We really enjoyed our three nights in Georgetown and got lucky with the accommodation, finding a newly opened, newly renovated building right in the heart of the old town. We met a great couple from Norway and had a great time with them having a few drinks, sharing stories and comparing home countries.
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Georgetown had a great atmosphere and a wonderful mix of Chinese, Indian and Malay people. The food was (again!) fantastic food and incredibly cheap – in our view, it even rivalled the food in northern Thailand for value and flavours. We ate from a wide variety of Hawker stands or street-side cafes that set up at night and they did a roaring trade with customers lining up for take away meals that were poured into small plastic bags.
Often we’d have something small at one stand, then move on to another just to be able to sample the different types of food on offer. Dishes rarely cost more than £0.70 and sometimes one dish would be a full meal. This lady was selling a dessert that consisted of a scoop of crushed ice, some coconut milk with jellies and a spoonful of sweet red beans. The lady sold it to me asked if I was sure I wanted it, then watched me eat it with an odd expression and said incredulously as I finished it “You like?? You like??!”
This duo served a long line of people that didn’t shorten for the time we were there. The dishes they served up had little variation – all noodles with stock and meat; all these stalls specialised in one to three types of dishes and everything was cooked in full view of the customer.
You could ‘eat in‘ sitting at picnic tables and on plastic stools or take away where the dish of food was poured into a small clear plastic bag, quickly sealed with a rubber band or piece of string and handed to the customer.
These places really were the best places to eat but I think many tourists shy away from them for hygiene reasons or based on experiences of street food in home countries. We ate there on the basis that we could see what they were cooking, how they were cooking and that there were loads of locals queuing up – some clearly regulars.
We visited the E&O Hotel, the staff at which were slightly more friendly than those at the Bangkok Oriental
and let us wander the foyer and in the grounds of the hotel.
We hired a scooter for a day and toured the island but found that there were relatively few attractions and those that there were, were terribly overpriced. We did stop for lunch at a corner stall that specialised in Laksa, a sweet sour thick noodle dish with fish made with either tamarind or with a coconut and lime base. Great value at about £0.30 and really tasty. Euan also had a nutmeg juice which made his face contort into all sorts of shapes! It had a really really strong flavour.
Surprisingly, I did enjoy having a look around what was left of Port Cornwallis and the great old British-inspired buildings that were in the area
The pavements were a nightmare and if you weren’t looking where you were going you’d be down a hole or run down by a car
There were a few temples
and one had the largest joss sticks I’ve ever seen
The clock tower was worth a look
as was the town hall
We were done with island hopping, we’d not run out of islands but more boat services between them so it was off to Kuala Lumpur on a bus.
View Larger Map
Georgetown had a great atmosphere and a wonderful mix of Chinese, Indian and Malay people. The food was (again!) fantastic food and incredibly cheap – in our view, it even rivalled the food in northern Thailand for value and flavours. We ate from a wide variety of Hawker stands or street-side cafes that set up at night and they did a roaring trade with customers lining up for take away meals that were poured into small plastic bags.
Often we’d have something small at one stand, then move on to another just to be able to sample the different types of food on offer. Dishes rarely cost more than £0.70 and sometimes one dish would be a full meal. This lady was selling a dessert that consisted of a scoop of crushed ice, some coconut milk with jellies and a spoonful of sweet red beans. The lady sold it to me asked if I was sure I wanted it, then watched me eat it with an odd expression and said incredulously as I finished it “You like?? You like??!”
This duo served a long line of people that didn’t shorten for the time we were there. The dishes they served up had little variation – all noodles with stock and meat; all these stalls specialised in one to three types of dishes and everything was cooked in full view of the customer.
You could ‘eat in‘ sitting at picnic tables and on plastic stools or take away where the dish of food was poured into a small clear plastic bag, quickly sealed with a rubber band or piece of string and handed to the customer.
These places really were the best places to eat but I think many tourists shy away from them for hygiene reasons or based on experiences of street food in home countries. We ate there on the basis that we could see what they were cooking, how they were cooking and that there were loads of locals queuing up – some clearly regulars.
We visited the E&O Hotel, the staff at which were slightly more friendly than those at the Bangkok Oriental
and let us wander the foyer and in the grounds of the hotel.
We hired a scooter for a day and toured the island but found that there were relatively few attractions and those that there were, were terribly overpriced. We did stop for lunch at a corner stall that specialised in Laksa, a sweet sour thick noodle dish with fish made with either tamarind or with a coconut and lime base. Great value at about £0.30 and really tasty. Euan also had a nutmeg juice which made his face contort into all sorts of shapes! It had a really really strong flavour.
Surprisingly, I did enjoy having a look around what was left of Port Cornwallis and the great old British-inspired buildings that were in the area
The pavements were a nightmare and if you weren’t looking where you were going you’d be down a hole or run down by a car
There were a few temples
and one had the largest joss sticks I’ve ever seen
The clock tower was worth a look
as was the town hall
We were done with island hopping, we’d not run out of islands but more boat services between them so it was off to Kuala Lumpur on a bus.
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