After leaving the Red Food Court we headed back and popped our noses into the Mango Lounge which is attached to the Blue Mansion hotel. We enjoyed a bottle of wine with good service and then retired to bed by 9pm. Had been a long day.

Tuesday we walked to the Clan Jetties, then to Cornwallis Fort, followed the Esplanade, checked out Queen Victoria’s clocktower and returned – phew! We then relaxed back in our room before returning to the Clan Jetties to check out the Jetty food court – much larger than the previous one and which had come recommended by friends – before ending up in the Tipsy Cow bar chatting to an Australian couple. Had been a tiring day in the heat and humidity but we enjoyed the vibe of Georgetown.

Wednesday morning we took ourselves off to visit Penang Hill ordering a grab (uber) to take us there – it’s official name is Penang Hill UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. We had pre-purchased our funicular tickets and enjoyed the trip up although were surprised by just how busy it was! Penang Hill has a total of six peaks and the highest stands at 833 meters above sea level (2,732 feet). So we were able to enjoy some of the best lookouts in Penang – a spectacular 180 degree view of George Town from the SkyWalk and SkyDeck – but sadly it wasn’t that clear of a day….

We stopped in the cafe for a cold drink and a refillable bottle of water to take with us before starting to wander around and enjoy the views. We decided against visiting the antiquated pre-war colonial style bungalows and buildings nestling among the trees but it was obvious why the Europeans had decided to chose this area to settle – set against the vast backdrop of the lush rainforest.

Entering the walkways we came across a very friendly Dusky Leaf Monkey wearing his trademark spectacles so stood and watched him for a while… He was completely unconcerned about our close proximity and just sat and looked around…guess he is used to excitable tourists wanting to take his photo all the time LOL. Moving on we came across a huge lizard and lots of other beasties….sadly no native Black Giant Squirrels. But we enjoyed taking a break on the numerous giant swings as we walked around enjoying the sights and sounds of the forest.

At the end of the SkyWalk we reached The Habitat – a gift shop and cafe rolled into one. We were informed that, because we had tickets, we could grab a free buggy ride back to the funicular station if we wanted to….it was a long way back….so took the opportunity to do so checking out the mosque and the temple before departing the site on the funicular ride down.

Had been a lot of fun but we were pretty tired after all this so retired back to the city and our hotel. After a restorative rest up we headed back down into town and checked out some of the Street Art before deciding to go to a steak restaurant for dinner (we fancied some Western food). We had been recommended a particular place but, sadly, they were fully booked. So we checked for alternatives near by and found another one that was close….so headed over there….stopping off at the Beach Bar along the way. Have no idea why this pub was called the Beach Bar as it was nowhere near a beach nor did it had beach views…all very confusing. Anyway, having enjoyed a drink, we headed to the Steak place. This had the model of charging per 100g of meat – depending upon which cut you chose – which came with sides. We selected our cut and were taken to a huge butchery / fridge area to select our steaks…we chose two very similar in size…and they priced them there and then. Not too bad actually. The biggest surprise was this very large restaurant was completely halal so no alcohol served….not a problem as there were loads of other places to frequent….but meant we didn’t linger after eating. The food was pretty good but we soon moved on and returned to the Mango Lounge for a pontoonie….to our delight a live band was playing and they were pretty good.

Returning to our room for the night we discussed what to do the following day. We had done a lot and had seen most things but recognised that we really needed a driver to do it justice – so booked a private tour for the following day.

Thursday morning we were picked up by Robin – our tour guide / driver – and he wanted to know what we had explored already so that we didn’t duplicate things. He was surprised that we had already been to Penang Hill but we hadn’t explored the huge temple which sits beneath it…so that was our first stop.

Then we drove back towards the city and visited every temple known to man along the route – particularly the two Buddhist temples which sat opposite each other on one side road. The giant gold Buddhas were huge (one standing and one reclining) and we enjoyed checking them out. Afterwards he drove us towards the prom and explained more about the Clan Jetties – apparently these were originally Chinese sea gypsies who set up home on jetties they constructed along the coastline. When they settled and constructed these homes on stilts they were not considered to be permanent homes and were free of taxes. That has changed in the last decade or so as they now have access to electricity, water and sanitation pipes – so still living the same way except they have to pay property taxes LOL!

Each Clan has their own jetty – some are more commercial (ie have small touristy type shops selling bits and bobs) and others are purely residential with the odd temple thrown in. We visited both and, walking to the end of the Lee Jetty which was where they tied their fishing boats up as many still live traditional lives, we were surprised to see a huge monitor lizard in the mud going for a walk….. Wasn’t expecting that!

On the way back to our hotel we stopped off at the Penang White Coffee company and enjoyed some samples…I tried their hot chocolate offerings rather than their coffee. Both of us were blown away by the taste / flavour so purchased some sachets to take home…plus some chocolates. I particularly liked their 75% dark chocolate range…. We must have been transfixed by the whole experience as when we got back and realised how much we had spent we were a bit surprised to say the least!

Moving swiftly on we headed into the Batik factory – and I purchased a lovely top for myself, Richard declined the matching shirt LOL – before returning to the car park to meet Robin. Back at the hotel we said our sad farewells…he had given us a really interesting and informative day out…and returned to our room to drop off our goodies.

After an hour relaxing and getting cleaned up we headed back to the Mango Lounge bar and were delighted to see another band were setting up…..but sadly the weather had other ideas…and pretty much as soon as they started the heavens opened and rain stopped play. The band – and their family members – then huddled under cover with us hoping that the whole evening wasn’t going to be washed out but, sadly, it was. But it was lovely to chat to these locals about their lives here in Penang.

Friday morning (14 September) we joined in with one of the formal tours of the Blue Mansion to get more information on our accommodation. Surprisingly the tour guide was actually the owner and she was full of information about the challenging renovation that they had undertaken to bring this place back to its former glory when Cheong Fatt Tze used it both as his home and office and lived here with his seventh wife. He was a prominent figure in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a successful businessman who also held significant roles as a diplomat and an advisor. The mansion has 38 rooms, 5 granite paved courtyards, 7 staircases and 220 vernacular timber louvre windows. It also has UNESCO cultural world heritage site status. The mansion has been featured in various films including the 1993 French film Indochine, Road to Dawn and The Blue Mansion. It also serves as the backdrop to many movies / TV programmes including most recently “Crazy Rich Asians” which means that most of the tourists come simply to recreate photo opportunities to match the programme! And they don’t care about the hotel guests privacy they just march around as though they own the place ignoring the roped off ‘private’ areas…

After the tour we walked back into the centre of town as we realised that we had missed some of the Street Art installations….so we hired a Trishaw and took off… The guy was completely nuts and kept telling us weird stories how one of the buildings was being used to store cocaine – but now it was stored legally it was all owned by the pharmaceutical companies – and another which used to store ammunition…. The Trishaw was a little on the small side and wasn’t really suited to two Westerners sitting side by side…so we sort of sat on top of each other and enjoyed the ride. We had a nice time despite the discomfort LOL.

Saturday morning – our last day in Georgetown before we moved down the coast to Batu Ferringhi the beach area of Penang for a week of R&R. We went through our tour book and online resources and decided we had explored everything that we wanted to (especially as it was raining again) so decided to take ourselves off to a local laundry we had spotted on our wanderings previously. We walked down there only to find that the lady was busy (ironically doing Blue Mansion work) and couldn’t return it to us until Monday (which didn’t work for us). But there was a self service laundromat next door…. Luckily the machines were already pre-filled with detergent and softener so I just needed change….and there was a change machine on the wall….so happy days put the laundry on and settled down to read a book whilst I waited. Richard went off on a mission to pick up some stuff from local shops so he popped back in now and again to check on me…. Eventually he returned for good and I took the opportunity of taking some of the laundry back to the hotel room with me… On Richard’s return with the rest of it we sorted it all out – lovely that we were leaving in the morning with all clean clothes – before sitting in the courtyard outside our room with a cold beer. We enjoyed sitting there – watching the rain which had reduced the humidity a bit – for a few hours (despite fending off more of those damn tourists LOL) before heading back into town for dinner at Emily’s steakhouse for dinner. We then had a drink in a pub before getting a grab back to the hotel where we popped into the Mango Lounge and caught the last 15 minutes of a musical set by another band. This was all advertised as jazz (which is not our preferred genre) but it was really good and the musicians were very talented. And so to bed…we had thoroughly enjoyed our time exploring Penang and Georgetown.

That brings this part of the adventure to a close….come back soon for the next (and final) edition…

Bye for now, Jan

After a non-eventful smooth flight, we landed back in Kuala Lumpur and were told to go to carousel L for our luggage. We waited, and waited, and waited….. Then there was a new announcement to try carousel K instead. So we moved and Richard carried on watching the belt – by now pretty empty of all luggage – and I went on the hunt….. I found both our cases sitting alone in the middle of the floor having clearly been abandoned some time ago. Very frustrating… But hey ho, what can you do? At least they made it with us.

On arrival we found the car collection area and our names were on a list…but no driver! So we were expected but, of course, the luggage chaos had added a few hours to our arrival time. We found a travel agent supervisor who returned and said we were so delayed he had just been checking we had actually been on the plane LOL. He kindly summoned the driver and then we were off to Kuala Lumpur again.

The drive wasn’t too bad – and we arrived pretty quickly at the Melia hotel again – only stopping for one night. We checked in and found our room on the 11th floor and and then, having organised ourselves, we took a Grab car to the Petronas Towers and headed into the Kuala Lumpur Central mall to pick up some food – we had a Malay dish and it was lovely. Afterwards we headed to the back of the Towers for the water / light / music show. It didn’t disappoint but we were surprised by the modern music being played as we had expected it to be classical. But we sat on the steps overlooking the lake – along with a lot of other tourists – and enjoyed the show.

After the show – with numb bums from sitting on the concrete steps – we found a waterside bar with views so moved there and watched more shows in comfort with a glass in hand.

We bumped into a couple from Fiji who were surprised that we had been to Nadi their home town. We had a Bangladeshi server who was a law graduate. She said that there was different treatment to overseas visa holders in terms of housing / study / working rules etc. She was lovely and very efficient.

After the 10pm show had ended and the bar was now closing so we headed back to the Mall to find it was being locked up for the night. So gradually found our way back to the front to order another Grab for our return back to the hotel and so to bed.

Monday morning we had a leisurely start and were picked up at 11.00 am to go back to the airport for our next flight. We checked out post breakfast and the driver was already there…he recognised us as he had been the driver on our KL City Tour which we had done prior to our Borneo adventures. We had a good run to the airport, checked in early on the machines and dropped our bags off.

The flight was only one hour to Penang – our base for the next two weeks. Again we were treated to lots of water and peanuts LOL. We landed – picked up our luggage – and headed off to meet our driver. This was the quickest we had been through any of the airports so far.

We followed the driver’s instructions to the e-hailing area in the nearby car park. We told him we were in situ and he drove in to pick us up. We then drove to the Blue Mansion (the Cheong Fatt Tze) located in Georgetown, the capital of Penang. When we arrived there were numerous tours of the property going on – as it has historic significance – and were taken to our room which was lovely!

There was limited space to unpack – there was some hanging space and a safe but no shelves / drawers despite the huge space. So back to living out of our suitcase LOL. We then took ourselves off for a walk and found the Red Food Court just along the road before returning to the hotel and rested up having explored a bit of the hotel ourselves. Stunning place!

That evening we returned to the food court for dinner and looked at all the different cuisines / offerings before settling on a Chinese meal. I even found an alcohol outlet and, after a considerable wait, managed to pick up a couple of beers….

So that ends this blog – please return for the next instalment of our time in Penang shortly. Bye for now, Jan

Tuesday morning, 2 September, and it was our 29th wedding anniversary. Woo hoo – congrats to us! We opened our cards and then headed down to breakfast.

And I had an egg disaster – asked for two hard boiled eggs – and when they arrived they were completely raw despite the shells being hot! Damn….it was finally sorted out but by now Richard had finished his egg florentine breakfast so we weren’t impressed as we would have preferred to eat at the same time. Funnily enough at that moment in time the server asked us to do an online review of the service…just for the hotel’s purposes not for wider sharing…so we were very honest. Hoping the feedback would work!

We spent a lovely day by the pool bobbing on large bean bags before having a snack lunch before returning to our room to relax and get ready for dinner.

We headed down to reception at 6pm and met with our butler for the night…who walked us to the beach and to our private cabana…just in time for the sunset.

We had champagne cocktails which was followed by an amuse bouche, the wine service then followed along with sparkling water for the table. Then we had our scallops starter followed by lobster bisque…. I don’t like lobster bisque so Richard ate two bowls full LOL.

Then to the main which was steak for me and sea bass for Richard followed by a special cheesecake and a chocolate Happy Anniversary plate. All delicious although very rich and decadent. We had enjoyed this special experience…felt very spoilt! We lingered after we had finished eating and our butler decided to bring us two additional glasses of complimentary champagne. How nice!

Our butler was very young and was doing an apprenticeship with Shangri La so had worked his way through housekeeping and into service. He was a delight! Clearly got a good work ethic as he had a couple of days off coming up and he was going to work for his dad in his construction company.

We returned to our room absolutely stuffed full (and bitten to death by the sand fleas) so returned to the air conditioned comfort of our room for pontoonies. It had been a lovely day – I had high expectations when we had booked this ‘dine by design special experience’ – and am pleased to say that our expectations were met! Was very romantic and special – not sure how we are going to top it for our 30th next year (although have ideas LOL).

Wednesday we were up late – to breakfast – and our eggs were perfect this time but we realised that if you ordered the eggs how you wanted them cooked they also delivered the full cooked breakfast which we didn’t want….so our fault this time…serves us right for not checking it out properly!!

After breakfast we headed back to the room to chill out and then at 12.30 we headed down to reception to pick up our car which was taking us to the Mari Mari cultural village. The driver sent us a text to let us know he was there at 12.30 but he wasn’t…. We spoke to him again and it turns out he was at the wrong reception to the hotel – we were in the Ocean Wing and he was at the Garden Wing. Never mind – eventually we met up – and we took off. His driving was a bit erratic to start with, clearly indicators were optional equipment rather than essential, but we survived and arrived at the village.

On arrival we got our tickets and waited for our names to be called. We took the opportunity to use the bathroom facilities which were very modern (Western style) and very clean. So a good start.

We were called and joined the rest of our group – only the transfer had been private this time… We walked across the rope bridge (which was a bit wobbly) and then checked out the variety of longhouses showing how different tribes lived. Some were communal facilities and others completely segregated on gender grounds. All were originally headhunters so lots of skulls around and our guide admitted that most of them were alcoholics as they make (and consume) a lot of rice wine LOL! The final longhouse belonged to a tribe with Islamic heritage so no alcoholics there….

Throughout the tour we were shown different skills – how to make rice wine, and honey (with bees that don’t sting bizarrely), bamboo cooking, cloth and rope making, fire making etc. Richard tried everything but I declined as my stomach was complaining…so I had to run off to find bathroom facilities during the tour….which were western again but not so clean!

We ended the tour at a cultural show with dancers / singers etc and it was pretty good. This was then followed by an inclusive lunch – by now both of us were feeling a bit crook with the heat and humidity – so I had plain boiled rice and Richard just had water….

We left at 4.45 pm and started the long crawl home in the solid traffic. The traffic here is dreadful and it took us three and a half hours to do 35 kms! Nose to tail and in the dark… Back to the hotel we were worn out so had a quiet night in front of the TV.

Thursday we had a leisurely start and there was a staff change in the restaurant so we received better service…and, finally, managed to get both our orders right and were served at the same time LOL.

After breakfast we headed to the pool and enjoyed a day bobbing – it was blisteringly hot – so a lot of the time was spent in the shade. Returning to our room around 4.30 pm we enjoyed a bottle of wine and a huge bubble bath on our balcony (which was organised for us by reception).

Later on we showered and headed out for dinner in the main buffet restaurant which was very busy…but we didn’t want to pay the full buffet price which we thought was very expensive as we weren’t very hungry and would only have eaten a few dishes…so went a la carte instead as we were trying out all the different restaurants the hotel had on offer.

Friday we had a late start before going to breakfast – and, it was absolutely great! The server had picked up on our irritated feedback and made sure we had the best experience checking up on us throughout the service. Lovely!

We spent another pool bobbing day before it started to rain! So we went back to our room and chilled out on the day bed on our balcony reading books before going out to dinner at the a la carte Chinese restaurant which was very nice although bizarrely named The Eighth! Afterwards we headed back to our room for a movie night.

Saturday we headed down to the pool again and there were kids around! Although the Ocean Wing is designed for adults there were a few families staying here but this was the first time they had decided to come to ‘our’ pool! So our quiet and relaxation was spoilt by some screaming entitled brats – one particularly young girl would not be told anything by her father and she promptly took herself off in a strop to return to her room alone. She was about five years old going on twenty! Her mother was completely frustrated by the whole situation…. Eventually Dad gave in and gave her whatever she wanted, but it was frustrating to witness. Guess tantrums will always win the argument then! But at least it stopped her from screaming at the top of her voice!

Later on we headed down to the Italian restaurant (the same one that we have our a la carte breakfast in) and grabbed an inside table as it was pouring with rain. Here is a screenshot from the hotel’s website….obviously showing outside dining option.

Sunday we were up early for breakfast and said goodbye to Sue (who had taken special care of us post our complaint LOL). We did our final check and packed, room vacated and bill paid by 8.30 am. The taxi was early and drove us straight to the airport (which seemed very familiar this time)….

We got checked in and very quickly got through security to wait for our flight to return to Kuala Lumpur.

The flight was straightforward enough and they served good food…

So that ends the Borneo section of our Malaysian adventure. Come back soon for another part. Bye for now.

Jan