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Arrived in Georgetown after 22 hours of travelling. Which consisted of an overnight boat trip from Ko Tao to Surat Thani, then a wait for a bus to Hat Yai to catch another bus to Butterworth, to then get a ferry to Georgetown! Fun! By the time I got there I wanted to just jump in a taxi to find me a hostel, but I am a backpacker and we endure the painful walk around to find the best spot and cheapest place. I walked for around 10 minutes (long minutes as I was wearing my 20kg backpack) until I found a reasonable hostel recommended by the Lonely Planet guide (AKA the Bible). It's a cool little place with lots of characters of all ages in. First night of sharing a dorm with 9 others. Luckily I was completely shattered so I passed out and slept in until 10. Longest lie in so far.
Met Floor, a girl from the Netherlands, and we decided we would go to the top of Penang Hill where the view was astounding, especially at sunset. But typical me - I forgot my camera! As soon as it got dark all the lights in the city were lit and sparkling. It was stunning.
The next day Floor and I rented a motorbike and explored the whole island in 7 hours! We visited the Botanical Gardens where we saw monkeys and exotic trees and flowers then went onto a few little fishing villages. Malaysia certainly isn't as clean as Thailand and the locals don't take as much pride in their property etc as the Thai's but one thing which I have noticed is that the people are so much more friendly, everyone is welcoming and generally helpful! Walking through streets, the smells are really diferent from Thailand too. You can smell curry everywhere you go because of the huge Indian population here.
We travelled the diameter of the island and stopped off in small Malaysian villages to get a feel for the culture and way of life. We walked into a small coffee shop and every head in the place had turned to study us. It made us feel slightly uncomfortable to say the least! But after a while a few people came over to see where we were from. We visited a temple which is famous for it's snake inhabitants, which was a waste of time. The time we spent there was taken up by the staff trying to make us believe the snakes "really are real"!!! When they were obviously wooden and painted!
Checked out the next day and made my way to the Cameron Highlands.
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