We left Krabi early in the morning after our third night there to travel across the border and into Malaysia for the first time. It was quite a long day of travel, about 8 hours, all by hot minibus. We had to obviously go through customs which took some time and had to get in and out the bus a few times, but once we crossed it took about 3 straight hours to get to Penang. The border crossing went a lot quicker than we had expected so that was good.

Penang is actually an island of the west coast of Malaysia, but it's not far from the mainland and is just connected but an extremely long bridge. We are staying in Georgetown in Penang, and I was surprised how different it is from Thailand already. I had expected the two countries to be very similar but Penang has a much larger Islamic and Chinese influence, and this is very obvious when walking around. It is also a lot more hot and humid already. Our hotel is actually in China Town, but also on the border to the Muslim communities.

On our first night we went out for an Indian meal with the group. Although I don't like Indian food I tried to eat somehting, but I didn't really like it at all! You have to cover up alot more here, making sure shoulders are covered etc. It was really relaxed in Thailand so this was hard to get used to, and when we walked around we noticed that people stared much more here too, which made us a bit uncomfortable to be honest. Everyone else seemd to enjoy the food though so that was good. After the meal we found the main strip of good bars and went for some drinks. This turned into a pretty heavey night, more than anyone expected! Although food is cheap here, alcohol isn't at all but that didn't stop anyone. The bar had a band playing and its was a really good night. The plan had been for everyone to by themselves and Johann a shot, so we only had one but he had sixteen. However that went out the window. Everyone had a good time though and was having fun. As a lot of the people there are Muslim it was really only tourists in the bars. Loads of people from outside were standing at the window and watchingus, probably wondering what the hell we were doing! Justin managed to get loads of Chinese boys to dance with him and was teaching them some moves, but he took things a bit too far with the tequila shots, especially after Johann our guide bought a whole bottle of it, so we tried to drag him home at 2. This wasn't as easy as I thought it would be and it took us and hour and a half to get back to the hotel. Johann was just as drunk so we got lost and walked miles in the completely wrong direction! When we finally got back we stayed up til the early hours on his balcony. It wasn't really much of a penthouse suite though.

The next day we got up late and went to the shopping centre to get some food and do a bit of shopping. It was absolutley massive with about 7 floors, but amazingly I wasn't really in the mood to shop so we didn't stay long. There wasn't that ,uch choice and all the shops just seemed to sell the same thing. In the afternoon I went up the Penang mountain with some of the others by a tram. I felt I had to do something slightly cultural. The tram was going up a hill so steep it was a bit scary, and it was so high my ears kept popping on the way up. Once we were up though it was really nice and worth the hassle of the tram. The views of the island were spectacular, and the breeze was really nice after the heat and humidity on the ground. There were a couple of temples and mosques we looked around, had a wander around the stalls, then headed back down. This time the tram was even more packed than before and it stunk so I was glad when we reached the ground. I decided the people here were really rude as they kept trying to push me out of the way or hit me with their elbows.

That night some of us went out the eat at the food court which was great. It was a huge courtyard with loads of tables and fairy lights, and around the edge you could choose food from all the different stalls and restaurants. There were loads of different types of food, and I had about three meals as it was so cheap. I had steak, duck... I alos had some waffles with ice cream but the fact the batter was green put me off a bit! We have decided not to have as much of a heavy night tonight as we are leaving very early in the morning to continue down through Malaysia. We just got some beers and crashed Johanns room. I think he was asleep at the time, but it's his own fault for having the room with the terrace!