Truly Asia - Malaysia

Penang

After a painless flight from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh, then onto the Malaysian island of Penang, we arrived in the island’s capital, George Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 
After going cheap on the bus which took about an hour from the airport, (2.70 Ringgits each I think, so about 50p) and settling into our hotel, we ventured out for a walk and a bite to eat. We knew that George Town was a mix of different cultures, ethnicities and religions so we headed out in search of Little India, where as you might guess, there is a large Indian community.

 

Nowhere near as busy as ANYWHERE in India, Little India took us straight back to our first 2 months of travelling, to incomparable, incredible India. Now, I love the country, its colour, its sights and smells (well, some of them), its food, its history, its people and its beliefs. Baby D however, struggled a bit when we were there, particularly with the hygiene. The passage of time does funny things to a man though, and there is a reason for the phrase ‘rose-tinted spectacles’. The smell and sights of Little India in George Town couldn’t begin to match the real deal, but for us (yes even Baby D), it was a nostalgic trip down memory lane, reminding us of where out travels began. We walked round the streets of Little India savouring the fragrance of incense, jasmine, tea and spice, the Hindu temple, the sari shops and most importantly the food! Our first proper curry in months, heaven. 

Small Hindu Temple

The next day we hired a scooter and went in search of Penang Hill’s funicular railway, which goes about a kilometre above sea level. It was built in the early 1900s for the British who sought respite from the heat in the cooler, higher ground. It was revamped in the past few years though because of technical glitches and to upgrade it. We were guided by the infallible Google maps and ended up somewhere completely different. We drove higher and higher up the side of a steep hill where we saw a number of Buddhist and Chinese temples. Under the impression that we were at Penang Hill, we reckoned that the start of the funicular must be at the bottom of the hill…so down we drove. After walking past several tourist shops, we asked directions to the train and we ended up at an elevator which, in fairness, did go quite far up the hill and had fairly decent views over the island, but it wasn’t Penang Hill funicular. It was a lift with a glass wall. 

Lift to Kek Lok Si Temple

It was actually Kek Lok Si Temple we’d stumbled upon. Construction started in the late 1800s and finished in the 1930s because of the different temples and facets to the site. The elevator up to the top and back was 6 Ringgit (about £1.20) and took a couple of minutes. At the top was a lovely, colourful temple with views over Penang and next to it was a huge statue of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy.

Goddess of Mercy

On a mission to find Penang Hill, we soon set off. After 10 minutes, we found it and wondered how the heck we’d missed it in the first place. It’s fairly obvious. The funicular was much more impressive than the lift up the hill at Kek Lok Si. It was much higher, allowing much better views and it held a far greater number of passengers, around 100. 

At the top, the views were spectacular, and there were binoculars to zoom in for a closer look. Alongside a mosque, there was a Hindu temple, and - this is where it gets a bit weird - an owl museum, an earthquake simulator and a man dressed as a clown. Random. It’s like they needed to fill up this big space at the top and got Alan Partridge in as a consultant.

View over Penang

Back down we went, and to get our money’s worth from the scooter, we headed over to the Snake Temple which is a lot further south of the island, near the airport. The Snake Temple does actually have snakes in it and as we had missed out on going to any in India, we definitely wanted to see this one. The temple was free to get into and there were no snakes slithering around in the main temple, but if you walk through, there are numerous venomous vipers coiled round man-made bamboo trees and you can get your pic taken holding a python and with a viper round your head. I did it, Baby D was ‘naaah, I’m alright thanks’…

Vipers

Outside, there was a sectioned off area for viper breeding and there were more snakes in the fruit tree branches. The toilet was nearby and I risked it, the whole time nervous that one might jump up and bite me on the arse. Next to the temple was a snake zoo, with several different snakes from all around the world in tanks. We had a guide round who told us stories about the snakes and facts about what they eat and how poisonous they are. We saw 3 huge albino pythons and a monster 8m python which wasn’t even in a cage. The guide told us how the biggest python was wild, caught in the Malaysian jungle. The albino ones were raised in captivity so were reasonably tame, but the big daddio was still wild and had almost killed the guide a few days after catching him. 

Albino python

The temple is actually called the Temple of the Azure Cloud and was built in memory of a revered Buddhist monk, Chor Soo Kong. After its construction, the snakes are said to have gone there of their own accord and stayed there.

Char Koay Teow

Later on we met up with some fellow travellers, the Travelling Hobbits, whom we’d met in Pushkar in India, then again in Vientiane, Laos. We had a couple of drinks then wandered round looking for somewhere to eat. We stumbled across a huge food court called the Red Café. In the middle were loads of tables and chairs and around the outside was food stall after food stall after food stall of any cuisine you could possibly imagine. We settled on spring rolls, the typical Malaysian dish of Char Koay Teow (flat rice noodles stir-fried with chives, prawns, clams, egg, sausage slices and pork fat croutons), dumplings, roast duck, and deep-fried squid (all really healthy I’m sure…) The Hobbits pushed the boat out with frog porridge among other delectable dishes. It was not the nicest thing I’ve ever tried, gotta admit. On the way back to the hotel we stopped to check out the street art which George Town is famous for, and we found several wrought iron stories that tell a tale of the street on which they’re found.

George Town street art

The next day we were up late after staying out till 2am, and we took the scooter over to Batu Ferringhi to the beach. This is about 15km or so from George Town and most of the beach was deserted except for a few guys on jet skis.  We headed back to the city to take a walk around the town to properly explore in daylight and to see some of the beautiful heritage colonial buildings for which the city attained UNESCO status in 2008, the street art of Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic and the temples, churches and mosques, food, cultures and traditions of all the different groups living harmoniously next to one another. 

Batu Ferringhi

Street food prep

We ate Penang’s renowned street food for less than £2 that night, wanton noodles, and laksa, with spring rolls, and after a couple of beers on the lively Love Lane, we hit the hay.

George Town street art

The Hobbits had told us how they had come across a free walking tour run by the local tourist office, so at 10am the next day we strolled up there to join it. We were lucky, as we had a flight out of Penang that afternoon to go to neighbouring island, Langkawi, and when we got to the tourist office we found that the tour was only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. (It was now Saturday). The tour took us round the city, and we learned about some of the history of the British colonialism, the differing religions and how they lived peacefully side by side, (in fact there is a road in George Town dubbed Street of Harmony because it has an Anglican church, a mosque, Chinese temples and Hindu temples on it), the famous street art and the arguably even more famous street food. 

Chinese Temple

Penang was definitely a grower, I loved it by the time we left and 3 days wasn’t long enough. On to Langkawi.

Langkawi

 Langkawi is only a short 35 minute flight from Penang and if you plan it right, the cost of the flight can be much the same as the cost of the ferry which takes almost 3 hours (about £12 each).

Langkawi is a big (duty-free) island, much of it covered by jungle, and is about 30km off the mainland to the west. We headed straight for Pantai Cenang, a lively stretch of beach with numerous shops, bars and restaurants. After traipsing through building sites looking for accommodation, we found something reasonable for an inflated price and vowed to move to a different part of the island the next day. We went down to the packed beach for some dinner and drinks and watched a stunning sunset, paying well over the odds for the mediocre pizza and beer. 

Sunset over Pantai Cenang

The next day we took a taxi up to the north of the island to Air (Ayer) Hangat where the best beach, Tanjung Rhu, can be found. The area is very remote and basic, so we had to hire a scooter from our accommodation to be able to get anywhere. There are only a couple of big resorts in the area, and one or two guesthouses, but for the traveller on a budget, there is really only the Tanjung Puteri Motel where we stayed.

Set in gorgeous, quiet surroundings, metres from the sea, the motel was a relaxing retreat for a few days. It had shared kitchen facilities so we prepared our own food most of the time, saving us a bit of cash. The first day, we found a fish and chip shop nearby but the food was average, overpriced and took ages to arrive. If there had been any other restaurants nearby it would be shown up as being pretty crap, but apart from the local roadside eateries, it was the only ‘proper’ restaurant around.

Raincoat on the beach...

The weather during our 3 days in Air Hangat was generally terrible – rain and thunder most of the  time, so we did what we could, including visiting the beautiful Tanjung Rhu beach, a nearby beach we thought was Tanjung Rhu but the locals told us was actually called Nam beach, and Black Sand beach which was amazing and actually had black sand.  According to local legend, the black sand came from a war between the Land Kingdom and the Underwater Kingdom. A mermaid princess fell in love with a prince from the Land Kingdom and they ran away together. This sparked a war and a wise man from the Land Kingdom (which had far fewer troops) told the Land people to set fire to the beach. The Underwater Kingdom troops thought the fire was from the torches of the Land Kingdom’s army and they fled, thinking there were thousands of troops on the beach. The wood they burned on the beach left scorch marks which made the beach black. 

Black Sand beach

The more naïve of you may believe that the minerals tourmaline and ilmenite found in the local granite turned the sand black.

Seven Wells Waterfall

We went to Ayer Hangat Spa Village which is the site of a number of hot salt water springs. Malaysia is one of only 4 countries in the world (allegedly) that has hot salt water springs. We dipped our feet in the water and were joined by a Malaysian family that shared their nuts with us, but not their beer sadly. We then went on a bit further to hike up the 14 tier Durian Perangin Waterfall.

The next day we went to the Seven Wells Waterfall (Telah Tujuh), so called for its 7 pools, but it was torrential rain by the time we got there, which was fine for splashing around in the waterfall but not so good for the cable car trip next to it, which we had to give a miss. There were other things to do in the area, and we considered doing the mangrove boat ride to the bat cave and the crocodile cave, but at 180 Ringgits for a boat (about £36) and with the weather not great, we skipped it. Sorry to leave Langkawi, we couldn't make the most of it because of the weather, and typical, the sun came out on the day we left.

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