Art and eats in George Town

Having recently been named by Yahoo! as one of the Top 10 Islands in the World, Penang was the first place on our hit list in Malaysia.

Arriving from Thailand, I was immediately struck by how organised Malaysia is. There are lots of traffic lights, road rules that people (kind of) stick to, rubbish bins, toilets with toilet roll and even the odd attempt at queuing. There are absolutely no tuk-tuks and people are definitely opting for big air-conditioned cars over mopeds. 

At first I thought this could mean it's a bit boring, but that's far from the case. It's very multicultural with a mix of people from Malay, China, India, Persia and Europe which has created a nation of many different colours and religions. This great mix has also influenced the architecture, food and fashion.

I also found a lot of people have a very witty sense of humour - and their beaming smiles could rival the Thai people.

While in Penang we stayed in the ultra-cool city of George Town and the best thing we did there was cycle the Street Art route. This was started in 2012 as a street art project called Mirrors George Town but since then lots of Banksy-style art that's not part of the original project has sprung up. It's a genius way to get tourists to see the whole city - even areas that are little visited. It also appeals to tourists' need to take selfies at least a million times a day, especially Chinese tourists. (Experience Nottinghamshire take note: I think something similar could actually work well in Nottingham.)

Here are some of our favourite works of art:

Luke at Brother and Sister on a Swing on Step-by-Step Lane.

Me at one of the new unnamed installations.

Love Me Like Your Fortune Cat on Gat Lebuh Armenian.

Kung Fu Girl  on Jalan Burma.

The big cat's called Skippy - I think the rat is new grafitti.

Luke with Lion Dance on Lebuh Armenian.

As well as a funky art scene, George Town is also famed for serving some of the best food in Malaysia, particularly at the hawker stalls which spring up in abundance after the sun sets. As a vegetarian this was slightly less exciting as 99% of this gorgeous and ridiculously cheap food involves meat.

Not to be deterred, we went in search of some of the best veggie food George Town has to offer. There were a few dedicated veggie places including Lily's Restaurant on Madras Lane and Ee Beng on Lebuh Dickens. We liked Lily's although found the focus on using mock meat a bit disconcerting - I'm happy to eat vegetables and find the concept of using fungus and soy to mold food into meaty shapes a bit strange. Saying that, the chicken satay skewers were quite tasty and, well, quite chickeny.

Ee Beng was good because you could fill your plate with as much as you wanted from the buffet and then the woman would glance over it never charge more than 7 RM (£1.35) and they had loads of actual vegetables in their dishes.

Luke enjoying lotus rice and mock meat chicken satay skewers at Lily's.

Plate loaded with veggie goodness at Ee Beng.

One place that turned out to be a bit of a find was Yeap Noodles on Lebuh Chulia. It's a family-run, no frills place but is unique in the fact that they handmake the noodles for their noodles soups - so you can get noodles in a chilli, carrot, spinach or mint flavour. Unfortunately there's only one veggie dish on the menu - tofu noodle soup with spinach noodles - which was tasty but quite plain. We went back and asked for the same dish but with chilli noodles and the woman wasn't having any of it, so flexibility isn't their strong point, but at 5 RM (£1) a dish it's hard to complain.

Tofu soup with handmade spinach noodles at Yeap Noodles.

If I had my time in George Town again then I'd splash out on a meal or at least a slice of cake at China House which is so big it straddles both Victoria Street and Beach Street. It's a cooperative which houses different cafes and restaurants in a beautiful 1930s Chinese house with 14 rooms decorated in different styles - both classic and modern - with a varied menu to match. We just went in for a drink and were really impressed. And the cakes looked divine.

Cakes on display at China House.

In other news, we went up Penang Hill on a funicular train and Luke played with a scorpion. Very random, I know, but I just wanted to share the creepy photo!

I took this photo and then ran away. Ugh.

USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT GEORGE TOWN IN PENANG:

Accommodation: We stayed at D Mo Inn on Chulia Street which is a relatively new backpacker guest house. It was 57 RM (£11) a night for a double room with a window (albeit internal) and a shared bathroom. It was a great location and perfectly okay for the price. If staying here I would advise asking for a room on the top floor because the toilets and showers are nicer than the other floors.

Eating: I think most of the good places are covered in the blog. Definitely try Yeap Noodles on Chulia Street for the handmade noodles and a great place for breakfast is Mugshot Cafe on Chulia - they do amazing cream cheese bagels and really creamy yoghurt with mango and walnut.

Getting there and away: We travelled from Ko Tao in Thailand to Butterworth with a boat and overnight train combo ticket for 1,600 baht (£32). Once at Butterworth train station we got the boat - the jetty is a short walk from the train station, so ignore the taxi drivers' lies - over to George Town for about 2 RM (40p).After George Town we got the bus to the Cameron Highlands for 45 RM (£9) which took 6.5 hours - the bus was really comfy with big seats.