Blogs from George Town, Penang, Malaysia, Asia - page 10

Klaudia and I had a new and swanky tourist van, which usually seats around 12, all to ourselves on the way to Penang Island, off the Western cost of the Malaysian mainland. It was a nice surprise, but the few-hour journey from the Eastern Coast took a bit longer than planned because it was another Malaysian holiday and our driver, an amiable and quiet Malay, could not find a gas station that had prepared for the holiday by preordering refills of its tanks. In other words, there was no gas at the first five gas stations at which we stopped, forcing our driver to travel slowly in between them so as not to run out. The lack of preparation and forward thinking in Asia in general - but especially in the tourist transportation sector, on several ... read more

Hello everyone! I am sincerely sorry but it has been quite a while since my last blog update.. Due to circumstances I wasn't able to update my blog as often as I wanted. The last time I told everyone about Wanda's arrival in Bangkok. That night we did explore the world renown Khao San Road. What can I say.. It was as great as it was horrible.. Everywhere people are trying to sell you their merchandise or services. You can't take two steps without someone pulling your arm if you want to have a hand-tailored suit or a tuk-tuk ride. That being said, it was a lot of fun walking around in his chaotic tourist heaven. From every club came loud music and the food all the stalls were selling looked mouth drippingly good! The next ... read more

So, finally the opportunity to travel again, only this time with my ‘husband’ We spent a few nights in KL at a different Guesthouse, Birds nest, a good place to say it was fan only. Also cheap at RM35 per nt for a double room. We then took the bus (5hrs) to Penang and he slept all the way here!! Lol, scrap that I think it was me; at least I had a good pillow J He passed the time watching his oh so loved animation. We finally arrived and then had to take another, long bus ride into Georgetown and then we walked from Komtar to Red Inn Heritage Guesthouse. He was not impressed, he carried most of the bags, and we had LOTS of them; all the way, see what a nice guy I ... read more

Our exploration of Malaysia lasted about three weeks and was limited to Peninsular Malaysia. Due to weather conditions and a beach-overload in Thailand, we chose this to be a cultural exploration focused on cities. Where better to do this than a country where Malay, Chinese, Indians and many other ethnicities live together. Food adventures, people and history abound. We travelled overland by bus from Thailand to Georgetown on the island Penang, to Melaka and to Kuala Lumpur. The difference in prosperity between Thailand became immediately apparent when crossing the border and became greater with every place we visited. These were our last stops in six months of travel crossing the Eurasian continent, just before creating a temporary nest in Western Australia. This blog comes mainly in pictures and is bilingual. Enjoy Malaysia's multitude of faces!... read more

This morning, we woke up, had breakfast, and headed out exploring. Since my arm got burnt through the window on the awful bus journey, I had to keep covered up. And the weather was so hot! We stumbled upon Fort Cornwallis, the largest fort in Malaysia, and decided to check it out. The fort was named after the late 18th century governor-general of Bengal, India, Charles Cornwallis. It was originally built from palm trunks in 1876 by Sir Francis Light, to protect Penang from pirates and the north-western peninsular state of Kedah. In 1804, however, it was rebuilt using bricks and stone, reaching completion in 1810. There was once a moat surrounding the structure, but due to a malarial outbreak in the 1920s, it was filled in. In its entire history, Fort Cornwallis never engaged in ... read more