Well, after being very underwhelmed by our first stop in Malaysia (Langkawi), we moved on to Georgetown on Penang island by ferry. Here we stayed in a great little hostel (100 Cintra Street) which was run by a lovely old Chinese guy who had made a little museum in the attic. Very quiant! We stayed in Chinatown and found some great food courts for dinner... fried rice, fried noodles, and many strange bits and pieces, not entirely sure of the origin of all of them! Anyway, the locals seemed to like us, we got many stares!

Georgetown has loads of character and we spent a full day walking around sightseeing... Rather exhausting but managed to take in Penang Museum, the esplanade, Fort Cornmallis, Chinese temples, a large mosque (a short lecture on Islam thrown in!), Little India, 65-storey Komtar building, botanical gardens, huge Kek Lok Si Chinese temple and the train to the top of Penang Hill for the view. As you can imagine a good night's sleep followed and then we spent the next day recovering on the beach!

Our next stop was the Cameron Highlands, a major area for tea plantations and strawberry farms and cooler than on the coast, so all rather English! We stayed at Father's Guesthouse in some strange dorms in tunnels... which were actually very comfortable! The first evening we experienced a traditional 'steamboat' meal... something we're glad we've done but may not repeat! It involved a large bowl of soup in the centre of the table, in which you cook various bitesize pieces... We weren't sure what all of these were exactly... but the main theme was definately fish!

We had a busy day the next day, doing an organised tour in the morning and then climbing a very large hill in the afternoon! The tour took in all the classic sites - strawberry farm, butterfly farm, bee farm, tea plantation, rose garden and a local market to buy some deep-fried things for lunch! We also bought some strawberries and ate them at the top of the mountain, returning to our hostel for a cream tea and cake. Rather surreal in Malaysia! Some great tandoori chicken for dinner followed by a fair few drinks back at the hostel... And then on to Kuala Lumpur!