Penang

The island of Penang has a population of more than one million, which means that Georgetown is a busy bustling place. The city marina is in an excellent location for catching the free shuttle bus or walking into town. The disigner of the marina however, neglected to build in adequate surge protection so you have to take care in how you tie up your boat. The big ferry dock is just next door and there are ships and tugs out in the channel. On the other hand, the marina buildings and showers are very nice and the staff is friendly and helpful.

The weather has been very hot and by 5pm it is often 90 degrees inside Moonshadow and we do not have air conditioning. So we eat dinner out when we can, often spending less than when fixing our own. We easily find sidewalk food stands or small restaurants with Chinese, Indian or Malay food for a couple of U.S. dollars. If we go to a real restaurant, perhaps air conditioned, we might pay as much as $10 total.

Late one afternoon we took a city bus to the base of Penang Hill. Here we got tickets for the funicular railway (cable car) that carries passengers to the top of the hill, about 820 meters or 2400 feet. Standing at the bottom, the tracks appear to go straight up. The car is divided into compartments and the floor and seats remain horizontal as you climb the hill. I sat facing uphill coming and going. Didn't really want to look down!

At the top there are a couple of hotels and restaurants, some private homes, a mosque, a Hindu temple, an aviary and a police station. More developed than we had expected. And of course there is a beautiful view of the city lights after dark. We walked into the small older hotel to check out their restaurant. It was too brightly lit inside to enjoy the view but there were tables outside under a nice arbor covered with vines. We asked about sitting there and were told it was not a good idea because of the vipers in the arbor! We decided not to stay for dinner.