George Town, we love you!

That describes our stay in George Town pretty well! Georgetown is the capital of the island of Penang, used to be a British colonial town and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List like Melaka. Here you can find a great old town with many sights, including numerous mosques, churches, Hindu and Chinese Buddhist temples, an old fortress and many other historic buildings. But what we liked the most were the many small pubs, restaurants, shops and the great street art for which George Town is famous. It can be found in every corner of the old town, often hidden in dark side streets, behind garbage containers, etc. It's a bit like a treasure hunt, something new can suddenly appear everywhere.

From our hostel, which was located between Chinatown and Little India, we could easily walk everywhere.

On our first evening, we visited a settlement of old stilt houses. The houses are all inhabited, but you can still visit the settlement. Not nice for the residents when heaps of tourists walk directly (and I mean directly!) in front of their living room every day. Many residents, however, have taken advantage of the tourist streams and sell souvenirs, fruit, ice cream and a lot of junk. A completely different way of life! Unfortunately, the water around George Town is incredibly dirty and polluted. Because of this, the small alleys also smell quite strong.

The next day we strolled through the city, looked out for street art, went to the sea, ate well (super delicious vegan sushi and greasy creamy cakes), walked through the beautiful little shops for a while (and yes, we bought something of course...) and then ended up at a street market near our hostel in the evening. We mostly ate where the locals ate. The food was good (but as always, too spicy). We were rather disturbed by the many rats running around us. :-)

All in all, a great and eventful day!