After a few days exploring Ipoh, we headed to Georgetown, Penang. Our bus driver was an absolute maniac who spent more of the drive with his hands off the steering wheel than on it. He was constantly drifting & weaving through the lanes, all while an incessant beeping went off on the bus. We never figured out what the beeping is, because when he asked him about it he dismissed it as a “broken sensor”. Not very reassuring.
Luckily, the torturous drive only lasted 2 hours to the Butterworth Pier, where we hopped on a 10-minute ferry across the harbour to Georgetown. Google Maps said our hostel was about a 17-minute walk from the pier, so we were deciding if we should walk with all our bags or call a Grab. Right at that moment, a bus pulled up and the nice bus driver gave us a ride down the road towards our hostel for free! We still had to walk about 5 minutes but it helped cut out a lot of the walk in the brutal Malaysian heat.
We have been INCESSANTLY sweating since we’ve arrived in Malaysia (except in Cameron Highlands). It is so unbelievably humid here, so we’re instantly soaked right after stepping outside.
Georgetown is a city full of interesting history, culture, and delicious food. It was established by the British East India Trading Company back in the 18th century, so the city has a very interesting blend of British, Chinese, and Indian culture. There are many beautiful buildings that have preserved a unique colonial style of architecture, and a thriving street art scene much like Ipoh.
We spent the day exploring Georgetown on foot. We dropped off our laundry at a local wash & fold place, and went out to explore.
We walked through the streets, looking at the beautiful architecture, amazing murals, sculptures, and street art. We saw the famous “Children on a Bicycle” mural, which depicts two children riding a bicycle and has become an iconic image of Georgetown. We then visited a historic hotel called the The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, also known as the Blue Mansion. It was built in the late 19th century by Cheong Fatt Tze, a wealthy Chinese businessman and diplomat who was also known as the “Rockefeller of the East”.
In the afternoon, we explored Chew Jetty, a traditional Chinese stilt village located along Weld Quay in Georgetown. It is one of the six clan jetties that were built in the 19th century by Chinese immigrants who settled in Penang.
In the afternoon, I went to go pick up our laundry. When I arrived, the lady informed me that she couldn’t find the other pair for 4 of our socks. She said she already searched the washer & dryer and it wasn’t there, so I called Wini to check our room to see if we had somehow left them behind. They were nowhere to be found in our room, and we thought it unlikely that we had left 4 socks behind.
Suddenly, I had an epiphany! I had taken a photo on Snapchat of our laundry in the baskets right before we left the laundromat in the morning. I pulled up the photo and low and behold, all four FULL pairs of socks happened to be on the top of the baskets. I had evidence that we had dropped them off and they had lost them!
I walked back in and showed the lady, and she was like oh okay, and went looking for them in the back. She eventually came back out with 1 of the socks, which I confirmed was ours, so I asked her to keep looking. She went back to look & came out with the other three! I was happy she had found them, but as I was putting them away I caught a glimpse of her in the corner of my eye holding another pair of Wini’s socks in the back room.
I peaked into the back, and I saw two more of Wini’s socks on the table and a pair of my underwear. I scanned the back room, and kept seeing more and more items of our clothing scattered around! I told the lady, and she got flustered, saying she must’ve mixed our clothes in with somebody else’s laundry.
She grabbed another basket that had a mans clothes in it for me to go through. As I went through the basket, I realized half of our clothes were mixed in with this random man’s laundry! It was a bit concerning to know that they had washed our clothes with a stranger’s but I was just happy that we had come to pick our clothes up before the man came back. Who knew what would’ve happened if he came first and left with our stuff!
The next day, we rented a motorbike to explore the rest of the island. Wini wanted to buy a Kindle, and had found a place in Penang that sold them by appointment only. Turns out, it wasn’t a store but a co-working space, run by a self proclaimed “eReaders Fan Club”. When we showed up, the head of the fan club greeted us awkwardly, placed two Kindle models on the table and asked her which one she wanted, providing absolutely no detail about any of the features or price of either. It was a very weird interaction, but Wini chose the one she wanted and we headed out for our day.
We scooted across the island to Penang National Park, located on the northwest corner of the island. We decided to do a hike to Monkey Beach, which was along the coast the whole time.
We had read that entrance to the park was free, so when we arrived at the national park after a long & hot scooter ride, we were annoyed to find that there was a 50 MYR/person (11 USD) environmental fee to enter the park. This fee had just been implemented a few months ago, but we thought it was an aggressively steep price hike to go from 0 to 11 dollars. We felt we had no other option but to pay it after our long drive there, but I’m not sure that I would say the hike was worth the 22 USD we paid to do it.
On our hike, we stopped in our tracks when we saw an absolutely MASSIVE lizard walking across the beach! It was a biawak, or Asian water monitor like the one we had seen in Ipoh! It felt like we were walking through Jurassic Park with this big guy. It was a sweaty and hot 5-mile hike, and we saw many biawaks along the way.
After the hike, we scooted home to shower & get ready before going out to meet our friend Mackie and some of her hostel mates for drinks. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Love Lane, a famous area for nightlife in Georgetown. The drinks were delicious (and strong!) and the bartender gave us lots of free tequila shots. We had a great time chatting, meeting new friends, and enjoying the vibe of Love Lane.
The next day, we had a big errands day before our big trip to Raja Ampat. We needed to get our laundry done (we avoided the wash & fold like the plague!), buy some last-minute supplies, and pack our bags.
We had an amazing 2 weeks in Malaysia, and it really exceeded our expectations in every way. We got to experience amazing food & culture, as well as meet tons of great new friends. We’ll definitely be back.
Next stop – Indonesia!