George Town
Whenever I travel, I usually start off moving quite quickly, a new place every two or three days. It’s a great way to see lots of the world in a short time, but I can only ever keep it up for a couple of weeks before I feel exhausted. With this planned to be a longer term travel, I decided some longer stops would be necessary to recharge and booked a week in Georgetown, Penang. It turned out to be an excellent idea, as not only did I need the reset of staying in one place for a while, I grew to love the city. A really beautiful place with a mix of architecture, including some really beautiful buildings, interesting and varied street art around every corner, and perhaps most importantly an excellent food scene.
When I eat, I like to eat in the most basic place possible. I don’t want to pay for the view, or for the beautiful building, or for excellent service. I want every pound (or ringgit) I spend to go in to the amazingness of the food. The hawker centres in Georgetown are exactly that. Plastic tables and chairs in a big, undecorated space, with maybe 50 different stalls around all with different specialities. You order and give your table number, and the food is brought over to you when it’s ready. I would go each night and order different bits from multiple stalls to try different places. Some samba fried rice from one place, lamb and chicken satay from another. Nasi lemak from one place, fried dumplings from another. Barbecued quail, beef ho fun, fried noodles and claypot rice with pork, you get the idea. Every dish was delicious - it seems the standard the food is just really consistently high in Georgetown. This quality also extends to restaurants and cafes - including some much needed western style brunches I had while nursing hangovers from late nights dancing to cover bands.
Other aspects of Georgetown’s charm include the view from Penang hill, a strenuous hike up seemingly never-ending steps; the beach on the other side of the island; and the unique jetties, networks of houses and boardwalks where Chinese immigrants built their homes on stilts over water as they were not allowed to build on the island itself. The Chinese New Year celebrations were admittedly a little disappointing - most places just closed as locals spent time with their families. Apparently the big street celebrations come in the month after New Year itself, although there were plenty of firecrackers in the streets and cheesy music with occasional dragon dances in the food courts. The Kek Lok Si temple was an incredible sight, both up close during the day, and at night lit up for the new year in a beautiful mess of multicoloured lights on different flashing patterns. I also enjoyed running in to friends from previous hostels and catching up with what they’d been doing. It gives you a sense of community, even far away from home.
Sitting on the end of one of the jetties on my last day in Georgetown, I realised I’d started to feel really at home in the city. What was intended as a rest stop became somewhere grounding and familiar, and it was with a pang of sadness that I left for my next destination.