Penang, Malaysia: Great Food, Great Art, and an All Around Great City

We wrote all about settling into our five-week stay in Penang here, but we did a lot more than send our kids to classes and preschool. Penang checked all the boxes for a great place to visit – art, culture, history, fun, and really really good food.

Street of Harmony

On our first full day in Penang, I took the kids to Youth Park, the most fantastic shaded park we had been to in Asia, filled with huge trees, interesting play equipment, a scooter/bike path, three swimming pools, and hundreds of monkeys. It was a weekday so there weren’t a lot of people there. I started chatting with an older, retired couple while the kids were playing. The husband was Indian/Hindu, his wife was Chinese/Buddhist, they have three daughters, each of whom married a man of a different ethnicity. That, in a nutshell, is Penang: an enormous melting pot of many faiths and cultures. It became so because Chinese, Indians, and other Middle Eastern people flocked to Penang over the centuries seeking work and/or refuge from war.

There is one street in the middle of Georgetown, the capital city of Penang, called the Street of Harmony. Within a 200 meter block, you will find the oldest church (St. George’s Church), Taoist temple (Goddess of Mercy), Hindu temple (Sri Mariamman Temple), and mosque (Kapitan Keling Mosque) in Penang. No Jewish representation (we are in Malaysia, after all), but it was pointed out to us that the stained glass windows of the mosque, which was designed by a German architect, feature stars of David. (I tried to look more into this because I found it fascinating, but couldn’t find any information.)

A nice thought that all religions could live together in harmony. If only…

Architecture

A decade ago, Georgetown was a no-go area, just a sorry sight of crumbling buildings. But in 2008, it became a UNESCO Heritage Site because it is, in essence, a living museum.  It is the most complete surviving historic city center in Asia. The British used Penang as a base for the British East India Company in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the architecture reflects the British colonization, mixed with Indian, Chinese, and Islamic elements. Some buildings have been preserved, and others are in a complete state of disrepair. All are jaw dropping. And in the little nooks and crannies are the coolest restaurants, bars, shops, and galleries.

Even the firehouse has a ton of character.

One of the more incredibly restored buildings is known as the Blue Mansion, formally known as the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (Cheong Fatt Tze was a wealthy 19th century merchant). It is now a hotel with Chinese-style courtyards, English clay tiles, and Scottish iron works. It is stunning.

Street Art

Penang is chock full of the most vibrant and interesting street art. Especially in the streets of Georgetown, murals, steel sculptures, and wall paintings are on every street corner. When Georgetown received UNESCO status, the city commissioned 52 steel rod caricatures called “Voices from the People,” designed to reflect the people, character, and points of interest in Georgetown. We didn’t see all of them but they were really interesting to read.

The city also asked artists to create an open air art gallery that reflects the multiculturalism and diversity of Georgetown. Some of the murals are interactive and involve physical objects, and they all tend to express the daily life of the people of Penang in a humorous way. The most famous street art is the bicycle photo at the top of this post – it is on every tourist souvenir. But there are other equally incredible pieces by so many artists, some of which we’ve included below. The art made our many many walks through town so fun and interesting.

Street Food

Food is a huge part of our travels, and street food is our favorite food. There is no better place that we’ve been for street food – or food in general – than Penang. In some countries, we got bored of the food pretty quickly because it was one note and without a lot of variety. Not so with the food in Penang. It is a fusion of Indian, Thai, and Chinese food, and there are so many delicious dishes. Robby’s and Reed’s favorite dish is Char Koey Teow (pronounced ‘koy tao’), which is basically Chinese pad thai. One of my favorite dishes was Nasi Lemak, coconut rice cooked in a pandan leaf, topped with fried crispy anchovies, toasted peanuts, and cucumbers. I would grab a Nasi Lemak for breakfast (it cost 30 cents) on my way home from dropping Ari off at preschool. I also liked Asam Laksa, a traditional Malaysian shrimp noodle soup (it was not Robby’s favorite). Ari and Miles loved chicken satay. There were so many other varieties of noodles and soups and satays, and we even found dim sum.

Most street food was found in hawker stalls – kind of like an outdoor food court with food carts in the perimeter and tables in the middle. There were stalls everywhere so food is easy to get and so darn cheap. We would regularly fill ourselves for $15 (for 5 of us).

Everyone told us that we absolutely had to try Penang’s famous dessert – Chendul. It is a shaved ice dessert (pictured below) with kidney beans, corn, coconut milk, and pandan-flavored palm flour noodles It sounds weird and it is. We all hated it except for Miles.

Penang Hill

The interior of Penang is all jungle and right in the middle is Penang Hill. A funicular took us up to see views of northeast Penang and the bridge to mainland Malaysia. It was a hazy day when we were up there, but the views were still spectacular.

There are numerous eateries at the top of the hill, where we stuffed ourselves with different noodle dishes and curry puffs (phyllo pie filled with curried chicken and potatoes). We took a little hike once we got to the top. We got lost a bit and took a wrong turn (or two) but we kept our sense of humor and eventually made it back up a very steep hill.

Kok Lek Si Temple

We also visited one of the biggest Chinese temples in Penang – Kok Lek Si Temple. It is very beautiful and colorful. We spent a couple hours wandering through the temple and the hillside. The kids got some ribbons to place on the altar in the temple; each color signified a different wish – world peace, wealth, good luck, etc.

Penang National Forest

We previewed one of our best days in Penang in our prior post. It began on our second or third night in the city. We took a Grab (Uber) ride to some hawker stalls that were closed, and our driver, Marshall, made a u-turn and took us to some better stalls. On our way, we talked about our travels, and he mentioned that he loves to hike and would love to go hiking with us one day. We took his number, got in touch with him a couple weeks later, and went hiking with him through Penang National Forest, in the northwest part of the island.

The hike was fantastic – lots of shade, lots of trees, not too strenuous for the kids, and really beautiful scenery.

We ended up at a beach called Turtle Beach, so named because there is a turtle conservation center there. The beaches are not for swimming in most places in Penang because there are pretty nasty jellyfish, so we picnicked and then took a boat to another beach called Monkey Beach, which is more of a swimming beach. The boat ride was fast and bumpy and the kids laughed and giggled the whole ride.

Monkey Beach was really fun. There were beach shacks serving snacks and drinks, rope swings, and – as its name implies – monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys.

The kids and Robby relaxed on the beach, and I continued on another hike with Marshall to a lighthouse with the most spectacular views of the beaches and interior jungles of Penang. After a few hours at Monkey Beach, we took a boat back to the entrance of the park and went home. It was a perfect day.

Escape

And, finally, after 5 weeks in Penang and hearing over and over again about a water park called Escape, we went on last full day. I am not a big fan of waterparks, but this place is so clean, so well-managed, and so beautiful. It felt like being in a resort in the jungle, and best part is that almost the entire water park is in the shade. One of the slides holds the Guinness world record for being the longest water slide in the world – it is 1,100 meters (3,600 feet). We had to take a ski lift to the top of the slide. It took a few minutes to get down and it was a nice, relaxing ride through the jungle and trees.

There were tons of slides for the little kids, too – they had a blast!

The best part about Escape is it’s not just a water park; it is also an adventure park with ropes courses and scaling walls for all ages. Reed dragged me onto a very high ropes course and while he had a blast, I couldn’t wait for it to end. The little kids had fun scaling trees and panning for gold.

That rounds out our 5 weeks in Penang. Click here to read a bit about our quick jaunt in Kuala Lumpur.

As always, thank you for reading! x