Tues 2nd - So bus was picking us up in Krabi town at 7am - it didnt turn up until half past but thats nothing unusual! The journey was all fine (except i lost my wallet temporarily - left it on one of the buses and luckily the bus driver found it and came back to give it to me - we managed to cross the border fine and didnt have to pay anything. We hadnt booked any accomodation in Penang and we didnt know much about it as we had had difficulty finding a second hand Malaysian lonely planet - we got one the first evening so we were find and found a hostel easily enough.

On arriving in Penang (an island on the north west coast of Malaysia) we stayed in a town called Georgetown. We hadnt really taken a picnic on the bus so went straight for some food - had the most amazing indian - just what we both needed and it was only 2pounds! bargain! that evening we wondered and stumbled accross the Komtar tower which is not in the LP but we found out about on the internet - a little crazy man gave us some chat outside and took us up to the viewing floor (60th) - the view was amazing and the city looked so cool lit up at night. We had a few drinks then went to bed.

Wed 3rd - We got up at 9am today and were ready to face the day by 11 - we headed next door to check out their rooms as ours was really small and poxy. we moved fine and then realised that the clock was different to ours - Malaysian time is one hour ahead of Thai and we never realised - so no longer was it still morning but it was now midday and we ahd lost an hour - we were not impressed! We headed back to the Komtar tower to get a view of Georgetown in day time - it was so beautiful as this time we could see the sea and the surrounding mountains. Then we hit a shoping mall in search of a new camera for gill as hers is broken. We had lunch and then hit Little India where i had a henna tattoo all over my hand indian style - it was beautiful. I had to walk around with my hand sprawled for about 30mins as it dried. We had decided to do one of the lonelyplanets walking tours which took us through the colonial part of Georgetown. It was fun - we visited and old fort Carnwallis which was the first military and admin base of the East India Company - was kinda weird but fun. On the way home we stopped off at the museum and then headed to the same (we are ashamed to admit but it was just so good) as last night, had a few drinks and bed again - walking around all day in the heat is so tiring.

Thurs 4th - Towday we went to visit Penang hill -the highest point on the island/ We got a local bus from the Komtar bus station to the bottom of the hill. the bus was like 20pence and was nice driving through all the housing estates and seeing the locals at work! We boarded the furnicular railway which was supposed to take you to the top - but typically there were works taking place on the top railway so we could only go halfway up. we jumped off, took a few pics and got bak on the train down. gill bought a nice white and neon teeshirt of Penang that featured the 8.4km bridge which we saw from Penang hill!

That afternoon we planned to got to the Botanical Gardens but to get there we had to get bus back into town and then out again - then the bus didnt even drop us off anywhere near the gardens so we did a fair bit of walking before even getting there. They werent even as exciting as we had hoped - although there were some fun monkeys. We decided to get a taxi back to save bus hassle! That evening we ventured to the night market - the food was delicious and mega cheap. Afterwards we headed for some drinks and got chatting to a guy from Peterhead and one from Canada -they were waiting on visas for thailand so couldnt leave malaysia and were bored with penang so we convinced them to go to KL - more lively and they did!

We were leaving for Cameron Highlands the next morning so headed back to room to pack our bags etc. Penang has given us a great first impression of Malaysia - lets hope the rest lives up to it!

xxx