An underwhelming island…

After Thailand we arrived in Langkawi for our first trip to Malaysia’s biggest island. Fresh from staying on the the quietest island in Thailand for 7 weeks, we have to say it was a little underwhelming.

Langkawi probably has potential and we’d both like to go back to see if it could win us over but we generally didn’t fall in love with it.

Having said that, we did stay in a lovely luxury resort on the west coast of the island which was a wonderful, blissful, vegan friendly escape from the dullness of Kuah and the area around the ferry port. It’s fair to say The Danna Langkawi saved us and definitely made us consider returning.

We were quite happy to sit here and relax…

Vegan pancakes at The Danna Langkawi for breakfast anyone?

So we spent a couple of days on Langkawi, taking refuge in luxury at The Danna then traipsing around in the heat wondering if we were missing something. We’ve condensed everything we think might be useful to fellow vegan travellers into a (small) Vegan Guide to Langkawi if you are wondering.

Wandering the streets of Kuah Town

The Eagle Has Landed

I’m a vegan, get me out of here…next stop, Georgetown, Penang

After Langkawi, we did what all vegan travellers do when they get the opportunity; we headed to a vegan eating hotspot and ate our own weight in delicious vegan food. Georgetown, in Penang, has to be one of the most awesome vegan destinations in Malaysia, so we booked into a nice vegan friendly boutique hotel (Hotel Penaga) for 5 nights and made a giant list of places to eat.

Hotel Penaga, our home in Georgetown

Georgetown is a foodie paradise, for vegans and non-vegans alike. People head there as much for the food as for the amazing art and culture (it was declared a UNESCO Heritage Site in 2008).

A seriously good vegan buffet in Georgetown

One of the best things about Georgetown is coming across street art

Amazing Georgetown architecture, some still in a state of disrepair

We spent days wandering about, looking at buildings, street art and people. We headed to Little India which made us yearn to go back to (Big) India, we found cheap local bars, fancy cafes and more vegan food than we could possibly squeeze into our short stay there.

A dosa is always top of our list when we return to Georgetown…

…quickly followed by an Indian thali

More street art in Georgetown…

…and a 8m high street art chicken!

We met a lovely fellow vegan traveller and wandered about being vegan together for the day… fellow vegans really are the coolest.

It was actually our 6th visit to Georgetown but trust us, this place never gets old and we’d happily go back again tomorrow.

But we had other places to get to and for the second time in since our Vegan Food Quest began in 2014, we weren’t going together.

We were splitting up.

Before you worry, this split was for adventuring purposes only. Paul was heading to Kuala Lumpur to get supplies (vegan travellers always need special supplies of things like nutritional yeast don’t you know) and Caryl was going on her first solo trip ever.

Exciting times ahead…