Have Perut Will Travel...: KUL to PEN │ Aeroline • Hutton Central • Red Garden!

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Saturday, 29 March 2025

KUL to PEN │ Aeroline • Hutton Central • Red Garden!

George Town!

A week after returning from Bangkok we were on the prowl again, this time to the island state in the north known as the "Pearl of the Orient". We wanted to take advantage of the four-day weekend in conjunction with Id Fitr celebrations, so we booked our Aeroline bus tickets online for RM72.00 each (approximately USD16/EUR15) departing from Corus Hotel today at 9:30am.

Brendan had other plans so wasn't joining us this time as well, so he sent us to Corus Hotel at 8:00am. With time to spare until our departure we decided to have breakfast at the hotel's Dondang Sayang Coffee House for RM34.80 (approximately USD8/EUR7) per person.

The bus made its appearance at 9:15am and after waiting for three missing passengers finally departed at 9:35am. The bus bearing the registration number VDM8816 is scheduled to arrive at Queensbay Mall five hours later.

We feared a repeat of Christmas 2023's nightmare ten-hour journey to Penang but driving past the Jalan Duta Toll Plaza at 9:50am with relatively light traffic we were hopeful this would not be the case.

The Malaysian government declared a 50% discount on toll fares for yesterday and today traffic along the North South Expressway, as a result traffic began to slow half an hour into the journey.

Five hours later we finally made a pitstop at the Simpang Pulai rest area then resumed the journey fifteen minutes later. Looks like a repeat of the Christmas 2023 journey is on the cards!

We eventually drove across the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge at 5:35pm and arrived at Queensbay Mall half an hour later. All in all it took eight and a half hours for us to get to Penang.

We then alighted from the bus, thanked the crew, and collected our luggage before walking into Queensbay Mall for a quick potty break.

We then hailed a 6-seater Grab car, but the first two drivers cancelled on us. Third time's the charm as we were finally picked up at 6:33pm for a fare of RM22.00 (approximately USD/EUR5) to Hutton Central Hotel.

The ride across town took three quarters of an hour and by the time we arrived dusk was upon us. We checked in and headed up to our one bedroom apartment to deposit our bags before heading out again.

We walked north along Jalan Transfer before turning right onto Jalan Sri Bahari then turning left headed north again along Jalan Penang. We then walked across and arrived at our default location for dinner: Red Garden Food Paradise!

We both ordered from the same Thai stall:

Thai Fried Rice
Pad Khra Pow

then Cat added a set of Vietnamese Spring Rolls and together with a large bottle of Heineken as well as a jumbo glass of Amla juice our dinner came to RM79.00 (approximately USD18/ EUR16).

After dinner we stopped by the convenience store Happy Mart for some titbits before continuing back to Hutton Central.

With nothing planned tomorrow we'll be playing it by ear, so please stay tuned!