We longed to arrive in this country! Even the flight was exciting and gave us a taste of what’s to come.

*Flying Singapore Airlines, our long-awaited entry into the region*

It has taken us a full week to get acclimated to the new time zone. The weather here is very pleasant - not as humid as we feared, just a bit. It rains nearly everyday, but not for very long and mostly at night.

*Heading out for dinner on our first night and excited to be in Malaysia despite the rain*

We are taking it easy and slow to explore - we've got the time! And we lucked out with our hotel, so we ventured into the city every day just a little and enjoyed the hotel a lot.

This is the Hotel Edison where we stayed for the first two weeks. It is a restored colonial style mansion, privately owned, with the friendliest and most helpful staff we ever encountered.

The Edison at night

An old mansion converted into a hotel, it still had that old mansion feel about it

The upper floor had a reading area along with guest rooms

The reading nook was quite cozy

The central atrium was open to the sky and covered with tarp to protect the furniture when raining

We enjoyed the 25m lap pool every day

Breakfast is usually continental, but when they found out that we are adventurous eaters, they supplied us every day with other local breakfast options - like this one: Nasi Lemak: fragrant coconut rice with cucumber, egg, a dollop of red spicy sauce and fried little anchovies. Mix it all up - delicious!

The staff at the hotel took excellent care of us with suggestions of where and what to eat. In the beginning, it all sounded exotic and it took us several weeks to differentiate the main Malaysian dishes by name.

Char Koay Teow is the street food that Penang is famous for: stir-fried flat rice-noodles with garlic, shrimp, beansprouts, egg and more. One big portion cost less than $4. All over Malaysia, people referred to Penang as the food capital of the country!

This street vendor only sells Char Koay Teow

He's been at it for over 20 years

Here is an example of many food courts / hawker centers / night markets with different cuisines including Malay, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern and Western at very reasonable prices and safe to eat.

*Your table has a number and you give the vendor the number and they bring you the food and you pay them.*

We liked all Malaysian dishes besides – believe it or not: the sweets!

*All these sweets pretty much tasted the same to us*

We just loved wandering through the streets of George Town - there are so many eateries, and it is quite inexpensive to eat well here. Fortunately, the portions are smaller than in the US; we usually pay about $20 for the two of us for a nice dinner; no alcohol but delicious mixed fruit drinks. It feels very safe to walk in this town, day and night. Everyone speaks English, but we have also started to learn Malay - tough though.

The downtown of George Town has usually 1-3 story housing; the area where expats were living is a bit further north, on the ocean/beach side (although no one swims here – just the ocean view and the fresh saltwater smell makes it appealing). So we looked at several possibilities like this:

Top floors of the Penang Marriott are residences

Excellent view of Penang Hills

Private pool not for hotel guests

Area still relatively undeveloped

High up condo living wasn't in on our bingo card

Really new, modern apartments, 31st floor for example, 1-Bedroom, ca 600sqft (55qm) for $150,000. Condo living!

So not our thing. But it took us weeks to figure this out.

Every night we went to different restaurants and bars - mainly Malaysian but also Indian and Chinese. All kind of Western cuisines are also available: Greek, Middle-eastern, Italian, Spanish, Mexican but they were of no interest to us. We like it savory and exotic from breakfast to lunch to dinner.

*This savory rice dish wrapped in cucumber and with half an egg is very Malaysian*

One of the most interesting aspects of Malaysia is the mixture of cultures here: Chinese, Malay (Islamic) and Indian, sprinkled in with a few Westerners. That mix is everywhere and always right next to each other which is just fascinating. The housing style in downtown George Town changes as well although from the feeling the predominant style is Chinese.

*We love the blend of cultures in all aspects of Malaysian society*

nicely renovated in Chinese style

some streets look more run down but still safe to wander

Others are in better shape

This home could use some renovation

The roads in the city have all these street gutters that collect the rainwater. They are flowing, do not smell (no sewage), and have no breeding mosquitos.

*These drainage ditches exist throughout the city in one form or another*

Every so often, we stumble across little corners with Buddhist shrines that have either candles burning or food offerings and are well maintained.

They are proud of their street art that pops up at a lot of unexpected location and looks like that:

Crossing the streets is hazardous, as we always look in the wrong direction, and if we made it to the middle, cars and tons of motorcyclist swamp us from the other side out of nowhere.

*Some streets are just bustling at night - life is lived outside*

The Red Garden Food Paradise offers live music in the evening: either Chinese songs for the audience or western songs of the 80ies. Every day of the week another singer or duo. It’s so famous it is in the Lonely Planet guide as a place to visit at night.

Nice idea, but it was opposite our hotel, and as we had a room facing the street, we heard them belting songs until midnight. (At our later stays back at our favorite hotel, we had a different spacious room (# 112) and could not hear the music!!!)

*Pop music night at The Red Garden Food Paradise*

In between houses and restaurants, by and then, a temple - this one is a Hindu temple….

*Hindu Temples in the area are always ornately decorated and very colorful*

.... and this is a Chinese temple two streets further.

We saw also churches and a lot of mosques calling prayers several times a day.

This is a famous sightseeing spot in George Town: the Blue Mansion.

*The Blue Mansion is just a short walk from The Edison where we stayed*

The Blue Mansion, a tribute to Cheong Fatt Tze, a rags to riches businessman in the 1800s, was designed with Feng Shui. The front of the house doesn’t align with a street and the stairs start on solid stone steps. The house has great history and best practice awards for its renovation throughout the years. The locals are extremely proud of this entrepreneur and philanthropist who did a lot for Malaysia over his lifetime.

The blue is real indigo that is insect and fungus repellent

The entrance hall of the Blue Mansion, which is also a hotel and has an excellent bar

Inner courtyard

Apropos bars:

We remembered checking out hidden bars in Boston last year, how much fun that was. So, of course, here are many hidden bars as well. Really hidden. We really had a hard time finding some of them hidden.

Here are some examples: