Friendly Penangites, great food and fine weather.”

That, says Wilma Budke, is what has made her leave her home in Germany every year for the past 32 to holiday in Penang.

The elegant widow holds a special place in the history of Penang’s tourism industry as the longest foreign returnee guest, having made her annual trip since 1978.

She has clocked up a whopping 4,159 room nights divided over her two favourite resorts — Golden Sands and Rasa Sayang Resort on Batu Ferringhi.

Budke is one of many people who make it a point to holiday in Penang, and she is not alone in her choice of hotels either.

Possibly one of the best family-style resorts in Penang, Golden Sands caters for every need of a family on holiday, with top-notch facilities for both parents and children of all ages. There is a sense of fun and adventure, thanks to the resort’s wide selection of recreational activities — one of its key attractions.

Apart from the standard tennis courts, golf course and swimming pools, the hotel is constantly abuzz with the day-long schedule of activities that include water aerobics, volleyball, cooking classes, tai chi lessons, jungle trekking and much more.

Dining outlets are few, but they highlight the intimate nature of the resort — the newly redesigned Lobby Lounge and the all-day Garden Café. The Beach House Bar and Grill is scheduled to open next month.

And the recently opened Adventure Zone at Golden Sands is set to be the hottest thing since the Pied Piper lured the children out of Hamelin. It’s a 10,300sqf indoor facility that houses drop slides, modular play equipment, a game zone, an area for toddlers, a themed birthday party room and a café. A special Kids Zone for children aged four to 12 offers games and craft activities that will keep the youngsters occupied for hours. Mobile phones are also available on loan if you’d like some quiet time away from the kids but want to remain in contact.

The rates are reasonable — RM40 pays for half a day, and a 2-hour session is RM20. Adults accompanying children get in for free.

And for a memorable birthday party RM60++ per child gets 75 minutes in the play area, 45 minutes in the party room, a variety of food and beverages, a cake, stickers party gifts and invitation cards.

The Adventure Zone, all public areas of the resort, all function spaces, restaurants, lounges and all guestrooms are hooked up to free broadband service.

“Getting connected while on the road is the number one priority of our business travellers and many of our valued customers view Internet access as absolutely crucial,” says Madhu Rao, managing director and CEO of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts. “No longer considered a luxury, guests are demanding high-speed Internet access as an essential room requirement and as something that should be included as a standard service by an international hotel chain.”

This, and many other improvements were made during the hotel’s recent RM36 million redevelopment programme, which has reinvigorated the four-star deluxe resort. Most importantly is its positioning  — while it is a four-star facility, the hotel’s approach warrants a full five stars.

The Cool Lounge, for example, caters for early arrivals and guests checking out late. Refreshments are available along with Internet stations, a gym, a shopping arcade and a spacious waiting area with changing rooms, lockers and shower facilities.

Once you do check in, it’s pure heaven. The 387 new rooms are the largest family-sized rooms for a hotel in its class in Penang. They are available in several practical configurations.

The family combo unit for example consists of two interconnecting rooms that can comfortably fit six instead of the usual four people. Each room features five-star refinements, including an exceptionally comfortable bed, and high-tech facilities like LCD TVs, DVD players and USB/iPod/modem ports.

And the view of the glistening sea outside? That gets a five-star rating every time.


Blurring the lines
The line separating art and fashion can be a fine one. Technology has blurred the boundaries with electronics and digital design creating an entirely new category of art. This uber cool form of artistic expression is a far cry from the canvas, watercolour palettes and paint-stained artists smocks we tend to associate with museum displays.

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum is hosting Decode: Digital Design Sensations, the first big British display of the creative fruits of a digitalised future. The works are chosen from the best in the field, names completely foreign to this part of the world. But unlike the appeal of going to see a Monet exhibition because it is by Monet, the attraction here is the substance of the works.

The exhibition explores three themes. Code presents pieces that use computer code, examining how programming can create constantly fluid and ever-changing works. Interactivity looks at works that are directly influenced by the viewer. Visitors can interact with and contribute to the development of the exhibits. Network focuses on works that comment on and utilise the digital traces left behind by everyday communications and looks at how advanced technologies and the Internet have enabled new types of social interaction and mediums of self-expression.

According to the reviews, the exhibition is a thrilling experience. The Times said it was “packed with thrills, spills and bleeping lights, like a grown-up’s amusement arcade full of glowing wonders”. Quite right.

Venetian Mirror is an interactive installation blending contemporary digital technology with traditional Venetian glass. Walk up and you won’t see your image in the mirror at first. Only if you keep very still will your reflection slowly appear, like a photograph being developed. This installation invites the audience to reflect on the mystery of time itself and on the sense of oneself and one’s body.

Exquisite Clock is a clock made of numbers taken from everyday life — seen, captured and uploaded by people from all over the world. The project connects time, play and visual aesthetics. Through www.exquisiteclock.org, users are invited to collect and upload images of numbers that can be found in different contexts and to participate in a global conversation about the poetics of the images.

This isn’t your average art exhibition as the curators have purposely left blank what is traditionally their job to answer — how does this all work? An open mind is a requirement of admission, as well as a keen understanding that art form is a work in progress, the end direction of which no one really understands just yet.

Catch Decode: Digital Design Sensations till April 11 at the Porter Gallery, V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London. Visit www.vam.ac.uk for more information.

This article appeared in Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 789, Jan 18 – 24, 2010