Hainan Association and Temple

Today was my first day in Penang, Malaysia. I actually started my visit to Malaysia over the weekend but I’ll have to write more about that exciting weekend in another post.

I woke up much later than I usually do in Asia because the guesthouse I’m staying in has no windows. It turns out that windows in guesthouses in the center of Georgetown, in Penang, are somewhat of a rarity. I’m staying at the Banana guesthouse and besides the windows situation it’s very clean and conveniently located in the middle of the backpacker strip, complete with a travel agency, cafe and free WIFI.

For breakfast I picked up a steamed bun with vegetables in the middle. I’m not sure what they call them here but they’re called bun bao in Vietnam. I was still hungry but I didn’t want to delay my walk around Georgetown since the day was already hot and was rapidly getting even hotter. I walked down a small street called Love Lane which leads into Chinatown and I passed several other guesthouses and homes. My first stop was to the Hainan Cultural Center where I was the only soul to be found. Even the person tending the desk at the entrance was off on a break somewhere. It’s always nice when you can wander into a place, snap some photos and hear the sound of silence around you.
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View of the Palace Rooftops from the Okay Guesthouse

After a dreamy breakfast at the BoddhiTree, we left for our new guesthouse with the promising name of “Okay Guesthouse”. Turns out it’s more than ok,we got a room on the 4th floor which was well worth the climb with our backpacks since we have a great view of Phnom Penh skyline.

We then started our tour of the city and saw the national museum, art galleries on 178 street, central market (Psar Thmei), royal palace and silver pagoda. Phnom Penh is really great and everyone is very friendly.

We decided late last night that we were ready to leave Siem Reap and continue on. Even though we didn’t reserve a seat on the bus to Phnom Penh, we were able to leave this morning and get into the capital around 2pm. We found a wonderful guesthouse called BoddhiTree Del Gusto, located in a French villa and are going to stay here for one night.

We arrived in Luang Prabang on Friday morning and did not have a hotel reservation. At the airport, we met a fellow traveler, Laura, who mentioned she was going to a guesthouse that may have another room available. We decided to share a tuk tuk to the city (about 4km away) and see if we could stay at that same place. After a short drive, we got into town and realized that Laura’s guesthouse did not have any available rooms but the guesthouse next door-Levady had a room. We quickly snatched that room and started our adventure.

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