Short Trip to Penang

Rapid Penang bus ticket and Bus No. 101 on the windscreen.

On an "official cum leisure" short trip to Penang recently, I took a fond nostalgic memories down memory lane with almost fifteen years ago with the family.

I was delighted to know that the Chee Yee Thor Seah Clan Association in Penang had conducted the representatives of the clan association who attended the event on a one-day tour on November 13, 2011.

However, I was disappointed to note from the itinerary that a special place in Penang which I had intended very much to walk down memory lane to the Penang Weld ferry jetty was not included in the itinerary.

It was a last visit about 15 years ago to Bukit Mertajam which my daughter and son had their first experience on a ferry ride across Penang island to Georgetown. It was their first visit to their maternal great-grandmother's kampong house. The great-grandmother passed away a few years later.

The Penang Ferry Service is the oldest ferry service built in 1920 in Malaysia. Located in the state of Penang, this famous ferry service connects Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal in Butterworth to Raja Tun Uda ferry terminal at Weld Quay in George Town in Penang Island.

What a pity to miss the ferry jetty on this trip, I thought.

Since the one-day-tour at 8:30 am and leaving Penang the following morning on a tight schedule, I decided to find whatever time-slot available for me before the group tour.

I then left the Red Rock Hotel at Macalister Road at 5:25 am, boarded a RAPID Penang bus at 5:45 am at a bus-stop beside the hotel.

On a lone-ranger bus ride while my room mates were still sleeping, I took the bus No. 101 which terminates at the jetty. It took about half an hour to reach the destination.

It was a quiet road with few human or vehicular traffic throughout the bus-ride.

The camera of the view-finder reads my eyes from here to select the photos posted below:

The unprepared timeslot for a visit to the jetty in an hour was a private "mission" accomplished.

The bus route from the hotel to the jetty started at Macalister Road, while the return trip was from the jetty to Burma Road, nearest to the bus-stop opposite the hotel. I returned the "impromptu trip" in good time to join the fellow travellers for buffet breakfast at the hotel.

The tour coach was waiting in front of the hotel at 8:30 am punctually. About 43 pax on the one-day tour, the first visit of interest as scheduled was the Wat Chaiyamangalaram at Lorong Burmah, 10250 Penang and the opposite Dhammikarama Burmese Temple.

James at the statue of the recling Buddha on November 12, 2011.

James and family at the statue of the reclining Buddha in 1990s.

Same place, different times, diffent journeys by the same persons to Wat Chaiyamangalaram, Penang.

Former schoolmates Patrick Tang, Ronnie Tang, James Seah and Francis Seow at Wat Chaiyamangalaram in the 1970s.