Selamat Detang (Welcome)

Well the good news is that the beds here are the comfiest since we left Melacca behind and after a good sleep we were fresh and ready to face the heat and humidity of Georgetown.

Getting around Georgetown on foot is a near death experience in itself. They don't seem to have invented footpaths here yet and cars and bikes whizz past you while you try to negotiate the road and stay alive!!!!

Our original plan was to take the train through Malaysia and up to Surat Thani,Thailand to catch our boat to Koh Tao but it hasn't worked that way!!! It is cheaper and quicker to get there by bus so this is hopefully what we are going to do.

Penang is an old town claimed by the British when Francis Light landed here. We took a heritage trail walk to look at the old buildings today and Fort Cornwallis was our first stop. It was named after the Governor General of Bengal at the time Charles Cornwallis but never actually saw any battle action. After here it was back onto the mean streets and past the beautiful Town and City Halls there are also plenty of temples and mosques to see along route as well but we were visiting two later so we just admired from afar.

We did go and see Cheong Fatt Tzes Mansion, this fella was a Chinese hawker who worked hard and managed to amass a fortune and build himself this big purple house in Penang, a sort of rags to riches story. Penang has humidity but it also has really high temperature so we cooled off with a freshly squeezed orange juice for a while.

It was good fun this afternoon as we caught the local bus (15p) to Wat Chaiyamangkaralan a buddhist temple that houses the 3rd largest reclining Buddha in the world. Not sure where 1st and 2nd are yet!!!!

It is 33 metres long and the eyes and toenails are made of seashells. Getting the bus back proved to be a real game as there was no bus stop and no one knew where to catch it from. We tried for a while and in the end splashed out a whole RM12/1.50p for a taxi back into town this way we could avoid the crazy streets and return to the hotel relatively safety!!!

Lots of Love

M & M

xx