George Town – Travels with Ali

Flying from Kuala Lumpur to Penang on Malaysian Airlines took just one hour. Our flight was at 2 pm and we arrived in plenty of time for a change! We printed our own boarding passes and luggage tags and while I attached the tags I asked Anthony to hold the boarding passes along with the peeled off labels. When all was done I asked him for the passes back but he had just promptly walked over to the security desk and handed everything over to be thrown away. Back he went to retrieve them. Just one job was all I said.

For the next four days we were going to be exploring Penang and staying at The Prestige Hotel. Close to all the heritage buildings and many restaurants to indulge in delicious food.

A luxuriously large room with great amenities with robes and slippers! No view to speak of though, oh well can’t have everything. I love the way the toiletries are displayed.

**The Swimming Pool on the 4th floor rooftop – luckily not segregated!**

**Malayan Railway Building from the pool**

After checking in and leaving our bags we had a quick wander around the neighbourhood. As I mentioned before it was a long holiday weekend here and this was in evidence as many places were closed and the streets were empty.

Penang is rich in history and culture and is such a wonderful place to wander around. It is a Unesco Heritage Listed Site. On 11 August 1786, Captain Francis Light of the British East India Company landed in Penang and renamed it Prince of Wales Island in honour of heir to the British throne. Source: Wikipedia. Francis Light is now credited as the founder of Penang.
Many of the buildings are beyond repair now but there are a few that are still resplendent and have been restored and maintained. It seems on looking around that there are buildings under renovation now, even a few with steel girders propping them up.

The buildings below are ones we passed on our walk to dinner.

**Beautifully restored French colonial building**

We decided on a French restaurant that night, I’m not one for spicy foods but I knew tomorrow that it would be Anthony’s turn. The restaurant we chose was called Two Frenchies. Their website states – “Two very good friends who happened to be French . . . and knew nothing about running a restaurant , decided one lazy afternoon that they were going to bring their culture of food to Penang”.

It was all delicious and the service was excellent. The wife of one of the chef’s kept popping by to see if we were enjoying everything.

A fantastic end to our first day in Penang

For the next few days we would be exploring Launceston and some of the surrounding areas. George Town and Low Head were the destinations for today. We travelled along the East Tamar Highway alongside the Tamar River. Low Head is a suburb of George Town and sits right on the peninsula with a lighthouse at the top.

The above photo is of the Windmill Point Tree Sculptures. Depicting the workmen hauling ashore the telegraph cable that linked Tasmania to the North Island. Carved by chainsaw artist Eddie Freeman from macrocarpa trees.

One of the Tamar River Leading Lights

Low Head

Onto Low Head to have a look at the lighthouse and historic site that is up there. There is a carpark just below the lighthouse and after parking we made our way to the top. Constructed in 1837 by convicts, originally made of rubble with a coat of stucco. It was decided to build a lighthouse after a dozen ships were wrecked over the previous years.

Walking down the hill the to the sea, I could see some black and white birds on a rock. It said there were penguins nesting around so I had a look through my Canon Powershot and sure enough there were a “huddle” of penguins on the rocks.

I had to balance the camera on one of the rocks to keep my hands steady, I was very happy that they didn’t come out blurry.

I felt like I’d had a good workout by the time we got back to the top and into the car. Stopping again in George Town for a delicious lunch in a waterside restaurant called The Crazy Duck. We still had a few hours left before Laurence and Maddy were arriving from Melbourne that evening, I looked at the map to see if there was anywhere worth seeing on our return to Launceston. Deciding on Lilydale Falls we drove half an hour east away from the river.

Lilydale Falls

After parking the car we made our to the first waterfall which was around 15 minutes and then saw a path to the much bigger one. It did have a warning for this part of the walk to say there were no handrails and it was quite a way longer. I’m glad we made the effort though, not that it was an effort for hubby only me! There were huge trees and ferns all around and so peaceful. There were a few other people walking the trail but not enough to hold anyone up.

Getting back to the hotel around 5pm, I had just enough time for a rest before Laurence and Maddy arrived and then it was straight out to dinner.

Another walk to the restaurant called Cataract on Paterson. Wonderful lively restaurant with a great menu and friendly staff.

And then it was back to our prison block as hubby called our hotel! Actually it was a very nice hotel “Balmoral on York” but housed in a plain brick utilitarian building. Conveniently located with a super host and great reception staff. There was a cute breakfast room serving continental and cooked breakfasts. The rooms were perfectly fine with extremely comfy beds.

Tomorrow we would be heading to Cataract Gorge which was going to involve lots of walking!