Blogs from Penang, Malaysia, Asia - page 72

Penang (Georgetown) From Ko Lipe, Beat (Swiz Friend) and I headed to Georgetown, capital of Penang, old historical British Colonial Island on the west coast of Malaysia. Due to the heavy Monsoon season in Malaysia I had decided to stay on the west coast of Malaysia all the way past Singapore down to Bali (if I didn't choose to fly home for an NHS op first). Due to the time of year this also meant missing what I heard were excellent dive sites of Borneo. As soon as we got off our bus journey straight away we bumped into Fabio again (small world, or were we just reading from the same guide book?!), who we hung around with whilst here in Georgetown. We did enquire about the beaches in Penang, but when we said that ... read more

It has been a little while since we last updated the blog. Firstly, Happy New Year to all! We spent Christmas Day in Ko Samui, lazing on the beach, having a massage. I am the only person on the beach that needs to be covered with a towel as they have goose bumps! We rounded the day off with an Italian meal on the beachfront. Not traditional I know, but our first taste of pasta in nearly two months! It was good, and was washed down with some red wine! From Ko Samui we were in search of a quieter beach, and headed to Ao Nang on the other side of the Thai peninsula. We had been told to be ready for a 6.30am pick up, so we sat up at the reception waiting for the ... read more

As we have been travelling around Malaysia we have heard a lot of things about other places around here from other travellers. And we only heard one thing about Penang, that it was bad and should be avoided. That the taxi-drivers always try to rip you off. With this in mind we considered going straight to Langkawi instead but changed our mind as there was only a bus to Penang. We found a nice place to stay in called 100 Cintra Street. It is also an art exhibition and museum. It is an 120 years old building just brought back to old style. Georgetown, the big town on Penang Island is where everything happens. It is in old style as there hasn't been a skyscraper revolution yet. All the houses looks like there have been there ... read more

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Where the tree tops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow". White Christmas was blaring out of the PA system at high volume in the Prangin Mall, Panang whilst I was eating a noodle soup. White Christmas was followed by a rendition of: "Rudolf the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose And if you ever saw him, you would even say it glows." All these eulogies to the virtues of snow in tropical Malaysia, where they never see snow! I've spent the Christmas period in Penang. The people here definitely celebrate Christmas, along with all the cheesier element I might have thought I had escaped. I left Thailand on the 22nd of December (see my previous ... read more

Just to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! lots of love to you all and hope you all had a brilliant Christmas day with lots of prezzies! x x x And also that we have added more photos to the Langkawi entry and the More Beaches, Thailand entry. . .... read more