We had to overnight in a little Thai town called Satun before catching the boat to Langkawi the next day. Langkawi actually means strong eagle in Malay and legend has it Garuda, Vishnu's vehicle chose the island has his resting place. The room at our last stop in Thailand was old but comfortable and the journey was pretty easy, just about an hour wait through customs to get our new stamps and then another hour on the ferry. The only minor discomfort was the air con which must have been set to Artic! Langkawi is a duty free island and the ferry port is in a big mall with a good choice of restaurants, so we decided to grab out first Malaysian food here in a self service cafeteria and it was an amazing gravy curry and fried chicken, with rice and a roti, which is an Indian flatbread. The food here is largely based on Indian food, with elements of Chinese and also Malay. The hostel we chose was called the Rainbow Lodge which was 50 ringgit a night for a good sized room with a comfortable bed, cold water bathroom and little terrace, that's the equivalent of £10 so it's good value but not as cheap as some other places we have visited. We rented some bicycles the next day to see a waterfall but the humidity and hills killed us after about 12km and we got a taxi back! The beach here is big and gorgeous so we could recover in the afternoon and we found an amazing cake shop where they have a huge range of different delicacies all handmade by a little Malaysian woman. We visited the aquarium on day two, Underwater World, which had some good fish displays, a couple of seals, and birds. On day three we hired a motorbike and went to the Seven Wells waterfall, which has a lovely collection of natural pools to dip in before the drop from the mountain, and then did the nature hike up to 1800m at the conjoined Geopark. The trek wasn't too strenuous until the final stretch to the sumit but the humidity is so intense that we were both really sweaty and had another dip in the ice cold pools to finish off! We were so hungry that we decided to stop off on the way home at a Chinese seafood restaurant which was expensive in relation to the self serve curries we had been enjoying, I went for fried squid and Ben chose crab curry...we had actually agreed a few years ago in Goa that crab just wasn't worth the hassle for the small amount of meat and large amount of hard work getting it out, but we'd forgotten this valuble conclusion, only to remember it shortly after the claw cracking commenced. The extra disapointnent came with the bill at around £14, 4 times what we had usually been paying for meals! Day 4 was a trip to the island cable car, which was in a little complex known as Oriental Village. We went to the 6d cinema here also for the rollercoaster experience, impressive but needs more technological advancement to really blow you away! The real highlight was the petting zoo, where we spent an hour and a few ringgit on feeding the cute rabbits who ran free! Day 5 was cloudy and chilled, we spent the evening in a beach bar called Babylon and day 6 was our second freezing boat journey to Penang, taking 3 hours. We got chatting to an American girl and when we got there we found a cheap but basic room in Chinatown in the capital of the state, Georgetown, which had a cabbage smell to it and a shared bathroom, but we were more concerned with meeting our pal at a bar we had agreed at to go drinking (it was ladies night and there was the promise of free drinks). The night soon disappeared in a muddle of apple flavoured vodka and a big group of new friends and the next day was spent hungover and sleeping, with a short break in the middle to go to McDonalds at the nearby mall, shame on us as Penang is the foodie state and the local meals are the main draw! We also had amazing reflexology massages to ease the hangover pain.

We got the bus to Penang Hill the next day with the intention of climbing the nature trail but just could not find anyone who knew anything about a route, plus the look of disbelief from the locals got quite annoying when we tried to get information. We gave up eventually and visited the nearby Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in south-east Asia. The temple has a pond at the start which is filled with more turtles than I have ever seen, and at the top is a 36m bronze stature of the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. Unfortunately we could only view her from afar as the lift to the top was broken and they don't let you walk. They are really a lazy bunch here in Penang it seems. We enjoyed a little break from the curry (and fast food) with a delicious Chinese fish ball soup for lunch and then a walk round little India in the evening back in Georgetown where we witnessed a interesting tradition of throwing coconuts from the shop fronts at closing time as hard as possible so they smash all over the street, and we endulged in some sickly Indian sweets.

Penang really is a diverse state, Chinese is the majority population here, with Indian being second. It is the oldest of the British Straits settlements, and the commercial importance here back in the 1700's was huge due to the excellent geography of the area that links to Europe and the Middle East by sea. It used to be known as Prince of Wales Island and is now a Unesco World Heritage sight due to the Colonial Architecture, and now the streets are flecked with street art which gives a modern twist the the traditional character. South of China, east of India, it gives you a condensed mixed culture which is both tolerant and cosmopolitan.

We were determined to climb Penang Hill so on the advice of a fellow traveller the next day, we headed by motorbike to the Botanical Gardens, where we encountered more disbelief and denial of a nature trail, but eventually managed the 3 hour trek up the Mountain which was intense! We saw snakes and monkeys, plus the biggest ants we have ever come accross, and the humidity had us sticky and dripping with sweat after just minuets. We managaed to hitchhike a lift back by the road from an old Chinese man, passing many people still on their way up! We headed for the beach in Batu Ferringhi for a few hours and went back to little India again for a turkey leg curry dinner! The next morning we were very glad to be leaving our hot, smelly room to take the bus to Ipoh.