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Published: June 29th 2010
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We're stuck in Georgetown for an extra day as we are waiting for our Thai visas to get finalized. I didn't expect Thailand to be the regions hard-asses when it comes to gaining entry. Why couldn't it be as easy as Malaysia. Anyways, gives me some down time to recover my wounds and get up to date with the travel blog.
We booked ourselves onto the overnight train leaving Kuala Lumpur at 11:00pm and arriving in a place called Butterworth at 7:30 in the morning. Seemed like a good idea to save some cash by skipping out on a nights accommodation and sleeping on the train. The train journey wasn't quite as restful as I had hoped for a number of factors. Most significantly was the terrible street vendor food i had just foolishly eaten which gave me a mild case of food poisoning and a serious case of traveler's diarrhea. Also the temperature on the train was set to "meat locker".
I finally manages to fall asleep around five or six in the morning, for about one minute, until the train staff decided for no reason to start blaring Malaysian pop music over the intercom. That wasn't appreciated.
From the train station in Butterworth it was only a 2 minute walk to the ferry terminal to Penang Island and the state capital city of Georgetown. Feeling quite dazed we ended up wandering through the old streets of the town while the sun came up until we found a stretch of road with the guest houses. Being too tired to care, we checked into the first place we saw; which coincidentally also turned out to be the dirtiest. After catching up on some sleep we were more than ready to commence our assault on the island the next morning.
Georgetown is quite honestly an amazing place to spend a week or more. I mentioned before that the city core is protected as a World Heritage Site, meaning many of the building date from the 19th century. The streets and shops seem to be crumbling away underneath your feet as you walk through the alleyways. The old city is also as multi-cultural a place as I have ever been. The town was initially founded by the british at the end of the 17th century. The centuries old British fort is still intact and is now open as a tourism
attraction. Due to it's location, Penang island became one of the key stop overs for the trade route between Asia and the middle east. Consequently, today large populations of Chinese, Indians, Arabs and ethnic Malays make up the city. A quick walk through the old city will bring you past dozens of Muslim mosques, Hindu Temples, Chinese Shrines, Buddhist Temples, Christian churches and even a Jewish cemetery.
Also on the Island is possibly the funnnest museum i have ever visited, the Penang war museum. Taking a bus to the south of the island takes almost an hour, but it is well worth it to visit the museum. The museum is built atop a complex bunker system built by the british to defend the island during world war two. The island and the fort fell to the Japanese for 3 years before they were defeated and driven out again at the end of ww2. The museum gives you free reign to climb down and venture into any dark corner of the bunkers that you can. Lots of educational displays are appreciated as well, but they take a back seat to climbing through pitch dark tunnels underground and discovering secret rooms.
Once night falls they turn the museum into a horror experience, with people dressed as zombies hiding everywhere and succeeding in scaring the crap out of us.
Another noteworthy day trip was a visit to the kek lok si temple, which is supposed to be the biggest buddhist temple in south east asia. The name translates into "the temple of extreme bliss". It's a large place and an afternoon can easily be lost if you want to take a look around everywhere. Most notably at the peak of the hill is the enormous statue of Kuan Yin, or as I like to call her, the goddess of supreme mercy.
Penang is also known as the food capital of Malaysia, and this is probably due to the incredible mix of ethnicities and food styles. A typical day is dim sum for breakfast, malaysian fried rice or noodle at lunch and several indian curries served on banana leaf for dinner. These meals are supplemented by an endless variety of hawker foods which are open until well into the night. Our personal favorite is the fresh juice which is served in a plastic bag filled with ice that hangs around your
neck. Anything to keep you cool when the temerature is constantly hot and humid, even at night time.
I better go, think I've written more than I usually do and we've got to plan for Thailand tomorrow. Also tonight is Japan vs Paraguay so of course Yumi is gonna want to watch that. Until next time...
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