Georgetown on Penang

Malaysia

April 2007

OK, so by now, you all know we are back in the UK, but we can’t leave our beloved BLOG unfinished, so here are our last few instalments.

It seems like a million years ago already, but our next destination was Georgetown, the Capital of Penang. Penang, also known as The Pearl of the Orient, is a smallish island off the top West coast of Malaysia. Georgetown is a charming port city where East meets West and you can indulge in rich cultures, mouth watering cuisine and many heritage buildings.

We arrived with Helena but she soon headed off to stay with her friend Philip, who is living here teaching English. Philip was given the task of showing us around for a few days and on the first evening we visited the pretty botanical gardens. An oasis of peace except for the hundred or so fanatical joggers and of course the rather scary Rhesus monkeys that run wild. These monkeys are OK at a distance but if you have food or are sampling the fruit smoothies from the café, you are in danger of being attacked. Nice monkey! After that we headed for a very cheap Indian dinner and then on to a coast side bar, for plenty of Tiger beers.

Next day we were told to meet Helena at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion at 11am. So we left the hotel at 10:55am and quickly asked a taxi driver to drop us there. He looked confused, scratched his head a lot, and judging by the way he squinted at our map his reading glasses were at home. Not put off we jumped in and he sped off. He whizzed around the one way, zipped up a side road, skidded through some width restrictions and after more head scratching and a few left and rights he screeched to a halt, pointed to a temple and demanded his fare. We obliged and disembarked his cab.

By now it was 11am and we were supposed to be there for the tour, but comparing the temple with the photo we had, there was no way it was the same place. We asked a local guy where it was and he pointed up the road, and said go first left all the way to the end and left again. We did so and arrived at the mansion a little flustered just after ten past. As we entered the mansion we spotted our hotel and the taxi rank. We almost died when we realised it was next door to this mansion and we could have walk here in under one minute, from our hotel. What a joke!

The mansion itself is a stately Chinese dwelling with 18th and 19th century Chinese architecture. In a word, stunning! After that Philip arrived and took us on a whistle-stop tour of China Town, Little India and more amazing temples, although I have to say…. you can only show me so many temples before I start to lose the will to live. It was very hot and muggy with the occasional downpour, so that afternoon we made use of the hotel pool and gym.

Next day was my birthday and Sarah surprised me by presenting me with several cards from my family and friends back home. Very unexpected and very nice. That evening we went for dinner in the hotels revolving restaurant. We ate from the extensive buffet before heading out for late drinks with Helena and Philip at the local English bar. After that, just the two of us hung around the hotel bar to watch the band play from the Philippines, before we crawled in to bed around 3am.

Helena left for the UK the day after so we were alone again. Fatigued with the heat we did very little the next two days before flying on to Phuket in Thailand. Sorry that was a dull update but so was Georgetown to be honest!