Digital Nomad City Ratings: Georgetown

In the Digital Nomad City Ratings series, I review the cities where I was working as a digital nomad. The possible ratings are 0 (awful) to 10 (exceptionally wow). The ratings are of course exclusively based on my personal experience and preferences. These may be different for other people, but besides the ratings, I will share my experiences and a detailed description, so this will hopefully be helpful for you too.

A few notes on the not necessarily self-evident categories and their ratings:
Internet: I don’t need very fast internet, but I need continuous connection.
Prices: I am a budget traveller. People who earn higher salaries may have a very different perspective on costs.
Walkability (a standard point in almost all digital nomad listings – you will understand why when you start your digital nomad life) How easy/comfortable/safe/interesting is it to walk about/stroll in the city
Infrastructure: Are there sufficient and good quality services like hospitals, malls, possibilities to arrange official matters, pharmacies, trains, buses etc?
Sights & Surroundings: Options to visit places of interest nearby, especially if staying for a longer time in the city.
Visa: Can you stay in the country without a visa? If so, how long? If not, how easy is it to get a visa and/or extend it? Can you arrange this in the given city?
Overall Impression: I needed this extra category because even if everything is fine in a given city, you may feel something is not right, and you wouldn’t like to stay very long. Or the other way round: it may lack famous sights and infrastructure, but you still love the place.

Overall rating for Georgetown:

83%

Time spent in Georgetown: 3 weeks

1. Introduction

Georgetown is a beautiful historical city in Malaysia, on the island of Penang. It is the second largest city of the country, and listed among the UNESCO World Heritage sites. It is also one of the most popular tourist destinations in Malaysia, with an international airport on the island. Penang island is small, and Georgetown is only one of the settlements there, but “Penang” and “Georgetown” are very often used interchangeably. Georgetown or Penang, I can only recommend this place for digital nomads. Want the details? See below.

This is a rating of Georgetown as a digital nomad destination. If you are interested in a guide-like post on what to do and see there, see my other post about Penang and Georgetown.

2. Internet: 9

Yes, it is the most important thing for digital nomads. But internet speed will very rarely reach a score of 10 in South East Asia, so a score of 9 means a lot, really. I have stayed in two different places in Georgetown, one hotel and one private home (without the owner living there), and internet connection was mostly very good. There was an outage for a very short time in the hotel, but that’s all. It was not very fast, but I could easily watch Youtube videos and Skye. I had a U Mobile SIM card, and it gave me 4G everywhere even outside the city.

There are cafés, and I saw that some were offering free Wifi, but since I never needed it, I can’t say how good they were or whether there are many cafés with free Wifi. But since Georgetown is a famous tourist centre, I am almost sure you can get online free of charge at many places.

3. Prices: 7

Malaysia is one of the more expensive countries in Southeast Asia, and Georgetown is one of the more expensive cities in Malaysia. But even with this, prices are reasonable if not cheap for many travellers, especially the ones from Western countries.

Accommodation is not cheap, though – at least for digital nomads, who are not on holiday, so they are not splashing out on a two-week outing. It is your permanent way of living (at least for a while), so every penny is important.

If you want to find a hotel room with Wifi, private bathroom, a desk, and a little space to move around, that will be a little on the expensive side, but not overly unaffordable. Airbnb listings seemed either expensive for me or not good enough. Eventually, I chose Magpie Residence for one week, which cost me about 130 ringgits a night. A large room with a big and comfortable bed, private bathroom, aircon – but too expensive for a longer time. I then moved to a homestay, a private house in the centre, in one of those nice old heritage houses. That was more affordable, but it didn’t have a private bathroom.

Food is cheap, just like everywhere in Malaysia. 10 ringgits will buy you a substantial lunch or dinner at a very simple place, and it won’t be much more expensive even if you decide to go to a (simple) restaurant.

Buses are very reasonably priced, and there are even free buses on the tourist routes in the city.

Street art, Georgetown, Penang — Street art in Georgetown

4. People & communication: 7

Georgetown is such a famous tourist centre, that local people are of course used to foreigners, but luckily, they don’t seem to have had enough of them. They are nice to tourists, very helpful if you need any help, but it is not something you will find in less visited places. I can’t recall talking to people in the streets, which is an everyday phenomenon in many places in Indonesia, for example. But the hotel staff was really nice and talkative, and service providers were also polite everywhere I went.

Anyway, if you want to meet locals just casually in the street, Penang is not the best place for that – unless of course you yourself will strike up a conversation with just about anyone.

Georgetown being a famous destination, digital nomads will have no problem using English with locals. Virtually everyone will speak at least some English.

5. Sights and surroundings: 10

Georgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and that is not without reason. Just a walk around town will be enjoyable enough, not to mention the various tourist sights you can visit in and around Georgetown. See my separate post about what to do and see in Georgetown, the Clan Jetties of Penang, and the Architecture in Penang. One thing is sure: you will never get bored of it, even if you stay here for the entire three months of your visa free allowance.

Clan jetties, Penang — The Clan jetties in Penang

Georgetown is in Penang, and Penang has lots of other beautiful and exciting places to see besides the big city. You can see Kek Lok Si, one of the most beautiful Buddhist temples in the area, you can hike in the Penang jungle, you can visit the Tropical Spice Garden, you can climb mountains or you can visit the smaller settlements on the island. If you stay even longer, you can go and see some of the towns on the mainland, like Taiping or Ipoh.

Tropical Spice Garden, Penang — A plant in the Tropical Spice Garden

6. Walkability: 8

In Georgetown, there are pavements, there are overhead crossings on busy roads, which even have escalators up, and if there are roadworks going on, they make sure pedestrians have an alternative route – a thing unheard of in some of the countries in Southeast Asia.

And there is somewhere to walk to – as described in the previous point. One thing was missing though: there are not many benches or other “structures” to sit in the streets, unlike for example, in Padang. In some streets, you will still have to walk on the road, because there are either no pavements, or they are occupied by some parking vehicles.

7 Safety: 10

I have no knowledge of any tourists getting into trouble in Penang – but then of course, I don’t know what is happening there day by day. It is a large city, and I am sure there are people who will try to take advantage of certain situations. So the general advice is of course valid here, too: be careful, look where you’re going, and don’t accept candy from strangers – meaning if someone offers you a wonderful deal/opportunity/free service etc, thank them politely and leave. This is not only valid for Georgetown as a big city, but for any and every single place all over the world, where people tend to be genuinely much nicer and more helpful than in other parts of the world.

Streets are nicely lit at night, and an evening walk is always a pleasant experience in Georgetown. I haven’t heard of dangers solo women travellers would particularly face, but again, this is a Muslim majority country, so don’t dress too provocatively, especially if you are not travelling in a group.

8. Food: 8

Penang food is famous all over Malaysia and beyond. Penang people are very proud of their cuisine, and other Malaysians think a trip to Penang is not complete without a feast.

I don’t entirely agree with them. Don’t misunderstand me: I liked the food in Georgetown, but then, I liked it in other places in Malaysia, too, including Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, the whole of Sarawak, and especially in Ipoh, which is one of my favourite cities.

Food is cheap, and there are a lot of options even for vegetarians – indeed, one of my favourite places was a vegetarian restaurant (Ee Beng, on Lebuh Dickens), although I am not vegetarian.

Ee Beng vegetarian restaurant in Georgetown

9. Infrastructure: 8

Georgetown is the second largest city in Malaysia, so it should have everything you need. But it doesn’t necessarily show at first sight. For example, if you want to find a large supermarket, you will have to travel quite far from the historical city centre. And for a digital nomad, as opposed to a tourist, a large supermarket is very often necessary. For me, it is important because I want to buy good quality ground coffee. Coffee in this part of the world is mostly instant coffee, which you will find even in the smallest shops. But ground coffee – unheard of. Even in the more expensive supermarkets, they usually only have two or three types of ground coffee, which is a shame. (Oh, good old Vietnam, I am missing you so much every time I leave you…)

Medical services should be OK in Penang, but since Kuala Lumpur is so near, if you have a more serious medical problem, don’t think twice, fly or drive to KL immediately.

10. Visa: 9

For digital nomads, Malaysia is one of the best countries in Southeast Asia from a visa point of view. Most nationalities get a permit to stay in the country for three months without a visa. If you want to go to Sarawak os Sabah, you will need to get another permit, but they should also give you 3 months.
However, it has happened to me several times already that the immigration officer at the airport asked me various questions about my stay. This may have been the result of the several Malaysian stamps in my passport though – but then, Kuala Lumpur is the central hub, so it is inevitable that digital nomads travelling around in the region will have dozens of Malaysian stamps. I hope they are not going to change rules like Thailand did.

11. Overall impression: 7

Before I went to stay in Georgetown as a digital nomad, I had already visited the place a few years before. I knew what to expect in terms of sights, people, accommodation prices etc. With this in mind, I decided to stay there for two weeks only. I suppose I would enjoy the city for a longer time, too, but I was already at the end of my three months, and I had to leave the country. If you decide to stay longer, I am sure you will enjoy it, and you will find lots of entertainment to fill up your free time.

However, I only gave GT a score of 7 out of 10. And that is because I can compare it to a lot of other places I have stayed and worked in, and Georgetown, however nice and historical, is less enjoyable for me than quite a lot of other cities.