Georgetown

After a solid 15 hours, we finally arrived in Georgetown on the island of Penang in Malaysia. Here, we booked a homestay (double room with shared bathroom) for the first time, called Cocoa Mews. From the internet, we already knew that there are two meowing roommates, who greeted us directly and sometimes occupied our bed, Bobby and Garfield 😄 Overall, there are many stray cats in Malaysia, but they are well taken care of here; there are water and food bowls everywhere. In the morning, our host Howie always brought various specialties from Malaysia in Tupperware boxes for everyone to try. Through this, we sampled various Malay, Indian, and Muslim snacks. He explained to us that Penang is known for its different dishes; Georgetown is essentially the food capital of Malaysia. Due to its history and different occupations, there are Indian, Muslim, Chinese, and British influences here, both in architecture and food. On our first day, we set off with a map of the city and checked out the famous street art, which can be admired either as metal sculptures with historical information or as wall paintings. Within one street, you can see both Indian and Chinese temples next to a Muslim restaurant. It is nice to see how the different religions and cultures coexist side by side here. The next day, we took a bus to the west of the island for a mere 2 ringgit per person (less than 50 cents) and visited the Kek Lok Si Temple, which is located on a hill and is very impressive. It has Thai, Chinese, and Burmese elements and offers a great view of the city. The next day, we went to the Taman Negara National Park, which is located in the rainforest and where you can see macaques and langurs in the wild on the way. We hiked around a lot here. Our first stop was the Kerachut Beach, where there is a so-called turtle sanctuary. The turtle eggs are incubated at certain temperatures - the sex of the turtles depends on the warmth of the sand. Due to global warming, there are currently many more female turtles than males. Once they are large enough, they are released into the sea. The baby turtles were really cute and raced around wildly in the tank. There was also a fully grown green sea turtle, which was already quite big, but hopefully not the largest we will see on our trip 😉 Our second stop was Monkey Beach, where we didn't see any monkeys, but incredibly cute puppies that were born 5 weeks ago. We met an interesting man, originally from Germany but traveling for years, who takes care of the puppies. He arrived shortly before the corona lockdown and actually wanted to continue to Thailand, but couldn't leave anymore and has been living in a small hut on the beach since then. He's a crazy guy, but somehow also quite interesting. The next day, we went to the Botanic Gardens, which didn't impress us that much. Afterwards, we climbed up Penang Hill in a very strenuous hike through the jungle, which offers another great view of the city and houses beautiful plants and wild monkeys. For the descent, we treated ourselves to a ride on the cable car, which zooms through the world's steepest cable car tunnel. In the evening, we enjoyed a delicious Indian meal, including naan bread and masala tea. The next day, we will continue to the Cameron Highlands by coach.