Travel
Penang – over forty years after Leonie last visited
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After more than forty years, Leonie returns to Penang to revisit childhood memories and rediscover a much-loved holiday destination.
By Leonie Jarrett
I went to Penang in Malaysia regularly from about 1976 to 1984. I just went back for the first time in over forty years.
My Dad used to do some work in Penang. In the January school holidays, Mum, my sister brother and I would travel to Penang too and enjoy a relaxing holiday. Those weeks in Penang were my first taste of life outside suburban Melbourne. They ignited a love for travel and learning about other cultures.
My husband and I flew from Melbourne via a stopover in Singapore and my reminiscing started. The flying experience has changed so dramatically since I used to fly as a child. There used to only be the radio and one movie which played at the front of each cabin. Often, I couldn’t even see the movie. There was no WiFi, no downloaded shows. It was sleep or listen to the radio or read a book. I used to imagine myself bouncing on the fluffy clouds to pass the time! I am not the biggest fan of flying but, really, it is so much more enjoyable now than it was then.
We started our stay in Penang’s capital, George Town at the iconic, heritage hotel – the Eastern & Oriental (affectionately shortened to the E&O). I had visited as a child but I had never stayed there so this was a real treat.
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The E&O is an all-suite luxury hotel and the only seafront hotel in George Town. Opening its doors one hundred and forty years ago, the E&O is known as the Pearl of Penang. It is integral to the history of George Town and has welcomed celebrated people including: King Charles III, Rita Hayworth and Noel Coward.
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We stayed in a Heritage Wing King Suite facing the Heritage Wing seafront pool and the Andaman Sea. We spent hours reclining on the padded sun lounges beside the pool. Surrounded by lawn and adjacent to a Java Olive tree older than the E&O Hotel itself, we felt like we were in a tropical oasis.
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We walked from the E&O to the historic centre of George Town. This was so different from my memory. I remembered a smelly, dirty town not used to tourists from Australia and I remember Mum giving us kids scented hankies to put over our noses!
Nowadays, George Town is Malaysia’s gastronomic capital and famed for its street art. It’s been UNESCO protected since 2008. We walked from the E&O to Armenian Street, Fort Cornwallis (established in 1786) and the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Memorial Clocktower.
Fun facts about the Clocktower – it was presented to Penang in 1897 by millionaire Cheah Chong Eok and completed in 1902. It stands sixty feet, one foot for each year of Queen Victoria’s reign up to 1897. It developed a quirky tilt after bombs hit the site during World War II.
Next stop on our Penang holiday was to return to the hotel where I had spent so many January school holidays – the Shangri-La Rasa Sayang on Batu Ferringhi beach (always referred to by family simply as the Rasa Sayang).
It’s about a thirty-minute drive from George Town to the Rasa Sayang. The last part of the drive is a single carriageway hugging the windy coast. Memories of what I remembered as a long drive came flooding back – carsick me in the back closing my eyes and wishing for the drive to be over! Funny how childhood memories can warp time. This part of the drive was actually only ten to fifteen minutes!
The five-star Shangri-La Rasa Sayang resort was the first resort property owned by Shangri-La and the first five-star resort in Malaysia. It was actually only the second property of the Shangri-La brand, the first being the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore.
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We arrived at the Rasa Sayang to find that we had been upgraded to a Rasa Wing Rasa Junior Suite. Wowee! Our sixty-two square metre suite comprised a King-size bed, lounge area, marble bathroom and a balcony that spanned the width of the Suite. The views from both the Suite and the balcony over the Rasa Wing pool and the sea were amazing!
Now just over fifty years’ old, the Rasa Sayang has been extensively modernised. The whole hotel closed between 2004 and 2006 and was basically re-built. Wandering around, there is little remaining at the Rasa Sayang from when I used to stay there - really just the location, the distinctive roof-line of the complex and the gardens. The gardens were always lush but they are now incredible. The stars of the gardens are several Rain trees and a Banyan tree that are all older than the Resort.
When I used to stay at the Rasa Sayang, there was a hotel next door to the Rasa Sayang – the much more basic Palm Beach. It has now been demolished and replaced with a nine-hole seafront Pitch and Putt golf course. Club hire, ball use and a round cost AUD$10 per person!
The Rasa Sayang is on one side of the Pitch and Putt course and another Shangri-La property, Golden Sands, is on the other side. I remember loving the Golden Sands as it had a slide into the pool built on a rockery. The slide and rockery still remains and there were kids playing happily. I loved seeing the laughing kids do what I did so many years ago.
We spent our time at the Rasa Sayang eating, drinking and lolling by the beautiful pool. We also enjoyed a delicious aromatherapy massage at Chi, The Spa on our last afternoon. Chi, The Spa is a luxe complex of eleven spa villas (some of them are couples’ villas) in the midst of the gorgeous gardens.
So, what did I think after 40 plus years?
Rasa Sayang was a home away from home for me when I was growing up so it was a special experience for me to return after so long and to show to my husband. My Dad especially loved Penang. He died last year and his death galvanized my wish to return there.
Nothing was going to be the same after a gap of over forty years but enough of the Penang I remembered had remained the same so as to jog some lovely memories.
I hope to return again with our children and grandchildren (our first is due to be born later this year!) Time to make more memories.
The writer stayed as a guest of the Eastern & Oriental Hotel and the Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort, Penang, Malaysia. Some images are courtesy of the Eastern & Oriental Hotel and Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort and some images are personal.
Feature image: Leonie Jarrett
More ways to spend a day or two: