Activity Summary
Monday 10th October - Day 39
Travel from Hat Yai to Penang
Tuesday 11th October - Day 40
Walk around Georgetown
Penang street art
Chew Jetty
Fort Cornwallis
Penang botanical gardens
Waterfall hike
Gravity rooftop bar
Wednesday 12th October - Day 41
Peanut sprinkled breakfast
Penang Hill & The habitat
Regretful hike down Penang Hill
Summary
After Thailand, Penang was a complete breathe of fresh air. The city was clean, modern and even the weather behaved. Southern Thailand for a large part was a bit disappointing so us being ready to carry on down probably played a big part in us enjoying Penang so much.
There is a lot to do in Penang, involving a lot of walking and exploring which suited us very well (despite Nicola being ill). We made some bad choices in food along the way so haven’t been overly enamoured with this element of Malaysia so far but hoping it will improve along the way.
Accommodation
Georgetown Inn by Skyhive - 3 nights - £9/n/p
We based ourselves in Georgetown because it was a good hub to get pretty much everywhere in Penang with most of the tourist spots here. The accommodation here was considerably more expensive than Thailand however, with the cheaper places being absolute dives whereas this really wasn’t the case in Thailand and will take some getting used to.
This hotel was a self check in place and perfectly comfortable, if not quite like a prison room without the windows. However we spent limited time here and was perfectly adequate. If it wasn’t self serve we would quite likely have extended our stay (to visit the national park on the island) but didn’t fancy the hassle of checking in and out so moved on.
Travel
TO
Hat Yai hotel -> [walk] -> Bus ‘terminal’ -> [minivan] -> Malaysia / Thailand border for passport checks before back in the same van -> Georgetown -> [Grab] -> Penang hotel
Diary
We had a slow start to the day as our minivan to Malaysia and Penang was at 12pm. We were pretty close to a shopping mall so settled on the very easy shame mcds breakfast before grabbing our things from the room and head straight back to the outside of the mcds, being the pick up point. We stood around for a little while, partly because we were early and partly because we had no clue where the minivan was supposed to collect us as the ‘waiting area’ covered two sides of a large square around mcds. Found out we chose the wrong side (should have been the steps outside maccers) but Nicola managed to resolve it by asking random people who could have been our driver. Worked in the end and on our way we went.
Many hours later we arrived at the Malaysian border. First check resulted in a stamp out from Thailand which was pretty painless bar the ill timed queue of busses of people. We met the van once through and continued a short way down the border check before having to get out a second time at the Malaysian border check. This time everyone had to grab all their bags, run them through a bag scanner (although security seemed very uninterested in this) and get our passports stamped. Simple questions around where we were going, staying and how long we’d be in Malaysia which Luke parroted word for word what Nicola had so eloquently said beforehand rather than require some element of thinking on his part.
Back in the same van again we continued down to Penang. Crossed the pretty cool Penang bridge that links the island to the mainland but otherwise wholly uneventful. The minivan terminated at a shopping mall about 10 minutes drive away from our hotel so once securing Luke a sim card and transferring all our Thai Baht to Malaysian Ringgit (going to be challenging to switch our terminology and stop saying Suid & Kap Kun Ka…) we hailed a Grab taxi. Grab is incredibly easy in Penang and quite cheap so we would def recommend if not wanting to plan bus routes and timings.
In our evening we settled on a local cafe/ restaurant called Boston coffee for easy food (and a place we would go to breakfast everyday in Penang) and had a short walk around Georgetown and Little India before calling it.
First full day in Malaysia and while Luke had finally beaten all of his stomach and flu like ailments over what seemed like 2 weeks it became Nicola’s turn to take a big old dose of traveller germs. She woke up with a cracking headache, blocked and runny nose which as expected meant she was in a foul mood. On top of that we had to go do washing so not a particularly fun morning. We found a local wash and dry place that was cheap and cycles only lasted 30 minutes so once we had started our washing went for breakfast round the corner. Nicola’s shakshuka was crap which further compounded on her miserable morning. Luke’s veggie toastie however was delicious. Luke quickly rushed back to the laundrette to deal with our washing where he was greeted with a slightly angry owner as a result of him being max 5 minutes late and the ‘queue’ of people waiting. It was one person. Bit melodramatic.
Luke started the dryer, picked up Nicola and then we both returned on time (no queue this time - moody wench) and went back to the hotel room for a bit as the heavens opened up. This gave Nicola a bit of time to put her head down and Luke to start planning what his lonely adventures part 2 edition would involve for the day. The proposition of leaving Nicola in a windowless box for the day however did not go down overly well so it was onwards and (hopefully) upwards for us both. To give credit to Nicola she was infinitely happier the rest of the day (bar the waterfall hike but we’ll get to that).
We based ourselves in Georgetown because it was a good hub to get pretty much everywhere in Penang with most of the tourist spots here. We walked around Georgetown for a few hours visiting the cool street art (even had a chance to pose with one once the annoying tourist queues had jogged on), Chew Jetty which is a wooden pier built out into the sea with a variety of shops along and Fort Cornwallis that was built by the British and was a bit rubbish.
With the sun now shining, we got a grab taxi over to the Penang botanical gardens for a walk around and an expected easy hike to a waterfall. First thing we did was get ice creams to then be warned about thieving monkeys so we demolished these as quickly as we could. The botanical gardens were nice for the green space and walking with the most interesting aspect being the Cannonball Trees and the mass gathering of the monkeys that walk around with London gangster vibes of ‘I will rob you or mess you up trying’. Subsequently we did see a monkey run off with someone’s lunch which was quite amusing.
The gardens (and Penang) have a large number of hikes and Nicola spent a great deal of time researching these the night before. The most ridiculous was a hike from the gardens up to Penang hill which of course Luke was foolishly game for but the reality would have been horrible. We settled on a shortish hike to the waterfall which Nicola had expected to be more built up that it was and regretted the walking sandals choice. This route however was clear as day in its route (unlike others we have attempted) as it had red ribbons dictating the way so no chance of us getting lost. However at the end of the route we were faced with what looked like a collapsed makeshift footbridge or jumping under barbed wire. The route markings suggested we do the latter as Nicola wasn’t wholly comfortable with the former. We were greeted with signs of ‘no entry’ and private property which greatly confused us, especially as the viewing point that was supposedly private land had a bleeding tourist information board. Slightly at odds with the conflicting information, we took our photo and ran back the way we came. Back on developed and solid ground again Nicola bounced back from her clear uneasiness at the whole experience.
Both of us had some shopping we wanted to do (Luke needed sunglasses and Nicola a new water flosser) so we went to one of the local malls which again, much like Thailand, was incredibly impressive compared to the UK. Both of us were unsuccessful in our endeavours and now very hungry, Luke persuaded Nicola to go for a cheeky Nandos as he had been craving this for some time. Nicola thinks it’s greatly overrated and usually takes a whole lot of begging on his part to do this. Turns out Malaysian Nando’s is not like the UK and it was god awful. Do not attempt.
Now approaching sunset Luke found a nice 5 star hotel with a rooftop bar. Despite the fact we both were rocking sweaty walking attire and not glammed up at all, we confidently strolled into the elevator and up to the 24th floor. It seemed like there was judgement from the clearly higher class clientele waiters when they asked ‘are you staying here’. Being the first alcoholic drink Luke had ordered in Malaysia initially baulked at the £8 price tag but quickly realised where he was and that he would happily drink away his work problems in Baker Street for that price tag for a much shittier view and vibe. After taking in the nighttime views of Penang we set off back to the hotel.
Nicola’s flu continued to cause her problems today and therefore most of the planning of what was achievable was left in her hands as we planned to be walking around quite a lot of the day. For ease we went to Boston Coffee for food and turns out their breakfasts are amazing. Luke had a mild allergic reaction to what he thought was avocado so took a benadryl and kept eating. Turns out they added finely crushed peanuts all over his eggs which was not on the menu nor expected. We only found this out the day after when the crushed peanuts were not so fine and putting 2 and 2 together sent it back. This was also one of the only times we hadn’t been asking for ‘no peanuts’ given we really didn’t expect this sneak attack. Turns out it has to be said every time. Fortunately we are now aware Luke won’t die.
Despite being ill Nicola was very effective in her map and bus arrangements to get us from Georgetown to Penang Hill. Bus costs 2 fun coupons each (40p each - takes Luke back to his childhood bus days on the W8 before Oyster cards) and about 45 minutes in total. We both agreed it was a nice way to see more of the city we wouldn’t otherwise have done.
From the main cable car / train area, the hill is a good 750m climb so, smartly, decided against that walk and got towed up to the top. At the top of Penang Hill there are a number of ‘routes’ for walking around which give views over the top of Penang. The main attraction is a half canopy walkway through the forest called the Habitat so first decided on this leisurely walk (although be prepared for a £12 ticket each - we really haven’t been spending much and this took us aback a bit). The views were great from the canopy and giant ring canopy thing and we were very fortunate to see a giant black squirrel (over twice the size of a grey - we saw them next to each other and manz would get fucked up), many butterflies and monkeys.
Post the canopy walk we sat down for a forest view cake and coffee (hot chocolate for the child that is Nicola) which gave some renewed energy to us both and unblocked Nicola’s ear for some reason (she'd been struggling with a sinus infection)
We walked around the top of the hill for a little while longer, got chatting to an Indonesian old guy for a while which was very entertaining although Nicola couldn’t understand a word he was saying as he was softly spoken and had a face mask on. For the descent Luke suggested walking down, assuming it would be infinitely easier than the uphill and completely forgetting Nicola unable to breathe properly. Unfortunately for her she agreed without a fight and therefore no blame can be put at Luke’s feet. The hike down was pretty horrible. Initially we struggled to follow Penang Hills own maps and routes before getting completely lost on the supposed ‘easy’ route. One little detour took us round the actual path, through steep jungle where we ended up having to swing down to the path using only arm strength. Eventually it joined back on the path and we climbed hundreds of steps down the mountain to the point our calves were pretty demolished. The DOMs the next 2 days were pretty savage. We sacked off the temple nearby for obvious reasons and got the bus back home.
Once back in Georgetown we stopped off a food court which turned out to be terrible. The food was clearly predominantly Chinese inspired and 3 days into Malaysia we still had no idea what Malaysian food was. But we were too tired to do anything else so settled on something and hit the hay.
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