Ferry Penang Malaysia Penang Travel..

Georgetown has been named after the British monarch King George III, Georgetown Malaysia is the main 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 is a typical tropical city with plenty of palm trees, quite hot and offering a wealth of attractions, some of the top attractions are the temples, mosques and pagodas as you can see at the picture right which shows the Thai Buddhist Temple. There are several old and new mosques at Georgetown with beautiful architecture, style and colors.

Penang 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
Chinese Malaysian Hotel Penang	Georgetown Penang hotels are also located at the city center. If you want to have it cheap and rustically use a typically Chinese Malaysian Hotel
also those are real Penang hotels.

There is a rich diversity of Penang hotels, from a uxury hotel such as the Eastern & Oriental Hotel also called the E&O Penang, to the very basic 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 hotels in the Chinese quarter of Georgetown.

Travel to Penang Malaysia is not a big deal this days anymore, especially since the budget 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 Europe via India, sometimes via Yangon in Myanmar and Phuket Thailand.

Every day flights from all over Asia touch down at Penang Airport and bring the people for feeding tourism. Tours offered are plenty and the right Pulau Pinang hotel is available, everything is good organized. But there are not only the hotels at Georgetown, there are plenty of great resort along the beaches, in particular on the beach stretch from Georgetown to Butu Ferringhi.

Penang beach hotels are just the right destination for your holidays, they also have interesting package tours available. Aside of coming to Pulau Pinang (as it is called in Malaysian language) via

Penang airport there are several other travel options. The island is reachable from every bigger city of Malaysia via Kuala Lumpur by bus over the Penang Bridge. From KL travel is 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 bus at Butterworth.

A alternative for the above indicated versions of travel could be by car via the Penang Bridge or the ferry 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 usually without any major problem since the roads on the Thai side are also in excellent conditions.

But road travel to Penang on your own, especially from Thailand can get 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 as 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 road 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 without or you have an accident you run into deep trouble.

The capital Georgetown is best explored by walking. There are Chinese temples, 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 Buddhist Temples and a great Chinese Temple should be on the agenda of every trip.
Georgetown Mosques	Penang Georgetown Mosques are frequented by the local muslim people and Arab tourists which there are quite a lot, especially at the apartment buildings along the north coast. When
you make a tour through 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, if you want to do it the Chinese way take a Pulau Pinang 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 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, try a Tandoori chicken in a Indian restaurant.

There are churches from the 18th century beside of 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 at a beautiful Penang Beach, second is the 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 hotels are packed with tourists.

the north coast to Batu Ferringhi. Hotels and beach resorts are plenty and if you have enough just jump on the Langkawi ship and have a good time on a real tropical island. Batu Ferringhi Beach Aside of Georgetown Batu Ferringhi is probably the most famous place on the island, this is the area with huge beach hotels, night markets and purely dedicated to the tourists. There is a restaurant after every couple of meters with a great seafood selection just along the road and on the evening shopping at the night markets of Batu Ferringhi is the preferred pastime, there are also plenty of open air bars and no restrictions on alcohol, this is a good sign since Malaysia is predominant Muslim Country.

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

Once you did your travel to Penang and start your holiday or business trip on the island you will find out that aside of a large number of hotels there is a restaurant within every 5 minutes walking radius. 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 restaurant serving tasty multicultural food in sometimes very decorative environment as you can see at this Indian restaurant further up at right 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, 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 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 and a Penang restaurant Penang shopping is next, 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 local antique shops and this are real good antiques and artistic work. There are several street in Georgetown where the shops are scrammed full with exotic ceramics, sculptures, brass Buddha statues, Buddha images and great Chinese blue white porcelain from the age old Chinese ceramic factories of Jingdezhen. 

Pulau Pinang Chinese shop at Georgetown