Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Cintra 100 - Heritage Hostel

Since this is our 1st time travelling as married couple, we decided to sleep at different places each night so we get to try and taste various hotel. Most of the hotels were full as we are going to be there during peak season - Christmas. So we missed some cool hotels like e&o, Northam and Batu Feringghi area.

Feeling a bit adventerous, I searched for some cheap and old hostel for us to sleep on the 2nd night and that's when I found this online and it looks lovely and alright, so I decided to give it a try.

I was thinking, 'Ok, bila lagi nak try, when we have kids, no way we will gamble like this'.

So I called them up and placed a booking for 26th.

We arrived Penang on 25th and staying at Cititel that night. Apparently they are near to each other so we decided to visit Cintra first and see how the place is. If it is very bad, we might cancel and continue staying in Cititel.

We were greeted by a very friendly old man named Kenny. Surprisingly, my name is not in his booking sheet and I was pretty mad because I really want to try the place out as it looks clean and pretty okay on general glances.

According to him, we are the first Muslim (I don't know why he mentioned Muslim but I guess what he really meant was Malay ;) ) to sleep there in that year and this is because the stopped accepting local years ago as most of them always causing incident and messiness such as light prostitution, noise, steal things, etc etc. So now they only cater foreigners.

So actually he canceled my name fromt the booking after hearing 'Hanani' (a muslim name) or maybe he didn't even write the booking. Gahhhhhh!

Anyway, after a long chat, he decided to give us a room for tomorrow. Maybe he saw us as normal people and will bring the place no harm.

We got a double room and were welcomed with two thin mattresses on 'pankin' with mosquito net and a table fan. There are also an old wooden closet with some hangers. I was very relieved as the the room is very clean but it's a bit scary as everything is very old. The wall is made from bricks and you can see cement patches. I also notice some bugs crawling at the end of my matresses, that are about ladybird size with round shape exactly like ladybird only they are in totally black. So I guess it is a normal bug (and I call them ladybug) so I just snapped them off with my finger. Later (as in dayss later) baru lah I tahu that it is actually bed bugs!! And that's how I got this! Hmmmppphhh!!


The bed, it's a bit messy as I took this picture during the morning after being feasted by the bed bugs

The 'lounge'. One of inmates using the wifi.

Cintra 100 is considered as heritage building as it also hosting a small museum that consist of antiques left by the some people. It used to be a local spot where the top man like doctors and engineers gathered for tea and share their favourite things there, for display and also to be sold. However, it is lacked of maintenance when most of them are away, some migrates and stuff, so they decided to open it as a hostel to help the backpackers. You can get more stories here.

The museum is on top of our room but we didn't manage to enter it as we have to leave it early in the morning. But we did climb the stairs and peek the rooms through broken door and windows to snap few pics.

Open at 11

Some of the antiques

Our room - the first steel door right after the stair

The shared TV area

Common bathroom for everybody. They have heater though

Our reflection from a shabby mirror

It is located at Cintra street, right in the middle of the town, near to Chowrasta and Komtar.

RM40 for double room, RM15 for dormitory

After we checked out the next morning, we found out that it is also situated next to a funeral service shop.

Nirvana

And opposite of fortune teller's shop

For RM40, you'll get a double room, shared bathroom with heater and free wifi.

It's indeed an interesting place, very cultural, historical and colorful. But my advise is, DO NOT stay there, unless you are okay with bed bugs!

Another lesson that I learnt is be prepared for any possibilities when u want something different. That's why I can't really blame this 100 over years old building for the incident. It was me who cari pasal first right? ;)

6 comments:

  1. aku rasa macam pernah masuk tmpat ni (by accident, bukan google-mengugel).

    masa tu jalan from komtar nak ke hamidiya.

    tapi ya ampun, aku memang penakut, so tempat2 cmtu slalunya tak seswai dgn aku.
    bilik tv dekat indahkembara pun tak setakut tmpat tu..

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  2. Hahahaa... memang blog anda google-able :P

    nice meeting u guys aritu.. thanks melepak ngan aku... balik2 dr jupe korg, sakit jawbone aku... rupanya cakap tak berhenti.. al maklumlah update bertahun2 nyer skaligus... hahaha..

    p/s: cari eye liner tau ;-)

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  3. ok.me dah pangkah tempat ni.
    takmo. tatut kena gatai-gatai.
    seriously, kulit me memang giler sensitip.huhuhu..

    eh, u tido situ takde dengar bunyi pape ke? jeng jong jeng ...:D

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  4. Salam,
    Oh my god, beraninya korang try tempat mcm ni...

    i has this feeling that tempat mcm tu, kalau diteropong tilamnya dgn lampu biru dlm gelap sure nampak byk blue splat! :P

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  5. hahahhaha! me saw ths place (saw as in masuk dalam tu kepoh2 ok) masa jalan2 nk gi komtar - hamidiya. dem creepy okay. mmg la MURAH + antik + nostalgic, kira dah capai my standard place to stay la kan, tapi feeling dia mcm masuk rumah hantu okeh. rumah hantu betul pun lagi condusive tahu.

    n'way not to mention tang hygien la kan ;)

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  6. Yan, mmg scary okk tempat tu, I mean I don't really fancy antique2 ni mcm ada spirit or something. Before tido siap suh MrComot inspect all the closet's compartment, kut2 la tiba2 terjumpa tempayan kecik ke labu sayung ke, gila lah

    Azleena, we chat and giggles like school student hahaha. Craazzzyyyyyy

    Lalink Khairiah, me sgt la ignorant ok..me letak2 kepala je terus zzZZ. MrComot siap cakap ada bunyi disko la apa la..but me tak dengar pun :P

    Tatty, me think so too, but the bed sheet is clean, so halal lah..tido malam tu pun pakai proper2, siap lengan panjang ngan suar panjang hehehe

    Bee, mmg creepyy but for the sake of experience, ok lah kan haha. Hantu is everywhere la..let them be :P Anyway the place is clean, only the bedbugs la, old building la katakan. Whatever it is, DONT STAY! Nnt abes u eczema :P

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