Trip to Penang : Day 2, City Tour by HOHO Bus

We used to wake up at 5 AM for morning prayer and then preparing to start activities. But in Penang, activities begin at 9 AM (except students going to school and Indian restaurant in front of our hotel 😄). So it’s a bit sucks for us waiting till 9 AM doing nothing..haha.

We were planning to visit Penang Hill (also known as Bukit Bendera) on 2nd day in Penang. The funicular train that will bring us up to hill is something attractive. The location of Penang Hill is quite far from our hotel in Georgetown. We had check on RapidPenang website about how to go there, but it seems a bit complicated.

So we decided to take Hop On Hop Off Bus (HOHO), because it will make our trip more simple. We can visit many tourism sites in less time.  This bus has two route, City Route and Beach Route. Each route has some tourism attractions that the bus could visit on demands or on it’s standard stop.

Where to catch this HOHO Bus? You should go to Gurney Plaza first because it’s the interchange counter and final HOHO bus stop. You can learn about HOHO Bus here.

We ride CAT Bus to Komtar and change to RapidPenang 101 to reach Gurney Plaza. The RapidPenang will stop at the back side of the plaza, and HOHO Bus counter is at the front side.

Back side of Gurney Plaza

Both route of HOHO Bus were available when we arrived at the counter. We choose City Route Bus and paid RM 45 for 24 hours ticket. We arrived on 11 AM and able to use the ticket till the next day on the same time. Wohooo let’s start the city tour!

Penang Hill

The first stop of HOHO City Route Bus is Penang Hill, it took about 30 minutes to reach there. It was Saturday so we got much traffics on the road, seems like many people would spend their time in Penang Hill as well. Arrived at Penang Hill, we got a long queue and wait about 1 hour before the train arrived.

Penang Hill tickets

While waiting for the train we are able to see the history of Penang Hill and the train. This mini museum shows the development of Penang Hill’s train from time to time.

I bet my self won't be brave enough to ride this old-days train 😆

The train had arrived! Fortunately we got a chance to sit in the back of the train and captured the best adrenaline moments of riding the Penang Hill Funicular Train. The train is designed to follow hilly road condition. The train’s floor is such staircases with almost 90 degree tilt. For me it’s quite scary just like riding a roller coaster! 😂

Yeayyy we queuing on the front line when it arrives

Dare to see landscape below?😱

Penang hill offers an observatory to see Penang’s beautiful landscape from top. It is surrounded by tropical forest that gives fresh air. There are also cafe, fish spa, foot massage and Mini Park that you can enjoy with your family. We didn’t take much time in here, because we weren’t interested to see park or eating in café. Just had sightseeing and inhale some fresh air, then we went back to train station and continue our trip.

The Observatory

Cafe and Museum

Love locks photobooth

Our next stop is Kek Lok Si Temple!

This temple is really famous because of its location on the top of mountain and very spacious. It has a 30.2 meters (99 ft) tall bronze statue of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. Known as the biggest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.

But unfortunately this temple is out of our expectation!

We took off from HOHO Bus at the parking lot and should walk about 1 km to reach entry gate. We were welcomed by hundreds of turtles swimming in the pound. After feeding a bunch of spinach to the turtles we continue walking to the stairs towards the temple. But hey, there are about thousand stairs waiting us! It was a mistake to choose walking to reach the temple, because we don’t have any marathon skill that could help us. We gave up without stepping on one of those thousand stairs! Haha..

Warm welcome from the turtles!

We ended up here..still long way to reach the top..😅

If you are planning to explore Kek Lok Si Temple, you better catch a taxi to bring you up to the entry gate at the top, instead of walking that might spend your time.

Clan Jetties

HOHO Bus stop at some tourism sites near Penang Road that we had visited yesterday, so we directly went to Clan Jetties. Clan Jetties is a floating Chinese village. The village is really quite and there is a small temple in each house. Its location is next to Jetty Bus Station that also becomes RapidPenang bus interchange. Clan jetties are small village, so we only spent 10 minutes exploring and back to HOHO bus stop.

We skipped two sites after Clan Jetties, they are Cruise and Fort Cornwallis. The famous Blue Mansion has attracted us, but unfortunately we came right after the gate has closed. Actually Blue Mansion is a traditional Chinese house built by Cheong Fatt Tze. He desired to preserve a beautiful and sophisticated  China heritage architecture, that’s why he did the best to build this mansion. UNESCO has acknowledged Blue Mansion as one of Georgetown Heritage Site, many people come to experience this traditional Chinese house. But to preserve this site, committee has set visiting hour, the last hour is at 3 PM, and we missed it..huhu.

Chocolate & Coffee Museum

To ease the disappointment, we finally went to Chocolate & Coffee Museum that only 5 minutes walk from Blue Mansion. Here you will be able to learn about the chocolate making process in modern technology. They also show the coffee blending process of Penang’s famous white coffee. For chocolate lovers, you can find various chocolate products in the shop. From dark chocolate, milk chocolate, coffee chocolate till fruits chocolate. But the price is a bit expensive, it starts from RM 25 to hundreds Ringgit. We prefer to buy chocolate and white coffee in Chowrasta Market for lower price. (As expected from budget traveler mindset..LOL!)

Finally we came back at HOHO counter Gurney Plaza. Gurney also well known for its delicious foodcourt called Pusat Penjaja Anjung Gurney, just next to HOHO Bus counter.

What foods did we find here? Will completely tell you later..😊