We were really thankful to be in Penang, mostly because we’d be in one place for more than one night, but also, it was nice to be out of the huge metropolis for a bit, with just small, village like streets to walk round.
Now we’ve left the big places like, Singapore and KL, we’ve found the prices have dropped dramatically; most notably hotel room prices. So much so, that from now on we can afford to stay in hotels for the rest of our trip, which is a lovely luxury to have! We booked a decent three star hotel in Penang before we arrived. It worked out at around £20 per night for two people. The hotel was a little basic, but it was really central and served a lovely breakfast in the morning on the very sunny, rooftop garden. It was based right in the middle of George Town (on Argyll Street funnily enough!).
Penang is considered a main tourist destination in South East Asia, due to its architecture and beach resorts, but we felt two nights and one day was enough time on the island. The old fashioned streets, houses and shops are pretty spectacular, but as we were based right in the main hubbub it was a little manic. There were no real pavements around our area, due to the streets being lined with parked scooters and street vendors, so walking around the main area was a little tricky in the traffic – those scooters just never look like they’re going to stop!
Also,
as we were in the main part of town, which was a bit more residential,
we did get a lot of looks. Despite it being a tourist destination, we
didn’t really come across many Europeans, so we became a bit of an
attraction ourselves! I think it would have been a slower, more relaxing
place towards the other side of the island, where the lovely resorts
and beaches are!
During our day in Penang we managed to fit in a little bit of shopping in the Queensbay Mall (one of Asia’s largest shopping mall, it had eight floors, it must take ages to get around all the shops!), visited the Khoo Kongsi (a clan temple) and took in the historic streets and architecture on the oldest street in George Town.
The Clan House was a main highlight for us. It was such an ornate building and pretty spectacular to see up close.
The heat in Penang was scorching (it was about 38 degrees), so we found we could only walk for a little bit before stopping for ice cream or a couple of beers (it’s a hard life!). We found one or two great local pubs.
Penang is known for its culinary delights and apparently the best food is served by the street vendors...but as the majority of these vendors are based next to semi open drains, we didn’t feel confident enough, at this early stage in our Asia trip, to experiment! So instead, we went to a small friendly restaurant for dinner and had some lovely local food.
If we had one more day in Penang we would have liked to have taken the train up to Penang Hill for the amazing city views and perhaps, fitted in a visit to the snake temple. The temple is built in memory of a monk, who, as legend has it, had healing powers and gave shelter to snakes from the jungle. Apparently when the temple was built, the snakes moved in permanently! Evidently they burn a lot incense outside the temple and inside to entrance the snakes (as the majority are meant to be rather poisonous). I was secretly relieved we ran out of time for this attraction; I wasn’t sure that visiting some uncaged snakes was the best way to confront my snake phobia!
Some quirks we noticed during our time in Penang...
- The restaurant we dined in had a page dedicated to Western food – you could order a huge macaroni pie to feed 10 people... but you needed to order this a day in advance.
- In small restaurants they don’t serve starters before mains, in fact they tend to just bring the food out, whichever course it is, when it’s ready!
- They have Marmite, Makro and Tescos over here!
- A large Carlsberg, instead of being a pint, is a massive bottle of Carlsberg served like wine!
Next stop Hat Yai.
