You may already heard that Penang is one of the heritage cities in Asia. Personally I saw many pre-war buildings on the island but most of them were either abundant or damaged, but not this one – the newly renovated Yeng Keng Hotel - 燕京旅社.

I was invited for a food review recently in the hotel. The food discussion will be available in next post. For this post, I will briefly talk about the building and its surrounding.

Yeng Keng Hotel was located at Chulia Street. If you came from jetty side, the hotel is just on your right hand of Chulia Street. You can refer to Google Map below or GPS above.

The moment you walk into the entrance, you will see an opening dining area. There is a small parking lot behind the hotel. You can drive your car in if you would like to enjoy lunch/dinner or stay a night there. Free parking by the way.

There is a bit history on this building. The crews actually spent a lot of efforts in renovating this building. They even found a few pieces of antiques when digging the surrounding.

By looking at the renovated lobby, you hardly believe that this building was once a drug addict hideout.

It also used to be a club house by one of the local societies.

I am lazy to go through its history here but you can always go to http://www.yengkenghotel.com for further information as well as making reservation.

The interior is nicely decorated. Lighting effect is excellent as well. There is a small swimming pool which opens from 7am – 7pm. I hope I could swim at night as the lighting is nice at night. There were overall 20 rooms in this hotel. Don’t get the wrong idea that they are budget hotel type in which you have to squeeze yourself in double-decker bed and share bathroom with other tenants. Each room is well renovated, repainted, and refurnished to make it looks no different compared to other grand hotels. Prices start from RM300++.

The hotel looks old outside, but once you entered its room, you will be amazed by how new the room is.

Each room of course has its own bathroom. It is hot shower type.

The wash sink. Seriously it looks as stylish as those in new hotels.

And of course, a clean toilet bowl.

A closer look indicates that it is not an ordinary toilet bowl. It has a control panels to make sure your are not boring when doing business. Don’t play play.

The management actually spent a lot of effort in reviving this hotel. They have to ensure that the renovation did not destroy the original look. They also faced challenges with humidity especially after heavy rain (since old walls were made of limestone and many wood structures there). Fortunately the management is able to control the problems.

If you would like to experience yourself staying a night in an old building in Georgetown, Penang yet able to enjoy modern facilities such as air conditional, flat TVs, free Internet WIFI, swimming pool, hot shower, and even advanced toilet bowl, you may consider this hotel. With only 20 rooms available, make sure you make reservation first from their official website.

I will cover the hotel’s dining section in next post.

No related posts.

Each year during Chinese New Year, Kek Lok Si (极乐寺) at Air Itam, Penang will be lighten up with beautiful lights at night and will last for about 30 days. I did not visit it previously but this year, I paid it the first visit in the evening.

I parked my car at the bottom and walk all the way up to the temple’s car park. There are many photographers carrying their DSLR camera and tripod there for some nice pictures. When I arrived at about 7:15pm, I can see some photographers standing at the opposite side of Kek Lok Si, on top of the hill for some firework shoots. This also mean that I stood at wrong location to take firework photos.

Shooting night scene is a nightmare without a tripod. I bought a tripod on the same day for my point-and-shoot camera. The photos look better now with a tripod.

Kek Lok Si will be lighten up for 33 days starting from 21-Jan-2009. Time will be from 7pm to 12am. For 25-Jan, 26-Jan, 27-Jan, and 9-Feb (除夕，初一，初二，元宵), lights will be on from 7pm – 7am of the next day.

The scene is really excellent. There are thousand of lantern hanging around. Most of them are by donation. The flowers are blooming and decorated with lights as well. Kek Lok Si spent RM300,000 this time for decoration.

As a whole, you should visit Kek Lok Si during this lighting event. Pray for good luck in the new year. Make a wish there. Remember to bring a camera. Tripod is your good friend.

No related posts.

Hungry at night? The list above shows you a list of KFC restaurants running 24/7 in Malaysia.

Related posts:

1. Mr. Pot Coffee & Toast – Now western food goes 24 hours

Aeon Shopping Center (Front View)

Fortunately it is quite easy to find the shopping complex (see wikipedia). If you come from Penang Bridge, easiest way is to make a U-turn below Kulim-Butterworth highway (same junction in which if you turn left you will go to Sunway Carnival). Alternatively, you can also make U-turn somewhere at Megamall (which is nearer but maybe illegal). You can also refer to the map I drew below:

Aeon Shopping Center Roadmap

The shopping center was opened in 22 August 2008, which is rather new. I reached there at 11AM and Jusco will only open at 1PM due to holiday!!

Luckily the shops around still opening. The shops are quite similar to those in Queensbay Mall, such as 老爸茶 (La Ba Cha), Kenny Roger, Nandos, Secret Recipe, Johnny, KFC, McDonald, Laksa Shack, and so on. Some new restaurants in northern region are such as Black Canyon, Hongkie Recipe, Big Apple, Che Go Korean BBQ, Food & Tea Hong Kong, and so on.

For my first visit, I had my lunch at Food & Tea Hong Kong which hopefully can have a review of it soon.

Pillars - Landmark of Aeon Shopping Center

Malays playing congkak

Aeon Shopping Center (Rooftop Car Park)

The shopping complex is spacious with higher roof and reflecting marble floor. There are many entrances from car park so make sure you do not get lost in the building. There is a rooftop car park as well. There is a cinema inside, which will definitely draw some crowd during weekend as well as weekday.

Overall, the shopping complex is promising. Due to the fact that there are too many shopping complexes around, it is expected that the competition is high and definitely some are perform better than the others. Only time will tell who is the last winner of this shopping complex war.

Related posts:

1. Batu Lanchang Hawker Center (1)
2. CHE GO Korean BBQ @ AEON Seberang Prai
3. Why People Shopping? The 6P4C

The Star, 5-Aug: High-Risk Deal

It is regarding Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) investigating a case involving a sub-par Singapore IT company being assigned RM1bil Malaysia project in upgrading communication system for policemen (Hmm… sound familar). It is actually not intesting until you read the rest on page 3:

The Star, 5-Aug: Upgrading project was first given to well-known MNC

Oops, the project was given to a well-known MNC initially and the government passed it to a local IT company to handle it (but somehow it ends at a Singapore IT company hand operated by Israelis??). Also, it said currently only RM45 millions had been approved and the government had decided to scale down the project. This leads to doubt on the survival of that MNC company in Malaysia which was an issue before election this year.

No related posts.