Contrast program on Penang!

Still in the ferry port of Langkawi, we joked about the old yellow cigar-shaped boat on the pier and hoped that it would be the ferry for the shorter land connections. After all, the newer catamaran ferry will take us on the 3-hour crossing at the end of the jetty.

But our good mood quickly disappeared when we had to board the old vessel.

That was our ferry - so the yellow dinghy on the right...

To entertain us during the crossing, movies like Waterworld, Titanic 1 & 2 were shown....what a great omen...

After 3 hours, we safely arrived at the port of Georgetown on Penang. The entrance was very impressive and due to the many high-rise buildings, it was completely different than expected and so contrasting to Langkawi...

Container ships in front of the skyline...

In the sweltering heat of 33°, we searched for our Old Penang Guesthouse in the city shaped by the English colonial era.

In the process, we unexpectedly walked through 'Little India' and found our nice hostel on the border with Chinatown.

Cultural mix: between colonial times and the different cultures and religions

After a short cool-down in the room, we set out to explore the advertised street art in the numerous alleys of Penang. There are two different types of street art. On the one hand, there are grid cartoons, which we didn't like and crossed them off our route after the first two. And on the other hand, there are drawings/paintings on crumbling walls. Some of the street arts were already very faded or worn out (see cat or motorcycle child).

These also attract many Asian tourists to the city, who have taken countless photos with themselves and the motifs without understanding the meaning in the pictures. For example, they sat on the motorcycle in the street art and completely covered the boy :-D

For sunset, we relaxed in a large park on the promenade, watched many families with young children playing with soap bubbles and other toys, and cheered the anglers for a moment (unfortunately, none of them caught a fish during this time :-) ).

Small stalls with toy sellers everywhere and children playing around...

Sunset on the promenade

In the evening, we enjoyed the delicious food from the small street kitchens. A portion costs around €1-2.

Street kitchens by the roadside

Here, you could buy all sorts of skewers and cook them yourself in small pots...

We decided to have rice cake with vegetables and egg.

On the second day, we took a local bus to Penang Hill. To go all the way up, you could only ride a cable car because it was very steep. The view from up there over the city was really impressive, but of course, there were many tourists as well...

We decided to take a short hike to a bridge above the trees (similar to the treetop path in the Harz Mountains ;-)) - but when we arrived there, the entrance fee was too high compared to everything else (tourist prices..), so we decided to continue to the garden with the carnivorous plants (Monkey Cups)... By the way, we were among the few who walked on foot - golf cars were constantly passing us by (but Clemens wasn't allowed to ride ;-) )...

Shortly before the garden, we were surprised by heavy rainfalls, so we skipped it as well and started our way back during the next rain break.

At first, the path still went along paved roads and small idyllic passes...

... and then gradually disintegrated due to previous landslides and was eventually closed by small signs (which, of course, were not there before).. The collapsed bridges didn't cause jubilation for Thea, but turning back was not an option...

We reached the intermediate station of the cable car unscathed and looked forward to the bed...

The next morning, we would continue to the Cameron Highlands!!!

That's it from the west coast of Malaysia... Let's go to the mountains, where it should be a few degrees cooler :-)

Best regards, Thea & Clem, sending hugs