After our terrific time at Suka Suka we made our way north towards the costal state of Penang. Firstly we took a slight detour to visit the orangutans at Orangutan Island. The baby orangutans were so cute and we boith fell in love with them! We then took another detour to the Krian river to take a boat ride and watch the rivers famous inhabitants..the fireflies.

As we waited for the darkness to decend we ate at a road side restaurant which our tour guide, Pete, informed us was one of the most renouned seafood haunts in Malaysia. The food was absolutly wonderful. Four of us shared a mixture of crab, prawns, octopus, pork, vegtables, mussels, laya-laya and fresh fish. The price of this entire Malaysian masterpiece was 72 Ringits or approximatly 12 pounds!

Once it was dark enough we were able to join the boat trip to see the fireflies. With a storm overhead we watched the fireflies under a sky illuminated with the most amazing forked lighting. Drawing similarities with our visit to the night safari in Singapore, the atmosphere of the boat cruise was greatly enhanced by the weather.

Our hotel in Penang was located in the states capital of George Town. For a fairly small island, Penang has a population of one million (mainly due to the number of factories on the island IBM, Dell etc) and so as was the case in KL it was quite dirty. A popular destination for travellers there were alot of bars in George Town and so we spent a few hours chilling with our group at the local Irish bar.

On our free day in Penang, as it was hot and the sky was clear ( Malaysia was fairly overcast alot of the time) we decided to go to the beach with our freind Shannon. The beach was about 30 minutes drive and so we hailed a taxi and taxi story number three unfolded. The taxi driver we had was clearly crazy! As soon as we got into the cab he informed us he was not only a taxi driver but a tour guide (we only want to go to the beach we all thought!) He gave us all books to read about Penang and when I appeared to not be reading mine he slammed his finger (slammed may be a slight exaggageration!) on the page telling me to read! He also told Mandy to "calm down sister" when she politely told him we just wanted to go to the beach and also got funny with her for saying 'thank you' to him as well as commending him for his ability to speak English. He also filled up at a petrol station (has anyone ever been to a petrol station whilst taking a taxi?!) and proceeded to fill up with his engine still running! To top it all off he got the girls to fill in his diary (whcih he gets his passangers to fill in everyday for him) and asked them to leave their numbers!

Once we finally got to the beach we spent the afternoon lounging around, eating fresh fuit and swimming. We were told by a local on a horse that there was a group of about 20 dolphins in the bay but unfortunatly we could not spot them. When we were at the beach Shannon caught the sun quite alot on her legs and they started to swell. A few days later we found out she had second and third degree burns!

On our last night in Malaysia Stuart and I watched Everton defeat Stoke whilst Mandy and the girls went to a Chinese lantern festival and ate moon cake. Our time in Malaysia had come to an end and in the morning we would be crossing the border into the 'land of the free'...Thailand.