Malaysia

Georgetown street art, Tea plantations and Rainforests

Route
1. Langkawi island (1h30 by boat from Koh Lipe, Thailand)
2. Penang Island, Georgetown (3h by boat from Langkawi)
3. Cameroon Highlands, Tana Rata (20 min ferry + 5h bus from Penang)
4. Kuala Lumpur (4 hours by bus from Tana Rata)

Visit time : February 2019, 11 days
Budget: € 24,4 (pp/day)

The easiest and fastest way to get from Thailand to Malaysia was by sea, only 1.5 hours by boat from Koh Lanta to Langkawi, a super easy and efficient border, and a 3-month stamp for the tour. visit Malaysia! But we only had 11 days, so we limited ourselves to the western part of Malaysia, on the peninsula of Malacca.

The first impression of the country was a very positive, unusually efficient border, friendly people, cleanliness everywhere. We expected to see another developing country in Southeast Asia, but in the end we saw a highly advanced one. In addition, it was the first country with a large Muslim population on our journey, which made it different from previous countries of South-East Asia.

However, the island of Langkawi didn’t particularly impress us, and after visiting one quite boring excursion where we almost got robbed by monkeys, we decided to move on.

The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!

Photos from the drone during the tour, everything is always beautiful from the height!

Then we went to the island of Penang, it is easy to reach by boat, only 3 hours and you are in the main city of the island – Georgetown.

Usually we are not lovers of cities, and prefer to travel around natural sights, but in George Town we liked it and there really is something to see.

The city is very international, historically there are 3 main diasporas mixed up here – Chinese, Indians and Malaysians. Plus European influence during the colonial period, which was especially reflected in the architecture.

The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!

Shopping ))))

Also George Town is considered the artistic capital of Malaysia, here you will find a huge amount of street-art. The most famous of them are the drawings of the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zakharevich, who started this movement in this city, but you can also find works by the Russian artist Anastasia Volkova. You can spend hours walking the streets of this city and finding more and more new places. Or by bicycle, as it is very hot during the day!

There are also slightly hidden arthouses like Hin Company garden, where previously there was a warehouse of a Chinese company.

The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!

Having seen enough of the art of Georgetown, we decided to explore the entire Penang island, and for this we rented a scooter. During the day it is quite possible to drive around the island. But to be honest, the traffic is quite busy, and only in a few places you can stop. The nicest part is on the northern coast, not far from George Town. The beaches on the island are not the most picturesque, the water is not clear, but you can swim, although the locals practically don’t. However, we really liked the local parks, the Botanical Garden and the Garden of Spices. As it turned out, Malaysia was one of the main producers of spices in the colonial years.

Moving along, our route passed by the tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands. Plantations are about 1000 m above sea level, so the weather stays quite fresh here (10-15 degrees). It was very unusual for us to find ourselves in such a cool climate after a humid 30 degree Asia. Unusually, but nice!) During 2 days in Cameron Highlands we managed to visit the plantations of tea, strawberries (! Unexpected bonus) and walk through the ancient moss forest.

The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!

The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!

The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!

After 2 days of coolness in the Cameron Highlands, we went to the capital of Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur. From there we were to fly to the Philippines. We didn’t have much desire to explore the sights of the city (it’s too hot and there are a lot of tourists + transport), so we confined ourselves to the most important vital things – shopping, and little joys – going to the cinema! And, of course, the main skyscrapers of the city, Petronas Towers, we couldn’t skip!