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Penang Travel Tips (16 March 2020)

Visit, Discover & Enjoy Penang, and Everywhere Else!

B. Melayu

Hello and welcome to Penang Travel Tips, the guide to visit, discover and enjoy everything about Penang.

Hello and welcome to Penang Travel Tips. It is more than just a website for travellers. Penang Travel Tips is a place information encyclopedia. It is used not only by travellers, but also by locals, and people from other places who are planning to settle down in Penang.

My name is Timothy Tye. I am a realtor and place information specialist. I research and study the development, property landscape and infrastructure of various cities, especially those in Peninsular Malaysia, to assist home buyers, business owners and property investors in making property-relation decisions from a position of knowledge. Penang Travel Tips encapsulates the information I have gathered about Penang. It serves as a subset to my timothytye.com website, which provides place information for all other places.

To help you find what you want about Penang, use the Sight Directory of Penang which lists 3922 Penang sights, a Business Directory of Penang listing 209 types of businesses in Penang, and a Street Directory listing 982 streets in Penang. And that's not all. Also within this website is an online, audio-enabled Penang Hokkien Dictionary with over 5,500 words.

About Penang Travel Tips

Penang Travel Tips was started on 26 July, 2008, when I relocated my Penang content from my earlier site, AsiaExplorers. Over time however, more and more non-Penang content was moved across to be housed here. As of 22 March, 2017, it has 20,018 pages and receives some 2,000,000 page views per month. On 1 September 2017, I split this website into two, with non-Penang content gradually moved to my new Timothy Tye website. As of 12 November, 2017, all my Asia content has been moved, with relocation of non-Asia content planned for a later date.

Penang Travel Tips was initially created to satisfy my curiosity about the world around me. Over time, it has become my personal encyclopedia of place information. The pages on Penang Travel Tips date as far back as 2003, and have been updated countless times. Every page is built like a layer cake, with information updates being carried out on it from time to time. The result is a body of knowledge that has become a useful source of reference material not only for casual tourists, but also by the locals, students, teachers, journalists, just about anybody seeking fast information about Penang and elsewhere.

How to reach Penang

You can reach Penang by taking the plane, arriving at the Penang International Airport; by driving, usually using the North-South Expressway; by taking the Electric Train Service trains; by taking the ferry from Langkawi and Medan; and from taking cruiseliners.

Accommodation in Penang

List of Penang Hotels: Alphabetical list of Penang hotels with their GPS coordinates.
Fast Guide to Choosing Penang Hotels: Dunno which hotel to choose? Let me show you one-by-one with original photos taken of the rooms of over a dozen Penang hotels.

Information for selecting a hotel in Penang

What to see in Penang

12 Top Tourist Attractions of Penang: Don't know what to see? Here's my recommendation, if you don't have much time to discover Penang.
Travel Privilege Card: The Travel Privilege Card offers its holder discount for entry to various destinations in Penang and other Malaysian cities.

Geography of Penang

Administratively, Penang State is divided into five main districts called the Northeast District (Daerah Timur Laut), Southwest District (Daerah Barat Daya), North Penang Mainland (Seberang Perai Utara), Central Penang Mainland (Seberang Perai Tengah) and South Penang Mainland (Seberang Perai Selatan). To help you find your way, I have grouped the places in Penang by the following major towns.

Location of places in Penang on the map

Map of Roads in Penang

Click the above link to view map of the streets in Penang that I have described.

Introducing Penang

Planning your trip to Penang

Visitor Transport Information

If you are planning a trip to Penang, here's the information to help you plan your visit!

Exploring Penang

Whether you plan to explore Penang on your own, by taking public transport, or rented car, or even walk about the city, the information is here. Also, if you are planning to engage a tour guide to show you around, the information is also here.

Going on Foot in George Town

George Town - the inner city anyway - is a very walkable place, especially during the weekends. It is possible to explore and discover George Town on foot, or you may also hire a bicycle or tricycle and ride around.

Eating in Penang

Penang is one of Malaysia's most famous food destinations. It is particularly famous among Malaysians for its street food. However, over the past two decades, Penang has become increasingly popular for its many restaurants as well.

Timothy Tye's Penang Eating Tips

Penang is famous as a street food destination, so I am often asked, what I like to eat. Since this same question is being repeated to me over and over, I decided to create a page to answer it, so that I never have to do it in person ever again!

Details

The types of dining outlets in Penang

Coffee Shops of Penang: "Coffee Shops" is where you get most of Penang's street food. Although there are still itinerant hawkers in the streets, many have moved to permanent locations in coffee shops and hawker centres.
Hawker Centres in Penang: Hawker centres are usually large, open-air coffee shops. The hawker stalls are usually lined up in the periphery.
Restaurants in Penang: Although many coffee shops call themselves "restaurants", the term here is used for air conditioned eateries, a large number of which can be found in shopping malls.
Food Courts in Penang: Food courts are open concept air conditioned dining outlets in shopping malls.

Penang Hawker Food

The hawker food of Penang is world famous, with names such as laksa and char koay teow having rounded the globe.

Guide to Good Penang Street Good: All you need to know, to unlock the local secrets of good street food in Penang.
Penang Food Recommendations: Recommendations of what to eat and where, when in Penang.
Penang Hawker Food: An alphabetical list of some of the most famous hawker food of Penang.
Local Drinks of Penang: There are specific drinks which the locals order when patronizing the coffee shops. This is a guide to how to call the drinks.
5 Fabulous Char Koay Teow: Char Koay Teow is one of the most popular hawker food in Penang. Here's my personal favourites at one go.

Categories of eateries in Penang

All about Penang Food

Penang Food Directory
Penang Nyonya Dishes
Penang Nyonya Kuih
List of Penang Nyonya Sweet Broths
List of Penang Nyonya Chinese New Year Cookies
List of Ingredients for Penang Nyonya Cooking
Penang Food Authors & Teachers

Cooking in Penang

Not only is Penang street food famous around the world, the dishes cooked at home is also famous, but often visitors do not have the privilege to taste these homecooked items, unless they are fortunate to be invited into someone's home. My own wife happens to be a superb cook, especially of local pastries called kuih. In this section, I provide a selection of dishes cooked by my wife.

Tim & Chooi Yoke's Home Cooking

My wife and I are much into homecooked food, and we would like to share with you our joy of Home Cooking.

Details

Learn Penang Hokkien

For over a hundred years, the Chinese people of Penang speak a dialect of Hokkien known as Penang Hokkien, long before Mandarin was introduced to the region. It was the lingua franca of the various Chinese ethnic groups in Penang, regardless whether or not they are Hokkien. As with so many local dialects in the world, Penang Hokkien is today one of the threatened dialects, as parents often prefer to speak Mandarin or English to their children, yet continuing to use Penang Hokkien when conversing among themselves or with their own parents.

Penangites are incredibly proud that we speak our own variant of Hokkien called Penang Hokkien. To ensure that our Penang Hokkien do not die away, Penang Travel Tips has its own online dictionary that uses Taiji Romanisation, a home-grown romanisation that takes into account the speakers' familiarity to English, Malay and Mandarin.

Dictionary

Want to learn Penang Hokkien? We have a free course to teach you the language, just go to Learn Penang Hokkien right here.

Get to know Penang Hokkien

Administration of Penang State

The executive authority of the Penang State Government is under the Penang State Executive Council, which since the 2018 State Election is headed by the Right Honourable Chow Kon Yeow, Chief Minister of Penang.

The Penang State Legislative Assembly is a unicameral 40-seat assembly which convenes at the State Assembly Building on Light Street. Members of the assembly are called State Assemblymen (Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri or ADUN). As of the 2018 State Election, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition commands a supermajority in the legislature, with 37 out of the 40 seats, comprising 19 from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), 10 from the People's Justice Party (PKR), 2 from the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (PPBM) and 2 from the National Trust Party (Amanah). The state opposition is made up of 2 seats from the National Front (BN) and 1 from the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).

Penang State is divided into five districts namely Daerah Timur-Laut and Daerah Barat-Daya on Penang Island, and Seberang Perai Utara, Seberang Perai Tengah and Seberang Perai Selatan on Penang Mainland.

The local governments of Penang State comprises the Penang Island City Council, which administers the City of Penang Island, inclusive of George Town, headed by the Mayor of the City of Penang Island, and the Seberang Perai Municipal Council, which administers Penang Mainland, headed by the President of the Seberang Perai Municipal Council. At time of this update (May 2018), the Mayor of the City of Penang Island is Mr Yew Tung Seang while the President of the Seberang Perai Municipal Council is Mr Rozali Mohamud.

Places to get Tourist Brochures in Penang

Taking the Bus in Penang

Rapid Penang Bus Routes

Other Public Transport in Penang

Driving in Penang

Cycling in Penang

Cycling in Penang
Penang Bike Share (coming)

Postal Services in Penang

Vital Contacts in Penang

Categories of sights in Penang

If you operate a business with an address in Malaysia, submit this form to have your business listed in my directory. Listing is free of charge.

Activities in Penang

Do not know what to do during your spare time? In Penang, there's lots of opportunity for recreation. The following is just a sample of activities that you can join while you're here!

Arts of Penang

Penang Street Art: Over the past decade, Penang has become a regional destination for street art. Here's a list of some of the street art which you can discover here.
Auditoriums
Chingay
Sbaek Thom
Teochew Puppet Play

Culture of Penang

The People of Penang

Major Towns and Destinations of Malaysia

The Whole Wide World at Your Fingertips!

This website covers not just Penang, and not just Malaysia. I have described the entire world, and the information is shared here to you. Feel free to make use of my expanding body of knowledge. Pages are being updated on a regular basis.

Updates on the Penang Travel Tips Homepage

7 May 2016
After years of aligning the homepage in two columns, I decided to simplify the homepage to just one column, and make the information much easier for readers to find.

About the author

Timothy Tye (REN NO. 32418)
Hello and welcome to my website. My name is Timothy Tye. I created it to provide you with useful place information. As a real estate agent in Penang, Malaysia, I understand the importance of having reliable place information at your finger tips to help you make informed property decisions. If you are planning to buy, sell or rent a property in Penang, get in touch with me. My team of real estate negotiators are on hand to provide you professional services.

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