Back to the heat

Trip Start May 06, 2007
1
158
166
Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Where I stayed
SD Guest House
(Georgetown hotels)

Flag of Malaysia  , Pinang,
Sunday, June 22, 2008

Leaving the relaxing, cool (literally) Cameron Highlands was difficult, but after a week I decided it was time to move on.  Rather than heading straight to the Perhentian Islands I decided to stop in Penang for a couple of nights.  Penang itself is actually a large island just off the west coast of Malaysia near the border with Thailand.  Penang is connected to the mainland by a large bridge and also by 24-hr ferry service.  Georgetown, the main city in Penang, is full of colonial architecture and old buildings.  My favorite random fact about Penang is that many scenes in Anna and the King, the 1999 remake of the King and I, were filmed there.  I always love a good musical reference.

I didn't spend much time in Penang, but a day and a half was more than enough time to follow the self-guided walking tour to see the historic portion of the city, including a stop at the interesting Penang museum that highlights the history and culture of Penang.  I luckily managed to duck into the museum right before a downpour started (it's currently the west coast monsoon season) and was happy to find that it was bright and sunny by the time I finished looking around.  My favorite part of the city was the Little India and Little China sections.  The food in Little India was wonderful and very vegetarian friendly.  Plus the atmospheres in both Little India and Little China were very energetic while also being very different from each other.  I spent some time looking at about 5 different Buddhist and Hindu temples (there were more, but I was a bit templed-out at that point).

Malaysian culture is very interesting.  There are three main ethnic groups in Malaysia - the indigenous Malays who are devoutly Muslim, the Hindu Indians, and the Buddhist Chinese.  The west coast is more heavily populated with Indians and Chinese while the east coast, particularly the northeast, is very heavily Malay with only a few people of other ethnicities.  This makes for a very interesting mixture and quite a bit of diversity in food.  It also makes finding vegetarian food incredibly easy since just about every city seems to have at least a handful of Indian restaurants which serve many different veggie options and Chinese vegetarian restaurants are also quite common, especially where there are Buddhist temples.  It definitely makes my life a bit easier when I don't have to search for food or eat the same thing every day.  The three ethnic groups seem to live fairly well, relatively integrated lives, but I haven't really had much chance to talk to anyone or see much mixing yet.  I'm sure I'll learn more as I continue my travels.

After two nights in Penang, I woke up at the crack of dawn to catch my 5am minibus to the Perhentian Islands on the east coast (where it is not monsoon season).
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