Georgetown

8 September 2024

Georgetown is the capital of Penang, Malaysia, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was established in 1786 as a British trading post. The city is famous for its food scene. Georgetown’s streets are a multicultural mix of restaurants, markets, and temples. We only spent 24 hours exploring the city, but I have fond memories of this special place because we packed so much into the short amount of time we had.

Día 1

Little India
Fort Cornwallis
Penang Hill
Food Crawl

As always, I booked our bus tickets on 12Go ahead of time. We departed from the Cameron Highlands at 8:00 am via bus to start our 5.5 hour journey. I didn’t sleep on the bus, but the journey went by fairly fast. Especially when we got out of the highlands and left the windy roads behind.

We arrived in Penang at 1:15 pm. We called a Grab to take us to our hotel in Georgetown and checked in. After 15-20 minutes we called another Grab to take us into town. Our hotel was located 20-30 minutes outside of the action, depending on traffic.

Little India

We went straight to Little India. We’re both fiends for curry. Within 60 seconds, we had bought a samosa apiece which were very good. We looked at the michelin guide and found a Malay restaurant that looked good. We shared a version of Nasi Lemak that was pretty good. The dish came with more things on the plate than I had encountered previously. If you’re keeping track of the score at home, this is the third time I ordered this same dish that I didn’t love. I’m not sure what came over me.

We later went to an Indian place where we shared tandoori chicken and garlic naan. The garlic naan was insanely good.

Fort Cornwallis

Fort Cornwallis is the largest and oldest surviving fort in Malaysia. Built by the British East India Company in the late 18th century, the fort was intended to defend the island but never saw battle. When we visited, there was an event taking place on the fort grounds. There were vendors selling all kinds of things. It usually costs RM20 to get into the fort, but because of the event, there was no entrance fee the day we visited.

Penang Hill

Penang Hill is the highest point on Penang Island, it affords panoramic views of Georgetown and the surrounding landscape. It is accessible via the Penang Hill Railway o hiking trails.

We took a Grab to the base of Penang Hill and bought express passes for the funicular. We only had about 24 hours in Georgetown and wanted to make the most of it. They told us it would be over an hour wait for the normal pass. We bit the bullet and paid 80RM each to ride the funicular up the hill right away.

At the top, there are multiple lookout points. There is one right at the station that is the largest and most popular. We took in the view, then began wandering around to see what else was up there. Unlike most other viewpoints at this altitude, there were some roads, restaurants, houses, and attractions built on top of the hill. Penang Hill was originally a colonial retreat, the historic Bellevue Hotel stands as a testament to that era.

We walked along a paved road towards a section of the hill I had seen online. The road turned into a boardwalk which led to a place called The Habitat. The Habitat is a rainforest discovery park winding along one side of the hill. It has a canopy walkway, treetop observation deck, and nature trails. It cost 60RM/pax, which is crazy. But, I had heard online that it was worth it, so we went for it. It was cool!

Our first encounter was with a band of macaques (aka trash monkeys). Luckily, we spotted cooler monkeys further along the trail. The monkeys were a species called Dusky Langur. They have dark fur besides the white fur around their eyes and mouth. They got pretty close to us while foraging for food in the canopy. We didn’t see any other wildlife, but the walk was nice. There were some pretty trees and a few decent viewpoints, so we were never bored.

We got halfway through, and climbed up to a high, circular suspension bridge. In other words, it’s not a bridge that leads anywhere. It was built as a place to get a view of the forested mountain surrounding The Habitat. We could see clouds moving in fast. We watched them approach until heavy rain began to fall. We ran for cover and waited out the rain for around 20 min in a covered area near the suspension bridge. We then did the rest of the walk without stopping until we reached the end. We had to wait for an employee to get there. When they did, they took us back to the start in a golf cart. From there, we rode the funicular back down the hill.

Food Crawl

From the bottom of Penang Hill, we took a Grab to a street market to hunt down more good food. The first thing we decided to try was a bowl of noodles sold from a little cart on the street. They were surprisingly good!

We referenced the michelin guide constantly in Georgetown. Possibly because we had good luck using it in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, and because there were so many acclaimed food spots to choose from. We walked to a michelin guide restaurant to try more home made noodles. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t as good as the street cart. It was cool to watch a video of how they make the noodles in house by using a thick bamboo pole to smash the dough.

We went to another market and got some dessert which was mid. We ended our food crawl with Malaysia’s specialty: more Indian food. It was the kind of place where they already had everything prepared and you point to what you want and then they tell you the price. It was SO good. We went there because it was close to our hotel and I am so glad we stopped.

Next time

On our next adventure, we return to Thailand, this time in the south, to see if we can beat the rain.