Pulau Penang

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We boarded our bus to Penang in the evening. The bus wasn’t full so after crossing the border back into Malaysia we decided to switch seats. Luckily for us, this was the best decision we could have made. We met this really friendly lady who lived in Penang and another younger girl who is also a resident of Penang. After questioning us a bunch about our trip, they really wanted to help us out. The younger girl called up a friend of hers and got us the name of a highly recommended guesthouse while the other woman stated that she would give us a ride to the closest bus station as soon as we got off. She told us there would be tons of bad men trying to screw us over for our money in their little red cabs offering us rides. Sounded about right. We fell straight asleep as soon as our conversation was over and ended up missing a beautiful sunrise crossing the bridge that connects to Penang Island, a big landmark we missed out on apparently.

The lady and her quiet daughter brought us to the meeting point where the husband picked us up. They were so nice and they ended up driving us straight to where we needed to be in Georgetown, Love Lane. We said our thank you’s and good byes and we were on our own.

We proceeded to check out the guest house we were told about and checked out the going rate. However, it didn’t matter as it was already full. Turned out almost all the guest houses in that area were pretty cheap but definitely weren’t up to our standards. We’re really not that picky, just want a private bathroom with hot water and a clean room. We ended up staying at a place called the Banana Guesthouse, we passed by the other Banana Guesthouses on the way before finding ours but they were all full, apparently they have a lot of different branches in this area. On our walk we noticed that almost everything in sight appeared to be closed still as it was only 7:30 am.

Shortly after we settled in, we fell asleep until dinner time. We were very excited to try out some of the food Penang had to offer as that’s what it was known for. Even the girl on the bus told us, “Eat as much as you can, at least 6 meals a day”. The hawker stations were supposedly cheap and delicious, so we ventured out in search of food. Penang Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site so really the only things to do there are check out the old buildings and eat, eat, eat!

Next day, we grabbed a couple of brochures that gave us the exact locations as to where all the famous hawker stations were located in Georgetown. As expected, most of the items listed had meat; the vegetarian options were usually curry or desserts. But the goal was still to have 6 meals a day as we checked off the items listed in the brochure. We averaged about two big meals a day and we were able to check off like 5 items from the list that first day. The temperature during the day was usually about 43 degrees Celsius so air conditioning was more of our friend than hawker centers. Even after the sun went down it was still 37 degrees. We found shelter in a big mall with ice cold AC and a movie theatre inside. The theatre was so cold that when the movie was over there was actually more ice in our drink than when it had began.

The next day was devoted to checking out all the historical sites in Georgetown. I’m sure there were local guided tours that were more convenient, but our self guided walking tour was probably just as good. We walked by churches, local mansions, temples, and more historical sites. We stopped by this fort and we were just in time for an Indian dance performance. At the end, I finally convinced Cheryl to get her picture taken with the dancers in hopes of making the wall of fame in this blogging web site. We left for a few more sites then went searching for food. There was this one dessert dish we had yet to try so we were determined to locate a hawker station that would make it. We ended up stopping by a dessert restaurant near the giant mall we had found the day before and luckily, they had it. We decided that the day was going to end with another Cineplex adventure.

Later that night after the movie was over, we walked back toward our guest house and went to book a taxi cab for the airport as our flight was in less than six hours. The owner of our guest house tried to charge us 70 ringgits to arrange a cab for us, but we were able to get it for 50 by doing it ourselves. The taxi stand was actually just a block away from where we were staying. After we booked everything, I couldn’t help but notice a big neon sign that said the night market. We had to check it out. Turns out it was a huge local food area that had pretty much every hawker food item listed in the brochure. I wish we would have found this earlier rather than six hours before our flight! There was karaoke and everything. We stayed there for a bit and I ended up ordering two more dishes even though I was already stuffed.

We finally left the night market and started packing up our stuff back at the guest house. Overall impression of Malaysian people were that they were very kind. Always saying, "Welcome to Malaysia" and "enjoy your stay". Not everyone was just out to take the tourists for all their money. It wasn’t long before we were on the road again, except this time, it was to an airport. It’s been a while since we’ve been on a plane. We’re so used to buses and trains that this was definitely a luxury. Back to Shenzhen!

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Comments

[Judy Leggott]

dancers
Just read about your adventures in Penang. Sounds like you two know how to spend your money - reassuring! Great pictures. Take care you two...