Hotel review: Lone Pine Penang

Hotel: Lone Pine, Batu Feringghi, Penang
Website: click here
Occasion: Annuar's wedding
Dates: 25-27 July 2008
Conclusion: Really nice and homey hotel - will definitely go back for a chill out weekend!

Rommel and I were invited to Annuar and Mariana's wedding in Penang and the wedding was to be held at the Lone Pine Hotel. Reviews said it was pretty nice but rather old/dated. We chose to stay at the same hotel for sheer convenience. And also, Shen and Patty came along so we could just leave them in the room with the Maxis broadband we brought from home.

We drove up on Friday night itself and arrived at a rather dim-lit hotel. Cosy for some but can be a bit scary (especially of people like me who can "sense" things sometimes).

The 2 king-sized beds in the Executive Suite was just perfect for the 4 of us (Mom was in Hong Kong and Dad was in Chiangmai that weekend). Here is Shen giving me a pose right after we checked in.


And here is Rommel in the living room. The furniture and electronics are rather tired looking and dated at the first impression.


But what was great about the hotel was..... the ambience. All over. Totally relaxing, beachy chill-out blah blah blah.. Check out the view from our balcony.


Although the balcony wasnt really a balcony... more like a little cosy corner, complete with a day bed. Perfect for lazy afternoon knitting!


For the wedding party night, Shen and Patty decided to order room service instead of going out around Batu Feringgi. Our whole family somehow makes it compulsory to try the room service of every hotel we stay in - it's like one of our criteria upon which we judge the hotel.

And I must say this one passed our grading! Shen ordered the tom yum seafood soup and lambchops. Patty had the French onion soup with burger.


In case you're wondering why we were in Penang and they were eating room service Western food in a hotel rather than all the yummylicious hawker food that Penang has to offer, we'd had a feast that whole Saturday before retiring back to the hotel in the evening. (Char kuey teow, mee jawa, cendol, assam laksa and a durian feast - pics to come in a separate post as I wanted to highlight Lone Pine here)

Sunday morning was a pretty relaxed and lazy one. We slept until about 10am. Fatty and Rommel then headed to the beach cos Patty wanted to go paragliding (We'd done the Viper and jetskiing the previous evening).

Shen and I bummed around in the hotel's hammocks just outside the rooms.


Just looking at this picture actually relaxes me... I think I'll plan another trip to Penang sometime soon just to chill here. Definitely stress-free.

And now back to reality, another 14-hour day at work tomorrow... :(