Annie's Homestay

Annie's entire family is so welcoming and easy to be around. Rooms were clean, beds comfortable, air con and fans worked great and breakfast was plentiful. We arrived very late at night and they were up awaiting our arrival.  The common area had comfortable couches, a fridge, TV, DVD and plenty of movies (including kid movies).  She also has toys for the kids to play with.  It was also a quick 5 minute walk to all the yummy restaurants and stores. I would definitely stay at Annie's again! We paid about $30 US for a private 2 double beds with air con and shared bath that included breakfast.

The plan was to stay at Annie's a few days while we found a longer-term place. Sharing one room among all five us was just the motivation we needed to find a bigger place!

Eden Fairway

We stayed next at the Eden Fairway apartments in Batu Ferringhi. Our first month we rented a 3b/2b apartment overlooking the pool on the first floor with trees just outside our balcony. We paid $1800 RM ($590 USD). We quickly learned a big problems with renting an apartment on the first floor was LOTS of bugs!; We expected some bugs and the tiny "sugar" ants were fun for the kids. But the BIG ants, spiders, geckos, mosquitos, and birds?!?! Not good when you have a 7 month old crawling around the floor.  This led to a nightly game of who could kill the most big ants and then we would watch the tiny ants haul them away.  Good times!

After our one month was up we moved on up to a 9th floor apartment with a wonderful view! Much cleaner, no big ants, no bugs, great view, No big ants!  We pay $2000 RM ($657 USD). This includes cable, water, gas, weekly cleaning service. Everything except electricity which runs about $100USD which we run 2 air cons at night and 1 during the day. We rented from Ann who is very honest and helpful. Ask the security guard and they will give you her number. Avoid lower apartments to avoid the bugs and avoid Jasmine who also rents apartments!

In comparison, the mattresses at the first place were much dirtier, it wasn't as "furnished", rent didn't include anything (like TV, water, electricity, or gas). Also, no one came to fix the air con (as Jasmine had promised) and the cleaning lady that was supposed to be included charged us! We should have backed out when she wanted to rent us a water filter for $500RM ($165 USD) per month. The water is safe to drink here, but they put too much chlorine in to make it safe for us. We simply fill up a few big water jugs a couple times a week and it only costs about $1 USD each trip.

Finding rental apartments in Penang doesn't need to be difficult. If Eden Fairway is above your budget or below, just walk around the different wet markets or hawker stalls and ask if they know of an apartment for rent. Don't be shy, everyone is super friendly and someone always knows of someone who has an apartment.

Follow our adventures on Facebook!