I had set ny alarm for 09:00 so we would have time for breakfast which stops at 10:30. When we got up and went to reception we saw a few trays laid out on a table with rice and what looked like curry and neither of us were keen so we made a cup of tea and sat outside for a smoke. I realised that we are another hour ahead here so instead of waking up at 09:00, it was actually 10:00! We gathered together some laundry after our tea and handed it into reception. Once we had showered and got dressed we set off for a day of exploration in penang. We were going to rent bicycles to cycle around the island on but the ones the hotel offered didn't look too great and the breaks were barely working so we just decided to do it on foot.

We turned left at the end of Love Lane to find a currency exchange place so i could change up my Baht i took out yesterday for the visa. The town is really nice, as it's a world heritage site, there are a lot of old buildings with the plaster torn away from the bricks but i think it just adds to the beauty of the island. We asked the indian man at the currency exchange place where "little india" is and he said it was just behind the building so once we changed up our baht into Malaysian ringgit (which looks so colourful and pretty) we walked towards little India.

It wasn't hard to miss, as we turned down the street on the left hand side there were many stalls selling so many different curries with fold up chairs and tables in front where indian men sat scooping up rice and curry with their hands. The streets are lined with tailors as well as jewellery shops and i had the biggest grin on my face as we strolled through. Everyone i looked at smiled back at me and it felt nice knowing we all spoke the universal language of smiles, although everyone we've come across so far speaks english. We heard Bhangra music blaring out of a cd shop which really added to the atmosphere and i spied a shop selling loads of different style bindhis so i went in to buy a pack. They only cost 1RM which is about 20p a pack and you get at least 10 in one. Bargain!

We continued down the road until we saw a cafeteria with loads of different food stalls so went in to have a look. Daniel was hungry so approached a woman at a chicken stall and asked for chicken and rice. As he sat down i walked around the other stalls and was eyeing up the different curries and dishes when the man working there smiled at me and handed me a plate of steamed rice. I wasn't hungry but i felt it would be rude not to, plus i need some chilli in my life as i've got a bloody cold. I opted for chicken curry and plated it up myself and handed the man the money, 4.50RM which is just under a pound. I took my plate of food back to the table where daniel had began tucking into his food. I wasn't sure what curry i was eating but it tasted like randang, even though i couldn't taste much, i could taste the spice though which is all i really needed.

Once we both finished we began walking further up and stopped outside perankan mansion where we sat and had a smoke. I noticed a tourist with a map so i went over to ask her where she had bought it from. She had more than enough and so gave one to us to use. It has all of the street art mapped out and he route of the free bus. We then went into the opulent mansion and paid 20R each for a ticket which is around £4. The mansion is in the style of a courtyard with a big square area rooted in the middle to let the sunlight from the roof filter through the house. The mansion was ridden with jewels and gold, the family who loved here were clearly extremely wealthy. We went through all the different rooms. They were all filled with precious antiques and pottery including some amazing looking glass vases for flowers. We made our way up the stairs and looked down on the courtyard lobby when we saw a woman come in wearing a bride gown, she was doing a photoshoot. It was interesting to watch the entourage doing her makeup, as well as the mans! We explored the rooms upstairs where there was an old fashioned camera, bigger than a table as well as two old lace dresses laid out on one of the beds. There were photos of the family all over the mansion dating back to 1940.

Once we had seen the whole interior of the house we went next door to a jewellery museum which showcased hundreds of beautiful pieces including gold and jade. There was the nicest thick, gold, versace-esque bangle with dragons head at either end which i fell in love with a little bit. We continued to walk around the plush surroundings and admiring the beautiful jewellery encrusted with gems until we had seen it all so we left the mansion and continued our little tour of georgetown.

Our walk took us to a big cafeteria place with even more food stalls than the one we visited earlier. The first stall was selling rice wrapped in banana leaf with either chicken or fish, it looked delicious and i figured it must be as they were flying off the shelves. We went inside to have a butchers at what the other food stalls had to offer. There were so many options! They all looked so lovely, there were big bowls of spicy soup with shrimp and noodles, rice with chicken and pork and lots of veggie dishes. As Penang is such a diverse area, the food is also very broad. There are a lot of muslims in penang as well as christians and hindus, which is why i love it so much! We went to a drink stall and got something to cool us down, i opted for a lime juice as i'm hoping the vitamins will help defeat my cold.

Once we finished our drinks we decided to head to the shopping mall just out of town to buy a new camera as mine won't switch on and get Daniel some new swimming trunks as the string came out of them when he was messing about in the pool in Koh Samui. During the walk we passed loads of old buildings with the plaster falling off as well as loads of the aluminium street art. We saw a few more of the painted art but decided we would do a street art hunt tomorrow. As we walked out of georgetown, the surroundings changed quite dramatically. Everything seemed more modern around here with tall buildings and structures whereas georgetown looks very old and quaint. We crossed the road and went into the shopping mall where they had many levels of shops such as coach, h&m as well as malaysian branded shops. We popped into a designer outlet store which was just like bershka where i fell in love with a stripey blue and white dress but when i tried it on it looked horrendous so i didn't buy it. We went into an electrical store and asked if they sold camera but they told us to cross over into the next building as they sell many cameras and phones there. We walked passed a shop in the next building which advertised a nikon camera for 269R which would be the cheapest we would find and works out at around £60. We bought it as you can't put a price on capturing moments! The guy set it up for us and offered a number of colours but we decided to keep it classic and chose black.

Happy with the purchase i had to nip
To the loo so went to find one and was a bit surprised to see it was a squat toilet, never mind, i've pretty much perfected the art of squatting without any trickle down my legs. We went back into the more expensive shopping mall and into h&m. There were so many lovely clothes and i could have easily spent so much money! I picked up a grey midi dress and a set of silver rings and went down to the mens section to meet dan who had found a pair of trunks as well as another sleeveless top. He decided to buy them both and so we proceeded outside the mall to sit outside starbucks for a cigarette. As we were smoking i was people watching and saw so many different kinds of malaysians coming in and out of the mall. Some looked well off, probably chinese heritage and some looked indian with skin darker than that of a black man. There are very few tourists in this area but i can't seem to think why, probably because it's quite expensive.

We then headed downstairs where i went into a small shop to buy a drink and a pack of tissues for my runny nose and asked the very friendly shopkeeper where we can catch the free c.a.t bus and he directed me just a minute away so dan and i sat there for a while waiting for the bus until we noticed how many people were actually waiting to board so we decided to just walk. We walked back to our hotel through georgetown and little india where there were smiles all round. Actually, before we went back to the hotel we walked up to the park and to st georges church which is SO white! We wanted to go in but they had just closed u fortunately. We walked up to the park thats by the sea and saw lots of people with their fishing rods sat by the edge. There were lots of small children playing with a bubble gun too. The water looked dirty; just like the thames which put me off going to some of the beaches on the island. We walked back to the hotel and had a cup of tea and chilled out watching the news in the lobby.

It got to around 19:30 and we decided to go iut for some dinner so walked up love lane to a bunch of street food places. Alex recommended trying andish called keow teow which is like stir fried udon noodles. I asked for mine spicy and dan no spice and we sat down to wait for it to come to our table. I went to order us both a juice to drink, dan went for orange and i went for kiwi. When the food came, the non spicy one didn't look too appealing as it was slightly grey in colour and because of my cold i couldn't taste anything so left the plate of food, dan did too. Locals were looking at me thinking i was mad but i really wanted something spicy to blast this cold away so we got up and started to walk to little india. We were waiting to cross the road when daniel heard a woman on the back of a motorbike say "sapa" and point at us. I couldn't beleive it, it was Gabriel and nadia who we met in vietnam! They pulled over to the side of the pavement and we had a chat. They asked us anout dinner and we said we were looking for something spicy and as gabriel is lucky enough to live in penang he pointed us in the direction of a restaurant called "Kapitan". We walked to it and waited outside while he drove there with nadia on the back.

The place was packed with people and it looked amazing. We walked passed the grill covered with juicy bits of tandoori chicken upstairs to the air conditioned area of the restaurant. Everyone said hello and welcomed us on our way up and we sat down at a table. Upstairs was also very busy with big groups of people enjoying their food with their hands, scooping up bundles of rice and daal with their fingertips. We were handed menus and Gabriel reccomended us a few dishes but i was so undecided he ended up ordering for the group. We ordered a mutton rogan josh for my cold as he had it yesterday and said it was spicy, a butter chicken, spicy vegetables, two rice, two butter naan and indian pizza with tandoori chicken.

As we waited for the food we spoke about what Gabriel does for a job out here and he works as an artist painting some of the amazing street art we passed earlier on. He is friends with the main man who painted most of them and i couldn't help but feel so jealous of him. He gets to live in penang and paint for a living! Perfect! The food came and there was lots of it. We all shared the dishes which is always the best way to do things in my opinion. The butter chicken that gabriel raved about looked so different to any other butter chicken i've had as it was red in colour but he said that what we eat back home is southern indian food and this was northern so was pleased to try something new! I couldn't taste anything to be fair but could feel the spice from the mutton curry in my mouth which was good! Plus, i haven't had any type of lamb since i've been away so it was a real treat! The indian pizza was amazing, naan bread filled with tandoori chicken covered in cheese served with red onion and two different dipping sauces, one was quite sweet and red in colour and the other was green and he said it tasted like mint. It didn't take us long to finish as we got full up pretty quickly, i only wish i could have properly tasted the food! We walked to the counter to pay and it cost 66r in total which is around £12, absolute bargain mate!

When we left gabriel asked if we wanted to get a drink and directed us to a shop where we can sit outside with a beer. Alcohol is quite expensive in malaysia as it's a muslim country and this shop sells three cans for 10Rinngit so we followed his directions and he met us there on the bike. When we arrived there were lots of plastic chairs and tables outside the small shop with locals sitting and drinking. Gabriel said its a hangout for all different kinds of people; poor people, rich people and tourists. We purchased 6 cans of different beer that we hadn't heard of before and took them outside to sit around a small table. We chatted about future travel plans as nadia wants to go to langkawi but gabriel doesn't know if he will finish his art piece in time, he works through the night to complete them sometimes so we told him to pull his finger out and get the job done so he could spend some quality time over there with nadia. Then we tried to translate to her what the expression means but it's something completely different in spanish. After a few beers and a good old chin wag we got gabriel's facebook and walked back through the side streets to our hotel- "red inn". We said goodbye to the three street dogs that were sniffing around us including one who's fur had fallen out which makes him look a bit weird and cute at the same time, we call him alapecia. On the walk back, we saw a woman and two men who had a scaffold up against the wall and the outline of another piece of street art. It looks like an indian man and it's pretty big. We went back to the hotel for a cup of tea and some sleep.