Penang Island is connected to the mainland of Malaysia by a 13.5 km bridge, very impressive. We arrive at the height of Chinese New Year, and the whole town seems to be filled with Chinese festivities. This party just goes on and on, but I’m told it ends Feb 1st, just in time for us to leave.

 

We stayed in the historic part of Georgetown, the usual tourist stuff, Old Fort Cornwallis, old buildings, churches, temples and mosques.

We wander around and take in the sights, turn the corner and are quickly transported to a totally different place. Smokey streaks of incense fill the air with pungent aroma, hypnotic music pours from the shops into the streets, we find ourselves in Little India.  There is a good feeling here and it quickly becomes one of our favourite places.  Now the fact that there were street vendors selling the most amazing samosas and onion bajja for 15 cents might have helped, that and we came across the best ever Indian food restaurant, open 24 hours a day where we feasted for $6…..you just can’t go wrong with that.

Now since Penang is known to be the food capital of Malaysia we did feel we had to sample some of the local cuisine, although there were a few dishes I wasn’t about to try, most of what we tried was quite good. Somehow though, we always ended up back at the Indian place.  It was nice to have the waiter know us and remember our usual drinks.  My favourite was a lime mint drink, I’m not talking a couple of mint sprigs here but totally crushed mint and lime….so good.

To combat all the Indian food we did a fair amount of walking and hiking.  We climbed to the top of the pagoda at Kek Lok Si Temple and it was hot, really hot and I counted the calories burned with each step.

The next day we took the funicular railway up (823 m above sea level) Penang Hill but hiked the rest of the way up from there and took a long walk around.

The view was really spectacular, especially when I spied a couple of monkeys sitting in the tree tops eating!

Another day we hopped a city bus and headed for Batu Feringgi which is the best beach near Georgetown.  It was about an hour long and 85 cents to get there such a good deal, a little crowded but all part of the experience. Fun to walk along the beach again and after a relaxing foot massage we hit the hawkers for some local food and then the night market.

The day before we left, two large Chinese dragons danced to the beat of a very loud drum throughout our hotel to chase out evil spirits and bring us luck for the new year.

Chinese New Year over and on now to Vietnam for their New Years!