Vacation Leg 2 - Penang and Georgetown; Beaches and Churches

A short flight from KL landed us in Penang - the pearl of the orient. There are good reasons for Penang to be called that. It's definitely Malaysia and Asia's food capital and perhaps also the cultural capital, given Georgetown's status as a UNESCO world heritage site. As in KL, we wish we had more time here - good reasons to ask for a bigger holiday allowance. Fat chance of that happening anytime soon, though! Anyways, let me give you a quick run down of a few things that may serve you well if you come to Penang.

Accomodation
We booked our accomodation at Penang through Hostelbookers. Hostelbookers often has links with several homestay providers and we ran into Annie's homestay close to the famous Batu Ferringhi beach at Penang. The accomodation was expensive by Penang standards, but we didn't want to run around looking for places to stay given our tight itinerary. The room we got at Annie's home in Batu Ferringhi's posh residential area by the hills was nice and cosy, but I've got to warn you about a few things. Firstly, it's a homestay - so don't expect someone to clean your room everyday and take out your garbage. You've got to do that yourself. Second, she has just one bedroom with an attached bath and that didnt' do us much good since our water heater wasn't working too well. My wife's really particular about a hot shower, and she had to go to the shared bathroom to get one. So we paid for an ensuite, but really did with a shared bathroom. All that said, it's a stone's throw from the beach and in a really picturesque locale and if you can deal with Annie's talkative nature then you should be fine.

Getting around
As we do at most Asian island and beach destinations, we rented a scooter to get around Penang. A scooter in these parts is absolutely invaluable because of the flexibility it gives you. At 35 RM ($11) a day, it's a cheap alternative to rental cars and taxis. Traffic in Penang is relatively easy to negotiate, since most people follow traffic rules and are generaly disciplined drivers. Given my Indian upbringing and experience handling peak traffic in Bangalore, I had it quite easy. If you're squeamish with the idea of riding a two wheeler, then consider renting a car or better still use public transport. Unlike many other island towns, Penang has a really good bus service called RapidPenang that is fast, cheap and reliable. For example a 90 minute ride from the airport to the beach cost us just 12 RM ($3.77) apiece.

Sightseeing

Penang's definitely a sight for sore eyes with it's rich mix of natural beauty, beaches and culture. Amrita was really tired and sore on day one, while I was being my usual energetic self. So I decided to head off to Taman Negara - the Penang National Park. The park itself is a well maintained trekking site perched atop a hillock, surrounded by the sea. Some of the beaches are absolutely breathtaking. You can take yourself along the 3km hike to Monkey beach. My shoes gave way half way through, so I couldn't make it to the end of the hike and returned from the Maritime University itself. Along the same route, you'll find the Tropical Spice Gardens and the Butterfly Park. I gave those a miss too, since I've seen quite a lot of similar sights in my lifetime.

Day two, was perhaps the most enjoyable and the saddest day of our entire trip. We were at Georgetown. Georgetown is an important site of the British colonial era in Malaysia. Home to several temples, mosques, Chinese temples and colonial buildings, every corner of Georgetown is seeped in history. Amrita and I did quite well to see all of Georgetown's 36 interesting sights, but not before my trusty Olympus camera gave way and stopped functioning altogether. Task for me when I get back home - get the camera fixed! I'm not going to list all the sights down, but here are some you shouldn't miss at all:

• The Clock Tower
• Fort Cornwallis
• Penang Museum
• The Kapitan Keling Mosque

This is by no means an exhaustive list, especially if you're a photography buff. Georgetown has several great photography opportunities and if you don't want to miss any of them then charge your batteries, get yourself one of the detailed area maps and go absolutely bonkers!

Day three was a light day -- there was heaps to see, but we decided we didn't want to stress ourselves too much. The Penang hill railway was on our list of things to do, but unfortunately it was undergoing renovation. If you're there in November, you're likely to see the famous train back in action. Anyways, we headed off to the 'infamous' Kek Lok Si temple, which the temple managment keeps expanding every year. While the temple's quite nice, it paled in comparision to some of the other sights we've been witness to especially with the number of shops that dotted every corner of the establishment. It seemed more like a shopping destination than a real temple. So if you had to give this a miss, don't worry - you aren't missing much.

Food

Last and certainly not the least - food! Penang is truly the best food destination you can get to. Penang eats its food at hawker centers - a place for street food vendors to get together and sell their stuff. Consider this as the street equivalent of western food courts, only cheaper, tastier and less posh. Hawker centers serve a huge variety of food, ranging from the very popular Nasi Kandar cuisine, to Chinese, Malay, Baba-Nyonya, Indonesian and Western delicacies. While these places generally serve good food, I strongly recommend you eat at Georgetown for a wider range of food and rock bottom prices. Some of my favourite foods at Penang have been the delicious grilled fish that they serve on banana leaves, the satays, the Char Kwoay Teow (fried flat noodles), the Laksa and seafood soups, the Nasi Biryanis and Rotis, the seafood steamboat barbecues, and the different varieties of Mee (noodles). If you feel upto it though, you should try the Bak-Kut-Teh - a very tasty and spicy, soupy concoction made with (take a deep breath) the insides of a pig. No matter how repulsive that sounds, it tastes sinfully good and is well worth the experience. In fact, if you're really particular you can choose which parts of the pig make their way into your soup!

Anyways, food is Penang's crowning jewel and you just can't go wrong with it. Regardless of where you go and what you order, you're likely to get good food. All you need is a spirit of adventure to keep trying new things and you're likely to experience strokes of serendipity!

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Penang was my last stop at Malaysia. I wish I had more time to enjoy this country and travel to some of its other beautiful destinations. Perhaps I'll do that during my rejunevation leave coming up next year. Let's see -- for now, my next stop is Singapore. Keep following this space for more stories from Asia's most organised city.