Having spent a few days and nights in busy Georgetown, we were all looking forward to our move to the other side of Penang, Batu Ferringhi beach. Alan was once again a legend and had arranged to come and pick us up in the morning from our guesthouse...not having to trek around the streets in the blazing sun with our massive bags was a relief!

Alan had menioned how good the shopping malls were in Penang and, knowing that we would love to experience one first hand, he took us over to a huge one with hundreds of shops! It was a little dangerous to let us loose in there as we were trying to be good with our money but we all managed to hold back and not spend too much!

After dragging us away from the shops and meeting up with Lin, we all headed over from Penang to the mainland to visit the Orang Utan Island in Bukit Merah. It was a great place as the Orang Utan's are allowed to roam free while visitors are restricted to a caged walkway. The Orang Utan's were brilliant and very sweet but the cutest was a 6 month old that was being looked after by the park's nurses....seriously so cute! Just across from the island was another animal enclosure with loads of exotic animals and a few rabbits and guinea pigs! We had a wander around that and finished the visit with a cable car that took you over a water park, quite random but fun!

We jumped back into Alans car an headed back towards Batu Ferringhi, where we had luckily booked accomodation already so we didn't have the usual hassle of trekking around trying to find a room. That night we headed back to the food court down the road from our guesthouse, the food there was really good and so cheap. The night market in Batu Ferringhi was so good and after dinner we spent quite a while wandering around all the stalls and buying a few bits. After that we decided to check out the bar opposite our guesthouse, where we met a few locals and sat drinking with them for a few hours...they were good fun and insisted on buying us beers which was a bonus!

The next day we headed down to the beach and were reminded that we had arranged with the locals we had been drinking with the night before to down Parasailing!As they ran the watersports on the beach there was no getting out of it. We decided that it would be most fun to do it in pairs so me (Lorna) and tan and Hay and kate paired off. It was amazing, the view of the beach from the air was stunning as long as you didn't look down and realise how high above the sea you were! The funniest thing about the whole experience though was mine and Tania's crash landing! Having watched hay and kate go before us and land perfectly we thought we'd be fine but instead of landing gracefully on our feet I ended up on my back with a grazed knee with tania on top of me with grazed wrists....it definitely gave everyone on the beach something to laugh about!

Alan and Lin had really kindly asked the staff at their hotel if we could come along and use the pool, so after a little while on the beach we walked along and had a dip. It was so good to be in a nice clean resort and in a cold pool! After an hour or so of swimming and relaxing alan offered to take us up to the Tropical fruit market which we had been told was amazing and had brilliant views. Unfortuntaley by the time we got there it had shut! But we got some lovely shots of us overlooking Batu Ferringhi.

We headed back to our guesthouse and introduced alan and lin to the bar we had been in the night before. We thought that that was going to be our last night in Penang so we said goodbye and all felt a little sad to be leaving them! They'd looked after us so well! That night we decided we should really get them something to thank them for their efforts, and as we had all chatted about it before we opted for a voucher to use the local fish foot spa. When buying it we were persuaded by the owner to have a go ourselves. It was very strange, you dangle your feet into a pool of little fish and they nibble away at your hard skin....nice!

Turns out we didn't end up leaving the next day! So being the lovely people that they are, Alan and Lin once again offered to take us out and about for the day. We headed back over to Geragetown as they wanted to show us once of the town infamous food markets. It is safe to say we all came close to throwing up....the smells were BAD! As we left the market we saw Alan chatting to a local Trishaw driver. He arranging for the guy to go and get two of his mates and take us all to the E&O Hotel, a famous and lovely hotel in the centre of Georgetown. They really kindly treated us to lunch there.

We then headed up to the spice farm for a drink and again to enjoy the views of Batu Ferringhi. It was here that we gave Alan and Lin their present...I think they were pleased.

We once again said our goodbyes and this time promised we wouldn't surprise them the next day with a text saying we'd stayed another night. Our last night in the guesthouse was a short one as we'd opted to get the 4.30 bus out of Penang the next morning! So in a very tired state the next day we started out journey to Krabi......