The food capital of Malaysia. This has got to be somewhere I need to visit! Having missed Penang the first time round I was determined to include it this trip! The trip to penang from Phuket was fairly interesting. A 12 hour journey in total we were picked up from our hotel by minibus and driven to another bus stop where we were bundled into a different minibus. Our driver may have been a formula one wannabe as we hurtled off at breakneck speeds, overtaking on blind corners and swerving in and out of traffic. On several occasions we would be in the wrong lane with oncoming traffic and our driver would be honking the horn and waving his arms as if telling them to move over, I am still unsure where he wanted them to move to, the bus at the side of the road maybe. We also attempted to take off a few times, one particular bump we hit caused something large and metal to detach from the undercarriage and crash noisily to the ground. It sounded serious, but our driver didn't blink an eye and zoomed round the corner on two wheels. I think at one point he tried to park in the car in fronts boot. After about 8 hours of this we pulled over and a random town and everyone got out. We were each put into different cars with some random Malaysians and the drivers drove us to the border. Fairly painless, we didn't even need to get our bags out of the boot, just queue, stamp, back in car for the 2 more hour drive to George Town. We were dropped on Lebuh Chulia and I could not have been more excited at the amount of food stalls we walking past to get to our accommodation, cocoa mews on lebuh king. The staff here couldn't have been more helpful and friendly. Seeing as we were staying in little India we decided to have Indian food for dinner. We went to a restaurant called mustafa and had the naan tandoori set. It was so good. And only 8.80 MYR each. The next day we set out to walk around George Town. It was very hot and sweaty and I can't say any of the sightseeing was great. We stopped for lunch at a small food stall and got char kay teow. Delicious, and only 3MYR. Clearly the main reason to visit penang is to eat, rather than see the churches, temples and government buildings recommended in the guidebook. For dinner we decided to go to the famous Kapitan Indian restaurant. We got there early, about 6.30pm and were told that no curries were available til 7.30. We sat with a drink for an hour before trying to order a second time. Once again we were told there were no curries available as the chef was sick. We were told to go to the upstairs part of the restaurant as they had curries available. I am unsure how the same restaurant can have curries available on one floor but not another. But anyway, we move upstairs and had rice, curry and naan. It was amazing. Just like curries from actual india! The next day we went for lunch at a small restaurant where they give you a full plate of rice and you put whatever various curries you want on top. It cost 5MYR and was amazing! Dinner that night we walked to red garden food market on lebuh leith. I was in my element. You find a table, make a note of your table number and wander round the stalls ordering food to your table number. We had black pepper chicken and prawn noodles, giant cooked prawns, spring rolls, salmon sushi, crispy pork noodles and icecream waffle! Everything tasted so good and was cheap. Men were walking round offering drinks and the atmosphere was great. There was even live entertainment! I feel like I am leaving penang several kilos heavier than when I arrived!!