Bukit Genting Hill, Penang

Genting. A big name that almost everyone in Malaysia knows. White clouds, cool weather, fun theme parks, nice scenary, heaven.

But, this is a different Genting. Located in Balik Pulau, Penang, Bukit Genting Hill is a hill top restaurant and tourism spot, although, not that hot, yet. It's gaining fame and customers with time, which can be observed since my last and recent visit. Another heaven that you can find in Penang.

Introducing: Bukit Genting Hill, Penang.

The restaurant mainly serves Thai food, which is, I consider, one of the best Thai food you can get. However, if you're here just for the food, and, paying only for the food, I would say it's not worth the money.

What you're paying for is what you can't buy with money. Nature beauty. Located strategically on the hill top in the middle of Balik Pulau, you can see the amazing sea view from the restaurant, as well as the wide, peaceful paddy fields. On the other side of the hill, you can see the towns in Balik Pulau, which brings a different kind of experience. Here are some of the panaromic views shot by me (oh the real thing is surely much better, as I was alone with my not-so-cool camera, well, too bad).

These are the sea and sun and clouds and paddy fields, in short, pure breath taking beauty.

While this, is the other side of the hill. For Penang is an island (I'm amazed that many do not know this, for example, my dear friend thought it was beside Johor, which is located about 800km from Penang), you can easily see beaches and sea. Photo shown is the developing town of Balik Pulau, 30 minutes from Georgetown, the main province of Penang island.

For sure, if you're up on the right time, you can have the chance to watch sunrise and sunset, which is, again, beautiful (sorry for the recycling of adjectives, for I don't have the thesaurus with me).

Now turn into the food. If I'm not mistaken*, the food here is prepared by real Thai chefs, and the owner himself is either a Thai, or related. Allow me to drag more things in. As far as I know, again, if I'm not mistaken, the owner owns the whole hill, and developed the road, electricity connections and water supply himself. (*this is not proven information, just, as what normal Penangites do, I 'heard')

Back to the food. Nice food, but the portion is small. For hungry people like me, it's never enough.

Some food I ordered. On my previous trips, I remember ordering the steamed fish, seafood tomyam, otak-otak, green curry and some other side orders. All of them satisfied my taste buds.

While these are the pricelists, as of 13th April 2009.

And for the business hours:

And it will be opened on public holidays too, even my birthday.

And it's a sin not to share some night views:

Oh yeah, the...... 'atap house' setting:

There are a lot more (really, I mean a lot) to discover in Bukit Genting Hill. The night scene (not all posted, I'm sorry that you're reading a blog with lazy editor and limited bandwidth), flora, fauna, chalet and much much more! It's a place definitely worth your visit, but beware, you'll need a not-so-big car to get up to the hill, as it is quite steep, but narrow on the way up.

See you soon!