Penang - Georgetown and Batu Ferringhi

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We spent our last days in Malaysia on the island of Penang. We spent time in both Georgetown and by the beach. In Georgetown we saw all the sights, mostly from the British Colonial era, but the Chinese temples were outstanding. The food here was fantastic. We ate most nights at this hawker stall area, and had the best noodles we've ever tasted for 2.70 Ringets (about 50p). We also went to this dim sum place where these little old ladies push carts of dim sum around and you point at what you want.

We spent a couple of days at the beach. A 40 min bus ride took us from Georgetown to Batu Ferringhi. We didn't do much here except sunbathe and eat! Every morning around 5am a Mosque woke us with a very loud call to prayer. This seemed longer than any other call to prayer we've heard, so we think the sermon was being shouted over the microphone as well! It was very touristy here though. There was a lot of British people there; we later found out that Batu Ferringhi translates as Foreigners' Rock!

We went back to Georgetown for a couple of days to visit Kek Lok Si Temple aka the Temple of a Thousand Buddhas. The architecture here was fabulous, but we were bemused to see big plastci sunflowers and Disney characters at the newer parts! Once we reached the top and saw the large Goddess of Mercy statue, we spent a while sitting under a gazebo-type-thing in the middle of a pool of fish.

From Georgetown we took our long transfer to Thailand (where we are now and loving - as I type I am on the beach and can hear the waves crashing behind me) which we hope to write about soon!

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Comments

[lali]

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Sounds like you are having an even better time now you have left India and moved on to Malaysia and Thailand. I wish I'd done it at your age but now it would be just too hot for me and I'm not sure about those hostels! In western papers they have been discussing the dangers of feet eating fish - beware if you have any cuts etc as they can introduce serious bacteria apparently!! Is the hair still dark or has the sun lightened it considerably. Whatever are you both thinking about all that is going on in the middle east? Could you have predicted that when you were on your courses at uni? Maybe you could get consultancy jobs helping to sort out democracy for them all!! Anyway jealous of all you are seeing and really enjoying the blog. Enjoy travelling and one another -lots and lots of love Lali XXXXXX

[jamieandlaura]

Yeah, loving Malaysia and Thailand. Ironically my hair has lightened in the sun! I dye it dark to go away, and coming away makes it light, oh well, at least its one colour! We did actually do a democratisation course at uni discussing how democracy works better when its comes from within the country than imposed by an external body, so I think in hindsight it will be a good thing, but obviously its horrible in those countries right now! Hope all is well at home!