Getting to Penang
Georgetown, Penang is situated on an island 4 hours by train from Kuala Lumpur and a short 20 minute ferry ride. We book our train using the KTMB website for Sentral Kuala Lumpur to Butterworth. You have the option to choose between Gold (59 MYR or 20 CAD per person) and Platinum seats (79 MYR or 26 CAD per person). The Gold option would increase your journey by an additional 15-20 minutes because you would have more stops than the Platinum option. Neither options are direct but the ride is quite comfortable and typically on time. Once you get into Butterworth Station, the ferry station is a short 7 minute walk and the ferry ride cost around 1.30 MYR (or 40 cents CAD per person). The last ferry ride is at midnight so make sure to properly align your train ride with the ferry times otherwise you will have to take a very expensive taxi ride to the island.
Our accommodation: Hotel
We stayed at the Museum Hotel which is about $40 per night. The hotel looks vintage and quite charming (a little bit creepy too so I suggest you don't stay here alone unless you're less of a scaredy cat than me haha). The hotel has a pool, rooftop and free use of bikes. The hotel is not situated in central Georgetown (approximately a 10 minute walk).
Things to do
Free walking tour (tipping is highly encouraged)
First thing's first - do a free walking tour, this would give you a good idea of what Georgetown is all about and can help you better plan on what you should do. The George Town Walkabout Tour, conducted every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 10.30am, is the perfect introduction to George Town’s multi-layered, multi-ethnic history and culture. The 90 minute tour encompasses the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage zone, and outlines the key points of Penang’s history. There is no advance registrations for this tour and the only way to register is to go to the tourist information located at Whiteways Arcade (Beach St, Georgetown, 10300 George Town, Penang) before 10am. The tourist information opens at 9am and we recommend for you to get there before 9:30 am as the tour is only limited to 20 people and spots get filled up really quick. There is a foodcourt across the tourist information so after you register you can enjoy some nice local breakfast there while you wait for the tour to start at 10:30am.
We had Ron as our tour guide and he is very knowledgeable and funny so if you get the chance to have him as your guide, you're in for a treat.
Eat and be merry
We went to this charming city knowing that this is the food paradise of Malaysia and it did not disappoint. Our recommendations for places to eat or just have a drink:
Places found by searching "restaurants near me" in googlemaps
More by Arang Coffee - We found this place searching "restaurants near me" in googlemaps. We ordered the Mushroom Aglio Olio (24 MYR or 8 CAD) and Fish Croissant Burger (24 MYR or 8 CAD) See our post about this on our Instagram.
Lagenda House and Cafe - This was an unexpected gem. I've never seen this cafe/restaurant mentioned in any of my research. We ordered 2 appetizers, 2 main and a dessert all for $30 CAD including tip!
Places found from our research on the "penangfoodie" website
Kafka - We ordered the Beef Rendang eggs Benedict for $9 - this place is a little bit pricey than the other places we've been to but the atmosphere is great and wifi was pretty good so we stayed here for 4 hours doing work on our laptops.
Gudang Cafe - this place is situated right where most of the street art is located so we had a quick stopover here to cool down from walking in 35C (or 95F) degree weather.
Mamak Abu - make sure when you do your research is to look at the times of when these food places operate. We went to this place to have breakfast only to find out that their operating hours are from 9PM to 6AM (yes 9PM! Apparently, this is the go to place for the locals after a good night out or late supper). They are known for their Mee Goreng.
Teochew Chendol - I read about this place everywhere. They are famous for their chendol - a cold drink (or dessert) with beans, jellies and other good stuff. We paid 4 MYR for the drink (or 1.30 CAD). It was quite refreshing so I recommend that your order this drink after a long hot walk to cool off. They also serve food at this place and we had our lunch at this place and ordered the oyster omelette and their Char Keow Teong all for 26 MYR (or 9 CAD).
Gayo Coffee - this was also recommended by our guide on the free walking tour. They have pretty cheap lunch set at this place for a curry chicken and a drink it was about 12 MYR (or 4 CAD). The lunch set is only available from 12 noon to 3pm. Food here is also relatively cheaper than its neighbouring cafe "Chinahouse". They also have live music at this place every night after 9pm.
Chinahouse - this was also recommended by our guide on the free walking tour. The food here is a bit pricey for us (at par with a Canadian meal so not crazy expensive) but you can definitely get something cheaper and better in Penang. They are known for their cakes and the history behind the restaurant. Your tour guide will also talk about this restaurant during your tour. I was a little bit upset with how expensive the food here compare to the other cafe we've been in but after hearing the history of this cafe, I was a little more accepting of this cafe. This cafe let you express your creative nature - they give you a piece of paper to doodle while you wait for their food and if they like your art, they will let you paint your doodle/drawing (bonus: they give you the paint and brush for free) onto the wall on "Art Lane" street. This is a good way to leave your mark in Penang especially for a city known for their street art.
Recommendation from other people (local and friends)
What the Duck - this was recommended to us by a good friend of ours who have been to Penang before (shout out to Mike and Anna). I am not a big fan of duck but this place definitely helped change my views on duck. The meal is not overly expensive, we ordered the Duck Confit for 21 MYR (or 7 CAD) and Hainanese Yam Duck for 15 MYR (or 5 CAD). Definitely recommended for the duck lovers out there!
Sri Weld Food Court - this was recommended by the tourist information centre. This is a good place to order your breakfast before you start the walking tour. We ordered the dry wonton noodles for 5.50 MYR (or $2 CAD) and the chicken rice claypot for 6 MYR (or $2 CAD)
Junk Cafe - great place to grab a drink at night. Most reviews I read say they have live music every night after 9pm but when we came, they had nothing going on. We still stayed since the bartender was very friendly and played really good jazzy reggae music. The cafe also has lot of charm (a little bit creepy) but definitely a must place to visit when you are in Penang. We ordered the Sangria and Junk Gin for 50 MYR (16 CAD).
Pitt Street Kday Teow Soup - this was recommended to us by a local we bumped into the street because we looked lost trying to find the other restaurant we were going to and when we told him what we were looking for he gave us a disappointed sigh and told us if we want something authentic we should go to this place instead so we did haha This place served noodle soup and we ordered the Koay Teow Soup Special (extra minced pork and fish ball - which also has eel added into the fish ball) for 8.50 MYR (or 3 CAD).
Sources of my food research: from the walking tour, talking with the locals (most people speak English) and http://penangfoodie.com
Street Art
They are everywhere in Georgetown - from cool graffiti on the walls to charming doors and windows. You will hear a little bit about the history of how it all started from your walking tour so I will save that for you to hear from your guide. There are over hundreds of street art in Georgetown so it can be a little overwhelming planning your walking route to see it all (and if you are wondering no we didn't see them all). Doing my research, I found this street art map from Google . This map was really overwhelming so instead of using this as my basis of my route, I used this as a supplement to my planned food route.
Pin all the food places I want to visit
Use the map to see if there are any cool street art worth stopping for
There is another map that is more condensed that you can use for planning, it's in a PDF format and not as interactive as the one as above but it can be found here.
Other things to consider:
Take a stroll on the Chew Jetty - houses on stilt above the water. Apparently, most people who live here are related and they all have the same last name. Historically, these people from China moved to Penang and decided to build their houses on water to avoid paying the government land taxes. Cost is free.
Visit Fort Cornwallis - for 20 MYR (or 7 CAD per person). I will not recommend on doing this since I found the price to be a bit high for a fort that is under renovations and not a lot to see. We still learned a bit of history from going inside (which I know can also be found on Wikipedia). It was still interesting to actually be in there while learning the history of the fort. Being in there actually made me want to re-watch the movie, The Patriot haha
Museums - they have a lot of museum here in Georgetown. Although we did not go to any of them, most of the museums are very interactive and have good reviews. The admission price was just over our budget so we did not go in. Most of them range from 30 MYR to 50 MYR (10 to 16 CAD).
Send us a message if you have any questions on our time in Penang, Georgetown :)
Follow us on Instagram for the pictures we took while we are in Penang.