I took a six hour bus ride to Penang from Kuala Lumpur to hopefully get out of the bad weather I had been experiencing over the last few days. But of course, the weather was nice the day I left!! I sort of slept on and off on the bus because I didn’t sleep that well and had to get up really early. But, that is what usually happens when I travel.

When I got to Penang, the sky and ocean were so blue as I crossed the bridge to the island. From the coach bus stop, I easily found my way into George Town to my hostel for the next few days. George Town is sort of the old town of Penang. Because I got there in the late afternoon, I just went out to get something to eat and hung out at the hostel.

The next day, I was feeling really lazy. I did get up and jump on a bus to Hard Rock Cafe Penang, to get my shot glass and guitar pin, after joining one of my hostel mates for a great bowl of clam noodle soup at a nearby Chinese restaurant. As I was on the bus heading to Hard Rock, I was not really impressed at all with what I saw. The roads leading there were lined with hotels and resorts that sort of shut off the sea from view. I’m guessing a lot of these beaches are private “For Hotel Guests” only. This just turned me off of Penang pretty quickly. The thing I like about places like Phuket is that roads tend to separate the hotels from the beaches, making them accessible to everyone. When I got back, I joined a few of the other people at the hostel to check out the Clan Jetty which is supposed to be pretty famous.

At the Clan Jetty, we walked through to see a number of little shops and got to see the water near the harbor district. It wasn’t white sandy beaches, but it was a nice place to chill out and watch the sunset out on the water. There was a sweet breeze that moved across my face that just felt peaceful. If I did not join these other travelers, I would have totally missed out. We also ended up eating at a restaurant that was very famous and only opened at 10pm. So I also joined them for this and was happy I did so. I had some beef meal with rice and other things that was very foreign but tasty to me. Honestly, this would have been the last place I would have eaten if I was walking around on my own.

The next day, my fellow travelers and I walked a crazy distance for some famous “local” food. I was starving and so hot. Not sure if I would have joined them if I knew we were going to walk that far, opposite, of where I wanted to be later. But, one of the guys was a food hunter. So, because I don’t seek out food EVER, I was happy I did when we made it to our destination, which was just a small little stand. I enjoyed a nice noodle soup in the neighborhood too before splitting up with my posse and heading off to Fort Cornwallis to get my history fix.

Kapitan Keling Mosque (Picture 1)

Fort Cornwallis (Picture 1)

Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower (Picture 1)

Saint George Church (Picture 1)

Fort Cornwallis was much smaller than I thought, but it was a nice little visit. Afterwards, I just headed back to the hostel to have a few beers and then joined the group for some Indian food that night. That pretty much finishes my time in Penang and I got on a bus to Melaka, Malaysia the next morning. This bus ride would end up taking me about 12 hours in comfortable seats, for people smaller than me!! So, my body was feeling it when I got to Melaka. ㅠㅠ (crying with Korean characters)

Tags » Kapitan Keling Mosque

Penang, Malaysia