George Town, Pulau Penang, Malaysia

Carol sampling food at a street vendor

Retail outlets on the Chew clan jetty

The non-commercial Lim clan jetty

A Buddhist temple in one of the clan houses

An Indian Temple in the Little India section of George Town

George Town, Pulau Penang, Malaysia

Feb.26, 2016

On Mon, the 22nd, we took the ferry from Langkawi to the island of Penang and its capital, George Town. We left Maggie at anchor and arranged for a dinghy repair person to meet us at the dock and work on the dinghy leak while we were gone. The dinghy is fixed and the bill didn't set us back much. A seam was opening. We were happy to see Maggie where we left her. We had a real gale blowing last night and didn't move although it was tiring listening to all that wind. And not much fun in the dinghy.

Our main purpose for the trip was to get our application in for the Indonesian visa for April. We took a cab ride out to the Indonesian consulate each of the 3 days we were there and did all the waiting involved. But we now have the visa in hand. You can visit up to 30 days just flying in to the country and getting a visa when you land. It is just more involved to stay longer.

We also were looking forward to visiting the city of George Town. It is sometimes referred to as "The Pearl of the Orient". In 2008 it and Malacca were designated as world heritage sites by Unesco for their historic significance along the Malacca Straits. For 500 years East has met West in these trading centres building a real multicultural community. It was the first city established when the British arrived so many colonial buildings are preserved from that period. The old temples, docks and clan houses of the Chinese are also being protected. And Little Indian has its' temples of worship, craftsmen and eateries. They offer free "on and off" bus transit in the core downtown area so we could see a lot in the short time we had.

The island of Penang is famous as the food capital of Malaysia, especially for local street food. The blending of many cultures, low wages, and a love of eating out have combined for some delicious feasting. We combined picking up snacks, with a few restaurant meals-all good although spicy. Tourism is, therefore, a main industry. But medical tourism is obviously part of that. There is a huge private hospital for foreigners. And you see many clinics offering fertility treatments or cosmetic surgery.

We decided to visit the marina just to see what it was like and whether you could buy any boat supplies. To our surprise we saw Bluewind in a slip. Checking with the office we learned that they had arrived the day before. Then we bumped in to Daphne and Ruy in the grocery store. It was such a treat to see them. Fortunately we could spend an evening together over dinner. They have made plans to ship their boat to the Med in April from Phuket. We may see them again there in March.

Today, Friday, we have moved to another anchorage off the island of Dayang Bunting. We are the only boat anchored here, although many tour boats have dropped off tourists on land. There is a freshwater lake very close to the shore that people like to hike around. We'll do that in the morning before the crowds, and then head to another harbour. We are hoping we can catch Tahawas at Telega Harbour if they are still there.