Blogs from George Town, Penang, Malaysia, Asia - page 54

Left Thailand on 3rd April and crossed the border into Malaysia, was such an easy border crossing- Yeah you look handsome enough in you get typed mentality! Was really curious as to what Malaysia was going to be like, the country's 85% Muslim so i was wondering how this would affect the pepole's attitudes and way of life. Our first stop in Malaysia was Penang Island, particularly the port town of Georgetown (named after King George III). We Crossed into Georgetown from mainland Malaysia by a short Ferry trip (There is actually a 13km bridge that joins Penang to the mainland, one of the biggest bridges of its type in the world apparently) First thoughts on Georgetown were: this place could be in Thailand! Malaysia wants to be a fully industrialised nation by the year 2020, ... read more

Hey Nat Yeah Phi Phi was awesome, thats wicked your back in sydney but i dont have your email any more, email me and let me know - would be wicked to meet up in sydney x x... read more

Well, I left off planning on heading from Tamen Negara to Penang. However, as mentioned earlier, all of Malayasia seems to be going on vacation, so I had a change in plans. I made it to the bus station in Temeroh (approximately near the middle of nowhere) and asked about a ticket to Penang. I soon found out that all the tickets where booked . . . for the next 3 days or so. So after that, I inquired on tickets to Kuala Lumpur, and discovered these were sold out too. I found a ticket to KL at 8 the next morning and snapped it up immediately. I went to a nearby internet cafe to google "hostel temeroh" and came up with nothing, similar result on a search for a hotel. So, I swung my backback ... read more

We arrived in Chinatown, Penang at about 2pm this afternoon. It was hot and muggy but the the island was full of life! We managed to get from Butterworth with no problems on a ferry which only cost 1.20 R ( about 20 pence) when the taxi driver was trying to charge us 65R- I guess we still have 'mug' & 'gullible' written across our backpacks! We then got a taxi to Love lane (where the cheap hostels are) for 8R another bargain esp since we managed to share it with 2 girls which we met on the boat. We checked out a few hostels/hotels before deciding on the Crystal Guest House, Chulia Street (50R) which was relatively new, had AC, 2 very clean beds and wait for it..... had hot water! I think my days ... read more

21st Feb Goodbye Highlands. Steph and i head out together for PENANG/Georgetown and as soon as we got down the mountains it was bloomin hot again. Damn. The bus ride had really good views of the mountains and it was quite scenic which was nice for a change. Once being dropped off by the bus in Georgetown we start walking to where we have some accommodation prebooked. We were heading in the right direction until Steph asked for directions (even though i reassured her we were going the right way! Hello indiana here) We ended up being told to go another way which ended up being the wrong way. So we walked more then we had to and once arriving at the (back)packers we find out that even though we had prebooked our accommodation from the ... read more