2018 Mid Year Holiday Day 3 – The Top, Penang

By Kevin WoonJune 26, 20180 Comments

2018 Mid Year Holiday Day 3 – The Top, Penang

Date: 13/6/2018

Our itinerary for today is to go to Penang Hill in the morning and The Top at KOMTAR after that. Upon reaching Ayer Itam to have breakfast, it started raining. That foiled my plan and so I decided to bring the kids to The Top first and later to Penang Hill in the evening.

So after our breakfast, we drove straight to The Top at KOMTAR.

Ticket Price

**The Top Fun Pass (Multiple Entries)**
	MyKad Holders	Standard Rate
Adult	RM74	RM93
Child (90cm-Age 12), Senior Citizen (60 years old & above) & OKU	RM45	RM55

(FUN PASS excludes Boutique Aquarium, Zombie Outbreak, Augmented Reality Virtual, The Gravityz, Formula One & TOP Capsule)

**The Top Rainbow Skywalk (Single Entry)**
	MyKad Holders	Standard Rate
Adult	RM45	RM64
Child (90cm-Age 12), Senior Citizen (60 years old & above) & OKU	RM26	RM45

If you don’t intend to get the fun pass, you can buy individual pass for each attraction. However, I found that it’s more worth while to get the pass as it gets multiple entries to all attractions besides those exclusions mentioned above. For pricing for each attraction, you can check it out at the respective websites.

Jurassic Research Center (website)

After getting the ticket, our first stop was to visit the Jurassic Research Center. The Jurassic Research Center displays over 200 dinosaurs model in an indoor and outdoor envirnment. There are a variety of informative exhibits and displays inside the center.

Tech Dome Penang (website)

Tech Dome Penang is the first science centre in Penang. It is a science and discovery centre setup and operated through a private and public initiative.

There are a lot of open areas so kids could run around without bumping to other person. There is 2 levels here and a lot of hands-on science display/games. The boys and I found it interesting and enjoyed our time here. We were here for almost 2 hours.

The staffs here were very knowledgeable and friendly. They were willing to spend the time to explain to the boys the theory and the fundamentals when they were at any of the stations.

The first level’s displays are mainly on physics.

The second level’s displays are mainly on biology.

Window of the Top (website)

We were advised by the friendly staff at Tech Dome Penang that it’s advisable for us to head to Window of the Top when the weather is good because they will close the area if it’s raining. Since it was raining in the morning, I took the advise because I was worried it would rain later and we wouldn’t have the chance to go up.

There are 2 sections at Window of the Top – the Observatory Deck (Level 65) and the Rainbow Skywalk (Level 68). There’s an escalator beside the entrance of Jurassic Research Center that leads to the lift to go up to Level 65, and another lift from Level 65 to Level 68.

Surprisingly, Ping wasn’t scared at all of the glass panel and it was Yuyu who was scared. Ping was running and rolling on the glass panel that made me worried. After some sweet talk and encouragement to Yuyu, he was ok with it and we started taking photos. We were really lucky to come on the right day because according to the staffs, the area is usually jam packed with people and it’s difficult to take so many photos.

There are photographer staff there to take photos and we can buy the photos in print (optional) + all other soft copies. I rarely buy photos but since the photos were well taken with good expression, I bought a printed photos (that comes with a cover) and got all the soft copies. If I remember correctly it was only around RM40 but it was well worth the money for the photos. The photographer was so nice to take extra photos for us that we could later download from their website. These are the photos:

If you like some challenge, you may try out the world’s highest ropes course challenge here. I would have done it if the kids weren’t with me. Maybe next time. For more information, please visit their website: TheGravityz

After spending enough time at the Observatory Deck taking photos and looking at 360 degree view of Penang Island, we took the lift and went up to the Rainbow Skywalk at Level 68.

Unlike the Observatory Deck, the Rainbow Skywalk is an open space deck. It’s at the very top floor of KOMTAR building. The Rainbow Skywalk is an arch protruding out of the building with glass floor. This time, both boys were not afraid to walk on the glass panels.

It was at noon so we’re standing directly under the scorching sun. The boys were having a hard time to open their eyes when taking photos.

Similar to the Observatory Deck, there is a photographer who took photos of us and this time I bought 2 printed copies at RM60+ including all the soft copies:

After getting the photos, we headed down again for other games.

Magic Mirror Maze (website)

As the name implies, the Magic Mirror Maze is a maze but with mirror panel to confuse people. Be reminded to walk carefully in the maze because the boys knock themselves at the mirror, not knowing that there’s a mirror wall there. The maze was quite small and can be completed easily in a short time. Nevertheless, the boys did have fun in the maze.

Musical Carousel (website)

With the fun pass, the kids were able to ride on the Musical Carousel as many times as they wanted throughout the day. We didn’t even need to queue up because there weren’t anyone taking the ride.

Lunch @ Japan Food Street

There were quite a lot of dining options here at the The Top. We chose to have lunch at the Japan Food Street. Food choice was good and price was reasonable. After a quick meal off we went to the next attraction – Dino Gym.

Dino Gym (website)

Dino Gym is a an indoor play area. Although Yuyu didn’t have to buy a fun pass because of his age, I still need to pay RM30 for him to get into the Dino Gym whereas Ping and I get to go in with our Fun Pass.

It is compulsory for everyone to wear socks to get into Dino Gym. Since we weren’t wearing socks, we had to buy it at the counter at RM5 a pair.

No bags are allowed to be brought into the play area so I had to rent a locker at RM5 to keep my bag.

The play area was very clean and the equipment were well maintained. There are lots of activities here and the boys enjoyed this area so much that they had spent almost 2 hours here.

A small incident happened here. While I was looking after Yuyu and Ping was playing on his own with the other kids at the play area, Ping came to me with his crying face. He told me that some kids didn’t want to play with him and pushed him away. He wanted me to go talk to the kids so that they would play with him. This was what I told him (not the exact word but same meaning):

I will not interfere because this is your own problem and you should find your own ways to solve it. Go talk to them on your own to find out the reason and if things don’t work out, just move on. In life, not everyone would like you and play or be with you. It’s a fact that you have to accept. If that happens, just walk away and look for someone else. There’s no point to show your sad face to them.

I guess he got my message. He walked away and carried on playing with some other kids. Eventually he was able to find some other kids whom he was able to play happily with.

As I was with Yuyu most of the time, so most photos taken here were him.

Ball Pit

Slides

Trampoline Area

Sponge Ball Playing Area

Vertical Maze

Games at open space

There are also a lot of arcade game machines and game stalls at the open area. All requires token which we could get from the token machine at RM3 per token. I got them 3 tokens each and they got to choose what they would want to play with.

7D Discovery Motion Theater (website)

The 7D Discovery Motion Theater had a show every 30 minutes. It was showing some pirate adventure show during our visit. The show was ok. Besides wearing 3D glasses, the show also comes with motion chairs, some water splash and wind blowing from the front of the the theater and under our seats.

Only complaint (even from Ping) was that the 3D glasses weren’t working as intended and there wasn’t any 3D effect at all.

Window of the Top (again) for the sunset

After the show at the 7D Discovery Motion Theater, we headed up to the Rainbow Skywalk again to wait for the sunset. The deck was quite empty and we could enjoy your own sweet time here while waiting. My 2 batteries of my Fuji X-T1 camera died on me but fortunately I had my Fuji X70 camera as a backup.

We were lucky that the weather was good and we could see the sun set behind the hills.

More photos of us on the Rainbow Skywalk.

Photos of the world’s highest and luckiest chair made of horseshoes (as claimed).

The kids were already exhausted after this so we called it a day at The Top Penang.

Final Thought

The very last time I came to KOMTAR was many many years ago when I was a kid and I seriously didn’t expect that it has gone through such a huge transformation into what we had seen.

I also didn’t expect that we would spend that much time here at The Top. We had spent 10 hours here – reaching here at 10am and left at 8pm.

The boys enjoyed very much here and so did I. There were a lot of fun-filled activities. The boys particularly like that Dino Gym and Tech Dome Penang which we have spent almost 2 hours in each place. For RM74/adult and RM45/child to get the fun pass, I would say it’s well worth the money. Of course, being able to walk on the glass floor on the tallest building in Penang, this is one activity not to be missed when visiting Penang.

I would highly recommend to visit this place if you are with kids. I’m sure they would enjoy their time as much as we did here at The Top.