Malaysia - Cultural diversity in Penang

The last island we visit on our island hopping tour is Penang. Here, too, we travel from Langkawi by ferry and then take a car from Uber to the rented apartment in Georgetown. Laundry is first on the agenda. The children prefer to stay in the apartment and just play. They want to stay 'at home' for a day. Travel fatigue sets in. And we adults are already quite satisfied with the many wonderful places we have visited. Full of impressions that even we adults can only process slowly.

Penang turns out to be much bigger than we expected. The capital Georgetown was declared a World Heritage Site in 2008 because it offers a remarkable mix of various cultures - not only in terms of cityscape. In the afternoon, we managed to convince the kids to go out. And we can convince ourselves of the diversity of the city: from Little India to Chinatown and European-influenced areas, everything can be seen. You turn the corner and suddenly find yourself facing a completely new 'world'. For me, a very wild mix that doesn't make me 'warm' with Penang either. Somehow I have a hard time here in Malaysia and when rats suddenly come towards us in Chinatown in the middle of the day at a shrine, my day is over. Although in fairness I have to admit that I really liked the charm of the Clan Jetties that we visited in the afternoon. Clan Jetties is a maze of wooden houses built on stilts over the water and connected to each other by wooden walkways. Many people of predominantly Chinese origin still live here today and often operate small shops with souvenirs or food in the front rooms. The small village invites you to marvel and stroll around and is also a World Heritage Site.

The next day we take care of the transportation to Kuala Lumpur. However, train tickets cannot be purchased in Penang, so we take the ferry to Butterworth. An experience in itself. At the ticket counter, the nice gentleman tells us that we only have the choice between the train at 6:20 a.m. or in the evening at 6:00 p.m. Neither option is optimal for a four-hour journey, and after briefly weighing both options, we decide on the morning train. In the afternoon, we return to the hotel, get pizza, and then, at the urgent request of our children, go to the pool on the ninth floor of our skyscraper. There we end the day and in the evening only make it to the ground floor to the sushi bar.