Heading over the bridge from the mainland Georgetown loomed unexpectedly large. Expecting a town akin to Melaka in size in appearance, populations are similar at around 750,000, Georgetown had a much more highrise and sprawling aspect. Maybe as previously mentioned the fact that the Brits allowed Melaka's importance to wane
Consulting a map though most of the old city and major sites of interest sit within a protected old quarter, which you can walk across in 15 minutes.
One of Georgetown's key attractions is of course the food. Promoted by many as the best in Malaysia my personal highlight was the Mee Goreng, fried noodles, in a spicy tomatoey sauce with crispy squid bits. Another favourite being a breakfast which we enjoyed in a local food market. This consisted of rice cubes and egg fried with some vegetables and and was delicious.
Also worth a few trips was the local hawker center, the Red Market. This offered a huge range of dishes accompanied by local singing talent belting out western hits with a Malay twang. The crispy duck and pork was pretty good here although we failed to try the frog porridge.
In terms of sights probably the highlight for us was the Blue Mansion. Featuring in the Oscar winning french film Indochine. The mansion is an impressively styled house built by the Asian Rockefeller 'Cheong Fatt Tse' and completed in 1888. Arriving as a penniless 16 year old he rose to become one of the last Mandarins and one of Asias most important businessmen. The house is built to precise Feng Shui (sic) calculations from the airwell helping energy to flow to the drainage and floor tile configuration.
We also saw some impressive colonial architecture and the interesting Clan jetties where a fishing and trading community live poised over the harbour on stilted houses.
However with a hankering for the beach strong we boarded the 8.30am ferry for our next destination and last in Malaysia, Langkawi.
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