Walking down heritage trail @ Penang Chapter 3: Hanging out with clouds at Penang Hill

Travelogue: 6 September 2015

It is a Sunday so we decided to go visit Penang Hill today. One of my friends from Penang suggested that we go to Penang Hill early in the morning so that it will not be too hot. I took her suggestions so at 9 am, we went straight there by cab.

Apparently all cab rides to Penang Hill will cost you RM30. The cab drivers here do not use the meter. They seemed to charge more when you are heading towards touristy places. It does not even matter where you are from. It will still cost you RM30. I feel like this is unfair to the tourists but this is what happens when the government does not do anything for the wage earners. I was unhappy but I could understand that everyone was simply trying to earn a living. I just wished it could have been in a more honest way.

Anyway, I just took it with a pinch of salt. RM30 when converted to Singapore dollars is only be less than S$15 and that is similar to most cab rides in Singapore.

We are here!

Upon arrival, I went over to join the long queue to buy tickets and within a few minutes we were on our way up the hill via the tram.

I was like the excited kid trying to video record the ride but the staffs filled up the tram till full that it was pretty uncomfortable. Anyway, happy to be here!

It was cloudy and this was what we saw.

I was looking forward to see the scenery but since it was too cloudy to see anything, I couldn’t. Nevertheless, I still thought it was beautiful so I went ahead to make the parents pose for a photo here. Doesn’t it looked like we were really high up on a mountain with the clouds below us? 🙂

We started walking up the hill. They provided free maps for visitors. You can choose to explore by foot or by buggy ride. We were looking for a place to eat because we have yet to have our breakfast.

We found a good eating place! It looked nice and most importantly, cheap.

A light breakfast by my parents definition.

I was tempted to get this mango dessert because it looked so good, Yup, ate mango ice cream dessert early in the morning.

The entire place was pretty and so we did the usual touristy things that is taking too many photos lol.

When I saw this, I was a little surprised. Love locks in Penang Hill? I saw the one in Seoul, in Paris, and even in Salzburg so to see this same trend in Penang was a little weird.

I still found it too funny. Seriously, why do you need to declare your love for each other in a piece of lock and put it in public?

Oh well, we were off to explore other things! Where shall we go next?

I really wanted to explore the place but the parents thought it was too tiring to be walking around and then we saw the buggy ride. It could drive us up further uphill. We shared the ride with these 3 aunties who refused to pay more for another buggy lol. Our driver was too speechless to argue.

Baba posing as the driver when our original driver went down from the buggy to help us take a photo.

From the buggy ride, we discovered this really old mailbox. It has been around since the British ruled the country.

Unfortunately we could not really see the view up there due to the tall trees. Oh well…it did not stop me from taking photos still.

The ride was nice and it was pretty cooling up there. It lasted for about 25 minutes before we were back where we started. The parents were attracted by this shop of caps by the road.

I think my dad looks good in this hat he just bought. Yes?

On our way to breakfast, we saw this booth where visitors can pose for a photo with the animals. There were reptiles like snake and komodo dragon available (eeww no) but we thought it wast the safest to take with the parrots.

The white parrot was so well behaved! It simply stood there on my shoulders silently while the colourful one kept checking out my face. I think it wanted to kiss me. Lol.

We saw another booth that offers foot massage and henna and I wanted to do both. The parents went for the 40 minutes long herbal foot massage and I did both the foot massage and henna. I know I may sound deprived but this is the first time ever I have beautiful floral henna on my hand!

I love it.

Looks like the clouds cleared up a little and we could see the view!

We could not find anyone to help us take a photo so we took a wefie. We are cool people.

All the walking made us hungry so we took the tram down and went over to Georgetown to look for the hyped up nasi kandar.

I am not sure if the nasi kandar was really good or if we were too starving so it tasted really delicious. It was a good break.

Our next stop after lunch….. Chew Jetty!