I reached Butterworth at 5:25am. The train crew alerted those who were stopping at the station 10 minutes before reaching. Sleeping on sleeper train was not an entirely nice experience but still worth it (No money spent on hotels). I’m a light sleeper, so the sound and shaky train woke me up a lot of times. My friends, though, had really good sleep throughout the 7-hour journey.

It was still dark and silent everywhere. The transfer from the train to ferry to Penang, was an easy one. I just needed to put in coins RM1.2 to the gantry to get to the waiting area. While on the ferry, I told my friends that I just bought dataRoam for the day and shared the hotspot. Without realising reached Penang. The ferry was smooth and steady. I didn’t hear any sound but the sound of the water as the ferry was crossing.

We planned to meet up with our friend and her boyfriend at Penang jetty but they only arrived around seven. It was nice for the boyfriend to rent taxi for us for the entire day.

The fact that we didn’t shower (Oops!), and could only check in to the apartment in the afternoon, made us feel uncomfortable for a while. It was a unique experience though, perks of traveling, I guess?

Anyway, we didn’t get to think of that when we visited Penang Hill and Kek Lok Si temple that morning after breakfast.

We were at Penang Hill at 9am. The ticket to get is was RM30, half the price if you have (any) student card. The experience of going uphill by the funicular train was really cool. Penang Hill had nice breeze and was not that hot. It was a cloudy morning, we couldn’t see the towns at the valley.

Penang hill is the peak point of Penang and was the British hill station back 300 years ago. The luxury bungalows there were built by them.

A tip from me, don’t go for the owl museum, unless you are fans of the Owl species.

We went a little down hill to the famous Kek Lok Si temple at 10:30pm. The view by now was much better. And the day was getting hotter. The temple has really big Guan Yin statue that was putting me in awe. Unfortunately, it was undergoing some maintenance. But looking at it from outside was still a treat. I also hanged a wish for a safe trip till sunday at the wishing tree at the temple.

We ate lunch at one of the famous Kway Tiaw in Penang. It is located at Lorong Selamat at the Red Hat Aunty place. And, oh, I bought some really meaty and sweet durian!

Then, We went to the apartment to wash up and rest before exploring more of Penang in the evening.

Out again at 5pm, we explored Penang arts at Made In Penang art museum and the street arts of George Town. This was the highlight of the trip for me. I wrote about it in a different post.

By night, we went to Gurney Drive for Dinner. There were a lot of stalls to choose from! I totally recommend visiting this place for dinner or supper in Penang!

It was definitely a tiring day for us and were more than ready to rest. We’ll be going to Cameron Highland on day 3 of this Malaysia Trip.