Exploring Penang Sentral

The increasing of direct flights from Jakarta to Penang, making traveler prefer landed at Penang International Airport rather than do travel overland for about 6-8 hours from Malaysia’s capital.

And if you are patient to do overland trip, your memory will be filled with interesting experiences and accompanied by breathtaking views throughout Selangor State and Perak State.

Then ….For you who travel overland using bus then majority of buses will stop at Penang Sentral which is tourist gateway of Penang Island.

Therefore….So you will not confuse and can get detail preview of Penang Central, so I present this article to you.

Yessss … that’s Penang Sentral appearance.

PENANG SENTRAL …. Built in 2018 as main transportation hub owned by Penang State. Penang Sentral strategically replaces Butterworth Bus Terminal role with an exceptional integration system. As you can imagine, this large building integrates bus terminal, train station and ferry port in a location. Third integrated building which I admire in Malaysia after KL Sentral and Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS).

Butterworth Bus Terminal before Penang Sentral is completed.
Source: Travel-Senang-Malaysia.com

Penang Island is seen from Penang Central.

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This is my story of exploring Penang Central.…

At 13:54 hours, I arrived at Penang Sentral … yes, of course, I was dropped off at Drop Bay in 1st floor.

And for presenting this article, I delayed towards ferry terminal which can anchor me in George Town, capital of Penang State.

For 1 hour and 20 minutes, I would explore Penang Sentral.

FLOOR 1

Starting from this hall:

You will be dropped off at Drop Bay Area when you arrive at Penang Sentral.

Generally, 1st floor is used to drop and take passengers.

This is intercity/express bus platform area when I left Penang Sentral.

FLOOR 2

Come on, we’re going up to second floor. What are there?

After you go up escalator, you will see 2nd floor view.

So….What are you looking for?

Bus Ticketing Counter.

Bus ticket sales counter is in front of me after I go up with escalator. I immediately buy a bus ticket to leave Penang with schedule about two days after my arrival in Penang. Existence of KiosK Self Ticketing which stuck to building pillar made me stop before reach sales counter. I am better to finding cheapest bus ticket via that machine, because many buses with varying fares provide routes to Ipoh.

Finally, I held Perak Transit bus ticket sheet after putting USD 5,2 in KiosK Self Ticketing machine….Bus ticket was in hand, my heart was calm.

That’s Penang Sentral Departure Board….Self Ticketing Kiosk is on that pillar. Do you see?

2. Information Centre

The first standard when arriving at a foreign place is visiting information centre to get as much information as possible before exploring it more deeply. So did I, asking about Penang tourism, asking for brochures, finding ways to leave the city in the best way and many other things which I asked to information centre officer.

Very easy to find it….It is in front of bus ticketing counter.

3. Ferry Terminal.

Walking on back side of Bus Ticketing Counter, in several meters you will find a linkway to Ferry Terminal. Located to left side of your steps, you will see clearly a direction sign whinch leading you to Ferry Terminal.

Walk straight for about dozens of steps you will find a Customer Service Center which sells ferry tickets to George Town. The name of ferry terminal is Pangkalan Sultan Abdul Halim.

It’s cheap….ticket price is only USD 0,3 for a round trip ticket

4. Shopping Counter.

Actually more Shopping Counter are on 3rd floor. I didn’t have time to visit it because it was already late and if I didn’t leave Penang Sentral soon, my exploration in Penang Island would be disrupted.

Shopping counter which I showed was only on 2nd floor.

5. Eatery

Food stalls are located near linkway to Ferry Terminal. These are certainly guaranteed halal and relatively cheap in price.

Iqbal’s Restaurant is my place to eat when I enter and leave Penang

6. Butterworth Station.

Another integrated transportation mode in Penang Sentral is train. Train station is called Butterworth Station. The station building is located separately from Penang Sentral main building.

To find this station. Walking straight pass Bus Ticketing Counter on 2nd floor, then you will find an lift at end of floor. Then go down to 1st floor via lift.