Finally the sun has come out and allowed me to experience a bit more of Penang that just its shopping centres and internet cafes!

Yesterday, once it had finally stopped raining and the floods had subsided I took myself off on the bus to Penang Hill which is about half an hour outside Georgetown. The only way up (other than a jungle trek) is a 30 minute funicular ride which they do their best to make as similar to travelling on the Northern Line as possible: horrendously slow, cramming as many people in as possible and having to get out and change trains halfway through the journey. Apart from that it was quite a pleasant ride through jungle and passing some old British colonial bungalows for the ladies who couldn't stand the heat down in Georgetown. At the top you're supposed to have an amazing view of the whole of Georgetwon, across the rest of the island and over to the mainland. Not if it's been raining all day! We were high up enough to be above the clouds but unfortunately they blotted out almost all these amazing sights leaving not a great deal to look at...

Then today, having decided I had mastered Penang's bus system I went off on a little journey round the island. First stop was the botanical gardens which although they weren't as impressive as the ones in Singapore or KL did have a lot of very cute swimming monkeys to recommend them. Everyone had warned me beforehand about these monkeys and their antisocial habits of biting and bagsnatching so I was perfectly happy to stay watching them playing in the water from a safe distance and make a hasty retreat once all the Malaysian tourists started ignoring the signs and feeding them and generally getting them a bit overexcited!

Then after another bus ride I made it to Batu Ferringhi which is Penang's main beach resort. It's certainly not one of the best in Malaysia as the beach is quite small and crowded and the water isn't really clean enough to swim in but it was so nice to be by the sea and out of the city for a while. I met a few other English girls on the bus and we even managed to build ourself some sandcastles!

And so that's it. In the morning I'm flying off out of Malaysia, my home for the last nine weeks. It will be quite strange to leave and to have to get used to a whole new country all over again since I've really started to feel at home here despite all the craziness. I won't be away for too long though, flying back to KL in a week to watch the final version of Fallen Leaves being performed which is VERY exciting...