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The 9th day of the New Year in the Chinese Lunar calendar marks the day where the Chinese Hokkien sect will offer their prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven.

This day also heralded as the New Year of the Chinese Hokkien sect. At about midnight of the eighth day of Chinese New Year, the Hokkiens will start to offer their thanks giving prayer to the Emperor of Heaven. Offerings will include joss sticks, fruits, cakes, roast pigs and so on. But the most important and most significant offering would be sugarcane.

Based on the Chinese folklore as passed down from the old generations, the Hokkiens somehow angered one of the Chinese sect in China which wanted a revenge by killing all the Hokkiens. The Hokkiens went into a sugarcane plantation for hiding but the pursuers continue to chase after them. Fearing for their life, the Hokkiens prayed to the Jade Emperor for his mercy and help. Miraculously, heavy rain poured on earth which extinguished the fires started by the pursuers and caused them to leave. The Hokkiens were safe then and it was the midnight of the 8th day of the Chinese Lunar calendar. Therefore, the day is celebrated with prayers of thanksgiving.

Sugarcanes are seen tied on each side of their praying altar on this day as a sign of gratitude to the plant which offered them the protection they needed at the time of danger. The Jade Emperor Festival is celebrated on a grand scale in Penang. You should drop by to Penang during the Chinese New Year time to witness this unique celebration.

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When you are in Penang, one of the attractions that is uniquely Penang is the Penang Ferry services. Before the Penang Bridge was built, the ferry service was the only link which connect the mainland of Butterworth and Penang Island.

It’s a mode of transport that was heavily used by the mainlanders as well as islanders to commute from the island to the mainland and vice-versa. Nowadays, with the Penang Bridge around, the utilization of the ferry service is not so heavy as it was before.

With the government’s initiative, you’ll notice that most of the ferries has been beautifully and brightly painted as a project to beautify the ferries. You’ll never miss them when you pass by the ferry terminal near the Weld Quay area.

If you are driving to Penang, besides the Penang Bridge, this is an alternative route for you to go over to the island. An alternative route where you can stop your vehicle on the ferry and get down to enjoy the blowing sea breeze and a relaxing break prior to reaching the island to continue your trip around Penang Island.

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Fried Hor Fun is a popular Cantonese dish in Penang. It’s also popular among kids as it is not spicy and usually comes served with gravy. It is also known as Char Hor Fun or Sar Hor Fun.

The dish is made up of Hor Fun which is a type white and flat noodle which is similar to kuey teow. The hor fun is usually fried with soya sauce and black sauce prior to serving. You can also request the dish to be added with vermicelli as a variety.

For garnishing, most of the stalls will put in a couple of prawns, char siew (grilled sweet pork), fish ball slices, porks and vegetables. The dish will then be served with a soft and smooth gravy. Personally, I would recommend an egg to be added to the gravy. The egg will further smoothen the texture of the gravy and enhance the fragrance of the dish.

Penang, Holiday in Penang, Penang Food, Asia Food

Barbecued Fish or more popularly known to the locals as ikan panggang is another favourite dish available in Penang. The dish can be served together with rice or just eat it on its own.

Usually, a varieties of fishes or squids are used for the barbecued dish. Among all, the most popular fish would be stingray. Somehow, the taste of stingray goes perfectly with this dish. Barbecued stingray is very popular among the locals as well as tourists.

Usually, the fish will be wrapped in a piece of banana leaf. The fish will then be barbecued together with the banana leaf on charcoal fire. The banana leaf wrap will enhance the fragrance of the dish. Once done, the barbecued dish will then be served with a specially prepared chilli sauce.

So, if you are a fan of spicy food, you definitely have to give the Barbecued Fish a try.

Penang, Holiday in Penang, Penang Food, Asia Food, Spicy

This post has nothing related to travel tips or guides in Penang. It’s mainly for local Malaysian readers. I just thought of posting this as I feel that it’s post-worthy.

Anyway, starting Jan 2nd, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributors will only have two accounts instead of the current three. The EPF contributions will now be channelled into Account 1 (70%) and Account 2 (30%). Current EPF contributors will have their account 3 savings incorporated into Account 2.

Therefore, with the new restructuring, EPF members will have an increase in their saving for retirement (Account 1) as well as having a larger amount for housing, education and withdrawals for medical reasons (Account 2). And for those who make their withdrawal from Account 1 before the dividend for 2006 is announced would only be paid the minimum dividend of 2.5% on the withdrawal amount.

Chulia Street is one of the old street around in Penang. Located at Georgetown, it’s a pretty long road with pre-war houses at the both sides of the road. In the early days, the road was not that busy. Most of the houses along the road engaged in some form of small scale businesses.

Nowadays, Chulia Street is more like a Backpackers’ paradise. There are now a lot of pubs and also shops that provide backpacker type accommodation along this busy road. The price should be relatively cheap and very affordable. Dorm bed can probably be about lesser than RM40 a night or probably lesser which made this place popular among backpackers. You can always see a lot of back packers especially those from the western countries walking along this area. There are also slightly more upmarket accommodation as opposed the just dorms available.

There are also a lot of cheap cafes, travel agencies, cyber cafe and etc. It’s a very typical backpacker area in all respects.

After dark, Chulia Street will come alive with hawkers and also eating places. Hawkers will be selling local dishes after dark. It’s relatively very convenient for backpackers because food and other needed stuff are easily available.

Penang, Holiday in Penang, Cheap Accomodation, Backpacker

The New World Amusement Park in Penang will be getting a face-lift after being deserted and forgotten for years.

For those of you not familiar with the New World Amusement Park, here is a bit of historical facts I managed to gather. More fondly known to the older generations as ‘Sin Sei Kai’ in Hokkien or ‘San Sai Kai’ in Cantonese. Located near the Swatow Lane area, the New World Amusement Park was built sometime during the era of the Japanese occupation. It used to have 2 cinemas, children’s park with merry-go-rounds, small game outlets and so on. This place was one of the popular amusement spots for folks of the yesteryears. It lost its glitters some time in the early 1970s and the place was abandoned with grass growing all over.

Recently, there’s a project initiated to build a food court/hawker center on the area of the old New World Amusement Park. All the current hawkers along Swatow Lane are expected to move into the hawker center when the building is ready.

The two-hectare complex is being redeveloped at a cost of RM17 million into an all-in-one location for food and entertainment. It comprises of a 28-stalls hawker center, a covered performance stage and several blocks of shop houses.

I think this new place will be a new popular hawker center among the young generations as well as tourists. It will also bring back some fond memories of yesteryears for the older generations who used to hang out there some long time ago.

Penang, Holiday in Penang, Food Court, New World

A simple and yet delicious meal, the Hainan chicken rice is a popular dish among Penangites & tourists.

Introduced by the Hainan Chinese folks of Penang, the uniqueness of chicken rice is the rice is specially cooked using chicken soup together with some ginger, garlic & pandan leave (screwpine). It is also sometimes added with chicken stock. All those will give the rice a soften and smooth texture. And the taste is simply good. The rice will normally have a nice fragrance. Therefore, it is delicious even if you were to eat the rice alone.

Normally chicken rice is served with either boiled chicken (yes, the chicken is boiled in the water) or roast chicken. Both boiled chicken & roast chicken have their own unique tastes. So, if you have not try this before, be sure to give both varieties a try. The dish will normally come with a clear chicken soup and some specially prepared chilli sauce. The chilli sauce is not made to be spicy. It’s made to blend in with the taste of the chicken rice so that both will compliment one another.

Be sure to give this unique Hainan dish a try when you are in Penang.

Penang, Holiday in Penang, Chicken Rice, Penang Food, Hainan

This is the first post of the year and of course and most important thing of all, Happy New Year 2007 to all readers. Well, we haven’t come up with a New Year resolutions list yet … hehehe.

But… we think most importantly must be to continuosly post more good contents to the blog. Next, errmmm, since this year is Visit Malaysia Year 2007, we think we also want to make this a Visit TravelPenang.Com Year 2007 and of course many more years to come. Hahahaha. Next … and the list go on and on and on …

So, keep yourself subscribed to our site. Many more new posts to come. Cheers.

Dave & Mike.

Penang, Holiday in Penang, Happy New Year, Visit Malaysia 2007