World Heritage sights, night markets and more — in Georgetown

The bus ride to Penang takes two hours and entails crossing a bridge from the mainland of Malaysia to the Island of Penang. Sort of like the bridge from PEI to New Brunswick (and as Marc adds, the bridge that should connect Vancouver to Vancouver Island). The thunder and lightening storm we witnessed in KL followed us to Penang in the form of torrential rain and as we crossed the bridge, we were glad we had decided to skip the beaches of Penang and, instead, focus on the historic town of Georgetown considering the weather. Our first impression of Georgetown was definitely coloured by the weather.

After standing in the rain at the bus station haggling with cab drivers and contemplating the bus ride into town, we decided on the cab, piled our bags into the trunk and made our way to the Bayview Hotel. The rain put a damper on our spirits but once checking into the hotel, with a very nice roof over our heads, we ventured out into the streets of Georgetown.

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion from the outside. No photos allowed during the tour.

As is always the case for us, the first day or first hours in each new place is a bit disorientating. With three different maps in hand and an umbrella we headed for the first site on our list, which was an indoor tour of one of Asia’s most carefully restored heritage homes, the huge and opulent mansion of 19th-century millionaire Cheong Fatt Tze. This mansion is billed as a must see and is in fact a hotel as well as a museum. The rates were quite a bit above our price range, so we settled for the tour rather than the full experience. I am not sure if we were too tired or bummed by the weather, but we were not impressed with the tour or many of the explanations. The place is quite beautiful and the guest rooms are very interestingly furnished, but the story of what happened to the house and who was restoring it and why were a bit mysterious and incomplete. It probably was due to the tour leader who we couldn’t hear half the time.

Stinky part of town.

We finished the tour and started wandering around the neighbourhood, thinking we were in the Historic World Heritage part of Georgetown. It ends up we were in the backpackers area of town, which was very colourful in a decrepit sort of way and smelled of dead fish and garbage. We were starving by this point and after a fairly long walk finally found a small café (that didn’t smell of rotting fish) filled with westerners and sat down for a light dinner. Still unaware that we were on the other side of the tracks so to speak, we were not at all impressed with Georgetown, but by day two, our opinion of this town changed dramatically.

Beautiful Anglican Church in town

The maps we received at our hotel had detailed walking tours of the city and we soon realized that we needed to turn left instead of right to hit the historic and truly worthy of World Heritage status, part of the city. The rain had stopped and the sky was beautifully blue, and the new day and good weather energized us to explore the town with a much better attitude.

These beautiful paintings were on wooden doors at the entrance to a Chinese temple.

These are details at three different temples.

The population of Penang is primarily Chinese (59%), followed by Malays (32%) and Indians (7%). Most of the heritage sites we visited were Chinese Buddhist temples, Churches and Moslem Mosques. Some have been restored but many are simply in amazing condition. Most sites are at least 100 if not 200 years old. The streets are lined with original shophouses with very interesting facades. In contrast to our visit to the seedier part of town the day before, the streets are clean and fresh and filled with tourists and locals, enjoying the sites and tastes of this very interesting city.

A beautiful Mosque

Too many amazing buildings to remember all of the details to pass on. Just enjoy the images!

Since we do not have Al and Anja preplanning our every move anymore, part of our daily routine anywhere we land is to start planning the next town/country, mode of transportation, roof over our heads and sightseeing activities. Which means reading through our guidebook (thanks Brett for the PDF of Frommer’s Malaysia!!) and hitting the tourist information or travel agents in every town we arrive in. This has proven to be more of a challenge than we had expected. But also has often been a source of entertainment!

An example of Art Deco with a Chinese twist in Georgetown.

Our next stop is Langkawi, an island just north of Penang on the West Coast of Malaysia. It requires a ferry ride from Penang as well as trying to figure out which part of the Island we actually want to reside in for a few days. There are beaches all around the coastline as well as over 100 small islands surrounding the larger island, so the task is quite overwhelming for first time visitors. We tried in vain to find some information about packages that would deal with all of the many aspects of creating the perfect Langkawi experience. Mostly we found travel agents we couldn’t understand (they were speaking English but their accents were very hard to decipher) or ones that couldn’t understand us. Mostly, they had no information at all, even though their windows were plastered with posters about packaged deals. Finally, we found a very nice woman who directed us to a travel agency called Lucky travel. And our experience there was lucky indeed!

When we walked in the door, there was a woman sitting in the waiting area looking very uninterested in us or anything else for that matter. The rest of the large office was deserted. When we entered the office, the woman called to the back of the office and in seconds a mature man came running to the front yelling as he ran “What do you want, what do you want — Hello, hello, Where are you from?” His arms were flailing in the air as he was coming towards us. “Canada” we said in unison. “Ahhh, welcome. Toronto? Ottawa?” He said as he motioned for us to sit (there was only one chair and two of us, but we made an effort to comply). “Vancouver” we again said in unison. “Ahhh, the Island or the mainland?” Then he went straight into telling us about his successful son in Australia. “He is architect in Sydney, all flooded there now. Daughter finishing university — what you want? Each short sentence was punctuated with a short cough, just to make the conversation more surrealistic! I wasn’t sure whether it was due to a life of smoking, or he actually had rushed in from lunch and had some fish bones caught in his throat!

We tried to explain what we wanted and before we could finish he stopped us with hand motions and said, “Once there were packages (cough), no more (cough). Too easy to plan yourself (cough). Just take ferry. When you arrive, find wan (it took a few times for us to understand “wan” to be van but we got it eventually). No (hands waving furiously) cabs (cough). They will rush you at the dock. Too expensive. Go behind, look for wan. They tell you about hotels with pictures and drive you there. Simple (cough).”  And then he added with a big smile “Any more questions just ask (cough). Advice is free!”  

We chatted with this adorable man for a few minutes longer, bid him and the uninterested woman (she finally smiled when she saw we were finally leaving) still sitting in the reception area farewell feeling satisfied we had all the information we needed!

After an unsuccessful attempt at finding a restaurant recommended by our guide book, we settled on buying a cold beer to share in our room and set off in the direction of our hotel. Even though we could have left all plans to the man in the wan at the ferry dock, we decided to take some time to book a hotel online in Langkawi. It took a fair bit of research, but we think we have a good hotel in a good location. Ferry tickets were easily booked at our hotel so we were set.

Night market stalls.

Close to our hotel was a night market (food and entertainment) and we headed out at 10:00 pm to catch some of the action. The place was packed with locals and some tourists who were eating and drinking and being entertained by a revolving set of karaoke singers. The scene was amazing. You order food from any of the dozens of vendors, give them your table number and miraculously your food appears. Another set of waiters runs around filling drink orders of all descriptions, beer, soft drinks, fresh fruit juices (most of the fruit was not familiar to us but every table was filled with glasses of coloured liquid glistening with ice cubes) and iced coffees. We ordered food and drinks and sat back to enjoy the entertainment and the amazing people watching opportunities.

Karaoke!

We walked back to our hotel satiated and dead tired and were in bed by midnight with an early ferry to catch in the morning. Two days in Georgetown worked out perfectly and we have three nights booked at the Fave Hotel in Langkawi. Wish us good weather for our beach/snorkeling adventure!

A Leap of Faith

One of the advertised activities at Tanah Aina, Ferrah Soraya, is a walk through the jungle to a waterfall. This is a somewhat adventurous activity with ropes and handrails to help you to the point where you enter the rushing river fed by the waterfall. To add to the excitement, as your body (and mind) acclimatize to the freezing water, the young men leading you to the waterfall untie the stashed inner tubes and plunk you into sitting position before you know what has happened to you. They then whisk you through the next bit of turbulent water to the base of the waterfall.

Just beside the waterfall is a platform up a set of steps. This is the platform for the famous Leap of Faith you read about in the resort brochure and you sign a waiver for when you arrive. We set out on this Jungle adventure the day we arrived and it proved to be as exhilarating as it sounds. I, of course, did not take the Leap of Faith, but Marc did and he agrees that it is aptly named. I was happy to film the experience (from the comfort of a big rock opposite the waterfall) for insurance purposes if anything went wrong!

Ferrah Soraya, is one of five resorts owned by Tanah Aina. From what we have managed to figure out, the wife of one of the richest men in Malaysia privately owns the land. She, unlike the wives of most wealthy Malaysians, has business interests of her own and takes jungle preservation very seriously. She continues to purchase land in order to conserve the jungle from deforestation and planting of more palm groves for palm oil production. On some of the land she purchases she builds eco resorts where preservation of the local eco systems is her highest priority. This particular resort offers tent camping (we chose this option), dormitories as well as very upscale cottages for weekend get-aways as well as team building retreats. Although the resort was completely deserted when we arrived, we heard later that 100 people had come and gone a couple of days earlier. There are 20 fulltime employees, all foreigners from Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippians to look after your every whim.

Our tent!

We took a leap of faith ourselves and booked a last minute two-day all-inclusive package, on the recommendation of the Two Palms Hostel in Kuala Lumpur.

The river running beside out tent

After two days here, we will give the Resort mixed reviews. The things they do right, they do amazingly well, but there are a few things that could be improved. In all fairness to them, we came here, as a kind of easy fix jungle adventure — and this is after all — a resort.

It ends up after almost six months of travel we are not used to solitude. We were forced to relax for two days with almost nothing to do and no Internet (oy!). We needed the rest, but felt compelled to plan the next week of travel and there was only so much we could do without online research and booking .... In reality it gave us some much needed time to reflect on what we have done so far and what lies ahead. We spent quite a few hours laying on the couch in the outdoor communal lounge/dining room talking about where to go next and what we hope to get out of the next month or two of travel. And we had the opportunity to swim in amazingly clean fresh water, spent two days in the jungle with the sound of rushing water and the calls of birds and insects overpowering even the television, ate (way too much) delicious food and got a lot of shut-eye. Sounds ideal right?

The chalet across the bridge from us.

Since we were the only guests at the resort that can accommodate 150 people, the 20 staff members were all over us trying to please us, overfeed us, and be ready to help us at every turn. The schedule looked like this: Breakfast was at 8:00 am, lunch at 12:30, jungle walk to the waterfall at 2:30, tea at 4:30, dinner at 7:30, night jungle walk at 8:30. The Filipino cook (one of the only staff members to have a good handle on English) came around at intervals to discuss the menu for the next eating extravaganza, and seemed truly disappointed when we didn’t want five courses for each meal. He is an amazing cook and we tried our best to at least taste each delicacy he put in front of us, but our bellies were swelling with each meal and by the time we left, we felt like we didn’t need to eat again for a week! The staff member assigned to be our fixer, was always sitting just close enough to jump up every time we looked like we might need something. He was very cute, but we could hardly understand him and really didn’t need anything. By the second day, I think he had given up on us!

Our walk on the last morning.

On our last morning, we took a walk up into the terraced hills behind the resort. We had been on the same walk the first night here, but, in the dark, it was to stare at the moon and hear the sounds of the jungle. In the daylight the experience was completely different. As we climbed higher, we could see another waterfall in the distance and enjoyed the blanket of lush green vegetation in every direction as far as the eye can see. We also learned that the blue barrels dotting the landscape filled with rainwater were used for irrigating the organic vegetable farms on the property where the great food prepared for us came from.

By the time we left, we realized that these two days in this pristine jungle were really quite special. Sure, we had some constructive feedback to pass on to Sara, the marketing person, but on final analysis, Tanah Aina Ferrah Soraya was well worth the visit.

All packed, we jumped into the jeep that took us back to Bentong and our bus back to KL. That night we witnessed an amazing lightning storm from the comfort of our 18th floor hotel room. The lights of the Golden Triangle shopping district flashed on and off as the lightening struck and we had our own private sound and light show. The Petronas Twin Towers (KL’s most famous landmark), which is lit at night with flashing lights, was doing a disappearing act due to cloud cover and electricity outages. We tried to rig up a chair on a table to set my camera on to try to get a photo of the scene. We didn’t do too well but I will leave you with the best of the bad shots I took.

Amazing lightening storm on our last night in KL.

We bid farewell to Kuala Lumpur this morning and are now headed for Penang, a small island on the West Coast of Malaysia. It was still raining this morning so we hopped in a cab, which took us right to the ticketing entrance of the Puduriya (huge) bus station, where information helpers greeted us at the door and directed us to the proper ticketing agent. There was a bus leaving immediately and a handful of people helped us navigate down several levels of staircases to the proper platform where we handed over our luggage and boarded our spacious and comfortable air conditioned coach. We will be staying in Georgetown for two nights, the only town on the Island known for its beaches. But we are saving our beach/snorkeling/diving experience for Langkawi, which is another smaller island north of Penang. We are expecting Georgetown to be much like Melaka and are looking forward to our two-day visit there.

Malaysia’s Capital city does not disappoint!

The view from our hotel room at the Concorde

As our bus wound its way closer to the centre of Kuala Lumpur, the contrast between Malaysia’s glitzy capital city and the quiet provincial town of Melaka we had left two hours before was dramatic. The buildings are so tall, I couldn’t see the top of them from inside the bus. Even on the outskirts of town, the apartment blocks seemed to disappear in the clouds.

Kuala Lumpur has several bus stations. And hundreds (it seems) of bus companies that all depart and arrive at different stations. As luck would have it (and it was completely a fluke as we had no idea of the multiple options when we booked our bus), we were let off at the newest and most amazingly modern bus terminal. We were able to hook up with the Rapid Transit Station directly from there which allowed us to transfer to the monorail line which had a stop half a block away from the Concorde Hotel where we were booked. Zooming through town on the monorail, the view below and above made us feel like we were in a futuristic movie in a city of tomorrow. All we were missing were flying cars maneuvering between the monorail, elevated trains and the sparkling, flashing billboards and highrise buildings!

We are learning as we go about hotel choices. There is an art to it and without Devora with us full-time, there will be some hit and misses! The Concorde is a beautiful hotel, well situated (as described in all of the reviews) close to the monorail and several elevated train lines. But unfortunately, unless you get on the monorail or the LRT, there isn’t a restaurant, convenience store or any sign that you are in Kuala Lumpur for about 2 kilometres. Our first night wandering around was a dismal failure and it started pouring about half way to any kind of commercial street. We soon found that walking anywhere in KL is a challenge. But with a transit map, and with a handy train-bus-monorail pass we were organized by day two.

The photo on the left is the Planetarium. I know, amazing!

All of these guys roam around freely in the park. It is the largest open air bird park in the world and it is truly something to see.

The park has a lot of water features including pools with huge fish and beautiful waterfalls.

KL is a big city but luckily, most of the tourist attractions are in a couple of concentrated areas. On our second day we hit the big green area on the map, where we visited the planetarium (just from the outside), the largest open air bird park (AMAZING!!), the Orchid Park (GORGEOUS) and Butterfly Sanctuary (UNBELIEVABLE – my camera ran out of battery just as we arrived so I don’t really have much to prove how great it was …). That was about 5 hours of walking in the sweltering heat and I was melting. There was still the Botanical Gardens to tackle, but we decided that we needed a cooler place to take a break, have some food and regroup.

My camera conked out after about three shots. There were literallythousands butterflies fluttering around of all sizes and colours.

Orchids of all colours and shapes everywhere!

We hopped in a cab to a covered shopping area called Central Market on the edge of China Town. It is like a three storey Richmond Night Market that got just a bit more upscale. On the top floor was a food fair which would be the Malaysian version of Singapore’s Hawker Markets. Food vendors selling every version of fried noodles mixed with prawns, chicken, beef or vegetables. And many, many other concoctions that neither of us had any idea what they were made of or spiced with. We made some choices (some better than others) and had a meal of sorts to regain some energy.

Just outside of this market place is the famous Petaling Street, where anyone looking for copies of designer handbags, watches, and sports equipment DVD’s or any kind of junk can find and bargain to their hearts content. We needed to find new head torches (note our acquired English influence picked up from fellow Commonwealth friends from our India trip) and a couple of other travel related items, so off we went to brave the sales people and have some fun. It goes on for blocks and blocks with (it seems) everyone selling exactly the same stuff. Some areas are so tight, that there is barely room for two people to squeeze by each other. In the midst of this, there are vendors trying to move through with wagons full of cold drinks covered in ice. Definitely an experience!

On day three, knowing our way around like pros, we headed off to Merdeka Square where several amazing historical buildings stand in stark contrast to the modern glass and brick high rise office buildings that share the city’s skyline. There are beautiful examples of Moorish architecture, Art Nouveau tile work and Tudor Style buildings. On one side of the square is a handsome building that once housed Government printing presses and now acts as City Gallery documenting the history of the city, and it’s architecture. An amazingly detailed miniature model of the entire city as seen at night is a highlight of the museum.

Every city has its challenges for us. In Singapore, we spent the entire visit looking for a laundromat. In KL we spent the whole visit looking for a proper Tourist Information Center. When we walked into the City Gallery, low and behold there was KL’s main Tourist Information Centre. But we soon found out that, in fact, we needed the Malaysia Tourist Centre and not the local KL version. The kind lady behind the desk let us know that the Office we needed was right around the corner from our hotel!!!

Before heading there, we decided to hit the backpacker’s area of town where I had found a hostel that arranges trips to Taman Negara National Park. We found ourselves in yet another really interesting part of town, full of massage parlors, street food vendors, and restaurants boasting lunch specials and happy hour deals. The streets were teaming with locals and tourists and there was the kind of energy that is infectious. We could imagine that if we were here with Dragoman, we would be staying at one of these hotels on a street like this and I would be sitting down about now to have a cold beer!

Finding the hostel was a challenge as I had only made a note of the location on the map, but had not written down the actual address or the name. It took a bit of detective work, but we found it and it ended up being an amazing find. The owner did have information about buses and booking accommodations for Taman Negara National Park, and we almost made a booking for the next morning, but then her son (we think it was her son), threw out a suggestion. “How much time do you have?” he asked. “All the time in the world” I answered casually. “Well, then why don’t you take a look at this brochure? There is this amazing eco resort less than two hours away from KL, only reachable by four wheel drive …”

Within half an hour we were booked to visit Tanah Aina Ferrah Soraya leaving the next morning by bus to Bentong, with a transfer by jeep to the resort. You can expect our reviews in a couple of days!

PS we returned to KL for one last day after our trip to the jungle and I found us a hotel in the “Golden Triangle” where all the action is. Simpler hotel but in a great location and our last day/night in KL was super great! We also found the one and only Laundromat in KL and met a great Australian that runs the place, who gave us all sorts of info on places to visit in Malaysia and tips for Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. I managed to have a cup of the famous Malaysian White Coffee they make here and we had a very tasty Thai meal.

The Golden Triangle is the centre of food, shopping and entertainment in KL. We spent our last night in the centre of things.

The view from the Capitol hotel int he Golden Triangel. Our room was on the 18th floor!

Yes, that is a rice dish in a pineapple (shrimp and pineapple mixed with yummy Thai spices! In the background is a green mango salad and vegi spring rolls. Marc had an amazing seafood noodle soup that blew his head off with spice. Add cold beer and it is heaven!

Not to worry, the jungle story will be coming soon!

Sleepy backwaters of Melaka, Malaysia

The view from St Paul's Hill

I am sipping my ginger tea after a glorious pedicure at the spa in our hotel. Marc is taking in one last museum in Melaka, while I relax!

The tea is sweet, hot and gingerly satisfying. My last pedicure was on the beach in Bagga, Goa, so this treatment literally erases the last physical remnant of India from my body. Honestly, I was a bit reticent to have my plump young Malaysian pedicurist dissolve those adorable silver decorations from both of my big toes. I remember so clearly choosing the design from a placard the lovely Goan woman with the large straw hat provided at the beginning of that memorable experience on the beach.

But nail polish has a way of marking the passage of time. The line of polish was half way up my big toe nail. It has been over a month since that day on the beach in Goa and we have covered a lot of ground since then.

We arrived in Melaka by bus, leaving Singapore and entering Malaysia with little fuss at both borders. The bus ride was much more eventful. Our bus a full 40-passenger vehicle had only four passengers including us when we left Singapore. Somewhere after entering Malaysia close to Melaka, our bus driver flagged down another bus and transferred us onto it so that he (we think) could return to Singapore. It was probably all planned from the start, but we imagined that our bus driver was fed up driving with an empty bus and spent the whole ride on the phone with every other driver on the road looking for someone to take us off his hands. He was very vocal on his cell phone and at one point, Marc asked me if he could tell him to get off his phone and concentrate on driving! I was of course concerned that a conversation with Marc may be more dangerous than him yelling into his cell phone. Needless to say, when he stopped at the side of the road and announced that we were all to get off the bus, we were quite relieved. Quick transfer of luggage and we were on the road again.

Our bus dropped us at the large Melaka Central Station and Bazaar (shopping mall). For 20 Ringgit (about $7), a very nice and very talkative taxi driver delivered us to our hotel on the other side of town. He assured us that we had chosen the best hotel (he got that right!) and that we would not need any more taxis once we checked in. In fact, he explained in broken English (many hand gestures) that Melakan roads go round and round and can’t get you anywhere. Walking is the best option he explained, which suited us just fine.

Melaka was not always the sleepy town it is today. In its heyday it was the centre of trade between East and West. Later with colonization by the Portuguese and the Dutch, their greed (high taxes), and the fact that silt was accumulating in the bay changed all of that. But the colourful history of this port city, makes it an interesting tourist attraction.

We picked up a Melaka street map and brochure from the Tourist Information office and spent a day wandering through the streets of the old town, stopping at all of the noted sights on the walking tour.

Amazing murals along the boardwalk.

We also took the obligatory river cruise, which was amazingly pleasant. The Malaka River flows through much of the town and a boardwalk follows the whole route on either side. Many original shop houses, whose backs face the river, have been converted into hotels and coffee shops. To add to the charm, these facades have all been painted by local artists and create an ongoing mural as you cruise down the river. If we had been staying here for another day, I would have liked to walk the whole route to take a closer look at the artwork and stop for a drink or a meal along the way.

One of the buildings on Jonker Walk

Jonker Walk in Chinatown is famous for its antique shops. I think it should be famous for amazing fashion. I wandered into a few shops filled with women’s clothes designed in Melaka. There were “no photos” signs everywhere so I can’t share them with you. I was ready to dump all of my clothes and start over but I managed to control myself and walk away … I will probably regret it.

Instead of calling them Rickshaws, in Melaka they are called Trishaws. They are beautifully decorated with flowers.

The weather here is hot and humid, which makes full days of touring difficult, but is a perfect recipe for amazing natural beauty. The city is full of flowers and potted plants in front of all of the stores. These people love their city and take great care of it. It is the end of the tourist season, so we did not see the multitudes of tourists that are usually here, but we were not alone either. We both commented more than once what a nice city Melaka was and we both really enjoyed our stay here.

Our Hotel, located on the large street separating the old and the new city was a perfect choice for us. We could enjoy the pampering and the modern style of the hotel — and just a short walk away we were in the centre of the historic town with its antique shops, winding alley ways and meandering river.

The remains of St Paul's Church sits on the top of the St Paul's Hill with a statue of St Francis Xavier just in front of it.

We are now on a local bus to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s largest city, which is just two hours away. Marc has just reminded me that aside from our hotel, which we booked last night, we have no idea what we will be doing for the next three days. So time to sign off and switch to our pdf version of Frommer’s Malaysia!