Our trip to Malaysia was not so good. We were picked up by sawngthaew and taken to the boat ticket office, we were then taken to the boat in an oversized golf buggy and spent two and a half hours going to the mainland, we then jumped on a bus and waited in the bus office for our minibus to come and collect us. The minibus was meant to leave at 11.30AM, at 12 we were collected by car and taken to another office, we were then put back in another car and taken to another office where a minibus was waiting. We were on the minibus for a few hours before being moved on to a big bus for the final leg. We were meant to arrive in Penang at 8 but we actually arrived at 2, annoyingly we were dropped off on the mainland and had to get a 40 minute taxi to our final destination. All of this on a couple of packets of crisps, a pot noodle and a chocolate bar.

We finally arrived in Georgetown; a National Heritage site in the north of Panang just off the west coast of Malaysia. It was 2 in the morning and all the hotels were shut up. Luckily we saw a lady trying to get in to her guesthouse, she woke an old man up to open the door and they had two rooms left, we had met a hippy German couple whilst travelling so they needed a room too. It was very basic but it was clean and had a shower in the room, still a shared toilet but at this time we would of taken anything.

We didn't get up until 11 the next morning and both still felt exhausted. We found a small cafe that served fruit, muesli and yoghurt, our standard breakfast. After some food and a shower we sat in an Internet cafe slowly catching up with our admin.

Malaysia is made up of a few different cultures. Other than Malays there are lots of Indians and Chinese and a fair few western expats. A five minute walk from our guesthouse was little India, we walked down to find some food and were welcomed by loud Indian music and people selling Bollywood DVD's. The restaurant we chose was just like one from India although we think the food was Pakistani. It was a large basic room with plastic chairs, at the back there was a counter with big metal pots full of different curries and meat, the menu on the wall made no sense at all so Pete went up to ask what was in the pans. He understood two words, mutton and chicken so we had one of each on plastic plates with rice. We were amazed, the sauce was amazing and the meat was succulent. The mutton we had in India wasn't great so we were surprised how good it was here; a very authentic meal.

The following day we headed to Penang hill, we caught the fernicular train to the top which was very expensive, the view was amazing but there wasn't much else up there other than the owl museum which apparently has over 1000 pieces of owl related art, we decided against going in. Once we got back to Georgetown we grabbed some food. Pat, Kate's Grandad had told us his favourite Malaysian food was Rendang and we found a little restaurant near our guesthouse which served it, it was mouthwatering. The restaurant had writing all over the walls from previous customers and we saw a few comments about the chocolate brownies, although we were pretty stuffed we thought we had to try them so we got one to share and it was probably the second best brownie we have ever had, second to the ones Kate made last year. All this food made us tired and we were still exhausted from our nightmare journey so we headed straight to bed.

We read in the guidebook that the Heritage Trust office could give us some information on walking tours so we headed here after breakfast. When we went in no one wanted to talk to us so we leafed through a couple of brochures before making our way on our own little walking tour. We spent a couple of hours strolling round the Heritage site before heading for some lunch. Another recommendation in the guide book took us to a crispy duck stall, it was great. We sat at a small table, were presented with a big plate of chopped duck, rice and sweet plum sauce, it was very tasty.

We wanted to head to the Botanical gardens that afternoon so we made our way to the bus station, we found the bus we needed parked up and sat on it for a few minutes, then the heavens opened. We didn't fancy walking round the 30 hectare gardens in the rain so we jumped off and got a bus back to Love Lane where our guesthouse was. Lets just say, when it rains....it pours!

That evening we wanted to try some more authentic food so we headed to Red Garden food market. We ended up eating Japanese food which wasn't great but this was where you could buy Cendol; a traditional desert made of green strands made of sweetened pea flour, layered with crushed ice, coconut milk and brown sugar syrup, ours also had what looked like kidney beans. It was very sweet and sickly, it started off nice but as the ice melted the flavours became to much and we couldn't eat the weird combination! We then headed out for a drink, Pete had a Carlseburg, the cheapest beer on the menu but still double the price of a pint back home. We were sitting outside and noticed a small television crew near by, people we going up and getting their photos taken with a couple of people, obviously famous and then they started filming in the bar next door. From what we could see the acting was pretty terrible and the on screen slap wasn't convincing, we later found out it was a local television drama in a mix of Mandarin and the local language, we waited for a while but they didn't ask us to be in it so we headed home to bed as we were leaving the following day.