Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

Hello Family and Friends,

We are currently on a bus heading to Melaka (also Malacca), a city in the southern part of Malaysia. We spent the last six nights in Georgetown, which is located on the island of Penang up north. When we first arrived, we weren't quite sure what to expect. The island was added to our itinerary last minute as we needed somewhere to go before making our way to Singapore. Fortunately, our new friends Rachel and Liz (see Cameron Highlands post) were also headed in the same direction. We were excited to get to spend more time with them since we had so much fun trekking together in the jungle. Thanks you guys for all of the great times we shared in Malaysia.

Penang ended up being a welcome surprise for us. The island is fairly small with most things to do in walking distance, but there are things to see and eat around every corner. The hawker food offered us plenty of options when it came to our culinary odyssey. We were able to fill our five full days and never ran out of things to do. We even found a snack place in Georgetown that was absolutely free with no catch... NO CATCH. The owner set the place up because he wanted to do good for his community. It was a pretty amazing, thought provoking experience. Can you imagine if the whole world showed this amount of selflessness? They welcomed everyone and there really was no catch. Awesome




Please enjoy the following images from our trip

Day 1- heritage walk around the city. Georgetown has many beautiful buildings, temples, mosques etc. On this day we tried to see as many as we could. Street art is also very big. There are several murals located throughout the area and we went on a mission to find each one.

We thought it would be fun to have you try to locate them throughout this post. The first is below. Where are the other six?




Sites from our walking tour



















(Not one of the murals)





The jetty- this place was beautiful. It's a pier that's full of little houses and shops built right on top of the water. We went twice to soak in the peace













The doorways of Georgetown
















Metal artwork for the different streets of the city










Fort Cornwallis looking out










Mila getting blasted as per tradition




Hawker food everywhere. Full meals from $1-$2




This was $2 and delicious. Seafood and vegetables




Day 2

Wat Chayamangkalaram (the temple of the reclining Buddha)




Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple- we ran into Rachel and Liz by luck so we journeyed together for the remainder of the day. It is very humid in most of Malaysia which is why we are a sweaty mess (and by we I mean Scott)










By May 2013, between the four of us, we will have seen much of North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Five out of seven ain't bad. Here is us around the world




Mila trying to throw a coin in the healthiness bucket. Liz went for happiness and I tried for the happy marriage bucket. We all missed but were very close so I'm pretty sure we will all be healthy and happy




After the Buddhist temples, we walked up over 500 stairs to a large Hindu Temple, Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Kovil, which is currently under construction. It is still off the tourist path at this point










Rachel and Liz enjoying the view from the top







On the way down from the temple, we saw this beautiful peacock spreading its feathers in an attempt to mate with his lover. It was amazing until we had to witness the mating. We also have a picture of that but it was pretty violent and not blog eligible




We later took a trip to the botanical gardens and so did these monkeys







Dinner and kopi ice in a bag




Roti with kaya




Day 3- LONG walking day. We walked up a steep 5 KM road to Penang Hill, then went down the same road until we found a bus. We then walked around the largest temple in Southeast Asia called Kek Lok Si temple. It was a great day and very tiring

A monkey with child




On the way up




The thinking chair




A view from the top







At Kek Lok Si temple













We took a funicular to the incredible bronze statue at the top




We also saw some pretty interesting/ scary creatures during this day. The highlight was this massive lizard, but we also saw large spiders and a centipede










This one may or may not be poisonous




On our last day, we went to snake temple (the temple of Azure Cloud). We were told it was not worth the one hour round trip bus ride, but chose to go anyway. Snake temple, as legend has it, is a temple that snakes inhabited many years ago. The monks let the snakes stay in the temple. The incense is said to calm the poisonous pit vipers. Nobody has ever been bitten by a snake in the temple. We did not see a snake move an inch the whole time we were there. Not sure they were alive, but it was an ok way to kill a few hours.

Snake temple







Suspiciously motionless/ possibly high on incense




Melaka will be our last destination in Malaysia before moving on to Singapore and then Indonesia for Christmas and New Years. Have a nice weekend everybody. We will continue to enjoy our nice long weekend. See you next time from Melaka!

-Mila and Scott




- Posted around the world from our iPad

Location:Malacca,Malaysia