Where to shop in Penang?
Prangin Mall is my 1st choice in Penang Island. You can find a lot of low priced items here. This shopping complex full with boutiques and shoe shops, so you need not to worry about variety! In many ways, this is similar with the Sungei Wang Plaza in Kuala Lumpur.

Besides fashion & accessories, there is also have a lot of shops selling computers and accessories which is located at Level 4.

And what do one do after all the shopping? Head over to the various types of restaurants found in the mall to recharge.

Being located right in the middle of Georgetown, this mall is always full of people. Besides that, there is a bridge connect Prangin Mall with Komtar. So, you can go to both wing in Prangin Mall and Komtar.

Getting To The Mall
Now, I would like to tell you how to get there. Prangin Mall is the easiest place to reach in Penang Island if you take bus to there. “Huh – bus?” you might ask. But fret not, as almost every bus will stop there! That’s mean almost every bus you get can bring you there!

One more thing to add here, if you depart from the jetty, you may take the no-number bus (but instead comesw with the word of ‘MPPP’). This is the shuttle bus in Penang. It is free of charge to let you travel around in Penang Island.

Megamall,Prai
Although the buzz seems to be concentrated in the island, but there’s still some good malls over on the mainland. For cheaper goods, the place you must visit is Megamall. It just likes Prangin Mall in Penang Island where one can find all the cheap yet unique goods.

Btw I also like this mall for its Thai Fair. And if one is into Thai food, head over to the Thai food area specially serving just Thai!

Btw you also can go to Megamall very easily. Many busses from the jetty heads over there.

Gurney Plaza
Another interesting place to shop is Gurney Plaza which is located at Gurney Drive. Gurney Plaza is different from the shopping mall that I mentioned before. It is a 7 level upmarket shopping mall which is full with branded stores.

This mall has more than 400 stores. From the bookstore to electric equipment store, to fashion outlet, restaurant, computer and others… all you need you can find here – it is just a one stop shopping mall!
The bigger name stores like British India, Guess, Versace, Mango, Naf Naf, OE Jewellery, Mont Blanc, Love & Co, Fossil, Topman, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and so on are all here. This mall also have many cafes and restaurant which can let the shopper ‘re-charge’ after shopping…

But I guess one of the more prominent thing about Gurney Plaza is its bookstores – it has the biggest Popular bookstore in Penang. The MPH bookstore is also the only outlet that in Penang. So, for those bookworms, Gurney Plaza is a good choice!

Btw, while you are here, head over to the beach front of Gurney Drive. This is one popular scenic spots in Penang – for both locals & tourists. And the hawker centre here is one of the most popular ones around too!

*Taxi is the most convenient way to get to Gurney Plaza, though if one wants, can also try the bus. Just remember to ask the driver where to stop!

Queensbay Mall
Queensbay Mall is the largest and longest shopping mall in Penang – 9-storey high and has 5-storey of shopping area. Like Gurney Plaza, this is also an upmarket shopping mall… in fact, maybe more upmarket.
The mall is located in Bayan Lepas in Penang. You just have to take 5 minute to get there after you pass the Penang Bridge. The anchor tenant in Queensbay Mall is JUSCO, which btw is the first JUSCO in Penang.

If one is into branded goods, well this is the right place for you! There is a huge list of branded stores over here such as Guess, Hush Puppies, G2000, MNG and so on. The sportswear brands like NIKE, Adidas, FILA is also available in Queensbay, and so is the first Borders booksgtore in Penang.

If you can go to the mall by taking the Rapid buses. U304, 307, 401E 308 will reach just right in front of the entrance. The bus fare is between RM1.00-RM2.50. The buses are quite regular no matter where you come from. There are also bus services from from jetty and KOMTAR.

Sunway Carnival Mall
Back again to the mainland is Sunway Carnival Mall, which is located in Prai, Penang. Compared with the others shopping malls that I mentioned, this is the smallest shopping complex in Penang, hence the less crowd (and more space!).

But ’small’ as it is, there’s still around 150 outlets in this shopping mall. The anchor tenant in Sunway Carnival Mall is Parkson. You still can have a happy shopping period if you are willing to spend.

The brands that available in Sunway Carnival Mall are Esprit, Metrojaya, Hush Puppies Apparel, Switch, Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Dolly & Pots 1and others.

In the case of transportion, you can get there by bus also. You should take the bus of 703 to reach there.

Well, there you have it… 5 of the must visit malls in Penang! But shopping is not all one can do here… stay tuned for more jalan jalan Penang!

I know you guys wondering so much where is this good place located, right? So let’s us stop guessing now! Auto- city is located at Juru, Prai, Penang. There are over 30 brands such as Audi, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Toyota so on and so forth can be found in this city. So, you may enjoy your auto shopping over here. But introduce the brand of auto, is not my main purpose to introduce you Auto-city. My main aim is to introduce the food and entertainment in this city~

It is nearly 40 restaurants in this city. Various type of food you may found here. Over here, you can find Korean food, Japanese food, Malay food, Fast food, dessert so on and so forth. The shop such as Seoul Garden Restaurant, Tao Authentic Asian Cuisine, Isshin Japanese Restaurant, Ice Ice Baby is all in here. There have several type of restaurant over here. First of all is the restaurant for meeting, chit-chatting and coffee. The business hour for this kind of restaurant is always until 1am. Another type will be end about 10pm. Restaurant like ‘The Manhattan Fish Market’ and also ‘Sushi King’ will end their operation about 10pm. Below here is the link that you may take a look for it to know more details.

www.autocity.com.my

Next, I am going to let you know about the most attractive part of Auto-city. Yeah, is the nightlife in Auto-city! Dream, Highway Star Lounge, SOHO’s English Pub & Restaurant is the pub that you can find in this wonderful city. Below are the foods and beverage that you may found in SOHO. I like the Shepherd’s Pie, Sausage with Mashed Potatoes, Pumpkin Soup, Spaghetti, Grilled Lamb Chop and Irish Coffee.

The nightlife in Auto-city is really wonderful. You can enjoy your nightlife on your own interest. You may chit-chat with your buddies at the coffee shop such as Old Town so on and so forth, clubbing or enjoy the various type of cuisine at here.

Beside of that, there are a lot of event will held all after the year over Auto-city. The New Year Countdown in Auto-city is 1 of the annual event that you can’t even miss it once! The atmosphere over here is really good during festival. Others event that held in Auto-city such as Merdeka Countdown, Motor Sports Show and so on also very attractive. There are a lot others international event will be held over here too. Please do check the schedule before you come here, you might get a big surprise! Why I say that? Because there are quite a number of ‘Star’ will come here to perform! Sometime you may find ‘Big and Shinning Star’ come here to present their performance for you! Fish Leong is 1 of them, proud of Malaysia! The up-coming event as below:

Auto-City Merdeka Countdown 2009: 30 Aug 2009
Mid-Autumn Festival: 3 Oct 2009
Penang International Lantern Festival: 1 Nov – 31 Dec 2009
Auto-City Christmas New Year Countdown Eve Festa: 24-31 Dec 2009

Highway Auto-city
1688-F8, Jalan Perusahaan, Highway Auto-City, North-South Highway Juru Interchange, 13600 Prai, Penang.
Tel: 04-5011222
Fax: 04-5011221

See you all next time! Next topic that I’m going to share with you is Where to Shop in Penang! Shopping without burning a hole in your pocket and get fun!

The already well known Penang hawker’s food (especially the oh-must-try fried kuay teow!), the heritage & Unesco Georgetown area, nature from parks to the beaches… Penang surely has it all – and we are going to discover that.

I’ll show you the sights, the places, and the very best Penang has to offer – making it a great weekend getaway for fellow Malaysians (or Singaporeans)… or why you should come to this beautiful island (and keep returning) even if you are thousand of miles away!

Stay tuned!

Needs for different purposes of travel are not the same. But some of the needs are the “MUST” in every single trip. First of all, the basic needs are these:

1. Appropriate clothes for your trip.

• You must plan your trip ahead. Find out the clothes that you may need for your activities. Besides that, you should try your best to find out the clothes can be wear more than once, so that you can bring all essentials that you may need in your trip. Only bring what you need and not what you want. Over here is a guideline for 1 week trip which can help you to pack up your clothes:

• Please wear appropriate clothes so that you won’t easier identify as a tourist to avoid yourself from picking and stealing.
• Please check the latest rules for travel and the restriction so that you don’t have to risk yourself to throw away some of your belongings.

2. Daily necessities – tooth brush, tooth paste, towel, plastic bags. (Drinking water, shampoo, body shampoo- depend on your need.)

• No need to bring along these entire things if you ready to stay in a hotel. Almost all hotels will prepare these entire things for you. Unless you are very strict on your personal sanitation. Plastic bags are a need for you to pack up your dirty clothes. So please spare extra plastic bags.
• But 1 thing is, you might be joining a lot of outdoor activities that may cause the 1 bar of little soap not enough for you. So, you may bring a small set of shampoo, body shampoo and so on for spare.
• Bring along your own cleanser and moisturizer for your facial cleaning purpose. If possible, you may bring a travel kit for facial cleaning. This can help you from lighten your luggage.
• Don’t forget about your sun block. You may need to have a lot of outdoor activities, so be prepare to protect your skin get burned. Don’t forget to apply sun block at the forgotten area which is the ears, top of legs, and hand.
• Bring along toiletries on your own needs. Your liquid toiletries can only pack in 3 ounce containers in a 1 quart size zip top plastic bag, so be careful when you packing your toiletries. But, you may purchase the travel pack in the drug store.
• For drinking water, you can just bring along 1 bottle of drinking water, so that could lighten your luggage. You can get drinking water all the way in your journey, travel smart!

3. Electric equipment.

• Don’t forget to bring along yours hand phone
  ]]> http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/k1/how-to-pack-your-travel-bag/feed/ 0 http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/k1/budget-accommodation-tip/ http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/k1/budget-accommodation-tip/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:05:59 +0000 k1 http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/?p=5 When we are all facing crisis economy, facing the financial stress, how can we get rest or temporary let ourselves relax from all our pressure?

  The best way is have a trip. But it seems that the world is in the financial problem, and so big budget holidays are out. But that doesn’t mean no holiday!
  Firstly, one need to know that trips need not be expensive to relax oneself. You can have the option of a local tour, which saves money and also reach the goal of relaxing.
  But if you prefer to travel a lil fuirther, then the way to still enjoy your trip without burning a hole in the pocket is to save money from the accommodation fees/ rates. And here are some budget accomodation tips.

  Make Early Reservation
  Try to plan the trip in advance – preferably at least 2 months prior. You get much cheaper rates compared with last minute decisions. So, the first point is – make reservations as early as you can.

  Location
  Another thing to note about accommodation is location, which if planned properly will save you the money for transportation. For example, you should stay in the hotel nearest to your location/ things you want to do (eg if shopping is your option, then staying in Bukit Bintang will be most ideal!).

  Compare Sites
  Compare several hotels websites and the aggregated travel websites before you make a reservation. Some of the website will charge you higher because with service tax. So one must be careful when making online reservations.
  Usually, you just pay 10% of your total for reservation, with the balance being paid when you register yourself into the hotel.

  Booking Through Travel Agent
  Apart from online sites, another cheap travel avenue is booking via travel agents. Travel agents usually gets cheaper rates than individuals, so you can try to get your accommodation from the travel agents.
  Almost all the travel agencies will have the packages that include accommodation and transportation only.

  Low Season
  One more budget accommodation tip is to travel during the low season where rates can go as low as 50% or more as compared to the peak season prices.
  July and year ends are usually high seasons – but you’ll be surprise that months just after July eg August is considered low season. So, do your homework well, and you might just get to stay in that villa resort like you have always wated.

  Summarising up all my words; there have 5 main ways to save your accommodation budget which is:

  1. Make reservation as earlier as possible.
  2. Compare a few sites to get the best deal.
  3. Get your hotel in locations that suite your itenery.
  4. Update yourself from the packages that is provided by agency.
  5. Go for a trip during the low season.

  There you have it… so wait no further, and start dreaming on your trip and planning your accommodation!

  ]]> http://bookmarqc.com/8khakis/k1/budget-accommodation-tip/feed/ 0