Mike Yardley: A dip in Penang, Malaysia

"Whether you’re looking for a beachfront break in Southeast Asia or a flavourful side-trip to enrich your adventures, Penang is a getaway that sure hits the sweet spot. Just a few hours drive from Kuala Lumpur, or a one hour flight from Singapore, the island of Penang is pinned to the Malay Peninsula by some seriously impressive bridges, spanning the Strait of Malacca. One of the bridges includes a 17km stretch over the water!

"Blending the best of Penang’s allure, I savoured the stirring cuisine and cultural heritage of Georgetown, while basing myself at one of Malaysia’s best beaches. Gracing the northern shores of the island, Batu Ferringhi is Penang's premier beach destination, edged by a vast 7km-long sweep of blonde sand, beloved for its luxury resorts, water sports like jet-skiing and parasailing, and bustling night market."

Read Mike's full article here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from news Talks at b Travel Corus.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wonder Mike Hardley is taking us to Penang in Malaysia
this morning of morning Mike.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning Jack. I wish I was still there. The
weather is atrocious.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh really back home? Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah.
So the island of Penang is kind of a it's
kind of a side trip if you're traveling through Southeast Asia, right, Like,
it's a relatively relatively convenient and easy to get to.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Definitely.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
It's just a few hours drive from Kuala Lumpa. And
in fact, if you do want to drive it, it
is so cool because the island of Penang is pinned
to the Malay Peninsula and you've got some seriously impressive
bridges spanning the Strait of Malacca. There was one bridge,
Jack that stretches seventeen k wow across the water. That's

(00:59):
quite a drive if you're in ben Kok. It's just
a ninety minute flight from Singapore, just sixty minutes away.
In fact, my taxi driver remarked to me how a
lot of Singaporeans they'll fly to the island of Panang
for lunch. And then head home. So if you were
heading to Southeast Asia, maybe stopping over en route to

(01:19):
Europe or on the way home, Panang is a really
stress free side trip. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Nice. Where would you recommend staying? Where's best to stay?

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, the major tourist district is in Georgetown, although the
widest city around the historic core has exploded in growth
in recent years. It just blew me away when I
was there a couple of weeks ago. So it's really busy,
lots of traffic, congestion. They're groaning under the weight of
their congestion. It is an urban jungle. So I would
strongly suggest you mix Georgetown with the beach and base

(01:52):
yourself in the north of the island at Bartu Faringi,
which overlooks the Endomin Sea. It's one of Malaysia's best beaches,
Bartu Faringi. And I loved the hard Rock Hotel. It's
the first hard rock I've actually stuck.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Okay, yeah, right, I mean hard rock is like quite
popular in Asia, right.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's really interesting because yeah, that the hotel brand hasn't
penetrated Australasia. There is a hard ROCKFA in Sydney, but
not a hotel in our part of the world, but
across Asia, the Middle East and Europe they have just
like grown like wildfire, bit like North and South America.
But the memorabilia at the hard rock Panangjeck it is

(02:33):
so absorbing. I felt very, very excited with the upcoming
release of Taylor's new album, and I was standing in
front of the glass cabinet looking at Taylor's stage costumes.
So I think that's as close as I'll ever get
to the real thing. So yeah, the rock star. Theming,
obviously at these hard rock hotels is laid on thick.

(02:55):
The best thing though about the Pananga Post is the poll.
Oh my god, it's the biggest pool in northern Malaysia.
So it's this free form sprawler of a pool and
it starts off like a shallow lagoon with a sandy base,
which I thought is quite clever for a pool, and
then it just seamlessly transitions into an ocean blue deep

(03:18):
pool with underwater rock music. It is utterly addictive. I
was marinateing many hours in that joy.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah. Yeah, it certainly sounds like an experience. So that's
in the North, right, the heart hotels in the North.
How far away is Georgetown.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Then it's only a thirty minute drive. And this is
the really good thing for Kiwi's. The New Zealand dollar
serves up a lot of ringits, so bang for buck.
Malaysia is as cheap as chips, So it was about
ten dollars to get a taxi to Georgetown from Buttu
Feringhi in Malaysia they use Grab. They don't do Uber,

(03:51):
so download the Grab app and grab as you go
to the historic heart of Georgetown is a cracker. The
widest city, as I said, a jungle, but the historic
core absolutely stunning. It's all UNSCO protected, so they've got
seventeen hundred heritage shophouses guarded by that UNSCO protection, temples,

(04:16):
a sizzling dining scene, awesome street art, great shopping. There
is the super cool street jack where you've got a mosque,
a Hindu temple, a Buddhist temple, and two Christian churches
all shoulder to shoulder. So it is the ultimate religious
and cultural melting pot. And yeah, I just think Georgetown

(04:37):
is one of those places that just instantly casts you
under its spell. So good to dip in and out of.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Oh fantastic. What about hiking, Yes.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Back at Bartu Faringhi. The really good thing about the
beach is that it's backed by Pinnang National Park, So
this park teeming with birds long tailed macacs. You could
easily spend all day on its hiking trails and only
run into a handful of people. It is remarkably un
populated by tourists. The other really good option closer to Georgetown.

(05:12):
If you would like to, as I did, refresh your
fetish for forniculus, take a jaunt up the Panang Hell Railways.
It's just out of Georgetown and the summit has been
a hilltop retreat from the steamy heat for centuries. But
aside from the awesome buse you get up there, they
have got fabulous hiking trails leading off the summer to

(05:34):
get your full of jungle greens. Really good spot to
check out.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, what about street aches? What did you like? What
hit the spot?

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:41):
My goodness, so many choices, Jack and I've got really
good night markets at Bartu Feringi as well. So like
beyond the hotel, you can just throll along the beach
and not away as you watch a sun sets into
the end ofmen Cea chark waytwel is extra good in
Panang because the Panang version is particularly charred in aromatic.

(06:03):
So the rice noodles of fried and high heat with
prawns and cockles and eggs and bean sprouts, and they
do it in this very fiery display over a charcoal fire.
Panang's Assam luxA also really good, sour and spicy noodles
with a tangy fish fish broth. And your bowl of

(06:26):
thick rice noodles just brims with finely sliced onions and cucumber, pineapple,
red chilies, mint torch, ginger buds. And then I noticed
the locals had a bit of porn paste, which is
a nice sweet touch, really zesty dish. And by the way,
if you need a cool down, have you ever come

(06:47):
across chen dole CNDL, So it's either pronounced chen dole
or in some parts of Southeast Asia chun dole, which
doesn't sound quite as advertising. I have to say, you
don't want a chunder on your chin dole. But Jindle
is this sweet, icy delight and it consists of green

(07:12):
jelly noodles and they serve it over shaped ice with
kidney beans. Then they slather it and copious amounts of
coconut milk and palm sugar syrup.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I mean that does so good. Yeah, although I'm looking
at photos of it, it looks I mean it does
look really different. Yeah yeah, yeah, busy. That's a good
busy and buzzy. It's like quite a verdant green ah. Yeah, yes, wow,
I can't. I'm look famously open minded, of course, and

(07:45):
especially when it comes to dessert. So that does sound
like a bit of meat, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
It does.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
It does call you down, that's the key thing. You'll
get a sugarhead as well, but it does call the
body and you need that obviously in places like banana. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
So I wonder why you see that people fly up
from Singapore to go for lunch.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
I wonder what you get in Panang that you can't
get in Singapore. You know, maybe it's just that it's
just for the excursion or something, because I mean, they're
they're very close as the crow flies, aren't they. And
the foods are pretty good.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah yeah, and the food is really good in Singapore
obviously as well. But yeah, I've just noticed that a
lot of dishes you will find in Singapore and Penang
they just seem to have a bit more heat to them,
you know, yeah, more spice content.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Oh that sounds like a bit of me. I love
Malaysian food. I just think it's so good. Okay, that's fantastic, mate,
And like you say, a really good option for a
little stopover and maybe if you're making way through Asia,
really convenient to get to and just a little bit different.
So thank you. All of Mike's tips on traveling and
tripping through Penang will be up on the news Talks
he'd be website and we'll catch up with them again

(08:53):
for another mouth watering destination, no doubt, this time next week.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.