Penang/ Malaysia

The flight from Singapore to Malaysia only took about 45 minutes. During that entire time, Keith and I talked to a couple from Penang who had just been on vacation in Singapore. They were very kind and helped us with ideas of what to do and see in Penang.

When we arrived to Penang, which is in the northern part of Malaysia, we were immediately picked up by someone that worked at the guesthouse that we had booked in advance online. We stayed at the Old Penang Guesthouse, which was right in the heart of little Georgetown. And by little, I really mean little! We were able to walk around the entire town in only about 30 minutes! However, Georgetown is the country’s capital and a Unesco World Heritage Site. It is an island filled with history and culture. It was long ruled by the British and, therefore, was named after King George III. Since we got in late, we checked in and went to bed to catch up on some sleep.

The next morning, we spent the day walking around Georgetown. We saw Sri Mariamman Temple (an old Hindu temple), Kek Lok Si Temple, Kuan Yin Temple (one of the oldest in Maylasia/ built in honor of the Chinese Goddess of Mercy) and Kapitan Keling Mosque (built in the 19th century). We also saw Penang Peranakan Mansion and Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. We walked by St. George’s church and also by the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower. We saw the ocean view and the ports where the ferries come in. The architecture was all very nice and it was wonderful to know that they have kept all the history alive and buildings the same. I also enjoyed seeing the architecture of the Kuan Yin Temple. There were stone carvings of dragons on the rooftops. We saw people burning paper money and incense sticks inside.

We stopped into Fort Cornwallis, which was named after Charles Cornwallis. It is one of the most popular landmarks in Penang. The fortress had original structures which was built over a century ago, which includes old bronze cannons, prison cells and an ammunition storage area. Right outside the fortress walls, there were two kids with his dad. The kids were riding a small motorbike and it appeared they were practicing in the fields around the Angkor Wat-looking trees. We waved to them as they passed by and I think they looked proud of their new riding skills!

We also enjoyed seeing Kek Lok Si Temple. It is the largest Buddhist temple complex in SouthEast Asia! It had beautiful landscaped gardens and sacred temples, as well as a seven-tiered pagoda and Buddha statues. It was all so interesting to see. During our walk, we also saw someone in her wedding dress taking photos. Her dress was beautiful, although I only got a picture from behind.

Another thing we saw in the city near the ports were the Penang Clan Jetties, which is also a UNESCO site. There are six clan communites in a row along Weld Quay known as the Clan Jetties. They were built in the 19th century by the Chinese immigrants and originially made to provide housing for the port labourers or those who were too poor to find housing on land. They live in wooden houses which are raised above the sea by stilts. The houses are all connected by wooden walkways. We walked along the jetties and at the end of the walkway you can see a pretty view of the port and ships anchored in the distance.

Besides the history, Georgetown was also very popular for its food. Most of the food was found at Hawker stands, which is authentic meals made on the street (but everything is clean) and are all insanely cheap. Keith went crazy over trying to taste as many popular dishes as he could. We were given a pamphlet listing the 25 or so top traditional dishes of Penang, so Keith ate a lot that day! I don’t think he tried all of them, but he was pretty close! The food included Malaysian curries, Roti Kani (which is like nan with different dipping sauces, it was my favorite!), Asam Laksa (thick rice noodles served in fish flakes with spices), Char Beehoon (fried yellow noodles and bean sprouts), Satay (pieces of seasoned meat on a stick), Ba Chang (glutinous rice dumpling…traditional food eaten on New Years), and more. And besides these Malaysian dishes, you could find Indian, Chinese, Philippines, Indonesian and Thai food, especially at the Tanjong Tokong food court.
That night, we walked around town, peeked in the many stores and tried many types of food and some Tiger beer at one of the food court areas.



On our second day in Penang, we decided to get a private driver to take us around the entire island. It was a great tour that took us to see so many different places and we had air conditioning in the car which was very nice!

At first, our driver appeared frustrated and cold because I think the man who we booked the tour with (a hostel down the street from our place) had asked his friend to drive last minute as a favor. But then once he got to know us, he really ended up being friendly and helpful because he told us so much information and went quickly to so many places (which is the kind of tour style we like).

He first took us around Georgetown again and we spent more time at Fort Cornwallis and at the Clan Jetties. Next, we went to several temples, including Kek Lok Si (Buddhist temple), reclining Buddha temple (Wat Chayamangkalaram…one of the largest reclining Buddhas in Asia). We also saw the Burmese Temple (dhammikarama), Khoo Kongsi (khoo clan temple), Gooddess of Mercy (Quan Yin) temple. We drove along Gurney Drive, which is a pretty ocean view and has many hawker food stands on the side of the streets. We then stopped at a fishing village, which Keith loved. We walked down the narrow and wobbly wooden planks and looked out at the ships and houses along the sea. I was surprised to see someone on their motor bike on the narrow, wooden plank.

The next stop was to the Botanical Gardens and Snake Temple. We took a little trolly around the botanical gardens. There weren’t too many flowers but there were a lot of beautiful trees and plants, along with many monkeys in the park! We also saw a lizard and a pretty blue bird before we left. The snake temple was a lot of fun. There were snakes in cages in the temple, and then there was an area where we could hold snakes and see other animals, such as turtles, monkeys, rabbits and iguanas. It was like a miniature zoo. We took a picture with two vipers around our necks! They felt cold and heavy, but I didn’t mind! We saw another huge albino snake, which we held up its head for the photo. They were all very friendly and luckily didn’t bite us! There was also a rattlesnake in one cage. Our driver started tapping on the glass to try and get it mad so that it would lift its head for us, but Keith insisted on leaving it alone for the sake of not dying!! Our driver also told us to that if the monkey in the cage tried to grab our finger that we should not pull away. Ha Don’t worry, we didn’t listen to him!

After the snake temple, we made our way to the Penang Hill/ Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple, which is the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia! On our way, we stopped at a Hard Rock Hotel. It was funny that we stopped there, but our humorous driver wanted us to have a clean place to use the bathroom. He also wanted us to see the nice beach view. So we made our way inside, and I took advantage by buying some batteries at the gift shop. Keith and I were amazed at how nice of a resort it was. There were pools winding all outside the hotel, with a water slide, a bar, a b-ball area in the pool, and then the view of the beach/ocean. There was even a Michael Jackson statue outside the hotel! Our tour guide said this was to attract the tourists. Guess it did for us. We then walked along the ocean for a little while, and made our way back to the car to head to Kek Lok Si temple.

Our driver drove us to the top but and then we admired the large Statue of Kuan Yin. It was inaugurated in 2002 and can be seen all over the city from a distance, since it is up on a hill. We looked around at the gardens and other temples on the same level and then started climbing the many stairs down. Each level had a new temple or garden to see. Everything was colorful, with red and yellow lanterns decorated nicely all over for the Chinese New Years which began the following week. You could see a wonderful view of the city and mountains from the temples. We also saw a little pond area between temples which had about 100 turtles all sitting on top of each other. It was so funny to see. I have a picture below of it.

This ended our tour, so we made our way back to Georgetown, thanked our driver and then went out to find one last tasty dinner in Penang. That night we took a overnight bus (about 4 hours) to Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately the bus was very cold! We tried to get some sleep but had to wait until we arrived in KL at Alex’s guesthouse around 7am, before we could catch any rest.