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We got to Penang early Friday morning and met my family friend Jennifer at the airport- Jennifer's family lived in Singapore with Dad's family when they were young and Grandma is still very close friends with Jennifer's Mum.
Jennifer drove us from the airport to George Town and then to lunch! We went to a beautiful restaurant on the beach and she ordered famous malaysian dishes for us to try!
In the afternoon we just chatted in her pool and she then made us cocktails- I now have a new favourite cocktail 'dark and stormy' which is dark rum and ginger beer!- Sam If you haven't already tried this you need to!
In the evening Jennifer and her husband Neil took me and Emily to a hawker stall- a hawker stall has stalls of sooo many different types of food and you just go round and order loads of different things... Neil ordered sting ray for us to try, I wasn't really liking the idea of it but then tried it and it was so good, We were so surprised! After dinner we went to a local cafe for coffee and cake. We had only been away for a week but were loving being back in a house!
Jennifer and Neil have 3 dogs so the next day we got up at half 7 to take them for a walk along the beach before it got too hot! It was a great start to the day- the dogs are adorable and we met some of Jennifer's friends.
Later that day Jennifer drove us to the 'Gray' house just down the road- Grandma and Grandpa were living there when dad was born! Soo cool to see it, it's one of the only houses like it left, nearly every other one has been knocked down and built into new apartments.
We were then given the best tour of George Town! It is soo nice having someone to tell you facts and show you the best places to go! We started by visiting the church where dad was christened! I didn't know what to expect of Penang, I had no idea what it would look like but it has some of the prettiest buildings! Jennifer said it got heritage status around 7 years ago so since then the funding has been given to fixing up all of the old beautiful houses!
After walking around all day we then took trishaws to meet Neil for lunch- trishaws are seats that are pushed along by a man on a bicycle! I have no idea how they do it in the heat- I don't think he found it so easy pushing me and Emily along- I could hear him huffing and puffing behind us!
We were taken to a small local restaurant and had 'banana leaf'- you literally eat off a Banana leaf instead of a plate and you then order a selection of currys! It again was such good food and somewhere that we would have never known to go! We then spent the rest of the afternoon cooling down in the pool before going to another beach front restaurant to have Crab and shrimp!
The next day they drove us round so we could see the west side of the island. We went to see Ayer itam dam which has a beautiful view and then to see Kek lok si-the goddess of mercy. We finished the tour at a tree top thai restaurant called tree monkey- and again had amazing food! All the travellers we had met had told us to look forward to the amazing food in Penang, and they weren't wrong!
Neil is a cosmetic surgeon so before we went out that night he showed us all the horrors that come in to the hospital that he operates on! Emily was far too squeamish to look but I was fascinated!! It was soo cool to see!
Our final night in Penang was spent stuffing ourselves with cake at a cafe in George Town! It had only been 10 days since leaving England but we were already craving cake- possibly because every time Emily facetimes her mum she is baking! We had great meal and it was a lovely place to spend our last evening in Penang!
We had the most amazing 4 days in Penang! We were incredibly lucky to be able to stay and be shown round by Jennifer and Neil- Penang would not have been the same without them! They were amazing!
We both absolutely loved Malaysia so are very happy we had time to fit it in! Our next stop is Bangkok where we are meeting 5 other friends from uni!
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