Malaysia

[Darrell Green Fan]

I spent a summer in KL when I was 13, my dad was living there. I remember the food was spicy for a kid but I learned to really like it. Went to Penang, can't remember what was the difference between Georgetown and Penang, maybe you can clarify.

I really liked it. A lot. Weather was tropical but not oppressive, we visited lots of great places. Frasier's Hill was pretty cool with a golf course squished into such a small spot they had fairways that crossed each other, you can be standing in the 4th fairway and guys on 7 were hitting into you. Dad was a member of the Royal Selanger Golf Club which is where I learned the game on the par 3 course.

No issue with toilet paper but they didn't have milk, as a kid that sucked. Eating the street food at The Stalls was a great experience. Mangosteins are the world's best fruit.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

I spent a summer in KL when I was 13, my dad was living there. I remember the food was spicy for a kid but I learned to really like it. Went to Penang, can't remember what was the difference between Georgetown and Penang, maybe you can clarify.

I really liked it. A lot. Weather was tropical but not oppressive, we visited lots of great places. Frasier's Hill was pretty cool with a golf course squished into such a small spot they had fairways that crossed each other, you can be standing in the 4th fairway and guys on 7 were hitting into you. Dad was a member of the Royal Selanger Golf Club which is where I learned the game on the par 3 course.

No issue with toilet paper but they didn't have milk, as a kid that sucked. Eating the street food at The Stalls was a great experience. Mangosteins are the world's best fruit.

Georgetown is the northern suburb of Penang Island. The city of Penang encompasses the island & a sizable portion of the mainland just across the bridges.

I only golfed the resort, which was very well spread out and great design. Exactly like you find back in the States. Aside from the 2-3 holes worth of monsoon weather, we had a blast. Our assigned caddies were young guys but quite the comedians. We gave them a few beers on the course and they told us that was the first time anyone had ever done that for them. They had been working there for 5 years. Amazed me. I tipped my caddy a US $20 (like I would have done back home) and he about had a heart attack.

Food... Loved everything I came across. My only regret is not eating at the food stalls more. We tried a few towards the end of our trip and they were amazing. I got wined & dined pretty much every lunch & dinner for work so I didn't get to choose where to eat very often. The hotel did have milk & coffee in their breakfast buffet, which seemed to be hard to find anywhere else. I didn't try the milk. It was unpasteurized and had a malicious scent to it. Pretty sure it was goat's milk.

I had a great time visiting Georgetown every night after work. Once you figure out the traffic its a breeze to get there & back. The entire island of Penang gridlocks around 6:30-7:30am & pm because of their industrial shift workers whom work 7-7 shifts. We would leave the hotel around 7:20 every night to head up to Georgetown to wander around. Quite the night life up there. Lots of bars, restaurants & cafes stay open really late up there. No shops or stores though. But it suited our purpose of getting more drinks & exploring. "Love Lane" as they call it is a cool area with lots of bars. And their night market was really cool.

Only part I didn't quite care for was every bar & eatery had these hordes of people standing near their entrances for the sole purpose of trying to lure you in. They were abrasive and annoying. Some would even follow you down the street still trying to tell you about drink deals. Didn't matter how many times you said no thanks, or just avoided them. They'd spot you from a block away and come running up with their signs & coupons shoving each in your face. You get used to it though.

I really wanted to go down to KL. Told the wife I wouldn't dream of taking her to Penang, but would rather take her to KL. Seemed like a much more touristy place.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

Georgetown is the northern suburb of Penang Island. The city of Penang encompasses the island & a sizable portion of the mainland just across the bridges.

I only golfed the resort, which was very well spread out and great design. Exactly like you find back in the States. Aside from the 2-3 holes worth of monsoon weather, we had a blast. Our assigned caddies were young guys but quite the comedians. We gave them a few beers on the course and they told us that was the first time anyone had ever done that for them. They had been working there for 5 years. Amazed me. I tipped my caddy a US $20 (like I would have done back home) and he about had a heart attack.

Food... Loved everything I came across. My only regret is not eating at the food stalls more. We tried a few towards the end of our trip and they were amazing. I got wined & dined pretty much every lunch & dinner for work so I didn't get to choose where to eat very often. The hotel did have milk & coffee in their breakfast buffet, which seemed to be hard to find anywhere else. I didn't try the milk. It was unpasteurized and had a malicious scent to it. Pretty sure it was goat's milk.

I had a great time visiting Georgetown every night after work. Once you figure out the traffic its a breeze to get there & back. The entire island of Penang gridlocks around 6:30-7:30am & pm because of their industrial shift workers whom work 7-7 shifts. We would leave the hotel around 7:20 every night to head up to Georgetown to wander around. Quite the night life up there. Lots of bars, restaurants & cafes stay open really late up there. No shops or stores though. But it suited our purpose of getting more drinks & exploring. "Love Lane" as they call it is a cool area with lots of bars. And their night market was really cool.

Only part I didn't quite care for was every bar & eatery had these hordes of people standing near their entrances for the sole purpose of trying to lure you in. They were abrasive and annoying. Some would even follow you down the street still trying to tell you about drink deals. Didn't matter how many times you said no thanks, or just avoided them. They'd spot you from a block away and come running up with their signs & coupons shoving each in your face. You get used to it though.

I really wanted to go down to KL. Told the wife I wouldn't dream of taking her to Penang, but would rather take her to KL. Seemed like a much more touristy place.

We ate at the stalls in KL a lot, it was pretty awesome. We ordered what was like Thai satay, meat on a stick grilled. First time we didn't know how small they were, I ordered the beef, others the chicken. We got one of each. Oops, you need like 10. At the end of the night they counted the sticks and that's how they figured the bill. LOL.

The roads were filled with cheap small motorcycles, I guess that's pretty common in all of Asian as well as third world countries everywhere. We were driving along the road and the lines were still being painted by hand, this was 1972 Every now and then the road would curve but the line was painted straight. They came back and blacked it out, it was clear to see what happened.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

We ate at the stalls in KL a lot, it was pretty awesome. We ordered what was like Thai satay, meat on a stick grilled. First time we didn't know how small they were, I ordered the beef, others the chicken. We got one of each. Oops, you need like 10. At the end of the night they counted the sticks and that's how they figured the bill. LOL.

The roads were filled with cheap small motorcycles, I guess that's pretty common in all of Asian as well as third world countries everywhere. We were driving along the road and the lines were still being painted by hand, this was 1972 Every now and then the road would curve but the line was painted straight. They came back and blacked it out, it was clear to see what happened.

Well not much has changed in the ways of their transportation. Still lots of scooter drivers that apparently have their own rules on the road and can get away with anything. The hashes on the roads still look hand painted. And the driving around the island is chaotic. It’s actually impressive that they can drive in all the chaos in such a controlled way. It’s like the drivers are all psychologically connected somehow. There’s this 3-lane roundabout on the island that’s nuts. My driver one day was in the innermost lane of that roundabout and turned left. Somehow most the drivers in the outer lanes just slowed down and let us by without skipping a beat. And throw in the scooters zipping along those hash marks, it’s nuts! Surprised that I never saw a single accident in the 2 weeks that I was there.