Tanjung Bungah...6 days of R&R

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Tanjung Bungah, Penang, Malaysia

We arrived in Penang fresh from our adventures in Kuala Lumpur and Taman Negara park. This final week of our one month Thailand/Malaysia holiday was planned especially to allow for Rest and Relaxation, so I had booked a beach-side resort in the quieter of the beaches in Penang....Tanjung Bungah. We were really happy with the hotel as we checked in...fast and efficient and gracious. Our accommodation was even more than we had expected...a very large room with huge cupboards (the first of our holiday),a comfortable king-sized bed, a small kitchen area, granite counters and a big bathtub! The balcony overlooked an International school next door and the ocean. Lovely. Breakfast was included in the $95.00C a day.

But the weather! For the first 3 days it rained...and I do mean rain. After checking in we walked the beach, wading in the rather murky but very warm water. We had been warned about jellyfish and decided not to swim in the ocean, but the large pool looked attractive...if the rain stops. We mistook a break in the showers for the end of the showers and rented the bikes available in the lobby. About 20 minutes into our ride through the rather upscale neighbourhood, the clouds let loose in a roar of thunder and a torrential downpour, driven sideways by a strong wind. We huddled from tree to tree, but got soaked to the bone. The hotel was kind enough not to charge us for the bikes

Unfortunately that chilling experience, on top of our exertion of the past few days, our rather crumby diet, air conditioning, and airplane germs added up to rather nasty headcolds for both of us. We were glad the room was so comfortable because we spent much of the next two days in it. We ate dinner, an elaborate buffet complete with a soup cauldron at our table, a BBQ grilling seafood appetizers and lots of Chinese/Malaysian entrees in the hotel dining room the first night, then at the bar the next two nights. Our diminished appetites didn’t require three squares a day, and our buffet breakfast was sufficient to last us most of the day. We ate rice and curry, noodles, potatoes, beans..not our traditional breakfast!

When Wally was feeling a little better and I wasn’t quite sick yet, we took the hotel shuttle into the UNESCO designated city of Georgetown. A free shuttle bus circles the city so we got on and off at the historical sights mentioned on the map. We first rode the elevator to the 60^th floor of the Komtar business tower where we had a 360 degree view of the city. We walked through Little India (not so little!) and around Fort Cornwallis. The Clan Jetties were fascinating....we walked the Chew jetty. The Kapitan Keling Masjid was beautiful and the 3 monks took time with us, giving us literature explaining Islam...no pressure as that is not their way, just friendly chat. Very interesting. I read all three books, a basic introduction to Muhhammed, (pbuh) and the differences between Christianity and Islam. Fascinating to think that this second largest religion in the world is so misunderstood by our western cultures.

Shopping was fun in Georgetown but not to be compared to Bangkok! I did buy a couple of pairs of shoes, but nothing else seemed worth the money. We did find the super fast, amazingly efficient Kettle used in all our hotel rooms. Imagine, buying a kettle on our holiday but I know we will be glad for it. We visited a couple of Chinese temples, and ended our day having a late lunch at the Tanjong city marina.. A good day, but rather tiring.

The sun finally broke through on day 4 and we hurried down to the beach. We soaked up the sun for a couple of hours, swimming when the rain forced us off the beach. We took the hotel free shuttle to the Night Market, but after dinner the rain was so heavy that the market didn’t open and we headed back.

Day 5 we hired a driver to show us the rest of Penang. We rode an extremely steep funicular 2,723’ up Penang Hill. We arrived in the rain, but it passed and we wandered about, visiting a mosque and a temple, watching for birds in the dense jungle. After Penang Hill, we visited the very large and well presented Botanical Gardens. Still lacking much energy, we opted for the shuttle that circled the park before we walked some of the pathways. The monkeys were entertaining, the plants exquisite. Reminded us of Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver.

But the best few hours of our time in Penang were spent at the Batu Feringgi Night Market. We returned both of our last two nights to walk the shophouses and have dinner at the atmospheric Food Court, choosing one item here and another there.. We had tender (!!) tandoori chicken kabobs, roti with dahl, samosas, satays with peanut sauce and a big Tiger beer. And we couldn’t resist the fluffy banana/walnut pancake with maple syrup and ice cream...our only dessert of the holiday and it was soooo good! The extremely simple food was so fresh and tasty, the service amazing for a food court. Wish we had discovered it at the very beginning of our visit.

I finally relented and bought some herbal medicine to help stop the perpetual runny nose and fever and within 12 hours I was all better. Why didn’t I do that sooner?, or was it just time for it to end?

So we leave Penang.. Our R&R in Penang did what it was supposed to do..bring us down a notch from the excitement of the last three weeks and make us glad to go home. It was successful!

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