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Penang, Malaysia – Expat Haven

Robbie 5 Comments

We flew from Kuala Lumpur to Penang on January 13.  It was a short one hour flight to this island off the coast of Malaysia.  Penang is quite well developed with almost 1,000,000 residents and a large expat community.  There are modern amenities and new infrastructure.

On the promenade in front of our place.

We stayed in a well-equipped condo that had all the comforts of home.  It had a large shopping area on the lower floor with a great grocery store, wine store and other amenities.  Ken also visited the doctor’s clinic there and was able to get his medications changed to deal with his gout and blood pressure.

Chinese New Year displays in the main shopping area at our building.
Beautiful large swimming pool that we had to ourselves most days.
Views from the swimming pool deck.

We met many people from Europe as well as Canada who were staying in the area for the winter or part of it.  The Malaysian government has a very enticing visa for foreigners who want to have long stays there.

Waterfront promenade where we took our morning walks.
View from one of the many restaurants along the promenade.
Chinese New Year decorations were everywhere.

Chinese New Year is a very big celebration in this part of the world.  There were fireworks and firecrackers every day before and after January 22.  By the end of our 19 days in Penang we were tiring of the constant noise every night.

We visited Entopia butterfly gardens and nature centre. These were very large.
The large butterflies loved Robbie’s feet and legs – probably sweet smelling body lotion.
This beautiful green butterfly was huge.
Lion dancers performed at the butterfly garden entrance.
We visited The Top at Komtar tower.
On the glass floor of the observation deck at floor 65.
Ken on the Rainbow skywalk on floor 68.
Waiting for nightfall on the Rainbow Skywalk.
Beautiful night views from The Top.
Celebration decorations along the waterfront in Georgetown.
Ken playing with movie characters.
3D Trick Art Museum was quite amazing.
Interesting restaurant in Little India in Georgetown.
Typical street scene in Georgetown.
We rented a trishaw and driver to tour the street art.
Street art created by local artists.
This area is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Enjoying the street decorations.
Lovely old temple in the downtown area. It was more than 100 years old.
Islamic temple in downtown Georgetown.
Little India building decorations.
My driver was wonderful!
We celebrated our 20th Anniversary at a local restaurant.
Night view from our condo patio.

Even though it is a relatively small island (there are 99 islands in Malaysia), there are 2 large bridges that connect it to the mainland.  One is 13.5 km and the other is 22.3 km.  We very much enjoyed our time in Penang.

Currently we are in Phuket, Thailand for 23 days and will update with stories from this interesting part of the world.

 

 

5 Comments

  1. Laurie Myres
    Reply

    I am really impressed with your ability to look so relaxed in the photo with the glass floor so very high in the sky! Such great photos!! Thank you for the update and for taking us along on the adventures! Sending big hugs from Nanaimo.

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