October 12th- October 18th

We left Langkawi by ferry and headed 2 hours down the coast to another island called Penang. Our time on Penang is the longest we have stopped anywhere so far! That is because we decided we were sick of just island hopping and we thought we would explore a city spot and a beach spot in the same place.

Penang is a very interesting place. The main town, Georgetown, is host to a multitude of people. Chinese, Malay and Indian people make up the majority of locals and smatterings of British culture can be observed across the island. Whilst on our first trip we learned a brief history of the island. The Chinese and Malay were very happy living together for hundreds of years. Then as often happens the British turned up, planted a flag and claimed dominion. The British obviously found the island a trifle hot and decided to enlist Northern Indians, all Hindu, to build their forts, houses and surprisingly Royal mail offices. The British, thought that by enlisting Hindu's, they would be too busy bickering with the local Malay Muslims and Chinese Taoist's to mount any sort of uprising against the Brits. However after they had built the city a very wise British leader decided that everyone could practice whatever beliefs they liked. This has turned out to be a great idea, not only does everyone get along but the town has a host of different temples and worship sites (History lesson over!!).

We spent most of our first day walking around these sites admiring their customs and the differences between each site. Mel at one point had to dress in burka-type attire as we wondered around a mosque. As we walked along the streets it was pleasing to notice the subtle differences between 'Little India' 'Chinatown' and the Malays ways of living. To end the day off we went to the 'Westerners' temple.............a gigantic shopping centre. In keeping with our multi-religious day we then ended the night in a Rastafarian reggae bar. Randomly ladies were able to drink for free; Mel thoroughly enjoyed this while Declan drank the local beer which turned out to be none other than SKOL!!!!!

The following day we decided to take a massive gamble and attempt to head 10 miles out of the city on the public bus. Neither of us could even remember the last time we were on a public bus!!! Luckily there bus system is very simple and very cheap, there was no mention of a daysaver and we were charged a little over a pound for our 30 minute drive into the hills. We were heading to the largest hill on Penang, prizes for guessing the name.............Penang Hill.

Now unlike our cable car experience on Langkawi, Penang Hill is famous for having the steepest tramline in the world. Back to a history lesson. The idea of a tram line up Penang Hill was put forth as early as 1897, before motor vehicle were even introduced to Penang Island. It was built by the British between 1906 and 1923, so that the British officers could journey up the hill to relax and enjoy the cooler air. On top of the Hill they also built a Post Office for purposes unknown and dotted the surrounding hills with Post boxes. At the bottom we saw pictures of a rickety old tram and had worrying feelings. However they recently revamped the tram and now use a super fast metro style cabin (see video). We plodded around at the top of the Hill and took in the views of the whole island. We even found an old post box, no Queen Liz, ER; this one had her dad's initials on it, GR! Well old!!

Having completed our city section of Penang, and having enjoyed a successful trip on the bus, we decided the following day to make our own way to the other side of the island to the beaches. We got ourselves set up at Baba's guesthouse and were determined to find a certain attraction that had caught our attention before the day ended. We made a terrible error before we set out. We were using a map with no discernible scale!!! We walked out of our town called Batu Feringgi and along a coastal road with no path. We walked this along road with its crazy traffic for 4km, too stubborn to admit defeat and turn around. We arrived in the next town and continued walking, constantly checking the map for our destination. We ended up walking about 7km in total; however we made it to our attraction!! We walked for nearly 3 hours to find a note saying: The attraction however had become so popular that it had to move to a different area. This area turned out to be about 10 minutes in the opposite direction from our guesthouse. We got the bus back deflated and fed up; we decided that when our legs recovered we would venture there the following day. Now you will have noticed that we haven't mentioned the attractions name. Like almost all the visits we have been on in Malaysia so far this attraction was also 'the world's (insert adjective)'.

Our attraction this time was 'The World's largest Toy Museum'. To be totally honest, it really was massive. There were thousands and thousands of toys. Now the toys weren't old style 19th century toys like most would imagine a museum would be filled with. They were all 1970s - onwards. There were toys there that you would have played with as youngsters. Most of the way round Declan commented on owning the toys we were looking at and reminiscing about his childhood. The museum was filled with toys from pretty much every major film of the last 30 years, Jurassic park, Terminator, Alien, The Matrix, any Superhero film and oddly and 18inch Hannibal Lector!! The museum was strangely more for adults than children, with one Aussie girl telling her Mom she was bored of looking at old toys. This made us chuckle. The World's largest toy museum also had another trick up its sleeve, 50 life sized models of the most recognizable characters from films and computer games. Declan had specifically worn his 'Avengers' T-shirt and ran around getting a photo while pointing to the character on his top! Loser!! He also realised a lifelong dream of having a picture with a full sized Wolverine and is determined to have his own one at some point. Mel managed to get up close and personal with the Joker and Captain Jack Sparrow but mainly enjoyed her time pretending to be E.T. with her even making the noises while taking the photo. We walked around the place twice, not only because it was raining but there really is a plethora of toys. Asian Barbie and Ken, Mighty Max, Biker Mice from Mars, Buffy, Independence Day figures, the list could go on and on. It's a must see if you ever venture this side of the world.

After traipsing for 4 days around the island we needed a break. Our last day was spent on the beach soaking up the sun, luckily it had lashed down during the night and we enjoyed the whole day rain free. On our last night in Penang we were peddled around the island by a local taxi-bike, he dropped us off at the Hard Rock Cafe before we retired for the evening to watch the 2 hour long lightening storms out at sea.

It's off to Ipoh next, and were doing it all by public bus. Were getting brave, let's hope it pays off.