penang

Jet-Setters, Planning a Trip to Penang? Lion Air is Your Ride!

/ Fiona Seah / Leave a comment

Hello everyone!

The June holidays are just around the corner and what better way to give yourself a pat on the back for surviving the first half of 2019 than a getaway from the hustle and bustle of Singapore? Unfortunately, if taking time off during the upcoming peak season has crossed your mind only recently, you’re going to be in for a shock as prices of flight tickets to popular destinations across the board have begun to creep up. That said, an inexpensive yet fuss-free vacation is still possible – that is, if you are open to the idea of visiting the neighbours for a change! I mean, there’s always the year-end holiday for farther destinations, right? 😉

Where should the arrow be pointing to on your invisible map then, you might ask. As an avid foodie, I am inclined to suggest Penang – the Land of Pearl – because the abundant of delectable food choices (that aren’t too foreign to our taste buds, given how similar our cuisines are) makes it an absolute food haven for anyone who is looking to stuff their face and gain some meaningful kilos.

Now that you have your destination nailed down, you need to decide on the airline to take you there. Fret not, you busy bee, for I have identified the best ride for you so you wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of sifting through various platforms. Lion Air – especially through online booking – is your best bet and here’s why:

The booking process is so easy that even a blind-folded monkey can find a way to purchase a ticket 

Lion Air flight tickets are readily available for purchase through any online travel agency you can find aside from their official booking website that is already very accessible on its own. Doesn’t it annoy you to no end when limited flights are offered in certain platforms because that would mean going back to the drawing board again in some cases? With Lion Air being extremely receptive towards having their products featured on online travel booking platforms, they are everywhere now and booking flights from Singapore to Penang online will be done in a jiff! Flight tickets have never been so easy to book that even a monkey can find it!

Your pocket (and travel buddies) will thank you

Having a great selection of platforms to choose from undoubtedly leads to competition, and as consumers, we know too well that competition only benefits us because booking sites will be vying for our businesses with the lowest possible rates. This is also when you should put your university research skills to the test by comparing prices to get you the best deal in the house.

So, is this option making your pockets cheer to the heavens yet?

You will be in good hands… and it’s the perks, really!

Perhaps the airline’s main pot of gold is their very own travel insurance policy – the Lion Air Travel Insurance. What makes it different from the insurance offered by other airlines is its extensive coverage which you’d probably only see in a life insurance policy, if you ask me. From Personal Accident to 24-Hour Emergency Medical Assistance, you can be rest assured that any travel woes that come your way will be well taken care of. More details about their travel insurance can be found on their website. But I know, we’re all too lazy busy for that, so here’s a round-up:

  1. Personal Accident Benefit
  2. Accident Medical Expenses (round trip)
  3. Emergency Evacuation & Repatriation (round trip)
  4. Felonious Assault (round trip)
  5. Flight Delay
  6. Trip Cancellation
  7. Trip Curtailment (round trip)
  8. Baggage Loss & Damage
  9. Loss of Travel Documents (round trip)
  10. Personal Liability (round trip)
  11. 24-Hour Emergency Medical Assistance (round trip)

Wowzers! The airline’s sheer dedication in helping its passengers to ease the stress of travelling is jaw-dropping! I wonder how much time was spent on coming with such comprehensive policy – every single potential travel mishap seems to have been taken into consideration!

Since I’ve already done the homework for you in finding the best flight deal to Penang, no harm in helping you out with your itinerary too, right? Here, take notes – cool places to visit in Penang:

Bukit Mertajam Recreational Forest

Take a break from skyscrapers and traffic and immerse yourselves in the greens and sublime tranquillity of Bukit Mertajam Recreational Forest where you will get a glimpse of peaceful nature for once. The town of Bukit Mertajam is quite close by, and there is even a hiking trail where you can take a leisurely stroll and enjoy the lush greenery which is also home to many indigenous flora and fauna. Ah, the simple pleasures of life!

Escape Adventureplay

Hailed as Malaysia’s first environmentally-friendly theme park, Escape Adventureplay is one that is completely surrounded by nature. Get your adrenaline pumping with activities like zip-lining and rope bridges that would make any height-sensitive bunch feel queasy in the stomach. Extreme thrill seekers, you certainly wouldn’t want to miss this place! There are also children-friendly obstacle courses too for those who are not ready to overcome their fear of heights 😬

Mengkuang Dam

I know that in this millennial age, we have the tendency to announce to the whole world on what we do and where we go and hence, pictures need to be Instagrammable. Apart from Bukit Mertajam Recreational Forest, Mengkuang Dam also provides breathtaking natural backdrops if you are planning on posting some #inspirational or #reflective pictures during your trip. Captions like “Make your heart like the ocean – with calm, still surface and great depths of kindness” can accompany a picture of the vast expanse of the lake while “The sky is the limit” can accompany one of the azure sky. 

Just kidding. Be there simply to relax and enjoy the wonders of nature, yeah?

Penang Road

No trip to Penang is complete without a walk down iconic Penang Road, at Georgetown. Like Clarke Quay and Somerset in Singapore, this is the area where you will find mouthwatering local food and street art displayed along the road on top of the mixture of nouveau-riche and quaint heritage it offers. It’s the go-to place of rendezvous for food, art and culture aficionados. Be sure to bring your camera along to snap some pictures!

Do share how your trip went and if you have other suggestions to add, feel free to drop me a comment below!

Thanks for reading!

For more information on Penang flights, do visit this website.
This post was done in collaboration with Traveloka.

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The Long Awaited Trip to Penang

/ Fiona Seah / Leave a comment

Hello boys and girls!

Work has been a bitch so I could only find time to post this now, like 5 months after the trip. 😛 Well even though it’s like super outdated, I still have to write about it because.. basically.. not only was it my virgin trip to this part of Malaysia, it’s also my (okay, are you ready? But don’t laugh at my misfortune) first time taking the plane. Yes bloody first time. At the age of 20. If you hate me this is the best time to rejoice, yay!

So I managed to crawl out of my cave on 5 March, boarded the plane at about 2pm-ish with Baby and our usual travel friends – Wendy & Wesley. Took about 1 hour to reach our destination and were greeted with an airport which looked like our Terminal 1 when it first started.  Then we waited for what seemed to be another hour for Wesley’s rented car to be ready. We finally arrived at our hotel room at Paradise Beach Resort in the late evening 🙂 The staff were uber friendly there – I likeeee!

Because it was a free & easy trip, there wasn’t any itinerary. We went to the reception counter with our growling stomach to enquire about the nearest seafood eating place to dine at. Then we were chauffeured (paid ok!) to this place because there weren’t any parking spaces left on a weekend:

East Hokkaido

I wouldn’t say the food there is fantastic. They came with quite small portions and they are not cheap either. Standard and prices are quite comparable to the seafood here in Singapore. But the service there was fantastic because the waitress assigned to our table were so attentive to us that we tipped her before we left. But being so honest she surrendered the money to the management because she felt weird being tipped for doing her job. Haha! Anyway, pictures.

W&W Chilli crab
Coconut drink
W&W
   

After eating, our chauffeur drove us to the biggest night market in Penang which is called:

Ferringhi’s Night Market

The night market stretches along the street just like our very own pasar malam, just way longer. You definitely would not be able to explore the entire place in just one day. But in my opinion scouring the entire night market isn’t necessary since the stuff sold in every store are rather repetitive. And the shopkeepers are really NOT flexible when it comes to price haggling. They’d give me excuses like, “It’s already the lowest you can find here” or “It’s already the cost price”. Huh like COME ON do you think I would believe that crap? That a pair of  (forgot which brand it’s an imitation of) boardshorts would cost 80RM??


But as much as I hate that place we went there again on the second night, NOT to find better buys there but for our foot reflexology! If my memory doesn’t fail me it should have lasted an hour, at the price of a 40-min session in Singapore or cheaper. Hehehe that was probably the highlight of the trip lor!! But unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of that as I was too engrossed with playing mahjong on the iPod touch.

Day 2 was more of sight-seeing and visiting cultural and religious places. We went to the church (actually outside only because the place was locked up), Indian temple as well as the Chinese temple which homes one of the world’s largest sleeping Buddha


Penang is actually quite similiar to Singapore. If I’m not wrong they could also be of the same size? Oh and they have their very own butterfly farm too! Not much difference from the one we have at Sentosa. On top of butterflies they have snakes and other creepy crawlies as exhibits as well. But it’s definitely not worth the price of an admission ticket.


After the first 2 days in Penang, we felt a little bored so we went to the information counter at our hotel to ask if there were any programmes in place for inexperienced tourists like us. And we were enticed by

Rope fishing

5 words: Waste of Time and Money 😦 The boat we were on was so miserably small and it kept shaking because of the strong current. Across our boat was a group of Caucasians on a LARGER boat that didn’t seem that shaky. All of us were feeling so nausea and the boat driver had to get us back onshore after 15 minutes at the sea! I doubt there were even fishes in the first place. For your information, this experience cost me 120RM.  -_-

Probably the workers already knew that we’d return empty-handed, so they brought us to this island where they could whip up a rather sumptuous lunch for us to cover up some of our losses. We had chicken chop, satay and lots of other meat and fruits. And the best (or could be the worst) part was, there were wild monkeys lingering around the area attempting to steal our food! AND THEY WERE FIERCE AND STEALTHY LOR!

They thought stealing our fruits wasn’t enough ok? They even drank our PEPSI when we left our cans unattended on the table. Ewww stupid monkeys. :\

On our last day before our departure, we visited the Peranakan Museum which was the setting for our Little Nyonya show. The exhibits are not as elaborated as the one we have here, but they are more original and authentic I guess? The place looked just a Peranakan home.

When I got back to Singapore I felt this indescribable ecstasy, I don’t know why. Penang wasn’t all that fun and if you realised, we didn’t manage to taste any authentic Penang food because we couldn’t find any 😦 Maybe we needed to do more research before embarking on our trip but honestly, I wished we went to Bangkok instead (which was our original plan but was changed because of someone who stood us up).

So, in conclusion, Penang is only fun if you’re not a Singaporean, or have never been to Singapore. For every attraction you see in Penang, you’d definitely see something similiar in Singapore, which was why I never felt I left home. Hahaha! (But it was still a good getaway especially after my horrible internship experience nonetheless)

Okay that’s all for now.

I’ll be blogging again to lament about my work -_- Sorry folks but this is kinda unavoidable.

X