Hype, hype, hype.  "Langkawi: paradise", "Penang: amazing everything", "Pangkor: I would live there forever."  After my two months in Mexico and my thesis on dealing with hype, I knew to not take anything to heart.  This time around, I was able to listen, nod politely and even smile genuinely.  I knew that the people recommending these places had the best intentions in mind.  It was just their level of judgement is perhaps not as refined as I would like.  I now refer to this as "travel judgement". 

When folks are on vacation for a short period of time, they seem to be inclined to think that everything they see is great, choosing not to use a critical eye to avoid the risk of maybe veering into negativity.  Of course you also have groups of backpackers who also think everything they experience as a backpacker is great.  My UK friend George Hardwick who I met in Valladolid, Mexico expresses this in his writing about hostel princesses.  You might meet cool people along the way who you connect with and talk about life.  Then, unfortunately, when it comes to their travel recommendations, the connection is lost.  I need advice from the discerning traveler.  I'm not really on a schedule right now.  I can afford to judge the quality of my destinations and describe them for what they are.  Not every place is "the most beautiful place in the world" and I really do not think I would like that.  For example, New Zealand's landscape is remarkable in every way describable.  Was it the right place for me to explore my identity?  No.

In this essay, you will see from the photos that I was lucky enough to experience the best of what these three west coast islands of Malaysia have to offer.  At the same time I cannot say that Langkawi is anything near paradise nor that Penang is universally amazing nor that I would ever consider moving to Pangkor.  It does not mean that I did not thoroughly enjoy my Malaysian island hopping adventure!  I recommend that all travelers to Malaysia visit these places and appreciate them for what they are: tastes of Malaysian culture.

Pangkor Island

Pangkor Island is reached by ferry.  It is a tiny fishing island.  There is not much to do there.  It's meant to be a place for vacationing with your family.  The small street is lined with small food carts run by local families who let you pick out what seafood you want and what style you want it prepared.  They then serve you your meal at your beachfront table.  It's that simple.  I spent all day at the beach napping and then had a gigantic seafood dinner.  My "fun" Pangkor story is trying to catch the ferry at 8am the next day.  My little hotel's property management had been missing in action since I checked in.  Ringing the bell did not seem to have any effect.  It became unclear if I was going to be able to reserve a taxi to take me across the island to the jetty.  It is a 90 minute walk, in the heat.  A taxi would be a better idea.  At 7:30am on my day of departure, I do not see taxis on the small main road.  I decide to try hitchhiking.  I get totally ignored by the cars passing by.  One guy who was stopping by to pick up his wife and kids to take them to school pointed down the road.  I did not understand what he was saying but I decided that time was running out and I might as well start walking in that direction anyway. Lo and behold, a taxi stand appeared like an oasis.  It was one of those "travel moments" where you are kinda happy you did not prepare well for the moment because things worked out naturally through human contact.  No need to phone reserve anything here.

Penang Island

The main city on Penang is Georgetown.  This is where I spent all of my time.  Penang is a big island with a massive 5 mile bridge connecting it to the mainland.  Still, the fastest way to get from the mainland to Georgetown is the ferry (because Penang car traffic is notorious).  Penang has a population of 400,000 which is really similar to Staten Island.  I figured it would be fun to ride the commuter ferry and she how both the ferry terminal and ferry boats compare to the Staten Island Ferry experience. 

Penang welcomes you with a sweltering hot corrugated metal-covered abandoned factory-style ferry terminal.  With very few seats and no ventilation, bathrooms or significant concession stands, nothing says "Welcome to Penang" like the ferry terminal!  Once you get on the boat, you are surrounded by cars!  The passengers and cars are on the same level.  Some people are just leaning against cars.  There is a small passenger seating area in the middle of the boat, arranged in two long columns.  Some people are just leaning over the edge of the boat.  This is super weird.

Penang is known for its food culture and its neighborhoods built on top of dilapidated docks (affectionately referred to by their historical name: "clan jettys").  I would also point out that it should be known for its open sewers.  I thought that added a special touch (sarcasm).  It's a major cruise terminal and receives thousands of tourists, mostly from China, almost every day.

Penang might have been the hottest place I've ever visited in my life.  After walking from the ferry terminal to my hostel for about 10 minutes, there was so much sweat dripping off of me!  I felt like I was melting!  When I went to the bathroom to clean up and look at the mirror, I laughed out loud.  My face was soaking wet.  It looked like I jumped into a pool. 

This was also the first place that I discovered that the missing toilet paper in the bathroom was not a housekeeping mistake.  There is no toilet paper.  That's not how you wipe your butt there.  Oh, faithful reader, I'll let you figure the rest out... or when we meet at a bar, I can tell you my version of the story and all of its gritty detail.

Penang is the first place that I had the Malaysian delicacy known as cendol, pronounced "chen-dole".  It looks absolutely horrific and tastes wonderful.  On a hot Penang day, there is nothing that compares to the refreshing taste of cendol.  It's a shaved ice with coconut flavor.  It has frozen red beans in it as well.  Imagine a mix of coconut ices with Japanese style red bean ice cream.

Langkawi Island

The Oriental Village of Langkawi says it all: a recreated Asian theme park-style downtown.  At least it is also the entryway to the absolutely breathtaking and horrifying cable car system.  The cable car gives you a full view of the island, the glamorous rain forest and the beach. 

Oh, the beach.  I'm sorry, I don't think this place is paradise.  The water was kinda green-colored.   I found a beach that was completely empty.  It was nice to have it to myself.  Then I went in the water and I could see the tiny sea creatures floating around.  Then I felt the itching.  They were biting me!  Now I understand why no one is at the beach swimming in the ocean and why the resort hotel pools are hoppin'.

Luckily, you can walk right into any hotel resort and hang out at the pool.  They do not use a wristband system like in Mexico. 

Langkawi is a tax free/duty free zone.  In the downtown area, instead of super cool beachfront avenues lined with palm trees and seaview restaurants, you have gigantic US-style malls with overwhelming "DUTY FREE" signage blinking in your face.  The ocean is completely blocked from the street.  It's a disgrace.  Downtown Langkawi should be bulldozed entirely and they should restart from scratch.  It's the only beach town/city I've ever seen where beach access is 100% cut off from the public in the town center.  I get angry even thinking about it.

The thing is, I met so many people who kept telling me how AmAZinG Langkawi is.  I think these are people who stayed at really nice resorts and were actually referring to how nice the resorts were.  The island itself is ok.  If you get a thrill from renting a motobike and biking around a very hilly island, then you will enjoy that as well.  Jetski rental is probably the cheapest there than anywhere else in the world.  Although, I'm not sure I would want to jetski in Malaysia, even though I absolutely love the country and they have very high engineering standards.  (Maybe that's because I can't drive.  Yes, I have a driver's license.  You don't want me behind the wheel.  It makes me dizzy.)  So yea, some people like Langkawi because of the jetskiing.  I wasn't really feeling that.  I'm looking for island culture.  Something unique.  I did not find it here.  The duty free malls downtown really killed the vibe for me.