Penang Beyond Georgetown | Malaysia's Cultural Capital Travel Guide

When most people think of Penang, usually they think of Georgetown, not the middle of the rainforest sweltering in the morning. This isn't even in the afternoon, it is the morning. But, if you are coming here, I greatly recommend doing a trek here to the National Park because basically half the landmass of the island of Penang is rainforest and the other half is city. Georgetown being kind of the meeting point of everything. Most people say Georgetown and I mean if you only have a couple of days, sure, you can just stay there. But, I would recommend coming here for at least four days. That way you can take some time to hike the rainforest, go see some of the beaches, go up Penang Hill. Definitely worthwhile. Oh my god, we made it. How are you feeling, Lane? Sweaty. This is the most sweaty, this is the most sweaty, I don't even want to show you guys, I'm drenched. It's slick. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I mean we made it in the hour and a half that they say the average person does. It was not bad, I wouldn't say it was difficult. It's moderate. And, our first stop that we just got to that you can see behind me is Meramiktik, right? It's a Meramiktik Lake. And there's monkeys, holy moly. This lake is kind of interesting because it has layers of salt and fresh water that obviously don't mix. And it also goes out into, you know, the main body of water as well. The sand looks lovely. So we are going to spend a little time here before making our way to Pantai Karachut, which is known as the Turtle Beach, where usually little baby turtles are born at some point every year. Sadly not right now, but there's also a turtle conservation center that you can, you know, go learn about them and see a few turtles. So we'll probably spend the next couple of hours here before thankfully getting the boat that we booked back to, you know, the other side of the island because I would not want to do that trick again at 1 p.m. and 10 more degrees. From behind the clouds and it's scorching. Well, good morning from Georgetown, the capital city of Penang province. As I was saying before, this is definitely the most convenient place to stay on the island part of the province. It's as walking friendly as you could get, but just keep in mind there's many streets where there are no sidewalks, it is a bit difficult to cross. And another thing that Lane and I have found is that it's not always so easy to get a grab here, especially if you kind of go to the outer parts of the island, you might not be able to get one at all. But if you stay right in the heart of Georgetown, you can more or less walk everywhere. So this morning, we will actually be going to breakfast at a very popular local Malaysian place that has really good roti canai or roti telur that has the egg in it as well. I think that's what I'm going to get. So that is how we are going to start the day. All right. So actually, it's pretty quiet this morning, but I think they have all the regular rotis that we expect. Hello. Good. How are you? You have roti telur? Perfect. What do you want? Roti telur. Or what's the one with egg and cheese? Hello. Yes. Canada. Yeah. First things first, we have some iced teh tarik. Lane, would you like to do the honors to check that it is up to standards? Good. So tasty. All right. Look at this. Freshly made roti telur. This is just with egg, but you can also get like cheese on it and all kinds of different things. Oh, it is hot. And then they give you a side of like dal kind of sauce to dip it in. Give this a try. That's amazing. Yeah. I think if I had to pick my favorite Malaysian food, it's roti telur, like roti with egg, a bit of dal. And I think how much is this? Like three or four ringgit, like one US dollar, basically. Like it's so freaking good. So welcome to Penang, my friends. This is the second largest city in all of Malaysia. And it all started back in 1786 when Captain Francis Light of the British East India Company established Georgetown as a trading port. And because of that, Penang became a melting pot almost overnight. Chinese merchants, Indian traders, Malay communities, Arab settlers, Europeans, they all left their mark here. You can still see it today in the shop houses, the temples, the mosques, and even the food. But in my opinion, what makes Penang especially interesting is how it didn't just freeze in time. Over the past decade, the city has become one of Southeast Asia's most artistic hubs. What started as street murals popping up all around Georgetown has transformed entire alleyways into open-air galleries. And one of the best examples of that transformation is here at the Hin Bus Depot. This space started out in 1947 as exactly what it sounds like, a bus depot. But when operations stopped, the building sat abandoned. But instead of tearing it down, local creatives reclaimed it. And today, Hin Bus Depot is a contemporary art space, exhibition hall, event venue, and weekend market all rolled into one. It perfectly represents Penang's identity, rooted in history, but constantly reinventing itself. One of the most beautiful places here in Penang, I would have to say, is the Esplanade, just this beautiful walkway beside the Malacca Strait, the body of water, right beside us. It isn't that long of a boardwalk, but it does pass some very important things like Penang City Hall, this beautiful white colonial building right beside me. It has this really nice green field. Usually in the evening times is when everybody comes out, when it's a little bit cooler. But absolutely, if you are coming to Georgetown, the Esplanade and City Hall area is a must visit. Now Penang's story isn't just about colonial buildings and street art, it's about cultural fusion. And nowhere is that more beautifully expressed than Chinese Peranakan culture. The Peranakans, also known as Baba Nyonya community, are descendants of early Chinese settlers who arrived in the Malay archipelago centuries ago and married local Malay women. Over generations they created a completely unique identity, blending Chinese traditions with Malay language, fashion, architecture, and cuisine. You will see many different examples of Peranakan culture and heritage all throughout Penang but one of the most famous buildings that I would highly recommend you visit is the Blue Mansion. Built in the 1890s by Chong Fatsu, often called the Rockefeller of the East, is this indigo blue mansion that is one of Southeast Asia's most iconic heritage homes. Blending Chinese feng shui principles with Victorian era design, the mansion features Scottish cast iron railings, Art Nouveau stained glass, open air courtyards, and even indoor plumbing, which was revolutionary for its time. After falling into decline, it was carefully restored and is now a boutique hotel and museum, widely regarded as one of Malaysia's greatest conservation success stories. The Blue Mansion gained international fame when it appeared in Indochine, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and later in Crazy Rich Asians, introducing this vibrant blue landmark to audiences around the world. So whether you choose to come to the Blue Mansion as a hotel guest, or for afternoon tea as we did, this is definitely a place in Penang that I would recommend you visit. First of all, we had to move because it started raining, but Lane, yes, there's a leak, but Lane, you have never had caviar caviar, these bigger orange ones, so I would like to see your reaction to it. Well, okay, that's just one, but I was thinking you're gonna, okay, fine. I'm scared. Lane, this is not that scary. It's salty. Yeah, salty. But try it, try it with the, I don't know, I don't know what they did. I think you should take the first bite. I have to try everything for her first. Fine, I will try it. It's, it's raw fish. It's sashimi. I won't like it. This is why I get you to try these first. Okay, well, I like it, it's good. It's nice, yeah, it's like sashimi and caviar. Great. There's one thing we haven't done today, Lane. I don't want to. Why not? You know why. How are you gonna leave this country not having tried their most famous fruit that they love so much? That they ban in so many places. But love. Just a taste, just a taste, just a tiny taste for your cousin who wants to see your reaction so much. Come on, come on, come on. But we made a deal. Of what? That you have to try it first. Sure, absolutely. Then you know. Get two gloves. Okay, two gloves. Thank you very much, Lane. Well, yeah, so you don't have to touch it with your regular fingers. And we're very new to durian, so like, what are these different kinds? It tastes like green onions. I don't like it. But you have to try it in Southeast Asia. For experience. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Exactly, exactly. So, okay, Lane. Okay, I'll try it first. I'll try it first. It's just the smallest pieces. Let's see. I'm gonna try it, guys. Here we go, durian. Yeah, yeah, that's what I would do. Sounds like a cheesy onion. You're scaring her. It's alright, but yeah, I would eat it all the time, obviously. Yeah, just do it. Come on. It looks bad. Really? Come on, this is not fear factor. Come on. Come on, you can do it. It is weird. That's so weird. Like, I get the onion. Yeah. But then I get the banana. Yeah. And the custard. Yeah, see? It's confusing. I don't want to eat the whole thing. It's okay. Yeah. In there? Okay. Well, I'm proud of you. You did it. Good job. Well, good morning from Kek Lok Si temple. Not that you can see it fully yet behind me, but this is the largest Buddhist temple in all of Malaysia. It has a lot of different architecture styles of Chinese, Thai, Burmese, I guess even. But this is a must. Like, if you are coming to Penang and you are only going to see one temple, this would be it. This is spectacular, but I am so sweaty. You're really sweaty. Like, it's not even that late in the day, but like, especially climbing the stairs. That'll do it. But yeah, the views are so worth it. You just get a bird's eye view of the city. The temple is spectacular. It's huge. Huge. Like, we've been here for over an hour. For sure. We haven't even finished covering the ground. No, no. There's a long ways to go. And if I didn't already mention this in a voiceover, if you get the chance to come during Chinese New Year, they do have it open later in the night and all the different lanterns that you guys have seen, they all light up. So that would be pretty cool to like, come here at night and see everything lit up. That is huge. That is crazy. Definitely didn't look that big from like, well, far away, but like... Like it did, but then it's when you walk up to it where it's like... Enormous. Yeah. What a busy three days it has been. And in a way, I feel like we didn't even see everything. We didn't. Like... Scratched, but barely scratched. I think if you were to really see everything in Penang, like, you need at least a week and you're going all day in the hot sun. So just... Fighting traffic. Yeah. Whether you're in a car or on foot. I think that's definitely the biggest negative that I would actually say about Penang is we really struggled getting a grab. A lot of times, the traffic is, you know, hard to walk through. Even in Georgetown, not many sidewalks. But I mean, that's in a lot of Southeast Asia. It's not just Penang. And I mean, being on an island, there's only so many routes. I guess we should have. Yeah. But like, obviously, overall, I would say I really enjoyed coming here. Especially the fact that it's a nice blend of, like, city and nature, right? Like, the national park was beautiful. I'm very happy with my visit, but I feel like I would have to come back here a second time to, like, thoroughly say how I feel. Lane, what was Penang like for you? I liked it. I'd come back. It wasn't like Ipoh wow. Wow. If you watched our Ipoh video. I agree. It was nice. I would come back. Yeah, absolutely. But I would love to hear from you guys. Let me know in the comments if you have been to Penang. What was your experience? And we will be off to Langkawi tomorrow. Our final destination of our trip in Malaysia. So stay tuned, guys. Sending you lots of love. Keep being your own kind of beautiful. Bye.