Georgetown - The Wildlife Capital Of Penang

Chinatown, Georgetown
see all photos »

After 3 days in the beach resort of Batu Ferranghi, we opted for the shopping and cultural capital of Penang, Georgetown to spend 2 nights before we moved on.

We had heard that Chinatown was the budget place to stay so we started our search on Lebuh Chulia.  After viewing an array of properties along the road we were quickly loosing heart.  All the places we viewed were absolutely dirty and quite depressing!  Most didn't have any windows or ensuite toilet.  We eventually found a place called the 'Garden View Hotel', which strangely didn't have any garden view.  The guy on the desk was really lovely and the room was the lesser of the evils we had seen so far.  It had a bed, ensuite toilet and aircon - what more do you need.  However, we hadn't bargained on the ants in the room.  We saw them on the bed at first, then worked out that they were coming down the wall from the window.  Lee went off to find the guy to see if we could borrow his insect spray.  Bless them, they sprung to action and offered us several other rooms to choose from.  The only one that was really clean and insect free was a windowless room on the next level up.  I wasn't as bad as it sounded and we had no problem sleeping here - it was like being in a cocoon.

they were so big I thought they were crocodiles - stupid me!

see all photos »

The next day we thought we better do some sightseeing so we hired a trishaw - which is a pedal powered 'tuktuk' for three hours at RM30 per hour.  I tried to bargain him down to no avail so we set off.

First stop was the Leong San Tong (Khoo Kongsi) Temple and Clan House.  It is a beautiful old chinese temple and clan house. It costs RM5 per person to enter but its well worth it.  There are some beautiful books and artifacts to look at and the arcitecture is beautiful.

Lee getting a spot of exercise
see all photos »

Next stop was the waterfront and a visit to the Chew Jetty.  This is basically a over water village where different clans have lived for a long time.  You walk along wooden struts and you can sneak a peak into the various homes along the jetty.  All have wonderful spirit houses outside their doors where they burn insense sticks.  On the way back to the entrance, we spied the most massive monitor lizards we have ever seen - they were so big I thought they were crocodiles - stupid me!

Huge monitor Lizards
see all photos »

Next, it was on to Little India which is only a couple of streets long - much smaller than Chinatown but really different to the rest of Georgetown. The indian music was blaring and all around us were women and men in traditional indian garments.  Lots of Georgetown's most delicious restaurants are in this area.

Our final stop was at two of Asia's most beautiful temples - in my humble opinion - Wat Chaiyamangalaray (Thai Buddist Temple) and The Burmese Buddist Temple which are across the road from each other.  No one should come to Penang and not see these temples.  The first temple (Thai) is home to the world's third longest reclining budda - truely amazing.  The Burmese temple houses a very tall standing budda and some amazing statues in its grounds.