Parker Family Adventure: Georgetown

The ferry from Butterworth to Georgetown took about 20 minutes and cost a grand total of 3 ringgit 60, about $1 for the four of us. Bargain! We stood in amongst the cars while Eleanor and Leo made friends with the people next to us who had a little girl and spoke little English. When we went to disembark, the gave Eleanor and Leo each a box containing a local cake/biscuit. People are so kind and generous!

Georgetown was hot. We walked from the ferry terminal to Silver Shine Guesthouse, which took about 25 minutes. Our first impressions of Georgetown were that it was bigger than Melaka, a bit run down and the the roads were incredibly busy. Not easy with heavy bags, two hot and hungry children and non-existent footpaths in some places.

It was fantastic to walk into an air conditioned reception! We had the family room, a lovely wood panelled room with a private bathroom (the only room with one I think!); the kids slept on a comfortable bunk downstairs and us upstairs. Putting down our bags and heading to the little restaurant next door for afternoon tea relaxed us all and gave us a chance to plan the next couple of days. Georgetown is known for its excellent food, so no matter what else we did, there would be eating! I wanted to try a chow tey keow and Adrian was determined to find a Penang laksa.

That evening we thought we'd try one of the street food markets near our guesthouse. It turned out that there is no market on a Monday, so we decided on Joo Hooi, a restaurant that sounded as though it would have a good laksa and walked there instead. It was closed, so we picked another at random. It was flasher than we would normally go for, but had delicious fresh fruit juices, and my tasty chicken rendang was the dish of the evening. It was only slightly awkward when out of the blue Eleanor asked our waitress whether she was a boy or a girl. On our walk between restaurants that evening, we managed to find a dress for Eleanor in a shop with beautiful brightly coloured saris, something she'd been searching for since Melaka.

We arranged a taxi to take us to Penang National Park the next morning so we could see some forest and do the canopy walkway. When we arrived, we discovered that the walkway was closed for maintenance, but there were lots of other walks of varying lengths, so we picked a short one and did that. The path was well-defined, paved at the beginning and concrete steps in some places. The kids loved the swing bridge and scrambling over exposed tree roots. The path was in the trees, but followed the coast. The sand was nice, but there was a lot of rubbish washed up on some of the beaches. We were happy to save our swimming for the islands. Leo in particular enjoyed the walk and would have kept going a bit longer if we hadn't needed to get back to our taxi driver.

That afternoon we went to the botanic gardens for a wander and to see the monkeys and black squirrels. They have moved most of the monkeys outside of the park, so we saw some at the entrance and a few had sneaked their way back in. Two took a real liking to Leo, which gave him and Adrian a fright. It turns out they weren't interested in Leo at all, but in the plastic bag he was carrying, which they thought contained food. They jumped on it when Adrian threw it on the path. The last laugh was on them though; the only thing in the bag was the children's rock collection! Other than that, our wander around the gardens was lovely. They are pretty and quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Eleanor and Leo raced about finding rocks (crystals) for their collection and were disappointed to lose it to the monkeys! We didn't see any black squirrels though.

The next day we decided to have breakfast at a funky little cafe we'd seen the day before with eggs benedict on the menu, only to find it was closed at 9am (it opens for brunch not breakfast). We then thought we'd try Joo Hooi again before remembering it doesn't open until 11am (it pays to check opening hours here!). Fortunately, there is always another option, in this case the Black Kettle, an immaculately clean cafe a little like Starbucks, but more unique and quirky.

From there we went off to to explore the World Heritage area of Georgetown. Like Melaka it is designated a smoke free area, so a pleasant spot to be, even if not perfectly observed.

We loosely followed a walk suggested in the Lonely Planet. It took in a couple of clan houses, the ostentatious temples and housing areas built in the 1800s by local Chinese smuggling families. The Khoo Kongsi was the only one we could see inside and most spectacular, with a large temple incredibly detailed art works and carvings. Some scenes from Anna and the Jing were filmed there as tgey weren't allowed to film in Thailand. We also visited the clan jetties, old wooden jetties where the clans brought in their loot, complete with housing and shops selling tacky souvenirs (which does reduce the authenticity somewhat!). We enjoyed our walk down Lebuh Armenian filled with arts and crafts in amongst better quality souvenir shops.

Georgetown is known for its excellent street art. Wow! On walls all over the city are beautiful and interesting pieces of art. Some a simple painting, and others a prop embedded in a wall with painted details like an old bike with children painted on the wall as though they are riding it or an inner tube stuck to a wall with a cat coming through it. Eleanor and Leo enjoyed Minion-spotting as we've recently watch the Despicable Me movies. We've Minions them everywhere on this trip so far, for sale in various forms, painted on walls etc.

We caught a trishaw (far less bling than in Melaka!) to try Joo Hooi one last time. In Georgetown the drivers often seem to be older men, and that was certaintly true of Eleanor and Adrian's driver, so it was excellent to see that he, and they, arrived in one piece. The door to the restaurant was open, but the inside was burnt out. So much for third time lucky we thought, until a smiley man popped out and took us to the end of a side street, where the same restaurant had reopened. Not only was there laksa but also the chow tey keow. Yay! Adrian said it was the best laksa he'd ever had. And he's had a few...

That afternoon we popped back to the edge of the gardens, where we'd seen a big playground. The kids raced about trying everything out. A playground every few days is definitely a good thing! And we saw a black squirrel in the trees.

The next morning was New Year's Eve, so we were up and off bright and early to catch the ferry to Langkawi. Our final stop in Malaysia.