Malaysia by Lorien Holland

Author:Lorien Holland [Holland, Lorien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781462909292
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

A funicular railway runs up to Penang Hill, the first of the colonial hill stations in Malaysia. Passengers rise 800 m (2,625 ft) over the two kilometre journey and the difficult terrain meant the line took close to twenty years to complete.

Whatever the perceived inequities, Penang is still an enchanted place to visit. Much of the old city of George Town remains, and the Penang Heritage Trust runs some excellent tours around the more interesting streets. Love Lane is a charming little distraction, while the Khoo Kongsi clan house, with its ornate mythical figures and blue dragons, contrasts well with nearby St. Georges Church, an elegant Palladian-style construction. Suffolk House, the grandiose residence of Light and early governors of Penang, is under a lengthy restoration which started in 2000, and is occasionally open to visits. The fantastic Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, once home of the “Rockefeller of the East”, is open every day and you can also stay the night.

High above George Town is Penang Hill, the first of the colonial hill stations built by the British. At 800 metres (2,600 feet) above sea level, it is remarkably cool and breezy, and has a number of government rest houses, the Bellevue Hotel and a defunct sanitarium for exhausted colonial officials. There are also several private houses perching on the steep slopes.

Penang’s best beaches are on the north of the island and are rather built up with long concrete strips of hotels. Certainly, they pack in the crowds and get a lot of repeat business, but for my money Langkawi offers a better beach experience and remains reasonably undeveloped.

Langkawi and its surrounding 103 islets are just south of the border with Thailand, and for several periods in history were under Siamese control. Most recently, the island and the entire Sultanate of Kedah was handed over to Thailand by the Japanese during the Second World War.

Langkawi has been seriously off the beaten track for several centuries. One legend talks of a curse on the island that lasted seven generations and only ended in recent decades. In fact, only in 1987 did the island get tax-free status for the purpose of developing tourism, and serious construction started on the paddy fields. Now it is home to several uber-luxurious hotels and lots of friendly little places on the beach. Perhaps one of the most remarkable places is Bon Ton, which collected old wooden village houses from across the island and converted them into stylish rooms for holiday-makers.

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