Just touched down and safely in hotel for Christmas. Revolving restaurant and swimming pool may feature in our celebrations this year.

When we watched the devastion and tragedy in this area 3 years ago with the Boxing Day Tsunami, it is slightly strange for us to be in the Melaka Straits at this time of year.

As our flight from KL was delayed by a couple of hours we arrived mid afternoon.We were soon settled into our hotel (after changing rooms because the first one they put us in was frankly - dirty!) and out exploring the old part of Georgetown.Penang, and Georgetown in particular, is much more developed, populated and busy than we expected, but it has a very eclectic mix and still has some very old (much of it fine) architecture, albeit the city is spoiled by some horrific modern buildings (not least our hotel that overlooks the wonderful Eastern and Oriental Hotel building opposite).We decided to spend, and celebrate, Christmas Eve in the hotel's rooftop revolving restaurant where we enjoyed a buffet dinner along with live music, Christmas carols courtesy of the hotel staff, balloons, party hats, tooters, Santas etc.We'd a really good time interacting with the mainly non-Westerners around us who, although of different religions, were clearly enjoying the Christmas festivities. Much of the Christian world celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve and it was somewhat refreshing to see it being celebrated in a mainly Muslim country - Malaysia seems to celebrate all religions' festivals, so lots of public holidays!

Christmas morning and it seemed to be like a normal day in Georgetown.So, after breakfast we were away to explore one of the old parts of the city.First stop, and a very welcome refuge from the heat and 90 % humidity, was the excellent Penang Museum.It contains interesting and informative displays depicting and explaining the island's history and its ethnic mix.It is well worth a visit and at 20p value and a half!A walk along the Esplanade past the Pedang (open grassed area where sport and other events take place) took us to Fort Cornwallis which was built by the British to defend the town but never saw any action.In the heat of the early afternoon we wandered through the Indian and Chinese quarters and back towards our hotel to one of Penang's gems - Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. This was built by one of Penang's, and China's, most successful businessmen and entrepreneurs of his time.It was built in the 1880s and under the terms of his will remained untouched and unsold until his last son died a few years ago. It has recently been restored and is a revealing insight into the importance of Feng Shui and Yin/Yang to Chinese architecture.The tour was really interesting and informative - this is a must if you're in Penang.A quick look at M's watch showed it was nearly 'beer time' but first it was a visit to the pool and Jacuzzi to refresh ourselves externally.

Our meal this Christmas was Japanese and although we were the only diners in the restaurant (we were eating early so that we could watch an evening parade) the food was absolutely delicious: we had - raw fish, tempura, grilled salmon, pickles, sesame steak, fish custard (sounds awful but was delish), soup, rice, etc - very yummy!!It was also good chatting with the Malaysian staff who were able to devote all their time to us!We headed into the streets where the parade was just beginning.It seemed to be mainly Chinese with lots of dragons, floats, flagpole balancing (which is a Penang speciality) and general merry-making.Our participation in the celebrations was cut short because of precipitation - loads of it, including thunder and lightning (well it is the wet season and it does rain nearly every day).

Apart from telephone calls to family (sorry the time difference meant we caught the Scott/Ferrier contingents at their Christmas dinners) this was certainly a very different Christmas for us.We really miss family and friends, especially at this time, but nonetheless we had a really enjoyable time.

Boxing Day dawned hot and sticky as usual, but thankfully it's more pleasant here than in the city heat of KL and we're now starting to acclimatise a bit more.Wandering through other parts of the Indian quarter on our way to Chinatown we spotted the impressive Sri Mariammen Hindu Temple and Masjid Kapitan Kling Mosque almost just over the road from one another.Taking a wrong turning we accidentally came across a real find which doesn't feature in our guide books.The Han Jiang Ancestral Temple of the Penang Teochew Association has been beautifully restored and is a peaceful oasis in the middle of bustling Georgetown.The restoration and history of the Temple is well documented on panels around the walls.It was then off to another of Penang's gems, the Khoo Kongsi - a kongsi is a clan house, a building that's partly a temple and partly a meeting hall for Chinese who have the same surname.There are quite a few around Georgetown but the Khoo one is reputedly the finest.It's reached via a narrow alley, therefore the grandeur and magnificence of it makes quite an impact when you see it for the first time.It has been beautifully maintained and is definitely a must see. That night it was back to 'auld claes and parritch' with dinner at a street foodmarket which cost us less than £2.Now that's value!

As we'd been in Georgetown over Christmas and hadn't seen anything of the island we decided to hire a care to get around for the next two days.It was a brand new Proton Wira (a Malaysian built car which is rather in the style of one from 20 years ago) and headed off along the north coast.This area is also heavily developed, not surprisingly given the population is around 1.5 million, and includes the main tourist resort area of Batu Ferrengi.There's a small national park in the north west corner that would need more time than we've got to explore so we focused on more mainstream attractions.Our route around the island took us through the beautiful mountains and past the Butterfly Farm and Tropical Fruit Farm, both of which we visited and were very interesting: the Butterfly Farm has much more than butterflies and is exceptionally informative about local wildlife; and the Tropical Fruit Farm gave us a conducted tour around the many types of fruit and spices grown there, ending with huge platters of fresh fruit and glasses of freshly squeezed fruit drinks - very much needed at that time in the afternoon.It was street food again that night - the local speciality, Laksa Asam, which is very different from the laksa which we know so well.It has a very spicy, rich base with lots of chillies and herbs - absolutely delicious.

On Christmas Eve both of us were surprised to see old faces (or at least people who looked like old work colleagues from DFEE) - Adrian Shaw working as a concierge in our hotel and Pam Fox singing and playing keyboards in the band.

Over the last couple of days we've also made significant progress with our onward plans and have now made arrangements to travel to Sumatra in Indonesia. We're also formulating an itinerary which will take us through Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philippines and back to Peninsular Malaysia to spend time in the Taman Negara National Park before flying back to Australia (we have also received our new Australian visas).

Before heading off to the Cameron Highlands we had one more day in George Town so we wanted to make good use of it.There were still two recommended highlights to experience in Penang, Kek Lok Si Temple and Penang Hill, which is reached by way of a half-hour funicular ride. We arrived at the funicular station around noon only to find that all the tickets were sold and the first train we could get on was at three o'clock.Fortunately, Kek Lok Si Temple is fairly close by so, after buying our funicular tickets, we went off to do that first (and actually it's just as well we did because you need much more time to do Penang Hill).Kek Lok Si is a huge Buddhist temple, comprising a number of buildings, built on a steep hillside.But it's mainly known for its massive pagoda which has been built in three different styles: Indian at the bottom, Thai in the middle and Chinese at the top - from which there are great views of George Town and the surrounding hills.Pretty soon, however, it will probably become more renowned for the huge 120 foot bronze statue of Guan Yin Bodhisattva standing under an octagonal 200 feet high pavilion which is being built even further up the hillside.The temple complex was pretty impressive, but really spoilt by the alleys of tatty stalls selling tatty junk that we had to pass through in order to get to the entrance.The half-hour funicular ride up the 2,700 feet Penang Hill is very slow (it was built by the Swiss in the 1920s) and has to be done in two stages.Although it was very crowded it was good fun and it was well worth it for the views from the top - not to mention the fact that it's slightly cooler and less humid.We enjoyed a delicious Cameronian Cream Tea (with fruit cake as well as scones!) at David Brown's Strawberry Tea Garden - a fine English Tudor style building in a lovely, peaceful garden - before quick visits to the Hindu Temple and Mosque near the summit.The best bit though was the canopy walk which is just over 2 kms along the road which takes you down the hill.It is a 500 metre series of rope bridges between the tops of the tall hardwood trees - and it is very, very shooglie!!Waiting for the funicular back down we were entertained by the macaque monkeys looking down on us - because we were in a fenced off area waiting for the train it seemed as if the tables were turned and we were the ones in a zoo. By the time we got back down the hill and drove back to the hotel it was well after 7pm.We had things to do before an early departure tomorrow but managed a couple of gin and tonics across the road at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel once more, and some more street food at a nearby food market.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYBODY.

E & M xxx