Penang half term trip

February 2015 

Penang half term trip

Again, with the blink of an eye, the last six weeks have vanished.  With a new student intake in January, it was full on, even more social interactions in the bid to quickly learn names and assess the current levels and starting points.  So half term is most wanted.

We left early Saturday 14th February to tackle the madness and crowds of vehicles also heading north to Penang for CNY.  Although, we didn't see any unusual traffic until we crossed onto the island.  We used the shorter, older bridge for no reason other than our stat nav app took us that Waze.  The journey from Sepang to Penang took just over five hours driving (about 70RM of fuel and 40RM on toll roads) and cost approx 20 pound.

We have two nights booked at The Museum Hotel in George Town, then a drive up the coast to The Hard Rock Hotel at Batu Ferringhi for a further three nights.

Saturday 14th February.

Our quaint hotel, the Museum Hotel, is tucked into a little cul-de-sac off the busy Jalan Transfer. We booked a family room with a large double and two full size single beds.  The bathroom has two showers, toilets, and sinks.   They have a gym and reading room, and if you fancy sitting in the blazing sun, a roof terrace.

Breakfast, with this water feature view, was simple but tasty; the staff are very accommodating and friendly.

Dippy egg breakfast

Ornate reception area

Functioning room telephone

Eggs Benedict - half eaten before I could take a picture!

We popped out for a brief walk around town and soon discovered that the heat, and maze of streets made it tiring to negotiate.  So we found a nearby watering hole, The Ship, and stopped for a plate of fries (the kids) and a cold beer.

Being Valentine's day - something I hadn't considered when booking a get-away - we were unable to eat in our two first choices of restaurant.  The Maple Palace was fully booked by romantic couples and That Little Wine Bar had foie gras on the set menu - one of those food items I will never eat. The latter will need to be visited at another time, as it comes highly recommended.

We ended up, at Foong Wei Heong Restaurant, Jalan Sri Bahari, with a delicious Chinese meal of pork ribs in honey, crispy pork strips (not dissimilar to crispy streaky bacon rashers), Peking duck with a dark, sweet, chilli orange sauce, and ostrich with ginger and spring onions.  WOW! We were so glad we ended up here!

After escorting the kids back to our family room, we then popped out for a couple of drinks.  The nearest bar, on Jalan Argyll, is Purebar.  Although for an hour we were the only patrons, when the live music started at 10pm the place started to come alive.  They had a good enough selection of wines, whiskeys and beers to keep us happy.

Happy Hour bought us three decent pints, before 9pm, for 50RM.  We followed this up with a complimentary glass of Aussie red each - pimped by the house - in exchange for our photograph on Facebook.  







Sunday 15th February

Our friendly hotel staff arranged a trishaw tour of the town architecture and Street Art.

The background behind these (and many more) Street Arts can be researched here: 

   

                   

The Heritage Quarter has so much to offer.  Buildings are either falling down into the dirt, being renovated or preserved, or simply they built them around nature.

 

A visit to Penang wouldn't be complete without a visit to a temple.  Tokong Kuan Im, the oldest Chinese Temple, is in the middle of George Town. 

We also visited the Clan Jetties - it was the Chew Jetty to be precise.  A century or more ago, each Chinese immigrant clan (family) had their own settlement or small township built on a pier structure over the sea.  Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its history is interesting, it is beautifully maintained and so these are well worth a visit.

  

 

 

Our trishaw driver recommended a local 24/7 Indian cafe, Kapitans, in Little India. The meal was amazing.  We ordered soft drinks, rice all round, a couple of naans, aloo curry and a selection from the boneless meat ala carte menu.

We waited 40+ minutes but it was worth the wait.  The meal was the best meal we have had in over six months.  Amazing.  We enjoyed four boneless chicken breast curries - butter chicken, chilli chicken, tikka masala and a jalfrazi.  This beats meals we have had in KL's famous Little India Brickfields, some swanky restaurants round KL and a few more in the UK.  It was plate licked clean for 80RM (£16).

After a walk around Little India and a purchase of a sari for first born, we headed to a guesthouse / cafe for a cup of tea.  Ren I Tang or Tang Bistro is the oldest (124 years) Chinese Medical Hall in Penang.  With good food and a wide selection of drinks available, it invites you to sit and browse the book shelves or magazines while you take shelter from the sun, or visit the museum and look at the displays of tools of the medical trade.

We walked back through the, getting busier and darker, Jalans of Penang when we were approached by a retired couple asking if we are Brits?   It seems they had taken the 101 bus from Batu Ferringhi to the Gurney Drive area and they had missed their stop.  The driver - obviously not one with customer service in his vocabulary - had dropped them off in the middle of a dark street in George Town having driven past the Mall and throbbing shops they had wanted some 15 mins earlier.  We took them back to the Museum Hotel where the friendly reception staff offered them a cool drink and ordered them a taxi.  Once again, well done Museum!

With the kids tucked up in our room, watching TV, we popped for a nightcap.   Along, the now buzzing, Jalan Penang we found Soho Free House. Lots of variety of beer on offer at this ex-pat style sports bar.  It becomes a nightlife hotspot at the weekends later than we were out.  We were impressed as it served the best pint of Guinness the old man has had since leaving home in August 2014. 

With a good deed, good meal and good pint of the black stuff, the day, all in all, was a good one!

Next day, we move onto the beach resort of Batu Ferringhi (or Foreigner's Rock).  Let's hope it lives up to the reputation it has. 

Wow - Michaelmas term is finally over...

I can't believe we have been here just over four months. This first term seems to have simultaneously lasted a lifetime while flying by.

We now have no school till the 4th January 2015 (OMG it's been a whole year since I accepted the job!), and potentially three weeks off to explore the area. Although we are all so tired, I'm not too sure how much sightseeing we will get done. At least we all have time to relax, settle into our accommodation and get to know our house guest this holiday: Meet Toby.


It seems an age ago, in October, that we visited Kuala Lumpur for a long weekend and Langkawi during the half term holiday. Both places come highly recommended.

Exeat Weekend:

We stayed at the, centrally located, Pacific Regency Hotel (5*) along with a gang of friends. The rooms were lovely - our Premier deluxe suite was huge. And the hotel is right next door to the KL Tower (home to the 360 revolving restoran).

Throughout the weekend, we ate out in style. Night one, to celebrate Sue's birthday, at Havana Bar & Grill - lovely steak and cocktails - highly recommended.

We returned to the Pacific for a synchronized swimming session with Mrs C as team captain. Another great place to spend the evening: the roof top bar - Luna Chill Out Bar KL.

Day two, all day shopping at Suria KLCC and to break up the shopping, the boys popped to KLCC Aquaria to see the fishes, while the girls had a bit of Chinese massage and reflexology.

That evening we visited Healy Mac's Irish Bar for Sunday Roast - yum! The owner was on hand to give us lots of advice on living in KL and local places to visit. We watched the match and drank the black stuff - another quality night out in KL!

Next morning we visited Pavilion and had breakfast at La Bodega Tapas Bar. The best scrambled eggs in KL; although, they did need some coaxing to bring out more toast!

 

Exeat was soon over but before we knew it October Half term arrived.



First, we visited the Batu Caves with a visitor from the UK. One off the bucket list done.

We were robbed by the monkeys within seconds of purchasing a cold 100plus.  I'm sure the stall holder gives them the nod and the wink.  How else do they know which one, out of the hundreds of tourists, is the one with the goods?   Or they are just really good at reading body language?  











This one took this banana out of the son's hand and was eating it without pausing for breath.

Langkawi is one of the best beach holidays resorts in the world - or so I'm told. I still think Malaysia need to rethink their fly tipping penalties (bring back public flogging maybe?) and then the landscape will be a pleasure to view.

We stayed at the 5* Rebak Island Resort and wow it was the best, most perfect, most idyllic, most relaxing holiday we have ever had.

The moon deck

The pool - we didn't move far from here all week

A breathtaking beach

Sea Eagles

Transport around the resort is by golf buggy

Access to Rebak Island is by boat shuttle.

The son is getting taller than the daughter!

We only left the island to go snorkeling at Pulua Payar. Part of the Pulau Payar Marine Park, which comprises of four uninhabited islands of Payar, Lembu, Kaca and Segantang, and makes up Malaysia’s oldest Marine Park sanctuary.    We shared the water with rays, Clown fish, baby sharks, Barracuda and an abundance of other fishes.

http://www.crazybuy.my/pulau-payar-marine-park-snorkelling-package.html

We had the best few days of our time in Asia so far.  We will be back in town to visit the fishes, beaches and the Duty Free Zones - best buy of the holiday was only 40RM for 1 litre.  

  

Langkawi is a must do, if visiting south east Asia.  Don't just take it from me: The SundayTimes Travel

But, now it's back to this holiday.   We have already had 5 of our 23 days off. We will, no doubt, spend most of this holiday in shopping malls again.   

This week we visited IOI City Mall in Putrajaya.  Ate at a rib and steak joint - Morganfield's and experienced designing your own Magnum Ice cream at the Magnum Cafe.   For 30RM or 6GBP we chose the dip, sprinkle and dribble coating to three delicious Walls ice cream.  My choice was dark choc dip, raspberry, almonds and chilli sprinkle and milk choc dribble.  It was a chore to share it with Superman.

Well, just to pass the holiday away, I am planning a trip to another shopping mall tomorrow, followed by a long weekend in KL.  This time we are staying at the E&O Residences suites in central town.  All that is left now is to plan where we will eat this visit.

Port Dickson and ayam curry for breakfast

September 2014

Following our stint in cyberspace, we moved into the house staff accommodation in time for the new school year.  Being a new build, there is a snagging list as long as your arm.  As long as two arms, if I'm honest.

Furniture arrived in drips and drabs.  As did the water in the shower.  Small things made such a difference.  The arrival of a coffee table was an achievement.  The arrival of a couple of wardrobes was amazing.

Being on site has as many advantages as disadvantages.  It is clean and new - bye bye Bangkok headboard - and you have your own space to begin to make your home.  Also you can rock out of bed at 8am and be teaching at 830am, if you so desired. Or, like me, if you leave your laptop charger in your classroom, no need to fret as it's a less than five minute stroll from your house.

But there are disadvantages too.  We are in a small and new township called Bandar Enstek, with little shops near by, in the middle of nowhere.  Without a car it is difficult.  We need to rely on public transport and the local bus stop is miles away, so it's down to the use of a Teksi. But there aren't that many here.

In Malaysia they have this great system of booking a cab through your smart phone.  myteksi allows you to put in your location by GPS and your desired destination and cabs in your vicinity bid for your fare.  You then get an offer and you accept the price up front.  It's amazing.... but only in the big towns and cities... not in Bandar Enstek!

Luckily a local man, Mr Richard, came to our rescue.  The friend of a friend of a friend of a colleague, he has become our life line to nip to KLIA2 Jaya Grocer or Nilai for shopping at Tesco.

As typical of  the massive supermarket Tesco, they cover a range of basics we can buy in the UK so that keeps us all happy.  From HP Sauce or Marmite to Tesco Finest granola or Weetabix, most needs are covered.   Most importantly, they have a non-halal section selling bacon, wine and beer. A slab of 24 x 330ml cans of Guinness is 202RM (£50.50) or Tiger Beer at 175RM (£35) if we are feeling flushed.   Wine ranges from 50RM to 200RM (divide it by 5) a bottle - my favourite at 54.99RM (£11) is the Yaldara Estates Shiraz.  Although, with the festive season coming around soon, I've currently got my eye on a bottle of Baileys for Christmas at 130RM for 70cl - yes £26!

Apart from Tesco, it's not as if we have many places to go.  We eat in the Dining Hall with the boarders and are on duty every other evening, so it's not like we can just swan off for a meal with family and friends at Shaftsbury Square at will, as we did when living in Cyberspace.  We also work until 3-5pm Saturday and on a Sunday rota.  At best we might get a Saturday 5pm till Sunday 9pm 24 hours off.

24 hours off site - we tried that once.  Back at the end of September, when I was fit to throw the towel in, we decided with 48 hours notice that we needed an overnight away.   Little did we know it would be more stressful than staying here.

The local beach and coastal town of Port Dickson seemed the best place away for 24hrs. It is only 30 mins away (just not on a Saturday evening as our journey took 90mins in the weekend traffic).

We booked into a hotel on the outskirts of town. The Paradise Spa Hotel.  Typical of here the hotel was not paradise nor did it have a spa.   Before you ask, yes, I did read Trip Advisor.  Yes, I did know all of this before I booked.... but I wanted to escape and all the better hotels were booked at short notice.

The hotel was lovely and clean and a family room was a two-bedroomed suite with TVs, ensuite each, a small fridge (unclean and not cold) and very limited wi-fi connection.  The roof top swimming pool was lovely and the view was as good as it gets for this area.

We asked the reception staff to book us a taxi into the main town area as we wanted to eat at the El-Cactus Mexican restaurant which had been recommended to us.  The receptionist had other ideas.  She refused.  Yes - point blank refused.  She told us the chef was very good and would cook our meal.  Talk about being press-ganged into it.  We were tired, and didn't have the energy to argue.  We were pleasantly surprised.  We had four steak and chips - cooked beautifully - with a lovely black peppercorn sauce.  Well done chef!

However, our favourite was breakfast.  It was a buffet with something for everyone.   I had the noodles, rice and ayam (chicken) curry.  It was delicious!

Before we knew it, it was time for home and school.  24 hours had flown by and we were no further relaxed but had tried curry for breakfast - magic!

Leaving the UK

Wow... where have the last two months gone?  I can't believe that we have had parties, packed up our home, moved continent, enrolled in a new school and have already had a short school holiday break. It's been amazing yet exhausting.

August 2014

To add to the whirlwind of emotions, the daughter also dyed her hair: just to stress me out further.  It looked amazing when it was bright pink, but I kept thinking about the uniform policy and would begin to breakout into a cold sweat.

The journey to Manchester Airport was less stress thanks to our very good friend, Caroline.  She drove us to the airport, to make sure we got on the plane... maybe she thought the only way they would ever win at the pub quiz again was to ensure I couldn't join them!

The family also turned up to see us off.  Again, I think this was to ensure we didn't change our mind.



We arrived at Departures with plenty of time to spare - or so we thought - but then we had to tackle airport security.


I never realised that lipstick and a small tub of lip gloss are classified as a liquid... how inept of me to not read the paperwork properly.  We were too concerned with weighing the baggage to ensure that we each only had 30kg of luggage - wow all of our needed possessions in 120kg - that I failed to realise the lipstick rule.



As we had swapped and changed around possession from one bag to another, we had the odd rogue lipstick or lipgloss in three of the four hand luggage. Along with the normal queue, this delayed us in security for over fifty minutes.  Its so embarrassing for your bag to go through the machine again and again and again.  I was beginning to panic that I wouldn't have time to buy my duty free.

Travelling to a dry-ish country (or very very expensive booze) would not be pleasant without a bottle of gin from duty free.   Eventually, we were through, in duty free (gin, make-up and Marc Jacob's Daisy) and walking to the gate... not long now and we would be arriving in our new home.   

With a brief stop in Dubai - wow the heat sure hits you as you leave the plane - we had soon travelled 6,600 miles from the UK to MY and had arrived in KL.

After a good night's sleep we were soon put to work:

Reception

Yes - we have an actual office here.  We have our own desks (no hot seating), a photocopier / printer and a terrific view.

Epsom College in Malaysia

And before we knew it the next few weeks, of living in Cyberview Apartments, surrounded by friends and colleagues, and setting up the school, flew by.  

Cyberview Hotel

Ben and Jack

The lovely Miss Katie x

The offending headboard: would have been more suited to a Bangkok whore house.