Leaving Thailand was a bit of a blow but we have to make our way south to catch a flight on the 17th. The bus journey to Penang was really straightforward which made a nice change. We stayed in the main part of Penang on our 1st night. A place called George Town. We didn't do anything in George Town apart from get some food and have a few drinks. On our night out we met about 20 Norwegian religious studies students(all female) and a guy called Ali, who is the most opionated and chauvanistic man you will ever meet. He has 3 wives and 7 girlfriends and he basically viewed women as objects but he was pretty funny. The majority of people we met in GeorgeTown are only there to get their Thai visas renewed. We moved out to the beach the next day and stayed at a place called Batu Ferrenghi. Again there was nothing to do here. The place was full of resorts and sky rise hotels but we didn't see that many people so I imagine most the hotels are half empty. Batu Ferrenghi is a predominately muslim area so the choice of bars was poor. We did go and sample a hawkers market and bought some clothes(all fakes). We went on a tour round Penang which took in Penang Hill and a snake temple. There are quite a lot of British Colonial tours around Penang but we didn't fancy them. Apart from the tour all we did was lie on the beach. The day before my birthday I was in the sea for about 30 seconds at most and I was stung by a jellyfish on the shoulder. On my actual birthday we met a couple of Swedish girls(shock!!!!) who were staying in the guest house next to ours and the 4 of us ended up getting the bus together to Kuala Lumpur.