Penang: City of Surprises, George Town, Malaysia

I will be honest, we hadn’t planned to visit Penang because we had been told “it’s really busy” and “it’s full our tourists”, but we were flying from Malaysia to Bangkok and thought “why not”.

As soon as we checked into our Heritage Homestay, we were given a Heritage Trail map of the City and it crossed our minds that Penang could be a cool place to hang out. We weren’t wrong.

Penang quickly became a place we fell in love with which is unusual, as we don’t really like Cities. So what was it about Penang that made it so different?

Penang is a melting pot of cultures. The Malaysian marketing song boasts “Malaysia, truly Asia”, and nowhere has this been more evident than in Penang. A fusion of Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu, these are all clearly visible in Penang’s districts, architecture and cuisine. To explain how multi-cultural George Town is, we visited a Buddhist Temple, Hindu Temple and mosque all within a five minute walk from each another. There are many temples to see around George Town, if you are interested in Hindu Temples, this list will help you and if you want to visit Chinese Temples, have a look at this website. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).