Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our short getaway to Penang Island, Malaysia, back in July 2022! It was our first trip post-covid and we decided to go on a short 3 day getaway there! It had been at least a decade since either of us have visited Penang so this was a semi-new experience for both of us.
Last week, we continued our day through Penang's largest indoor theme park! We bought the 3 attraction pass which includes the aquarium, the Jurassic Research Centre which we went through in the previous post!
It was pretty cool seeing all the animatronic dinosaurs even if it was pretty fake at times with all the other office buildings around us. It did feel like we were on the set of Jurassic Park at times.
Anyway, the whole reason we bought the 3 attraction pass at the theme park was to go up to The Top, which is the skyscraper and observatory here in Penang! We make it a point to visit observatories every time we travel to enjoy the view and maybe catch a nice sunset or two. Unfortunately our flight was in the evening so we had to come here in the afternoon.
27 July 2022. Wednesday.
After we shared a quick meal at Only Mee, we started making our way to the observatory deck.
For some reason there was a wax figure of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man here to greet you as you headed up.
But he wasn't the only one there. As we got closer to the lift that would lead us up to the observatory, we saw more wax figures!
Some of them definitely looked better than others, and some were kinda questionable. I was a little confused as to why they were here, since there's not a wax museum in this theme park and it kinda seemed like they wanted to have a wax museum or it closed down or something and they just had these figures lying around and decided to put them out anyway.
It was kinda funny though, like budget wax figures or something. But anyway, it was time to head to The Top, which is apparently the highest iconic entertainment tower.
We were the only ones there and waited for one of the lifts to take us up. Before long we found ourselves inside a very blue elevator.
The ride up was pretty quick, and within 10-15 seconds our ears popped and we were at the 65th floor!
There was a theater to the left of the elevators where they would play a show of sorts. So we headed to the right instead, where the observatory began behind this black curtain.
There was a pretty good view of almost every building here
We could even see all the way out to the ocean and we wondered where our favourite The Jetty food court was since it's probably near the pier.
We walked further on into the observatory and there were some binoculars machines you could use to get a closer look at the buildings.
There was also an attraction here called The Gravityz where you could step out onto this platform on the outside of the observatory and get a picture or something.
From the inside you could see the platform where you'd be standing if you paid for The Gravityz and it looked downright terrifying to be out there, especially since there are no railings. Of course there are harnesses and ropes above that you're connected to, but still.
Too bad there wasn't anyone else there to show us how they do it and although I don't have a phobia of heights just the thought of being out there was making my palms sweaty.
The observatory was mostly empty but there was also a phototaking booth of sorts where you could dress up and have photographers take your picture I'm guessing.
Just like all the other observatories we've been to there was a section with a glass floor where you could see all the way to the bottom. Of course they didn't allow shoes on here so we had to take them off before stepping onto the glass.
Just being all the glass was scaring me enough as it is much less being outdoors on the thin platform around the observatory.
Don't worry I was totally smiling for the photo.
We circled around back to the other side of the observatory and over here there was another retail shop but I think these were for actual souvenirs not renting.
The windows here had some facts about the landmarks you could see through the windows which I thought was a really neat detail, since most of the time we had no idea what we were looking at.
I thought this was also a better approach that putting a board in front of the window depicting the information but I can see how it wouldn't be as good if it was dark outside. Granted, the observatory doesn't stay open that late but still.
There were even some cute drawings too which reminded me of some animations or cartoons I used to watch.
And if you thought The Gravityz was bad enough just walking on the thin platforms with no railings, we were downright shocked when we saw there was a recliner chair out here too! Just imagining being out there was terrifying, to lie down like that is insane!
We questioned who would seriously do that, and not to put down their safety but Malaysia is not really the place to be doing these sorts of stunts. We weren't sure how secure the harness really was either, so we were thankful no one was there to try it.
We took some time to enjoy the view and learn all the fun facts about Penang's historical landmarks from the comfort of the observatory. But there was still more to see up here!
We were on the 65th floor and there was even more stuff to see when we found a lift that goes to the 68th, 67th and even down to 60th and 59th floors! But more on that in the next post!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #212 (Penang): A Thrilling Encounter with Dinos! 🦕
