We had big plans for Penang. I had printed out an entire 2-day itinerary and everything and we were going to explore the heritage zone and look at street art. 

Except, we hadn’t factored in the heat. 

We took a bus from Kuala Lumpur that reached Penang around 1 pm. A taxi ride from the bus station to our Airbnb later, we had just stepped out for a quick lunch, and we realised none of that “explore Penang on foot” was going to happen. It was way hotter and sunnier than KL and we couldn’t wait to get back in the aircon. 

So in the evening, around 5, we got a GRAB to Penang Hill. There’s a funicular train that takes you up to the top and tickets for it were around 30 MYR per person. There’s barely any waiting time and the ride up is quite thrilling. There are stretches where the incline looks like it’s about 45 degrees and there’s no railing on the flank. 

At the upper station, the views of Penang were magnificent. However, nearly all the activities there had shut shop for the day and only the Cliff Cafe was open. 

We walked around a little and then decided to take a buggy ride around the hill. It did seem expensive at 25 MYR but what the hell, right? 

Our ridiculously talkative driver talked about all the villas on the hill (largely owned by business families that now stay abroad) and showed us a Victorian-era postbox. I didn’t get most of what he said but got some good photos of Penang by night and pitcher plants. 

After Penang, dinner was at Gurney Drive. It is a hawker food court, and we had the best Laksa in Malaysia there. The fried oyster wasn’t too great but the laksa and the char kway teow? Heaven! 

There was a simulator for earthquakes and tsunamis atop the hill but it was closed when we went. So next morning we decided to go up Penang hill again. This time, the train was more crowded and we had to wait a fair bit to get to the train. Oh, there’s a fast line for the train at a slightly higher cost. Don’t take it because it’s pretty pointless. The ‘common’ line and fast line merges at the gate so you don’t really get an advantage. 

The earthquake and tsunami simulator was rather basic. It was a moving platform with some projected visuals and honestly, a 4Dx movie theatre gives you better feels. But good thing they give the rain ponchos because the stream of water they spray can get you slightly wet. I honestly think they could’ve done a lot more with the simulator and put better graphics and audio. 

From there, we bought tickets for The Habitat, a jungle walk on the hill. A pickup van dropped us the little distance to the gate and then, through a perfectly positioned cafe and merchandise store, we got on to the walking trail. 

The walk in itself is quite nice but we didn’t get to see any wildlife. No flying squirrels, no birds, nothing, except a fat millipede. It was quite natural that we saw nothing though – some tourists were too raucous for others to get a sighting. 

The walk is long and takes you through the forest. There are lots of water fountains on the way so if you are carrying a bottle, you can keep refilling it. The Habitat Canopy Walk and the Treetop Walk offer spectacular views, with the walkways being ‘tree friendly’. There is no rigging of steel cables directly onto the trees. Plus the trails are stroller and wheelchair friendly too. 

At the fag end of the trail is the Curtis Crest Treetop walk. The Tree Top Walk is the highest public viewing platform on Penang Hill, standing at 13 meters above ground. Shaped in a circle, the platform offers a spectacular 360-degree view of Penang island. 

After a very long, very tiring day at Penang hill, we headed down the hill to get to Komtar. It is the tallest building in Penang and has retail shops and entertainment arcades on most of its floors. We headed to the 65th floor to the viewing deck. For the more adventurous, there’s The Gravityz, billed as the world’s highest rope course, at the exterior of the 65th floor. From here, it was another elevator ride to the 68th floor, to the Rainbow Skywalk, a little glass-bottomed skywalk set aside in a bar. I’ll be honest, stepping on that glass floor did freak me out a little. But the views of Penang from here, as long as you don’t look straight down, are mindblowing. 

From here, the plan was to visit Auntie Gaik Lean’s for what’s known as the best Nyonya cuisine in Penang. But that was closed so a GRAB guided us to Chulia Street, another hawker food joint. And boy, was it amazing! There was this shop where they had put all kinds of veggies and meat on colour coded skewers. All you had to do was pick a skewer, dunk it for a minute in a pot of boiling water kept there, then slather it with sauce or gravy and eat. The total bill is calculated later based on how many colour coded skewers you have on your plate. Pretty amazing! 

That aside, there were regular stalls selling laksa and char kway teow. Our cabbie had told us where we’d get the best noodles on the street, and boy, was she right! That bowl of ramen was the tastiest I’ve ever eaten. Only, you’d need to know how to use chopsticks on Chulia Street. There are no forks at any of the stalls. Seriously!

Sure, we didn’t do a lot of the things people typically do in Penang – the heritage walk for example, but for that, we’d need another day in Penang. So when you are planning your itinerary, maybe cut short KL by a day and use that for Penang, if you think you can brave the heat and walk around this little, laidback city.