Sweltering Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

Dear Friends and Family,

A one hour flight south of Langkawi took us to the UNESCO World Heritage protected city of Georgetown, on the large island of Penang, “the pearl of the orient.” It’s crowded with cars, shops, motor-scooters, trishaws, and pedestrians, a frantic contrast to Langkawi isle. We had trouble locating Le Dream hotel. Bruce got lost twice trying to bring some street food back to the hotel room, but we finally got oriented. Le Dream was really dreamy. The rooms were quiet and comfy. $62 per night included a king size bed, buffet breakfast, high tea w/lunch/snacks, wine on the rooftop from 6 to 7 pm, ice cream all evening, and 2 rooftop tepid water spa tubs.

The area is famous for its inexpensive, delicious Asian street food. A platter of Malaysian noodles was only fifty cents! It’s a port city, with a Chinese settlement of houses on stilts in the ocean. The British first colonized Malaysia in 1771 and ruled until 1957. During the early years, the Brits charged an exorbitant land tax, so a large influx of Chinese immigrants out-foxed the English by building their community over water! Families still live there today and welcome tourists to browse souvenir stands, food stalls, and temples, sandwiched between their homes on the jetty.

Old town Penang has a lot of colorful street art, both murals and wrought iron 3-D sculptures, using buildings as backdrops. There’s a very active SPCA that bought a large, narrow, and deep building that it uses for fund-raising. They sell space inside on which artists create mostly murals. Proceeds go to the SPCA for the care of animals in Georgetown. Cats are adored; but many people in Malaysia are Muslim and consider dogs (and pigs) unclean. In fact, if a dog brushes against the leg of a Muslim, the leg must be washed seven times. So here, “cats rule-dogs drool!” A lot of the street art includes cats. There are a couple of stores selling every imaginable cat related souvenir. Tourists pose and snap photos of themselves interacting with the murals.

We made the difficult 5K, 2 hour climb to the top of steeeep Penang Hill for a great view of the city with Michelle, a fellow traveler. She was amazingly fit and made it to the summit a good half-hour ahead of us. There were monkeys in the tropical forest along the way, and even sitting in the roadway, thankfully ignoring us. A local warned us to carry a stick, because those cute monkeys sometimes jump on tourists with backpacks, hoping to find food inside. “Backpack Bruce” really zoomed through that stretch! 😜 We didn’t encounter too many brave souls hiking up in the horrible heat, and were wildly surprised to find tons of tourists enjoying the “Disneyland” like atmosphere at the top. There were cold drinks, ice cream, cotton candy, and souvenirs for sale. There was a little train tootling children around. Couples posed for staged photos for a fee. There was even a building advertising an earthquake/tsunami experience inside! We walked up a final set of steps past a massive cobweb filled with spiders, some larger than the size of your palm, to find an amazing, though hazy, view of the city, including the 13.5K Penang Bridge. We were delighted to find a funicular ride to the bottom of the steep hill that took less than five minutes! Apparently, other tourists purchased round-trip tickets!

We enjoyed meeting several other guests over wine and high tea gatherings at the hotel. Wandering the streets was a bit unnerving, as there’s very little in the way of sidewalks. We crossed the roads carefully and quickly. We took an interesting free walking tour with a local man who pointed out many of the significant historic buildings and temples. We saw beautiful Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist temples, and a Methodist church, all part of the neighborhood vibe. We heard the Muslim call to prayer in the early morning and each evening.

That’s all for now. We’ll write again after our visit to Melaka, another port city to the south. Love, BnL

Author: bnlmos

We are a retired couple, together nearly 35 years, who love International travel. Having a "blog" is brand new to us, so have patience as we do our best to keep in touch with our friends and family. Please feel free to comment on this blog or contact us via personal email. brucemos@hotmail.com View all posts by bnlmos