George Town in Penang, Malaysia

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So far, if either of us could imagine living somewhere over here, it would be George Town! Not Kuala Lumpur… the streets are too big, the buildings too tall, everything so spread apart. Definitely not Ipoh for exactly the opposite reasons. But George Town, Penang is so perfect! Excellent and endless food options, super nice people, every street is beautiful even if dilapidated and old, AND we even already have a favorite local hair salon. 😉

We arrived sometime in the mid-afternoon, so we quickly checked in, left our bags and headed out! George Town was apparently the first British settlement in Southeast Asia and there is alot of European influence still to be seen here, especially in the architecture. Johannes is a big fan of colonial architecture and history, so he was in heaven.

George Town is known for its street art. We got a map of where the good ones are and tried to hit them all. Below are some of the first ones we found. It’s pretty cool how the artist would use physical items of the wall, or just mount something onto the wall to make the picture complete.

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The first street market we wanted to go to was less than exciting so I will leave that out for now. Another night, we went to one called New Lane Foodstall and it was very good! Below are some pictures of our food that night. We had rice porridge with duck, fried noodles and popiah, which is kind of Malaysia spring roll and all of these were super delicious! We also had pandan desserts kind of like mini pancakes with something on top and then it gets flopped over on itself like a sandwich.

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One thing I thought was pretty cool is the fact that all these different religions are existing peacefully right next to one another. Walking down any street, you have a Mosque next to a Chinese temple across the street from a Hindu temple… Here are some pictures of a few that we thought are nice!

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Quite close to the city of George Town, there is a beach area called Batu Ferringhi. With the bus it took us about an hour to get there, but a grab (kind of like uber but more popular in this part of the world) was just a tiny bit more money and took only about 20 minutes! So we had a nice seaside Indian lunch here one day and then spent the afternoon at the beach. It was very empty most of the day, not too dirty and the water was quite cool and refreshing.

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Kek Lok Si Temple

We filled a whole day with a visit to the Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple in Malaysia. It was built between 1890 and 1930 and is ridiculously beautiful! There was so much to see here, so many little rooms, staircases leading to new courtyards and different mini temples all around.

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And now, some cheesy selfies and pictures featuring US!

While waiting for a bus and then waiting for a ride because the bus was taking too long, we got a sugar cane juice. This was being made right on the street in front of me! They shove the sugar cane into a crusher machine and out comes this deliciously sweet brown green juice. It tastes a bit like a tea made of tree bark and sugar! I loved it. And of course, if you get it to-go, they put it in a plastic bag with a little handle and a straw!

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And now I will add a few pictures of our various night market experiences.

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That’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed! Leave a comment/tip/suggestion below if you want! I have so much more to share about Penang and we are already two cities further. More coming soon! 🙂