Crossing the Pulau Pinang bridge

Continued from Going around Georgetown in Pulau Pinang.

After visiting a number of places in Georgetown it's time to leave the island.

If the night before we entered the island by ferry from Butterworth in Seberang Perai, in the afternoon we left via the Pulau Pinang bridge.

This 13.5 km or so long bridge never fails to offer nice vistas...

That's Georgetown by the way.

The bridge is flat for a distance...

It will only rise at the centre marked by the pillars...

There. The bridge starts to rise...

For it is at these parts that large ships could pass underneath.

Then the bridge went down.

Next it is curved on to the mainland.

Going around Georgetown in Pulau Pinang

OK. I can avoid using the anglicised name Penang by just referring to its original Malay name Pulau Pinang. But as much as I hate it, in order to refer to its main town on the island part of Pulau Pinang (the state has a mainland part called Seberang Perai) one just can't avoid using the colonial name Georgetown. You see the name was given by the colonialists English or British and it is still in use. Unless I want to remain rather vague by just calling it the main town of Pulau Pinang, Georgetown has to suffice. So there.

In the last piece on the trip to the north made during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan, the article Pantai Merdeka at night made 2 days ago I talked about the parts of of Kedah we went to on the eve of the Malaysian National Day or rather the Independence Day commemorated on 31st August. By midnight I was already heading to Pulau Pinang. So this is what happened the following day...

31st August 2010, it's a holiday. After getting a nice sleep at a budget hotel we started going around Georgetown.

Now, I'm not sufficiently versed in the names of the streets. But here I believe we were passing through its old financial district.

If I remember correctly we were then headed south.

Then just before the town's southern borders we made a right turn heading east towards the tallest building called Komtar, a building tall enough to put back our position in perspective to everywhere else.

If I got my natural compass right at this juncture we were going north-east.

The building to the left is the base of Komtar.

The one-way street around the building form a sort of giant roundabout.

Believe me, whenever you got lost driving in Georgetown you can head straight to Komtar to get your bearing back.

Pantai Merdeka at night

Continued from Merbok river mouth at Tanjung Dawai revisited.

After that visit to Tanjung Dawai we went to Merbok where lies an archeological museum before visiting the tomb of Kedah's Sultan Muzaffar Shah I. Then we have to head to Sungai Petani before we could get to Kota Kuala Muda where lies the remains of the gate of an old Malay fort.

Near the gate there's also a bit of the fort's other remains.



Then we stopped at Kota Kuala Muda's old mosque.

From Kota Kuala Muda we went to the beach called Pantai Merdeka.

Oh have I told you this visit was made on the night of 30th August 2010?

Well, they were preparing to celebrate Malaysia's independence day 31th August...

As the clock ticked to midnight for the celebration we walked alongside the beach.

But we didn't stay for long as we wanted to get to the island of Pulau Pinang. Here's Tanjung Dawai or what could be seen of it from Pantai Merdeka at night.