I suppose a pit stop is a stop between two different locations, but I wanted to be alliterative. Finding myself so close to Penang for work at the moment, I simply hopped over to the island for a short weekend trip. Much of what I have to say about Penang I mentioned in the video I made while there, but some more bears mentioning.
Just a few weeks ago I didn’t even know that Penang was an island. I thought it was a lagoon city on the Malaysian mainland. It’s actually a whole state, with half on the mainland and the other half being Penang Island. The island is more than just the colonial city of George Town. The center is dominated by green and rainforesty Penang Hill, and there are beaches around the island. In addition to strolling around George Town I went up Penang Hill and also visited a tropical fruit farm with more than 200 planted varieties of tropical fruits. Some I had never seen or heard of before. I even tried nutmeg juice, made from the fruit around the nutmeg seed (which is ground into the spice).
