Penang, Malaysia

Crossing the border into Malaysia with the minimum of fuss, we continued our journey to the island of Penang. We chose Penang and its’ capital George Town as a good introduction to Malaysia, mainly because of its proximity to Thailand.
Arriving at about 6pm in the Lebuh Chulia (China town) area of George Town, we set about finding some accommodation for the next few days. Our first impression of Malaysian hotels/guesthouses is that they may be reasonably priced, but you certainly don't get the same standard of accommodation as you do in Thailand.
Lebuh Chulia road is wonderfully seedy with dilapidated buildings and prostitutes working many of the hotels (which may explain why some of them are so dreadful). We eventually stumbled upon a new hostel in Love lane (I will leave you to guess why it was given that particular name!) called SD and checked into an air-con room (Malaysia is bloody hot) with shared bathroom for 35RM/night (about £5). SD may not have the character of some of the hotels in the area, but at least it was clean (which is more than can be said for many of the others).

Unaware that Malaysia is one hour ahead of Thailand, we got up not quite as early as planned (!) and set off for a look around the city. We first stopped at the harbour to see the Clan Piers (a collection of houses on stilts housing about 2000 boatmen & fishing families). Then we wandered along the coast to have a brief look at Fort Cornwallis; built on the site where Captain Francis Light first landed and took possession of the island for the East India Company in 1786. On the day we visited, the fort was being used as a venue for a family fun day, which we stopped to look at for a while. The event was being largely compeered in English, which was somewhat unexpected.
Leaving the fort behind we strolled down Beach Street (the main banking area) which holds a large amount of grand old colonial buildings. Rather sadly the old spectre of scaffolding reared its ugly head, completely covering the one building we actually wanted to see! Slightly disappointed we continued our tour down to Armenia Street, where we had a very nice lunch at the Edelweiss Café (a beautifully preserved 19th century shop house with an antique laden interior). As we were starting to get temple withdrawal, we stopped to have a look at the Cheah Kongsi and Khoo Khongsi; the latter reportedly being one of the best examples of Chinese architecture in Southeast Asia. They were both very pleasant, but the feeling of ‘been there done that’ is definitely starting to creep in to our travels.

On another day, we followed the highly recommended ‘Traditional Trades and Food Trail’ getting an insight into the variety of trades brought to the island from other parts of Asia. The tradesmen in general were very friendly, especially the Joss Stick maker, ‘Songkok’ maker (Muslim headgear worn for religious and ceremonial purposes) and Rattan weaver. Special mention along the food trail has to go to the ‘Ais Tingkap’ (window sherbet). The sherbet is a drink that originated in Sri Lanka; it is flavoured with rose essence, fresh coconut and various seeds and herbs which give it the consistency of frogspawn! It is advertised as the being one of the most refreshing drinks ever. While undoubtedly being refreshing, getting past the texture is a little tricky, the taste itself is quite pleasant and the snacks that I ate with it were really good (not to mention cheap).

Moving away from the centre of George Town, we visited Wat Chaiya Mangkalaram (a Thai style temple housing a 33m long gold plated Buddha in the Disney style!), Dharmikarama Burmese temple (if anything even more Disney, complete with colourful statues and a motorised wishing pool!), Penang hill (the islands highest point at 830m above sea level), and lastly reportedly the world’s largest toy museum (more a collection of action figures than lots of toys; interesting for me though, Debs is maybe a bit young!)

In total, we spent four full days in George Town and found it to be a fascinating city with an eclectic mixture of ethnic influences. The whole city is a combination of the old and new, with old crafts still being practised alongside modern industry and huge shopping malls. All of this goes on in a city with a slightly edgy undercurrent that stops you from ever feeling completely comfortable (especially in the dilapidated china town areas). Whether this amounts to a good indication of what to expect in the rest of Malaysia remains to be seen.

Next entry: The Cameron highlands