Penang Fishing Trip 2023

Our family went on a short trip to Penang for our December school holidays vacation. A short getaway to rest and relax while fulfilling my son’s request for deep sea fishing.

Our itinerary:

Day 1 – The TOP Penang (Overnight at Piazza Ropewalk Hotel, Georgetown)

Day 2 – Kek Lok Si, The Clan Jetty (Overnight at Bayview Beach Resort, Batu Ferringhi)

Day 3 – Deep Sea Fishing, Batu Ferringhi Beach (Overnight at Bayview Beach Resort, Batu Ferringhi)

Day 4 – Head home on early flight

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Day 1 – Georgetown

We went on a short trip to Penang on Christmas Day via Scoot’s midday flight. The flight from Singapore to Penang takes 45min but due to the long queue at the immigration counters, we got our passports stamped an hour later after touching down.

After checking in to Ropewalk Piazza Hotel, we walked to The TOP Penang, which is less than 10 minutes’ walk away. 

We purchased the tickets via Pelago, a travel experience platform by Singapore Airlines. Chose the Rainbow Skywalker + Jurassic Research Centre + Penang Boutique Aquarium Tickets for S$19.15 per pax which was cheaper than the walk-in rate of RM88. By using Pelago, we earned Krisflyer miles from the purchase; current earn rate is 3 Krisflyer miles to S$1 spent. Stack with credit card rewards to earn more miles from the purchase 🙂 

Read more about our visit to The TOP Penang here (coming soon).

Since we were staying just a night in Georgetown, we went to Gurney Drive hawker centre to try their famous street food.

Our dinner that night consisted of fried kway tiao (one plate with duck egg and one with chicken egg), steamed otah (fish cake with spices and wrapped in banana leaves), blood cockles with chilli, fruit rojak, deep fried chicken skin and chicken butt for my girl. 

Overnight in Ropewalk Piazza Hotel.

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Day 2 – Batu Ferringhi

We visited Kek Lok Si on Day 2 morning. Kek Lok Si is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. The entire temple complex was built over a period from 1890 to 1930. 

Read about our time at Kek Lok Si in a separate post (coming soon).

Lunch at the nearby market after the temple tour. We had wanton noodles, Penang assam laksa and pork noodles. The pork noodles stood out among the food we tried, super yummy.

Next stop, we visited the Clan Jetties of Penang, a UNESCO world heritage site. Enroute, we walked through the streets of Georgetown, soaking in the atmosphere of this heritage town.

At Clan Jetties, there are 6 villages with rustic houses on silts housing distinct Chinese clans.

Chew Jetty is the oldest and largest of the Clan Jetties. A row of shops lined the narrow alley from the entrance ending with a temple at the end of the jetty.

The attraction was pretty crowded on Boxing Day. I managed to snap these after a patient wait.

After visiting these two attractions, we headed over to Batu Ferringhi beach and checked into Bayview Beach Resort Penang. All set and ready for our fishing trip the next day.

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Day 3 – Batu Ferringhi

The highlight of Day 3 was deep-sea fishing.

We booked a deep-sea fishing session with Soon Coastal Fishing which offers 2 fishing packages with rods and baits provided:

• Fun fishing: 3 hours for RM280 (max 8 pax)
• Deep-sea fishing: 6 hours for RM720 (max 5 pax)

The fishing boat is a simple vessel with no toilet onboard.

The journey to the first fishing spot took an hour, longer than usual, due to the sea conditions.

Although there is no guarantee of big catch, Andy did his best by bringing us to a few stops, looking for big catch. Can tell that he is an experienced angler, being able to spot fishes in deep waters, when us amateurs cannot see a thing. If you are not used to rough waters, do get prepared for possibility of motion sickness. This is my third deep sea fishing trip and also took medication for motion sickness at the start but still I felt nausea at the midpoint of the trip.

We got this approximately 3kg beauty plus a couple of small fishes which we freed or used as baits.

At the end of the session, Andy was very kind to help us scale, gut and clean the big fish before sending to Golden River Restaurant, a casual, non air-conditioned Malaysian zi char restaurant.

The fish was cooked in 2 styles: black pepper and thai style. Besides our catch, we ordered watercress soup, stir-fried kailan and claypot tofu. All these, plus 4 rice and drinks at less than RM100. A simple meal but really delicious, we will definitely go back if we visit Batu Ferringhi in future.

Overnight in Bayview Beach Resort Penang.

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Day 4

We headed home on an early flight ending our short break.

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Useful Tips/Information

1. Penang is a popular tourist destination so it’s prudent to allow more time to clear immigrations especially during peak travel season. So try not to cram too many activities on Day 1.
2. Travel within the island is convenient with private hire cars or cabs. We used the Grab app and booking is easy with affordable rates.
3. The weather can get very hot in mid-day. Stay hydrated.

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Total expenses:

Note:

For transactions using cash, exchange rate is S$1 = RM3.45.