Penang by far was my favourite part of the Malaysia leg. I stayed in the UNESCO World Heritage Cultural centre of
Georgetown. Although a small historical/colonial centre, Penang is known for hot weather and thus my walking speed was greatly reduced. Georgetown really is an interesting place. Its colonial history along with the groups of immigrants from all over S.E. Asia has created a diverse cultural location. It's essentially a melting pot of the former immigrants and they all seem to get along so well.
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| One of the many mansions built by wealthy Chinese merchants |
One major qualm I had, was the fact that so many of little eateries serving good Penang food closes at 2 PM! Yes they have night hawker stalls, but they're not the same thing! Nonetheless, food was pretty decent in Penang. I've never really been a fan of curries and the same goes for the laksa. I think it's the smell of the fish sauce that I find unappealing. However, I did have a whole lot of other, very cheap food that suited my tastes very well - especially this duck rice we had for lunch. Yum.
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| DUCK RICE <3 |
Penang has the largest (I think percentage-wise) Chinese population in all of Malaysia. Thus, it was quite easy to get around using Mandarin. It was nice being able to identify with Chinese cultures that exist elsewhere as there were similarities as well as differences (especially in dialect). On our last day in Penang, we visited Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Penang-based house. The curator there was pretty excited about my Taiwanese heritage and spoke to great detail about his life and his accomplishments that I never knew much about (I really don't know too much about Taiwan's history).
Other Malay, Islamic, and Hindu cultures are integrated but their identities seemed to be kept separate as well. In Canada, the cultures and especially the offspring seem to integrate too much into western society and cultural identity is lost. Cultural districts are also extremely apparent in western culture. In Penang, so many places of worship are in such close proximity to one another (quite easy for sightseeing) despite there being cultural districts as well.
Our four day stay in Penang (and one day trip to Langkawi) was a great introduction into Malay culture(s). We met a lot of friendly people in the tourism service industry around town. We also had a pretty fun time shopping in Penang as Denise bought a pair of shorts for 10 RM (just a bit over 3 CAD) and I bought a pair of nice sandals for 22 RM (less than 8 CAD).
Langkawi
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| Beautiful Pantai Tanjung Rhu |
I'll speak briefly about our day trip to Langkawi as well. We initially wanted to visit the Cameron Highlands (inland, hilly, and known for their tea growing fields). However, due to the lack of timely and affordable transport to and from Cameron Highlands, this tour operator at a travel agency suggested we visit Langkawi via the 3 hour ferry. We hired a tour guide/driver to take us around Langkawi in four hours.
Langkawi was reaaaaaaaally pretty. I know there are a lot of other beautiful beaches in Thailand as well but I really enjoyed the scenic karst/limestone landscape of Langkawi. The beaches were so clean and the little island was so cute and quite well maintained. I also got a bit of a sunburn in Langkawi too... It was obvious much of the recent development on the island was due to tourism influences but there were still some local agriculture and cattle in the interior of the island. I wasn't on the island long enough to get a holistic feel of the island so I would love to go back there someday. Did I mention the island is also duty free?
I highly recommend Penang (and Langkawi) as destinations in Malaysia. I noticed a lot of travellers stop in Penang, take the ferry to Langkawi, and then move on to Thailand from Langkawi via several ferry services. Just a warning, Penang is quite hot (but thank god it wasn't humid).
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| The night hawker stalls by Gurney Drive |
