Final day in Malaysia

Our last full day in Malaysia we get a wake up call from the taxi driver that we booked because he just wanted to make sure that we were still on for heading over to Penang hill and then hiring him out to drive us around the island for a few hours.

We get up and enjoy a quick breakfast before meeting our driver who has already made sure to have some tickets for the funicular at Penang Hill purchased. We get there just before 11:00 and within 10 minutes we are in the car taking the 30 minute ride up to the top of the hill.

It's a slow ride, but still interesting and at the top you get some great views of the island.
They had some of the older cars on display - they don't look like they would hold quite as many people as the new ones do, but the open are would be a lot nicer. The cars that they jam you into now are hot and stuffy, not something you would want to do in the summer months.

From there we had our taxi driver take us down to the south side of the island, this area is a lot of small fishing villages and supposedly some really good food.


Of course by we get there shortly after 14:00 all of the food places are closed up until dinner. But it was still beautiful to see, a lot of the area is being built up as they are expecting to build a new bridge to the mainland and everyone is expecting big things for this area.

From the fishing villages we headed back to Georgetown, paid our driver and then spent the rest of the day just relaxing knowing that our holiday was coming to an end the next day and we'd be back into the cold and work of Xiamen.

Even more of Georgetown, Penang...

Back to talking about our trip to Malaysia over the Chinese New Year's holiday, and our time in Georgetown.

We were up bright and early, around 10:00, so that we could be sure to enjoy breakfast and still make it over to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (their official site seems to load slow - if you care try the Wikipedia site) in time for their 11:00 tour. It's an great place brimming with all sorts of old artifacts and the tour explains how the whole place was designed for optimum feng shui.
The only downside to visiting this place is that they do not allow photographs inside, so we can't share with you what we saw - we do recommend taking the tour or even staying at the hotel they have there - it does seem that amazing.

After that hour plus tour we stopped at a local English pub for a pint and some snacks and then off to the Protestant cemetery. This old cemetery was used from 1798 - 1892 and is the burial site of Francis Light, the founder of Georgetown and Penang.

From there we hopped in a taxi to head over to Penang Hill so that we could take the funicular up to the top of the hill and enjoy the sights.
Only problem with that plan was that when we arrived there at 15:30 the first tickets up that were available were for the 17:45 trip. We took a taxi back to our hotel with the plan of getting up early and making sure to get tickets the next day. Our taxi driver explained how it was a bad system and that there are lines in the morning for the tickets and how he could have one of the girls that sells t-shirts buy tickets for us and he could pick us up the next morning and take us back up to the hill. The extra cost for getting these tickets far outweighed the cost of our time waiting at the hill so we agreed to see him again the next day and pay extra for tickets to be waiting for us when we got there.

So, the next day was planned -what to do now? Wander around and take pictures of more of the architecture...
We wandered west from our hotel, past some old ruins and up to the beach, where we stumbled upon a fully restored building that housed the restaurant 32 which had been highly recommended to Tina - so inside we went to make reservations for dinner.
From there we strolled across the street to the ruins of the Shih Chung Branch School where we easily spent 45 minutes wandering around taking photos.
It looked like it used to be quite a school, but it is hard to find a lot of information on it over the web. Apparently it started as a mansion sometime in the 1880's and changed hands several times. I found this blog from someone that graduated there in 1988, but really not a lot of postings. It would be sad if something like this ends up being torn down, but we can't even begin to imagine the amount of money that would be required to properly restore it.

More of our wandering in Georgetown....
Then after an incredible dinner we wandered over to Upper Penang Road which is just a closed off pedestrian way of bars with outdoor seating. Tina made a group happy when she tried to sneak over a get a photo that they were all lined up posing for....And that was our second full day in Georgetown, a couple of quick drinks and we were off to bed so we could be up the next morning to meet our taxi driver....

Georgetown in pictures...

As Tina mentioned we stayed at the Bayview Hotel, pretty much right in the center of Georgetown, which worked out nice for us. Our view from the hotel looked out over the Eastern & Oriental hotel and then off to the water, a pretty nice view albeit slightly hazy.
The hotel was nice, I think that we would recommend it. The rooms were fairly inexpensive and included breakfast from 06:00-10:00, which worked well for us. There is one thing that may bother some people -
Yep, you aren't allowed to stink up their hotel enjoying durian. That really is too bad.

So, our first full day in Georgetown and we decide to risk walking around this crazy no stoplight, no crosswalk, no sidewalk city. We haven't been this adverse to crossing the street since Hanoi, but at least there you felt like they didn't really want to hit you. You don't get that comfortable feeling here.

Town Hall

City HallFort Cornwallis Lighthouse and Flagpole

Looking out into the North Channel from Fort Cornwallis

After the fort we basically wandered around trying to get lost in the town and admiring the old architecture, stopping only to grab a snack and a drink before the heat got to us and we decided to finally get ourselves some lunch.
After lunch we headed up to Gurney Mall for some shopping. We were looking for an iPod, and not just any iPod, no we wanted one of the recently discontinued 160GB iPods. We looked for these in the States with no luck, but here in Georgetown we were able to find one for slightly less then it would have cost in the States and through our masterful bartering we got a free Acrylic cover thrown in. How sweet is that?

Afterward my bartering skills suffered a bit of a setback as I walked away from two taxi stands trying to get a reasonable fare back to the hotel. It was alright though, as we did get to see some of the larger old houses that were built up on this part of the island.
See? Nice, almost worth it. Not many of these places are left as they are being torn down and replaced with gigantic apartment complexes.

Once we were back at the hotel we decided to head across the street to the Eastern & Oriental hotel and have a drink out on their outdoor patio.

Did I mention that while at the mall we also spent more then we should have on a nice wide angle lens adapter for our camera?
Also very nice, we have photos to prove it. Maybe tomorrow we will show you some.

Beautiful night sky at the E&O Hotel

And after all this fun what do you do? Dinner at the local dining stalls...
The food was delicious and we sat on the drinking side so we were also able to enjoy some nice cold local beers.
The guy at the stand there is who we ordered from, he tried to rip us off. He would have gotten away with it too, but the food was excellent and we went up and ordered more - that's when he must have felt guilty because he came over and gave us another 20 Ringgit (5USD) in change which more then paid for the second helping of food that we ordered.

Leaving Ipoh, arriving Penang

After feasting on a very tasty breakfast which included, eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns, pancakes, and fruit salad, Mark and I packed up our belongings as we were headed to Georgetown.

Sister Hong was kind enough to book our return passage, via the Express train to Butterworth, which is across the bay from Georgetown. Sis thought it would be great way for us to see some of the countryside that Malaysia has to offer.

The Express Train to Georgetown

Our train departed a little past 12:30 and was to arrive into Georgetown at 5:30pm. Strangely enough, the bus takes 3 hours, and a car takes 2 hours, so not sure when the express part kicks in.

We watched the countryside as we slogged on, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the mountains. We also noticed the poverty as we arrived closer into Butterworth. The homes that were falling apart, the garbage that lined the yards of people's homes, and the filthy water that some were fishing in, hoping to find some food.

Once we arrived in Butterworth, we took the ferry over to Georgetown, where we hopped in a taxi to our hotel. The Bayview Riverside, which was our home for the next 5 days, was centrally located, so it was great for walking around the city.

The ferry from Butterworth to Georgetown

Georgetown Harbour

I say this, but walking around Georgetown is quite an experience. Unlike here in Xiamen, where drivers will either slow down, or drive around you, Georgetown drivers don't seem to care that you are walking on the side of the road, ( sidewalks seem to be minimal or non existant) and streetlights are few and far between. Patience is a virtue.

The oldest Protestant church

We decided to wander around and take in some of the sights, so we headed to Little India, where the music that was coming from some of the shops could make you deaf instantly. It's crazy to think that this form of advertisement works, and yet it must. We quickly found a quiet Indian restaurant, where we could enjoy some tasty food, in a quiet atmosphere.

Little India

We headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep, both exhausted. I think the express train took it out of us!