After five incredible weeks in Thailand travelling from the north all the way down to the south (almost), I packed up and headed to my next country of my adventure! My time in Thailand had been incredible and I’d originally planned to stay there for a further week or so, but I was getting to the stage where I really needed to move on. I needed to see new things, get my head around new currency and be in a new space. I dropped mum to the airport on Sunday night and booked a hostel a five-minute walk from the international terminal, and the next day, jumped on a flight to Penang, in Malaysia!

I was super excited to be headed to Malaysia, I had briefly stopped here on my previous trip to South East Asia back in 2018/19 and was desperate to come back and see more parts of this country, so I was beginning in the north, and heading towards the south over a few weeks. First stop in Penang, I’d been given so many recommendations of things to do here and I was ready to get started. My flight was only an hour long from Phuket and I’m 99% sure I spent longer in the queue at immigration than I did in the air, and the journey from the airport to the main Georgetown area was very traffic heavy too! I checked into my hostel and then headed to grab some water from 7-11 (essential) and some dinner at a local restaurant before heading back and beginning to plan my next few days here.

Day one was fairly simple, I just wanted to explore Georgetown. It is renound for its street art and I was fascinated to see it in real life so spent the day wandering around, taking photos, stopping occassionally for a coffee, and just loving life in the sunshine. It was exceptionally humid though so felt even hotter than it actually was and I melting, and seeking shade as much as humanly possible! When I was looking at things to do here you could join street art tours which cost a fair bit, for someone to walk around with you in a group to show you them all, however, they are all highlighted on Maps on your phone where they are, so I made my own route and leisurely strolled around at my own pace which I think I enjoyed far more than I would’ve a group tour. I could also read about each piece online in the little Maps section to find out more about it, which was great.

The street art here was as insane as made out to be, there were so many different kinds and types from traditional graffiti, to huge murals painted onto walls, and lots of metal work that was also on the walls, it was just incredible. The little creative in me was screaming! I was only saying to someone the other day how much I’d missed doing my digital drawing whilst being away, as I didn’t bring my iPad, and seeing all this amazing artwork has made me want to do some designing even more. I carried on walking and found some other cools spots to check out, including Umbrella Alley and the Central Fire Station, which looked really traditional, but very grand. I managed to walk around so much just enjoying the day in the sunshine.

It started to rain in the late afternoon / evening so I headed back to the hostel to chill out for a little and then headed out for some dinner, before tucking up into bed for another day of exploring tomorrow. Little did I know that day two it was going to rain! Secretly, I probably knew it was coming, as it’s monsoon season here in Malaysia, and I seem to be pretty good at following the bad weather. I didn’t really get up to a lot, understandably. I just hung out at the hostel, and then headed to a local Starbucks for more coffee and just to do some bits on my laptop, I’d planned no route through Malaysia, so wanted to do a bit of research about where to stop, how to get to each place and where to sleep too! I hadn’t even made a plan for after Penang so I really needed to work out some next steps.

Thursday quickly came and as the weather had improved I decided to head to Penang Hill. It was quite a cool experience, you took a funicular to the top which cost 60MR for a return trip, I didn’t realise how high up it was! The train ride was about 3minutes and very steep, but made for some incredible pictures, and the view once you got to the top was just stunning. You could see the whole of Penang. There were a few bits to do at the top, admire the views and wander around some of the stalls, as well as visiting the cafés and restaurants.

I also visited The Habitat whilst at the top. I wasn’t sure whether to or not as the weather wasn’t looking great for much longer, but I did anyway. The Habitat is a rainforest discovery park, it has a treetop sky walk, a canopy bridge, and so many trails and things to explore. I got about half way round exploring before the heaven’s opened,a nd as much as it absolutely poured down, it was so cool standing and being able to see the rain coming in. I was on top of the treetop skywalk at the time, and I could see and hear it in the distance it is was getting louder as it was coming closer. The view itself from the top was amazing though. We all had to take shelter as it wasn’t safe to be out in it as it was so bad, so had to hang around and wait for it to pass.

On reflection of my experience, I’m not sure it was worth the money I paid for it, but I can see the attraction, there were some really unique parts, but also, most of it was just a bit of a path through the rainforest jungle experience where I got eaten alive by mosquitos. I did really enjoy the bridge though, the views from that were stunning.

After packing up my backpack and checking out I went for one final visit in Penang that I really wanted to get to, Kek Lok Si Temple. I’d be recommended to visit here by a few people and as the sun was out I decided to go before heading to the airport for my flight to Langkawi. It was as stunning as everyone had said. It’s one of the biggest temples in Malaysia and super colourful. Definitely a must see if you’re here, there’s so many different parts to it which are just incredible and not one to miss.

Next stop was the airport, I genuinely thought about a month or so ago that I’d finished all my flights for 2024 but turns out I was wrong. I actually had a few more flights lined up as you actually can’t get to Langkawi from Penang by boat anymore, so you have to fly. It’s got to be one of the shortest flights in the world, 40minutes maybe?? insane. So I headed back to the airport and before I knew it I was in Langkawi. See ya there, Mads x