For such a big group, 3 rooms apartment or a private own bungalow would be better than the hotel.

@wadever
Check and read from page 29 and page 30, there's mentioned about apartments:
Sri sayang apartment, Eden Fairway apartment, Pelangi Condo, Aurora Court, Krystal Suite etc..

@tcken

what's your budget, per room per night? Use this site to find hotel in Penang:
http://www.penanghotels.com.my/

Hotels that are close to food:
Mingood hotel
Sunway Georgetown hotel
Red Rock hotel
Tune hotel
PP Island hotel (this one is new hotel)
Cititel Penang hotel (at Penang Road, opposite is a big hawker centre called "Red Garden")

I won't say "must", but these are the quite "standard" tourist attractions in Penang:

- Penang Hill
- Kek Lok Si temple (can visit this two in a morning, coz both at Air Itam area)
- +/- Thea Kong Thua Temple (near Penang Hill)

- Wat Chaya Mangalaram, aka the Reclining Buddha, aka Sleeping Buddha temple (actually the Buddha's eyes are wide open), a Siamese temple
- Dharmikarama Burmese Temple (just opps the above temple)

- Fort Cornwallis
-Khoo Kongsi (a clan house)
- Clan jetties
-Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion
- Kuan Ying Temple
- Penang Toy Museum
- Tropical Spice Garden
- Butterfly Farm
- War Museum
- Snake Temple

Since you are driving, I would recommend a round Penang Island driving trip. Good for half day or may even stretch till early evening, depends on how many stops you make. (without stops, 1+ hr can finish round the island liao)

Clockwise round island trip:
- From town, first stop, Fort Cornwallis, and the Esplanade.
- Follow Pengkalan Weld and hit Jelutong Expressway, all the way to Bayan Baru/Bayan Lepas. Visit the Snake temple.
- Next, to Batu Maung, the war museum, +/- the aquarium(sorry, actual name is something blah blah by the jabatan perikanan, I think )

- After that, Balik Pulau town for lunch break. Try the famous asam laksa and siam laksa at the corner coffee shop, at the old market. (recommend mix asam and siam) Must try the fresh nutmeg juice with lime. Buy the preserved/pickled nutmeg, mango, papaya form the market. May also get the famous Balik Pulau durians, comes in many "brands"...

- Balik Pulau to Teluk Bahang. Enroute, pass by durian plantations, Titi Kerawang waterfall, Tropical Fruit Farm.

- Photo stop at Teluk Bahang Dam, +/- picnic stop at Hutan Rimba.
- Continue, Teluk Bahang fishing village, +/- Penang National Park - latest addition, a canopy walk.

- Teluk Bahang to Batu Ferringhi. - Butterfly farm, Tropical Spice Garden
- Batu Ferringhi - Tanjong Bungah: toy museum, floating mosque

- Tanjong Bungah - Gurney Drive (hawker stalls start around 5pm) - back to town..

This post has been edited by Ami Tsun: Nov 13 2009, 12:09 AM

Next time if looking for local stuff, use Yahoo!Malaysia search lah...

This is what I've found:
http://www.penang-resorts.com/index.php?pr=HOLIDAY_BUNGALOW

You can try and check with other agents if their units at Bayu Emas are all rented out:
http://www.haisoonprop.com/bayu.html
http://www.penangguesthouse.com/suites.htm

Another apartment is Mar Vista, the place is a bit dated but you can CIO:
http://www.tancoresorts.com/highlights/res...s/marvista.html

Holiday Villa - the bungalow, have you checked?
http://www.penang-resorts.com/index.php?pr=HOLIDAY_BUNGALOW

@vkeong,

I recommend you to visit Chowrasta Market one morning. Lots of nice food there. The earlier the better.

Corner coffee shop, Chinese name "Tian Tian Lai" - CKT(also available is char mee suah), popiah(2 ringgit for 2 rolls), curry mee(the "white" version), "dry oyster porridge". Nearby, there's also a open area with hawker stalls too.

Then there's also one "chee cheong choke", the stall is in front of a hair salon. Near one end of Jln Kuala Kangsar, towards Lebuh Campbell. Llimited tables, always crowded.

Got one old aunty, she sells one type of kueh, wrap with kacang, made on the spot. But only on Sat/Sun, assisted by her daughter-in-law.

@putraskyline
There are mamak coffee shops at Chowrasta Market, at the Lebuh Tamil towards Jalan Penang side. A must try is the mutton satay, Indonesian style. And to go with Ais Tingkap.

Used to be RM$25/hr, minimum 4 hours. But now seems like the taxi drivers are asking for RM$30/hr.

You can find some contacts if you do a search at the Penang forum at TripAdvisor.

If you have a big group and need a van with driver, you can hire from Ocean Jupiter.

IMHO, better to hire a taxi, no need to get stress over the directions, the many one way streets and lack of parking space, especially in the town centre. I reckon it'd probably costs just a little bit extra if hire a taxi for the day when comparing hire a taxi and self drive (car rental + petrol + parking fee). Also, would be cheaper if you hire the taxi driver by the hour, rather than having to bargain for each individual trip to one location.

Self drive is ok if you are not driving into the town, for eg, if you are doing the round Penang Island trip.

May also consider hopping onto the FREE bus, called "CAT", aroound town area. Or try to take bus - Rapid Penang. If intend to take bus, can check on Rapid Penang's web site and look at the journey planner for route/service no etc.

Depends on how you see it. Cititel is good as a "tourist class" hotel, location wise it's quite convenient. Diagonally opposite is the Red Garden, a food centre, lots of nice hawker stalls.

Batu Ferringhi. The hawker centre is called Long Beach.

Btw, this pasar malam is the "tourist" type of pasar malam, need to bargain kao kao...

It's CNY, there'll be surcharges...

Use this website for hotels in Penang:
http://www.penanghotels.com.my/

The fact is, if you are driving from the south to Penang on the 1st day of CNY, the most terrible jam might be at some part of the NS Highway!!

Last year, my cousin left home at KL around 9am, and reach Butterworth (not yet reach the island) at 4.30pm!!

Then it was massive jam on the Penang Bridge. Nightmare ++, finally reach the island side around 7pm..

This post has been edited by Ami Tsun: Jan 10 2010, 02:37 PM

Went to eat Nasi Kandar at Line Clear last week - the only place I know that it won't burnt a hole in my pocket for Nasi Kandar.

RM 18.20 at Line Clear? What did you have? Geez, it costs me RM 15.20 only for 2 pax, including take away one piece of curry chicken..

Here's some prices that I remember:
Nasi putih - 0.70
Vege - 0.60
Beef - 1.30
Chicken (thigh + drumstick) - 4.00

We ordered our teh tarik only when we finished our food, but before that they wanted to offer us FREE plain water or air suam pun boleh.

Wah, the 18.20 really something ah... But that's really so much food for one person ah....

My share that day cost me RM 2.70 only.... He he, coz it's just one piece of beef, vege and rice, with plenty of "assorted" kuah. Actually, that's what I like about Nasi Kandar, the rice and the gravy... lol

In fact, memang got a few nice Nasi Kandar in Penang - at Kampung Melayu, at Gelugor area, and the Nasi Beratur near Pitt Street.

For very affordable Malay food, head over to Butterworth, near the ferry terminal, there's this Restaurant Terapung Nelayan Batu Ujung. Sotong, prawn, ikan bawal hitam, are from the fishermen's catch. Usually, we take our rice with a few dishes (sotong/prawn/rendang/chicken) individually, we then take two ikan bawal hitam goreng and all kinds of ulam to share. 5 persons, with drinks, around RM$30..

Google map search liao can not get Batu Ujung.. Found the roads, but from the map, does not seems to have any thing around the area.

The nearest I can get from google map searched is "Ching Long Machineray (M) Sdn Bhd" in Penang map. You'll see it is along Jalan Assumption. From the satelite image, you'll see at the back of this building, there's a jetty like structure, with what looks like stilt houses, extending out to the river. That's the location of Restaurant Terapung Nelayan.

For the road direction, I go from the traffic light at the junction of Jalan Chain Ferry, Jalan New Ferry, Jalan Sungai Nyiur and turn into Jalan Assumption. Just before the road bend (before Ching Long), on the left, there's a sign board reads Persatuan Nelayan. This is where I drive into and park the car, very limited parking space. Alternately, drive pass the bend and turn left just before under the bridge(the overpass of the Outer Ring Road). Follow the small road as far as the car can goes and park there(outside some people's houses).

The restaurant only opens for lunch, around 11+ am to 2+pm. And it is closed on Sat and Sun. Also, it is closed for the whole of fasting month. And on the first day it opens for business after the fasting month, it is FREE for all..

This post has been edited by Ami Tsun: Jan 14 2010, 12:18 AM

Hiya, and there's this thing about MUST visit/see/pray at Kek Lok Si Temple on CNY. Traffic jam ++ along Jalan Ayer Itam, super beh tahan..

About the Bridge Jam, let's see if it gets better this year, coz now it's been expanded into 3 lanes liao..(if jam could very well become 5 lanes, lol)

You like nature a lot? You should visit the Penang National Park, at Teluk Bahang. There are walking trails to Pantai Kerachut, Muka Head etc. The latest addition there is the Canopy Walk.