Day # 16 Air Asia to
Seventh Heaven
Penang ~ Seven
Terrace’s Hotel
We go to the “low cost” airport for our Air Asia flight to George
Town in Penang. There are very few tourists at this airport and when we board I
notice the very handsome and sexy male flight attendants who are wearing tight
jeans. Hmm…
Arriving in George Town we take a taxi to a small boutique hotel called Seven Terrace’s Hotel that John discovered on the web site.
It has 16 guest rooms and is beautifully
decorated with traditional Chinese, gold painted furniture.
Our room is very romantic and has two floors with an upper floor for bedroom and balcony and lower level floor with chairs and couch.
The dining room is
small and elegant.
Yes there is Internet, which surprises me!
We walk to the huge and famous Colonial style Eastern Oriental Hotel. John has been told by his cardiology friend to go to the lounge of this hotel for a view of the sea at sunset, but we find we can’t get there without a room key to operate the elevator. We explain our wishes to the concierge but are denied admittance. We try to go up the elevator on someone else's key but everyone gets off on the wrong floor. I am sure we don’t look proper enough or perhaps John shouldn't be wearing shorts or perhaps we need to be Malaysian. (reminds me of the Orwell book Burmese Days where Flory’s Indian friend wasn’t allowed in the British quarters and Flory did not support him). John wonders if he has made a mistake booking us into the boutique hotel instead of this magnificent hotel because of its beautiful ocean view. Instead we opt to sit outside this hotel by the pool and with a seaside view for drinks and order chicken satay. This is delightful and I can’t imagine we have missed anything in the lounge.
Penang
Said to be “pearl of the orient” Penang is an island that divides the waterway or junction between the markets of Europe and the Middle East. It is cosmopolitan and especially known for its food.
Apparently the sultan of Kedah signed an agreement in 1771 with the British East Indian Company handing it trading rights in exchange for military assistance against Siam. Fifteen years later Captain Frances Light on behalf of the East Indian Company took over Penang and allowed new arrivals to claim as much land as they wanted and attracted settlers from all over Asia. Penang became a state in the Federation of Malaysia in 1948 and one of the independent Malaysia’s 13 states in 1963. It has built itself to be one of the largest electronics manufacturing centers in Asia.
George Town Apparently the sultan of Kedah signed an agreement in 1771 with the British East Indian Company handing it trading rights in exchange for military assistance against Siam. Fifteen years later Captain Frances Light on behalf of the East Indian Company took over Penang and allowed new arrivals to claim as much land as they wanted and attracted settlers from all over Asia. Penang became a state in the Federation of Malaysia in 1948 and one of the independent Malaysia’s 13 states in 1963. It has built itself to be one of the largest electronics manufacturing centers in Asia.
Arriving in George Town we take a taxi to a small boutique hotel called Seven Terrace’s Hotel that John discovered on the web site.
 |
| Seven Terrace Hotel |
Our room is very romantic and has two floors with an upper floor for bedroom and balcony and lower level floor with chairs and couch. small and elegant.
Yes there is Internet, which surprises me!
 |
| Tour director John |
We walk to the huge and famous Colonial style Eastern Oriental Hotel. John has been told by his cardiology friend to go to the lounge of this hotel for a view of the sea at sunset, but we find we can’t get there without a room key to operate the elevator. We explain our wishes to the concierge but are denied admittance. We try to go up the elevator on someone else's key but everyone gets off on the wrong floor. I am sure we don’t look proper enough or perhaps John shouldn't be wearing shorts or perhaps we need to be Malaysian. (reminds me of the Orwell book Burmese Days where Flory’s Indian friend wasn’t allowed in the British quarters and Flory did not support him). John wonders if he has made a mistake booking us into the boutique hotel instead of this magnificent hotel because of its beautiful ocean view. Instead we opt to sit outside this hotel by the pool and with a seaside view for drinks and order chicken satay. This is delightful and I can’t imagine we have missed anything in the lounge.
George Town
In George Town there is hawker food such as Chinese noodle dishes, Indian crepes and curry and Malay food everywhere but we are reluctant to try it given our recent GI issues. At one stall I see we can fry our own food like to we do beef fondue at Christmas time ~ surely this would be safe? We walk about and it is a cultural grab bag of Indian, Malay, English and Chinese architecture, culture and religions. However, our tour book says mainly Chinese.
and I like it.
Clan Jetties in George Town
In 2008 the historic heart of George Town was declared a
UNESCO World Heritage Site for having a unique architectural and cultural
townscape. Continuing on our walking adventure (now 8:30 pm) we walk along to
see the jetties. There are five
clan jetties jutting out into the ocean spread along the waterfront of Weld
Quay. Each jetty but one represents
a specific Chinese clan of immigrants and share some common historical origin.
We walk down several jetties, which are floating docks with houses built along
the rickety docks. Reminds me of the houseboats on Lake Union but much more
precarious and dilapidated. As we walk along we are able to peer into their
homes, all of which have some religious shrines, which have many different
figurines on them. We think these people may be practicing Taoism but aren’t
sure ~ perhaps it is Confucianism? We really enjoy seeing these families who
sit about comfortably chatting with each other and comment that this doesn’t
happen in Seattle or Vashon.
Then we come across this amazing beautiful temple lighted with hundreds of red, Chinese lanterns.
We are the only tourists there but it is clearly a shrine of some sort. We hope we will find information about it in our tourist book. The advantage of not being in a tour group is the sense of self-discovery but the disadvantage is you don’t necessarily know what you have found. I guess this was true for Columbus too.
Then we come across this amazing beautiful temple lighted with hundreds of red, Chinese lanterns.
We are the only tourists there but it is clearly a shrine of some sort. We hope we will find information about it in our tourist book. The advantage of not being in a tour group is the sense of self-discovery but the disadvantage is you don’t necessarily know what you have found. I guess this was true for Columbus too.
We catch a taxi which advertizes itself on the side of the
car as having a meter and that bargaining is not allowed. We get in to find he
doesn’t have a meter and we must barter over the cost. Turns out the driver doesn’t know where
Seven Terraces Hotel is and John, because of my advice not to bring his Ipad no
longer has his trusty navigational system that he has used to direct taxi
drivers since Bangkok. Finally the driver calls the hotel and gets information.
Safely home we have a wonderful dinner in our small hotel. The food is fantastic and atmosphere
very romantic. John says, “we don’t have anything like this in Seattle” and tells
me that he has made the right decision about his choice of hotel. As usual my
personal tour director is clairvoyant.
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