Georgetown
Excited does not even begin to describe how we felt rollin’ across the Thai border in to our EIGHTH country, Malaysia! Most of our eagerness revolved around the fact we would soon be in Malaysia’s food capital, Penang Island, Georgetown! As soon as we received our Visa stamp from the surly border crossing agent, we high-fived and hopped in the mini van to take us across the bridge!
How bout that ride in?
We all know that wonderful, familiar after-rain smell and feel. The asphalt freshly washed, the skies opening up as the sun slowly creeps back to it’s place in the sky. We were lucky enough to drive in just as the sun was setting below newly cleared skies and the clouds were reflecting a radiant pink-orange glow above the tops of palm tree fields. Picturesque.
The tall buildings and large shopping mall at the entrance to the island took us off guard at first, but we were soon in the ancient UNESCO World Heritage Sight of quaint Georgetown within 5 minutes. Immediately we were spellbound by the untouched old-school features and small town feel. As we shuffled backpacker-style through the streets of Little India to our hostel, Couzi Couji, music wafted out of nearby record shops and the strong scent of incense greeted our welcoming noses.
Once settled in to our room, we set out to get our fill of flavorful curries and the dank garlic naan bread. Not hard to find in when you’re staying in Little India. Penang, and Georgetown more specifically, is known as Malaysia’s “food capital,” where a melting pot of Indian, Malay, Chinese, and Indonesian cuisine exists.
With happy bellies, we passed out to Anthony Bourdain’s episode from his show, Parts Unknown on culinary adventures in Malaysia and dreamt of tomorrow’s impending food adventures.
Earlier I mentioned Georgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage site. If you’re not familiar with this term, not to worry, I really didn’t understand it when I first heard it either. A World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as of special cultural or physical significance. Usually, this includes old buildings, temples, and beautiful landscape that should be carefully preserved so tourists for years to come can enjoy!
For example, the hostel we stayed at is in a one-hundred and thirty-year-old building! For obvious reasons, the owner is under strict standards to maintain and preserve the condition of the building and is not allowed to remodel most parts. This means the bathrooms are small, the original creaky stairs must stay intact and the gorgeous wood ceiling beams stay put. The whole vibe is like stepping into a cultural Disneyland!
On our first real day, we hit the ground running (okay, fast walk) in order to see everything on our list. We went on a self-guided street art tour. In 2012, the city-state government of Penang let Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic paint children and the people of Malaysia throughout the streets of historical Georgetown. Some artworks are comical, societal statements, simply artistic, and most of all, open to an individual’s interpretation. We raced through the streets, goofy map in-hand, like little pirates on a treasure hunt for mural gold!
We found that in addition to the planned street art murals, many freelance painters had splashed their artistic expression throughout the streets. Here are a few of our favorite shots:
Camera rolls full and city-cultured, we decided it was time to take to the nature parts of Penang in the Botanical Gardens just a few miles away from Georgetown. We grabbed an Uber (yes, it exists here) and hopped in with Chang, our heard of hearing driver. Chang’s Uber navigation seemed to be having technical difficulties, so after a few missed turns and flippin’ u-eys, we made it to the Gardens and had about an hour to explore (fo’ free!) before starting our brutal ascent to the top of Penang Hill – a must see viewpoint 2,733 feet above the expansive city below.
Between dodging playful monkeys and pre-occupied tourists we strolled through the fern and orchid houses, tip-toed carefully through the cactus room and snaked around fields of diverse palm tree species!
We had read there was a simple hike to the top of Penang Hill, accessible via Moongate entry point. This point is located at the entrance to the Botanical Gardens so we backtracked and started up! Within five minutes we got a little nervous as we passed other trekkers on their descent dripping with sweat and with professional-looking walking sticks. The climb got steeper and the tree roots gnarlier, but we continued on up at the mercy of our directions master, maps.me. A nice Chinese man also helped by befriending us and pointed us in the right direction at each confusing switchback where trails would break off to many unknown destinations.
Two sweat-drenched hours later, our wobbly quads peaked at the top to take in a birds-eye view of the city below:
We waited until the sun had set and the twinkle lights from Penang turned on as the skies darkened. Typical to Southeast Asia weather, it began to downpour so we opted to take the hill tram back down to the bottom as opposed to trekking through the unknown night sounds of the thick jungle we had previously braved. At the bottom, we paid 15 ringgit (about 3 USD) for our ride and met a nice German couple who offered to give us a ride back to Georgetown (saving money on transportation means more skrilla for comida courts!). They had been living in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur for the past three years and gave us suggestions for when we visit, a subject for a later blog post!
They were staying at the Blue Mansion, a ritzy museum tourist attraction that also has a few boutique rooms available to crash in. Unfortunately, this spot is not in our budget, but our newfound friends gave us a mini “behind the scenes as a guest” tour before we said our “Auf Wiedersehen“ and parted ways. Having not eaten since lunch earlier that day, we were absolutely ravenous and followed the wafting smells of a hawker center to an incredible food court called Red Garden Food Paradise.
You’ve heard the saying, “don’t grocery shop on an empty stomach?” Same principle applies for shopping at hawker stalls. Between Vietnamese at one booth, Japanese BBQ next door, pad Thai sizzling at the next, Malay rice being brought to a boil and believe it or not, Mexican featuring chips and guac, our noses went on sensory overload. At once we wanted to try everything, but our wallets laughed and said otherwise.
Eventually, we decided on a local Malay stall and tried the local pork soup dish “bak kut teh.” The name literally translated means meat bone tea and is cooked with a variety of spices to give the broth an aromatic mouthwatering smell and taste (wiping drool as I type).
For dessert, we ordered local rojak buah, recommended by the nice lady behind the counter. Rojak is a varietal fruit plate, ours had papaya, mango, pineapple, cucumber, and jicama, that is topped with a spicy palm sugar sauce and crushed peanuts. Tangy, sweet and spicy flavors exploded in our mouths as we licked every last bit of the sauce off the plate, much to the approval of our new friend.
With limited time, we wasted none of it and hit the ground running on our second day. The friendly front desk attendant had kindly brought us a local favorite breakfast – nasi lemak. Nasi in Malay means “rice” and nasi lemak is rice cooked in sweet coconut milk, topped with spicy anchovy sambal sauce and a hard-boiled egg. All this is wrapped in a triangular shaped banana leaf that conveniently unfolds into the perfect placemat!
A power-packed breakfast in our bellies, we snagged to local bus 101 to Penang National Park for a mere .50 cents! Entry into the park was free, a double score for our dwindling backpacker budget!
The park became a day-long activity of winding through the jungle, dodging vines and being sure not to trip over “sniper” tree roots. Our first rest stop was at Monkey Beach, a secluded sandy bank with a few shack restaurants, water activities, and even a pony ride option!
Our final destination was Muka Head Lighthouse – a brutal 1.5 km staircase incline away from the beach. We could hardly feel our legs as we took the final steps through the welcome gates but the trek was worth the temporary pain! The lighthouse is a whopping 277 years old and 14 meters high but is well-kept and doesn’t look a day over 50!
There are two men who guard the lighthouse against local hooligans and spend their time in the secluded area, two weeks on, two weeks off. We chatted to the best of our availability and thanked them for letting us sneak in past official visiting hours before heading back to the park entrance. Mid-descent, it a torrential downpour began (what’s new here) and we sprinted through the lush terrain, pretending to be Mowgli running from jungle predators.
You can imagine our excursions left us completely famished, yet again, and what better place to be ravenous than in the food capital of Malaysia? Gurney Drive Hawker Center is a recommended local favorite we stopped at on our way back “home” to Little India. Here we tried Muslim food, a first for us! We grabbed a plate and chose items from an eclectic buffet of miscellaneous fried items – squid, egg, vegetables, tofu, and other unidentifiables. Then, the chef aggressively cut the items up on a wood chopping block, topped them with a savory sauce and wah-lah, our first Muslim food experience!
Per usual, we “saved room for dessert” and ordered Gurney Drive’s Best Rojak – made by with love by this local angel.
Another adventure in the books, we sleepily hopped into our pod bed bunks and slept sound to dreams of our next city!
“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.”
-Ernestine Ulmer
