It seemed strange to be flying after many weeks of buses and trains. Almost like cheating, but it was the only option that would fit with our itinerary and would get us exactly where we wanted to be quickly and cheaply. However, after long queues for check-in, security and immigration going out of Vietnam, and a long, long wait for immigration into Penang, we almost wished we were back on a bus!
But, the flight itself was quick and easy with a nice view.
Georgetown – Penang
It’s often said that Malaysia retains much of its British influence, and that was certainly true of immigration at Penang airport. By the time we were through and in, the entire baggage from the plane had been removed from the belt and dumped on the floor – it felt just like Gatwick!
The Penang bus system takes a bit of understanding, and so by the time we figured it we ended up travelling through rush hour, in the rain (new country!!), and arrived in Georgetown at about 8pm.
Georgetown is familiar in many ways to other places we’ve been so far, but the old British colonial influence makes it familiar in different ways to the French influence remaining in Vietnam – the building styles, and driving on the left and sticking to traffic rules being two noticeable differences to Vietnam. There are far more cars and fewer bikes, and that makes it all a bit less hectic that some of our recent locations. That said, Georgetown is a very touristy microcosm, so it remains to be seen if this is reflected across the rest of the country.
It is a very attractive town with much old British colonial-style architecture, and very clearly a strong Chinese influence.
The old harbour area retained much of it’s old traditional style of jetty’s and housing on stilts, giving great views out over the Malacca Straits.
There is seemingly a strong street art movement in parts of Malaysia, in Georgetown this was a mix of freezes created from wire (which cleverly also told the story of Georgetown), and graffiti art.
It is also very much in the tropics – hot and humid so on day two we headed up Penang Hill to get some views of the area, a bit of breeze, and enjoy a bit of nature.
Having gone up hill on the 883m funicular railway (longest and steepest in SE Asia), we opted to hike down what turned out to be a bit of a trek down a small amount of trail, but about half way down became largely a very long set of steps (about 1.8km) of varying heights, types (earth, stone, brick, tree roots, old set stone and cast concrete) which mostly ran down alongside the funicular. Definitely jelly legs at the end but worth the effort.
Our trip in Malaysia was a bit of a last minute add-in and our next stop was definitely not one we would have picked up on ourselves – an old tin-mining town? However, a chance conversation in one of our coffee haunts in St Albans led us to our next destination – the capital of the district of Perak, the gateway to the Cameron Highlands and food capital of Malaysia:
Ipoh – Perak
We didn’t really know what to expect from Ipoh. The first surprise was that it was quite big – the bus depot was a good 40 minute taxi ride from the centre – and also rather nice. Some old colonial architecture mixed in with a few high rise blocks, quite a lot of traffic but not overly busy. It sits on a large plateau surrounded by mountains, so it was also a little cooler and the views were lovely all around. It felt busy, but calm, and very different to Ho Chi Minh city.
We were staying only two nights so this was never going to be an in-depth exploration. Our first afternoon was a meander around to get both our bearings and a swimming costume that would meet the somewhat strict criteria for the very nice outdoor pool at our apartment.
We found that a lot of tourist accommodation in Malaysia seems to be in tower block apartments, which meant we were able to enjoy some lovely views and watch the weather roll past, or in our case, whilst having our evening meal at a local eatery, roll in on top of us! The thunder and lightening display was spectacular indeed (although it was a little damp!).
Our full day in Ipoh we planned to spend meandering and looking at the city, but we did have one definite destination in that we were visiting the family restaurant of our St Albans coffee shop acquaintance. A little exploration beforehand though, brought us to a very attractive mosque, which is apparently known as Malaysia’s Taj Mahal, and a promise to the very friendly and proactive guide there that we would return that afternoon. We walked to the restaurant via Ipoh railway station, a noted feature of the city. It is a very attractive example of old colonial architecture (which reminded us a little of Tokyo railway station), sadly, the inside was rather more utilitarian.
Our visit to the restaurant was delightful and we were thoroughly spoilt! After an absolutely delicious meal, the highlights of which were a sour Malaysian salad, crispy duck, and a crispy pancake filled with bean curd for dessert that was so light it almost floated off the plate, our incredibly hospitable hosts insisted on driving us around Ipoh and out to a mountain to see Mirror Lake – a lake hidden inside a range of limestone karsts, and have ‘proper’ coffee in a cafe just under the edge of the mountain.
Our hosts were incredibly generous and kind and made our time in Ipoh even more memorable and special. We shall definitely treasure our memories there, particularly the food – all local specialities and all truly delicious. To complete the afternoon, we were dropped back at the mosque, and spent a fascinating and enlightening couple of hours there with the guide, who explained the history of the mosque, its design, and explained some of the workings, beliefs, and rituals of Islamic worship.
We had read that Ipoh had it’s own street art culture to rival Georgetown’s, but the article was vague about is location. Our final surprise of the day was finding a whole street full of art that, to our minds, put that of Georgetown somewhat in the shade – and not another soul there to spoil our viewing of it (which seemed sad, but we enjoyed having the place to ourselves!).
Our next destination was another bus journey away, but this time from a bus terminal just behind our apartment block. A smooth journey of around four hours brought us to the outskirts of our final destination in Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur
After the usual “how do we get from here to there” shenanigans that inevitably comes with out-of-town bus stations, we arrived at our apartment near KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) and dropped gear there before heading out to explore a little and get a feeling for what we wanted to do the following day as once again, we had only one full day for exploring.
And despite only having one day, we felt we saw a fair bit of the top tourist sights as, although big, a lot of Kuala Lumpur is quite easily walkable (especially after some other countries in which roads and pavements were obstacle courses rather than thoroughfares!) and we enjoyed exploring the byways and alleyways as well as the larger routes. And of course, we managed to do some of the big tourist attractions too!
Our final night in Malaysia had to be a visit to the Petronas Towers to see them lit up in all their glory. Web research promised a fountain with light and music show as well. The fountain display was okay – shame it wasn’t fireworks but the towers more than made up for it.
Next stop is our final country – Singapore!