Sunday 9th August 2009

We arrived in Penang at around 17.30pm and then waited for the local bus to take us to George Town where most of the sights of Penang are and where are accomadation was. After negotiating the local bus and finding our guesthouse be the time we had checked in it was around 7pm. After checking in we used the internet and while on facebook we realised that Gareth and Lex who we had previously travelled with in China and Vietnam where also in Penang so we arranged by instant chat to meet for a beer later on in evening. We had also arranged to ring Dad on Skype at 9pm our time 2pm your time we were very relieved to find Dad had survived his bike ride that he'd been on with Alan Thomas we were a bit worried but Dad did admit he was a bit worried too. After speaking to Dad we headed out to get some food we eat in China town this evening Suzie had sweet and sour pork and I had spare ribs with noodles it was very nice and also full of locals which is always a good sign. After we had eaten we then found Gareth and Lex's hostels and had a drink with them and a catch up of what everyone had been doing since we had last seen each other which was nice. From here we went back to our hostel and went to bed.

Monday 10th August 2009

This morning we had a lazy one, we got up for breakfast just before 10am but had to go in our PJ's as we didn't have time to get dressed but it was actually rather nice it felt a bit like being back home again. After breakfast it started to rain heavily so it gave us a great excuse to get back in to bed to read our books for an hour, you'll all be pleased to know after this we did eventually decide to get dressed and do something it had also stopped raining by then. Suzie organised a walking tour for us around George town so we would get to see some of the sights that she had found on the map, The first stop of the day was to Penang museum which was actually very interesting although it pains me to say it lol!!! The first floor was all about the different nationalities that settled in Penang and how there arrival influenced Penang as a city, it also gave you a insight into the different religions of Penang and Malaysia that evolved through these people settleing here. The second floor was more to do with the history of Penang as a city I can't really say too much about this floor as it didn't really keep my interest like the first floor did but Suz had a good read of things but she also said it wasn't as interesting as the first floor. From the museum we went to have a look at little India and got some street food for lunch we both had a curry puff (which was lovely) and a onion Bhaji (which wasn't so good) but I suppose you can't really complain when it costs less than 25p for both. We then decided to skip the original walking tour and just had a explore ourselves we came across a chinese temple which we were shown around by a very sweet man and from here we continued in search of a desperately needed drink. We eventually stumbled across a food court so we had a drink in there it was a shame we had had lunch because the food looked great. From here we realised we had actually walked to two different ports in George town so we had a look at both of them. One of the ports was like a little village with wooden houses on both sides of the walk way it was really nice and felt very authentic. After this we walked back to our guesthouse and booked a taxi for the following day to take us to the Biotanical gardens and also booked our bus tickets to take us to the Cameron Highlands on Wednesday. This evening Suzie fancied a curry so we went to a busy resturant in Little India, Suz had Chicken Tikka Massala with a nann bread and I had Chicken Biryani both dishes where really good and very cheap.

Tuesday 11th August 2009

This morning we had breakfast again in our PJ's and then after getting ready our taxi picked us up at 11am to take us to the Biotonical gardens. We both enjoyed the Biotonical gardens but we were also a bit dissapointed I think we had expected lots of exotic flowers and for it to be very colourful but instead it was really what we would describe as a well maintained park with lots of big old trees. We spent an hour walking around here and I was hopeing to see the resident monkeys that the lonely planet describes but we didn't so we felt again a bit dissapointed but after talking to two girls today (Wednesday) who were there the same day as us and they got attacked by the monkeys who chased them and tried to bite and scratch them I think we had a lucky escape. After the gardens we walked to have a look at a crafts factory where they were hand painting silk and cotton scarves which was interesting to watch. We then decided to go to Penang hill we could had done a 3 hour trek to the top of the hill starting from the gardens but it is so hot in Malaysia we decided it would be a fairly hellish idea. However we did think we could walk to the bottom of Penang hill to then get a train up to the top as it didn't look very far on the map from the gardens but after asking two people and them both saying it was too far to walk we then got a taxi and they weren't lying am glad we didn't attempt to walk it. Once at the bottom we brought out train tickets and then had to wait for 30 minutes for the next train, the train takes 30 minutes to get to the top and you have to swop trains in the middle once we got to the top of the hill we were 701m above sea level the views of Penang city were amazing unfortunately my pictures don't do it justice. Once we got to the top we both realised how hungry we were as it was 3pm and we hadn't had any lunch so we decided to treat ourselves to the restaurant at the top of hill opened by a English couple and there certainly wasn't anything Malaysian about it but we both had a very nice salad. After lunch we had walk around the hill we were just expecting a view on top of hill but it was like a little town we visited the Mosque, the Hindu temple and then had a look at a guesthouse there we were definately glad we hadn't booked to stay there the only thing it had going for it was the view from the gardens. We got the 5pm train back down which was so busy we were very glad to get to the bottom and we then got a taxi back to our guesthouse. Once back at the guesthouse we got on the internet to try and book accomodation for the Cameron highlands which proved more difficult than orignally expected but we eventually found somewhere after Suz and I both looking and then we eventually had to Skype them. Tonight we went back to the food court we had found on the first day but the chinese noodle store I had had my eye on the other day was closed so then I was a bit stuck to what I fancied then Suzie said she fancied another curry (I don't know what's going on with Suzie's cravings for curry maybe she's pregnant!!!! she doesn't usually like curry that much). So we then walked back to little India back to our restaurant from last night and had two different dishes I had Rogan Josh with Lamb and Suz had Butter chicken they were both very good again. After we had eaten we went back to get an early night as we were getting pick up at 6am in the morning to be taken to the Cameron highlands for our next stop so a 5am start which we were not looking forward to!! :-(.