#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Malaysia Forum >  >  > Malaysia Hotels and Guesthouses >  >  The Oriental Hotel, Penang

## dirtydog

Well I stayed there a couple of days ago and have to say I wasn't really impressed with the hotel, ok the location is great for hitting the night life, its like on an intersection of loads of differant roads, ie leith street and chulia street and Penang road and some others.

On their blurb pamphelete,_sp_, it states they have email service, so I nipped down to reception and asked how much it was per hour and where was it, it turns out their email service is actually sending you down the road to an internet cafe, yep it's on great service like that that makes you just want to go back to that hotel.

*Penang Visa Run Page*




Going up the road away from the Komtar building there is also the Malaysia hotel and the continental hotel, these are both slightly more expensive, but weekdays they bring the price down  :Smile: 

The Oriental was a mere 69 ringit all in which is pretty cheap for Penang, the cheapest aircon room you can get in Penang is about 50 ringit, but you really wouldn't want to stay in it.




As you can see in this next picture Penang is getting to be quite a dangerous place, although about 10 years ago me and my mate were there and they tried to snatch his bag, they nearly fell off of the motorbike due to his bag weighing about 30 kilos, so you got to be carefull there  :Smile: 



Add; 105 Penang Road, 10000 Penang
Tel; (604) 263 5395

The best thing about this hotel is the basement, this contains one of the best Indian restaurants in the whole world, yep the Kashmir restaurant, trouble is I didn't get the time to eat there this time  :Sad: 



I suppose I should tell you about the bathrooms, they are pretty delapidated and could do with being torn out completely and being redone, the bath had silicone all round the tap bases and the overflow, this was covered in a black mould, when you emptied the bath the water came up thru the floor drain.




Still at least it had a proper throne and not a squat one, although it didn't have a bum spray, I have to admit by the third day my ring piece was in pain due to using toilet paper and there was splatters of blood on the tissue paper, actually you feel pretty dirty using toilet paper, every time checking each piece to see if this last piece was clean, realising that it wasn't and then having to rip off a new piece and smear it round some more.



The bed was not too bad, but the color scheme was terrible, and this is from a person who is partially color blind, I really wonder what some people think when they choose soft furnishings.

The aircon was quite good but you had to control it by sliding 2 pieces of plywood over the vents, not very hitech but it works I suppose.





The furniture had seen better days about 10 years ago let alone now, it was all pretty cheap and nasty, the tv was a 14inch one and had some great stuff if you can speak malay or chinky, the funny thing was that the tv was bolted down to the table, I mean who the fok is gonna nick a crappy 14inch tv?



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*Penang News Headlines*
*Malaysia Weather Forecasts*
*World Time Zones*
*Currency Convertor*

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## aging one

100% agreed on the Kashmir Restaurant, the best I have ever eaten.  Malai Kofta could be my favorite vegetable dish in the world.  Not cheap but worth every ringett.

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## Marmite the Dog

So, I guess we can say that the Hotel Continental is a better place to stay if anyone is planning on a trip to Georgetown....?

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## dirtydog

yes I then moved to the continental, I shall post the pics and text and video about it tomorrow  :Smile:

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## MeMock

Good to see you still have your sexy travelling bad  :Smile:

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## DrAndy

The Eastern & Oriental is the place to stay if you want luxury, but at a price

I still like the Cathay hotel, even more dilapidated and totally charming

wonderful old colonial building

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## colourful-era

> it turns out their email service is actually sending you down the road to an internet cafe, yep it's on great service like that that makes you just want to go back to that hotel.


 
That's like some of the guest houses I've come across recently stating 'We have swimming pool'

 - except the pool is at one of their partner guest houses in another town or you have to pay extra to use it.

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## colourful-era

> the cheapest aircon room you can get in Penang is about 50 ringit, but you really wouldn't want to stay in it.


 
I had an aircon room for *30* Ringgit at 'Jim's house' /Chulia st. (see picture in Marmite's thread).

Shared bathroom  but the room was adequate (very noisy though).

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## colourful-era

> I have to admit by the third day my ring piece was in pain due to using toilet paper and there was splatters of blood on the tissue paper,


 
so you did have some action with the ladyboys there then... :Wink:  



Can you tell us about that?  :Razz:

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## aging one

Andy I too like the Cathay.  Old fashioned as hell but nice.

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## dirtydog

There were some ladyboys hanging out between the oriental and continental, about 4 of them wearing see thru tops and no bras on, I got to admit I was a bit shocked to see that in a mainly Muslim country, I suppose they haven't got any laws about guys with tits, and yes they were Thai, there chat up line was, "can I speak to you for 5 minutes".
Obviously I declined their offer......

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## dirtydog

There is one thing that is better in Penang than in Thailand, and that is the water pressure, if you are having a shower and open yours eyes the odds are that the high pressure of the water would destroy your eyeballs, perhaps it is best they don't install bum sprays, death by enema would be quite likely...

I was thinking of starting a thread on things to do in Penang, but I don't really think it is worthy of a whole thread, anyway if your bored shitless you can always play drafts with the taxi drivers outside the Oriental hotel, this game has been going on 24/7 for at least the last 16 years, so these guys are probably quite good at it by now, what boring lives some people lead  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

Here is the view from my room at the Oriental hotel, pretty cool huh  :Smile: 
Even got the Komtar in there, although I have to admit to some bad news, yep the supermarket in there has closed down, I remember years ago filling up bags full of stuff that we couldn't get in Thailand, or that was damn expensive here, I have to admit it is quite a sad loss, I really was looking forward to some plums and cherrys  :Sad:

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## dirtydog

The view from my window.

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