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Penang
Georgetown
Penang Malaysia
Nightlife &
Malaysia Shopping.
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Pulau
Pinang
as
this
tropical
island
a
bit
south
of
Thailand
is
known
is
one
a
the
major
Malaysian
tourism
destination
and this is
the
capital.
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Georgetown Penang Malaysia
is a great place to stay, has good
nightlife &
excellent shopping with lots of Chinese
antiques and Malay handicrafts.
The island is home of
different ethnic groups.
A place in Asia where
multiple ethnicities such as
Chinese,
Indians,
Europeans,
Malay etc.
live
together
without any
major
problem.
This was not
always so
but with the
time even
people of
totally
different
ethnic
background
are able to
work
together and
got a better
idea, get
rich quick.
We talk
about Penang
in Malaysia.
After arriving
at the airport you will find a great
selection of hotels of any kind, style and
price range. Luxury hotels are in the city
and the beaches, midrange hotels and budget
hotels. One of the interesting hotels
is the e&o or Eastern and Oriental with a
great colonial flair. When you are on a slim
budget use Regal Hotel Malaysia at transfer
road, that's almost town center.
Georgetown Malaysia
is the capital of the island, the
entry point to a wealthy urban
centre with high-rise buildings,
colonial architecture with a
international blend of Malay,
Chinese, India, European and others.
Streets of the city are fringed by
swaying palm trees giving a
great tropical flair together with
the architecture of
Penang
Chinatown and little
India.
No journey would be complete
without exploring the
streets to do some shopping
and have a look for a
beautiful temple. The only
little problem is, the
traffic density at downtown
is simply to
much, the air is quite polluted from
small motor bikes,
cars and trucks.
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Also plenty
of small restaurants are around in this
area. Plus a couple of bars of the type if
you are below 18 years of age you cant
enter.
Got the message ?
Its nice and sexy
business with great
China girls, Indian,
Thai girls
and some
other ladies. Where there are guys
on vacation there is monkey
business, the
question here is only, who
is the monkey ? |

Georgetown
Malaysia. |
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is at best from around October to
April, but actually its a all year
round travel destination since in
this tropical area it never gets cold
and there are plenty of things
to do and to see, what about
visiting a exotic temple or do some
Penang shopping. There are |

Penang Ferry |
many
Chinese Taoist
temples, some
Buddhist temples,
Mosques and Hindu
temples and it is a
great daytrip
to visit this
various sacral
places, it gives a
good idea about the
people living here.
There
are 3 possibility to
enter the island,
via the airport, the
Penang Bridge and
the Penang Ferry.
The best is probably
the ferry since the
bridge is totally
filled with cars and
motorbikes, worst
time to drive over
is in the morning.
When the well known
"gridlock" is on.
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The town has a
relaxed atmosphere, simple and affordable
place to live, the island is actively
promoted as a retirement haven. There are
thousands foreigners either living there
permanently or owing a apartment or house
for retirement of holiday. They come from
all over Asia and other parts of the world
enjoying their retirement at a very
affordable living.
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They call Georgetown Penang Malaysia
their new home and enjoy the exotic environ,
a good climate, there are even some
mountains, beaches and almost everything
someone need including Plenty of hotels and
apartments in the city and along the
northern coastline towards Batu Ferringhi.
This part is
characterized by its exotic beaches, night
markets and restaurants plus other
attractions like spice garden, botanical
garden and the attractive Penang beaches,
some having granite boulders popping out
from the sand. At the beach along the north
coast are most top beach resorts, the sand
strip is white yellow and varies in width,
at the front is the Andaman Sea, part of the
Indian Ocean. Penang and Malaysia in general
has lots of tourist from Arab countries,
since the main religion is Islam it offers a
suitable environment for the tourists from
the Arab Peninsular. Other main tourist
groups are naturally Chinese since the whole
island has deep roots in China from where a
large part of the population migrated to the
island over the last few centuries in
particular during English colonial times,
there are also quite a lot of Indian people.
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Georgetown
Malaysia

Pulau
Pinang Satellite Map
of the city. |
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A
hotel in
Georgetown Penang
can easily
be found in the center
of and on the way from
to Batu Ferringhi Beach
plus the Bayan Lepas district. Bayan
Lepas is close to the the Free
Trade Zone of Penang and there are a
couple of good
hotels mainly for business
travelers since this is the
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Penang Budget Hotel |
industrial park area
of Penang. For
instance the Vistana Hotel,
Equatorial Hotel, Sri Malaysia Hotel
and apartment hotels such as B-Suite
and Krystal Suite. The airport and
Snake Temple is also
in this area. There
are also other
hotels or Apartments
when you plan to
stay longer, there
are at least a dozen
of budget hotels,
midrange hotels and
some luxury hotels
such as the E&O.
Here is a
Penang hotel
list. Hotels are virtually around every third corner
and many beach resorts don't have a
road between the building and the
beach means you could walk right form the
hotel room to the beach. Staying
at Georgetown Malaysia for a longer
period of time is no problem, visa
handling is very
flexible.
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Have some
unforgettable exotic vacations or
simply relax under the sun of this
part of the Indian Ocean, called the
Andaman Sea.
Also at the mainland side
you will find a great view ,
all together a excellent
Asian tourist and retirement
destination with still old
fashioned colonial flair.
There are plenty of real estate agents who are very eager to
sell the apartment in the high rise
buildings and elsewhere, but it
already gets a little crowded. |
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are some of the well-known and
popular beaches in Malaysia. Within
a 20 minutes drive range from
Georgetown Malaysia some great
Penang beaches are waiting. But when
you are on vacation or beach holiday
you better use one of the hotels
along the beach road towards Batu
Ferringhi, there are all kind of
accommodations and hotels available
close to the beach. All beaches
are light yellow sandy beaches and
some have granite boulders as
decoration, Penang shopping is
always just a few meters away.
A other version of to stay is buy
Penang
property,
a foreigner can buy a house
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Penang Beach, great
Georgetown pictures |
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etc., in
Thailand
not, there it
needs several strange constructions
with Thai nominees to act on behalf
of the foreigners and so on. Most
people in the Malaysian government
have some rational European
education and are capable to
transfer this into some good
governance.
Anyway, travel to the island and enjoy the multicultural
and exotic atmosphere of streets,
restaurants and this unique
|

Indian
Restaurant,
beautiful
Malaysian restaurants. |
multiethnic flair of
a great Asian island
showing the heritage
of colonial times.
Even if you don't
like all this
colonial stuff, it
has, undeniable
something special.
Enjoy the great
photos,
videos
and pictures in our
site, they tell
more than "1000" words.
One of the great
sides of the city is
food, in comes in
all variants and has
worldwide origins,
to enjoy visit
and food courts
offer the whole Malaysian, Asian and
European spectrum of food.
Restaurants reflecting the different
cultures of the island such as
Chinese, Indian,
European, Malay,
Thai and more., a Penang
temple is virtually around every
corner at |
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the city mosques, pagodas
and Penang shopping .
Probably the most
interesting places are
little India and Chinatown.
On the whole islands its beaches,
temples, botanical garden,
spice garden, Batu Ferringhi
and more.
At Penang City
Chinese heritage can
virtually be smelled,
here some nicely
renovated Chinese
houses which made it
from colonial times
into today. It needs
some dedication to
be and show a
certain
consciousness about
the past and
preserve it.
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The opposite is Shanghai
where they destroyed similar
quarters like this one to
make way for high ride
buildings, actually there
are also enough high ride
buildings in
Penang City but it
looks as if they
found a good mixture
to combine past end
present. This is
very important for
one of the major business
which is tourism, a visitor
wants to see something
exiting and this is what he
or she gets, read
more.
Visit the vibrant Chinatown
and go shopping,
The city is named after the
British after King George
Ill but referred to by the
Malaysians as Tanjong (or Headland), is a
almost pure Chinese town,
although there is "Little
India" but that's only a
very small part of the city,
China is everywhere and
Chinese characters are
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Georgetown shopping |
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decorating the
streets more or less
its a Chinese City.
Chinese people are a
bit lees than half
of the population in
Malaysia. Actually
the whole
Penang Island
could be seen as a big city since
the distance between the urban
cluster are rather small and
wherever you are on
Penang you are
more or less in the city, even the
beaches are only a couple of
minutes away. This is continuously
pushed by a
real estate boom
where the Malaysian government
actively supports the island and
particular as retirement destination
and they are very successful.
This is a Far East
warehouse
for
everything
imaginable, from
electronic gadgets
to plastic toys.
Chinese ceramics and
other goods, silks
from Thailand and
India, plus simple
fabrics for less
expensive sarees,
tech gear from Japan
and China, Malaysian
and Indonesian
handicraft and
textiles plus
jewelry of every
kind and style.
Jalan Pinang is the
main shopping
bazaar, shops open
in the early morning
and close around
midnight.
Lebuh Campbell, just off Jalan Pinang, is the
main "Chinese" shopping centre where Nepalese
street vendors sell Chinese made shirts, fake
alligator-skin shoes, and precious stones of the
cut glass type. Probably the most exciting
shopping in Georgetown is in the many "junk"
shops along Rope Walk. Here, shoppers must
literally climb over of discarded gear. Those
who do not mind getting their hands dirty
probably will discover some hidden treasure. If
you like to do it as locals do visit pasar
minggu or pasar malam (weekly market or night
market). These are temporary markets of the same
kind as in Thailand and other south east Asian
countries which are just erected on some open
space with the help of metal pipes fixed
together and some plastic sheets. This markets
are called pasar mutant and they move every day
to another location which is very convenient to
them because often they sell junk and coming
back the next day to have the junk replaced wont
work, they are gone.
Antique
Shopping
is like to dive into a Chinese
antique world, there are plenty of
goods imported from China and among
the most interesting are various
ceramics, porcelain and celadon.
There are also dozens of Indian
shops with everything imaginable
from India including music and
Bollywood movies. Everything else is
on sale in the big malls at downtown
there are also several restaurants
in the malls with rather modern
style Malaysian food.
All this means more or less shopping in Georgetown since most malls and shops are
there. Some
more shopping is at Batu Ferringhi
and the airport area. Since the island
is very compact because of the topography
which has no much flat areas means the urban
area is very compact. Shopping is for sure
one of the exciting things to do in Penang.
Just browse the malls, the small shops in little India and
Chinatown, there are plenty of things to
discover. This is not like Kuala Lumpur
Chinatown, much smaller but very
interesting. Between the shops in the center
are restaurants and old Chinese pharmacies
with exotic medicine.
There are several shopping
malls around, one of them is Queensbay
Mall another is Gurney Plaza, the most
diverse is around KOMTAR and the Traders
Hotel.
Plus roads with plenty of
shops in downtown but the real exotic and
unique stuff is digged out at the small
shops in Chinatown. But this again has its
variants since at downtown are also plenty
of Indian shops among other with Indian
jewelry, Indian restaurants and more. Shop
for cheap clothes, some cosmetics and
books, there are not many book shops on Penang,
plus electronics and gadgets, plus everyday
items at 7-11. This area has not only shops
and restaurants, also cinemas, fitness centers
plus banks with ATM are around. Be aware
that the bank charges a not so small fees
when using their ATM, now the money is
available to search some Chinese antique
shops.
In general Penang is a
shopper's paradise
since everything imaginable
is available and its not expensive as long
as it is not imported, that’s more or less
the same as in Thailand. Actually most of
the cheap clothing, fake designer bags, designer shoes etc, come
in from Thailand and China that’s the
experience in a country at the crossroads of
Asia that means treasures of the
Orient, Chinese antiques, white - blue
porcelain, celadon and other ceramics, Thai celadon
and some exotic
jade jewelry
and other
Myanmar
jewelry. There are exquisite
shops selling
ruby gemstone
items and various
diamond rings
and more. During English colonial times
Pulau Pinang and the former
Rangoon, today Yangon were very close under
colonial rules.
When shopping
cheap stuff from
China, means fake item and antiques, but also branded designer goods
are available, not very
advisable since very expensive and local
handicrafts. Beside of the shopping malls
are also sidewalk stalls, bazaars and night
markets. Tax free areas around are
Langkawi Island and
Padang Besar at the border to
Thailand; this is not
Sadao and Hat Yai
which is a bit further to the east.
silver, brass and pewter plus pottery and
rattan, Malaysian Batik comes in
beautiful designs as paintings and clothing. Fashion item from all over
the world are available at any
bigger city with a bigger mall. The
Kuala Lumpur Central Market in
Chinatown is probably the ultimate
destination for shopping Malaysian
made goods. Penang Georgetown is
not a famous shopping destination
since the malls and centers show more or less
all the same items. The interesting
shopping destination are the small
Chinese antique shops plus
malls selling goods imported from India
and China.
Another great bargain
could wait at the night markets in
the center and at Batu Ferringhi,
there are plenty of souvenir shops
with native Malaysian handicrafts,
among other famous Malaysian kits,
handmade fashion jewelry and myriads
of fake items from China and
Thailand, those are mostly on
display at road-side shops. If you
want to do some mall hopping
Georgetown is the destination
practical all malls
are compact in the city center.
Penang is also a excellent shopping
ground for original old style Chinese furniture,
since most locals on the island are Chinese
that's the right objects to decorated the
home with, actually the islands is
experiencing a renaissance of China
heritage since 2 years now (2012) many old
house are renovated and new furniture is
moved in. Very popular are good
quality
Chinese antique furniture made from
various woods, but the highest value seems
to have rosewood, since the style has not
changed considerably over the centuries, it
always looks good.
The most demanded wood for furniture comes
from
Hainan Island, the name
is rosewood and most traditional furniture
in China is made from huanghuali which is
botanically
rosewood, this is
hardwood and
is very stylish if someone likes antiques.
There are also plenty of
lacquer ware in
form of furniture, tableware and other items
used in the house. Currently Myanmar or
Burma is one of the main supplier. Another
major rosewood supplier is Myanmar or Burma.
When digging a bit deeper in the antique
shops even snuff bottles from the 18th
century can be found which are
Chinese art
"en" miniature. Ivory items are very rare
since the restrictions came in place but
there are pretty bamboo carvings, paintings,
calligraphy, enameling, ceramics, glassware
and many other crafts. Very special and high
priced are glass bottles painted on the
inside showing the image to the outside this
is extremely difficult arts and crafts.
One of the best selling souvenirs in this
shops are Chinese paintings,
traditional and
modem. Landscapes are the most prevalent
subjects and paintings of idyllic lofty
mountain scenes are just as common as
wallpaper. Contemporary Chinese art is
available too, often in form as
Chinese pop
art with Mao as the main subject. |
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What to do in Penang
Georgetown,
evening in Penang. |
What to do in Penang
Georgetown?
One of the best things to do
in Penang is eating, there
are food courts and myriads
of restaurants of various
styles and food, Indian,
Malay, Chinese, Continental
and all other imaginable.
There is also plenty of
street food and hawker food
available throughout day and
night. There are great
restaurants at the
waterfront, especially at
Batu Ferringhi. If someone
wants to have it fashionable
try the food outlets of the
hotel indicated before or a
restaurant in one of the
high-rise buildings
overlooking the city and the
Andaman Sea until
Butterworth on the mainland
coast.
See
the photos and video in the video
section. Great constructions
are the bridges. There are
two |
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spectacular suspension bridge
just behind the arrival pier of the
Penang Ferry on the Butterworth side
blending nicely together with the
domes of the nearby mosques.
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Nightlife
is one of the most lively in
Malaysia,
only
Kuala Lumpur
nightlife can beat it.
But the nightlife is
still far away from the vibrant
nightlife
scene in Thailand and
especially
Phuket
nightlife. Phuket
nightlife is only about 800 km
to the north. It looks that
Malaysian and Singaporean people
rather prefer Hat Yai which is just
across the border.
You could also do
a little island hopping to Langkawi
which is easily reachable by the
Penang ferry. Langkawi also
has some small ferries to
Satun and
to Ko Tarutao.
Actually from the
Ko Tarutao
Langkawi is visible on a clear day.
There are also enough hotels and
budget hotels. |

Penang Nightlife,
Georgetown Malaysia. |
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Penang Georgetown History
In December
1600
a group of British traders incorporated
The East India Company
and got the monopoly on all trade between
England and the
East Indies. The
First ships of the company arrived
in India in 1608 and over the
years expanded their business with
India. The main trading was in
spices such as gloves, nutmeg and
pepper.
Silk,
precious stones and
other
luxurious items were added
later. During the second half of the 18th
century the East India Company expanded the trade to Canton in China
where they got a monopoly in silk trade.
Voyages of the ships to and from
Shanghai China to England had a problem,
they needed a maintenance station on
their route between China and
England.
Since 1763 several attempts had been made to secure the much needed
transshipping port. The boss of the East India
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Sail
Ship of British East India Company
at
Penang
Georgetown,
or
Georgetown Penang |
Company renewed the order several
times to find a convenient place
somewhere around the
Straits of Malacca. Another idea was
Junk Ceylon or present day
Phuket Thailand, it can be seen at that
time they had other things to do in
Penang City.
Throughout history Penang has
changed names the only constant name
was the name of the city. Early Malays called
it Pulau Ka Satu, or Single Island,
later it changed to Pulau Pinang,
the British renamed it Prince of
Wales' Island, and finally, with
Malaysia's independence the name
Penang came, other names were "Pearl
of the Orient" and "Gateway to the
East", "Isle of Temples". Still
today places and street names are
changing mainly from former English
names to Malay names.
King
George's town is like most cities in
Asia a fusion, the old is still very
visible and a short distance away
high rising buildings are pulled up,
probably the best place to see this
is at the E&O Hotel, a superb old
style hotel within a downtown
quarter full with old small Chinese
buildings and the tall buildings of
the other hotels. There are also
some typical Chinese hotels at Lebuh
Chulia in the center of Chinatown
for anyone who likes it nostalgic.
In 1786 soon
after
Francis Light took
control of Penang Island or
Pulau Pinang in Malaysian language he had a fort of nibong palms
built at the tip of the cape which called fort point and named
it after Governor General of Bengal, Charles Cornwallis. This
fort was later renovated in the same size, shape and layout.

Fort Cornwallis Penang
Malaysia Cannon at Georgetown Penang, Penang
Malaysia.
The Dutch present this rather big gun to
the Sultan of Johore. It was later transferred to Fort Melawati in
Kuala Selangor. Later it was seized by the
British and set up at the north-west angle of the fort in 1871.
According to local believe, childless women can conceive
by placing flowers in its barrel and offering special
prayers.

Fort Cornwallis Moat
Penang or Pulau Pinang Malaysia

Gunpowder Barrel at Fort
Cornwallis
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Fort Cornwallis
Gun Powder Magazine
Constructed in 1814,
the gun powder magazine
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is
located at the north west angle of Fort
Cornwallis Penang, it was used to store
explosives.
The semi rounded roof and and a few feet deep
into the earth, it was designed to minimize the
damage of a maybe explosion.

Cell rooms at Fort Cornwallis
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Fort
Cornwallis Penang Malaysia. |

Canopy used by Francis Light when he first landed in
Penang in 1786 |
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Located at the
south west angle of Fort Cornwallis is one of
the first chapels built in the city. The first
recorded service took place was the marriage of
Francis Light widow M. Rozells to John Timmers
in 1799.
A legacy of
British colonial times.
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The current
structure of the harbor light & flagstaff was
built in 1880. This harbor light was used to
signal incoming ships whilst the flagstaff was
used to announce the arrival of mail ships or
the decent of the Governor and other dignities
form
Penang Malaysia Hill.
Convict labor
which was first imported in 1789 and
put to work in the
fort by
Francis Light
to renovate the brick
construction.This was the first military and
administrative base of the East India Company
and the garrison of Fort Cornwallis consisted of a handful of Europeans, who
resided within the fort and sepoys who
dwelled in huts next to
the fort. |
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Bronze statue of Francis
Light Georgetown Malaysia.
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The star shaped fort, enforced with cannons is
the Seri Rambai which still is located at the northwest bastion
of the fort. Previously
surrounded with a 27-foot wide and 6
feet deep moat, it was filled in about a century ago since
it functioned as breeding ground for mosquitoes infected with
malaria.
Today relics such as chapel, store, cell rooms and the
gunpowder magazine are still in the fort.
History galleries from the early
1700 and staff with colonial costume
is now shown in the fort. |
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