Getting there
Getting to Penang Hill from Gelugor by bus — You have to take 2 buses: one from Gelugor to George town, and one from George town to Penang Hill. Total cost: 4 RM. Total duration: 2.5 h.
From Gelugor to Komtar Terminal in George Town, take bus no. 301 or 304 at the bus station opposing “Sunny Point” building. Costs 2 RM.
Then, from Komtar Terminal to Hub Bukit Bendera (which is Penang Hill), take bus no. 204 for another 2 RM.
Schedule & routes of Rapid Penang’s buses can be found here here.
Penang Hill
Penang Hill, Malaysia — it’s the last patch of tropical rainforest on Penang Island.
To get up there you can get a ride with a modern funicular railway, which costs 30 RM per adult, round-trip. It’s a steep hill and, at a 35 °C temperature, it worth it.
The Habitat — it’s an ecoturism site through the rainforest jungle. A visit costs 20 RM per adult, and even though the best stuff were under under maintenance/construction at the moment of this writing (e.g. the Canopy Walk, the Tree Top Walk), this was still the most interesting part of Penang Hill. The flora & fauna is pretty awesome, and if you’re lucky you get to stumble into tarantulas, monkeys or other creatures. I highly recommend it.
More details about it here.
Also, at the end of the trail, you’ll find a coffee shop with pretty good coffee.
The Owl Museum — it’s a tiny expo with random art articles related to … owls.
It costs 12 RM. You pay at the entry, you get a nice smile and you’re invited to make your way towards the museum’s entry through a curtain. So I do that in a bit of a hurry (because my stomach started to growl), and I find myself in a small room decorated with random owl-related articles: a few paintings, a sculpture or two, some photos, and a stuffed owl. I stare for 5 minutes around, I see a door and I try to make my way to the next room. Turns out the next room it’s “For staff only” and it’s a maintenance closet. I look around confused for a couple minutes, trying to find another door. I then realize that that’s it.
I laugh my as* off, take a picture, thank the staff at the entry/exit, and go back into the jungle to laugh some more.
So this so-called museum consists of a small room with just a handful artifacts. Not worth it. Or it should be at least without entry fee.
Or. If you wanna “visit” it, just check out the photo on the right. Boom! You just visited it.
All-in-all, Penang Hill was a cool place to visit.
At the exit there’s a sign saying “You’ve never been to Penang Unless you’ve been to Penang Hill“. I approve this message.
Here’s more photos from Penang Hill and The Habitat:
Next — I’m going to Langkawi Island to sleep on the beach, then on Langkawi Island to recover, then Tioman Island to ride turtles and then Singapore to get bankrupt!
