Phuket to Penang

Rebecca and I left Phuket and headed towards Malaysia, she needed to return to Singapore for her flight home, so we decided to travel back in that direction bit by bit. Briefly stopping in Hat Yai in Southern Thailand, (we got a minibus within five minutes), we carried on to our intended next stop, Georgetown on Penang Island, Malaysia. It's a great place, real mix of old buildings in colonial style, Chinese style and I guess Malaysian style. The people are a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian as is the food on offer at the hawkers market which is where we went for dinner. Great choice of foods available, noodles, curries, barbecues, sushi, fish and chips even. We went for 'stick food', various shapes of fish, meats and tofu on sticks, with noodles, great. There's a lively nightlife in Georgetown too, plenty of bars and pubs, live music and DJs playing 1970s rock classics such as Deep Purple and Rainbow!



Left: A betel nut palm or 'pinang' after which the island was named.
Centre: Georgetown bay at night from the hotel window.
Right: Colonial Georgetown architecture.


Penang Island is named after the local Malay name (Pulau Pinang) for the Areca catechu palm tree or betel nut palm which is common on the island.

Next day, we lunched at a Chinese market stall I've been missing Chinese soup noodles believe it or not, so I insisted on going there, saw a few temples and found an antique shop selling some pieces of stone, with the Welsh flag on it, I had to look twice as I couldn't quite believe it, but sure enough they were exact replicas of the Welsh flag, I had to pop in the shop and ask where they got them from and to my surprise they came from Pakistan !! Good to know the Welsh flag is a popular piece of art in Pakistan.



Left: Welsh flag found in Georgetown, Malaysia.
Centre: Chinese wish decorations at a temple.
Right: More Chinese temple decorations.