Jill & George's trip: Penang - the long way round

From Koh Lipe we were only 2 hours away by speedboat from the Malaysian island of Langkawi, which was a mere 2 hours away from Penang, our next destination. Unfortunately we had, in a moment of reckless planning a few weeks ago, booked cheap flights from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur. We obviously hadn’t banked on us changing our plans and heading south and thought we had been very well organised. So instead of a 4 hour speedboat transfer, our epic journey consisted of 3 hours on the ferry to mainland Thailand, 5 hours by minibus to Phuket where we stayed in an airport hotel. It continued with a 5am wake up call for our 8am flight to KL, followed by an hour bus transfer from the airport to the city centre, where we took a luxury bus 5 hours north up to Penang. We finally arrived in Georgetown, Penang at 8pm the day after we left! Oh well, at least we saw a lot of the countryside and we had our first hot shower in over 3 weeks en-route – pure bliss!

We had expected Penang to be an island similar to the Thai islands where we had spent our days relaxing on the beach and enjoying the laid back island lifestyle from the comfort of our hammocks. Penang was a completely different experience, more of a city than a beach resort. The capital, Georgetown, was full of skyscrapers and high rise apartment blocks with bustling Indian and Chinese districts. It was a very welcome surprise and we relished the idea of wandering round the narrow streets of little India and Chinatown, sampling the famous cuisine and browsing the many local shops.

We spent the night in one of the more ‘rustic’ hotels – a cockroach the size of an i-phone welcomed us back to our room after dinner to be met with my screams and the sole of George’s size 12. We escaped early the next morning and moved to a nicer place where strangely they had trouble spelling George’s name – yes we were staying in Georgetown – and set out to explore the city, a cultural melting pot of English, Dutch, Indian and Chinese, which has resulted in beautiful buildings, delicious food and very interesting and friendly locals. Preparations were being made for Chinese New Year and red lanterns filled the shops and could be seen strung up in the streets all over Chinatown. The city really came to life in the evening and we found ourselves in what was obviously a local favourite – a large outdoor food court where stalls compete for custom for their culinary treats (including my personal favourite frog porridge – no I couldn’t bring myself to try it) and drinks are delivered to plastic tables arranged around a stage in the centre. To my delight the evening’s entertainment was ballroom dancing and the locals paired up and began their well-practised dance routines to the live renditions of Moon River and other classics!

We decided to head to the beach resort of Batu Ferrenghi to celebrate my birthday and jumped on the local bus to take us round the island. The town was more English seaside than tropical paradise, but undeterred, we decided to treat ourselves with birthday money from Mum and Dad (thanks!) and checked into a swanky 5* hotel. We had a wonderfully relaxing couple of days spent chilling by the pool, checking out the hotel gym and gorging ourselves stupid on the amazing buffet breakfasts (hence the gym visits)! I was very touched to discover a birthday cake had been delivered to our room and we enjoyed it along with a lovely cold glass of white wine during ecstatic hour (it’s not just happy in Penang) which was a real birthday treat after living within a tight no-wine-allowed budget for months!

As we left Penang and headed south back to Kuala Lumpur, we were excited to see what else Malaysia had to offer. It’s a country which although geographically very close to Thailand, seems a million miles away with a distinct lack of tour agents and backpacker bars, sights which you have to actively seek out rather than have them thrust at you and taxi drivers who will happily tell you which bus to take rather than try to get that extra fare - how refreshing!