Penang
Georgetown is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang. A section of the city is inscribed as a UNESCO site fro 2008. With its fabulous English Colonial architecture, a fusion of Indian and Chinese culture (from the trading), street art, and some of the best street food in the world, it is no wonder this place is on top of everyone’s list when they visit Malaysia.
Before you decide you are going here it is important to book a hotel that is centrally located in Georgetown and offers you a comfortable stay at a great price. The Ren i Tang Hotel, offers you a comfortable stay at a low price. With 17 rooms all of different sizes with great air con and even a balcony room, this hotel has something for everyone. The waitresses (Sophilia, Kaushy, Shoba) at the Hotel Bistro which offers local as well as international cuisine are some of the best waitresses I have ever had and always deliver your food or beer with a smile. The manager of the hotel Uma Borah was there to answer all of our questions and book anything we needed without hesitation, as she also answered are emails beforehand very promptly. It is located near the heart of Georgetown on the corner of Lebuh China and Lebuh Penang. Couple that is the history that this hotel has played in the city as it was the oldest traditional Chinese medicine shop in SE Asia, and operated that way until 2010 when with great renovation it was made into the hotel you see today. A walk along the halls of this building you can see many relics of the past and a lot of the wood used in the rooms is from the original building. The fresh herb garden in the courtyard offers a local touch to many of the food dishes. It is almost like stepping back into history when you stay here and I would not even hesitate to stay here again.
As I love cooking classes, I had to chance to join one that turned into a cooking class, market tour, and street food tour all in one. Nazlina offers a cooking class through her website Pickles and Spices, she is an author of books on different malay dishes and has been featured in different newspapers and articles around the globe. She first took us to the market area to look at the different spices and food we would be using…
When we returned we put our knowledge to use and made different dishes including coconut rice, sambal, Nasi Lemak, Char Koay Teow, Green Bean with Shrimp, and Pandam Crepe with Coconut and Palm Sugar filling. This cooking class was informative and I strongly recommend everyone take it while on their trip to Penang…
Walking the streets at night of this city are amazing as you will get some truly great experiences viewing the street food vendors as well as the multitudes of people both locals and foreigners eating…..
The best thing to do here is just walk the streets and enjoy the plethora of colors of the buildings and the history that encompasses this area…
A main attraction in this area is the steel rod caricatures found on buildings (sometimes hidden) around the area. These depict a scene from Georgetown’s past with a comical spin on it and offer an easy way for you to understand what happened on the different streets in this area in the past centuries
And one of the other tourist attraction is the blossoming street art culture found here. If I missed any street art then it was by mistake as I went up and down these streets to find the most popular ones and the ones that are hidden in alleys which are not on tourist maps. Just like the street art of Djerba in Tunisia and Athens in Greece, this offers a view of local culture and lifestyle which give insight into some of the cities history. There are maps available for the most popular ones, however some of them, you just have to get lost looking for them….
And of course a trip to the Botanical Gardens outside the city center will not only give you a glimpse of the many types of plants and trees offered in this area…
But also let you see the many Long Tailed Macaques that roam here freely doing crazy things like all monkeys do…..There will always be Monkeys…
