A Week in Picturesque Digital Island Penang

Our week in picturesque digital island Penang went in variable moods. Even though the internet connection in our Muntri House guesthouse wasn’t always as steady as I could have wished from the digital nomad island, we managed to get the needed online works done. Furthermore, I got a fever during the week forcing me to stay in the bed the whole Wednesday. Since there were some important matters to be handled during the week as well, let’s dive into our week in digital island Penang.

We had already stayed few nights in the Muntri House guesthouse in downtown Georgetown and liked it a lot. Our bed is amazingly soft and four pillows are just cuddly. The staff is nice and smiley. Especially the janitor who handles all kinds of tasks from cleaning the rooms and toilets to organizing the breakfast and fixing the lamps. Even though he doesn’t speak English at all, a smile from him lopsided mouth means more than a thousand words.

Having said all these things, we decided to stay the whole week in Muntri House. We had a thought of changing to some other place nearby. But the good things beat not so good things clearly.

Also, we can live with the slow and uncertain internet connection too…

Beginning the process of getting Thai Visa in Picturesque Digital Island Penang

On Tuesday I made an exploration to the Thai Embassy in Georgetown. We had heard from some travelers back in Chiang Mai, Thailand that Embassy of Thailand in Georgetown, Penang would grant free tourist visas from the beginning of December 2016 to the end of February 2017.

I wanted to be sure about that so I decided to walk four kilometers to the Embassy.

After reaching the Embassy of Thailand in Georgetown, it became quickly obvious to me that the free tourist visa was true. There were printed forms glued into the windows of the Embassy booths clearly stating the exemption of the visa fee. That meant we can save RM300 ($68) from the visas. In addition, that enables us to invest that amount of money to something else – more enjoyable matters.

The four kilometer walking to the Embassy went very well since the Sun didn’t rise sky-high yet. The temperature was ok for exercising as well. With that being said, the journey back was more challenging. It was around 10.30am when I began to jog back to the guesthouse. I had some water left which helped a bit. But because I’m sweating like a pig even after a little walk in the rainy, 20 degrees Finnish summer day, you can imagine how I felt amongst all the pouring sweat after walking back to the guesthouse.

A Sick Day on Wednesday

Even when I tried to drink as much water as possible back in the accommodation, it was already too late. I got a minor heatstroke which rose the fever during the Tuesday evening and Wednesday night. Usually, my body temperature is 35.5 degrees Celsius but during the Wednesday morning it had soared up to 38 degrees. I felt really sick during that time.

Luckily there are good pharmacies in the downtown Georgetown in order to pick some relief up. Moreover, we had some own medicine in our backpacks as well. Anyway, I had to just rest in the bed the whole day. The good side of being location independent entrepreneur is that you can work from your bed with your pajamas on if you want to. And that is exactly what I needed to do on Wednesday.

I felt a bit better on Thursday morning but still, it was a wise thing to take it just easy. Since our initial plan was to get the Visa application started on Wednesday but I got sick, we moved it to Thursday. Because I didn’t feel good enough for driving a motorbike which we wanted to rent as well, we took a bus to the Embassy of Thailand.

After filling in and giving the Visa application forms to the clerk of the Embassy, we took the bus back to the guest house.

There was more resting to be done.

Back to Life Apropos on Weekend

On Friday, it was time get back to life. We rented a motorbike in the morning like I stated above and drove around the Penang Island. We rode approximately 100 kilometers during the Friday and saw some spectacular views along the journey. This trip included visits to Snake Temple and Queensbay Mall amongst others. At 3 pm, we picked our brand new Thai visas up from the Embassy. Those visas enable us to stay in Thailand 60 days with a single entry to the country. There is a possibility to extend the visa with 30 more days.

The wife wanted to do the Penang Street Art walk during our stay in this gorgeous digital island Penang. There are countless of wonderful pictures on the walls of Georgetown buildings. You can do the walk by following a map which includes almost every single painted picture or sculpture there are in the city center. These wall paintings and this whole area of heritage buildings have given Penang the UNESCO World Heritage Site recognition. We spend three hours altogether when doing, almost, the whole tour. Just check the images below this section in order to see some of these street art paintings.

Penang Street Art pictures:

After this astonishing stay in Penang Island, we are going to continue our Malaysian trip to another beautiful island, Langkawi, before heading back to Thailand. We have booked a two-hour bus trip from Butterworth (mainland in front of Penang) to Kuala Perlis (mainland near Langkawi) for Monday. So with that being said, we will see you in the ambiance of Langkawi in the next blog post!

Rest of the week in Picturesque Digital Island Penang: