(26 November)

This morning Scott, Toni, Sara and I got up early and went into Georgetown, the main bit of Penang!

We got a bus and asked to be told when to get off for the "reclining Buddha" which was meant to be on the bus route...he ended up telling us to get off early, about an hour walk away! So we got a taxi, thinking that the bus must not go past it after all. The taxis were con artists...so sick of them refusing to use the meter because we are white! But we got there in the end!

It was really cool, there was a Burmese temple and a Thai temple across the road from it (I think that's what they were! Memory is failing me...). Te Burmese one was pretty cool, a bit different from other temples I'd seen, and there was turtles! That was fun lol. The reclining Buddha was pretty cool, seen a few already like lol but it was really colourful, and in a big temple thing which had loads of urns and stuff inside...pretty random!

After the temples we asked a taxi driver outside how much he would cost, and he started talking about how he couldn't put the meter on because it would be too cheap...very unimpressed! So we figured we could find a bus. We were thinking of going to the Kek Lok Si, a temple up a big hill, but it looked like to get a bus there we would have to go into town and out again anyway, so decided just to do town first! So we had walked around the corner and got an ice lolly from the 7/11, and then a 101 - our bus - drove past! So we could have just stayed on the bus and not needed a taxi! Gutted, but oh well.

Anyway, we got on a bus after dying in the heat for a bit, which brought us to Komtar, the transport hub sort of in Georgetown. From there we got a free shuttle bus which goes around the main attractions! We did it the lazy way and looked at a lot of them as the bus went past - to be honest, it's great seeing temples and stuff, but I've seen it all before now...

We got off at Fort Cornwallis, which we were expecting to be pretty impressive...we were a little bit disappointed. It was kind of just a big walled garden with a few cannons, and the wall wasn't even that high! There was also We were starting to realise that whoever does the ad campaign for Penang is amazing because everything we had seen online etc had made it seem like the attractions were amazing...and in all honesty, they were worth a look but not particularly impressive!

We walked back toward what the map said was the main street in search of food...couldn't find anywhere open! It was actually really weird! We walked along the road and then got to Chinatown and still couldn't find any food, it was pretty bizarre... Some people were starting to get a bit grumpy from hunger haha. We had almost given up when we found a massive shopping mall, and thankfully managed to get food there. I was still getting used to food again but managed half a toastie and the others had Chinese. Afterwards we found the best shop ever!!! It was a big pick and mix shop with really nice sweets and the best part was you could try before you buy! Amazing! Sorted my fear of eating too much right out haha!

We wandered around for a bit then caught a bus home which took forever because there was really bad traffic - an hour and a half instead of half an hour! And we had the joy of a guy behind us blasting music from his phone...seriously rubbish music - really unimpressed! Poor Scott didn't even have headphones with him, I thought he was going to punch the guy after the first hour!

Eventually we got home and went to get a few drinks to bring back to the hostel. We decided to share a bottle of vodka between the 4 of us and the others got a few beers...I was still pretty iffy about beer and just wanted to try one or two drinks of what I'm used to to see how it went! On the way back I called in to the NZ guys to invite them out because they had been looking for other travellers.

Back at the hostel we played ring of fire which was fun, and I felt a lot better! We met some Americans who live in KL and they had monopoly card game!! Haha, I got seriously overexcited and ditched ring of fire to join them! Then around 12 we left for a club along the road because we couldn't make too much noise in the hostel, the poor woman who lived next door was coming to complain.

The club was pretty cool, had a swimming pool in the middle but was very expensive, which was why we had drank before we went! It was a bit weird cos I was basically sober as I had been very conservative with my drinking because I still felt iffy, and while the others had started seriously drinking I was playing MCG haha, but it was fun for a while. Met the NZ guys there but the groups didn't really bond haha. The club was basically all Malaysians as well which was a little weird. By about 1 or 2 I was too tired and decided to go home, and Sara came with me! We ended up going to find food because we were a bit peckish, couldn't find chips lol but we shared a burger. It was kinda nice to just chill out and have a chat and then hit bed!

I was woken up a few times in the night to some noise outside but couldn't make out what was going on and just went back to sleep lol.