Penang

Visiting Georgetown : Penang

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I first came to Penang with my sister, her husband at the time who worked in KL and Clare my beautiful niece. She was about 1 at the time. She’s now 46!

So it was ages ago.

1979. Penang with Catherine and Clare

Needless to say Georgetown has changed. It’s big and spread out to an area called Gurney where there are big apartment blocks. Huge glossy shopping plazas and no one swimming in the oceans. There are signs for stinging jellyfish.

We walked straight to the Upside Down Museum just as the storm hit.

Perfect timing for this quirky museum. You step into rooms that are perfectly staged with everything upside down. Each room has an attendant who positions you and then takes photos on your own camera.

It’s an upside world.

We spent an hour there. It cost about 100ringgit. about $30

Money well spent. When we came out with big smiles on our faces the storm had passed and we started wandering the surrounding street toward the jetty area.

Some cool street art in the Beach Rd area.

We stopped for a delicious gelato and found the Armenian area. Known for its great little shops and interested side streets. I bought a little umbrella and another fan.

We slowly wound our way towards Chew Jetty.

Past the Fire station.

We walked out along one jetty area. Such an interesting place to live. It was quiet and clean with water lapping against the pylons.

Caught a local napping.

Then onto Chew Jetty. People live and run little businesses from their front terrace. You just want to support them all. The jetty is open all day to visitors who wander up and Fien past true little terrace houses. So kind of them to share their lives with us tourists.

Crossing back into the myriad of streets we walked and walked. Pete got hungry and stopped for a few samosas at a stall in little India.

Onto the Red Garden food court. I must say our 5 year old is a trooper. We walked 11,000 steps this afternoon and he didn’t complain. He just chatters away asking questions about what he’s seeing.

Huge array of food stalls. Our little seafood monster had grilled prawn, octopus and crab. I forgot to mention he demolished a stingray last night!

Octopus and prawn
Stingray

Lazy Days by the Pool in Penang

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Oh the deck chair is inviting: dips in the pool, reading my book, napping. All sounds delicious. Except we have an active 5 year old so in between trying for do those things you do at a resort, I am sliding down slippery slides, swimming with Ollie, playing pool ( billards) , playing eye spy and answering multiple questions.

I wouldn’t change it. Except maybe to have Leo and Alby here to play with Ollie.

We had pizza and salad by the pool.

Exploring along the coasts we found the next door resort had a chess board.

The afternoon was repeating the morning until back to the room for a rest while it was raining.

The rain stopped and it felt fresh outside so we left the hotel in search of the food markets.

Walking the streets here takes me back to all visits to Asian resort areas. Footpaths up and down. Cycles slipping along, street stall vendors smiling and encouraging us to buy. But we were on a food mission and we found it. A big area with food stalls all around the outside. Plastic chairs and metal tables , tvs on with sport playing. Groups and families all sitting eating their selected dishes.

From fresh grilled fish, all other types of seafood, to noodle dishes, nasi goreng, char kway teow. Lots of choice. And inexpensive. Dishes were around 10 Malaysian ringgit up to 40ringgit for a filled fish with lime hunger sauce. Just delicious. Australian dollars that’s around 4$ up to $15 for a whole fish.

Ollie had bbq prawns, I had the fish and stir fried veg and Pete had won-ton noodles.

We walked back via the market stalls and I got a bag for beach things. Ollie who is sports mad got an Argentina soccer outfit. He wants to be like Messi!

A lovely easy night.

Penang. Old World Malaysia.

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Outside our hotel

Arriving in Penang is a huge contrast to Singapore Our Air Asia out of Terminal 4 at Changi was great.

The terminal is amazing. Modern, state of the art and all ran on time.

I had the best coffee experience at a beautiful coffee house.

Bacha coffee

Choosing from the extensive coffee list was difficult. So many varieties. The white gloved man described the blends and i selected. It doesn’t come with milk but a small pot of cream. See the picture. As well as the coffee in a beautiful cup nestled in a tray there was a crystallised sugar stick to stir the coffee. – and …..you get a mini pastry of the day.

It was all delicious-especially after the coffee machine at Legoland. all for $8 Singapore.

There was a giant slide to get to a lower level in the airport where a huge red playground waited for the young at heart to have a play.

There was a ‘fake’ street of painted houses and speciality shops.

The best was the woman’s toilets. Heated, self cleaning seats. Art works huge mirrors , bright and clean and inviting. Amazing!

The woman’s toilets. Outstanding.

Arriving in Penang was a let down. An old airport and the longest customs queue. We took an hour to clear customs. Into a taxi to the hotel took another hour.

We were ready for a swim. things were looking up.

Our hotel. The kid friendly Shangri La

Lots of families. Mostly covered from head to toe in black. The beautiful friendly Muslim women look so hot until they get into the water in the fully covered black swim wear. Again I felt underdressed.

There are 5 pools and several slides which Ollie has been up and down hundreds of times.

The lawn area where Peter and I relaxed as Ollie went in the slides.

Our rooms are connecting which is perfect. Refreshed from the swim we went in search of food. Ollie wanted grilled prawns so we headed to the night food markets and found great food. So cheap. Prawns, a beautiful fish with ginger sauce for me. A noodle dish for Pete. A beer each. We didn’t spend more than $50 and it was great.

Food markets with our hungry boys.

The next few days we’ll be relaxing and eating. Follow us…….