Killing Time in Georgetown

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With our friend we had made in the Cameron Highlands, Bev, we arrived off the boat in Georgetown early afternoon, it was raining. Georgetown is a fairly big and modern city on the small Malaysian island of Penang, we hadn't planned on visiting the island oringinally but we could get a boat from here all the way across the Melacca Straits to Indonesia in our plight to see the Orang utans. We only planned to stay a night and get the boat the very next day.

We had been recommended by other travellers to stay in a guesthouse run by a man named Mr Low, Mr Low has managed to make himself famous among backpackers for his knowledge and elephant-like memory; he even gets a mention in the Lonely Planet. Intrigued to find out what the big deal was we headed to Number 72 Guesthouse, Mr Low wasn't around but they had rooms available so we decided to stay. After dropping our bags off in our rooms we went back to reception to check in when we noticed a familiar face, it was our friend Matthew from back home, we new he was travelling Asia around Christmas but to bump into him in such a random place was a shock. It was lovely to see a familiar face, Matthew was leaving the next morning to head to Thailand so we spent that evening sitting on the porch of the guesthouse drinking the local whisky and swapping stories, we also went to a food night market which was just around the corner and had Pud Zee Uw for the first time. Mr Low even joined us for a while, we told him that we wanted to get the boat to Indonesia and he said he would try and get us on the next boat which was two days away (they only run three times a week).

The next morning with sore heads we went for breakfast with Bev and bumped into Mr Low who had some bad news, the next two boats to leave to Indonesia were full, it was Mecca so they were full of locals wanting to travel to Sumatra for the holiday. The next available boat would be 5 days away. 5 days is a very long time for us to stay in one place so we were disappointed at the news but we were also determined to get to Sumatra so decided we had no choice but to hang around. Bev was also in Georgetown to kill some time as she was also going to see the Orang utans but in Borneo and had a few days before her flight.

We spent the next five days catching up on chores and getting to know Georgetown which turned out to be an interesting Malaysian city, much more so than we had found Kuala Lumpur to be. Georgetown was named by the British after King George III, and is the capital city of Penang Province, you can see the British influence in a lot of the architecture and there is even a clock tower named after Queen Victoria.

We visited a huge colourful Buddhist temple which was high up on a hill and overlooked Georgetown. We also visited a place called Snake Temple which we didn't really know much about but it was something to fill our time with and sounded interesting. When we arrived we were all expecting to see a temple which had a few snakes in enclosures on the grounds, infact it was what was left of what once was a temple but had been pulled down and renovated into a horrific concentration camp for snakes. They had a huge variety of snakes all in either tiny little tanks not fit for a gold fish or in horrible concrete cages. They did have a couple of Macaques who looked slightly happier in their surroundings but apart from that it was a nasty little place that should be shut down.

Georgetown, like many Asian cities is split into areas to accomodate the huge mix of cultures, we were staying in the Chinese part of town. We spent a couple of evenings exploring the other areas and found Little India to be one of our favourites, the smells and the sounds were so exotic and there was one restaurant that we found ourselves in a couple of times called Banana Leaf; you eat from banana leaves instead of plates and in true Indian style you eat with your hands. The food was so tasty and very cheap. Luckily the first time we went we were with Bev who had travelled India before and taught us only to eat with our right hands, if the left hand got involved at all this was very bad table manners.

After 5 days in Georgetown it was finally time for us to pack our bags and head to Sumatra, Indonesia, one more step closer to seeing the Orangs we were really excited. We said our goodbyes to Bev and Mr Low who had been a fountain of knowledge and talked us through step by step how to get our boat and what to expect around every corner.

Next stop, Bukit Lawang.

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