Blogs from Penang, Malaysia, Asia - page 12

Walking around the old city of George Town, Penang, is a fun exercise. One of the things guaranteed to bring a smile to your face – unless you’re truly a grumpy, old curmudgeon – is the street art. On July 7, 2008, George Town was officially named a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique architecture and cultural heritage. As such, the historic core of the city has remained. Renovation of old buildings is encouraged, and there are financial incentives for building owners to refurbish the outside of their structures to historic accuracy. High rises and modern shopping malls are relegated to the outskirts. In 2012 the Penang Municipal Council made the bold move of commissioning a Lithuanian artist named Ernest Zacharevic to create a series of murals around the city. Collectively these are called “Mirrors ... read more

Geo: 5.41721, 100.336People use a lot of poetic license when describing (places in) Malaysia - quiet beaches in a national park actually means smelly, polluted beaches at the end of a long hike. City beaches actually means beautiful beaches more commonly found in a national park. Great public transport means good buses that spend hours stuck in Georgetown's terrible traffic, and, well you get the idea. People seem to have very strong views about whether they prefer Georgetown or Malacca. I think they are very different places. Malacca is more about the heritage and tourist sights crammed into a small area. Georgetown, named after King George III, also has the ubiquitous heritage sights, mosques and temples but is spread out over a much larger area- a whole island to be precise. My first day here was ... read more

After the crazy day careering around Phi Phi, a sense of calm prevailed on our one free day this week. Sally and I decided to spend it on Krabi's Ao Nang beach, blissfully peaceful and empty with everyone else presumably on their speedboats. The heavens opened in time for dinner (as usual) so the whole group forsook Thai cuisine and had dinner in the Carnivore restaurant next to the hotel - guess what they specialise in! Then on Sunday we headed off for the border, and our next destination, Penang in Malaysia. A ten hour drive by minibus, which was much more comfortable than we expected. Our last Thai meal that lunchtime, in a simple roadside cafe was, homestay banquet aside, easily the best. In fact we were a bit disappointed with food in Thailand, too ... read more

Panang had been highly recommended for Malaysian food so obviously that's where we were headed next. A last minute decision, train over bus had us faffing around booking tickets at 2am in the morning and expired webpage meant we had no booking reference, e-ticket or print out. This made for a grumpy start and long wait at the station since we arrived so early to make sure we could travel. The train journey to Butterworth, ferry to Georgetown then long walk to the centre left us drained and we gave in to a slightly more expensive but nice hostel. In fact, it seems that accommodation all across Malaysia is much more expensive as is the beer whilst food remains cheap. Its seems strangely disproportionate. Reviews were right, the 'Red Garden Food Paradise' (food court) nearby had ... read more

Justin's package arrived so we got the bus to Penang. Firstly having a cheap lunch with Ben in a different food court. He was leaving for Bali the next day. Justin and I arrived in Penang at 6pm. Penang is known for having amazing food so the first thing (after finding our hostel - Love Lane Hostel) was to eat. We ended up sat outside a bar having buy one get one free cocktails. It was great, just getting to know each other and also later joined by other travellers. Two South African girls, Jocelyn and Kisrt with a couple of other guys (whose names I do not remember). A few drinks later, we ended up in a club, Slippery Señoritas. We originally thought there would be live music here, but we ended up dancing and ... read more