Penang

Penang is no longer the place only aunties and uncles go for weekend food sojourns - it has become a hip, cool place one can explore art, culture and of course food. I've been seeing too many friend's instagram and facebook posts on the street graffiti art and cafe scene in Penang and wanted to check it out myself. 

Just one and a half hours plane ride away, and what a world of difference Penang is. I had a luxury of staying in Penang for five days and four nights and decided to check out two areas : Georgetown city centre and Gurney Drive. 

Georgetown 

We were deciding between Yeng Keng Hotel and Hotel Penaga as both hotels were restored heritage shophouses but eventually went with Hotel Penaga. The hotel was was converted from a cluster from a cluster of 15 pre-war terraces and our room came with a balcony and the toilet had a jacuzzi tub - perfect for soaking our feet after a day's walking. 

The Lobby - Quaint, beautiful architecture with its charm retained

 

Fell in love with the tile design

Street Art 

Grab a map from your hotel lobby or download a copy from TimeOut : Street Art in Penang. While most of the graffiti art were around the same area, it was best to map out your journey from one point to another to ensure you get to see all or most of the graffiti art. 

 

 

While graffiti art hunting, visit Ben's vintage toy museum. There's an entrance fee of RM6 for adults and RM3 but it's well worth the money for a blast back to the past. Remember pinball machines, rocking horses and toy baby prams? 

Cafes 

How can the brunch queen visit a new country without checking out the cafe scene? Here's a list of cafe if you're intending to cafe hop! 

1. Cafe 55 

My favourite cafe of the trip - how can one not gush over the 3D coffee art that is so adorable? Take a look at photos others have location tagged and you will see that the barista can also do other designs such as cat, bear and pig. Thumbs up also for the scallop and angel hair pasta, the salad and the iced mocha. 

Location :

55, Lorong Stewart 

10300 Penang, Malaysia

2. Armenian House

To combat the heat, we stopped by the cafe for a smoothie. The mango and passion fruit smoothie was a thirst quencher! Armenian House is also a bed and breakfast. 

Location : 

Lebuh Armenian, Georgetown
10200 Pinang George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

3. The Mugshot Cafe 

Next to Rainforest Bakery, the cafe is famous for its bagels and yoghurt. We had the corn beef and rocket bagel which was pretty delicious accompanied with the iced mocha. I must be the happiest criminal alive in the mugshot photo! 

4. Moustache Houze

No surprises, but the cafe is moustache themed and serves cakes and drinks. The kiwi soda drink we tried was pretty refreshing. If you're heading there in a group, you can opt for a private room with a minimum spend of 80 RM. 

Location : 

No. 24, Lebuh Campbell 

10100 Pinang George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

5. Kwang Sang House 

A tailor shop turned cafe, it serves a decent set lunch meal. Priced at 16 RM, the set meal comes with a soup of the day, main course, drink and dessert. The only downside was that coffee was only served in the evening. 

Location : 

36, Leith Street, 

10220 Penang, Malaysia

Street Food 

Chulia Street : It's an entire lane of street food. Try the wonton mee and curry mee push cart store that's next to each other. 

Kimberley Street : A must try is the kway chap, it was so good that we had it two nights in a row!  The penang style char kway teow along the same stretch was also pretty tasty. 

Kway Chap Stall

Gurney Drive 

After two nights in the centre of Georgetown, we traveled to the Gurney Drive area and stayed at The Northam All Suites. Despite it being a rather dated hotel, it was very affordable and the size of the room and the view compensated for it.

The room was huge and at 50sqm, it was probably five times bigger than your average shoe box sized hotel room in Singapore at half the price. We paid around $100 a night and it came with a living room, a toilet, the king sized bed with an ensuite bathroom with two huge mirrors, showering facilities, toilet and a jacuzzi tub. 

What wowed me away was definitely the view. 

Beautiful view from the 35th storey 

The view from the infinity pool is pretty amazing too. 

Northam Beach Cafe : Just opposite our hotel at Gurney is an inconspicuous looking building, but when we reached the place it was streaming with people. Think of your East Coast Lagoon type of sea front dining. The fried oyster omelette is a must try if you're up for it. The rojak is also different from the Singapore type we're used to - the Penang style rojak is made up of fruits like jackfruit, coconut and guava served with thick prawn paste sauce. 

If you've the luxury of time during your trip to Penang, Gurney Drive would be a lovely area to visit. There are two huge shopping centres there, Gurney Paragon and Gurney Plaza. It's a twenty minutes walk away from the hotel I stayed at, so perhaps might not be a good option if travelling with the elderly or very young children. But if you find your way to Gurney Paragon, you must visit Ben's by BIG. It's the same company which started Plan B and Plan B Journal in Kuala Lumpur. 

We also gave Miam Miam (just next to Ben's) a try but personally, Ben's will be a better choice.  

With such a rich culture, it's no wonder why Georgetown is one of UNESCO's Heritage Site. If you're heading up to Penang soon, get your hipster on!