Time out! ~ Trip to Bukit Bendera, Pulau Pinang - Feb. 2016 -

I don't normally post personal stuff here but I thought maybe I'd do just that, just to try something different. Besides, it's not really that personal anyway.

My family and I went for a trip to Bukit Bendera (also known as Penang Hill) at the end of last February. It's quite an interesting trip so I thought I would share some of the nice pictures I managed to take and some of the interesting things we did up there. At least it could serve as a simple guide to people who are planning to go there, or perhaps introduce the place to people who have not been there before.

So where is Bukit Bendera a.k.a. Penang Hill? It's located in Pulau Pinang (or Penang in English), one of the state in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. There are island side and mainland side of the state and the hill is located on the island side. It's a popular tourist spot so if you ever get lost, you can stop to ask the locals, most likely they would know how to direct you there. It is also stated in some of the road signboards once you get closer to the area. You can get quite a few useful info from their website too like how to get there, the ticket prices for the tram to go up the hill and any interesting activities that are going to be held there.

I visited their website before we went up the hill and thought it would only be a short trip since it seems like there is nothing much to do, but we end up spending around 4 hours up there! I was shocked myself. My last trip there was when I was in secondary school so it's been awhile. It's definitely exciting to see the place had been developed well.

So here are some pictures that I managed to snap. I'm going to spam a lot of pictures here so I apologize in advance if they slowed down the loading time.

You can see the tram tracks from here

Love the blue ocean view!

The six pictures above were taken near the tram station. As you can see, on a clear day, you could see Penang Bridge that connected the island to the mainland (there are actually 2 bridges, another bridge is the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge). There is also a viewing deck (picture below) where you could take pictures of the panorama even better.

Viewing deck

Path to the centre square

View along the path to the centre square

About 5 minutes walk from the tram station, you will arrive at the centre square. Well, that's not its official name but I called the area centre square because its like the main area where people could gather. There are actually two paths that lead to the centre square from tram station.

During the time when I arrived there, there was actually a cycling event (I think they cycled from the base of the hill all the way to that area) and the cyclist were relaxing before the awards ceremony. If you noticed in some of the pictures below, there are a lot of bicycles, so those belonged to the people who participated in that event.

You can take photos with some animals (like a snake!) here

Beautiful flowers along the path to centre square

More beautiful flower near the centre square

At the centre square, there are Owl Museum, food court, gift/souvenir shops and Love Lock. We didn't go to the Owl Museum but from my understanding from the website, it's not actually a museum of real life owls, instead it's a museum of collection items with owls' themes and motifs. We did went to the Love Lock area though. I think there's a similar place in South Korea, perhaps this place was inspired from that place in South Korea?

If you walk uphill to higher ground, you will see a Hindu temple and a mosque. Quite a nice view from there.

Penang Hill Hindu temple

Penang Hill Mosque

Old cannon near the Hindu temple

Below picture is the view of the centre square from the mosque area. The Love Lock area is on the right side (where you can see some people walking in the photo). Beneath the Love Lock area is the food court and the gift and souvenir shops.

Penang Hill centre square

There is actually an abandoned building near the mosque. I'm not sure what building that is, or if it's an old building but I guess it must be recent since I can't find any information signboard about it. I would assumed there would be one if it's a historical building. Anyway, I managed to snap some photos of the external and internal parts of the building. I was exploring alone at that time so it was kind of creepy.

You can book a ride on a buggy (I'm actually not sure what this vehicle is called, I'm sorry if I'm wrong) with a guide giving you a short tour deeper inside the hill's path. It was quite a long path so if you are too tired to walk, this could be an easy way to sight-seeing.

View from my buggy ride

This is the vehicle I was talking about. It reminds me of a golf cart.

There is a new attraction called The Habitat where there are designated nature trails for people to experience flora and fauna of Penang's rainforest. It is quite a long trail, 1.6 km in total. There's an entrance fee and you will be accompanied by a guide in the early part of the trail but there are some section of the trails that are still in construction. I was told by the lady at the ticketing counter that The Habitat is expected to be fully open by August 2016. Since it was a long trail and my family was already quite tired at the time, we decided not to go in, so I can't tell you much more what's inside.

Entrance to The Habitat

Path to The Habitat ticketing counter and entrance to the nature trail

Beautiful flowers along the path

There is also an aviary farm/garden near the only hotel on the hill. The aviary farm is a small place and there was also some construction when we were there, they were apparently upgrading the place. Luckily the entrance fee was not much so I didn't really mind.

Signboard on the way to the Aviary Farm and hotel

Some strange-looking plant in the Aviary Farm

A peacock!

That's all the pictures I have for this post. I hope you enjoy this simple virtual trip to Bukit Bendera, Pulau Pinang (Penang Hill, Penang). Thank you for viewing!