Penang Travel Tips (16 March 2020)

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Guide to visit Penang and make it your home

B. Melayu

Hello and welcome to Penang Travel Tips. My name is Timothy Tye. I created this website as a guide to visit Penang and to make it your home. It is not just a website for travellers. It is more a place information encyclopedia. If you are looking to acquire real estate in Peanang, this is the place to start.

As a property specialist, I realise that people need useful information to make informed decisions when it comes to acquiring real estate. This website is the result of the research I carried out on the local real estate. At the same time, it is also an encyclopedia of place information, not only of Penang, but also of Malaysia, Singapore, and many other places.

Discover Penang Road By Road

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

Penang Place Information

To help you find what you want about Penang, use the Sight Directory of Penang which lists 4233 Penang sights, a Business Directory of Penang listing 212 types of businesses in Penang, and a Street Directory listing 1643 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 is one of the most comprehensive English-language resources about Penang, with a growing body of information on other cities in Malaysia as well as Singapore.

The Penang Travel Tips website 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.

I was born and raised in Penang, and I have a deep passion for the state and its people, as well as for the documentation of its cultural heritage. Aside from Penang Travel Tips, I am the co-founder of AnakPinang, a Facebook-based community of Penangites, to build a better Penang for all its people. On 20 May 2020, I established SojiMart, a platform to help people sell things on Facebook without having to pay commission or any associated fees.

About me

My name is Timothy Tye and I am the author of this website as well as the Discover with Timothy YouTube Channel. I am a subject matter expert oin the field of Penang culture and heritage, and have written extensively about the history, architecture and food of Penang as well as of Malaysia and Singapore.

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!

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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.

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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 2023 State Election, the Pakatang Harapan (PH) coalition won 29 out of the 40 seats, of which PH won 27 while Barisan Nasional (BN) won 2. Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition won the 11 remaining seats. List of the 2023 Penang State Assemblymen here.

In the 2018 State Election, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition commanded 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

Getting started on Penang Real Estate

Whether you are planning to buy a house, a shop, an office, a factory, a hotel or land in Penang, the first thing you need to do is to understand the locality. In this section, I explain to you every locality in Penang, so that you have a better idea what type of property you can expect there, and at what price level. For the sake of easy comprehension the property types are residential, commercial, industrial and land, while price levels are low-cost, low-medium-cost, medium-cost, upper-medium-cost and high-end. Residential real estate can be further divided to flats & apartments, condominiums & serviced residences, landed houses and gated communities. Landed houses in Penang include terrace houses, townhouses, semi-detached houses and detached houses, bungalows and villas.

At any point, if you need personal assistance, please email me at penangtraveltips at gmail dot com, or whatsapp me at +60-12 429 9844.

Information on the residential real estate in Penang

Planning to buy, sell or rent a house, condominium or apartment unit in Penang? This website provides you with useful information.

Luxury Condos For Sale in Penang

Looking for luxury condominiums for sale in Penang? Review the available units right here.

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Guide to High-Rise Residential Properties in Penang

If you need information on high-rise residential properties in Penang (condominiums, apartments, serviced residences, etc.), here's a list of properties to go through.

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Guide to House Estates in Penang

If you need information on houses, here's a list of the housing estates in Penang.

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Penang Real Estate by Locality

New to Penang and not sure which locality to choose? Use this guide to understand Penang real estate by locality.

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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 this website

Thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye. My hobby is to research information about places, and share the information with people on this website. I started this website on 5 January 2003, and since then, have written about over 20,000 places, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. While I try my best to provide you information that is as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors. Also, as I might not be able to update some information on time, some of these pages may contain outdated information.

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