Georgetown
After saying goodbye to Thailand we crossed the border into Malaysia. Our first stop was Georgetown, the state capital of Penang. The whole city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has a lot to see. It is famous for its wide variety of historic architecture, which juxtaposes modern street art. We spent 4 nights spotting cool graffiti, visiting temples, browsing malls and hiking through the jungle. We stayed 3 nights at a guesthouse called Heritage 61, which we would recommend to anybody heading to G Town.
On our first night I was treated to a stay at a hotel on the ultra romantic Love Lane. Blissful ideas of romance disappeared when I heard the story behind the street name – traders of the past used to keep their mistresses here! Also the hotel was a dump, so no rose petals or poetry in sight!
We walked a lot around Georgetown, taking in the sights of the old buildings. It is a fusion of many different cultures, featuring many colonial English buildings alongside Chinese, Indian and Islamic influences. Some of the buildings reminded me of New Orleans – big pastel coloured houses with shutters and balconies. Just around the corner from these historic sites you can see modern culture in the shape of street art. Whether it is Bruce Lee karate kicking a cat, or a young boy perched above an actual motorbike, there is a lot of graffiti to find. You can pick up a map with the location of each piece marked on it.
One of the funniest experiences we had in Georgetown was popping into a local mall to have a wander round. Initially I was oblivious to the attention but apparently a giant gringo and his ginger girlfriend are not the normal customers there! I felt like like either a celebrity or a convict as shop assistants followed us round and other customers stared. My hair got us a lot of double takes too! The malls are massive and sell everything you’ve ever wanted, mainly copies of well-known brands. The t-shirt slogans are just bizzare too!
In true Travelling G style we hired a motorbike to see as much of the island as possible. We pulled into tropical fruit stalls to try local produce, discovered beaches full of locals and visited temples. We went to a Thai Buddhist temple where there was a 33m long statue of a Buddha laying down – it was huge! We also made a trip to the National Park, where we were hoping to see turtles in a sanctuary. Unfortunately it was shut so we went to monkey beach and hiked through the jungle. We saw four massive bosc monitors (big lizards, google it!) on our way, as well as a few monkeys too.
Cameron Highlands
Our next stop was Cameron Highlands. We found that one night was enough to see the important bits of this hilly Malaysian paradise. This location fitted my image of how Malaysia would look before I arrived in the country – lush green rolling hills, fluffy clouds and blue skies (somewhat like the Teletubbies) – but also provided a nice reminder of home. We ate scones, drank tea, visited a strawberry farm and stayed in a town full of curry houses. Safe to say Little England (aka Tanah Rata) was full of the best bits of home!
Oli and I did a half day tour with a legendary guide called Bula. He took our group to the Mossy Forest (not mozzie forest as Oli initially thought it was!), a mountain lookout, Boh tea plantation, a butterfly park and strawberry farm. The forest walk was incredibly muddy but a lot of fun. All of the trees are completely covered in green moss, due to the area’s high elevation and humidity.
My main source of excitement for this day was going to the tea plantation. I’ve missed my standard 8 cups of tea a day (I worked in an office, don’t judge me!) since being away and a trip to Boh was long awaited. Malaysia is much more into their tea than Thailand – thank god – so I’ve been feeling much more human here. After seeing how they produce the tea (using machinery dating back to 1935 – old school) we could sample their produce. Along with some new friends from the tour we ordered scones, cakes and a range of different teas. I had a loose leaf mango tea and a delicious piece of banana and carrot cake, while looking out over the scenic tea fields. I promise I haven’t used any edits or filters on the photo below, this is actually how amazing it looked!
In other news
One major reason I love Malaysia – they have a version of M&Ms called Nips! On our first night this brought us so much amusement we had to explain it to a confused shop assistant (who still didn’t really get it!)
Travelling Ginge 