Koh Lanta > George Town

Hi guys, a lot has happened since our last post ... but we'll try to keep it short and sweet ;)

On the 27th, we said goodbye to everyone we had grown fond of on Koh Lanta and headed towards Malaysia... on our last day on Koh Lanta, we paddled to the small island of Koh Por with a few people... very peaceful and paradise-like... however, even this little piece of land suffers from the consequences of excessive plastic consumption... at this point, a little reminder to everyone: a conscious handling of plastic is super important - we see that here every day... We all know that plastic cannot be completely avoided, but there are many sustainable alternatives and maybe we can skip the bag of chips or the bottle of cola here and there. ;) so, back to the story...

Since we want to travel without a plane, only by land and water, our journey took us 12 hours south to George Town Penang Malaysia. We are always surprised how easy, cheap and uncomplicated traveling in Asia is... We love it!!! 🙏🏼

At the border, we had to make a forced stop... it was actually quite funny, because we got to know super interesting and lovely people again, but not so nice for our fellow travelers! 😅 Basically, the officer at the airport in Bangkok stamped the wrong date in our passports when we entered Thailand, which led the border officials in Thailand to assume that we had illegally stayed in Thailand one day too long... well, we tried to explain to them that we had only spent 28 instead of the assumed 31 days in Thailand, but no chance 😄. After about 1 hour, we finally went through the whole process and reluctantly paid our 1,000 baht fine and wanted to continue with our corrected passports, when suddenly the nice lady noticed the mistake in the system... If there is something more bureaucratic than paying a fine to a Thai authority, it is canceling a fine payment. So, everything backwards again... 🙈 We received our 1,000 baht back and a few apologetic smiles and were finally allowed to go... phewww we still had a 3-hour drive ahead of us, so let's go...

After we left the noisy and tough city traffic behind us, the culture shock was complete... after 2 weeks of peace and relaxation in relaxed Koh Lanta, we had to get used to the hectic hustle and bustle of the city again... 😅

After a short time, however, we also realized that George Town is a pretty cool city... probably once again because of the great people we had the pleasure of getting to know there... but also the colorful street art, the delicious street food, the old colonial architecture, and above all the cultural mix of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians make the city so special... nowhere else have we seen so many different cultures living together in harmony... in Malaysia (maybe even in the whole world?), Penang is apparently the most tolerant and open region when it comes to coexistence of different religions.

If you visit George Town, don't miss having a beer at Antarabangsa Enterprise... a small kiosk in Old Town known for its cheap beer prices (of course not entirely legal ;)) and international exchange (Antarabangsa = international)... here we spent every evening with different characters from all over the world together with the locals... a real melting pot. :)

In addition to the city, there is a lot of nature and a few beaches to see in the surrounding area of Penang... the national park is definitely worth a visit... the nature trails in one of the smallest national parks in the world are very natural and make you sweat a lot ;) adjacent to it, there are the beautiful Monkey Beach and Turtle Beach... we only made it to Turtle Beach, where there is a turtle sanctuary. Here, sick turtles are nursed back to health and the laid eggs on the beach are protected.

Other than that, we explored the island by scooter and visited various temples. We also went to Penang Hill, but except for the beautiful view, the colorful flowers, and a few forest paths, it was too touristy and built-up for us...

Right now, we are in Ipoh and will keep you updated... well, it seems like we didn't manage to keep it short and sweet, but you can handle it ;)

Peace and Love! Sergi and Mine ❤️