Many cruisers visit Penang in order to go through the bureaucracy of acquiring a Thai visa. But Georgetown, with its UNESCO-listed heritage, art scene and world renowned street food is so much more than a visa stop-over. Here’s our guide to what to do and see in the island’s capital, and some suggestions of where to stay and eat.
Chemicals and culture: 48 hours in Georgetown, Penang
The island of Penang lies south of Langkawi on the north-west coast of mainland Malaysia. Before Kuala Lumpur developed into the international capital it is today, Penang was the economic and cultural hub of Malaysia. But it wasn’t always so.
Penang’s Chemical Brother
On Georgetown’s most famous road, Chulia Street, resides this UNESCO World Heritage Site’s most famous resident. Down one of the covered walkways that are characteristic of Penang’s old town, nestled between a workshop refurbishing engine parts and a nick-nac store selling over-priced antiques, sits Liangtraco – ‘Chemicals and Apparatus’.
