Thursday, April 27, 2017

Less Than 48 Hours In Georgetown

I was in desperate need of a short break and the unexpected public holiday on Monday, 24 April 2017, to celebrate the installation of Sultan Muhammad V as the new King provided me with the opportunity. I had already made reservation for a dim sum lunch on Saturday and thought of taking a bus to Penang on the same afternoon (this was before I read that it would be better to take bus to Butterworth and take the ferry across as you would avoid the traffic jam on the island). However, I would arrive too late to have mee sotong for dinner (to think I schedule my trip around meal times and the operating hours of a stall operator!). I even explored taking the ETS but I would still arrive too late. Finally, I decided to reschedule the dim sum lunch to Monday and fly out on Saturday afternoon.

I arrived at KL Sentral just before 12 noon and thought of having pulled noodles/lamian at Food Loft; however, the Food Loft had closed and there was a banner stating the stalls have relocated to Bukit Bintang monorail station. What the -? I don’t think there’s enough space at Bukit Bintang monorail station to house the stalls. And I was so looking forward to having some lamian too (the Food Loft was still there when I checked it out in February or so). Disappointed, I decided to take the train to the airport (sometimes the KLIA Express and Transit services are combined on weekends or public holidays as they want to carry out maintenance) but lucked out again as the screen showed the next train was in 16 minutes meaning I just missed the earlier train by a few minutes. It was then I saw the email and text message from MAS informing that the flight had been rescheduled to depart half an hour later, which meant I would arrive into Georgetown later. Strewth!

I went to the gate and read while waiting to board. The flight had only arrived as there were still people disembarking so that explained the delay.

We landed at 15:15 and I was at the bus stand ten minutes later. It was a hot bright sunny afternoon in Penang. I didn’t have to wait too long, the bus 401E came along within 5 minutes. We reached KOMTAR almost an hour later and too late for me to have a late lunch at Bee Hwa Café (I did go there but was told they were closing). Dejected, I continued on to Muntri Grove, my hotel for the first night.

Check-in was quick and I was shown to my room within 5 minutes of arriving. I rested a bit enjoying the longan drink a staff brought me before venturing out to the Esplanade. Finally I got lucky, the queue for the mee sotong wasn’t too bad. I ended up queuing for 37 minutes *only* this time. As my last meal was breakfast, I had both mee sotong and mee rebus before returning to the hotel, stopping en route at Purrfect Cat Café (bought a couple of bookmarks there). I spent the rest of the evening reading and only a bit of TV.

On Sunday morning, I ventured out to the market at Jalan Chowrasta/Jalan Kuala Kangsar then to the few stalls at Lebuh Carnarvon before returning to Jalan Kuala Kangsar. The crowd was already building when I returned and there was a long queue for the vegetarian wan tan noodles so I left after buying some dried mushrooms. On a whim, I decided to go to Lorong Macalister for chee cheong fun (arrived too late on my previous visit) and got lucky this time. The chee cheong fun tasted so much better than when I first had it back in end-August 2015.

I returned to the hotel and rested before hitting the shower. Breakfast was had after 10 and after breakfast, I went and spent an hour reading before checking out. I mentioned to the lady at the reception that I didn’t want to venture out and would just wait out in the lobby until I could check in at Muntri Mews. She offered to call to find out when my room would be ready. At 13:30, she came to inform the room was ready and offered me a brolly. She said it was raining in some parts of the island and true enough, there were dark clouds overhead although you wouldn’t believe it then as it was so dang hot and humid.

I must say I was disappointed with Muntri Mews. I had expected it to be better but Muntri Grove is so much better. I wished I had stayed there on the first night and then only at Muntri Grove on my second night but there was no vacancy at Muntri Mews on Saturday hence why I booked the hotels in the order that I did. Both hotels did not provide any bedroom slippers, body lotion, bath robe or even a robe to lounge in. For the rate they charge, youd expect and entitled to more surely.

I ventured out to find lunch and decided to have laksa instead when the vegetarian stall that I went to was closed. There was a ridiculously long queue outside Joo Hooi Café and the cendul shop so I went to the small restaurant I had my laksa on my previous trip instead. This time around, it was disappointingly tasteless and I couldn’t remember if the portion before was as small. I left feeling let down.

I headed back to the hotel after buying some snacks at Mydin and stayed in reading. I was determined to finish my book and even skipped siesta. So I was not happy when a hotel staff knocked on my door and I had to get dressed to open the door. He wanted to know if there was anything left in the fridge and I said no, not unless you count mineral water as something left behind. He apologised for disturbing me and left. Not five minutes later, there was another knock. I was getting seriously irritated because I was interrupted and had to get dressed again. This time, another man was with the hotel staff. He claimed he was the previous guest and he was sure he left his water container (I think) behind. I told him there wasn’t any such thing and he looked disbelievingly at me, asking me the same thing again and again. Finally, I said he was letting in all the mosquitoes and said he was welcomed to come in and have a look. As if I wanted to have your precious water container, mister! He repeated again and again that he was sure he left it in the room (oh yeah, then where did it go? Have you tried asking Housekeeping? Or are you accusing me of taking it?).

I was finally left to my own devices again and as it still hadn’t rained, decided to venture out to find dinner. Well, the menu at the Mews Café looked scant so I walked around a bit before returning to my room. And no, nothing appealed to me. I wanted to have some char kuay teow but wasn’t keen to walk.

I stayed in my room for the rest of the evening. There were only about six TV channels and none showing footie so I had to follow it on Twitter.

On Sunday, I woke up early and checked out at 08:00. I had breakfast at Mews Café (again, limited choices) before walking to Jalan Penang. I was lucky to catch the CAT bus within a couple of minutes and even though it looked like I just missed a bus to the airport, another one came within 5 minutes and the journey took only 30 minutes.

I was at KL Sentral just after 13:00 and was tucking in to dim sum lunch an hour later.


So that was my short trip to Penang (17 hours in each hotel!) and I must say that it was a bit of a disappointing trip. Still, I’m sure I’ll be contemplating another trip there although it may take me some time to get over the disappointment of this recent visit.