Photo TR: Amusements of Penang Island, Malaysia

[ejot]

So when I found out in late March that I'd be spending a couple weeks working in Penang, Malaysia, one of my first research stops was of course the venerable RCDB where I found, naturally, NADA nearby. Fortunately my boss kindly offered to give me a whole week of free time to spend as I wished, so that I could make my way to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for some thrills.

 

Long story short - my work did not exactly go as planned and that entire extra week was used up wrapping up issues on the job site.

 

There was, however, one amusement park on Penang Island, which I was able to visit. Called Escape Adventure, it offers two zipline courses, climbing attractions, ropes courses, rope swings, a jump tower with two platforms, a dry tube slide (racing style), a Skycoaster clone, and quite a bit more. The journey there entailed a wild, winding bus ride along the Pacific Ocean, taking numerous switchbacks at highly inappropriate speeds while being continuously overtaken on every side by a sea of moped riders traveling at even more highly inappropriate speeds.

 

Additionally, you could travel up "Penang Hill" to some great views on a terrifyingly overcrowded funicular.

 

And the food - my goodness - people travel here just for the food, and with good reason!

 

Onto some pics.

View from the hotel - which was extravagantly luxurious, and cheap! The derelict mansions (bottom left) offered some tempting urban exploration material, had I not been concerned about rotting in a Malaysian jail for about 77years.

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LMAO! This is a joke, or.... ? :/

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Big freakin' prawn thingies in egg. Yummm.

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This is the kitchen and outdoor seating where the prawns were served. Very "authentic"

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Entire families with small children on mopeds - common. As I was taking this, one passed the other direction with four people on it.

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I'm a big vintage VW fan; these appeared to be extremely rare pre-1953 Beetles, but upon stopping for closer inspection were "just" moderately rare, mid-1950's Beetles modified to look older.

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The Hill with funicular track in background.

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Maybe they got the idea from Six Flags! They were similarly inaccurate here, thankfully in the riders' favor (we boarded in about 5 min).

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Some models showing funicular cars of yesteryear.

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Got a spot with a view - a difficult thing to manage as Malaysians don't really follow any, um, rules for queueing.

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The view was admittedly gorgeous, even on a hazy day. Which I think they all are, there. Down in the city it was an uncomfortable ~95F whereas up on the top of the hill it was at least half a degree cooler!

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Proof!

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This is Laksa Noodle (I think...) from a booth at the world-renowned Gurney Street hawker center. Yummm.

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I did not try these squid or octopus thingies, but they looked cool!

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Next day: En route to Escape Adventure. This boat was a steakhouse.

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Stopped at the tropical spice gardens which were lovely and fragrant and offered tours from highly informed guides.

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Hard Rock Penang was also on the drive there, on the shore.

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Pacific ... and moped!

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Windy roads... and moped!

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We're here!! You can tell, because there's a giant banana hanging overhead.

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You may not bring any factories or video game controllers into the park.

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Big groups accounted for just about every other visitor the park in the morning.

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Well I certainly WILL have a nice play, thank you.

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High tech!

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Consider me warned.

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Rehab all around.

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There must be some international law that all parks of all types must have basically the same style map.

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Lots of ropes courses with all kinds of elements. This was too much exertion so I stayed away.

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Walking the zipline course through the woods. Each course had four or five jumps in between leisurely strolls through the woods. It was very neat.

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Here is one of the jumps where you can see the Consumer Club closely following the rules. They were all scared to jump so this took forever.

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Onto the jump tower!

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The two platforms were at heights of 12m and 20m - 40' and 65' respectively.

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Pictures were no issue.

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You're harnessed in and jump off here, freefall for just a few feet, then drag kicks in on the line and it lowers you gently to the ground.

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More of the park from the tower.

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This is the Skycoaster clone, except you hold a bar above your head instead of laying in a sling. They wouldn't let me ride alone because it throws it off balance, and I couldn't find any other single riders to go with me. So, first rejection. I even asked four separate groups of three who all looked to be headed in it's direction, but no dice.

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These nuts are, um... smaller than I would expect. I'm sure they're just some super strong alloy. Riiiight.

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Jumping! I like jumping!

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.... rejected :/

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They have an odd sense of humor here.

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Well that's responsible.

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This was a great rope swing ride where on your first swing-back you invariably slammed against that unpadded support timber.

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Sod roofs are interesting, eco-friendly, and attractive.

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Tons of tropical foliage.

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Walkway to the dry tube slide.

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Every carry those big waterpark rafts up the stairs for the Tornado? Yeah, this was about 1356777x as bad as that. Mainly because I chose the tube whose pull-string had broken in half.

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Weird branches growing from treetop to ground, .... or from ground to treetop?

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Why thank you!

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This was actually a pretty awesome ride, you SPUN around like crazy! See where it really dips down for a "first drop"? You really got moving!

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Banana's still hanging there above the gift shop. They did not have an Escape shotglass to add to my collection so I picked up a tee.

Lines were short so I ordered a hotdog, chicken burger, and began waiting.... and waiting... *yawn*.......

Wait, are they actually going to be rounding up a chicken for my burger?

Ewww! Certainly they did not! This was worse than the pre-reformed chicken nuggets from Mickey-D's.

There were shows, which I did not watch.

Sweaty and exhausted.

What's this Ocean Family Theme park? I never did find out...

The remains of a Korean BBQ meal to finish off the day. Much better than the park food.

[bert425]

great report!

 

filing away, in case I ever get to go to Penang for work (our Assembly and one of our Test Sites is there)

 

we also have a test site in Singapore (Universal has been calling my name there for years now)

[ThemeParkJunkie51290]

Enjoyed the report! It looks as if you had a great time. Hopefully I'll be able to go overseas to visit a foreign park!

[DirkFunk]

I'll actually be in Penang later this year - any specific takeaways about Georgetown you could share other than "food is great"? And any specific restaurants you liked?

[SharkTums]

Very cool little park. Love all the funny signs and promoting exercise and no video games. Thanks for sharing.

[ejot]

Glad to see it's a useful/enjoyable report.

 

DirkFunk,

> I didn't spend too much time in Georgetown, really. The "hawker center" (outdoor food cart market) on Gurney Street is a must see food wise. I took a cab here and then just walked around, looked at what people were eating, and when something looked really good asked them which cart it was from. Generally people were friendly and happy to help. Much of the rest of the Gurney area by the shore was developed, upscale, western - but I didn't explore this part at all.

 

> "Komtar" looks to be another quite developed shopping destination, deeper withing Georgetown, but again did not stop here.

Oh, one thing: between the hot climate and open sewers, much of the city has a pretty distateful odor, may have been part of the reason I sought out more rural attractions.

 

> The RapidPenang bus system is decent (modern) and very cheap but can be a little confusing so worth a bit of research ahead of time. If you use it and get lost just look for a bus with "Jeti" on the scrolling route sign and head there, that is the big Georgetown terminal from where you can get info and a bus to anywhere. Cab rides are also pretty easy to find and never more than US$10 within the city. Once I figured that I out, I would just get off at a random stop, walk around a bit, and look for one of the more crowded "open kitchen" type eateries when hungry, without noting names, really. I didn't go to any kind of "nice" or tourist-rated restaurants in Georgetown.

 

> The street vendor market at Jeti station is worth checking out for interesting cultural snacks if you're adventurous. Again everything is extremely cheap, buy all kinds of stuff and toss what's no good, (which will be plenty, haha).

 

>There is a large Buddhist temple near Penang Hill, worth a quick visit if you're near that way. Both right on the bus route from Jeti. It goes through some very poor areas where you can get great street food for less than a dollar. Heavily spiced meats on skewers, etc. Again I just looked for people eating things that looked appetizing. This may have been a bit risky but haven't gotten sick so far.

 

> Queensbay Mall is a large, somewhat upscale western style mall about 10km south of Georgetown and very near where I first stayed on the island. There was a good selection of nice sit down restaurants in the mall, the best of which IMO a Chinese hand-pulled noodle house called i-Dragon.

 

> If you have some sort of a guide for your visit it will definitely be helpful. One of the managers at the site I was working was very helpful in highlighting some of the best food options near the industrial zone, south of the city. It's more difficult figuring out what's best to order, often depending on what the best catch of the day is, than where to go.

 

ThemeParkJunkies - I'm am certain your enthusiasm with bring to parks all over the world, eventually! bert - the manufacturing sector here alone is pretty cool to see and be a part of! Definitely push for a trip to both places. SharkTums - gladly! Happy to have something of interest to share.

[GwaziBSRider1]

Great TR! It's such a quirky little park, and I love how they're promoting sustainability!