Has anyone stayed at the new E&O?
As for the Mutiara's location, the taxi fare to Batu Ferringhi seemed to be a fixed RM 10. We had our own set of wheels though, which was nice for driving around the island, so we only resorted to taxis when there were a couple of Tiger beers coming up.
A few snapshots from last year:
http://jpatokal.iki.fi/photo/travel/Malaysia/Penang/
These quite frankly make the hotel look better than it was, but the pool
is very nice in reality too.