walk at times, with tree roots protruding from the ground. The entire street was buzzing with locals and I loved the atmosphere.

Where Gurney Drive hawker centre sold more proper street food that could be eaten as meals, the stalls here at the pasar malam sold more street snacks. Things like muah chee, siew mai, lok lok, beancurd, fried chicken wings, satay, fried carrot cake and more. Everything looked delicious and I wanted to try them all. However, there was no seating area so it was hard to buy a lot of food to eat properly.

After walking the entire stretch of food stalls, we crossed the road to the other side of the street, which had much fewer stalls, selling mostly non-food items like clothes, bags and everyday household items. There wasn’t much to see here so we went back to the food section. We decided to dabao (take away) a few items and go back to Gurney Drive hawker centre to eat, since it was more conducive for dining in over there. I booked a Grab car and the return journey cost only RM11 (S$3.24), much cheaper than the ride here. The ride took 27 minutes and we were back at Gurney at 8:30pm.

We ordered a few dishes that were top of our must-try list – Asam Laksa, fried oyster, rojak, cuttlefish kangkong and chendol. Asam Laksa is not my favourite because I don’t really like sour stuff in general, so I just tried a little of it. Asam means “sour”, and the sour taste comes from the tamarind. Our Singapore Nyonya laksa tastes very different because we use dried shrimp, chilli and coconut milk for the broth instead of tamarind, so our nyonya laksa is spicy and creamy instead of soury. I very much prefer our nyonya laksa.

The fried oyster tasted slightly different from our Singapore version and I thought it was not bad, but dad didn’t like it as much. I noticed that they used spring onion as a garnishing instead of coriander leaves that we use back home. We all agreed that the rojak was not that great, as the prawn paste sauce was too thick and salty, and not as sweet/spicy as our Singapore version. Interestingly, they also added some tau kwa in the rojak. The cuttlefish kangkong was not bad, with generous servings of cuttlefish. It was served with a sweet sauce, the type we usually add to our chee cheong fun back home. I thought the chendol was ok, but mum felt that the Gula Melaka was not fragrant and lemak enough.

Overall, I would say the atmosphere at Gurney Drive hawker centre was great but the food was so-so. I guess Gurney Drive hawker centre is like our Newton hawker centre in Singapore – mostly catered to tourists. So the quality of the food there might not be representative of the best food that Penang has to offer.

At 9:10pm, we left the hawker centre and took a slow stroll back to our apartment. We were super stuffed so it was good to walk and digest the food. It felt nice to come back to a large and comfy apartment to unwind for the rest of the night. And that’s the end of Day 1. More to come tomorrow!