Penang Georgetown Travel Airport Hotel

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- Penang is situated at the crossroads from east Asia to Europe,

south Asia and the middle East where trade and ancient cultures met since hundreds of years, in the last decades tourism took over. Spectacular vistas plus vibrant and diverse cultures makes Penang Malaysia a great holiday and travel destination. Tourists and people who took Penang as their place to retire bring quite some money to Pulau Pinang. The island attracts people who want to have a quiet life on the beach, have excellent and diverse food and like to stay in a exotic place with the ambience of a lush green tropical island in the Indian Ocean.

There are plenty of exotic places who serve the interest of people who have a deeper interest into tropical and nature exploration. But this Malaysian Island is not a adventure or similar holiday destination, for this the island is to small and is already cultivated too long. The excitement rather comes from the cultural mixture of different people very diverse ethnic environment, means Chinese, Indian, Malay and other. This is Visible to the visitor as temples and pagodas plus mosques. Another variation of this multicultural environ are myriads of restaurants offering all kind of exotic food from dozens of countries. This is especially visible and enjoyable at Georgetown Malaysia the capital of the island.

Since Penang is rather small, beaches and other places such as botanical garden, spice garden plus plus and the different exotic temple such as the Chinese Snake Temple among others are close to main roads, very suitable for day trips.

-When traveling to Penang, Georgetown is the entry point.

There are three ways to arrive at Penang, one is by the Penang ferry either from Butterworth on mainland Malaysia, just opposite the Island or by ferry to Penang from Langkawi Island north of Penang near the Malaysia Thailand border. The second travel possibility is via the famous bridge to cross the

sea between Butterworth and Penang Island. The third possibility for your Penang travel is via Penang Airport.

Georgetown has been named after the British monarch King George III, Georgetown Malaysia is the real Penang city on the island. Penang Georgetown is just the right starting point for your travel to get the right feeling for this multicultural environment of people from different parts of the old British colonial empire. There are plenty of people from India, China, Europe and other parts of Asia plus naturally ethnic Malay people.

Georgetown Penang is a typical tropical city with plenty of palm trees, quite hot and offering a wealth of attractions, some of the top Penang attractions are the temples, mosques and pagodas as you can see at the picture right which shows the Penang Thai Buddhist Temple. There are several old and new mosques at Georgetown with beautiful architecture, style and colors.

Shopping is great and since the center of Georgetown is rather compact just do your shopping by foot. That�s the most convenient way since most Georgetown Penang hotels are also located at the city center and you will probably stay in one of the Penang hotels there.

There is a rich diversity of Penang hotels, from a Penang luxury hotel such as the Eastern & Oriental Hotel Penang also called the E&O Penang, to the very basic Penang budget hotel, its all there. If you want to have it more private on your travel trip you could also opt for a apartment, there are plenty. There are even more accommodations at the low end such as guesthouses and cheap Chinese Penang hotels in the Chinese quarter of Georgetown.

Travel to Penang is not a big deal this days anymore, especially since the budget Penang flights started. Compared to the old days when travel to Penang took a very long journey on a sailing ship or on a steamer from

Georgetown Malaysia seen from Komtar Tower
Penang Thai Buddhist Temple at Georgetown

Penang Thai Buddhist Temple at Georgetown
Penang Mosque at Georgetown

Penang Mosque at Georgetown

Penang Airport

Europe via India, sometimes via Yangon in Myanmar and Phuket Thailand.

Every day Penang flights touch down by the dozens at Penang Airport and bring the people feeding Penang tourism. Penang tours offered are plenty and the right Penang hotel is available everything is good organized. But there are not only the Penang hotels at Georgetown, there are plenty of great Penang resort along the beaches, in particular on the beach stretch from Georgetown to Butu Ferringhi. This Penang beach hotels are just the right destination for your Penang holidays, they also have interesting Penang packages available. Aside of coming to Pulau Pinang (as it is called in Malaysian language) via Penang airport there are several other travel options. Penang is reachable from every bigger city of Malaysia via Kuala Lumpur by The Penang

bus over the Penang Bridge, from KL travel also by train via Butterworth, there is the train station. A Penang bus also leaves Hat Yai in Thailand almost every two hours, actually most buses travel on the motorway to Kuala Lumpur, so it needs a one time break to get the Penang bus at Butterworth.

A alternative for the above indicated versions travel could be by car via the above mentioned Penang Bridge or the Ferry Penang which is very convenient since the main north south highway of Malaysia starting at the border to Thailand via Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca to Singapore is a four lane motorway. Phuket to Penang is a 9 hour drive this way without any major problem since the roads on the Thai side are also in excellent conditions.

Phuket to Penang starts at 6 am at the Phuket Bus terminal opposite the Phuket Royal City Hotel, followed every

hour by one Hat Yai bus until 2 pm. It stops there and starts again at 9 pm. The reason is the Thailand - Malaysia border closure between 11 pm and 5 am.

But road travel to Penang on your own, especially from Thailand is real dangerous since in Thailand nobody cares about any traffic rules. If you ever intend to travel from Phuket to Penang by road it needs a insurance for Malaysia which is issued at the Thailand - Malaysian border, do the insurance on the Thai side, they are more professional and not so lazy than on the Malaysian side. Office hour is from 8 am to 6 pm and the border is closed from 11pm to 5 am. If you do this type of Penang travel you also need to get the Thai car papers officially translated in Thailand.

Never pass the border by car without this insurance. The insurance is below Baht 1000,- for a month, if they catch you or you have an accident you run into deep trouble.

As indicated above, Penang travel at the capital Georgetown is best done by walking. There are Chinese temples to be explored, beautiful Mosques, some Indian Temples, Thai Buddhist Temples and even a marvelous Myanmar or Burmese Buddha Temple is in the city. The Thai and the Myanmar Temple are at the same location only a road runs between. Actually this two Penang Buddhist Temples and a great Chinese Temple should be on the agenda of every Penang travel trip.

Penang mosques are usually frequented by the local muslim people and Arab tourists which there are quite a lot, especially at the apartment buildings along the Penang north coast. When you do a tour through Penang Georgetown you will see what rich cultural heritage is around here, built over hundreds of years by people with totally different ethnic backgrounds before they arrived on their travel to Penang.

There are churches from the 18th century, temples and mosques and a very interesting historical episode, a house of Mr. Sun Yat Sen the leading figure of the Kuomintang and a realistic opponent of Mao who became the father of Taiwan after the Communist victory

-Today Penang travel is focusing on three main ideas,

first its Penang Holiday or vacation at a beautiful Penang Beach, second is Penang harbor and third is retirement. Travel to Penang for holiday or Penang Beach vacation is done by thousands of people every year, especially during Chinese New Year and Hari Raya which is the Malaysian translation for the Muslim festival of Eid ul-Fitr. Also at Christmas and Christian New Year traveling is extremely busy and the Penang hotels are packed with tourists.

Most Penang tourist are after a great Penang Hotel where they can have a real good time on their Penang trip. Probably starting at Penang

Georgetown along the north coast to Batu Ferringhi. Hotels in Penang are plenty and if you have enough just jump on the Langkawi Penang ferry and have a good time on a real tropical island much less developed than Penang.

Penang weather is quite good throughout the year and the excitement and pleasure of Penang beach hotels, Penang apartments and other accommodation at Pulau Pinang let you forget the weather anyway, its a Malaysian endless summer at this part of Malaysia.

What about a trishaw tour through Penang Georgetown China Town they will carry you through the smaller city streets getting a good idea of the Chinese cultural significance of Georgetown. If you do the trishaw city tour during daytime take a breathing mask with you since the pollution from the cars is overwhelming at the height level you will sit. Whilst strolling the streets of Penang have some hawker food, all kind of variants such as Indian, Chinese, Malaysian and fruits are available. Some flea markets are around at Penang Georgetown , Campbell Street, Little India.

Once you did your travel to Penang and start your holiday or business trip in Penang you will find out that aside of a large number of Penang hotels there are even more Penang restaurants. From the small eatery at the roadside to the elegant, fashionable and stylish restaurant in one of the big hotels such as the trader hotel, E&O hotel and other Penang restaurants serving tasty multicultural food in sometimes very decorative environment as you can see at this Penang Indian restaurant in downtown Georgetown Malaysia. Their Indian menu has several special Indian curry dishes plus the usual Indian vegetarian food. In the same area are also several open air restaurants serving Halal food. There is a wide selection on Penang food available. Naturally also plenty of Chinese and Malay style restaurants, also Italian, French, Fast food and sea food restaurants plus food courts among others.

A other type of famous Penang food is hawker foods such as Hainanese Chicken Rice, Hong Kean Noodles, means prawn noodle soup, fried rice noodles, Rojak, this is mixed fruits with some spicy stuff, Penang Laksa, which is a sea food soup with rice noodle, Malaysian Satay which is well known everywhere in south east Asia, this is a meat skewer with peanut butter and various sauces.

Tropical fruits of Penang are mangoesteen, mango, durian, rambutan, coconut and other, you also can get oranges, lemons, peaches, grapes etc. if it�s not grown locally its imported form elsewhere.

If you have enough of food go shopping, Penang shopping is very special and somehow similar to Singapore shopping but less expensive. Plenty of goods and antiques from all over Asia and particular China find their way into Penang antique shops and this are real good antiques and artistic work.. There are several street in Penang where the shops are scrammed full with exotic ceramics, sculptures, brass Buddha and great Chinese blue white porcelain from the age old Chinese ceramic factories of Jingdezhen.