Hello from the island of Penang which is on the northwest coast of Malaysia. It is a large island covering a total area of 295km2 (we realised the importance of this after we got there!). We had booked a public bus to Penang but unfortunately had forgotten to check if it was going to the capital Georgetown which just seemed obvious to us. We had planned to walk the short distance to our hostel from where we presumed the bus would drop us. As we crossed over the road bridge from Butterworth on the mainland we couldn't actually see Penang through the mist and rain. The bus dropped us off nearly 10km from where we were hoping to be. Luckily we met a very nice taxi driver who took us to our hostel and even recommended a good place to find lunch.

We stayed at the Old Penang Guesthouse on Love Lane. This was actually recommended to us by a member of staff at the Cotswold outdoor shop in Chichester before we left. Since we had no other recommendations we decided to give it a go and were very pleased. The building has been restored to its pre-WWII glory with original tile floors, high ceilings and wooden shutters. Our room was at the back on the first floor and had two lovely arched windows with wooden shutters. The only slightly odd thing was that there were gaps between the floorboards where you could see the floor below but bouncing on them they seemed firm enough.

We quickly headed out and found the taxi drivers recommendation - a vegetarian Indian restaurant. However this included "vege chicken", "vege mutton" etc. We were pleased with our meal and pretty full by the end. We then decided to wander through the streets in search of the sea. By this point we became more excited with every turn and new street. The centre of Penang is now classed as a UNESCO world heritage site and as such has been receiving money to save and restore the original buildings and temples. There were so many different buildings, carvings, and sites to see. The main problem was trying to avoid being run over by the mopeds zipping at speed through the streets. Once we got to the seafront we had our first real view of the deep harbour full of large cargo ships. On the esplanade there were also lots of trishaws (a single person carriage pushed by a bicycle). We took a quick stroll around Fort Cornwallis which was originally built by Captain Francis Light in 1790s. He persuaded the Sultan of Kedah who owned Penang at the time to lease Penang to the British, in return the British were supposed to protect them from any threats from Siam and Burma and pay the Sultan 6000 Spanish dollars for any lost income from exports taken over by the British.

After a quick rest at our hostel we headed out again to explore the streets at night. We were walking around Little India and were aware that it was very busy and everyone seemed to be dressed up. When we turned into the next street we stumbled into a festival celebrating the Indian New Year (at least that was what we were told). There were dancers at the front in huge outfits accompanied by numerous drummers. Behind them was a huge float adorned with lights (powered by a generator on a van behind and numerous large cables between the two), streamers and flowers. This was to be pulled by two oxen who stood there calmly despite the noise and crowds. Once the dancers had finished 100s of fire crackers were released on the street right next to where we were standing and this was followed by fireworks within metres of us (not quite the same regulations as the UK). Suddenly the float was off and we couldn't believe the speed of the oxen. Every few metres though there were shouts as they tried to stop them so they could use long poles to lift the street's electricity cables up over the float as it passed. We followed the float around a few streets. At each street more fireworks were let off. There was a great atmosphere and the streets were full of people.

The next day we got up early to try and beat the heat and headed back to the harbour to explore the clan jetties, Each jetty belongs to a different clan e.g. 'Chin jetty, Lim jetty'. This is a Chinese area where the community has been built out into the harbour on wooden houses on stilts. We were able to walk in amongst the different houses and see how precarious some of the structures were. We ventured right out onto some of the jetties but were unsure if they would actually hold our weight. Even along these we had to jump out of the way as residents zipped along on their mopeds.

From here we went to explore the numerous temples and mosques in Georgetown. The best had to be the Seh Tek Tong Cheah Kongsi. This is a classic Chinese Clan temple which was developed as a place for Chinese immigrants of a particular clan to meet and worship. However they went on to provide financial and educational support as well as handle minor disagreements within the clan members. Within the temple there were two rooms dedicated to the men from the clan who had gained university degrees from across the world.

We didn't achieve much else during the afternoon due to the heat and humidity....nap time! We spent the evening at a muslim Indian restaurant. Food in Malaysia tends to be one of the ethnic group's i.e. Chinese, Malay, Indian and really we are talking rice or noodles. We both love these but you can have too much of a good thing. Food is cheap, you can eat very well for £2-3 in a local restaurant, less than a pound at street stalls, coke etc is about 25p, but beer is reasonably expensive due to high tax at about £1.60 per pint (not that you get pints anywhere here). Mostly we liked the Indian food best, though it is more traditional than in the UK. None of the hostels have kitchens here (unlike Oz) as food is so cheap to buy eating out.

The following day we wanted to see some more of the island so took the local bus to a village inland called Air Itam. This was actually very easy, when we found the bus station. It was probably better than most in the UK and very easy to use, though it was crammed full of locals. We tried not to witness the local Muslim festival occurring that day involving sacrificing cows on the street. At Air Itam we were interested in seeing a Buddhist temple called Kek Lok Si. This is actually a complex of pagodas and statues, including a 30m high bronze Buddha (they love big statues out here). Malaysians also seem to love tacky lights and stalls, they were everywhere selling all sorts of stuff (mainly buddhas, dragons in fake shiny gold and jade stuff) throughout the temple! There was also a pond crammed full of hundreds of turtles being fed by visitors, some of which were quite fat and maybe didn't need feeding (the turtles, not the visitors). Whilst there we visited the 'vegetarian' restaurant. A pattern is developing here where 'vege' restaurants just sell meals with vegetables in without being vegetarian. Brenda tried ordering some duck with vegetables and veggie steamed rice. The rice was fine but the duck turned out to be deep fried duck skin sans actual duck meat (at this point we remembered we had actually been warned about this). The rice also had lots of pork in it! My meal was lovely! We tried eating the duck but it was just too rich.

Today we spent 11 hours sat in a minibus with not entirely adequate air con travelling across the border to Krabi in Thailand. The border crossing was smooth, unlike the roads. But hey we're here and Krabi seems pretty cool!

Updates soon, take care all

David and Brenda

xxx