Penang Island - Christmas Day

The boat from Langkawi island to Penang island could not have been any easier. For a change, we didn’t have to pay extra to get the bikes on board and we had comfortable air-conditioned seats. When we arrived in Georgetown, Penang, we found our hotel within 5 minutes! It was nice to know exactly where we were going and not have to cycle around trying to find somewhere suitable. As our time on Penang was over Christmas, we wanted to treat ourselves to somewhere nice and a bit more upmarket than a backpacker-type guesthouse, and wow did we!? We spent four nights in one of the most amazing hotels I have ever stayed in; the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, or the blue mansion as some call it. This mansion was built in the 1880s and was owned by a great Chinese entrepreneur and businessman who had a worldwide status; Cheong Fatt Tze himself. Left to his sons and daughter-in-law who neglected it for years, when conservationists, historians and architects eventually got their hands on it, it was in a bit of a state. It was soon renovated to its nearest original state and opened to the public and is today one of Penang’s major tourist attractions. 16 of the twenty-something rooms are now open for guests to stay, every room being different and featuring all sorts of art and sculptures. Naturally we attended one of the tours and learnt that the house was so deeply thought out architecturally that everything in its build had a reason. It is feng-shui perfect according to experts and passes many of the Chinese traditions and embraces luck, happiness, success, wealth and other common Chinese symbols in every corner. I will let my photos show you…

Front of the house

Old Chinese rickshaws

The courtyard

Close up of the roof murals

Original tiles preserved for years underneath inches of dirt and dust, imported from Stoke-on-Trent would you believe!

Many thanks to Poh and his team for the laughs and good, chilled service they provided, and thank you to Eric for entertaining us with your lordiness!

Georgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the same as Hoi An in Vietnam and I can see the similarities. The streets are full of narrow two storey houses, row after row, but beautifully built with petite front doors and windows with shutters. We spent most of our time here wondering the streets and taking it all in.

Famous Campbell Street

Christmas day was far away from the Christmas most Westerners know. There was no snow (or most likely rain), coldness, Christmas trees or decorations, or presents to open, certainly no roast turkey or potatoes! Instead we woke up to bright blue skies, burning hot sun and a yummy breakfast that the hotel provided; that was the morning taken up. In the afternoon we hired a scooter, something James was a little terrified about after a bad motorbike experience he had in the past. Nonetheless, we wanted to be on a beach and that is how we were going to get there. The man hiring out the bike to us got a shock when he went to explain the workings of the beasty 125cc to James who then told him I was driving! On, off, go, brake, sorted! Off we drove the 16km to the very north of Penang island to Batu Ferrenggi beach. We parked up right at the end away from all the hustle, dumped our stuff and went for a Christmas Day swim in the sea! Admittedly it was not as nice as Langkawi at all, but we didn’t care! We sat in a beach café and ordered our late lunch of chicken satay, chips and spring rolls, followed by ice-cream, of course. Back into Georgetown before the sun set to spruce up a bit and go out for our proper Christmas dinner; Indian! And wow what a meal it was. I had three humungous prawns, bigger than my hand in a delicious sauce with rice, naan, Chenna masala, tandoori chicken and vegetables. The most stunning Indian food we have ever had. We then spent the rest of the evening Skyping and calling various family back in England.

Boxing Day saw us both having our hair chopped, which amusingly took exactly the same amount of time and money… mmm. We wondered around the markets and bazaars that sell traditional Malay dress such as the Islamic skull caps for men and all sorts of head scarfs for women. Every single pattern and colour you could imagine with also lots of different styles, which I never realised, existed!

We wanted to explore a little more of Penang island so we left Georgetown and retraced the road to the beach and carried on going until we reached the furthest north west tip of the island where the world’s smallest National Park lies. We camped for two nights, this time for free! The camp site was popular with tourists and visitors due to the man-made swimming pools they have carved out in the waterfall, with pretty trees surrounding it and the village just down the road. We sampled the pools whilst there of course only to come out again five minutes later because the water was so cold!

The village down the road had many seafood restaurants, and we cycled around to get a feel for what was available. We came across one restaurant that was the only one with people in it, so decided to go there as all the others were empty and we have learnt by now to go where the locals go as this usually means it’s good. This restaurant was pretty shabby, with the usual plastic chair affair, with paint chipped off the walls, broken tiles and generally in need of a refurb. We sat down quite early but in the time we were there, it filled up very quickly and by the time we left, people were waiting for tables, and we could see why. We had the best calamari and sweet and sour chicken we have both ever had. It was so good that we went there the next night as well!

The camp site ablutions were an experience; a good one though! Squat toilets we were used to by now, but SE Asia style showers we weren’t. A tiled bath like area would be filled with clean water, and then you were provided with a plastic saucepan to pour the water over you to wash with. I have never had a full shower like this but it was actually very enjoyable and must save a lot of water.

We wanted to explore the National Park so we were up early to cycle down to the main entrance, lock up our bikes and off we went for the day with backpacks full of water and food, Craghoppers and trek sandals donned. And wow did we need them, the path we followed through part forest, part jungle was steep, uneven, craggy and root filled, but it was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed our day long trek, especially with no leeches!

After our fabulous trek, we cycled back along the hilly coast line to Georgetown to then start our New Year’s Eve adventure – with a difference! Stay tuned to find out what we did next! :)