Malaysia truly Asia! This is my third time visiting Malaysia! It’s definitely our quick trip to go to when we are in need of a tropical vacation. Malaysia reminds me a lot of my days in Japan, but its got an Islamic twist to it.
This year, we decided to visit an island called ‘Penang’ but first, we’ll be staying a few days in Kuala Lumpur then head to the island. This post will be highly focused on the places to go to in Penang Island and some general tips about Malaysia
GENERAL TIPS
Halal food
There is plenty of halal food here in Malaysia. Since the demographic here is mainly Muslims, most fast food are halal in Malaysia, for example, Burger King, McDonald’s and etc. They also have vegetarian food almost everywhere, mainly Indian cuisine.
We usually grab our food from the mall since our hotel is always next to a mall (Berjaya Time Square)
I personally think everyone should try traditional food here, if you like spicy food, you’ll love it! I’m not a fan of spicy food, but my parents love it! (I’ll be talking about a meal we had in Penang Island down below)
Transportation
Transportation is super convenient here in Malaysia. The cheapest way is, of course, the train. People here are super friendly if you don’t know how to get to one place they’ll always be kind to help. The second option is Grab it’s exactly like Uber, but an Asian version. Super convenient and it’s super fast! You’ll have to get a sim to have it function though. SIM cards here are cheap as well, 60RM (50AED) with 10GB mobile data.
PENANG ISLAND
How to get to Penang Island from Kuala Lumpur?
The cheapest way is to definitely get the bus! 50RM(40AED) per person. You can go to the public bus and book your bus trip on the same day!
What are the places to visit in Penang Island?
Shopping Mall/Restaurants
They have a shopping mall called Gurney Plaza where we mostly had our lunch there, they have restaurants such as Chili’s, Nando’s and etc, the usual ones. They also have their local restaurants usually at every corner around the streets.
Street Art
Street Art is an area filled with vintage buildings, graffiti walls, and retail stores! It’s mainly filled with Chinese people and they’re extremely nice to tourists. We used Grab to get to the Street Art. Every corner had some kind of 3D wall graffiti
They have around 20 3D wall graffiti around the Street Art. They also had small unique shops and restaurants. I came across very funky restaurants too, where they sold chicken feet! I was not ready to try that of course. But if you like to try new Asian food, it’s definitely the place to go! The area also had the magic world museum, it’s a place showcasing tricks of magic and again it’s a place to take photos and very much Instagram-able 🙂 sadly it was very crowded so we didn’t manage to check it out.
The Habitat – Penang Hill
The Habitat Penang Hill is a world-class rainforest discovery Centre. The Hill consists of a 1.6km Nature Trail, The Habitat Cafe, shops on the Hill, the iconic Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk and the Canopy Walk.
We used Grab from our hotel to get to the lower station. Now, we went on a public holiday so it was pretty crowded. The tickets vary depending on who you are and what you want. Because it was crowded and we were not residents, we got the international and fast lane – 80RM. Keep in mind, this is just to get to the top of the Hill.
I don’t know how busy it is on the usual days. But the fast lane was great let me tell you! We passed hundreds of people and we were put first in the trail to be seated. Then the other people came in. On our way back, they put us in a room with AC and TV turned on. You pay for what you get I guess!
The time you reach the top, there’s a viewing deck and a cafe with few gardens.
However, to get further up the hill 1km away – The Habitat, you need to pay an additional fee of 70 RM but we got the family package so we paid 135 RM – 2 adults and 2 students.
They took us through a shutter to the entrance of the Habitat, honestly, it was nice, the wind blowing and I don’t think I would be able to walk all that, cz once you reach the Habitat, there’s more walking through the forest!
Through the forest, you’ll explore different plants and birds/animals. You’ll come across a breeze at some point, it wasn’t so hot in my opinion, there was a lot of shading due to the massive trees around us. Also, there was a point for refreshment, where they provided seatings and water!
Soon, you’ll reach the Curtis Crest Tree! It was fun! Many people did a lot of photoshoots and there was a nice breeze, might sound a bit frightening because it’s at the top! But it was actually nice! I loved the breeze!
Then the Canopy Walk!
Everything around you was green on green! It’s worth the visit, you need to stay longer to really enjoy the place and be worth the price!
The shutter then took us back to where it picked us from. You can then have lunch and stay a bit and head home.
Escape Park
I personally didn’t go to Escape park, but I heard there’s a lot of fun in there! Due to the weather condition, there was no time. From what I know, its a water theme park, Skytrex, which I tried in Kuala Lumpur and I believe there’s some kind of outdoor activities. You can camp there as well!
Penang National Park
The Penang National park is a forest, almost like Taman Negara but a smaller version. Mainly people go there to camp. There’s a Canopy Walk also.
The Upside Down Museum
It was a lot of fun! You go inside and take a bunch of photos where the rooms are upside down and the staff actually tell you what poses to do! You are taken into 15 rooms I believe in total. We were so lucky, on our way to the place this guy comes up to us giving us a discount voucher! Haha, we got 8RM off! (not much but hey, better than nothing)
Traditional Food
Our Grab driver told us about this famous place to have Malay food! He said it’s the famous place in town and we need to visit to try their Nasi Kandar (apparently it’s rice with some spiced chicken and seafood) The place was called the Deen’s Maju and it was packed! There was a long line and we waited for about 20mins! It was worth it though. Something I realized about Malay food is that, it-is-so-spicy! I’m not good with spicy food so yes the only thing I had was the chicken which was mild and rice! The chicken was really really good probably the best-spiced chicken I have ever had.. no joke
Tropical Spice Garden
Tropical Spice Garden is a bio-diverse living museum of the spices and other tropical plants. It was the same as the Penang Hills, but much smaller. When you go in Tropical Spice Garden, they give you an audio speaker with a map, where the areas on the map are numbered. As you go into an area, you press a number on the audio speaker, which will tell you a little information about the area. They had 4 languages (Arabic, English, Hindi, Chinese)
Honestly, even though this is our third visit, I feel there are still many places to explore. This country is packed with rich nature and it’s endless. A fourth visit is definitely coming soon!
