I just moved to Penang in 2017, and had been here since.
My last foodie trip was in March 2020 with a bunch of Singaporean food writers - we were in Hue, Vietnam. We went to a whole bunch of amazing places there - all good.
From Hue, I’d flown straight back to Singapore to visit family and friends, and then got back to Penang just a week before Malaysia went into a complete lockdown for 3 months! Then, the international borders closed. Since then, we’ve been having a series of rolling lockdowns, where the SOPs for social distancing, restaurant dining-in, etc. were alternately loosened, then tightened, depending on the new COVID infection numbers. It’s driving everybody crazy here.
As far as I know, Hong Kong Bar is still there on Chulia Street - I see the signage every so often when I passed by the place. But I think, like other drinking spots in Penang, it stayed closed during most of the lockdown periods since last year.
The big fire was back in 2004 (I was still living in Singapore at the time), where they lost quite a bit of their memorabilia collection. But when I walked past Hong Kong Bar before the COVID period, I do see quite a bit still displayed. I’m not sure if its actual location along Chulia Street has changed, since I wasn’t too familiar with that area before my move to Penang.
