A First Glimpse into Malaysia - Penang

Malay Rat [Enlarge & More]

Georgetown in Penang was nothing like I expected. Firstly it had high rise buildings and secondly it was nothing like any other UNESCO world heritage site we’ve been too. On first impressions it was built up, noisy, dirty and pretty unspectacular.

After checking into PP Island Hotel we rushed out to get something to eat. As I was walking down the road, I was stopped in my tracks, as a rat rushed passed my feet. Not a great start, I thought.

Walking around looking for something to eat, I soon started to feel the character of the place. From street to street and sometimes shop to shop it felt like I was in India one minute, Hong Kong the next, and a mix of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand the next. It’s a real cosmopolitan place, which you don’t normally see outside capital cites such as London. The only difference here is that the majority of faces are brown with the odd spec of white.

Victoria Tower [Enlarge & More]

The food reflects the different ethnic groups that exist on the island too. The Brits in the early 20th century brought with them the Chinese and Indians and now you get Chinese dumplings and Indian samosas on each street corner. I have to say I had the best samosas I’ve had since leaving home - that’s with spending a month in India! They were delicious.

For our first evening meal we settled for Indian food and while ordering I was transported back to India. The over enthusiastic waiter would not let us talk and every time we tried to order he’d finish our sentences. We did end up with some good food but not what we ordered. Funny as it took me back to India.

The weather was against us all the time we were in Penang and not since Hong Kong had it been a pain. It pretty much rained the 2 days/3 nights we spent there and subsequently made the place look a little dreary as we walked around seeing the sights. I’m not sure even if the sun was out that Georgetown deserves the world heritage status. There are plenty of historical buildings to see dotted around but modernity has taken over with shopping malls, high rises etc.

Lantern [Enlarge & More]

We spent the first day wandering the streets looking at all the heritage buildings as well as exploring the shopping malls when it was raining. It looked like we’d just missed a lantern festival as there were lots of them about. In one of the shopping malls there were a few on display to be judged. I’m assuming they’d been made by school children and my favourite was the fish. Jono liked the cow.

Heritage House [Enlarge & More]

We did stumble upon a restored house, I poked my head in to see and before we knew it we’d paid to enter and were on a tour, this time with a very enthusiastic guide. He turned out to be half African and half Chinese, had excellent English and went into minute detail about the house as we toured round. He even went into detail about how the chamber pot was used. We do very few tours as both of us prefer just to amble around at our own pace. Out of the two of us Jono is less inclined to want to take a tour and about 30 mins in I caught Jono’s eye. He looked like he was ready to kill himself which I found really funny. Another 30 minutes later, we said our thank you’s as we headed to where we’d entered, grateful we were done. However, he said there was more and he was very insistent on showing us. On reflection it was a great glimpse into life in Penang in the 19th and early 20th century of a rich family who made their money in tin.

Chinese Resturant [Enlarge & More]

That night we ate at a Chinese restaurant and, yes, I felt we were transported to Hong Kong.

Funicular [Enlarge & More]

We spent the last day getting to Penang Hill. It’s a collection of hills accessible by funicular. Once you are at the top, about a 30 minute ride, you are rewarded with great views of the island. We were being optimistic as when we go to the top, about 800 m above sea level, all we got was a blanket of cloud and no view. Shame but it still made for an interesting day out.

If Penang is anything to go by, I’m going to like Malaysia as I love the fact all these different cultures live together in what seems like perfect harmony.

Trang and a Border Crossing to Malaysia

Thailand [Enlarge & More]

We’d had a great time on the islands, but time was ticking on and it was time to start heading to Malaysia. Heading directly from Koh Samui to the Malaysia border was a bit of a long trip for one day, as the ferry times did not really fit in for such a long journey, so we decided to break up the trip by spending a couple of days in Trang.

A lot of southern Thailand experiences regular problems with insurgency due to clashes between Muslims and Buddhists. This is mainly condensed in the south-east, with provinces such as Hat Yai and Trang only on the fringes of the problem spots, so we decided that Trang was a good, safe place to go, plus a good place to begin a border crossing to Malaysia.

Car Ferry [Enlarge & More]

We boarded a car ferry to the mainland from Koh Samui, which was not as flashy as some of the boats we’d been on previously, but did the job, and went through a series of buses and mini-vans to Trang. Some of the transfers were reasonably complicated, and we weren’t sure we were going to make it to our intended destination, but we did arrive in Trang as promised!

After the heavily touristed islands of Koh Samui and Koh Tao, Trang was a breath of fresh air. It actually felt like we were in Thailand again – albeit, a very different Thailand from what we’d visited up north. Although Trang has a Buddhist majority population, there were significant numbers of Muslims in the town, which made it a very interesting place from a cultural perspective. Furthermore, the people were really friendly – genuinely friendly, like they were actually pleased to see you there, and not just because you’re a tourist either. There were very few tourists in Trang while we were there, and it was nice to walk down a street which actually had Thai people also walking on it, and not just working in bars, or pandering to tourists!

Vintage Tuk Tuk [Enlarge & More]

One of the best parts of Trang were the vintage style tuk tuks about town – these must surely be unique to the area, and we’ve not seen anything like them anywhere else. They’re so cute buzzing around town, and although we did not sit in one we admired quite a few! Trang also had quite a few classic cars buzzing about the place, lending it a real character and likeability factor.

Trang Life [Enlarge & More]

We spent the only full day we had there wandering about the place and taking in the feel of the town. We didn’t really see any sights, but just spent time enjoying the town. There is also a heavy Chinese influence in town, and many of the shops were selling Chinese food and goods – there were several selling lots of gold jewellery too! It was really nice walking around – people were happy just to say hello to us, something we’d not really experienced since Cambodia.

We stayed in Sri-Trang Hotel, which was a place with a character all of it’s own. I’m not sure who was actually running the place, but it seemed to be jointly run by a syndicate of elderly Thai men who seemed to sit around drinking and smoking, but somehow also efficiently run a hotel. It was basic, but pleasant enough, and we had access to the internet café downstairs – unfortunately, while sitting there in the afternoon, I was mercilessly mauled by mosquitoes in a period of five minutes – I was very upset, as mosquitoes don’t usually bite during the day here, they caught me out!

Border Crossing [Enlarge & More]

Two nights was enough time in Trang, and we booked a bus ticket to Pulau Penang on the west cost of Malaysia. Even the travel agents we booked the ticket through were friendly – definitely the most helpful travel agents we’ve met! A mini-van sped us off to Hat Yai, where we met yet more friendly people at a guesthouse while we waited for our connecting mini-van, which promptly arrived and sped us off to the border.

While on the mini-van, we picked up a dotty old dear who was returning to Malaysia after a holiday in Thailand (I think, I kind of made up a story for her). She had a lot of food – she’d really stocked up. She had two bags full of bags of nuts, pickles, sweets, chocolates, cooking ingredients, meat, fruit, and bizarrely, kebabs. When she opened up her main luggage bag, I was surprised to see more food in there, including tinned tuna. Very strange.

We got to the border which was a very formal and efficient affair in comparison to the other land border crossings we’ve done. It was kind of like two international airports tacked together, only you just carry your bags all the way through. I’m not sure how the dotty dear managed to get all her tasty treats through customs, but she emerged intact on the other side and off we went. We, meanwhile, gained our entry stamps for Malaysia – we can spend up to 90 days in the country – hurrah!

Shortly after the border crossing, Mahmoud got hungry – as often happens. The dotty dear was snacking on some dried broad beans, and Mahmoud had a whinge – “I wish she’d give us some, I’m starving!”. What he wasn’t counting on was that a lot of Malaysians speak very good English, and within seconds she popped the bag under our noses and said, “Would you like some?”. I was highly amused.

Georgetown, Penang [Enlarge & More]

The view changed dramatically once we crossed the border. Within a few kilometres, we noticed the difference in the road – traffic was a little calmer, and the road was a little straighter, and all the road signs were in English. Malay is a very different language to Thai, it’s written in Roman numerals rather than script, and so looks quite similar to English (mainly as many words are the same), so it means you can understand a lot more. Within a few more kilometres, we started seeing housing estates, and the radio came on in English, playing Western music. We could have been forgiven for thinking we were back in the UK!

Eventually arriving in Georgetown, Penang, our driver dropped us off at the door of our hotel. We breathed a sigh of relief to have arrived after a long day of driving, set our clocks forward an hour, and walked in. It was a shame to say goodbye to Thailand after a very good month, but time is marching on and Malaysia will be a new experience entirely!