Assignments, assignments, assigmments... my past week has been filled with lots of assignments and zero percent of life! Alas, Nadine, Zi Yen and I (the Scorpio gang) decided to have a one day trip to Penang Hill! The last time I visited Penang Hill was during Form 3 (Young Enterprise teambuilding, courtesy of Motorola company). If you're interested, click HERE to read that post. You know that feeling when you're from local and you're just sceptical or indifferent towards the tourism spot at your own hometown? That was what I was feeling, but how wrong I was! I was feeling like "meh" before the trip but decided to go anyway since Penang Hill has undergone renovation and restoration of the landslide
mishap last year (2017). The restoration period took some time and it is only reopened to visitors on 31 December 2017, so we
thought it's about time to check it out!
Once you reached the counter, everyone needs to hand in their identification card to their leader (in this case, it's me) because only one person is allowed to line up to buy the tickets. The pricing of the tickets range from RM10 to RM60, depending if you're Malaysian or Non-Malaysian, Children or Senior Citizens and the standard or fast lane tickets you're planning to purchase. So its largely based on your nationality, age and personal preference for standard or fast lane tickets. For us broke students, we decided to go for the ordinary Malaysian ticket, which cost us at RM10 each only! I think that the whole process is very smooth and efficient. And the entrance pass, is actually not tickets, but cards! This is so thoughtful of them as it adheres to the whole Go-Green-&-safe-the-Earth image that Penang has always portrayed. Such an easy and eco-friendly method. After purchasing the tickets, you need to queue and wait for your turn to go onboard on the cable car!
And voila, we're at the peak of Pearl of Orient in a wink (just not quite, yet)! So for the first hour on top of Penang Hill, we were busy soaking in the beauty of nature and enjoy the brezzy chilly air, which is pretty rare to experience in Penang. And also being a typical teenager, not forgetting to take loads and loads of #OOTD shots! I'm so happy because the colour theme actually fits my theme right now haha.
Also, can I just say that the colour of my hair looks absolutely bliding, as if I have bleached it but nah? I didn't realise the colour of my hair was so bright until I saw these pics taken under natural light and I was like.. //whuttt. Clarification: I dyed my hair using Liese in the colour Ash Gray ONE YEAR ago, but the colour just keeps getting brighter and brighter wtf. And also, my hair condition is sooo teruk now I don't know if the dye is just too chemically strong for my hair or smtg. Someone who knows what I should do please comment down below, thanks!
Proceeding on our little trip, we went to the ever famous love lock bridge! I actually think that it's a great place for photoshot but not so much to "lock your love". We actually saw the price for the "love lock" and it was RM47 for one freaking lock!! I mean, is that really necessary? I really dunno, but if I have a bf, I would actually prefer to lock our love in my heart haha
After that, we had our lunch at Cliff Cafe at Dataran. There are actually a few sections on Penang Hill and Dataran is the main area, like an assembly point. And the love lock bridge is actually just above the cafe, so we didn't really have to walk that far. I tried to Google for photos of how it look from outside, but didn't manage to find any updated ones. I only manage to get the photos of its interior. The cafe actually consists of 2 levels: upper level sells food (main course) while the lower level sells desserts (ice cream, ice kacang etc.). They serve mainly Malay food.
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| Upper level (Source: Google) |
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| Lower level (Source: Google) |
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| The competition between stalls was pretty intense at the level where they sell dessert, so be sure to look around and compare the price first! We got this Mango Ice (RM10) from Lily's because it looks super delicious and the person said they use natural ingredients instead of syrup for this dessert. |
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| Got this Nasi Ayam Ori (RM6.50) from Nasi Ayam Bukit Bendera because there was a crowd there at that time, so I guess it must be pretty good/famous. And indeed, the taste did not disappoint. Value for money! |
More #OOTD shots (or fails)...
Okayyy, so we're about to get to the main show of the day - The Habitat Penang Hill! The ticket priced at RM30 is inclusive of:
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| Source: http://thehabitat.my/home/ |
At this point, Zi Yen and I really wanted to experience the walks but Nadine didn't want to. So Zi Yen and I proceeded with our plan, which I'm really really glad (sorry Nad!) So we purchased the tickets from one of The Habitat booths at Dataran and waited for 5 minutes before a shuttle came to fetch us to our destination. The ride was about 3 -5 mins until we reach the main entrance of The Habitat. We walked along the trail until we reached a place where we saw the most beautiful transparent glass house in the middle of the jungle. The design is modern and simple but there's something about a glass house situated in the middle of the jungle that makes it look SOOO MAGICAL! I'd love to think of it as the Cullen's house haha *Twilight fan girl mood*
At first, I thought it was the sourvenir shop that I'd seen on the Penang Hill map, which I'm also partially correct, but it's also the main entrance of The Habitat and has a cafe in it as well! We walked the nature trail on our own and completely in awe of the raw beauty of mother nature. We first saw "The Giant Swing" and we sat on it for a mo while appreciating the marvellous sight underneath our very eyelids.
Then, we went to the Langur Way Canopy Walk. To be honest, it was not quite what we expected :/ But it wasn't too bad since some part of it is still under renovation and it has only been opened for visitors for 3 months.
Langur Way Canopy Walk is at the end of the road, so we had to turn back to go to Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk. Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk has been opened to visitors for about a year now. First of all, the structure of Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk is soooo cool! Like 鸟巢 in China, only it's much more smaller in size. We had to climb a fleet of staircase *pant* until we reach the top where we can commence the Tree Top Walk. The stucture is 12.5 meters above the land and is surrounded by pine trees. Remember when I said that we're at the peak of Pearl of Orient but just not quite yet? Well, this is because the Curtis Crest is the true highest point on Penang Hill, which makes it the peak of Penang island (800 meters above sea level). The view from Curtis Crest is indeed superb. No wonder they offer the "Sunset Walk" package, so that lovebirds can "enjoy the fascinating golden rays of sun, cast down on the rainforest" (their description of the sunset walk on the flyers, sounds cool!) And you only need to pay an additional RM10 (normal = RM30, sunset walk = RM40).
We weren't scared at first, but after Zi Yen started to take some stupid videos and both of us looked through the roles underneath our feet and suddenly we were SUPER CONSCIOUS that we're actually so high above the land. We might just die if the structure collapsed *final destination mehhh* So for a few minutes, we were actually trying to balance ourselves on the part where they have the thicker supporting material, trying to avoid walking on the hollow holes, until our legs weren't jelly anymore. And I have to say I kinda hate her for making me walk another round, just to make the most out of the RM30 we paid!
After we ended our Tree Top Walk, our tour guide arrived shortly (guided tour is available for every one hour). Another caucasian family (probably from Russia) joined us on the guided tour as well. Our tour guide explained that Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk got its name from former owner of Penang Botanical Garden, who use to have a lab of some sort at the very spot Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk is built to experiment with the growth of flora. Later on, he also stopped at a few spots, showed us some exotic flora and fauna on Penang Hill and kindly talk us through some nature things. We saw a snake resting on the branch of a tree, monkey cups (I only ever got to see them on Science textbooks so it's pretty eye-opening for me), a tarantula spider in its natural habitat, giant pandans and a giant black squirrel! The diversity of flora and fauna in the natural ecosystem is filled with endless possibilities!
I think that RM30 for The Habitat is not too bad, considering the experience of nature walk and the knowledge you get from the guided is pretty awesome. I love that they live up to their tagline, which is "Conserve, Educate, Inspire". While having fun, you can also be rest assure that The Habitat preserve most of the nature flora and fauna and even the trails and buildings there. They just incorporated a few elements and make some minor constructions to make it a presentable eco-tourism spot, such as layering the bumpy roads with a good quality material that is permeable to water. After about 2 hours, we ended our walk and headed back to Dataran to reunite with Nadine. We were pretty worried that she'll get bored, but alas, she managed to occupy herself by spotting handsome guys in our absence, which is good.
Overall, I think that Penang Hill is a great place to go to if you're looking for a relaxing and refreshing getaway. After renovation, I would say that the buildings and attractions look way more aesthetically pleasing than they used to and there were some pretty exciting activities you could do as well: The Habitat Walks, love lane, eating, cafe hopping (there are a few cafes there), dinasour land, the owl museum, experience earthquakes and typhoons virtual reality experience, use binoculars to have super clear bird eyes' view of Penang island and photoshoots. There are still a couple of area under renovation, like the tree climbing area and the canopy walk, so I think we can all except greater things from Penang Hill in time to come.
Some photos are courtesy of Nadine and Zi Yen, so thank you babes!
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Penang Hill official website: http://www.penanghill.gov.my/index.php/en/
The Habitat official website: http://thehabitat.my/home/
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