Penang

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Our journey to Penang could be a whole blog in its self as it felt like it took us days just to get here, we left the perhentian islands at around 11 am by speed boat , now I read in the guide book that these boats should only carry 12 people max so after doing a quick head count we had 22 people in ours plus everyones rucksacks so I was a bit nervous also it didn't help that our driver saw a mate in another boat and they decided to race each over!!Anyway we arrived safe and sound at the dock and met up with two guys from Amsterdam and shared a taxi to kuala Besut which is a little town where we where getting our coach from. Our coach was at 10:30pm, so we had quite a few hours to kill, kuala Besut is a very Muslim town with not much for tourists and as its Ramadan all the food places where closed (über cultured backpacker look away now ) we managed to find a McDonald's believe it or not that had air con (after a week with out was heaven sent) and wifi and we set our selfs up there for the day, around 9 we got to the coach station it was all a bit manic we met a really nice family from the Netherlands who where backpacking with there 3 young kids , it's kinda nice to meet family's just goes to how your never to old or young to travel. It was a pretty long and uncomfortable coach trip and we arrived at George Town station at 5 am we shared a taxi with a Canadian guy to our accommodation once there we were told we couldn't checking in till 2pm !! And he directed us to a cafe up the road we sat there like zombies the three of us in this Indian cafe waiting for the sun to come up.

After we were able to check in we had a nap and shower and become human again it was time to explore, we spent our first few day in Penang in the same way just chilling wondering around the streets and enjoying the amazing food and the lots of funky little coffee shops that seem to be everywhere. Penang is on old British port and is also a UNESCO worlds heritage site, most of the buildings are in the old colonial style and haven't been changed or up graded at all by the looks of it which gives the area of George Town this really shabby cool look. Other then just bumming around and grant drinking lots of ice coffee we did manage to see a few things first off was Cornwallis fort, which is an old British fort it costs 40p to get in and is pretty basic, there lots of information boards everywhere but there not written by someone with English as a first language so to be honest they did't make much sense. We also when to a Chinese clan house, this is pretty much a meeting house / lodge for Chinese people with the same surname and same area in china, it was a way for them to keep the memory of home alive and build up a community and the building it's self was amazing one of the most beautiful buildings I think if ever seen (lot of pics). If you go to Georgetown I would recommend doing a walking tour of the street art its amazing and takes you to different parts of the town like the jetty areas where people literally live in houses on the piers.

We have had a few memorable meals while in Penang first up was the red market which is a hawker market where they bring beer to your table and have everything Indian, Chinese, Thai to even sushi and pizza they also have a lady boy singer. We stumbled across an amazing Chinese food place called !!!!! it didn't look much from the out side but as it was busy we thought we'd give it a go , and I'm so glad we did the food was amazing !! The best Chinese I have ever had and if you ever go you have to try the diced pork it's what there know for. We were also recommended by a friend of grants to try an Indian restaurant that did the amazing curry's and it truly lived up to expectation.

So on one of our more active days we headed off to kek lok si Temple there based a little more inland and are one of the largest Buddhist temples in Malaysia. We got a bus there and it took forever as traffic was really bad however on our bus we met two guys from Austria and a German girl so decide to tour the temple together it's a really beautiful temple very bright and colourful the only down side was every time you got to a temple there was a tacky gift shop but it gave us a laugh looking around also at the temple they had a massive pond full of turtles that you could feed which was pretty cool and u could also buy wish ribbons so we bought a few of them I wasn't paying too much attention and picked up the wrong colour so now were blessed with good working conditions instead of a long relationship hehe, after the temple we all decided to meet up later that night to head to a night market and for some food which was fun and I had a bit of haggle over a few bags. We rounded off the night having a few beers outside our hostel with the Austrians. Penang has been and amazing town I've loved the street art , temples , food and coffee shops and have felt so relaxed and chilled here.

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Photos

Our hostel
an old shop front building

best food ever
chinese food

flooded chapel in fort cornwalis
malay answer just through a few bricks on the floor