Interesting Places In Malaysia

[chenchow]

To organize the threads in this Special Interest Group much better, I have decided to spilt the sharing of experiences of various traveling experiences into various continents.

So, this thread is specifically for interesting places that you have known or been in Malaysia.

I am sure that we have been asked many times by our friends when we are studying overseas about places of interest in Malaysia. So, once this thread is well developed, we can just show them this thread...

[chenchow]

To organize the threads in this Special Interest Group much better, I have decided to spilt the sharing of experiences of various traveling experiences into various continents.

So, this thread is specifically for interesting places that you have known or been in Malaysia.

I am sure that we have been asked many times by our friends when we are studying overseas about places of interest in Malaysia. So, once this thread is well developed, we can just show them this thread...

[yekban81]

Friday, December 03, 2004


Tonight I am going back to home again before heading further north to Penang Island which is about four hours car ride away from my hometown. Penang Island, as it is also knowned as Pearl of Orient, is a historical place of where the British (Francis Light) first came to Malay Peninsular (Malaysia) in 1780an. Bridging the peninsular land to the island is the Penang Bridge which was once the third longest bridge in the world. Quite disappointed I am upon knowing that making a halt at the roadside to take a personal photo at the midway of the bridge is prohibited now.

Anyway, I am very pleased that the international conference, which I am attending to, is held in Batu Feringghi. Located at the northern Penang island, this place is one the most attractive places in Malaysia where you can find beautiful white sand beach and crystal-blue sea plus recreational activities like snorkelling, equestrian, board surfing and many more. Batu Feringghi beach is wide spread across the northern line of Penang island with approximately more than 10 kilometres long.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/detailmapbatuferinggi.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/BatuFeringghi.jpg

How was my trip to Penang? Overall, it is a quite pleasant journey and stay in Batu Ferringhi. The picture below shows me standing at the balcony of Ferringhi Beach Hotel with the background view of the hill and sea. Ferringhi Beach Hotel has partially sea view for all her rooms. To be more precise, some room has partially sea+hill view and some has partially sea+flat building view. Luckily my room faces the hill+sea side.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/FerringhiBeachHotel2.jpg
06 December 2004, Ferringhi Beach Hotel

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/FerringhiBeachHotel.jpg
06 December 2004, Ferringhi Beach Hotel

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/FerringhiBeachHotel3.jpg
05 December 2004, Ferringhi Beach Hotel

The sea and beach near my hotel is quite smelly that my sister choosed to swim in the hotel swimming pool rather in the sea. To me, the swimming pool is as dirty as the sea; you can see the brownish dirt piled up in between the marmar floor of the pool.

We found a more beautiful and cleaner beach when we went further down the single road along Batu Ferringhi beach. Here's the pic of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/FerringhiBeach4.jpg
07 December 2004, Ferringhi Beach near Mutiara Hotel

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/FerringhiBeach3.jpg
07 December 2004, Ferringhi Beach near Mutiara Hotel

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/FerringhiBeach.jpg
07 December 2004, Ferringhi Beach near Mutiara Hotel

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/FerringhiBeach2.jpg
07 December 2004, Ferringhi Beach near Mutiara Hotel

The following pictures show Penang bridge and Penang island which were taken when I was aboarding a ferry back to the mainland.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/PenangBridge2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/Ferry.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/PenangBridge.jpg
Penang bridge (once was the third longest bridge in the world)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/PenangBridge4.jpg
Penang bridge, taken during my journey to Intel in Bayan Lepas. Besides Intel, many other multinational corporations like Sanyo, Agilent Technology, and Texchem are located in this so called Silicon Valley of Penang Island.

In addition to that, there are some interesting places in Penang Island that one should visit. Here are the places which I went during my 2-day stay in Penang.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/Pagoda2.jpg
Kek Lok Si Temple (the highest pagoda temple in the South East Asia)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/SleepingBuddha.jpg
Sleeping Buddha is inside this building (it is the longest sleeping buddha in the South East Asia). I did not take picture of the sleeping buddha out of respect.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/yekban/GurneyDrive.jpg
Gurney Drive..where you can have Penang delicious food and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the sea especially at night.

[chenchow]

Yek Ban, it is very nice that you share your trip to Penang. What conference do you attend?

In fact, stopping at the side of Penang Bridge is prohibited since it was opened in 1980s. Initially, the police was not as strict, and the problem was that people just stop haphazardly and also break suddenly, which caused many pile-up accidents and traffic jams at the center portion of the bridge. That causes the police to get strict with it. Another reason is that some people chooses to jump down the bridge to commit suicide there too~!

Anyway, I really hope that Penang can regain its lustre. There aren't any new tourism product from Penang for a long time. Fort Conwallis (I think I have the wrong spelling), Penang Bridge, Pagoda, Sleeping Buddha, Snake Temple, Reptile Park, Botanical Garden, Youth Park, Jungle Park at Telok Bahang, Butterfly Farm, Beaches, Penang Hill, Penang Bird Park, Gurney Drive etc are all pretty old tourism products, and there aren't any new ones. Any idea what tourism products could be created in Penang to continue to attract the tourists.

Of course, currently the Jelution Expressway which is partially open, has cut short a lot the journey from Penang Bridge to City Center, where you used to need to drive through Green Lane and get stuck in the traffic.

[yekban81]

The 6th Electronics Material and Packaging Conference (EMAP 2004) which I attended, is an annually held 2-days international event organized by Universiti Sains Malaysia, and IEEE CPMT Chapter with joint technical co-sponsorship from CPMT society of IEEE. It aims to provide good coverage of developments in all areas of electronics materials and packaging, from design to manufacturing and operation. EMAP 2004 is a major forum, providing opportunities to network and meet leading experts from Korea, Japan, Singapore, United State, United Kingdom, China and others in addition to exchange of up to date knowledge in the field. Last year, EMAP was held in Singapore. Next year, it will be held in Tokyo, Japan.

[Chyi]

would like to introduce Pulau Jerejak, another new spot in Penang, a small island near to Penang island, with resorts and spa, very new, and less crowded. need some promotions.

http://www.cuti.com.my/Sub/Penang/guide_pulaujerejak.htm

I would recommend you to go hiking in the jungle there, can go round the island, trekking and exploring the places less visited by others and relaxed there.

[chenchow]

chyi, have you been there? if yes, share with us your personal experience there!

[Michelle_london]

K U A N T A N - My family live in Kuantan so I'm obviously going to be biased towards it, anyway, Kuantan is the capital city of Pahang and although my cousins get very bored there I find there are loads of things (e.g from a tourists point of view) and if you like buying loads of crap like me e.g. cheap dvds, little dangly things for mobiles you can get them there (actually you can get them anywhere in malaysia..oh well!)

Anyway, nearby there is a batik factory, Cherating - famous sea front....actually, why am I writing this when i have no idea what the hell is in Kuantan?!? I go there for the sun, sea and shopping but there are only a few good malls, the largest being Berjaya Megamall with cinemas, games arcades and bowling facilities. There are also hotels like the Hyatt which give you the typical-tourist-to-Malaysia treatment...

[khor_albert]

I am a devout Kuantanese. And you know what I like about Kuantan? The very good traffic. You can leave from your house for a programme on the other side of the town ten minutes before the programme starts and yet you still won't be late. However, as Kuantan is developing, the traffic is building up.

Moreover, Kuantan's houses are sold at a lower price than KL's houses (reasons are understandable).

Trying to change Kuantan soon from a dead town to a happening city!!~~hehe

[yeeyen]

OK, yet another Kuantan fan here... See how loyal Kuantanese are? Just goes to show how good the place is.

Ok, they've covered the main Teluk Chempedak, Megamall, but there's much more. You can actually paint your own Batik in Kuantan, takes maybe 2/3 hours? And there's the wonderful Panching Waterfall. The water is nice, clear and cold... Besides, there is Gua Charas, about half an hours drive from Kuantan. The cave is amazing. You climb up these steep steps to get up and the view is fantastic, with beautiful rock formations there too. Also, one of the caves is a temple where there a statue of a lying Buddha. I've never seen this happen(was there at the wrong time) but, everyday, at about 11, the Buddha is illuminated by a hole in the ceiling of the cave. Cool, huh? I must get out there myself one day. That cave also has interesting rock formations, one that looks like a elephant and another like a fish. If you go there, try to make friends with the caretaker, a very nice guy, and he'll show you around, point out less visible stuff and all.

Haha, i'm still not done with Kuantan. We've this river cruise run by the MPK on the Kuantan river. That's another cannot-miss attraction. It takes you up the river and stops at a mangrove swamp. There you get to walk though the swamp accompanied by a complete and fascinating talk on the life in the swamp. I'm not a nature enthusiast, but it still got me. The guide tell you about which plants can be eaten, which are used by pregnant women and all that. He even climbed over the railing and grabbed up some fresh attapci. Good, huh?

Once a year, beginning i think, you get windsurfers flocking to Balok Beach for an annual meet. I haven't managed to see that yet, but still, it should be interesting for any sea sporty people out there. Please, come to kuantan. It's a marvellous place really. I'll post some pics as soon as i can.

[chess_the_world]

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Honda RC115 (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_RC115)

[chess_the_world]

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[chess_the_world]

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[chess_the_world]

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[alepbing]

oh my, malacca looks good! at night of course, they need to paint those shops.