I'm blessed to say that I did my share of traveling as a kid. My parents saw the importance of exposing my sister and I to different places, activities and cultures. This habit stuck till today and I'm always looking for the opportunity to travel during the holidays.
(5 years old and sulky from being forced to walk the Great Wall of China)
On my recent trip to Penang , I was all set to get down and dirty. To share a room with sweaty people with disgusting body odor and to rub shoulder on algae infested walls while I showered. But it all changed when I found out about Tofu! (click to be directed to their Facebook page) By the way, this is not an advert for the B&B, neither is it a promo. I just had a really good time staying there and have been telling everyone about Tofu since. And I also took nice pictures of the place and want to show them off. The hostel is located in George Town at the intersection of Lebuh Pantai and Lorong Prangin. It was easy to find as we called before to get directions. It took us 20 minutes to get there from the Penang Bridge plus traffic. If you're driving, you can park along Lorong Prangin, it's much quieter and had ample parking spaces when we were there. The hostel is located just 1 minute (by bike) away from the images of Penang Street Art (is that what you even call it?).You can beat the Penang Jam and walk on foot to visit other nearby touristy places like temples and bars. (Just HAD to add bars.)
Hostel Lobby, just the right size
The Tofu building (that just sounds weird) is an old colonial house that's VERY old. It brings a modern twist to the traditional building.
Tofu offers 3 types of rooms: the mixed dormitory, the female dormitory & the individual room. We opted for the mixed dorm, because it was the cheapest (honest truth)
The Mixed dorm.
A double pod, or a "room" for 2 ,that you can see at the far left of the picture ,is going for RM99 a night.
The single pods are RM 55 per night.
All pods are equipped with a night lamp, a fan, clean pillow and sheets, a blanket and a pillow. Double pods have well, double. You'll have to bring your own towel.
All rooms are air-conditioned and each guest is provided with a locker.
The female dorm is going for RM 59 per night. I didn't inquire about the individual room.
The mixed dorm had a dressing area for the ladies as well as a place to chill equipped with a dvd player, dvd's and board games. (reminder, all this for about RM50 a person) All guest of Tofu share about 4 showers if I'm not mistaken. The sound of sharing toilets with unknown people might erk you at first but I assure you ,it's clean and well taken care off.
hot water! :)
Also, you can do your laundry at Tofu for a minimal charge!
Bottomless supply of hot and cold water for all guest
Breakfast is provided for FREE! And it's not like those pathetic bread and butter breakfasts.
juices, milk, coffee, cereal and an array of spreads. My fav was the chocolate and chunky peanut butter. I was too stuffed to eat lunch!
You might be wondering why they are called a Bed & Bike. Lucas and Joyce, the friendly (and very helpful) owners of Tofu are avid cyclers (Yes, I'm aware there's no such word) and wanted to share their hobby with the rest of the guest. An array of bikes are available for rent and Tofu guest are given a discount of RM 10. We rented Tofu is part cafe and part hostel. So if the free breakfast was not enough to fill your stomachs, you still can find food nearby! The food is beawesome! Though at first I thought it was a little pricy (Ipoh Mentality), after eating , it was totally worth it. Their dishes tasted wholesome and with certain depth. I'm not sure if I'm making sense but even their bread dishes seemed heavy ( a good heavy, like it had substance).
I don't remember the exact price but a set of Pumpkin soup and bacon and eggs on bread went for about Rm20 +
Alike other A (awesome)- Rated restaurants, Tofu provides games as well
Creamiest Pumpkin Soup ever!
Even if you have no intention in staying in Tofu. I highly recommend you to visit it just for the pumpkin soup. May I add that I don't usually eat pumpkin. Yeap, Tofu converted me!
And if this post isn't enough to convince you (boo!) .Check them out in TripAdvisor, which was where I found out about them in the first place. You can find Tofu Bed & Bikes at
Tofu address:
484, Lebuh Pantai (Beach Street), George Town, 10300 Penang,
Malaysia.
Latitude / Longitude:
5.4124622,100.3346571
For map on how to get to Tofu Bed & Bikes , kindly check out;
this
Tel:
+60164861850
Be Right Back,
Sabrina.
Labels: food, malaysia, travel 2 lovely comments ✿ |