Shopping in Penang

- Shop till you drop -

Ben van Wijnen

One of the latest shopping centers: Plaza Gurney
Here you can put your digital photo's on cd-rom.

Department stores are open from 10 am till 10 pm daily, while most of the shops in the shopping malls are open from 10 am till 9 pm 10 pm. The prices are fixed in the department stores and  in the shopping malls

The best street for shopping in George Town is Penang Road. Here you can buy cameras and portable radios duty free. Always ask for a warranty card for cameras, watches and electronic goods. Make sure that the voltage of the electronic items is compatible with the voltage at home.

Start your shopping in Penang Road at Jalan Macalister. Take the walk-over at Jalan Burma until you reach the police station. It's lovely to walk along all those little shops on Penang Road! Opposite  the police station is the wet-market. Step into the wet-market. You can smell the fish, although there's a lot more  to buy. When you use the stairs and go up, there are also clothes available. Listen to  the dealers and their prices.
Once you get outside, you should take the first road on your right: Lebuh Campbell. It's not as busy as Penang Road, but it's also a nice shopping street. If you take the first street on your right again, you are in the street at the backside of the wet-market. In the morning they sell all kinds of goods: fruit, fish, antique household and even Chinese clogs.
If you keep on walking you'll see a big round building. This is the Komtar (shopping mall).
 

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The Komtar is the most famous and oldest shopping mall in the centre of George Town. It has four levels and is air-conditioned. Beside all kinds of little shops, there are also two department stores: Superkomtar and Yoahan.  At the top of the shopping mall rises a 64-floor round building with mostly offices. In the middle of the shopping centre, at the tourist information, you can buy tickets for the elevator . You have to be at street level to take the elevator. When you're up, you'll be amazed by the panoramic view, you can easily see the Penang bridge and Butterworth, which is on the mainland. At street level there's also a bus station.  When you're staying at the Rasa Sayang Resort or the Golden Sands Hotel you can take the shuttle bus to town. The shuttle bus stops at the Shangri La Hotel in the centre of George Town. Once you get off the bus, you can go into the hotel and take the escalator to the second floor. There you walk right into the shoe-department of Yoahan. You can also make a trishaw ride when you get off the bus. Several drivers are waiting for you to take you for a ride in their trishaw. In the Komtar there are several cinemas with the latest movies. You can have lunch or dinner at McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut or one of the many Malaysian restaurants.

The Prangin Mall is the latest shopping center. It's built right beside the Komtar. You can reach it by crossing a very heavy road. Please pay attention when you cross the street. You can also enter the shopping complex from Yoahan (in the Komtar) by crossing a sky bridge.  In the complex are also restaurants. There are a lot of shops and in the basement is a good supermarket, where you can buy anything (from liquor till baby food). You can find easily copied software in the upper levels.

Outside, at the corner of Jalan Macalister and Jalan Dato Kramat, you'll find "Gamma". A 30-year old department store with a supermarket on the ground floor.

Another interesting shopping mall with various shops is: 1-Stop. It's a shopping complex for the ordinary people. There are no expensive stores, like Gucci.  It's situated in the Midlands. You'll find the complex at the beginning of the city near the Berjaya Hotel and the Hawker Stall centre, called "Safari". On level 1 you'll find the supermarket "Tops". This is owned by the company of Ahold (Dutch). I was very surprised that I could buy a bottle of Grolsch-beer in this shop for my Japanese friend. On the ground floor they are selling clothes, suitcases and handbags. In "1-Stop" (air-conditioned) you can buy a lot of copied software, Play station- and Sega games. Of course there are also shops for shoes, sports, clothes and so on.  You can take the elevator and go to the top level. There's a bowling centre and a hawker centre. Don't forget to have lunch here! It's much nicer than the McDonalds down below. Do you want to have dinner? You only have to cross the street and walk to the Safari Hawker stalls or take a walk to Gurney Drive  hawker centre. On the rooftop of "1-Stop" is also a swimming-pool with slides for the children.  When you're staying in Batu Ferringhi it's easy to go by local bus. A lot of taxi's are waiting to bring you back or to take you to the center of the city. Of course you can also take the local bus!

"Island Plaza" is situated in Tanjong Tokong and is air-conditioned.. This shopping complex is about halfway on the road from George Town to Batu Ferringhi. It's not as big as "Komtar" or "1-Stop". Penangites say, that "Island Plaza" is built for the tourists, because it has so many international shops, like Nike, Giordano, Guess, Fila, Versace and British India. But.....there are also local shops.
Just outside the shopping complex, across the street, you'll find more local shops. These shops are all new (2001). You should also have a look over there.

The shopping centre that is furthest away from the city is "Bukit Jambul" (air-conditioned). It's nearby the airport. It has many levels and there are many little shops (414). Besides a food-centre there is also a bowling centre and a cinema. The complex cost RM 350 million and is the biggest in Northern Malaysia.
At the ground floor used to be an ice-skating rink, but it's closed nowadays. Due to less ice-skaters in Malaysia.

"On the ice-skating rink  little Malaysian kids made their pirouettes. It was fun for the young ones. It was a new sport for the Malaysians. The adults can’t skate because they think that you must be young when you learn how to skate.  Moreover the older ones have never seen an adult skate before. But in my country (Holland) it's common, that adults skate as well. I couldn't resist: ice-skating in the tropics. So I rented  skates, socks and gloves, all  for $ 2.  And there I went.... It was lovely, although the ice was not very good. Suddenly I looked up and I saw a lot of people looking at me! They saw someone ice-skating and it was not a child, but a grown-up".  
Unfortunate the ice skating rink is closed now!