Five Star Without the Polish
Written: Nov 09 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful decor and furnishings; Inexpensive for foreigners.
Cons: More attention needed to detail.
The Bottom Line: Worth a stay if you can afford it but it faces stiff competition from Cheong Fatt Tze mansion.
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| dzof's Full Review: Eastern and Oriental Hotel Penang |
The E&O Hotel is one of the most famous and exclusive places to stay in Penang. At one time it's fame was world-wide, attracting the rich and famous, but the hotel suffered damage in the Second World War and it was decades before it recently reopened in 1996 under new management. It's selling points are fine accommodation and luxury service in a colonial-style ambience.
I am often in Penang because of the bookshop my mother runs there (http://www.bookshop-penang.com/) and so have stayed in a number of hotels in Georgetown.
I spent one night in the E&O - normally it's out of my price range, but for that weekend I managed to get it with a significant corporate discount. Finally I had the chance to see first-hand what it had to offer.
Location
The hotel is slap-bang in the middle of the middle of old Georgetown, and is ideally located for walks on the Heritage Trail.
It's very easy to get to, but then again, everything in Georgetown is fairly easy to get to. Georgetown is like a large one-way road system and if you drive around for long enough, you'll see everything there is to see there.
Across the road is The Garage, an eclectic mix of touristy and trendy shops (including a nightclub tantalisingly named Slippery Senioritas). It's actually fairly nicely done, but may strike some as touristy.
Incidentally, very nearby is the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion, an old colonial house now restored as a hotel. Despite what I will say about the E&O in terms of decor and atmosphere, the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion is in a different category altogether. (However, it's a little unfair comparing the E&O with something that should have claim to be a World Heritage Site - well, I exaggerate, but only a little.)
Anyway, the mansion is also worth a look if you're into culture.
Surroundings
It's actually a beautiful building and the whole front facade screams "COLONIAL", down to the porters in shorts who will kindly open your car door for you. They will also tell you that the closest parking spot requires a turning across two lanes of busy roads, drive back down again to rejoin the main road, and then to follow a teeny-weeny arrow marked parking. Car jockeys would be a good idea. Especially if you intend to be a high-class joint.
The E&O at one time boasted the worlds largest seafront lawn. I don't know if this is still true but you can still have tea (or in my case, teh tarik) while facing the ocean. Whether the seawater now is as clean as it was 80 years ago is another matter.
You can even stroll down to a collection of hawker stalls, all very tastefully done. I didn't actually go there the night I stayed at the hotel, but I have enjoyed what they have to offer. Try the banana tosai, it melts in the mouth. The only gripe is that it's a little more expensive than the usual hawker fare, but Penangnites are in general quite a thrifty lot, so your gripes will not seem out of place.
Decor
Enough of the outside. On the inside, what the E&O has to offer was fine furniture, wonderful ambience and large rooms. I think that they're all suites in the E&O, with bathrooms as large as the bedsit I used to have in university (two sinks, if you're counting).
The furnishings are splendid - almost makes you want to smuggle out a chair or a writing desk in your suitcase. They've tried to maintain a colonial style throughout, but modern amenities such as the television and refrigerator distract from the ambience. You might think it's excessive to expect a period-style TV that delivers fifteen satellite channels, but, hey - I have high expectations.
They even have cloth laundry bags, one of which made its way into my luggage and now sits in my room as a practical souvenir. And if anyone who works for the hotel is reading this, I'm joking. Really.
Service
I have to say that service overall was excellent, with none of that pandering hand-over-your-heart which you see in some hotels (come on, nobody in Malaysia does that to greet one another - it's artificial, it's manufactured, it's a pretense of a non-existant Bangsa Malaysia element).
Each guest can also call upon the in-house butler service. I didn't, but (for example) you can instruct them to polish your shoes or iron your shirt. My mother discovered the butler call button by accident because it's placed right next to the bedlight switch.
We must have checked in a little early or something because twice people knocked on the door to give fresh flowers and fruits that were already meant to be there. They were very kind about it, though.
Food
I can't really say too much about the dining because all we had was breakfast when I stayed there. It's your typical buffet breakfast with Western, Malay and Chinese choices (read as: eggs and [beef] bacon, Nasi Lemak and Teochew Porridge). Incidentally the default egg dish is poached eggs but somebody will fry you an omelette if you ask them. And make you toast too. Nice touch.
Opinion
Overall, it is a very nice place to be, but there are quibbles, and it's usually in the fine detail. This is because of the extremely high expectations I had of this hotel, so I am a little bit more critical than usual, but I am comparing it to other five-star hotels.
For example, their coffee shop serves its butter in the little plastic containers and its sugar in little paper sachets. It may seem facetious to complain, but to me it's a serious matter. I came to enjoy the atmosphere and ambience, not to be reminded that I was still in the hub-bub of the twentieth Century - if you're going to charge RM500 a room, I think you can afford to do a little better than that.
Nevertheless, RM500 is actually fairly cheap when converted to US Dollars or British Pounds, so I expect that most tourists would consider it luxury at an affordable price.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dzof
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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