I am born and grown in a countryside fishing village called Gertak Sanggul. We are a fisherman family. We love to meet new people and make friends. We likes to travel with our family around the world to know about other country's culture. We would like to give people who is busy and always in town area to experience the slow pace and life that stay in a countryside. We stay within walking distance
from the homestay. So, we are ready to serve you, offers help and check you in 24/7. You may let me know if you need my help to suggest and workout a visiting plan with you. Welcome to visit and stay in this Fishing Village Homestay@Gertak Sanggul.
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**About My Village**
This fishing village is located at the south west of the beautiful Penang Island called Gertak Sanggul. The chinese name of the village is "pretty lake" which bring the meaning of a beautiful countryside. The village is even not known by some of the Penangites as it is situated at the countryside of Penang island. Formerly, the villagers are mainly Chinese family. As time goes, there are Chinese, Malay and Indian family migrated to this village. So, at this small village, you will see the harmony of different races of people with different culture stay in the same village. Most of the local villagers here works as fisherman and farmer (durian farm) due to the surrounding topography. This village is surrounded by the mountain and by the sea. This is a very peaceful fishing village. People that staying in this village is friendly and know each other well as this is just a small village. You tell a name of the villager here and people can tell who he/she is. Most of the house is mainly made of wood. You will able to feel and see a kampung house (village house) instead of tall building in the town area. Hence, you will definitely experience the other side beauty of Penang.
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**Surrounding of the village**
About 5 min drive away from Gertak Sanggul, there is a popular picnic spot for local people called Tanjung Asam. It may not a popular tourist spot but during weekend, many local people likes to go there to picnic and swimming with kids. At Gertak Sanggul, there are two popular chinese eatery spot, Tua Pek Khong and Gertak Sanggul FIshing Seafood. Both serve rice, noodles and fresh seafood. Everything in Gertak Sanggul village is within walking distance. At Teluk Kumbar (10min drive from Gertak Sanggul), there is a famous Thai Food (Khuntai), popular chinese seafood restaurant, Hai Boey Seafood, Hao You seafood, Ai Ding Yuan Seafood and popular Malay stall serving Mee Udang (Prawn noodles). There are many mamak stall (small restaurant serve by local) that offers variety of popular local delicacy like Fried rice, Roti Canai (popular bread made by Mamak in Penang), Mee Goreng (Fried noodles) and etc. Another popular spot near to Gertak Sanggul called Balik Pulau is just 15 min drive away. Along the way to Balik Pulau, there is a place called Little Genting. Little Genting is a hill situated between the road from Teluk Kumbar to Balik Pulau. In Little Genting, you can get to see a beautiful scenery for whole Balik Pulau. At the same time, there is a restaurant up there so you can enjoy the scene while having your meal there. You can drive a normal car up to there. However, it is recommended to have experience in driving as the road is small and a little steep. At Balik Pulau, there are a few popular tourism spot. You may visit Goat farm, Audi Dream farm, Nutmeg factory, Bao Sheng Durian Farm and etc. There has famous food in Penang like Laksa and Pasembur. If you headed to north, about 25 min drive, you may visit Snake Temple located in Bayan Baru and you may also visit War Museum and popular Big foot temple that located in Batu Maung Area. The nearest big shopping mall from our village will be Queensbay Mall, BJ Complex, Sunshine Square and Giant. The journey to these shopping mall will be roughly 30 minutes. If you would like to buy some daily use stuff, you may get it from small grocery shop in the village or minimarket at Teluk Kumbar which is just 5 min drive from Gertak Sanggul. There is minimarket like CTH, Ah Hup and 7-eleven.
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**Village's Activities**
If you would like to experience a fisherman life, we can arrange a short boat trip for you to experience how to fish with net. Please arrange with me before booking if you would like to experience that as the time to go to the sea will be different with season and weather. Most of the villagers here work as fisherman, you can get fresh seafood during evening time when fisherman coming back from the sea. The beach is just a 100m walking distance away from the homestay. There is season when the sea is available with Siput (clam), a type of seafood with shell. During the season, many local people will go to the sea to catch the clam. You may experience catching the clam by the seaside during the season. Please follow my page as i will update here when it is the season to catch the clam. During evening, you may stroll along the road near the village to experience the villagers life. You will see many villagers stroll around with their kids, whether through walking, cycling or ride motorbike slowly. You may picnic and sit by the beach to enjoy the breeze and the peacefulness in the village. During durian season, this village do produce many type of durian, rambutan and etc. You can buy from the local people here with reasonable price. Lunch/dinner with fresh seafood is served by the local Tua Phek Kong seafood stall. There is one more option to enjoy seafod dinner at fishing village seafood centre. At the sametime, you may have your steamboat/bbq at the homestay also. If you wish to stay in the house and relax, you can enjoy reading the books or doing some bakery. We do have some books in the house and also full equip bakery equipment available. Few local small temple are located in this fishing village. They are maintained by the local villagers here. The temple is a small temple that exist in rural area since the start of the village and it is a believe of local chinese people in the village. One of the popular fishing spot near Gertak Sanggul is near the hill side of the village. Many people that likes to fishing ride motorbikes hike up to the hill near the end of the village to fishing. There is also a man made fishing pond owned by the villagers. There is a hiking route from this village to Pulau Betong. If you like hiking, you can try out this hiking route. This will take about 3-4 hours to reach Pulau Betong. You will need to take public transport to back to Gertak Sanggul if you don't plan to hike back to Gertak Sanggul.
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**House Rule**
1. Please take off your shoes when enter the homestay.
2. Smoking is not allowed in house. If you really want to smoke, please smoke outside the house
3. No pets is allowed in the house
4. Please switch off all electrical appliances (Air conditioner, Light, Fan) when not in use
5. Please clean the cooking utensils, cooking appliances, cup, plates, fork and spoon after use. Dry up the items and put back to the original place.
6. No consumption of food inside the room
7. Please keep the noise in minimum level after 10pm
8. Please close the window and lock the door when you are leaving the house.
9. Please help to put back everything that you use to its original place and please do not take away anything from the house as as all the items are prepared as a courtesy to be use by all the guest at all times.
10.Bear with any damage to the house furniture and equipment
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**Check-In/Check-Out time**
Check-in : 3pm
Check-out: 12pm
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**Amenities**
1. 4 Air conditioner room with 5 queen size bed and fan available
2. 3 Bath room with water heater and one of bathroom with bathtub
3. 49" FULL-HD LED TV with Astro Njoi channel
4. Laptop friendly workspace
5. Free use of washing machine
6. Fridge, Oven, Air fryer, Cooking hood & hob, Microwave, Kettle, Rice cooker, Egg mixer, Bread maker
9. BBQ pit and BBQ stick
10. Iron stand and iron
12. Hair dryer
13. Free covered parking
14. Board games, Books, Mini mahjong
15. SimpleFoot Massager (Strictly for foot used only and please wear sock for hygiene purpose
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**Direction to the village**
The journey from Penang international airport to Gertak Sanggul is about 20 min drive(10km). To come Gertak Sanggul from Airport, you will need to head to south, pass through Bayan Lepas and Teluk Kumbar. Then take the left turn after a famous Lexis Suites Hotel and Hao You Seafood and you are heading towards Gertak Sanggul. It is just 10min more greenery route from Lexis Suites to Gertak Sanggul. If you are taking public transport, you will need to take a rapid bus with no. 308. The routemap of the rapid bus is at the link below (select 308 under Penang Island):
http://www.rapidpg.com.my/journey-planner/route-maps/
However, it is recommended for you to have own transport because bus is only available in the interval of 1 hours. If you are coming from Georgetown with car, the journey is about 45mins to 1 hour. I would recommend you to explore the south of Penang if you stay at my homestay. My family members are working at the FTZ in Bayan Lepas/Batu Maung area. If during weekday, they may give you free ride to go to somewhere that may have more public transport. However, if you need that, please contact me before booking so that we can make an arrangement and see if the location suit you. I can provide you free airport transfer if you stay more than 3 days here. Else, we can arrange airport transfer to you at a small fees also.
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**Word from us**
We welcome you to stay in our homestay. It is a great place if you would like to wind down, relax and experience the culture in a countryside and fishing village. We hope to see you soon :)
