You will want to get connected when you are are George Town. There are a lot of companies offering telephone services for your mobile when you are in the island, so you need not worry about not being able to call home to let your family and friends know that you are safe. So, what are the options that you can have?

There are two ways. You may get a post paid card if you are going to stay on for a long period of time, but if you are just staying for a short period, such as two weeks or a month, you may get a prepaid card instead. You still need to register for the prepaid card, using your passport as identification. There are many different telephone companies available with different packages to choose from.

Maxis

Maxis is one of the telco companies that keeps fluctuating between love and hate. Some people may have used it for more than ten years, and stays loyal to it, while others may have used it for just a few months and start complaining about it. However, this may be very subjective, depending on how the customer perceives it. There are fine prints, and at any point at all, the customer should listen carefully to all the terms and conditions to ensure that there will be no surprises when you use it. It can happen not only to Maxis service, but also to any other services.

Some people complain about the reception. However, Maxis is has indeed the best reception at highways. There are many places where other telcos may have lost total reception, but Maxis still has it, yet many people still do complain about it. Maybe they have seen something better, or maybe their expectations were a bit too high... or maybe they were interpreting something greater than reality based on the advertisements with promises that may not be fulfilled each time. It is a telco company anyway, and subject to technical glitches and many other problems that we may not know at the backend of the communications technology.

Digi

This is the one that the Yellow Man promoted. While Maxis holds its identity with a strong red colour, Digi gives it a stark contrast by having it a bright yellow. The advertisements are a lot of fun too, with a Yellow Man icon that is easily recognised as a Digi man. How good is it anyway?

It promises the network coverage to be with the user at anytime at all. This is another one of those advertising promises that may not be fulfilled, because some buildings just do not allow for good reception. When such things happen, the customers start complaining again. Some will start examining whether it is the phone, and some will say that it depends on the areas. At last, apparently the Yellow Man is not always there for everyone.

Celcom

This is probably the least popular among the three older services, but it does have its own customer base which may be slowly dwindling in many ways. Advertisements are all over the streets, as streamers at lamp posts or as billboards. However, there is not much hype or talk about this telco service, and customers just stay there or leave when other telcos have better offer. So much for loyalty to this telco with a blue colour for its logo.

U-Mobile

U-Mobile is a relatively new telco service that seemed to get quite a favorable review from its users. It is mostly about low call charges, unlike others that may have mobile phone bundle packages. Some people claim that this service is available even in those buildings where normally there will be bad reception. How true this is has yet to be shown with more solid evidences. It may be just coincidental, or perhaps it may be just because there were lesser people taking up the service, hence lesser traffic to its lines.

What are the criteria that you have when you wish to get a mobile communication when you are in George Town? Will you pay more attention to the charges of overseas calls, or will it be data plans for your other gadgets for mobile Internet? One company may offer you a very competitive overseas calls price, while another may offer you a very good unlimited data transfer package for your mobile Internet connections. Each company actually has its own advantages, and a lot also depend very much on the location of where you are using it. For example, one person may be using the Maxis broadband with the Internet key without any problems, while another may experience very slow data download due to location. The construction of the building will also affect the quality of the line. Just choose the one with a plan that you are most comfortable with and you will not go wrong. Make sure to check our Instagram, we were recently able to buy Instagram video views, so check them out.

Share on Facebook

What do people living in George Town have for breakfast? Is there any particular type of food, just like the signature soybean milk and fried dough stick that they have in Hong Kong? What do Penangites like to have for breakfast in general? Also a city with good food needs a good dentist to keep their teeth healthy, they have one of the most Advanced Dentistry services.

Being in a place where there are three main ethnic groups certainly add colours to everything, especially the food. Penangites live in harmony and the most interesting thing about it all is that each ethnic group enjoys the others' food very much, although a lot of people prefer to eat healthy with a diet from nutrisystem vs jenny craig. There are a few favorites which are quite common and some are actually popular overall as a whole for Malaysians generally.

Chinese Dim Sum

Yes, Chinese Dim Sum is one of the favorites especially during a weekend when families are out together on a day where the parents do not need to go to work at the office. There are a lot of Chinese Dim Sum restaurants around George Town and in the island as a whole, and many of these shops are already in business for the past ten years at least. The designs of these restaurants may be authentic, and they may also serve some of the best local favorites that becomes the reason why people are willing to wake up early in the morning just to get breakfast at these restaurants that are often packed with patrons as early as 6am in the morning. It is always worth it! And of course, dim sum is almost always accompanied by some Chinese tea, and you will note that Penangites know their tea very well.

Roti Canai

This is a local Indian favorite. The idea is a piece of Indian pancake, torn to pieces by hand and dipped into curry gravy. Top that with a glass of Pulled Tea and you will be tempted to show your thumb and rub your tummy to show that it is yummy.

Over the years, there had been some variety to the Roti Canai. First there was the Roti telur that added an egg to the pancake, making it slightly thicker and fuller to the stomach. Now, just look at the list of variety available and you sometimes may have no idea which ones to choose because they are all so nice. There is Roti Planta with added butter, Roti Sardine, Roti Cheese... and a variety of others including Roti Bawang that adds onions to make sure that the fiercest vampires will not be able to get near you. Of course it is not really that pungent, it is just a matter of speech.

The gravy that is used for the dipping also varies. There may be the normal dhal which is all vegetarian, or you may be asking for chicken or fish curry. Usually there will be a mix of either chicken with dhal or fish with dhal, and in some optional paid choices, you may ask for a piece of chicken or fish in the gravy for a chargeable sum.

Nasi Lemak

This is the traditional coconut milk rice that you will get from Malay stalls, although now there may also be a twist to it, perhaps sold by non Malays as well. The original version is coconut milk rice with chili and anchovies with a piece of hard boiled egg and some curry gravy, wrapped in coconut leaf. Now, some may have the variety of curry chicken instead of anchovies, or fried fish with curry gravy. These are usually pre-packed and today many are not using banana leaves anymore. They opt for the easier version of waxed paper for hygiene and cost reasons.

In another variety of the Nasi Lemak, the rice is not pre-packed. You go to the stall, and see a few plastic containers with lots of gravy and different types of dishes. Sometimes you may get some cockles too, which is said to be a great source of iron. You may choose chicken, fish, cockles, anchovies, or perhaps a mix of these different foods, to make your packet of Nasi Lemak even more fulfilling. Sometimes they may even offer beef, so you just need to point and ask the seller exactly what meat it is.

Noodles

For most Penangites, breakfast may sometimes be a bowl of soup noodles, or maybe fried noodles. The popular ones include Wan Tan mee, which is just dumpling soup with noodles, Curry Noodles, Hokkien Noodles, or Koay Teow Soup for those variety with soup, and the popular fried noodles variety include the Hokkien Char, Char Koay Teow and Ee Fu Mee. These are not only breakfast favorites, in fact they are favorites for any of the three meals of the day! Not only are noodles healthy but they are something that compliments a new drug called kratom really well. Well, Kratom isn't exactly what first impression it puts out. It isn't exactly something that can send you to legacy rehab, and is a safe drug. Kratom has been a big part of my noodle diet for a long time.. I dont know its just very very tasty with it. I get my Kratom, Sacred Kratom, https://www.sacredkratom.com at the best place which is easy to spot, I mean just look at how good they are!

You will never get bored with the breakfast offerings in George Town. Unlike most other countries that will have only one particular type of breakfast each morning, Penangites are a fun bunch of people when it comes to food. Maybe this explains why Penangites are a happy bunch.

Share on Facebook

If you look at all the good things that George Town has to offer and you are tempted to something more, you probably will want to opt for some truly memorable place to stay. The hotels in George Town and Penang island as a whole are superb, and lately there is another new edition to the list that promises to pamper you till you melt... a promise that you can get fulfilled only when you are at George Town. The new place is called Deluxcious, a nice place that started off first as a Spa with a restaurant, that now grows into a boutique hotel as well and has one of the best Charle a Hair Studio for your hair!.

How sweet can that be! For those who had tried its food before, you will agree that it is one of the best fine dining restaurants in the island. The owner is a young chef who had the vision of giving total pampering and relaxation to the patrons by having first a restaurant and a spa service, and as business and profit grew, he had also taken over neighboring lots to make it into a boutique hotel. Let us now look at the elements that made up Deluxcious one by one.

The Spa

Whenever there are any special promotions, it may be a tie in between the spa and the restaurant. The spa is a nice place for both men and women, and couples may come together at the same time for a relaxing Balinese massage in the same room together. There are also modern beauty treatments available, and most of these treatments are organic using herbal plants from land and sea.

Seeing the success of the original spa at Deluxcious itself had prompt the opening of Qin Spa at Flamingo by the Beach, also in Penang. Both offers a good time for facial, jacuzzi and a good massage for relaxation and rejuvenation. After all that relaxation, customers may then head to the restaurant for a lovely meal at its fine dining restaurant area.

The Restaurant

The restaurant is headed by its owner, the award winning Penangite Chef, Keith Khoo. The young chef had returned from Singapore's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and his philosophy in maintaining the standards of his restaurant is “freshness”. The restaurant is a clean place with nice ambience, while the menu is full of fusion delights that are also healthy and delicious at the same time, which is important for many people which want to eat healthy and take care of their heart, also with supplements from this physio-omega review.

While the dishes maintain as Western cuisine, the kitchen prepares the food together with the infusion of local herbs to make it taste slightly different from what you will get from the West. The Rack of Lamb is probably the favorite dish in the restaurant, because it is really juicy and perfectly done to the right taste. This dish is an Award Winning dish in food – Asia, and is the winner of the Award Winning best flavor in AACO. The price is reasonable too, given the standard of service and food that is offered to the patrons.

The Hotel

The hotel is probably the most surprising, yet delightful, addition to the original Deluxcious. It takes the form of a 19^th century colonial-stle house, which is tastefully decorated like a colonial English home. There are eighteen private suites, and room rates are pretty reasonable given the aesthetic value it offers. You can also find great activities like the whale watching california adventure !

A lot of care has been taken to the details of its decorations, including the garden right outside the hotel itself. The garden chairs, the plants and even the stone slabs at the garden area are carefully laid for that flawlessness associated with the English, that it seems that everything is crafted for perfection. It shows just how carefully this idea had been planned right from the start, rather than an idea that suddenly flourished as an opportunity.

Serenade

During the evening if you have dinner at the restaurant, you will find some young talents singing sweet melodies for the customers. They may even create a little fun if you alert the restaurant that your dinner there is a birthday celebration, because they will start singing a birthday song as a cake is being brought out from the kitchen.

You can always arrange for something special with the restaurant. Call them up for the reservations, and you can always alert them that it is for a celebration. If you wish to, you may also bring in your own cake which you may have bought elsewhere, and instruct them to bring out the cake at a certain time to surprise whoever it is that you brought for dinner. They are good at keeping things hushed, and to bring out the surprise only when the time is right.

Even if you do not have any particular plan in mind, it will be nice to just have a good time dining at the restaurant or enjoying its spa services.

Share on Facebook

It has happened before, and it is going to happen again. When there is a strong seismic movement of the earth coming from Indonesia, Penang, especially the George Town area, can feel it. Many people thought that this is strange, but actually, there is nothing strange about it even if Penang is situated within the protective ring of non-earthquake activity area.

2004

The first time a quake is felt by people of the present generation in Penang was during the tsunami in 2004 that affected many Asian countries. The Indian Ocean earthquake destroyed many areas and killed many people, including Penang itself. Being the deadliest tsunami in the modern history, it is not surprising that George Town felt its effect that was estimated to equal the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs based on the findings of the US Geological Surveys. Worldwide, more than 150,000 people were dead or missing, and millions were homeless in 11 affected countries.

Part of Penang's northern shores were destroyed, swept clean by the tsunami. The area which is now Straits Quay was once a tsunami hit area where the road dividers were thrown by the sea water to hit the kampung houses by the side of the road.  Straits Quay today is a reclaimed land, which did not exist earlier. However, people seemed to have forgotten about the 2004 incident altogether as investors grab the new houses and premises even before the properties were completed.

2012

Recently again, the earth shook beneath the island. Tremors were felt and buildings swayed in early May 2012 and was felt by those who lived closer to the sea areas. Those who lived in the solid lands in the middle of the island did not feel it. However, the tremors had caused some panic especially those who were shopping at George Town's Prangin Mall, Komtar and 1^st Avenue Penang. Some shoppers screamed in fear, and many rushed out of the building during the first tremor. Shoppers were hurried out of the buildings, and by the second tremor at approximately 6.30pm, the shopping malls and retailers had shut down their operations.

Residents staying at the northern and southern parts of the island which is nearer to the sea also took precautionary measures of leaving their apartments and condominiums, going downstairs for safety reasons. Mobile phone services were disrupted for a while, and conjured images of horror and fear for the safety of family members that cannot be reached.

Rumours spread like wildfire, with allegedly valid news of the government shutting down Penang Bridge. This caused some panic as people feared that the quake will be bad enough to make the bridge collapse, but the government announced that those were merely rumours and the bridge operations were as normal. Before that, horrific images conjured in the minds of people, such as, if the routes leading to the island were to be cut off due to the quake, how will the people survive? Where will food and other resources come from? What is the escape plan? Will the air ticket prices surge with a rush for safety in the mainland?

Future

Seismologists and geologists have already said that the Indian Ocean plate is not stable, and is bound to move again with even more frequency than previously. This means that the island will feel more tremors in the future. The tremors will not be directly upon Penang, but will be one that is passed on from the Indian Ocean to Sumatra, before reaching us here. If this is true, we must learn what we need to do when the next tremor happens.

It is important not to panic at the first signs of tremors. Buildings may sway in Penang, and it is normal for us to feel dizzy when that happens. As our buildings may not have been engineered to be earthquake-resistant, move quickly and steadily out of the building to an open space. You will not be the only person finding the escape route from the building, so it is important to stay calm instead of being trapped into a panic that might create a stampede. Yet again, buildings collapse in earthquakes are more often seen in movies than in real life, and in Penang, you will find that the dangers from a tsunami wave will be more likely than a collapsing building during an earthquake.

There is really no need to be too worried. Penang is still a blessed island, as it sits quietly and contented with whatever development that is going on within. It is still a beautiful tourist island, and a lovely home to almost two million people, a combination of both the island and mainland. Penang will still be here for a long time, earthquake or not.

Share on Facebook

Penang is a place where people love to gather and share the arts. Could it be the people, or could it be the venue? The venue may play a very big role in this, because George Town has the accreditation of a Heritage Site by the UNESCO. However, the venue definitely cannot be without its people, people who still hold on to the traditional cultures and who still take time to ensure that there is leisure to enjoy the arts too.

It seems that there is a never-ending train of celebrations in Penang. It intensifies in the middle of the year, with the George Town Festival spanning between June and July. Not only locals are involved, there are many of those who share the artistic passion from other parts of the world coming to this beautiful island to show their talents, motivating hundreds, if not thousands, to follow suit each time. 2012 is no different, except that it has become even better this year.

The few main categories of the festival are Art, Theatre, Opera, Dance, Film, English, and Music. There are more, of course, and the variety richness guarantees to satisfy the hungry demand for a worthy performance. This year, local and foreign artists and performers of international standards promises an impressive month for everyone. It is quite entertaining that there is a festival in Penang that is mainly focused on English. Local people from there always wants to learn English. And so at this festival is where it is perfect to learn a thing or two like helping verbs and such. It is mind-blowing of how many people attend that festival.

Some of the highlights for this year's George Town Festival are Silat – Our Heritage For The World, Blinded Mind, Live Heritage, The Manganiyar Seduction, and Tropfest. These performances are worthy of mention because they do bring forth art in a different level.

Silat – Our Heritage for The World is the opening gala performance on 15 June at Fort Cornwallis, 8.45pm onwards. The martial art is a majestic display that originated some 2000 years ago. The performance will become the result of a collaboration between award-winning producer and director Saw Teong Hin, music director Saidah Rastam, production designer Liew Kung-Yu, lighting designer Dorothy P'ng and choreographer Aida Redza.

Blinded Mind is a theatrical dance piece with six dancers expressing the themes with their flexible and beautifully choreographed movements. Visual and sound elements complement the dancers grace in a tale of “unavoidable consequences that ensue when a single individual bravely swims against the prevailing stream”。The piece is choreographed by Susanna Leinonen, the renown Finnish choreographer who owns the Susanna Leinonen Company.

Live Heritage can be seen along the streets of George Town from 6^th to 8^th July as a three day celebration with more than 20 cultural performances and showcases. There are guided city tours, heritage talks, food bazaars... activities that will reveal the three Outstanding Universal Values of George Town as a World Heritage Site.

The Manganiyar Seduction is a must see performance during the George Town Festival. The performance was hailed by The Straits Times reporting as a “Gala show fit for a king...” during its performance at the Dublin Theatre Festival, as the Indian troupe uses unconventional methods to unveil their musical pieces in ways that keeps the audience interested. The performance is a combination of contemporary theatre with the traditional Rajasthani music, and is said to be once a performance for Rajasthani kings and a worship to Muslim saints and Hindu goddesses.

Tropfest ends the festival on 15^th July at Penang Botanical Gardens. It is the world's largest short film festival, first establishing itself in Sydney, Australia in 1993. Tropfest had screenings in New York, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi and many other prestigious venues, and this year's screening in George Town puts the heritage site in par with these other international venues.

Besides these highlighted performances, other not to be missed performances include “When 0 Meets 1”, a tribute to the most important playwright in Chinese theatre, Kuo Pao Kun; Penangites' Homecoming Concert which features a host of Penang-born singers, musicians and conductors; Wushu Madness II - The Realm Between which is a combination of contemporary dance and Wushu, a traditional martial art; Rasa Sayang, a series of dance productions which combines eastern spiritual theemes with contemporary visual architecture, a work of Tony Yap, Tim Humphrey, Madeleine Flynn, Naomi Ota and Ben Rogan; and The Philippine Madrigal Singers (Concert), featuring one of the world's most awarded choirs that have made their name in Europe and winning top prizes worldwide.

There are a lot more that the George Town Festival has to offer, and this year is certainly better than the last. It got students involved with their own inter-schools annual competition, art exhibitions in various art galleries in the island, the masses interest in a line dance for the public in Esplanade, and Golden Screen Cinema's participation in screening a variety of French Films with the Alliance Francais KL for a French Film Festival. Indulge your senses in the George Town Festival this year, for an experience that you will always remember.

For more information, please visit Georgetown Festival 2012.

Share on Facebook

There are many broadband services companies available in the country, and they are all now available at George Town, Penang. The only concern is on your budget and how extensive you want the service to be. Staying in a heritage city like George Town, Penang, does not mean that you need to stay in the old times... you can still live like a modern, urban dweller, and if you happen to need all the information about expenses in moving.

Streamyx

This is probably the oldest service available. It uses the fixed line provided by Telekom Malaysia, and there are still people who are using some of its earliest unlimited packages at a very low monthly payment. It may not be the most fashionable service in the country, but considerably the most stable. If there are a lot of complains about satellite broadband services that are unstable, there will still be Streamyx that may be slow and lagging, but will be able to still continue surfing. No matter how much the people complain, there will still be some reasons that people still keep Streamyx as their main wifi at home... for the stability that it can offer. As long as the telephone lines are well and cables are working, there will not be any problems with the services.

Unifi

Another strong broadband service that just emerged out of the Streamyx family is Unifi. The package for the Unifi includes a wholistic solution that combines Internet surfing with Internet television, plus communications by telephone and short messaging services. It is one of the strongest broadband connection to allow such Internet television, and it comes with several packages to allow connection within the whole house, while also checking other important parts of the house such as the cost of electric gates for residential buildings, so they can keep them apart and secure.

The television channels offered in the Internet television are lesser than those offered by Astro, even though some channels are the same. You will not get a full package like what you can get from Astro, but it will not be too disappointing either, unless you prefer more Oriental movies that you can get from the Dynasty Package on Astro, but I like to watch other type of movies, for which I use the netflix vpn to have more options.

So far, users are satisfied with the connections and said that the speed is fast compared to other services. Could this be just a temporary thing because subscription is still low? Or will it be able to maintain the speed as it is right now when more people enrol in its services?

Telco Broadbands

The next best thing to happen is the broadbands offered by telephone companies, such as Maxis, Digi or Celcom. There are a lot of people complaining about these companies, mainly because the lines may not be stable, or because there are additional data charges once their usage exceeds the signed dataplan. Some, however, will not have additional charges, but the lines will go really slow and not meet the speed expectations, yet still usable.

These telco broadbands usually come with an Internet key, which is a USB device to give laptop computers the ease of mobile connections. The USB device is just the size of a pendrive, which makes it easy to bring along and handy enough for a quick connection. Installation is easy as well, so there is no need to worry about convenience. However, the only negative aspect about this may be if there are too many subscribers using the service at the same time at a single location, or when there are some problems that will mar the satellite signals, then the connections may be a slower speed.

Otherwise, there are also wifi packages with all accessories included. These packages are usually the most expensive of all, probably because of the speed and strength of the connection, plus the accessories. It will be good to compare the packages and decide which one is the best, and check with existing users to get a more balanced review of the product.

P1 Wimax

Perhaps the most condemned of all services is the P1 Wimax. It is a service that once gave a lot of promises due to its publicity as a fast broadband service, that created a lot of angry customers and disappointments when its service could not cope with the promises it made to customers in the advertisements. It is a painful process to try cancelling the service too, due to the extensive terms and conditions that got a lot of grumblings by the customers. Perhaps P1 Wimax could try to improve its capacity so that services given to the customers will be better. In fact, P1 Wimax line always breaks easily, and it can be pretty frustrating especially if you are on Skype call.

Yes

Yes is one of the least popular in George Town, probably because it just started and is being challenged by Unifi. Yes boasted itself as the true 4G connection, but how fast and effective it is has yet to gain much raving reviews among Penangites.

Share on Facebook

If you ponder upon the religious practices of the people in George Town, you will find that both Chinese and Indians have a common deity worship: the Avalokitesvara, or Guan Yin, and may be referred to also by the name of the Goddess of Mercy. In the enthusiasm of the worshippers, the devotees had erected a huge statue of the Goddess of Mercy next to the pagoda attraction of the island, the Kek Lok Si.

The Kek Lok Si is said to be the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. It was first constructed since 1890, and with the amount of devotees that it gathers around the world, there are constant renovations and upgrades to the buildings.

Location

Kek Lok Si is about 30 minutes from the heart of George Town. There is a market at the foot of the hill where the pagoda is, and there are also a lot of older shop houses and hawker centres. You can expect the traffic to be pretty heavy most of the time, but it will not be an unmoving traffic. It is just that there are a lot of pedestrians and people buying and selling things, so motorized vehicles will need to give way to them. This will include buses, cars, motorcycles and bicycles.

Yes, there are buses. To get there from George Town, you may hop on to any of these buses: 201, 203, 204, 206, 306, or U502. If you are unsure, you may always ask the bus company representatives at the bus terminal and they will let you know. You can tell them just the name “Kek Lok Si”, and they will direct you to the right bus. The temple is really that popular in the island. When you get on the bus, you can always tell the bus driver that you want to go to “Kek Lok Si” and the bus driver will let you know when you arrive.

On The Way Up

Going to Kek Lok Si is more fun if you go by foot, rather than by car where you just drive up there to the mid section of the hill where the parking is. If you start from the foot of the hill, you will need to climb some stairs up. On both sides of the stairs, there are shops, selling clothes from The Fifth Collection, toys and souvenir items. There are also local produce such as nutmeg products that are made into preserved food or medicated oil.

Tortoises

There is a pond with a wooden bridge at the Kek Lok Si, with a lot of tortoises in there. The tortoises may be young, or may be more than 10 years old. It is a common thing for visitors to buy fresh vegetables from the vendors at the pond area to feed the tortoise, by throwing in the pieces of fresh vegetables into the pond. The tortoises delight in it, although sometimes if there are too much food, you might not see them eating those vegetables that you throw in. Do not despair, because when the tortoises get hungry, they will munch on the vegetables that you threw in for them.

Pagoda

Of course the main feature of the Kek Lok Si is the pagoda. It is a pagoda that gets narrower at the top, unlike the parallel cylinder shape of the Tower of Pisa. It is a challenge for those who are afraid of heights. You will need to pay an entrance fee to get into the pagoda, and to climb up the stairs. At each level, there will be the feature of a certain Buddha, and the stairs get narrower as you get to a higher level. It may be hard to walk with shoes on, you may seem to need to tiptoe. But it will be worth the walk, because the view from the top is really beautiful, thanks to the lovely landscape of Penang, both natural and man-made. It will give you a feeling of how it looks like from “up there”, and let you see how far and wide the world is and just how small we really are.

Guan Yin Statue

There is a new vernacular train service that brings you to the new Guan Yin statue, a very huge statue protected by a pavilion. The devotees contributed a lot of money to the building of this statue, although many people may complain that it seems to be always “under construction”. It is not easy to make such a structure.

Chinese New Year is the time when Kek Lok Si is at its most beautiful. There will be thousands of lights outlining the structure of the temple, a real sight to behold.

Share on Facebook

Coming to George Town, Penang, is not all about the sun, sea, sand and shopping. Sometimes, you may wish to have just a quiet time and have some spiritual relaxation, but the beach is still not enough for you. You wish for some deep reflection and decide to take on meditation. Hence, the Malaysian Buddhist Meditation Centre in Penang will be good for you.

The centre is affiliated to the Mahasi Meditation Centre in Yangon. The centre invites a monk from Myanmar, usually an established senior who can act as a Chief Monk and guide meditators, well versed in the Dhamma and is able to speak English well. The Chief Monk, or Sayadaw, will need to conduct Vipassana meditation classes based on the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition.

The meditation centre is in Jalan Masjid Negeri. You may get a Rapid Penang bus service of either U206 or 304 and stop at the bus station in front of Convent Green Lane school. The centre is just next to the school. It shares the ground with Wat Nai, a Thai temple that houses several Thai monks with their own groups of disciples. A huge Buddha statue was built in recent years midway at the entrance route to the meditation centre under a Bodhi tree, and one may worship by bringing in candles to give light offering.

Vipassana Meditation Mahasi Sayadaw Tradition

There are many types of meditation, or rather objects of meditation. The Mahasi Sayadaw tradition is one that was said to be based on the original and most basic teachings of the Buddha, which observes clearly the different conditions of our body.

In this method, one may either sit, stand, walk or even lie down. When one is sitting down, the main observation is the rising and falling of the abdomen with every breath taken, and diverting the attention to some other phenomenon of the body if those sensations are stronger than the rising and falling of the abdomen. An example will be the observation of the numbness of the legs while sitting, and the main objective is just to observe and do nothing else, not even to shift the sitting position unless the pain is truly unbearable. Even then, the shifting of position will have to be done slowly and observed completely.

The observations will lead one to realise that everything has a rising, and when there is a rising, there will always be a falling. It will never stay permanent, which will then be a support for the idea of impermanence. Most of the time it will be painful too, and even if it is a peaceful sensation, it comes to an end and we may feel unhappy when it ends. This is the support for the idea of suffering. While all these sensations arise, apparently they do so without ever consulting our permission. This is the support for the idea of non-self. These three, impermanence, suffering and non-self, are the basic essence of the Teachings and constantly reminded in the Theravada tradition.

Dana Sessions

There are also food offering sessions during breakfast and lunch. This is called Dana, and usually accompanied by prayer sessions prior to that. In usual practices, the food will be prepared and placed on the table before the monks come to the dining hall for the meals, and chant some prayers for merit sharing before eating. And in some other times, there may be the pindabat where disciples will kneel down and the monks will go round collection portions from them instead.

Sometimes the monks may actually walk out of the meditation centre to the market for their pindabat, while during some other special occasions such as during the month of Vassa or rainy season, the pindabat will be done within the temple grounds to make things easier for the disciples.

Library

Besides meditation and dana sessions, you may also visit a library at the centre where there are plenty of books of the Theravada practices, teachings and meditation guides. Most are books translated from texts from India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka and may originally be in Pali language, and the translations were done carefully to ensure that there is no deviation and wrong interpretation of the original texts. There are also audio tapes and CDs.

There are some other meditation centres in the island, but MBMC is probably the only one with two storeys of meditation halls out of its three storey building. In one word:

Share on Facebook

Sometimes, old habits die hard. There are a lot of people who love the idea of going for “yum cha”, or transalated from this Cantonese term “drink tea”. It simply means enjoying the Chinese dim sum and having a pot of Chinese tea to accompany, as an outing especially during weekends with the whole family. If you love this culture, be assured that you will also be able to enjoy it while you are at George Town, Penang.

There are many yum cha places in the island. A typical yum cha place in Penang will start having customers sometimes as early as 6 am in the morning, and as demand for such an authentic culture increased over the years, some restaurants are open till late in the evening. Among the foods served in these restaurants are dim sum which can be typically found in similar restaurants in Hong Kong and Chinatowns across the world, and some of the favorites among patrons are the egg tarts, Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun, Pei Dan Porridge and Carrot Cake. Some people may even bring their own tea collection and ask only for a teapot and hot water. Now, where can you go for a good yum cha in the island?

Tho Yuen Restaurant

It is in the middle of George Town, at Campbell Street. The Tho Yuen Restaurant is an authentic Chinese restaurant in one of those pre-war houses where walls are tiled and ceilings are high. The menu is handwritten in fluorescent colour papers and stuck to the walls, and all are in Chinese.

The main attraction of this restaurant is its handmade egg tarts. It is not round, it is oval. The crust is thin, flaky and crispy, while the egg custard filling is not too sweet. You can say that the egg tart is the restaurant's signature dish, and a lot of time the egg tarts will be sold out by 9am. Besides the egg tarts, there are also the claypot porridge, lo mai gai, char siew bao, turnip cake, taro cake, and prawn dumplings. The waiter or waitress will go around the conference tables with the best live edge and offer food with their trolleys, these selections and many more for you to pick.

If you are looking forward to it, do go early. The restaurant is opened from 6am to 3pm daily except for Tuesdays. The dim sum is a breakfast meal, while Hainan Chicken Rice is served for lunch.

De Tai Tong Cafe

Another famous dim sum restaurant in Penang is De Tai Tong Cafe, a very old Chinese style coffee shop in the middle of George Town. Again, this is an authentic Chinese yum cha restaurant where the food are brought before you in trolleys by the waiters or waitresses, and you can find the typical Chinese yum cha food.

De Tai Tong Cafe is situated at Cintra Street, a corner lot of a row of pre-war heritage shop houses that is clearly visible. The favorite food there is probably the char siew bao, which is steamed bun stuffed with barbequed pork. It also serves Hong Kong styled chee cheong fun, with barbequed pork and shrimp as its fillings. This restaurant works really hard, opens daily and for long hours too. From 6 am to 12 noon, it serves dim sum, while 12 pm to 3 pm, lunch hour is a seafood tavern. After that, it rests for a few hours before it reopens again from 6.30 pm to midnight with a combination of both dim sum and seafood tavern.

Maxim Dim Sum Restaurant

Another famous dim sum restaurant that is almost always fully occupied is the Maxim Dim Sum Restaurant at Pekaka Sungai Dua. It occupies two whole shopping lots, and still there never seem to be enough space to sit. Yet, people will just line up and not move to another restaurant, hoping that there will be people finishing their meals and moving away from the tables. Beware of its peak hours during mid mornings, where you can be almost certainly disappointed due to the crowd.

While Maxim has all types of regular dim sum, it also has some special types of dim sum that may not be normally found in other dim sum restaurants such as the Almond Coated Prawn Balls. The restaurant is opened daily from 6 am to 2 pm, and closed on alternate Mondays.

There are a lot of other dim sum restaurants in George Town and these are the few favorite ones by local Penangites. Just go anywhere in George Town in the morning and if you see a lot of Chinese families going into a restaurant, you can almost be sure that it is a Chinese Dim Sum restaurant.

Share on Facebook

Many people believed that it had become a white elephant, but the new Penang State Government started to revitalise it stage by stage. This is none other than KOMTAR which is situated at the heart of George Town, Penang's tallest building with abundance of space that had once housed the government offices and is well known around the world. At this moment, the restoration works are being done part by part, and some parts of the building will be closed to public.

Background

KOMTAR is the acronym for Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak, named after the country's second prime minister, the late Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein Al-Haj. It is not to be confused with the Johor Bahru KOMTAR which has only 25 storeys, because the KOMTAR in Penang has 65 storeys. There is also a special structure, which is the Dewan Tunku Geodesic Dome, a design which was once the pride of Malaysia because it is one of the first geodesic domes in the country.

The geodestic dome was designed and created for the purpose of making it into a venue for performances, official functions, concerts and other events such as exhibitions. The concept of geodestic structure was first created by Walther Bauersfeld for the Carl Zeiss optical company in year 1922. The dome is situated at level 4 of KOMTAR, and the main entrance is from the auditorium level.

KOMTAR, with its 65 storeys, occupies an 11 hectare site. The building works begain since 1 January 1974, with the piling works done by the late Tun Abdul Razak. After the building works had gone on for 9 years, a fire suddenly broke out in 1983 at the 43^rd floor of the building, devouring the floors above it. Many Penangites still remembers that incident, as they look at the building from below, and some wishing that the wind will change to rain to kill off the fire. Firemen were not able to put out the flames, and the flames burnt for eight hours.

Five years later in 1988, KOMTAR was completed. It became a hit to the locals, and most government departments moved in there to occupy the building. Even before it was completed, the Shangri-La Hotel was opened in 1986, and today it is the Traders Hotel. As an effort to boost more visitors, Prangin Mall was also built connected to KOMTAR, and was officially opened in year 2000.

New Administration

When the new Penang State Government took over the state's administration, plans for the restoration works began, first by relocating the state government's administrative offices to Bayan Mutiara in 2008, and the sign up of a new tenant, Pacific, to replace Super Komtar Supermarket and Departmental Store. One year later, Komtar Walk was opened outside Pacific's main entrance. The Komtar Walk stretches a distance of 155 meters and comes with a performance stage, water features and soft landscapes, supported by 19 high-end food and beverages outlets are set to be an active attraction that wakes up KOMTAR once more with its slogan, “One-Stop Dining Place”.

While a lot of people know that KOMTAR is full of retails, very few people know that there is a duty free shop on the 57^th floor. There is also the Tower Tourist Centre on Level 60, and visitors can get a scenic view of the island, and even as far as some parts of mainland Butterworth and the Penang Bridge. At this moment, however, both the duty free shop and the observation deck is closed for the restoration works of the building.

A new addition to KOMTAR during this restoration is the ICT Digital Mall, which is a new retail development that occupies the space originally taken up by Yaohan Department Store succeeded by Aktif Lifestyle Store. It is a heaven for IT lovers, offering a lot of electrical and electronic products. There are computer hardware and software, mobile phones and even cameras and photography items.

KOMTAR Bus Terminal

What makes KOMTAR a spot with a lot of human movement is the KOMTAR Bus Terminal, which is actually a bus station right at its foot.  Although it is not a terminal (being that the terminal is actually the Weld Quay Bus Terminal with routes ending there), many buses do stop at KOMTAR in their route around the island. Rapid bus, a bus service with improved routes and newer buses, offer their routes around the island and stopping by at KOMTAR as well.  However, since it is not a real terminal but is a bus station, the buses do not wait for more than five minutes at KOMTAR.

1^st Avenue

The latest addition to KOMTAR is 1^st Avenue Shopping Mall, covering 655,000 square feet and reaches 7 levels of retail shops that has become one of the more popular outlets in Penang.

While the restoration works are still going on, Penangites may anticipate that there will be more improvements to KOMTAR. It is a place that Penangites had loved and had seen it gone to waste, but which is now getting a second chance to life.

Share on Facebook