For the duration of this trip, I’ve been pretty excited about wherever I am, rarely longing for home or snow or any of that fuzz. Unfortunately the Boston Rock Gym held it’s annual Heart of Steel bouldering competition while we were in Thailand, and there were no transpace teleporters available on the Thaiwand Wall. Fortunately Tom Sherman did an amazing job capturing the event. For the small Venn space of climbers who read this who weren’t there, Here’s the link.
Browsing Posts published on February 3, 2010
Finally! The photos capturing the attempts. Not sure what happened to numbers 21-26.
James and I haven’t stayed at many hostel type places during our journey as we have been couchsurfing with new friends and family all around the world. In fact, since early November, we have only stayed in a hostel 4 nights; 2 in NZ when we first arrived and were figuring out our plan, the next was in The Blue Mountains, just outside Sydney, when we first arrived and hadn’t confirmed any couchsurfing yet and then lastly during our quick stay in Bangkok, we spent just a couple hours in the hostel during our 18 hours in the city.
So when we arrived at the Banana Guesthouse in Penang, it felt a bit surreal to be surrounded by many other backpackers. It’s in what had been described to us as the touristy part of town. Although that being said, I didn’t feel like it was run over with tourists as one might expect. There were many locals who came to chill in the lounge for a coffee, beer or to use the internet, thus decreasing the “hostel-y” feeling of the place. I don’t want to imply that hostels have a bad vibe because that is not the case. I have met some amazing people at hostels (especially when traveling alone) but sometimes it’s more desiring to steer clear of the hostel circuit so that you aren’t always running into the same people and/or having the same conversations (Where are you from? How long have you been traveling? Where are you going next? Etc.) This is why couchsurfing is so great because you can truly get a local’s perspective on a place. But I digresss. The Banana Guesthouse.
The room prices at the Banana seemed to be on par with other hostels in the area (25 Ringht Malaysian (7.50USD) for a single bed, 40 RM (12USD) for a double with shared bath, 60 (18USD) for a double with private bath. While the rooms weren’t anything to write home about (see previous post about no windows!) they did have A/C, no ants or the need for a bug net which was huge in our book when we checked in. The bed was comfortable, as were the pillows, which is where it can get a bit dicey at times in hostels. Trying to find the right spot to fall asleep in a new location is hard enough, especially when you have to navigate lumps and creaks. Our shower was hot and had great pressure—another bonus after Ton Sai.
More importantly, the Banana offered great services for the tourist. Not only did they courier your passport over to the Thai embassy and deal with that all day for us (for a small fee of 12 USD/pp). I always get nervous handing my passport over to someone else, but I knew in this case it was essential. Based on the laminated flow charts and application forms on every desk in their office, and watching others come and go to pick up their completed visas, I knew the Banana Guesthouse had done this many a time with success. It was the most infrastructure and organization we have seen in AGES! The Banana Guesthouse also offers transport in air conditioned vans to other locations around Malaysia and Thailand. There is a same day laundry service for 5 RM (1.50USD)/KG (2.2 lbs.) They have a bar, small cafe, pool table and the biggest selling feature was free wi-fi. For those traveling without a personal computer, there were 4 computers available for use at 3 RM (1 USD)/hour. Granted it wasn’t also the fastest internet, but I recognize I am a spoiled American in that respect. There were staff everywhere, more than ready to help you with whatever you needed and those in the office, spoke great, understandable English.
Had I written this recommendation the other day as planned, I potentially would have written an even more glowing post. But unfortunately during our last night, we stayed 5 nights, at around 4am the ceiling sprung a leak. 5 of them. So as I write this now on our way to Thailand, I am a bit sleep deprived. Seeing as how I don’t know the source of the leak, I can’t really fault the Banana Guesthouse. All in all, two thumbs up.
Banana New Guesthouse Travel and Tours
No. 355, 357 and 359 Chulia Street
10200 Penang Malaysia
Tel-604-2626171
Banana Guest House
