Fair warning: this is a food post, don’t read on an empty stomach.
Georgetown: food capital, habitat of poop-flinging monkeys, popular over-eating destination. All we did was eat, seriously. We regularly frequented our one newfound love: Hawker centers (public grounds where street food vendors have semi-permanent stalls) and were reunited with our one true love: western brunch. Oh yeah, we hiked in a national park too – but that was just to even slightly avoid feeling chubby (although Emily still looks great, it’s me that you should be worried about).
We arrived in Georgetown on Tuesday after a long, windy and nauseating 4 hour shuttle ride. The driving in this city has not gotten any less crazy, still the same cutting drivers off, still the same mowing-into-pedestrians (we even heard a PSA on the radio telling drivers to be more sympathetic during accidents, stating that the key to a happy, fulfilled life is avoiding roadrage). We even decided to semi-ballout…
House of Journey, our hostel, is one of the top-ranked accommodations on the Yelp of hostels, Hostelworld – and for good reason: it was an incredible place to stay. Our room felt more like a chateau than a $26/night swanky joint (take note Motel 6). Picture this: a massive wooden lockable door (locks are rare), two (yes, two) floors, a staircase steep enough to make me double-check what’s covered on our insurance plan, an A/C unit & fan (still impressed), electric outlets (hard to find), a massive queen bed and an even more massive, but equally comfortable blanket. The hostel, situated next to a popular Muslim mosque, was mostly open-aired – which allowed for incredibly loud Muslim prayers sung over even louder PA systems during all hours of the day, (but most especially at 5:45am) to float through the hallways and into our bedroom. So, we had complimentary wake-ups calls and complimentary all-day coffee, essentially everything we needed. We were living large.
Georgetown is my favorite city we’ve been to so far. Singapore was almost too futuristic, Kuala Lumpur too dirty & chaotic, but this felt just right. Colorful buildings, perfect weather, a vivid city-wide street art collection, and a booming night-time food scene. This city is known as being one of the top food capitals of SE Asia and the best part is that we had more food options than we did in the Cameron Highlands (aka we didn’t need to eat curry for all of our daily meals – yup, that includes our new favorite tradition: second breakfasts).
We checked out a few of the night markets and found a new favorite dish: Khar Choy, a made-to-order noodle dish with duck eggs, prawns, and veggies all tossed in a high-heat, well-seasoned Chinese wok with garlic oil.
Everytime we went to a market, there was usually a line of hungry spectators in front of the Khar Choy stands – watching as the seasoned vendor-turned-chefs swiftly and effortlessly cranked out dish after dish.
Again, quick reminder: the beauty that is Khar Choy.
We even went to a reknown western breakfast shop, Macullen Connoisseurs, to have one of the most Denver-esque brunches we’ve had in a while. Like in the rest of Malaysia, beer was still expensive here, ridiculously expensive actually, like 3 beers for $45 bucks expensive… so yup – we’ve been cutting back, although we’re both craving a nice California redwine (care-package ideas, Mom & Dad).
Hell, we even had ice cream.
On the second, particularly ambitious day, we decided to head over to the Penang National Park – one of the smallest national parks in the world, around 10 square miles. Our goal was to visit to two secret beaches, Turtle Beach and Monkey Beach, both accessible only by rugged hikes (for the clueless, but adventurous tourist) and by boat (for the rich, wise, but also clueless selfie-sticking carrying tourist). Both hikes took around 2 hours each, which made for a long and sweaty day in the jungle.
At Turtle Beach, we munched a delicious noodle take-away dish from a local resturant and played half a game of cards before walking along the shore on incredibly soft, but incredibly exfoliating sand (who needs fish spas anyway?). At Monkey Beach, we consumed two beers we’d lugged the entire way (clueless tourist ideas) and wandered by families of monkeys playing on the beach and by familes of tourists with selfie-sticks taking borderline senior portrait photos with said monkeys. Eventually we realized we were pretty damn tired (beer insights) and bargained our way into a boat ride back to the park entrance. After feeling like we broke the Uber App and realizing that the park entrance was too remote to find any available cars to take us back to Georgetown, we didn’t know what to do. In a surprisingly flash of brilliant unexpected and never-before-seen athleticism, Emily dashed after a local bus while I lazily strolled behind. We took the bus all the way back, just in time to have our second portion of Khar Choy noodles of the day.
A bit of athleticism, a bit of over-eating (but I promise we’re getting better), and a bit of luxury hostel living made for an incredible stay in Georgetown.
GEORGETOWN > LANGKAWI