We left our hotel yesterday with the intention of hiking up Penang Hill, a vertical climb of 712 meters. We bused to the base of the hill and futilely looked around for the hiking trail. When we asked where we could start our hike, we were told the trail was on the other side of the mountain and we'd have to take 2 more buses to get there. Well, we'd had just about enough of Penang's buses by that point, so we elected to take the tram up to the peak and hike back...

Yesterday we took the Penang Ferry over to the mainland to do a little exploring in Butterworth. Actually, the entire trip was predicated on Brenda's desire to travel across the 13.5 km long Penang bridge that joins Penang Island to mainland Malaysia. When we arrived at the dock, a ferry was just pulling away from the moorings so we had to wait 20 minutes for the next ride over the water. Oddly, the trip to the mainland is free, but if you ferry back it costs 1....

Today we used our newly acquired bus passes to bring us to the Tropical Fruit Farm, located high in the mountains about 35 kms outside of Georgetown. Once we arrived there, we were struck by how much cooler the air was at that elevation. As a bonus, a constant breeze kept us even more comfortable. Entrance to the farm was 40 Ringgits, about $14.00 each and included a guided tour of the farm and an all you can eat sampler of the exotic fruits grown there. Befo...

After leaving our Chiang Mai home at 6:45 AM on Sunday, a 2 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur, a short hop to Penang and a 45 minute bus ride to Georgetown, we finally arrived at our hotel at around 6:30. The first thing we noticed when we got off the plae was the humidity. Even though the temperature was a little lower than Chiang Mai, the 90% humidity made it feel like 45C. Our hotel is only about 300 meters from the bus station, so we walked it with our Farpoint...