Penang
4
 DAYS IN 
Penang

Food, food, food, food!

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Penang was a short getaway - there wasn’t much to do, and having been there, I still think there isn’t much to do. But for a short getaway, it was great because we got to explore so much of Penang’s fantastic food at such affordable prices.

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We had a 70% food itinerary packed into two full and two half days. We skipped attractions like Batu Feringgi Beach and temples. We booked two places - Backdoor Bodega and Teksen Restaurant, which I highly recommend.

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For this trip, I decided to try an itinerary planner. I’ve never used one, and Wanderlog was the first that came up on Google. Pretty good! We didn’t pay for the premium, but the free version was comprehensive. We could select all the attractions and arrange them on our itinerary easily. It gave us timing and directions between each location (we still used Google Maps, but it was a good gauge). I liked that it was comprehensive - we could add our flight details and accommodations and consolidate everything in one app. My favorite, though, was the expense splitting function. It’s been impossible to find one as good as Monzo, and my friends have been using Splitwise, which I dislike (terrible interface and tedious to use). This was a good in-between and very much needed, especially since all of us were taking turns to pay for our meals in cash.

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Also, I got an eSIM.

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TRANSPORT | I was surprised that Georgetown had almost no walking infrastructure; we had to take a Grab between locations, no matter how close they were. We were lucky that large Grab cars were widely accessible and cheap (by our standards).

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DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY | Penang Hill was underwhelming and expensive, so that I would have skipped that.

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WE STAYED AT an Airbnb at Tropicana 218 McAlister, a popular short-term rental destination. I would recommend it for groups on a budget as it fits all 6 of us nicely and was cheap, but I wouldn’t depend on it for a good experience. We spent US$300 pp, including flights, accommodation, and food, which was impressive.

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HIGHLIGHTS | Backdoor Bodega, Pinang Peranakan Museum, Teksen Restaurant, OO White Coffee

Day 2:

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TOH SOON CAFE

CHINATOWN PENANG

PENANG STREET ART

LEONG SAN TONG KHOO KONGSI

TAI TONG RESTAURANT

PENANG ROAD FAMOUS TEOCHEW CHENDUL

WONDER FOOD MUSEUM

NORM MICRO ROASTERY

NIGHT MARKET ON FRIDAY (PASAR MALAM VAN PRAAGH)

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Penang is all about that gastronomic experience, so prepare for throngs of crowds hoping to get a slice of that pie. We hit quite a few places - I don’t think any were exceptionally notable, except for the Night Market on Friday. There were hundreds of vendors selling a variety of food. Be prepared for the crowd and the heat, but it’s 100% worth visiting.

Day 2:

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TOH SOON CAFE

CHINATOWN PENANG

PENANG STREET ART

LEONG SAN TONG KHOO KONGSI

TAI TONG RESTAURANT

PENANG ROAD FAMOUS TEOCHEW CHENDUL

WONDER FOOD MUSEUM

NORM MICRO ROASTERY

NIGHT MARKET ON FRIDAY (PASAR MALAM VAN PRAAGH)

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Penang is all about that gastronomic experience, so prepare for throngs of crowds hoping to get a slice of that pie. We hit quite a few places - I don’t think any were exceptionally notable, except for the Night Market on Friday. There were hundreds of vendors selling a variety of food. Be prepared for the crowd and the heat, but it’s 100% worth visiting.

Day 3:

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PENANG HILL

NYONYA PALAZZO

PINANG PERANAKAN MUSEUM

CHEW JETTY

TEKSEN RESTAURANT

 

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but Penang Hill felt like a waste of time and money. There was an extremely small and slow funicular (train) sending passengers to and from Penang Hill. You can imagine how bad the crowd must be. We waited over an hour for the train up (on a regular ticket), and the queue for the train down was so insane that we upgraded our ticket to cut the line. This is not to say that the view from the top of the hill was not beautiful, but it wasn’t spectacular and was not worth a fraction of the waiting time.

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I particularly liked the Pinang Peranakan Museum - it included a tour and we had a glimpse into the lives of a (wealthy) Peranakan family and the many practices they had. It was also connected to Nyonya Palazzo, a restaurant serving tasty Peranakan food!

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My favorite has to be Teksen Restaurant. Please reserve in advance via call or WhatsApp 3 days before. We were lucky we reserved because the queues were aggressive and wait times were over an hour, but we only had to wait 5 minutes. It was very authentic, and I wish I could have it again.

Day 4:

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OO WHITE COFFEE

TIGER CHAR KOAY TEOW

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OO White Coffee - wow, just wow. We went there for the coffee, but the Polo Bun was fantastic - I went to heaven and back. The coffee was also excellent; it was very thick and very (maybe overwhelmingly) sweet, but very good. I would have this for breakfast every week to satisfy those cravings. I didn’t know then, but it was in the same location as Tiger Char Koay Teow, which allowed us to hit two birds with one stone. Be prepared to walk away with an extremely full belly.