Northern roadtrip to Penang Island - First in 2 years

Hey ya'll,

It has been awhile !! My last post here was about my trips pre-Covid,like this one about Harbin, China - https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@bladesong/harbin-the-ice-city

Today i am bringing you a diary about my first trip Post-Covid, a northern road trip to Penang Island, located in the northern part of Malaysia.

I currently stay in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia and its like any other bustling city similar to Singapore/Bangkok/Hong Kong...and haven't been out of the city for almost 2 years due to Covid and various phases of Lockdown over the past 2 years. Even when the there are no Covid restrictions, inter-state travels are banned.

Finally as our vaccination rates spiked up, restrictions are gradually lifted and i decided to savor this freedom by planning a trip from Kuala Lumpur - Penang while making a detour to Ipoh (a small town in the middle of the journey).

Start of my journey, It is basically 4 - 6 hours (depending on traffic) drive north on a multi lane tolled highway. Basically the whole country south and north is connected by this long highway. Can be frustrating at times due to the traffic...pro tip never travel on this road during festival season as a 370 KM journey can take upwards 10 hours due to the huge amount of cars traveling during this period.

Most common scene all along the highway is Palm Trees. Malaysia is a huge exporter of Palm Oil and these are literally all along the road.

First stop...Ipoh. This town is famous for its Cantonese Dim Sum. Dim Sum here is not your microwave or freezed variety !!! Every single piece here is hand made and then steamed to perfection using traditional methods. Pair it with some Chinese Tea and its just the perfect Brunch to continue my journey.

This being a road trip, made some sight seeing detour stops along the way. A way to reconnect with nature we are always stuck in the concrete jungle that is Kuala Lumpur.

Finally we reached Penang after a longer than expected journey which took us like 7 hours !! The island is connected by 2 bridges and i took the one simply called Penang Bridge 2. The total length of the bridge is 24 km or 5 miles, making it the longest bridge in Malaysia and the second longest in Southeast Asia !!!

First thing we did when reach Penang was go food hunting. Penang is know for its food and the above is only some example of it. I wont be able to find the space nor the time to post every single food picture. The last one is a must have....Yam Rice with "Every Body Part" Pork Soup.

The hotel we stayed for a couple of nights have an AMAZING sea view. Beach is kinda clean. Perfect for night strolls or just a simple picnic. There is also a beach-side bar that we hang out at night.

Around Penang, and especially in its capital city, George Town you will find various heritage buildings that dates back from the colonial days, built when the country was still under British rule. George Town is also home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you can walk endlessly along all these old buildings, many of them converted to eatery and restaurants.

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Final selfie before we bid farewell to our little road trip. Its been fun and refreshing to be finally able to travel, albeit locally only. With covid still raging and quarantine restrictions here to stay for the near future, we will surely make many more of these trips while dreaming to get on a plan again.

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