Blogs from George Town, Penang, Malaysia, Asia

Aoife and I arrived in Penang island, connected to mainland Malaysia by bridge, on the evening of January 12th by ferry from Langkawi. Upon arrival, the taxi drivers swarmed the area putting pressure on people arriving. We planned to get a free shuttle bus as it was our understanding that the guesthouse was less than ten minutes away. The taxi drivers told us that the shuttle was not running at this time of year which turned out to be untrue. Then another taxi driver hounded us asking where we were going. He was adamant that our guesthouse was 20 minutes away and we agreed a fixed price. Turned out it was just over 5 minutes around the corner. I questioned his earlier lie and he just got angry with us. "Keep your f##king money" he said ... read more

Having visited many places in Thailand over the years and having watched most of these succumb to mass tourism, this time we were merely passing through. Free fifteen day visas are granted to most European nationals at land-crossings, thirty days if you fly in, or sixty (for a price) if gained at an embassy pre-arrival. With the ever increasing openness between ASEAN countries and the ready availability of inter-country buses (these may be minibuses or coaches) there is nothing to be gained these days (save the kudos and the small joys of roughing it with the locals) from complex multi-bus journeys that actually work out to be more expensive as well as massively more time consuming. So, it’s simply a case of source the cheapest bus and ride from one country to the next. The only ... read more

Bonjour tout le monde!!!!! Nous voilà rendu dans un autre pays: la Malaisie! Plus précisément, nous nous sommes rendus dans l'état de Penang: Georgetown. À Penang, on y retrouve des Malais, des Chinois, des Indiens ainsi que des Nyonya (métisse entre un père chinois et d'une mère malaise). À notre arrivée, nous avons réservé une chambre (relativement grande) à l'hôtel "New Asia Heritage". Grâce à cette grande diversité ethnique, Penang est reconnue comme un des meilleurs endroits au monde pour sa nourriture de qualité et diversifiée. Pour les amateurs affamés de cuisines différentes, vous serez bien servis!! À Penang, les restaurants ferment relativement tôt, sinon, vous pouvez compter sur le fameux "Red Garden Food Paradise" qui ferme un peu plus tard. Un genre de foire alimentaire où plus d'une douzaine de compto... read more

Hello! We have made it to Malaysia! We had a great time in Thailand but got itchy feet and so spent 11 days there and we are going to spend 11 days here too. (unless we decide we want more than 1 night in Singapore, we might head there earlier than planned). We woke up at 6 on Sunday morning and caught a taxi to the bus station, where we got the bus to the pier, onto the boat to Surat Thani on the mainland, then 2 minibuses down through the border and into Malaysia. We arrived in Georgetown at 9 pm, so spent 14 hours on the move (Malaysia is 1 hour ahead of Thailand so we are now 8 hours ahead!). Gerogetown is in Penang and is off the mainland so to get to ... read more

It was a short five minute walk from Butterworth train station to the ferry and a quick ride across to the island of Penang where I jumped off and made my way to "Love Lane" - the hub of budget backpacker accommodation in Georgetown. Lonely Planet advocates taking the bus but this is surely for the only truly lazy traveller... ten minutes walking and I was there and checking into Reggae Guest House which had been recommended to me by a fella in KL. It was a nice sociable place with free internet and breakfast and a pool table downstairs and I stayed there 5 nights. Georgetown was a very comfortable place to stay for a while. It was easily navigable on foot and it was hard not to find something to like. Above all, the ... read more