Blogs from George Town, Penang, Malaysia, Asia

Georgetown has a colourful vibrant feel about it. Narrow streets lined with restaurants and food sellers. There's a mixed array of traffic meadering along along the roads and streets no matter how narrow. Buses, huge posh cars, old broken down cars, bikes galore and cyclos all share the road and pedestrians chance their luck to cross in-between! In contrast close to the port and several grand looking Colonial buildings, built by the Brits many years before Malaysia got independence in 1957. There are several Indian and Chinese temples scattered amongst the old heritage buildings that house the Nasi Kanda restaurants. If you follow your ears in the evening you come across cute bars with live music and chairs and tables spilling out onto the street. A great place to meet up with fellow travellers. Penang is ... read more

We leave Muscat and we have six days at sea.The ship is still on Covid high alert, wearing face masks, not serving ourselves from the buffet. My cold is not getting better and I have a hacking cough. This means people try to avoid me and I can empty a lift in no time! I take another Covid test, it’s negative and Ian suggests I see the ship’s doctor. I call the medical centre and I’m told a nurse will call me back in a few minutes. Within 5 minutes she calls me back and goes through my symptoms. She then says she will come up to the cabin and check me over. Ian has gone to the library and knows nothing;of this. There is a knock at the door about 5 minutes later and I ... read more

A short flight to Penang, an island in Malaysia, on Air Asia from the other main airport in Bangkok. Hotel transfer through rush hour to the Areca Hotel in George Town, capital of the island. The hotel is comprised of 12 renovated pre war shop houses of which there are 6 styles in Penang built from 1790’s up to to 1970’s. We had a Heritage Loft room with lovely internal coloured glass, beautiful wooden floors, comfortable beds and Chinese furniture plus a handy room inside the main room which we stored our luggage in and made tea 😉 Very well placed for exploring the town which is a World Heritage Site with more than 5000 buildings and a real fusion of Indian,Thai, Malaysian and Chinese cultures with some British Colonial influence still evident. It is also ... read more

Suite for a hair cut! Says a lot! I literally booked a suite online, flew to Penang... all in aid of a proper hair cut!... read more