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Published: January 19th 2009
Penang, Lookout point
Look out point over Georgetown, PenangAfter the fun but worrying game of “Where’s Helen” we are well on our way to Penang, Georgetown. We are held at the border for longer than we would have liked though as one girl seems to have been deported and then got back in somehow and we had to wait for them to sort that mess out!
Penang, Georgetown, on driving towards what I had in my head was an island like the ones in Thailand, not quite we were presented with! Georgetown is a metropolis with a huge mix of Indian’s and Chinese so hopefully lots of delish food but maybe not the beaches I was hoping for.
Day 1 we chill out and have some drinks with some other travellers playing shithead and the usual. We find to Jay’s happy grin some Manchester United Burger’s after a night of the most expensive beer we have come across in South East Asia. In Muslim countries it seems expensive to drink beer, looks like were back on the hip flasks… We opt on night two to head into Little India and find a buffet style curry house with something called curry sets, butter chicken and cheesy nan’s, so good!
Georgetown cable cars = FULL!
Up and down in as little comfort as possible! On Helen ordering we find that women are invisible in Malaysia, so I order for her! Ha!
The next day it’s tourist exploration style as we hear there is lots to see here, we decide on the most interesting and hit the local buses with some confusion?! Orienteering skills are useless unless you have a map we find!?
We find a bus and head to the vantage point with the Swedish cable car. The sights are pretty dam good and the day is clear so can see all the way back to the mainland and all that Georgetown has to offer. Chilled out at the top and found some little turtles in a pond, randomly! Also, just as random a few huts made out of corrugated iron where people live in the most precarious of places, doesn’t look safe to me but suppose it must be if that live there?!
Tourist place number two; The Snake temple in Bayan Lepas, south of Georgetown, on the way to the airport is a very old temple. It’s origins apparently date back to 1850 when the original temple was built, although from what we can see there is nothing left of the
Curry time in Little India
Ordering the meal Helen was ignored as the women does not talk to a man in Malaysia, funny as! original temple! Lots of snakes though that you can hold, bright green ones, bit weird, I opt out of the having a snake put on your head malarkey, wimp I know!
A bus back to the centre and we meet up with two lads we met the night before, Josh and Felix. They had a nice typically Malaysian tale to tell.
“On venturing to the look out point and opting for some Malaysian cuisine, the weighter approaches and ask’s “so whitey what do you want and as for you (Felix been black) I don’t know what to call you but what do you want?”
Felix takes this in his stride and laughs it off, old whitey Josh is not happy though and decides he doesn’t like raciest but they stay and eat as they are hungry!!” I think comments like this and a general raciest outlook on life is typical in Malaysia, but mainly towards whites and sometimes blacks! Crazy country to be sure!
After another night of expensive Tiger beer we decide to head to the Perhentian islands, or so we think! Unfortunately, the one place I really wanted to get to is closed due
to monsoon season, should have checked the weather, doh! Change of plan it’s off to KL >>>
We get dropped off in China town in Kuala Lumpur, find a place with accommodation and hunker down for the night in our bunk beds! These rooms are tiny and very, very stuffy, no sleep that night!
On waking up, or stirring from the sweat filled bed we decide it’s a good idea to move somewhere else, maybe somewhere with a fan! We manage to find a pretty nice place just off the market streets and get air con for the same price as the non fan room in the other place, bargain! We spend the day exploring China town and chilling out around the markets, we also book our tourist day in the hop on hop off bus, whoop whoop to tourist days! Later on that day me and Jay barter our arses off for some fine adidas, that’s right adidas not adibas jackets to go with our headbands for a night out, bargain!
Tourist-tastic; we hop on the bus early doors to head to the Malaysian Palace, it’s a little like Buckingham Palace with the guards outside but the
Malaysian Guard
Guarding the palace. actual palace is no were near as impressive, off to the Malaysian history museum to learn about how this country came to be.
We arrive at the Museum of Malaysia and are greeting by a horde of Japanese that wanted photos with rock star Helen Callaghan, standard issue peace sign made by all the Japs, hilarious! The history of Malaysia is a relatively recent offshoot of the history of the wider Malay-Indonesian world and is a weird mix of mainly Muslim, a little Hindu, Buddhists and I’m sure a few Christian’s thrown into the mix for good measure, I think because it has been a country with so many races stopping off and then moving on it can be a bit strange but Kuala Lumpur in it’s self is similar to most western cities.
Moving on to The Petronas Twin Towers, these silver buildings were the tallest in the world up until 2004 and are pretty dam cool to look at! In typical lucky fashion on joining the ever growing queue to book our ticket to get to the viewing platform we are advised we can skip the queue as 3 people have dropped out, hell yes we say and
in the lift we get, whoop! The sights of the city are pretty impressive and we are pretty dam high, although I think only about a 3rd of the way up!
It’s dinner time and time for some grub, back to China town after the busiest day I think I have had travelling, some delish Chinese food and back out for the finally, the Menara Kuala Lumpur (Skytower) for some epic night-time views of KL.
We aren’t disappointed and the views are pretty dam impressive, mainly, in fact I’d say wholeheartedly due to the Petronas Twin Towers been light up like a Christmas tree!
Final day in KL this time around and we head down to Singapore for a few days as well as Singapore Zoo, apparently one of the worlds best Zoo’s and a favourite of Steve Irwin’s, Jay is off to Australia to try and save some money a little earlier than me and Helen as he is outta cash and in need of a job >>>
BRB Malaysia…
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