Flavours of Penang

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Panang had been highly recommended for Malaysian food so obviously that's where we were headed next. A last minute decision, train over bus had us faffing around booking tickets at 2am in the morning and expired webpage meant we had no booking reference, e-ticket or print out. This made for a grumpy start and long wait at the station since we arrived so early to make sure we could travel. The train journey to Butterworth, ferry to Georgetown then long walk to the centre left us drained and we gave in to a slightly more expensive but nice hostel. In fact, it seems that accommodation all across Malaysia is much more expensive as is the beer whilst food remains cheap. Its seems strangely disproportionate.

Reviews were right, the 'Red Garden Food Paradise' (food court) nearby had an enormous choice of cuisines representing the all the cultures here. A seafood hotpot and Penang Rojak (a very bizzare fruit salad) was a good late night fill.

One day was enough in Panang and we had a good walking tour across the town taking in little india along the way as well as the esplanade where we spotted a Monitor lizard (Comodo Dragon) sunning itself around the rocks below us and in the water. It was a weird looking thing of about 6' long, at first glance we thought it was an alligator but its strange legs looked more turtle like and bulbus back almost like a shell. Our tour continued up the main street to a busy Indian street cafe where we struggled to choose from a vast menu but settled on Navaratna kurma, a coconut curry and chicken Biryani, the cafes specialty. Both were fantastic dishes but the Biryani a clear winner. The nann breads also were very special.

We spent the afternoon chilling out in the lovely hostel lounge and took advantage of the pc and also the massage chair before heading back out to food paradise again to cram in one last meal.

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