65. MALAYSIA III

65. MALAYSIA III - Penang

My first 90 days in Penang:

After about six years on the road, it finally happened: I got tired of traveling, changing places, constantly having new people around me, sightseeing, adjusting to foreign cultures and religions, and not having my own coffee cup. And not that kind of tired feeling that I had a few times. The one that you can just base yourself for 3 or 4 weeks in a cool city and hit the road again. No, this time I had to change my lifestyle quite drastically.

First, I needed to find a new home to settle in. I thought a lot about that in the last years already, I have seen quite a lot of countries, so I had the opportunity to experience a lot of places first-hand and get a better feeling of where to base my life in. In the end, I was in between 5 countries: Argentina, Malaysia, Poland, Taiwan and Türkiye. Yeah, quite a wild mix. I tried spreadsheets to decide rationally, but of course even more, I tried to listen to my gut feeling.

From all the places I have been to, Penang has always been the place that felt like a home to me. Somehow, I had a crazy fascination for this beautiful island since I set my first foot here in 2019 and came back many times. It's probably a mix of the delicious food (for me the best in the world), super nice & pleasant people, jungle, hills & beaches and a great infrastructure with one of the best cost-benefit ratios worldwide.

I took a flight from Guilin in China to Kuala Lumpur, where I spent 3 days visiting friends I have not seen for years and took a bus to Penang afterwards. Thanks to my amazing landlord, whom I met in 2019, I got an awesome apartment for a great price quite easily.

While moving into my new apartment, the most basic things for most people seemed completely mindblowing and amazing to me. Hanging your clothes in a cabinet, being able to buy real books instead of e-books, having your own coffee in the morning, having a fridge to store food, building small routines, greeting the same neighbors every day and buying big bottles of shampoo blew me away :D

I did not really give myself any idea of how long I would stay here. In my head, I am between one year and forever. There are a few factors I can't really influence (i.e., visa policies or family situations). But just the feeling of moving into a place without thinking of when to leave and where to go next was like heaven for me in that moment.

My apartment is actually way too big for me. I have 3 bedrooms, a huge living & dining room, a kitchen and three bloody bathrooms :D But this situation gave me the perfect opportunity to finally host guests after crashing other people's houses for years.

At the beginning, I felt a bit worried that the change of life might be difficult and that I would wanna continue traveling after a few weeks, but the opposite was the case. In my first 90 days here, I left the island TWO single times :D I enjoyed my much slower life here so incredibly much with a lot of work (new self-employed online projects), reading books, hiking, meeting new amazing people & old friends, eating all the delicious dishes here, cycling around the island, sorting photos and writing about my world trip. I think at this point I actually had the first time to process what happened over the last years.

I also arrived at the very perfect time in Penang since I experienced Chinese New Year, Ramadan and Thaipusam festival all in my first 3 months here! I enjoyed all the completely different festivals in their own ways with different food and customs. If you ever plan to experience any of these 3, Penang is an awesome place to do so.

If you read this and ever wanted to travel to Malaysia, feel free to visit, I have a big place to receive guests :)

Next report in 90 days.