George Town (Penang) Malaysia

We docked overnight for a two-day stay in Penang.  Here are the highlights:

George Town, the capital of the state of Penang, has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, shaped by centuries of intermingling between various cultures and religions.  It is also known for the quality and variety of its culinary scene.  Nothing to do but hire a local guide to show us the best of it all.  

To tell you the truth, the many mosques and temples we’ve visited are all starting to look alike, so I’ll show you what makes George Town unique: its street art.  Cities with centuries-old architecture are not always able to maintain historical buildings to their original grandeur.  But those buildings still tell the story of the city’s history, and they deserve to be seen.  So the clever citizens of George Town came up with a solution: they hired an artist to paint interactive murals on some of the walls.  That has served not only to recognize the structures’ significance but also to attract tourists.  To wit:

There are lots of these around the city.  If you lived in George Town, you would never be at a loss trying to entertain your houseguests!

And then there is the food!  I can’t always name what we were eating, but it was all delicious.

The blue color in the rice is thanks to the butterfly pea flower.  The flowers are steeped in hot water to extract their color, then used to color the rice.  Durians were another unknown food, a fruit famous for having a foul smell!  We tried one that had been battered and fried, and it tasted like the richest-ever caramel.  

Another great adventure was our ride in a trishaw, a three-wheeled cart propelled by a bicycle driver.

I will say this about that: These vehicles were designed to transport people whose backsides take up less room than our own.  But off we went with our skillful driver who maneuvered us through multiple lanes of busy traffic on narrow city roads and returned us safely to our ship.  Hence the broad smiles: