Have you ever arrived in a place and fallen in love with it instantly? That is how we feel about Penang, Malaysia after spending just a few hours there. The British settled in Penang, and you can still notice their influence today. Georgetown is the capital of Penang; it was named after the British King George III.
Our Airbnb apartment was located on the 14th floor of The Landmark building in the Georgetown area of Penang. This part of Penang is part of an island and is sometimes called the Silicon Valley of the East. It is a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. In our building, we had people from France, India, China, Russia, and other counties. We stayed in a cozy studio apartment. The Landmark had amazing amenities like a Playground and a giant pool that the kids loved. There was also a dessert/convenience store in the building that we went to almost every day. We tried all kinds of crazy new drinks from there.
From our balcony, you could see the ocean to the east and mountains to the west. The area was mostly clean, modern, had beautiful architecture both old and new, and most people spoke English, which made it easier to navigate than other parts of Asia.
Penang Island is diverse. It is roughly 50% population of Chinese or people of Chinese descent, 32% Maylay, and about 9% Indian. There are roughly 6% expatriates, many in Georgetown. Malaysia has been running a Second Home Program, encouraging foreigners to come, spend, and live in Malaysia. Islam is the official religion and, five times a day, you could hear calls and chanting from different areas in the city, calling people to prayer. It was kind of a surreal experience that we welcomed and looked forward to hearing after a while. There were also Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other religions prevalent in the city.
Food, Food, And More Food
Malaysia has a conglomerate of amazing food from all around Asia. Precinct 10, an area of restaurants near our building, we had the most incredible Korean bbq where they cooked chicken, pork, and beef at our table. Another night we went to the Japanese restaurant next to the Korean bbq joint and ate ramen, udon noodle soup, and teriyaki chicken. Thanks to an episode of Cheif David Changs Ugly Delicious, we realized there was a Din Tai Fung located right down the street at Gurney Plaza. Din Tai Fung is world-renowned for its Chinese Xiao Long Bao, dumplings filled with soup. Everything we ordered there was phenomenal, including the mouthwateringly delicious Xiao Long Bao. At all three restaurants, the food completely covered our tables, but each meal cost less than $35. Most of the other restaurants we ate at did not cost more than $15 for our whole family.
We even went to a place called the Wonderfood Museum. They had all sorts of giant rubber food items to pose with as well as lots of information on the history of some of the local foods. It was a nice place to kill some time at but wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to see.
Gurney Drive Hawker Centre
Speaking of food, hawker centers are inexpensive open-air public food markets. They consist of many stalls selling all sorts of dishes. Penang is famous for its great street food. We decided to check out the Gurney Drive Hawker Centre near our place. Our favorite item was the chicken and beef satay. The cook fanned the flames in front of us as he cooked. We also tried a few noodle dishes and even convinced Cooper to eat an anchovy. He thought it was funny to eat a fish head and thought they tasted like crunchy chips. You gotta love Cooper, he will try anything once and usually like it!
Gurney Plaza
Gurney Plaza is an upscale shopping area in Penang. The lowest level has restaurants, food stalls, and a grocery store. The main, central area was decorated for the Chinese New Year. Many people took photos and some paid to wear traditional Chinese outfits for their photoshoots. Seven floors of retail shops fill most of the mall, including the boy’s favorite ToysRUs. They each picked out a toy with the money they got in their red envelopes for Chinese New Year. On the 7th floor of the mall, is a movie theater. We went there to see Dr. Doolittle, with Robert Downy Junior.
Penang Street Art
Tourists can locate different murals by using a numbered map, like a scavenger hunt. We checked out several of the stops including some of the more popular ones by a famous Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic. Some of our favorites were Children on Bicycle, I Want Bao, and Boy on Motorcycle. The murals are interactive, and allow the viewer to be a part of the scene. People flock and gather around each site to take photos and then continue to wander through Old Town Penang. The paint colors were not as vibrant as the city streets of Valparaiso, Chile, but the scenes were very detailed and more realistic.
Clan Jetties
Several Chinese clans built jetties or floating villages when they immigrated to Penang. The clans did not always get along and were sometimes hostile towards each other. We walked down two of the jetties. The first one was the Lim Jetty which was completely residential, and the more famous Chew Jetty which had lots of souvenir shops as well as residences.
Penang Hill
You can take a funicular way up to the top of Penang Hill. The funicular sits upon the steepest tunnel track in the world. Once at the top you can see one of the most breathtaking views in the whole world. The viewpoint looks down out over dense rainforest, Penang City, and then finally out into the ocean. Penang has become a popular cruise ship port. We decided if you only had one day in Penang on your cruise, this is where you should go.
The Habitat Penang Hill is just a short walk from the top of the funicular and has an additional cost. Within The Habitat lies a portion of the spectacular 130 million-year-old Malaysian rainforest. The rainforest is host to all sorts of different flora and fauna including snakes, monkeys frogs, all sorts of beautiful flowers, ferns, and giant trees. The sounds of the rainforest come alive as you hike along the paths and over the giant suspension bridge that leads to the Curtis Crest Treetop Walk. The treetop walk is a giant oval catwalk that is several stories tall and truly is at the top of the tree line. It is the highest point in Penang and offers incredible 360-degree views as far as you can see.
On our hike back to the funicular we came across several Dusky Leaf monkeys playing in the trees. It was crazy to watch them swing from branch to branch and make some insane jumps from tree to tree. The monkeys were super friendly and we were able to get extremely close to photograph them.
Chinese New Year
Chinese new year celebrates the beginning of the lunar calendar, 2020 is the year of the rat. There are 12 different animals that rotate each year. Around Penang, red Chinese lanterns, lights, and other decorations covered many buildings and streets. Fireworks and firecrackers ring out for hours in the evenings to celebrate the new year. A local temple, Kek Lok Si was lit up in thousands of led lights for the occasion. We went to see it, and although the temple was closed, we enjoyed the view at a distance. Before we left the area, we decided to try out some new foods in the local market. The market was a buzz for the new year which made it fun. We ended up getting some Longan (a new fruit to us) and pink huat kueh (a sponge cake-like dessert).
There is a tradition of giving kids a red envelope with lucky money inside. As mentioned earlier, we gave each of our boys some money and took them to Toys R Us at the Gurney Plaza mall to buy something small. Cooper picked out a Lego plane and Mason went with a tube of small plastic ocean animals.
Coronavirus
Midway through our time in Penang, a news story broke. Wuhan Virus, otherwise known as coronavirus or 2019-nCoV, a highly contagious, incurable illness started spreading. It has been all over the news, and facts and figures are changing every day, but thousands of people are becoming infected and surly hundreds will die. They have quarantined off Wuhan (city of 11 million) and a few other provinces around central China. Airports, bus lines, and cruise lines are temperature screening and denying travel if passengers have fevers. We do not yet know how this will affect our travel in Asia, but we are closely monitoring the situation.
Although much is still unknown about the disease, we decided to take extra precautions because Chelsea is on some immunosuppressant medication and has asthma and lung nodules from Rheumatoid Arthritis. Respiratory infections, especially one this dangerous, must be taken seriously. Chelsea went out and bought four 10-packs of face masks (two packs for children and two packs for adults), more hand soap, and bottles of antibiotic hand sanitizer. Now, all the pharmacies are all sold out of the masks. We were lucky that we got some while they were still in stock. When the grandmas come back to see us in Singapore in a couple of weeks, they plan on bringing more heavy-duty masks. For now, we will wear them when we are in large crowds of people. We are praying for all of those in China and around the world that have been infected with this virus.
Sometimes it seems like the news is following us. Protests in Chile, a volcano eruption in New Zealand, fires in Australia, and now Coronavirus in Asia. The media often portrays this world as a horrible, dangerous place, but we know that there is so much more than what makes the news headlines and have been fortunate to see so many wonderful places along the road.