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PENANG
225
June15
Breakfast at
Sarkies
is the full buffet affair, with
numerous stations offering a global selection of cuisines,
including local favourite
roti canai
; to the kids’ dismay
– and their parents’ approval! – there’s no chocolate
fountain. (For more on E & O’s restaurants, see the next
page.) Hotel chefs offer Malaysian
culinary courses
on Wednesday lunchtimes, and complimentary
yoga
classes are offered poolside on Tuesday and Thursday
mornings.
The E & O was undoubtedly the highlight of our stay
in Penang, and we can’t recommend it highly enough.
History of a grand old dame
With a reference befitting the age of travel
by ocean liners, advertisements in 1927
proclaimed the E & O Hotel as “The Premier
Hotel East of The Suez”. In a nod to the long
journey from England through the canal,
the ads boasted of baths with hot and cold
running water, individual telephones and
842 metres of sea frontage, “the longest of
any hotel in the world”. Today, the claw-foot
baths and colonial heritage features co-exist
seamlessly with modern-day necessities:
rainforest showers, speedy Wi-Fi and the
stunning
Panpuri Organic Spa
.
An account of the hotel’s development,
plus memorabilia and memories of its
glory days as the preferred location in
Penang for weddings, celebrations and
social occasions, is recorded in the
History
Gallery
. We whiled away a pleasant half-hour
chatting to the enthusiastic Merlene, who has
an encyclopaedic knowledge of the hotel.