Our first taste of Malaysia - and it's delicious!

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We were both excited to be entering a new country and experience a different culture, but first we had a long day of travel ahead of us before we got to Malaysia. We were picked up by mini van from our hotel in Koh Lanta at 7.30 am, along with a couple from Finland, and once it had made several stops to pick up the other 7 passengers and organised the luggage for the 3rd time, we made our way to the vehiecle ferry to cross over to the mainland. Then it was a 3 hour drive to Trang, where we had to swap to a different mini van, before continuing on to Had Yai. Once there we had a 2 hour wait until we got in the last mini van of the journey which would take us across the border to Penang, our first stop in Malaysia.

We reached the city of Georgetown at around 9pm so were thankful we had pre-booked a place to stay, and even more thank ful that the mini van dropped us quite close to it. We found our guesthouse, 'Guest Inn Muntri', easily along with a German guy called Alex from the mini van, and once we had checked in the three of us set about finding something to eat as we were starving. The guesthouse was in the China Town area and just 5 minutes to the Little India area, which was great as it was located near all the sights and also some fab places to eat. We found exactly what we wanted within about 10 minutes - some cheap food stalls serving up simple but delicious Indian food - and enjoyed a Tandoori chicken set, which comes with a big portion of tender chicken, nan bread and some veg curry sides for just 8rmb (less than £2), and the famous Roti Canai - freshly baked soft roti bread with a curry dip - for less than 30p. We love our food, especially Indian food, so thought if it was all going to be like this we would be in heaven over the next few days! We also discovered that one of our favourite drinks from home, Ribena, is sold everywhere here so we were more than happy. Full and tired, we headed back to our room to bed for our first night's sleep in the 8th country of our trip.

Georgetown was founded by a British tradesman, so had a very colonial feel to its buildings and quite a strong British heritage. It also felt old and quite neglected, but in a nice, old fashioned way. We only had a couple of days here so wanted to make the most of them, and as we had just been lazing on beaches for the last 3 weeks we were up for something a bit more energetic, so planned out a 'walking tour' of the city sights for the day. Alex wanted to come along too, and he had met a girl in the hostel that morning from Finland so she came along as well, although she was deathly quiet, didn't ask us any questions all day, just answered ours with one word and may as well not have been there at all. Anyway, we set out in the scorching city heat and with the help of a map we saw some very interesting sights, including several Mosques, churches and Chinese temples, all of which were beautifully decorated and further showed how multicultural this city is. The Chinese influences throughout were ample and obvious, due to the number of Chinese immigrants who came to the city back in the 1800's, from the signs, restaurants and various buildings, although we didn't actually find a Chinese restaurant which was open, so headed to the Little India area to get our curry fix for the day. This area is remniscent of a typical Indian street in London in so many ways - the people, the bollywood music, the many gold trinkets and rugs in the shops, but most of all the amount of Indian restaurants, much to our delight! There were a few food stalls selling samosa's and bhaji's, which of course we tried, but the restaurants were plentiful and cheap so we picked one to eat lunch at, which was so good we would return again and again. It offered amazing Tandoori chicken sets for 8rmb as well as curries, breads and sides, all freshly cooked, but you could also choose some 'instant' food like the veg sides from the trays at the front, which is what we did. We had a feast for less than £3 between us! We are loving this food so far.

Then we tried to find the bus station to check the prices of buses, which was on the map in our guide book, but we forgot the guidebook was an old version so after walking in circles we discovered that the road the bus station was on doesn't exist anymore! So we walked to Fort Cornwallis, the site where the founder of Penang first landed in 1786 and which was built to act as a defense for the city from invasion but didn't eventually, past the City Hall and the Town Hall, and onto the Penang Museum. This museum only cost 1rmb (less than 20p) to enter and whilst small was quite informative on the different cultures in Penang (Indian, Malay, Chinese etc) and their traditions. We then passed the vivid blue Cheong Fatt Ze Mansion, a Chinese courtyard house once lived in by a famous Chinese merchant and now used in several film sets, but you could only go inside on a guided tour, so we continued onto our last sight of the day, the Eastern and Oriental hotel. This grand building was founded by the brothers who also founded the luxury Raffles hotel in Singapore, and was every bit as opulent and very British, offering afternoon tea and cake which looked lovely but was a bit too expensive for our budget!

Feeling hot and worn out by this point we were going to go back to the guesthouse but wanted to see if we could get rain jackets (after stupidly sending ours home a few weeks ago) so walked another couple of miles to a large shopping centre. Well it wasn't just one shopping centre, it was several, ranging from old and crappy to new and fancy, all based around something called the Komtar, a tall structure in the middle of a roundabout. We had a look around but couldn't find any jackets, so took a walk back to our guesthouse and promtly crashed out after quite a busy day. That evening the two of us went back to the Indian restaurant for dinner, our third Indian meal in 24 hours, and it was every bit as good as at lunchtime, before getting an early night.

On our second day we decided to get out of the city so first walked down to the Komtar to book our onward transport, as it was cheaper here than at the guesthouses and agencies in China Town, then we took a bus out to Penang National Park. The journey took around an hour, passing Penang's premier beaches (which looked quite nice but nothing special), and when we reached the park we were pleased that it was free to enter. We got some (limited) information about the two possible trails we could take and set off, water in hand, for our first bit of real exercise in ages. We chose to hike to Pantai Kercut (turtle beach), 2 hours away, which would take us through a mix of easy and tough terrain in some seriously high humidity. We were both sweating within minutes! But the walk was good even though we didn't see any animals (or insects, much to my pleasure) and the jungle was green and lush all the way and felt very natural. We reached the beach finally after a final steep descent and had a much needed sit down to have our 'picnic', or snacks, which we had luckily bought with us as there was nowhere to buy even water from here. We have never enjoyed crisps and peanuts so much. We had a quick look at the turtle sanctuary on the beach and found out that turtles do come here to nest and lay eggs, even though we didn't see any, and the sanctuary runs a breeding and preservation programme from this which is good. We relaxed in the sun on the beach for a while and once our energy was restored we started the hike back, which wasn't as long as the way there and we realised we took an extra long way round! The hike back was still hard though and just when I thought I can't do any more steps, we started going back down and reached the end just in time - any longer and I probably would have started moaning! But we enjoyed the exercise and slept the whole bus journey back to Georgetown.

Even though we were really tired from the day at the park, that evening a big group of us from the guesthouse went for dinner. There was us, Alex, Leah and Carolin from Germany, and Thea and Jeremie from Canada, and the 7 of us went for...an Indian of course! We tried a different restaurant this time called Kapitan, and the food was good but the service was not as welcoming as the other place we had been going to. Then we all went for a few drinks at the Reggae Mansion guesthouse as it was ladies night so while the boys bought beer (which was expensive by Asian standards at over £2 a bottle, as the tax on alcohol in Malaysia is very high) us girls got to drink for free which was great! We didn't go too mad though as we had to be up really early the next morning for our bus out, but it was a really good evening with lovely people and we toasted a wonderful start to Malaysia, a country which we just know we will love.

S&V's Travel Info & Tips:

General Info: Approx 4.6 rmb to £1. Malaysia are 1 hr ahead of Thailand, 8 hrs ahead of UK.

Transportation: Our mini van(s) from Koh Lanta - Penang cost 800 Baht pp (£17) and the journey took around 11 hours in total. We walked around Georgetown but local buses are 1.40rmb for short journeys and there is also a free shuttle bus but we didn't see it. The 101 bus goes from Lebuh Chulia all the way to Penang National Park and costs 4rmb each way pp.

Food: Indian, Indian and more Indian! Our fave restaurant in Georgetown was Sri Ananda which served up great curries, tandoori sets and lassi's for cheap prices. The food stalls are also good for a quick Roti Canai (1rmb).

Accomodation: Our stay at Guest Inn Muntri was great and a private a/c room cost 69 rmb. It was well located just off the main Lebuh Chulia (on Jalan Muntri) and within walking distance to all the sights. There were a lot of guesthouses in this area.

Other observations:

x) As we mention above, beer is more expensive here than elsewhere in Asia - even in the 7/11! A small can of Tiger in there cost's 9rmb/£2 - in Thailand this would cost less than £1.

xx) Book onward transport at one of the agencies around the Komtar, it's much cheaper than in the agencies along Lebuh Chulia.

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