Wan Hai Hotel

The Wan Hai Hotel is one of these old ancient Chinese homes that breathes history and atmosphere in every creak of its wooden stairs and floors. There are carved shutters on the windows and the dorm faces the street with windows all along one wall which make it bright and cheery and a great place to watch thunderstorms in the monsoon period. There were a few while I was here and I was a bit worried about leaks in the ancient wood but the old house is water tight! The only disappointing thing is they don't have a lot of facilities here and no one was staying in the dorm to chat to at night. Could be a bit eerie if you don't like creaking wood!

You can get bus tickets from Wan Hai Hotel like most places and watch TV downstairs in the reception but there's nowhere to hangout with other travellers. There are however plenty of cafes around for that and you'd stay here more for the antique feel.

The bathrooms were ok. I could not work out who the owner was but the guy who worked there in the afternoons spoke English really well and I spent one afternoon with him in the reception area while I was sheltering from a storm. We chatted away into the afternoon, he was retired from the police service and working part time for something to do. He told me a lot about Chinese culture and life in Penang.

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