Penang

Rex1
Fri 29 Nov 2013 06:07
On Sunday, 17 November we caught the ferry from Langkawi to Penang Island which took 2.45 hours on a fast catamaran and arrived in George Town in the early evening. We stayed at a little boutique hotel called Coffee Atelier in the old part of the city. Penang is known as the Pearl of the Orient and George Town, its capital, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008. George Town was the first British Straits settlement established in 1786 and has an amazing array of beautiful colonial and historical buildings. We were typical tourists and went on an hour long tri-shaw tour of George Town which was fantastic! We were staying near Little India and wandered the streets for a while before choosing an Indian restaurant for dinner (restaurant being a very loose term!) – we were given placemats and then curry was put directly on the placemats – no plates here – certainly saves on washing up. The place was just like a scene from a Bollywood movie, loud music, busy, chaotic and colourful.
The next day we organised a driver to take us to the Thai consulate to apply for 2 month tourist visas – this was done very efficiently and we returned later in the day to pick up our passports with visas intact. There were certainly some interesting people applying for visas - the man in front of me had make up on, stubble, dressed in a tie with shorts, had a pink ladies fan in 1 hand and a kids umbrella in the other and was applying for a visa to work as a school teacher! Maybe a taste of what’s to come in Thailand.
Our driver Ravi was a terrific host and took us on a tour of the major sights of Penang with the highlight being Kek Lok Si Temple (Temple of Supreme Bliss). It is hailed as the finest and largest Buddhist Temple complex in South East Asia. Its main pagoda, comprises 7 tiers and the beautifully crafted temple took more than 20 years to build and continues to expand.
Penang is a wonderful mix of Chinese, Malay and Indian and the street food (or hawker food) is tasty – local favourites are Nasi Kandar, Hokkien Mee and Char Koay Teow.
Unfortunately we had to leave George Town on Tuesday morning to catch the fast ferry back to Langkawi – we would have quite happily spent a few more days exploring the sights of Penang.
Just a quick note about the “super fast ferry” – we were lucky to make the trip back –it was incredibly old, in our eyes not seaworthy, over crowded and proceeded to break down in the ocean – the trip took over 5 hours. We will never get on a vessel like that again!