Author: tvsmith

We Used To Head Straight For The Beach In Penang

Before Georgetown in Penang was accorded UNESCO status as a World Heritage site, many visitors liked staying at the beach hotels at Batu Ferringhi and Tanjung Bungah.

I was driving with my freind Alex Wong along Gold Coast Sepang the other day. I usually write my travel stories in my mind as they unfolded. Every keyword, adjective or noun that I wanted to use was a name of a hotel in Penang. The story can end up sounding like a list of beach hotels in Penang; Bayview, Golden Sands, Casuarina Beach Resort, (now Hard Rock Hotel), Lone Pine, Lost Paradise, etc.

Tanjung Rhu Resort was in Langkawi though. Penang owned catchy Beach Hotel names since the 80s. During pre-Penang Bridge days or before Georgetown was accorded UNESCO status as a World Heritage site, many of us headed for Batu Ferringhi or Tanjung Bungah rather than the now newer, hipster and so called boutique hotels in Georgetown.

Many beach hotels had what they designated as their own private beach reserved for their room guests. Many locals will walk in through the lobby and swim at the beaches unfairly reserved for foreign tourists. A friend in the industry told me the hotels came up with an ingenious idea to protect their beach from free loaders. They hired Ang Mohs (white men) and stationed them like a Secret Service agent guarding the perimeter. It worked. LOL. It frightened locals away.

The bullying of locals worked in Singapore too. I went to a casino in Singapore and there was a Mat Salleh at the entrance screening people going in. Singapore has a set of casino restrictions for locals and the Ang Moh bouncer in a suit and tie terrified local rule breakers.

I suppose it is mere Asian politeness, shyness or a colonial day hangover.

Find around 700 hotels in Penang here.

Now with its heritage status, George Town saw many new city hotels being built and is attracting even more visitors. Hotels flourished at the Gurney Drive area as well. Gurney Drive is essentially a sea facing esplanade. Note that not all seafront hotels are sea touching and you may be required to a walk across a busy main road. Check maps of hotel you selected. Here is list of Penang Hotels, usefully sorted into their respective categories : http://www.mycen.my/hotels-in-penang/

Memories Of Ipoh

Even residents in Ipoh used to say it was a “sunset” city with little growth and a good place to live in retirement. So much has changed in the last ten years, with the city leapfrogging over night.

I can still remember the lonely D.R. Seenivasagam Park and the Ipoh Stadium, which was a popular make out place. Popular hotels such as the Excelsior was with audible loud thumping disco music from downstairs, much like the Hotel Anika in Kluang.

I remember the laid back Casuarina Hotel. It is now gone and reborn as the Impiana. The most recent hotel I stayed in was perhaps Tune Hotel Ipoh. It is is now renamed as Pi Hotel. Good to also see old favorites like YMCA and Tambun Inn are still around. Sadly, the vintage Majestic Hotel at the beautiful colonial railway station is gone.

What were fallen, are now replaced by many new and fancy hotels. Many of the newer hotels are exciting and luxury additions such as The Haven, Banjaran Hot Springs, Lost World of Tambun Hotel and the M Boutique Hotel.

I am guessing Ipoh’s unanticipated revival could be because of social media. The classic food outlets, chicken rice and nasi ganja became fodder for social media content hungry day-trippers from KL. There is now also a wave of new hipster cafes in Ipoh.

I remember going with Patrick Teoh when he wanted to visit the other famous Ipohan, Lat. We ended up for a drink at Malaysia’s oldest pub or bar, from 1906. The F.M.S, is now closed without ceremony. Glad we did. Oh yes, we then went on to tackle the iconic pomelo girls, they were another famous Ipoh icon.

Also remembered a trip guided by another Ipohan Adriene Leong in which we visited the very beautiful Masjid Panglima Kinta and had a real old town coffee in Ipoh old town. Can’t find the old pics. Sigh.

On another trip, I visited the late filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad at her film set in her adopted hometown Ipoh. Also went to see the Majestic Station Hotel where the cast and crew stayed.

The one and only modern mall at one time in Ipoh, for a long time, was Ipoh Parade. It is now joined by many new AEON malls.

Who can forget old Super Kinta Mall and the market? Remember the reverse T shaped logo? I think the complex may have been modeled after the original People’s Park in Singapore. Now I think it resembled the disorderly Russian Market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Who else here is “Ipoh Mali”?

Find an Ipoh hotel here. if you are visiting. Newer hotels included:

http://www.mycen.my/hotels-in-ipoh/

Info compiled with assistance of Ipohan Emily Lowe. Thank you.

Where Prices Soar Like An Eagle

Where Prices Soar Like An Eagle

I went to my first LIMA in 1991. I stayed at the freshly minted Sheraton Langkawi, I think it is now the Century Langkawi Beach Resort. It was booked by the Australian High Commission in KL who hired me to photograph their military participation.

There was a mad rush to get the hotel and many other new hotels ready at the 11th hour. It was Dr M’s pet project and people were nervous. The Jacuzzi smelled of turpentine and shellac. I was thinking at that time that Langkawi was a pristine tropical Island or paradise and many hotels were not geared for the impact of such a show.

Many existing luxury hotels were already charging over RM 1000 per night. With the demand, many smaller and simpler hotels started charging ridiculous rates around show time. It was blatant price gouging. In the last 2 and a half decades, I attended LIMA, I have always fear the price and difficulty in getting rooms.

Not all visitors are rich or employees of aircraft manufactures. Many workers are there as support staff at the exhibitions, I met many airplane spotter hobbyists, Also, I met many German and Japanese journalists who were from specialised but low circulation military and aviation magazines. They always complain to me about the hotels exploiting the situation.

Today, it was published in newspapers that the Langkawi Tourism Association (LTA) finally admitted there are middle men or brokers who made block bookings for profit. Of course with technology, the overpriced hotels are pricing themselves out.

Shopping for a room is now much easier and comparison of rates are simpler and faster. Those days we needed to call each hotel, one at a time, after scanning the Yellow Pages. Today I checked via Agoda and many rooms are still available. During one year, I met a German who told me his paid booking for a USD 500 room was cancelled to give the room to a Malaysian VIP.

Few hotels want to disown a paid booking these days as they don’t want to risk getting dropped from lucrative online booking sites for breach of contract.

The beauty of a real time interactive booking system is that the popular ones were showing updated status like “last few rooms available” today. I think many of the hotels allow penalty free last minute cancellation because they know an unprepared roomless guy will walk in later.

I created a special page with tips to finding a hotel in Langkawi. I have also linked the many hotels I stayed at before. Your taste and budget may be different and I included a wide enough range at:

http://www.mycen.my/hotels-in-langkawi/

While it is easy to cast brickbats, people rarely praise the mom and pop shops run by locals from Langkawi. The makcik and pakcik gerai didn’t increase their prices although they could have. They redeemed the island’s image.

#lima2017 #lima #langkawi #airshow

London

London.

My long time friend Dato’ Sri Andrew Abishegam, who was in London recently, sent these pictures when I was chatting with him on WhatsApp the other day. I think the first is Harrod’s of London with multiple contrails in the sky. Lovely pics and the two pics are copyright DS Andrew Abishegam.

The second picture is the Queen’s Windsor Castle, I am guessing. I have not been to London for so long, l don’t know where all the Malaysians like to stay these days. I can’t even remember the names of some of the nice hotels I stayed. I will add direct links to some of some of the hotels popular with Malaysian visitors when I find out.

Third pic is of me as a pigeon whisperer in my younger days.

I have created a special page for hotels in London.
http://www.mycen.my/hotels-in-london/ See updated page here: http://www.tvsmith.my/travel/london-malaysian-magnet

Meanwhile, use the dynamic London-centric scrolling banner there or go to http://www.mycen.my/agoda/ to search for another hotel anywhere in the world

Let’s Pop!

Let’s Pop! A stay at legendary Bali is now more affordable than many may think. Like to introduce you to an affordable and stylish place with colours that pop. Haha. I got to know ethnic Indonesian Hokkien Treshia Lim (Lim E Cha) when she was working at the Swiss-Belhotel International in Bali. She went back to her hometown in Medan to work for Radisson Medan. Before I can visit her at the Kota Kuliner (culinary capital) in which the North Sumatra city is known for, she is back in Bali. Such a nomadic life for a hotelier. She is also a Catholic and a foodie.

She is now with the corporate office of the chain that runs the Pop! Group of hotels and they have a nice and affordable hotel in Bali. With information from her, I created a custom page for Pop! Hotel Kuta Beach Bali. It is also the first time I am implementing Agoda’s dynamic banners in which other hotel options in the same destination are displayed with scrolling views. Seeing the Google map may be dizzying as there are over 3000 hotels listed by Agoda on the island! Pop! Hotel Kuta Beach seems a logical choice because the rates are truly affordable and it is very near the beach and popular eating places. The hotel has all the modern amenities such as free wi-fi and pool. It is also a fairly new hotel, being only 3 years old.

For more info or to book, go to: http://www.mycen.my/pop-hotel-kuta-beach-bali/

#bali #kuta #beachhotel #indonesia #pophotel #island #beach #hotel #denpasar