Once in Penang we got a taxi to take us to one of the recommended hostels in Georgetown (the island's main city) from the Lonely Planet. It was full, so he drove us to another. We looked around and it was really dingy. The rooms had no windows (which is the norm for there), and the beds were literally a matress. The bathroom facilities didn't look great either, so we found another a few doors up which in comparison was amazing! Although there were no windows in the room light from the corridors spilt into the room via high windows and the toilets and showers were really clean! So we checked in for 2 nights and went for a wander. No sooner had we left the hostel we heard sirens, and it soon became apparent what they were for. Once we were out of 'Love Lane' where our hostel was and onto the main road, we saw clouds of black smoke. Being nosey, we went to investigate and saw a massive fire in an apparent restaurant (so we were told). Right in front of our eyes the fire spread from one building to the next and along 3 first floor appartments. It was really quite scary and the heat as well as the common sense that it might blow at any time made us move from our first position of about 20m from the fire to down the road, a good 200m away. It was shocking how lax the emergency services were there. When we first arrived there were no firefighters and they didn't arrive until the fire had taken full hold of the appartment blocks (a bit late if you ask me!). When they did turn up they didn't corden the area off at all and there were on-lookers standing with the fire-fighters as they aimlessly pointed their hoses at first floor level. After watching for a couple of hours (yes I know, I'm not sure how time passed that quickley either!) we went to find some food in Little India. We then went back to the hotel and I phoned home using an international phone card. 20 ringits (4 pounds) bought over 2 hours of credit to the UK!!!

The next day we walked around Gerogetown, first going to the Tourist Information (on the 56th floor of a tower block - amazing views) and then around some historical/colonial buildings including the Town and City halls, Fort Cornwallis, and a couple of temples (Buddhist and Islamic). We went to some quays started by various 'clans' which were amzing - they were held up over the sea by large buckets filled with concrete!!! We then walked to the bus station to catch a bus to the Penang Hill Funicular Railway. After waiting for an hour at the bus station, the bus still hadn't arrived, so we gave in and got a taxi. We got to the top just as the sun had set, so waited for it to get dark before heading down. The views were amazing. We got a taxi back to Georgetown and had another Indian for dinner before heading back to the hostel. We had an early night as the bus to the Cameron Highlands was picking us up at 6am the following day!