While not originally on our itinerary, we were convinced by a friend to go explore Penang while we were in the area so we hopped on a quick flight from Singapore and headed to Malaysia for the first time! We didn’t know much about the city, so when we were recommended to stay at the Eastern & Oriental in Georgetown for ~$100 a night, we booked that pretty quickly – what we were greeted with when we got here was probably one of the nicest hotel rooms we’ve ever been in, complete with a bathroom bigger than our townhouse back in San Diego… Let’s just say it was quite the opulent and incredibly relaxing way to end our whirlwind trip around Asia!

One of the things Rachel was most excited about once we saw the strong British influence pervasive throughout all of Georgetown was afternoon high tea, so we looked around and saw that Penang Hill had both a great view of the city, as well as a beautiful location to take said tea break. We made our way over to one of the many funiculars we’ve encountered on this trip, and rode it up to the hill instead of hiking a few miles in quite hot weather… thankfully that meant we made it to our tea location just in time for the afternoon downpour, but the covered tea-spot was perfect for a cozy afternoon.

Outside of Penang Hill, we didn’t have a very clear agenda so we just kind of wandered around Georgetown, seeing some old historical buildings and checking out the Jetty’s – platform neighborhoods essentially built on the docks around the city. These were quite interesting heritage sites, with some also still being neighborhoods today, but the famous Chew Jetty definitely felt like it was made explicitly to sell cheap trinkets to unsuspecting tourists… in any case, it was really interesting to see how these neighborhoods developed essentially right atop the docks that at one point took in the majority of Penang’s maritime traffic.

Like most places on this trip however, we remember the amazing foods and drinks that we were able to try while we explored the city! From nyonya, to hawker stalls, to more modern Malaysian, absolutely every meal we had on the island was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to everyone who comes to visit. On top of that, the bars and speakeasies were also great with many unique cocktails that take advantage of the intersection of Chinese, British and Malay influence – it does seem like some of the places like Archipelago and Backdoor Bodega are tailor made for the Instagram-focused tourist, but at the end of the day when the drinks are so tasty it doesn’t really matter…

With Penang, our whirlwind trip around Asia (outside of Japan) drew to a close – we had another redeye back to Tokyo, via Hong Kong, and this flight had enough of a layover that we could realistically have exited the airport and spent another half-day exploring the city and getting even fatter on the great restaurant recommendations. That said, when we landed in HK we pivoted immediately to just spending some down time in the lounges, and I have to say it was the right decision… Bummer that we didn’t spend any time in Hong Kong while we were there, but I think it deserves coming back and doing it right (aka with sleep, and more than 8 hours…)